_The Gospel according to the Hebrews._
Papias, the Bishop of Hieropolis (about A.D. 140), wrote a small
sentence which, examined critically recently, has revolutionised all
our ideas about the four eye-witnesses of Paley.
He tells us that Matthew first in the Hebrew dialect wrote the λόγια
(sayings), and each person translated as he was able.
This tells us everything. Matthew in Aramaic wrote down all the
"sayings" of Christ that he could remember, and our three gospels and a
number of other gospels were translations, enlargements, and fanciful
versions of this. Matthew's work emerged in the Church at Jerusalem,
and was their sole scripture. Jerome (416 A.D.), writing against the
Pelagians, says:
"In the Gospel according to the Hebrews--which is written, indeed,
in the Chaldee and Syriac language, but in Hebrew letters, which the
Nazarenes use to this day--according to the Apostles, or, as very many
deem, according to Matthew." ("Dial. adv. Pelag.," ch. iii.)
This gives us its title. The Gospel according to the Hebrews was first
called the Gospel according to the Apostles, and sometimes the Gospel
according to Matthew. What do we know about this Gospel according to
the Apostles? In a great trial, three or four obscure witnesses often
unexpectedly assume a dominant importance. In the great trial now going
on of Christianity (as distinguished from the religion of Christ), four
such witnesses have suddenly surged up.
They are Hegesippus, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenæus. What do they tell
us of the Gospel of the Apostles--the Gospel according to the Hebrews?
Hegesippus (170 A.D.) was the earliest Church historian, but his
history has been destroyed. Eusebius tells us ("Hist.," iv. 22) that he
was a Jew, and that he used the Gospel according to the Hebrews.
Papias, according to Eusebius, also used it, for he quotes from it the
story of the woman taken in adultery.
Irenæus (Hœr. i. 26) tells us that the Ebionites (Church of Jerusalem)
used "that Gospel which is according to Matthew." As we have
overwhelming evidence that the Ebionites used the Gospel according
to the Hebrews, it is plain that the Gospel according to Matthew of
Irenæus was the Gospel according to the Hebrews.
Remains Justin Martyr, and now the din of battle grows loud. Did he
know anything of the sayings (λόγια)? Had he ever heard of the Gospel
according to the Apostles? Or did he, according to the conventional
defence, know only our Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?
The answer on the surface seems convincing. Justin never mentions the
Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John at all. He makes one hundred
and ninety-seven quotations from the Old Testament, with the names of
the authors and books attached. He alludes to "a man amongst us named
John," as the author of the Revelations. He gives two hundred gospel
quotations, and professes to get them from the sayings of our Lord,
though he does not mention Matthew. He announces also that he is citing
the "Memoirs of the Apostles," the alternative title apparently of the
Gospel according to the Hebrews. Are the sayings of our Lord quoted by
Justin precisely similar to the words of Christ in our gospels? As a
matter of fact, they differ considerably in the English translation,
and still more in the Greek, as shown by Dr. Giles in his "Hebrew and
Christian Records." It is replied that Justin quoted from our gospels
and made mistakes.
Much has been made by the conventional defence of certain words used
by Justin in reference to the works he was quoting from, "which are
called gospels," but Schliermacher contends that the passage is an
interpolation, and an instance in which a marginal note has been
incorporated into the text. He urges, and so does Dr. Giles, that, at
the date of Justin, ευαγγελια could not have been used in the plural
for books. It is twice used in the singular by Justin elsewhere, and
then means simply the Christian revelation (literally, glad tidings).
I propose now to give all that can be recovered from the writings of
the Fathers of the Gospel according to the Apostles. To this I will add
the "Sayings of our Lord" as quoted by Justin. If these are not from
the Gospel of the Hebrews, at any rate we get a much earlier version
of Christ's words than those read in our churches. For the Gospel
according to the Hebrews, consult Renan, "Les Evangiles," chap. vi.;
Hilgenfeld, "Novum Testamentum extra Canonem Receptum," Fasc. iv.;
Nicholson, "The Gospel according to the Hebrews;" and Baring-Gould.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE HEBREWS.
