his true Logos, his first begotten Son, to have the care of this sacred
flock, as the Vicegerent of-a great King."(1) In another place Philo
exhorts men to strive to become like God's "first begotten Word"
[------],(2) and he adds, a few lines further on: "for the most ancient
Word is the image of God" [------]. The high priest of God in the world
is "the divine Word, his first-begotten son" [------].(3) Speaking of
the creation of the world Philo says: "The instrument by which it was
formed is the Word of God" [------].(4) Elsewhere: "For the Word is the
image of God by which the whole world was created" [------].(5) These
passages might be indefinitely multiplied.
Tischendorf's next passage is: "The first power [------] after the
Father of all and God the Lord, and Son, is the Word [------]; in what
manner having been made flesh [------] he became man, we shall in what
follows relate."(6)
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We find everywhere parallels for this passage without seeking them in
the fourth Gospel. In 1 Cor. i. 24, "Christ the Power [------] of God
and the Wisdom of God;" cf. Heb. i. 2, 3, 4, 6, 8; ii. 8. In Heb. ii.
14--18, there is a distinct account of his becoming flesh; cf. verse 7.
In Phil. ii. 6--8: "Who (Jesus Christ) being in the form of God, deemed
it not grasping to be equal with God, (7) But gave himself up, taking
the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men," &c. In Rom.
viii. 3 we have: "God sending his own Son in the likeness of the flesh
of sin," &c. [------] It must be borne in mind that the terminology of
John i. 14, "and the word became flesh" [------] is different from that
of Justin, who uses the word [------]. The sense and language here is,
therefore, quite as close as that of the fourth Gospel We have also
another parallel in 1 Tim. iii. 16, "Who (God) was manifested in the
flesh" [------], cf. 1 Cor. xv. 4, 47.
In like manner we find many similar passages in the Works of Philo. He
says in one place that man was not made in the likeness of the most high
God the Father of the universe, but in that of the "Second God who is
his Word" [------].(1) In another place the Logos is said to be the
interpreter of the highest God, and he continues: "that must be God of
us imperfect beings" [------].(2)
Elsewhere he says: "But the
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divine Word which is above these (the Winged Cherubim).... but being
itself the image of God, at once the most ancient of all conceivable
things, and the one placed nearest to the only true and absolute
existence without any separation or distance between them ";(1) and a
few lines further on he explains the cities of refuge to be: "The Word
of the Governor (of all things) and his creative and kingly power, for
of these are the heavens and the whole world."(2) "The Logos of God
is above all things in the world, and is the most ancient and the most
universal of all things which are."(3) The Word is also the "Ambassador
sent by the Governor (of the universe) to his subject (man)"
[------].(4) Such views of the Logos are everywhere met with in the
pages of Philo.
Tischendorf continues: "The Word (Logos) of God is his Son."(5) We
have already in the preceding paragraphs abundantly illustrated this
sentence, and may proceed to the next: "But since they did not know
all things concerning the Logos, which is Christ, they have frequently
contradicted each other."(6) These words are
{276}
used with reference to Lawgivers and philosophers. Justin, who frankly
admits the delight he took in the writings of Plato(1) and other Greek
philosophers, held the view that Socrates and Plato had in an elementary
form enunciated the doctrine of the Logos,(2) although he contends that
they borrowed it from the writings of Moses, and with a largeness of
mind very uncommon in the early Church, and indeed, we might add, in any
age, he believed Socrates and such philosophers to have been Christians,
even although they had been considered Atheists.(3) As they did not of
course know Christ to be the Logos, he makes the assertion just
quoted. Now the only point in the passage which requires notice is the
identification of the Logos with Jesus, which has already been dealt
with, and as this was asserted in the Apocalypse xix. 13, before the
fourth Gospel was written, no evidence in its favour is deducible from
the statement. We shall have more to say regarding this presently.
Tischendorf continues: "But in what manner through the Word of God,
Jesus Christ our Saviour having been made flesh,"(4) &c.
It must be apparent that the doctrine here is not that of the fourth
Gospel which makes "the word become flesh" simply, whilst Justin,
representing a less advanced form, and more uncertain stage, of its
development, draws a distinction between the Logos and Jesus, and
describes Jesus Christ as being made flesh by the power
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of the Logos. This is no accidental use of words, for he repeatedly
states the same fact, as for instance: "But why through the power of the
Word, according to the will of God the Father and Lord of all, he was
born a man of a Virgin,"(1) &c.
Tischendorf continues: "To these passages out of the short second
Apology we extract from the first (cap. 33).(2) By the Spirit,
therefore, and power of God (in reference to Luke i. 35: 'The Holy
Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall
overshadow thee') we have nothing else to understand but the Logos,
which is the first-born of God."(3)
Here again we have the same difference from the doctrine of the fourth
Gospel which we have just pointed out, which is, however, so completely
in agreement with the views of Philo,(4) and characteristic of a less
developed form of the idea. We shall further refer to the terminology
hereafter, and meantime we proceed to the last illustration given by
Tischendorf.
"Out of the Dialogue (c. 105): 'For that he was the only-begotten of
the Father of all, in peculiar wise begotten of him as Word and Power
[------], and afterwards became man through the Virgin, as we have
learnt from the Memoirs, I have already stated.'"(5)
{278}
The allusion here is to the preceding chapters of the Dialogue, wherein,
with special reference (c. 100) to the passage which has a parallel in
Luke i. 35, quoted by Tischendorf in the preceding illustration, Justin
narrates the birth of Jesus.
This reference very appropriately leads us to a more general discussion
of the real source of the terminology and Logos doctrine of Justin. We
do not propose, in this work, to enter fully into the history of the
Logos doctrine, and we must confine ourselves strictly to showing, in
the most simple manner possible, that not only is there no evidence
whatever that Justin derived his ideas regarding it from the fourth
Gospel, but that, on the contrary, his terminology and doctrine may be
traced to another source. Now, in the very chapter (100) from which this
last illustration is taken, Justin shows clearly whence he derives the
expression: "only-begotten."
In chap. 97 he refers to the Ps. xxii. (Sept. xxi.) as a prophecy
applying to Jesus, quotes the whole Psalm, and comments upon it in the
following chapters; refers to Ps. ii. 7: "Thou art my Son, this day have
I begotten thee," uttered by the voice at the baptism, in ch. 103, in
illustration of it; and in ch. 105 he arrives, in his exposition of it,
at Verse 20: "Deliver my soul from the sword, and my(1) only-begotten
[------] from the hand of the dog." Then follows the passage we are
discussing, in which Justin affirms that
1 This should probably be "thy."
{279}
he has proved that he was the only-begotten [------] of the Father, and
at the close he again quotes the verse as indicative of his sufferings.
The Memoirs are referred to in regard to the fulfilment of this
prophecy, and his birth as man through the Virgin. The phrase in Justin
is quite different from that in the fourth Gospel, i. 14: "And the
Word became flesh [------] and tabernacled among us, find we beheld his
glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father" [------], &c.
In Justin he is "the only-begotten of the Father of all" [------],
and he "became man [------] through the Virgin," and Justin never once
employs the peculiar terminology of the fourth Gospel, [------], in any
part of his writings.
There can be no doubt that, however the Christian doctrine of the Logos
may at one period of its development have been influenced by Greek
philosophy, it was in its central idea mainly of Jewish origin, and the
mere application to an individual of a theory which had long occupied
the Hebrew mind. After the original simplicity which represented God as
holding personal intercourse with the Patriarchs, and communing face to
face with the great leaders of Israel, had been outgrown, an increasing
tendency set in to shroud the Divinity in impenetrable mystery, and to
regard him as unapproachable and undiscernible by man. This led to the
recognition of a Divine representative and substitute of the Highest God
and Father, who communicated with his creatures, and through whom alone
he revealed himself. A new system of interpretation of the ancient
traditions of the nation was rendered necessary, and in the Septuagint
translation of the Bible we are fortunately able to trace
{280}
the progress of the theory which culminated in the Christian doctrine
of the Logos. Wherever in the sacred records God had been represented
as holding intercourse with man, the translators either symbolized the
appearance or interposed an angel, who was afterwards understood to
be the Divine Word. The first name under which the Divine Mediator
was known in the Old Testament was Wisdom [------], although in its
Apocrypha the term Logos was not unknown. The personification of the
idea was very rapidly effected, and in the Book of Proverbs, as well
as in the later Apocrypha based upon it: the Wisdom of Solomon, and
the Wisdom of Sirach, "Ecclesiasticus:" we find it in ever increasing
clearness and concretion. In the School of Alexandria the active Jewish
intellect eagerly occupied itself with the speculation, and in the
writings of Philo especially we find the doctrine of the Logos--the
term which by that time had almost entirely supplanted that of
Wisdom--elaborated to almost its final point, and wanting little or
nothing but its application in an incarnate form to an individual man
to represent the doctrine of the earlier Canonical writings of the
New Testament, and notably the Epistle to the Hebrews,--the work of
a Christian Philo,(1)--the Pauline Epistles, and lastly the fourth
Gospel(2)
{281}
In Proverbs viii. 22 ff., we have a representation of Wisdom
corresponding closely with the prelude to the fourth Gospel, and still
more so with the doctrine enunciated by Justin: 22. "The Lord created
me the Beginning of his ways for his works. 23. Before the ages he
established me, in the beginning before he made the earth. 24. And
before he made the abysses, before the springs of the waters issued
forth. 25. Before the mountains were settled, and before all the
hills he begets me. 26. The Lord made the lands, both those which are
uninhabited and the inhabited heights of the earth beneath the sky. 27.
When he prepared the heavens I was present with him, and when he set
his throne upon the winds, 28, and made strong the high clouds, and the
deeps under the heaven made secure, 29, and made strong the foundations
of the earth, 30, I was with him adjusting, I was that in which he
delighted; daily I rejoiced in his presence at all times."(1) In the
"Wisdom of Solomon" we find the writer addressing God: ix. 1... "Who
madest all things by thy Word" [------]; and further on in the same
chapter, v. 9, "And Wisdom was with thee who knoweth thy works, and was
present when thou madest the world, and knew what was acceptable
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in thy sight, and right in thy commandments. "(1) In verse 4, the writer
prays: "Give me Wisdom that sitteth by thy thrones" [-----].(2) In a
similar way the son of Sirach makes Wisdom say (Ecclesiast. xxiv. 9):
"He (the Most High) created me from the beginning before the world, and
as long as the world I shall not fail."(3) We have already incidentally
seen how these thoughts grew into an elaborate doctrine of the Logos in
the works of Philo.
