THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID Cfyrist cmb f< * LONDON CHARLES BURNET & CO., 9, Buckingham Street, Strand. SECOND THOUSAND. Novello, Ewer & Co., Printers, 69 & jo, Dean Street, Soho, London, W. FOREWORDS. Christ and Christianity is not polemical, or dogmatic, or doctrinal. It is mainly historical, scenic. It aims at getting as far as may be at the facts — ascertaining what is certainly, then what is probably, then what is possibly true about them. The value of any theories put forth must be tested, as usual, by the number of facts they explain and arrange, and the number of questions they tend to solve. Generally received traditions, such as that Mark was the friend of Peter, and Luke the author of Acts, John the Apostle the writer of the Apocalypse, &c, I have not thought it worth while to question ; but no reader can be unaware that weighty authorities are divided in opinion about the exact date and IK213863 vi Forewords. authorship of most of the New Testament writings, so that when I appear to fix such dates and authors, I am only stating what I believe to be the most probable conclu- sions ; selecting and arranging these con- clusions as best I can from the heaped-up wisdom of a multitude of counsellors. I do not set up my own wisdom against theirs, I only claim the right to stand by, read, mark, learn, and choose for myself amongst what are, after all, only various surmises, and sometimes little better than " guesses at truth." Vol. * * now issued, The Story of the Four, dwells not upon Jesus and the events a.d. i — 33, but rather upon the period a.d. 33 — 150, which saw them written down. I have here considered the kind of material at the disposal of the writers, and commented upon the use they have made of it. Forewords. vii The Picture of Jesus (Vol. * * *), in outline and colouring, is in every detail affected by these considerations. The Picture of Paul (Vol. ****) is, of course, far less affected, as both the outline and colouring of his portrait are chiefly provided by the Apostle himself. The Picture of the Church, from Nero to Constantine, or the Conquering Cross (Vol. *****), will bear the impress both of the Master and the bold Disciple who was chiefly instrumental in giving His religion to the world. But everything pales in importance before the brief divine life of three-and-thirty years, in Galilee. All previous history leads up to it, all subsequent history points back to it, all is either B.C. or a.d. If I have peered inquiringly once more into that golden mist which hangs over the first viii Forewords. century, out of which steps the luminous figure of the God-man ; if I have dwelt on the labours of His foremost Disciple, and traced the stages of the Conquering Cross to Constantine, it was only that I might come closer to Jesus Himself as He went in and out amongst men doing good, and understand better the character of His Spirit, and the quality of His work upon earth. The volume entitled The Light of the Nations (Vol. *), which will be issued last, is really the first in order of thought, but like each of its companions it is complete in itself. It contains a bird's-eye view of the Religions of the world, as they appear summed up in the persons of their Founders or in the lives of their Votaries. When their main characteristics are thus held together in suspension — when they are seen for a moment as in one vast mental panorama — Forewords. ix the unity and solidarity of the religious consciousness emerges very strikingly, and we perceive that God has never left Himself without a witness in the heart of man, nor refused to impart a knowledge of Himself to the world, just whenever and wherever and in whatsoever degree the world has been able to entertain it. It has been well said that the only conception of the moral action of the Divine Being on the human soul, which is a priori defensible and philosophical, is a continued and impartial influence, limited to no time, or age, or race, like the great physical forces for ever acting on all particles of matter, yet sometimes resisted, often unseen, but eternally working towards definite ends, Religions, past and present, obey the same law of divine communication, being developed strictly according to the varying measure of human receptivity. x Forewords. But whilst to "the sundry times past," only one volume has been given, to "these last days," which have to do with the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, I have devoted no less than four volumes ; and this I apprehend, as Paul would say, is " according to the proportion of Faith." The aim of these volumes, it will now be seen, is simply to provide a new, and, as far as possible, a true setting for the central figure of Jesus Christ. I take no credit for original research. Others have laboured, and I have entered into their labours ; be it so. I am merely in the position of a lecturer or professor in class, with the often jarring authorities spread out before him, deliver- ing his free commentary and arriving at his own results. He professes, indeed, to have read what Forewords. xi has been written upon the matter, to know what has been said ; and all he brings with him is a fresh eye, a regard for historical criticism, and, what is as important, a sympathy with the historical imagination, which will help him to combine and re- construct, sometimes from very scanty hints and fragments, an account of the whole matter, capable at least of exciting interest — possibly of bringing conviction. I have avoided loading my pages with references as a rule, and even used as few texts as possible. Each volume aims at stating results rather than at raising dis- cussions. Foremost amongst recent contributions to New Testament exegesis, of course, stand Mr. Matthew Arnold's acute books — " God and the Bible," " Literature and Dogma"; Canon Farrar's well digested summaries xii Forewords. of learning contained in his " Life of Christ," " Early Days of Christianity," and "Life of St. Paul"; M. Ernest Renan's magnificent contributions to the study of the New Testament — I allude to his six volumes of " Origines " — than which few more scholarly, and no more poetical and sympathetic pages of local, Oriental colour- ing, and fine historical imagination, have this century been added to the life and times of Jesus. I need hardly allude to Dean Stanley's, Bishop Lightfoot's, and Bishop Ellicott's masterly and fascinating writings on Palestine and the Pauline Epistles, or Alford's Greek Testament ; nor shall I cumber my book with references to such old masters as Neander, Olshausen, Ewald, Strauss, Baur, &c. ; I might just as well print-off catalogues of well- known books, which every one who studies these subjects must consult, and reference to which is usually found in such works as Forewords, xiii Smith's " Dictionary of the Bible " and other Encyclopaedias. I have naturally drawn freely upon historical manuals, like Mosheim and Milman's " Christianity" ; nor have I failed to take account of such clever books as " Supernatural Religion," which have their uses in jolting old-fashioned theologians out of their conventional ruts, but can hardly be considered as excellent substitutes for the Gospel, on the ground of some sharp negative criticism, which, however, does not much affect my general conclusions. Lastly, I desire to make the frankest general admission of my obligations. I have sometimes followed one, sometimes another writer page after page, adopting here a theory and there a surmise, with a view of arriving at a connected statement, which should aim at carrying with it its own evidence, or such degree of evidence xiv Forewords. as happens to be attainable. With the effect of any of these statements or re-statements upon current or popular theology, I am no more concerned than a special correspondent at the seat of war is concerned with the effect of his narration upon the opinions or policy of the Govern- ment at home. The reporter simply goes out to look on, and to write down. He only wants to know the truth. He is not concerned with bolstering up a policy. Nothing which God has permitted to be true in history can possibly be out of harmony with any other kind of truth, Religious or Scientific. With all the modern appliances of science, historical criticism, geography, philology, and archaeo- logical research, any explorer who is so disposed, and has a taste for the work, can now go out into the first three centuries, with his note-book in hand, can look on, and write down. Forewords. xv All that we shall ever know of Jesus is contained in the New Testament, and all that we shall ever know of the New Testament is contained in the writings and the monuments of the first three centuries of the Christian Era. He who can put the monuments and the documents together and read them aright will know all that can be known about Christ and Christianity. H. R. HAWEIS, M.A., Queen's House, Cheyne Walk, 1886. Chelsea. CONTENTS. Forewords PAGE V I. MARK, THE CITIZEN'S STORY. No. IVlAKtt., Ifiil. \^lllZ.liiN .... JERUSALEM AND PELLA. 5 i. Origins 5 2. a.d. 33 to A.D. 68 6 3. At Jerusalem 7 4. a.d. 66 to a.d. 70 9 5. At Pella 9 6. The events and the Record . n 7. Indifference to written records . • . 12 SOURCES. 8. Oral freshets and written rills • 13 9. Modern analogies ..... • 15 10. The booklets ...... . 17 II. Earliest Gospel fragments . 19 12. Golden sayings ..... 20 13. Parable fragments .... 21 14. Variations . . . . . 22 15. Papias on Mark . 24 16. Conclusions . 24 XV111 CONTENTS. CHARACTERISTICS. No. 17- PAGE " The " and " A " Son of God .... 25 18. " The Trinity," 2nd century 26 19. The Carpenter's Son 27 20. No genealogy 28 21. Roman influence . 29 22. The very language of Jesus . 30 23- Eye-witness memories . 3i 24. Peter's place in " Mark" 32 25- Mark's pictures ■ ZZ 26. Peter's impressions 34 27. Mark's theology 35 II. MATTHEW, THE PUBLICAN'S STORY. Matthew, the Publican 39 SOURCES. 28. Matthew in Hebrew 41 29. Matthew in Greek 42 CHARACTERISTICS. 30. Fragments 43 31. Mosaic of verses 45 32. Repetitions 46 33. Genealogies and Childhood of Jesus . . .48 34. Jewish scruples 51 35. Jewish and Gentile views 53 36. Matthew's Apologetics 54 CONTENTS. xix No CHARACTERISTICS— Continued. 37. Democratic feeling 38. Version with a purpose 39. Fertile seeds 40. A Transition stage 41. New wine in old bottles 42. It was true. It is true. It is no longer true 43. Perfumes of Galilee PAGE 55 56 58 61 62 63 64 III. LUKE, THE PHYSICIAN'S STORY. Luke, the Physician 44. Recapitulations 45. About a.d. 94 ? DATE. SOURCES. 46. Paul's Gospel .... 47. Paul's travelling . 48. Luke and Mark and Paul's parchments 49. Luke's " eye-witnesses" 50. Luke uses Mark, not Matthew 51. Summary of Luke's success . CHARACTERISTICS. 52. Luke's literary method 53. Respect for Roman Authority 54. Zealous for Paul's honour 55. Running defence of Paul's position 56. Partiality to Gentiles 57. A Pacific Gospel .... 58. The Eternal and the Transitory . 69 7i 7i 73 74 75 7 6 77 78 79 80 81 83 84 85 87 CONTENTS. IV. JOHN, THE FISHERMAN'S STORY. No. John, the Fisherman . 59. St. John's escape .... 60. St. John at Ephesus 61. Men who had seen John 62. Tradition about St. John's Gospel 63. A Foreigner's mistakes . 64. More Foreign peculiarities . 65. Conclusion about St. John's Gospel 66. Mr. Matthew Arnold quoted . PAGB 93 95 96 96 98 99 102 103 104 CHARACTERISTICS. 67. Meaning of Gnosticism . . . . . . 106 68. Gnostic Influence 108 69. The ^ons no 70. The Xoyog 112 71. The Paraclete 115 72. Memories and Commentaries . . . .116 THE STORY OF THE SHEPHERD AND THE SHEEP. 73. The Good Shepherd Parable .... 74. The Door Parable 75. Fidelity and Incoherence 117 119 120 CONTENTS. xxi LUKE, THE PHYSICIAN'S DIARY. No. SCOPE AND COMPASS. page 76. " We " of the Diary 125 77. The human ever in God 126 78. The Panorama of the Acts 126 AUTHOR AND DATE. 79. Publication why delayed 128 80. Publication why resolved upon . . . .128 81. The Acts in Embryo ...... 129 82. Reticences of Luke 131 CHARACTERISTICS. 83. Luke's Democratic feeling 132 84. Luke a Reconciler 133 85. Good men agreed in heart not head . . . 135 86. The simplicity which is in Jesus .... 137 87. " Christianity " and " Christ " . . . .137 VI. JOHN, THE FISHERMAN'S CRYPTO- GRAPH. THE AGE OF THE APOCALYPSE. 88. Before the Vision 141 89. Special value . . . . . . . 141 No CONTENTS. THE AGE OF THE APOCALYPSE— Continued go. Revelation not before a.d. 68 91. Revelation not after a.d. 70 ... 92. John the Apostle is the writer 93. Why the " Fathers " object to this theory . 94. Revelation no forgery 95. John a "Son of Thunder" .... 96. Peculiarities of style and language 97. Summary PAGE 142 143 145 T46 147 I48 152 > THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 98. Little Apocalypses 99. Their tendency to recur 100. The Revelation built on Daniel 101. The "Angels" of the Churches 102. The Seven Epistles — a Jewish i Manifesto 103. Paul's death made a difference 104. Jewish Christianity 105. The inevitable severance 106. Strained relations 107. Paul in self-defence 108. A bitter application 109. Paul on Meats and Marriages no. Paul on Circumcision . in. The breach delayed 112. The fire breaks out • • . 152 . • • 153 • ■ 154 . 155 nd Anti-Pauline • • 155 • 157 • • 157 158 • • 159 . • 161 • • • 162 163 . 165 • . 167 . . 167 CONTENTS. THE SEVEN CHURCHES— Continued. 113. The survival of the Fittest . 114. Paul and " the Reformation " 115. Two cardinal but mistaken beliefs No. XXlll PAGE I69 I70 I 7 I THE GREAT DRAMA. 116. The Beasts and the Elders 172 117. The strong Angel 173 118. The Book and the Lamb 173 119. An historic retrospect . 174 120. The Red Horse . 175 121. The Black Horse 176 122. The Pale Horse .. 176 123. The cry of the Martyrs 177 124. Silence in Heaven 177 125. The Seventh Seal 178 126. The first trumpet 179 127. The false Nero 180 128. The Parthians 181 129. The Temple measured off . 182 130. The close again postponed 184 131. The Seven-headed beast . 185 132. The Great Cryptograph of Nero 187 *33« Thrust in thy Sickle . 188 134- The Seven Vials . . 189 i:35. The Scarlet Woman and the Beast . 190 136 Imperial and Pontifical Ror ne . 192 CONTENTS. THE GREAT DRAMA— Continued. No. 137. Rome is judged . 138. Satan is bound 139. Gog and Magog . 140. The Kingdom come at last . 141. The Crystal River and the Tree of Life 142. The Spirit and the Bride 143. The one Clear Note 144. Letter and Spirit 145. Immediate impression 146. Why Revelation lost ground 147. How Revelation regained its place PAGE 193 194 195 196 198 198 199 199 200 20I 202 I. MARK, THE CITIZEN'S STORY. MARK, THE CITIZEN'S STORY. No. Mark, the Citizen. Jerusalem and Pella. i. Origins. 2. a.d. 33 to a.d. 68. 3. At Jerusalem. 4. a.d. 66 to a.d. 70. 5. At Pella. 6. The events and the Record. 7. Indifference to written records. Sources. 8. Oral freshets and written rills. 9. Modern analogies. 10. The booklets. 11. Earliest Gospel fragments. 12. Golden sayings. No. 13. Parable fragments. 14. Variations. 15. Papias on Mark. 16. Conclusions. Characteristics. 17. " The " and " A " Son of God. 18. " The Trinity," 2nd century. 19. The Carpenter's Son. 20. No genealogy. 21. Roman influence. 22. The very language of Jesus. 23. Eye-witness memories. 24. Peter's place in " Mark." 25. Mark's pictures. 26. Peter's impressions. 