GIFT OF
I
A POPULAR INTRODUCTION TO THE
NEW TESTAMENT.
A POPULAR INTRODUCTION
TO THE
NEW TESTAMENT.
J. RAWSON LUMBY, D.D.,
Noyrisian Professor of Divinity, Cambtidgc.
ITonboii :
HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
27, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCI.XXXIII.
[All Rights Reserved.^
Butier & Tanner,
The Selwood Printing Works,
Frome, and London.
PREFACE.
The present volume has its groundwork
in twelve Essays written last year for the
Clergyman s Magazine. Only one or two
of those papers had been printed, before
the writer was urged, from several
quarters, to let the whole, when complete,
be put into a separate form. The pub-
lishers- consented that some additions
should be made, both in the text, and by
means of notes, especially in that portion
of the work which deals with St. Paul's
Epistles. It is hoped that the book will
272906
vi • Preft
ace.
thus be found to possess a degree of
completeness which it was impossible for
it to have in the limited space allowed
by the Magazine.
Cambridge,
March, 1883.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Preliminary i
II.
The Synoptic Gospels . . . . .21
III.
The Gospel according to St. John . . 75
IV.
The Acts of the Apostles ... .97
V.
The Pauline Epistles (Introduction) . .119
VI.
The Pauline Epistles 153
VII.
The Epistle to the Hebrews .... 268
VIII.
The Catholic Epistles 296
vii
viii Contents.
IX.
PAGE
The Revelation of St. John . . . .328
Table of Authorities with Dates . . -355
Index 357
CHAPTER I.
PRELIMINARY.
The New Testament What is it? We now
regard it as a single book. We speak of it
in the singular number, and lose sight, by so
doing, of some most important facts in its
history. The New Testament is not one book,
but seven-and-twenty pieces, the work of eight
or nine authors, writing, it is true, on the same
subject-matter, but writing at different times,
nearly always for different readers, for the most
part under differing circumstances, and so from
different points of view. And we need to bear
this constantly in mind if the character of all
its teaching is to be properly understood. It is
worth while, then, to know how these several
pieces were brought into one collection.
It was not done in a brief time. Nearly four
hundred years of the Christian era have rolled
1 B
2 Introduction to the New Testament,
by before we find a list^ of New Testament
books exactly corresponding with that in our
Bibles. During that period these writings had
been circulated singly, or in special collections
of a few pieces together ; and not till A.D. 397
did the whole volume, as we have it, receive the
sanction of the Church, and become recognized
as the whole authoritative literature of Christian
revelation.
When our Lord was taken up into heaven,
His Apostles and disciples began to preach and
to form Christian congregations, at first in
Palestine, then in more distant countries. It
was for the guidance of these infant congre-
gations that the earliest writings of the New
Testament were composed. The first in date
are almost certainly some of St. Paul's Epistles,
most likely the first letter to the Thessalonians.^
1 The first list which was accepted by the authority of
the Church was that of the Council of Laodicea (a.d. 363),
but the books contained in it are specially termed " those
that should be read in the church." The Apocalypse
was therefore not included, but it is found in the list of
the Council of Carthage (a.d. 397).
2 Written about a.d. 52, so that more than twenty
years elapsed between the death of Christ and the issue
of any portion of the New Testament. Of course many
portions of Gospel narrative had before this been taken
down from the lips of the Apostles, but no complete
Gospel (unless it be perhaps St. Matthew's) existed at so
early a date as the first Apostolic letters.
Introduction to the New Testament, 3
Of such letters a very large part of the New
Testament volume is composed. Twenty-two
of the pieces which it contains are of this
character; for the Apocalypse, though having
a special subject of its own, is St. John's letter
to the §even Churches of Asia, among which a
large portion of his life's labour was spent.
The historic part of the New Testament
volume would not be needed till a later time
than the date of the early epistles. The Gospels,
we learn from one of them (Luke i. 1-4), were
composed when those who were best able to
tell the life-story of their Master had found
it expedient to send forth with authority the
history which for a long time they had pub-
lished only by oral teaching ; the Acts was
written, perhaps, between St. Paul's first and
second visit to Rome.
The whole of the Christian Scriptures were
written originally in Greek ; for though there
exists a tradition of a Hebrew original of St.
Matthew, the evidence in support of it cannot
be called satisfactory.^ The Christian books
were intended to circulate through all the
Churches, and so the language in which they
were produced was that which formed the
* On this point see p. 28.
4 Introduction to the New Testament,
greatest medium of inter-communication at the
time of their appearance. And they are pre-
served to us still in Greek. But though we
have these words of the Apostles and their
fellows in the speech in which they were com-
posed, we have no writing which dates from the
Apostles' time, no autograph of any portion.
The oldest manuscript which we possess was
written, at the earliest, some three hundred
years after the death of Christ. The actual
letters of the Apostles were no doubt long
treasured, and oft perused by those to whom
they were first sent, and this is one reason why
none of them have survived ; but while they
were being used, copies of them were sure to
be made by the possessors, for use in other
Churches, and such copies would be circulated
from a very early date.
Accordingly, we find that Justin Martyr, who
was born near Sichem, in Palestine, at the end
of the first centry, was acquainted with the four
Gospels, four of St. Paul's epistles, the Epistle
to the Hebrews, and the Apocalypse ; while
TertuUian, who flourished in Northern Africa
at the end of the second century, knew of the
Gospels, the first Epistle of St. John, the first
of St. Peter, the Epistle of St. Jude, thirteen
Epistles of St. Paul, and the Apocalypse. Thus
Introduction to the New Testament, 5
it is clear that, although not included in one
volume, as the authoritative documents of the
Church of Christ, till A.D. 397, the greater
portion of the New Testament was widely-
diffused at a much earlier period.
We know, moreover, that some of the apos-
tolic writings have been lost. St. Paul had
written a letter to the Corinthians at an earlier
date than that of our present first epistle
(i Cor. V. 9). He also mentions (Col. iv. 16)
an epistle to the Laodiceans, which we do not
possess. St. John speaks (3 John 9) of another
letter of his own, and St. Jude (3) njentions his
intention to write a more general letter than
that which we now possess. If he ever did so,
it has not come down to us.
But to make copies and preserve documents
was not so easy in early Christian days as it
has since become. The oldest MSS. of the
Greek Testament are written in a sort of small
capital letters (called uncials), without any
division of- one word from another. No regard
is paid in them to anything, except to keep
roughly the same number of letters in each line,
and to do this sometimes a single letter of a
word is placed in one line, while all the re-
mainder stands in the next. When these MSS.
were made, the art of writing must have been
6 Introduction to the New Testament.
confined to professional scribes. This may
have been an advantage. It may have helped
to keep the copies more free from errors than
they otherwise would have been. But even the
best scribes make mistakes.
The writing of MSS. in uncial characters con-
tinued down to the ninth century. After that
date another style of writing began to prevail.
It is called cursive^ because it has more of a
running character, being written in small letters,
and having the words separated from each
other. Hence the MSS. which we possess are
styled respectively uncials and cursives} Of
the uncials (so far as is yet discovered), only
one has survived which contains all the books
of the New Testament entire. This is the
famous Codex SinaiticuSy indicated in critical
notes by the Hebrew letter j^. Of the cursives,
about thirty (out of a total of nearly a thou-
sand) have come down to us with all the text
complete. Several of the uncials and many of
the cursives contain only a few fragmentary
pieces.
The oldest uncial MS. which we possess is
the Codex VaticanuSy known as B. This was
^ In critical notes it has become customary to distin-
guish the uncials by capital letters, the cursives by Arabic
numerals.
Introduction to the New Testament. 7
written about A.D. 340. But before this copy
came into existence, the text must have been
subject to many copyings, and the making of
copies always involves the rise of errors in the
text. The discovery of MSS., therefore, and
especially such as are of an ancient date, is of
great in^ortance ; for by comparison of various
copies errors may be corrected, and a near
approach made to the exact words which were
spoken by our Lord, or written by His Apostles.
But it is only in very recent years that such
comparison has been possible. The Codex
Sinaiticus was only made accessible to critics
in 1862, and it is barely half a century^ since
scholars first began to go back to the oldest
MSS. for criticism of the text of the New
Testament. Such criticism has now, however,
been performed with all the completeness which
the available resources make possible, and very
many of the changes in the language of the
recently issued Revised Version are due, not to
any desire to change the A.V., but to alterations
in the Greek text which examination of MSS.
has shown to be necessary.
Since there is a chance of error in every fresh
^ The text of Lachmann dates from 1831 ; other very
distinguished labourers in the same field have been
Tischendorf, Tregelles and Dr. Scrivener.
8 Introduction to the New Testament,
transcription, the copy of a copy is more likely
still to have its mistakes. So the nearer we can
come to an early transcript, the more likely are
we to obtain a correct text. The date when
a MS. was copied is not, however, always an
index of its correctness ; for though made in
the seventh century, if it were well copied from
a MS. of the third or fourth, it may be more
correct than others which came into existence
a century earlier, but were drawn from less
accurate sources. But lest alarm should be
excited by the mention of frequent mistakes
in MSS., it should be borne in mind that a very
large proportion of the variations here spoken
of consist in the changed order of words, and
not in any alteration of the words themselves,
and often in trifling points of orthography. So
largely is this the case, that, in the opinion of
the latest critics of the sacred text, there is not
more than one word in a thousand about which
there can be any serious question of what is the
true reading.^ The amount of textual corrup-
tion which need ultimately remain is therefore
very small.
But the text from which our Authorized
Version was translated was derived, as will be
^ Westcott and Hort's Introduction, p. 2.
Introduction to the New Testament. 9
shewn hereafter, from cursive MSS. only, and
those of a late date, so that it inherited the de-
fects of many generations. And many changes
will be perceived in the Revised Version which
have been made because there is now in existence
a more accurate Greek text than that which was
in the Ifands of the translators in 161 1. Errors
crept into the text in various ways. Thus, before
printing was discovered, and when MSS. were
few in number, the possessor of one often wrote
down on the margin such notes as seemed to
him to be useful to the reader. At times he
would desire to bring together parts of a narra-
tive which were separated in the original, at
times to explain a word that seemed to need
explanation. In this way, in Acts ix. 5, the
words. " It is hard for thee to kick against the
pricks," have been introduced from xxvi. 14.
In the latter verse they are found in the oldest
MSS., but not in the former, into which either
the scribe, misled by a faulty memory, has
inserted them, or they have been written on the
margin of some copy, and at the next tran-
scription have found their way into the text.
So too of words in the way of explanation. In
Heb. vi. 10, the Revised Version rightly gives
"God is not unrighteous to forget your work
and the love which ye shewed." The Author-
lo Introduction to the New Testament.
ized Version had *' labour of love," an addition
drawn from i Thess. i. 3, where that expression
is found in the earliest copies, and from whence
it was added on the margin of some MS., to
make more clear, as the reader thought, what
was meant by the word " love " in the letter to
the Hebrews. To remove such intruded words,
and leave them only in their original places,
while it takes away nothing from the teaching
of Scripture, makes our New Testament volume
a closer representation of the words as first
written.
Besides the two uncial MSS. already men-
tioned (B and i^), there are two more which
hold places of foremost authority. These are
A, the Codex Alexandrinus, in the British
Museum ; and C, the Codex Ephraemi, in the
National Library at Paris. Both these are of
the fifth century. There exist besides about a
score of uncials, some of them, however, being
very fragmentary.
The cursive MSS. date from the ninth to the
sixteenth century, and it is easy to understand
that as soon as cursive writing became common,
no new copies would be made from the uncials ;
the cursive hand was so much easier to read.
Thus, after a time, the uncial MSS. were
allowed to slip out of sight, and it was not
Introduction to the New Testament, ii
until the middle of the seventeenth century that
any attention was again paid to them,^ and
then it was only to chronicle some select read-
ings from two or three of their number. A
little more study (but not much) was bestowed
on these older records in the eighteenth cen-
tury ; 2 but it is by the students of the present
century that the most diligent labour has been
spent upon this work, so that now the whole
evidence which the uncial texts afford is ac-
cessible to all who wish to examine it.
As a consequence of the oblivion into which
the oldest Greek MSS. had fallen, it came to
pass that the Greek texts, which were sent forth
soon after the invention of printing, were based
only on the evidence of cursive MSS., and
those few in number and of a late date. The
first printed Greek Testament was that of
Erasmus, published at Basle in 15 16. Another
text appeared in 1522, in the " Complutensian
Polyglot," published by Cardinal Ximenes, at
Alcala, in Spain. Hardly any attempt was
^ The attention of English scholars was directed to
this subject most probably by the present of the Alexan-
drian MS. to Charles I., which was sent by the Patriarch
of Constantinople in 1628.
^ The most noted workers at this subject were Bengel
and Griesbach,
12 Introduction to the New Testament.
afterwards made to bring to more accuracy the
texts thus first issued, and after a time a beauti-
fully printed edition of the text of Erasmus,
sent forth by the Elzevirs, from their famous
press at Leyden, became the generally accepted
form of the Greek text; and in the preface
to the second edition of this text (1633), there
is found the expression, " Textus ab omnibus
receptuSy" from which the name " Received
Text " arose. From that " Received Text "
our Authorized Version was made ; and it is
because of the many, though often very slight,
differences between that text and the earliest
uncial MSS. that a very large portion of the
alterations made in the Revised Version have
been rendered necessary.
But besides the MS. aids towards obtaining
a more correct text of the New Testament,
mention should also be made of the earliest
translations or "versions." These, though not
recording the text, often bear definite witness
to what the Greek must have been which the
translator had before him, and so constitute
valuable subsidiary evidence. Such versions
have been preserved to us, wholly or in part,
in Latin, Syriac, and the languages of Egypt.
In Latin there were two or three somewhat
varying versions early circulated in Northern
Introduction to the New Testament, i
Africa and in Italy.^ These were improved
upon by Jerome, who, in A.D. 383, made his
translation, which is generally known as the
Vulgate. This came into common use, though
the wandering memories of scribes have brought
back into it, here and there, in the lapse of time,
many readings from the older Latin which it
was meant to supersede. The authoritative
edition of the Vulgate is that issued by Pope
Clement VIII. in 1592.
Of Syriac versions, the first to be named is
the Peshito, or simple Syriac. For a long time
this was thought to be the most ancient Syriac
translation ; but of late years traces have been
discovered of an earlier version by the publica-
tion of a MS. of the Syriac Gospels,^ which is
in the British Museum. We may conclude,
from what has been brought to light concerning
the dates of these translations, that portions of
the New Testament were translated into Syriac
quite as early as into Latin. A later, but very
literal, Syriac version is known as the Philo-
xenian, from the name of the person ^ for
^ They are known as the " Old Latin" versions.
* Usually spoken of as the " Curetonian Gospels "
because they were pubhshed by the late Dr. Cureton.
' This was Philoxenus, Bishop of Hierapolis in Syria
(a.D. 485-518). This version is only fragmentary, and
it is not known whether it contained all the books of
the N.T.
14 Introduction to the New Testament,
whom it was made. This was produced in
AD. 508. We do not possess the actual text
which was supplied to Philoxenus, but a revision
thereof made about a century later.^ A third
Syriac text is derived from the Gospel Lection-
aries. It is known as the Jerusalem Syriac,
and, like the Philoxenian, appears to be based
on the earlier translations.
The earliest Egyptian version, known as the
Memphitic or Coptic, must have been produced
in the main before the close of the second
century. This is the version of Lower Egypt.
That of Upper Egypt, called the Sahidic, is
thought to be nearly as ancient as the Coptic ;
while the third, the Bashmuric version, is held
to date from the third century.
It will be seen, therefore, that where the
evidence from translations is such as can be
used for a revision of the Greek text, we have
in some of these versions a testimony concern-
ing the original words of the New Testament,
dating from a time antecedent to the production
of the earliest Greek MS. which has survived.
Hence comes the importance of these transla-
* The revision was made by Thomas Harclensis, a
monk of Alexandria (a.d. 616), and hence it is called the
Harclean Syriac.
Introduction to the New Testament, 15
tions where they testify clearly to the text
which they are intended to represent.
A further and somewhat different kind of
evidence is drawn from the writings of the early
Christian Fathers. Sometimes, however, the
quotations which they make from the original
are made somewhat laxly, and in such a way
as not to indicate conclusively what Greek
words they actually read. Hence this kind of
testimony requires much judgment for its right
employment in the revision of the Greek text.
Where, however, as in the case of Chrysostom,
Theodoret, and Cyril of Alexandria, the Fathers
have left continuous commentaries on portions
of the New Testament Scriptures, we can
gather from them some satisfactory evidence
about the earliest MS. readings, though the
results of labour in this field are not so large
as the amount of surviving patristic literature
might lead us to expect.
Such are the chief sources at present avail-
able from, which to seek an exact restoration
of the original words of the New Testament.
It remains to speak briefly of our English
translations.
Our Saxon forefathers, like the rest of
Western Christendom, had only portions of
the Bible in the vernacular. The Vulgate was
1 6 Introduction to the New Testament,
in the hands of the clergy, the lay people knew
mainly the Psalms and the Gospels in their
native speech.^ Hence the Psalms have come
down to us in Saxon from the eighth century,
while translations of the Gospels into that
language date probably from an earlier time.
As we draw nearer to the days of Wycliffe, we
again find the Psalms rendered into the popular
language by RoUe, the hermit of Hampole, and
by others ; and a metrical English Psalter exists,
of a date earlier than A.D. 1300.^ It was not,
however, till Wycliffe's Bible appeared, that the
whole of either the New or Old Testament was
given to the English in one uniform version.
The Bible known by the name of Wycliffe was
^ ^Ifric's rendering of the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges,
Esther, Job, with parts of the history of Kings and the
books of Judith and Maccabees into Anglo-Saxon, has in
part been preserved to us. His work is marked, however,
by many omissions and abridgements, and its existence
does not alter the truth of what is stated above, that the
Psalms and Gospels were the parts of Scripture most
known.
2 The version of the Psalms (date about 1330) assigned
to William of Shoreham, is not by that author. It is
found in a MS. in the British Museum (Add. MSS.
17,376), in which are some poems by Shoreham, but a
comparison of the language shews that the Psalms are
not his. Specimens of this version, and also of Rolle's,
may be seen in the Preface to Forshall and Madden's
edition of the Wycliffite versions.
Introduction to the New Testament. 17
completed about the year A.D. 1383. The New-
Testament, Wycliffe's own work, was finished
three years earher, and with his translation he
joined a version of the Old Testament and the
Apocrypha, which had been nearly completed
by his friend, Nicholas Hereford, before perse-
cution obliged him to flee from England. This
Bible (like all the Saxon and English versions
which preceded it), was a translation from the
Latin of the Vulgate, and of course bears many
marks that it is the version of a version. Being
made a full century before the invention of
printing, it was never circulated except in MS.
It was not until the discovery of printing had
given a new impulse to the scholarship of the
West that there appeared a man able to draw
from the original tongues of both the Old and
New Testaments. Before, however, the new
art, which should multiply copies without limit,
was half a century old, God raised up one who
has stamped his impress on the English Bible
so completely that no time seems likely to
efface it. William Tyndale, born about the
time when the first printed book came forth in
England, early conceived the thought of making
a new translation of the Bible. At first he
tried to compass the work in his own land.
But there was no place for him there. So
C
1 8 Introduction to the New Testament.
driven abroad, he laboured successively in
Hamburg, Cologne, and Worms, at which last-
named city, already famous in Reformation
history, he put forth two editions of the New
Testament in 1525. He published afterwards
a translation of the Pentateuch, of the book of
Jonah, and of a few selections from the Old
Testament, which occur in the Sarum Breviary.
Of Tyndale's New Testament, six editions had
been issued before the translator gave (A.D.
1536) his life by martyrdom to crown his
labours. Yet the hostility exhibited towards
his work, and the zeal of those who burnt up
the copies, have made Tyndale's New Testa-
ment one of the rarest books in the world.
Besides what he had printed, Tyndale left
translations in manuscript of some other parts
of the Old Testament.
The next translator lived under more favour-
able circumstances. This was Miles Coverdale,
afterwards Bishop of Exeter. He had been a
fellow-worker with Tyndale, though being far
inferior to him in scholarly power. His heart,
however, yearned that Englishmen should have
the whole Bible in their own tongue. He com-
pleted his version in 1535, and times had then
so far changed in England, that it was issued
with a dedication to King Henry VHI. A
Introduction to the New Testament. 19
second edition was published two years later,
and this was followed in the same year by a
composite version, under the name of T
Matthew (but being the work of John Rogers,
Tyndale's friend, who was soon to be, like him,
a martyr). In this Bible was incorporated all
that Tyndale had left unprinted of the Old
Testament, his New Testament of 1535, and
only the remaining portions of the Old Testa-
ment and Apocrypha printed from Coverdale.
This was a great advance on all the editions
before it, but the mind of Cromwell, the king's
vicegerent, longed to bring the English Scrip-
tures to still greater perfection. And no less
anxious was Coverdale. So at Cromwell's re-
quest he undertook to revise Matthew's Bible ;
and his work, printed partly in Paris, and the
remainder in London, appeared in 1539, ^"^^ is
known as the Great Bible. A copy of this was,
by royal injunction, commanded to be set up
in every church of the kingdom. In the same
year was sent forth another revision of
Matthew's Bible, made by a learned lawyer,
named Taverner. But the issue of the Great
Bible threw this work so much into the shade,
that it was soon forgotten. We see, however,
that our forefathers had no dread of Bible
revision.
20 Introduction to the New Testament.
After 1539 we have no English Bible put
forth in England for a long time. The exiles
from England at Geneva issued, in 1557, a New
Testament, which appears to have been the
work of Whittingham, Calvin's brother-in-law,
and the whole Bible was completed by him
and his fellow-labourers in 1560. This Geneva
Bible was circulated widely in England, and
was held in special esteem as the Bible for
home reading, because it was furnished with a
marginal commentary.
In 1568, through the exertions of Archbishop
Parker, was published what is known as the
Bishop's Bible, because several prelates took
part in this revision; and in 161 1 there ap-
peared what we speak of as the Authorized
Version, prepared at the instigation of King
James I. Since that time, though some agi-
tation for a new translation was made under
the Commonwealth, no public revision had been
put forth for 270 years, till the revised New
Testament was issued on 17th May, 1881.
CHAPTER 11.
r
THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS.
The writers of the first three Gospels deal in
the main with the same parts of our Lord's life-
history, and hence their writings may be read
side by side for illustration of each other. For
this reason these Gospels have been called
synoptiCy i.e. comprehended in one view. They
narrate events which took place for the most
part in Galilee and the lands adjacent thereto,
and speak of no visit made by Jesus to Jeru-
salem, except that final one, which was ter-
minated by the Crucifixion. For the history of
His other visits to the Holy City, we have only
the accounts given in the Gospel of St. John.
As we peruse the synoptic Gospels there are
certain questions which can hardly fail to come
into our minds. What relation do they bear
to each other ? In what order were they pro-
duced ? Did the writers copy at all from one
another.? Or if not, how can their similarity
be accounted for.? And how, with so much
2 2 Introduction to the New Testament.
similarity, does it come to pass that there are
such great differences ?
First of all, the resemblances are so many
and so close, that we must admit at once, in
spite of the different arrangement of the
materials, that what we are reading was in some
way drawn by the three Evangelists from a com-
mon source. But the differences in their nar-
ratives are also very striking. In those portions
which are most completely common to all the
three Gospels, it will be found that by each
writer some things are omitted and some things
added which make his form of the history to
have a character of its own, different from that
of the other two.
This will be plain to any one who makes
comparison, for example, of the three accounts
of the Transfiguration. In the seven or eight
verses devoted to this event by each evangelist,
the great lines of the picture are the same in
all. Yet St. Matthew alone tells of the shining
of the face of Jesus, and that He touched the
disciples to rouse them after the vision was
over. It is St. Mark alone who compares the
whiteness of the Lord's raiment to snow, and
adds the graphic detail, "so as no fuller on
earth can white them ; " while St. Luke is the
only one who records that the visit to the mount
Introduction to the New Testament. 23
of Transfiguration was made for the purpose of
private prayer ; that Moses and Elias, in their
discourse, spake of our Lord's approaching
passion, and that the disciples of Jesus were
overcome by sleep. Yet amid these and other
minor variations, what we may term the salient
points of the history, the expression of St. Peter
that it was good to be there, and the words
spoken by the heavenly voice, are in such close
accord that they might be supposed, if standing
alone, to have been drawn from the same docu-
ment, or, at all events, to be different close
translations of the same original. Hence some
have suggested an original Gospel in Aramaic,
as a means of accounting for such exact agree-
ment where it exists. But such near resem-
blances are but few in each section of the com-
mon story, while the variations are numerous.
We cannot therefore believe that the form of
the synoptic Gospels is to be explained by
supposing that the writers had some common
materials from which to translate. And in the
setting (as we may name it) of the events which
he relates, each Evangelist differs so much from
his fellows, that it is impossible to conceive that
any of the three made, after any sort, a copy
from the others.
We are therefore driven to consider the way
24 Introduction to the New Testament,
in which the Gospel narrative was first pub-
lished, to see if that may help us to an explan-
ation. The first converts heard Christ's life-
history by word of mouth. After the day of
Pentecost the Apostles and disciples went forth
preaching, but did not at once set about writing
a Gospel. As they preached, they would tell,
now of one phase of the Lord's words and
works, and now of another, as best suited their
purpose, adding such exhortations as seemed
needful. That this was so we can see from the
Acts of the Apostles. When the hearers of
these first Christian sermons became interested,
that which they would most desire to remember
would be what the Master had said and done.
Of these things narratives would from time to
time be written ; but as the speakers would not
always in the same account preserve exactly the
same phraseology, it is easy to see how nar-
ratives might become current, varying, within
certain limits, in their words. The chief matters,
and those on which lessons were to be specially
founded, would be kept always very much the
same, but the rest of the diction might be modi-
fied in various ways. St. Luke tells us, in the
first verse of his Gospel, that many such nar-
ratives had already been written. And the
existence of materials of this kind, and their
Introduction to the New Testament. 25
employment, according to the judgment of each
evangelist, seems alone to account satisfactorily
for the characteristics of the first three Gospels.
No Evangelist intended to write a complete life
of Christ ; but each, either guided by his own
knowledge (as St. Matthew, who had been an
Apostle),' or with the help of others (as was
probably the case with St. Mark and St. Luke), ,
gathered, from narratives which had been al-
ready recorded as they fell at various times
from the lips of the first teachers, all that
seemed best suited for placing the life and
works of Jesus in the light in which the writer
desired to display them. That each Evangelist
wrote for different hearers, and occupied a dif-
ferent point of view from the others, we shall
see as we proceed* That their writings should
shew us this difference is but natural. And the
variations which appear in parallel portions of
these three Gospels are just such as oral teach-
ing, oft repeated, might be expected to exhibit ;
for we should bear in mind that the oral
tradition of the Gospel history was different
from any other oral tradition with which we
are acquainted. It was not the transmission of
a narrative through different mouths, and at
distant intervals of time ; it was a repetition
by the same persons, of the same story, almost
26 Introduction to the New Testament.
day by day. And thus, from the preaching of
the Apostles, resulted the close resemblances
in the separate histories of Jesus. The Gospels,
in their variety and in their simplicity, are a
true picture of what the first teachers must have
spoken ; and the differences which we thus
accept, in the language used by those who were
eye-witnesses of Christ's life, and fitted by His
Spirit to be ministers of the Word, are not
without their lesson. They tell of unity, but
shew that uniformity is by no means necessary
thereto.
{a) The Gospel according to St. Matthew.
The writer of the first Gospel has always^
been identified with Matthew the publican, who
was one of the twelve Apostles. A comparison
of his Gospel with the others enables us to
discover that he was the same person whom
St. Mark and St. Luke call Levi, the son of
Alphaeus. To be known by two names was
no unusual thing among the Jews, and often a
new name was assumed at some great turning-
point of a man's life. The New Testament
^ To the genuineness of the first Gospel we have
abundant testimony in the patristic writings both of the
East and West. Passages are quoted from it in the
writings of Justin Martyr, Hegesippus, Irenasus, Athen-
agoras, Clement of Rome, Tertullian and Origen.
Introduction to the New Testament, 27
history furnishes us with examples, and it is
not improbable that Levi assumed the name
Matthew (which signifies "the gift of Jehovah")
at the time when he was called to follow Christ.
Hence the other Evangelists only give him this
name when including him in their lists of the
twelve, while he uses it of himself always,
even at the time when he was first called.
We can see from other indications beside his
name that he was a Jew. The nature of his
knowledge, and all the illustrations which he
employs, declare it. It is, however, somewhat
strange that such a man should have become
a publican or tax-gatherer, an office held in
such detestation by the Jews. But as Caper-
naum was not directly under the Roman power
at the time of St. Matthew's call, but formed
part of the government of Herod Antipas, the
future Apostle may not have looked upon such
service under him (a monarch, whose whole
family desired to be held for Jews) in the same
light in which it was viewed when rendered to
the Roman conquerors.
It has often been noticed as a mark of St.
Matthew's humility, that when he mentions
himself in the list of the Apostles, he adds the
opprobrious words "the publican," which the
other Evangelists do not use ; also, though by
28 Introduction to the New Testament,
St. Mark and St. Luke he is always put be-
fore St. Thomas in the enumeration, he places
Thomas before himself, and in a like lowly-
spirit makes no mention of that self-sacrifice
which the other Evangelists tell us of, that " he
left all " to follow Jesus. Like the other
sacred writers, he keeps himself most completely
out of his narrative, and after his name is re-
cited as present in Jerusalem waiting for the
day of Pentecost, we hear nothing more of him
in the New Testament. Tradition tells that
for fifteen years after the Ascension he preached
in Judaea, and then went to more distant
countries. According to one authority, he
laboured in -Ethiopia, others say in Parthia,
or in Persia ; but neither of his work nor his
end have we any sure knowledge.
Concerning the language in which St.
Matthew's Gospel was originally written, there
has been much debate. The Christian Fathers,
beginning with Papias, who was bishop of
Hierapolis early in the second century, and in-
cluding Irenaeus, Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome,
the last named in the fourth century, all speak
of a Hebrew {i.e. Aramaic) original, and succeed-
ing writers adopt their statements. But the
internal evidence from the Gospel itself leads
to the conclusion that the Greek text which
Introdnction to the New Testament. 29
we have is not a translation, but the work of
St. Matthew himself. In many parts the words
so closely agree with those of the other synop-
tists, that to accept them as the result of a
translation seems unreasonable ; while in the
quotations from the Old Testament (which are
very numerous) we have a peculiar feature,
which can hardly be due to any but the original
writer. For wherever the Old Testament is
quoted in the discourses which the Gospel con-
tains, we find a close following of the LXX.,
and not such words as would have been found
in a translation from an Aramaic original. But
where the Old Testament prophecies, and their
fulfilment in Christ, are spoken of, we find no
longer the Septuagint version, but a rendering or
adaptation of the Hebrew. Now this is exactly
what we should expect. When Jesus is pointed
out as the fulfiUer of prophecy, it is natural that
the very words of the earlier Scriptures should
be in the writer's mind, but not so in the other
places. For although, from the mention of St.
Peter's Galilean dialect, and from the fact that
the words of Psalm xxii. came most readily to
our Lord's lips, at the Crucifixion, in Aramaic,
we may gather that this was the usual language
of Christ and the twelve ; we know that the
Jews were very familiar with the Septuagint,
30 Introduction to the New Testament.
and the adoption of Greek for the records of the
New Testament is evidence that this language
was well understood and widely used ; and St.
Matthew, though writing for Jews, and in
Palestine, might with good reason use that
tongue which, while it spake to them, would
also appeal to Christian Churches elsewhere.
And we have no trace of a word of the
supposed Aramaic original. It seems, too, as
if Jerome, in his later statements on this sub-
ject, spoke with less confidence than at first.^
So although we cannot assert that St. Matthew
did not write his Gospel first in Aramaic, and
that this work on the dispersion of the Jewish
nation entirely disappeared, yet the present
Greek Gospel (which is quoted in Greek quite
as early as any of the others) displays such
peculiarities as make it impossible to accept
it for anything but the work of St. Matthew
himself
This Gospel is evidently written by a Jew,
and for Jews. This is shewn in many ways.
The genealogy of Jesus is traced up only to
* In his preface to the Gospel, he says " Matthew in
Judaea wrote his Gospel in the Hebrew tongue," but
in another place he is content to say that the Hebrew
** is called " or " is as many people say " St. Matthew's
work. Cf. Alford's Prolegomena to St. Matthew's Gospel.