Now Justin, whilst he nowhere adopts the terminology of the fourth
Gospel, and nowhere refers to its introductory condensed statement of
the Logos doctrine, closely follows Philo and, like him, traces it
back to the Old Testament in the most direct way, accounting for the
interposition of the divine Mediator in precisely the same manner as
Philo, and expressing the views which had led the Seventy to modify the
statement of the Hebrew original in their Greek translation. He is, in
fact, thoroughly acquainted with the history of the Logos doctrine and
its earlier enunciation under the symbol of Wisdom, and his knowledge of
it is clearly independent of, and antecedent to, the statements of the
fourth Gospel.
Referring to various episodes of the Old Testament in which God is
represented as appearing to Moses and the Patriarchs, and in which it
is said that "God went up from Abraham,"(4) or "The Lord spake to
Moses,"(5) or "The Lord came down to behold the town," &c.,(6) or "God
{283}
shut Noah into the ark,"(1) and so on, Justin warns his antagonist that
he is not to suppose that "the unbegotten God" [------] did any of these
things, for he has neither to come to any place, nor walks, but from his
own place, wherever it may be, knows everything although he has neither
eyes nor ears. Therefore he. could not talk with anyone, nor be seen by
anyone, and none of the Patriarchs saw the Father at all, but they saw
"him who was according to his will both his Son (being God) and the
Angel, in that he ministered to his purpose, whom also he willed to be
born man by the Virgin, who became fire when he spoke with Moses
from the bush."(2) He refers throughout his writings to the various
appearances of God to the Patriarchs, all of which he ascribes to the
pre-existent Jesus, the Word,(3) and in the very next chapter, after
alluding to some of these, he says: "he is called Angel because he came
to men, since by him the decrees of the Father are announced to men...
At other times he is also called Man and human being, because he appears
clothed in these forms as the Father wills, and they call him Logos
because
{284}
he bears the communications of the Father to mankind."(1)
Justin, moreover, repeatedly refers to the fact that he was called
Wisdom by Solomon, and quotes the passage we have indicated in Proverbs.
In one place he says, in proof of his assertion that the God who
appeared to Moses and the Patriarchs was distinguished from the Father,
and was in fact the Word (ch. 66--70): "Another testimony I will give
you, my friends, I said, from the Scriptures that God begat before all
of the creatures [------] a Beginning [------],(2) a certain rational
Power [------] out of himself, who is called by the Holy Spirit, now the
Glory of the Lord, then the Son, again Wisdom, again Angel, again God,
and again Lord and Logos;" &c., and a little further on: "The Word
of Wisdom will testify to me, who is himself this God begotten of the
Father of the universe, being Word, and Wisdom, and Power [------], and
the Glory of the Begetter," &c.,(3) and he quotes, from the Septuagint
version, Proverbs viii. 22--36, part of which we have given above, and
indeed, elsewhere (ch. 129), he quotes the passage a second time as
evidence, with a similar context. Justin refers to it
{285}
again in the next chapter, and the peculiarity of his terminology in all
these passages, so markedly different from, and indeed opposed to,
that of the fourth Gospel, will naturally strike the reader: "But this
offspring [------] being truly brought forth by the Father was with the
Father before all created beings [------], and the Father communes
with him, as the Logos declared through Solomon, that this same, who is
called Wisdom by Solomon, had been begotten of God before all created
beings [------], both Beginning [------] and Offspring [------]," &C.(1)
In another place after quoting the words: "No man knoweth the Father
but the Son, nor the Son but the Father, and they to whom the Son will
reveal him," Justin continues: "Therefore he revealed to us all that we
have by his grace understood out of the Scriptures, recognizing him to
be indeed the first-begotten [------] of God, and before all creatures
[------].... and calling him Son, we have understood that he proceeded
from the Father by his power and will before all created beings
[------], for in one form or another he is spoken of in the writings
of the prophets as Wisdom," &c.;(2) and again, in two other places he
refers to the same fact.(3) On further examination, we find on every
side still
{286}
stronger confirmation of the conclusion that Justin derived his Logos
doctrine from the Old Testament and Philo, together with early New
Testament writings. We have quoted several passages in which Justin
details the various names of the Logos, and we may add one more.
Referring to Ps. lxxii., which the Jews apply to Solomon, but which
Justin maintains to be applicable to Christ, he says: "For Christ is
King, and Priest, and God, and Lord, and Angel, and Man, and Captain,
and Stone, and a Son born [------], &c. &c., as I prove by all of the
Scriptures."(1) Now these representations, which are constantly repeated
throughout Justin's writings, are quite opposed to the Spirit of the
fourth Gospel, but are on the other hand equally common in the works of
Philo, and many of them also to be found in the Philonian Epistle to the
Hebrews. Taking the chief amongst them we may briefly illustrate them.
The Logos as King, Justin avowedly derives from Ps. lxxii., in which he
finds that reference is made to the "Everlasting King, that is to say
Christ."(2) We find this representation of the Logos throughout the
writings of Philo. In one place already briefly referred to,(3) but
which we shall now more fully quote, he says: "For God as Shepherd and
King governs according to Law and justice like a flock of sheep, the
earth, and water, and air, and fire, and all the plants and living
things that are in them, whether they be mortal or divine, as well
as the course of heaven, and the periods of sun and moon, and the
variations and harmonious revolutions of the other stars; having
appointed his true Word [------]
{287}
[------] his first-begotten Son [------] to have the care of this sacred
flock as the Vicegerent of a great King;"(1) and a little further on,
he says: "very reasonably, therefore, he will assume the name of a King,
being addressed as a Shepherd."(2) In another place, Philo speaks of the
"Logos of the Governor, and his creative and kingly power, for of these
is the heaven and the whole world."(3)
Then if we take the second epithet, the Logos as Priest [------], which
is quite foreign to the fourth Gospel, we find it repeated by Justin,
as for instance: "Christ the eternal Priest" [------],(4) and it is not
only a favourite representation of Philo, but is almost the leading
idea of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in connection with the episode of
Melchisedec, in whom also both Philo,(5) and Justin,(6) recognize the
Logos. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, vii. 3, speaking of Melchisedec:
"but likened to the Son of God, abideth a Priest for ever:"(7) again
in iv. 14: "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is passed
through the heavens, Jesus the Son
{288}
of God," &c.;(1) ix. 11: "Christ having appeared a High Priest of the
good things to come;"(2) xii. 21: "Thou art a Priest for ever."(3)
The passages are indeed far too numerous to quote.(4) They are equally
numerous in the writings of Philo. In one place already quoted,(5) he
says: "For there are as it seems two temples of God, one of which
is this world, in which the High Priest is the divine Word, his
first-begotten Son" [------].(6) Elsewhere, speaking of the period
for the return of fugitives, the death of the high priest, which taken
literally would embarrass him in his allegory, Philo says: "For we
maintain the High Priest not to be a man, but the divine Word, who is
without participation not only in voluntary but also in involuntary
sins;"(7) and he goes on to speak of this priest as "the most sacred
Word" [------].(8) Indeed, in many long passages he descants upon the
"high priest Word" [------].(9) Proceeding to the next representations
of the Logos
{289}
as "God and Lord," we meet with the idea everywhere. In Hebrews i. 8:
"But regarding the Son he saith: Thy throne, O God, is for ever and
ever" [------], and again in the Epistle to the Philippians, ii. 6, "Who
(Jesus Christ) being in the form of God, deemed it not grasping to
be equal with God" [------].(1) Philo, in the fragment preserved by
Eusebius, to which we have already referred,(2) calls the Logos the
"Second God" [------].(3) In another passage he has: "But he calls
the most ancient God his present Logos," &c. [------];(4) and a little
further on, speaking of the inability of men to look on the Father
himself: "thus they regard the image of God, his Angel Word, as himself"
[------].(5) Elsewhere discussing the possibility of God's swearing by
himself, which he applies to the Logos, he says: "For in regard to us
imperfect beings he will be a God, but in regard to wise and perfect
beings the first. And yet Moses, in awe of the superiority of the
unbegotten [------] God, says: 'And thou shalt swear by his name,' not
by himself; for it is sufficient for the creature to receive assurance
and testimony by the divine Word."(6)
It must be remarked, however, that both Justin and
{290}
Philo place the Logos in a position more clearly secondary to God the
Father, than the prelude to the fourth Gospel i. 1. Both Justin and
Philo apply the term [------] to the Logos without the article. Justin
distinctly says that Christians worship Jesus Christ as the Son of
the true God, holding him in the second place [------],(1) and this
secondary position is systematically defined through Justin's writings
in a very decided way, as it is in the works of Philo by the contrast of
the begotten Logos with the unbegotten God. Justin speaks of the Word as
"the first-born of the unbegotten God" [------],(2) and the distinctive
appellation of the "unbegotten God" applied to the Father is most common
throughout his writings.(3) We may in continuation of this remark point
out another phrase of Justin which is continually repeated, but is
thoroughly opposed both to the spirit and to the terminology of the
fourth Gospel, and which likewise indicates the secondary consideration
in which he held the Logos. He calls the Word constantly "the first-born
of all created beings" [------] "the first-born of all creation,"
echoing the expression of Col. i. 15. (The Son) "who is the image of the
invisible God, the first-born of all creation" [------].
This is a totally different view from that of the fourth Gospel, which
in so emphatic a manner
{291}
enunciates the doctrine: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God," a statement which Justin, with Philo,
only makes in a very modified sense.
To return, however, the next representation of the Logos by Justin is
as "Angel." This perpetually recurs in his writings.(1) In one place, to
which we have already referred, he says: "The Word of God is his Son,
as we have already stated, and he is also called Messenger [------] and
Apostle, for he brings the message of all we need to know, and is sent
an Apostle to declare all the message contains."(2) In the same chapter
reference is again made to passages quoted for the sake of proving:
"that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Apostle, being aforetime
the Word and having appeared now in the form of fire, and now in the
likeness of incorporeal beings;"(3) and he gives many illustrations.(4)
The passages, however, in which the Logos is called Angel, are too
numerous to be more fully dealt with here. It is scarcely necessary to
point out that this representation of the Logos as Angel, is not only
foreign to, but opposed to the spirit of, the fourth Gospel, although it
is thoroughly in harmony with the writings of Philo. Before illustrating
this, however, we may incidentally remark that the ascription to the
Logos of the name "Apostle" which occurs in the two passages just quoted
above, as well as in other parts of the writings of Justin,(5)
{292}
is likewise opposed to the fourth Gospel, although it is found in
earlier writings, exhibiting a less developed form of the Logos
doctrine; for the Epistle to the Hebrews iii. 1, has: "Consider the
Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus," &c. [------]. We are,
in fact, constantly directed by the remarks of Justin to other sources
of the Logos doctrine, and never to the fourth Gospel, with which his
tone and terminology do not agree. Everywhere in the writings of Philo
we meet with the Logos as Angel. He speaks "of the Angel Word of God"
in a sentence already quoted,(1) and elsewhere in a passage, one of many
others, upon which the lines of Justin which we are now considering (as
well as several similar passages)(2) are in all probability moulded.
