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THE GUILD LIBRARY
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2
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THE PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY
IN THE ANCIENT WORLD.
By R. M. Wenley, Sc.D. (Ediflu). D. Phil. (Glas.),
Senior Professor of Philosophy in the University of Michigan.
"A fresh and vigorous, as well as scholarly and luminous, survey of the intel-
lectual conditions which prevailed under Greek culture, ltoinan authority, and
Jewish exclusiveness. "- >>i ritual Gospel — by which it is meant that the former
relate Chiefly to outward events connected with the
Saviour's visible presence, reported for the most part
without note or comment, while the latter is designed to
represent the ideal and heavenly side of His personality
and work. Akin to this distinction is the fact that the
first three Gospels report Christ's addresses to the
multitude, consisting largely of parables, while the fourth
Gospel contains discourses of a more sublime character,
frequently expressed in the language of allegory and
addressed to the inner circle of His followers.
When we enter into a closer examination of the three
synoptic Gospels and compare them with one another,
we find an amount of similarity in detail, extending even
to minute expressions and the connection of individual
incidents, combined with a diversity of diction, arrange-
ment, and contents, which it has hitherto baffled the
ingenuity of critics to explain fully. A general idea of
their mutual relations may be gathered from the following
comparison. If the contents of each Gospel be reckoned
100, the relative proportion of those things in which a
Gospel agrees with one or other of its fellows to those
things in which it stands alone would be as follows : —
Peculiarities.
Coincidences.
St. Matthew
,
42
58
St. Mark .
.
7
93
St. Luke .
,
59
41
It is found that the coincidences in language are much
fewer than they are in substance — which is only what
might have been expected, if the several accounts are
derived from independent witnesses. Reckoning the
material coincidences in St. Matthew to be 58 as above,
the verbal coincidences would only amount to 16 or
17 ; in St. Mark the former would be 93 as compared
16 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
with 17 of the latter; in St. Luke 41 as compared with
10. It further appears that by far the greater number of
these verbal coincidences are met with in the report of
our Lord's discourses and other sayings, a circumstance
which confirms us in the belief that the Gospel was
handed down for a number of years in an oral form,
as the preachers and teachers would feel bound to adhere
strictly to the very words in cases of reported speech,
whereas they would be under no such obligation in the
narration of events. As regards the latter, a consider-
able modification of the oral Gospel would naturally take
place during the long period that elapsed before it was
committed to writing. The modification would vary in
different parts of the Church ; and it is in this way, as
well as by taking into account the possibility of fresh
lessons being added from time to time by those who had
been " eyewitnesses and ministers of the word " (Luke i. 2),
that we can best account for differences, both in expression
and in substance, which would otherwise seem unaccount-
able. If the apostles' teaching was originally given in
Aramaic — the form of Hebrew then spoken in Palestine —
and had to be translated into Greek by the catechists,
this would help still further to account for the diversity
we meet with in the Gospels.
5. Harmony. — It is possible that further study and
investigation may shed more light on the historical and
literary relations of the four Gospels, but meantime it is
clear that the true way to discern their harmony is
not to attempt to piece them together in the vain hope
of forming a complete chronological history, but to study
each from its own point of view and learn from it what it
has to teach concerning the many-sided life and character
of Jesus Christ. No one Gospel could possibly do justice
to the infinite significance of the great theme ; and instead
of causing perplexity, the existence of four different
THE GOSPELS 17
Gospels should rather be matter of thankfulness, as setting
Christ before us in so many different aspects of His
divinely human personality, much in the same way as
various portions of the Old Testament set Him forth
prophetically under the several aspects of prophet, priest,
lawgiver, and king.
From the nature of the case, the Gospels are necessarily
fragmentary, as indicated by St. John when he says
" there are also many other things which Jesus did, the
which, if they should be written every one, I suppose
that even the world itself would not contain the books
that should be written " (xxi. 25). The same writer gives
us a key to the interpretation of his Gospel when he says,
" These are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God ; and that, believing, ye may have
life in his name" (xx. 31). In like manner each of the
other Gospels, while historical in its character, is animated
by a special purpose of its own with its appropriate
grouping and selection of events. Owing to the frequent
change of scene and audience in Christ's ministry, the
historical sequence could not be strictly adhered to by
any one desirous to trace, from any point of view, the
progress of His teaching. At the same time, there was
a gradual development in His ministry, culminating in
His death, resurrection, and ascension ; and this gradual
advance we find reflected in each of the four Gospels.
Unity amid diversity is what we have to look for in
the Gospels, as in the Scriptures generally; and of this
we have a token in the time-honoured fancy of the
Church, by which the four Gospels are likened to the
four-visaged cherubim, having the faces of a man, a lion,
an ox, and an eagle. This comparison has been variously
applied, but the interpretation followed in modern works
of art, after St. Jerome, identifies the four faces with the
Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John respectively,
18 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
as setting forth the human, the conquering, the sacrificial,
and the heaven-regarding aspects of Christ's being. We
shall probably be nearer the truth, however, if we say that
while the first Gospel sets forth Christ's life and teaching
with reference to the past, as the fulfilment of the Old
Testament, the Gospel of Mark exhibits that life in the
present as a manifestation of the activity and power so
congenial to the Roman mind ; St. Luke, as a Greek,
depicts it in its catholic and comprehensive character, as
destined in the future to embrace within its saving
influence all the kindreds of the Gentiles : while the
fourth Gospel represents it in its absolute perfection as it
is related to the Father in eternity.
While there is no such thing as uniformity in Scripture
any more than in Nature or the Church, there is an
essential and deep-lying unity which cannot be broken
without serious injury to the truth. The right way to
use the Gospels is to combine their various testimony,
allowing each to tell its story in its own way and to
contribute its allotted part to a full and adequate con-
ception of the Lord's personality and work. While each
possesses a distinct individuality of its own, they may
and ought to be united in order to form a complete and
grander whole. In this sense they have been likened to
the four parts of music, which may be sung apart, but
blend together to form a perfect harmony. A striking
parallel has been drawn by Bishop Westcott 1 between
the work of the first three evangelists and the threefold
portrait of Charles I. (taken from three different points
of view) which Vandyke prepared for the sculptor;
while Dean Farrar 2 furnishes a beautiful illustration
when he says that "the first three evangelists give us
diverse aspects of one glorious landscape ; St. John pours
1 Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, p. 251.
2 Messages of the Books, p. 11.
THE GOSPELS 19
over that landscapo a flood of heavenly sunshino which
- to transform its very character, though every
feature of the landscape remains the same." *
1 With repard to the harmony of the four Gospels in matters of
historical detail, ■while it is true that we meet with apparent, dis-
crepancies which it would require more complete information than we
possess to explain fully (for example, as to the date of the Last Supper,
whether oh the night of the Jewish Passover, as the Synoptical Gospels
would lead us to suppose, or on the night previous, which is the
impression we receive from St. John's nairative), yet on the other hand
there are many cases of undesigned harmony which afford positive
evidence of their historical accuracy and truthfulness. (See Appendix
B, pp. 203, 204.)
CHAPTER III
"the gospel according to st. matthew"
1. Authorship. — St. Matthew's Gospel has been described
by one who can scarcely be accused of partiality (M.
Renan) as " the most important book of Christendom —
the most important book that has ever been written."
Its importance is derived, not from the genius of
the writer, but from the grandeur of the subject.
According to the unanimous tradition of the ancient
Church, as preserved in the title which this Gospel has
borne ever since the second century and confirmed by
the testimony of the early Church Fathers beginning
with Papias in the first half of the second century, the
writer of the book was Matthew, one of the twelve
apostles. But for his authorship of this book, Matthew
would have been one of the least known of the apostles,
as neither Scripture nor tradition gives us much informa-
tion regarding him. Not a single word or act of his
after he became a disciple of our Lord is recorded in the
Gospels ; and in the Book of Acts his name is never
mentioned after the descent of the Holy Spirit on the
day of Pentecost. He is evidently to be identified with
Levi the publican (Mark ii. 14, 15; Luke v. 27-29; cf.
Matt. ix. 9, 10), although it is only in his own Gospel
(x. 3) that the despised term "publican" is associated
ST. MATTHEW 21
with liis apostolic name of Matthew ("the gift of God"),
which was probably given to him when he was called to
the apostleship, as Simon's name was changed to Peter.
He seems to have been a man of worldly means and of a
generous disposition, judging from the fact that on the
occasion of his apostolic call, when " he forsook all, and
rose up and followed " Jesus, he made " a great feast " to
which he invited a number of his old associates. It is
noteworthy that he leaves it to the other evangelists to
mention him as the giver of this feast and to record his
sacrifice of property in following Christ ; while we have a
further token of his modesty in the fact that he puts the
name of Thomas before his own in the list of apostles,
reversing the order followed in the other Gospels. Traces
of the writer's profession as a tax-gatherer have been
found in his use of the term "tribute money" (xxii. 19),
where the other evangelists employ the more common
word "penny" (Mark xii. 15; Luke xx. 24); and in his
use of the word "publicans" (v. 46, 47), where Luke
employs the word "sinners" (Luke vi. 32, 33). But
perhaps the latter instance, like his use of the word
" Gentiles " in the same passage, is an indication rather
of his Jewish nationality.
According to an ancient tradition derived from Papias,
Matthew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew, — to which
Irenams adds that he published it among the Jews
"while Peter and Paul were preaching in Rome and
founding the Church there." Eusebius in the beginning
of the fourth century tells us that Matthew wrote it
when he was about to leave the Jews and preach also to
other nations, in order to " fill up the void about to be
made in his absence." If this tradition be correct, the
Hebrew original must have been very soon superseded by
the Greek Gospel which we now possess. This was only
to be expected, considering the growing disuse of Hebrew,
22 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
and the gradual lapse of the Jewish Christians into a
heresy which alienated them from the rest of the Church. 1
Whether the Gospel was written over again by Matthew
in Greek, or translated, perhaps under his supervision, by
some other writer, with additions from a Greek source, is a
question which we cannot certainly answer. That Matthew
may have written the Gospel in both languages is in itself
not unlikely, as we know that Josephus wrote his history
both in Hebrew and in Greek — these two languages being
both current in Palestine at that time, as English and
Gaelic are now in the Highlands of Scotland. 2
2. Date of Composition. — From evidence afforded by a
study of the book itself (taken in connection with the tradi-
tion above mentioned), it has been reasonably inferred that
the Gospel in its present form probably appeared before
66 a.d., when the war which was to issue in the destruc-
tion of the Jewish capital was on the eve of breaking out.
Such evidence is found in the use of the expressions
" holy city," " the holy place," " the city of the great
King " (iv. 5; v. 35 ; xxiv. 15 ; xxvii. 53), as well as in the
mysterious nature of the language used by the Saviour in
His prediction of the city's coming doom. In particular,
the caution given by the writer in xxiv. 15 ("whoso
readeth, let him understand ") would have had no force or
meaning after the predicted calamity had occurred.
3. Character and Contents. — The leading charac-
1 The Ebionite heresy, so named from a Hebrew word meaning
poor, the early Jewish Christians being noted for their poverty.
Their heresy consisted for the most part in holding the continued
obligation of the Jewish Law, and denying the Divinity of the Saviour
while admitting His Messiahship. The name of Nazarenes (originally
given to Christians generally ; Acts xxiv. 5) was applied in the fourth
century to a less heretical sect who continued to observe the Jewish Law.
2 Modern instances may also be found ; e.g. Bacon published a
Latin translation of his Advancement of Learning, in an extended
form under the title Be Augmentis Scientiarum. But it must be
admitted to be a weak point in this theory that there is no trace of it
in the writings of the Fathers.
ST. MATTHEW 23
teristic of St. Matthew's Gospel, as might bo expected
in a work intended for the Eebrews, consists in the
representation of Jesus as the MessiXS H
tendency to intellectual pride (i. 17 ii. 1 f. ; viii. 1),
accompanied with a proneneas to sensual sin, equally
characteristic of their city (v. 1-11; vi. 15-18; xi. 21).
The apostle speaks (ii. 3) of having been with them " in
weakness and in fear, and in much trembling" — possibly
the result of his recent apparent failure at Athens.
3. Date and Place of Composition. — It can be proved
with tolerable certainty that the epistle was written from
Ephesus l about the spring of 57 a.d.
From iv. 17-19 and xvi. 5 we learn that it was
written on the eve of a second visit to Corinth, which
the apostle was about to pay after passing through Mace-
donia, — having already sent Timothy in advance as his
representative (xvi. 10). When we turn to the Book of
Acts we find that such a visit to Greece was paid by. the
apostle at the close of a sojourn of about three years at
Ephesus (Acts xix. 8-10 ; xx. 1-3, 31), and it appears
from xix. 21-23 that almost immediately before he left
Ephesus he sent Timothy before him to Macedonia.
Moreover, several expressions in the epistle plainly point
to Ephesus as the place from which it emanated (xvi.
8-10, cf. Acts xix. 20-26; xvi. 19, cf. Acts xviii. 18-26 ;
xv. 32).
As the apostle appears to have travelled for about a
year after leaving Corinth on the first occasion (54 a.d.),
previous to settling at Ephesus, his stay in the latter
city may have extended to the beginning of 58 a.d.
Several allusions to the seasons, which occur in the epistle
(v. 7, 8 ; xvi. 6, 8), lead us to place its composition in the
spring of 57 a.d.
4. Character and Contents. — Of this epistle it has
1 The note at the end of the epistle in the A.V. is due to a
misapprehension of xvi. 5 ("But I will come unto you, when I shall
have passed through Macedonia ; for I do pass through Macedonia "),
as if it implied that Paul was passing through Macedonia when he
wrote the epistle.
76 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
been fitly said that it is "a fragment which has no
parallel in ecclesiastical history." It deals with a section
of early Church history which exhibits the most marked
and varied features. It sets the apostle vividly before
us as a teacher and governor, confronted with the dangers
and perplexities, the errors and corruptions to which the
Corinthian Church was liable, planted as it was in the
midst of the rankest heathenism. In the words of Dean
Stanley, "we are here allowed to witness the earliest
conflict of Christianity with the culture and the vices of
the ancient classical world ; here we have an insight into
the principles which regulated the apostle's choice or rejec-
tion of the customs of that vast fabric of heathen society
which was then emphatically called 'the world'; here we
trace the mode in which he combated the false pride, the
false knowledge, the false liberality, the false freedom,
the false display, the false philosophy, to which an intel-
lectual age, especially in a declining nation, is constantly
liable."
The epistle is thus eminently practical, dealing with
questions that had actually emerged in the experience
of the Church to which it is addressed. In form it is
orderly and logical, taking up one point after another in
regular succession ; in style it is more simple and direct
than most of Paul's compositions, rising at times into the
sublimest eloquence, as in the great eulogium on love in
the 13 th chapter.
As already mentioned, the epistle was in part the
reply to a letter of inquiry which had been sent to
the apostle by the Corinthian Church in consequence of
a letter which he had previously addressed to them
(v. 9-11 ; vii. 1 ; xvi. 17, 18).
But the first six chapters have mainly reference to
certain dangers threatening the Church, of which infor-
mation had reached the apostle from another quarter,
1 CORINTHIANS 77
causing him the utmost anxiety and grief (2 Cor. ii. 4).
These dangers wore mainly twofold — the prevalence of
party spirit, and the tendency to immorality. Hence
the prominence given, in the opening salutation, to the
holiness to which Christians are called, and to their
unity in Christ ; hence, too, the fact that in the accom-
panying thanksgiving for tokens of grace in the Corin-
thian Church, it is gifts of knowledge and utterance
rather than graces of character that are specially men-
tioned.
(1) The tendency to sectarian division mentioned in
i. 12 seems to have been fostered by emissaries from
Jerusalem, who wished to undermine Paul's authority,
and wrought upon the feelings and prejudices of the
Jewish portion of the Church (ix. 1-5 ; 2 Cor.). The
visit of Apollos, a learned and eloquent Jew of Alex-
andria, after Paul's departure (Acts xviii. 27, 28), had
tended in the same direction, by leading to an invidious
comparison between his philosophical and rhetorical style
of preaching and the more simple method of Paul, al-
though the latter continued to regard him as a valuable
coadjutor (xvi. 12). But there w ere some — probably the
Judaising party — who were content neither with the
teaching of Paul nor of Apollos, but were disposed
to range themselves under the name and authority of
Cephas, as the leader of the twelve apostles and an
observer of the Law. Others professed to be independent
of human teachers, and claimed a more direct connection
with Christ, probably through their personal acquaint-
ance with "the brethren of the Lord" (ix. 5), or their
national and historical affinity with Christ. In opposi-
tion to all these divisive courses, the apostle insists on the
supremacy of Christ as the one Lord and Saviour. He
introduces His name more frequently in this epistle than
in any other of his writings (nine times, for example, in
78 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
the first nine verses), and represents himself and other
apostles as being not the heads of different schools,
but simply the ministers of Christ, by whom their con-
verts were brought to a knowledge of the truth as it is
in Jesus.
(2) With regard to the immorality invading the Church,
the apostle begins by referring to a terrible scandal — the
taking to wife by a Christian of his stepmother during
his father's lifetime (v. 1-5, cf. 2 Cor. vii. 12). In the
exercise of his apostolic authority he pronounces a stern
sentence on the offender, and urges tjie necessity for an
uncompromising opposition to all such sin, and separation
from those guilty of it, if they be members of the Church
(chap. v.). In the next chapter, after deprecating the
bringing of legal actions by Christians against one
another in the heathen courts, he rebukes the An tinomian
tendencies among them, and lays down the fundamental
principles on which the Christian law of purity must rest.
The apostle then proceeds to answer the inquiries of
his converts on the subject of marriage and celibacy,
distinguishing between his own personal views and the
expressed will of Christ (vii.). In viii.-x. he deals with
what was to his readers a subject of vast importance —
the duty of Christians with reference to the feasts that
were held in the idol temples, and more particularly with
regard to the use of the flesh of animals offered in sacrifice,
which was almost the only kind of animal food that could
be bought in the market. This question he bids them
consider not in the abstract, but as it bears on the
interests of Christian society, and as it is likely to affect
not only their own character but the character and feel-
ings of their fellow -Christians. In this connection he
cites his own example of self-denial even in things lawful.
In xi.-xiy. he lays down directions for the guidance of his
converts in matters of public worship, — dealing with such
1 CORINTHIANS 79
questions as the wearing of a covering on the head in the
public services, the duty of a modest reticence on tho part
of the female members of the congregation, the necessity
for sobriety and decorum in the celebration of the Lord's
Supper, the essential harmony and common end of the
various gifts conferred by the Spirit (of which he enu-
merates no less than nine), the superiority of love to all
such gifts, the relative value and importance of the several
gifts, and the propriety of making the religious services
intelligible to all, so that they may be able to join in
the loud Amen as the token of their fellowship. He sums
up his teaching on public worship in the two cardinal
principles, "let all things be done unto edifying," "let
all things be done decently and in order " (xiv. 26, 40).
The 15th chapter contains a dissertation of incomparable
value on the Resurrection of the dead — a doctrine which
some of the Corinthians had begun to call in question,
partly in a spirit of world ly-mindedness, and partly as
the result of a sceptical philosophy. 1 In verses 4-8 we
have a summary of evidences for the historical reality of
our Lord's resurrection, stated within twenty-five or thirty
years after His death, while most of the witnesses were
still alive. In the 16th or closing chapter we find a
number of directions and intimations having reference,
among other things, to the collection for the poor saints
at Jerusalem (which the apostle hoped to find ready
on his next visit to Corinth), — after which the epistle
concludes with the usual kind messages and autograph
greeting from the apostle.
1 It was the future general resurrection that they doubted, not the
historical resurrection of Jesus Christ, the latter fact being so fully
accepted that one of the apostle's chief arguments against their scepticism
was that it would involve the rejection of the testimony to Christ's
resurrection (xv. 13-16).
CHAPTER XI
"THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE
TO THE CORINTHIANS"
1. Authorship. — The Pauline authorship of this epistle
is involved in that of 1 Corinthians. There is in several
points such a subtle harmony between them as can only
be accounted for by their common authorship ; and the
impression that both are genuine writings of Paul is
confirmed by an examination of relative passages in the
Book of Acts. 1
That the author did not derive his information from
1 The truth of this statement will be manifest to any one who will
take the trouble to compare carefully the following corresponding
passages with the assistance of Paley's Horce Paulince (iv.) : —
1 Cor. xvi. 5 ; 2 Cor. vii. 4-7 ; ix. (regarding Paul's visit to Mace-
2-4 donia).
1 Cor. v. 1-5 ; 2 Cor. ii. 7, 8 ; vii. (regarding the scandalous offence).
7-12
1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2 ; 2 Cor. viii. 10, 11 ; (regarding the money promised but
ix. 2-7 not collected).
Acts xix. 23-xx. 1 ; 2 Cor. i. 3-10 (regarding the trouble which befell
Paul in Asia).
2 Cor. i. 15, 16 ; i. 23— ii. 9 ; 1 Cor. (regarding his change of route
xvi. 5-7 ; iv. 17, 18 ; Acts xix. previous to writing 1 Cor., and
21, 22 his motive for it).
Acts xviii. 1-5 ; 2 Cor. i. 19 ; xi. 9 (regarding Silas' and Timothy's
coming to him from Macedonia).
Acts xx. 6, 7 ; 2 Cor. ii. 12, 13 (regarding the door opened to him
at Troas).
2 Cor. x. 14-16 ; Acts xviii. 1-18 (regarding the limits of his mis-
sionary travels).
2 CORINTHIANS 81
the Book of Acts may bo inferred from the circumstance
that the name of Titus, which is prominent in the epistle,
is not once mentioned in Acts. The same conclusion
may be drawn from a comparison of their respective
allusions to the attempts made upon Paul's life and
liberty at Damascus after his conversion (xi. 32 ; Acts
ix. 23-25), as well as from the fact that the enumeration
of his trials in xi. 24, 25 contains a number of striking
statements which have nothing corresponding to them
in the Book of Acts, though at the same time there is
nothing inconsistent with them. With regard to the
apparent discrepancy as to the number of his visits to
Corinth (xiii. 1) see page 82.
Apart from the minute correspondences above referred
to, there is a living interest and an air of reality about
the epistle, scarcely ever met with in forgeries, especially
of that early period.
With regard to external evidence a few echoes of
expressions occurring in the epistle are to be found in
the fragmentary writings that have come down to us
from the beginning of the second century. By the end
of that century the quotations from the epistle in the
writings of Irenaeus, Tertullian, etc., are explicit and
unmistakable.
The amanuensis in this case was probably Timothy, as
he is associated with the apostle in the opening verse.
2. The Readers. — " Unto the church of God which is
at Corinth, with all the saints which are in the whole of
Achaia." See page 73.
3. Date and Place of Composition. — It was evidently
written a few months after the first epistle, say in the
summer of 57 a.d., from some town in Macedonia, probably
Thessalonica. 1
1 " From Philippi " according to note at end of epistle in A.V.
But this is not so probable in view of the fact that the apostle seems
6
82 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
In the interval the apostle had left Ephesus (i. 8-10),
after his narrow escape from the violence of the crowd,
and had proceeded to Troas, where he anxiously expected
the arrival of Titus. The latter had been sent to Corinth,
either with the first epistle or shortly after its dispatch,
to enforce the apostle's views and to bring him back word
of the effect produced by his epistle at this momentous
crisis in the history of his most influential Church (viii.
6; xii. 18; 1 Cor. xvi. 12).
In his disappointment at not finding Titus, he had no
heart to embrace the opportunity of preaching at Troas,
and had proceeded to Macedonia (ii. 12, 13), where
Titus at length joined him (vii. 5, 6). It was after
getting Titus' report, bringing him great relief of mind
in the midst of his severe trials and heavy responsibilities
(vii. 4-16 ; xi. 28), that he appears to have written this
epistle, which he sent by the hands of Titus, accom-
panied by two other brethren, whom he describes as
"the messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ,"
one of them being " the brother whose praise in the
gospel is spread through all the churches," and the other
" our brother, whom we have many times proved earnest
in many things" (viii. 6, 16-23). 1
A difficulty has been raised about the expression in
xiii. 1, " This is the third time I am coming to you."
Some think the apostle had paid a second visit to Corinth,
from Ephesus, prior to the writing of his first epistle.
But another explanation is to be found in the importance
attaching to the visit he had intended to pay on his way
to Macedonia (i. 15). The confidence of the Corinthians
in him had been shaken by the disappointment he had
to have already visited the Churches of Macedonia (viii. 1-4), for in
the course of doing so Philippi would naturally come first, to one
travelling southward.
1 Many attempts have been made to identify these two brethren.
Luke is generally held to be one of them.
2 CORINTHIANS 83
caused them ; and he wished to impress upon them the
reality Of his intention, although he had been unable to
fulfil it. No doubt, on this supposition, he would have
been more strictly accurate if he had expressed himself
as in xii. 14, "Behold, this is the third time I am ready
to come to you."
4. Character and Contents. — If the first epistle may
be said to be our great instructor regarding the inner life
of the Church, the second epistle is our chief source of
information regarding the personality of the apostle him-
self. It is an outpouring of personal feeling almost from
beginning to end, expressing itself in many different moods
and with a great variety of style. It is well described
by Erasmus when he says that "at one time the apostle
wells up gently like some limpid spring, and by and
by thunders down like a torrent with a mighty crash,
carrying everything before it ; now he flows placidly and
smoothly, now spreads out far and wide, as if expanding
into a lake, then disappears, and suddenly reappears in a
different place." But although the least systematic of
Paul's writings, it contains many passages of priceless
worth, for the comfort and edification of the Church.