Introduction to the New Testament. 31
the Father of the faithful, and not as in the
third Gospel to Adam. The writer is himself
thoroughly familiar with Hebrew prophecy, and
writes for readers who must have been equally
so. In the Sermon on the Mount the address
is throughout to those who knew what was
commanded in the Old Testament "to them
of old times." St. Matthew also, unlike the
other Evangelists, uses Latin words very rarely,
and with equal rareness does he explain any
Jewish words or customs. He is specially
earnest in recording Christ's denunciations of
the scribes and Pharisees, denunciations which
would not be telling in a work intended for
Gentile readers, while the general cast of the
contents of the Gospel, of which we shall speak
presently, shews that his mind was full of
Jewish ideas in all that he wrote.
It is very probable, as tradition has held
from the first, that this Gospel was written
before the others. It is in harmony with all
Christ's ordinances for the spread of the Gospel,
that each of its blessings should be first offered
to the chosen people. But for fixing the pre-
cise time of its composition we have very little
to guide us. Traditions vary from eight years
after the Ascension to the time when St. Peter
and St. Paul were at Rome together. It would
32 Introduction to the New Testament.
seem from the use (xxvii. 8 ; xxviii. 15) of the
phrase " unto this day," that some time must
have elapsed between the events of the Cruci-
fixion and the writing of St. Matthew's narra-
tive. But if any reliance may be placed on
the statement that this Evangelist left Palestine
fifteen years after the Ascension, this allows
interval enough for such a phrase to become
applicable, while no fitter parting gift could
have been left by St Matthew to his country-
men than a Gospel which, like this, is composed
so thoroughly in the spirit of the writings of
the older covenant. It seems therefore not
unreasonable to suppose that it was written
about A.D. 50, or a little later.
The contents of St. Matthew's Gospel may be
divided into two great sections, which bear a
relation to the two aspects in which the Messiah
is set forth in Old Testament prophecy. He
was to be " a King reigning in righteousness,"
but also "a man of sorrows, and acquainted
with grief" The first section, which extends
from the beginning to chapter xvi. 20, is
occupied with setting forth Jesus of Nazareth
as Immanuel, God with us, made manifest by
His works of power and words of mercy, as
" He of whom Moses in the Law a^id the
prophets did write." The rest of the Gospel
Introductio7i to the New Testament. 33
treats mostly of the sufferings of Jesus, from
the first brief announcement of them, until the
work was finished on Calvary. The Christian
fathers have from the earliest times recognized
that St. Matthew sets forth Jesus as a king,
but have not always observed that it is King
Messiah. »
The first section contains two parts ; one
which treats of those events which preceded
Christ's own ministerial acts (chap, i.-iv. 11),
and the other containing such a selection of
His words and works as shewed, and led some
to confess, that He was the Son of God (iv. 12-
xvi. 20).
(i.) In the first part the keynote is sounded
in the mention of King David at the outset
of the genealogy, and the whole line of the
ancestry bespeaks the King. The genealogy is
followed by the announcement of the Divine
conception of Jesus, the giving of His name,
and the description of His office. The visit of
the wise men and the alarm of Herod are each
in their kind, intimations of the greatness of
Him, who was "born King of the Jews." That
He came in fulfilment of prophecy is attested
by the Baptist, and His Divine nature by the
voice from heaven ; while His victory over
Satan in the temptation bears witness that what
D
34 Introditction to the New Testament.
had been spoken of Him was true, even the
enemy addressing Him as " the Son of God."
(ii.) The second part is marked off by its
subjects into three divisions —
a. iv. I2-X. 42. At the opening of the minis-
terial life of Jesus, St. Matthew tells of the
choice of the first disciples, and gives a general
notice of the character of Christ's preaching
and miracles. Then in the Sermon on the
Mount (v., vi., vii.), and in the group of mira-
cles described in the two following chapters
(viii., ix.), we have grand examples both
of the teaching and the mighty works, and
these are followed (x.) by the choosing of the
twelve, and an account of the powers and
solemn charge which Christ gave to these His
first ambassadors.
fi. With the mission of John's disciples be-
gins that part of the narrative (xi., xii., xiii.),
in which Jesus more than once, by express
words, proclaims Himself as "the Son of God."
The answer to the Baptist's inquiry shewed that
in Him the predictions of the Old Testament
were fulfilled, and that they were blessed who,
discerning this, were not offended in Him.
But to say, as He now did, that God was His
Father, was the great offence ; and the history
in this part closes with the indignant words of
Introduction to the New Testament. 35
those who would see in Him only " the son of
the carpenter."
7. As a contrast, we have in the next divi-
sion (xiv.-xvi. 20) two confessions that He was
"the Son of God." The first was made by
those who, after witnessing the feeding of the
five thousand, and the calming of the storm on
the sea of Tiberas, were constrained to own in
Him the Creator and Lord of the universe.
The second was by St. Peter, as the spokesman
of the twelve. They had been learning from
the lips of Jesus that it was in vain to put the
doctrines of men in place of the command-
ments of God, and to call such conduct by the
name of worship ; that from the heart of man
only cometh that which really defileth ; while
by His deeds of mercy toward the Canaanitish
mother, and to the four thousand who followed
Him on the other side of Gennesaret, they
had learnt that others beside the children of the
older covenant would be partakers of the new
kingdom ; they had heard Christ rebuke the
Pharisees and Sadducees, and had been warned
by Him against the doctrines of such teachers
— men who were wilfully blinded, and could
not discern the signs of the times ; and now
when they were asked, " Whom say ye that I
am } " there came forth evidence that the first
36 Introduction to the New Testament.
part of their lesson had been learnt in the
words, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God."
After this begins that other lesson, that
Christ must suffer ; a lesson even harder to
grasp than the former. St. Matthew makes
Christ repeat it four times.
First (xvi. 21-28), we read, "From this time
forth began Jesus to shew to His disciples how
that . . . He must suffer." We see Peter's
resentment of such a thought, and how Christ
chides him with the lesson that not only He,
but all who follow Him, must bear the cross.
Then (xvii.-xx. 16), immediately after the
glory of the Transfiguration, and the manifes-
tation of Divine power in the cure of the lunatic
child, the prediction of the passion is repeated,
and is followed by the willing payment of
tribute, and many other lessons of humility,
forgiveness of injuries, and sacrifice of self, and
the warning that in the kingdom, when the
Son of man shall sit on the throne of His
glory, many that are first shall be last, and
the last first.
The third prediction is uttered (xx. 17-19)
just as they are about to go up to Jerusalem.
This is followed (xx. 20-xxv. 46) by the re-
quest of the mother of the sons of Zebedce^
Introduction to the New Testament. 37
which evokes further teaching of lowliness.
The blind men on the way hail Jesus as the
Son of David, and he rides in triumph into
Jerusalem. He ^purifies the temple, and
triumphs also in His conferences with chief
priests and elders, Pharisees, Sadducees, and
lawyers, and pronounces solemn woes on the
hypocrisy of those who sat in the seat of Moses,
but did their works only to be seen of men.
Then to His disciples He speaks much of
the destruction of Jerusalem, of the end of the
world, and the nature of the judgment at the
last day.
For the last time, two days before the
passover-tide, Jesus again foretells His coming
death (xxvi. — xxviii.), and the Evangelist
follows this with the details of the betrayal,
the passover feast, the agony, the arrest, trial
and death, the rending of the veil of the temple,
and those other signs, which forced even the
centurion to say, "Truly this was the Son of
God." The story of the Resurrection is briefly
narrated, after which the commission to the
Apostles proclaims the Divinity of the speaker :
" All power is given unto Me in heaven and
in earth ; " and that He is still " Immanuel " :
" Lo, / am with you alway, even unto the end
of the world."
38 Introdiiction to the New Testament,
It remains to mention those matters in St.
Matthew's Gospel which are peculiar to his
narrative. These are the coming of the wise
men from the East, the massacre of the children
at Bethlehem, the flight of the Holy Family into
Egypt and their return to Nazareth ; then the
coming of the Pharisees and Sadducees to be
baptized of John, Peter's request that he might
come to Jesus on the water, the payment of
tribute by Christ, the thirty pieces of silver paid
to Judas, as also that traitor's remorse and death,
the dream of Pilate's wife, the rising from the
grave of the saints in Jerusalem, the watch set
at Christ's sepulchre, the bribing of the soldiers,
and the earthquake before the Resurrection.
It is a feature of St. Matthew's Gospel, that
he preserves several discourses not recorded by
the other evangelists. Such are the Sermon on
the Mount, the discourse on humility in ch.
xviii., the connected denunciations of the scribes
and Pharisees in ch. xxiii., the description of
the last judgment (xxv.), and the apostolic
commission (xxviii.). Smaller speeches are
the invitation to the heavy laden (xi.), the warn-
ing against idle words (xii.), the blessing pro-
nounced on St. Peter after his confession (xvi.),
as well as those solemn words about the rejec-
tion of the Jews (xxi. 43).
Introduction to the New Testament. 39
Two miracles are peculiar to St. Matthew :
the cure of the two blind men (ix.), and the
finding of the piece of money in the fish's mouth
(xvii.), and ten j)arables, viz. of the tares, the
hid treasure, the pearl of great price, the draw-
net, the unmerciful servant, the labourers in the
vineyard, the two sons, the marriage of the
king's son, the wise and foolish virgins, and its
fellow-parable of the talents.
{U) The Gospel according to St. Mark.
The writer of the second Gospel was not an
Apostle, yet we know far more of his history
from the New Testament, than we do of the
Apostle St. Matthew. He has been generally
held to be that Mark, likewise named John
(Acts xii. 12), who was the companion of Paul
and Barnabas in their first missionary journey,
and who parted from them before its close, and
for some reason returned to Jerusalem.^ He
was a cousin (Col. iv. 10) of Barnabas, which
accounts for the desire of that Apostle that he ,
should be joined with St. Paul and himself
^ The return has been often ascribed to a desire to take
part with St. Peter in the preaching in Palestine. This
agrees with the after history very well, and makes it
easy to understand that St. Paul came in the end to
think so highly of Mark.
40 Introduction to the New Testafnent.
on their second journey. Because St. Paul de-
clined to take him, Barnabas, with Mark as his
own companion, parted from his fellow- Apostle,
and went to labour in a different direction.
The mother of John Mark was Mary, an in-
habitant of Jerusalem. She must have been
one of the wealthier members of the Christian
body there, since she had a house large enough
for a great number of the congregation to as-
semble in ; and it was there that the brethren
were gathered together in prayer at the time of
Peter's imprisonment by Herod. That Apostle
must have made this house his frequent resort,
for it was thither he first turned after his
miraculous deliverance, and his voice was
familiar to the maid as she heard it through the
closed door. His attachment to the family is
evidenced by the expression, " Marcus, my son,''
which he uses (i Pet. v. 13), as is thought, of
this Evangelist, and which may signify that
Mark had been won to Christ by St. Peter's
ministry.
We know that St. Paul's opinion of Mark did
not continue to be unfavourable, for in later
days, during the Apostle's first imprisonment
(Philem. 24), he speaks of him as a "fellow-
labourer " ; and later still, in his second im-
prisonment, testifies (2 Tim. iv. 11) "he is
Introduction to the New Testament. 41
profitable to me for the ministry." St Mark
was spoken of in very early times ^ as the " in-
terpreter of St. Peter." By some this has been
thought to mean that the Evangelist rendered
into Greek tlie Aramaic discourses of the
Apostle. But it is far more likely that the ex-
pression implies the putting into the form of a
Gospel narrative the substance of St. Peter's oral
teaching concerning Christ's life. And the con-
text of the passage where this expression is
found favours the latter sense ; for it is added,
"he wrote down exactly whatever things he
remembered."
It is further reported that it was at the re-
quest of those Christians in Rome, who had
heard St. Peter, that St. Mark made a record of
the Apostle's teachings. And there are some
features in the Gospel which would suit with
this tradition. It contains comparatively little
reference to Old Testament prophecy, and all
such matters as would specially interest a Jew
are omitted. On the other hand explanations
are given, which a Jew would not require ;
^ By Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, " a hearer of John
and a companion of Polycarp," whose words are preserved
by Eusebius, H.E.^ iii. 39. The genuineness of St.
Mark's Gospel is attested by numerous quotations in
writers as early as Justin Martyr and Irenseus.
42 Introduction to the New Testament.
while the condemnation of the scribes and
Pharisees, so prominent in St. Matthew's narra-
tive, but fully intelligible only to Jewish readers,
appears in St. Mark's Gospel only very incident-
ally. Then he speaks more distinctly of the
admission of the heathen into the kingdom of
heaven, and he alone among the Evangelists
makes our Lord's quotation from Isaiah at the
purging of the temple (xi. 17), include those
words which pronounce that house to be a
house of prayer " for all nations." These and
other like peculiarities mark this Gospel as
specially written for Gentile readers, while the
somewhat large admixture of Latin words in its
language gives some support to the tradition
which assigns Rome as the place of its writing,
and the Roman Christians as its first recipients.
Beyond what we learn from Scripture,
tradition records of St. Mark that he was sent
by St. Peter into Egypt, where he founded the
Church of Alexandria, and where he was made
bishop, and ended his life by martyrdom. But
for most of these statements the evidence is late
and doubtful.^
^ It has been thought by some that the words in the
Gospel (xiv. 51, 52), which describe how, on the night of
Christ's betrayal, " a certain young man, having a linen
cloth cast about his naked body, followed Jesus, and the
Introduction to the New Testament. 43
It is certainly not unfitting that the Church
at Rome, destined to play so conspicuous a
part in the history of Western Christianity,
should be debtor to both the great Apostles, —
to St. Paul for his Epistle, and to St. Peter,
through his son in the faith, for a narrative of
the life of Christ.
And that St. Mark's Gospel was drawn from
St. Peter's preaching seems not improbable
when we look at the internal evidence. In both
the Epistles ascribed to that Apostle we meet
with a multitude of figurative expressions and
much graphic diction. He constantly makes
pictures by his words. In those parts of the
Acts of the Apostles, also, which may be looked
upon as derived from him, we notice the same
peculiarity. This will be manifest to any one
who compares the narrative of the cure of the
cripple at the temple gate (Acts iii.) with the
account of a similar miracle wrought by St.
Paul at Lystra (Acts xiv.) ; of which latter cure
the story is either in St. Luke's own words, or
taken from St. Paul's description. In it all the
young men laid hold on him, and he left the linen cloth,
and fled from them naked," is so minute in its details that
it must be an account of what happened to Mark himself,
and that he has suppressed his name while narrating
what only he to whom it occurred could have known
about so exactly.
44 Introduction to the New Testament.
graphic features which are found in the earlier
chapter are wanting. We are told nothing of
the attentive gaze of the Apostle, of his reading
the lame man's thoughts in his face, of the
actions accompanying the cure, nor anything to
compare with the exultant joy of the healed
man, who laid hold on the clothes of Peter and
John, and went with them into the temple,
" walking, and leaping, and praising God."
With language of this pictorial character St.
Mark's Gospel abounds. He introduces into
almost every story graphic touches which are
found in neither of the other synoptists. Thus,
in the account of the cure of the lunatic child
after the Transfiguration, St. Mark alone presents
the boy as wallowing on the ground and foaming
when he is brought to Jesus. He alone makes
the history dramatic by introducing at some
length the conversation of Jesus with the child's
father. He alone tells of the father's tears and
passionate cry, " Lord, I believe ; help Thou
mine unbelief;" and how, when the spirit had
gone forth, the child was sore rent, and lay as
dead, insomuch that some said, " He is dead ; "
but Jesus took him by the hand, and " lifted him
up," and he arose.
It may be noticed in passing how this charac-
teristic, which makes the second Gospel to differ
Introduction to the New Testament. 45
so markedly from the others, renders it impos-
sible for us to suppose that the narratives were
in any way copied from one another. And St.
Mark's whole story is full of these word-pictures.
With him the heavens at Christ's baptism are
" rent " asunder ; at His temptation Jesus is
" with the wild beasts," and had been previously
"driven" of the Spirit into the wilderness.
James and John, when called by Christ, are in
the ship "with the hired servants " of their father.
At the house where Jesus abode when He
healed many that were sick, " all the city " is
pictured as "gathered together at the door."
The man sick of the palsy, when brought to
Jesus, is " borne of four." For these marks of
the Evangelist's style we have gone very little
beyond his first chapter, and a similar character
pervades all the language, except that of the
last twelve verses, of which we shall speak here-
after.
In the work of such a writer we should ex-
pect to find both the human and divine aspects
of Christ's life strongly marked, and in this we
are not disappointed. At the outset, in the
words which form what we may call the title of
his Gospel, he assumes that his readers know
the supernatural birth and divine character of
Him of whom he has to write, but yet he
46 Introduction to the New Testament.
constantly sets it forth in his graphic speech.
Thus he tells us much of the amazement (i. 27 ;
ii. 12), and the fear (iv. 41 ; vi. 50), and the mar-
velling (v. 20), and the wonder (vi. 51), and the
astonishment (vii. 37), which the God-like words
and works of Jesus excited in those about Him ;
how multitudes pressed around Him, how the
sick were brought to Him in crowds, or laid
where He would pass by, and how all that He
touched were made perfectly whole. Just as
St. Peter says elsewhere (Acts x. 38), " He went
about doing good, and healing all that were
oppressed of the devil ; for God was with Him."
But with all this we have at the same time the
most striking tokens of His humanity. We are
told how He hungered, and needed rest and
sleep like other men, how He was moved by
love and grief, pity and wonder, anger and even
violent indignation.
In thinking of St. Peter as the source whence
St. Mark drew the materials for his Gospel, it
is important to notice how the order in which
events are ranged by this Evangelist accords
with the arrangement in St. Matthew. St. Mark
does not record all the deeds of Jesus which are
mentioned in the first Gospel, and he gives us
very little of our Lord's discourses anywhere ;
but the sequence of those actions which he
Introduction to the New Testament. 47
does narrate corresponds in a marked manner.
This becomes very evident if a list of the events
recorded by each Evangelist be placed side by
side, and in sucji comparison it will be seen that
when the sequence in the two records varies, it
is not a single incident that is differently placed,
but a group of incidents, which, in their changed
position, preserve their proper consecution.
Thus the Sabbath day's journey through the
cornfields, followed by the cure of the man with
the withered hand, and the desire of the Pha-
risees to destroy Jesus, in consequence of which
He withdrew Himself, and in His retirement
wrought many miracles (all narrated in Mark
ii. and iii.), are found similarly conjoined in
Matthew xii. As neither Evangelist regarded
chronological order in his work, such coinci-
dence of arrangement can only come about
because the two writers gave the story as it was
impressed on the memory of eye-witnesses ; St.
Matthew, his own recollections ; St. Mark, it
may well be, those of St. Peter.
Moreover the mention of St. Peter, in con-
nection with some events in our Lord's history,
where he is not mentioned by the other Evan-
gelists, seems to point to his share in the
composition of the second Gospel, while the
omission in St. Mark's narrative of some things,
48 Introduction to the New Testament.
which would seem to give Peter importance
above his fellows, has been ascribed to a modesty
which checked the recital of such incidents.
It is by St. Mark alone that we are told how
Peter followed our Lord in the morning after
His miracles in Capernaum ; that Peter noticed
and spake of the speedy withering of the fig-
tree, and was the one to ask Jesus, as He sat on
the Mount of Olives, about the coming destruc-
tion of Jerusalem ; and that Peter was specially
singled out by the angel as the Apostle to
whom the announcement of the Resurrection
should be made. On the other hand, this Gos-
pel says nothing of Peter's share in the discus-
sion concerning " what defileth a man," nor of
his walking on the sea, nor of his being sent to
catch a fish, in the mouth of which he should
find money to pay the Temple tribute, nor how
Christ named him^ "the Rock" on which His
* It is impossible to give in English the force of the
Lord's words here by translation only. Of course, the
Church was not built on the individual Peter, but on that
acknowledgment of Christ as the Son of God which Peter
had just made. The Greek has two words for rock — one
masculine, petros^ which is the name of the Apostle ; one
feminine, /.?/r<a:, which is used in the second clause of the
verse. Our Lord's meaning might be given thus : " Thy
name Petros bespeaks thee a man of rock, and this out-
spoken confession of thine shall be the firm rock {petrd)
on which My Church shall stand."
Introduction to the New Testament. 49
Church should be built (Matt. xvi. 18), nor how
he was one of those two sent by Jesus to make
ready the Passover, nor that for him Christ
made special prayer that his faith might not
utterly fail. All these indications taken to-
gether give much weight to the tradition that in
the second Gospel we read the Gospel according
to St. Peter.
After the introductory verses (chap. i. 1-13),
which speak very briefly^ of the Divine character
of Jesus, and His fulfilment of Old Testament
prophecies ; then of John's baptism and preach-
ing, and how Christ was baptized of him, and
after that driven into the wilderness to be
tempted, the contents of St. Mark's Gospel may
conveniently be divided into three somewhat
unequal portions, according to the localities in
which the events took place. First we have
(chap. i. 14-ix. 56) the life in Galilee, and the
short journeys made from thence into the
country round about. At the beginning of this
period, while the disciples are called unto Him,
and until after the choice of the twelve, the
' The first verse of the Gospel is very condensed, yet
it shews that the Evangelist knew (and took for granted
the like knowledge in his readers) of the " glad tidings "
(Luke ii. 10), of the divinely-given name, Jesus (Matt. i.
21), that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah (John i. 41),
and the Divine Son (John i. 49).
E
50 Introduction to the New Testament,
narrative is confined to the teaching and mira-
cles of Jesus in Capernaum and the country at
the west side of the sea of Galilee. Apparently
for rest (iv. 35) He makes a voyage over the
lake, but the Gadarenes soon entreat Him to
depart out of their coasts (v. 1 7) ; and returning,
He continues His labour among His own peo-
ple, and sends out the twelve on a like mission,
bestowing on them some of His own mighty
powers. St. Mark mentions no other departure
till after the death of John the Baptist, when
Jesus, with the twelve, whose mission was now
ended, again crossed the lake (vi. 32), whence,
after the feeding of the five thousand, He bids
His disciples leave Him and go to Bethsaida
(vi. 43) ; but Himself follows them, walking on
the sea, and so they all are in the land of
Gennesaret (vi. 53). Hence they make a longer
journey into the districts bordering on Tyre and
Sidon (vii. 24), and there the Saviour's works
make it known that others beside " the lost sheep
of the house of Israel" are to be partakers of
Christ's kingdom. Crossing into the district of
Peraea, by a land route to the north of the sea of
Galilee, they gain the eastern side of the lake by
passing through Decapolis (vii. 31), and in this
part of the country also it is likely that those
for whom His miracles were wrought were for
Introduction to the New Testament. 51
the most part not Jews. Coming once more to
the west side of the lake, they visit Dalmanutha
(viii. 10), which place, we gather from St. Mat-
thew's account (xv. 39), was in the neighbour-
hood of Magdala. The questioning cavils of
the Pharisees, however, soon send Him to the
eastern shore again (viii. 11-13); and when
they next return, the more retired Bethsaida
(viii. 22) is their destination, rather than Caper-
naum ; and from thence another northern tour
is made into the towns about Cesaraea-Philippi
(viii. 27), in which once more He sheds His light
over " Galilee of the Gentiles." Turning south,
they pass through Galilee (ix. 30), and come
back to His own city of Capernaum (ix. 33).
After this the Lord's time is spent in solemn
converse with the twelve, on such duties as
humility, charity towards those who differ, and
the shunning of all that may prove a stumbling-
block either to themselves or others. For the
end was drawing near, and the twelve were to
be the founders of His kingdom, the light of the
world, the salt of the earth ; and so He leaves
them as His closing words in Galilee, " Have
salt in yourselves, and have peace one with
another."
In this section of the Gospel which deals with
the largest period of Christ's ministerial life, St.
52 Introduction to the New Testament.
Mark has in his narrative placed special em-
phasis on one feature of the Lord's character —
His constant withdrawal from the throng, and
even from the company of the twelve, that He
might be alone. He shunned all publicity for
Himself or His work ; and beside the numerous
exhortations to those whom He healed, that
they should tell no man, the Evangelist has
recorded in these nine chapters eight occasions
on which Jesus sought solitude for rest, prayer,
and meditation.
The second division of the Gospel is con-
tained in chapter x., and treats of what befell
in the way from Galilee through Peraea, and
afterwards across the Jordan as far as Jericho,
in the last journey to the Holy City. The
time spent in this journey can only have been
two or three days.
The third portion (xi. i-xvi. 20) relates the
closing scenes of the Lord's life in the time
between His arrival near Jerusalem and His
death and resurrection, the ten most eventful
days in the world's history ; and the brief close
of the Gospel carries the history forward to
the Ascension, noticing three occasions on which
Christ shewed Himself to His followers after
His resurrection.
Of the genuineness and authenticity of the
Introduction to the New Testament. 53
second Gospel there has never been any serious
question. We have testimony to its existence
from the days of Papias and Justin Martyr.
The former of these was a friend of Polycarp,
the disciple of St. John ; the latter was born in
Palestine before the close of the first century.
But there is one passage (xvi. 9-20) about
which there has been much difference of opinion,
and the discussion of which has been newly
revived by the way in which it has been dealt
with in the lately published Revised Version.
A break is made by the revisers after xvi. 8,
and a note is added, that "the two oldest
Greek manuscripts, and some other authorities
omit from verse 9 to the end. Some other
authorities have a different ending to the
Gospel." This note is all true. What we would
fain know is. How came it to be so } The two
MSS. which are entirely without these final
verses are the Codex Sinaiticus (K) and the Codex
Vaticanus (B). In the latter of these, however,
the scribe has left a space between the end of
verse 8 and the commencement of the Gospel of
St. Luke, as though he knew of a closing section
of the second Gospel, which however was not
present in the MS. from which he was copying.
In the original, verse 8 ends with a feeble un-
emphatic word (7ap), which cannot stand alone
54 Introduction to the New Testament.
and which could never have been allowed to end
either a book or a sentence.^ It seems clear
from this that the Gospel did not end originally
there, and also that there is some unnatural break
between verses 8 and 9. The last statement is
evident also from the contents of verse 9 ; for
that verse goes back to mention " the first day of
the week " in such a way as would be needless if
it were a part of the same narrative with verse 2.
Then it speaks of Mary Magdalene, and adds
"out of whom He had cast seven devils,'' an
addition which would have been quite in place if
she were now noticed for the first time, but is
inconsistent with the mention made of her in
verse i. Next, verse 9 relates to a different sub-
ject from verse 8, and the rupture is very patent
if we leave out the italic word supplied in the
Authorized Version. Then we read, " for they
were afraid. Now when He was risen early," etc.
It was a sense, no doubt, of the last-mentioned
^ There are two passages which have been brought for-
ward to contradict this statement, John xiii. 13, " Ye say-
well, for so I am" (ei/it yap). But a glance suffices to
sliew that this is a mere parenthetical exclamation, and
neither the closing word of a book or sentence. The
other is Genesis xlv, 3, in the LXX. But on turning
either to the Hebrew or the English we see that the
LXX. has omitted the words for " at his presence." The
Greek of the LXX. is probably defective here, and cannot
be quoted with authority for any such usage.
Introduction to the New Testament, 55
awkwardness which led to the formation of the
shorter ending alluded to in the revisers' note,
That joins on thus, " for they were afraid [and
they announced all that had been told them to
Peter and his companions ; and after this Jesus
Himself sent out by them, from the east even
unto the west, the sacred and uncorrupted
message of eternal salvation]." These words
run on grammatically with the close of verse
8 ; but though of ancient date, and found in
one of the uncial MSS., they cannot be ac-
cepted as the original conclusion of the Gospel.
The last words have a ring in them which
does not sound like Gospel history. And when
we add to this that the uncial MS. in which
they are found gives also the longer ending as it
is given in our Authorized Version, with a note
that both forms of ending have gained accep-
tance in different places, we see at once the
doubtful character of these additions. Similar
evidence is to be found in one of the cursive
MSS., which marks " The end " after verse 8, and
again " The end " after verse 20.^ Some of the
* And this word " The end " cannot be explained as
merely marking the close of an ecclesiastical lection, for
in some ancient Armenian MSS. we find the colophon
"Gospel according to Mark" at the end of both verses 8
and 20, which significantly explains what " The end " in
the Greek MS. meant.
56 Introduction to the New Testament.
old versions, too, stop at the end of verse 8, and
we have patristic testimony as early as Eusebius
(who was alive before the oldest MS. of the
Greek text which we possess was written), that
in his day some persons did not accept the
verses 9-20 as a part of the original Gospel.
The language, moreover, of these verses lacks
all that graphic character of which so much has
been already said on this Gospel, while there is
found in them a large number of words (con-
sidering the smallness of the passage) which St.
Mark uses nowhere else.
There are many other points to be alleged
both for and against the genuineness of this sec-
tion,i but the most weighty have been named ;
and in the face of such evidence, combined
with the clearly broken sentence which closes
verse 8, it seems most reasonable to conclude
that the words of St. Mark himself do not go
beyond that verse. Either his manuscript, for
^ The most elaborate work on the subject is that of
Dean Burgon, on which he has bestowed abundant pains,
and some very hard words on other workers in the same
field. At the close of the volume the Dean writes, " not
a particle of doubt, not an atom of suspicion attaches to
the last twelve verses of the Gospel according to St.
Mark." In spite of this language, the recent revision of
the New Testament shews that from the minds of many
excellent scholars doubt is not removed.
Introduction to the New Testament. 57
some unknown reason, ceased with this broken
sentence, or, what seems more Hkely, the last
leaf of the early exemplar was lost, and the
preceding page closed with the fragment of
verse 8. It is clear that both the longer and
shorter endings are of a very early date, and
that both were appended by those who rever-
enced greatly the existing text. The framer of
the shorter conclusion fashioned his sentence so
as to join on without altering anything of what
was written. The longer form was added by
those who kept, in spite of its incompleteness,
the exact words of the first text, and only
appended a brief summary of post-resurrection
history to give completeness to the Gospel
record. This summary was undoubtedly drawn
from some approved source, and may have been
taken from one of those many narratives to
which St. Luke alludes in the opening of his
Gospel.
(c) The Gospel according to St. Luke.
St. Luke's Gospel differs from the two which
precede it in stating at the outset the reason for
its composition. Many narratives had been put
forth, the writer says, of those things on which
the Christian faith was based, and as he had
good opportunities for knowing the truth there-
58 Introduction to the New Testament,
on, he undertakes his work for the information
of his friend Theophilus. He would seem to
intimate that what had already appeared was
wanting in order and accuracy ; for he sets forth
these two qualities as the special characteristics
of what he himself has compiled. He was not
himself an eye-witness of Christ's acts, but he
had his information from those who were so,
and from some who were ministers of the Word.
As the writer makes no exceptions in his hint
at the need for a more exact history, it is most
probable that he was not acquainted with the
Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, — a con-
clusion at which we might also arrive from a
comparison of the contents of his Gospel with
theirs. Yet the statement in the preface would
lead us to the impression that a considerable
time had elapsed since the death of Christ
before St. Luke began his Gospel. The other
histories of which he speaks had become nu-
merous, and to write such histories while the
Apostles were actively preaching, and several of
them living in the Holy Land, would not be
the first pressing work of Christian authorship.
If therefore St. Luke wrote, as is most probable,
at a later date than his fellow-synoptists, it
seems likely that he wrote neither in Palestine
nor at Rome.
Introduction to the New Testament, 59
We cannot, however, fix with any certainty
the date of St. Luke's Gospel. We conclude,
taking for granted what internal evidence in-
dicates, and wh^t tradition has handed down to
us, that the Gospel was written before the Acts
of the Apostles. It is "the former {or rather
first) treatise " to which the writer of the Acts
alludes in his opening words. As the apostolic
history closes with the first imprisonment of St.
Paul at Rome, which came to an end about A.D.
63, we may take that as a date before which St.
Luke's Gospel had certainly been written. We
learn from Acts (xxvii.) that the author of that
book went with St. Paul in his voyage to Rome ;
and Luke stayed with St. Paul during his im-
prisonment (Col. iv. 14). The troublous events of
this time would not be favourable to authorship,
and we may on that ground put back the date
of the composition probably to A.D. 60, or even
earlier. Nearer than this we cannot come with
any certainty. There is a period in St. Luke's
life during which he might have compiled his
Gospel, and when such a work would have been
most suitable. He appears to have been left
behind at Philippi in St. Paul's first visit there
(cf. Acts xvi. 10 with 40}, and to have re-
mained there while the Apostle went first to
Athens and Corinth, then into Syria, after that
6o Introduction to the New Testament.
to Ephesus, then through Macedonia into Greece,
and back again to Philippi (see Acts xvii. i,
XX. 5). At this return visit St. Luke went away
with him. For all these journeys and labours
we cannot reckon less than five or six years, as
we read during the time of two long residences
of St. Paul at Corinth and in Ephesus. If
throughout this period St. Luke was settled
at Philippi, as the centre of missionary life in
Macedonia, he would have abundant oppor-
tunity for composing his Gospel, and the work
would be one which might suggest itself to him
from the needs of the Churches in which he was
labouring. If he prepared the work at the
beginning of his stay there, we get back to A.D.