27. Mark's theology MARK, THE CITIZEN. John, alias Mark, was essentially a man of towns. In early- life he was known as John of Jerusalem ; he was at one time a close adherent of Paul, and to the end, notwithstanding their early differences of opinion, he remained in the eyes of that Apostle to the Gentiles profitable to the ministry. Later in life he was known as Mark of Rome, where tra- dition declares him to have been the near friend and secre- tary of Peter, the substance of whose teaching is generally admitted to be set down in Mark's Gospel, which was written from memory after Peter's death. Mark's mother, Mary, seems to have been a person in comfortable circum- stances. The family lived at Jerusalem, and Mary's house was much frequented by St. Peter and his adherents. It was probably the attraction of Mary's home, with its friendly circle of reformed Jews — its social gatherings and stirring routine of city life — that attracted Mark, the citizen, when he left Paul and Barnabas to plunge by themselves into the wild regions of Pamphylia and Lycaonia. He attached himself to Peter. Peter never had Paul's passion for travelling, though necessity drove him now and again up and down Palestine, and, in all probability, once at least — and once too often — to Rome, where Mark was still his faithful companion. There he may have seen the last of Peter, crucified head downwards ; perhaps, too, of Paul — after his second trial before Nero — beheaded outside B 2 4 Mark, the Citizen. Rome. He himself disappears, and makes no sign — leaving behind him, however, a name associated with the greatest of the Jewish Apostles, and with the greatest of all Apostles; and a Gospel — derived from Peter — but not un- touched with the spirit of Paul. I. MARK, THE CITIZEN'S STORY. JERUSALEM AND PELLA. People are eager to hear about the latest excava- tions at Pompeii and Herculaneum, cities on the slopes of Vesuvius, which were destroyed (before the end of Paul's J x ORIGINS. life) in a.d. 63. The Gospel documents are of more consequence than Pompeii and Herculaneum. They, too, have been dug out, in a sense, almost within the memory of man. History is the field of their excavation. The ashes of exploded theories — the lava-streams of controversy and dogma — have, in times past, submerged the origin of the New Testament ; indeed, I think they have scarcely cooled down yet, for the angry subsoil still smoulders with theological rancour whenever it is stirred. Still, there is at length a set resolve on the part of the people to get at what lies beneath 6 Mark , the Citizen's Story. the surface. The Christian world of the nine- teenth century is asking — not what it is possible to induce people to believe about the Christian records of the first and second centuries, chief among which stand the four Gospels — but what is true. Now, what is true is, to some extent, certainly known, and may, to some extent, be probably inferred. We must transport ourselves in imagination to- Jerusalem in the first century; we must follow the written rills of narrative, then the a.d. 33 to oral freshets of tradition wherever we A,D * * come upon them ; we must take our divining-rod of sound historical criticism and mark jealously the spots where the living streams gush forth ; we must follow the direction they take, until, in a few short years, they are seen to converge and swell into the Gospel rivers of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The crucifixion took place about a.d. 33, in the reign of Tiberius Caesar — up to that time there is no trace of a written Gospel. The Acts (coming together, 71-2, though issued later) give a retrospect, from 33 to about 63, when Nero's At Jerusalem. 7 monstrous reign was drawing to a close (68). The main points stand out with considerable distinctness. We note the Church's compara- tive peace — the rise of persecution, the first martyrdom, the first imprisonments, the growing differences between the old Jews and the Judeo- Christians — between the Judeo-Christians, like James of Jerusalem, and the Greek and Roman Christians, like Paul and his followers. Still there is no written Gospel. Paul scours the Mediterranean, from 54 to 67-9, founds his churches in Asia Minor and at Rome, writes his Epistles, and disappears about 68-9. Still there is no written Gospel. Meanwhile, what was going on at Jerusalem ? All the elements of political and religious strife were seething in that vast sectarian cauldron. There were the Jews, who at could not agree with each other, and J ERUSALEM - could still less agree with the Romans. There were the Sadducees — the Jewish priesthood was in their hands — rich aristocrats, who hated the people; seeming ritualists, real sceptics — hypo- crites. These are the men whom James alludes to as the rich men who oppress the poor and 8 Mark, the Citizen 1 s Story, encourage people with gold rings to take the best seats at church. There were the Pharisees — the respectable church-going middle-class folk — fond of cere- monies and punctilious in the discharge of re- ligious functions, and neglecting the weightier matters of the law. There were the Zealots — fanatics — always sigh- ing for the downfall of the Roman Government — thwarting it — threatening it — the very Commune of Jerusalem — expecting a Messiah to come shortly in the clouds — disappointed with Jesus on this very account, rejecting Him because His kingdom was not of this world, and " came not with observation." There were the Brigands, prowling all round the city, bred of the general disorganization of the times — lurking in the suburbs, ready to join any party of action (disorder?) — with nothing to lose and much to gain by a revolu- tion. And, lastly, there were the Essenes, Pietists, simple ascetics, dreamers, Ebionites, and lowly followers of Jesus, waiting for the Kingdom of Heaven to be proclaimed upon the postponed but approaching return of their Lord. A.D. 66 to A. D. 70. g It was evident in case of a revolt who would take the lead — the Zealots and Fanatics, backed by the Brigands. They, not the Christians, would form the party of a.d. 66 to action when the time came. • • 7 • In 66 the time came. There was a skirmish with the Roman troops under Gessius Florus in the streets of Jerusalem. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the party of order went to the wall — they lacked the courage to side with the Government. The Zealots and an organised rabble had it all their own way, and even defeated the Roman troops. In a few months Vespasian, Nero's ablest general, was, of course, advancing through a sea of blood upon the devoted city, and in 70 Titus, his son, destroyed Jerusalem, and the Jews were dispersed never again to reunite — never again to have a country, a city, a temple of their own ! The Christians took no part in these bloody scenes. Quiet, peaceable folk, in no way political, utterly unfit and equally indisposed to be leaders or supporters of a popular AT FELLA* revolt, they remembered the words of Christ — they fled to the mountains. Jesus had io Mark, the Citizen's Story. warned them — indeed it required no prophet, even as far back as 33, to foretell that, sooner or later, the Communist section in Jerusalem would come to blows with the Roman authorities. Pilate had already mingled the blood of some of them who were Galilaeans with their sacrifices, and the only safety for the Christians would sooner or later be in flight. Early in 68, when they beheld "the abomination of desolation "(Matt.xxiv. 15, 16), the little band of Christians, the relatives and friends of Jesus, fled to the mountains beyond Jordan, and settled on the other side of the Peraean hills, at Pella. John, probably at this time writing or dictating at Ephesus, caught the flying rumours of such events as they floated across the Mediterranean, and chronicled this first flight of the Christians to Pella (Rev. xii. 6), " And the woman — i.e., the Church — fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared for her of God." That hurried flight was doubtless little noticed, so stirring and stormy were the events then happening in the streets of Jerusalem every day, yet was it more important than any of them. That little band of disciples and relations of Jesus carried with them all that was The Events and the Record. n remembered of the obscure Nazarene who had flashed into passing notoriety, dazzled the crowd, and then been crucified, and by most forgotten. Fragments of His strange story had indeed sur- vived ; but as yet there was no written Gospel. The far-off Pella in 68 was no doubt the land, if not of the written rills, yet surely of the oral freshets which were destined ere long to flow into the four Gospel rivers ; but as yet there is no trace of a written Gospel / And this is the first fact to be noted by all who want to understand the various readings, dis- crepancies, inaccuracies, fragmentary 6. utterances, or even contradictions to THE events be found in the four Gospels, and AND THE RECORD. which not even a rabid orthodoxy can altogether reconcile or ignore. None of the Gospels were written down until half-a-century after the events recorded in them. With the recognition of that fact much becomes natural, and, I may add once more, interesting to many readers who may have turned away from the Gospels in despair as long as they were weighted with theories of inspiration out of all harmony with facts or probability. 12 Mark, the Citizen's Story. We may at first feel surprised that events so momentous as those recorded in the four Gospels 7- were not sooner written down, but INDIFFERENCE 111 1 ,, to written on second thoughts we shall see it records, could hardly have been otherwise. Jesus wrote nothing that has been preserved, like the words of Confucius or Socrates — the words of Jesus reach us only at second-hand, generally third and fourth — they have passed, as Mr. Matthew Arnold says, through nearly half- a -century of oral tradition and more than one written account. The first generation of Christians expected daily the return of their Lord. Paul himself, in the Thessalonians (1 Thess. iv. 15) (cir. a.d. 52), speaks of his belief that Christ would return during his own lifetime, although at other times later on he seems to have given up that dream, and looked forward to departing and going to Christ instead (Phil. i. 23). To record the past for the sake of the future when the world was coming to an end seemed useless ; besides, the bulk of the Christians were poor, most of them probably unlettered and unable to write. And, lastly, in those days oral tradition was practised and valued far above written documents. In the Oral Freshets and Written Rills. 13 same way, the Vedas existed for centuries un- written, from mouth to mouth. The Talmud was only slowly written down, and even then oral teaching was preferred; and it was so with the Gospel for some forty years at least after the death of Christ. Even in 140 a.d., when many written accounts were current — doubtless, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John amongst them — Papias, a Christian writer, could say, " I did not consider things from books to be of so much use as things from the living and abiding voice " — a sentence which never could have been written by so eminent a Christian personage had any such theory of the inspired and infallible character of the written Gospels, such as we are familiar with, been known or heard of up to 160 a.d. SOURCES. Where shall we seek, where shall we find the Gospel sources ? The written rills, the oral freshets 8. of tradition certainly come from the 0RAL FRESHETS eastern slope of the Persean hills, AND written from Pella, beyond Jordan, whither rills. the family and the friends of Jesus fled in 68, on the outbreak of revolution in Jerusalem. 14 Mark, the Citizen's Story, Shall we look once more and for the last time upon the faces of that saintly group — upon the aged mother of our Lord — upon Lazarus, per- chance upon Nicodemus, Nathaniel, Joseph of Arimathsea, and the Marys, who ministered unto Jesus in the days of his earthly career? Some, if not all, of these must have been among the refugees at Pella. Undoubtedly they had the Evangelic tradition — chaste guardians of the sacred relics, second founders of Christianity — and all who wished to know about Jesus would make a pilgrimage to visit these holy personages, around whose heads the aureole was already beginning to gather. Apostles and Evangelists must have been there — remnants of the twelve and of the seventy sent out two and two — and Peter must have paid his farewell visit, previous to his departure for Italy. Matthew may have been there more than once when collecting materials for a Gospel, or perchance the Logia, " sayings," of Christ which went by his name. O far off light that forever hangs over those distant Persean hills ! O heavenly radiance that forever rests upon those saintly faces! distant voices still echoing down the ages, ye will be forever dear and sacred to all who love the Divine Master ! Modern Analogies, 15 Truly, as we follow in imagination that little group of obscure Jews, in that lonely mountain village, we can almost see the springs of Evangelic history bubbling up from modern the virgin soil, a thousand little rills ANAL0GIES - of tradition flowing from those distant hills, until they find their congenial channels, and flow forth to line with their four silver streaks the whole field of future history. In the old days we read how the precious words of Moses passed from mouth to mouth amongst the ancient Jews, and were constantly sown and re-sown in the memory : " Thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children ; thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." The Jewish method never altered, and from mouth to mouth were the words and deeds of Jesus passed by those later Jews — the Christian exiles of Pella. The little forms of oft-repeated words (bunches of sentences) would have a ten- dency to fix themselves. The most happy and expressive would be apt to suffer but little variation, but no one would be in a hurry to write them down — what is deeply engraved upon the heart need 1 6 Mark, the Citizen's Story. not be written. We do not write down our central thoughts for fear of forgetting them ; but we are ready to repeat them at any time — " to teach them diligently to the children ; to talk of them when sitting in the house, or walking by the way, or at nightfall, or at sunrise. " Writing was not so much the fashion in those days as it is now — no newspapers, no shorthand reporters, no popular printers and publishers — the majority of people could neither read nor write, especially if they were poor, as the Christians mostly were — fishermen, blind beggars, small farmers, carpenters, poor women, and some of more than doubtful character. Even now how difficult it is to get the actors in important events to write down their memoirs at the time. Only twenty years after the American war does Jefferson Davis (a chief actor) think of issuing his own account of it, and General Grant's story comes later still. Scores of eminent persons with half-a-century of priceless memories die and leave no line of record. Their oral narrations may have been frequent and abundant ; their words are gathered up and remembered afterwards; few of their writings, in some cases none, survive. The most important events are often those least The Booklets. 17 remarked at the time. Who knows anything certain about the history of Shakespeare or his plays ; or the childhood of William the Conqueror, or Zoroaster, or iEsculapius ? And to the outside world, to people like Tacitus, Pliny, or Suetonius ; to people like Gallio, Pontius Pilate, Tiberius Caesar ; to the admirers of the beautiful, accom- plished, and unscrupulous Berenice ; to the gay tourist at Baiae or Cumae ; to the possessors of villas at Pompeii and Herculaneum ; to the street arabs at Rome, who scrawled the still extant figure of a crucified ass on the walls of Caesar's Palace, and wrote under it Chrestus ; to the sort of crowds that shouted to seethe Christians thrown to the lions in the Colisseum, what was there worth writing about such a people ? Their history and their opinions were no more important than those of any gladiator or fanatic, whose prowess or eccentricity afforded an hour's sport or wonder to a frivolous and excitable rabble. For such-like various reasons no one, either within or without the Christian circle, was in a hurry to write down the floating tales current io . concerning the eloquent but ill-fated THE BOOKLETS. Nazarene who had been crucified c 1 8 Mark, the Citizen's Story. out of Jewish spite; they lived, indeed, from mouth to mouth, chiefly in the charmed circle. As one after another Evangelist or Apostle passed out into the world to teach, he might bear with him little " forms of sound words"; the oft-repeated sentences would doubtless get written down in time, especially when Epistles came to be sent round — one such fragment, at least, was written down, a kind of rudimentary Credo, by St. Paul (i Cor. xv. 3). Between the years 66 and 70 there were probably a great many of these groups of Evangelic sentences — acts, incidents of Christian life — float- ing about all over Asia Minor, along the line of Paul's great missionary voyages. Not a Jewry from Jerusalem to Rome (and, even before the disper- sion of the Jews, little Jewish quarters were to be found in most Greek and Roman cities) but would have some bunches of sayings, miracles, parables, anecdotes, episodes in the life of the crucified Jew, whose doctrine had already shaken the old Hebrew orthodoxy to its foundation, and some of whose followers, especially one Saul of Tarsus, threatened to confound Jew and Gentile in a general broad-church melee, where, according to this dangerous and unscrupulous person, all class Earliest Gospel Fragments. ig distinctions should be abolished, and where there was to be neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free. Quite suddenly, unexpectedly, we come upon what we are in search of — the earliest fragment of written Evangelic tradition — in St. ii. Paul's Corinthian Epistle (cir. A.D. 57). earliest Here, undoubtedly bubbling up from gospel ....... „ , . FRAGMENTS. the virgin soil, is one of those written rills. As long as Paul repeated it, we had but an oral freshet derived from Barnabas or some aged saint at Pella ; but the instant that Paul dictates (1 Cor, xi. 23) the account of the Lord's supper to Stephanas, Fortunatus, Achaicus, or Timotheus, and they write it down, at Ephesus, to be sent to Corinth (a.d. 57), that moment the period of written tradition has arrived (a fragment of written Gospel exists), and we assist at the momentous meeting or coalition between the oral freshet and the written rill. One example is as good as a hundred. There lies, glittering like a fragment of ore on the surface of a land rich in the same metal, the earliest extant Evangelic text — " I delivered unto you (orally), That the Lord Jesus the same night c 2 20 Mark, the Citizen s Story. in which He was betrayed took bread : and when He had given thanks," &c. This was written down in cir. a.d. 57, and it re-appears in Mark's collection of fragments — or Gospel — with but little change in 70-4 (Mark xiv. 22). Where Paul got it from, or the exact meaning which he attached to those words "from the Lord," we know not. It was doubtless common property by that time, and Mark doubt- less got it from Peter. We can now go to St. Mark's Gospel — the earliest of the four, as we shall presently see — I2 . and almost pick out some at least golden f t h e embedded fragments of which SAYINGS. it is composed. They are set roughly, without the amplification of Matthew, and without the literary art of Luke ; but they are the freshest, the simplest, the most authentic of their kind. The groups of incidents as they stand can scarcely be improved for the direct force of the eye-witness and rather bald narration. They deal mostly with moments so solemn and so startling that the brain in each case has conjured up the picture. Every motion and word must have arisen before those who heard from the lips Parable Fragments. 