The apostle had learned from Titus that his first letter
had served its purpose and that the interests of Church
discipline had been secured. But the same messenger
had informed him that fresh cause for anxiety had arisen
in the rapid growth of a party hostile to his influence,
who were seeking to trade upon the disaffection which
had been caused among his converts by his failure to
visit them according to promise (i. 16, 17).
Traces of such opposition are discernible even in the
first epistle (1 Cor. i. 12; ix. 1-6); but it had been
greatly stimulated by the intrigues and false pretensions
of rival teachers from Jerusalem, who had brought letters
of commendation with them, and were using Peter's
84 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
name, and even that of Christ, for party purposes (ii. 17 ;
iii. 1, 2; v. 12; x. 7-12, 18; xi. 3-5, 12-15, 22, 23).
To defeat the efforts of these Judaising teachers and
to refute the charges and insinuations which they were
bringing against him w r as the main object of this epistle.
By doing so the apostle hoped to obviate the necessity
for any sharp dealing after he arrived at Corinth (xii.
20, 21 ; xiii. 10).
In i.-vii. Paul seeks to conciliate the affection of his
converts by giving them an account of his sufferings and
of the anxiety he had felt on their behalf. He explains
that his delay in visiting them had not been owing to
any fickleness of purpose on his part, but to a desire for
the restoration of peace and purity before he came
among them. He gives a frank exposition of his views
and feelings, his trials and supports, as a minister of
Christ, making glad and thankful acknowledgment of
the kind reception they had given to his deputy, and of
the full amends they had made in the important case of
Church discipline about which he had written to them.
In viii.-ix. he exhorts them to a prompt and liberal
fulfilment of their promise to contribute for the relief of
the needy brethren at Jerusalem, — a promise of which he
had boasted to the churches at Macedonia in order to
stimulate their generosity. In this connection he sets
forth more fully than anywhere else in his writings the
motives and dispositions which should actuate Christians
in the discharge of this duty of pecuniary liberality.
At this point there is a sudden change in the apostle's
tone ; and the remainder of the epistle (x.-xiii.) is devoted
to a vindication of his character as an apostle. He
enumerates his many claims to the respect and obedience
of his converts, and closes with an impressive salutation,
followed by the form of Benediction which has now
become so general in the Church : " The grace of the
2 CORINTHIANS 85
Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the com-
munion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all."
That the epistle succeeded in regaining, or rather in
retaining, for the apostle the general confidence of his
Corinthian converts, may bo inferred from the veneration
in which his memory was held amongst them a few years
after his death. Of this veneration we find unmistakable
tokens in the epistle of Clement to the Corinthian*',
written towards the close of the first century.
CHAPTER XII
1. Authorship. — This is another epistle whose genuine-
ness is scarcely disputed. Its main topic — the relation
of Christians to the ceremonial law of the Jews — would
lead us to fix its composition at a period anterior to the
destruction of Jerusalem, when the question was practi-
cally set at rest.
Its character and style are inconsistent with the idea of
forgery. (1) The picture which it gives of the state of
the Galatian Church is too lifelike, and the play of
feeling it exhibits on the part of the apostle is too subtle
for the inventive power of an age so little skilled in that
kind of fiction. (2) Its representation of facts, as regards
the relations of Paul with the other apostles, is too
candid to have been got up in the interests of Church
unity, and on the other hand is too moderate in its tone
to have been framed in the interests of any known party
in the Church. (3) A comparison of the personal and
historical allusions in the epistle with statements in the
Book of Acts and some of the other epistles ascribed to
Paul, shows a substantial harmony, along with an occa-
sional diversity that betokens independence — the epistle
furnishing details of many incidents in Paul's life that
are only mentioned in a general way by the author of
CALATIANS 87
tho Book of Acts. 1 (4) There is in several respects a
strong resemblance between this epistle and llioso to the
Corinthians and the Romans (see p. 96).
With regard to external evidence there are tho usual
echoes and reflections in the Apostolic Fathers and in
the apologists and other theological writers of the second
century ; while many direct quotations arc to be found
in the writings of the Fathers about the end of the
second century. The epistle is also included in the
Canons and Versions of the second century.
2. The Readers. — "Unto the churches of Galatia."
The interpretation of the term " Galatia " has been a
subject of much controversy. It may either be under-
stood to refer to the recently created Roman province of
that name in Asia Minor, or be taken in the older and
more popular sense, as designating a broad strip of
country in that province, about tw r o hundred miles long,
running from south-west to north-east.
It is in the latter sense that the term has generally
been understood here. The region thus designated was
inhabited by a mixed race of Phrygians, Greeks, Celts,
Romans, and Jews, who had successively obtained a
footing in it by different means and with varying degrees
of success. Of these elements of the population it was
the Celtic invaders from Western Europe that had made
their influence most strongly felt. They found their way
into the country in the third century B.C. ; and after
1 For proofs of independence, cf. i. 15-18, Acts ix. 19-26 ; ii. 1-10,
Acts xv. 1-21 ; ii. 11-14 (which has nothing corresponding to it in
Acts, although corroborated in some of its circumstances by xi. 25,
26 ; xiv. 26, xv. 1-24, xxi. 18-25). For fulness of detail in this
epistle see ii. ; i. 17-19, Acts ix. 25-28, xxii. 18 ; iv. 13, 14, cf.
2 Cor. xii. 7-9 ; vi. 1, cf. 2 Cor. ii. 6-8 ; vi. 11, cf. Rom. xvi. 22,
2 Thess. iii. 17. It must at the same time be admitted that there are
a number of apparent discrepancies between this epistle and the Book
of Acts which we are unable to explain, but they are not such as to
justify any doubt as to the Pauline authorship of the epistle.
88 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
them and the Greek immigrants who were there before
them the country was called Gallo-Grsecia. So deep and
lasting was their influence, that even in the end of the
fourth century a.d. Jerome was able to trace a strong
resemblance between the language of Galatia and that
spoken on the banks of the Moselle and the Rhine ; and
modern travellers have been struck with the fair hair
and blue eyes that mark an affinity between the pastoral
tribes of Galatia and the peasantry of Western France.
Confirmation of the view that it was to the inhabit-
ants of Celtic Galatia the epistle was addressed has
been found in the enthusiasm, as well as the fickleness
and love of novelty, which have been characteristic of the
Gauls both in Europe and Asia, and which left their
mark on the early history of the Galatian Church (i. 6 ;
iii. 1-3; iv. 13-16; v. 7). Traces have also been dis-
cerned in the epistle of the superstition, drunkenness,
avarice, vanity, irascibility and strife that sometimes
impair the charm of the Celtic character (v. 15, 21, 26 ;
vi. 3, 4, 6).
According to this theory Paul's preaching of the
Gospel in Galatia was due to his detention in that
country on his way to the more promising field of pro-
consular Asia, caused by an attack of the painful and
humiliating malady to which he was liable — supposed to
have been an aggravated form of ophthalmia (iv. 13-16,
cf. 2 Cor. xii. 7-10). This visit to Galatia, which took
place in the course of his second missionary journey,
about 51 a.d., is alluded to in the Book of Acts in the
most general terms (xvi. 6) ; but from some passages in
this epistle, already quoted, it would appear that his
faithful and energetic preaching of Christ crucified (iii.
1, 2) had excited great enthusiasm and affection. A
second visit to Galatia (implied in Gal. iv. 13) is
recorded in Acts xviii. 22, 23, during the apostle's third
GALATIANS 89
missionary journey, about 54 a.d., when he "went
through the region of Galatia and Phrygia in order,
stablishing all the disciples." From this language it
appears that not a few congregations had been formed
in the district; but it would seem that their feelings
towards the apostle and his Gospel had in the meantime
undergone a change, and that he had, on this second
occasion, to speak to them in tones of warning (i. 9 ;
v. 21 ; iv. 16-20).
^Vllile the majority of scholars have hitherto been
agreed in giving to Galatia the narrower interpretation
that is assumed in the foregoing statement, a number of
critics 1 hold that the name is to be taken in its wider
meaning as a designation for the Roman province, which
included several other districts besides that of the
Asiatic Celts, and that the Churches to which the epistle
was addressed were no other than those of Antioch,
Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, which were planted by
Paul in his first missionary journey, and of which we
have an account in Acts xiii., xiv., as well as in the
meagre notices above referred to, in chaps, xvi. and xviii.
The following are the chief arguments adduced in
support of this view : —
I. (1) The cities referred to (Antioch, Iconium, Lystra,
and Derbe) formed part of the Roman province of
Galatia in the time of the apostle. They were important
centres of Roman civilisation ; and the Roman name
"Galatians" was certainly one to which their citizens
1 Renan, Perrot, Sabatier, Hausrath, Weizsacker, Pfleiderer, etc.
Recently a careful and elaborate argument in favour of this view has
been advanced by Professor W. M. Ramsay (The Church in the
Roman Empire, chaps, i.-vi.), who brings to the discussion of the
question a rare knowledge of the archaeology and topography of Asia
Minor. According to Professor Ramsay, the prevailing misconception
as to the meaning of Galatia has been due to the fact that "during
the second century the term Galatia ceased to bear the sense which it
had to a Roman in the first century."
90 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
were entitled — indeed it was the only acceptable title by
which they could be addressed in common. It was a
mode of address congenial to the mind of the apostle,
who followed the Roman lines of communication in his
mission work, and regarded the Roman empire as the
appointed field of his labours ; and it is in accordance
with his use of similar geographical terms in a Roman
sense ("Macedonia," "Achaia," "Asia"). So "Galatia"
in 1 Pet. i. 1. (2) The enthusiastic reception accorded
to him by the Galatians, to which the apostle refers in
the epistle (iv. 14, 15), corresponds with the account
given in the Book of Acts of the wonderful impression
made at Antioch and elsewhere, but especially at Lystra
where the cry was raised " the gods are come down to us
in the likeness of men." (3) The ritualistic tendencies
supposed to have been due to Celtic influence find their
true explanation in the Oriental character of the Phrygians
and Lycaonians, which gave them a " strong natural
affinity for the Hebraic type of Christianity." (4) The
language of vi. 17 : " From henceforth let no man trouble
me : for I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus,"
finds its explanation in the "persecutions, sufferings;
what things befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra "
(2 Tim. iii. 11). (5) The charge of inconsistency on the
part of the apostle implied in v. 11 : "But I, brethren,
if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted 1 "
if occasioned, as it probably was, by his conduct in
causing Timothy to be circumcised at Lystra, would be
very likely to be brought against him by the Jews in
that and the neighbouring cities. (6) The repeated
allusions to Barnabas (ii. 1, 9, 13,: ". . . insomuch
that even Barnabas was carried away with their dissimu-
lation ") give the impression that Barnabas was personally
known to the readers, and seem more natural if addressed
to the Churches in South Galatia, where Barnabas had
GALATIANS 91
been a fellow-labourer with Paul. (7) The language of
Gal. iii. 28 : " There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there
can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and
female : for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus," would
also be more appropriate if addressed to Churches in
which Greek culture was widely diffused, and where the
Jews had long made their influence felt, as was the case
in South Galatia. (8) If it was not to these Churches
that this epistle was addressed, they are left without
any share in the apostle's correspondence (so far as it
has been preserved to us) although they were the first-
fruits of his labours among the Gentiles, had been re-
peatedly visited by him, and were counted worthy of a
prominent place in the history of the Church by the
writer of the Book of Acts. If not included in "the
Churches of Galatia " there is only one passage in which the
apostle mentions them — in connection with the persecu-
tions he had once suffered among them (2 Tim. iii. 11).
II. (1) Nowhere in the Book of Acts — neither in xvi.
6, 7, nor in xviii. 23, the only two passages in which
Galatia is mentioned in that book — is it implied that
St. Paul ever visited the cities of North Galatia. "The
region of Phrygia and Galatia" (xvi. 6, R.V. ; "the Phry-
gian and Galatian country," Lightfoot) ; " the region of
Galatia and Phrygia " (xviii. 23, R.V.), may be taken as a
general description of " some region " (to use the words
of Bishop Lightfoot, himself one of the ablest advocates
of the North Galatian theory) " which might be said to
belong either to Phrygia or Galatia, or the parts of each
contiguous to the other," or, according to Professor
Ramsay, the w T ords may be taken in a still narrower sense
as equivalent to Phrygo-Galatia, i.e. the part of Phrygia
in the Roman province of Galatia. (2) Even assuming
that the apostle did visit North Galatia, there is no
evidence of his having preached there. It seems un-
92 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
likely that he should have set himself to the evangelisa-
tion of such a remote district — with its scattered cities
and fatiguing journeys — when he was recovering from
sickness, 1 and when the leading of the Spirit, so far as
recorded, was conducting him to Europe. But, if he had
done so, we should surely have found some information
in the Book of Acts regarding his planting of Churches,
considering the fulness with which his missionary work
in other parts of Asia Minor during the same period is
narrated, in accordance with the systematic plan of the
author. (3) The honourable position assigned to "the
Churches of Galatia" (1 Cor. xvi. 1) in connection with
the charitable fund which the apostle was raising
throughout the Church for the benefit of the poor
Christians at Jerusalem — side by side with " Macedonia "
and "Achaia" (cf. 2 Cor. ix. 1, 2) — shows that they
were Churches of considerable importance, whose exist-
ence was not likely to be ignored in the Book of Acts,
especially after they had been the recipients (as the
author could scarcely fail to know) of such a memorable
epistle. In this connection it is significant to find
11 Gaius of Derbe " as well as Timothy of Lystra (Acts
xx. 4) among the deputies who accompanied Paul from
Greece into Asia, on the way to Jerusalem to present
the united offerings of the Gentile Church, whereas we
look in vain for any representatives of North Galatia.
In the light of all these considerations it will be seen
1 Professor Ramsay holds that the true explanation of the apostle's
"infirmity of the flesh" (Gal. iv. 13) is that in his first missionary
journey Paul was prostrated with a malarious fever at Perga, where
he not improbably arrived during the hot season, possibly in June.
Such an illness is a common experience of travellers at the present
day ; and a remedy is frequently sought in such a change to the
hills as that which Paul obtained when he came to Antioch (Acts xiii.
13, 14). Hitherto his face had been turned westward (Perga being
on the way to Rome), and it was owing to the change of plan involved
in the journey to Antioch that John Mark, who had come with Paul
and Barnabas as far as Perga, returned to Jerusalem.
GALATIANS 93
that the balance of probability is in favour of the South
Galatian theory — the very existence of Churches in
North Galatia, in the time of the Apostle Paul, being a
matter of conjecture.
The only other intercourse between Paul and the
Galatian Churches (besides the visits already mentioned)
of which we have any record in the New Testament is
the injunction above referred to concerning the collection
for the poor of the Church at Jerusalem. This com-
munication may have taken place during the apostle's last
visit to these Churches, or in the course of his subsequent
stay at Ephesus, when the news may have reached him
of his converts' lapse from the truth.
Their falling away had evidently been connected with
an attempt on the part of Judaising teachers to persuade
to an observance of the ceremonial law of Moses (iii. 1-3 ;
iv. 10, 11, 21; v. 24, 7, 12; vi. 12, 13). 1 Although
the Galatian Christians were mainly converts from
heathenism (iv. 8 ; v. 2 ; vi. 12), some of them had
doubtless been connected with the Jewish synagogues,
either as members or as proselytes. Josephus tells us
that two thousand Jewish families had been settled in
Lydia and Phrygia by Antiochus the Great. Numerous
Jews had also been attracted to the cities of Galatia proper
by the commercial advantages which these afforded ; and
of their privileges, Josephus tells us, a monumental record
existed in the temple of Augustus at Ancyra, the ancient
capital of the district. The existence of this Jewish
element in the Church explains the frequent allusions to
the Old Testament and the influence gained over the
Galatians by the Judaising Christians of Jerusalem, who
1 According to the North Galatian theory, these teachers were
taking advantage of the ritualistic tendencies which, as Caesar tells us,
were characteristic of the Gauls, and which had been fostered by the
worship of the Phrygian Cybele, with its "wild ceremonial and
hideous mutilations."
94 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
were "zealous of the law," and desired to make the Gospel
tributary to the synagogue and the temple (i. 7). They
had taken advantage of Paul's absence to undermine his
character as an apostle, and had endeavoured only too
successfully to cause a reaction, in the minds of the
Galatians, from the simplicity and spirituality of the
Gospel. It was an attempt to recover the ground which
they had lost at Antioch and elsewhere (ii. 4, 5, 11, 14;
Acts xv. 1, 23-29).
3. Date and Place of Composition. — From what has
been already said as to the allusions in this epistle to the
apostle's second visit to Galatia, we may infer that its
composition was subsequent to 54 a.d., if we take Galatia
in the narrower sense, or to 51 a.d., if we understand
it to mean the Roman province of that name, which
included the cities of Asia Minor visited by Paul in his
first missionary journey. The expression "so soon," or
rather "so quickly" (R.V.), has been thought to imply
that the epistle must have been written very shortly after
the second visit. But if there is any reference here to a
previous event, it was probably their calling, or conversion,
that the apostle had in view ; and the language would
be equally appropriate whether an interval of five or
of ten years had elapsed. The expression may be better
taken, however, as referring simply to the rapidity
with which they succumbed to the influence of false
teachers.
Another note of time has been found in the apostle's
allusions to his two visits to Jerusalem (i. 18, ii. 1).
Professor Ramsay l holds that the visits referred to could
have had no bearing on the question of Paul's independent
authority as an apostle to the Galatians unless they had
taken place before his first appearance among them as
1 The Church in the Roman Empire, third edition, p. 107. Cf,
his instructive article in The Expositor for August 1895.
GALATIANS 95
a preacher of the Gospel. He points out that if the
Galatiana were converted by the apostle during his first
missionary journey, about 48 a.d. — when he preached in
South Galatia — there is no discrepancy between the
epistle and the Book of Acts, each telling of two visits to
Jerusalem, and two only, before that period. This theory
would seem to require a very early date for the apostle's
conversion (" after the space of fourteen years I went up
again to Jerusalem," ii. 1), but it would leave the date
of the epistle to be further determined. If we follow
the traditional view and identify the second visit re-
ferred to in the epistle with the third one recorded
in the Book of Acts (chap. xv. — about 50 a.d.) in con-
nection with the Council of Jerusalem, and suppose the
difference with Peter at Antioch (ii. 11-21) to have taken
place soon afterwards, the epistle may still have been
written as early as 51 a.d. This or the following year is
the date which some would assign to it. 1 But in all prob-
1 The Rev. F. Renrtall, in an able argument in Tlie Expositor, vol.
is. p. 254 (1894), maintains that the epistle was written from Corinth
in 52 a.d., when Paul was contending single-handed against his Jewish
adversaries ; and in vi. 17 he finds an allusion to the stripes recently
inflicted on the apostle at Philippi, as well as to the persecutions he
had suffered at Lystra. He lays stress on the absence of any direct
reference in the epistle to the great scheme of Christian liberality on
behalf of " the saints " at Jerusalem in which the apostle was so deeply
interested in 56-58 a.d., and holds such silence to be unaccountable
in an epistle written during that period. But according to Bishop
Lightfoot we have a reference to this matter in vi. 9, 10 — the warn-
ing with which it is accompanied in verses 7, 8 being due to the un-
satisfactory response that had hitherto been made by the Galatians.
More probably their contributions had already been secured (1 Cor.
xvi. 1), and, if so, there may have been no occasion for further mention
of the subject, any more than in writing to the Romans, as the
apostle did shortly afterwards, or to the Philippians, Colossians, and
Ephesians at a later date. More unaccountable than the apostle's
silence on this matter would be the entire absence from the Epistles
to the Thessalonians (written the year after the date Mr. Rendall
assigns to this epistle) of any reference to the great controversy as
to the relation of Law and Gospel in the Christian Church which was
then, according to this theory, occupying the mind of the apostle. This
96 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
ability a considerable interval must have elapsed between
the meeting of the Council at Jerusalem (whose peaceable
decrees were taken to Antioch by the hands of Barsabbas
and Silas, accompanying Paul and Barnabas) and the
arrival at Antioch of Peter, and, subsequently, of certain
men who " came from James " and induced Peter to
withdraw from the fellowship of the Gentile Christians.
This incident, which seems to have provoked the violent
resentment of the Judaisers, probably occurred during
Paul's visit to Antioch about 54 a.d., mentioned in a later
chapter (Acts xviii. 22, 23), and if so, the epistle may
have been written in the course of the apostle's third
missionary journey, on which he entered soon afterwards.
The general opinion has been that it was thus sent from
Ephesus during the apostle's long residence in that city.
But there seems to be good reason to assign it to a still
later date, somewhere between 2 Corinthians and Romans,
as we are now doing. For when we compare it with the
epistles just mentioned, we find a strong resemblance to
both of these — to the former in the writer's tone of feel-
ing regarding his apostleship and the attacks made upon
him; to the latter, in language, reasoning, and general
cast of doctrine. 1 It was manifestly written previous to
Romans, being to it as " the rough model to the finished
objection is only met in part by those who, like Professor Ramsay,
would assign the epistle to 55 a.d., a year or two before 1 Corinthians
was written, which seems to be the earliest of the series — Corinthians
(Galatians), Romans — dealing with this great problem in the apostle's
ministry.
1 See Lightfoot on Galatians, pp. 45-49. Professor Jacobus, in the
Presbyterian and Reformed Review, January 1895, points out that in
GaL ii. 6 we have a very near approach to the use of the composite
Greek word translated "respect of persons" which Paul employs for
the, first time in Rom. ii. 11 — a much nearer approach than we find in
2 Corinthians, although in the latter epistle there is a passage (x. 7)
where it might have been fitly used if it had already formed part
of the apostle's vocabulary even in the unconsolidated form in which
it appears in Gal. ii. 6.
GALATIANS 97
statue"; and it appears also to have been written when
the tension of the apostle's feelings was less severe than
when ho wrote 2 Corinthians. With great probability,
therefore, we may place its composition in the period of
transition between these two epistles, towards the close
of the year 57 a.d. It may have been written in the
apostle's journey from Macedonia to Greece (Acts xx. 2),
for the expression " all the brethren which are with me "
(i. 2), in the opening salutation, would be more likely
to be used by the apostle while he was the centre of a
travelling party, than if he had been residing at the seat
of a congregation.
4. Character and Contents. — From first to last the
epistle is marked by a conspicuous unity of purpose —
its main object being to counteract the Judaising process
that had been going on for some time in the Galatian
Church. An important factor in that process had been
the denial of Paul's apostolic authority on the ground
that he had never seen the Lord, and that he owed his
knowledge of the Gospel to the apostles who had their
headquarters at Jerusalem. On the question of circum-
cision and the observance of the law it was alleged that
he was particularly to be distrusted, as a renegade from
the religion of his fathers.
Without a word of his usual praise and thanksgiving,
the apostle begins with a bold assertion of his apostolic
office as directly conferred upon him by the Lord. This
is followed by an account of his intercourse and relations
with the other apostles after his conversion, showing
that he owed his conception of the Gospel not to them,
but to influence exerted on him from above (e.g. in the
solitudes of Arabia, i. 17). His ministry had been acknow-
ledged by the reputed pillars of the Church (James and
Cephas and John) as having the same Divine sanction
for the Gentiles, as their preaching had for the Jews.
7
98 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
Since that time he had consistently maintained the free-
dom of his converts from the bondage of the Law, having
even gone so far on one occasion as to rebuke Peter
for his dissimulation, when he would have withdrawn
from fellowship with the Gentile Christians at Antioch
(i. 18-ii.).
Having thus disposed of the personal aspect of the
question, he passes to its more doctrinal aspect by
appealing to the spiritual blessing which the Galatians
had experienced under his ministry when he preached
the Gospel to them without any mixture of Jewish ritual.
He proves that the Law has been superseded by the
Gospel, the latter being the full assertion of that principle
of faith that had always lain at the foundation of men's
acceptance with God, even in the time of Abraham. He
shows that the Law given by Moses could only create
a sense of sin without providing a remedy. It was but
a temporary means of training God's people for the
enjoyment of their privileges as His children — standing
in the same relation to the Gospel, as the children of
Hagar the bondwoman did to Isaac the child of promise
(iii.-iv.). In v.-vi. the apostle warns them against the
abuse of their spiritual freedom, setting before them the
true principles of Christian morality, and exhorting them
to several duties of which they had need to be reminded.
He concludes with a postscript in his own handwriting
(vi. 11-18), in which he sums up the argument with an
emphasis and decision that contrast strongly with the
hesitation apparent in some of the earlier passages, where
he is trying to vindicate his conduct without casting
any unnecessary reflections on the other apostles. He
exposes the unworthy motives of his opponents, reaffirms
the supreme importance of the Cross of Christ 1 and of
regeneration in Him as essential to the true Israel of
1 The name of Christ occurs forty-three times in this short epistle.
GALATIANS 90
God, and appeals to the marks which he bears of recent
persecution, as the seal of his apostleship and the token of
his renewed devotion to the Saviour. " From henceforth
let no man trouble me, for I bear branded on my body
the marks of Jesus." 1 Finally he invokes the Divine
blessing on his converts in terms specially fitted to lift
them above the thought of carnal ordinances — "The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be -with your spirit,
brethren."
The whole epistle is marked by a force and vehemence
that strain the apostle's power of expression to the
utmost. It has done more than any other book of the
New Testament for the emancipation of Christians, not
only from the yoke of Judaism, but from every other
form of externalism that has ever threatened the freedom
and spirituality of the Gospel. 2 It was Luther's favourite
epistle, to which he was " wedded," as he said ; and from
it he largely drew his inspiration in his conflict with the
Church of Rome.