54, as about the date at which it may have been
written, and this date will give time enough for
those numerous narratives to have been set forth
to which he makes allusion in his preface.
The name of Luke is found only three times
in the New Testament (Col. iv. 14 ; Philem. 24 ;
2 Tim. iv. 11). From these notices we learn
that he was a physician, the friend and com-
panion of St. Paul at Rome, both in his first and
second imprisonment. Further, from the con-
text of the first of the passages here referred to,
we gather that St. Luke was of Gentile origin,
for he is classed among those of the uncir-
Introduction to the New Testament. 6i
cumcision. The earliest Christian writers who
preserve any traditions about him tell us that
he was born at Antioch, but of this they give
no satisfactory evidence. In the Acts of the
Apostl-es (xvi. lo) we gather from the language
that the author first joined St. Paul at Troas, and
passed over with him and Silas to Philippi. Yet
the unmarked way in which the change of pro-
noun (from they to we)^ is introduced, assures us
that the historian had been before known to the
Apostle, and that it was quite natural that he
should be of his company. St. Luke, as has
been observed, did not continue with St. Paul
farther than Philippi, but joined him again
some years later, and continued with him in
Syria during his imprisonment at Ca^sarea, and
also in his perilous voyage after his appeal to
Caesar. This is the utmost we learn from the
New Testament, whether by statement or in-
ference.
Theophilus, for whose use both the Gospel
and the Acts were written, seems, from the
official title ^ given to him, " most excellent," to
have been some Gentile convert to Christianity,
who, either at the imperial court or in some
* The title is the same as that given to Felix (Acts
xxiv. 3) and to Festus (Acts xxvi. 25), though in those
places the A. V. renders it " most noble."
62 Introduction to the New Testament.
colony, had attained a position of dignity. His
name bespeaks his Greek nationality, and he
may have been a converted Greek freedman, as
no doubt some of those were whom St. Paul
(Phil. iv. 22) speaks of as " Caesar's household."
The writer of the third Gospel, then, was
not a Jew, not a personal follower of Jesus, not
an eye-witness of anything he describes, nor
perhaps greatly familiar with the scenes amid
which the life of Jesus was spent: all which
points must be taken into account in judging
of the character and aim of his Gospel ; for it
cannot but interest us to speculate from what
sources he drew his materials. That he used
them faithfully we can have little doubt, for
evidence of this meets us at the very opening of
the history. The preface to the Gospel (chap,
i. 1-4) is written in such language as to shew
us that the Evangelist, had he been so minded,
could have produced a work marked by much
higher literary skill than the records of the
other synoptists. But, the preface ended, he
leaves his almost classical style, and adopts the
diction of his informants, and in some matters
becomes as thoroughly Hebraic in expression
as the veriest Jew could have been. A Greek-
speaking Gentile could give no greater proof of
faithful dealing with what he found recorded.
Introduction to the New Testament, 6
When compared with the two preceding Gospels,
St. Luke's narrative divides itself into four
well-marked sections. After the brief prefatory-
words just spoken of, we have some account
(i. 5-ii. 52) of the pre-ministerial life of our
Lord ; but therein, except in the broad facts of
Christ's birth and parentage, there is nothing
parallel to that part of St. Matthew's Gospel
which relates to the same period.
Next (from iii. i to ix. 50) there follows a
history of the Galilaean life of Jesus, in which the
writer narrates much that is found in the other
synoptists, but with marked variations of ex-
pression throughout, which indicate that it was
not from them that the matter was drawn, a
specially noteworthy feature being the genealogy
of our Lord, in which His descent is not traced,
as in St. Matthew, up to Abraham only, but
carried back to Adam, the father of the whole
human race.
After this, having reached the time of our
Lord's life at which He must make His final
journey to Jerusalem, our Evangelist records at
far greater length than the other two the acts
and words of Jesus just before and during the
ascent to the holy city. This section extends
from ix. 5 1 to xviii. 14, and, though it has some
points common to St. Matthew and St. Mark, is
64 Introduction to the New Testament.
yet in the main peculiar to this Gospel, and
in it is recorded the mission of the seventy, of
which the other Evangelists make no mention.
When the neighbourhood of Jerusalem has
been reached, St. Luke (xviii. 15-xxiv. 53) re-
lates the events which preceded and followed the
passion of our Lord in some points more fully
than we have them elsewhere, but yet for the
most part agreeing in matter and arrangement
with what is told us by St. Matthew and St.
Mark, only that the history after the Resurrec-
tion has not its parallel in the other narratives.
And in connexion with this section we may
observe, what bears out St. Luke's statement
about the collection of his materials, that in the
commencement of the Acts we have a fuller and
somewhat varying description of the Ascension,
the recital of which can hardly be accounted for,
except by assuming that after the Gospel was
completed and sent to Theophilus, more informa-
tion came to the knowledge of the Evangelist,
which he faithfully set down, feeling that it was
no contradiction, but an expansion of what had
been written in " the former treatise."
Each of these sections of St. Luke's narrative
deserves some further notice. About the first
of them, which is so entirely different from the
other Gospels, much discussion has been raised.
Introduction to the New Testament. 65
Its contents are an account of the parentage
and birth of John the Baptist, of the heavenly
announcement to the Virgin Mary, and a state-
ment of her kinship to Elisabeth, the mother
of the •Baptist. Interwoven with this history
are the two hymns of praise, so Jewish ^ in form
and language, employed, the one by the Virgin
on her visit to Elisabeth, the other by Zacharias
when his speech was restored to him. This is
followed by an account which explains to us
why the parents, whose home was Nazareth,
were away in Bethlehem when the promised
child was born. Then we read of the vision of
the shepherds, the circumcision and the purifi-
cation, with which is connected the beautiful
narrative of Simeon, with his song of praise on
beholding the infant Saviour, and the prophetic
utterances of him and of Anna concerning the
future of the wondrous child. A few words
concerning the life at Nazareth, and the account
of Jesus, at twelve years old, questioning with
the Jewish doctors in the Temple, concludes
this picture of Christ's early years which St.
Luke has alone preserved for us.
* The comparison of the Magnificat (Luke i. 46-55)
with the Song of Hannah (i Sam. ii. i-io) has often been
made, and all the hymns are of the same Old Testament
character.
F
66 Introduction to the New Testament,
As we read these two chapters, it is almost
impossible to avoid the notice that every detail
contained in them could have been known to
one person and hardly to any other. That
person is the Virgin herself, and from her, or
some one who had lived in close communion
with her, we must decide that the narrative was
in the first instance derived. Twice over, too,
the historian himself here points, in a way that
is not done elsewhere in the Gospel history, to
the mother of Jesus as the storehouse whence
his record was drawn. He tells us (ii. 19), after
the visit of the shepherds, how " Mary kept all
these things and pondered them in her heart,"
and again (ii. 51) how, after the tarrying of
Jesus in the temple, " His mother kept all
these sayings in her heart." There is also
an indication in the Acts (i. 14) that St. Luke
was well informed of the history of our Lord's
mother and His brethren too ; for he specially
includes them in the list of those who, with
the twelve, waited at Jerusalem in prayerful
expectation for the coming of the Holy Ghost.
It seems natural therefore to conclude that
either from the Virgin or from those with whom
she lived, it may be from St. John himself (John
xix. 27), St. Luke obtained this portion of his
narrative ; and drawing from such a source, we
Introduction to the New Testament. 67
can well see why he says that he has " perfect
understanding of all things from the very
first."
The second section, which harmonizes in
most of the events, though, as we might expect,
not entirely in arrangement, with the other
synoptic narratives, must have been drawn from
the information, oral or written, of those who
had been with our Lord during His ministry in
Galilee. All the chief circumstances of that
ministry are recorded here ; but there are some
important additions peculiar to St. Luke. Such
are the answers which the Baptist gave to those
who came unto him to be baptized ; the account
of the miraculous draught of fishes at the time
of St. Peter's call to follow Jesus ; the touching
narrative of the raising of the widow's son at
Nain ; the parable of the two debtors, spoken
in the house of Simon the Pharisee ; and
Christ's conversation with Moses and Elias at
the Transfiguration. This list of passages found
in St. Luke alone contains nothing, except
in the last named on the list, which would
point to any special person or persons as the
source of the narrative whence Luke derived
his information. At the Transfiguration, how-
ever, Peter, James and John alone were present,
and as Peter is traditionally held to be St.
68 hitroduction to the New Testament.
Mark's authority, it may be that one of the
other two favoured disciples furnished the ac-
counts which St. Luke has preserved to us.
His assertion, that it was not only from eye-
witnesses, but from those who were ministers of
the wordy that he was instructed, gives warrant
for such a supposition.
To the third section of St. Luke's narrative,
which is so peculiarly his own, the same remark
will apply. It could only have been supplied
primarily by one of those most immediately in
attendance on Jesus in that last journey from
the north to Jerusalem. What treasures it has
preserved for us will be seen from a simple
enumeration of its chief portions. Without it
we should not have the parables of the impor-
tunate friend, the rich fool, the barren fig-tree,
the lost piece of silver, nor the still more touch-
ing lessons contained in the stories of the good
Samaritan, the prodigal son, the unjust steward,
the rich man and Lazarus, and the Pharisee and
publican. Here alone, too, are recorded the
healing of the woman with the spirit of in-
firmity (xiii.), of the man who had the dropsy
(xiv), and of the ten lepers (xvii.). The witness
who garnered all these stores, to be used by St.
Luke in time to come, can have been none but
a very zealous attendant on Jesus, can hardly
Introduction to the New Testament. 69
have been other than a member of the chosen
twelve.
In the last division of his narrative, St. Luke
differs less than elsewhere from his fellow-
evangelists, but even here he has some striking
details of which there is no other mention in
the New Testament. Such are the weeping of
Jesus over Jerusalem, His bloody sweat in the
garden of Gethsemane, the healing of the ear
of Malchus, the sending of Jesus from Pilate
to Herod, the solemn address to the daughters
of Jerusalem, the prayer on the cross, " Father,
forgive them," the account of the penitent
robber, the appearance of the risen Lord to the
two disciples going to Emmaus, and the par-
ticulars of the Ascension. With regard to the
last mentioned of these matters peculiar to St.
Luke, an objection has been raised, that the
account in the Gospel contradicts what is said
in the Acts ; for in the latter we learn that
Christ remained with His disciples forty days
after the Resurrection, while the Gospel (the
objectors say) makes the Ascension to take
place on the same day as the Resurrection.
When, however, we examine the closing section
of the Gospel, we find that the two disciples
were at Emmaus towards evening of the day
of the Resurrection ; they returnedto Jerusalem
70 Introduction to the New Testament.
that night, and told what they had seen. But
after this has been stated, the chapter is broken
up at ver. 36 (which a comparison with John
XX. 26-28 shows to be an account of what took
place eight days after the Resurrection), and
at verses 44 and 50, into three distinct sections,
with no marks of time to unite them ; and in
the midst of the whole we are told that Christ
opened the minds of His disciples, that they
might understand the Scriptures. All this is
not the work of one day ; besides which, the
reasoning of the objectors would make the
Ascension to take place at night, after the
disciples had come back from Emmaus. Thus
there is no contradiction, but such a set of
circumstances as we should expect where the
writer was drawing not on his own knowledge,
but on derived information, and was animated
with the desire to make his narratives com-
plete whenever new particulars came to his
hand.
We cannot say to whom St. Luke was in-
debted ; but his narrative preserves throughout
so much of Aramaic style, that we may feel
sure that he trusted not to oral authorities, but
had some written documents from which to
draw, and these set down either by, or from
the lips of, some one who was in intimate
Introductiofi to the New Testament. 71
connection with Jesus and His family from the
beginning to the end of His ministerial life.
This third Gospel has often been styled " the
Gospel of St. Paul," and there is no doubt that
St. Luke exhibits much of the liberality of the
"Apostle of the Gentiles," as we might expect
from one who was a Gentile by birth. This is
shown by his tracing Christ's lineage up to
Adam, that thus He might be presented as the
Saviour of all the world. He speaks far more
of "grace," "glad tidings," "salvation," and a
" Saviour," than do the other evangelists ; and
the parables and deeds of mercy, which he has
specially related, point largely to Jesus as the
Redeemer of all mankind. He proclaims the
Lord as " a Light to lighten to the Gentiles," as
well as to " be the glory of Israel " ; he tells of
Elijah's works of mercy in heathen Sarepta,
and of Elisha healing the heathen Naaman.
He specially sets Jesus before us as tolerant
of, and finding good in, the Samaritans ; and,
in the parable of the Good Samaritan, choosing
one of the despised race, rather than a priest
or a Levite, as the embodiment of true duty.
The publican also and the outcast are pictured
in this Gospel, more than in the others, as the
peculiar objects of care of Him who came to
seek and to save. All this is in the spirit of
72 IntrodMctioii to the New Testament.
St. Paul, and no doubt St. Luke had drunk
largely from that fountain of wide-hearted love
which wells forth from every Pauline utterance.
And in one instance there is a close connection
in the language of the two writers. The words
which St. Paul uses (i Cor. xi. 23-25), con-
cerning the institution of the Lord's Supper,
bear a much closer resemblance to those in St.
Luke (xxii. 19-20), than to the parallel nar-
ratives of St. Matthew and St. Mark. But
beyond the influence of long companionship we
can hardly ascribe to St. Paul any part in the
work of our evangelist. . The revelations made
to that Apostle do not appear from any of his
writings to have been of such a nature as to
supply him with an exact knowledge of our
Lord's actions in all His earthly ministry ; and
from some source or other St. Luke drew in-
formation concerning that ministry, which he
deemed more precise than any which he knew
to have been set forth before, and he laboured
to arrange it with the utmost fidelity.
The authenticity of St. Luke's Gospel is
well established. There are some allusions, or
what seem to be such, to its contents, in the
writings of the Apostolic Fathers ; and Justin
Martyr, who died soon after the middle of the
second century, quotes from it, and alludes to
Introduction to the New Testament. 12,
it several times. In a fragment " On the Resur-
rection," which is about the same date as the
works of Justin, there is allusion made to three
verses out of the last chapter of St. Luke.
Hegesippus, contemporary with Justin, has two
quotations from this Gospel in the scanty frag-
ments of his writings which have been preserved
to us by Eusebius ; and it is mentioned in the
list of New Testament writings in the Mura-
torian fragment on the canon, about 170 A.D.
The enemies of the faith also have left us evi-
dence of the same kind. Marcion, a heretical
teacher, who flourished in the first half of the
second century, desired to represent Christianity
as utterly unconnected with Judaism. He
taught that the Jewish law had its origin from
the Demiurge (so he styled the God of the
Jews), and that from his influence Christ came
to set men free. With these opinions to sup-
port, Marcion must reject a large portion ot
the New Testament, and he accepted only ten
epistles of St. Paul, and such parts of the
Gospel of St. Luke as suited with his ideas.
The heretical mutilation which he wrought in
the third Gospel has furnished satisfactory
testimony to its genuineness and authenticity,
and has proved the early recognition of what
has been already alluded to — that this Gospel is
74 Introduction to the New Testament.
largely pervaded by the spirit of the " Apostle
of the Gentiles."
Tradition has dealt but little with the name
of St. Luke. It has made him, but without any
evidence, a painter as well as a physician, and
has assigned Antioch in Syria as his birthplace.
But this latter ascription may only be due to
the character of his writings, which might seem
most fit productions of one who was born in
that city which may be styled the cradle of the
Gentile Church. For men have always felt that
this Gospel had a comprehensiveness which did
not appear so strongly in the other three, and
that its motto might fitly be the angelic words
which its author alone has recorded, "good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all
people."
CHAPTER III.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
The simplest form of tradition which has been
preserved to us concerning the authorship and
characteristics of this Gospel is given by Euse-
bius (H. E., vi. 14) from Clement of Alexandria.
He says that "John, the last of the Evangelists,
seeing that the material bodily facts had been
set forth in the other Gospels, being urged by
his friends, and divinely prompted by the Spirit,
composed a spiritual Gospel."^ We see from
this, (i) that in the earliest times the writer of
the Gospel was held to be St. John ; (2) that
the date of its composition was placed later
than that of the rest ; (3) that in character this
Gospel was known to differ from the others,
and that such difference was marked by calling
it " a spiritual Gospel."
If we consider the Gospel according to the
' Earlier testimony concerning this Gospel is given by-
quotations inTheophilus of Antioch, Claudius Apollinaris
(both about a.d. 180), and Clement of Rome.
75
76 Introduction to the New Testament,
arrangement suggested by the above quotation,
we shall be able to embrace the chief points
which need to be dwelt on. A perusal of the
book will convince any reader that its author
was a Jew ; for he knows the Old Testament
as only a Jew would know it. He is familiar
with all the opinions, prejudices, observances
and party feeling which marked the chosen
people from all other nations of the earth. He
is also acquainted with the localities of the
Holy Land, as he shews by a most careful and
frequent specification of the places where events
occurred : thus he speaks of ^Enon as " near to
Salim," of Bethesda as "by the sheep-gate,"
and uses many similar expressions. We may
conclude also, from his abundance of minute
detail, that he was an eye-witness of what he
relates, as when he mentions the six waterpots
at Cana, and tells how the house where Mary
anointed the feet of Jesus was filled with the
odour of the ointment^ and how the napkin which
had been about the head of Jesus was wrapped
together in a place by itself after the Resurrection ;
the last words shewing the writer to be one who
was at the burial, as well as an early visitor to
the no longer tenanted grave. He was also an
Apostle ; for he is able to tell us of their dis-
cussions among themselves, of the places to
Introduction to the New Testament. 77
which they resorted with the Lord alone, and
to explain much of the feelings of the disciples.
He was a favourite Apostle ; for he knows the
sentiments of Jesus, and can tell us the Lord's
own reasons for what He did, and in some
places goes so far as to explain that Jesus knew
many things in Himself^ a knowledge which
would only be made apparent to one who was
in the closest communion with the Master.
The Apostle St. John will in all points answer
to these requirements, and there are some state-
ments in the Gospel itself which seem to be
conclusive on the question of its authorship.
In xxi. 24, we find it stated that the Gospel was
written by that disciple whom Jesus loved, and
that the writer had taken a share in the inci-
dents narrated in that chapter, and that in him
St. Peter had shewn deep interest by the ques-
tion which he asked of Jesus concerning his
future lot. Now the list of those present on
that occasion forces us to the conclusion that
the beloved disciple was either one of the sons
of Zebedee, or one of two other disciples whose
names are not mentioned. James, the son of
Zebedee, was put to death by Herod, long
before this Gospel was written, and no other
of the apostolic band was on such terms of
intimacy with St Peter as were the two sons
78 Introduction to the New Testament.
of Zebedee. Therefore, from the interest and
friendship which is more than once noticed be-
tween St. Peter and him whom Jesus loved, we
are shut up to the conclusion that the writer
of the Gospel was John, the son of Zebedee.
And there is another small confirmatory indi-
cation that this is correct. The writer of the
fourth Gospel is stricter than the other Evan-
gelists in defining and describing the persons
(as we have seen he was with respect to the
places) which come into his story. But though
all the others distinguish constantly the name
of John " the Baptist," by attaching thereto this
distinctive title, in the fourth Gospel the Baptist
is simply spoken of as John. For the other
Evangelists there were two persons entering
into their narrative with the name of John ; for
the son of Zebedee, speaking of himself as him
"whom Jesus loved," there was but one, and so
he needed not to say " the Baptist."
St. John the Apostle was the son of Zebedee
and Salome, and the brother of James. The
father and sons were fishermen on the Sea of
Galilee, and their home seems to have been in
Tiberias. Their condition in Hfe was such that
the father had hired servants who took part in
the labours of the fishing. Some have thought
that Salome was the sister of the Virgin Mary ;
Introduction to the New Testament. 79
and if this were so, it would explain much of
the close attachment between our Lord and the
sons of Zebedee.^ She was one of those women
who ministered to Christ of their substance,
which is another indication of the easy con-
dition of life in which St. John w&s born. He
was first a disciple of John the Baptist, and
from the Baptist's teaching became a follower
of Jesus. He was one of the three chosen to
be with Christ at the raising of Jairus' daughter,
at the Transfiguration, and in the agony at
Gethsemane. With Andrew, these three form
the first group in all the lists of the twelve, and
these four were with Jesus at the time of that
discourse in which He foretold the destruction
of Jerusalem. Our Lord gave to the sons of
Zebedee the name "Boanerges," which is ex-
plained to mean "sons of thunder." It has
been thought that the name was given in
reference to that impetuosity of character which
John shews when he tells (Mark ix. 38 ; Luke
ix. 49) how they forbade one who was casting
out devils in the name of Christ, because he
followed not with them ; and which they both
exhibited when they desired to bring fire from
heaven upon the Samaritan villagers who re-
fused to receive Jesus (Luke ix. 53, 54). It
was the same fervour of temper which induced
8o Introduction to the New Testament.
them to ask, through their mother, for places
at the right and left hand of Christ in His
kingdom (Matt, xx, 21). St John was joined
with St. Peter in the preparation of the Passover
Supper, and asked of Christ who it was that
should betray Him ; he obtained admission for
St. Peter into the high priest's palace; he was
present at the foot of the cross, and received
the Virgin Mary into his charge ; he was among
the early visitors to the sepulchre, and was of
the company to whom Christ shewed Himself
by the Sea of Galilee. In the Acts he remains
by the side of St. Peter during the events of
the first eight chapters, after which we only
know from the New Testament that at some
time (Gal. ii. 9) he met St Paul, perhaps in
Jerusalem, and that, as he tells us himself (Rev.
i. 9), he was " in Patmos for the word of God,
and for the testimony of Jesus Christ."
Tradition relates many further details con-
cerning the Apostle beyond what we learn from
Scripture ; that he preached the Gospel in Asia,
and after his banishment to Patmos returned
and settled at Ephesus, and exercised there a
supervision over the Churches of Asia ; that his
life was prolonged until the time of Trajan
(A.D. 98-117). There are stories preserved of
his winning back to virtue and Christianity a
Introduction to the New Testament. 8i
young man who after baptism had fallen into
evil ways, and become the chief of a band of
robbers ; how he fled from a bath in which the
heretic Cerinthus was present, lest the building
should fall down on one who denied the reality
of Christ's incarnation ; and how in his old age,
when he could not preach, he would be borne to
the church and say only, " Little children, love
one another ; " answering those who asked for
something more, that " to do this is to fulfil the
Lord's command, and that will be enough."
It has been handed down from the very
earliest times, on the authority of Polycrates,
who was bishop of Ephesus before the close of
the second century, that St. John died and was
buried in that city. Tradition also is agreed
that his Gospel was written there.
With reference to the age of the Gospel, we
have a striking notice in the Muratorian frag-
ment, which dates back to A.D. 170. St. John
can hardly have settled in Ephesus till some
time after St. Paul's visit to Miletus, which may
be placed about A.D. 60. The fragment says
that "At the entreaties of his fellow-disciples
and his bishops," the writing of the Gospel was
undertaken. We can gather from such a state-
ment that the Apostle had presided for some
time over the Ephesian Church before writing
G
82 Introduction to the New Testament.
the Gospel ; for such a request from such per-
sons would not be made at once on his arrival.
The late date of the Gospel is confirmed, too,
by the language of Clement of Alexandria (a.d.
165-220), already quoted, and by the testimony
of Irenaeus (A.D. 130-200), who, after mention-
ing the other three Gospels, adds, " Then John,
the disciple of the Lord, who also leaned on His
breast, himself put forth his Gospel, while re-
siding at Ephesus in Asia." That the later
date of the Gospel is fully borne out by internal
evidence, we shall see when we consider the
contents of St. John's Gospel in comparison
with the Synoptic Gospels. If we inquire into
the object of the writer, we have his own state-
ment near the close of the book (xx. 30-31) :
" Many other things did Jesus in the presence
of the disciples, which are not written in this
book ; but these are written that ye may
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that believing ye may have life in His
name." St. John did not then, any more than
the Synoptists, undertake to write a biography
of Jesus. He was only guided to leave on
record those portions of Christ's history which
were likely to win men to believe in Him as
the Son of God, the Saviour of the world.
It has often been pointed out that the language
Introduction to the New Testament, 83
of some parts of St. John's Gospel has much refer-
ence to the heretical teaching which was current
in the latter part of the first century. And this
is true, but it would be a mistake to suppose
that St. John wrote this, his view of Christ's
life, with the purpose of refuting such heresies.
The heretics denied that Jesus was the Christ,
the Son of God. Any life of Him, therefore,
which kept these truths constantly in view,
would be sure, not only to seem, but to be, a
refutation of such errors, and the language of
the Apostle may no doubt in some parts have
taken a form which the currency of heretical
doctrines in his day would necessarily cause
the true teaching to assume. Nor should we
be right in saying that St. John wrote to sup-
plement the records of the other Evangelists.
He does relate much which is by them omitted,
but it is done because those parts of the Lord's
history seemed most suited for his purpose, to
lead men to faith in Christ, and so to eternal
life, and not because they had not found place
elsewhere.
The plan of St. John's Gospel is very clear.
In the prologue (chap. i. 1-18) the Apostle
speaks of the Word : first, in His own nature
from eternity ; next, how He was revealed to
and rejected by men ; and then, how, by His
84 Introduction to the New Testament.
incarnation, the invisible God was made known
through the Son.
After this, from i. 19 to xii. 50, the Gospel is
occupied with those words and actions by which
Jesus revealed Himself generally among men as
the Son of God. In these chapters the writer
has shewn, on each advance in Christ's revela-
tion, how some believed on Him, but also how
the unbelief of men arrayed itself ever more and
more in opposition to the teaching of Jesus
concerning His divine nature.
At the outset of this section (i. 15-ii. 11)
we are told howt he Baptist repeatedly bare
witness to Jesus as the Son of God, whom the
Holy Ghost had made known to him when He
came to be baptized ; how those who first
followed the Lord followed Him because they
looked on Him as the promised Messiah ; and
how by His beginning of miracles He manifes-
ted forth His glory in such wise that His
disciples believed on Him.
This is followed (ii. 12-25) by the story of
some of the deeds and words of Jesus among
His own people, to whom He first came ; and
who, with Jewish prejudice, and the desire to
walk by sight, and not by faith, asked for some
sign after their own hearts ; and even when
they, in some degree, followed Him, were so
Introduction to the New Testament. 85
unstable in their belief, that Christ could put
no trust in their adherence. The conversation
with Nicodemus (iii.) shows how Jesus had to
break down the Jewish notions concerning the
earthly manifestation of the kingdom of God,
and to lead His hearers, by paths utterly un-
known even to " a master in Israel," to a know-
ledge that the kingdom was to be spiritual. And
along with this light He also gives some hints
of those heavenly things which were even still
less appreciated by Nicodemus and his fellows.
The Jewish mind was engrossed by externals,
pictured to us by the Evangelist in his account
of their disputings concerning the purifying of
John's baptism ; and though the Baptist once
more testifies to such disputants that Christ is
the Son of God, into whose hand the Father
hath given all things, the nation will not be
aroused to the need of a spiritual regenera-
tion.
Christ next (iv.) goes to the Samaritans, and
to them explains more clearly than He could
to Israel that the true worship is a worship, not
at Jerusalem, or on Gerizim, but in the living
temples of the heart. He then passes on to
Galilee, and by His second miracle manifests
Himself to be the Lord of life.
In the next chapters (v.-xi.) St. John has
86 Introduction to the New Testament,
placed Christ before men as being truly the Son
of God, because He is the source of life and
light, and that both in word and work His
attitude toward men is that of love. First, by
the cure of the cripple at the pool of Bethesda,
and by the discourse which follows it, Jesus is
presented as the source of eternal life, and as
Him unto whom the Scriptures bear testimony.
In like manner, by the feeding of the five
thousand (vi.) His act proclaims what His
words soon express, " I am the Bread of life."
While on the great day of the feast. His visit
unto which is next described, the same lesson is
heard once more, when He cries, " If any man
thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink ; " and
that the figures under which His teaching was
thus conveyed might not fail to be appreciated,
in the next chapter (viii.) He makes it clear
what the bread of life and water of life signify,
by the exposition, " If any man keep My say-
ings, he shall never see death." And as of life,
so of light does St. John (ix.) shew Christ to be
the source. He tells us of the cure by Jesus
of the blind man, whose affliction was sent that
the works of God might be made manifest in
him ; and, by the colloquy which followed,
gives to the outward work of power its inward
significance in the Lord's own words : " For
Introduction to the New Testament. Z"]
judgment I am come into this world, that they
which see not might see, and that they which
see might be made blind."
Christ's discourses of Himself (x.) as the
Door by which men may enter into life, and as
the Good Shepherd, who giveth his life for the
sheep, complete the teaching concerning the
character of Jesus; but this lesson of His
perfect love, the Evangelist has pointed most
strongly by the narrative of the raising of
Lazarus (xi.), which tells us in act, as well as in
word, how "Jesus loved Martha and her sister
and Lazarus ; " and where the Lord's affection-
ate solicitude for the desolate sisters, and His
sympathy with human sorrow, makes even the
Jews confess, " Behold, how He loved him."
Through all this narrative St. John never
fails to record that the teaching of Jesus was
diversely received ; but, as if to emphasize this
still more, he gives in the chapter (xii.) which
follows special examples of this varied recep-
tion. First he shews us Mary anointing the
feet of Him who had set before her " the better
part ; " then the priests in consultation, anxious
to kill not only Jesus, but Lazarus also. Then
we hear the enthusiastic hosannas of the crowd
as He rides into Jerusalem, while the Pharisees
murmur that "the world is gone after Him."
88 Introduction to the New Testament,
We see Greeks coming that they may look
on Him, and, as He speaks to the crowd
around, in astonishment they inquire, what is
meant by the Hfting up of the Son of man. And
on the whole survey the Evangelist pronounces,
** They believed not in Him ; their hearts were
hardened ; they loved the praise of men more
than the praise of God ; " and closes with the
saying of Jesus, " The word which I have
spoken, the same, in the last day, shall judge
him that rejecteth Me." "I came not to judge
the world, but to save the world."
From xiii. i-xx. 29 the Gospel deals with
Christ's revelation of Himself to His more
immediate followers, first by His discourses
preparing them for what awaited them at
the hands of unbelievers, and also revealing to
them the source of power which should aid
them in their work when He was no more with
them ; then by His death and the proof of the
verity of His resurrection winning at last the
doubting Thomas to cry with a faith as complete
as that of the rest, " My Lord and my God."
The discourses in this section extend over
five chapters (xiii.-xvii.), and are introduced by
that great act of humility, the washing of the
feet of the disciples, even of him whom Christ
knew was to be His betrayer, that He might
Introduction to the New Testament. 89
enforce the lesson, " Love one another, as I
have loved you." The words of the Lord are
all words of comfort, pointing onward to hopes
of heaven, and promising an answer to prayer
on earth. But still larger are the promises
which relate to the mission of the Comforter,
and to the close union which shall be main-
tained between Christ and His faithful follow-
ers. They may sorrow because He is gone, but
their sorrow shall be turned into joy by the
hope of His return. In the last of these
chapters (xvii.) is the solemn prayer of Jesus
to the Father, first for Himself, then for the
disciples, afterwards for those who should
believe through their preaching ; and it closes
with the words which St. John, above the rest
of the twelve, would be disposed to dwell on,
** That the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me
may be in them, and I in them."
Then is given (xviii., xix.) the story of the
Passion, the same with, though differing from,
the narrative of the Synoptists, followed (xx.)
by the Resurrection, and the three appearances
of Jesus to Mary Magdalene, to the ten
Apostles, and then again to them after seven
days, when Thomas was in their company.
After this, St. John (xx. 30, 31) tells us of the
purpose which his Gospel has in view, and
90 Introduction to the New Testament.
afterwards (xxi.), as a conclusion, relates how-
Christ shewed Himself to the seven by the Sea
of Galilee, where He gave His commission to
St. Peter, and foretold how that Apostle would
glorify God by his death. Then, after a brief
notice of a question concerning himself, which
was asked of Christ by Peter, and the answer to
which was misunderstood, he concludes with a
repetition of the statement that there was abun-
dance of material at hand from which to draw,
had his object been to record concerning Jesus
all that could be written.
In comparing St. John's Gospel with the
other three, we feel at once what is meant
by those who have spoken of it as " the Gospel
of the Holy Spirit." The simple elementary
teaching of the earlier Evangelists has, at the
time when St. John writes, been developed by
the Spirit's agency in the growing Church of
Christ, and made clear in its application to the
hearts of men. The Synoptists generally relate
Christ's actions as narrators of a history which
they leave to have its effect on the hearers,
without further comment. St. John, on the
contrary, nearly always ranges after his narra-
tives of what Jesus did some account of the
teaching with which the Master supplemented
His works, and also a notice of the way in
Introduction to the New Testament. 91
which that teaching moved both friends and
foes. The writer is looking back over the space
which had intervened between the life of Christ
on earth and the date of his own composition,
and by the Spirit's light can read the meaning
of much which in the early days of Christian
preaching could be rather felt than spoken.
