_THE DOCTRINE CONDEMNED IN THE PASTORAL EPISTLES A JEWISH FORM OF
GNOSTICISM.--THE GNOSTIC'S PROBLEM._
"As I exhorted thee to tarry at Ephesus, when I was going into
Macedonia, that thou mightest charge certain men not to teach a
different doctrine, neither to give heed to fables and endless
genealogies, the which minister questionings, rather than a
dispensation of God which is in faith; so do I now"--_1 Tim._ i. 2,
3.
This Epistle falls into two main divisions, of which the first continues
down to the 13th verse of chap. iii. It treats of three different
subjects: Christian doctrine; Christian worship; and the Christian
ministry. The first of these three subjects is introduced in the words
of the text, which in the original form an incomplete sentence. The last
four words, "so do I now," are not expressed in the Greek. But something
must be supplied to complete the sense; and it is more natural to
understand with the Revisers "So do I now exhort thee," than with the A.
V. "So do thou tarry at Ephesus." But the question is not of great
moment and cannot be decided with absolute certainty. It is of more
importance to enquire what was the nature of the "different doctrine"
which Timothy was to endeavour to counteract. And on this point we are
not left in serious doubt. There are various expressions used respecting
it in these two letters to Timothy which seem to point to two factors
in the heterodoxy about which St. Paul is anxious. It is clear that the
error is Jewish in origin; and it is almost equally clear that it is
Gnostic as well. The evidence of the letter to Titus tends materially to
confirm these conclusions.
(1) The heresy is _Jewish_ in character. Its promoters "desire to be
teachers of the Law" (ver. 7). Some of them are "they of the
circumcision" (Tit. i. 10). It consists in "Jewish fables" (Tit. i. 14).
The questions which it raises are "fightings about the Law" (Tit. iii.
9).
(2) Its _Gnostic_ character is also indicated. We are told both in the
text and in the Epistle to Titus (i. 14; iii. 9) that it deals in
"fables and genealogies." It is "empty talking" (ver. 6), "disputes of
words" (vi. 4), and "profane babblings" (vi. 20). It teaches, an
unscriptural and unnatural asceticism (iv. 3, 8). It is "Gnosis falsely
so called" (vi. 20).
A heresy containing these two elements, Judaism and Gnosticism, meets us
both before and after the period covered by the Pastoral Epistles:
before in the Epistle to the Colossians; afterwards in the Epistles of
Ignatius. The evidence gathered from these three sources is entirely in
harmony with what we learn elsewhere--that the earliest forms of
Christian Gnosticism were Jewish in character. It will be observed that
this is indirect confirmation of the genuineness of the Pastoral
Epistles. The Gnosticism condemned in them is Jewish; and any form of
Gnosticism that was in existence in St. Paul's time would almost
certainly be Jewish.[12]
Professor Godet has pointed out how entirely the relation of Judaism to
Christianity which is implied in these Epistles, fits in with their
being the last group of Epistles written by St. Paul. At first, Judaism
was entirely outside the Church, opposing and blaspheming. Then it
entered the Church and tried to make the Church Jewish, by foisting the
Mosaic Law upon it. Lastly, it becomes a fantastic heresy inside the
Church, and sinks into profane frivolity. "Pretended revelations are
given as to the names and genealogies of angels; absurd ascetic rules
are laid down as counsels of perfection, while daring immorality defaces
the actual life."[13] This is the phase which is confronted in the
Pastoral Epistles: and St. Paul meets it with a simple appeal to faith
and morality.
It is quite possible that the "fables," or "myths," and "genealogies"
ought to be transferred from the Gnostic to the Jewish side of the
account. And thus Chrysostom interprets the passage. "By fables he does
not mean the Law; far from it; but inventions and forgeries, and
counterfeit doctrines. For, it seems, the Jews wasted their whole
discourse on these unprofitable points. They numbered up their fathers
and grandfathers, that they might have the reputation of historical
knowledge and research." The "fables" then, may be understood to be
those numerous legends which the Jews added to the Old Testament,
specimens of which abound in the Talmud. But similar myths abound in
Gnostic systems, and therefore "fables" may represent _both_ elements of
the heterodox teaching. So also with the "endless genealogies." These
cannot well refer to the genealogies in Genesis, for they are not
endless, each of them being arranged in tens. But it is quite possible
that Jewish speculations about the genealogies of angels may be meant.
