The Scriptures were in very early times collected into a distinct
volume.
Ignatius, who was bishop of Antioch within forty years after the
Ascension, and who had lived and conversed with the apostles, speaks of
the Gospel and of the apostles in terms which render it very probable
that he meant by the Gospel the book or volume of the Gospels, and by
the apostles the book or volume of their Epistles. His words in one
place are, (Lardner, Cred. part ii. vol. i. p. 180.) "Fleeing to the
Gospel as the flesh of Jesus, and to the apostles as the presbytery of
the church;" that is, as Le Clere interprets them, "in order to
understand the will of God, he fled to the Gospels, which he believed no
less than if Christ in the flesh had been speaking to him; and to the
writings of the apostles, whom he esteemed as the presbytery of the
whole Christian church." It must be observed, that about eighty years
after this we have direct proof, in the writings of Clement of
Alexandria, (Lardner, Cred. part ii. vol. ii. p. 516.) that these two
names, "Gospel," and "Apostles," were the names by which the writings of
the New Testament, and the division of these writings, were usually
expressed.
Another passage from Ignatius is the following:--"But the Gospel has
somewhat in it more excellent, the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ,
his passion and resurrection." (Lardner, Cred. part ii. vol. ii. p.
182.)
And a third: "Ye ought to hearken to the Prophets, but especially to the
gospel, in which the passion has been manifested to us, and the
resurrection perfected." In this last passage, the Prophets and the
Gospel are put in conjunction; and as Ignatius undoubtedly meant by the
prophets a collection of writings, it is probable that he meant the same
by the Gospel, the two terms standing in evident parallelism with each
other.
This interpretation of the word "Gospel," in the passages above quoted
from Ignatius, is confirmed by a piece of nearly equal antiquity, the
relation of the martyrdom of Polycarp by the church of Smyrna. "All
things," say they, "that went before, were done, that the Lord might
show us a martyrdom according to the Gospel, for he expected to be
delivered up as the Lord also did." (Ignat. Ep. c.i.) And in another
place, "We do not commend those who offer themselves, forasmuch as the
Gospel, teaches us no such thing." (Ignat. Ep. c. iv.) In both these
places, what is called the Gospel seems to be the history of Jesus
Christ, and of his doctrine.
If this be the true sense of the passages, they are not only evidences
of our proposition, by strong and very ancient proofs of the high esteem
in which the books of the New Testament were holden.
II. Eusebius relates, that Quadratus and some others, who were the
immediate successors of the apostles, travelling abroad to preach
Christ, carried the Gospels with them, and delivered them to their
converts. The words of Eusebius are: "Then travelling abroad, they
performed the work of evangelists, being ambitious to preach Christ, and
deliver the Scripture of the divine Gospels." (Lardner, Cred. part ii.
vol. i. p. 236.) Eusebius had before him the writings both of Quadratus
himself, and of many others of that age, which are now lost. It is
reasonable, therefore to believe that he had good grounds for his
assertion. What is thus recorded of the Gospels took place within sixty,
or at the most seventy, years after they were published: and it is
evident that they must, before this time (and, it is probable, long
before this time), have been in general use and in high esteem in the
churches planted by the apostles, inasmuch as they were now, we find,
collected into a volume: and the immediate successors of the apostles,
they who preached the religion of Christ to those who had not already
heard it, carried the volume with them, and delivered it to their
converts.
III. Irenaeus, in the year 178, (Lardner, Cred. part ii. vol. i. p. 383.)
puts the evangelic and apostolic writings in connexion with the Law and
the Prophets, manifestly intending by the one a code or collection of
Christian sacred writings, as the other expressed the code or collection
of Jewish sacred writings. And,
IV. Melito, at this time bishop of Sardis, writing to one Onesimus,
tells his correspondent, (Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 331.) that he had
procured an accurate account of the books of the Old Testament. The
occurrence in this message of the term Old Testament has been brought to
prove, and it certainly does prove, that there was then a volume or
collection of writings called the New Testament.
V. In the time of Clement of Alexandria, about fifteen years after the
last quoted testimony, it is apparent that the Christian Scriptures were
divided into two parts, under the general titles of the Gospels and
Apostles; and that both these were regarded as of the highest authority.
One out of many expressions of Clement, alluding to this distribution,
is the following: "There is a consent and harmony between the Law and
the Prophets, the Apostles and the Gospel." (Lardner, Cred. vol. ii. p.
516.)
VI. The same division, "Prophets, Gospels, and Apostles," appears in
Tertullian, the contemporary of Clement. The collection of the Gospels
is likewise called by this writer the "Evangelic Instrument;" the whole
volume the "New Testament;" and the two parts, the "Gospels and
Apostles." (Lardner, Cred. vol. ii. pp. 631,574 & 632.)
VII. From many writers also of the third century, and especially from
Cyprian, who lived in the middle of it, it is collected that the
Christian Scriptures were divided into two cedes or volumes, one called
the "Gospels or Scriptures of the Lord," the other the "Apostles, or
Epistles of the Apostles" (Lardner, Cred. vol. iv. p. 846.)
VIII. Eusebius, as we have already seen, takes some pains to show that
the Gospel of Saint John had been justly placed by the ancients, "the
fourth in order, and after the other three." (Lardner, Cred. vol. viii.
p. 90.) These are the terms of his proposition: and the very
introduction of such an argument proves incontestably, that the four
Gospels had been collected into a volume, to the exclusion of every
other: that their order in the volume had been adjusted with much
consideration; and that this had been done by those who were called
ancients in the time of Eusebius.
In the Diocletian persecution, in the year 303, the Scriptures were
sought out and burnt:(Lardner, Cred. vol. vii. pp. 214 et seq.) many
suffered death rather than deliver them up; and those who betrayed them
to the persecutors were accounted as lapsed and apostate. On the other
hand, Constantine, after his conversion, gave directions for multiplying
copies of the Divine Oracles, and for magnificently adorning them at the
expense of the imperial treasury. (Lardner, Cred. vol. vii. p. 432.) What
the Christians of that age so richly embellished in their prosperity,
and, which is more, so tenaciously preserved under persecution, was the
very volume of the New Testament which we now read.