21 of James or Peter, or even of Paul (not himself an eye-witness), the salient features of the last supper — which do not greatly vary — in the Synoptics ; or the incidents of the Passion, of which Mark gives naturally the simplest, briefest, and best account, " And they came to a place which is named Gethsemane," &c. Or again, such golden frag- ments as " They brought young children to Christ," &c. Whencesoever originally derived, it must have been early committed to memory. Irresis- tibly attractive to all mothers, delightful to repeat, popular with young catechumens, so easy to remember, so tender and so poetical, that its hold over the imagination and the affections is, perhaps, only equalled by that great general invitation — not confined to little children — " Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The parable fragments, and sometimes groups of parables, stand out no less distinctly to the eye of the historian, if he will only take his stand in Rome or Jerusalem parable -P, „ . ,, . , . FRAGMENTS. or Fella in the year 70, instead of in the Jerusalem Chamber with the revisers of the New Testament in the nineteenth 22 Mark, the Citizen's Story. century. The parables are generally disjointed, occasionally grouped, sometimes, especially in St. Luke, capping or preceding appropriate events; in Mark, more naturally set roughly in the text, with the usual unliterary and makeshifty " And he said," by way of preface. The little black P's in our Bible, marking still the old paragraphs, are often very fair indices of the probable fragments, or batches of fragments, thus loosely placed — parables of the kingdom of Heaven, of the sower, of the wicked husbandman, &c. In the same way we may pick out the groups of miracles, healing, casting-out of devils, loaves 14. and fishes ; or groups of moral say- variations. ings, floating seeds of divine wisdom specially calculated to take root in the soil of an honest and good heart ; short, easy to remember, good to set agoing discourse, controversy, and that kind of endless pious commentary dear to the Jews — only too eagerly learned and ruthlessly practised by the later Greek doctors at Alexandria ; " Salt is good," "Judge not," "Love your enemies," and longer paradoxical precepts, some occurring in Mark with explanations and in Matthew without ; Variations. 23 others occurring in Matthew with explanations and in Mark without ; for instance, Mark has this — "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God ! " and adds the explanatory gloss — " How hardly shall they that trust in riches ! " which is left out by Matthew. Whilst Mark has the sentence about our receiving what we ask for in prayer without qualification — Matthew explains that it is the gift of the Holy Spirit that we may expect to receive, whatever we pray for. At once we see that dislocated fragments of the same, or similar, utterances have been in the hands of the different compilers, sometimes with a context, sometimes without; that selections more or less appropriate and juxtapositions more or less perplexing or felicitous have been made, according to the method, opportunity, capacity, or even literary taste, or absence of literary taste, in the sacred compiler. What has now been said applies to the general sources of all four Gospels, especially the first three or Synoptical. It remains to fix " Mark" as the earliest extant written Gospel, and to point out some of its salient characteristics. Mark was admittedly the companion and inter- 24 Mark, the Citizen's Story. preter of St. Peter, and from this point we are, of course, more or less upon the papias on ground of inference, but inference countenanced by historical and reli- able documents. This is what Papias (140 a.d.) says about St. Peter, St. Mark, and a record drawn up by St. Mark, which, in view of continuous tradition, and in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, we may fairly assume to be substantially what has come down to us as the Gospel of Mark. Papias (quoted by Eusebius) loquitur: "This also John the Elder said : Mark being interpreter of Peter, wrote down exactly whatever things he remembered, but yet not in the order in which Christ either spoke or did them, for he was neither a hearer nor a follower of the Lord, but he was afterwards, as I (Papias) said, a follower of Peter." The author of St. Mark's Gospel was, then, St. Mark. St. Mark interpreted into Greek what Peter had to preach, and St. Mark wrote his Gospel in Greek; but when CONCLUSIONS. r ' did he write it, and where ? Probably at Rome, possibly at Alexandria, and about 70 to 74. How so ? Peter disappears 64-70. " The " and « A " Son of God. 25 The Gospel was not written during that Apostle's lifetime, or Papias would not have said that it was written by Mark from memory ; we may infer then, with probability, that as Peter disappears between 64 and 70, St. Mark wrote down his recollections from 70 to 74. This is inference, but it is fair inference derived from the statement made by Papias embodying the current belief and tradi- tions prevalent in 140 a.d. Any amount of information about Napoleon or Beethoven is believed on similar evidence in the year 1886, although it happened in 1816 — about the distance Papias happened to be from the facts which he recorded. CHARACTERISTICS. St. Mark's narrative or compilation is therefore Peter's Gospel, and Peter, the most liberal of Judaic Christians, remained to the 17. end Judaic— that is, he retained the tl „ J "a" son of Jewish way of thinking about Jesus god. as the Jewish Messiah or Christ rather than the world's Saviour. In Mark there is no attempt to define the Divine nature of Christ. Jesus is the Messiah — the Elect of God — the Christ ; never the Son of God — only 26 Mark, the Citizen's Story. once (Mark i. i) " a Son of God " ; four times " the Son of Man." In the first verse of St. Mark our translators have deliberately falsified the text by translating vlov tov Qeov, " the Son of," instead of " a Son " ; and the translators of the new Revised Version have been too much afraid of the Unitarians to correct it. St. Peter's account of his confession stands simply, "Thou art the Christ." Matthew adds for him, " the Son of the living God," &c. One may well believe that Mark's account of Peter's words is the correct one. The Jewish Christians, such as those Apostles, " who seemed to be pillars " at Jerusalem, would naturally not use any language which tended to elevate Jesus to anything above or distinct from their own Mes- siah, whom they believed Him to be — this was the realisation of their national dream. His ap- proaching return would crown their utmost hopes. Another theology, the Hellenic, the Pauline, destined to expand when the Judaic or Petrine * 8 - had died of inanition in the next " THE trinity," century, was in existence, the later 2ND century. Gospels already have it. In Luke, The Carpenter's Son. 27 a Son of God is habitually the Son of God ; for Luke wrote after Paul, and Paul had already preached the Son of God, and provided material for a kind of theological definition unknown to Mark, unintelligible to Peter, who found many things in brother Paul's Epistles hard to under- stand. By the middle of the second century a new meaning was current in connection with the Son of God, who was called the second Divine Person, and the doctrine of the Trinity was for the first time announced by Theophilus of Antioch. " The Christian church," says Mosheim, the historian, " is very little obliged to him for his invention. The use of such unscriptural terms has wounded charity and peace. " But Mark was still in that happy atmosphere — that world of direct memories and vivid incidents, in daily converse with one of the 19- chief actors — where the life of Tesus J carpenter's made speculation about His person son. irrelevant — and the emotion of love and wonder rendered analysis and definition impossible. Forty years and more had elapsed, and men had hardly begun to enquire where Jesus had come from, and what had been His early history. What 28 Mark, the Citizen's Story. seemed evident and important was alone the subject-matter of Peter's discourse — and that was naturally the public life of our Lord, especially His acts. In Mark we come upon Him for the first time full grown, applying to John for baptism. Nothing at first seems to have been generally heard or known of His origin. He was a carpen- ter's son — few knew more. If Peter knew more, or attached any importance to what he had heard, he kept it to himself. In Mark there is no genealogy — no miraculous conception — no childhood. As yet the thirty 20> years before the public ministry lay no in shadow — indeed, we daily see GENEALOGY. , , ._ ,, ., . how difficult it is to recover even a few meagre and doubtful anecdotes of per- sons, however famous afterwards, who have been born of obscure parents and have lived many years in obscurity ; and such was the case with our Lord. Even His mother plays a very dim part in Mark's narrative — hers was a figure which was to grow in importance as the years went on, and her Divine Son's person and mission got robbed of their human significance and tenderness; but in the whole of Mark she is not once mentioned by Roman Influence. 29 name, and only once incidentally, as coming to Him and desiring to speak with Him, when He is engaged with crowds of eager listeners. " Thy mother and brethren are without, and desire to speak with Thee," and He looked round about on them which sat about Him, and said, " Behold My mother and My brethren, for whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother, My sister, and My mother." Words full of prophecy and radiant with eternal truth. In the spiritual order, as Renan finely observes, birth and heredity count for nothing — the spiritual is all in all — the amount of truth you discover, the good you realise, alone place you — they are the true heirs of Jesus who do the will of the Heavenly Father, who hear the word of God and keep it. Although Petrine, and to some extent Jewish, in tone, Mark wrote in Greek, and for Gentiles — he is careful to explain what no „ native of Palestine would require to Roman 1 . 11 ,i , T j • . ,, , INFLUENCE. be told — that Jordan is a river, that the Pharisees used to fast, that to eat with " defiled " means " unwashen hands," and that at the Passover unleavened bread was used. Writing at the seat of the Roman Government, 30 Mark, the Citizen's Story, Mark is careful to be courteous and just to the Roman executive. He is very fair to Pilate, in- dulgent to the Roman officials, respectful to Caesar, with a leaning towards Syro-Phcenicians, and a glimpse of a wider world than his master, Peter, ever quite took in, though Peter knew more about that world than James. Mark brings us closer to the Son of Man than any other Evangelist ; with him we listen to more of Christ's very words, 22. , the very m tne original Aramaic, hardly any language f which are preserved by Matthew OF JESUS. and Luke, and none by John. The dialect is the Syro-Chaldaic or Aramaic Hebrew spoken by our Lord. " Ephatha" — we repeat after Him, and hear Him sigh as the slow process of curing the blind man takes place. "Talitha Koumi." " Maiden, I say unto thee, arise ! " We see Him take the young girl's hand, and with the warm human contact we note the return of consciousness out of the deathly trance. We listen to the words which must have fallen thrice upon the drowsy ear of Peter in the shades of Gethsemane — " Abba ! Father, let this cup pass from Me." We have preserved the very cry which Eye- Witness Memories. 31 rang from the Cross and startled into sudden trust even the Roman centurion — " Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani ? " But at each step an eye-witness seems to take us by the hand ; as Peter went over the events in his memory with Mark, so Mark goes over the same ground with us. eye-witness T , t MEMORIES. In some cases he may even have been an eye-witness himself ; everywhere there is the firm, vigorous touch of one who is describing the scene before him — nothing sounds vague — nothing is left to the imagination ; in places he is even a little too dry and curt and matter-of-fact. We wonder that the narrative should be so com- pletely unrounded, but the gain in directness and simplicity is immense. The word "straight- way" occurs no less than forty-one times. In- cidents of no importance are mentioned simply because they happened to have occurred and caught Peter's eye at the time. Thus the blind man appears to have cast away his cloak when he rose and came to Jesus. The swine into which the devils went were feeding under the brow of a hill. The madman of Gadara took up stones to wound himself with. One Simon of Cyrene had 32 Mark, the Citizen's Story. just come up from the country when he was im- pressed by the soldiers to help to bear the cross-bar of Jesus' instrument of torture, and that other Simon Peter happened to know something of the man, perhaps because he was a namesake ; they may have been companions in the country, and one may have been sometimes mistaken for the other, as is commonly the case with Smith in these days. This Simon was distinguished as the father of Alexander and Rufus, about whom we know just so much and no more, but the dis- tinction, Simon of Cyrene, may have been an important one to Peter, as it would be to any man who had a namesake in his village. No casual reader can miss the significant and impressive place which Peter occupies in 24. his own (Mark's) Gospel. There, as elsewhere and ever afterwards, he PLACE IN " mark." heads the list of the Apostles. There he is singled out, with James and John, to be especially the Lord's companion ; there, too, his rash impulsiveness, his courage, his pre- sumption, his cowardice, his misplaced confidence in himself, the scathing rebuke which he received, the denial, the betrayal, "the following afar off," Mark's Pictures. 