1 With this we may connect the fact that in the very next epistle
which he writes Paul styles himself " a bondservant of Jesus Christ "
(Rom. i. 1, R.V. margin), being the first time, so far as is known, that
he ever so designated himself.
2 The words "free," "freedom," "make free," occur eleven times in
the epistle.
CHAPTER XIII
"THE EPISTLE OP PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE ROMANS "
1. Authorship. — The Pauline authorship of this epistle
is universally admitted. There is no lack of external
evidence in its favour; but its strong resemblance to
Galatians is enough to prove its common authorship with
that epistle. Moreover, a comparison of its contents
with other Pauline epistles and with the Book of Acts
affords valuable confirmation of its genuineness and
authenticity. 1
From one of the closing salutations (xvi. 22) we learn
1 Besides the remarkable coincidences with regard to the time and
place of its composition, p. 102, the following points are worthy of
notice. (1) The statement of the writer's long-felt desire to visit
Eome, and of his hope of now doing so after fulfilling his mission to
Jerusalem, is in harmony with the purpose expressed by the apostle
at Ephesus some time before, i. 13 ; xv. 22-25 ; Acts xix. 21. (2) The
request which he makes to the Christians at Eome that they would
unite with him in prayer that he " may be delivered from them that
are disobedient in Judaea," corresponds with the apostle's expression
of feeling in his last journey to Jerusalem (xv. 30, 31 ; Acts xx. 22,
23). (3) The teaching in this epistle and in Galatians is in striking
harmony with Paul's mission as the apostle of the Gentiles, and goes
far to explain the accusation brought against him on his last recorded
visit to Jerusalem (Acts xxi. 19). (4) The nature of the visit to
Rome contemplated by the writer of this epistle, namely, " that I may
come unto you in joy through the will of God, and together with you
find rest " (xv. 32), is so very different from what the apostle actually
experienced, when he was carried a prisoner to Rome, that it could not
have been so described by any one who derived his information from
the Book of Acts.
ROMANS 101
that the epistle was written by Tertius as the apostle's
amanuensis.
2. The Readers. — " To all that are in Rome, beloved
of God, called to be saints." These words and the ab-
sence of any mention of bishops and deacons either in
this epistle or in the account of the welcome which Paul
received from the Roman brethren three years after-
wards (Acts xxviii. 15) would seem to indicate that there
was no formally organised Church in the city, but merely
groups of believers meeting for worship in private houses
(xvi. 5). They seem to have been mainly of Gentile
origin (i. 5, 6, 13-15; xi. 13-24; xv. 15, 16). But the
whole tenor of the epistle, abounding as it does in quota-
tions from the Old Testament (more than sixty in num-
ber) and in allusions to the Jewish Law, clearly shows
that they had been led to a knowledge of the truth
through their connection with the Jewish faith as prose-
lytes of the gate (indeed, some of them appear to have
been born Jews — ii. 17 ; xvi. 7 — and hence the expres-
sion, "I speak to men that know the law," vii. 1). The
Jews had for a long time been a numerous and powerful
section of the community at Rome, and their religion
had gained great influence among the educated classes. 1
The introduction of Christianity among them had appar-
ently been due not to apostolic labours (certainly not to
those of Peter, 2 whose alleged episcopate of twenty-five
1 Thousands of Jewish captives were brought to Rome by Pompey
from the East, about 63 B.C. ; and from that time forward the Jews
continued to grow in numbers and influence until, in the next
century, Seneca could say of them, Victoribus victi leges dederunt,
" The conquered have given laws to their conquerors."
2 "It is not without significance that, among the frescoes of the
Catacombs, the only figure of an apostle which is represented separately
from the rest of the twelve is that of St. Paul, described as Paulus
Pastor Apostolus, side by 'side with a figure of the Good Shepherd.
In none of the Catacombs is St. Peter specially designated by name
or attribute." — Marriott's Testimony of the Catacombs.
102 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
years at Rome is unsupported by evidence in the New
Testament or elsewhere), but to the influence of Chris-
tian travellers, especially, we may believe, of the " so-
journers from Rome, both Jews and proselytes," who had
witnessed the wonderful works of God on the great day
of Pentecost (Acts ii. 10). Although Paul had never
been at Rome, many of the Christians there were person-
ally known to him — possibly owing to their temporary
banishment from Rome by the Edict of Claudius, — as
we may infer from the numerous greetings in the closing
chapter. From i. 7, 8; xv. 14, it would appear that the
religious condition of the Christians at Rome was in many
respects satisfactory j and in keeping with this we learn
from Tacitus that a great multitude of them endured
martyrdom in the reign of Nero a few years later. But
the apostle's language (in chap, xiv.) would indicate the
existence of weakness and disagreement among them,
in connection with certain scruples felt by some of their
number with regard to the eating of animal food and the
observance of days and seasons. They were also liable
to many serious temptations, as we may infer from the
exhortations in xii.-xiii. ; and their spiritual life required
to be strengthened (i. 11).
3. Date and Place of Composition. — From the writer's
circumstances, as stated in xv. 22-26, viewed in the
light of Acts xx. 1-3, xxiv. 17-19 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 1-4 ; 2 Cor.
viii. 1-4, ix. 1, 2, we gather that the epistle was written
towards the close of Paul's second visit to Corinth (early
in 58 a.d.), on the eve of his journey to Jerusalem to
carry up the alms collected for the poor brethren there,
after which he was to make his long-intended visit to
Rome. 1
1 In remarkable harmony with this inference as to the date of the
epistle are the facts (1) that of those who "accompanied Paul as far
as Asia " (Acts xx. 4) on his last journey towards Jerusalem, three,
namely, Sosipater, Gaius, and Timothy, send their salutations in this
ROMANS 103
4. Character and Contents. — In an intellectual sense
this epistle may be said to be the apostle's masterpiece ;
theologically it is the most important of all his epistles.
Coleridge has pronounced it " the most profound work
ever written." Calvin said of it that "it opened the
door to all the treasures in the Scriptures " ; while Luther
considered it " the chief book of the New Testament,
and the purest Gospel."
As already mentioned, it bears a striking resemblance
to Galatians (written a short time before it) not only
in individual words and phrases, but in the general
drift of its teaching with regard to the superiority
of the Gospel to the Law. It is, however, more dis-
passionate in tone, being less personal in its character,
and containing a more full and comprehensive treatment
of the subject.
It may be said to embody the results of the recent
controversy with the Judaisers, stated in a logical and
epistle ; (2) that salutations are sent to Priscilla and Aquila (xvi. 3),
who are mentioned as having rendered great service and incurred
great danger on behalf of the apostle and in the interests of the
Church of the Gentiles — which finds confirmation in Acts xviii. 2-26 ;
1 Cor. xvi. 19 ; (3) that the apostle speaks (xv. 19) of having preached
the Gospel " from Jerusalem, and round about even unto Illyricum "
— a country adjoining the western frontier of Macedonia, — a state-
ment which could not have been made before his second recorded visit
to Europe (Acts xx. 1, 2), as on the first occasion his visit was con-
fined to the towns along its eastern coast (Acts xvi.-xviii.).
Equally in keeping with the inference as to the place of composi-
tion, viz. Corinth, are the facts (1) that "Gaius my host" and
"Erastus the treasurer of the city" send their greetings (xvi. 23), the
former being mentioned in 1 Cor. i. 14 as one of the very few persons
at Corinth whom the apostle had himself baptized, the latter in Acts
xix. 22 as a companion of Paul and in 2 Tim. iv. 20 as left behind at
Corinth ; (2) that Phcebe, by whom the epistle was apparently con-
veyed to Rome, is commended (xvi 1, 2) as " a servant of the church
that is at Cenchreae," which was one of the ports of Corinth that had
been previously visited by Paul (Acts xviii. 18).
In connection with the mention of Phcebe it is interesting to ob-
serve that even at this early period the Christian Church had learned
to appreciate the value of female energy and devotion.
104 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
systematic form, and at the same time with such modera-
tion and caution as was fitted to disarm the prejudices
and conciliate the favour of the- Jewish element in the
Church. That element had not yet been infected with
the leaven of malignant bigotry, emanating from Jeru-
salem, which had made its influence felt in so many of
the other Churches where Paul had laboured ; and the
epistle was intended to serve the purpose of prevention
rather than cure. It was also intended to pave the way
for the apostle's visit to the Church at Rome, whose
destined greatness he foresaw, and by whose assistance
he hoped to obtain a still wider field for his missionary
labours. 1
Being addressed to the Christians of imperial Rome,
this epistle is distinguished by its cosmopolitan tone,
which is shown at the outset (i. 4, 5) by a reference to
the "obedience of faith" to which "all the nations" are
called in "Jesus Christ our Lord." It sets forth the
universality of the Gospel as " the power of God unto sal-
vation to every one that believeth ; to the Jew first, and
also to the Greek" 2 (i. 16), and brings out the contrast
not between Moses and Christ, as in Galatians, but
between Adam and Christ as the representatives of
nature and of grace (v. 12-21). With no less propriety,
in writing to the inhabitants of a city that was the seat
of justice for the whole civilised world, the apostle looks
at the great question of salvation from a judicial or
forensic point of view, — exhibiting the bearing of the
1 " In time of war, a good general knows well the importance of
seizing commanding positions, and discerns them by a sort of intuition.
St. Paul had this faculty, as a leader of that little army which, with
its spiritual weapons of warfare, went forth to subdue the nations to
Christ : and, while journeying in the east, he kept this steadily in
view : ' I must also see Rome ' " (Fraser's Synoptical Lectures, Third
Series, p. 13).
2 The word " all " or " every " occurs nearly seventy times in the
epistle.
ROMANS 105
Gospel on the interests of law and righteousness, proving
the guilt of all men, both Jews and Gentiles, at the bar
of Divine judgment, and proclaiming the doctrine of
justification by faith as the only means of acceptance
with God.
Having set forth the great scheme of redemption, the
apostle deals with its bearing on the fortunes of the
chosen people (ix.-xi.). He shows that their failure to
enter into the blessings of the New Covenant, which
gave him "great sorrow and unceasing pain in (his)
heart," was due to their own spiritual blindness, as fore-
told in the writings of the prophets. Their recent experi-
ence was in keeping with the analogy of God's dealings
with them in the past, but their rejection was only
partial and temporary, destined to lead in the mysterious
wisdom of Divine providence to a still fuller manifestation
of Divine goodness. " For God hath shut up all unto dis-
obedience, that he might have mercy upon all " (xi. 32).
After this lesson on the philosophy of history, in which
the apostle seeks to justify the ways of God to men and
is moved again and again to adoration of the Divine
wisdom, he exhorts his readers to the cultivation of
various graces and virtues as the best refutation of the
charge of lawlessness to which the gospel of the free
grace of God is liable (xii.-xiv.). In conclusion, he sends
numerous greetings to individual Christians with whom
he is personally acquainted, many of w T hom had rendered
valuable service to the Church, and with whom he had
probably been brought into contact at Ephesus and other
great centres.
There are several breaks in the epistle where it might
have fitly terminated. This circumstance, together with
variations in the arrangement of the last two chapters in
some of the MSS. (and the blanks left in a MS. of some
importance where the words " in Rome " occur in the
106 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
opening chapter, vv. 7 and 14), has given rise to the idea
that the epistle was sent as an encyclical or circular-
letter, with varying terminations, to a number of Churches.
We may add that the fact of this epistle, although
addressed to Romans, being written in Greek, is not only
in keeping with the apostle's literary habit, but is also in
accordance with the general use of Greek at the time
throughout the civilised world. The Christian congrega-
tions of the first century were like so many Greek colonies,
as far as language was concerned ; and it was not till the
latter part of the second century that a Latin version
and a Latin literature arose, chiefly for the benefit of the
Christians in North Africa. 1 It may be noted that most
of those to whom the apostle sends salutations in this
epistle bear Greek names.
1 " Even later, the ill-spelt, ill-written inscriptions of the catacombs,
with their strange intermingling of Greek and Latin characters, show
that the Church (in Rome) was not yet fully nationalised " (Lightfoot).
CHAPTER XIV
THE EPISTLES OF THE IMPRISONMENT
After the letter to the Romans there is an interval of
three or four years before we can trace any further corre-
spondence on the part of the apostle. Leaving Corinth
in the spring of 58 a.d., he made his way to Jerusalem
along the coast of Macedonia and Asia Minor. In the
course of his journey we find him taking farewell of one
Church after another, under a strong presentiment of
approaching calamity. Soon after his arrival in Jeru-
salem, he was arrested on account of a tumult resulting
from a last effort which he made to conciliate the Jewish
Christians. Removed as a prisoner to Csesarea, he was
there detained in custody for two years under the
governor Felix ; but, soon after the appointment of
Festus as the successor of Felix, the apostle appealed
for trial to the imperial judgment-seat, and was sent to
Rome accordingly, under a military escort. After* a
disastrous voyage, in which he suffered shipwreck on the
island of Malta, where he had to pass the winter, he
arrived at Rome in the early summer of 61 a.d. — his
long-cherished wish at length realised, but in a very
different manner from what he had at one time antici-
pated. Owing to protracted delay in the hearing of
his case — a thing by no means uncommon under the
108 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
Emperors — he remained for two years in military custody,
his right hand chained to the left hand of the soldier who
guarded him. He was permitted, however, to reside in
his own hired lodging, and to hold free converse with
friends and visitors.
It was during this period that the epistles to the
Philippians, the Colossians, Philemon, and the Ephesians
were composed. Each of these epistles bears tokens of
having been written during the author's imprisonment
(Phil. i. 7, 13, 14, 17; Col. iv. 3, 18; Philemon vv. 9,
10, 13; Eph. iii. 1, iv. 1 ; cf. Acts xxviii. 16, 20). It is
further evident that this imprisonment was occasioned
by his preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles (Col. i.
24-27; Eph. vi. 19, 20; Acts xxii. 21, 22, xxvi. 19-21).
Some think that the imprisonment in question was that
which the apostle endured at Caesarea. But in several
respects the circumstances referred to in the epistles
harmonise better with his stay in Rome, (a) The im-
pression made by his bonds which " became manifest in
Christ throughout the whole praetorian guard, and to all
the rest " (Phil. i. 13), and the mention of u Caesar's
household " (iv. 22), point to the imperial city as the
scene of his influence. 1 (6) The apostle's purpose of
visiting Macedonia after his release (ii. 24), would not
answer to his state of mind while he was looking forward
to a visit to Rome, (c) The expression used in Acts xxviii.
20 to describe Paul's confinement, namely, " this chain,"
is almost identical with the language of Eph. vi. 20
(margin) on the same subject; while the same cannot
be said of the apostle's allusion to his condition at
Caesarea when he replied to Agrippa, " I would to God,
1 " The camp and the court were always centres of Christianising
influence " (Mommsen). Caesar's household formed an immense estab-
lishment, including thousands of slaves and freedmen employed in all
kinds of official and domestic duties (as we learn from recently
discovered monuments in Rome).
THE EPISTLES OF THE IMPRISONMENT 109
that whether with little or with much, not thou only, but
also all that hear me this day, might become such as I
am, except these bonds " (Acts xxvi. 29). (d) Both Colos-
sians and Philippians are written in the name of Paul and
Timothy, but we find no trace of the latter in connection
with Paul's imprisonment at Ceesarea. (e) The great
metropolis of the world was a much more likely refuge
than Ceesarea for a runaway slave like Onesimus.
With regard to the order in which these four epistles
were written, many critics have been disposed to assign
Philippians to a. later date than the three others. But
none of their arguments when examined appear to have
much weight. Philemon — which can be shown to be
contemporaneous with Colossians (see p. 118) — affords as
probable an indication of having been written when the
imprisonment was drawing to a close (ver. 23) as anything
to be found in Philippians. We cannot, however, infer
much from such expressions, as the apostle's prospects may
have undergone various vicissitudes during his imprison-
ment. We are on safer ground when we base our judgment
on the general character of the several epistles. When
we do so we are led to the conclusion that this epistle
marks the transition from Romans to Colossians and
Ephesians. While the former of these resembles it in
many points both verbal and doctrinal, 1 we discern in the
two latter a new phase of doctrine of which scarcely any
trace can be found in the Epistle to the Philippians.
While Philippians, therefore, was probably anterior in
1 Cf. Phil. i. 3-8, Rom. i. 8-11 ; Phil. i. 10, Rom. ii. 18 ; Phil. iii.
4, 5, Rom. xii. 1 ; Phil. iii. 9, Rom. x. 3 ; Phil. iii. 10, 11, Rom. vi. 5.
In a general sense the similarity of these two epistles as contrasted
with Colossians and Ephesians may be accounted for by the former
being addressed to Churches in Europe, the latter to the theosophic
Christians of Asia Minor; but if Philippians had been written subse-
quently to them, it could scarcely have failed to bear very distinct
traces of the speculative questions which had so recently engaged the
apostle's attention.
110 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
date to the three others, the effects which the apostle's
" bonds " are stated to have already produced in Rome
(i. 13), as well as the account of Epaphroditus' mission
from Philippi to Rome, with its attendant circumstances
(ii., iv.), imply that some considerable time had elapsed
since the apostle's arrival. We may therefore assign this
epistle to the early part of 62 a.d., and the three others
to the close of the same year or the beginning of 63 a.d. 1
"THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE
PHILIPPIANS "
1. Authorship. — The Pauline authorship of this epistle
is generally admitted. It is a characteristic outpouring
of the apostle's tender, affectionate, and devout heart;
the circumstances which gave rise to it come out in the
course of the epistle in a casual and unaffected manner ;
and corroboration of them is found in the Book of Acts
and elsewhere. It is difficult to imagine what purpose
a forger could have had, or how he could ever have
achieved success, in fabricating a letter of such a dis-
tinctly personal character.
With regard to external evidence, traces of expressions
used in the epistle may be found in many of the earliest
Christian writers (outside of the New Testament) whose
works have come down to us. By the close of the second
century its general acceptance in the Church is beyond
the possibility of doubt. One writer (Tertullian, about
1 It is possible the apostle may have written other letters during
his imprisonment. His anxiety about his own prospects did not
prevent him from engaging in active labour among the soldiers and
others brought into contact with him, or from superintending by means
of his colleagues and envoys the various Churches which looked to
him for guidance. In this connection the following names occur
in the epistles — Luke, Timothy, John Mark, Demas, Jesus Justus,
Epaphroditus (of Philippi), Tychicus (of Ephesus), Epaphras (of
Colossse), and Aristarchus (of Thessalonica).
nilLIPPIANS 111
200 a.d.) states that it had all along been read and
acknowledged by the Church of Philippi.
2. The Readers. — " To all the saints in Christ Jesus
which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons."
Philippi was the first place at which St. Paul preached
the Gospel in Europe — in the course of his second
missionary journey, 52 a.d. A very full and graphic
account of this visit is given by St. Luke, who along with
Timothy and Silas accompanied the apostle on the
occasion (Acts xvi. 11-40). The city lay a few miles
inland from the coast of Macedonia, at the confluence of
Asiatic and European life on the great Egnatian highway,
where there was a pass in the mountain barrier stretching
north and south. Founded on an ancient site by Philip,
king of Macedonia (who named it after himself) in the
middle of the fourth century B.C., the city was raised to
the dignity of a Roman colony by Augustus (42 a.d.) in
commemoration of his great victory over Brutus and
Cassius gained in the immediate vicinity. As a colony
it became politically "a miniature likeness of Rome";
and the high sense of Roman citizenship which pervaded
the community may be seen at several points in Luke's
narrative (Acts xvi. 20, 21, 35-39) as well as in allusions
in the epistle (i. 27, R.V. margin ; iii. 20, R.V.). There
were comparatively few Jews in the place, as we may
infer from the want of any regular synagogue and the
absence of any Hebrew name in the list of converts. 1
Only three members of the Church are specially men-
tioned in the account of Paul's visit. These are a
proselyte of Asia, a Greek, and a Roman — representing
the catholic nature of the Church which Paul had come
to establish, — representing, too, the liberal and liberating
spirit of the Gospel, two of them being women, and one
1 To this fact the constant loyalty of the Philippians to the person
and teaching of the apostle was probably in some measure due.
112 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
of the two a slave, the absolute property of her master.
The consecrating influence of the Gospel on family
relations is brought out here for the first time in the
history of the Church, — Lydia's " household " being
baptized with her, and the jailor rejoicing greatly " with
all his house." The prominence assigned to women both
here and in the neighbouring Churches of Thessalonica
and Beroea (Acts xvi. 13; Acts xvii. 4, 12; cf. iv. 2, 3)
is in harmony with what we know from other sources to
have been characteristic of Macedonian society. 1
Paul's visit to Philippi was memorable not only for
the converts whom he made but also for the sufferings he
endured and the signal deliverance that was granted to
him. The Church which he then formed excelled all
others in its devoted attachment to his person and its
repeated acts of generosity to him. This generosity he
accepted, contrary to his ordinary rule, because of his
perfect confidence in the sincerity and affection of the
donors.
We hear of two subsequent visits which the apostle
paid to Philippi — in 57 and 58 a.d. (Acts xx. 2, 6). His
experience on these occasions, as well as in other com-
munications which he held with them, had done much to
cheer his heart. In their contributions for the relief of
the poor saints at Jerusalem they appear to have con-
tributed, in common with the other Macedonians, even
"beyond their power" in "much proof of affliction"
and "deep poverty" (2 Cor. viii. 1-4).
3. Date and Place of Composition. — At Rome, 61-62
a.d. (see pp. 108, 109).
4. Character and Contents. — Of all St. Paul's epistles
this is the most benign, breathing a spirit of the warmest
1 " The extant Macedonian inscriptions seem to assign to the sex a
higher social influence than is common among the civilised nations of
antiquity " (Lightfoot).
l'lULIPPIANS 113
sympathy and approval. At chap. iv. 1 he addresses the
Philippians as "my brethren beloved and longed for,
my joy and crown." In this respect it surpasses even
1 Thessalonians, which it resembles not a little in its
gentle and confiding tone.
Without any assertion of apostolic authority, it begins
with a very full thanksgiving for the tokens of grace
which the Philippians had so generally manifested since
the Gospel was preached among them. These tokens
led the apostle to cherish a confident persuasion that
they would advance more and more in the Christian life
and realise a fulfilment of his constant prayer on their
behalf (i. 1-11).
He then adverts to his own circumstances, and refers
to the salutary influence of his bonds in witnessing for
Christ among the imperial guard and in the city gener-
ally, while his friends were stimulated by his example,
and even his enemies were provoked to greater activity
on his account. 1 The preaching of the Gospel by these
latter, however unworthy their motives, he regards as
better than none for those w r ho know not Christ; and
instead of troubling himself about their opposition to
him, he will rather take comfort from their labour, feeling
assured that all his trials will work together for good.
He is prepared either for life or for death, as the will of the
Lord may be, although he has a strong impression that
he will be delivered and permitted to visit Philippi once
more (i. 12-26). In any case he would appeal to them to
be firm and united in defence of Christ's cause — counting
it a token of salvation that they are permitted " not only
1 These factious teachers (i. 15-17) may either have been Judaisers
(cf. iii. 1-9) or Antinomians (cf. iii. 18, 19). The latter may have
resented the apostle's warnings against their exaggeration and perver-
sion of the Gospel, and his consideration for the Jews (Rom. vi. , etc.) ;
and they may have tried, in consequence, to slight his authority and
curtail his influence during his imprisonment.
8
114 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
to believe on him, but also to suffer in his behalf"
(i. 27-30). He would counsel them to avoid all rivalry
and self-seeking, and to cultivate that humility which was
so signally displayed by the Lord Jesus Christ, and was
attended in His case with such glorious results. He
exhorts them to work out their salvation with fear and
trembling as in God's presence and with God's help,
striving to walk worthy of their calling and to justify
the apostle's boast concerning them. They might rest
assured that he was as devoted to their interests as ever,
and was ready, if need be, to give up his life on their
behalf. He hoped soon to send to them their mutual and
trusty friend Timothy with news of his prospects, and
in return he hopes to hear of their state before he visits
them in person. Meanwhile he is sending to them
Epaphroditus, the messenger of their bounty, who has
been of invaluable service to him since his arrival, but
whose recent illness and anxiety on their account render
it expedient that he should return to Philippi (ii.).
At this point (iii. 1) it would seem as if the apostle
had intended to draw to a close — probably by a renewal
of his counsels to unity and brotherly love. But from
some cause — perhaps owing to his being interrupted by
fresh news of the Judaisers — he launches into a new
subject, warning his converts against the infatuation of
those who would put their confidence in Jewish rights or
privileges, and avowing his own renunciation of all such
claims, in view of the new life which comes from fellow-
ship with the risen and exalted Christ. That life cannot
be realised without strenuous and persevering effort in
the path of duty. He would therefore caution them
against the gross abuse of the doctrines of grace which
some are guilty of, and he bids them take his own life as
an example of the Christian course. In the last chapter
he returns to the subject of the dissensions among them,
PHILIPPIANS 115
and refers to two women of influence in the Church whom
he is anxious to see restored to terms of friendship. For
this purpose he invokes the aid of Epaphroditus (" true
yoke-fellow ") and other leading members of the Church.