But though there be in St. John's Gospel this
wider and deeper view of the significance of all
that Christ did, we see that the circumstances,
whose meaning St. John has grown to grasp
more fully, were the same as are related in the
earlier writings. He knows, like the other
three, of the Baptist and his work (i. 19), and
that Christ was baptized by him (i. 32) ; he
knows of the twelve (vi. 6^)^ though he gives no
list of them, and knows, too, of the prominent
place occupied among them by St. Peter (i. 40) ;
he knows of the life at Nazareth (i. 46), of
the dwelling at Capernaum (ii. 12), of the
mother and the brethren (vi. 42 ; vii. 3, etc.), of
Martha and Mary (xi. i, 2), and of the minister-
ing women (xix. 25) who often accompanied
Jesus, and were present at the crucifixion. His
mention of these matters is all by implication,
but shews that St. John, though choosing often
different materials, and using them in a differ-
ent way, is still writing of the same life-history.
92 Introduction to the New Testament,
All the four Gospels are mere fragments of
what could have been written of our Lord's life,
hence the possibility of such difference as there
is between St John's Gospel and the others,
and hence, too, w^e can understand how from
the Synoptists we might go away with the
thought that Jesus went up but once to Jeru-
salem, while from St. John we learn that such
a visit was made at the commencement of His
ministry, as well as at its close, and that there
was at least one intervening visit also. Yet
here and there the Synoptists let fall hints that
they were aware of more numerous visits.
" How often would I have gathered thy
children " (Luke xiii. 34) cannot but imply that
the Lord had more than once before been at
Jerusalem, and laboured to win a hearing, though
in vain. So, too, St. Mark (i. 14) indicates that
the scene of labour was not always Galilee, when
he says, " Now after that John was delivered
up, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the
Gospel of God." It is nowhere said in the first
three Gospels that the ministry of Jesus lasted
but one year, and we can find many gaps in
each of the narratives which give room enough
for all the events recorded by St. John.
It has also been said that the Synoptists
set forth Christ as a great Reformer, who went
Introduction to the New Testament. 93
about rebuking His countrymen for their hypo-
critical regard for outward forms, and for their
want of all spiritual religion, and so provoked
their hatred ; while St. John pictures the same
result as arising because He represented Him-
self as the Son of God. But we have only to
remember that it is written in the Synoptists
that (Matt. x. i) He gave His disciples power
to work miracles ; how He said (Matt. xi. 27),
"All things are delivered unto Me of My
Father ; " how His life was to be (Matt. xx. 28)
"a ransom for many;" how (Mark ii. 5) He
said, " Son, thy sins be forgiven thee ; " how
(Luke xxiv. 49) He declares that He will send
the promise of His Father upon the disciples ;
and we see that in the first three Gospels,
as well as in the fourth, Jesus claims by act
and word to be the very Son of God sent forth
to redeem the world,^ and appointed hereafter
to be the Judge of quick and dead.
The connection of St. John's Gospel with the
Apocalypse may better be noticed in full when
we speak of the latter book. It may, however,
here be stated, that the position of that book
among the New Testament writings lies be-
tween the Synoptists and the fourth Gospel. It
is later than the earlier Gospels, for in it we see
in activity those forms of error against which
94 Introduction to the New Testament.
St. Paul speaks so strongly in some of his later
Epistles. We see the evil work of Judaizers
(ii. 2, 9, etc.), of the deniers of the faith (ii. 1 3),
and of those " whose glory is in their shame,
who mind earthly things " (ii. 14). We see also
the Church in stern conflicts with idolatry (ii.
20). But all is dealt with in the language and
under the figures of the older covenant, and even
the glorious triumph of Christ and His cause is
described as the coming down from heaven of
a New Jerusalem. For in the Apocalypse the
first of Christ's " comings " is yet in the future ;
the visitation of God has not yet fallen upon the
Holy City. How different from this is the tone
of the Gospel of St. John will be seen at once.
There the changes that shall be wrought
through Christ's religion are changes in the
heart of man, and no earthly reign of the Sa-
viour is contemplated. He is a King indeed,
but at the right hand of the Father. Nor is
there any thought of the renewal of the Jewish
ritual. It is nowhere seen but to be discarded
as a worn-out garment. But most of all does
the Gospel advance beyond the Apocalypse in
its revelation of God's love in Christ, and of His
work in the souls of men through the Holy
Ghost, in the prominence given to the Redeemer
rather than to the Judge.
Introduction to the New Testament. 95
The close connection between the Gospel of
St. John and the first Epistle cannot be over-
looked. They are from the same hand, and it
is not easy to decide which was written first.
It has been well pointed out that there is a dis-
tinction between them in this, that while in the
Gospel the writer endeavours to prove, from
the discourses and actions of Jesus, that He was
the Son of God, the contrary is the aim of the
Epistle. There the writer attacks those errors
which deny that the Son of God was the Man
Jesus Christ. The Gospel is didactic, meant to
teach men all that the Apostle had learnt from
life with the Master : the Epistle is controver-
sial, and combats some of the earliest false
doctrines that prevailed in the Christian Church.
With respect, to the date of St. John's Gospel,
beside the notice of it in the Muratorian frag-
ment already mentioned, its language is quoted
by Justin Martyr some twenty years earlier
than that - date, and inferentially we have assu-
rance that it was known both to Papias and
Polycarp. St. John appears to have lived on to
the very close of the first century. From what
has been said of the resemblance between the
first Epistle and the Gospel, it is not improbable
that the Gospel (which had been given out by
oral teaching for many years before it was
g6 Introduction to the New Testament.
published in writing), may have been composed
several years before the Apostle's death, and
the last chapter added by him at a later date to
make it more complete. It was widely known
as St. John's work some time before the close
of the second century, indeed so early that
many could have testified to the falsity of such
ascription, had it not been supported by indis-
putable evidence.^ This early acceptance'of the
Gospel entirely overthrows the arguments of
those who would assign to the work a date of
about A.D. 165. Such a general acceptance as
it had by that time received, makes it manifest
that it must have been some time in circulation,
and so must have been first set forth when
many could have disproved its claim, had it not
been truly what (though the writer veils his
name, and only gives to himself the tender
appellation of the " disciple whom Jesus loved ")
the book claims to be, " the Gospel according to
St. John."
^ A Commentary on the Gospel was written by Hera-
cleon (about 175 A.D.), and we learn from him that there
were already various readings found in the different copies
to which he had access, a statement which implies a con-
siderable amount of circulation of the Gospel previous to
his time.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.
This book was not from the first called by the
name which it now bears. The oldest known
MS. has for its title simply "Acts," and the
contents of the book might very well be thus
described. The present title is misleading ; for
in the work there is no detailed account of the
acts of any of the Apostles except Peter and
Paul. St. John appears on three occasions, but
merely as the companion of St. Peter ; James
the son of Zebedee is mentioned only in the
notice of his execution by Herod ; while to the
acts of Stephen, Philip, Timothy and Silas, who
were not Apostles, a considerable space is de-
voted. We can judge how the present title
arose. In early Christian times, writings were
common under such names as " The Acts of
Timothy," " The Acts of Peter and Paul," etc.
To distinguish the canonical book from these
apocryphal works, the original name was prob-
ably extended, and so it came to have the
97 H
98 Introduction to the New Testament.
fuller, but incorrect, title which it now generally
bears.
All tradition ascribes the authorship of the
book to the writer of the third Gospel ; and
Eusebius, who lived A.D. 325, says,^ " Luke, by
race a native of Antioch and by profession a
physician, having associated mainly with Paul,
and having companied with the rest of the
Apostles less closely, has left us examples of
that healing of souls which he acquired from
them, in two inspired books, the Gospel and the
Acts of the Apostles." Tertullian, who lived
125 years earlier, speaks ^ of the descent of the
Holy Ghost, and of Peter going up to the
housetop to pray, as matters mentioned in the
commentary of St. Luke. He also speaks in
another place^ of those disciples of John, men-
tioned Acts xix. 2, 3, who had not even heard
of the gift of the Holy Ghost. Similar allusions
are to be found in Clement of Alexandria (a.d.
190), and in Irenaeus, about the same date.
Cyprian, who wrote A.D. 250, and Origen, who
died A.D. 253, both speak of this book as
" divine Scripture." The earliest known quota-
tion from it is in a letter,* written A.D. 177,
1 H.E.y'n. II. ^ De jejuniis, 10.
^ De Baptismo, 10.
^ Preserved to us in Eusebius, H.E., v. 2.
Introdicction to the New Testament. 99
from the Churches of southern Gaul to the
Christians in Asia and Phrygia. There the
martyrdom of Stephen is spoken of, and his
prayer, as recorded in the Acts, is quoted.
Some earlier indications that the book was
known are found in the writings of Justin
Martyr (A.D. 140), who alludes to the events of
the day of Pentecost, and to the doings of Simon
Magus. Thus to the authorship and early ac-
ceptance of this book we have testimony from
very primitive times, and in many directions.
The history contained in the Acts terminates
about A.D. 62 or 61, with a notice which carries
us to the close of St. Paul's first imprisonment
at Rome. The writer was so closely connected
with that Apostle, that had St. Paul been
already dead before the Acts were completed
and put forth, we may almost certainly con-
clude that the event would have been noticed ;
and also that the fall of Jerusalem would not
have been- unmarked, had that event happened
ere the book was finished. The date at which
it was sent forth may therefore be placed some-
where between A.D. 63 and 70.
Mention has been made of all that we know
of St. Luke's life in speaking of the Gospel.
The author dedicates his second work to the
same Theophilus to whom the first was ad-
loo Introduction to the New Testament.
dressed ; and the opening sentence of the Acts
gives us the key to the character of them both.
The former was an account of all that Jesus
began to do and teach before His ascension ; the
latter, of what His Apostles began to do and
teach after they had received the promised gift
of the Holy Ghost. The Acts might very ap-
propriately be named a history of beginnings.
The author tells us (i. 7) that before His ascen-
sion, Christ marked out the course which should
be taken in the publication of the Gospel : " Ye
shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the
uttermost parts of the earth." With the re-
membrance of this direction constantly in mind,
St. Luke proceeds to shew how it was carried
out in each of these appointed spheres of labour.
He mentions the eleven Apostles in his first
chapter, as if to imply at the outset that each
one of them took his part in the prescribed work
of evangelization, though it does not come
within the writer's plan to describe what was
the share of each. For the same reason he tells
how the number of the twelve was made com-
plete by the choice of Matthias in the room of
Judas. This done, he turns to his appointed
work, the account of what Jesus began to do
by His Spirit through the ministration of the
Introduction to the New Testament. loi
Apostles and their companions. He sets before
us the disciples preaching in Jerusalem, till it
was declared (v. 28) that " the whole city was
filled with their doctrine." After this beginning,
we hear but Httle of the work of preaching in
Jerusalem.
The next section of the book shews us how
the teaching of the Church was extended into
Judaea and Samaria. To make this intelligible,
St. Luke finds it needful to describe with some
detail the events which led to the death of
Stephen ; and because Stephen's speech before
his martyrdom forms the defence for the univer-
salism of Christianity, which the Jews could not
or would not accept, we have the speech given
at some length. The address was intended to
shew to Israel how God's purpose from of old
had been to offer His grace unto all nations. We
can discern from the language which Stephen
employs that the provocation, which had roused
the Jews against him, was his teaching that God
was not the God of the Jew alone, and that His
worship was no longer to be restricted to the
temple at Jerusalem. Such utterances were the
natural prelude to the extension of the preach-
ing of Christ's Gospel beyond the Holy City,
and among those who were not Jews.
To prove to his hearers the truth of his posi-
102 Introduction to the New Testament.
tion, Stephen carries them to their own history
and prophecies. He points out that it was not
in the Holy Land, but in Mesopotamia, that
God first appeared to their father Abraham,
that God was with him also as he dwelt in
Haran ; and that when at length the patriarch
was brought into Canaan, the land of promise,
the land so revered by his latest descendants,
God gave him no permanent possession therein,
nor to his descendants for several generations.
He goes on to speak of the sojourn in Egypt,
and shews how God was near unto His people
there too, blessing them, so that, in spite of all
their adversities, they multiplied exceedingly ;
and how at last He sent them Moses to be their
deliverer. It was God exhibiting His watchful
care, far away from Canaan, that caused Moses
to be trained, first in the court of Pharaoh, and
afterwards in the desert of Midian, that he
might be fit to stand before the king, as well as
to lead the nation in their wanderings through
the desert. God had specially manifested His
presence on Sinai, and had for forty years shewn
His tokens of favour unto Israel, all irrespective
of the place where they might be.
With the mention of Moses, Stephen makes
a slight digression, that he may compare the
rebellious outbreaks of the Israelites with the
Introduction to the New Testament. 103
treatment which Jesus had received from the
Jews. But he soon comes back again, and
points out that the tabernacle, and with it the
visible sign of God's presence, was for forty
years moving about from place to place in the
desert, and that even after the settlement in
Canaan there was no thought of erecting a
permanent edifice, where alone Jehovah should
be worshipped, until the days of David. That
monarch was not allowed himself to carry out
his wish ; and when permission was granted to
Solomon to build a temple, the voices of the
prophets still testified that " the Most High did
not dwell in temples made with hands." He
was throned in heaven, with earth as His foot-
stool ; and was the Maker and Preserver, not
of one race, but of all men.
This defence, which to the minds of the Jewish
multitude would be an admission of everything
with which they had charged Stephen, "blas-
phemous words against this holy place and the
law," seems to have aroused the indignation of
the hearers at this point. The speaker there-
fore does not continue his line of defence, drawn
though it was from sources which ought to have
been most convincing, but concludes with a
rebuke, in which he tells the angry crowd that,
with all their profession of zeal for the law,
I04 Introduction to the New Testament.
they had not kept the true spirit of that
heaven-bestowed guidance which had been
committed to them. Provoked still more at
this, they stoned the speaker to death ; and,
by their persecution of his companions, led to
the spread of the new doctrines, according to
Christ's injunction.
The speech of Stephen appears worthy to be
dwelt on, because it is the defence of that wider
extension of the Gospel preaching which the
writer of the Acts now proceeds to notice. He
tells how the doctrines of Christ were carried
forth into Judaea and Samaria ; and, as if to
indicate from the very first how widely the
message was to be spread, Philip is sent to
baptize the Ethiopian eunuch, in whom we see
the firstfruits of the Church of Christ in Africa.
But that branch of the Church's history is
carried no further ; nor have we afterwards any
other notice of Philip, save that from xxi. 8
we find he made his subsequent home in the
seaboard city of Caesarea, a place fitted, from
its mixed population, more perhaps than any
other in Palestine, for the scene of labour of
one who from the first had been divinely sent
to be a missionary to the Gentiles.
The two histories of Saul's conversion (ix.) and
of Peter's visit to Cornelius (x.) are, as we may
Introduction to the New Testament. 105
say, companion pictures to set before us the two
lines along which the conversion of the Gentiles
was to be carried out ; first among those who,
like Cornelius, knew something of the true God
through the medium of Judaism ; then among
those who must be brought away from their
vanities and idolatry, to the worship of the
living Lord of all.
As soon as Peter's share in this beginning is
accomplished, and he has twice (xi. 4-17; xv.
7-1 1) borne witness to the brethren that what
he did in going to Cornelius was prompted by
a revelation from heaven, and that the pro-
priety of his action had been stamped with the
testimony of the Holy Ghost, St. Luke dismisses
him — the most energetic of the original twelve,
who lived, as we know, and wrought, as we
may be sure, for many years afterwards — out
of his narrative altogether, because the other
beginnings of Gospel preaching among the
heathen seemed to be more lively set forth in
the career of St. Paul, the chief agent in carry-
ing the Christian faith to the ends of the earth.
Yet, as we read what St. Luke has recorded
of that Apostle's work, we find still only the
story of how churches and societies were
founded, how Paul planted, how the initial
steps were taken at each place to which he came
io6 Introduction to the New Testament,
in his missionary journeys. Whenever he visits
a Christian station for a second time, we have
very slight notice of anything which he either
said or did ; all is embraced in the general
expression, "confirming the churches." There
is but one exception to this statement, and that
is in the solemn address (chap, xx.) delivered
at Miletus to the elders from the Church of
Ephesus. This St. Luke has recorded with
some fulness, because it seemed to be a sort
of valedictory address to all the Churches. The
Apostle was going to Jerusalem with his life in
his hand, and knew not at the time of this
solemn parting, but that his missionary labours
were now near their close. This of itself is
enough to account for the greater prominence
given to that speech in St. Luke's narrative.
But no attempt is made by him to supply a
history of St. Paul, any more than of St. Peter ;
for at the close of his book, as soon as we have
been told how the Gospel was preached by the
great Apostle, first to the Jews, and then to
the Gentiles, in the Imperial city, which then
represented the whole civilized world, the writer
lays aside his pen. He gives a hint, but no
more, of the duration of St. Paul's imprison-
ment. His task was at an end. He does not
even tell of the release of the Apostle, though
Introduction to the New Testament. 107
himself the companion of his time of restraint.
He has described the work which he undertook
to describe, the beginnings of the Christian
Church in all those quarters of which the de-
parting Jesus had spoken.
As the writer of the Acts had the same
object in his view throughout, namely, to shew
how, through the Spirit's guidance, Christianity-
was planted and extended, first among the
Jews, and afterwards among the heathen, it is
not to be wondered at if in all parts of his
work there are found many features of simil-
arity. The book consists of two portions, that
which concerns the preaching to the Jews, and
which is most connected with the name of St.
Peter ; and that which, in the main, deals with
the evangelization of the Gentiles, in which the
figure of St. Paul alone stands prominent. St.
Paul has told us how on one occasion he felt
bound to withstand the doings of St. Peter, and
some modern critics have made this statement
a basis for the supposition that in the apostolic
age there was a rupture of such a kind as to
form two distinct schools of Christian teaching.
Such critics have endeavoured to shew that
St Luke's work in the Acts is an attempt to
reconcile the conflicting parties by giving
prominence to all those matters in which the
io8 Introduction to the New Testament.
actions and words of the two great Apostles
were in accord, and they have for this purpose
dwelt long on the similarity which exists be-
tween the two sections of the history.
We know that in later times the Judaizing
party of the Christian world did disparage St.
Paul and all his work, and even write of him
constantly as " the enemy " of St. Peter.^ But
there is no evidence to shew that there was
any division among Christians in St. Paul's
time, except such as he himself rebukes when
writing to the Corinthians (i Cor. i. 12), and
which was of such sort as to prove the existence
in that Church of an Apollos' party, as well as
one of Peter and one of Paul. There can
be no doubt that St. Luke knew of St. Paul's
bitter feeling against those Jews who among
the Gentiles made the only door to Christianity
to be through the Mosaic law. But he knew
also that the Apostle's desire and prayer for
Israel was ever that they might be saved, and
he may very naturally and laudably have
wished to set the teaching of St. Paul in a
truer light than some men had of it. He may
have desired to shew (what is in effect often
stated in the Epistles) that it was from no
* See the Epistle of Peter to James, which precedes the
Clementine Homilies.
Introduction to the New Testament. 109
undervaluing of Jewish ordinances for Jews
that St. Paul taught the Gentiles not to ob-
serve them, but because the yoke of the law
had proved too heavy for Israel to bear, and,
by a revelation, of which St. Peter had been
chosen as the recipient, God had now made
offer of His mercy through Christ to all men
everywhere who should repent and believe.
It was to place St. Paul's work in such a
light before the people of Jerusalem that James
and the elders (Acts xxi. 20, seqq^ counselled
the Apostle to take upon him the vow of the
Nazarites, to which St. Paul readily consented ;
and the same aim probably guided St. Luke
in his choice of those portions of St. Paul's
history which he has here placed on record.
That the tone of the historian should differ
from that of the Apostle is to be expected from
the different purpose which their writings had
to serve, and the different times at which they
were composed. St. Luke has compiled a
history of events several years after they had
occurred. St. Paul, writing (for example) to
the Galatians, was full of grief of heart at the
language which the Judaizers were using at the
very time in disparagement of his apostolate,
and at the harm which was ensuing to the
Churches of Galatia. For this reason it is that.
I lo Introduction to the New Testament,
though his writings shew him to have had the
humblest thoughts of himself, he dwells so fully
on his own independent calling, tells how the
brethren in Jerusalem were advanced by him
as much as he by them, and in the strongest
language exposes the false Christianity of those
by whom the Galatians were bewitched. But
there is nothing in all this to warrant the
conclusion that in these primitive days there
existed any such division as they maintain who
write of a Petrine party and a Pauline party,
as if the two great Apostles had been exponents
of a different Gospel.
There is another circumstance which has
made the resemblance great between the lan-
guage of the two divisions of the Acts. St.
Luke has, in this book, edited his materials.
He has cast the information in his own mould,
and thus made the style of the book very
uniform. This is especially noticeable in the
accounts of the apostolic speeches. They all
commence very nearly in the same fashion, and
are generally introduced with some notice of
the look, movement, or gesture of the speakers.
If this be the case in one detail, it is presum-
ably so in all, and we may conclude that we
have not in St. Luke's reports always the very
words of the speakers, but such a draft of them
Introduction to the New Testament, iii
as the writer judged to be best suited for his
purpose. Where fulness seemed needful, we
have a longer report ; where a brief summary-
would suffice, the speech is given in abstract.
And thus the whole history comes to have one
complexion.
But it is not well to make too little of such
difficulties as do arise from a comparison of the
history in the Acts with the letters of St. Paul.
That there should be difficulties, when the
authors wrote in entire independence of each
other, the one as an actor in the events, the
other as the compiler of a history from materials
collected from various quarters, need not sur-
prise us. But an examination of some one of
these will shew us how much of corroboration
each writer gives to the other, and how capable
of reconciliation are many of the points on
which they seem to disagree.
Compare, for instance, the narratives of St.
Paul's visits to Jerusalem in the Acts, with the
notice of those visits in the Epistle to the
Galatians. In Acts ix. 26-30, we learn that
Saul, after his conversion, came to Jerusalem,
but was not received by the disciples till an ex-
planation had been given to them by Barnabas ;
that then the new convert went in and out
among them, and spake boldly in the name of
112 Introduction to the New Testament,
Jesus, disputing with the Greek-speaking Jews,
until they sought to kill him, upon which he
was sent by the brethren down to Caesarea, and
thence to Tarsus. In the Epistle (Gal. i. 18-24)
St. Paul tells us that on this occasion he abode
with Peter fifteen days, and beside him saw, of
the Apostles, only James. Afterwards he came
into Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown by
face unto the Churches of Judaea, only they
heard that "he which persecuted us in times
past, now preacheth the faith which once he
destroyed." These two accounts are clearly,
the one, history; the other, St. Paul's repre-
sentation to the Galatians of such part of that
history as would speak most strongly of the
independent character of his apostolic work. It
would have been foreign to his purpose to
mention the conduct of Barnabas in such a
statement, while, when we are told in the Acts
that his preaching in Jerusalem was to the
Greek-speaking Jews, and not to the Christian
congregation, light is thrown upon his state-
ment in the Epistle that he was unknown to
the Judaean Churches.
The Apostle's second visit is only mentioned
in the Acts (xi. 29-xii. 25). There we are told
that Barnabas and Saul were sent from Antioch
to carry relief to the brethren in Judaea ; that
Introduction to the New Testament. 1 1 3
they came to Jerusalem during a period of
persecution. James, the brother of John, had
been slain, Peter imprisoned, while James, the
Lord's brother, was not with the congregation.
When their business was ended, they returned
to Antioch, and carried John Mark back with
them. We can find reason enough why St.
Paul makes no mention of such a journey as
this in his letter to the Galatlans. There was
no communication between him and the other
Apostles, and so the visit supplied nothing that
could illustrate the argument of his Epistle.
The two messengers probably only saw such
confidential members of the Church as could
receive their money, some of those who as-
sembled at the house of Mary, the mother of
John Mark, and this done, departed speedily,
taking the young kinsman of Barnabas with
them out of the troubles.
The third visit is described (Acts xv. 1-3 1,
and Gal. ii. i-ii). The history gives the
account of the synod at Jerusalem, gathered to
consult about the troubles of the Church at
Antioch on account of the Jewish teachers. Paul
and Barnabas, with others, had been sent from
Antioch. The narrative tells how the persons
who supported the cause of the Judaizers were
"certain of the sect of the Pharisees which
I
114 Introduction to the New Testament.
believed ; " how in a public assembly of the
Church a discussion took place, in the course
of which Paul and Barnabas gave an account of
what God had wrought among the uncircum-
cised Gentiles through their ministration, and
a decree was passed to be communicated to the
Churches which had been disturbed by Jewish
teaching. In the Epistle we have mention
made of Titus as a companion of St. Paul, and
we are told that the Apostle went up to
Jerusalem " by revelation ; " that a question
was raised about the circumcision of Titus,
which St. Paul refused to allow ; that there
were private conferences among the brethren,
while little notice is found of the public meeting,
and none at all of the decree of the synod.
When we compare the two accounts, we have
clear proof that it was not the Church at
Jerusalem which was in opposition to St. Paul,
but only some Pharisaic professors; that with
the pillars of the Church the Apostle was at one,
and they gave him the right hand of fellowship,
wishing him "God speed" in his work, and
recognizing that God was with him in what he
had already done. The non-mention of Titus
in the Acts, and the full account of his case
given to the Galatians, is what we should ex-
pect. St. Luke has no occasion to dwell on
Introduction to the New Testament. 115
any individual instance when he records the
general decree. St. Paul mentions the special
case in his letter, because his action therein was
the best evidence he could give the Galatians
of his independence. That St. Paul had a
spiritual admonition to go where the Church of
Antioch was designing to send him, is exactly-
paralleled by two statements about one and the
same event found elsewhere in the Acts. In
ix. 20 we are told that the brethren brought
Paul to Caesarea, to remove him out of danger
while in xxii. 21 the writer records that it was
God who in a vision bade the Apostle depart
from Jerusalem. That the Spirit should in-
fluence the Church to send, and the Apostle to
go, does not make of the two accounts any
contradiction. The omission of any mention of
the council and of the decree is a greater diffi-
culty, but is not inexplicable. In the private
conferences spoken of in the Epistle, there
would be more opportunity for the influence
of the older Apostles to exert itself on St. Paul,
and it is on this point that he is anxious to
assure the Galatians of his equality with the
rest of the twelve. Then the decree related in
its origin to the Churches of Antioch and that
part of Syria, and there is no reason to suppose
that it would be felt necessary to communicate
1 1 6 Introduction to the New Testament,
it to every Church, while for St. Paul to mention
it in his Epistle would have done very little
to demonstrate that independence and equality
in his apostolic work, which was now called in
question among the Galatians. As we look at
the history with only these two documents to
enlighten us, we may (perhaps must) feel a need
for further light. The decree of the synod
was so antagonistic to that teaching which was
wrecking St. Paul's labours, that we fail to
account for the omission of all mention of it.
But there is so much of accord and mutual
confirmation in the two accounts, that we feel
unable to doubt that there was a reason, and
a good one, though we know it not, why
St. Paul preferred to rest on his own apostolic
authority in this question with the Galatians,
rather than bring forward the decision which
had been issued for the pacification of the
Churches of Syria.
Of such a nature are most of the questions
which modern criticism has raised about the
Acts. When, however, we consider the multi-
tude of minute points in which (as has been
shown by Paley^ and others following in his
^ The Horcz Paulince is devoted to an examination of
undesigned coincidences and confirmations which are
found by a comparison of St. Paul's letters with the Acts.
Introduction to the New Testament. 117
steps) the history is undesignedly corroborated
by the allusions and statements in St. Paul's
Epistles, we at once recognize how strong a
case is made out for the veracity of St. Luke's
narrative, and feel sure that, could we have
received a full history, instead of the mere
selection of events which it fell in with his
object to make, we should have had a complete
elucidation of such difficulties as now must
perhaps ever remain unsolved.
The great value of the Acts is that from it
we learn the first steps taken for the establish-
ment of the Church of Christ. The sudden rise
of Christianity into importance after the death
of Jesus is explained by the pentecostal gift,
according to His promise in the Gospels. The
character of the first preaching is set before us
in the discourses of St. Peter, St. Stephen, and
St. Paul, and we are shewn how, by the gift of
the Spirit, there grew in Christ's ministers the
power to grasp, in all their meaning, those
truths which they were intended to publish to
the world. We see, moreover, the way in which
Christian societies grew, and Christian teaching
developed. At first we behold the Christian
body in attendance on the Jewish temple
services, and, with the exception of their private
meetings for the breaking of bread, differing
1 1 8 Introduction to the New Testament.
little from devout Jews. But before the history-
closes, Christianity has been spread among
the heathen, its teachers have seen that the
Jewish law must pass away, and that their
message is one for all men everywhere, whom-
soever the Lord may call. But though this
book relates only the history of the beginnings
of the Church, we can gather from it every
truth which is found in the Apostles' creed, and
thus, though being but a summary, it prefigures
the potentiality of the Church throughout all
ages.
CHAPTER V.
THE PAULINE EPISTLES.
Introduction.
The sacred books of the Christian religion
differ from all other sacred books in their form
as well as in their contents. A large portion
of them^ is composed of letters written by the
chief teachers to the various Churches. The
needs of the infant Church made this a neces-
sity. Christianity was to be spread through
all the world, and a very large step was made
in its diffusion during the lifetime of St. Paul.
But her chief ministers were few in number for
the work to which they went forth, while the
newly founded Churches were scattered through
many provinces. It was therefore only by
letters that the necessary counsel, guidance, in-
struction and exhortation could be dispersed to
the various far distant congregations.
And among the New Testament Epistles
* The Apocalypse may be classed with Epistles. It is
St. John's Epistle to the Seven Churches of Asia.
119
I20 Introduction to the New Testament,
those of St. Paul hold the foremost place.
Leaving the authorship of the Epistle to the
Hebrews an unsettled question, there yet re-
main thirteen letters sent forth by the zealous
Apostle of the Gentiles in the space of what
can have been little more than a dozen years.
When we remember the laborious life of travel
and preaching which their author led, and think
of the influence which his writings have exercised
during eighteen hundred years, we cannot but
own the character of these letters to be unique.
They are indeed second only to the Gospels in
their value to the Christian world. The founda-
tion of the Church is the life of Christ, and the
Gospels are of priceless worth, because they
have preserved to us some of His very words.
Of the constitution of that Church, however,
which He left to be built up after His de-
parture, we learn from the Evangelists but little.
They tell us of the institution of the two Sacra-
ments, and preserve for us one brief form of
common prayer, but for instruction in theology,
for words which shall make as plain as is pos-
sible what Christian men should believe, of the
counsels of God, of the Person of Christ, of the
work of Redemption, of the operation of the
Holy Spirit, as well as for all lesser matters of
early Church order and the government of Chris-
Introduction to the New Testament. 121
tian society, we must turn to the Epistles, and
especially to St. Paul's.
This is as might be expected, for Paul alone
of all the Apostles, so far as we know, was a
man of much learning and of a liberal education.
Probably intended from his youth for some
position of influence among his own people, he
had been sent, after the earlier training at
Tarsus (a city in that day famous as a seat of
Gentile learning, the influence of which would
penetrate even into Jewish families), to study
in Jerusalem under the care of Gamaliel, whose
fame was pre-eminent among his contemporaries
for a knowledge of all that a Jew deemed pre-
cious as education. So Saul grew up thoroughly
trained in Jewish learning, and was conspicuous
among his fellows for zeal both in study and in
religion. But his letters shew us that he was
not unacquainted with other literature beside
that of his own nation. We can see from them
that he was familiar with heathen learning and
heathen systems of philosophy ; while his use
of the Greek of the Septuagint, which he seems
to prefer to quote rather than to give any in-
dependent rendering of the Hebrew original,
proves that the tongue which at that day was
the medium of widest intercourse, was perfectly
at his command. God had been nurturing him
122 Introduction to the New Testament.
for his work, and he was in truth what the
Divine voice called him, " a chosen vessel."
The story of his early zeal as a persecutor,
and of his conversion, is told in the Acts, but
we must go to his own letters if we would fully
realize the character of the later life and labours
of the Apostle. Of an insignificant appearance,
and as we should judge of a feeble frame,
seemingly needing to have Luke the physician
at times in constant attendance, was the man
chosen of heaven to carry the Christian glad
tidings to the uttermost parts of the world.