Philo calls upon men to "strive earnestly to be fashioned according
to God's first-begotten Word, the eldest Angel, who is the Archangel
bearing many names, for he is called
{293}
the Beginning [------], and Name of God, and Logos, and the Man
according to his image, and the Seer of Israel."(1) Elsewhere, in a
remarkable passage, he says: "To his Archangel and eldest Word, the
Father, who created the universe, gave the supreme gift that having
stood on the confine he may separate the creature from the Creator.
The same is an intercessor on behalf of the ever wasting mortal to the
immortal; he is also the ambassador of the Ruler to his subjects. And he
rejoices in the gift, and the majesty of it he describes, saying: 'And
I stood in the midst between the Lord and you' (Numbers xvi 48); being
neither unbegotten like God, nor begotten like you, but between the two
extremes," &c.(2) We have been tempted to give more of this passage than
is necessary for our immediate purpose, because it affords the reader
another glimpse of Philo's doctrine of the Logos, and generally
illustrates its position in connection with the Christian doctrine.
The last of Justin's names which we shall here notice is the Logos
as "Man" as well as God. In another place Justin explains that he is
sometimes called a Man and human being, because he appears in these
forms as the Father wills.(3) But here confining ourselves merely
{294}
to the concrete idea, we find a striking representation of it in 1 Tim.
ii. 5: "For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the
Man Christ Jesus; [------]; and again in Rom. v. 15: "... by the grace
of the one man Jesus Christ" [------], as well as other passages.(1) We
have already seen in the passage quoted above from "De Confus. Ling." Sec.
28, that Philo mentions, among the many names of the Logos, that of "the
Man according to (God's) image" [------],(2) or "the typical man"). If,
however, we pass to the application of the Logos doctrine to Jesus, we
have the strongest reason for inferring Justin's total independence of
the fourth Gospel. We have already pointed out that the title of Logos
is given to Jesus in New Testament writings earlier than the fourth
Gospel. We have remarked that, although the passages are innumerable in
which Justin speaks of the Word having become man through the Virgin, he
never once throughout his writings makes use of the peculiar expression
of the fourth Gospel: "the Word became flesh" [------].
On the few occasions on which he speaks of the Word having been _made_
flesh, he uses the term [------].(3) In one instance he has [------],(4)
and speaking of the Eucharist Justin once explains that it is in memory
of Christ's having made himself _body_, [------]5 Justin's most common
phrase,
{295}
however, and he repeats it in numberless instances, is that the Logos
submitted to be born, and become man [------], by a Virgin, or he uses
variously the expressions: [------].(1) In several places he speaks
of him as the first production or offspring [------] of God before
all created beings, as, for instance: "The Logos... who is the first
offspring of God" [------];(2) and again, "and that this offspring was
begotten of the Father absolutely before all creatures the Word was
declaring" [------].(3) We need not say more of the expressions:
"first-born" [------], "first-begotten" [------], so constantly applied
to the Logos by Justin, in agreement with Philo; nor to "only begotten"
[------], directly derived from Ps. xxii*. 20 (Ps. xxi. 20, Sept.).
It must be apparent to everyone who seriously examines the subject, that
Justin's terminology is markedly different from, and in spirit
sometimes opposed to, that of the fourth Gospel, and in fact that
the peculiarities of the Gospel are not found in Justin's writings at
all.(4) On the
{296}
other hand, his doctrine of the Logos is precisely that of Philo,(1) and
of writings long antecedent to the fourth Gospel, and there can be no
doubt, we think, that it was derived from them.(2)
{ 297}
We may now proceed to consider other passages adduced by Tischendorf
to support his assertion that Justin made use of the fourth Gospel. He
says: "Passages of the Johannine Gospel, however, are also not wanting
to which passages in Justin refer back. In the Dialogue, ch. 88, he
writes of John the Baptist: 'The people believed that he was the Christ,
but he cried to them: I am not the Christ, but the voice of a preacher.'
This is connected with John i. 20 and 23; for no other Evangelist has
reported the first words in the Baptist's reply."(1) Now the passage in
Justin, with its context, reads as follows: "For John sat by the Jordan
[------] and preached the Baptism of repentance, wearing only a leathern
girdle and raiment of camel's hair, and eating nothing but locusts and
wild honey; men supposed [------] him to be the Christ, wherefore
he himself cried to them: 'I am not the Christ, but the voice of one
crying: For he shall come [------] who is stronger than I, whose shoes
I am not meet [------] to bear.'"(2) Now the only ground upon which this
passage can be compared with the fourth Gospel is the reply: "I am not
the Christ" [------], which in John i. 20 reads:[------]
{298}
[------]: and it is perfectly clear that, if the direct negation
occurred in any other Gospel, the difference of the whole passage in the
Dialogue would prevent even an apologist from advancing any claim to its
dependence on that Gospel. In order to appreciate the nature of the two
passages, it may be well to collect the nearest parallels in the Gospel,
and compare them with Justin's narrative. [------]
{299}
The introductory description of John's dress and habits is quite
contrary to the fourth Gospel, but corresponds to some extent with Matt.
iii. 4. It is difficult to conceive two accounts more fundamentally
different, and the discrepancy becomes more apparent when we consider
the scene and actors in the episode. In Justin, it is evident that the
hearers of John had received the impression that he was the Christ, and
the Baptist becoming aware of it voluntarily disabused their minds of
this idea. In the fourth Gospel the words of John are extracted from him
("he confessed and denied not") by emissaries sent by the Pharisees
of Jerusalem specially to question him on the subject. The account
of Justin betrays no knowledge of any such interrogation. The utter
difference is brought to a climax by the concluding statement of the
fourth Gospel:-- [------]
In fact the scene in the two narratives is as little the same as their
details. One can scarcely avoid the conclusion, in reading the fourth
Gospel, that it quotes some other account and does not pretend to report
the scene direct. For instance, i. 15, "John beareth witness of him, and
cried, saying: 'This was he _of whom I said_: He that cometh after me
is become before me, because he was before me,'" &c. V. 19: "And this
is the testimony of John, _when the Jews sent priests and Levites from
Jerusalem to ask him: Who art thou?_ and he confessed and denied not,
and confessed that I am not the Christ," &c. Now, as usual, the Gospel
which Justin uses more nearly approximates to our first Synoptic
{300}
than the other Gospels, although it differs in very important points
from that also--still, taken in connection with the third Synoptic, and
Acts xiii. 25, this indicates the great probability of the existence of
other writings combining the particulars as they occur in Justin. Luke
iii. 15, reads: "And as the people were in expectation, and all mused
in their hearts concerning John whether he were the Christ, 16. John
answered, saying to them all: I indeed baptize you with water, but he
that is stronger than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not
worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with
fire," &c.
Whilst, however, with the sole exception of the simple statement of the
Baptist that he was not the Christ, which in all the accounts is clearly
involved in the rest of the reply, there is no analogy whatever between
the parallel in the fourth Gospel and the passage in Justin, many
important circumstances render it certain that Justin did not derive
his narrative from that source. We have already(1) fully discussed the
peculiarities of Justin's account of the Baptist, and in the context
to the very passage before us there are details quite foreign to our
Gospels which show that Justin made use of another and different work.
When Jesus stepped into the water to be baptized a fire was kindled in
the Jordan, and the voice from heaven makes use of words not found in
our Gospels; but both the incident and the words are known to have been
contained in the Gospel according to the Hebrews and other works. Justin
likewise states, in immediate continuation of the passage before us,
that Jesus was considered the son of
{301}
Joseph the carpenter, and himself was a carpenter and accustomed to make
ploughs and yokes.(1) The Evangelical work of which Justin made use
was obviously different from our Gospels, therefore, and the evident
conclusion to which any impartial mind must arrive is, that there is
not only not the slightest ground for affirming that Justin quoted the
passage before us from the fourth Gospel, from which he so fundamentally
differs, but every reason on the contrary to believe that he derived it
from a Gospel different from ours.(2)
The next point advanced by Tischendorf is, that on two occasions he
speaks of the restoration of sight to persons born blind,3 the only
instance of which in our Gospels is that recorded, John ix. 1. The
references in Justin are very vague and general. In the first place he
is speaking of the analogies in the life of Jesus with events believed
in connection with mythological deities, and he says that he would
appear to relate acts very similar to those attributed to AEsculapius
when he says that Jesus "healed the lame and paralytic, and the maimed
from birth [------], and raised the dead."(4) In the Dialogue, again
referring to AEsculapius, he says that Christ "healed those who were from
birth and according to the flesh blind [------], and deaf, and lame."(5)
In the fourth Gospel
{302}
the born-blind is described as [------]. There is a variation it will be
observed in the term employed by Justin, and that such a remark should
be seized upon as an argument for the use of the fourth Gospel serves to
show the poverty of the evidence for the existence of that work. Without
seeking any further, we might at once reply that such general references
as those of Justin might well be referred to the common tradition of
the Church, which certainly ascribed all kinds of marvellous cures and
miracles to Jesus. It is moreover unreasonable to suppose that the only
Gospel in which the cure of one born blind was narrated was that which
is the fourth in our Canon. Such a miracle may have formed part of a
dozen similar collections extant at the time of Justin, and in no case
could such an allusion be recognized as evidence of the use of the
fourth Gospel. But in the Dialogue, along with this remark, Justin
couples the statement that although the people saw such cures: "They
asserted them to be magical illusion; for they also ventured to call
him a magician and deceiver of the people."(1) This is not found in our
Gospels, but traces of the same tradition are met with elsewhere, as we
have already mentioned;(2) and it is probable that Justin either found
all these particulars in the Gospel of which he made use, or that he
refers to traditions familiar amongst the early Christians.
Tischendorfs next point is that Justin quotes the words of Zechariah
xii. 10, with the same variation from the text of the Septuagint as John
xix. 37--"They shall look on him whom they pierced" [------]
{303}
[------] instead of [------], arising out of an emendation of the
translation of the Hebrew original. Tischendorf says: "Nothing can be
more opposed to probability, than the supposition that John and Justin
have here, independently of each other, followed a translation of the
Hebrew text which elsewhere has remained unknown to us."(2) The fact is,
however, that the translation which has been followed is not elsewhere
unknown. We meet with the same variation, much earlier, in the only book
of the New Testament which Justin mentions, and with which, therefore,
he was beyond any doubt well acquainted, Rev. i. 7: "Behold he cometh
with clouds, and every eye shall see him [------], and they which
pierced [------] him, and all the tribes of the earth shall bewail him.