He adds several exhortations of a general nature that are
among the most beautiful precepts in the New Testament
(iv. 4-9). In conclusion, before sending the final saluta-
tions, he thanks the Philippians warmly for the renewal
of their bounty towards him, which he welcomes not so
much on his own account as for the evidence it affords of
their devotion to the Gospel. For their kindness to him
God will yet reward them with the higher treasures that
are hid in Christ Jesus (iv. 10-23). 1
It is worthy of note that the " bishops and deacons "
specially addressed in the opening of the epistle (i. 1) re-
present the only two classes of local Church office-bearers
that are mentioned in the New Testament. The former
(bishops or overseers, R.V. margin) are virtually identical
with the " elders " or presbyters mentioned elsewhere in
connection with Churches mainly composed of Jewish
converts. To these bishops or elders were entrusted
governing and teaching functions in the Church, while the
deacons appear to have been specially charged with the
care of the poor. The three Episcopal orders of bishop,
priest, and deacon cannot be distinctly traced before the
beginning of the second century.
1 "Of the church which stood foremost among all the apostolic
communities in faith and love, it may literally be said that not one
stone stands upon another. Its whole career is a signal monument of
the inscrutable counsels of God. Born into the world with the
brightest promise, the church of Philippi has lived without a history
and perished without a memorial. . . . The city itself has long been a
wilderness " (Lightfoot).
CHAPTER XV
COLOSSIANS PHILEMON
" THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS "
1. Authorship. — The Pauline authorship of this epistle,
as well as of that to the Ephesians (which it closely
resembles), has of recent years been called in question,
not for any want of external evidence, but because of its
peculiar phraseology as compared with the earlier epistles
of Paul. This objection, however, is one of little force. It
is no uncommon thing for a writer's vocabulary to undergo
a considerable change in the course of a very short period,
when he is placed amid new surroundings and under the
influence of new associations. 1 Anything strange about
the apostle's language in this epistle is sufficiently ex-
plained by the circumstances under which he wrote, and
was evidently occasioned by the new errors which he was
called to encounter.
It is alleged, however, that we have in this epistle, not
only novelty in language, but also in doctrine, especially
with regard to the nature and office of Christ. But the
truth is we have in the Christology of- this epistle only
the full development of ideas which had germinated in
1 A close examination of the works of Xenophon, for example, has
brought to light a remarkable variation of language in the books he
wrote after he began to move about from place to place like St. Paul.
COLOSSIANS 117
the apostle's mind years before (1 Thess. i. 1; 1 Cor. viii.
6, xi. 3 ; 2 Cor. iv. 4), and are to be found in other books
of the New Testament (1 John i. 3 ; Heb. i. 2). In the
notable passage in Philippians (ii. 5-11) regarding the
original glory and the ultimate exaltation of the Saviour,
as lofty a claim is made on His behalf to the reverence
and adoration of the Church as is anywhere to be found
in this epistle.
It is worthy of note, too, that this epistle has a special
mark of genuineness in the singular connection which
subsists between it and the Epistle to Philemon (iv. 7-18,
Philemon 2, 10-12, 23, 24).*
2. The Readers.—" To the saints and faithful breth-
ren in Christ which are at Colossse." The Church at
Colossse seems to have been the least important of the
Churches to which Paul is known to have written. The
city itself had at one time been populous and important,
but its prosperity was very much reduced before the days
of the apostle. It lay on the river Lycus, a tributary of
the Mseander in the Phrygian part of Asia Minor, not
many miles distant from its more prosperous neighbours,
Laodicea and Hierapolis (iv. 13), in "a sombre and melan-
choly region " covered with the traces of volcanic action.
In common with these cities, Colossse had doubtless been
indebted for its knowledge of Christianity to the evangel-
istic labours of Paul at Ephesus, the metropolis of the
district, from which his influence had spread far and
1 This connection is such, that if the letter to Philemon he genuine
(as generally admitted), Colossians must likewise he so ; otherwise it
must be a forgery founded on Philemon. But this is seen to be very
unlikely when it is remembered that — (1) in the Epistle to Philemon
there is no mention whatever of Colossae, or of any place in its neigh-
bourhood, nor yet of the messenger Tychicus ; (2) there are variations
in the salutations sent in the two epistles, such as we can scarcely
imagine to have been resorted to in the interests of forgery ; and (3)
in Colossians there is no reference whatever to Philemon himself or to
the peculiar circumstances of Onesimus as a runaway slave.
118 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
wide, "almost throughout all Asia" (Acts xix. 10, 26;
1 Cor. xvi. 19). Although we may infer from his language
in the epistle (ii. 1) that Paul had not personally laboured
among the Colossians, it would seem that their chief
evangelist, Epaphras, had been one of his disciples (i. 7,
R.V.).
This Epaphras had paid a visit to Rome during Paul's
imprisonment there. Whether he had come for the
express purpose of consulting the apostle regarding the
state of the Colossians is not clear ; but at all events he
made Paul acquainted with the dangers that were be-
setting the Church notwithstanding many tokens of grace
(i. 3-8; ii. 8-20; iv. 12, 13). The interest in Colossse
which was thus awakened in the mind of the apostle by
his conversation with Epaphras was further stimulated
by his intercourse with Onesimus, a runaway slave from
the same city, who was in some way or other brought
under his influence at Rome, and proved an invaluable
friend (iv. 9, cf. Philemon). He could not permanently
retain Onesimus in his service, as he was the lawful
property of another, so he took the opportunity afforded
by the mission of Tychicus (a trusty delegate) to Asia
(iv. 7-9; Acts xx. 4; 2 Tim. iv. 12) to send Onesimus
along with him, giving the latter a conciliatory letter to
his master Philemon (pp. 121-125), and at the same time
he addresses a longer communication to the members of
the Colossian Church, with special reference to the evils
to which they were exposed. This he entrusts to the
care of Tychicus, by whom he also despatches another
epistle intended for a still wider circle of readers (Eph.
vi. 21, 22).
3. Date and Place of Composition. — At Rome, 62-63
a.d. (pp. 108-110).
4. Character and Contents. — It has been remarked
that this epistle lacks the vivacity and fluency which
COLOSSIANS 119
characterise the apostle's style when he is addressing
readers personally known to him.
To the ordinary reader it is probably the most difficult
of Paul's epistles, owing to the fact that it was designed
to bo a corrective of certain errors of a recondite nature
with which we have little or nothing to do at the present
day. For these errors the Jewish element of the popula-
tion, which was so prevalent in that part of the world,
was largely responsible. 1 It was not the Pharisees, how-
ever, whose endeavours, at an earlier period, to foist the
ceremonial law of the Jews on the Christian Church had
been so strenuously and successfully resisted by the
apostle of the Gentiles, but the Essenes, another sect of
the Jews, that were now the corrupters of the faith.
Their pretensions were of a more abstruse and philosophic
character, savouring of combined mysticism and asceti-
cism ; and along with their teaching was mingled the
theosophy of Asia Minor, resulting in the strange form
of heresy which we find the apostle combating in this
epistle.
The heresy was partly speculative, partly practical,
but at the root of the whole there lay an abhorrence of
matter as the abode of evil, and a consequent depreciation
of everything connected with man's physical existence.
This led, on its speculative side, to an elaborate system
of mediation between the Supreme Being and the world
of matter, by means of a spiritual hierarchy consisting of
a graduated series of emanations from the deity, the
1 Two thousand Jewish families were brought by Antiochus the
Great from Babylonia and Macedonia, and settled in Lydia and
Phrygia. We have evidence of their numbers and wealth at a later
period in the large quantity of gold that was confiscated by the Roman
governor on its way to Jerusalem in payment of the poll-tax. We also
find Phrygia mentioned (Acts ii. 10) as one of the countries from which
devout men were present at Jerusalem on the great day of Pentecost.
Their influence in the Colossian Church may be traced in ii. 11, 14, 16,
18, etc.
120 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
lowest of which was supposed to have been far enough
removed from the Supreme Being to be capable of
bringing into existence the base material world. In
opposition to this theory the apostle insists upon the
absolute and universal mediatorship of Christ — in the
outward universe created through Him (i. 16) as well as
in the Church of which He is the Head (i. 18), and warns
his converts against being led astray by a false philo-
sophy, associated with the worship of angels, which
some of their teachers were trying to introduce into the
Church.
On its practical side the error took the form of a
rigorous asceticism, intended to free man's spirit from
the degrading influence of the world and the flesh. To
counteract this tendency, the apostle proclaims the
inspiring and life-giving power of fellowship with Jesus
Christ, by whose death upon the Cross reconciliation has
been effected between heaven and earth, and in whom
" dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." The
spirit of Christ ought to raise Christians above the mere
elements or "rudiments" of the world, imparting to
them new motives and a higher consciousness ; and the
apostle calls upon his readers to consecrate " in Christ "
all departments of their personal and social life.
While the speculative and practical aspects of the
subject are not kept entirely distinct, the former is
chiefly dealt with in the first chapter, after the opening
salutation, thanksgiving, and prayer; while the second
chapter is more polemical in tone, and forms an intro-
duction to the practical exhortations which occupy the
third and part of the f6urth or last chapter. The
remainder of the epistle (iv. 7-18) is occupied with salu-
tations and personal explanations and directions.
In several passages a reference may be traced to the
intellectual pride and exclusiveness which were associated
PHILEMON 121
with tho errors of the Colossian Church. Amon
Jewish members, the pride of intellect was taking the
place of tho old pride of nationality. In opposition
to this tendency the apostle declares that " in Christ "
— not in any philosophy which man could devise —
u are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden "
(ii. 3). He prays that they " may be filled with the
knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and
understanding " (i. 9). He represents the Gospel as
a " mystery " that has been " manifested " to the whole
Church — his duty as an apostle being to proclaim Christ,
" admonishing every man, and teaching every man in all
wisdom; that he may present every man perfect in
Christ " (i. 25-28 ; ii. 2, 3). He thus declares the Church
to be a spiritual democracy in which there is no room
for any privileged class or inner circle of disciples, — even
the Scythians, the least refined of nations, being raised
to the same level, in a spiritual sense, as the Jews them-
selves, or the most cultivated of the Gentiles (iii. 11).
"THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO PHILEMON"
1. Authorship. — This epistle is thoroughly Pauline;
and its contents are of too private and (from a doctrinal
and ecclesiastical point of view) too insignificant a nature
to have ever been admitted into the Canon if it had not
been a genuine writing of Paul's. 1
1 " It was preserved in the family to which it was addressed, and
read first, no doubt, as a precious apostolic message of love and blessing,
in the Church which assembled in Philemon's house. Then copies of it
became multiplied, and from Colossse it spread through the Church
universal. It is quoted as early as the second century, and has ever,
except with some few who question everything, remained an undoubted
portion of the writings of St. Paul " (Alford, How to Study the New
Testament). It was first called in question in the fourth century, on
the ground that its matter and contents were beneath the dignity of
apostolic authorship !
122 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
Its close connection with Colossians has already been
referred to. The circumstances under which it reached
Philemon, and even the latter's place of residence, would
be shrouded in mystery if it were not for Colossians.
Yet no hint is given there of the episode in Paul's
life which gave rise to this epistle — the only thing
relating to it being an allusion to Onesimus as "the
faithful and beloved brother who is one of you " (Col.
iv. 9). So independent are the two epistles in their
contents.
2. The Reader. — "To Philemon our beloved, and
fellow-worker."
To ascertain Philemon's residence we have, as already
remarked, to consult the Epistle to the Colossians.
Philemon himself is not mentioned there ; but Archippus
whom Paul associates with Philemon and Apphia (prob-
ably Philemon's wife) in the opening greeting of this
epistle, is mentioned in Colossians in such a way as to
imply that he was an office-bearer of the Church either
at Colossse or in the neighbourhood (iv. 17). From the
context (iv. 15, 16) it has been suggested that Laodicea,
which was about twelve miles from Colossse, was the
scene of Archippus' labours. The association of his name
with that of Philemon, in the epistle addressed to the
latter, would lead us to suppose that he was either
Philemon's son or possibly his minister. The connection
of Philemon with Colossse is further evident from the fact
that his slave Onesimus is spoken of in the Epistle to the
Colossians as " one of you," and is announced as a visitor
to Colossae (Col. iv. 9) at the same time as he is restored
to his master (Philemon 12).
We gather from the epistle that Philemon had been
converted to Christianity through the instrumentality of
the apostle, and had since then earned a reputation for
charity and devotion, his house being one of the meeting-
PHILEMON 123
places of the Church. 1 It was owing to special circum-
stances, however, that he had the distinction of having
an apostolic letter addressed to him. A slave of bis,
Onesimus by name, had absconded (like many another
Phrygian slave) and made his way to Rome, the great
resort of needy adventurers, apparently with the aid of
money stolen from his master. There he was providen-
tially brought under the influence of Paul, and became a
confirmed Christian, endearing himself to the apostle by
his grateful and devoted services in the Gospel. As
Onesimus was Philemon's lawful slave, Paul could not
think of retaining him permanently in his service, so he
took the opportunity afforded by Tychicus' return to
Asia to send him back to his master. In doing so he
gave him this letter to Philemon with the view of
winning for him a merciful reception, and to save him
from the severe and cruel punishment which was per-
mitted by the Roman law — even to the extent of death
— in such cases. 2
3. Date and Place of Composition. — At Rome, 62-63
a.d. (see pp. 108-110).
4. Character and Contents. — This is the only letter
of St. Paul addressed to a friend on a matter of private
business that has come down to us, although we cannot
doubt that many others were written by Bim which have
not been preserved. On all sides it has received the
warmest praise and admiration — not on account of its
language, which has nothing particular to recommend
it, but for its tact, delicacy, and good feeling. While
1 For similar instances cf. Rom. xvi. 5, 1 Cor. xvi. 19 ; Col. iv. 15.
"Tli ere is no clear example of a separate building set apart for
Christian worship within the limits of the Roman empire before the
third century, though apartments in private houses might be specially
devoted to this purpose " (Lightfoot on Colossians and Philemon, p. 241 ).
2 "The slave was absolutely at his master's disposal ; for the
smallest offence he might be scourged, mutilated, crucified, thrown to
the wild beasts " (Lightfoot, ibid. p. 319).
124 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
the apostle puts the case very strongly in favour of
Onesimus — so strongly that it has been finely said
"the word emancipation seems trembling on his
lips," — he refrains from any interference with Philemon's
civil rights, seeking only to awaken within him such
feelings of humanity and kindness as will be a safe-
guard against harsh and unbrotherly conduct. In
this respect the epistle affords a good illustration
of the remedial and reforming influence of the
Gospel, which seeks to gain its ends from within
and not from without, by persuasion rather than by com-
pulsion. 1
It has been described as the letter of a Christian
gentleman, animated by strong Christian feeling, tem-
pered with discretion, and expressed with dignity and
moderation not untouched with humour. 2 The whole
tone and structure of the letter was well fitted to bring
out the better nature of Philemon ; and it was doubtless
to strengthen the appeal — by making Philemon realise
that the eyes of his fellow-Christians were upon him —
that Paul associates Timothy with himself in his opening
greeting, which is addressed not to Philemon alone, but
also to other Christian members of his household, and to
1 By teaching the universal brotherhood of men in Jesus Christ,
and admitting all alike to full communion in the Church, the apostles
brought an influence to bear upon society which could not fail in course
of time to lead to the abolition of slavery, and which very soon led to
voluntary efforts on the part of congregations to purchase the freedom
of their slave-members, as well as to a change of social sentiment with
regard to those who remained in slavery. In the measures passed
by Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, for ameliorating the
condition of slaves, we have the initiation of a movement which was to
culminate in the nineteenth century, in the abolition of slavery through-
out the British Empire, the liberation of twenty millions of serfs by
the. Emperor of Russia, the emancipation of the negro in the United
States of America, and the final effort to heal " the open sore of the
world " in the dark continent of Africa.
2 In verse 11 there is a play on the name "Onesimus," which in
the original means " profitable."
PHILEMON 125
the congregation meeting for worship in his house. Ho
also sends salutations from several others whose names
are given at the close, and even throws out a hint that
it may not be long before he visits Philemon in person
(verse 22).
CHAPTER XVI
" THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE EPHESIANS "
1. Authorship. — As regards external evidence, this is one
of the best-attested of Paul's epistles ; and until recently
its genuineness was never doubted.
Internally it bears a strong resemblance to Colossians,
78 of its 155 verses containing expressions that are also
found in that epistle. No doubt the resemblance is due
to the fact that the two epistles were written at the same
time on kindred subjects to kindred Churches. In both
epistles Tychicus is referred to in similar terms as the
apostle's messenger; and they both bear to have been
written by the apostle while he was a prisoner (vi. 21,22;
Col. iv. 7-9). From the occurrence of the significant word
"also" in the parallel passage of this epistle, we may
infer that it was written later than the other, although
but a few days may have intervened — the closing verses
of Colossians (iv. 15-18) having been subsequently added.
As might have been expected under the circumstances,
the similarity between the two epistles does not extend
to continuous passages, but is confined to single verses
and occasional expressions such as would be likely to
remain in the writer's memory and reappear in his lan-
guage if he were writing a second time within a very
short interval.
EPIIESIANS 127
We have a remarkable token of the genuineness of this
epistle, as of several others attributed to Paul, in the
fact that while the writer dwells with great satisfaction
on the admission of the Gentiles to the blessings of the
Gospel, he expresses himself with regard to it in the
language of a patriotic Jew, to whom this expansion of
the Messiah's kingdom is a new and marvellous dispensa-
tion of divine providence. He speaks with the greatest
reverence of the position and privileges of God's ancient
people, showing that in a spiritual sense the Gentiles are
now raised to an equality with them, and that, in this
sense, the rite of circumcision, in particular, is realised in
the hearts of all true Christians (ii. 11-20; iii. 1-9; cf.
Col. ii. 11 ; Phil. iii. 2, 3; Gal. vi. 16 ; Rom. ii. 28, 29).
This is a state of feeling which was most natural in a
Jewish-born Christian like Paul, after the struggle against
the bondage of the Law, in which he had himself taken a
leading part, was practically over.
2. The Readers. — It is now generally agreed that
this epistle was not addressed to the Church at Ephesus
exclusively, but was of the nature of a circular-letter for
the general use of the Churches of Proconsular Asia. 1
1 In favour of this supposition are the facts (1) that the words "in
Ephesus" (i. 1) were absent from many of the ancient MSS. known
to Basil (360 a.d.), and are wanting in the two oldest MSS. that have
come down to us (N and B) ; (2) that no personal salutations are
found in the epistle although Paul had laboured successfully for several
years at Ephesus, forming many intimate friendships (Acts xx. 17-38),
nor any reference whatever to his experiences during that time ; (3)
that he writes as if the Christian graces of his readers were only known to
him by report, and as if his apostleship to the Gentiles were only known
to them by hearsay (i. 15-19 ; iii. 1-4 ; iv. 17-22 ; cf. Col. i. 3-9) ;
(4) that the usual apostolic autograph is absent, owing, we may sup-
pose, to copies of the epistle for the several Churches having to be
made out in the course of the messenger's journeys or at the different
places at which they had to be delivered. The indirect form ot
the Benediction at the close of the epistle (vi. 23) : " Peace be to
the brethren, and love with faith," is also a corroborative circum-
stance, being found nowhere else in Paul's epistles ; cf. Col. iv. 18 :
"Grace be with you." The great thought of the epistle, too, viz.
128 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
There can be little doubt, indeed, that we have here
the epistle referred to in Col. iv. 16, where the apostle
directs the Colossians to read also "the epistle from
Laodicea," and to send their own letter in exchange, for
the benefit of the Christians there. Even before the
middle of the second century we find a heretical writer
(Marcion) giving this epistle the title "To the Laodiceans."
Yet it is evident that it could not have been specially
addressed to Laodicea, as the apostle sends his salutations
to " the brethren that are in Laodicea " through another
channel (Col. iv. 15). The difficulty is met by supposing
that we have here a circular-letter of which Laodicea
received a copy in common with other Churches of the
province, — to be communicated to the neighbouring
church at Colossae. The name of the Ephesian Church
would naturally become associated with the epistle owing
to its being the leading Church of the district, probably
receiving the first copy from Tychicus when he landed
at its port on his way to Colossae, and becoming the
source of many later copies to Churches in other parts of
the world.
3. Date and Place of Composition. — At Rome, 62-63
a.d. (see pp. 108-110).
4. Character and Contents. — It has been said by
Coleridge that this is " one of the divinest compositions
of man. It embraces every doctrine of Christianity ;
first, those doctrines peculiar to Christianity : secondly,
those precepts common to it with natural religion." In
its doctrinal part (i.-iii.) the epistle is distinguished by a
tone of exultation which will not stoop to controversy,
expressing itself in the flow of a sublime eloquence rather
than in the form of a logical argument. Instead of
the unity of the holy catholic Church, is eminently suitable for such a
letter ; and Asia Minor was rapidly becoming the leading province of
Christendom ; cf. Rev. i. 4 : " John to the seven Churches which are
in Asia."
EPHESIANS 129
labouring to demonstrate those truths, regarding the
standing of tho Gentiles and his own position as the
apostle of the Gentiles, for which he had contended in
his earlier epistles, the writer takes these things for
granted, and soars into far loftier regions — viewing the
Gospel and the Church in relation not to time, but to
eternity, not to the nations of tho world, but to tho
universe at large. Here, as in Colossians, Paul recognises
Christ as the appointed Head of the universe — material
as well as spiritual — and sees in His atoning death the
universal centre of divine providence. Here, as there,
he is thrilled with a sense of joy not untouched with awe
when he contemplates the great mystery of the divine
will — the eternal purpose of God so long concealed, but
now at length revealed and so far realised through his
instrumentality, to wit, the destined union of Jew and
Gentile in the mystical body of the risen and exalted
Christ. In this union he sees the pledge and token of
that universal gathering together in one of " all things in
Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the
earth," which is to be the consummation of God's purposes
in Christ (i. 10). But, whereas in Colossians he dwells
mainly on the person of Christ as the " fulness of the
Godhead bodily," here he is impelled rather to the con-
templation of the Church as "the body of Christ, the
fulness of him that filleth all in all," and expatiates
upon the ideal glory and riches of the spiritual blessing
with which its members are blessed in heavenly places
in Christ. 1
1 The word "spirit" or "spiritual" occurs thirteen times in this
epistle, "the heavenlies" five times, "the grace of God" thirteen
times. Prof. Findlay {The Epistles of Paul, p. ISO) suggests that the
" amplitude of style which is a new feature in the apostle's manner as
a writer" was "due perhaps to the leisure of prison and the habit of
meditation which it fostered " ; and he points out that it is not
altogether absent from Colossians (i. 9-11, 16-20, 27-29).
130 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
The first half of the epistle is thus for the most part
a hymn of praise for the grace of God manifested accord-
ing to His good pleasure which He had purposed in
himself, accompanied with the apostle's prayer for his
readers that they may realise the glory of their calling.
Hence it was Calvin's favourite epistle, as Galatians was
of Luther.
In the second part the apostle descends by a swift
and beautiful transition to the duties of common life, " I
therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk
worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called" (iv. 1).
He thus introduces a series of practical exhortations
based on the ideal unity of the Church as the harmonious
body of Christ, and embracing the various forms of social
and domestic duty to which " the new man " is called in
the ordinary relations of life. Finally there is a stirring
call to put on the whole armour of God for the conflict
with the powers of evil, expressed in the language of a
metaphor which may have been suggested to Paul by his
military surroundings at Rome, and forming a passage
of great force and beauty, which of itself would make
this epistle a precious heritage of the Church.
The catholic nature of this epistle shows that the
apostle's education was well-nigh complete. The Saviour,
whom he only knew at his conversion as the Risen One
dwelling in another world, has become to him as an all-
pervading Presence which may be realised even now in
the sphere of common life, as the type of all affection
and the centre of all authority, in the State and in the
family as well as in the Church. 1 During his residence
at Rome, the seat of empire and the centre of the world's
secular life, Paul learned, as he had never yet done, the
1 Compare, for example, his view of marriage, the original and
central relationship of human life, in this epistle (v. 22-33), and in
1 Cor. (xi.), written about five years before.
EPHESIANS 181
moaning of the Saviour's prayer, "Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.'' '
1 " When Paul reached Rome, he began to see after the manner of
Rome. The kingdom of God to him took that form which the kingdom
of Caesar assumed to the Latin race — the form of a membership which
was connected with all other memberships. . . . What the citizens of
the empire beheld merely as a coin beating the superscription of Caesar
was reflected to his gaze with the stamp and impress of the Son of man.
Instead of contemplating, as in days of yore, the dissolution of its
life, he began to contemplate the Christianising of its life " (Matheson,
Spiritual Development of St. Paul).
CHAPTER XVII
THE PASTORAL EPISTLES
1 and 2 Timothy and Titus are known as the Pastoral
Epistles, because they relate chiefly to the qualifications
and duties of office-bearers entrusted with the pastoral
care of the Church.
They are distinguished from all the other epistles of
Paul by their want of historical agreement with any
period in the life of the apostle as recorded in the Book
of Acts, and also by their strongly-marked individuality
alike in style and substance. Hence their genuineness
has been more called in question than any of the other
epistles of Paul — notwithstanding a large amount of
external testimony in their favour.