His sole strength was the encouraging promise,
"Be of good cheer, I am with thee." When
we try to picture his work for ourselves, we at
once perceive how difficult his task must have
been. He had to address himself now to Jews,
now to Gentiles ; for though he claims specially
to be sent to the Gentiles, he never neglects
nor forgets Israel. To them his message was
that the Messiah for whom their nation had
waited was already come in the person of Jesus
of Nazareth, and had been put to a shameful
death by those Jews to whom He first offered
His salvation. When he spake to the heathen,
Paul's teaching threw discredit upon all which
they esteemed religious, declared war against
every shrine and every idol, while it enjoined
Introduction to the New Testament. 123
on them a purity and holiness to which they
had hitherto been strangers, and which the
natural man does not willingly accept. He
described as sin against God many of those
indulgences of the body of which they had
availed themselves without fear or shame, and
which in some cases had been part of what
they deemed sacred rites. We can readily com-
prehend the danger which an unknown Jewish
missionary, with such a message, would incur
when he came to preach in such places as
Philippi, Corinth or Ephesus. And to the
perils from his preaching, we must add the
fatigue of much travel, the dangerous voyages
by sea, and the no less dangerous and unknown
roads by land. Nor was this all. The mission-
ary Apostle had severed himself from all home
and national ties for Christ's sake. So that he
had few to sympathize with him among his own
people or his earlier friends ; while each new
Church that was founded added a new incre-
ment to the burden, for the beginner of such a
work could never cease to make each brother-
hood an object of special care.
We can understand then why Paul was con-
strained to write as well as to preach. And we
cannot doubt that, during the years of his
mission travel, and especially when he tarried
124 Introduction to the New Testament.
for a while in one place, he sent off many brief
letters which have perished altogether. We can
see that this was the case with the first letter
which he wrote to Corinth (i Cor. v. ii), and we
have similar hints of writings now lost, in other
parts of the Epistles. The subjects on which
he was called to write varied with the varying
conditions of each congregation, and the topics
developed in character and importance with the
growth of Church organization, and with the
rise of new difficulties within and without the
Churches. This increase of weighty matter in
the letters will be seen at once if we compare
the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, written
before any other that has come down to us,
with one of those {e.g. the Epistle to the
Ephesians) written during St. Paul's first
Roman imprisonment. In the former we find a
great part of the letter occupied with Christian
greetings, and with encouraging reminiscences
of past trials which gave hope for the time
to come. The Apostle, as always, is full of
anxiety about his converts, and exhorts them
earnestly against those sins in which, as
heathens, some of them had not feared to live.
He speaks solemn words about the near ap-
proach of the day of Christ, and founds thereon
general exhortations both to the presbyters and
Introduction to the New Testament. 125
to the whole Church, but couches them in lan-
guage which shews that the Christian body in
Thessalonica was as yet without much develop-
ment of doctrine or Church order. But to the
Ephesians he writes on such deep topics as
our election and adoption through Christ, how
we may become sons of God, of the quickening
power of the Spirit, of the relations between
faith and works, how both Jew and Gentile are
to be made one in Christ, of the way in which
he himself had been instructed in this hidden
mystery, of the grandeur of the Christian
vocation, and of the duty of living in harmony
with such a calling ; of the unity of the Church
as that body of which Christ is the head ; after
which he deals with the various classes in the
Church by way of exhortation, and brings his
letter to a close with that noble description of
the Christian panoply whereby alone men may
hope to resist their spiritual adversaries and to
stand strong in the Lord.
The reader of this letter sees at once how
much Christianity has advanced, that she has
asserted her character and her right to win
men in the Master's name, and so is in full con-
flict with enemies on every side. There are
those within who would rend the unity, hence
the emphasis that is laid on all that tells of
126 Introduction to the New Testament.
Christians as children of one Father, adopted
through one Christ, sealed by one baptism,
moved by one Holy Spirit, holding fast one
pure faith. The enemies without the Church
embrace not only those of flesh and blood, but
spiritual foes, which bring to the conflict every
subtlest weapon of their master Satan,
In view of this advance which is made in
the teaching of the Epistles, it is important to
read them chronologically, and the order in
which they were written is probably as follows.
1. The first Epistle to the Thessalonians, sent from Corinth
about A.D. 52.
2. The second Epistle to the Thessalonians written soon after,
(probably in the same year and sent from the same place).
3. The first Epistle to the Corinthians, sent from Ephesus in
A.D. 57.
4. The second Epistle to the Corinthians, written from some
place in Macedonia in the early part of A. D. 58.
5. The Epistle to the Galatians, written from Corinth on St.
Paul's arrival there in A.D. 58.
6. The Epistle to the Romans, at the same time and place,
but probably after the letter to the Galatians.
- TV, \? • ^^ * ^1, T>i,-r • { These four are the
7. The Epistle to the Philippians ( , ,, .,, , .
o T-u -c • .1 * *i, /- 1 • letters written durmg the
8. The Epistle to the Colossians ) ^ .• •. ? o
T,, TT • .1 * r>i,-i \ Roman captivity of St.
0. The Epistle to Philemon \ ^ , l•^. 1 . j .
^ ^, ^*^. , , „ , . I Paul, which lasted two
10. The Epistle to the Ephesians I t . ^ ^ ^ £.
^ ^ \ years from A.D. 61 to 63.
11. The first Epistle to Timothy the place of writing of which
is uncertain, but the date was probably about A. D. 65.
12. The Epistle to Titus comes a little later, perhaps A.D.
66, its place of writing also being unknown.
13. The second Epistle to Timothy, sent from Rome during
St. Paul's second imprisonment which ended in his martyrdom.
This letter cannot be put later than A.D. 67.
Introduction to the New Testament. 127
From a perusal of the Epistles in this suc-
cession we shall clearly see the growth of the
Christian Church in its external organization,
and also in the definiteness of its doctrinal
teaching, while at the same time we shall learn
how there also grew up those oppositions with
which she had at first to contend, and shall be
enabled to judge of the causes to which they
were due.
First concerning Church order. To the
Thessalonians (i Thess. v. 12) the Apostle only
speaks concerning those who were in after
times styled presbyters, or bishops, as "them
that labour among you and are over you in the
Lord and admonish you," and those to whom
this superintendence of the Church and power
of admonition was committed he addresses as
" brethren," a name which at the outset of the
letter (i. 4) he has applied to the whole congre-
gation. But after little more than a dozen
years have, elapsed we find that Timothy, ap-
pointed by St. Paul, is holding a definite charge,
as chief minister of the Church in Ephesus.
The letters addressed to him contain careful
directions concerning the form of common
prayer which should be used in the Church.
Special injunctions, as if the Ephesian Church
now numbered many congregations, are given
128 Introduction to the New Testament.
concerning the character of those who shall be
appointed as bishops {or overseers) and deacons.
There is an arrangement pointed out, by which
men should pass from one office to the other,
of a nature which could only be contemplated
after a period of regular and settled organi-
zation. The deacons too are to be subjected to
a course of probation, and regard is to be had
to their conduct in their own homes as well as in
the Church. Moreover we see that by this time
regulations existed for the guidance of those
women among the Christian body who were
ready to devote themselves to works of piety
and charity, while the laying on of hands is
the recognized manner of appointment to any
ministry in Christ's Church. Of the same
nature and evidently about the same date are
the directions given to Titus for his guidance
as chief pastor in Crete. Elders (who, as we
can see from Titus i. 5-7, were at this time
identical with bishops) were to be ordained in
every city, and the Church had waxed strong
enough not to allow mere zeal to be a fitting
qualification for the office, but to demand that
such should be men who were able to exhort
in the sound doctrine, and also to convict the
gainsayers (Titus i. 9), while her discipline al-
ready extended to the rebuke and excom-
Introduction to the New Testament. 129
munication of heretics (Titus iii. 10). From
such notices we can understand something of
the labour which must have fallen upon the
early Christian missionaries, and most of all
upon St. Paul, as he himself confesses (i Cor.
XV. 10). For we may be sure that to other
churches in Asia, Achaia and Macedonia, the
like directions had to be written, and similar
arrangements set on foot in them all, so that
when brethren from different congregations
came together they might feel in their united
devotions that they were indeed members of
the same body of Christ, and could worship
together in unity. A large share of the over-
sight of this early organization was embraced in
St. Paul's "care of all the Churches," which he
tells us (2 Cor. xi. 28) " came upon him daily,"
and which we may rest sure he did not put
aside unheeded.
To the advance of the primitive Church in
doctrinal teaching, as seen in these Epistles,
allusion has already been made. It will be
enough for the purpose of illustration if we
dwell more at length on the way in which one
single doctrine grew into distinctness by the
teaching of God's Spirit through St. Paul and
his fellow-workers. The case was similar with
each article of the faith. We know that it was
K
130 Introduction to the New Testament,
taught by St. Peter in his Pentecostal Sermon,
that through Christ a victory had been gained
over death. The Lord had risen again, and His
resurrection was the earnest of the rising again of
His people. " God hath raised up Jesus, having
loosed the pangs of death," and this crucified
Jesus is made "both Lord and Christ" But
with what greater fulness has the teaching been
delivered, how much nearer has the conquest
over the grave been brought to each Christian,
when St. Paul can say to the Corinthians (i Cor.
XV. 53), "This corruptible must put on incor-
ruption, and this mortal must put on immortal-
ity," with all that wondrous illustration of the
resurrection teaching which makes the fifteenth
chapter of the first Epistle so precious. So too,
Christ had said, " I go to prepare a place for you
. . . that where I am there ye may be also "
(John xiv. 2, 3), but this is illuminated when St.
Paul tells how death shall be no more a terror,
but shall, because Christ is risen, " be swallowed
up in victory." Some years later, writing to the
Philippians (i. 21) the Apostle puts the same
teaching in another light. He shews them that
life and death are both alike God's gift, and so
must partake of the same character, i.e. be a
blessing. " To me to live is Christ, and to die
is gain." And about the same time to the
Introduction to the New Testament. 131
Colossians (iii. 3) he goes still further in his
teaching that death is no longer a foe but a
friend. He treats it, for the Christian, no more
as an event to come. They who have died to
the world have already begun that heavenly
life, which to the saints was to be but a con-
tinuance of the earthly, under higher conditions
and in another home. " Ye are dead," he says,
"and your life is hid with Christ in God."
" When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifes-
ted, then shall ye also with Him be manifested
in glory." In all this there is no more than
is contained in the Evangelist's " Where I am,
there ye may be also," but we feel as we read
the Apostle's words, that the Spirit's work has
been abundantly shewn, Christ's promise to His
Church fulfilled, and that in the ministry of the
great Apostle the Church for generations to
come was being guided into all truth.
And just as Christian doctrine becomes more
explicit in these successive letters, so do the
errors against which the primitive Christians
had to contend. When he wrote to the Thessa-
lonians, St. Paul felt called on only to urge on
them general purity of life, that they should re-
frain from all which they knew to be evil in act,
and should hold themselves in preparation for
the coming of the Lord. But as time goes on
132 Introduction to the New Testament.
we can trace the opposition of the Judaizers,
first as it seems to have shewn itself in the
Churches of Achaia, in charges laid against Paul
himself, decrying his apostolic authority, and
in consequence driving him into that strain
of self-assertion which fills the later chapters
(x.-xii.) of the second letter to Corinth, but
which was so foreign to his natural inclination.
Then, in another and later form, the same evil
calls forth the severe utterances of the Epistle
to the Galatians, followed up by the convincing
argumentation of the Epistle to the Romans, a
letter which places the Gospel teaching of the
equality of all men in God's sight in its true
aspect, proclaims fully the universality of the
Christian message, and expounds the Apostle's
teaching of justification by faith more com-
pletely than any other of his writings.
With respect to those other errors which
developed into the various forms of Gnosticism,
we do not find many special allusions till we
come to the later letters of St. Paul. We can
see that the philosophic position concerning
knowledge, and the freedom which it conferred
on its possessors, had been put forward to St.
Paul by the Corinthians, whose sympathy with
Alexandrine teaching made it most likely that
such errors would soon develop among them.
Introdtiction to the New Testament. 133
The Apostle is evidently quoting their own
words when he says (i Cor. viii. i), "We know
that we all have knowledge," to which his
answer is : " knowledge puffeth up ; " and he
goes on to instruct them that the duty of those
who boast of knowledge is not to go to all
lengths which may be allowed, but in their con-
duct to have regard to the consciences of their
weaker brethren. But it is in the Pastoral
Epistles that we find this teaching most severely
rebuked. In the first letter to Timothy (vi. 4),
these boasters of knowledge are spoken of as
" proud, knowing nothing, but doting about
questions and strifes of words," and their teach-
ing is stamped (vi. 20) as "profane babblings,
and oppositions of the knowledge which is
falsely so called, which some professing have
erred concerning the faith." In the second
Epistle (ii. 14) we have the like warning against
those who " strive about words to no profit, to
the subverting of them that hear ; and the
downward progress of such teachers is described,
for their teaching brings forth its fruit in their
lives ; they are (iii. 8) " corrupted in mind and
reprobate concerning the faith."
To Titus he writes in the same strain against
" foolish questionings, genealogies, and strifes,
and fightings about the law," in some of which
134 Introduction to the New Testament,
expressions there appears to be an allusion to
the Gnostic teaching concerning -^ons, though
the last word, as well as some language in the
commencement of the Epistle, proves that the
Cretan church was in danger also from Jewish
fables and commandments of men who turn
away from the truth.
Dealing with subjects of such varied and
varying character, and being written as soon
as any occasion arose to call them forth, the
Epistles of St. Paul cannot be quoted as models
of style. They have indeed a power all their
own, and shew that they come from a full heart
and a strong head. But their very fulness and
strength is sometimes a cause of obscurity.
The thoughts press upon each other so fast that
the expression of them becomes involved, and
no small part of the difficulty of St. Paul's
writings arises from this cause. In the full tide
of an argument a new thought strikes him, and
a parenthetical clause, often of no inconsider-
able length, is inserted to bring out this side
light. As an instance we may cite Rom. ii.
1 2- 1 6. The Apostle is there addressing himself
to Jews, and at first dwells on the judgment
of God, whereby to every man there shall be
rendered according to his works. He lays
down the principle that those heathen who have
Introduction to the New Testament, 135
sinned against natural conscience only, and have
not known the law of Moses, shall have judg-
ment accordingly, and shall not be punished with
the rigour that will be awarded to those who go
astray under greater light. Then he adds, " as
many as have sinned under law shall be judged
by law," and at that moment turns off to lay
stress on a new point, that " it is not the hearers
of a law but the doers thereof who shall be
justified." This digression he continues through
three whole verses, after which he resumes the
first thread again, — those who have a law shall
be judged by it, "in the day when God shall
judge the secrets of men according to my
gospel, by Jesus Christ." Such interruptions of
thought make the Epistles in their argumenta-
tive portions very difficult to read, and render
a reference to the original many a time indis-
pensable.
Again, sometimes the brevity of expression
when represented only by a literal translation
(as a version meant for public use must ever be)
makes the sense difficult to catch. A note-
worthy instance of this is found in 2 Cor. xii. 16.
The Apostle is declaring that he has neither
been, nor will ever be, a burden to the Churches
in his ministrations. He seeks not theirs, but
them. And he continues, " But be it so : I did
136 Introduction to the New Testament,
not burden you : nevertheless, being crafty, I
caught you with guile." Thus the A.V. ; the
Revised Version renders "But be it so, I did
not myself burden you, but, being crafty," etc.
The difficulty of understanding St. Paul's argu-
ment here is caused by the impossibility of
shewing in a literal translation that the latter
portion is meant by him as words which he puts
into the mouth of the Corinthians. The force
of the sentence, as is shewn by what follows, is
this : " I did not myself burden you, that you
must all admit. But [perchance you may say]
I was crafty and caught you with guile," i.e.
sent somebody else to make gain of you, though
I professed to be myself so disinterested. To
this he replies, " Did I take advantage of you
by any one of them whom I have sent unto
you ? Did Titus take any advantage of you ? "
making it clear that he had but supposed them
to raise the charge of craftiness that he might
answer for his fellow-labourers as well as for
himself
Another abruptness in the Apostle's writings
is caused by his manner of quoting what others
have said without giving a clear indication of it.
Of course those who received his letters in the
first instance would understand it, but it is not
so easy for us in later times. Thus the first
Introduction to the New Testament. 137
Epistle to Corinth was written in answer to one
which the Christians of Achaia had sent to St.
Paul, and from their letter he quotes frequently
in his reply. Thus is explained the abruptness
in the change of subject between chapters viii.
and ix. The former ends with, " I will eat no
flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my
brother to offend." With quite a different tone
the next chapter opens, " Am I not an Apostle .'*
Am I not free } " In the Corinthian letter he
had been told that some persons had made these
assertions, — that he was not a true Apostle, and
that he had no divine commission of his own,
but was merely a preacher appointed by the
Judaean Church, and therefore under their con-
trol and not on a parity with the rest of the
Twelve. It is this knowledge which causes his
indignant interrogations, uttered in the same
spirit in which he writes to the Galatians, " Paul
an Apostle, not of man, neither by man, but by
Jesus Christ and God the Father."
Another source of difficulty in St. Paul's style
is the abundant use which he allows himself to
make of ellipsis. Often a complete clause must
be supplied before the drift of his argument
can be seen. His rapid mode of thought took
in several steps of the reasoning at a time, and
so in his language they are not all expressed.
138 Introduction to the New Testament.
This may be illustrated by Galatians iii. 9-20.
The Apostle has been speaking of the promise
made to " Abraham and his seed," which last
word he explains to signify Christ, and the use
of the singular number, and not the plural, is
thus accounted for. Now this covenant, he
says, had been dependent on God's promise, but
could not take effect till the seed, i.e. Christ,
was born into the world. In the meantime God
gave Israel a law, but St. Paul explains that
this was a temporary expedient, and that, in
spite of it, the promise still stood firm. He
then proceeds with a question which any one
might be supposed to ask at once : " What then
is the law t " And he answers it : " It was
added because of [men's] trangressions till the
seed should come to whom the promise had
been made : and it was ordained through
angels by the hand of a mediator. Now a
mediator is not a mediator of one : \i.e. there
must be two parties where a mediator exists,
and the two parties to the law were God and
Israel. But where there are such parties there
is more danger of any compact being broken, as
in fact the law was broken by Israel ; therefore
it is better to trust in a promise which is made
by one, especially if that one be God, than to
the law, which man is sure to break] , but God is
Introduction to the New Testament. 139
one, [and so the promise made by Him will not
fail]." This is not the only way, by a great
many, in which it has been proposed to fill up
the steps in the Apostle's argument, but it will
serve as an instance of such supplement, and it
shews that aid of this kind is needed. It will
also be seen from what has been said, that St.
Paul's style as well as his subject matter will
demand, and repay, abundant labour.
But the greatest influence of this Apostle
upon Christian theology is seen when we ex-
amine the terms which by his sole use, or
because of the greater frequency with which
he employs them beyond other writers, have
become the accepted terminology of the Chris-
tian world. Such are the words for "justify"
and ''justification," which are found in St. Paul's
writings nearly three times as often as in all the
rest of the New Testament. Even more strong
is the case with "reconcile" and "reconciliation,"
no single writer but St. Paul employing these
words, which have, through his use of them,
become technical. Again, in his Epistles only
do we find " new man " as contrasted with " old
man " and " new creature " in the same sense.
He alone (except the writer of the Epistle to the
Hebrews, and whoever he was he was filled
full of Pauline thought and diction) employs the
140 Introduction to the New Testament,
word for "mediator." He it is who has made
prominent the contrast between " flesh " and
" spirit," between " faith " and " law," and who
has suppHed those similes in which the Church
is compared to a building of which Christ is the
chief corner stone, or to a body of which He is
the Head, and those other phrases which speak
of the " indwelling " of the " Spirit " or of " the
word of Christ," expressions which give a colour
to the whole language of theology.
His use of special words also deserves atten-
tion for another reason. He calls those "saints"
whosoever have taken upon them the Christian
name ; he may almost in the same verse find it
necessary to administer to them some admoni-
tion or even a rebuke, but yet he includes all who
are making a profession of Christian holiness
under this one title. The same may be said of
his use of such words as " elect," " called " and
" the calling," and it is especially to be noticed
in his employment of the word "saved," by
which he constantly intends nothing more than
"in a state of salvation." Thus in i Cor. i. 18
he writes, "the preaching of the cross is the
power of God unto us which are saved" where
the Revised Version renders " which are being
saved," i.e. have been brought thereby into
a state of salvation. So in 2 Tim. i. 9, " who
Introduction to the New Testament. 141
hath saved us and called us with a holy calling,"
has the same sense ; and again Titus iii. 5, " ac-
cording to His mercy He saved us by the wash-
ing of regeneration," which means He placed us
on the way to salvation.
As objections have been raised in modern
times to the genuineness of some of St. Paul's
Epistles, it is needful to notice the subject
briefly here. Against four of them not even
the most destructive critics have ventured to
raise a voice ; these are the two Epistles to the
Corinthians, that to the Galatians, and that to
the Romans. And it is most important to dwell
on this concession ; for we have in the four letters
which all acknowledge, a standard whereby, the
objectors themselves being judges, we may de-
termine what is Pauline and what is not. And
the unbiassed use of this standard alone will
more frequently lead to the acceptance than to
the rejection of the other writings which bear
St. Paul's name.
It is best in any such enquiry to take the
Epistles in the chronological order which has
already been specified, for thus we shall follow
the true development of the Apostle's teaching,
and better judge of the genuineness of the
writings at each successive stage. Against the
Epistles to the Thessalonians it has been urged
142 Introduction to the New Testament.
that the words (2 Thess. iii. 17), where the
apostolic autograph is said to be the token of
genuineness in every letter, cast doubt upon the
first Epistle, which has no such autograph.
But we have only to remember that there had
just been sent to Thessalonica a letter pur-
porting to be St. Paul's, but which was not his,
to see that this precaution is probably adopted
by the Apostle now for the first time, as no
necessity for it had been found before, and that
therefore such an objection is made without
ground.
Next, it said that much of the first Epistle is
but a recital of matters gleaned from the Acts
of the Apostles, which could have been put into
their present form by any other person. To see
that this is not so, we have only to look at
iii. I, where the Apostle speaks thus : " When
we could no longer forbear, we thought it good
to be left behind at Athens alone, and sent
Timothy our brother ... to comfort you."
There is no mention of this course of action
in St. Luke's narrative, but yet what is told in
the Epistle is exactly what would fit in with
the details of the history, and so the two docu-
ments are corroborative of each other. Then
some passages are quoted by the objectors
which bear a resemblance to portions of St.
Introduction to the New Testament. 143
Paul's later writings, notably to the Corinthian
Epistles. But is it not in the highest degree
probable that a writer, sending letters to dif-
ferent Churches, letters which all deal with the
truths of one system of teaching, would employ
expressions in one which could be paralleled
from the rest ? It is said again that the lan-
guage of I Thess. ii. 14-16 is not like any other
portion of St. Paul's Epistles. He there speaks
to the Thessalonians of the likeness of their
own sufferings to those which the Christians in
Judaea had undergone from the Jews. But,
say the objectors, he has nowhere else pointed
to the Christians of Judaea as an example
for Christians in other places, he has nowhere
joined a mention of his own sufferings with a
notice of the crucifixion of Jesus, he has no-
where else spoken of the Jews as being " con-
trary to all men," while the expression "the
wrath is come upon them to the uttermost " is
explained to mean nothing else but that Jeru-
salem had been already destroyed, and if so the
Epistle cannot be St. Paul's.
Such criticism, it is manifest, would lay down
a rule, that an author having used one set of
ideas and forms of expression cannot vary from
them in any degree. There is no word in the
allusions of the letter that is not borne out by
144 Introduction to the New Testament,
history, so far as we know it, and why should
not St. Paul compare the troubles of the Thes-
salonians to those of which he himself had been
partaker along with other Christians in the
Holy Land ? And though he does not use the
phrase " contrary to all men " of the Judaizers
again, he has language in abundance of the
same purport, as where he speaks of their
" zealous seeking of adherents in no good way "
(Gal. V. 17), and asks whether his own telling
of the truth has made him the " enemy " of
the Galatians, calls the doctrines of these men
a " yoke of bondage," and declares that all their
desire is "to make a fair show in the flesh."
These are all from one Epistle, but there are
many other places from which we could gather
testimony how Paul felt that his preaching
made him the enemy of these formalists, and
that their desire to exclude all men from the
privileges of salvation, who did not conform
to the ceremonial law, justified his declaration
that they were foes to all men beside. Of
the interpretation pressed upon i Thess. ii.
16, "the wrath is come upon them to the
uttermost," it is not needful to say much.
If Jerusalem had already been in ruins, we
should have had words much more definite in
character than these. We know how before the
Introduction to the New Testament. 145
final overthrow, troubles and afflictions fell oft
on the doomed country. Of these St. Paul
knew. Some of them had happened just be-
fore he wrote. He no doubt thought of these,
but he intends much more; "the wrath is falling
upon them and will continue to fall, there will
be no end thereof," as long as they oppose them-
selves in the way they are doing to the spread
of God's revelation of Himself to all men. He
does not allude to any time, but sees with pro-
phetic eye that such opposition can never have
any issue but " the wrath " of which he had
already spoken in i. 10.
Against the first Epistle it is also urged that
it represents a condition of things which is
scarcely consistent with the date assigned for
its composition. St. Paul had only lately left
Thessalonica to come to Athens and Corinth,
yet he writes (i. 7) " Ye became examples to all
that believe, in Macedonia and Achaia." But
surely this is no more than to say that the
Thessalonians were eminent among the Chris-
tian congregations of Europe. And we know
from 2 Cor. viii. i that St. Paul did speak in
his letters to one Church about the "grace of
God given in the churches of Macedonia," and
we need not doubt that he did the same in his
addresses to other congregations.
L
146 Introduction to the New Testament.
Further, the teaching about the coming of
Christ, and about the signs which shall precede
the day of the Lord, is said to be unlike that in
St. Paul's other Epistles. There is no doubt
that the language of the early Christians under-
went a change on this subject. When Christ
had just been taken from them, and an assur-
ance given by the angels that He should come
again, it was but natural that their first desires
and thoughts should be centred on this return,
and that it should on that account have greater
prominence in the earlier Epistles. When St.
Paul found that among the Thessalonians this
expectation was working harm, he sent his
second letter as a corrective. But he did not
put aside, nor does he teach that others should
put aside, a constant readiness and looking
for that day lest it come unawares. To the
Romans he writes, "the day is at hand." He
tells the Corinthians, "ye also are ours in the
day of the Lord Jesus," and uses " Mar an atha''
= "the Lord cometh," as his motto or watch-
word to them. To the Philippians he speaks
of his own " glorying in the day of Christ." To
Timothy he writes concerning the "crown of
righteousness which shall be given by the Lord
at that day to them that have loved His ap-
pearing." The last sentence shews the attitude
Introduction to the New Testament. 147
towards this subject which the early Christian
teachers desired to foster — a longing desire, a
love for the appearance of the Lord. This the
Churches were taught was ever to be main-
tained, and to us still the Apostles would give
the same lesson, "the Lord is at hand."
The objections against these two Epistles
have been noticed at greater length, because
they may be taken as a specimen of those
critical difficulties which minute scepticism in
modern times has raised over some of the other
letters. Thus it has been propounded that the
Epistle to the Philippians is made up of two
documents, one written to the Church, the other
to private friends, and that the portion of it
from iii. i to iv. 9 is an interpolation of the
editor, who thus joined the beginning and the
end together. The letters to Colossae and
Ephesus have been criticized as containing ex-
pressions borrowed from the heretical systems
of the second century, and the Epistle to Phile-
mon is so closely joined with that to Colossae
that those who have ascribed a late date to the
one are obliged, though they have a difficulty
in assigning any good reason for their judg-
ment, to deal out the same measure to this
natural and most beautiful letter.
The Pastoral Epistles stand on a somewhat
148 Introduction to the New Testament.
different footing from the rest of St. Paul's
letters, because it is almost certain that they
were written after the termination of his first
imprisonment, and so we have no historical
work with which we can compare them, or from
which we may be guided to a judgment of the
times and circumstances under which they were
written. Of this absence of any parallel history
the most has been made by those critics who
yet employ the other Epistles of St. Paul to
shew that the history contained in the Acts
of the Apostles is utterly untrustworthy. But
they have also objected that the character of
the teachers opposed to Christianity, as they
are represented in the Pastoral letters, differs
from what we find concerning them in the other
Epistles. With this remark every one will
probably agree, though not with the conclusions
that are drawn' from it against the genuineness
of the letters themselves. It ought first to be
taken into account that these Pastoral letters are
not written to whole congregations, but to the
presiding ministers of important Churches.
This of itself would, perhaps, account for a dif-
erence in the way in which erroneous teaching
is spoken of. But when this difference is exam-
ined it appears no more than what was natural
in the time and under the circumstances.
Introduction to the New Testament. 149
First, there were the Jewish opponents.
These in the Pastoral letters are no longer mere
supporters of the ceremonial law, wishing to
make its acceptance the only door to Christian-
ity. St. Paul's years of labour had made such a
position impossible. Ceremonial Judaism could
not now be joined on to a profession of faith
in Christ, and thus the severance between Jews
and Christians had grown wider, as was natural.
The Apostle here speaks of them as having
"swerved aside from love which is the end of
the charge," and says that though " desiring to
be teachers of the law, they understand not
what they say" (i Tim. i. 5-7). "They hold a
form of godliness, but have denied the power
thereof:" "as Jannes and Jambres withstood
Moses, so do these men withstand the truth,
being men corrupted in mind, reprobate con-
cerning the faith" (i Tim. iii. 5-8). They of
the circumcision are described as specially " un-
ruly, vain -talkers and deceivers ; subverters of
houses, teaching things which they ought not,
for filthy lucre's sake, professing that they know
God, but by their works denying Him, being
abominable and disobedient and to every good
work reprobate" (Tit. i. 10-16).
With reference to the traces of allusions to
Gnostic heresy which have been found in the
150 Introduction to the New Testament.
Pastoral Epistles, we must allow that the germs
of Gnosticism were to be discovered very early,
as we may learn from the history of Cerinthus
in St. John's day. But that which is called a
condemnation of Gnosticism in these letters, is
directed against a very different kind of teach-
ing from that which was current in the second
century, to which date the critics would relegate
the Epistles to Timothy and Titus. The marks
of Gnosticism throughout all these letters con-
nect it closely with Judaism. The propounders
of * fables and endless genealogies' are put side
by side with those who * desire to be teachers of
the law though they understand it not.' With
the warning against 'profane and old wives'
fables ' is coupled the condemnation of Ebionite
asceticism, 'forbidding to marry and command-
ing to abstain from meats.' And the way in
which 'the oppositions of the knowledge which
is falsely so called ' is mentioned indicates that
it was some teaching by which Jewish Christians
were in danger to be led away. And this is the
same in the Epistle to Titus ; the ' foolish ques-
tionings and genealogies ' are in close conjunc-
tion with 'strifes and fighting about the law.*
But the Gnosticism of the second century had
severed itself from everything Jewish. The
God of the Jews, the Jewish laws and teaching
were all rejected when the Jewish temple ser-
Introduction to the New Testament, 151
vices had come to an end at the overthrow of
Jerusalem ; and thus this later Gnostic system
is utterly different from what we find in the
New Testament, where all allusions to the early
forms of this teaching bear the same features as
we see in the Pastoral letters.
It is further objected that these Epistles
exhibit a more advanced stage of ecclesiastical
order than is compatible with their early date.
This objection needs but little refutation. The
order of deacons existed from very early times,
and presbyters were an inheritance from the
Jewish system, and beyond these two no orders
of the ministry are mentioned. For we can see
from St. Paul's speech to the Ephesian elders at
Miletus (Acts xx.) that presbyter and bishop were
at first the names of the same office. And this
is confirmed by the words of Titus i. 5-7. The
Apostle writes : " Appoint elders in every city ;
if any man is blameless . . . for a bishop
must be blameless." And all the rules which
are laid down for the choice and conduct of
both deacons and presbyters are of the simplest
nature ; directions for holy life and exemplary
conversation, but having nothing in them that
savours of hierarchical pretension or an elabo-
rate ecclesiastic system ; while the order of
widows, which is made part of the ground of
this objection, was of very early existence in the
152 IntrodMction to the New Testament,
Church, and we can see that it is contemplated
in the language of Acts ix. 39, and in the whole
context of that passage.
It will be seen then that most of the objec-
tions to which allusion has been made are those
of men who come to the task of criticism with
their own standard of what should be, and con-
demn whatever differs therefrom. They ignore
the immense amount of external evidence from
the early Patristic writings, and the long accep-
tance of these letters by the Church, while they
elevate into authorities writings which have
not a tithe of the warrant which belongs to the
Canonical Scriptures and the works of the
earlier Fathers. But such criticism is utterly
futile. It professes to desire in these writings
certain features, which, if they did exist, would
be strong evidence that the Christian books were
not genuine. Nor do the critics agree together.