Epiphanius has given us the opening verses:--
"There was a certain man, by name Jesus, and he of about thirty years,
who chose us out.
"And when he had come to Capernaum, he entered into the house of
Simon, who was surnamed Peter, and opened his mouth and said,
"Passing by the Lake of Tiberias, I chose out John and James, sons of
Zebedee, and Simon and Andrew, ... and Thaddæus, and Simon the Zealot,
and Judas the Iscariot;
"And thee, Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom, I called, and
thou didst follow me.
"I will therefore that ye be twelve apostles for a testimony to
Israel."
A fragment shows that the flight into Egypt was in the gospel.
"... then he arose and took the young child and departed into Egypt,
"That it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the prophet, Out of
Egypt have I called my son."
Now, supposing that there were no class interests in the way, it
would be difficult to read the opening verses of this gospel without
seeing what Justin meant by the "Memoirs of the Apostles." In it the
Apostles expressly announce that Jesus has "chosen them out" to produce
a "testimony," testament, memorial; and Matthew, apparently, is to
be the amanuensis. This "testimony" was the entire New Testament,
with the earliest Church, the Church of Jerusalem. It was called
indiscriminately, as we have seen from Jerome, the Gospel according
to the Apostles, and the Gospel according to Matthew. Papias and
Hegesippus, the immediate predecessors of Justin, used it, and Irenæus
some years later.
Let us go on with the Gospel of the Apostles.
"And John began baptizing.
"And there came out unto him Pharisees who were baptized, and all
Jerusalem.
"And John had a raiment of camel's hair and a leathern girdle about
his loins, and his food was wild honey, whereof the taste was that of
manna.
"And behold the mother of the Lord and his brethren said to him, John
the Baptist baptizeth for remission of sins. Let us go and be baptized
by him.
"But he said to them, Wherein have I sinned that I should go and be
baptized by him? except, perchance, this very thing that I have said
is ignorance.
"And when the people had been baptized, Jesus also came and was
baptized by John.
"And as he went up, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Holy
Spirit, in shape of a dove, descending and entering into him.
"And a voice from heaven said, Thou art my beloved Son. I have this
day begotten thee.
"And straightway a great light shone around the place. And John fell
down before him, and said, I pray thee, Lord, baptize thou me.
"But he prevented him, saying, Let be; for thus it is becoming that
all things be fulfilled.
"And it came to pass when the Lord had come up from the water, the
entire fountain of the Holy Spirit descended and rested upon him, and
said to him,
"My Son, in all the prophets did I wait thee, that thou mightest come
and I might rest in thee;
"For thou art my rest. Thou art my first-born Son for ever and for
ever."
"And the Lord said, If thy brother hath sinned in word, and hath made
thee amends seven times in a day, receive him.
"Simon, his disciple, said to him, Seven times in a day?
"The Lord answered and said unto him, I tell thee also unto seventy
times seven, for in the prophets likewise after they were anointed by
the Holy Spirit utterance of sin was found."
* * * * *
"And there was a man whose right hand was withered, and he said, I was
a mason, seeking sustenance by my hands. I beseech thee, Jesus, that
thou restore me to health that I may not shamefully beg for food. And
Jesus healed him.
"And it was told to him, Behold thy mother and thy brethren stand
without.
"And he answered, Who is my mother and brethren?
"And he stretched out his hand over the disciples, and said, These are
my brethren and mother that do the wishes of my Father.
"And behold there came to him two rich men. And one said, Good master.
"But he said, Call me not good, for he that is good is one, the Father
in the heavens.
"The other of the rich men said to him, Master, what good thing shall
I do and live?
"He said unto him, Man, perform the law and the prophets.
"He answered him, I have performed them.
"He said unto him, Go, sell all that thou hast and divide it with the
poor, and come, follow me.
"But the rich man began to scratch his head, and it pleased him not.
"And the Lord said unto him, How sayest thou, I have performed the law
and the prophets? seeing that it is written in the law Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself. And behold many of thy brethren, sons of
Abraham, are clad with dung, dying for hunger, and thy house is full
of much goods, and there goeth from it nought unto them.