The objections taken to them, however, on those
grounds are almost entirely obviated if we suppose them
to have been written subsequently to the events narrated
in the Book of Acts. This is a supposition that in itself
involves no improbability. It was Paul's own expecta-
tion (Phil. ii. 24 j Philemon, ver. 22) that he would be
released from the imprisonment in which the Book of
Acts leaves him; and for this expectation he seems to
have had sufficient grounds in the inadequacy of the
evidence brought against him, as well as in the tolerant
attitude of the Roman Government previous to the great
THE PASTORAL EPISTLES 133
fire in Rome (64 a.d.), which was falsely attributed to
the Christians and brought terrible persecutions in its
train. 1 Moreover, there is an early and general tradition
to the effect that he was released. Assuming that his
liberation did take place, the difficulty of harmonising
the epistles with his life disappears ; while the late date
of their composition — possibly some years after his
release — would go far to account for the peculiarity
of their contents. It is no wonder that questions of
discipline and government as well as of orthodoxy
should now receive from the apostle a larger measure of
attention than they had done hitherto, considering the
growing needs of the Church, arising from the gradual
expansion of its organisations as a corporate body held
together by a common creed. The Church had now
been for many years a visible institution with office-
bearers of its own j and important doctrines had been
vindicated and established. To conserve these doctrines
and to provide for the regular superintendence of the
Church after he and the other apostles had passed away,
was Paul's great object in writing these epistles. 2
The idea that the epistles may have been the products
of a later age is in many respects untenable. Both as
regards the office- bearers mentioned, namely, bishops
and deacons, and the doctrinal needs and dangers of the
1 "If Paul's trial had resulted in conviction and punishment, it
would have formed a precedent which must have heen followed in
other cases for a considerable time previous to 64 a.d. — all the more
so because he was a Roman citizen. But this is inconsistent with the
statements of Tacitus" (Prof. Ramsay, Expositor, July 1893).
2 The large infusion of new words (i.e. words not elsewhere used
by the apostle) is in accordance with the gradual expansion of his
vocabulary, which Is evident on a comparison of Paul's successive
writings ; and, in particular, many of these words are new simply
because the things they signify had not previously come within the
scope of the apostle's teaching. For it must be remembered that the
Pastoral Epistles differ widely from the other writings of St. Paul
alike as regards their recipients — friends and colleagues, not con-
gregations — and the ecclesiastical questions with which they deal.
134 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
Church, they remind us far more of the state of things
existing during Paul's first imprisonment at Rome, when
he wrote Philippians and Colossians, than of anything in
the second century. By the latter time the name of
"bishop" had been appropriated to a chief dignitary
ruling over the "presbyters" or elders, instead of being
applied as here to the presbyters themselves as the over-
seers of the congregation (Titus i. 5, 7, cf. Acts xx.
17-28).
Moreover, the " knowledge falsely so called " which is
denounced in these epistles comes far short of the elabo-
rate Gnosticism of the second century, which set itself
in direct opposition to the orthodox faith, and repudiated
all affinity with the Jewish law. 1
"THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE
TO TIMOTHY"
1. Authorship. — The strong external evidence in
favour of the genuineness of this epistle has been already
mentioned. We can hear echoes of its language as far
back as the close of the first century. A hundred
years later we find it universally accepted as Paul's,
although it had been rejected in the course of the second
century by one or two heretical writers, 2 owing to the
difficulty of reconciling its teaching with their favourite
tenets.
In a general sense its peculiarities in language and
1 The errors which the apostle here combats are evidently of a
vague and unformed character, awaiting further development, as he
indicates by his references to the future ; and in particular they bear
traces of that semi-Jewish character which we know to have belonged
to Christian Gnosticism in its earlier stages. In this respect, as well
as in the morbid asceticism professed by the false teachers, the corrupt
form of Christianity that meets us here is very similar to that which
is dealt with in the Epistle to the Colossians, — but exhibited in a
somewhat ranker growth.
2 Marcion and Basilides.
1 TIMOTHY
contents have also been accounted for. In some respects,
however, these peculiarities are positively in favour of
the Pauline authorship. How unlikely that a forger
should have inserted the word "mercy" 1 (i. 2) in the
usual Pauline greeting "grace and peace," or have omitted
to make frequent use of the connecting particles " there-
fore," "wherefore," "then," "as," etc., which are so
common in Paul's writings.
Objection has been taken to the expression " let no
man despise thy youth" (iv. 12), as if the apostle could
not have applied that language to Timothy when he
may have been a man of thirty -five years of age. But
we have here rather a token of genuineness. For youth
is relative ; and in Paul's eyes Timothy, being so much
his junior, and having been known to him as a lad,
would naturally seem young, — especially in view of his
great responsibilities in being set over so many elders. 2
1 This remark applies also to 2 Tim. (i. 2) and Titus (i. 4).
2 Equally groundless is the objection that Paul had predicted to
the Ephesian elders that " he should see their face no more " (Acts
xx. 25), whereas this epistle implies that he had recently paid them
another visit. For the words quoted contain the expression of a pre-
sentiment or at most of a conviction, not of an inspired prophecy, on
the part of the apostle ; and, besides, the language of the epistle, " as
I exhorted thee to tarry at Ephesus when I was going into Macedonia,"
does not necessarily imply that the writer himself had been at Ephesus.
It is quite possible he may have exhorted Timothy by a message from
a distance, or have met him at Miletus as he had met the Ephesian
elders several years before.
Again it has been argued that the instructions contained in this
epistle might have been more easily given by the apostle in person
during his recent visit to Ephesus, or on the subsequent visit to which
he was still looking forward (iii. 14). But this latter visit was re-
garded by the apostle as very uncertain (iii. 15) ; while the former
one, as we have seen, is a very doubtful inference from i. 3. Even
if it be true, however, that the apostle had recently been at Ephesus,
there is nothing improbable in the supposition that it was in conse-
quence of what he then learned of the condition of the Church, and
as the result of subsequent reflection, that he was led to furnish
Timothy with these rules and directions in a written form, which
could be of permanent service, and if necessary might be referred to
in the hearing of the congregation.
136 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
2. The Reader. — "Unto Timothy, my true child in
faith." The disciple thus addressed was one of the apostle's
converts, and became his dearest friend and coadjutor in
the closing years of his life. Of a pious Jewish family
by the mother's side — his father was a Greek — he re-
ceived a strict religious training in the scriptures of the
Old Testament (Acts xvi. 1 ; 2 Tim. i. 1-5 j iii. 14, 15).
He seems to have been converted to Christianity during
Paul's first visit to Lystra and Derbe; for, on the
apostle's second visit to that quarter about three years
afterwards, Timothy was a disciple so well reported of
by the brethren at Lystra and Iconium as to be deemed
worthy of being associated with Paul as a labourer in
the Gospel (Acts xvi. 1,2; 1 Tim. i. 2 ; 2 Tim. iii. 10, 11,
cf. Acts xiv. 9-21). To this position he was duly ordained
by the laying on of hands, after being circumcised to
render him more acceptable to the Jews (Acts xvi. 3 ; 1
Tim. vi. 12 j iv. 14; 2 Tim. i. 6). Thereafter we find
him constantly associated with the apostle either as his
companion or as his delegate to Churches at a distance
— although his influence seems to have been somewhat
weakened by a certain timidity and softness of disposi-
tion. He was with the apostle during his first imprison-
ment at Rome, being associated with him in three of the
four epistles which Paul then wrote (Phil., Col., and
Philemon). From this epistle we gather that after the
apostle's release Timothy was left for a time in charge
of the Church at Ephesus; and it was while in this
trying and responsible position that he received the two
epistles that bear his name.
3. Date and Place of Composition. — The first epistle
seems to have been sent to Timothy from Macedonia
under the circumstances referred to in i. 3 ; but whether
before or after Paul's intended visits to Philippi (Phil,
ii. 24), Colossee (Philemon, ver. 22), and Spain — -which,
1 TIMOTHY 137
according to an ancient tradition originating in the first
oentury, he did visit (Rom. xv. 24) — it is quito impos-
sible to say. Various routes have been sketched by
which Paul may have travelled after his release from
Rome, comprising visits to .the places just mentioned
and also to Ephesus, Crete (Tit. i. 5), Nicopolis (Tit. iii.
12), and Troas (2 Tim. iv. 13) ; but they are all more or
less conjectural. While it is impossible to ascertain the
precise movements of the apostle after his release, or the
exact year in which this epistle was written, we may
safely place its composition between 64 a.d., the year
after Paul's release, and 67 a.d., shortly before his death,
— the date usually assigned to the latter being 68 a.d.,
the last year of Nero, under whom, according to the
general tradition, Paul suffered martyrdom. The most
probable date is 67 a.d., which gives an interval of
several years to account for the change in the apostle's
style and in the condition of the Church, and makes the
three pastoral epistles very nearly contemporaneous.
4. Character and Contents. — These have been already
indicated in the general remarks at pp. 132, 133. The
epistle is partly official, partly personal. While addressed
to Timothy individually, it contains Paul's apostolic in-
structions to guide him in the work of supervision
assigned to him at Ephesus (i. 1-4). The anticipations
of evil which Paul had expressed to the Ephesian elders
at Miletus (Acts. xx. 29, 30) had already in some measure
been realised, and there was great need for wisdom in
the rulers of the Church. It is not easy to trace any
regular sequence in the topics discussed ; but the con-
tents of the epistle may be summarised as follows : —
The folly and danger of the Judaic fancies with which
false teachers were overlaying the Gospel (i.) ; exhorta-
tions to catholicity of spirit as well as to reverence and
decorum in acts of worship (ii.) ; the qualifications re-
138 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
quisite in the office-bearers of the Church (bishops and
deacons), and the need for fidelity and care on their part
in view of the increasing corruption (iii.) ; counsels re-
garding Timothy's treatment of the elders and other
classes in the congregation (iv.-v.); cautions against
covetousness, and exhortations to the rich to make a
good use of their means, — concluding with an appeal to
Timothy to guard that which was committed to his trust,
and to avoid " profane babblings, and oppositions of the
knowledge which is falsely so called" (vi.).
Although in some respects on a humbler level intellect-
ually than most of Paul's writings, and bearing traces of
the writer's advancing years, this epistle contains not a
few golden texts to be held in everlasting remembrance. 1
1 i. 5, 15 ; ii. 3-6 ; iii. 16 ; vi. 6, 10, 12.
CHAPTER XVIII
TITUS — 2 TIMOTHY
" THE EP1STLB OP PAUL TO TITUS "
1. Authorship. — To the general remarks at pp. 132, 133
we may add the following notes of genuineness : —
(1) The quotation made from Epimenides in i. 12 is
in accordance with the manner of St. Paul, who is the
only New Testament writer that quotes heathen authors
(Acts xvii. 28 ; 1 Cor. xv. 33). At the same time the
use of the word " prophet " in this passage, as compared
with "poet" in the quotation reported in Acts xvii. 28,
is against the supposition of imitation.
(2) The introduction of such unknown names as
Artemas and Zenas, as well as of Nicopolis (iii. 12, 13),
which are mentioned nowhere else in the New Testament,
and the unique designation of the apostle himself (i. 1),
are at variance with the idea of forgery.
2. The Reader.— "To Titus, my true child after a
common faith" (i. 4). Judging from the allusions to
Titus in Paul's epistles l he seems to have been the ablest
and most reliable of all the friends and coadjutors whom
the apostle had about him in his later years. As an un-
circumcised Gentile who had been converted by Paul, he
1 In the Book of Acts Titus is never mentioned.
140 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
represented in his own person the breadth and freedom
of the Gospel, for which the apostle had so zealously and
successfully contended.
The conversion of Titus had taken place at a com-
paratively early period in the apostle's ministry, for he
accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their visit from
Antioch to Jerusalem to vindicate the freedom of the
Gentiles from the ceremonial law of the Jews (Gal. ii.
1-4). We find him figuring prominently at another crisis
in the apostle's ministry, when the strife and confusion
in the Corinthian Church threatened to destroy St.
Paul's influence. His remarkable success in the dim-
cult mission then assigned to him (p. 82), which called
for the exercise of combined firmness and tact, and from
which Apollos appears to have shrunk (1 Cor. xvi. 12),
marked him out as an able and trustworthy delegate,
and explains his selection ten years later for the important
and difficult position which he temporarily held in Crete
when this letter was addressed to him.
Of the state of the Church in Crete we know very
little except what may be gathered from this epistle.
In all probability the Gospel had been first brought to
the island by those of its inhabitants who witnessed the
outpouring of the spirit on the day of Pentecost
("Cretans," Acts ii. 11). More than thirty years had
passed since then, and there were now, probably, quite a
number of congregations in the island, which was a
hundred and forty miles long and was famous for its
hundred cities.
Paul had been there once before, on his way from
Csesarea to Rome ; but being a prisoner at the time he
could have had little or no opportunity of preaching. It
may have been on that occasion, however, that he saw
the necessity for organising the various congregations, as
he was now seeking to do through the instrumentality of
TITUS 141
Titus. It was a difficult task, for the Cretans bore a
bad character. " Liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons," was
the description which had been given of them long
before by " one of themselves " (Epimenides, 600 b.c.) —
a testimony confirmed by several other ancient writers.
They were a mixed population of Greeks and Asiatics,
with a considerable infusion of Jews. To the influence
of these latter, acting on native superstition, the corrup-
tion of Christian doctrine, of which we hear in the epistle,
appears to have been largely due (i. 10, 14 ; iii. 9). 1
3. Date and Place of Composition. — The striking
resemblance of this epistle to 1 Timothy justifies us in
assigning it to the same year (say 67 a.d.). It may have
been written in Asia Minor when the apostle was on his
way to Nicopolis.
4. Character and Contents. — Although addressed to
a friend, this letter, like 1 Timothy, has to a certain
extent an official character. This is evident from the
greeting : " Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of
Jesus Christ ..." (i. 1-4). It was intended to furnish
Titus, as the apostle's representative in Crete, with the
same assistance in his work as had already been rendered
to Timothy. From i. 5 it would appear that the apostle
had heard of opposition being offered to Titus, and
desired to strengthen his hands for his arduous under-
taking. With this view he gives him directions for the
appointment of properly -qualified presbyters 2 in every
city, who should be able and willing to teach "the
sound doctrine," and to counteract the useless and un-
1 In the subsequent history of the island, Titus has figured pro-
minently as the patron-saint of the community.
2 It is remarkable that in this epistle there is no mention of the
other class of office-bearers, the deacons, who figure so largely in
1 Timothy. This would be unaccountable if the two epistles were
cunningly devised forgeries proceeding from the same hand in the
interests of ecclesiastical order-
142 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
warrantable speculations of a semi-Jewish character, in-
volving endless controversy, which were propagated by-
dishonest self-seeking teachers. He also reminds Titus
of suitable exhortations to be addressed to the various
classes in the Church, for the promotion of that practical
godliness which ought to accompany sound doctrine.
Titus himself is admonished to show himself in all things
" an ensample of good works."
The epistle contains a number of memorable sayings,
including some of the most comprehensive statements
of Christian truth to be found in the New Testament
(ii. 11-14 ; iii. 4-7). In ii. 11-14 we have an excellent
illustration of the " doctrine which is according to godli-
ness," that sober-minded union of faith and practice,
which is the ripest fruit of Christianity, and which forms
the chief burden of this most salutary letter.
The epistle concludes with some allusions to personal
matters (iii. 12-15), in the course of which Paul bids
Titus come to him at Nicopolis as soon as Artemas or
Tychicus has arrived to relieve him. This is scarcely
consistent with the view of some Episcopalian writers that
Titus held a permanent official position in the island.
"THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE
TO TIMOTHY"
1. Authorship. — In several passages this epistle bears
the stamp of genuineness as a writing of St. Paul's, not-
ably at i. 5-18 and iv. 9-22. In particular the opening
thanksgiving (i. 3) is characteristic of Paul, eight of his
other letters having a similar commencement, which is
not to be found in any of the other epistles of the New
Testament. At the same time this is not such a promi-
nent feature as to lead to imitation ; and, as a matter of
fact, it is not found in the two other Pastoral Epistles.
2 TIMOTHY 143
A strong proof of genuineness is afforded by the
proper names (of Church numbers) in the epistle. They
are twenty-three in number, including ten mentioned
elsewhere, exclusive of Paul and Timothy. In connec-
tion with several of these ten, remarks are made which
a forger would have been very unlikely to invent. E.g.
" Demas forsook me, having loved this present world "
(iv. 10, cf. Col. iv. 14), is more like what we should have
expected to find concerning Mark, in view of his former
desertion of Paul (Acts xiii. 13) ; whereas we find favour-
able mention of him in this epistle (iv. 11). Dalmatia
is also a strange place to have invented as a destination
for Titus (iv. 10), considering that he had been written
to so recently at Crete — although it fits in with the
summons to Nicopolis which had been previously ad-
dressed to him. A striking argument has been derived
from the occurrence of the name Linus in the closing
salutations. The argument is based on the fact that
Linus, Cletus, and Clement are the names of the first
three " bishops " of the Church of Rome, preserved in
her Eucharistic Service, dating from the second century.
If the epistle had been written in the post-apostolic age,
Linus, it is held, would have been sure to receive a more
prominent place in the list of salutations, and his name
would have been accompanied with that of Cletus, or at
all events with that of Clement, as the latter was believed
to have been an immediate disciple of Paul.
Altogether, the personal details contained in this
epistle, especially in its closing chapter, are so unusually
abundant, that it would have been comparatively easy
of detection if it had been a forgery. As it is, the
marks of genuineness are so numerous and striking, and
there is such a tone of sincerity and earnestness running
through the whole epistle, that it is accepted by many
critics who reject its two companions. But, as the main
144 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
objections to the latter, on the score of their novel language
and teaching, and their want of correspondence with the
Book of Acts, apply equally to 2 Timothy, it is generally
admitted that the three epistles must stand or fall together.
Hence any argument for the Pauline authorship of this
epistle has a reflex influence on that of the two others.
2. The Reader.— "To Timothy, my beloved child"
(i. 2), see p. 136.
3. Date and Place of Composition. — From i. 8, 16-18,
it is evident that this epistle was written by Paul while
a prisoner at Rome. That it was a different imprison-
ment from that mentioned in Acts xxviii. may be inferred
not only from the general considerations adduced on
pp. 132, 133, but more particularly from the apostle's
anticipation of a fatal result (iv. 6-8) as compared with his
expectation of release in Phil. ii. 24 and Philemon, ver. 22. l
1 There are several other circumstances, however, which lead us to
the same conclusion. (1) The difference between Paul's position
during his first imprisonment (Acts xxviii. 30, 31 ; Phil. i. 12-14),
and at the time he wrote this epistle (ii. 9 ; i. 15-17 ; iv. 16). (2)
The absence of Timothy, Demas, and Mark (iv. 10, 11), of whom the
first-named is associated with the apostle in the epistles to Philippians,
Colossians, and Philemon, and the two latter are mentioned in Colos-
sians as sending salutations (Col. iv. 10, 14). (3) The statement in
this epistle, " Erastus abode at Corinth ; but Trophimus I left at
Miletus sick " (iv. 20). For in the apostle's last recorded journey to
Jerusalem Trophimus was not left at Miletus, but went with the
apostle all the way to Jerusalem (Acts xx. 1-4, 15 ; xxi. 29) ; and
as for Erastus' stay in Corinth, we know that Timothy was one of
Paul's companions (Acts xx. 1-4) during the same journey, after the
apostle's last recorded visit to Greece, and could not have required
to be informed that "Erastus abode in Corinth," if that had been the
occasion referred to. In his subsequent voyage from Csesarea to Rome,
as recorded in the closing chapters of Acts, it is certain that the
apostle visited neither Miletus nor Corinth. (4) The request here
made to Timothy : " The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus,
bring when thou comest, and the books, especially the parchments "
(iv. 13). For there was an interval of several years between Paul's
last recorded visit to Troas and his first imprisonment at Rome. A
subsequent visit, however, after his release, would fit in with the fresh
journey from Miletus to Corinth, which seems to be implied in the
remark above made (3).
2 TIMOTHY Ufi
Such a second imprisonment was in itself Apt at all
unlikely after the great fire in 6-4 a.d., when the Chris-
tian religion was put under the ban; and we know the
apostle had no lack of enemies to give information against
him. If we are right in dating the first epistle 67 a.d.,
wo may assign this one to 67-68 a.d.
4. Character and Contents. — We have here the
apostle's last will and testament in favour of the Church,
in the form of a farewell charge to his beloved child
Timothy. He still hoped to see him once again, and
repeatedly urges him to do his best to come to him
shortly — " before winter," while navigation is still prac-
ticable (iv. 9, 21). His yearning for Timothy's society
in his lonely prison reminds us of our Lord's desire for
the sympathy and prayers of His disciples on the eve of
His Passion ; and in this epistle, as in our Lord's teach-
ing during the week preceding His death, there is
blended with a sublime confidence in the speaker's own
future, dark foreboding of approaching trial and tempta-
tion for the Church. He warns Timothy of the " grievous
times" to come (iii. 1), and exhorts him to adhere stead-
fastly to the teaching he had received from the apostle
on the foundation of the Scripture "inspired of God,"
and to take security for such teaching being continued
by "faithful men who shall be able to teach others also "
— bidding Timothy emulate his own example in the
endurance of hardship and in the practice of self-denial
for the sake of the Gospel.
A peculiarity of this as of the other pastoral epistles
is the introduction of short and weighty statements with
the words, "Faithful is the saying." In ii. 11-13 w r e
have what is probably part of a Christian hymn, express-
ing the faith in which the apostle would have Timothy
to meet his trials.
10
CHAPTER XIX
1. Authorship. — This is a question which cannot be
answered with any degree of certainty. The earliest
witness on the subject is Pantsenus of Alexandria, in
the latter half of the second century, who assigned the
epistle, as Eusebius tells us, to the Apostle Paul. In
keeping with this opinion we find that the Eastern
Church generally regarded it as the work of Paul ; but
some of the most learned of its bishops and teachers
were constrained by internal evidence to depart some-
what from the traditional view. Their idea was that
Paul might have written the original, and one of his
disciples have translated it into Greek; or that the
apostle might have supplied the thoughts, and some
disciple have put them into words. In this sense Origen
maintains that the thoughts were worthy of the apostle,
but " who it was that wrote the epistle, God only knows
certainly."
The opinion of the Western Church was for a long
time adverse to the Pauline authorship. Clement of
Rome, who wrote before the close of the first century,
frequently quotes the epistle, but never claims for it the
authority of Paul. If he believed that the epistle was
written by Paul, it is difficult to account for the ignor-
HEBREWS 147
ance of the Roman Church on the subject in succeeding
generations — all the more so because of the connection
of the epistle with Italy (xiii. 24). It was not till the
close of the fourth century, and in spite of its traditions
to the contrary, that the Western Church accepted the
epistle as a writing of Paul's. 1
Even if the external testimony in favour of the Pauline
authorship were much stronger than it is, a study of
the style and structure of the book would compel us to
adopt a different view. Instead of the rugged, impetuous,
and occasionally disjointed style of the apostle, we have
here polished diction and carefully-constructed sentences.
" The movement of this writer resembles that of an ori-
ental sheikh with his robes of honour w T rapped around
him ; the movement of St. Paul is that of an athlete
girded for the race. The eloquence of this writer, even
when it is at its most majestio volume, resembles the
flow of a river ; the rhetoric of St. Paul is like the rush
of a mountain torrent amid opposing rocks." In addition
to this general dissimilarity of style there are so many
well-marked differences in detail, 2 that the idea that
Paul wrote this epistle has now been generally aban-
1 But it is interesting to observe that the Westminster Confession
does not include it among St. Paul's epistles.
2 (1) There is in this epistle a marked absence of the opeuing
salutation and thanksgiving usual with St. Paul.
(2) There is an acknowledgment on the part of the writer that
he and his readers were indebted in some measure for their knowledge
of the Gospel to " them that heard " the Lord (ii. 3), whereas Paul
repudiated for himself any such dependence on the testimony of others
(Gal. i. 11-17).
(3) In quoting from the Old Testament the writer of this epistle
makes use of such phrases as " God saith," " the Holy Spirit saith,"
"he testifieth," which are not found in St. Paul's writings.
(4) He invariably quotes from the Septuagint in its Alexandrian
MS., without regard to the Hebrew, whereas Paul often corrects the
Septuagint by the Hebrew, and when he quotes from the Greek version,
follows the text found in the Vatican MS.
(5) He never designates the Saviour as "our Lord Jesus Christ"
or " Christ Jesus our Lord " (expressions which occur nearly seventy
148 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
doned. Nor can we even regard it as the translation of
a Hebrew work of the apostle's, which was a conjecture
of Clement of Alexandria. Not only is it possessed of
such a rhetorical grace and finish as is scarcely attainable
in a translation, but in several other respects it bears
unmistakable tokens of having been originally written in
Greek. 1 But although we cannot assign the epistle to
St. Paul, this need not impair our sense of its value as
an acknowledged portion of the New Testament. Its
value is independent of its human authorship. "If it
should be found that a noble picture which had been
attributed to Raphael was not by that artist, there would
not be one masterpiece the less, but one great master
the more " {Thiersch).
While the evidence is conclusive against the epistle
having been written by Paul, there is yet reason to
believe that it was the work of one of Paul's school.
The writer appears to have been acquainted with some
of Paul's epistles, 2 and he uses many words which are
found nowhere in the New Testament except in Paul's
writings, or in his speeches as reported by Luke. He
also refers to Timothy as a personal friend — although in
different terms from those used by the apostle (xiii. 23).
By which of Paul's friends or associates the letter was
written it is difficult to say. Neither Clement nor Luke
times in Paul's epistles), but generally speaks of Him as "Jesus," or
"Christ," or "the Lord."
(6) Greek particles of frequent occurrence in Paul's writings are
entirely absent from this epistle ; while some are found here that are
never used by Paul.