What to one is a sign of authenticity, another
points to as a mark of spuriousness. Thus
their cavils have produced small effect on settled
Christian minds. Most men acknowledge the
natural and homogeneous character of this whole
series of letters, and choose rather to follow the
consent of early Christendom than the erratic
speculations of those to whom it seems a light
thing to shake the foundations of faith.
CHAPTER VI.
THE PAULINE EPISTLES.
(i. ii.) The Epistles to the Thessalonians.
None of the letters of St. Paul which have
come down to us are addressed to any of the
Churches founded by himself and Barnabas in
their first missionary journey, nor, with the
exception of a passing visit to Lystra and its
neighbourhood, does the Apostle appear to
have gone again over those parts of Asia Minor.
Perhaps he left that field of labour for Barnabas,
and himself went to break up new ground. His
second journey extended into Europe, where,
having passed through Philippi, Thessalonica,
Beroea, and Athens, he came at length to
Corinth, and from thence wrote the Epistles
that are earliest in date of those which have
been preserved to us.
It must have been about a.d. 52 that this
European journey was made, and we know from
the Acts (xvi.-xviii.) what a time of suffering
and peril it was. Among the fellow-labourers
154 Introduction to the New Testament.
of St Paul, Timothy and Silas are expressly
named by St. Luke, the latter as sharing with
Paul the scourging and the prison at Philippi.
When set at liberty, passing through Amphi-
polis and Apollonia, they reached Thessalonica,
and there the Apostle remained long enough
to receive aid on two occasions from the
little flock which he had gathered together at
Philippi (Phil. iv. i6). At Beroea, the two com-
panions were left behind, and Paul came on
to Athens without them. He sent word back,
however, by those who had escorted him thus
far, for his fellow-helpers to come and join him.
St. Luke's narrative only relates how Silas and
Timothy came to the Apostle in Corinth, but
we know from the first Epistle to the Thessalo-
nians (iii. i) which is the earliest in date of
St. Paul's letters which remain, that Timothy at
least joined him in Athens, and was sent back
again with a message of comfort for the Thes-
salonian Church. After this he must soon have
returned, for he was with the Apostle when the
first letter to Thessalonica was written, and this
was most probably in the early days of that
sojourn in Corinth of which we read in Acts
xviii. 1-17. For it is a characteristic of all St.
Paul's Epistles, that they appear to have been
written (or rather dictated) as soon as the occa-
Introduction to the New Testament. 155
sion for their writing arose. They are able com-
positions for argument and matter, but they are
not models of style. The writing is not studied,
but comes forth just as the crowding thoughts
press thick on one another. They are out-
pourings from the depth of a fervid heart in
immediate response to any call for advice or
warning or rebuke.
From the language of the first Epistle to the
Thessalonians we can gather that the Apostle
was very anxious about the state of the newly
founded Church, lest under persecution and
temptation they should fall away from the faith
when he was no longer near to strengthen them
by words and example. He cannot have been
long in Athens before he sent off Timothy to
go back to them and establish and comfort the
congregation. And now that his messenger has
come again to him, the news he brings forces
him to write, partly because he is rejoiced at
what he he^rs, partly because he has a word of
admonition to give. For he cannot, amid his
troubles at Corinth, spare his young companion
for another journey. Hence the letter which
has been preserved to us.
Joining with himself in the greeting his fel-
low-labourers (well known in Thessalonica),
Timothy and Silvanus {j.e. Silas), he addresses
156 Introduction to the New Testament.
the Thessalonian Church with a salutation of
grace and peace. Then after a thanksgiving
for all that he has known of their faith and
hope and love, he proceeds, in a short historical
notice of those labours of his by which they had
profited, to remind them of the character of that
preaching which had won them to be imitators
of him and of Christ. They had received the
word in much affliction, but their life had been
such as to make them a pattern far and wide.
Men recognized the change which had been
wrought in the Thessalonians, and spake of
it as the work of Paul's preaching, that they
had turned from idols to serve the living
and true God, and to wait for His Son from
heaven.
In the second chapter, however, we can dis-
cern that some murmurings had been raised
against the Apostle, though we are not told
from what quarter they had come.^ He needs
to protest and to remind the converts that his
exhortation unto them had not been of error,
^ We may judge, however, from the character of the
charges made, and a comparison with the Epistle to
the Galatians, where, as here, Paul appears to have been
called a man-pleaser (Gal. i. 10 with i Thess. ii. 4, 5)
that the persons who made them were the Jews of
Thessalonica.
Introduction to the New Testament. 157
nor of uncleanness, nor in guile ; that he had
neither shewn covetousness nor used flattery
towards them, but had worked with his own
hands, walking holily and unblameably in their
midst. And he puts them in mind that they
had accepted his message as the word of God,^
and had testified to the soundness of their faith
by their readiness to suffer. And then, just for
a moment, we appear to realize that the Apostle,
as he writes, is in the midst of that persecution
of the Jews which befell him while he was in
Corinth (Acts xviii.) ; for, speaking of his treat-
ment by his own countrymen, his language
waxes severe : " They drave us out," he says,
"and they please not God, and are contrary
to all men, forbidding us to speak unto the
Gentiles, that they may be saved." Then he
proceeds to explain how earnest had been his
desire to come back to Thessalonica, but that
had been impossible. Satan, with St. Paul a
very real adversary, had hindered. So, to satisfy
his heart's longing, he had sent Timothy "^ from
* It is better to refer the relative in ii. 13, ^^ which
effectually worketh," to God^ rather than to the word.
The verb is the same as in i Cor. xii. 6, " God which
worketh all in all ; " and Phil. ii. 13, " God which worketh
in you both to will and to do."
' In iii. 2, according to the best texts, Timothy is
called " God's minister in the Gospel of Christ," or in
158 Introduction to the New Testament.
Athens, and that they might have some comfort
in their trials, trials which he had foretold to
them. The report which has been brought to
him is in the main consolatory ; and so, repeat-
ing his expression of longing after them, and
with a prayer that his desire may be gratified,
and also that they may increase and abound
in love, the Apostle concludes this which may
be called the personal and historical section of
his letter.
The next part of the Epistle is occupied with
exhortations that they should live according to
his teaching, and specially shun those sins of
the flesh ^ which in the Gentile world were so
grossly indulged ; that their love of the breth-
ren, of which they had already given such
some MSS. " fellow-worker with God." The former of
these is most probably the original text. The unusual
expression has led to explanations on the margin, and one
of these has been taken into the Received Text, and is
represented by the A, V.
^ " Vessel" in iv. 4 refers to the body, which may be
looked upon as that which contains the real man, the soul ;
" to possess " signifies " to make himself master of," " to
get the mastery over," " to have command over." In verse
6 the Revised Version is correct in rendering " in the
matter," instead of " in any matter." The exhortation is
not against transgression and wrong in general, but against
such transgression and wrong as men do to one another
" in the matter" of sins of the flesh.
Introduction to the New Testament. 159
abundant proof, might still increase, and that
they should lead peaceable lives, and labour to
live honestly.
Then follows a section which seems to have
moved the Thessalonian Church more than the
Apostle had intended. It would appear that
some questions had been raised among them
concerning the state of the dead and the near
approach of the day of the Lord. To quiet
such questionings, St. Paul writes (and he
speaks in solemn tones, uttering his remarks as
" by the word of the Lord "), that those who
are dead shall share in the resurrection equally
with those who may be alive when the Lord
comes. And he adds, " We that are alive, that
are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in
no wise precede them that are fallen asleep ; "
and afterwards, " We that are alive, that are
left, shall, together with them, be caught up in
the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." St.
Paul's words, though they may be held to refer
only to those who shall be alive whenever the
last day arrives, are framed in the first person,
as though they were intended to apply to him-
self and them, and they produced in the minds
of the Thessalonians an impression that this
solemn language uttered " by the word of the
Lord," meant that Christ would come again in
i6o Introduction to the New Testament.
the lifetime of the Apostle and of those to whom
he wrote. Of the consequence of this impression
we shall speak afterwards.
The letter continues in a strain of exhortation
suitable to what has gone before. The coming
of the day of the Lord will be as a thief in the
night, but those who are children of the light
should not be unprepared for it. That this
may be the condition of the Thessalonians, the
Apostle urges on them to live soberly, to take
for their armour of defence faith and love and
the hope of salvation, and to continue to com-
fort and build up each other with the thought
that God's design was that they should live to-
gether with Christ. Then in brief sentences he
impresses on the Church the duty of esteeming
those who labour among them in the work of
the Lord, and of following peace one with
another. He next turns to speak expressly to
these labourers, the presbyters. He bids them
warn, comfort, strengthen, wherever it is need-
ful so to do, and bear with those that are weak,
seeking constantly the good of all men. Chris-
tian joy, constant prayer and thanksgiving,
should mark lives led according to God's will.
Let them not quench the work of God's Spirit,
nor think lightly of prophesying,^ but try every-
* By " prophesying " St. Paul means preaching. This
Introduction to the New Testament. i6i
thing which the prophets uttered, holding fast
the good, and keeping from every form^ of evil.
He then commends them to God, entreating
at the same time their prayers for himself, and
sending a general greeting and a solemn charge
that his letter should be read for the edification
of the whole Church.
The Apostle remained in Corinth for a year
and six months (Acts xviii. ii), and at some
time during that period he received another
report of the state of the Church in Thessa-
lonica, and in consequence wrote the second
Epistle to the Thessalonians. We cannot tell
how long it was after the first was written, nor
in what way the news came to St. Paul, but he
gift was looked upon in earlier Christian times, by those
who regarded display more than instruction, as among
the humbler powers imparted by the Spirit. We can see
from the first Epistle to the Corinthians (xiv.) that "to
speak with tongues " was more coveted, and held to be a
greater sign of supernatural endowment. Perhaps St.
Paul saw something of the same feeling arising in Thes-
salonica, and wished to check it at the outset.
' The rendering of the A. V., " from all appearance of
evil," has been the cause of misunderstanding. The
Apostle is not urging, as some have thought, that for the
sake of others the Thessalonians should keep from all
that may have to any one an appearance of evil. He has
just said, " Hold fast what is good," and the antithesis
follows, " Keep from every sort of evil"
M
1 62 Introduction to the New Testament.
found that his language concerning the coming
of Christ had been taken otherwise than it was
intended. The Thessalonians, though none the
less earnestly attached to the faith, were yet com-
pletely possessed with the thought that Christ
would immediately appear, and this thought
paralysed them for their daily duties. It seems
too (2 Thess. ii. 2), by the Apostle's language
about "an epistle as from us," that some other
person had written to them on this subject,
giving what purported to be St. Paul's teaching
thereon, and this letter had increased ^ their
unwillingness to trouble themselves about even
their necessary and lawful duties, seeing that
the scene on which those duties were to be per-
formed was so soon to pass away. The letter to
which St. Paul's allusion is made may have been
sent to Thessalonica in perfect good faith. The
Apostle does not speak of it as though it
deserved his condemnation. Those who wrote
it may, as the Thessalonians were now doing,
have put too precise a meaning upon words
which they had heard the Apostle employ.
Christ was no sooner taken up into heaven, than
^ That there had been shewn before by the Thessa-
lonians some tendency to remissness in the ordinary
duties of hfe, may be seen from the exhortations in
I Thess. iv. 11.
Introduction to the New Testament. 163
the angels spoke of His coming again, and
the thought of this was at first, and for a long
time, uppermost in the minds of the early
disciples. But the expressions of the New
Testament writers underwent a change on this
subject of the nearness of the Lord's return.
We shall find that St. Paul, taught perhaps by
the mistaken acceptance of his first letter to
Thessalonica, speaks nowhere afterwards in terms
which present the same facility for misconcep-
tion as here.
Timothy and Silas are still with St. Paul
when he writes his second letter, and are in-
cluded in its words of greeting, as in the first
Epistle. Then follows the outpouring of the
writer's thankfulness that faith and love were
growing stronger among the Thessalonian con-
verts. The Apostle glories over this ; for while
they are involved in persecutions and affliction,
the manner in which they bear their troubles
proves that they are being made worthy of the
kingdom of God. And God will requite the per-
secutors with affliction, but the sufferers with joy,
in the day of the manifestation of Jesus Christ,
for the coming of which time, when the glory of
the Lord shall be made manifest in His people,
the Apostle is constant in his prayer.
After this introduction he turns to notice
164 Introduction to the New Testament,
the panic which had been caused among the
Thessalonians by his previous letter, and by
that other which purported to represent his
opinions. He entreats them not to be disturbed
as they had allowed themselves to be. The day
of Christ may be very near, but there will be
signs that shall mark its coming. And one of
these, which will surely be recognized, he speaks
of in language which is not plain to us, but
which his previous teaching had made intellig-
ible to those for whom he wrote. He tells
them that before the day of Christ there will
occur ''the falling away," that apostasy which
should cast all others into the shade, and that
in it "the man of sin will be revealed, the
son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth
himself above all that is called God." Of this
he had spoken while he was with them, and had
told them also that there was a restraining
person or power (for he uses both the masculine
and neuter gender in defining it) ; and so long
as that lasted, the lawless one would not be
revealed ; though the mystery of lawlessness, of
which the lawless one would be the culminating
development, was already working. Afterwards
he should be made manifest, and then should
follow the appearance of Jesus, by the breath
of whose mouth the son of perdition should be
Introduction to the New Testament. 165
slain, and destroyed by the manifestation of His
coming. Other marks of this son of perdition
are that his coming is according to the working
of Satan, marked by power, and signs, and
lying wonders. Those who go after him have
rejected the love of the truth, and for this God
gives them over to believe a lie, that they may
come into judgment because they have had
pleasure in unrighteousness.
To much that is mysterious in this language
the Thessalonians had some key. They knew
to what St. Paul was alluding when he spake of
"the restraining power"; they had an idea of
what was prefigured under the designation " the
man of sin." From the " bated breath " in
which all this is spoken of, it seems most likely
that the Roman empire was in the Apostle's
mind, and of this power his countrymen had
learnt to speak by figures rather than openly.
In " the man of sin " he perhaps foresaw some
future Roman emperor,^ whose wicked career
* Of St. Paul's words in this very difficult passage we
must think exactly as we are constrained to think of the
Old Testament prophecies and prophets. The word of
the Lord is here with St. Paul, as it was in old times with
Isaiah or Ezekiel. God is revealing the future through
him, and no doubt St. Paul, in his own mind as well as in
his language at Thessalonica, had put some interpretation
upon what was revealed. That he did not see to the end
i66 Introduction to the New Testament.
the times would foster, till the corruption had
burst all bounds and spread on every side, so
that some manifestation of Christ would be
called for to clear the world of a part of its
abominations. Be this as it may, we may feel
convinced that St. Paul himself expected such
a manifestation at no very distant future. He
gives some signs of the coming times, that his
converts may no longer be dismayed, but he
does not change his words. The day of the
Lord is at hand is still his lesson. But of that
Lord the Thessalonians are beloved. He has
chosen them unto salvation. For this the
Apostle thanks God ; and that they may be
able to stand fast, and hold firm the truth which
they have learnt, he invokes for them the aid of
Christ and God the Father.
Next he entreats their prayers for himself
He is among unreasonable and wicked men.
of the ages, and that the coming of Christ, to which his
explanation pointed, has not exhausted God's revelation,
is but a proof that he was only a man who " spake from
God, being moved by the Holy Ghost," and that, like
other prophets, he was left to " search what time or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in him,
did point unto." The immediate and partial fulfilments
which have been dwelt on by expositors may have been
true in their day and degree, but the end is not yet. The
mystery of lawlessness has not attained, though it be
steadily approaching, its fullest manifestation.
Introduction to the New Testament, 167
Well might he use such words of the Jews in
Corinth ! How different their spirit from that
of the Thessalonians, who will do, and are doing
(he is sure), everything that he has commanded.
His immediate command is that they withdraw
themselves from all that live disorderly lives,
and not after his teaching. He had laboured
with his own hands, that he might be no burden
to them. Let them take care that all with
whom they have to do act in like manner.
These duties are not to be neglected by men
who look for the coming of the Lord. If any
will not work, let him not eat. For yourselves,
he adds, be not weary of the fair lives you have
tried to lead, but avoid and admonish them that
obey not what I have here written.
With the blessing he then adds his autograph
salutation. Thus shall they know the letter to
be his own. He may have been in the habit of
doing this before, but under the circumstances
it seems more reasonable to take the words,
"This is the token in every epistle," to refer to
what will be his custom in the future. Letters
had been circulated as from him. Henceforth
his own signature should mark each letter which
he sent.
i68 Introduction to the New Testament.
(iii.) The First Epistle to the
Corinthians.
After sending the second Epistle to Thessa-
lonica, St. Paul continued in Corinth, for we
read (Acts xviii. i8), that after the trial before
Gallio, "he tarried there yet a good while."
Then embarking from Cenchreae, he came by
sea to Jerusalem, touching on the way at
Ephesus, where he left Aquila and Priscilla,
and then went on from Jerusalem to Antioch.
After a journey through parts of Asia Minor he
came again to Ephesus, and found that since
his previous visit, a learned Jew of Alexandria
named Apollos, had been staying in that city.
This man, having been found by St. Paul's
friends, Aquila and his wife, and by them further
instructed in the doctrines of Christ, had been
sent over to Corinth with letters of commenda-
tion, and had there proved a mighty preacher of
the Christian faith. When St. Paul reached
Ephesus, Apollos was still in Corinth ; but
during the stay of the Apostle in the Asiatic
, metropolis he came over and met him, for the
voyage from Corinth to Ephesus was one of no
great difficulty. There has been some con-
troversy whether St. Paul, during his residence
Introduction to the New Testament, 169
of from two to three years in Ephesus, did not
himself pass the sea for a hasty visit to Corinth.
Between writing the first and second Epistle to
the Corinthians he did not visit that Church ;
yet he says (2 Cor. xii. 14), " Behold the third
time I am ready to come unto you ; " and again
(xiii. i), "This is the third time I am coming
to you." But these passages and all their con-
text, as well as the mention which he makes
(2 Cor. ii. I ; xii. 21) of his coming to Corinth
again, are not inconsistent with the supposition
of a visit intended and announced, but from
some cause never paid. And the text of 2 Cor.
xiii. 2, "as when I was present the second
time," is too small a foundation to have raised
upon it the confident assertion of a journey about
which St. Luke has no mention ; for the Revised
Version shews that the words may fairly be
rendered, " as if I were present the second time."
It seems, therefore, to involve less assumption,
if we deem the journey, to which allusion is here
made, to have been proposed, but never accom-
plished.
But if St. Paul had not visited Corinth during
his stay in Ephesus, he had certainly written to
that Church (i Cor. v. 9), and one of his ex-
hortations, to which he makes allusion in the
first Epistle which we have received, had been
I 70 hitroduction to the New Testament.
against those sins of the flesh to which the
Gentiles were so prone. This letter may have
been only a brief word of warning from one
who knew the dangers to which the Corinthians
were specially exposed. But since it had been
sent, there had come to him a letter from
Corinth, brought (i Cor. xvi. 17) by Stephanas
and Fortunatus and Achaicus, warm friends of
St. Paul, as their conduct on their arrival at
Ephesus shewed. These men are probably the
same ^ with " those of the house of Chloe "
(i Cor. i. 11), of whom the Apostle speaks at
the beginning of his Epistle. It is clear that
they had come to St. Paul about some dif-
ficulties which had arisen in the Corinthian
congregation, and which concerned the ques-
tions of the comparative merit of marriage and
celibacy ; of the way in which they were to
deal with meats which they might suspect or
know to have been offered to idols ; on some
points connected with the regulations of dress in
their religious meetings, and with the relative
importance of those spiritual gifts which God
had bestowed on some of their number ; and
lastly, concerning the solemn question of the
^ They may have been different persons, but it seems
easier to suppose one party of visitors from Corinth to the
Apostle than two.
Introduction to the Mew Testament. 171
doctrine of the resurrection, which some among
them had begun to deny.
These inquiries showed a great falling away
from the spiritual condition in which the
Apostle had left them. But in conversation
with their messengers St. Paul learnt much
more, and of a darker character. They told
him of divisions in the Church ; how some
called themselves by his own name, some by
the name of Apollos, while another portion, the
Judaizing section, identified themselves with
Peter, whom their Jewish tastes made them
prefer to call Cephas ; while others, also Juda-
izers, ranged themselves, it may be, under the
leadership of one of the brethren of the Lord,
and called themselves by the name of Christ,
as though they, and they only, had a right to
this high title. Besides this, the eloquence of
Apollos had prove attractive to Greek ears, and
had been compared with the more simple
oratory of St. Paul, and the latter had suffered
by the comparison. We know that such a
result would be deplored by Apollos. To his
true zeal for Christ's cause St. Paul bears full
testimony. We see from I Cor. xvi. 12, that
Apollos would be no fosterer of party wrangling.
Some of the Corinthians were begging that
he would come again to them, for he was now
172 Introduction to the New Testament.
with Paul in Ephesus, but it was not at all his
will to come then. The circumstances were not
convenient, and till they were so he would labour
elsewhere. Another cause for grief was a case
of incest among the Christian congregation, of
such a character as even heathens would not
tolerate ; for one of their number was living as
the husband of his stepmother, and that during
his father's lifetime. Paul learnt, moreover, that
there had arisen a spirit of litigation among the
brethren, and that their lawsuits before the
heathen magistrates were bringing the Christian
body into discredit ; nor were they careful to
observe that purity and moral restraint in their
lives to which he had exhorted them in that
previous letter to which he alludes.
These more serious faults had, as it seems,
found no mention in the letter brought from
Corinth. They were only learnt from the con-
versation of the messengers. And the Corinth-
ians appeared to have been little moved by
such wrong-doing in their midst. For over the
very grossest of these offences they exhibited
no sense of sorrow. "Ye are puffed up," he
writes (v. 2), " and have not mourned."
Such were the circumstances under which St.
Paul began our first Epistle to the Corinthians.
And we cannot but admire the tone in which,
Introduction to the New Testament. 173
with such a knowledge of their condition, he
addresses the congregation among whom there
was so much to blame. He couples with him-
self in the salutation, Sosthenes, who may have
been that chief ruler of the Corinthian syna-
gogue spoken of in Acts xviii. 17, and if so,
would be as anxious as St. Paul himself for
the spiritual advancement of his fellow-citizens.
The Apostle first reminds the Corinthians of
their calling, and expresses his own thankful-
ness to God for the rich gifts ^ which had been
bestowed upon them. He tells them, too, that
the Giver of all these was ever faithful, and has
called them into the fellowship of Jesus Christ.
He then turns first to those matters of which
their letter seems not to have spoken. " I hear,"
"he writes, that there are contentions among
you. Some, attracted by the eloquent preaching
of Apollos, have set up his name as the mark of
a party, while others do the same with my own.
Then those among you who have a leaning
to Judaism have selected, some Cephas, some
another leader, and will be known by party
names. All this is contrary to what you have
* That spiritual gifts were bestowed on other Churches
we can see from what is said of the "prophesyings"
in I Thess. v. 20, but there is nowhere such special
mention made of them as in the letters to Corinth.
I 74 Introduction to the New Testament.
been taught. Christ alone has been set before
you as your Master. Into His name ye were
baptized, by His death ye are redeemed. The
eloquence which has captivated some of you
forms no necessary part of the Gospel message,
that is the simple story of Christ crucified, and
asks no adornment from man's language, no
subtle arguments to commend it. ^ It is the
power of God and the wisdom of God, and must
be accepted both by Jew and Greek in its
simplicity, not because of signs, not for the sake
of human wisdom, if it is to become mighty
unto salvation.
" I therefore came not unto you with eloquent
speech or philosophic learning, but with the
message of the cross, uttered with much fear
and trembling, from a sense of my own weak-
ness. Yet to those who receive our message ^
' " Lest the cross of Christ should be made of none
effect" (i. 17). This is hterally, "should be emptied."
There was a trial in accepting the gospel of the cruci-
fixion, but those who received it must bear the trial, and
it was not to be deprived of its character by the com-
mendations of eloquent speech.
2 "We speak wisdom among the perfect" (ii. 6). St.
Paul calls them "perfect" here who have appreciated
the doctrine of the Cross. They know how great is the
wisdom of that teaching. To them, as to persons initi-
ated, the wisdom is made plain, though by the world it
is counted of foolishness. Therefore (ii. 7) the Apostle
Introduction to the New Testament. 175
it is a wisdom beyond all that the world has
known, but it speaks to the spirit, and must be
spiritually discerned. This is the wisdom which
we have received and have laboured to impart
unto you, having the mind of Christ within us,
and thereby being raised above mere natural
judgment.
" And unto you I spake as unto babes in
Christ, and the divisions of which I hear prove
that I was right in so doing. But whoever your
teachers be, they are but planters and waterers
of God's seed : from him must the increase
come. But planters and waterers are all one
band together. They are all fellow-labourers
with God, and cannot be made parties to any
division of the Christian unity. You are, to use
another simile, a temple raised to God, of which
we are merely the builders, each doing his little.
I laid the foundation, those who followed me
carried on the work. Soon each man's work
shall be tested. Look not at the workers, but
think of the trial day. It is vain to glory in
men ; they, like yourselves, belong to Christ
and to God, unto whom they must give ac-
count. Away then with these party jealousies.
calls his message " God's wisdom in a mystery." Only
those to whom deeper insight has been given can know
its power.
176 Introduction to the New Testament,
Fix your thoughts on the coming of the Lord ;
then shall the hidden things be brought to light,
and each man's work have its ^ praise of God.
" I have used words," he continues, " which
refer to Apollos and myself, and to our work
among you, that I might the more clearly warn
you against this pride which genders division.
Such lessons never came from him nor from me.
This is not our example. You are glorying as
though the gifts you have received were all
your own. You feel rich, and proud, and lordly
as kings. How different is our lot ! for I think
that God hath set forth us the Apostles last
of all, as men doomed to death.^ We suffer
both in body and mind, we toil and endure
persecution, and are become as the refuse of the
world, as the offscouring of all things. This is
not meant to shame, but to admonish you ; and
I have the right to say such words. You may
have others for guardians and guides, but I am
your father in Christ, and no other can take
that place. Follow my example. Timothy,
* The Original gives ^^ the praise," i.e. the praise which
is its due. The A. V. misses this.
2 The allusion is to those criminals who were brought
out at the close of an entertainment in the amphitheatre,
and forced to fight with wild beasts, or with one another,
till thev were slain.
Introduction to the New Testament. 177
whom I have sent unto you, will keep you in
mind to do so. And do not think because I
send him that I will not come myself. By
God's will I shall soon see you again. Tell
me, my children, shall I have to come with the
rod to punish, or with words of love to aid and
comfort you ?
" And there is sore need for me to be present.
I hear that some have gone beyond the Gentiles
in the sins of the flesh. One among you is
living with his father's wife, and ye have taken
no steps to put an end to this sin. In the name
of Christ I charge you, banish such a man from
your congregation. He has chosen Satan for
his master. Give him over to the service of his
choice. Let him learn by what you do the
vileness and hardness of his slavery ; haply he
may thereby be induced to seek freedom in
Christ. This is not a matter about which to
glory, as ye are doing. The sin will spread, if
it be not checked. Purge out then this evil
leaven, keep a passover feast in spirit,^ by clear-
^ "As ye are unleavened" (v. 7). These words are
difficult to understand, unless we suppose that the Jewish
members of the Christian congregation still observed,
and were at this time observing, the feast of unleavened
bread. In that case the expression might signify "as ye
are now keeping the feast from which leaven is excluded,
so purge out the evil from your doings." We know that
N
178 Introduction to the New Testament,
ing from your midst all the leaven of wrong-
doing and wickedness. And in connection with
this matter," he remarks, " I may explain here
some words in my former letter. I bade you hold
no company with fornicators. You live in the
world amid a heathen population, and in your
daily duties this may not be possible. What I
intend is this, if any who bears the name of a
Christian brother be such a character, or given
up to other sins against which I have warned
you, avoid him^ do not even eat with him. It
is not that I would have myself or you pass
judgment on those who are not of a Christian
congregation. Them that are without we may
leave to God. But the sinner of whom I have
been speaking is one of yourselves ; therefore
put him away.
" Another evil is reported of you. Dare any
of you go to law one with another before un-
believers, bringing your Christian profession to
shame. Rather ye should seek for arbitration
by your brethren, for Christ's people will judge
the world.^ But it is a grave defect to have
St. Paul (Acts XX. 6) tarried at Philippi during the days
of this feast, and the abundant quotations from the Old
Testament in this Epistle indicate that there were many-
Jews in the Corinthian Church.
* "The saints shall judge the world" (vi. 2). This is
Introduction to the New Testament. 179
lawsuits at all with each other. Rather suffer
wrong. Whereas ye do wrong to your brethren,
and forget that the unrighteous man can have
no share in the kingdom of God. Some of you
were of the unrighteous, but now ye are washed
and hallowed to a better life and justified
through Christ and the Holy Ghost.
" Further, abuse not Christian freedom. What
is lawful is not always expedient. Apply this
to the eating of meats. The meat and the belly
will both perish. Be not enslaved in such a
matter. Yet think not lightly of the body.
The body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the
body. It is not for fornication.^ It is meant
to be a temple of the Holy Ghost. Do not
then sin against it, but glorify God both in your
body and in your spirit, for both are His.
"And now let me answer your questions.
Because of the times and distress by which we
are encompassed, it were well not to marry.
But marriage is a safeguard against fornication.
an allusion to Dan. vii. 22. Cf. also Matt. xix. 28 ; Luke
xxii. 30. The angels who will be judged by the saints
must be the evil angels.
^ " Every sin that a man doeth is without the body "
(vi. 18), i.e. all other sins are external to the body, intro-
duced from without, e.g. drunkenness. The evil of such a
sin is in its effect, but with fornication the sin is in the least
act, for it alienates from Christ the body which is His.
i8o Introduction to the New Testament.
And let not those who are married try to live
as if they were not, lest Satan tempt you into
sin. All men cannot receive the lesson of
celibacy, good though it be ; but for the un-
married and widows it is well that they remain
as I am. Yet marriage is not sin. Nor should
the married seek to be separated, no, not even
from an unbelieving partner. For the un-
believer of the pair is consecrated by union
with the believer, and so the children are also
consecrated. And unbelievers may be won to
Christ by the faithful. But if the unbeliever
seek for divorce, let it be so.
" Seek not to change the state in which you
were called. Let not the circumcised seek to
obliterate the record of his Judaism, nor let the
Gentile submit to the Jewish rite ; for these
things are valueless, if God's commands be kept.
Let even those who have been called as slaves
be content to abide as they are, remembering
that they are the Lord's freed men.
" I speak what follows without commandment.
Abide as ye are, married or unmarried. Yet
the unmarried shall have less tribulation. Let
not worldly ties of family, or business, or plea-
sure, captivate you ; for the world is passing
away. I would have you free from cares. For
the married this cannot be. Yet the father of
Introduction to the New Testament, i8i
an unmarried daughter ^ should not think it his
duty to forbid her to marry. His case is best,
who feels that he need not give her to marriage ;
thus, in my judgment, it is better to refrain
from marriage,^ if you are able, and I think I
have with me the Spirit of the Lord.
"About meats offered to idols. Do not pride
yourselves that because you have knowledge
you may be careless on this subject. An idol,
we know, is nothing. There is one God, even
the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ. But all
men have not knowledge. A weak brother may
stumble at what you do in respect of eating.
Therefore it is the duty of a Christian to refrain
from such meats, lest a brother be offended.
" Can you of all persons dispute my apostolic
office t ^ Are not ye the seal thereof } True, I
did not make myself chargeable to you. But
^ "His virgin" (vii. 36) = his virgin daughter. Also,
" let them marry " in the same verse refers to the daughter
and her suitor.
2 " She is at liberty to be married to whom she will ;
only in the Lord" (vii. 39). The last words seem to
order that a Christian widow should only take one of the
Lord's people, a Christian brother, for her second husband.
* "Am I not free" (ix. i) means "Am I subject to
man's authority?" "Was not my call given by Christ
Himself?" The questions refer to some matters reported
to the Apostle in the letter from Corinth, wherein his
opponents slighted St. Paul's claim to be a true Apostle.
1 82 Introduction to the New Testament.
need I have supported myself by my own
labour? Might I not claim even the support
of a wife^ from you? Has not God said,
'Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth
out the corn ? ' Was it for oxen that this was
said ? Does it not mean that as the ministers
under the law were partakers with the altar, so
we likewise should live of the Gospel ? I have
exercised no such claim, nor do I wish to do so.
A necessity ' is upon me to preach the Gospel,
and my reward is to make the Gospel without
charge.^ For the Gospel's sake I have become
all things to all men, that by all means I might
save some. I would liken myself to an Isthmian
runner. And I would wish you to be like me.