33 the late repentance and tears, the tender and delicate intimation of pardon from the lips angelic, " Go, tell His disciples and Peter He goeth before you into Galilee." These are priceless touches. We feel that not one of them could the listening Mark afford to lose. Mark is more engaged with the acts than with the discourses of our Lord. Why ? Perhaps because the events struck Peter's mind 25- forcibly, but, being an uneducated mark's man, his account of words and PICTURES - speeches was somewhat imperfect ; his memory for anything like a sustained sermon was not good. But the life of love was all in all to him. That he could not help remembering. One act of mercy and pity and wonder is set down after another, until Mark's sacred gallery is hung with vivid pictures, unconnected, indeed, with each other, but all marked by the central presence of the same Divine Figure, who went in and out amongst men doing good. Now it is the synagogue thronged with eager faces, but the sermon has been forgotten ; or a house in Capernaum besieged by an impatient crowd outside ; a poor creature, who could not be got 34 Mark j the Citizen's Story. in at the door, suddenly let down in the midst of the astonished assembly, through the mud roof. Or it is sunset, after the heat of the day, in the sudden twilight, with the last red streak dying out of the sky, the sick are brought on mats and laid about in the open streets and bazaars, and the work of healing is prolonged by the glare of torches or the dazzling light of the Syrian moon far into the night. It is ever the sweet and tender nature of the Son of Man which impresses Peter, the rugged fisherman, and which is held up before us. The good Physician, who confined not His attention to the soul, but ministered also to the body ; the kind Jewish Rabbi, who had a word of sympathy even for the Gentile woman ; a friendly greeting for the outcasts of the city, and a healing touch for the lepers. Ay, and Peter was touched, too, sympathetically by his Master's feelings ; he watched His looks, 26< he caught the ebb and flow of His peter's divine emotions. And Mark has set it all down for us. He has told us how the beloved Teacher's eye flashed with anger upon those who would have interfered with the cure of palsied men, how He sighed deeply over Mark's Theology, 35 the stupidity and insensibility of His hearers, and at once set to work with some still more simple parable ; how He could not bear to see any one suffer without hastening to their relief, and how He was moved with compassion when He saw the poor people dropping by the wayside with hunger and fatigue. Who as he reads might not well lift up his eyes to heaven, and say : "So would I have seen my Lord, so would I have marked the mercy posts of His earthly career, so would I have beheld Him sigh and weep, and work and suffer, and pray for man, so may I even now listen to the words of Him who spake as never man spake, as they drop from the lips of the aged Peter, and are recorded for me by John Mark, his faithful interpreter and friend ? " Too brief, but infinitely precious is that record — Mark, earliest and most undogmatic of Gospels, yet containing all that it is vital for us to know about Christianity. No dogma yet, no definition yet, but the love of God and the love of man, the two 2 _ golden precepts. mark's God, the God of the living, is to us THEOLOGY - the hope that is full of immortality. D 2 36 Mark, the Citizen's Story. Communion possible with God. The eternal cry of His children, "Abba ! Father." Belief in the Divine sympathy fixed, immovable. God cares for and loves the world. In Heaven indignation and hatred flash out against all evil and badness of heart. Something yonder in the dim unknown, unseen, yet felt o'ershadowing us, is moved with com- passion ; appears (or is " manifested ") in Jesus, well-beloved Son of God — into whose Kingdom we are all called, and in whose name we are all baptized. These truths are won, the world will not let them go. They are all enshrined in the earliest Canonical Gospel, the Gospel according to St. Mark. II. MATTHEW, THE PUBLICAN'S STORY. MATTHEW, THE PUBLICAN'S STORY. No. Matthew, the Publican. Sources. 28. Matthew in Hebrew. 29. Matthew in Greek. Characteristics. 30. Fragments. 31. Mosaic of verses. 32. Repetitions. 33. Genealogies and Childhood of Jesus. No 34. Jewish scruples 35. Jewish and Gentile views. 36. Matthew's Apologetics. 37. Democratic feeling. 38. Version with a purpose. 39. Fertile seeds. 40. A Transition stage. 41. New wine in old bottles. 42. It was true. It is true. It is no longer true. 43. Perfumes of Galilee MATTHEW, THE PUBLICAN. Matthew was a " Portitor." The Roman taxes being usually in the hands of Roman knights, these high personages farmed the Customs out to local men, " Porti- tores," who, having to pay a fixed sum for the privilege of collecting, squeezed as much in addition as they could out of the people. The police winked at the extortion ; there was seldom any redress, but the " Portitor," or collector, was generally hated. He was employed by the knight much as the hangman is employed by the Sheriff, to do the dirty work. His prey were the rich and middle classes — out of the dregs of the people he could not raise very much. He was glad, probably, at times to take refuge with them, and they would be flattered by the attentions of a richer man, however looked askance at by his social equals. At any rate, Matthew had a certain following amongst the lower orders, and a good many of them rose up and followed him when he rose up from the receipt of Custom and followed Christ. What became of him after- wards we can but vaguely conjecture. To the end, if we are to judge by a certain bias in the Gospel which bears his name, he remained a Jew, with a double conscience — full of Jewish ardour, respect for the Temple, attentive to ceremony, though disliking the Pharisees — indeed, they may have suffered from his exactions, and reciprocated his hatred — wholly changed in heart, he was but half changed 40 Matthew, the Publican. in mind. He records with reverence many sayings which must have remained strange and unintelligible to him. Although writing or editing after Paul's death, he probably had no idea of Paul's importance. To him Christianity is still the work of the twelve. He is the type of the transition period between Judaism and Christianity, and his value lies wholly in his memory and the abundance of Logia which early passed current under his name and have found a place in the Gospel which is sealed by it. We shall associate Matthew of Capernaum, in Galilee, most correctly with the inner circle at Jerusalem — the friends and family of Jesus. He may have left the doomed city in their company, and taken refuge with the saintly little group in Pella, beyond Jordan. There, in converse with the mother of Jesus, who kept so many sayings in her heart, with Nicodemus and Cleophas and Nathaniel, and now and then one or more of the twelve, Matthew may have collected sundry " libelli," or booklets, and formed a record supplemented from his own memory. Living mostly with Jews, he would recognise in Jesus the Jewish Messiah, and lay special stress on that ; but the value of the Gospel is not in its theory, which is ill-defined, or its incident, which is largely derived from Mark, but in its words — they are spirit and they are life — they inspire the real Gospel according to Matthew. II. MATTHEW, THE PUBLICAN'S STORY. SOURCES. Mark, then, is the earliest of the four extant Gospels, the first of the Synoptics, and its source is Peter, and its author is John Mark, ^ and it was written in Greek, at Rome, matthew in after Peter's death, about 70—75. hebrew. But there seems to have been a still earlier Hebrew Gospel current in Palestine. It may have been compiled by the refugees at Pella, and consisted of oral traditions, including, perhaps, an important batch of sentences and fragmentary discourses of our Lord, known as the Logia of Matthew. This early Gospel was quoted, but quoted in Greek, by Clemens Alexandrinus, a.d. 217 ; Origen, a.d. 253 ; Eusebius, a.d. 340 ; and Jerome, a.d. 420. It disappeared in the fifth century with the destruction of the Judeo- Christians of Syria. 42 Matthew, the Publican's Story, We cannot safely make up the Gospel of Matthew without reference to this Hebrew Gospel and the Logia which passed under the matthew in name of Matthew. Our Gospel of greek. Matthew seems to have arisen thus : — Mark's Greek Gospel, 70 — 5, may have reached the East about 80, and its extreme meagreness must have immediately struck those who had many more ample traditions— had, in fact, the Hebrew fragments of the Logia, or speeches of our Lord, in their hands. Mark reports Christ's sayings very briefly and imperfectly. The Logia and the Hebrew Gospel reported them much more fully ; but Mark's narrative, coming from Peter, was very authoritative and precise, es- pecially for the acts and incidents of Christ's life. The obvious compilation and completion now takes place. Between 80 — go the Syrian compiler sets to work upon a new Gospel, his materials being Mark, Logia of Matthew, and any current oral and written traditions extant in Pella, Batane, or Kokaba, amongst the few sur- viving friends and relations of Jesus. There were, as we learn from Luke, many current accounts. The Gospel gets its stamp from the Logia of Matthew, and the compiler, following the common Fragments. 43 practice of the time, affixes Matthew's name to the compilation ; indeed, all that is most characteristic about it, all that distinguishes it from Mark, may well be Matthew's own, although Matthew was probably dead when the compiler used up his Logia in the Gospel which now bears his name. The Gospel now called St. Matthew's was, then, written in Greek (or it may have been the original Hebrew Gospel translated) cir. a.d. 85, in Syria, but addressed to jews. It omits explana- tions of places and Jewish ceremonies (without point in Syria), it inserts allusions interesting to the East (without point at Rome); its written rills and oral freshets were derived from St. Mark, the note-books or the memories of Syrian Christians, and especially the Logia of Matthew. CHARACTERISTICS. With these general clues we may take up the Gospel according to St. Matthew as it stands, and see how it bears witness to the general probability of what must after all be, 3 °* r J ' FRAGMENTS. to some extent, these guesses at truth ; guesses they may be, but such guesses as are fair inferences from known facts ; theories 44 Matthew, the Publican's Story. they may be, but theories which, after all, arrange, explain, and make intelligible many facts better than any other theories — certainly better than the old, worn-out theory of verbal inspiration. The speeches of our Lord, in Matthew, form a somewhat rough mosaic with the adapted text of Mark. The longest is the Sermon on the Mount. There is no real connection between its various sections, although commentators have, of course, made out one, and far be it from me to quarrel with any reader who is satisfied with their in- genuity — for purposes of edification it may even be commended. The so-called sermon is, in reality, a collection of sayings, sometimes coherent for twelve verses, or four verses, or six verses, the little black P's in the ordinary Bible marking very fairly the unconnected paragraphs. It is not impossible that one or more of these paragraphs, or the sense of them, may have been spoken at the same time ; there is no proof of this, nor can there be any proof, and there is no proof to the contrary. Our Lord probably spoke at times for an hour or more, whilst this, His longest so-called Sermon, can be read in less than ten minutes. This is sufficient to show that we are dealing with Mosaic of Verses. 45 fragments, headings, texts, rather than sustained utterances, which is obvious enough to anyone not a commentator. In Chapter xxiii. the sum and substance of the bitter things said about the Pharisees is concentrated, but they may have been often repeated in different forms on many separate occasions. In Matthew you will find many curious repeti- tions with variations, which can only be accounted for by supposing that two reports of « x< a similar saying have been copied mosaic of without being combined. Take, for instance, the saying about being a true disciple and taking up the Cross and following Christ — losing one's life to save it, &c. The original passage is in Mark viii. 34, 35 — copied very nearly verbatim into Matt. xvi. 24, 25 ; but in Matt. x. 38, 39 we have repeated a similar sentence in an altered form and in a different connection. The compiler has probably found that utterance not in Mark, but in the Logia, or some other collection, and although he keeps the saying as it stands in Mark, he fears to lose something by suppressing it when he comes upon it over again, so down go both versions in his Gospel. Why, we can 46 Matthew, the Publican's Story. almost look over his shoulder and see him at work. Absorbed with his Logia in the earlier part of the Gospel, the compiler of Matthew inserts the passage as it occurs there (x. 38) ; later, about the time he has come to the advanced portion of his work marked by the xvi., he has read on to that portion in Mark which stands in Chapter viii., and if in the first place he could not bear to sacrifice his Hebrew-Syriac material and the Logia, now he can still less bear to sacrifice his Graeco-Roman material or St. Mark, and so both are mosaiced into different parts of the new Gospel according to Matthew. And this consideration also explains many repe- titions of incidents as well as of obscure sayings. Two cures of two blind men, of two „„™ 1 « deaf mutes, two miracles of loaves REPETITIONS ' and fishes, two demands for a sign, two sentences on divorce, two demoniacs of Gergasa, two disciples of John, two disciples of Jesus. Of course, it is not impossible that two similar events may have occurred, and so got recorded. It is also probable that sometimes the same event has done duty for two, only because it has been twice told independently. Repetitions. 47 And sometimes the cut looks so fresh that you can almost see the incision made for the insertion — as when in walking in some garden in summer the eye is caught by a graft let into a standard rose tree — the join has never quite closed up, the foreign shoot is quite apparent ; it grows there now, but we can see it came from elsewhere, and had another stock. This is strikingly so with the story of Peter going to meet Christ as He came walking on the sea. In Mark you have Christ alone walking on the sea, and Matthew (xiv. 28) uses the narrative up to Mark vi. 50, " It is I, be not afraid." Matthew then inserts (28-31) the story of Peter — strangely enough left out in Peter's own Gospel (Mark) — and resumes Mark's text at 31. And I might point to many other instances of Matthew's interpolations in Mark's text, such as the piece of money in the fish's mouth ; Judas' inquiry, " Is it I ?" Jesus blaming Peter's sword stroke ; Judas' suicide ; Pilate's wife's dream. But we come now to some far more significant interpolations. Other gaps corresponding to other demands had to be supplied. In Mark there were no gene- alogies, nothing about the miraculous conception, 48 Matthew , the Publican's Story. the Divine Paternity of Jesus, the anecdotes of 33- childhood. Indeed, as I have noticed GENEALOGIES and in the case of other great characters CHILDHOOD . . of jesus. m history, so in the case of Jesus, the future of no child can be foreseen, and when that child is of obscure parentage, least of all are the stories of childhood, or the title-deeds of its descent, likely to be at once forthcoming. If such are ever recovered, or related, they are recovered afterwards, and related to a dead certainty with a purpose. Neither Mark nor Peter in those early days seem to have troubled themselves much about the parentage or genealogy of Jesus ; to them His parents (whatever their remote ancestry may have been) were obscure, unimportant, and rather obstructive personages. To the plebeian fisherman it would not occur, even after he had confessed Jesus as the Jewish Messiah — the Christ — to enquire whether His descent could be traced from David or from Adam ; but that was a question which would at once pre-occupy a man like Matthew or Luke, who knew the law and the Prophets. A fisherman would be naturally incom- petent to raise such questions. The genealogies used by Matthew and Luke are the careful Genealogies and Childhood of Jesus. 