1 It has numerous plays on Greek words, and contains expressions
that have no equivalent in Hebrew ; it makes its Old Testament
quotations direct from the Septuagint, in some cases even building an
argument on forms of expression which do not occur in the Hebrew
text.
2 Cf. ii. 8 and 1 Cor. xv. 27 ; ii. 10 and Rom. xi. 36 ; ii. 14, 2
Tim. i. 10 and 1 Cor. xv. 26 ; v. 12-14 and 1 Cor. iii. 2 ; vi. 10 and
1 Thess. i. 3 ; x. 30 and Rom. xii. 19 ; xii. 14 and Rom. xii. 18.
HEBREWS 149
(whoso names were suggested as early as the third cen-
tury) can be credited with the work, so greatly do their
styles differ from that of the epistle. Luther's conjecture
that Apollos may have been the writer is favoured by
the description of the latter in Acts xviii. 24-28, viewed
in connection with the internal characteristics of the
epistle, and it has been widely accepted. But if Apollos
was the writer, it is difficult to account for the complete
disappearance of his name from the traditions of the
Church, more especially in the East.
There is another name, in itself not at all an improb-
able one, for w T hich we have the authority of Tertullian of
Carthage, who wrote in the beginning of the third century.
That presbyter refers to Barnabas as the author of the
epistle, in terms which would imply that this was no
new supposition ; and his testimony is all the more im-
portant because he had been at one time resident in
Rome and knew what was the current belief of the
Church there. In many respects the name of Barnabas
answers the requirements of the case. As a Jewish
Christian who enjoyed the confidence of the apostles and
was on intimate terms with the Church at Jerusalem, of
which he had been an early benefactor; as a Levite,
familiar with the usages and customs of the Jewish
sanctuary ; as a native, and frequent visitor, of Cyprus,
sufficiently acquainted with Hellenistic literature to be
able to preach to Hellenists, and at one time (according
to an ancient tradition) a teacher, like his nephew Mark,
at Alexandria, with which Cyprus was closely connected ;
as a good man full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, whose
surname of Barnabas, " son of exhortation " (conferred on
him by the apostles), marked him out as a man of great
persuasive influence : — in all these respects this Church-
leader was well fitted to be the writer of a "word of
exhortation " (xiii. 22) — in the Greek language and after
150 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
the Alexandrian mode of thought — to the wavering and
distracted Hebrews (Acts iv. 36, 37; ix. 26, 27; xi. 19-
30 ; xiii. 1 ; xv. 39).
2. The Readers.—" To the Hebrews." We have no
reason to doubt that this part of the superscription —
which probably formed the whole of the original, and is
of immemorial antiquity — gives a correct indication of
the readers for whom the epistle was intended. The
whole tenor of the epistle implies that it was written for
Jewish Christians. But various allusions show that it
was not intended merely for Hebrew Christians in general,
but for some definite community (v. 11, 12; vi. 9, 10;
x. 32-34; xiii. 1, 7, 19, 23). Which of the Hebrew com-
munities, in particular, is addressed has been much
disputed. Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus, Rome, have
all been suggested. Something may be said for each of
them, especially Antioch ; l but from the way in which
the Gentiles are entirely ignored in the epistle — the
word "people," which frequently occurs, being always
used to designate the Jews — it would seem most probable
that the letter was intended for Christians in Jerusalem
or in some other part of Palestine. It was only in
Palestine that Churches were to be found entirely com-
posed of Jewish Christians ; and the troubles that over-
took these congregations soon afterwards in connection
with the destruction of Jerusalem would go far to account
for the ignorance and uncertainty of the early Church
as to the authorship and the original destination of this
epistle — an oblivion that is otherwise difficult to explain.
Moreover, it was in Palestine that the temptations to
relapse into Judaism, against which the writer is so
anxious to guard his readers, were most formidable. The
1 The language of xii. 4, however, " Ye have not yet resisted unto
blood," could hardly have been addressed to Christians at Rome after
64 A.D.
HEBREWS 151
sacerdotal splendour of the ancient sanctuary threw into
the shade the simple forms of Christian worship ; and
the Barnes of patriotic zeal burned more fiercely in the
Holy Land than among the Jews of the Dispersion. The
Hebrew Christians residing there must have felt them-
selves more and more under the necessity of choosing
between their country and their faith, between a revolt
against the Romans and a patient waiting for the coming
of the Saviour. Exposed to persecution and excom-
munication at the hands of their fanatical and exasperated
countrymen, deeply attached to the religion of their
fathers and with a strong love of outward ceremonial,
disappointed by the delay of the Second Coming and by
the rejection of the Gospel on the part of so many of
their kindred, they stood in urgent need of the consola-
tions and the warnings which are addressed to them in
this epistle.
3. Date and Place of Composition. — The only clue
to guide us as to the place of writing is to be found
in the message at the close of the epistle : " They
of Italy salute you." This may either mean that the
writer was sending greetings from the Church in Italy,
or from Italian Christians resident in some foreign
city from which he wrote. The latter would be quite
natural and intelligible if the epistle was going to some
Church in Italy, whose members were receiving a special
greeting from their countrymen abroad. But, as we
have seen, the epistle had probably a different destina-
tion j and we may therefore conclude that it was written
from some place in Italy — the more so as it informs its
readers of Timothy's liberation, which took place presum-
ably at Rome, whither he had been summoned by St. Paul
in his last imprisonment (xiii. 23 ; 2 Tim. iv. 9, 21).
On this supposition the date of the epistle would be
about 68 a.d., which tallies with other indications of
152 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
time in the epistle. That it was written before the Fall
of Jerusalem is evident not only from the allusions to
the sacrificial system as still going on (x. 2, 3, etc.) and
to the old covenant as "becoming old" and "nigh unto
vanishing away " (viii. 1 3), but still more perhaps from
the absence of any allusion to the destruction of the
Temple. That event, if it had already occurred, would
have rendered superfluous any other proof of the tran-
sitory and imperfect nature of the Old Testament
dispensation.
4. Character and Contents. — In many respects this
book has more of the character of a treatise than of a
letter. Its great theme is the superiority of Christianity
to Judaism. This superiority it proves not so much
by minimising the old covenant — which Paul had been
obliged to do in vindicating the freedom of his Gentile
converts — as by magnifying the new in the sense of its
being a fulfilment of the old.
The epistle may be divided into two parts, the first
mainly of an argumentative or expository character
(i.-x. 18), the second chiefly hortatory and practical
(x. 19-xiii.).
(1) In the former the writer seeks to establish the
supremacy of Christ and of the Christian Dispensation.
After the opening statement (i. 1-3) as to the divine
revelation being completed and concentrated in the
"Son," he proceeds to show His superiority to the
angels, through whom the Law was believed to have
been given (i.-ii), to Moses (Hi.), and to Joshua (iv.).
But his main efforts are directed to proving Christ's
superiority and that of His religion to the sacerdotal
system of the Jews. In v.-vii. he shows that Christ,
while possessing in common with Aaron all the quali-
fications of a true priest, belongs to a higher order of
priesthood, represented not by Aaron but by Melchizedek.
HEBEEWS 168
In the story of the meeting of Melchizedek with Abraham
((Jen. xiv. 18-20) and in the Psalmist's prophetic allusion
to the former (Ps. ex. 4) he finds many reasons of an
allegorical nature to justify this view. He represents
the Head of the Christian Church as the possessor of an
unchangeable priesthood, secured by the divine oath —
not transitory, but permanent — exercised not on earth
but in heaven — constituted " not after the law of a carnal
commandment, but after the power of an endless life."
Tn viii.-x. 18, a similar superiority is proved to belong to
the Christian Dispensation, with its law written on the
heart, and its sacrifice offered "once for all" in a "taber-
nacle not made with hands," whereby Christ hath "through
his own blood " " obtained eternal redemption."
(2) In the course of the argument occasional exhorta-
tions and warnings are introduced (ii. 1-4; iii. 7-13; iv.
11-16; v. 12-vi. 20). But the practical application is
mainly reserved for the concluding chapters, x. 19-xiii.
After exhorting his readers to avail themselves of the
" new and living way " which has been thus consecrated
for them into "the holy place," and warning them
against the terrible consequences of apostasy, he com-
forts their hearts with the assurance that though they
may be disowned by the sacerdotal leaders at Jerusalem,
they are in the true line of fellowship with the saints
and holy men of old, whose devotion had been shown, not
by the observance of an outward ceremonial, but by faith
in the unseen (xi.). In the next chapter, after exhorting
them to patience under their trials through the sustaining
power of God's fatherly love, he introduces a striking
contrast between the terrors of Sinai and the attractive
glories of Mount Zion. In the last chapter (xiii.) he
gives a number of salutary counsels and admonitions, in
the course of which he calls upon his readers to go forth
unto Jesus "without the camp, bearing his reproach,"
154 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
as Jesus Himself "suffered without the gate." He ex-
horts them to offer the sacrifices of praise and well-doing
which are required of the Christian, and bids them render
obedience to their ecclesiastical superiors. The epistle
concludes with a request for their prayers on behalf of
the writer, that he "may be restored to (them) the
sooner," followed by a beautiful benediction, and a few
last words of personal explanation and greeting.
CHAPTER XX
THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES
There are seven epistles which from the fourth century
have gone under the name of the Catholic (or General)
Epistles, viz. James; 1 and 2 Peter; 1, 2, 3 John; and
Jude. They were so called in contradistinction to Paul's
epistles, which, with the exception of the Pastoral Epistles
and Philemon, are addressed to individual Churches, also
seven in number. In most of the Greek MSS. the
Catholic Epistles stand next to the Book of Acts, although
they were much later than the epistles of Paul in obtain-
ing general recognition in the Church.
THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JAMES
"1
1. Authorship. — In common with four other of the
Catholic Epistles, viz. 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Jude,
this epistle is described by Eusebius (about 325 a.d.) as
a disputed book of the New Testament, in the sense of
not being universally acknowledged by the Church.
In the fourth century the claims of these and other
writings to a place in the New Testament Canon were
carefully sifted, the result being to vindicate the char-
acter of each of the disputed epistles (as appears from the
1 The Hebrew original of this name is Jacob.
156 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
Decrees of the Council of Laodicea, 364 a.d., and of
Carthage, 397 a.d.), while a number of other books
which, although not in the New Testament, had been
read in church along with them were finally disallowed.
With regard to the Epistle of James in particular the
rarity of allusions to it in the early Christian writers x
may be accounted for by its circulation being confined to
Jewish Christians, as well as by the narrow sphere of
labour in which the writer himself moved, his life
apparently having been entirely spent in Jerusalem.
The internal evidence of the book is strongly in its
favour, and it is now generally admitted to be a genuine
work of "James, the Lord's brother" (Gal. i. 19), who
presided for many years over the Church at Jerusalem.
(1) The writer's modest designation of himself — "James,
a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ," is against
the idea of forgery. (2) The epistle was evidently
written for Jewish Christians by one of themselves. 2 It
speaks of Abraham as " our father " (ii. 21) ; it calls the
readers' place of worship "your synagogue" (ii. 2, R.V.),
it calls God " the Lord of Sabaoth " (v. 4) ; it takes for
granted an acquaintance with Old Testament characters
(ii. 25; v. 10, 17); it alludes to Jewish forms of oath
(v. 12) ; it refers to "the law " as still binding (ii. 8-11 ;
iv. 11) ; and it contains no allusions to those sins of the
flesh which figure so prominently in epistles designed for
Gentile readers. (3) It bears traces of having been
1 The earliest express quotation from this epistle is found in the
writings of Origen ; but the language of Clement of Rome, and still
more clearly of Hermas, would lead us to believe that it was known to
these writers. Still more significant is the fact that it has a place in
the ancient Syriac Version (the Peschito).
2 Although written in comparatively pure Greek (owing, it may be,
to our epistle being the translation of an Aramaic original by a com-
petent Greek scholar acting under the direction of James), its literary
character as a whole is essentially Hebrew, reminding us of the Book
of Proverbs and other Jewish writings.
JAMES 157
written by a native of Palestine — in its allusions t» " the
scorching wind" (i. 11), the sea (i. 6; iii. 4), "sweet
water and bitter " (the latter referring to the brackish
springs of the country, iii. 11, 12); the vine, olive, and
fig (iii. 12); "the early and latter rain" (v. 7). (4)
It shows a familiar acquaintance with Christ's teaching,
although its language is not such as to betray an imita-
tion of our Gospels. 1 (5) It reflects a state of Jewish
society — the rich oppressing the poor — which is described
by Josephus and other Jewish writers as prevailing in
the period succeeding the death of our Lord, but which
in a great manner ceased to exist after the rebellion that
terminated in the destruction of Jerusalem.
With regard to the author's personal history the
following points may be noted. He and his brothers
Joses, Simon, and Jude (Matt. xiii. 55 ; Mark vi. 3) were
either the children of Joseph and Mary, and younger
brothers of our Lord, or else they were the children of
Joseph by a former marriage. The latter supposition
seems the more probable, both because it is in harmony
with the earliest traditions of antiquity, and because it
helps to explain the attitude of James and his brothers
towards Jesus during His lifetime (Matt. xii. 46 and John
vii. 3-5), and the committal of Mary to the keeping, not
of her stepsons, but of the Apostle John (John xix. 26).
We find that at an advanced period in our Lord's ministry
His brethren did not believe in Him (John vii. 5) ; but
immediately after the Ascension they are associated with
the disciples in the upper room (Acts i. 14).
According to a tradition, which we have no reason to
disbelieve, their conversion was due to the appearance of
the risen Lord to James, which is mentioned 1 Cor. xv. 7.
1 Cf. i. 5, 6 and Mark xi. 23 ; i. 25 and John xiii. 17 ; ii. 5 and
Luke vi. 20 ; iv. 9 and Luke vi. 25 ; iv. 10 and Matt, xxiii. 12 ; v. 12
and Matt v. 37.
158 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
Among the Christians at Jerusalem James soon took a
prominent place, being, indeed, the recognised head of
the Church there after the death of James, the brother
of John (44 a.d.), and the dispersion of the other apostles.
This commanding position he owed partly to the special
relation in which he stood to Jesus, and partly to his own
high character, which procured for him the name of the
Just (or Righteous) and Oblias (" the bulwark of the
people"). He is said to have been a Nazarite, and so
much given to prayer in the Temple that his knees had
grown hard like those of a camel. He was essentially a
Hebrew of the Hebrews, who clung to the law and the
prophets, and valued the Gospel as their fulfilment.
Hence his name was sometimes used by the Judaising
party in opposition to Paul (Gal. ii. 12 ; cf. Acts xv. 24) —
as indeed it continued to be long after his death 1 —
although he himself recognised Paul as the apostle of the
Gentiles, and did not insist on a full observance of the
law by Gentile converts (Gal. ii. 9 j Acts xv. 19-21, 25, 26).
He died a death of martyrdom, stoned by the Jews — as
Josephus and Hegesippus relate — shortly before the
destruction of Jerusalem, for his testimony to Jesus as
the Messiah.
2. The Readers. — " To the twelve tribes which are of
the Dispersion " (i. 1). In view of the Jewish traits in
the epistle, which have been already pointed out, and
having regard to the migratory habits of the readers
(iv. 13), there is no reason to take these opening words in
any other than a literal sense. Jews of the Dispersion
were to be found in almost every part of the world, as
appears from the narrative of the events which took place
on the first Christian Pentecost (Acts ii. 5-11). The
expression there used to describe the pilgrims who came
up to Jerusalem, " devout men from every nation under
1 In the (so-called) Clementine Homilies and Recognitions.
JAMES 159
heaven," is supported by the evidence of many independ-
ent witnesses, such as Philo and Josephus. These exiled
Jews were chiefly located in Babylon, Syria, and Egypt ;
and it was probably to those resident in Syria that copies
of this epistle would be first sent. The epistle is
addressed to Christian Jews (ii. 1, 7 ; v. 7, 8), of whom
there were many in Syria liable to persecution and
violence similar to that which Saul was inflicting on the
Christians previous to his conversion ; cf. ii. 6, 7 and
Acts ix. 1, 2. While addressing himself mainly to
Christian readers the writer seems also to have occasion-
ally in view his unbelieving countrymen. The denuncia-
tions in v. 1-6 may be regarded as an apostrophe to the
wealthy unbelievers, chiefly of the sect of the Sadducees,
who truckled to the Romans and oppressed their poorer
brethren, especially those who professed Christianity.
James would have many opportunities of hearing of the
trials which beset his believing countrymen in their
distant homes; and, as he seems never to have left
Jerusalem, it was natural that under a sense of the high
responsibility attaching to his position he should wish to
address them in writing as he does in this epistle.
3. Date and Place of Composition. — As both Scripture
and tradition concur in representing James as having
constantly resided at Jerusalem, there is no reason to
doubt that the letter emanated from that city. With
regard to the date of its composition there is less certainty.
That it was written before the outbreak of the war, 66 a.d.,
which put an end to the Sadducean ascendency, is gener-
ally admitted. We may also infer, from the absence of
any allusions to the sharp controversy regarding the
obligations of the Jewish law on Gentile converts which
gave rise to the Council of Jerusalem (50 a.d.), that it
was either written before that event or not for some
years afterwards.
160 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
On the whole, considering the marked absence from
the epistle of anything like developed Christian doctrine,
the continued expectation which it exhibits of Christ's
speedy coming to judge the world (v. 8), and the applica-
tion of the term Synagogue to an assembly of Christian
worshippers (ii. 2), we are justified in assigning to the
epistle a very early date — say 44-49 a.d. If this sup-
position be correct, we have here the oldest book of the
New Testament.
4. Character and Contents. — This epistle is less
doctrinal or theological than any other in the New
Testament. It partakes largely of the ethical character
of the Sermon on the Mount, which it resembles, not only
in its general tone and sentiment, but in many of its
expressions. 1 Its tone is eminently practical, the object
of the writer being to inculcate Christian morality as
essential to salvation {e.g. ii. 14-26). But it gives a promi-
nent place to faith and patience {e.g. i. 2-12), and includes
in its good works the careful ruling of the tongue (iii.
1-12). It also dwells much on the wisdom 2 which should
characterise the religious man {e.g. iii. 13-18), and refers
in detail to many other forms of duty — Christian practice
being to the writer the highest form of outward worship
(i. 27). The_styje_ of the epistle is sententious and
forcible, passing swiftly, and sometimes without any
apparent logical connection, from one topic to another,
and it has about it not a little of the vehemence and
fervour of the old prophets. James does not hesitate to
denounce in very strong and plain terms, which savour,
1 Cf. i. 2 and Matt. v. 10-12 ; i. 4 and Matt. v. 48 ; i. 5 and Matt,
vii. 7-12 ; i. 20 and Matt. v. 22 ; ii. 13 and Matt. vi. 14, 15 ; ii. 14
and Matt. vii. 21-23 ; iv. 4 and Matt. vi. 24 ; iv. 10 and Matt. v. 3, 4 ;
iv. 11 and Matt. vii. 1-5 ; v. 2 and Matt. vi. 19 ; v. 10 and Matt. v. 12 ;
v. 12 and Matt. v. 34-37.
2 Hence James has been called " the Apostle of Wisdom " ; and the
designation given to him in the Greek liturgy is that of " James the
Wise."
JAMES 161
in some respects, of tho language of Amos, 1 the greed and
cruelty of the rich, the servility of the poor, and tho
general vanity, strife, hypocrisy, and worldly-mindedness
which were characteristic of the Jews at this period of
their history, and had begun to infect the Christians in
their midst.
He insists on character as the test of true religion, and
demands that a man shall show the reality of his faith by
his life and conduct. In his protests against an empty
profession of religion, he is led into the use of language
which has sometimes been supposed (by Luther, for
example) to be irreconcilably at variance with the teach-
ing of Paul. 2 But in reality there is no such inconsistency
between them.
The good works which James contends for are alto-
gether different from the ritualistic observances which
Paul refused to acknowledge as necessary for salvation j
the justification he has in view in this epistle is not the
initial admission into the Divine favour which Paul's
Gentile converts needed, but the continuance of God's
people in a state of grace to which they are already
called ; while the faith which he depreciates is not that
personal union with the Lord Jesus Christ which Paul
declared to be all-important for the Christian, but mere
intellectual belief, such as the acceptance of the mono-
theistic doctrine (ii. 19) that lay at the foundation of the
Jewish faith. No one can read Romans ii. 17-24 without
seeing that Paul would have concurred most heartily in
all that this epistle says about the necessity for carrying
religion into practice.
1 Cf. iv. 13, v. 1, 2 and Amos viii. 5, 10 ; v. 5 and Amos vi. 1-6.
2 It may have been the language of James ii. 10 that gave colour to
the misrepresentations referred to in Acts xv. 24.
ii
CHAPTER XXI
"the first epistle general of peter"
1. Authorship. — There is abundant evidence to prove
that this epistle was written by the apostle whose name
it bears. Hardly any book of the New Testament is
better supported by external evidence (extending as far
back as the writings of Polycarp in the early part of the
second century), while internally it bears in many of its
features the stamp of Peter's mind, and the traces of his
experience, as these are represented to us in the Gospels
and in the Book of Acts.
From these sources we learn that the apostle was
originally called " Simon, the son of John," and that
he was a fisherman of Bethsaida before he attached him-
self to Jesus. With his brother Andrew, who brought
him to Jesus, he was a disciple of John the Baptist before
finding the Messiah. At His very first interview with
the new disciple, Jesus discerned his great capacity for
rendering service to His cause, and gave him a prophetic
token of the part he was to play in the early history of
His Church by conferring on him the new name of
Cephas (in Greek, Peter, meaning rock or stone), (John
i. 40-42). The significance of the name was more fully
unfolded at a later time on the occasion of Peter's great
confession of Jesus as the Christ (Matt. xvi. 13-19).
1 PETER 163
Like John and James, Peter was admitted to a closer
fellowship with his Master than the rest of the disciples
(Mark v. 37 ; Matt. xvii. 1 ; xxvi. 37, cf. Mark iii. 16, 17).
In company with John he was a witness of Christ's
trial in the high priest's palace, where he fell into the
threefold denial of his Master — to be bitterly repented of
immediately afterwards (Matt. xxvi. 69-75 ; Mark xiv.
66-72; Luke xxii. 54-62; John xviii. 15-27). On the
third day after the crucifixion the same disciples went
together early in the morning to the tomb and found it
empty, as Mary Magdalene had told them. The new
faith which then sprang up in Peter's heart was confirmed
by several interviews granted to him by the risen Christ,
who gave him a new commission, thrice uttered, to devote
himself to the interests of his Master's flock, and pre-
dicted that he would die a martyr's death (John xx. 1-10,
19 ; Luke xxiv. 33, 34 ; 1 Cor. xv. 5 ; John xxi.).
In the Book of Acts we find Peter acting as the leader
and spokesman of the early Church at several crises in its
history, viz. the election of an apostle in place of the
betrayer ; the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of
Pentecost ; the admission of the Gentiles, in the person of
Cornelius, the Koman centurion, to the communion of the
Church; and the emancipation of the Gentile converts
from the bondage of the Jewish law at the Council of
Jerusalem, 50 a.d. (Acts i. 15-26 ; ii. 1-42 ; x. ; xv.
6-11). It appears that some time afterwards Peter was
guilty of vacillation in his relations with Gentile Chris-
tians at Antioch — reminding us of his earlier weakness, —
which called forth a public remonstrance from the apostle
of the Gentiles (Gal. ii. 11-14).
Regarding Peter's subsequent life scarcely any infor-
mation is furnished by the New Testament; but there
is an ancient and general tradition that he suffered
martyrdom at Rome. Many legends have gathered
164 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
round his imprisonment, death, and burial. The lack
of evidence for these need not prevent us from acqui-
escing in the general belief of the early Church that it
was at Koine Peter suffered the death by martyrdom
which had been predicted by his Lord. This is contra-
dicted by no other ancient tradition of the Church, and
we have some confirmation of it in this epistle (see p. 167).
In illustration of the remark already made as to the
harmony of this epistle with Peter's experience and
character, we may note the following points. (1) The
writer claims to have been " a witness of the sufferings
of Christ " (v. 1), and retains a vivid impression of them,
as shown in his description of Christ's patience (ii. 20-24)
and the frequency of his allusions to the subject. (2)
He gives prominence to Christ's resurrection, and repre-
sents it as the source of a new and living hope (i. 3, 4, 21 ;
iii. 20, 21), which had been precisely Peter's experience.
(3) He dwells upon the pastoral aspect of Christ's
ministry (ii. 25 ; v. 2-4) as if under an abiding sense of
the responsibility laid upon him by his Master's threefold
charge to act the part of a shepherd to His flock. (4)
He enlarges on the idea embodied in Peter's name, re-
presenting the Church as"a spiritual house " composed
of living stones, with Christ Himself as the chief corner-
stone (ii. 4-8) — an idea to which he had already given
expression in his address to the Sanhedrim (Acts iv. 11, 12),
after the example of his Lord — both quoting from the
Old Testament (Matt. xxi. 42). (5) His injunction to
his readers, " all of you gird yourselves with humility "
(literally, " put on humility like a slave's apron," v. 5),
sounds like a reminiscence of the Saviour's action which
so astonished Peter when " he took a towel and girded
himself " in order to wash His disciples' feet, saying, when
He had finished, "I have given you an example that ye
also should do as I have done to you" (John xiii. 2-17).
1 PETER 165
(6) His language in i. 17 ("And if yc call on him as
Father, who without respect of persons," etc.) bears a
strong resemblance to Peter's words at Csesarea, " Of a
truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons," etc.