Such an one leaves nothing undone that he may
* "To lead about a sister, a wife" (ix. 5) = to take with
me, as a wife, one of the Christian women, our sisters in
Christ. Had St. Paul married it would have been "in
the Lord."
* "A dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto
me" (ix. 17). The Rev. Vers, is better, "I have a
stewardship entrusted to me," i.e. I am bound, as one
who must give account, to dispense my Master's bread to
His household.
' "That I abuse not my power in the Gospel" (ix. 18).
This is wrong. The words mean " that I do not use to
the full my right," etc. The Apostle had the right to be
maintained, but preferred to forego what he might have
claimed.
Introduction to the New Testament. 183
gain the prize. Should we do less, who have
in view a prize so far beyond theirs ?
" And you should bear in mind that this life
is a trial time. It was so to our forefathers, and
the warnings of their history should be instruc-
tion for our lives. They had been baptized and
were spiritually supported, just as we are by
our sacraments. Let us avoid the sins into
which they fell. Be sure that trials will come,
but be sure at the same time that God will with
the trial prepare a way of escape that ye may
be able to bear it. Then have nothing to do
with conduct which treats idolatry as a trifling
matter. Christians celebrate a communion of
the body and blood of Christ. We must not
therefore appear to partake of this communion
and of idol sacrifices. If there be nothing to
raise the question whether the meat set before
you have been offered to an idol, then your
liberty may be used, but not under other cir-
cumstances.1 You must have respect to the
consciences of such as are weak.^
* "Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy .? Are we
stronger than He?" (x. 22) = Dare we venture, as the
Jews did, to rouse God's jealousy.? Let us remember
their punishments just rehearsed. Are we able to resist
His wrath, if it be awaked ?
2 (x. 29, 30). These verses mean, " Abstain from such
meats for the sake of another man's conscience." I
184 Introduction to the New Testament.
" Hold fast the traditions which I have given
you. In your religious assemblies let your men
be uncovered, but your women have their heads
covered.^ Nature herself might teach you this.
I must blame you for the divisions of which I
am told, and for the disorders in the feast of
the Lord's Supper. Your wealthy members
make it a scene of excess,^ while the poorer
brethren are neglected. I taught you otherwise.
I urged on you a due preparation for this
admit that you may reply, "Why is my liberty to be
judged by another conscience than my own ? I eat with
thanksgiving, why am I evil spoken of.?" To this the
Apostle answers, " You are a Christian — give no offence
— do all to God's glory."
^ " The woman ought to have power on her head, be-
cause of the angels" (xi. 10). "Power" means, the
emblem of her husband's power, her veil ; and the reason
is, lest the angels be offended at any transgression of
order or decency.
' To understand the whole passage it must be borne
in mind that the Lord's Supper in the primitive Church
followed after a social meal, thus being in accord with
our Lord's institution. The Corinthians had shewn their
party feeling aud divisions in this meal. For the pro-
visions were contributed by all, each according to his
power. But it seems the wealthier members only called
their richer neighbours to partake with them, and so the
poorer brethren had no share in what ought to have been
a common meal, the feast of love, while others were full
fed and in no frame of body or mind to celebrate the
Eucharist fitly.
Introduction to the New Testament. 185
solemn feast. Already God has shewn His
anger at your wrong-doing by sending sickness
and death among you. Remedy this gross
fault. Other things connected therewith I will
settle when I am with you.
"Then with regard to spiritual gifts. It is not
every utterance that can be accepted as spoken
in the Spirit ^ of God. All the true gifts come
from the same Spirit, and must be of one
character, and in harmony with each other.
The members of the Church of Christ form one
body, in which there can be no divided teach-
ing, no schism. God bestows His Spirit as He
will, but each of His gifts will be in accord with
all the rest. Yet better than all these gifts, a
more excellent way, is that heavenly love, which
never fails nor faints. Seek then to attain
unto this love, and among spiritual gifts above
all others the power to preach the Gospel.
This will always edify. There are times when
he who speaks with tongues^ can edify none
* The Corinthians had apparently thought that some
supernatural gifts might come from the spirit of evil.
So St. Paul gives them guidance. " No man calls Jesus,
Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." From the enumeration
given in this chapter (xii.) it seems that these divinely
bestowed powers were plentifully manifested among the
Corinthians.
2 It would seem from the words of St. Paul here
1 86 Introduction to the New Testament.
but himself. To speak with tongues is meant
not for the Church at large, but as a means of
moving unbelievers.
" Let there also be more order in your con-
gregations. Let each speak in his turn, and let
regard be paid to edification. For God is not
the author of confusion but of peace. Let not
your women become prominent in the Church.^
Esteem preaching most highly, and after it to
speak with tongues, but observe decency and
order in all things.
" Of the doctrine of the resurrection I taught
you that which I received : that Christ is raised,
that He was seen by many, and by me too,
though the least of the Apostles. After my
teaching, how say some of you that there is no
resurrection } If Christ were not risen, your
faith would be vain and we should be teaching a
lie. But since He is risen we shall be partakers
of the resurrection of which He is the first-fruits.
For as all have died in Adam, so in Christ shall
(xiv. 13) that the "gift of tongues " was not " a knowledge
of foreign languages." For the speaker might be unable
to interpret what he uttered.
1 The words of xiv. 36 imply that there might be some
demur on the part of the Corinthians to obey St. Paul,
so he asks, " Was it from you that God's word came forth
first ? Or are you the only persons who have received
it ? "
Introduction to the New Testament. 187
all be raised to life. If there be no resurrection,
what avail those baptisms for the dead ? ^ and
why do we brave perils and death daily in our
preaching ? Better eat and drink, if this life
be all. But it is not so. You have a picture-
lesson in the seed which is cast into the ground,
and dies, that a new crop may come. We shall
die, but only to live in a more glorious estate ;
from natural our bodies shall become spiritual,
from being earthly we shall be conformed to the
image of the heavenly. Flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God : our bodies shall
be changed from corruptible to incorruptible,
and death 2 shall be swallowed up in victory.
Therefore be strong in the faith, and abound
in good works ; for your labour shall not be
in vain in the Lord.
"About the collections for the Christian breth-
ren, as I said in Galatia, so I say to you. On
the first day of the week put aside what each
^ " Baptisms for the dead " seem to imply that some
surviving person submitted himself to baptism with the
idea of benefiting one who had died unbaptized.
* "The strength of sin is the law" (xv. 56) signifies
that the Law, when known, makes sin appear sinful to
the conscience, which is thus wounded, but yet the Law
in itself has no power to heal the wound it can inflict.
So sin seems to be aggravated by the revelation of the
Law.
1 88 Introduction to the New Testament.
can spare. Some one chosen by you shall carry
your alms to Jerusalem, and I will go with him,
if you so desire. I am coming to you through
Macedonia, and may perhaps winter among
you. But I shall abide in Ephesus till Pente-
cost, for God has opened a door unto me. If
Timothy come to Corinth, receive him, and
speed him on his journey to me. Apollos will
not visit you now, but at some more convenient
time. Be ye watchful, steadfast, and loving.
Obey those who are over you in the Gospel.
The messengers you sent have been a joy to
me. The Christians of Asia, and also Aquila
and Priscilla, salute you. I subscribe the letter
with my own hand. If any man love not the
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. The
Lord Cometh.^ The grace of Christ and my
love be with you all."
(iv.) The Second Epistle to the
Corinthians.
The second Epistle to the Corinthians was
written from some place in Macedonia, during
' " Maran atha" = "the Lord cometh," seems to have
been a sort of motto or watchword, which the Apostle
uses to remind the Corinthians of what was ever one of
the uppermost thoughts in the breast of the early Christian
teachers.
Introduction to the New Testament. 189
that sojourn of St. Paul which is briefly alluded
to in Acts XX. 2 : "When he had gone over
those parts [of Macedonia], and had given them
much exhortation, he came into Greece." It
is to this date that we may with most pro-
bability refer that journey as far as Illyricum,
of which the Apostle speaks (Rom. xv. 19).
The course of St. Paul's travel was from
Ephesus to Troas, where he hoped to find Titus
(2 Cor. ii. 12, 13), but was disappointed. What
had occurred to delay him we are not told,
but when Paul had passed on into Macedonia,
they there met, and from Titus the Apostle
heard what had been the effect of the first
Epistle. Timothy must also have joined them
at this time ; for though at first sent forth to
Corinth (i Cor. iv. 17 ; xvi. 10), for some cause
unknown to us he had been stopped by the
way. If we may judge from St. Paul's language
(2 Cor. vii. 5-7), it must have been some time
after he reached Macedonia that Titus came
to him. For he had gone through many afflic-
tions there. " When we were come into Mace-
donia, our flesh had no rest : we were troubled
on every side ; without were fightings, within
were fears." In the midst of this distress Titus
arrived, and his presence brought some comfort
to the Apostle. He learnt of the earnest desire
IQO Introduction to the New Testament.
and the mourning of the Corinthian Christians,
and also of their fervent mind towards himself ;
and it was after this report that the second
letter to Corinth was sent, from a survey of
which we shall best gather the condition of that
Church, and the result of St. Paul's previous
admonitions. The date of the Epistle is about
A.D. 58.
Joining Timothy with himself in the saluta-
tion, he addresses both the Corinthians and all
other Christians that are in Achaia. As is his
wont, he opens the letter with thanks to God.
He has been in affliction and danger, but God
has comforted him, that so he may be able
to send a message of comfort to all those who
are partakers of the like sufferings. His stay
in Asia had been a period of much trouble^ and
perhaps sickness, for he says he had despaired
even of life. But God who raiseth the dead,
rescued him from his desperate condition. On
Him therefore in all trials does the Apostle
hope, and entreats the prayer of his friends in
1 The language here (i. 8, 9) has generally been taken
to allude to the disturbances at Ephesus, and the peril
of the Apostle in consequence. But the statement " We
had in ourselves the response of death," seems to point
rather to some time of severe bodily sickness during
which death seemed imminent.
Introduction to the New Testament. 191
Achaia, that so they may all rejoice together
over God's gracious answer.
He then turns to their own circumstances.
He testifies that his conscience is clear in
respect of the holiness and sincerity of his con-
duct among them, and he reminds them how
some among them had rejoiced over him and
his message while he was living in their midst.
His first intention had been to cross from Asia
to Corinth, and to travel thence into Macedonia,
and after that to come back to them once more.
But this intention had been frustrated, and from
the tone of the letter on this point we can see
that there were some among the Corinthians
who had spoken of Paul as one on whose
promise there could not be much reliance
placed.^ He therefore finds it needful to assert
that it was not of his own mind that his first
purpose had not been carried out. And what-
ever some may think of him, the message
preached both by himself and his friends had
always been one consistent theme, the firm
promises of God. And in Christ all God's
^ "Did I use lightness " (i. 17), i.e. was I guilty of
fickleness in what I purposed. Did I, he adds lay my
plans, like mere worldly arrangements, that with me
there might be the Yea, yea, and the Nay, nay, of fickle
and wavering schemes, and that I should say Yes and
No about the same matter?
192 Introduction to the New Testament.
promises have their " Yea " and their " Amen,"
the affirmation of their truth as well as their
complete fulfilment to God's glory, through the
glad tidings which the Apostles preached. For
God confirmed their hearts in believing on
Christ, and bestowed His pledge upon them
through the Spirit.
"And" (he continues) "one reason for my
not coming was that I might spare you. And
by this I do not mean that I claim a lordship
over your faith.^ But I wished to visit you
with joy, and not in sorrow. And now I can
do it. My letter has done its work. The pain-
ful subject on which I wrote, was, I am sure,
a sorrow to all of you.^ But the offender
has now been punished enough. And I have
made proof of you, that ye are obedient to my
directions. Therefore forgive him, and what-
ever you do in this regard I endorse it, lest
there should seem to be a want of harmony,
and Satan should take advantage thereof to
1 He claims a right over them in matters of discipline,
such as that for which he had rebuked them in the first
Epistle. In their joy in beheving he could only be a
fellow-helper, he had no lordship there.
2 The A. V. in ii. 5, is incorrect. The meaning of the
Original is, " If any have caused grief he hath not grieved
me, but to a certain extent (that I press not too hard on
him) he has grieved you all."
Introduction to the New Testament. 193
hinder our work. In my way from Ephesus
I came to Troas, where the Lord opened for
me a door ; but my anxiety to hear from Titus
of your state made me hasten forward into
Macedonia And I thank God who thus leads
me as a captive in Christ's triumph-train, for
thus I become an offering whose savour tells of
life to those who will die unto the world, though
unto others it speaks of death. The burden I
thus bear is a heavy one, for I speak the word
of God in sincerity, as ever * in my great task-
master's eye.'
"But why write I 'thus to you? I need no
letter of commendation either from you or to
you. You are my letter, or rather Christ's
letter, which all men may read ; ^ for ye bear
His impress on your hearts. And for this work
I have been permitted and strengthened to be
His minister. And my ministry is of the New
Testament, of the life-giving Spirit, and not of
the letter of the Old Covenant, which was a
ministration of death. Yet that had its glory,
for the people of Israel could not look steadfastly
on the face of Moses when he had spoken with
God, though the brightness of his countenance
was passing away. Must not then our ministry
^ I.e. men may learn by what they see in you, the
nature and power of Christ's gospel which we preach.
O
194 Introduction to the New Testament.
be glorious indeed ? For it is a ministration of
righteousness and not of death. It is of the
Spirit, and shall not be done away. And it is
this which gives us boldness of speech. We
are not like Moses, who put a veil on his face
that the people might not behold the fading
of his glory .1 And this veil rests upon the
hearts of the children of Israel even now, when
Moses is read, and will so continue till they
turn to the Lord.^ But we with face unveiled
gaze on the Lord's glory as on a mirror, and
by this gazing are transformed into the same
image, as from the Lord the Spirit.
" And so we are bold and not downcast. We
commend ourselves to the consciences of men
by the manifestation of the truth ; and if men
recognize it not, it is the god of this world
* The closing words of iii. 13, literally rendered are
"that the children of Israel might not look on the end
(termination) of that which was being done away."
What Moses did was this. While he spake to the people,
his face being glorified, he wore no veil. But after his
speech was ended, he put on the veil, for the glory was
to depart, and he would not have the people see that
happen.
2 iii. 17 should be translated "Now the Lord is the
Spirit." And the Apostle's meaning is that the Spirit,
which spake in the Old Testament, could change the
hearts of the Israehtes, if they but turned to Him, as
Christians are changed by gazing on the Lord's glory.
Introduction to the New Testament. 195
that hath blinded them. For what we preach
has been given to us of the Spirit. God hath
illumined our hearts and our gospel is the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God seen in
the face of Jesus Christ. But that God may
be all in all, we His messengers, the stewards
of His treasure, are mere earthen vessels, men
troubled, perplexed, persecuted, but through
God comforted, relieved, preserved. Thus given
over to death for Jesus' sake, we have yet the
life of the Lord made manifest in our mortal
flesh.i Thus we suffer, and you are blessed.
We die daily, that we may be ministers of life
to you.^ Yet we are are not downcast, because
we are sure that our affliction, which dureth as
it were but a moment, worketh for us more and
more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory ;
for our eyes are set not on things that are seen,
but on those that are unseen, even our eternal
home in heaven. In this tabernacle of the
flesh we groan, longing to be clothed upon
' Le. our bodies, exposed to such perils and yet pre-
served, are witnesses to God's power and a proof that
Jesus lives.
2 iv. 15. Here the sense is, "All that God does
through us is for your sakes, that His grace becoming
abundant by reason of the increased number of those
who are made partakers of it, there may be also abundant
thanksgiving unto His glory."
196 Introduction to the New Testament.
with our habitation that is from heaven. Then
our mortal part shall be all absorbed by our
new life. And God's Spirit in our hearts tells
that this shall come to pass, and in that know-
ledge we are confident, and labour that our
work, whether at home with God, or absent
here in the flesh, may be well pleasing unto
Him. For we have to appear before the judg-
ment seat, and there receive each one according
to what he hath done in the body. Hence we
have in our hearts the fear ^ of the Lord, and
for this cause we persuade men. God knows
that we are sincere, and we trust you know it
also, because we would have you as witnesses
on our behalf to those who say we are beside
ourselves. Whatever we have done or said, be
it madness or soberness, is for your sakes, and
because we are constrained thereunto by the
love of Christ. In His death all died, ^ and
that death was undergone that all men might
1 V. II, " the terror of the Lord" gives a wrong idea.
What the Apostle is anxious to impress on the Corinth-
ians is, that he has the wholesome fear of God before
his eyes and in his mind.
2 The Apostle means that because Christ has died, the
sting of death is past for all who will die to sin, and
thus that which made death a penalty was abolished
for behevers, when Christ died. So when He died, they
died.
Introduction to the New Testament. 197
henceforth live unto Him, and He is risen and
in heaven. Therefore our life unto Him must
be a life which is spiritual. In this light hence-
forth we look upon all men, yea, and even
on Christ Himself. For the Christian is new
created, he is no longer fettered by his old life.
And this is God's gift through Christ whom we
proclaim as God's Son, as Him in whom the
Godhead dwelt, and who has become the re-
conciliation of the world. We are His ambas-
sadors, and in His stead, messengers of a
spiritual kingdom, we pray you, be ye recon-
ciled to God for the sake of Christ's atonement.
We are His fellow-workers, and entreat you
that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.
And that our ministry may not be blamed, we
give no occasion of stumbling to any, but en-
dure all things, and our life thus, through the
power of God and the armour of righteousness,
becomes a wondrous paradox : dying, behold we
live ; sorrowful, we are always rejoicing ; poor to
the world, we are rich in Christ ; though having
nothing, yet we are truly possessing all things."
Then in an impassioned entreaty the Apostle
exclaims, " O ye Corinthians, I am speaking
to you out of a full heart ; be ye also in like
manner enlarged in your hearts towards me.^
^ In vi. 12, " Ye are not straitened in us." By this the
198 Introduction to the New Testament.
Shun all communion with the unbelievers and
with men of impure lives, for ye are the temple
of the living God, and God hath promised to
make His dwelling in you. To accept this
promise, make yourselves ready by lives of
purity and holiness.
" Open your hearts to us : we have neither
wronged, corrupted, nor taken advantage of any
man, therefore do not be led to think thus of
us. I do not say you have so thought, but
because my love for you is great, I am thus
bold in my exhortation. Ye are indeed my
glorying in Christ, and when Titus came to me
in Macedonia, I was much comforted amid my
many troubles there, by his report of you.
My former letter made you sorry, but instead
of regretting that, I rejoice thereat, because of
the good fruits which your sorrow^ hath brought
forth. In everything ye have approved your-
selves to be pure in this matter. My letter was
meant to make manifest my earnest care for
Apostle implies that the want of largeheartedness and of
a comprehension of what is felt by others was not charge-
able on him, but on themselves. He could feel with and
appreciate them, if they would but try to do the same
toward him.
* The "zeal" mentioned in vii. 11, is "zeal towards
God," and by " revenge " in the same verse is meant
" the inflicting of just punishment " on an offender.
Introduction to the New Testament. 199
you, and therefore am I comforted. For all the
good which I had spoken of you unto Titus was
found true, and the way^ in which he was
received among you has made his affection
towards you abundant, and my confidence in
you is unshaken."
In chapters viii. and ix. St. Paul urges on
the Achaian Churches the subject of the con-
tributions which he collected everywhere for
the needy Christians in Judaea. He tells them
how 2 the Christians in Macedonia had mani-
fested their liberality, and prays the Corinthians
to abound in this as in other graces. Titus,
who was coming to them with this letter,^ would
undertake the charge of their bounty. They
* "The fear and trembling" (vii. 15), was their dread
lest they should not give proper heed to the directions
sent from Paul, to whom they were anxious to shew
"obedience."
^ In viii. 2, he describes how the Macedonians, though
sorely tried by affliction, were yet so full of Christian
rejoicing, that this feeling, even though acting among those
who were in deep poverty, resulted in such a rich contri-
bution as to make their liberality remarkable.
' With Titus was sent, as we learn from viii. 18, a
Christian "brother" "whose praise is in the Gospel
throughout all the churches." We cannot decide who
this was, though the commendation given to Gaius (Rom.
xvi. 23), have inclined some to think that he is intended.
There is even more variety of opinion and uncertainty
about another " brother" mentioned in verse 22.
200 Introduction to the New Testament.
had, he reminds them, been forward in their
professions of HberaHty ; let them now act up
to their profession lest, if any from Macedonia
came with him into Achaia, his boasts about
Corinth might seem to be unfounded. He
desires no such gift from them as should bring
them into straits for the sake of relieving others,
but only that they, like all the Churches, should
do their part to help the brethren that are in
want, and they might expect like help if they
came to need it. "And God," he says, "will bless
your bounty. Many thanksgivings for it shall
ascend unto Him, and others shall glorify God
for the spirit which they behold in you. Yea,"
he concludes, " I join in the praises, and cry,
* Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift' "
But in the last section of the Epistle there
is a great change of tone, so great that some
have regarded these four chapters (x.-xiii.) as
belonging to a separate epistle. But it is quite
possible that while the letter was yet unfinished,
news had reached St. Paul of charges made
against him and his companions, which rendered
the vindication of himself and his ministry, which
these chapters contain, altogether necessary, and
yet he may not have thought good to unsay
any word which he had before set down. On
the report of Titus he had written as he felt ;
Introduction to the New Testament, 201
on this fresh intelligence he also speaks out with
much authority against the pretensions of the
new teachers to whom the Corinthians had lent
their ear, and who were maligning the Apostle
and the whole character of his work. The
disturber is spoken of (xi. 4) in the singular
number, as " he that cometh," but that ex-
pression is probably only used of one as repre-
senting the class of those teachers, who though
professing to preach the same Gospel, yet dis-
paraged St. Paul, saying that he walked after
the flesh, that his letters spake great things, but
that otherwise he was of no account. Against
such statements the Apostle directs the boast-
ing of the last chapters of his letter, a boasting
which he often speaks of as folly, and to which
nothing could have brought him, but the attacks
of his opponents, opponents whom he crushes
with the weight of his irony, yet in the midst of
all never forgets his love for the Corinthians,
nor his position as their father in the faith.
The substance of the chapters is briefly this :
" Let me not, my brethren, have to come to
you, the whole Christian body at Corinth, in the
spirit which I think to come against those who
speak of me among you as one that walketh
according to the flesh. The weapons which I
wield are not carnal, and that shall be shewn,
202 Introduction to the New Testament.
but I wish to give all that desire it an oppor-
tunity to shew their obedience.^
"Do you judge by outward appearance? Then
I have no fear of being put to shame by com-
parison. I am as truly Christ's as any man.
They may speak of me as only weighty in my
letters. They shall know that as I am in my
letters, so shall my presence be. But I will not
follow my adversaries into self-comparisons and
the boastings which they make in the labours
of others. I will but testify that God hath
distributed unto me a field of labour which has
extended as far as unto you, and which I hope,
after your faith is increased, may be magnified
unto greater abundance, so that I may be
allowed to preach the Gospel to the parts
beyond you, and not to enter, as these men
are doing, into the labours of another.^
" But I wish you would bear with me a little
in the foolishness of boasting. For I am jealous
* In X. 6, he means that he is quite prepared to visit
the disobedient with punishment, after all who are
willing to be obedient have declared themselves. He
will tarry till that number has been made as great as
possible, till it has been fulfilled.
2 "In another man's line of things" (x. i6) = In the
field which God had appointed for another to labour in,
and where another (viz. Paul himself) had done the work
over which these men were priding themselves.
IntrocLMction to the New Testament. 203
over you as something that I would present
pure before Christ. If the preachers who come
unto you professed to be offering another Jesus,
then it might be that you should bear with
them and with what they say in my disparage-
ment. But if they preach the same Gospel,
then I reckon not myself behind even these new
guides of yours, who would be more apostolic
than the Apostles.^ I am not lacking in the
knowledge of the mystery of the Gospel. True
I did not take from you money for my support.
Was that an offence } That conduct I will
still continue while I am in Achaia, that no
man there may have a handle against me on
the score of my profiting through the Gospel.
There are those who would make such a charge
against me, but they are false apostles and shall
have an end in accordance with their doings.
Now, brethren, though what I say be foolish, yet
bear with me ; for, though being wise,^ as you
believe yourselves, ye bear with worse folly than
mine. If my adversaries boast of their Jewish
birth, of their Christian ministry, of their many
and xii. ii, of the
words rendered in A. V. " the very chiefest Apostles."
* "Seeing ye yourselves are wise" (xii. 19). This is
only said in irony. The Apostle takes them at their
own value.
204 Introduction to the New Testament,
labours and sufferings, I have as much, nay more,
to say for myself than any of them." And here
the Apostle gives a summary of his toils and
dangers, which shews us how little a part we
have of his whole life-story in the Acts of the
Apostles.^ He then goes on to tell of the
spiritual revelations which he had been privi-
leged to receive, but adds after these high
grounds for his boasting, "Yet, lest I should
be exalted over-much, there was given me a
thorn in the flesh." What this may have been
we cannot surely know, though the words which
follow, "a messenger of Satan to buffet me,"
seem to define it in part, and to point to some
mental or spiritual trial rather than a bodily
pain. "Yet," he continues, "the Lord accord-
ing to His promise, makes His strength perfect
in my weakness, and among you He gave signs
of my true apostleship by * signs and wonders and
mighty works.' You therefore are only inferior
to other Churches in this, that I was no burden
unto you when I preached among you. I am
now coming once more, and I shall follow the
^ It seems as though in xi. 32, 33, the Apostle was
about to commence a more detailed list of his sufferings,
and had begun it with his escape from Damascus, but
checked himself by the words of xii. i, "It is not
expedient for me to glory."
Introduction to the New Testament. 205
same course, and neither I nor those who have
been sent by me have acted otherwise. Do
not think that I am making an apologia to you ;
God alone is my judge. I am speaking for
your edification, that all these evil feelings may
be banished from among you ere I come, and
that I may not have sorrow and humiliation
over the impenitence of some among you.
"I am coming again to you, and I will not
spare those among you that have sinned, seeing
that ye seek a proof of Christ that speaketh in
me. But examine your own selves, for my
prayer is that ye may do no evil. I do not say
this that we may be approved, but that ye may
do that which is honourable. For our labour
and prayer is for your perfecting. To witness
that makes me glad, and I now write to you
that when I come I may only have to use the
authority which God has given me for building
up, and not for casting down."
Then, ceasing from severity, he concludes with
a solemn farewell : " Be perfected, be comforted,
be of the same mind, live in peace ; " and with
a salutation from those Christians among whom
he was writing, he invokes on them all alike
the grace of Christ, the love of the Father, and
the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, in words
which the Church has since adopted as the most
2o6 Introduction to the New Testament.
fitting form of benediction wherewith to con-
clude her religious services.
We have no means of judging what the effect
of this letter was on the Church to which it was
sent. We only know (Acts xx. 3) that the
visit of St. Paul to Greece, after the Epistle
was sent, lasted for three months, and that in
the next generation the Corinthian Church was
an important centre of Christianity in Europe.
But we may reasonably infer that the letter had
done its work, and that the opponents of St.
Paul were in the main silenced or disregarded.
For the three months' visit cannot have been
in any great degree disturbed by the condition
of the Corinthian Christians, since the Apostle
was able during that time to write both the
Epistle to the Galatians and that to the Romans,
two letters which we may certainly say have
exercised more influence on men's minds than
any other two writings which the world has
known.
(v.) The Epistle to the Galatians.
The teaching against which the last four
chapters of the second Epistle to Corinth was
directed, was not confined to the Churches of
Achaia. Into those regions of Asia where St.
Paul had laboured during his second and third
Introdiution to the New Testament. 207
missionary journeys, there had followed him
some of those Jewish converts who clung still
to the ceremonial law, and would have no door
open to Christianity but through Judaism. In
Galatia the mischief done by them had been
most fatal, and the knowledge thereof must
have been brought to St Paul at the time of
his second visit to Corinth.
The Galatians were of that Celtic race of
whose instability the modern history of France
and Ireland has afforded so many examples.
They had received the Gospel from the Apostle
himself, and he had tarried among them, de-
tained by that sickness which so often broke
down his feeble frame (iv. 13), and which he
speaks of as some affliction which might have
made him an object of contempt to those who
heard him. Nevertheless they had with the
warmest enthusiasm welcomed him and his
message, and had begun to run well (v. 7) in
the Christian race. But the enemy had come
and sown his tares among the wheat, or had in
many cases borne off altogether the good seed
sown ; and now, the Churches which had been
so warm in their affection for St. Paul, as to
esteem him a very angel of God (iv. 14), were
fallen into the slavery of Judaism, and were
seeking to be made perfect by the works of the
2o8 Introduction to the New Testament.
law. And the preacher whom they had seemed
to love was, through the poisonous lessons of
their new guides, spoken of as no genuine
Apostle of Jesus, as inferior to those who had
been first called, as having no true commission
from the Lord ; the Gospel which he preached
was described as an imperfect message, which,
by overthrowing the observances of the Mosaic
covenant, was leaving out of the scheme oi
salvation something which God had required,
and offering justification to men with a freedom
which had no warrant in the Divine revelation.
Against such teaching is the Epistle to the
Galatians directed. It was most probably
written in A.D. 58, and the severity of its tone
is beyond anything which we find elsewhere in
St: Paul's writings. There was a rebuke to be
administered, and a false doctrine to be crushed
for ever, and the Apostle was able to achieve
both these ends. Yet before the letter closes
we find proof enough that all he writes is
written out of zeal for the saving of souls, and in
no spirit of self-glorification, and that the Israel
of God was the subject of his fervent prayers
amid all his severity against the Pharisaism of
those who would confine Abraham's covenant
to such only as observed the ceremonial precepts
of the law of Moses.
Introduction to the New Testament. 209
In the greeting, which is merely addressed to
" the churches of Galatia," the Apostle succeeds
in embodying the drift of the whole letter. He
speaks as Paul, an Apostle, not of human but
Divine appointment, and in invoking on the
Galatians the grace of God and of Christ,
proclaims Christ as having given Himself for
our sins, that He might deliver us out of this
present evil world, and thus be a Saviour to
men without the works of the law ; and this he
declares to be the will of God and our Father.
Then at once entering on his subject, he ex-
presses his wonder at their acceptance of another
— Gospel he was about to call it, but he checks
himself and names it a perversion of the Gospel
of Christ, and pronounces a reiterated anathema
on those who in this way set forth as a Gospel
something different from that which he had
preached and they had believed. This, he says,
is no language to win men's approval,^ but
that he seeks not ; it is in God's sight that he
speaks, and as the bondservant of Jesus Christ.
For the Gospel which he preaches is from
Christ Himself.
' The Judaizing party continually spoke of St. Paul as
a " man-pleaser," because by his teaching he relaxed the
severe observances of the ceremonial law, which had
been found to be a yoke of bondage.
P
2IO Introduction to the New Testament.
In his earlier life, as they had heard, he had
been an earnest Jew, one of the warmest sup-
porters ^ of the Mosaic law, a persecutor of the
Church of Christ ; but God had revealed His Son
in him, and that revelation was the source of his
teaching. It was not the Church of Jerusalem
which gave him his commission, though he had
visited ^ that city, and for fifteen days had dwelt
there with St. Peter. His calling was from Christ
Himself, independent alike of the Apostles and
of the Church in Judaea. Yet the brethren of
that ^ Church knew the nature of his teaching.
They knew that the persecutor had become a
preacher and they glorified God for the change.
They knew too that, on a second visit to Jeru-
salem, he had refused to allow a Gentile convert
to be circumcised. Titus, a Greek, had been his
companion at that time, and in spite of the urgent
demands of some whom he calls " false brethren,"
he had not listened for a moment to the sugges-
^ " And profited . . . above many my equals "
(i. 14) = I made progress . . . more than most men
of my own age.
* From i. 1 7 it appears that Paul went into Arabia and
then back to Damascus before he visited Jerusalem at
all after his conversion.
* " Unknown by face " (i. 22). For it appears from
Acts (ix. 29) that during his stay in Jerusalem Paul
disputed against the Hellenic Jews," and this would not
bring him to the knowledge of the Christian congregation*
Introduction to the New Testament, 2 1 1
tion that Titus should conform to the Jewish
ceremonial rite. And the authorities of the
Church in Jerusalem had recognized his work,
and had given to him and his fellow-labourer,
Barnabas, the right hands of fellowship, and
sent them forth as preachers unto the Gentiles,
adding only as their charge, that among those
to whom they went they should ask aid for
the poor Church in Jerusalem. Nay, further to
demonstrate how the omission of circumcision
was from the first proclaimed by him as no bar
to the communion in Christ between Jews and
Gentiles, he tells how in Ahtioch he had rebuked
Peter for inconsistency in his behaviour in this
respect, and by the narrative marks his equality
with, and independence^ of, even the most
prominent of the first-called twelve.