Such things, being purely imaginary, would be endless. Or the Gnostic
doctrine of emanations, in its earlier and cruder forms, may be
intended. By genealogies in this sense early thinkers, especially in the
East, tried to bridge the chasm between the Infinite and the Finite,
between God and creation. In various systems it is assumed that matter
is inherently evil. The material universe has been from the beginning
not "very good" but very bad. How then can it be believed that the
Supreme Being, infinite in goodness, would create such a thing? This is
incredible: the world must be the creature of some inferior and perhaps
evil being. But when this was conceded, the distance between this
inferior power and the supreme God still remained to be bridged. This,
it was supposed, might be done by an indefinite number of generations,
each lower in dignity than the preceding one, until at last a being
capable of creating the universe was found. From the Supreme God
emanated an inferior deity, and from this lower power a third still more
inferior; and so on, until the Creator of the world was reached. These
ideas are found in the Jewish philosopher Philo; and it is to these that
St. Paul probably alludes in the "endless genealogies which minister
questionings rather than a dispensation of God." The idea that matter is
evil dominates the whole philosophy of Philo. He endeavoured to
reconcile this with the Old Testament, by supposing that matter is
eternal; and that it was out of pre-existing material that God, acting
through His creative powers, made the world which He pronounced to be
"very good." These powers are sometimes regarded as the angels,
sometimes as existences scarcely personal. But they have no existence
apart from their source, any more than a ray apart from the sun. They
are now the instruments of God's Providence, as formerly of His creative
power.
St. Paul condemns such speculations on four grounds. (1) They are
_fables_, myths, mere imaginings of the human intellect in its attempt
to account for the origin of the world and the origin of evil. (2) They
are _endless_ and interminable. From the nature of things there is no
limit to mere guesswork of this kind. Every new speculator may invent a
fresh genealogy of emanations in his theory of creation, and may make it
any length that he pleases. If hypotheses need never be verified,--need
not even be _capable_ of verification,--one may go on constructing them
_ad infinitum_. (3) As a natural consequence of this (=haitines=) they
_minister questionings_ and nothing better. It is all barren speculation
and fruitless controversy. Where any one may assert without proof, any
one else may contradict without proof; and nothing comes of this see-saw
of affirmation and negation. (4) Lastly, these vain imaginings are _a
different doctrine_. They are not only empty but untrue, and are a
hindrance to the truth. They occupy the ground which ought to be filled
with the _dispensation of God which is in faith_. Human minds are
limited in their capacity, and, even if these empty hypotheses were
innocent, minds that were filled with them would have little room left
for the truth. But they are not innocent: and those who are attracted by
them become disaffected towards the truth. It is impossible to love
both, for the two are opposed to one another. These fables are
baseless; they have no foundation either in revelation or in human life.
Moreover they are vague, shifting, and incoherent. They ramble on
without end. But the Gospel is based on a Divine Revelation, tested by
human experience. It is an economy, a system, an organic whole, a
dispensation of means to ends. Its sphere is not unbridled imagination
or audacious curiosity, but faith.
The history of the next hundred and fifty years amply justifies the
anxiety and severity of St. Paul. The germs of Gnostic error, which were
in the air when Christianity was first preached, fructified with amazing
rapidity. It would be hard to find a parallel in the history of
philosophy to the speed with which Gnostic views spread in and around
Christendom between A.D. 70 and 220. Eusebius tells us that, as soon as
the Apostles and those who had listened "with their own ears to their
inspired wisdom had passed away, then the conspiracy of godless error
took its rise through the deceit of false teachers, who (now that none
of the Apostles was any longer left) henceforth endeavoured with brazen
face to preach their _knowledge falsely so called_ in opposition to the
preaching of the truth."[14] Throughout the Christian world, and
especially in intellectual centres such as Ephesus, Alexandria and Rome,
there was perhaps not a single educated congregation which did not
contain persons who were infected with some form of Gnosticism. Jerome's
famous hyperbole respecting Arianism might be transferred to this
earlier form of error, perhaps the most perilous that the Church has
ever known: "The whole world groaned and was amazed to find itself
_Gnostic_."
However severely we may condemn these speculations, we cannot but
sympathize with the perplexities which produced them. The origin of the
universe, and still more the origin of evil, still remain unsolved
problems. No one in this life is ever likely to reach a complete
solution of either. What is the origin of the material universe? To
assume that it is not a creature, but that matter is eternal, is to make
two first principles, one spiritual and one material; and this is
perilously near making two Gods. But the belief that God made the world
is by no means free from difficulty. What was His motive in making the
world? Was His perfection increased by it? Then God was once not fully
perfect. Was His perfection diminished by the act of creation? Then God
is now not fully perfect; and how can we suppose that He would
voluntarily surrender anything of His absolute perfection? Was God
neither the better nor the worse for the creation of the universe? Then
the original question returns with its full force: What induced Him to
create it? We cannot suppose that creation was an act of caprice. No
complete answer to this enigma is possible for us. One thing we
know;--that _God is light_ and that _God is love_. And we may be sure
that in exercising His creative power He was manifesting His perfect
wisdom and His exhaustless affection.