"And he turned and said to Simon, his disciple, sitting by him, Simon,
son of John, it is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a
needle than a rich man into the kingdom of the heavens."
THE "SAYINGS OF OUR LORD." (Justin Martyr.)
"Love your enemies. Be kind and merciful as your heavenly Father is.
"To him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other, and
him that taketh away thy cloak or thy coat forbid not. And whosoever
shall be angry shall be in danger of the fire. And every one that
compelleth thee to go with him a mile follow him two. And let your good
works shine before men, that they, seeing them, may glorify your Father
which is in heaven.
"Give to him that asketh, and from him that would borrow, turn not
away. For if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what new thing
do ye? Even the publicans do this. Lay not up for yourselves treasures
upon earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break
through, but lay up for yourself treasure in heaven, where neither moth
nor rust doth corrupt. For what is a man profited if he gain the whole
world and lose his own soul? And what shall a man give in exchange for
it? Lay up, therefore, treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
doth corrupt.
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
strength, and thy neighbour as thyself.
"Swear not at all, but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; for
whatsoever is more than this cometh of evil.
"If ye love them that love you, what new thing do ye? For even
fornicators do this. But I say unto you, pray for your enemies, and
love them that hate you, and bless them that curse you, and pray for
them that despitefully use you.
"There are some who have been made eunuchs of men and some who were
born eunuchs, and some who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom
of heaven's sake; but all cannot receive this saying.
"If thy right eye offend thee, cut it out; for it is better for thee
to enter the kingdom of heaven with one eye than having two eyes to be
cast into everlasting fire.
"Whoso looketh on a woman to lust after her committeth adultery with
her already in his heart before God.
"Whoso shall marry that is divorced from another husband committeth
adultery.
"I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
"Fear not them that kill you and after that can do no more, but fear
him who after death is able to cast both soul and body into hell.
"Except ye be born again, verily ye shall not enter the kingdom of
heaven.
"The children of this world marry and are given in marriage, but the
children of the world to come neither marry nor are given in marriage,
but shall be like the angels in heaven.
"Many false Christs and false apostles shall arise and shall deceive
many of the faithful.
"Beware of false prophets, who shall come to you clothed outwardly in
sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
"And he overthrew the money-changers, and exclaimed, Woe unto ye
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because ye pay tithe of mint and rue
but do not observe the love of God and justice. Ye whited sepulchres,
appearing beautiful outwardly, but are within full of dead men's
bones. Woe unto ye scribes, for ye have the keys, and ye do not enter
in yourselves, and them that are entering in ye hinder. Ye blind
guides, ye are become twofold more the children of hell.
"The law and the prophets were until John the Baptist. From that time
the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by
force.
"And if you can receive it, he is Elijah who was to come. He that hath
ears to hear let him hear.
"Elijah must come and restore all things. But I say unto you, Elijah is
already come, and they knew him not, but have done to him whatever they
chose. Then the disciples understood that he spake to them about John
the Baptist.
"The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the
Pharisees and scribes, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
"Not every one who saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is
in heaven. For whosoever heareth me and doeth my sayings, heareth him
that sent me. And many will say unto me, Lord. Lord, have we not eaten
and drunk in thy name and done wonders? And then will I say unto them,
Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. Then shall be wailing and
gnashing of teeth, when the righteous shall shine like the sun, and
the wicked are sent into everlasting fire. For many shall come in my
name clothed outwardly in sheep's clothing, but inwardly being ravening
wolves. By their works ye shall know them. Every tree that bringeth
not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
"I give you power to tread on serpents and on scorpions and on
scolopendras, and on all the might of the enemy.
"They shall come from the East and shall sit down with Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the
kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness.
"There is none good but God only, who made all things.
"No man knoweth the Father but the Son, nor the Son but the Father, and
they to whom the Son revealeth him.
"An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and no sign
shall be given it save the sign of Jonah.
"Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things
that are God's.
"In whatsoever things I shall apprehend you, in those also will I judge
you."
SAYINGS FROM THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE HEBREWS.