49 compilations of some scribe — some cultivated member of the very poorly cultivated Christian community. The early Judeo - Christian line ot thought seems to have been this : to the Jewish Christian, Christ is the Jewish Messiah, therefore of Royal descent. His reputed father being Joseph, Joseph's descent must necessarily be traced to David. It is so traced in Matthew and assumed in Luke. But the interesting point about these genealogies is the early stage of opinion they both record — i.e., the view that Christ was the Son of Joseph. Both Matthew and Luke announce the later stage of opinion as well — i.e., that Jesus was of Divine parentage by the Holy Ghost, in which case, of course, Joseph and his genealogy become alike meaningless. Both opinions about the birth of Jesus are stated, both being held at different times, but no attempt is made to reconcile them. A very sufficient answer to those who think that the Gospels were late compositions concocted in order to impose upon the world. Towards the close of the century (nearly a hundred years after the event), the Divine parentage of Jesus had entirely displaced the earlier belief that He was the son of a carpenter, 50 Matthew, the Publican's Story. but it was still necessary for the sake of the Jewish Christians to show that, although He might be more than the Jewish Messiah, because the Divine King and Saviour of the Gentiles (which many Jews were loth to admit), He was, at any rate, the Jewish Messiah too. Later on, the mistake, from the Divine parentage point of view, of tracing up from Joseph to David was seen, and an attempt was then made to save the royal descent by tracing from Mary, who undoubtedly was His mother, up to David ; but it was too late. The (entirely irrelevant) genealogy of Joseph for better for worse had taken its place as it now stands in the Christian records and could not be displaced, and the genealogy of Mary was too recent and too long after the event to be received at all. It has not been found possible, as far as I know, to collect any evidence to show that the account of the miraculous conception was at all generally current during the lifetime of the Blessed Virgin ; indeed, it may have been one of the things which she kept and pondered in her heart, and which, like many other sacred confidences, rather leak out than are proclaimed upon the house-tops. The same is true of the childhood stories. None of them are to Jewish Scruples. 51 be found in Mark, and only two in Matthew — viz., the Magi, and the massacre at Bethlehem with the flight into Egypt. From this time until the death of those who had seen the eye-witnesses, or about the time the Johannine Gospel closes the four authoritative biographies of Christ, tales of the infancy increased and multiplied, and the doctrine of the Divine parentage, a sad stumbling-block to the (monotheistic) Jew (as Paul hints), established itself just in proportion as Christianity became, through Paul's ascendancy, the religion of the (polytheistic) heathen. But neither genealogy nor the Divine parentage, nor the tales of the child- hood, seem to have gained ground until about eighty years after the events related, or about half-a-century after the death of our Lord. Then, as now, the evidence for the human parentage, such as it was, was in the hands of the Christian Church. Then, as now, the evidence for the Divine paren- Jewish tage was also in the hands of the SCRUPLES * Christian Church, and in each case the con- clusion could not well have been other than what it was. The Gentile Christian was naturally eager to show that the Founder of E 2, 52 Matthew, the Publican's Story. his faith claimed to be as divine, or more divine, than any of the gods of the heathen. The Jew was equally anxious to show that he was as monotheistic as ever, in the midst of the Greeks and Romans, his hated masters, and that Jesus was the national Messiah, about to return in the clouds and confound His enemies. Accordingly, when Jesus did not return, Jewish Christianity died ; it had nothing left to stand upon ; but Gentile Christianity, witnessing to the eternally human side of God in Christ, had eternal truth on its side, though in time it too showed a ten- dency to outgrow the dogma or special form in which that truth had first been clothed. The doctrine of the human parentage was probably the only doctrine accepted by the Jewish Christians until about 70 — Paul's doctrine not finding favour with the Judaizing Christians. The doctrine of the Divine parentage, which soon became popular with the Gentile followers of St. Paul, was probably one of the causes which brought about the final disruption between Christian and Jew ; that, together with the Pauline repudiation of Mosaic rites, fixed the great gulf between them, which has lasted ever since. When, in the eyes of the Jew, the Christian Jewish and Gentile Views. 53 had reduced the Deity to a level with the numerous gods of the surrounding na- 35- tions, by ascribing to Him a human J EWISH J ° GENTILE relationship, against which the whole views. of the national faith, and Jewish history, and inspired teaching seemed one long protest — their Messiah, their Christ, appeared by such teaching to be at once merged in the crowd of heathen deities, and the old fatal mingling with the heathen denounced by the Prophets threatened to recommence (indeed, Jesus was so merged in the eyes of those who set up a niche for Christ in the Pantheon). The Divine parentage seemed to be a slight upon the Jewish monotheism, which Greek, Alexandrine, or Athanasian metaphysics alone could deal with, just as the abolition of the law seemed to be a slight upon Moses, which no Sermon on the Mount could really explain away. When these doctrines became, towards the close of the first century, identified with Christianity, the severance between Jew and Christian was, in fact, accomplished, though old Jewish associations and ritual practices, such as keeping the Sabbath as well as the Lord's day, and the widespread use of circumcision, still lingered on for a century or more. 54 Matthew, the Publican's Story. We note in the later Gospel of Matthew how much stress is laid on pure miracles ; the 6 secondary causes dwelt upon in matthew's Mark, such as anointing with clay APOLOGETICS ^ taking by ^ ^^ &( ^ ^^ disappear in Matthew. Notice also the apologetic tone. The believers in Christ were already beset with questions. We can almost hear the objections raised as we read the answer provided for them in Matthew. The words and incidents are so arranged in Matthew as to present a bold front of defence to the various counts. Men said, for instance, that John the Baptist had not believed in Jesus, or had ceased to believe. Answer : That Christ had sent back His messenger with overwhelming proofs of His Messiahship. It was noticed that the very towns in which He had worked most miracles had been most sceptical. Answer : Chorazin and Bethsaida were worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. The fact had not been only noticed by Christ, but commented upon and explained as altogether strange and exceptional. It was said with a sneer that people who understood the law did not admit that Jesus was even the Messiah or Christ. He had very im- Democratic Feeling, 55 perfectly filled the position assigned to the Jewish Messiah ; He did not come in glory ; He did not redeem Israel ; He did not crush their foes. Answer : These things were hidden from the wise and learned, and revealed to babes. He was a King and a Conqueror, but His kingdom was not of this world ; His triumph was not over a visible foe, but over a ghostly enemy ; that enemy was not the Roman Government, but the Devil. The promised signs of Messiah were wanting. Answer : An evil and adulterous generation sought after a sign, and no sign should be given them. The mighty works some had seen and some had believed in were sufficient, as for the others, they would not believe though one rose from the dead. Throughout Matthew there is the strongest and always most effective appeal to the democratic instincts. Every cause which is to win the ear of the masses must live democratic t 1 FEELING. on such appeals. To the objection that the Jewish nation had rejected Him, it was replied — Not at all. Only the upper classes had rejected Him, because He was a poor man, the son of a carpenter, but 56 Matthew, the Publican's Story. even they feared Him, because He was beloved by the people at large, and the aristocrats dread the mob. Popular enthusiasm was always dangerous, especially when excited and ruled by men of the people, and the people were all on Christ's side. If He had been sacrificed, it was as a popular leader, by the haughty Sadducees and Scribes and the jealous priests, who were in power at the time. It was all the fault of the Government ! That is an explanation which always seems satisfactory to the masses. The Conservatives were then in power at Jerusalem, and, as usual, they had made one more blunder, and sacrificed the people's champion. The words of Christ might so be arranged as fully to bear out this view of the whole case. He 38. constantly turned to the people — with a "The poor," He said, " were to purpose, have the Gospel preached to them " ; "Blessed were the poor"; "Blessed were the persecuted ones " ; but as for the rich, " It was easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for one of their sort to get into the kingdom of Heaven." The Pharisees prided themselves upon their Version with a Purpose. 57 spiritual privileges and upon their social position — they thought they were righteous and despised others. Well, what would be the end of that ? Why, the publicans and harlots would go into the kingdom of Heaven before them ! It is easy to see that Mark wrote without after- thought ; he put down what he remembered. If it squared with people's ideas well — if not, still there it stands. But Matthew has already a new version — a case — a cause. What seems in Mark a little crude, or shocking, or inappropriate, Matthew will almost uncon- sciously tone down or omit. Mark relates, for instance (iii. 21, 31, 35), how His friends thinking Him mad came upon Him to arrest and bind Him as He was surrounded by an excited crowd; but Matthew, in relating the episode of His mother and brethren standing without and desiring to speak with Him — prepared, no doubt, to put Him under immediate restraint, if they could succeed in getting at Him — omits all reference to their design or to His supposed madness (Matt. xii. 46-50.) Mark vi. 5, " He could there do no mighty work," is toned down in Matthew xiii. 58 to 58 Matthew , the Publican's Story. " He did not many mighty works there." Mark's Scribe, who questions Jesus about the command- ments, does so in all good faith, but Matthew, writing in Judaea, finds the Scribes in far too bad odour with the followers of Jesus to be credited with common courtesy or fairness, and brings in the lawyer as "tempting" Jesus with his ques- tions. The " Blessed are the poor," " Blessed are the hungry," of Mark, had probably given rise to some discussion and various objections, and so appear in Matthew with an appropriate or expla- natory addition, "The poor in spirit" "The hungry and thirsty for righteousness" Although, in Matthew, we have in a sense got back from Rome to Judaea, we feel that we are gradually getting further and further fertile from the events and scenes related. In seeds. g Q ^ t j ie f r j en( j s f j esus are dying daily, all His immediate relations, including His mother, have probably disappeared. The outlines of time and place are really blurred and indefinite, and with a certain charm and semblance of accuracy the exact sounding statements in Matthew and Luke turn out, after all, to be vague — " In that hour," " At that time," " It came to pass." Fertile Seeds. 59 And Matthew exhibits probably the first growth of what we may call Gospel Haggada, or edifying gloss literature. It is the very law of such proverbs and parables as those of Jesus that they should increase and multiply — they are far too living and fertile to stand long alone ; they are seeds, and already, in Matthew, they have been planted out and begun to germinate. There never yet was a teacher who had not ascribed to him utterances unutteredbyhim, which yet were truly his, because the offspring of his spirit in the minds of others. The people create them as pupils paint school pictures. The pupils and dis- ciples speak and think just like the Master ; once give them a clue, a method, a specimen, one or two genuine parables beginning — " The Kingdom of Heaven is like this or that," and from such a seed a dozen parables, equally forcible, will spring up ; and, though the Master may not have spoken them all, they are still His. He is the real creator. In every art, as in literature, the same process is going on ; the law of sympathetic reproduction is uniform. The disciple paints like, or copies, the Master, and after His death the school picture passes for an original. The great composers, the great violin makers, the great poets have had such 60 Matthew, the Publican's Story. close followers that good judges are taxed to separate the copy from the prototype ; at times even we detect the master's own work in the copy, or the pupil's work in the original, as when Nicholas Amati makes a violin and leaves a scroll to be cut by his pupil, Stradivarius ; or Leonardo paints an angel's head into his master's picture. And we may fairly assume that in the larger Gospels of Matthew and Luke parables on the model and sayings in the spirit of Jesus' teach- ing may find a not inappropriate place ; it may not be possible always to separate the seed and its aftergrowth, still, as has been beautifully said, " Jesus is, after all, the Creator — He did all — even what has only been attributed to Him ; Jesus and the work of His spirit are inseparable. There was in Him what theologians term a communication of idioms. The speech of many bewrayed them ; it was not difficult to take knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus ; nothing can take out of the Gospels a certain original freshness of narrative and the stamp of a manner caught from the life." It is ever " That which our ears have heard, that which our eyes have seen, that which our hands have handled." A Transition Stage. 61 Lastly, Matthew, though compiled, let us say, fifteen or twenty years after Paul's Epistles, reflects an earlier Judaic stage of 40. development. Matthew is still over- TRAN g ITI0N shadowed by Moses. He is a Jew, stage. and yet not a Jew. The Gospel moves in the penumbra of the law. Paul abolished all for Christ, and his theology was already abroad, though rejected by those who cared at all for Jewish Christianity, and the compiler of Matthew was certainly among such. Matthew embodies the transition period between the Petrine and the Pauline Christianity, just as Mark embodies the Petrine and Luke the Pauline Christianity. Matthew's compilation is the work of a double conscience ; between two worlds at that moment Christianity hovered like a star. Matthew is neither Jew nor Christian. He insists on separa- tion from the law, yet clings to the law. The characteristic transitional formula repeated by Christ is "The Ancients said one thing, but I say another." That is the type of the transition. Jerusalem still is " the Holy city," M the Holy place." The kingdom of Heaven is clearly local, and not a hundred miles from Judaea. The Pharisees are hated and denounced, yet their 62 Matthew, the Publican's Story. authority is recognised; they sit in Moses' seat and must be obeyed, but not imitated. The law was, and the law was not. Jesus destroyed it, but Jesus fulfilled it too. The Sabbath is sup- pressed, yet the Sabbath is kept. Jewish ceremonies are observed, yet no stress is laid upon them, and ceremonial payments are even denounced. ("Ye pay tithe of mint," &c, Matthew xxiii. 23). We are in a land where the moral revolution going on is even greater than the political one. 4I . The political revolution destroyed ^ZT the Jews as a nation, but the moral IN OLD J ' bottles. one created a religion which has lasted with unimpaired, though not unchanged, vitality down to the present time. The new wine was then still in the old bottles, but it was bursting them ; yet the new bottles were not quite ready, and the old bottles had to hold out still for awhile. Transference from the old forms must come, but, if the wine is to be saved, not too suddenly. Terrible moment for eager spirits who saw beyond their age ! Time full of bitter recriminations and misunderstandings. Those who would shift the old religion on to the new lines It was true. It is true, &c. 63 without a bloody revolution bear painfully with the forms of the old religion, and are sure to be denounced by the fanatics as traitors in the camp. So was Paul; but the wisdom of the Ancients justifies the patience of those who toil towards the future, bearing on high the dusty banner and wayworn symbols of the past until they rot and crumble in their hands. On every creed of the past is inscribed in characters visible only to the prophet's eye three sentences — " It was true. It is true. 42. It is no longer true." So the Talmud, it was true. when it cites opinions mutually des- IT IS TRUE * tructive, adds: "And all these opinions longer are the words of life." TRUE - The parable is an eternally recurrent one. All religious reformers are obliged to act as Paul acted when he shaved his head at Cenchrea because he had a vow, or refused to eat meat offered to idols. A burden become intolerable can only be lifted by being borne patiently for awhile, without abate- ment or reserve. As was the passage between Judaism and Chris- tianity, so was the passage between Catholic Christianity and Protestant Christianity. So 64 Matthew, the Publican's Story. must be the passage between Protestant Chris- tianity and the Christianity of the future, which is even now taking place — Both grow together. By-and-bye comes the hour to reap, when it is found that the tares, which it was not safe to pull up earlier, are already brown and withered, whilst the good corn stands up in their midst strong and brave — the new bread of God, fit at last for the food of man. "The words that I speak unto you," said Christ, " they are spirit, and they are life " ; and the "words," the Logia of Christ, belong perfumes to Matthew. They have wrecked one of galilee. f orm f Christianity after another. They have exploded the bad metaphysics of Alexandria, the scholastic theology, the mediaeval superstition, the dogmatism of Rome, and the counter-dogma- tism of Protestantism ; the affectation of the Positivist, and the mock humility of the Agnostic. Those who would know the religion of Christ must learn the Sermon on the Mount, and the parables by the Lake. There, and there only, will be found the true perfumes of Galilee, the Gospel of the kingdom, ever the same in substance, ever changing in form ; there, and there only, will Perfumes of Galilee. 