Yea, Amen." This is a direct reference to the passage in Zech. xii. 10.
It will be remembered that the quotation in the Gospel: "They shall look
upon him whom they pierced," is made solely in reference to the thrust
of the lance in the side of Jesus, while that of the Apocalypse is a
connection of the prophecy with the second coming of Christ, which,
except in a spiritual sense, is opposed to the fourth Gospel. Now,
Justin upon each occasion quotes the whole passage also in reference
to the second coming of Christ as the Apocalypse does, and this alone
settles the point so far as these two sources are concerned. If Justin
derived his variation from either of the Canonical works,
{304}
therefore, we should be bound to conclude that it must have been from
the Apocalypse. The correction of the Septuagint version, which has thus
been traced back as far as a.d. 68 when the Apocalypse was composed,
was noticed by Jerome in his Commentary on the text;(1) and Aquila, a
contemporary of Irenaeus, and later Symmachus and Theodotion, as well
as others, similarly adopted [------]. Ten important MSS., of the
Septuagint, at least, have the reading of Justin and of the Apocalypse,
and these MSS. likewise frequently agree with the other peculiarities of
Justin's text. In all probability, as Credner, who long ago pointed out
all these circumstances, conjectured, an emendation of the rendering of
the LXX. had early been made, partly in Christian interest and partly
for the critical improvement of the text,(2) and this amended version
was used by Justin and earlier Christian writers. Ewald(3)3 and some
others suggest that probably [------] originally stood in the Septuagint
text. Every consideration is opposed to the dependence of Justin upon
the fourth Gospel for the variation.(4)
The next and last point advanced by Tischendorf is a passage in Apol. i.
61, which is compared with John iii.
{305}
3--5, and in order to show the exact character of the two passages, we
shall at once place them in parallel columns:--[------]
This is the most important passage by which apologists endeavour to
establish the use by Justin of the
{306}
fourth Gospel, and it is that upon which the whole claim may be said
to rest. We shall be able to appreciate the nature of the case by the
weakness of its strongest evidence. The first point which must have
struck any attentive reader, must have been the singular difference
of the language of Justin, and the absence of the characteristic
peculiarities of the Johannine Gospel. The double "verily, verily,"
which occurs twice even in these three verses, and constantly throughout
the Gospel(1), is absent in Justin; and apart from the total difference
of the form in which the whole passage is given (the episode of
Nicodemus being entirely ignored), and omitting minor differences, the
following linguistic variations occur: Justin has: [------]
Indeed it is almost impossible to imagine a more complete difference,
both in form and language, and it seems to us that there does not
exist a single linguistic trace by which the passage in Justin can be
connected with the fourth Gospel. The fact that Justin knows nothing
of the expression [------] ("born from above"), upon which the whole
statement in the fourth Gospel turns, but uses a totally different word,
[------] (born again),
{307}
is of great significance. Tischendorf wishes to translate [------]
"anew" (or again), as the version of Luther and the authorised English
translation read, and thus render the [------] of Justin a fair
equivalent for it; but even this would not alter the fact that so little
does Justin quote the fourth Gospel, that he has not even the test word
of the passage. The word [------], however, certainly cannot here
be taken to signify anything but "from above"(l)--from God, from
heaven,--and this is not only its natural meaning, but the term is
several times used in other parts of the fourth Gospel, always with
this same sense,(2) and there is nothing which warrants a different
interpretation in this place. On the contrary, the same signification
is manifestly indicated by the context, and forms the point of the whole
lesson. "Except a man be born of water and _of Spirit_(3) he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God. 6. That which hath been born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which hath been born of the Spirit is Spirit. 7.
Marvel not that I said unto thee: ye must be born from above" [------].
The explanation of [------] is given in verse 6. The birth "of the
Spirit" is the birth "from above," which is essential to entrance into
the kingdom of God.(4)
{308}
The sense of the passage in Justin is different and much more simple.
He is speaking of regeneration through baptism, and the manner in which
converts are consecrated to God when they are made new [------] through
Christ. After they are taught to fast and pray for the remission of
their sins, he says: "They are then taken by us where there is water,
that they may be regenerated ("born again," [------]), by the same
manner of regeneration (being born again, [------]) by which we also
were regenerated (born again, [------]. For in the name of the Father of
the Universe the Lord God, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the
Holy Spirit they then make the washing with the water. For the Christ
also said, 'unless ye be born again [------], ye shall not enter into
the kingdom of heaven., Now that it is impossible for those who have
once been born to go into the matrices of the parents is evident to
all." And then he quotes Isaiah i. 16--20, "Wash you, make you clean,
&c.," and then proceeds: "And regarding this (Baptism) we have been
taught this reason. Since at our first birth we were born without our
knowledge, and perforce, &c., and brought up in evil habits and wicked
ways, therefore in order that we should not continue children of
necessity and ignorance, but become children of election and knowledge,
and obtain in the water remission of sins which we had previously
committed, the name of the Father of the Universe and Lord God is
pronounced over him who desires to be born again [------], and has
repented of his sins, &c."(1) Now it is clear that whereas Justin speaks
simply of regeneration by baptism, the fourth Gospel indicates a later
development of the doctrine by spiritualizing the idea,
{309}
and requiring not only regeneration through the water ("Except a man be
born of water"), but that a man should be born from above ("and of the
Spirit"), not merely [------], but [------]. The word used by Justin
is that which was commonly employed in the Church for regeneration, and
other instances of it occur in the New Testament.(1)
The idea of regeneration or being born again, as essential to
conversion, was quite familiar to the Jews themselves, and Lightfoot
gives instances of this from Talmudic writings: "If any one become a
proselyte he is like a child 'new born.' The Gentile that is made a
proselyte and the servant that is made free he is like a child
new born."(2) This is, of course, based upon the belief in special
privileges granted to the Jews, and the Gentile convert admitted to
a share in the benefits of the Messiah became a Jew by spiritual new
birth. Justin in giving the words of Jesus clearly professed to make an
exact quotation:(3) "For Christ also said: Unless ye be born again,
&c." It must be remembered, however, that Justin is addressing the Roman
emperors, who would not understand the expression that it was necessary
to be "born again" in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. He,
therefore, explains that he does not mean a physical new birth by men
already born; and this explanation may be regarded as natural, under the
circumstances, and independent of any written source. In any case, the
striking difference of his language from that of the fourth Gospel at
least forbids the inference that it must necessarily have been derived
from that Gospel.
{310}
To argue otherwise would be to assume the utterly untenable premiss that
sayings of Jesus which are maintained to be historical were not recorded
in more than four Gospels, and indeed in this instance were limited
to one. This is not only in itself inadmissible, but historically
untrue,(1) and a moment of consideration must convince every impartial
mind that it cannot legitimately be asserted that an express quotation
of a supposed historical saying must have been taken from a parallel in
one of our Gospels, from which it differs so materially in language and
circumstance, simply because that Gospel happens to be the only one
now surviving which contains particulars somewhat similar. The express
quotation fundamentally differs from the fourth Gospel, and the natural
explanation of Justin which follows is not a quotation at all, and
likewise fundamentally differs from the Johannine parallel. Justin not
only ignores the peculiar episode in the fourth Gospel in which the
passage occurs, but neither here nor anywhere throughout his writings
makes any mention of Nicodemus. The accident of survival is almost the
only justification of the affirmation that the fourth Gospel is the
source of Justin's quotation. On the other hand, we have many strong
indications of another source. In our first Synoptic (xviii. 3), we
find traces of another version of the saying of Jesus, much more nearly
corresponding with the quotation of Justin: "And he said, verily I say
unto you: Except ye be turned and become as the little children ye shall
not enter into the kingdom of heaven."(2) The last phrase of this saying
is literally the same as the quotation of Justin,
{311}
and gives his expression, "kingdom of heaven," so characteristic of
his Gospel, and so foreign to the Johannine. We meet with a similar
quotation in connection with baptism, still more closely agreeing with
Justin, in the Clementine Homilies, xi. 26: "Verily I say unto you:
Except ye be born again [------] by living water in the name of Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."(1)
Here again we have both the [------], and the [------] as well as the
reference only to water in the baptism, and this is strong confirmation
of the existence of a version of the passage, different from the
Johannine, from which Justin quotes. As both the author of the
Clementines and Justin probably made use of the Gospel according to
the Hebrews, some most competent critics have, with reason, adopted the
conclusion that the passage we are discussing was probably derived from
that Gospel; at any rate it cannot be maintained as a quotation from our
fourth Gospel,(2) and it is, therefore, of no value as evidence even
{312}
for its existence. "Were it successfully traced to that work, however,
the passage would throw no light on the authorship and character of the
fourth Gospel.
If we turn for a moment from this last of the points of evidence adduced
by Tischendorf for the use of the fourth Gospel by Justin, to consider
how far the circumstances of the history of Jesus narrated by Justin
bear upon this quotation, we have a striking confirmation of the results
we have otherwise attained. Not only is there a total absence from his
writings of the peculiar terminology and characteristic expressions of
the fourth Gospel, but there is not an allusion made to any one of the
occurrences exclusively narrated by that Gospel, although many of these,
and many parts of the Johannine discourses of Jesus, would have been
peculiarly suitable for his purpose. We have already pointed out the
remarkable absence of any use of the expressions by which the Logos
doctrine is stated in the prologue. We may now point out that Justin
makes no reference whatever to any of the special miracles of the fourth
Gospel. He is apparently quite ignorant even of the raising of Lazarus:
on the other hand, he gives representations of the birth, life, and
death of Jesus, which are ignored by the Johannine Gospel, and are
indeed opposed to its whole conception of Jesus as the Logos; and when
he refers to circumstances which are also narrated in that Gospel, his
account is different from that which it gives. Justin perpetually
refers to the birth of Jesus by the Virgin of the race of David and the
Patriarchs; his Logos thus becomes man,(1) (not "flesh"--[------],not
[------]); he is born in a cave in Bethlehem;(2) he grows in stature and
intellect by the use of ordinary means like other men; he is accounted
{ 313}
the son of Joseph the carpenter and Mary: he himself works as a
carpenter, and makes ploughs and yokes.(1) When Jesus is baptized by
John, a fire is kindled in Jordan; and Justin evidently knows nothing
of John's express declaration in the fourth Gospel, that Jesus is the
Messiah, the Son of God.(2) Justin refers to the change of name of Simon
in connection with his recognition of the Master as "Christ the Son of
God,"(3) which is narrated quite differently in the fourth Gospel (i.