"I have come to abolish sacrifices; and if ye do not cease to
sacrifice, the wrath of God against you will not cease.
"Be ye approved money-changers.
"No servant can serve two masters. If we wish to serve both God and
Mammon it is unprofitable to us.
"I am not come to take away from the law of Moses, nor add to the law
of Moses am I come.
"It is blessed to give rather than to receive.
"Keep the mysteries for me and for the sons of my house.
"I am not come to call the just, but sinners.
"There is not thank to you if ye love them that love you; but there is
thank to you if ye love your enemies and them that hate you.
"For there shall be false Christs, false prophets, false apostles,
heresies, lovings of rule.
"Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall be saved, but he
that doeth righteousness.
"If ye have been gathered with me into my bosom, and do not my
commandments, I will cast you away and will say unto you, Depart from
me, I know not whence ye are, workers of iniquity.
"And the Lord said, Ye shall be as lambkins in the midst of wolves. And
Peter answered and said, If then the wolves rend the lambkins asunder?
Jesus said to Peter, Let not the lambkins after they are dead fear the
wolves. And do ye not fear them that kill you and can do nought unto
you. But fear him who, after you are dead, hath authority over soul and
body to cast into the Gehenna of fire.
"Just now my mother, the Holy Spirit, took me by one of my hairs and
bore me up to the great mountain of Tabor.
"He that hath marvelled shall reign, and he that hath reigned shall
rest.
"I am he concerning whom Moses prophesied, saying, A prophet will the
Lord our God raise unto you from your brethren even as me. Him hear ye
in all things, for whosoever heareth not that prophet shall die."
Here is the account of the woman taken in adultery afterwards borrowed
by John:--
"And they went each to his own house, and Jesus went to the Mount of
Olives.
"And at dawn he came again into the temple, and all the people came to
him; and having sat down, he taught them.
"And the scribes and the Pharisees brought up a woman taken up for
adultery.
"And having placed her in the midst, they said to him, Teacher, this
woman hath been taken up in adultery, in the very act;
"And in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What therefore dost
thou say?
"And this they said, trying him, that they might have whereby to
accuse him.
"But Jesus having bent down, kept writing with his finger upon the
ground.
"But as they continued asking him, he unbent and said to them, Let the
sinless one of you first cast against her the stone. And having bent
down again he kept writing on the ground.
"But they having heard, went out one by one, beginning from the elder
ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman.
"And Jesus having unbent, said to her, Mistress, where are they? Hath
none condemned thee?
"And she said, None, sir. And Jesus said, Neither will I condemn thee,
go and from this time sin no more."
The evidence accumulates. Justin gives the voice from the sky exactly
as it is given in the Gospel of the Apostles.
"Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee."
He then proceeds to argue against an heretical theory that these words
meant that Jesus was the Son of God on receipt of the Holy Spirit
at baptism, and not before. But that is plainly the meaning of the
passage, for the Ebionites "assert," says Hippolytus, "that our Lord
was a man in like sense with all." (L. vii. 2). This is so patent that
our first gospel has changed the words to "in thee I am well pleased."
Had Justin known the false Matthew's false version, he would have
quoted it eagerly instead of taking the trouble to refute the heretics.
I come to a second piece of evidence. In the lives of Krishna, Râma,
Buddha, etc., many incidents are plainly inserted as authority for
rites. Thus Buddha has his hair cut off by the god Indra, and receives
the Abhisheka (baptism) at the hands of the heavenly host; and true
Buddhists are expected to imitate him in this. The baptism of the early
church was called φωτισμός (Illumination), Justin tells us; and in the
Coptic Church, as in Buddhism, the lighting of a taper is still a part
of the ceremony. Now Justin informs us that a light was kindled on the
Jordan on the occasion of Christ's baptism. It is plain again here that
he is quoting from the Gospel according to the Apostles, and not from
our gospels, who have cut out this light altogether.