65 Christ be seen once more transfigured before us — greater than Moses and the Prophets ; greater than Peter, James, and John ; greater than Paul. Yes, towering above all the churches that take His name in vain is the Christ that spake as never man spake — the Christ of the Gospel according to Matthew. III. LUKE, THE PHYSICIAN'S STORY. F 2 LUKE, THE PHYSICIAN'S STORY No Luke, the Physician. 44. Recapitulations. Date. 45. About a.d. 94? Sources. 46. Paul's Gospel. 47. Paul's travelling. 48. Luke, Mark, and Paul's parchments. 49. Luke's " eye-witnesses." No. 50. Luke uses Mark, not Matthew. 51. Summary of Luke's success. Characteristics. 52. Luke's literary method. 53. Respect for Roman Authority. 54. Zealous for Paul's honour. 55. Running defence of Paul's position. 56. Partiality to Gentiles. 57. A Pacific Gospel. 58. The eternal and the transitory. LUKE, THE PHYSICIAN. A Physician indeed, and, like so many physicians, a man of wide sensibility, culture, and intelligence. If an Antiochene, he probably met Paul at Antioch, and seems to have been drawn very close to him about a.d. 52, when the Apostle was recovering from the severe attack of ophthalmia which prostrated him for a time in Galatia^ Luke's profession, probably, took him much on board the ships that plied between Troas and Philippi and all round the iEgean Coast. It was, perhaps, natural that he should sail in the same ship with Paul from Troas to Philippi ; but it is soon evident that no chance association bound him to Paul. If he left him, it was not for long, and when he joined him again, some seven years later, it was to share with him shipwreck and imprisonment, and to part with him on earth no more. 11 Luke, the beloved physician," was doubtless in constant requisition. Paul was always suffering from his eyes — always overworking himself — sometimes prostrated with what we should perhaps call epileptic fits. Indeed, there could be nomore suitable companion than a travelling doctor for one whose M outward man was perishing " and " who died daily." His wide acquaintance with men, and the varied experiences of a doctor's life, made Luke peculiarly fit to record the spread of the Gospel (as he does in the Acts) amongst men of different nations. For, Gentile as he was, he was pretty fair to the Jews and in hearty sympathy 70 Luke, the Physician. with the Roman Government, whilst having an intimate acquaintance with the Greeks, especially of Asia Minor. He nowhere mentions himself by name, and seldom even alludes to himself at all. Beneath the modest " we " which occurs in a few chapters of the Acts, the beloved physician is effaced rather than concealed, but the pathos of those few words — dictated by such an one as " Paul, the aged," in prison — " Only Luke is with me," are sufficient to make his name dear and immortal, even if he had not left behind him such a priceless diary as the Acts, and such a prose poem as the Gospel which bears his name. III. LUKE, THE PHYSICIAN'S STORY. Roughly stated for recapitulation, Mark's Gospel was written for Jews and Gentiles, in Greek, between 70 and 80, by Mark, after Peter's death at Rome. Matthew's recapitu- Gospel was compiled in Greek, from Mark. It embodies Logia bearing Matthew's name, derived from oral and written fragments, and issued in Syria, for Jewish Christians be- tween 80 — 90. I now apply myself more particularly to the date, the sources, and the characteristics of St. Luke's Gospel. DATE. Luke first emerges as the companion of Paul in the Acts. As a medical student he might have known Paul about 52, then in 94 he would only be about 60. We cannot about place the date of his Gospel much before A,D ' 94 * or much after 94, for the following reasons : — 72 Luke, the Physician's Story. First, he tells us that he wrote only after "many had taken in hand to set forth " Gospels. He had come across many oral and written narratives, amongst them one by St. Mark ; St. Mark he uses copiously and unmistakably ; but St. Mark was not before 74, therefore St. Luke is not before 74. Secondly, the connection between the fall of Jerusalem and the re-appearance of the Son of Man at the end of the world is maintained, though somewhat modified — the end of the world being a little put off. Still, after the fall of Jerusalem has been detailed, and the signs of the last judgment closely connected therewith (Luke xxi. 9, 23, 25 ; Luke ix. 27, and compare Matthew and Mark — Mark xiii., Matthew xxiv.), it is plainly recorded that the generation whom Christ addressed should not pass away till all (not only the siege of Jerusalem, but also the end of the world) these things should be fulfilled; but in 94 most of Christ's contemporaries had passed away — by 100 probably all. St. Luke's statement could therefore not have been registered with any show of probability much later than 94. Were Christ's words not fulfilled ? Are they set down in their right connection ? Are they Christ's words at all ? These questions have needlessly per- Paul's Gospel. j$ plexed many commentators — a class of persons who are in the habit of making difficulties where none exist, and slurring over or ignoring the real ones. On the face of it, Christ is made to say that the world should come to an end, that He should re- appear in glory within the lifetime of many of His friends ; on the face of it, no such thing took place (see sermon on " Hell " in " Speech in Season "). But this question has been merely raised inciden- tally as fixing the date of St. Luke, by showing that a certain statement could not have been made after a certain date. St. Luke is not before 70, is not after 100 — is probably about 94. SOURCES. Shall we now watch St. Luke at work? Irenseus tells us (a.d. 160) that he wrote out the substance of the Gospel St. Paul was in the habit of preaching. Paul was paul's a learned man, he was well up in GOSPEL - literature, sacred and profane ; he possessed so rare and fertile a literary gift that we almost wonder he did not himself compile a Gospel. Perhaps he did. Perhaps it was amongst the parchments which he left at Troas, and which came into Luke's hands in those last terrible days 74 Luke, the Physician's Story. when Demas had forsaken him, and only Luke was with him. We cannot tell, but we know that Paul wrote, dictated, travelled about with MSS., put Gospel fragments into "forms of sound words," of which he has left us more than one exquisite specimen in his Epistles, notably the account of the Last Supper and the appearances of Christ after death. Perhaps Paul actually succeeded in recovering those parchments (" especially the parchments") 4 _ , along with his cloak. If this was paul's the case, we may be sure that so TRAVELLING. , ., T . ,j , elegant a scribe as Luke would keep his eye on them, and take care that Paul did not leave them behind him again. Poor aged Paul ! What time the care of all the churches came upon him daily, he would sorely need some tried and vigilant youthful friend about him to see after his scanty travelling bags and their miscellaneous contents ! Indeed, his friends seemed anxious not to leave him alone. As he grew old his infirmities in- creased, and the thorn in the flesh did not depart — his temper too was a little hasty. He got not unnaturally rather bitter with Alexander, the Luke and Mark and Paul's Parchments. 75 coppersmith. His memory was not good. He could not quite recollect whether he had baptised certain people or not. He sometimes forgot to pack up all his things, even his XIt&v or mantle, the most indispensable garment in a climate where chills and fevers are so frequent and so fatal ! Even his MSS., of such priceless value, some of them probably unique. So his friends seldom allowed him to travel alone. Now it was Tychicus who acted courier, now Timothy, but generally some young man, such as John Mark, the evangelist and profitable for the ministry, and last, but not least, Luke, who doubtless as nearly saw the last of him as any of his friends. In that late touching Epistle to Timothy (which, with Canon Farrar, I cannot but believe genuine), written from Rome just be- 48. fore the second trial, in the presence LUKE AND MARK AND of Nero, which ended, as is generally PA ul's thought, in Paul's execution, we read, parchments " Only Luke is with me," and " Take Mark and bring him with thee." This was about 67, and Peter was still alive, so that Mark had not yet written his Gospel, which was only composed from memory after Peter's death. When Mark 76 Luke j the Physician's Story. arrived Paul was probably no more, but we can well believe that he may have met and conversed with Luke. Together they may have gone through Paul's literary remains in the house of Clement (still to be entered from the Crypt of S. Clemente at Rome) — together they may have copied and laid by some of his Epistles. At that time Mark may have secured that fragment on the Last Supper out of 1 Corinthians xi. 23-25, which was woven subsequently into his Gospel. At any rate, we can well imagine that from this time the relations of Mark, the first of the synoptists, and Luke, the last, remained uninter- rupted, and it is certain that Mark's Gospel, when it appeared, soon fell into Luke's hands, and he has, in fact, incorporated almost the whole of it in his own compilation (except vi. 45 ; viii. 26, and the Passion.) Amongst the " eye-witnesses " to whom Luke alludes as giving him his accurate information 49- " from the first " were no doubt luke's it Mark and, perhaps, Peter, who may EYE- witnesses." have come to Rome with Mark — for Mark stood in the same relation as travelling companion to Peter as did Luke to Paul. Luke uses Mark, not Matthew. 77 With such companions we need not add that Luke would gain ready access to those stores of oral and written tradition which he had long been accumulating, to be worked up at last in such a masterly style thirty years later. Did Luke, writing at Rome (90 — 100), make any use of the Gospel of Matthew issued in Syria (80 — 90) ? Probably not. Mark's 5°- r* 1 , ON JM LUKE USES Gospel (70—80) got more readily MARK} N0T from Rome to Syria, to be used matthew. by Matthew (80 — 90), than Matthew, compiled in Syria (80 — 90), was likely to get from Syria to Rome and be used by Luke (90 — 100). As in these days the Provinces care far more for what goes on in London than London cares for what goes on in the Provinces, so in those days Syria was likely to get what was written at Rome much sooner than Rome was likely to hear of what literature was being circulated in Syria. If Luke, in 94, had not amongst his " many " versions of Christ's sayings and doings the particular compilation bearing Matthew's name, a com- pilation more fit for Jews than for Luke's Gentile readers, we need not be surprised. In fact, as we read Luke we perceive that he incorporates the 78 Luke , the Physician's Story. whole of Mark (with one or two omissions before alluded to), and that he adds nothing from Matthew which is not really to be found in Mark ; what reads here and there like a fragment of Matthew is either an amplification of Mark's text or so modified as to bear the impress of a different source. Luke stands in the same relation to Mark as does Matthew, but he stands in no relation at all to Matthew — had he seen Matthew he would have hardly broken up the connected utterances of our Lord into fragments, and attached those fragments to times, places, and situations other than are described by Matthew. Luke was reading, and selecting, and arranging for himself out of a mass of oral and written tradition, a good deal of which was neither in the hands of Mark nor Matthew; for about one-third of Luke is new material, to be found in neither of the other synoptics. The sources of Luke (90 — 100, at Rome) are (1) Paul's words and memoranda. As Irenaeus 5 1 - says, a.d. 180, "Luke, the follower of , Paul, preserved in a book the Gospel OF LUKES r r success, he preached " — (2) Mark's Gospel — (3) various ragments and accounts which many Luke's Literary Method. 79 others had undertaken to write, amongst them possibly (4) an early Hebrew Gospel, now lost, and (5) such oral tradition as Luke might have gathered from Peter and other eye-witnesses. CHARACTERISTICS. Luke's work is more than a compilation — it is a literary work of art. The best form is selected. His version of parable and proverb 52- is the survival of the fittest : no more . „ . 9 LITERARY perfect words could be found than method. those chosen for the parable of the Prodigal Son, the episode of Martha and Mary, the story of the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell amongst thieves. We can fancy the delight of the catechumens in committing to memory such complete and idyllic fragments — they are made for the memory and they nestle close to the heart ! Luke requires before all things a rounded whole — a coherent narrative — and he aims at something like a con- secutive biography. Speeches are evidently attached to events, more because they seem to fit them than because they really belong to them ; here and there a little amplification helps the sense or rounds off the situation. Episodes are 80 Luke, the Physician's Story. not only worked up to, but are set-off, cut, and polished like gems, with many facets, surrounded by skilful chasing. Those touching bursts of Hebrew song are inserted to grace and herald in the arrival of the world's Saviour. " The Nunc dimittis " of old Simeon, the " Benedicite " and " Magnificat " of the holy women, are speci- mens of a literature peculiar to the Jews, of which the Psalms of David remain for ever the glory and incomparable models. The speeches placed in the mouths of different persons by Livy or Caesar are examples of a similar method, but without the homiletic unction which made the Hebrew haggadistic literature, as Emanuel Deutsch says (Talmud article, Quarterly Review), 11 a comfort and a blessing." The influence of Rome and the Roman atmos- phere is very apparent throughout Luke. He 53- loves order, he even approves of the roman hierarchy. The spectacle of the dis- authority. cipline of the Roman army and police inspired him, as it inspired his contemporary, Clement, then, or soon afterwards, Bishop of Rome, with admiration. His narrative is so coloured as to bring out the bright side of Roman Zealous for Paul's Honour. 81 official and military life. The Centurions are open to good impressions ; there is no necessary bar between the army and the church. The Roman Governors, even Pilate, are fairly dealt with, and, by a skilful turn, Luke avoids saying that the Romans crucified Jesus. M The chief priests and our rulers," says Luke, " delivered Him to be condemned to death, and have crucified Him " — that is his last word upon the subject. Luke's instinct was correct, it was the reflection of Paul's. He too saw clearly that the future of the church lay with the Gentile. The torch of religion had already been handed on from Jeru- salem to Rome. Every barrier between the Gentile world and Christ — Jewish ceremony, bitter shock of nationalities, synodical disputes, awkward collisions between Christian interests and Roman authority — must be toned down, and Luke is careful to do this. Luke is an ardent partizan of Paul, perhaps a little at the expense of Peter. The two great Apostles began already to stand out as 54- rivals; they headed two schools of PAUL ' S Christianity, the Petrine and Judaic, honour. the liberal Pauline or Gentile; but Peter's G 82 Luke, the Physician's Story. authority was at first considered the greatest, and Peter's Christianity by far the most ortho- dox. This is the point silently but effectively combatted throughout Luke's narrative in the interests of his great master, Paul. It was the fashion to rundown Paul in Judeo-Christian circles. Some said he was no Apostle at all. Had he seen Christ, or been taught by Him ? Had he ever worked cordially with the Apostles at Jerusa- lem ? Had he ever been chosen one of the twelve ? The answer could hardly be doubtful. The two great Apostles may have never urged their differences to an open breach, but Paul spoke in no measured terms of the Apostles at Jerusalem, " who seemed to be pillars, but added nothing unto him" ; and on one occasion, we know, withstood Peter to the face because he was to be blamed — whilst Peter looked a little askance upon brother Paul and his Epistles, " in which were some things hard to be understood" ; and which never were understood at Jerusalem. Luke feels that Paul's Apostolate must be saved at all costs. He remembered how hard Paul fought for his own dignity in the 2 Corinthians xi. 22, "Are they Hebrews? so am I," Running Defence of Paul's Position. 