40--42), where, indeed, such a declaration is put into the mouth
of Nathaniel (i. 49), which Justin ignores. Justin does not mention
Nicodemus either in connection with the statement regarding the
necessity of being "born from above," or with the entombment (xix. 39).
He has the prayer and agony in the garden,(4) which the fourth Gospel
excludes, as well as the cries on the cross, which that Gospel ignores.
Then, according to Justin, the last supper takes place on the 14th
Nisan,(5) whilst the fourth Gospel, ignoring the Passover and last
supper, represents the last meal as eaten on the 13th Nisan (John xiii.
1 f., cf. xviii. 28). He likewise contradicts the fourth Gospel, in
limiting the work of Jesus to one year. In fact, it is impossible for
writings, so full of quotations of the words of Jesus and of allusions
to the events of his life, more completely to ignore or vary from the
fourth Gospel throughout; and if it could be shown that Justin was
acquainted with such a work, it would follow certainly that he did not
consider it an Apostolical or authoritative composition.
5 "And it is written that on the day of the Passover you
seized him, and likewise during the Passover you crucified
him." Dial., Ill; cf. Dial. 70; Matt, xxvi. 2, 17 ff., 30,
57.
{314}
We may add that, as Justin so distinctly and directly refers to the
Apostle John as the author of the Apocalypse,(1) there is confirmation
of the conclusion, otherwise arrived at, that he did not, and could not,
know the Gospel and also ascribe it to him. Finally, the description
which Justin gives of the manner of teaching of Jesus excludes the idea
that he knew the fourth Gospel. "Brief and concise were the sentences
uttered by him: for he was no Sophist, but his word was the power of
God."(2) No one could for a moment assert that this description applies
to the long and artificial discourses of the fourth Gospel, whilst,
on the other hand, it eminently describes the style of teaching in the
Synoptics, with which the numerous Gospels in circulation amongst early
Christians were, of course, more nearly allied.
The inevitable conclusion at which we must arrive is that, so far from
indicating any acquaintance with the fourth Gospel, the writings of
Justin not only do not furnish the slightest evidence of its existence,
but offer presumptive testimony against its Apostolical origin.
Tischendorf only devotes a short note to Hegesippus,(3) and does not
pretend to find in the fragments of his writings, preserved to us by
Eusebius, or the details of his life which he has recorded, any evidence
for our Gospels. Apologists generally admit that this source, at least,
is barren of all testimony for the fourth Gospel, but Canon Westcott
cannot renounce so important a witness without an effort, and he
therefore boldly says: "When he, (Hegesippus) speaks of 'the door of
Jesus' in his account of the death of St. James, there can be little
{315}
doubt that he alludes to the language of our Lord recorded by St.
John."(1) The passage to which Canon Westcott refers, but which he does
not quote, is as follows:--"Certain, therefore, of the seven heretical
parties amongst the people, already described by me in the Memoirs,
inquired of him, what was the door of Jesus; and he declared this
([------]--Jesus) to be the Saviour. From which some believed that Jesus
is the Christ. But the aforementioned heretics did not believe either a
resurrection, or that he shall come to render to every one according
to his works. As many as believed, however, did so, through James." The
rulers fearing that the people would cause a tumult, from considering
Jesus to be the Messiah [------], entreat James to persuade them
concerning Jesus, and prevent their being deceived by him; and in order
that he may be heard by the multitude, they place James upon a wing
of the temple, and cry to him: "O just man, whom we all are bound
to believe, inasmuch as the people are led astray after Jesus, the
crucified, declare plainly to us what is the door of Jesus."(2) To
find in this a reference to the fourth Gospel, requires a good deal of
apologetic ingenuity. It is perfectly clear that, as an allusion to John
x. 7, 9: "I am the door," the question: "What is the door of Jesus?"
is mere nonsense, and the reply of James totally irrelevant. Such a
question in reference to the discourse
{316}
in the fourth Gospel, moreover, in the mouths of the antagonistic
Scribes and Pharisees, is quite inconceivable, and it is unreasonable to
suppose that it has any connection with it. Various emendations of the
text have been proposed to obviate the difficulty of the question, but
none of these have been adopted, and it has now been generally accepted,
that [------] is used in an idiomatic sense. The word is very frequently
employed in such a manner, or symbolically, in the New Testament,(1) and
by the Fathers. The Jews were well acquainted with a similar use of
the word in the Old Testament, in some of the Messianic Psalms, as for
instance: Ps. cxviii. 19, 20 (cxvii. 19, 20 Sept.). 19," Open to me the
gates [------] of righteousness; entering into them, I will give praise
to the Lord;" 20, "This is the gate [------] of the Lord, the righteous
shall enter into it"(2) Quoting this passage, Clement of Alexandria
remarks: "But explaining the saying of the prophet, Barnabas adds: Many
gates [------] being open, that which is in righteousness is in Christ,
in which all those who enter are blessed."(3) Grabe explains the passage
of Hegesippus, by a reference to the frequent allusions in Scripture to
the two ways: one of light, the other of darkness; the one leading to
life, the other to death; as well as the simile of two gates which is
coupled with them, as in Matt. viL 13 ff. He, therefore, explains the
question of the rulers: "What is the door of Jesus?" as an inquiry into
the judgment of James concerning him:
{317}
whether he was a teacher of truth or a deceiver of the people; whether
belief in him was the way and gate of life and salvation, or of death
and perdition.(1) He refers as an illustration to the Epistle of
Barnabas, xviii.: "There are two ways of teaching and of power: one of
light, the other of darkness. But there is a great difference between
the two ways."(2) The Epistle, under the symbol of the two ways,
classifies the whole of the moral law.(3) In the Clementine Homilies,
xviii. 17, there is a version of the saying, Matt. vii. 13f, derived
from another source, in which "way" is more decidedly even than in our
first Synoptic made the equivalent of "gate:" "Enter ye through the
narrow and straitened way [------] through which ye shall enter into
life." Eusebius himself, who has preserved the fragment, evidently
understood it distinctly in the same sense, and he gave its true meaning
in another of his works, where he paraphrases the question into
an enquiry, as to the opinion which Jamas held concerning Jesus
[------].(4)
This view is supported by many learned men, and Routh has pointed out
that Ernesti considered he would have been right in making [------],
doctrine, teaching, the equivalent of [------], although he admits
that Eusebius does not once use it in his history, in connection with
Christian doctrine.(5)
{318}
He might, however, have instanced this passage, in which it is clearly
used in this sense, and so explained by Eusebius. In any other sense the
question is simple nonsense. There is evidently no intention on the part
of the Scribes and Pharisees here to ridicule, in asking: "What is the
door of Jesus?" but they desire James to declare plainly to the people,
what is the teaching of Jesus, and his personal pretension. To suppose
that the rulers of the Jews set James upon a wing of the temple,
in order that they might ask him a question, for the benefit of the
multitude, based upon a discourse in the fourth Gospel, unknown to the
Synoptics, and even in relation to which such an inquiry as: "What is
the door of Jesus?" becomes mere ironical nonsense, surpasses all that
we could have imagined even of apologetic zeal.
We have already(1) said all that is necessary with regard to Hegesippus,
in connection with the Synoptics, and need not add more here. It is
certain that had he said anything interesting about our Gospels and,
we may say, particularly about the fourth, the fact would have been
recorded by Eusebius.
Nor need we add much to our remarks regarding Papias of Hierapolis.(2)
It is perfectly clear that the works of Matthew and Mark,(3) regarding
which he records
3 It is evident that Papias did not regard the works by
"Matthew" and "Mark" which he mentions, as of any authority.
Indeed, all that he reports regarding the latter is merely
apologetic, and in deprecation of criticism.
{319}
such important particulars, are not the Gospels in our Canon, which pass
under their names; he does not seem to have known anything of the third
Synoptic; and there is no reason to suppose that he referred to the
fourth Gospel or made use of it. He is, therefore, at least, a total
blank so far as the Johannine Gospel and our third Synoptic are
concerned, but he is more than this, and it may, we think, be concluded
that Papias was not acquainted with any such Gospels which he regarded
as Apostolic compositions, or authoritative documents. Had he said
anything regarding the composition or authorship of the fourth Gospel,
Eusebius would certainly have mentioned the fact, and this silence of
Papias is strong presumptive evidence against the Johannine Gospel.(1)
Tischendorfs argument in regard to the Phrygian Bishop is mainly
directed to this point, and he maintains that the silence of Eusebius
does not make Papias a witness against the fourth Gospel, and does not
involve the conclusion that he did not know it, inasmuch as it was not,
he affirms, the purpose of Eusebius to record the mention or use of
the books of the New Testament which were not disputed.(2) It might be
contended that this reasoning is opposed to the practice and express
declaration of Eusebius himself, who says: "But in the course of the
history I shall, with the successions (from the Apostles), carefully
intimate what ecclesiastical writers of the various periods made use of
{320}
the Antilegomena (or disputed writings), and which of them, and what
has been stated by these as well regarding the collected [------] and
Homologumena (or accepted writings), as regarding those which are not of
this kind."(1) It is not worth while, however, to dwell upon this, here.
The argument in the case of Papias stands upon a broader basis. It is
admitted that Eusebius engages carefully to record what ecclesiastical
writers state regarding the Homologumena, and that he actually does
so. Now Papias has himself expressed the high value he attached to
tradition, and his eagerness in seeking information from the Presbyters.
The statements regarding the Gospels composed by Matthew and Mark,
quoted by Eusebius, are illustrative at once both of the information
collected by Papias and of that cited by Eusebius. How comes it,
then, that nothing whatever is said about the fourth Gospel, a work so
peculiar and of such exceptional importance, said to be composed by the
Apostle whom Jesus loved? Is it possible to suppose that when Papias
collected from the Presbyter the facts which he has recorded concerning
Matthew and Mark he would not also have inquired about a Gospel by
John had he known of it? Is it possible that he could have had nothing
interesting to tell about a work presenting so many striking and
distinctive features? Had he collected any information on the subject he
would certainly have recorded it, and as certainly Eusebius would have
quoted what he said,(2) as he did the account of the other two Gospels,
for he even mentions that Papias
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made use of the 1st Epistle of John, and 1st Epistle of Peter, two
equally accepted writings. The legitimate presumption, therefore, is
that, as Eusebius did not mention the fact, he did not find anything
regarding the fourth Gospel in the work of Papias, and that Papias
was not acquainted with it. This presumption is confirmed by the
circumstance that when Eusebius writes, elsewhere (H. E. iii. 24), of
the order of the Gospels, and the composition of John's Gospel, he has
no greater authority to give for his account than mere tradition: "they
say" [------].