Here is another strong piece of evidence. The Gospel according to the
Apostles had a passage about "false Christs, false prophets, false
_apostles_." Justin also has a passage about "false Christs, false
_apostles_" This is most important, as it refers to St. Paul. Renan
shows that in the original Gospel according to the Hebrews, there must
have been more than one attack on this "false apostle." He is "the
enemy" who sowed tares amongst the gospel wheat. The "enemy" was his
nickname with the Church of Jerusalem. Pseudo Matthew softens this to
"the devil," and cuts out the "false apostle" altogether. It is plain
that Justin is not quoting from him.
Renan refers to another attack on St. Paul from the Gospel according to
the Hebrews.
"People have prophesied and cast out devils in the name of Jesus. Jesus
openly repudiates them, because they have "practised illegality.""(Les
Evangiles, chap. vi.)
Stronger still is this. Justin records that when the question was put
to Christ, "Show us a sign!" he answered, "An evil and adulterous
generation seeketh after a sign, and no sign shall be given them,
save the sign of Jonah." Justin goes on to say that Jesus "spoke this
obscurely" (Trypho, ch. vii.), and he explains the meaning of the sign.
Had he possessed our Matthew, he could not possibly have done this, for
in the 40th verse of the twelfth chapter, Jesus, instead of "speaking
obscurely," explains that Jonah's three days' sojourn in the whale's
belly typifies his own three days' sojourn in the tomb.
In many other points Justin's "Memoirs of the Apostles" differ from our
gospels.
"For an ass's foal was standing at a certain entrance to a village,
tied to a vine." Our gospels know nothing about the vine incident when
they narrate the story of Christ's entry to Jerusalem. Justin says
that Jesus wrought amongst yokes and ploughs. Of this our gospels know
nothing.
He says, too, that Jesus was born in a cave. (Trypho, ch. lxxviii.) The
First Gospel of the Infancy confirms him here.
"The Magi _from Arabia_ came to Bethlehem and worshipped the child."
(H. Trypho, ch. lxxviii.) Here again Justin is plainly using some other
gospel. Our gospels know nothing of the Magi coming from Arabia.
There is one passage used in the conventional defence to show
that Justin knew the fourth gospel also, but Dr. Abbott, in the
"Encyclopædia Britannica," holds that this is impossible.
"Except ye be born again, verily ye shall not enter the kingdom of
heaven."
It is so obvious that baptism is a new birth, that the Brahmins have
been the "twice born" from time immemorial. The Buddhist Abhisheka
too is called the "whole birth." Baptism must have been compared to a
birth in the young Christian Church from an early date. And if Justin
had known Christ's explanations about the birth from water and the
Spirit, he could have scarcely wandered on like this. "Now, that it is
impossible for those who have once been born to re-enter the wombs of
those that bear them, is evident to all."
But there is a more overwhelming argument. Justin was a Platonic
philosopher converted to Christianity, as he thought. But in the view
of the sober Dr. Lamson, he brought with him into the fold Philo's
doctrine of the Logos. It does not appear in Christianity until his
date. This Logos, according to Justin and to Philo, was a distinct
being, a second God. And in Justin's dialogue with Trypho, he tries to
prove all this, enlisting three times into his argument the passage,
"No man knoweth the Father but the Son." (Varied in Matt. xi. 27). Is
it conceivable that if he had had at his command the opening verses of
the fourth gospel, and believed them to be by an apostle of Christ, he
would have spared Trypho the infliction of them? The poor Jew would
have heard of nothing else.
But a new witness has surged up, coming, as it were, from the tomb. I
allude to the fragment of the Gospel of Peter. Justin writes:--
"For also, as said the prophet, mocking him, they placed him on a
_tribunal_, and said, Give judgment to us." Our gospels know nothing
of the incident of the _tribunal_, nor of the mocking speech recorded
by Justin. "Let him who raised the dead save himself." Now, the
newly-discovered Gospel of Peter says that they did place Christ on
the judgment-seat in mockery. It affirms also at the end that it was
inspired by the twelve disciples, just like the Gospel of the Hebrews.
In point of fact, the traditional argument of the advocates of
the miraculous origin of our four gospels goes practically on the
hypothesis that only these four gospels were in existence in Justin's
time. But Dr. Giles shows that Christendom at this period was flooded
with spurious gospels, spurious "revelations," spurious "epistles."