83 &c. Paul was as good as Peter. No doubt Peter is to be ranked first in the list of the -. twelve, but the famous ah el Uirpog (Thou running DEFENCE OF art Peter), &c., need not be constantly PAUL 's harped upon, and it is judiciously position. omitted by Luke altogether. Well, but the gifts of the twelve Apostles were unique, and Paul was not one of the twelve ? That did not matter. Matthew and Mark may represent them as unique, but Luke shows that the very same gifts were given to the seventy — Commission to preach, to work miracles, to cast out devils ; and what was given to seventy might surely be given to such an one as Paul, and was, moreover, given by special revelation. But did Paul work miracles ? Nothing very definite or remarkable is recorded, but Luke is careful to mention in the Acts that certain of Paul's doings did pass for miracles; besides, no great stress could be laid upon this, for when the seventy came back elated by the miracles they wrought, had not the Lord Himself said " Rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice that your names are written in Heaven." The most precious gifts, after all, were the spiritual gifts, which none could deny to Paul. Those were the true signs of his Apostolate. G 2 84 Luke, the Physician's Story. In Luke we first begin to breathe freely. His is a universal message for the outside world. His 6 is the Broad-Church Gospel quite as partiality much as the Ephesians is the Broad- Church Epistle. The religion of Christ is, after all, shown to be a divinely natural religion. It is the love of God and the love of man ; a love not conditioned by chances of time or place, but universal, good for the Gentile as well as for the Jew ; nay more, specially good for the Gentile, because he appeared more ready to absorb and to distribute it. The time of the Pharisees was over, a good time was at hand for the Gentiles — sinners, out- casts, aliens, every one who had been trampled upon for years was now going to be converted and live. The narrative is instinctively selected and arranged, so as to produce this large and liberal reading of the Gospel. In Matthew and Mark the Samaritans are looked on as enemies, the preachers are told not to go into their villages, but to appeal to orthodox Jews only; but in Luke it is the good Samaritan who looks after the wounded man, and the orthodox Priest and Levite who pass him by. In Luke the Publican and the Pharisee both go A Pacific Gospel. 85 up into the Temple to pray, but the Publican alone goes down to his house justified. The woman who was a sinner is forgiven, seeing that she washed the Lord's feet with her tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Zacchaeus, the Publican, is accepted because of his earnestness. In Luke and Matthew both thieves blaspheme on the cross, but Luke records how one was, after all, converted ; and he points out that Christ prayed even for His murderers : " Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." It is the Gospel of a universal embrace — of pardon and peace and reconciliation for all — the lost piece of money is found, the lost sheep is rescued and brought home a pacific with rejoicings, the prodigal son G0SPEL - returns to his father's house, and there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth ! And as he (the Gentile) that had abased himself is exalted, so he (the Jew) who had exalted himself is abased. The parables point this moral : The chosen people had said " We will not have this man to rule over us " — well, the King would come and miserably 86 Luke, the Physician's Story. destroy them. They thought that because Messiah had taught in their streets and ate and drank with them, they would rankjfirst in the new kingdom. Not at all ; others were more worthy. Men would come from the north and south and east and west, and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom, and the children of the kingdom would be cast out where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth ; and, as Luke wrote, that gnashing of teeth had already begun — Jeru- salem was a ruin — the Temple was gone — the Jews were dispersed ; for centuries their fragmen- tary history is with difficulty collected, as they lie scattered amongst the nations. The piteous record is stained with blood and tears, and bitter persecution which has broken out afresh in this nineteenth century with new weeping and gnashing of teeth. So, with Luke, the transition period we noticed in Matthew has already passed. In the atmosphere, and at the time in which he writes (though not in the events which he relates), the Temple is a dust-heap — Christianity has passed from Jew to Gentile, the religious sceptre from Jerusalem to Rome — that is to say, from a narrow sect to a religion claiming the allegiance of all mankind. Christ Himself ceases to be merely The Eternal and the Transitory. 87 the Jewish Avatar, He has become the King of all men and the Saviour of the world. This gigantic transformation has been in reality effected by Paul. The law with its ceremonies, the Jew with his prestige, are with him things of the past. To all Mosaic law, philosophy, and religion, Greek or Roman, there is but one crown and close, one conquering rival — " Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." He is all in all ; He dwells in the heart ; His riches are unsearchable. What did it all mean ? What does it all mean ? It meant that in that age the accidentals of Christianity must fall off; and in 58. that age its alliance with Tudaism & J AND THE did fall off for ever beneath Paul's transitory. touch. It means that in this age the accidentals of Christianity must fall off, much of the peculiar dogmatic clothing suitable to another world of thought, which Paul gave it, must fall off ; Christianity changes, but after each transforma- tion Christ re-appears. His spirit is essential; His Gospel eternal. Christ, not Paul, is, after all, the eternal Founder of Christianity. Christ, not Paul, corresponds to an eternal necessity of the soul. He alone is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. 88 Luke, the Physician s Story. What is that necessity which changes not, even as He changes not ? It is the belief in a God of love; it is a conviction that He has revealed Himself through human nature ; it is the belief in a God-communion ; in a conviction that He may be found ; that belief is ever on the wane, and is ever more and more indispensable; all religions which lose it die, and those which claim it not become degraded or cease to be religions at alL The love of God was latent and lost in Judaism ; Christ restored it to its position, and gave it a human significance it never had before. It had entirely died out of the mythology of Greece and Rome. In those narrow temples (look at the temple of Vesta at Rome, for instance) we can easily see there was no room for the people ; they had nothing to do with, nothing to say to the gods, and the gods had nothing to say to them — the world's heart was grown cold and heaven silent. Christ filled both. He made men feel that in the immense unknown something there was which cared for man and palpitated for him. He so spake, He so was, that men were able to believe that God was their Father. And nothing short of this will do ; we need some One unto whom we may give the whole allegiance and passion The Eternal and the Transitory. 89 of the soul — Who will draw it out, feed it, satisfy it. Christ declared there was that in God which could do this. He professed Himself as so filled with this incarnate side of God's love to usward as to stand in our presence as the God-man — the chosen and divine instrument of exhibiting to man what God was, what God meant — as far as it was possible for us to lay hold effectively of Him and to conceive of His human side at all. From this new and vivid conception of God's sympathetic humanity flowed the new command to " love one another," which is the keynote of St. John's Gospel and Epistles, and the corner- stone of the Christian edifice. The new idea is firmly seized in the third Gospel, though not elaborated. We have parted company with the old world ; here is no longer any trace of a divided conscience ; he taketh away the old that he may establish the new — the transition is already accomplished in the Gospel according to St. Luke. IV. JOHN, THE FISHERMAN'S STORY. JOHN, THE FISHERMAN'S STORY. No. John, the Fisherman. 59. St. John's escape. 60. St. John at Ephesus. 61. Men who had seen John. 62. Tradition about St. John's Gospel. 63. A Foreigner's mistakes. 64. More Foreign peculiarities. 65. Conclusion about St. John's Gospel. 66. Mr. Matthew Arnold quoted. Characteristics. 67. Meaning of Gnosticism. No. 68. Gnostic Influence. 69. The iEons. 70. The Xoyog. 71. The Paraclete. 72. Memories and Commentaries. The Story of the Shepherd and the Sheep. 73. The Good Shepherd Parable. 74. The Door Parable. 75. Fidelity and Incoherence. JOHN, THE FISHERMAN. Probably the least educated of the Evangelists, he had not, in the most receptive period of his life, Mark's know- ledge of town life, or Matthew's acquaintance with busi- ness, or Luke's professional skill and wide sympathy with men. He was a Galilean, an ardent soul capable of close devotion. He was one of the three always to be found near Jesus. He had singular opportunities of observing Him — with Him in the death chamber of Jairus' daughter, at the grave of Lazarus, on the mount of transfiguration, by the stones of the Temple when their doom was pro- nounced. He lay on His bosom at the last supper ; he saw the last agony in Gethsemane ; he heard the last cry from the Cross ; the quick instinct of love told him first whose was the dim form on the shores of the lake seen through the morning mist a few days after the Crucifixion. He took the mother of Jesus to his own home. He lived to pass through the Neronian persecution, which proved fatal to Peter and Paul. From the rocky Isle of Patmos he wrote in veiled language (for fear of the Romans) the story of Rome's crimes and the church's struggles, beheld through the lurid fires of persecution and crimsoned with the very blood of the Saints. He lived long enough to see the temporary decline of Pauline Christianity at Ephesus and throughout Asia, and some think, not without reason, that he shared that fear and distrust of Paul and his liberal Christianity, in common with the Judaic Christians, 94 John, the Fisherman. who seemed to go about undoing Paul's work wherever they could. Paul seems to have had little or no personal relations with St. John at Jerusalem, and not much to do with the others, indeed he had a poor opinion of their judgment, and none at all of their theology. With John's temporary ascendancy at Ephesus and throughout the churches of Asia, Paul's influence suffered a check from which it did not recover until the essential sterility of the Judaic Christianity became apparent, towards the end of the second century, along with non-fulfilment of the prophecies in the Apocalypse. Meanwhile St. John has left in that same Apocalypse, one of the earliest of the New Testament writings, a priceless key to the feelings and expectations of Jewish Christians a.d. 68, whilst in the Gospel which bears his name, put into elegant Greek at Ephesus by some accomplished scribe, we doubtless have the most precious memories of a.d. 30-33, though carried through half-a- century of oral tradition, and set at last in a written account which, in its homiletic form, appealed widely to the Gentile world of the period, although it came out as the manifesto of Conservative Ephesians. Still, St. John's Gospel really joins hands, through its mystic philosophy and spiritualistic tendencies, with Paul, the great Apostolic agitator, who overthrew the Jewish barriers and claimed the Divine mission of Jesus for the world. IV. JOHN, THE FISHERMAN'S STORY. When the fires of the Neronian persecution of 64 paled, everything Christian in Rome seemed to be paralysed or banished. The -_ Christians who could get away fled st. john's to the coast of Ephesus, and settled down in the little Jewrys sprinkled throughout Asia Minor. Seven of these we are familiar with through the Epistles to the Seven Churches. Tradition relates how St. John, after narrowly escaping martyrdom at Rome, reached Ephesus, and spent the remainder of his life between that city and the Isle of Patmos, revered as the centre of the Asian Church and the last of the twelve Apostles. With the nightmare of Rome still upon him — his imagination filled with the visions of blood g6 John, the Fisherman's Story. and fire he had so lately witnessed — in the full stream of all the startling rumours that came 6o> from the city of Rome in ruins in the st. john at west, and the holy city of Jerusalem besieged by the Roman armies in the east — the Apostle thundered forth that tremendous invective known as the " Book of the Revelation," in which, to the eye of the dis- cerning historian, the events, or rather rumours of events, then transpiring in the east and west, week by week, are so faithfully and even minutely mirrored. The curious, rough Hebraic Greek of the Apocalypse — so unlike the polished Ephesian or Athenian Greek of the Johannine writings — is probably the nearest approach we shall ever make to the dialect in which the old fisherman of Palestine tried to convey his ideas to the rising generation of Ephesians. What a strange new centre was that city of Ephesus for the Apostle John now growing old — 61. John, the last depository of such price- men wh j ess memor j es an object of irresistible HAD SEEN J john. attraction and reverence to men in intellectual culture far his superiors. It is easy to picture him to ourselves, surrounded by Men who had seen John. 97 eager young Greeks, well versed in the forms of academic or the metaphors of Gnostic philosophy to which the Palestine Jew was a total stranger. How would his talk about our Lord be likely to come out when translated into their scholastic dialect, or represented and illustrated by the current conceptions and watchwords of the Gnostic philosophy or philosophies ? Presently we shall see. With the dawning years of the second century — Jerusalem still a heap of ruins — Rome very nearly rebuilt — the fruitful seed of Christianity sown throughout every Jewry in the Empire, what time the raging dispute between the followers of Paul and Cephas and John was at its height, the aged Apostle himself passed away. No one was now left who could say, " I have seen Him." But through the luminous mist which hangs over the events 100 — 120, certain dim figures arrest our attention — men whose boast it was to have known the Apostle, like Polycarp ; to have retained much of his talk, like John Presbyter and Aristion, who seem to have learned quantities of John's' sayings by heart. So Polycarp, 160, was never tired of declaring, "This I hold from the Apostles," and " I who have been taught by the H g8 John y the Fisherman's Story. Apostles, and have lived with many who knew Christ," &c. Are we now nearing the written rills — the oral freshets of the fourth Gospel ? We are. That 62. celebrated fragment known as the tradition Canon of Muratori describes Luke ABOUT st. john's and John's Gospels, and if we place gospel, ^s date as late as 175 we may still be pretty certain that it bears witness substantially to what men like Papias, Polycarp, Aristion, and John the Presbyter were in the habit of saying between 100 and 160. This, then, is the earliest tradition (175) concerning a Gospel of St. John : " The fourth of the Gospels is by the disciple John. He was being pressed by his fellow disciples and (fellow) bishops, and he said: * Fast with me this day and for three days, and whatsoever shall have been revealed to each one of us let us relate it to the rest.' And in the same