Proceeding from this merely negative argument, Tischendorf endeavours
to show that not only is Papias not a witness against the fourth Gospel,
but that he presents testimony in its favour. The first reason he
advances is that Eusebius states: "The same (Papias) made use of
testimonies out of the first Epistle of John, and likewise out of that
of Peter."(l) On the supposed identity of the authorship of the Epistle
and Gospel, Tischendorf, as in the case of Polycarp, claims this as
evidence for the fourth Gospel. Eusebius, however, does not quote the
passages upon which he bases this statement, and knowing his inaccuracy
and the hasty and uncritical manner in which he and the Fathers
generally jump at such conclusions, we must reject this as sufficient
evidence that Papias really did use the Epistle, and that Eusebius did
not adopt his opinion from a mere superficial analogy of passages.(2)
But if it were certain that Papias actually quoted from the Epistle, it
does not in the least follow that he
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ascribed it to the Apostle John, and the use of the Epistle would
scarcely affect the question as to the character and authorship of the
fourth Gospel
The next testimony advanced by Tischendorf is indeed of an extraordinary
character. There is a Latin MS. (Vat. Alex. 14) in the Vatican, which
Tischendorf assigns to the ninth century, in which there is a preface
by an unknown hand to the Gospel according to John, which commences as
follows: "Evangelium iohannis manifestatum et datum est ecclesiis ab
iohannc ad hue in corpore constituto, sicut papias nomine hicrapolitanus
discipulus iohannis carus in exotericis id est in extremis quinque
libris retulit." "The Gospel of John was published and given to the
churches by John whilst he was still in the flesh, as Papias, named of
Hierapolis, an esteemed disciple of John, related in his 'Exoterics'
that is his last five books." Tischendorf says: "There can, therefore,
be no more decided declaration made of the testimony of Papias for the
Johannine Gospel."(1) He wishes to end the quotation here, and
only refers to the continuation, which he is obliged to admit to be
untenable, in a note. The passage proceeds: "Disscripsit vero evangelium
dictante iohanne recte." "He (Papias) indeed wrote out the Gospel,
John duly dictating;" then follows another passage regarding Marcion,
representing him also as a contemporary of John, which Tischendorf
likewise confesses to be untrue.(2) Now Tischendorf admits that the
writer desires it to be understood that he derived the information that
Papias wrote the fourth Gospel at the dictation of John likewise from
the work of Papias, and as it is perfectly impossible, by his own
admissions, that Papias, who was not a
{323}
contemporary of the Apostle, could have stated this, the whole passage
is clearly fabulous and written by a person who never saw the book at
all. This extraordinary piece of evidence is so obviously absurd that
it is passed over in silence by other critics, even of the strongest
apologetic tendency, and it stands here a pitiable instance of the
arguments to which destitute criticism can be reduced.
In order to do full justice to the last of the arguments of Tischendorf,
we shall give it in his own words: "Before we separate from Papias,
we have still to consider one testimony for the Gospel of John which
Irenaeus, v. 36, Sec. 2, quotes out of the very mouth of the Presbyters,
those high authorities of Papias: 'And therefore, say they, the Lord
declared: In my Father's house are many mansions(1) (John xiv. 2). As
the Presbyters set this declaration in connection with the blessedness
of the righteous in the City of God, in Paradise, in Heaven, according
as they bear thirty, sixty, or one hundred-fold fruit, nothing is
more probable than that Irenaeus takes this whole declaration of the
Presbyters, which he gives, Sec.Sec. 1-2, like the preceding description of
the thousand years' reign, from the work of Papias. But whether this be
its origin or not, the authority of the Presbyters is in any case higher
than that of Papias," &c.(1) Now in the quotation from Irenseus given in
this
{324}
passage, Tischendorf renders the oblique construction of the text by
inserting "say they," referring to the Presbyters of Papias, and, as he
does not give the original, he should at least have indicated that these
words are supplementary. We shall endeavour as briefly as possible to
state the facts of the case.
Irenaeus, with many quotations from Scripture, is arguing that our bodies
are preserved, and that the Saints who have suffered so much in the
flesh shall in that flesh receive the fruits of their labours. In v. 33,
Sec. 2, he refers to the saying given in Matt. xix. 29 (Luke xviii. 29, 30)
that whosoever has left lands, &c., because of Christ shall receive a
hundred-fold in this world, and in the next, eternal life; and then,
enlarging on the abundance of the blessings in the Millennial kingdom,
he affirms that Creation will be renovated, and the Earth acquire
wonderful fertility, and he adds: Sec. 3, "As the Presbyters who saw John
the disciple of the Lord, remember that they heard from him, how
the Lord taught concerning those times and said:" &c. ("Quemadmodum
pres-byteri meminerunt, qui Joannem discipulum Domini viderunt, audisse
se ab eo, quemadmodum de temporibus illis docebat Dominus, et dicebat,"
&c.), and then he quotes the passage: "The days will come in which vines
will grow each having ten thousand Branches," &c.; and "In like manner
that a grain of wheat would produce ten thousand ears," &c. With regard
to these he says, at the beginning of the next paragraph, v. 33, Sec. 4,
"These things are testified in writing by Papias, a hearer of John and
associate of Polycarp, an ancient
{323}
man, in the fourth of his books: for there were five books composed
by him.(1) And he added saying: 'But these things are credible to
believers. And Judas the traitor not believing, and asking how shall
such growths be effected by the Lord, the Lord said: They who shall come
to them shall see.' Prophesying of these times, therefore, Isaiah says:
'The Wolf also shall feed with the Lamb,' &c. &c. (quoting Isaiah xi.
6--9), and again he says, recapitulating: 'Wolves and lambs shall then
feed together,'" &c. (quoting Isaiah lxv. 25), and so on, continuing his
argument. It is clear that Irenaeus introduces the quotation from Papias,
and ending his reference at: "They who shall come to them shall see," he
continues, with a quotation from Isaiah, his own train of reasoning. We
give this passage to show the manner in which Irenaeus proceeds. He then
continues with the same subject, quoting (v. 34,35) Isaiah, Ezekiel,
Jeremiah, Daniel, the Apocalypse, and sayings found in the New Testament
bearing upon the Millennium. In c. 35 he argues that the prophecies he
quotes of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Apocalypse must not be allegorized
away, but that they literally describe the blessings to be enjoyed,
after the coming of Antichrist and the resurrection, in the New
Jerusalem on earth, and he quotes Isaiah vi. 12, lx. 5, 21, and a long
passage from Baruch iv. 36, v. 9 (which he ascribes to Jeremiah), Isaiah
xlix. 16, Gala-tians iv. 26, Rev. xxi. 2, xx. 2--15, xxi. 1--6, all
descriptive, as he maintains, of the Millennial kingdom prepared for the
Saints; and then in v. 36, the last chapter of his work on Heresies, as
if resuming his
1 Eusebius has preserved the Greek of this passage (H. E.,
iii. 39), and goes on to contradict the statement of Irenaeus
that Papias was a hearer and contemporary of the Apostles.
Eusebius states that Papias in his prefaco by no means
asserts that he was.
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previous argument, he proceeds:(1) Sec. 1. "And that these things shall
ever remain without end Isaiah says: 'For like as the new heaven and the
new earth which I make remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your
seed and your name continue,'(2) and as the Presbyters say, then those
who have been deemed worthy of living in heaven shall go thither, and
others shall enjoy the delights of Paradise, and others shall possess
the glory of the City; for everywhere the Saviour shall be seen as those
who see him shall be worthy. Sec. 2. But that there is this distinction of
dwelling [------] of those bearing fruit the hundred fold, and of the
(bearers) of the sixty fold, and of the (bearers of) the thirty fold: of
whom some indeed shall be taken up into the heavens, some shall live
in Paradise, and some shall inhabit the City, and that for this reason
[------] propter hoc) the Lord declared: In the... (plural) of my Father
are many mansions [------].(3) For all things are of God, who prepares
for all the fitting habitation, as his Word says, that distribution is
made to all by the Father according
{327}
as each is or shall be worthy. And this is the couch upon which they
recline who are invited to banquet at the Wedding. The Presbyters
disciples of the Apostles state that this is the order and arrangement
of those who are saved, and that by such steps they advance,"(1) &c. &c.
Now it is impossible for any one who attentively considers the whole of
this passage, and who makes himself acquainted with the manner in which
Irenaeus conducts his argument, and interweaves it with quotations, to
assert that the phrase we are considering must have been taken from
a book referred to three chapters earlier, and was not introduced by
Irenaeus from some other source. In the passage from the commencement of
the second paragraph Irenaeus enlarges upon, and illustrates, what "the
Presbyters say" regarding the blessedness of the saints, by quoting the
view held as to the distinction between those bearing fruit thirty fold,
sixty fold, and one hundred fold,(2) and the interpretation given of the
{328}
saying regarding "many mansions," but the source of his quotation is
quite indefinite, and may simply be the exegesis of his own day. That
this is probably the case is shown by the continuation: "And this is
the Couch upon which they recline who are invited to banquet at the
Wedding"--an allusion to the marriage supper upon which Irenaeus had
previously enlarged;(1) immediately after which phrase, introduced
by Irenaeus himself, he says: "The Presbyters, the disciples of the
apostles, state that this is the order and arrangement of those who are
saved," &c. Now, if the preceding passages had been a mere quotation
from the Presbyters of Papias, such a remark would have been out of
place and useless, but being the exposition of the prevailing views,
Irenaeus confirms it and prepares to wind up the whole subject by the
general statement that the Presbyters, the disciples of the Apostles,
affirm that this is the order and arrangement of those who are saved,
and that by such steps they advance and ascend through the Spirit to the
Son, and through the Son to the Father, &c., and a few sentences after
he closes his work.