He cites from Lucian an account of a contemporary of Justin, one
Peregrinus, who murdered his father.
"Consigning himself to exile, he took to flight, and wandered about
from one country to another. At this time it was that he learnt the
wonderful philosophy of the Christians, having kept company with their
priests and scribes in Palestine. And what was the end of it? In a
short time he showed them to be mere children, for he became a prophet,
a leader of their processions, the marshaller of their meetings, and
everything in himself alone.
"And of their books, he explained and cleared up some, and wrote many
himself; and they deemed him a god, made use of him as a legislator,
and enrolled him as their patron." ("Hebrew and Christian Records," p.
82.)
Irenæus bears the same testimony. "But in addition to these things,
they introduce an unspeakable number of apocryphal and spurious
writings, which themselves have forged, to the consternation of those
that are foolish, and who do not know the writings of the truth." (Hœr.
i. 19.)
But worse than the composition of imaginary gospels is the
falsification of canonical scriptures. "It is obvious," says Origen,
"that the difference between the copies is considerable, partly from
conclusions of individual scribes, partly from the impious audacity of
some in correcting what is written, partly, also, from those who add or
remove what seems good to them in the work of correction." (Origen in
Matt. xv. 14.)
It might be imagined that a gospel that gives to us the only authentic
record of Christ's words, written down at an early date under the
sanction of James, Christ's immediate successor as the head of his
Church and of the other Apostles, would be cherished in Christendom as
the holiest of treasures. Instead of that, it was garbled, truncated,
vilified, pronounced heretical by a Pope, and finally suppressed. Why
was this? This question is the crux of historical Christianity.
At present we must content ourselves with a brief analysis of the
gospel, and say a few words first about the Ebionites.
The word "Ebionite" signifies "poor," and seems to be the Greek
rendering of bhikshu or beggar, the word by which Buddha described his
followers. The Ebionites were the earliest Christians. They composed
the Church of Jerusalem. It fled to Pella, on the Jordan, just before
the destruction of the Holy City. Bishop Lightfoot calls them the
Essene-Ebionites, because they were plainly in all their rites simple
Essenes.
The early fathers gave them five distinctive characteristics:--
1. They held Jesus to be "a man in like sense with all," as we have
seen from Hippolytus.
2. They rejected the writings of Paul, and indeed all other New
Testament scriptures, except the Gospel according to the Hebrews.
3. They refused to eat meat, like the Essenes.
4. Like the Essenes also they rejected wine, even in the Sacramentum.
"Therefore do these men reject the co-mixture of the heavenly wine,
and wish it to be the water of the world only, not receiving God so as
to have union with him," says Irenæus (Hœr. v. 3) speaking of them.
5. Like the Essenes they also insisted on the rite of circumcision.
Here is another passage from Irenæus, "They use the Gospel according
to Matthew only, and repudiate the Apostle Paul, maintaining that he
was an apostate from the law. As to the prophetical writings, they
endeavour to expound them in a somewhat singular manner. They practice
circumcision, persevere in the observance of those customs which are
enjoined by the law, and are so Judaic in their style of life that
they even adore Jerusalem as if it were the House of God." (Hœr. iii.
1.) Irenæus says also that their opinions were similar to those of
Cerinthus, who held that Jesus was the son of Joseph and Mary, and that
at his baptism the Holy Spirit came to him.
These are the main peculiarities of the Ebionites, and they seem on the
surface to show that if Christ was an Essene, and James was an Essene,
and their Church after 150 years were still orthodox Essenes, the
"heresy" should be sought elsewhere. But at present we will consider
the Gospel according to the Apostles.
Epiphanius writes thus:--
"And they have the Gospel according to Matthew very full in Hebrew. For
assuredly this is still kept amongst them as it was at outset written
in Hebrew letters. But I do not know whether at the same time they have
taken away the genealogies from Abraham to Christ." (Hœr. xxix. 9.)