night it was revealed to the Apostle Andrew that John should write the whole in his own name, and that all the rest should revise it "* — which amounts to this, John wrote last, under some pressure, and his friends * Muratori fragment — authenticity denied by author of " Supernatural Religion," accepted by Mr. Matthew Arnold. A Foreigner's Mistakes. gg revised his work. The tradition of a.d. 175 hangs well together. John probably talked more than he wrote ; perhaps he could not write at all ; perhaps the Apocalypse itself is dictated ; but if so it re- mains probably a very literal transcript of the Apostle's Greek patois — whereas the Gospel (or many parts of it) remains a very much revised transcript of the Apostle's memoirs. The tradition, I say, hangs together, but the Gospel, as we have it, hardly bears out the tra- dition, if we take the tradition to 63. imply that John superintended, ap- r J J r ' r FOREIGNER S proved, or ever could have had read mistakes. out to him the Gospel which now bears his name. There are certain things in that Gospel as it now stands which John, the fisherman, who witnessed the crucifixion, never could have passed. Put the case. Aristion reads : " These things were done in Bethany (early MSS.), beyond Jordan . . ." " Nay, brother Aristion," saith the aged Apostle — who might have listened with a radiant smile to the glowing eloquence in which the Greek scribe had embodied the mystic relations between the "Word," the " True Light," and the eternal H 2 ioo John, the Fisherman's Story. "Father" — "Nay, brother Aristion, we will accept thy strange and glorious speech concerning the blessed Master — who was indeed the life, the light of men, and the word of God — but Bethany is not beyond Jordan, 'tis but fifteen stadia from Jerusalem, and we have often walked there with Lazarus in the cool of the day." The error was so obvious (just the error which a Greek might make about a village in Palestine) that the later MSS. of John have Bethabara, which is beyond Jordan ; but the three earliest MSS. have "Bethany," which is no doubt the original reading. The phrase " a sponge on hyssop " is another case in point — hyssop was a close flowering bush like a sponge. The writer had heard of hyssop and the blood of sprinkling, but did not exactly know what hyssop was, so makes it do duty for the "cane" of the synoptics, on which a sponge was raised to the dying Saviour's lips, and virtually says " they put a sponge upon a sponge ! " St. John, who had seen crucifixions, would never have let that pass. Suppose Aristion again reads : — " To Caiaphas, who was the High Priest that same year. . ." " Nay, but 'tis not a yearly office," the Apostle A Foreigner's Mistakes. 101 would surely have pointed out, and the stylus of Aristion would have been at once drawn through the words " that same year." Yet it was as natural for a Greek at Ephesus to suppose that the High Priest's was a yearly office like a consul's, as it might be for an Englishman not very well up in American politics to fancy that the President of the United States of America is annually elected. Again, Aristion reads: "That disciple (i.e., a friend of Peter, the fisherman) was an acquaint- ance of the High Priest, and went in with Jesus to the palace of the High Priest." "Stay! The High Priest — the proud Sadducee — O brother Aristion, could have no such friends as the lowly Peter and his associates ; nor could such even come near enough to gain his ear, or enter his palace, save as menials and slaves." In fact, such a confusion of ranks as is implied by a fisherman being on easy terms with the High Priest must have sounded as incongruously in John's ears as would the following in ours : "Now there was a certain man selling news- papers outside Buckingham Palace during the levee, and that man happened to know a baker's boy who was a friend of the Lord 102 John, the Fisherman's Story. Chamberlain, and so they both went in to the Palace together." These are the kind of mistakes which foreigners make when they write about English matters, especially matters of social rank, which they im- perfectly understand. Do we not read in the French newspapers how "Lord Bright made a great speech against primogeniture/' and " sir Gladstone was most eloquent about things in general ? " Again, we can hardly imagine St. John himself always speaking of his countrymen, the Jews, and 64- their customs, not as would a Jew, but exactly as would a foreigner — FOREIGN J ° peculiarities a Greek or Roman. We read how the waterpots of Cana " were set after the manner of the purifying of the Jews" as a French- man might observe — "the manner of English policemen is not to wear cocked hats and swords, but helmets and wooden truncheons." Or, "There arose a question between some of John's disciples and a Jew about purifying" as a German might write — " I was present at a discussion between Mr. Gladstone and an Englishman on the Khartoum affair about Gordon." "They wound the Conclusion about St. John's Gospel. 103 body of Jesus in linen clothes, with spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury," as an Italian might observe — " The English don't bury as we do, with torch processions by night, but in broad daylight, and the body is borne to its last rest in a long black box on wheels, called a * hearse,' and the English are particularly partial to ostrich feathers dyed black, and attendants of doubtful sobriety carrying long black canes, with scarfs, silk hat bands, and gloves ! " A Jew would no more speak of the Jews' Passover than an Englishman would allude to the "Englishman's Tower of London," or the Englishman's Derby day. We are, then, it seems, bound to conclude that John's Gospel, in its present form, could not have been written by John, or even read 65. aloud to him after it had been written ; CONCLUSI0N ABOUT but the tradition itself extant about it, ST . JO hn's and the character of the Gospel, gospel. at once enable us to claim it as substantially St. John's material ; and that this is so will appear, and in what sense it is so will appear. St. John's Gospel is genuinely St. John's, in spite of the manifest Greek editing ; says Muratori's 104 John, the Fisherman 1 s Story. fragment (cir. a.d. 175), " that John should write and the rest should revise." Nowhere as in the Apocalypse do we read, "John to the Seven Churches," or " I, John " ; but always it is a second- hand statement on the face of it, and generally the third person is used, thus — " He who hath seen hath borne witness, and that man (the Greek editor, Aristion or John Presbyter, perchance) knoweth that he saith true, that ye may believe." The Presbytery at Ephesus, who issued this Gospel, say about 120 a.d., speak here : — " This is the disciple who testified these things, and who wrote these things, and we (who now issue the disciple's compilation in the form of this Gospel of St. John), we (the Elders of Ephesus) know that his testimony is true." To the simple Bible reader, with the most superficial knowledge of the circumstances, the 66. matter, the authorship, approximate MR * date, test of authenticity and im- MATTHEW arnold portance of this Gospel must, I quoted, think, now be apparent. In the clear words of Mr. Matthew Arnold, whose argument I have followed above: — "The Gospel is John's, because the whole value is in the Logia, the say- Mr. Matthew Arnold Quoted. 105 ings of the Lord, which it saves, and by John these Logia are furnished ; but the redaction — the present form — is not John's, and could not be ; and at the beginning of the second century, when the work appeared, many there would be who knew well that John's the redaction was not. The redaction, with its unity of tone, its thorough- ness and connectedness, is by one single hand — the hand of a man of literary talent, a Greek Christian, whom the church of Ephesus found proper for such a task ; a man of soul, also a theologian, perhaps a theological lecturer." That neither John nor any of the Gospels are certainly quoted in their present form before the second half of the second century proves, as Mr. Matthew Arnold points out, rather that they were still undergoing revision than that they did not exist. Indeed, the church must have been engaged in a series of constant Gospel revisions and emendations, and naturally so, as long as ever there was on the earth any one who had conversed with those who had seen Christ. All such had probably passed away before a.d. 200, and before that time, say by 180, the date of Irenseus, the slow but complete disengagement of the planetary Gospels io5 John t the Fisherman's Story. of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John from the confused nebulae of miscellaneous writings had taken place, representing the last survival of what the Christian conscience decided to be the fittest. Characteristics. But the chief fascination of John's Gospel must always lie in his peculiar presentation of God in 6 Christ. The new Christian theology meaning of is here expressed in the manner of the gnosticism. time _ the thoughts and words of the aged Apostle are translated for him by the philosophers at Ephesus into the current phrase- ology of the schools. Gnosticism was just then the rage. No theory of religion could possibly escape its influence — it aspired to embrace and formulate all theories of religion — it has left its deep and, I may say, sublime traces upon the Gospel of St. John. And what was Gnosticism ? We should call it a kind of Eclecticism. It was the result of Greek, Egyptian, and Asiatic re- ligions combining with Judaism and at last taken up into Christianity. Anything wilder and vaguer than Gnosticism at first sight can hardly be imagined — yet is it Meaning of Gnosticism. 107 full of harmonious thoughts, and one clear thread of passionate intention runs throughout the tangled web. What is that thread ? It is the ceaseless longing — perhaps one of the most " deep-seated in our mystic frame " — to connect the Ineffable God with His own Universe and with Man. " O that I knew where I might find Him." ** How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out." " Show us the Father and it sumceth us." " The invisible things of Him from the foundation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made — even His eternal power and Godhead." And " God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." " He sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law." How to conceive of God — how to connect Him with this world — how to explain His dealings with man — how to read His self- manifestations — how to draw nigh unto Him ? All the dreams of Gnosticism, which when duly catalogued and put into English appear absurd, laboured, or repulsive, become softened down and even pathetic when viewed as the passionate struggles of the finite spirit — moving about in worlds not realised, and aspiring with the most insatiable longing to know God. 108 John, the Fisherman' s Story. I will take a few of the strong lines in the com- plex Gnostic system, or rather systems ; and it will 68 then be easily seen how skilfully they gnostic were used to emphasize certain aspects INFLUENCE. Qf Chris tianity, and cr£ate for ft a metaphysical basis of which it stood just then in sore need. First, then, to the Gnostic, there was the ineffable God, dwelling in the light, unapproachable. Out of the Pleroma or fulness of that light proceeded yEon after iEon — these were vaguely impersonated attributes of Deity — giving birth to ministers of a more directly personal character, such as the Demiurgos, who was identified with the Jehovah, or God of the Jews, a being responsible for this world and all it contains. Here Judaism was fitted into the Gnostic system. This world and man were not the immediate creation of the Ineffable One, but of this inferior Demiurge, who contrived our world — a very mixed and imperfect affair, full of pain and con- tradiction. Matter seemed to be the chief stumbling-block, and the Ineffable One in His great goodness sought to remedy the work of the Demiurge, and so sent one of His great divine iEons, by name Christos, or the anointed Gnostic Influence. log one, who, descending upon the man Jesus, sought through His ministry to save the whole race by bestowing upon them a spiritual life which should lift them above the bondage and supremacy of matter. This was the victory which overcame the world, even their Faith. Faith was a loving trust, and hence spiritual union with the con- quering Mon Christ os — revealed in Jesus — and here Christianity was fitted into the Gnostic system. The doctrine of the Paraclete or divine ema- nation, "the Comforter," went very well with the doctrine of the Christos yEon resting for awhile on Jesus — for when Jesus had passed away, the Christos iEon could re-appear in the form of the Paraclete or Comforter, " If I go not away the Comforter will not come, but if I go away I will send Him unto you." The chief Gnostic heresy, or the " A mare aliquid," lay in the Gnostic denying to Jesus anything but a phantom exist- ence, and thus depriving us of our real consolation in the conviction that He was tempted in all points like as we are. This phantom view is by no means endorsed in John's Gospel, but the Gnostic influence is sufficiently apparent in the opening verses of the Gospel, " In the beginning was the Word," &c. We cannot be too thankful no John j the Fisherman 's Story. for such language, its expressions stand for something very real, substantial, precious, and altogether indisputable and true. Indeed, a kind of joy as of discovery comes over the religious teacher when he is able to point out in the musings and meditations of the past what, in such ancient attempts to express religious truths, remains constant, the same " yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Gnosticism has given to Christianity a meta- physical framework — i.e., in other words, the neces- sary and indispensable law of its thought-order ; it has united this to an historical manifestation in Jesus of Nazareth ; it has indissolubly connected His mission with an inward and spiritual realiza- tion in the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, a doctrine corresponding to the deepest needs, experiences, and aspirations of the soul. I will now briefly emphasize the great Gnostic outlines, as in the hands of a cunning draughtsman they are made to resume the main features of Christian theology in the THE .EONS. QJ opening of St. John's Gospel. First, there is the o-o^m, Wisdom, or \6yog, the The /Eons. 1 1 1 Word — to the Gnostic sl created ^on ( = heresy), to the Christian an ever essential ( = orthodoxy) portion of Deity. That is the first difference between the systems. This Word in St. John is an inherent attribute of the Ineffable One, dwelling with Him in the heaven, the unapproachable Light. Now the Divine Wisdom or Word stands for the ex- pression of moral and spiritual qualities intelligible to mankind — justice, love, knowledge, goodness — qualities to which we all attach definite meaning, though our definitions of them may somewhat vary. Here, then, Gnosticism outlines for us in its own striking but faulty manner the first and most precious Christian doctrine, which is the essential and eternal existence of intelligible human attributes in the Ineffable One. His Being might mean far more; it might involve creation and interest in other worlds, but it meant, at all events, interest in Humanity. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Secondly, the coming forth of the Logos. Such sign of the Ineffable as could be realised under human limitation in due time comes forth — the Christos rests on the Jesus. But the Jesus is ii2 John , the Fisherman' s Story . not to us a phantom, as He was to the Gnostic. Hence the second point of distinction 7 °', between Gnosticism and Christianity. THE \oyoQ. To remedy the confusion, to take away the sin, to save man from the evil influences inherent in matter, the Ineffable interposes — but our Christos iEon is combined with a real man. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father (hence third difference between Gnosticism and Christianity, since ac- cording to the Gnostic there were many begotten), full of grace and truth." The assertion is further developed in the words of Jesus — betraying the profound personal con- sciousness of His being as the divinely accredited exposition of the human side of God — a witness to the truth that God had a human side, and could therefore approach man and be received by him. This never leaves Jesus as He comes before us in St. John. The brief and Gnomic " The Word was made flesh " is developed by the Master, thus — " I came forth from God and am come into the world," &c. The certainty that in the divine and human mind