But will the knowledge that _God is light_ and that _God is love_ help
us to even a partial solution of that problem which has wrung the souls
of countless saints and thinkers with anguish--the problem of the origin
of evil? How could a God who is perfectly wise and perfectly good, make
it possible for evil to arise, and allow it to continue after it had
arisen? Once more the suggestion that there are two First Principles
presents itself, but in a more terrible form. Before, it was the thought
that there are two co-eternal Existences, God and Matter. Now, it is the
suggestion that there are two co-eternal, and perhaps co-equal Powers,
Good and Evil. This hypothesis, impossible for a Christian and rejected
by John Stuart Mill,[15] creates more difficulties than it solves. But,
if this is the wrong answer, what is the right one? Cardinal Newman, in
one of the most striking passages even in his works, has told us how the
problem presents itself to him. "Starting then with the being of God
(which, as I have said, is as certain to me as the certainty of my own
existence, though when I try to put the grounds of that certainty into
logical shape, I find difficulty in doing so in mood and figure to my
satisfaction), I look out of myself into the world of men, and there I
see a sight which fills me with unspeakable distress. The world seems
simply to give the lie to that great truth, of which my whole being is
so full; and the effect upon me is, in consequence, as a matter of
necessity, as confusing as if it denied that I am in existence myself.
_If I looked into a mirror, and did not see my face, I should have the
sort of feeling which actually comes upon me, when I look into this
living busy world and see no reflection of its Creator._ This is, to me,
one of the great difficulties of this absolute primary truth, to which I
referred just now. Were it not for this voice, speaking so clearly in my
conscience and my heart, I should be an atheist, or a pantheist, or a
polytheist, when I looked into the world. I am speaking for myself only;
and I am far from denying the real force of the arguments in proof of a
God, drawn from the general facts of human society, but these do not
warm me or enlighten me; they do not take away the winter of my
desolation, or make the buds unfold and the leaves grow within me, and
my moral being rejoice. The sight of the world is nothing else than the
prophet's scroll full of 'lamentations, and mourning, and woe.' ... What
shall be said to this heart-piercing, reason-bewildering fact? I can
only answer, that either there is no Creator, or this living society of
men is in a true sense discarded from His presence. Did I see a boy of
good make and mind, with the tokens on him of a refined nature, cast
upon the world without provision, unable to say whence he came, his
birthplace or his family connexions, I should conclude that there was
some mystery connected with his history, and that he was one, of whom,
from one cause or other, his parents were ashamed. Thus only should I be
able to account for the contrast between the promise and condition of
his being. And so I argue about the world;--_if_ there be a God, _since_
there is a God, the human race is implicated in some terrible aboriginal
calamity. It is out of joint with the purposes of its Creator. This is a
fact, a fact as true as the fact of its existence; and thus the doctrine
of what is theologically called original sin becomes to me almost as
certain as that the world exists, and as the existence of God."[16]
But this only carries us a short way towards a solution. Why did God
allow the "aboriginal calamity" of sin to be possible? This was the
Gnostic's difficulty, and it is our difficulty still. Can we say more
than this by way of an answer? God willed that angels and men should
honour Him with a voluntary and not a mechanical service. If they
obeyed Him, it should be of their own free will, and not of necessity.
It should be possible to them to refuse service and obedience. In short,
God willed to be reverenced and worshipped, and not merely served and
obeyed. A machine can render service; and a person under the influence
of mesmerism may be forced to obey. But do we not all feel that the
voluntary service of a conscious and willing agent, who prefers to
render rather than to withhold his service, is a nobler thing both for
him who gives, and him who receives it? Compulsory labour is apt to turn
the servant into a slave and the master into a tyrant. We see,
therefore, a reason why the Creator in creating conscious beings made
them also moral; made them capable of obeying Him of their own free
will, and therefore also capable of disobeying Him. In other words, He
made sin, with all its consequences, possible. Then it became merely a
question of historical fact whether any angelic or human being would
ever abuse his freedom by choosing to disobey. That "aboriginal
calamity," we know, has taken place; and all the moral and physical evil
which now exists in the world, is the natural consequence of it.
This is, perhaps, the best solution that the human mind is likely to
discover, respecting this primeval and terrible mystery. But it is only
a partial solution; and the knowledge that we have still not attained to
a complete answer to the question which perplexed the early Gnostics,
ought to banish from our minds anything like arrogance or contempt, when
we condemn their answer as unchristian and inadequate. "The end of the
charge" which has been given to us is not the condemnation of others,
but "love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith
unfeigned."
FOOTNOTES:
[12] F. C. Baur himself contends that the false teachers here condemned
are "Judaizing Gnostics, who put forth their figurative interpretation
of the Law as true knowledge of the Law. Such were the earlier Gnostics,
such as the Ophites and Saturninus" (_Protestant Commentary_, note on 1
Tim. i. 7).
[13] _Expositor_, July, 1888, p. 42.
[14] _H. E._, VI, xxxii. 8.
[15] _Three Essays on Religion_, pp. 185, 186.
[16] _Apologia pro Vita Sua_ (Longmans, 1864), pp. 376-379.