This lets in a flood of light. The main "heresy" of the Gospel
according to the Hebrews is that it contains no genealogies. But the
same must be said of Mark and John. And there is a version of Luke that
was used by the Marcionites that was also without the genealogies. And
critics affect to show that our Luke was plainly once without them
also:--
"And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, like a dove, upon him;
and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son;
in thee I am well pleased. And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost,
returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness."
This is a consecutive sentence, and yet the genealogies have been
clumsily pitchforked into the middle of it. (Luke iii. 23.)
And with regard to Matthew, it can, at least, be proved that Justin
Martyr knew nothing of his genealogies.
"He was the Son of Man, either because of his birth by the Virgin,
who was, as I said, of the family of David, and Jacob, and Isaac, and
Abraham." Plainly Justin thought that it was the Virgin and not Joseph
that had descended from Abraham.
But the suppressing of genealogies that were not invented until one
hundred years after the Apostles were slumbering in forgotten tombs,
was only a detail of their "heresy." Their gospel makes out Christ to
be not the Logos masquerading in a human form, but a man and a prophet.
"A prophet will the Lord our God raise up unto you from your brethren,"
he says. And prophets can sin, and he can sin, for he was plainly
without the Holy Ghost until his baptism. It comes down, in the Hebrew
gospel, not _upon_, but _into_ him. And he is the Son of God from that
moment, not before.
"Call me not good, for he that is good is one the Father in the
heavens!" Pseudo-Matthew weakens this considerably, "There is none good
but one, that is God."
"He that is good is one." That was the motto of the Essenes of
Jerusalem. Tertullian tells us that certain "unlearned" Christians in
his day protested against the Trinity. "They declare that we proclaim
two or three gods, but they, they affirm, worship only one." (Adv.
Prax. c. 3.) The unlearned were the Church of Jerusalem that still
clung to the text, "He that is good is One."
We come to other "heresies." The early gospel knew nothing of Matthew's
interpolation about John the Baptist eating locusts, because John the
Baptist, as an Essene, could do nothing of the sort. And Jerome tells
us that the wicked Ebionites garbled the passage, Luke xxii. 15, to
make it appear that Jesus actually refused to eat flesh at the Passover
supper.
This is all that can be restored of this in the Ebionite gospel:--
"... Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover?"
To this, Jesus answers:--
"Have I desired with desire to eat this flesh, the Passover, with you?"
It is very plain here that Luke is the garbler.
Still more instructive is the question of wine at the Lord's Supper.
Of course, the genuine gospel being written by water drinkers, had no
passage about the "fruit of the vine." But Luke, fortunately, has two
accounts of the celebration in chap. xxii.
"And he took the cup and gave thanks, and said, Take this and divide it
amongst yourselves.
"For I say unto you I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the
kingdom of God has come.
"And he took bread and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave it to them,
saying, This is my body which is given for you. This do in remembrance
of me.
"Likewise the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament
in my blood, which is shed for you."
Now it is perfectly plain that verses 17 and 18 have been clumsily
added. They are not in Marcion's version. Mark and Matthew have been
more clever. They have garbled the passage better. Verses 19 and 20
fairly represent, I think, the real Gospel of the Hebrews. Justin says
that in the "Memoirs of the Apostles," were these words:--
"This do ye in remembrance of me. This is my body!"
In the scene of the Lord's Supper, James was apparently the most
prominent character. His removal from the list of the twelve apostles
in the canonical gospels is significant.
"And when the Lord had given his shroud to the servant of the priest,
he went to James and appeared to him.
"For James had sworn that he would not eat bread from the hour wherein
he had drunk the cup of the Lord until he saw him rising again from the
dead.
"And the Lord said, Bring a table and bread.
"And he took the bread, and blessed and broke, and afterwards gave it
to James the Just, and said, My brother, eat thy bread, for the Son of
Man is risen from them that sleep."
Now, the suppression of all this in the orthodox gospels is, as Renan
shows, of immense importance. ("Les Evangiles," ch. vi.)
"Then was he seen by James," says St. Paul (1. Cor. xv. 7), "then by
all the Apostles."
This shows that the incident was known to the very earliest Church.