(Acts x. 34). (7) In ii. 13-16, "Be subject to every
ordinance of man for the Lord's sake ... as free," we
have probably the reproduction of the lesson taught to
Peter by his Lord with regard to the payment of the
tribute money (Matt. xvii. 24-27).
In the last-mentioned passage, as in many others, we
can discern traces of the same graphic and pictorial style
as we have seen to be characteristic of the Gospel of
Mark, which, there is reason to believe, is largely a record
of Peter's preaching. Such are the expressions, "not
using your freedom for a cloke of wickedness" (ii. 16),
the word translated " cloke " being peculiar to Peter
(only used here), and meaning a veil or covering ; "ye
should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men" (ii. 15),
the word rendered " put to silence " meaning, in a literal
sense, to muzzle (as a dog), and being only applied else-
where in the New Testament to the subduing of an
unclean spirit, and the stilling of the raging sea — both in
the Gospel of Mark (i. 25 ; iv. 39) ; " leaving you an
example that ye should follow his steps" (ii. 21), the
literal meaning of the word translated " example " being
the copy-head set before a scholar for his patient ano
persevering imitation ; " your adversary the devil, as a
roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour "
(v. 8). Akin to the pictorial style of the epistle is the
"wealth of epithets" by which it is distinguished, e.g.
"an inheritance incorruptible, and undefined, and that
fadeth not away" (i. 4). Cf. i. 7, 19 ; ii. 9, etc.
It appears from v. 12 that in writing this epistle Peter
had the assistance of " Silvanus, our faithful brother," as
his amanuensis, who is, no doubt, to be identified with
166 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
the "Silas" mentioned in Acts xv. 22, 32, 40, and the
Silvanus of 1 Thess. i. 1 ; 2 Thess. L 1 • 2 Cor. i. 19.
2. The Readers. — " To the elect who are sojourners of
the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and
Bithynia." The meaning of this address has been much
disputed. By some it has been taken in a literal sense as
denoting the Christian Jews of the Dispersion residing in
the various parts of Asia Minor that are here specified.
But this is inconsistent with the language used by the
apostle to his readers in i. 14 ; ii. 9, 10 (where he quotes
the same passage from Hosea that Paul applies to the calling
of the Gentiles in Rom. ix. 25) ; iii. 6 (R.V.) ; iv. 3 (R.V.).
All these passages would lead us to suppose that the
readers of the epistle were largely Gentiles, as we know
the members of the Churches in Asia Minor for the most
part were. 1
The words "sojourners of the Dispersion" are prob-
ably to be interpreted in a spiritual sense with reference
to the heavenly Canaan, from which Christ's followers on
earth may be regarded as temporary exiles, the Churches
to which they belong being scattered branches of a com-
monwealth that has its home and its metropolis in heaven.
This interpretation is justified by the whole tone of the
epistle, which gives a spiritual meaning to the blessings
of the Old Covenant. 2 It accords in particular with
ii. 11, " Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims,
to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul."
3. Date and Place of Composition. — The only thing
1 For information regarding the Church in Pontus see Acts ii. 9 ;
xviii. 2 ; in Galatia, pp. 87-94 ; in Cappadocia, Acts ii. 9 ; in Asia,
Acts xviii. 24-26 ; xx. 17-35 ; Ephesians and Colossians. These
Churches had received the Gospel from Paul and his associates.
Hence the value of Peter's testimony in v. 12.
2 In accordance with this is the view which regards Paul as the
apostle of Gentile Christianity, James as the apostle of Jewish
Christianity, Peter as holding an intermediate position between the
two, and John as the apostle of universal Christianity.
1 PKTER 167
wo have to guido us as to the place of writing is in one
of the closing salutations : " She that is in Babylon, elect
together with you, saluteth you" (v. 13). Some suppose
Peter's wife (1 Cor. ix. 5 ; Matt. viii. 14) to bo hero
alluded to, but it is better to understand the Church in
Home, which city is here called " Babylon," as the new
seat of oppression and cruelty to God's people. This was
the view generally held by the early Church Fathers ; it
is in accordance with the figurative language of the
epistle, referred to in the previous section ; and it accounts
for the strong resemblance between this epistle and that
of Paul to the Romans, with which Peter could scarcely
have failed to become acquainted during his residence in
the capital. 1 It is almost certain that Babylon has this
meaning in the Revelation ; and it would add to the
force of Peter's exhortations to courage and patience, that
he was himself, when he wrote, in the very thick of the
conflict. 2
With regard to the date of its composition, the prob-
ability seems to be that the letter was written shortly
after the outbreak of the Neronian persecution, when
the Churches in the provinces were beginning to experi-
ence the effects of the imperial example at Rome, about
64-65 a.d. 3
1 E.g. cf. ii. 6-8, Rom. ix. 33, and Isa. viii. 14, xxviii. 16 ; ii. 13, 14,
Rom. xiii. 1-4. A resemblance can also be traced to Ephesians and
the Epistle of James, showing how little truth there is in Baur's theory
of an irreconcilable opposition between Paul and the rest of the
apostles (Salmon's Introduction to the New Testament, pp. 485-489).
2 ' ' That this epistle was written from Rome, I cannot doubt. It
is impregnated with Roman thought to a degree beyond any other book
in the Bible ; the relation to the state and its officers forms an unusually
large part of the whole " (Prof. Ramsay).
8 The readers are addressed as liable to persecution, both of a social
and a legal character, the very name of Christian having become a
term of reproach, and still worse evils being imminent. Indeed, the
signs of persecution are so pronounced in this epistle, that it has, on
this account, been assigned by many to a later date.
163 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
4. Character and Contents. — This epistle breathes the
spirit of practical earnestness so characteristic of its
author. The Greek word " to do good " occurs no less
than nine times in the course of the five chapters. There
is no want of allusion to Christian privilege and Christian
doctrine ; but it is always for a practical purpose, as
furnishing motives for Christian obedience. Of this we
have an illustration in the frequent use of the words
"wherefore," "therefore," "because," etc., by way of
enforcing practical applications (i. 13, 16, 22; ii. 1, etc.).
The chief duty which the writer wishes to inculcate is
that of patience under trial (i. 6, 7 ; ii. 19-21 ; iii. 13-18 ;
iv. 12-19). In many cases the suffering arose from perse-
cution — proceeding from suspicion and ill-will on the part
of the non-Christian members of the community (ii. 18, 19;
iii. 16). The very name of Christian was becoming a
term of reproach (iv. 16) ; and even worse trials were in
store for them (iv. 12, 17). For the endurance of all
such unmerited sufferings the apostle points them to the
example of the Saviour (whose sufferings are referred to
in every chapter), at the same time bidding them take
care that they do not bring trouble on themselves by
their unworthy conduct. Their trials, he reminds them,
are only for a time (i. 6 ; iv. 7 ; v. 10), and will receive
abundant compensation at the revelation of Christ's glory
(i. 7; iv. 13, 14; v. 10). "The sufferings of Christ and
the glories that should follow " are indeed the two poles
around which the whole argument of the epistle turns,
resulting in a beautiful blending of patience and hope.
Hence Peter has been styled "the Apostle of Hope." 1
Along with the calls to patience there are mingled
various other admonitions addressed to citizens, ii. 13-17 ;
servants, ii. 18-20 ; wives, iii. 1-6 ; husbands, iii. 7 ; elders
1 As compared with John the apostle of love, Paul the apostle of
faith, and James the apostle of works.
1 PETER 169
of the Church, v. 1-4; and the congregation generally,
with reference to various duties, iv. 5-11, etc. It is
worthy of note, that although this epistle has so littlo of
a speculative character, it has been the means of reveal-
ing two interesting truths, which would not have been
otherwise known to us (i. 12, last clause; iii. 18-20). It
may also be said to contain a practical refutation of the
Romish theory as to Peter's juris'diction in the Church.
So far from making any claim to authority or pre-
eminence, the writer expressly puts himself on a level
with the other presbyters, and deprecates anything like a
spirit of lordship in the exercise of their ministry (v. 1-3).
The names "priest," "bishop," "Church," are never even
mentioned by him. 1
1 Except "Bishop" in ii. 25, where, however, it is Christ Himself
who is so designated.
CHAPTER XXII
2 PETER — JUDE 1
1. Authorship. — The genuineness of this epistle has been
more questioned than that of any other book in the New
Testament. 2 The external evidence for it is comparatively
meagre. We seem to hear echoes of its language in some
of the earliest post-apostolic works, but the first writer to
make express and unmistakable mention of it is Origen
(230 a.d.), and he does so in such a manner as to show that
he has doubts about its genuineness. A century later it
is classed by Eusebius among the disputed books of the
New Testament.
The difficulty of accepting it as a genuine writing of
Peter has chiefly arisen, both in ancient and in modern
times, from its differing so greatly in tone and substance
from the first epistle, written, as we have seen, near the
close of Peter's life. There is scarcely any reference in
1 On the connection between these two epistles, see p. 176.
2 The question of genuineness really carries with it that of canonicity,
as the epistle is written throughout in the name and with the authority
of the Apostle Peter, and would lose its title to a place in the New
Testament if it could be proved to be a forgery. Professor Kamsay
would attribute it to "a disciple, who was full of the spirit and words
of his teacher, and who believed so thoroughly that he was giving the
views of his teacher, that he attributed it to that teacher."
2 PETER 171
it to our Saviour's sufferings or resurrection, which figure
so largely in the first epistle; and what it chiefly incul-
cates is knowledge rather than hope.
But, apart from the versatility of Peter's mind, this
difference in the character of the two epistles may to a
large extent be accounted for by the different circum-
stances under which they were written. While the first
epistle was evidently designed to encourage and support
Christians under persecution, this later one was intended
to warn them against false teachers who were spreading
corruption in the Church. At the same time this epistle,
like the first, is eminently practical, insisting on the
necessity of Christian duty for the perfecting of Christian
knowledge, emphasising the danger of knowledge without
practice (i. 5-10 ; ii. 20, 21), and giving a practical turn to
the argument (iii. 11, 14). Moreover, amid the general
difference of style a close examination of the language and
thought in this epistle brings out many points of resem-
blance between it and Peter's language elsewhere. A like-
ness to the first epistle will be found on a comparison of the
undernoted passages. 1 It may also be seen in the frequent
use of twofold expressions, e.g. (in this epistle) " precious
and exceeding great," " not idle nor unfruitful," " without
spot and blameless" (i. 4, 8, 9, 19 ; ii. 3, 10, 13, etc.), and
in the marked recurrence in both epistles of the word
"holy." A number of verbal coincidences have also
been observed between this epistle and the Gospel of
Mark as well as between it and Peter's speeches in the
Book of Acts; but they are for the most part of such
a nature as can only be appreciated by a student of the
original. 2
1 i. 2, 1 Pet. i. 2 ; i. 7, 1 Pet. i. 22, iii. 8 ; i. 19, 20, 1 Pet. i. 10-12;
ii. 1, 1 Pet. i. 18 ; iii. 5, 1 Pet. iii. 20 ; i. 3, 1 Pet. v. 10 ; iii. 14,
1 Pet. i. 19.
2 Traced by Dr. Lumhy in Speakers Commentary, and Expositor,
vol. iv.. First Series.
172 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
It has also been found that this epistle, like the first,
is distinguished by the use of rare words, of a striking
and pictorial character, after the manner of Peter, but
not borrowed from the first : e.g. " whose sentence now
from of old linger eth not " (ii. 3), " turning the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes " (ii. 6), " enticing un-
stedfast souls," "they entice in the lusts of the flesh"
(ii. 14, 18) (the word translated "entice" meaning liter-
ally to take with a bait, being such a word as a fisherman
would naturally use) " which the ignorant and unstedfast
wrest, as they do also the other scriptures" (iii. 16) —
the Greek word for " wrest " meaning to put on the rack,
like a criminal, for the purpose of extorting a desired
confession.
It is worthy of remark as a note of genuineness that
although the writer was evidently acquainted with the
first epistle (iii. 1) he does not copy its designation of
the apostle, as a forger might surely have been expected
to do, nor does he attach the same address to the epistle,
nor conclude with the same doxology (i. 1, 1 Pet. i. 1).
Similarly, when he mentions the words spoken by the
voice from heaven at the Transfiguration, he does not
give them exactly as they are reported in the Gospels ;
and, in immediate connection with the Transfiguration,
he makes use of two words, namely "tabernacle" and
" decease," that would naturally be associated in Peter's
mind with the memory of that great incident (i. 14-18,
cf. Luke ix. 31-33). In his use of the expression in the
same passage, " even as our Lord Jesus Christ signified
unto me," we may trace an allusion to our Lord's prophecy
of Peter's death in John xxi. 18, 19. 1
1 In the recurrence of the word "stablish," under a variety of
forms, we have probably an illustration of the same retrospective
tendency, which may be discerned also in the first epistle, — the refer-
ence, in this case, being to his Lord's injunction: "when once thou
hast turned again, stablish thy brethren."
2 PETER 173
2. The Readers. — This epistle bears to be addressed
to the same renders as the first (see p. 166).
3. Date and Place of Composition. — There is a
strong probability that it was written before the de-
struction of Jerusalem. Otherwise such an impressive
instance of divine judgment could scarcely have been
left unnoticed in alluding to the retributive justice of
God.
At the same time the errors and dangers described in
this epistle, which bear a strong resemblance, in some
respects, to those referred to in the pastoral epistles
(1 Tim. iv. 1, 2; vi. 5, 20, 21 ; 2 Tim. ii. 18 ; iii. 1-7), prove
that it could not have been written much sooner than
70 a.d. The allusion to Paul's epistles as known to the
readers (iii. 15, 16) leads to the same conclusion, as
does also the frequency of the expression "put in remem-
brance" and kindred words (i. 12, 13, 15 ; iii. 1, 2), which
indicate an advanced period in the apostolic age, as
well as in the life of Peter — assuming that he was the
writer.
Like the first epistle, this was probably written from
Rome; but the use of the apostle's Hebrew name of
Symeon, or Simon (i. 1), as well as the connection of
this epistle with that of Jude, would seem to indicate a
Palestinian influence of some sort, possibly in the person
of Peter's amanuensis or secretary.
4. Character and Contents. — This epistle, unlike the
first, is full of denunciation and warning. It was designed
to put its readers on their guard against false teachers,
who were enticing unsteadfast souls, "promising them
liberty while they themselves are bondservants of corrup-
tion." In opposition to their immoral doctrines it in-
culcates a steady and persevering endeavour after holiness
as the only way to advance in true knowledge and secure
an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and
174 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
Saviour Jesus Christ. In particular, the writer seeks to
confute the arguments and counteract the influence of
certain scoffers who made light of the Second Coming,
as if it were a vain delusion, and appealed to the con-
stancy of Nature as a warrant for their unbelief. The
delay of the divine judgment the writer attributes to the
fact that " one day is with the Lord as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day," alleging the delay
to be a proof of God's mercy and long-suffering. The
destruction of the world in the days of Noah is cited as
an act of divine judgment analogous to that which is to
take place at the end of the world, when the destroying
element, however, shall be not water but fire. From the
dread catastrophe there shall arise " new heavens and a
new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness," for which
Christians ought to be preparing j and the epistle con-
cludes much in the same way as it commenced, with a
call to " grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ."
The intrinsic worth of the epistle is well expressed by
Calvin when he says, " the majesty of the Spirit of Christ
exhibits itself in every part of the epistle."
"the general epistle of jude"
1. Authorship. — "Judas, a servant of Jesus Christ,
and brother of James." It may be regarded as certain
that the James whom the writer here claims as his
brother was the well-known head of the Church at
Jerusalem, one of our Lord's brethren, and the writer of
the epistle that bears his name (cf. Matt. xiii. 55 j Mark
vi. 3). Jude is therefore not to be identified with any
of the apostles of the same name mentioned in the Gospels.
Had he been an apostle he would doubtless have claimed
JUDE 175
the title, instead of being content to call himself "the
brother of James." Regarding Jude personally we know
little or nothing, but an interesting tradition concerning
two of his grandsons has been preserved by Hegesippus.
That historian (as quoted by Eusebius) tells how the
Emperor Domitian, being moved with jealousy, sent for
these two kinsmen of our Lord to inquire of them regard-
ing the kingdom to which they aspired. When he learned
from them that they were merely peasant proprietors
fanning a few acres of land in Palestine, and saw their
hands horny with constant labour, and when they told
him further that the kingdom to which they looked
forward was not of this world, but to be revealed when
Christ came to judge the quick and the dead, his alarm
was removed, and he allowed them to depart in peace.
Tradition tells that they lived to the reign of Trajan,
honoured by the Church for their confession and for their
relation to the Lord.
The obscurity of Jude himself is a strong argument
for the genuineness of the epistle, as a forger would have
chosen some more distinguished name to associate with
his work. Its marked individuality also, exhibiting so
many unusual features, by which it is distinguished
from all the other books of the New Testament, except
2 Peter, is against the supposition of forgery. Although
it is reckoned by Eusebius among the " disputed " books,
we find it expressly quoted by Clement of Alexandria in
the end of the second century, and recognised as canonical
by Tertullian a few years later. It has also a place in
the Muratorian Canon ; but it is absent from the Syriac
Version.
2. The Readers. — On this subject we are left to con-
jecture. Considering the Jewish features of the book
and the Jewish character of its author, it would seem
probable that it was written to Christians in Palestine,
176 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
but not to any particular Church, as it contains no
special salutations or messages. 1
3. Date and Place of Composition. — Regarding the
place of writing we have no direct information, but all
the circumstances point to Palestine as the source of the
epistle. From the absence of any allusion to the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem we infer it was written prior to that
event ; but here, as in 2 Peter, the evils with which the
epistle deals preclude us from giving it a much earlier
date. As an approximation we may name 65-68 a.d.
4. Character and Contents. — This epistle, consisting
of a single chapter, bears a very striking likeness to the
second chapter of 2 Peter, so much so that we may
conclude with confidence that the one was borrowed
from the other. As this epistle has certain features of
originality about it which the other lacks, we may infer
that St. Peter and not Jude was the borrower. It is
quite possible, however, that the Epistle of Jude may
itself be the translation of an Aramaic original — judging,
for example, from its fondness for threefold expressions. 2
The epistle is remarkable for several allusions to
matters of ancient history that are not recorded in the
Old Testament. In ver. 14 we have a quotation from
an apocryphal book of Enoch (of which several copies of
an Ethiopic version were brought from Abyssinia by the
traveller Bruce in 1773, while a large part of it in Greek
has been recently discovered in Egypt); and ver. 9 seems
to have been derived from a book called "The. Assumption
of Moses," only a small part of which has been preserved
to us. These allusions are not more at variance with
the doctrine of Inspiration than the quotations in the
1 The designation which the writer gives himself — Judas, the
" brother of James " — was well fitted to command the attention of
Jewish converts owing to the deep reverence in which James was held
by his countrymen.
2 Cf. vv. 1, 8, 11.
JUDE 177
Old Testament from the "Book of Jasher," and other
such documents, or Paul's allusions to "Jannes and
Jambres" (2 Tim. iii. 8), or his quotations from heathen
writers. In 2 Peter, however, these quotations almost
disappear, and there is also -an omission of one or two
references to Levitical uncleanness, as if the writer desired
to adapt his epistle as far as possible for general use.
The epistle is full of sharp and stern denunciation,
aimed at practical evils of a most heinous character,
committed by men who were " turning the grace of our
God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master and
Lord, Jesus Christ." These evils were founded upon a
gross abuse of Christian liberty, and were somewhat
similar to the terrible excesses which broke out among
the Anabaptists after the Protestant Reformation, re-
sulting from the abuse of the doctrine of Justification
by Faith, when professing Christians combined the guilt
of Cain (bloodshed), of Balaam (seduction), and of Korah
(insubordination), ver. 11. In view of the corruption
both of faith and manners that was thus beginning to
infect the Church, Jude exhorts his readers to " contend
earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered
unto the saints," and appeals to the past history of God's
judgments for proof of the punishment in store for the
present offenders, whom he commends nevertheless to the
compassion and care of their believing brethren.
The epistle concludes with one of the most beautiful
doxologies to be found in the New Testament.
CHAPTER XXIII
1, 2, AND 3 JOHN
"THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF JOHN"
1. Authorship. — This epistle was used by two of the
Fathers who had been disciples of the Apostle John,
viz. Polycarp and Papias. It was recognised and quoted
as John's by Irenseus who had been a disciple of Poly-
carp, and it was evidently known by the writer of the
Letter to Diognetus. It is freely quoted by Clement of
Alexandria and Tertullian, is referred to in the Mura-
torian Fragment, and is one of the books contained in
the Syriac as well as in the old Latin Version.
Its internal character is such as to confirm us in the
belief that it was written by the author of the fourth
Gospel. Not only has it many verbal similarities, 1 but
it is dominated by the same Christian idealism which
refers all things in human life to the ultimate principles
of light and darkness, truth and error, good and evil,
love and hatred, life and death, God and the devil. So
intimate is the connection between the two books that
1 E.g. cf. i. 1, John i. 1, 14, xx. 27 ; i. 2, John iii. 11 ; i. 3, John
xvii. 21 ; i. 4, John xvi. 24 ; i. 5, 6, John i. 5, iii. 21, viii. 12 ; ii. 11,
John xii. 35 ; iii. 14, John v. 24 ; iv. 9, John i. 14, iii. 16 ; iv. 14,
John iv. 42 ; v. 6, John xix. 34.
1 JOHN 179
the epistle was regarded by the late Bishop Lightfoot
and others as forming a postscript to the Gospel. 1
2. The Readers. — In all probability it was addressed
in the first instance to the Churches of Asia, among
whom the Apostle John spent the latter part of his life.
The exhortation in v. 21, "guard yourselves from idols,"
would have special significance in the neighbourhood of
Ephesus, which was a great stronghold of idolatry; and the
absence of allusions to the Old Testament bears out the
supposition that the epistle was addressed to converts
from heathenism. Although there is no salutation either
at the beginning or the end, and no personal or historical
allusions such as would have been likely to occur if it
had been a letter addressed to an individual Church, yet
the writer speaks in a quiet tone of authority as if he
were well known to his readers and expected that his
words would command respect. He addresses them in
terms of affection, and writes as if he were well acquainted
with their dangers and their needs. 2
3. Date and Place of Composition. — It was probably
written in the same city as tradition assigns to the
Gospel, viz. Ephesus j and about the same time — 85-90
a.d. It takes the Gospel for granted, and in certain
passages {e.g. ii. 1, etc., " my little children ") the tone of
its language is such as would befit an aged apostle
addressing men of a later generation.
4. Character and Contents. — In this epistle — probably
the last inspired utterance of the New Testament except-
ing the two brief missives that follow it — we have the
1 Professor Ramsay says : "No two works in the whole range of
literature show clearer signs of the genius of one writer."
2 Augustine and other Latin writers speak of the epistle as
addressed to the Parthians, but this was probably a mistake occa-
sioned by the Greek term parthenos ("virgin"), which was frequently
applied to the Apostle John, in allusion to his supposed lifelong
celibacy.
180 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
translation into the Christian life of those great truths,
regarding the fellowship of God with man, that are found
in the fourth Gospel in connection with the life and
ministry of Jesus Christ. That Gospel, as we have seen,
is doctrinal as well as historical, but its doctrines are
here applied to the lives of Christ's followers. The
epistle is thus in advance of the Gospel, being designed
to lead Christians to a conscious realisation of the new
life to which they are called in fellowship with Christ — a
life transcending and vanquishing that of the world (cf.
v. 4, 5, 12, 13, and i. 4 with John xx. 31).
Its thought springs mainly out of a twofold concep-
tion of the Divine Nature as " light " (i.-ii.), and as
" love " (iv. 7-v.), united by a bond of righteousness (ii.
29-iv. 6). There is no laboured argument such as we
find in some of Paul's epistles, but simply an appeal to
first principles that are to be seen with the spiritual eye,
not to be proved by means of logic.
Although lofty and spiritual, the teaching in the
epistle is at the same time intensely practical. It was
evidently intended to counteract the growing tendency
to magnify knowledge at the expense of practice (i. 6, 7 ;
ii. 3-6; hi. 6-10; cf. ii. 18, 19). One form of this in-
cipient Gnosticism was associated with the name of
Cerinthus, who lived at Ephesus in the time of the
apostle. Cerinthus, like many others, 1 denied the reality
of Christ's humanity, maintaining, in particular, that the
Divine Being only entered into the man Jesus at his
Baptism and left him on the eve of his Passion. Hence
the emphatic statement of the apostle (v. 6), " This is he
that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ ; not
with the water only, but with the water and with the
blood," implying that the Saviour fulfilled His divine
mission in His death upon the cross as well as in His
1 Called Docetce from a Greek word meaning apparent, not real.
2 JOHN 181
baptism. Again and again, in other passages, the apostle
a 011 the reality of the union between Jesus and tho
Christ, as an essential element of tho Christian faith
(ii. 22; iv. 2, 3, 15; v. 1, 5; cf. i. 1-4).
While it gives no quarter to evil and falsehood, the
epistle overflows with exhortations to the love of God
and man (ii. 9-11; iii. 11-18; iv. 7-13, 16-21; v. 1, 2).
As we read the apostle's language here, we find it easy
to believe the story told of him by Jerome, that when
he was too old to preach he used to be carried to church,
simply to repeat in the hearing of the congregation,
"Little children, love one another." And when some
one asked him, " Master, why dost thou always speak
thus ? " he answered, " Because it is the Lord's command ;
and if only this be done, it is enough."