In no case, however, can it be legitimately affirmed that the citation
of "the Presbyters," and the "Presbyters, disciples of the Apostles," is
a reference to the work of Papias. When quoting "the Presbyters who
saw John the disciple of the Lord," three chapters before, Irenaeus
distinctly states that Papias testifies what he quotes in writing in the
fourth of his books, but there is nothing whatever to indicate that
"the Presbyters," and "the Presbyters, disciples of the Apostles,"
subsequently referred to, after a complete change of context, have
anything to do with Papias. The references to Presbyters in this
{329}
work of Irenaeus are very numerous, and when we remember the importance
which the Bishop of Lyons attached to "that tradition which comes from
the Apostles, which is preserved in the churches by a succession
of Presbyters,"(1) the reference before us assumes a very different
complexion. In one place, Irenaeus quotes "the divine Presbyter"
[------], "the God-loving Presbyter" [------],(2) who wrote verses
against the heretic Marcus. Elsewhere he supports his extraordinary
statement that the public career of Jesus, instead of being limited to
a single year, extended over a period of twenty years, and that he was
nearly fifty when he suffered,(3) by the appeal: "As the gospel and all
the Presbyters testify, who in Asia met with John the disciple of the
Lord (stating) that these things were transmitted to them by John.
For he continued among them till the times of Trajan."(4) That these
Presbyters are not quoted from the work of Papias may be inferred
from the fact that Eusebius, who had his work, quotes the passage from
Irenseus without allusion to Papias, and as he adduces two witnesses
only, Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria, to prove the assertion
regarding John, he would certainly have referred to the earlier
authority, had the work of Papias contained the statement, as he does
for the stories regarding the
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daughters of the Apostle Philip; the miracle in favour of Justus, and
other matters.(1) We need not refer to Clement, nor to Polycarp, who had
been "taught by Apostles," and the latter of whom Irenaeus knew in his
youth.(2) Irenaeus in one place also gives a long account of the teaching
of some one upon the sins of David and other men of old, which he
introduces: "As I have heard from a certain Presbyter, who had heard
it from those who had seen the Apostles, and from those who learnt from
them."(3) &c. Further on, speaking evidently of a different person,
he says: "In this manner also a Presbyter disciple of the Apostles,
reasoned regarding the two Testaments:"(4) and quotes fully. In another
place Irenaeus, after quoting Gen. ii. 8, "And God planted a Paradise
eastward in Eden," &c., states: "Wherefore the Presbyters who are
disciples of the Apostles [------], say that those who were translated
had been translated thither," there to remain till the consummation of
all things awaiting immortality, and Irenaeus explains that it was into
this Paradise that Paul was caught up (2 Cor. xii. 4).(5) It seems
highly probable that these "Presbyters the disciples of the Apostles"
who are quoted on Paradise, are the same "Presbyters the disciples of
the Apostles" referred to on the same subject (v. 36, Sec.Sec. 1,2) whom we
{331}
are discussing, but there is nothing whatever to connect them with
Papias. He also speaks of the Scptuagint translation of the Bible as the
version of the "Presbyters,"(1) and on several occasions he calls Luke
"the follower and disciple of the Apostles" (Sectator et discipulus
apostolorum)(2), and characterizes Mark as "the interpreter and follower
of Peter" (interpres et sectator Petri)(3), and refers to both as having
learnt from the words of the Apostles.(4) Here is, therefore, a wide
choice of Presbyters, including even Evangelists, to whom the
reference of Irenaeus may with equal right be ascribed,(5) so that it
is unreasonable to claim it as an allusion to the work of Papias.(6) In
fact, Dr. Tischendorf and Canon Westcott(7) stand almost alone in
5 In the New Testament the term Presbyter is even used in
reference to Patriarchs and Prophets. Heb. xi. 2; cf.
Matt xv. 2; Mark vii. 3, 5.
6 With regard to the Presbyters quoted by Irenaeus
generally. Cf. Routh, Reliq. Sacrse, i. p. 47 ff.
{332}
advancing this passage as evidence that either Papias or his
Presbyters(1) were acquainted with the fourth Gospel, and this renders
the statement which is made by them without any discussion all the more
indefensible. Scarcely a single writer, however apologetic, seriously
cites it amongst the external testimonies for the early existence of the
Gospel, and the few who do refer to the passage merely mention, in
order to abandon, it.(2) So far as the question as to whether the fourth
Gospel was mentioned in the work of Papias is concerned, the passage has
practically never entered into the controversy at all, the great mass
of critics having recognized that it is of no evidential value whatever,
and, by common consent, tacitly excluded it.(3) It is
{333}
admitted that the Bishop of Hierapolis cannot be shown to have known
the fourth Gospel, and the majority affirm that he actually was not
acquainted with it. Being, therefore, so completely detached from
Papias, it is obvious that the passage does not in any way assist the
fourth Gospel, but becomes assignable to vague tradition, and subject to
the cumulative force of objections, which prohibit an early date being
ascribed to so indefinite a reference.
Before passing on there is one other point to mention: Andrew of
Caesarea, in the preface to his Commentary on the Apocalypse, mentions
that Papias maintained "the credibility" [------] of that book, or in
other words, its apostolic origin.(1) His strong millenarian opinions
would naturally make such a composition stand high in his esteem, if
indeed it did not materially contribute to the formation of his views,
which is still more probable. Apologists admit the genuineness of this
statement, nay, claim it as undoubted evidence of the acquaintance of
Papias with the Apocalypse.(2) Canon Westcott, for instance, says: "He
maintained, moreover, 'the divine inspiration' of the Apocalypse, and
commented, at least, upon part of it."(3) Now, he must, therefore,
have recognized the book as the work of the Apostle John, and we shall,
hereafter, show that it is impossible that the author of the Apocalypse
is the author of the Gospel; therefore, in this way also, Papias
{334}
is a witness against the Apostolic origin of the fourth Gospel.
We must now turn to the Clementine Homilies, although, as we have
shown,(1) the uncertainty as to the date of this spurious work, and
the late period which must undoubtedly he assigned to its composition,
render its evidence of very little value for the canonical Gospels. The
passages pointed out in the Homilies as indicating acquaintance with
the fourth Gospel were long advanced with hesitation, and were generally
felt to be inconclusive, but on the discovery of the concluding portion
of the work and its publication by Dressel in 1853, it was found to
contain a passage which apologists now claim as decisive evidence of
the use of the Gospel, and which even succeeded in converting some
independent critics.(2) Tischendorf(3) and Canon Westcott,(4) in the
few lines devoted to the Clementines, do not refer to the earlier proof
passages, but rely entirely upon that last discovered. With a view,
however, to making the whole of the evidence clear, we shall give all of
the supposed allusions to the fourth Gospel, confronting them with the
text. The first is as follows:-- [------]
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[------]
The first point which is apparent here is that there is a total
difference both in the language and real meaning of these two passages.
The Homily uses the word [------] instead of the [------] of the Gospel,
and speaks of the gate of life, instead of the door of the Sheepfold. We
have already(1) discussed the passage in the Pastor of Hernias in which
similar reference is made to the gate [------] into the kingdom of God,
and need not here repeat our argument. In Matt. vii. 13, 14, we have the
direct description of the gate [------] which leads to life [------],
and we have elsewhere quoted the Messianic Psalm cxviii. 19, 20: "This
is the gate of the Lord [------],(2) the righteous shall enter into it."
In another place, the author of the Homilies, referring to a passage
parallel to, but differing from, Matt. xxiii. 2, which we have elsewhere
considered,(3) and which is derived from a Gospel different from ours,
says: "Hear _them_ (Scribes and Pharisees who sit upon Moses' seat), he
said, as entrusted with the key of the kingdom which is knowledge, which
alone is able to open the gate of life [------], through which alone is
the entrance to Eternal life."(4) Now in the very next chapter to that
in which the saying which we are discussing occurs, a very few lines
after it indeed, we have the following passage: "Indeed he said further:
'I am he
{336}
concerning whom Moses prophesied, saying: 'a prophet shall the Lord our
God raise up to you from among your brethren as also (he raised) me;
hear ye him regarding all things, but whosoever will not hear that
prophet he shall die.'"(1) There is no such saying in the canonical
Gospels or other books of the New Testament attributed to Jesus, but a
quotation from Deuteronomy xviii. 15 f., materially different from this,
occurs twice in the Acts of the Apostles, once being put into the mouth
of Peter applied to Jesus,(2) and the second time also applied to him,
being quoted by Stephen.(3) It is quite clear that the writer is quoting
from uncanonical sources, and here is another express declaration
regarding himself: "I am he," &c., which is quite in the spirit of the
preceding passage which we are discussing, and probably derived from the
same source. In another place we find the following argument: "But the
way is the manner of life, as also Moses says: 'Behold I have set before
thy face the way of life, and the way of death'(4) and in agreement the
teacher said: 'Enter ye through the narrow and straitened way through
which ye shall enter into life,' and in another place a certain person
inquiring: 'What shall I do to inherit eternal life?' he intimated the
Commandments of the Law."(5) It has to be observed that the Homilies
teach the doctrine
{337}
that the spirit in Jesus Christ had already appeared in Adam, and by a
species of transmigration passed through Moses and the Patriarchs and
prophets: "who from the beginning of the world, changing names and
forms, passes through Time [------] until, attaining his own seasons,
being on account of his labours anointed by the mercy of God, he shall
have rest for ever."(1) Just in the same way, therefore, as the Homilies
represent Jesus as quoting a prophecy of Moses, and altering it to a
personal declaration: "I am the prophet," &c., so here again they make
him adopt this saying of Moses and, "being the true prophet," declare:
"I am the gate or the way of life,"--inculcating the same commandments
of the law which the Gospel of the Homilies represents Jesus as coming
to confirm and not to abolish. The whole system of doctrine of the
Clementines, as we shall presently see, indicated here even by the
definition of "the true prophet," is so fundamentally opposed to that of
the fourth Gospel that there is no reasonable ground for supposing that
the author made use of it, and this brief saying, varying as it does
in language and sense from the parallel in that work, cannot prove
acquaintance with it. There is good reason to believe that the author
of the fourth Gospel, who most undeniably derived materials from earlier
Evangelical works, may have drawn from a source likewise used by the
Gospel according to the Hebrews, and thence many analogies might well
be presented with quotations from that or kindred Gospels.(2) We find,
further, this community of source in the fact,
{338}
that in the fourth Gospel, without actual quotation, there is a
reference to Moses, and, no doubt, to the very passage (Deut. xviii.
15), which the Gospel of the Clementines puts into the mouth of Jesus,
John v. 46: "For had ye believed Moses ye would believe me, for he wrote
of me." Whilst the Ebionite Gospel gave prominence to this view of the
case, the dogmatic system of the Logos Gospel did not permit of more
than mere reference to it.
The next passage pointed out as derived from the Johannine Gospel occurs
in the same chapter: "My sheep hear my voice." [------]
There was no more common representation amongst the Jews of the relation
between God and his people than that of a Shepherd and his Sheep,(1)
nor any more current expression than: hearing his voice. This brief
anonymous saying was in all probability derived from the same source
as the preceding,(2) which cannot be identified with the fourth Gospel.