"the second epistle op john"
1. Authorship. — The external evidence for the
genuineness of this epistle is not so convincing as in
the case of the one that we have just been considering ;
but this is easily accounted for by its brevity and its
being less suitable for public reading in church. At
the same time, it is expressly quoted (as John's) by
Irenseus and Clement of Alexandria, and is mentioned in
the Muratorian Fragment. It appears also to have been
acknowledged by Eusebius, although he placed it among
the " disputed " books. With regard to internal evidence,
it has all the appearance of being genuine. Like the
third epistle it bears to be written by " the elder," a
designation which implies that the writer was a well-
known personage in the Church, and which might be fitly
claimed by John as the last of the apostles. 1 But an
1 Cf. Peter's use of the expression " a fellow -elder," as applied to
himself (1 Peter v. 1), and the language of Papias (Appendix,
p. 195).
182 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
imitator who wished to pass for John would have made
his claim in more distinct terms ; and the contents of the
epistle are such that no reasonable motive can be assigned
for forgery.
The genuineness of this epistle derives considerable
support also from its strong resemblance to the first, —
no less than seven of its thirteen verses having some-
thing parallel in the other. 1
2. The Reader. — "Unto the elect lady and her
children." It is a question whether these words are to
be taken literally, or in a figurative sense as the designa-
tion of a Church and its members. On the whole the
latter seems the more probable, in view of the expressions
used in verses 1, 4, 5, 10, 13. Such figurative language
need not surprise us in the case of a writer so fond of
symbolism as the author of the Apocalypse and the fourth
Gospel. 2 But which of the Churches in Asia is thus
addressed we have no means of knowing.
3. Date and Place of Composition. — It was probably
written from Ephesus, — subsequently to the first epistle.
4. Character and Contents. — While the epistle con-
tains expressions of warm affection for the members of
the Church in question (whom the writer appears to have
recently visited), its main object is to warn them against
the insidious and corrupting influence of certain heretical
teachers who were going about denying the reality of
Christ's humanity (ver. 7). " The elder " urges an un-
compromising opposition to all such teachers, in terms
that remind us of the story told of John by Irenseus on
the authority of those who had received it from Polycarp,
1 Cf. ver. 1 and 1 John iii. 18 ; ver. 4 and iv. 21 ; ver. 5 and ii.
7 ; ver. 6 and v. 3 ; ver. 7 and iv. 1-3 ; ver. 9 and ii. 23 ; ver. 12
and i. 4.
2 Some think that a similar metaphor is to be found in the First
Epistle of Peter (v. 13), whom tradition associates in his later years
with John.
3 JOHN 183
that finding Cerinthus in a public bath, the apostle
rushed out at the sight of him, exclaiming, "Let us fly
lest even the bath fall on us, because Cerinthus, the
enemy of the truth, is within," — a speech that betrays a
lingering of the spirit that had once been rebuked by
his Lord (Luke ix. 54). On the other hand, the blending
of love 1 with truth in the earlier part of the epistle
is equally characteristic of the disciple "whom Jesus
loved " ; and it finds similar illustration in the beautiful
story of " St. John and the Robber." 2
"the third epistle of john"
1. Authorship. — If we admit the second epistle to be
the work of John, we can have no difficulty in accept-
ing this also as his. The two epistles have been aptly
termed "twins"; 3 and the contents of this epistle are
so peculiar in their bearing on the position and the
authority of the writer, as to preclude the idea of forgery.
2. The Reader.—" Unto Gaius the beloved." - The
name Gaius occurs several times in the New Testament; 4
but whether the receiver of this letter is to be identified
with any of those who are elsewhere so called it is im-
possible to say, the name being a very common one. He
1 The word " love " (noun or verb) occurs six times in this short
epistle, and " truth " five times.
2 The story is told by Eusebius (iii. 33). The Apostle John had
left in charge of the local bishop a promising young man who was
duly baptized and instructed. On his return he surprised the bishop
by asking for his "deposit," adding, in explanation of his words, "I
demand the young man, the soul of a brother." Thereupon the
bishop had to confess that the young man had gone astray and be-
come a robber-chief. The apostle immediately called for a horse and
made his way to the haunts of the robber, who fled at his approach.
The apostle pursued and overtook him, and by his persuasions and tears
induced him to give up his evil life and return to his old home, to be
restored to the Church.
3 For resemblances cf. ver. 1 and 2 John ver. 1 ; ver. 3, 4 and 2
John ver. 4 ; ver. 13 and 2 John ver. 12.
4 Acts xix. 29 ; xx. 4 ; Rom. xvi. 23 ; 1 Cor. i. 14.
184 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
is addressed as a faithful and liberal member of the
Church (verses 1-6).
3. Date and Place of Composition. — Like the second,
this epistle was probably written from Ephesus, — subse-
quently to the first.
4. Character and Contents. — This epistle, like the
second, gives us a momentary glimpse of Church-life in
Asia towards the close of the first century. While the
second contains a warning against heresy, this relates
rather to the evil of schism. It shows us the practical
difficulties which had to be encountered in the govern-
ment of the Church. In Gaius (the recipient of the
letter) we have a sincere and charitable Christian whose
influence and example the writer invokes in opposition
to the factious and intolerant conduct of an ambitious
ecclesiastic named Diotrephes, who had gone so far as to
close his doors on " the brethren " who had come in the
name of "the elder," apparently bearing a letter from
him — perhaps our second epistle (verses 9, 10). The
aged head of the Church feels that it will be necessary,
the next time he visits the district, to hold a reckoning
with the offender for his malice and presumption. 1
Meanwhile he warns Gaius against being led astray by
the example of Diotrephes; and in pleasing contrast
with the latter he refers to one Demetrius — apparently
the bearer of this letter — who " hath the witness of all
men, and of the truth itself." Finally he pleads the same
excuse for his brevity as he does in the case of the
second epistle, viz. that he hopes soon to visit his readers,
when they " shall speak face to face."
1 " The calm confidence of St. John seems to rest on himself more
than on his official power. His presence will vindicate his authority.
The growth of the Churches is as plainly marked as their independence.
The first place in them has become an object of unworthy ambition.
They are able, and as it appears, for the most part willing to maintain
missionary teachers." (Westcott.)
CHAPTER XXIV
"THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE "
1. Authorship. — There is very strong external evidence
to prove that this book was written by the Apostle John.
Passing over some earlier apparent witnesses, we find
unmistakable mention of it in the writings of Justin
Martyr. He expressly refers to it as the work of the
apostle, in the dialogue which he held with Trypho, an
unbelieving Jew, in the very city of Ephesus where John
lived, and within half a century after his death. Equally
clear and explicit is the testimony of Irenseus, who, as
we have seen, was a disciple of Polycarp, the disciple of
John. In one passage Irenaeus even gives as his author-
ity for preferring 666 to 616 as "the number of the
beast," in the disputed reading (xiii. 18), the testimony
of those who had seen John face to face. The book is
twice mentioned in the Canon of the Muratorian Frag-
ment, once in such a way as to imply that it was publicly
read in church ; it was one of the books on which
Melito, Bishop of Sard is, wrote a commentary (about
170 a.d.) ; and it is expressly quoted as "the Scrip-
ture " in the letter sent by the persecuted Christians of
Vienne and Lyons to their brethren in Asia Minor
(177 A.D.).
But soon after the middle of the second century the
186 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
book began to be regarded with suspicion, owing to the
use made of it by a heretical party called the Montanists,
who indulged in extravagant notions regarding the
" thousand years " of Christ's reign with His saints which
was to take place before the end of the world (xx.). This
feeling of distrust was strengthened by observing what a
marked difference there was in the language and style of
the Revelation as compared with the other works ascribed
to John j and a considerable amount of controversy took
place on the subject. Ultimately, however, the objec-
tions were overruled, and the book obtained general
acceptance in the Church.
In modern times the controversy has been renewed ;
and objectors are still disposed to insist, as of old, on the
internal marks of a different authorship from that of the
fourth Gospel. 1 In particular it is pointed out that
whereas the Gospel is written in good Greek, the Revela-
tion is full of grammatical mistakes and eccentricities ;
so that while there is scarcely anything in the former to
show that the writer was other than a Greek, the latter
would give us the impression of its having been written
by a person who first thought in Hebrew and had after-
wards to turn his thoughts into a language with which
he was imperfectly acquainted.
To meet this objection the following considerations
may be adduced : —
(1) The difference in the nature and contents of the
two books ; the one being mainly narrative or colloquial,
the other being formed on the model of the Old Testa-
ment prophets. (2) The possible effect on the apostle
of many years' residence in Ephesus (if we accept the
earlier date assigned to the Revelation) in the way of
improving his knowledge of Greek. (3) The unfavour-
1 The Tubingen school, however, generally admit Revelation as the
work of the apostle, and reject the fourth Gospel.
THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN 187
able circumstances under which ho appears to bave
written the Revelation ; and the possible employment by
him of a skilled Greek amanuensis in the composition of
his Gospel.
On the other hand, amid all the diversity between
the two books both in ideas and in language, there are
not wanting some important features of resemblance,
betokening an identity of authorship.
(1) The name "Lamb" is only applied to the Saviour
in the fourth Gospel (i. 29, 36) and in the Revelation
(v. 6, 8, 12, etc.), although it is indirectly referred to in
1 Peter i. 19 and Acts viii. 32. In like manner the
name " Word " is only applied to the Saviour in the
Gospel of John (i. 1, etc.), in First Epistle of John (i. 1,
"the Word of life"), and in the Revelation (xix. 13,
"The Word of God").
(2) Some of John's favourite expressions, such as, " he
that overcometh," " witness " (noun or verb), " keep (my)
word," are of frequent occurrence in the Revelation.
(3) In Revelation i. 7 we seem to hear an echo of
John xix. 34-37, where alone the piercing of our Lord
with the spear is recorded, and where there is the same
quotation of Zech. xii. 10 — in the same unusual
form.
(4) The Greek word meaning " true " or " real," in
opposition to what is false or counterfeit, occurs nine
times in St. John's Gospel, four times in 1 John, and ten
times in the Revelation ; but only five times in all the
rest of the New Testament.
(5) The Revelation, like the fourth Gospel, recognises
our Lord's pre-eminence and His title to divine honours
(i. 8, 17, 18; iii. 14, 21 ; v. 9, 13; xix. 16; xxii. 13).
(6) A still stronger feature of resemblance may be
seen in the similarity of the representations which the
two books give of the Saviour's triumph as resulting
188 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
from successive conflicts marked by apparent and tem-
porary defeat. In these conflicts the Gentiles, centred
in "Babylon," take the place held by the unbelieving-
Jews in the Gospel ; and the " disciples" of the earlier days
are represented by the Church, or "the bride" (of
Christ).
It has been objected that the Revelation, unlike the
other writings of John, gives the name of its avowed
author (i. 1, 4, 9; xxii. 8). But this is sufficiently
accounted for by the prophetical character of the book.
It was the practice of the prophets of the Old Testa-
ment, although not of the historians, to mention their
names in their writings.
2. The Eeaders. — It was evidently meant for the
Church at large — represented by "the seven Churches
which are in Asia " (i. 4).
3. Date and Place of Composition. — From i. 9 we
learn that the revelation was made to John when he
" was in the isle that is called Patmos " (in the iEgean
Sea) "for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus."
From i. 11; x. 4; xiv. 13; xix. 9; xxi. 5, we should
infer that it was committed to writing in the island
immediately after it was received. As to the date of
the apostle's banishment to Patmos, Irenaeus expressly
mentions that the vision was seen almost within his own
generation at the end of the reign of Domitian (Emperor
81-96 a.d.). There is nothing in any earlier writer to
throw discredit on this statement ; and there are several
things in the book itself which seem to point to a late
date of composition, e.g. the important and intimate
relation in which John appears to stand to the principal
Churches of Asia Minor, the signs of marked spiritual
declension in several of these Churches (ii. 4, 5 ; iii. 1, 2),
the use of the expression "the Lord's day" (i. 10),
instead of the earlier "first day of the week," and of the
THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN 189
phrase "synagogue of Satan" (ii. 9 j iii. 9), which would
scarcely have been employed by a Christian writer
previous to the destruction of Jerusalem.
At the same time there are some observations by
writers later than Ircnscus that favour an earlier dale
Tertullian tells us that at Rome the Apostle John was
plunged in burning oil, without sustaining any injury,
and that he was afterwards banished to an island. It is
in connection with, the martyrdom of Peter and Paul
that he makes the remark, which suggests the close of
Nero's reign as the time referred to; and accordingly
we find Jerome (about the end of the fourth century)
making an explicit statement to that effect. It is quite
possible Irenseus may have made a mistake, occasioned
perhaps by the frequency of banishment in the reign of
Domitian ; and this is the view taken by some critics at
the present day, who can only account for the style and
character of the book on the supposition that it was
written a considerable time before the Gospel. The key
to the interpretation of the book, they conceive, is to be
found in the identification of the reigning king in xvii.
10 with the Emperor Galba, the successor of Nero. The
latter is regarded as the head of the beast referred to in
xiii. 3, the healing of its wound symbolising the restora-
tion of Nero, who was then supposed to be still alive
and in hiding in the East. Confirmation of this is found
in xvii. 8, 11, and also in the symbolical "number of.
the beast" ("the number of a man . . . Six hundred
and sixty and six," xiii. 18), which answers in Hebrew
letters to the name " Neron Csesar." But it would be
more natural to reckon the number in Greek letters (as
Irenaeus did) ; and in either case a correspondence to it
can be made out in the case of a great many other
prominent names. This weakens very much the force
of the argument, for "we cannot infer much from the
190 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
fact that a key fits the lock, if it is a lock in which
almost any key will turn." l
4. Character and Contents. — The Revelation or
Apocalypse (a Greek word meaning "uncovering") has
many of the characteristics of the Book of Daniel. Both
1 Whatever interpretation we may give to the "number of the
beast," there is now a growing conviction that the theory which dates
the composition of the book before the destruction of Jerusalem must
be abandoned, and that the persecution referred to is not that which
took place at Kome in the reign of Nero, but the sufferings inflicted on
Christians at a later date, in the provinces, especially in Asia Minor,
when they refused to worship the Emperor and Roma. In support of
this conclusion the following considerations may be adduced. (1)
" The absolute and irreconcilable opposition between the Church and
the Empire " which distinguishes this book from all the other writings
of the New Testament, even the latest of them. (2) The description
of Rome as "the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters, with
whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, . . . the woman
drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the
martyrs of Jesus," — which finds its explanation in the fact that the
worship of Roma had spread over the Empire, and was now the most
formidable rival that Christianity had *to contend with. (3) The
reference to Pergamum as the place "where Satan's throne is, . . .
where Satan dwelleth " — that city having been the first place in Asia
to possess a temple in honour of the Emperor {Augusteum), and
having been the scene of a Christian martyrdom, apparently many
years before the Apocalypse was written, "even in the days of
Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you."
(4) The nature of the death suffered by the martyrs : "and I saw the
souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and
for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither
his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon
their hand " — as beheading was a common form of punishment with
proconsuls, but not in use at Rome during the Neronic persecution.
As to the precise date which, according to this view, is to be
assigned to the composition of the book, there is room for difference
of opinion. Mommsen argues for the later years of Vespasian (75-80
a.d.) chiefly on account of the interpretation which he gives to certain
passages, as referring to the expectation of the later pseudo-Nero's
return with the help of the Parthians. Apart from this there seems
to be no good reason why we should not accept the statement of
Irenseus, already referred to, that the Revelation came to John in the
closing years of Domitian, whose name is traditionally associated with
persecution of the Christians (of which we have some traces in the
writings of Dion Cassius and Suetonius), and who took delight in the
homage paid to him as emperor, and in the title of dominus et dens
which had already been claimed by his predecessor Caligula.
THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN 191
books consist largely of prophecy couched in the language
;»f symbolism. This was a mode of expression frequently
adopted by Jewish writers towards the close of the Old
Testament dispensation, when, owing to foreign oppres-
sion, it would have been dangerous to speak plainly in
matters affecting the national interests.
The central theme is the second coming of Christ, in
a magnificent setting of imagery — designed to represent
the great struggles and events that are to precede the
final consummation.
"After the Prologue, which occupies the first eight
verses, there follow seven sections —
1. The letters to the Seven Churches of Asia (i. 9-
iii. 22).
2. The Seven Seals (iv.-vii.).
3. The Seven Trumpets (viii.-xi.).
4. The Seven Mystic Figures — The Sun -clothed
Woman ; the Red Dragon ; the Man-child ; the Wild
Beast from the Sea ; the Wild Beast from the Land ;
the Lamb on Mount Sion ; the Son of Man on the Cloud
(xii.-xiv.).
5. The Seven Vials (xv.-xvi.).
6. The Doom of the Foes of Christ (xvii.-xx.).
7. The Blessed Consummation (xxi.-xxii. 7). The
Epilogue (xxii. 8-21)." l
The unity of the book is one of its most striking
features; and the attempts which have recently been
made by some critics to assign it to several different
authors have not been attended with success.
It must be acknowledged that the interpretation of
the Revelation in detail is still, to a great extent, shrouded
in mystery. Even those who feel assured that Nero is
the man represented by the number of " the beast," and
that the prophecy was delivered before the completo
1 Farrar's Messages of the Books, p. 520.
192 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
Destruction of Jerusalem, find themselves beset with
insuperable difficulties when they come to deal with
certain portions of the book, while in other passages
their theory would seem to imply that some of the
predictions of the Seer were very soon falsified by events.
This is a supposition which it is almost as difficult to
reconcile with the high estimation in which the Apocalypse
continued to be held by the early Church, as with its
divine inspiration.
The safest and probably the truest interpretation of
the book is to regard it as a symbolic representation of
great principles rather than as a collection of definite
predictions. In other words, it is intended for the edifi-
cation and comfort of Christ's people, not to give detailed
information regarding the future to those who are clever
enough to solve its enigmas. " Here, if anywhere, faith
and love are the key to knowledge, not knowledge the
key to faith and love. It is in the very spirit of the
book, not in a spirit hard or narrow or unsympathetic,
that it closes with the words 'the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ be with the saints.' " J
1 Dr. Milligan on the Book of Revelation.
APPENDIX A
Summary of Patristic Literature
The first six of the following are usually called the
" Apostolic Fathers " : —
Clement of Rome, according to an ancient and unani-
mous tradition, was one of the earliest bishops of the Roman
Church. Among the numerous writings that have been
ascribed to him, only one is now regarded as genuine, which
is known as his 1st Epistle to the Corinthians. The letter is
written in the name of the Roman Church, not without a
tone of authority (although there is scarcely any more trace
in it than in the New Testament of episcopal jurisdiction in
a monarchical sense, the terms "bishop" and "presbyter"
being still used as convertible). The object of the epistle
was to cure the dissension and insubordination that had
broken out in the Corinthian Church, and which had led to
the deposition of some blameless presbyters. The date now
generally assigned to the letter, on what appear to be
adequate grounds, is 95-96 a.d. The 2nd Epistle of
Clement, so called, is a homily by an unknown author,
probably written at Rome in the first half of the second
century.
Ignatius, converted to Christianity comparatively late in
life, succeeded Euodius as Bishop of Antioch, and was
martyred in the arena of the Coliseum at Rome, under
Trajan, 110-115 a.d. His genuine writings are now generally
held to consist of seven epistles, written in the course of his
last journey, as a prisoner, from Antioch to Rome, viz. : —
(from Smyrna) to the Ephesians, the Magnesians, the
13
194 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
Trallians, the Romans, and (from Troas) to the Philadelphians,
the Smvrnoeans, and Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna. With
the exception of the Epistle to the Romans, which relates
almost entirely to the author's expected and eagerly- desired
martyrdom, these epistles deal with questions of doctrine and
discipline. They emphasise the reality of Christ's humanity
in opposition to Docetic error (cf. p. 180), denounce Judaising
tendencies, and enforce the threefold ecclesiastical order
(bishop, presbyter, and deacon) in the interests of Church
unity.
Polycarp, for many years Bishop of Smyrna, was born
about 69-70 a.d., and suffered martyrdom in that city about
155-156 a.d., when he was in his eighty-sixth year. From his
disciple, Irenams, we learn that he had been a hearer of the
Apostle John, and that he had " not only been taught by
apostles, and lived in familiar intercourse with many that
had seen Christ," but had also " received his appointment in
Asia from Apostles as bishop in the Church of Smyrna."
The only extant writing bearing his name that is generally
admitted to be genuine is his epistle to the Philippians,
which was written nearly forty-five years before his death,
about the time of Ignatius' martyrdom. It is of considerable
length, but does not display much originality, borrowing
largely from the teaching of " the Lord " and His apostles, as
well as from the letters of Ignatius and Clement ; and the
chief value of his writing, as of his life, consisted in his
unswerving attachment, in an age of transition and conflict,
to the genuine apostolic tradition.
Barnabas. — To this well-known associate of St. Paul
there was ascribed by the early Church Fathers an epistle
containing twenty chapters. It is very anti-Judaistic in
spirit, maintaining that Judaism, in its outward and visible
form, had not received the divine sanction, and that God's
covenant had never belonged to the Jews. It betrays an
imperfect acquaintance with Jewish rites and ceremonies,
and a tendency to indulge in trifling allegories, for which
reasons, as well as because of its Gnostic magnifying of the
inner meaning of Scripture at the expense of its historical
framework, most critics assign it to an unknown Gentile
author of Alexandria, writing in the beginning of the second
APPENDIX A
century. But it contains allusions and argument* which
ma in to Imply that the destruction of the Temple had been
a recent occurrence ; and, for this and other reasons, some
would assign it to about 80 a.d., and accept the tradition
that it was the work of Barnabas.
The Shepherd of Hermas. — This is the name of a work
which was held in high esteem both by the Eastern and
Western Church for hundreds of years, from about the
middle of the second century. It bears to be written by one
Hennas, whom Origen, without any definite or sufficient
reason, identifies with the Hermas of Rom. xvi. 14. It
consists of three parts : (1) Visions seen by Hermas (in
Rome and the neighbourhood) ; (2) Commandments, and (3)
Similitudes which were delivered to Hermas by one who
appeared to him in the guise of a shepherd, " the angel of
repentance/' — the whole book being a call to repentance.
Internal evidence has led some to assign it to the latter part
of the first century ; but if we are to accept a statement re-
garding it in the Muratorian Canon, it would appear not to
have been composed till the middle of the second century.
Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, published an Exposition of
Oracles of tJie Lord about 135 a.d. Only a few brief passages
of the work have been preserved for us (by Irenaaus and
Eusebius), but Papias is frequently referred to by other
writers. Eusebius characterises him as u a man of very mean
capacity," though very learned ; and both he and Irenseus
refer to his peculiar views, of a materialistic nature, on the
subject of the Millennium. The chief object of his work
above-mentioned seems to have been to interpret the Gospels
in the light of all the traditions he could collect from the
Lord's disciples or those acquainted with them. According
to Irenseus, Papias was a hearer of the Apostle John, a com-
panion of Polycarp, and a man of the olden time ; but
Eusebius inferred (rightly or wrongly) from his language
(which he quotes) that there were two persons of the name of
John, and that it was not John the Apostle, but John the
Elder, that Papias was acquainted with. The words of
Papias are as follows : — " If I met anywhere with any one
who had been a follower of the Elders, I used to enquire as
to the discourses of the Elders — what was said by Andrew,
196 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS
or by Peter, or by Philip, or by Thomas or James, or by
John or Matthew, or any other of the Lord's disciples, and
what Aristion and the Elder John, the disciples of the Lord,
say. For I did not think that I would get so much
profit from the contents of books as from the utterances of a
living and abiding voice." There is room for difference of
opinion as to the correctness of this inference by Eusebius.
The Didache or " Teaching of the (Twelve) Apostles "
is the name of the work referred to by Eusebius and others
— Clement of Alexandria even quoting it as " Scripture " ;
but no MS. of it was known till 1873, when Bryennius dis-
covered at Constantinople a document containing both it and
the epistles of Clement and Barnabas, and several other
ancient writings. The first part of it is founded upon a still
earlier work called " The Two Ways " (probably of Jewish
origin, and perhaps also used in the epistle of Barnabas),
which sets forth the way of righteousness and life, and the
way of unrighteousness and death, somewhat after the
manner of the Epistle of James. The second part is of a
more ecclesiastical nature, and relates to prayer and fasting,
the two sacraments, and various classes of teachers and office-
bearers in the Church, concluding with an exhortation to
watch and be ready for the second coming of the Lord. It
was probably composed in the end of the first or the beginning
of the second century.
Aristides, an Athenian philosopher, is mentioned by
Eusebius and other writers as the author of a famous Apology.
It is only within the last few years that the work has been
discovered, in a Syriac translation, in St. Catherine's, Mount
Sinai — which has led to the identification of a portion of the
original, embodied in an early Christian romance (The Life
of Barlaam and Josaphat). It was addressed to the Emperor
Hadrian (117-138 a.d.), or to his successor, Antoninus Pius (who
was also called Hadrian), or possibly to both, and it may safely
be assigned to 125-140 a.d. It is the oldest extant Christian
Apology. That of Quadratus, which was written about the
same time, is still undiscovered ; but a quotation from it is
given by Eusebius, who speaks highly of the work.
Basilides, a famous Gnostic speculator, taught at
Alexandria in the reign of Hadrian (117-138 A.D.). We
APPENDIX A 197
Lean) from Busebius that he wrote twent) tout books lvov