Tradition, and the acknowledged existence of other written records of
the teaching of Jesus oppose any exclusive claim to this fragmentary
saying.
We have already discussed the third passage regarding the new birth in
connection with Justin,(3) and may therefore pass on to the last and
most important passage, to which we have referred as contained in the
concluding portion of the Homilies first published by Dressel in
{339}
1853. We subjoin it in contrast with the parallel in the fourth Gospel
[------]
It is necessary that we should consider the context of this passage in
the Homily, the characteristics of which are markedly opposed to the
theory that it was derived from the fourth Gospel We must mention that,
in the Clementines, the Apostle Peter is represented as maintaining that
the Scriptures are not all true, but are mixed up with what is false,
and that on this account, and in order to inculcate the necessity
of distinguishing between the true and the false, Jesus taught his
disciples, "Be ye approved money changers,"(1) an injunction not found
in our Gospels. One of the points which Peter denies is the fall
of Adam, a doctrine which, as Neander remarked, "he must combat as
blasphemy."(2) At the part we are
{340}
considering he is discussing with Simon,--under whose detested
personality, as we have elsewhere shown, the Apostle Paul is really
attacked,--and refuting the charges he brings forward regarding the
origin and continuance of evil. The Apostle Peter in the course of the
discussion asserts that evil is the same as pain and death, but that
evil does not exist eternally and, indeed, does not really exist at all,
for pain and death are only accidents without permanent force--pain is
merely the disturbance of harmony, and death nothing but the separation
of soul from body.(1) The passions also must be classed amongst the
things which are accidental, and are not always to exist; but these,
although capable of abuse, are in reality beneficial to the soul when
properly restrained, and carry out the will of God. The man who gives
them unbridled course ensures his own punishment.(2) Simon inquires why
men die prematurely and periodical diseases come, and also visitations
of demons and of madness and other afflictions; in reply to which Peter
explains that parents by following their own pleasure in all things and
neglecting proper sanitary considerations, produce a multitude of evils
for their children, and this either through
{341}
carelessness or ignorance.(1) And then follows the passage we are
discussing: "Wherefore also our Teacher," &c., and at the end of the
quotation, he continues: "and truly such sufferings ensue in consequence
of ignorance," and giving an instance,(2) he proceeds: "Now the
sufferings which you before mentioned are the consequence of ignorance,
and certainly not of an evil act, which has been committed,"(3) &c. Now
it is quite apparent that the peculiar variation from the parallel in
the fourth Gospel in the latter part of the quotation is not accidental,
but is the point upon which the whole propriety of the quotation
depends. In the Gospel of the Clementines the man is not blind from
his birth, "that the works of God might be made manifest in him,"--a
doctrine which would be revolting to the author of the Homilies,--but
the calamity has befallen him in consequence of some error of ignorance
on the part of his parents which brings its punishment; but "the power
of God" is made manifest in healing the sins of ignorance. The reply of
Jesus is a professed quotation, and it varies very substantially from
the parallel in the Gospel, presenting evidently a distinctly different
version of the episode. The substitution of [------] for [------] in the
opening is also significant, more especially as Justin likewise in his
general remark, which we have discussed, uses the same word. Assuming
the passage in the fourth Gospel to be the account of a historical
episode, as apologists, of course, maintain, the case stands thus:--The
author of the Homilies introduces a narrative of a historical
{342}
incident in the life of Jesus, which may have been, and probably was,
reported in many early gospels in language which, though analogous
to, is at the same time decidedly different, in the part which is
a professed quotation, from that of the fourth Gospel, and presents
another and natural comment upon the central event. The reference to the
historical incident is, of course, no evidence whatever of dependence
on the fourth Gospel, which, although it may be the only accidentally
surviving work which contains the narrative, had no prescriptive and
exclusive property in it, and so far from the partial agreement in the
narrative proving the use of the fourth Gospel, the only remarkable
point is, that all narratives of the same event and reports of words
actually spoken do not more perfectly agree, while, on the other hand,
the very decided variation in the reply of Jesus, according to the
Homily, from that given in the fourth Gospel leads to the distinct
presumption that it is not the source of the quotation.
It is perfectly unreasonable to assert that such a reference, without
the slightest indication of the source from which the author derived his
information, must be dependent on one particular work, more especially
when the part which is given as distinct quotation substantially differs
from the record in that work. We have already illustrated this on
several occasions, and may once more offer an instance. If the first
Synoptic had unfortunately perished, like so many other gospels of the
early Church, and in the Clementines we met with the quotation: "Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" [------],
apologists would certainly assert, according to the principle upon which
they act in
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the present case, that this quotation was clear evidence of the use of
Luke vi. 20: "Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God."
[------], more especially as a few codices actually insert [------], the
slight variations being merely ascribed to free quotation from memory.
In point of fact, however, the third Synoptic might not at the time have
been in existence, and the quotation might have been derived, as it is,
from Matt. v. 3. Nothing is more certain and undeniable than the fact
that the author of the fourth Gospel made use of materials derived from
oral tradition and earlier records for its composition.(1) It is equally
undeniable that other gospels had access to the same materials, and
made use of them; and a comparison of our three Synoptics renders very
evident the community of materials, including the use of the one by
the other, as well as the diversity of literary handling to which those
materials were subjected. It is impossible with reason to deny that the
Gospel according to the Hebrews, for instance, as well as other earlier
evangelical works now lost, may have drawn from the same sources as the
fourth Gospel, and that narratives derived from the one may, therefore,
present analogies with the other whilst still perfectly independent of
it.(2) Whatever private opinion, therefore, any one may form as to the
source of the anonymous quotations which we have been considering, it is
evident that they are totally insufficient to prove that the Author of
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the Clementine Homilies must have made use of the fourth Gospel, and
consequently they do not establish even the contemporary existence of
that work. If such quotations, moreover, could be traced with fifty
times greater probability to the fourth Gospel, it is obvious that
they could do nothing towards establishing its historical character and
apostolic origin.
Leaving, however, the few and feeble analogies by which apologists
vainly seek to establish the existence of the fourth Gospel and its use
by the author of the pseudo-Clementine Homilies, and considering the
question for a moment from a wider point of view, the results already
attained are more than confirmed. The doctrines held and strongly
enunciated in the Clementines seem to us to exclude the supposition that
the author can have made use of a work so fundamentally at variance
with all his views as the fourth Gospel, and it is certain that, holding
those opinions, he could hardly have regarded such a Gospel as an
apostolic and authoritative document. Space will not permit our entering
adequately into this argument, and we must refer our readers to works
more immediately devoted to the examination of the Homilies for a close
analysis of their dogmatic teaching,(1) but we may in the briefest
manner point out some of their more prominent doctrines in contrast with
those of the Johannine Gospel.
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One of the leading and most characteristic ideas of the Clementine
Homilies is the essential identity of Judaism and Christianity. Christ
revealed nothing new with regard to God, but promulgated the very same
truth concerning him as Adam, Moses, and the Patriarchs, and in fact
the right belief is that Moses and Jesus were essentially one and the
same.(1) Indeed, it may be said that the teaching of the Homilies is
more Jewish than Christian.(2) In the preliminary Epistle of the Apostle
Peter to the Apostle James, when sending the book, Peter entreats
that James will not give it to any of the Gentiles,(3) and James says:
"Necessarily and rightly our Peter reminded us to take precautions for
the security of the truth, that we should not communicate the books of
his preachings, sent to us, indiscriminately to all, but to him who
is good and discreet and chosen to teach, and who is _circumcised_,(4)
being faithful."(5) &c. Clement also is represented as describing his
conversion to Christianity in the following terms: "For this cause I
fled for refuge to the Holy God and Law of the Jews, with faith in the
certain conclusion that, by the righteous judgment of God, both the Law
is prescribed, and the soul beyond doubt everywhere receives
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the desert of its actions."(1) Peter recommends the inhabitants of Tyre
to follow what are really Jewish rites, and to hear "as the God-fearing
Jews have heard "(2) The Jew has the same truth as the Christian: "For
as there is one teaching by both (Moses and Jesus), God accepts him who
believes either of these."(3) The Law was in fact given by Adam as a
true prophet knowing all things, and it is called "Eternal," and neither
to be abrogated by enemies nor falsified by the impious.(4) The author,
therefore, protests against the idea that Christianity is any new thing,
and insists that Jesus came to confirm, not abrogate, the Mosaic
Law.(5) On the other hand the author of the fourth Gospel represents
Christianity in strong contrast and antagonism to Judaism.(6) In his
antithetical system, the religion of Jesus is opposed to Judaism as well
as all other belief, as Light to Darkness and Life to Death.(7) The Law
which Moses gave is treated as merely national, and neither of
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general application nor intended to be permanent, being only addressed
to the Jews. It is perpetually referred to as the "Law of the Jews,"
"your Law,"--and the Jewish festivals as Feasts of the Jews, and Jesus
neither held the one in any consideration nor did he scruple to shew his
indifference to the other.(1) The very name of "the Jews" indeed is used
as an equivalent for the enemies of Christ.(2) The religion of Jesus is
not only absolute, but it communicates knowledge of the Father which
the Jews did not previously possess.(3) The inferiority of Mosaism is
everywhere represented: "and out of his fulness all we received, and
grace for grace. Because the Law was given through Moses; _grace and
truth_ came through Jesus Christ."(4) "Verily verily I say unto you:
Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father giveth
you the true bread from heaven."(6) The fundamental difference of
Christianity from Judaism will further appear as we proceed.
The most essential principle of the Clementines, again, is
Monotheism,--the absolute oneness of God,--which the author vehemently
maintains as well against the ascription of divinity to Christ as
against heathen Polytheism and the Gnostic theory of the Demiurge as
distinguished from the Supreme God.(6) Christ not only is not God,
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but he never asserted himself to be so.(1) He wholly ignores the
doctrine of the Logos, and his speculation is confined to the [------],
the Wisdom of Proverbs viii., &c., and is, as we shall see, at the
same time a less developed and very different doctrine from that of the
fourth Gospel.(2) The idea of a hypostatic Trinity seems to be quite
unknown to him, and would have been utterly abhorrent to his mind as
sheer Polytheism. On the other hand, the fourth Gospel proclaims the
doctrine of a hypostatic Trinity in a more advanced form than any other
writing of the New Testament. It is, indeed, the fundamental principle
of the work,(3) as the doctrine of the Logos is its most characteristic
feature. In the beginning the "Word not only was with God, but "the Word
was God" [------].(4)