And he sets before the Galatians the language
which he used to St. Peter: "Why dost thou
seek to make the Gentiles live as do the Jews,
while thou, thyself a Jew, livest as do the
Gentiles? For we, ourselves born Jews, have
believed on Christ Jesus, that so we might be
' " Those who seemed to be somewhat . . . added
nothing to me" (ii. 6). By this he means that nothing
was imparted to him in the way of direction or instruc-
tion by those who were deemed most influential in the
Church at Jerusalem.
2 12 Introductio7i to the New Testament.
justified, not through the law, but through our
faith in Him. And if, after knowing that we
cannot be justified by the works of the law, we
are found to be no better than the sinners of
the Gentiles/ shall we charge the fault of our
condition upon the Gospel ? Nay, Christ is not
the minister of sin. And we cannot set up
again the works of the law as a means of rescue
from sin. Otherwise what we have done in
throwing them down must be reckoned to us
as a transgression. While living under the law,
I have learnt that salvation is not by the law.
Therefore to the law I am dead, but I have a
new life in Christ. I have been crucified with
Him, and my true life is in faith on Him. And
I do not frustrate the grace of God, as I should
be doing if I fell back upon legal observances.
For if righteousness is by the law, then Christ
has died for nought."
The Apostle next appeals to the spiritual
experience of his converts. " Who did bewitch
you," he asks, " and turn you aside .? ^ Do you
^ As we should acknowledge ourselves to be, if we
sought now to be justified by legal observances. For we
should be confessing that faith in Christ did not avail to
obtain righteousness, but that we were still sinners, and
that Christ had only by His death ministered to a state
of sin.
2 "Christ hath been evidently set forth" (iii. i). This
Introduction to the New Testament. 213
not remember that the Spirit was given to you
through faith only ? And will ye now fall back
upon the works of the law ? ^ Was not the
effect of our ministry, and the powers ^ which
God shewed forth through us among you, a
consequence of the hearing of faith ? Just as
in the case of Abraham, to whom the promise
came, because of his faithful obedience, before
he was circumcised, that in him all nations, not
Jews only, should be blessed. You see from
this that justification comes not by the law,
but by faith. Through the law we are all under
a curse, because we cannot keep it. But from
this curse Christ hath redeemed us by fulfilling
the law Himself Therefore through Him the
blessing pronounced on Abraham can come
upon the Gentiles, without any need that they
should be brought under the law.
"Consider the case of a human testament. No
later supplementary clauses alter the scope of
alludes to the vivid description of Christ's passion which
they had heard from Paul while he was among them.
^ " Have ye suffered so many things in vain " (iii. 4).
No doubt, both among Gentile and Jewish populations,
the first believers had to suffer much for their faith.
2 "He that worketh miracles among you" (iii. 5).
There is little said in the Epistles about the miraculous
powers of the Apostles, but clearly St. Paul here reminds
the Galatians that such powers had been manifested
among them.
214 Introduction to the New Testament.
the original deed. So the law given to Moses,
many generations after the death of Abraham,
does not annul the original covenant, which was
a promise to the Father of the faithful that in
his seed all nations should be blessed. The law
was added because the family of Abraham had
not all of them Abraham's faith, but became
transgressors. But the law was to endure only
till the seed should come to whom the promise
related. And it was inferior to the original
promise, because that came direct from God,
whereas the law came only through the hand
of a mediator. Is then the law against the
promise.? That cannot be. Both come from
God. And could a law have been given which
could make alive, righteousness (which is the
condition of life) would then have been of the
law. But the Scripture hath shut up all alike,
both those who have had the law and those who
have not, under sin, that the promise might be
God's free gift unto faith. The law has been
our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might
be justified by faith. Now through faith we are
Christ's ; the tutelage of the law is ended, and
by faith we are all, both Jews and Gentiles, heirs
of the promise made to Abraham. Or, to use
another simile, we Jews, while we lived under
the law, have been like children under age : we
Introduction to the New Testament. 215
have had no more privileges than a slave has :
but now that Christ is come, through faith in
Him we have come to the full rights of mature
sonship, and from our hearts can cry to God as
our Father.
"How can ye then turn back from sonship
to servitude? Oh, if my labour for you has
been in vain ! Be as I am, for I am as ye are.^
When I became as a Gentile among you, you
did me no wrong. I came to you in weakness,^
and ye received me and my message as coming
from God Himself. What has become of your
former feelings } Let them revive. These new
teachers are zealous to lead you on, but in no
good way. They would sever you from the
Christian body, and make of you a sect that
they may be your leaders and you may pay
court to them. My zeal was for a good matter,
and should have been remembered even in my
absence. Oh, my children, that I could be with
you, for I am troubled on your behalf!
* I.e. I became verily a Gentile among you. I made
it plain to you by my life that though born a Jew, I had
learnt that the ceremonial law was done away by faith in
Christ. Do not go back into that legal bondage which
you know that I have cast aside.
2 "Through infirmity of the flesh" (iv. 13). The
Apostle appears to have been in some severe sickness
during his sojourn in Galatia.
2i6 Introduction to the New Testament.
" But ye who desire to come under the law
hearken now to an allegory from that law.
Abraham had two sons, one born after nature,
the other according to promise. Hagar with
Ishmael, her natural son, speak of Sinai, of the
law, of bondage, and of the Jerusalem on earth ;
while the child of promise is an emblem of
spiritual freedom, and of the heavenly Jerusalem,
which is our mother. Now ye, who would fain
be reckoned for the natural children of Abra-
ham, and who seek for righteousness through the
law, are neglecting the more glorious gift of the
promise. For we, like Isaac, are the children
of the promise. We are not called to be the
children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
Stand fast therefore in your freedom, and win
your true inheritance through Christ. If you
put your trust in the law and its observances,
you are severing yourselves from Him. Wait
then by faith through the Spirit for the hope of
righteousness.^ Ye were in the right way, and
I trust ye will return thereto. He who has mis-
led you shall bear his punishment, whoever he be.
He may have told you that I preach circumcision.
But if that be true, why am I persecuted ? In
that case the stumbling block of the cross would
^ "The hope of righteousness" (v. 5), i.e. the gift of
eternal life bestowed through Christ on true behevers.
Introduction to the New Testament. 217
be removed. But it is not true, and my wish is
that these preachers of circumcision would go
the length of self-mutilation, as the heathen do.
The one practice has now as much worth as the
other.
" You are called unto liberty, but such a liberty
that by love ye should serve one another. This
is not consistent with biting and contention.
The one state is spiritual, the other is carnal,
and there is no concord between them. Follow
not the works of the flesh, but seek to shew
forth in your lives the fruits of the Spirit
For they that are Christ's have crucified the
flesh, with its affections and lusts."
Then, perhaps thinking that some few, more
firm in the faith than others, might take occa-
sion from his Epistle to be severe upon their
weaker brethren, he gives his letter another
tone. " Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a
fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one,
looking to yourselves, for you too may fall. Let.
each man prove his own work, for each must
bear his own burden. Let those that are taught
communicate unto him that teacheth in all good
things. Whatever a man soweth, that shall he
reap. Therefore be not weary in well-doing,
for the reaping time will surely come.
" My letter is written in my own large hand,
2i8 Introduction to the New Testament,
that you may recognize it all as mine.^ These
Judaizing teachers are only desirous to have you
circumcised that they may glory in your flesh.
God forbid that I should glory, save only in the
cross of Christ. For circumcision is nothing,
and uncircumcision is nothing. All that is
worth striving after is to be in Christ, and so
to have become a new creature. Peace and
mercy be upon all who walk after this rule, and
upon the Israel of God.^
" Henceforth let no man trouble me. Christ
has marked me with His brand as His own
bondservant."
And then, as though his last sentence must
be tender, he ends his letter with a blessing, in
the closing word of which he names these in-
constant Galatians his " brethren." " The grace
of Christ be with your spirit, brethren."
^ "How large a letter" (vi. ii). This should be "In
how large letters." The Apostle, either from defective
eyesight or some other failing, appears to have written
with difficulty and in large unsightly characters. Hence
he seldom did more than add the final greetings. But
he seems to have written the whole Epistle to the
Galatians himself, and this he would have them notice,
that they may take it for a sign how much he is troubled
at their condition.
2 "The Israel of God" (vi. i6). The Apostle invents
this expression to make a distinction between the true
seed of Abraham and the " Israel after the flesh," as the
Judaizing teachers might be called.
Introduction to the New Testament. 219
Of the Churches of Galatia we have little
further history ; but the Epistle which their
unsteadfastness called forth will for ever be a
treasure to the Christian world. Men are still
prone to fall away from the spiritual, and to try,
as did the Galatians, to be made perfect in the
flesh. At such times, as Church history shews
us,^ this Epistle can rouse to new life and recall
the wanderers, as we can hardly doubt it did
among those for whose profit it at first was
written.
(vi.) The Epistle to the Romans.
The Epistle to the Romans must have been sent
about the same time as that to the Churches of
Galatia, and it deals with the same subject, but in
a very different manner. The Apostle had not
yet visited the Roman Church, though it was
the great wish of his heart to do so. And if his
hope was strong that that wish would be soon
fulfilled, it is not difficult to understand why he
chose the Roman Christians to be the recipients
of this most magnificent of all his letters. Their
city was the centre of the greatest power and
^ The Epistle to the Galatians was deeply prized by
the Reformers both in Germany and England. Luther
called it by the name of his wife— his Catharine de Bora
2 20 Introduction to the New Testament.
influence which men up to that date had ever
seen, and the people of Rome were in constant
communication with every part of the then
known world. The Apostle might very natu-
rally wish to give to the Christians of such a
city, before he came among them, a full state-
ment and vindication of his teaching as an
Apostle of Christ. In the second letter to
Corinth, he had in a summary manner dealt
with the objections which he found to be raised
against him by his Jewish opponents. In the
letter to the Galatians he had administered a
rebuke to the converts who were falling back
from the freedom of Christ to the slavery of the
law, and had defended the teaching which from
the first he had given both to the Churches of
Galatia and everywhere else among the Gentiles.
But that letter had been written with all the
warmth which disappointed hope can infuse into
language, and was fitted only for those who had
allowed their feet to slip from the good way in
which they had at first been set. The Epistle
to the Romans is a calm, dispassionate, argumen-
tative composition, in which the whole case be-
tween himself and the Judaizers is set in its true
light, and the great central doctrine of justifica-
tion by faith for ever established as the ground-
work of the Christian scheme of salvation. The
Introduction to the New Testament. 221
sinfulness alike of Jew and Gentile in the sight
of God is demonstrated, and it is shewn that for
the former their knowledge, and their attempted
observance, of the law could not be pleaded
in bar of their condemnation. Here, too, the
Apostle sets before us a definition, to be
gathered rather from the contemplation of his
whole language than from any isolated phrases,
of what is embraced in his teaching of justifica-
tion. He then advances to the high topics of
God's foreknowledge and man's free will, and
with a boldness such as could only come from
deep spiritual insight he speaks in language never
paralleled of the relation of these two doctrines
to each other, and then, lest any should think
that the faith of which he spake was merely
subjective, he adds in conclusion a noble and
practical exhortation to the duties of the Chris-
tian life. Of such a letter we can hope to give
only the briefest outline. Nearly every sentence
of the Epistle is pregnant with meaning, and on
many of the single words whole essays have been
written to bring out their full significance.
But before proceeding to speak of the con-
tents of this most remarkable letter, a few words
must be said about its form. Every reader will
have noticed that, towards the close, it seems to
have several breaks, each of which might have
22 2 Introduction to the New Testament.
formed a termination. Thus, at chap. xv. 33, we
have what might have been a closing benedic-
tion, and then again at chap. xvi. 20 and 27, as
well as the very solemn ending formed by the
last three verses. This has led some to the
conclusion that we have in the last chapters
of the Epistle several forms of ending, each of
which may have been the close of the letter
when sent to a different Church ; that this noble
Epistle was in fact designed to be sent, not only
to Rome, but to many other Churches, and
when so sent was slightly modified in the final
sentences. This opinion is strengthened when
we examine the evidence of MSS. In one,
what is now the closing benediction appears at
the end of chapter xiv. In another it occurs
twice over, at xiv. 24 and xvi. 27, while in
another the words, "that be in Rome," are left
out both in i. 7 and 15. Besides this, it has
been the subject of surprise that St. Paul should
send so many greetings as are contained in
chapter xvi. to a Church which he had never
visited. He makes mention, too, of Aquila and
Priscilla, and the Church that is in their house.
Now it may be that, though driven from Rome
by the edict of Claudius, Aquila and his wife
had again returned and made their home the
meeting place of some of the Roman Chris-
Introduction to the New Testament. 223
tians ; but in i Cor. xvi. 19 we find that they
were at Ephesus when St. Paul wrote that letter
(A.D. 57), not much more than a year before
the date of the Epistle to the Romans, and that
they were also at Ephesus when the second
letter to Timothy was sent (2 Tim. iv. 19).
This circumstance has pointed to Ephesus as
the place to which these greetings were sent, of
which the closing chapter is so full. And many
things lend probability to this opinion. For ex-
ample, the tone of the commendation given to
Phoebe in verses i, 2 of chapter xvi. is such as
could hardly have been used by the Apostle to a
body of Christians whom he had never seen ; while
the great number of the salutations, embracing
six-and-twenty persons, makes it almost certain
that the names are those of Christians to whom
St. Paul was personally known, as do also the
forms of expression used about some of them :
" Mary, who bestowed much labour on you " ;
" Andronicus and Junias,i my kinsmen and my
fellow-prisoners"; "Ampliatus, my beloved in
the Lord " ; " Urbanus, our fellow- worker in
Christ " ; " Apelles, the approved in Christ " ;
" Herodion, my kinsman." These and other
like salutations could hardly have been sent to
* The names are given here according to the spelling of
the oldest MSS.
2 24 Introduction to the New Testament.
any Church in which the Apostle had not
personally laboured. Then " Epaenetus, the
firstfruits of Asia," ^ is hardly likely to have
been at Rome, or to have been thus spoken
of in a letter addressed solely to the Roman
Church. And there is no Church in Asia
which suits so well with those allusions to
labours and imprisonments which are contained
in this chapter as does the Church of Ephesus.
True, many of the names are Latin in form ;
yet still more are Greek ; and when we know
that the Jews in their dispersion often adopted
Latin or Greek names of a form somewhat like
their Jewish names, and that many of the early
Christians everywhere were drawn from the
ranks of the dispersed Jews, the evidence, from
the forms of those names of persons, about
whom we know nothing, save that they are
mentioned here, is not of such a character as to
help us to fix on one place rather than another
as the destination of these greetings. On the
whole, it seems reasonable to conclude that an
Epistle which, far more than any other, con-
tains a declaration of the universality of the
Gospel, was not meant for one Church alone,
though sent at first to the Church of Rome ; that
* The best authorities read " Asia," and not " Achaia,"
in xvi. 5.
Introduction to the New Testament, 225
other Churches also received the same letter, but
with a slightly varied termination ; and that a
large portion of chapter xvi., containing numer-
ous special greetings, was the form of ending
which was given to the letter when sent to
some Church in which St. Paul had personally
laboured and suffered ; that this Church was
more probably in Asia than in Europe, and
that no place more suitable than Ephesus can
be fixed upon, from all that we know of the
history of St. Paul's missionary labours. It
may well be that in the Epistle as we now have
it, several of the endings used with this letter
have been gathered together, and that this is the
explanation of the frequent breaks which are
found from the end of chapter xiv. to the close
of the letter.
Turning to the contents of the Epistle,
we find first a most solemn greeting, in the
Apostle's own name alone, to all that are in
Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints.
And in the few introductory words the Apostle
sums up the scope of the Gospel. It is the
revelation of the Son of God in fulfilment of
ancient prophecy. His Divinity is proved by
the Resurrection, and the glad tidings are to
be published to all the world. Then follows a
thanksgiving that the faith of the Roman
Q "-
2 26 Introduction to the New Testament.
Christians is known so widely, with an expres-
sion of Paul's own desire to come unto them.^
But soon he enters on the theme of the whole
letter, the Gospel of Christ, which is the power
of God unto salvation to every one that be-
lieveth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
In this Gospel God's righteousness is made
plain to the eye of faith. And even the pro-
phets had foretold that the way to become
righteous ^ was by believing in God.
God has revealed His wrath against all un-
godliness and unrighteousness, and that wrath
must come on all, for all are sinners. To prove
this, St. Paul paints in the darkest colours the
condition of the heathen world, sunk in all
foul lusts, and given over to a reprobate mind.
After that he passes to the Jew (ii. 17), and
without saying in so many words that he too
must take his place side by side with the sinners
of the Gentiles, yet in language which admits
^ The wondrous humility of the Apostle is seen in
i. 12, where he speaks of their faith as likely to be a
comfort to him, quite as much as his own would be to
them. " The mutual faith both of you and me."
2 " Righteousness is revealed from faith to faith " (i. 17),
i.e. to him who hears the Gospel without faith it is
hidden, but to the faithful hearer first a small degree
and then gradually more and more, of the scheme of
salvation is made plain.
Introduction to the New Testament. 227
of no dispute, he leads up to his conclusion,
that the name of God is through them blas-
phemed among the Gentiles, and thus does
he demonstrate that among all men sin does
everywhere abound. And outward observances
profit not the Jew if he fail, as he does and
must, in the fulfilling of the law. The advantage
to the Jew is that he was made the first recipient
of the oracles of God, but this may be only the
the means ^ of increasing his condemnation, that
he has not profited by the privileges of which
he was made the first partaker.
" But now," he continues (iii. 21), "apart from
the law, a righteousness of God hath been
manifested, a righteousness which both the law
and the prophets had before testified that God
should bestow upon men. And this is bestowed
on those who believe in Jesus Christ, not as
their desert, but through their faith. And it is
bestowed oji all that believe without distinc-
tion ; for God is not the God of the Jew only,
but also of the Gentile."
Then the Apostle asks a question (iii. 31)
which he was sure every Jew would ask on
* " What if some did not believe .? " (iii. 3). These
words refer not to unfaithfulness under the law, but
to the rejection of Christ as the true fulfiller of the
prophecies.
2 28 Introduction to the New Testament.
hearing such words, words placing him on the
same level with the heathen world : " Do we
then make void the law through faith?" and
answers it also with the assertion that the law
was really established thereby, set on its true
foundation, put into its due place in God's
scheme of salvation. The promise had been
long before the law, and the latter was only a
later detail in the Divine plan. And he goes
back for his evidence to the history of him
to whom the promise was made. Abraham
believed God, and that faith was counted unto
him for righteousness ; but it was reckoned unto
him before he was circumcised. Thus he can
be the father of the faithful, whether of the
circumcision or of uncircumcision. The promise
was made to him, not through the law, but
through the righteousness of faith. And thus
the gift is of God's grace, and the promise made
sure to all the seed. And the testimony of the
Scripture, that this was so, was not written for
Abraham only, but for our sakes also. For
righteousness shall also be reckoned unto us,
if we believe on Him that raised Jesus our Lord
from the dead, whose death was for our sins,
and His resurrection to effect our justification.
The Apostle then goes on to describe the
happiness of this condition. In it we can have
Introduction to the New Testament. 229
peace with God, access into His favour, and joy-
in the hope of His glory. Nay, more, we can
rejoice in tribulation, because God's love is shed
into our hearts. And this love was manifested
while we were sinners, and through Christ's
death, whereby we are reconciled to God. So
it comes to pass that as sin ^ reigned through
the one man Adam over all his race, so through
the righteousness of the one man Jesus Christ
shall grace reign unto the eternal life of those
who believe on Him. "But you may ask,"
he proceeds (vi. i), "shall we, because grace
abounds unto sinners, continue in sin, that
God's grace may be more abundantly shewn .-* "
" Nay," he replies, " our union with Christ is a
union unto His death. As He died so must
we die unto sin. Therefore over the members
of Christ sin must have no more the lordship.
They are not under the law, but under grace.
And on that grace they may not presume, and
live in sin. Those who so continue are not
servants of Christ. Therefore having been
* "The law entered, that the offence might abound"
(v. 20). There had been sin in the world before the
law, but where there was no law sin could not be reckoned ;
when however the law came, man's knowledge of what
sin was, and that he himself was a sinner, was increased
thereby, and thus the offences seemed to multiply.
230 Introduction to the New Testament,
made free from sin potentially by the offer of
free justification, grow ye in grace as by the
Spirit ye are helped to do, and bring forth fruit
unto sanctification, and so in the end shall ye
attain unto everlasting life.
He next gives an illustration of what it is to
be no more under the law. Like as a woman
is free from the law of her husband after he is
dead, so the Christian believer is freed from the
Mosaic law by Christ. And as the widow may
marry another husband, so may they be united
unto Christ who is risen from the dead. And
by this union the life-giving Spirit, which can
guide and help toward holiness, is substituted
for the letter of the law, which only gave to
men the consciousness that they were sinners,
but no deliverance from their sins. For that
was the effect of the law. The law was not
itself sin, but it wrought in man the knowledge
of his sins. So that, before the law was
accepted, sin might be said to be dead, but
after the law was known sin ^ started into life.
' " Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, de-
ceived me, and by it slew me" (vii. 11). The Apostle
means that temptation to sin beguiled sinners just as it
had done before the commandment was given, but now,
under the law, the tempter turned round on the sinner,
and after deceiving him, showed him that by the law
death was the penalty of his sin.
Introduction to the New Testament. 231
Man was made conscious thereby of the con-
flict between the spirit and the flesh. And so
the Apostle, speaking of his own soul's expe-
rience, calls the flesh " the body of this death,"
from which alone deliverance can be found in
Christ. But in Him is now no condemnation
for those who walk after the Spirit. They have
a sense of life and peace. The body of those
in whom Christ dwells is dead because of their
own sin, but their spirit is life because of
Christ's righteousness, and thus they can hope
that the God who raised up Jesus will also,
through the indwelling Spirit, quicken their
mortal bodies. Therefore must they mortify
the deeds of the body, and in so doing they
may be called to suffer for Christ, but shall also
surely be glorified with Him. And no suffer-
ings in this life are worthy to be compared to
the glory which shall be revealed towards them
that believe. The waiting for the redemption
of the body will be a time of anguish.^ But the
^ In viii. 19-21, by "the creature" is meant "the
created universe" as distinguished from man, and the
sense is : " The created universe over which man was at
first made lord, was rendered subject to vanity, to all the
confusion and curse which man's sin brought in, and this
was done by God in the hope that along with man crea-
tion should also be delivered from corruption." Verses
20 and 21 should be thus connected.
232 Introdt4ction to the New Testament.
Spirit helpeth our infirmities, and all things
work together for good to them that love God.
And if we have God on our side, what need we
fear ? There is nothing in time or in eternity
that can separate us from His love which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
In the next three chapters (ix., x., xi.), the
Apostle treats of the important question of
the partial rejection of the Jews, and the cause
thereof, as also of the calling of the Gentiles
into the covenant with God, and closes with the
assurance that Israel is not wholly and utterly
cast off. " I grieve," he says, " in my heart for
my kinsmen of Israel, to whom God gave at
the first His covenant, His law and His pro-
mises. But God's word has not come to
nought, because some who were called Israel
have hardened their hearts. For it is not the
children of Abraham according to the flesh that
are of necessity the children of God. The heirs
of the promise, the spiritual children, are
counted for a seed. And these positions were
illustrated when God chose Jacob rather than
Esau, even before the children of Isaac had
been brought into the world. And we may not
call God unrighteous for such a choice. He
has declared in His word that He had a set
purpose in what was done, and that even in the
Introduction to the New Testament. 233
rejected, as in Pharaoh,^ God's power was to
be shewn, and His name spread abroad.
" Nor may men murmur, and say, ' God can-
not then find fault, for none can oppose His
will.' The creature cannot reproach the Creator.
Some are vessels of mercy, that the riches of
God's glory may be made known through
them ; but the vessels of wrath, fitted for de-
struction, shall likewise testify before men to
the power of God's wrath, and also to His long-
suffering. And so when the Gentiles have
attained unto righteousness, it is because they
were faithful, though without the law ; while
the Jews, with the law of righteousness, did
not attain thereunto, because they sought it not
by faith.
"My heart's desire for Israel," he says, "is
that they may be saved. Their error is that
they endeavoured to work out a righteousness
of their own, and forgot that Christ, and faith
* " For this same purpose have I raised thee up " (ix.
17). These words signify that God had preserved and
upheld Pharaoh, so that by the long line of penalties
inflicted on him, God's power might be more manifested
than it would have been by an immediate overthrow of
the offender. And God's mercy was shewn too, for He
had not cut off the sinner at first, but spared him and
shewn him His power that he might tremble at it and
repent.
234 Introduction to the New Testament.
in Him, is the end of the law. And this is
the Gospel which we preach : * Confess with thy
mouth that Jesus is the Lord, and believe in
thine heart that God raised Him from the dead,
and thou shalt be saved.' And this message is
sent both to Jew and Greek alike. It was sent
first to the Jews. But they do not all hearken,
and that this should be so was foretold by
Moses and the prophets. But God has not cast
off His people. All Scripture speaks of a
remnant that shall be saved. But it cannot be
by the works of the law. Israel, seeking salva-
tion thus, did not find it ; only the elect rem-
nant who were not hardened attained thereunto
by grace. But the stumbling i of Israel is not
to be for ever. Through their fall salvation has
been offered to the Gentiles. But if the whole
Gentile world has been blessed in their loss,
how much greater blessing shall all nations
have through their restoration !
"And their history should be a warning
for the Gentiles. If the Jews were cast off, the
same may happen to the Gentiles, who can only
stand by faith. Let them therefore walk in
1 " Have they stumbled that they should fall " (xi. 1 1),
i.e. Has their stumbling been such that it shall end in
entire overthrow, shall the people of the covenant come
under entire condemnation and ruin ?
Introduction to the New Testament. 235
fear. The partial hardening of Israel shall con-
tinue till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
But ^ still they are God's beloved for the fathers*
sake. God does not repent of His purpose.
Israel shall be restored. And thus the promise
shall be fulfilled, and both Gentile and Jew be
partakers of God's mercy. God's ways are
unsearchable; but of Him and through Him
and to Him are all things. Therefore His be
the glory for ever.
"But I beseech you," he continues (xii. i),
" think not of the faith which bringeth salvation
as unfruitful in good works. Let your bodies
be a living sacrifice. Live in holiness. Cherish
no high thoughts, but lead a sober life. Strive
after unity as members of one body, and use
rightly the gifts which God bestows on each of
you. Let love of the brethren abound among
you, and let it be manifested in act and word.
Indulge in no feelings of revenge, but conquer
what is evil around you by the good within
yourselves. Be obedient to all rulers,^ for it is
* "As concerning the gospel," etc. (xi. 28). In respect
of the Gospel message they are alienated from God, and
you Gentiles profit thereby, but having been made God's
chosen people, the love of God towards them does not fail.
' " Thou shalt have praise of the same " (xiii. 3), i.e.
thou shalt be praised by the power to which thou hast
shewn thyself obedient.
2^6 Introduction to the New Testament.
o
through God that they are set up, and in obey-
ing them we honour Him. Seek after that love
which is the fulfilling of the law, and all the
more, because the time is short, and the works
of darkness befit not the children of light.
" Let not questions of outward observances,
of meats and drinks, make you judges one of
another. Each man shall give account for
himself in these things unto God. But withal
be careful to put no stumbling-blocks in one
another's way. Destroy not, by too great use
of liberty,^ him for whom Christ died. It is
good not to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor to
do anything whereby a brother stumbleth. He
is the happy man who in the use of the freedom
which faith in Christ has given him does not
bring any condemnation on himself. They
who are strong should restrain themselves in
things lawful, because others are weaker than
they. Christ pleased not Himself. Follow
after His example, and may God grant that
both the Jews and Gentiles among you may
be like minded toward each other. For Christ
^ "Let not your good be evil spoken of" (xiv. i6).
Do not cause men to have hard things to say of you
because you have used " your good," i.e. your stronger
faith and greater hberty, so as to be a stumbling-block to
others.
Introduction to the New Testament. 237
has come to confirm to the Jew the promises
made unto the fathers, and that the Gentiles
may glorify God for His mercy. May ye be
filled with all joy and peace in believing, that
so ye may abound in hope through the power
of the Holy Ghost.
" I believe of you that ye strive to live thus
together, but as Christ's minister I put you in
remembrance. For He made me His minister
unto the Gentiles, and has enabled me to spread
His Gospel from Jerusalem even to the distant
parts of Europe. I have oft intended to come
unto you also, and when I journey into Spain
I will surely do so. But first I must go to
Jerusalem, and I ask for your prayers that I
may be delivered from those in Judaea who
believe not, so that at length I may come unto
you."
Then with a chapter, already spoken of, full
of salutations, intermixed with exhortations to
unity, and in which Timothy and others are
joined with the Apostle in the closing greetings,
this, the greatest of St. Paul's letters, concludes ;
the final benediction, like the opening greeting,
being a summary of the doctrine of the whole
Epistle.
238 Introduction to the New Testament.
(vii. viii. ix. x.) THE EPISTLES OF THE
Captivity.
Soon after this letter was sent, which must
have been about the year 58 A.D., St. Paul
carried out his intention of going to Jerusalem.
By a circuitous route, because of the plots of his
Jewish adversaries, he travelled into Macedonia,
then along the coast of Asia Minor, and at
Miletus was visited by the elders of the Church
of Ephesus. From thence by several stages he
came to the Holy City. But neither his own
prayers nor the prayers of his friends availed to
rescue him from the attacks of the unbelievers
in Judaea. In the Acts, St. Luke tells us in
brief the story of Paul's willingness to do much
that he might disarm Jewish prejudice, but that
it was all in vain. He was seized, even in the
precincts of the temple, and only rescued from
the violence of his countrymen by the strong
hand of the Roman soldiery. Next followed
the two years' long imprisonment under Felix
(from 59 to 61 A.D.), and then the appeal to
Caesar, and in this way, and not as he hoped,
did St. Paul arrive in Rome, not as a preacher,
but as a prisoner. For two years more (61 to
63 A.D.), he was under restraint in the imperial
city ; but though he was a prisoner, the Word
of God was not bound ; for from that hired
Introduction to the New Testament. 239
lodging in Rome were sent forth probably
many letters beside the four which have been
preserved to us, which are the Epistle to the
Ephesians, that to Colossae, that to the Philip-
pians, and that to Philemon. These Epistles
of the Imprisonment, some have referred to the
time when the Apostle was detained in Caesarea ;
but the internal evidence is strongly in favour
of Rome as the place whence they were sent,
and so their date must be placed somewhere
between A.D. 61 and A.D. 6^. We are not told
to what circumstances St. Paul owed his release
from captivity in Rome. His cause was heard
in the Imperial court, and he was for a time in
doubt what his sentence might be. But amid
all, his labour ceased not. He preached in his
prison the kingdom of God, and taught with all
boldness the things concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ, and was happy in this, that amid Roman
indifference, and Jewish hate, no man forbade
him so to do.
Of the Epistles of the Captivity it is impos-
sible to pronounce in what order they were
written, though there are a few indications
which may guide us to a conjectural conclusion.
Thus, when the Apostle writes to Philemon
(22), " Prepare me a lodging," we feel sure that
he considered his release close at hand. It is
240 Introduction to the New Testament.
true that his hope may have been disappointed,
but that it was so, we do not know. Now if
the letter to Philemon were sent toward the
close of the second year of his imprisonment,
the Epistle to the Colossians must be dated
at the same time, for it was sent by the same
persons (Col. iv. 9). And in the Ephesian
Epistle (vi. 21) we find the same Tychicus
spoken of as the bearer of that letter and some
oral explanations, just as in the Epistle to
Colossae. We shall see reason afterwards to
think that the letter sent to Ephesus was in-
tended to be a circular letter, and not to be for
the use of the Ephesians alone. And if this
be so, it seems most likely that St. Paul, being
about to send Tychicus to Colossae, availed
himself of the opportunity which such a jour-
ney afforded to send a general letter to those
Churches which were in connection with the
Asiatic metropolis. We should therefore place
the letter to Ephesus last in order among those
of which Tychicus was the bearer. But they
must have been written at no great interval
from one another, and must all have been made
ready for that one journey into Asia. The
letter to Philippi may have been written some-
what, but not very much, earlier. St. Paul there
also (ii. 24) expresses the same hope of his
Introduction to the New Testament. 241
release, as in the Epistle to Philemon, though
his words shew that his cause was in a some-
what critical position, and point to a time when
the hearing was not so far advanced. But all
the four letters must be placed in the last year
of the imprisonment, and the order which seems
best to suit with the internal evidence is (i) the
letter to Philippi ; (2) that to Philemon ; (3)
that to Colossae ; {4) that to the Ephesians.
(a) The Epistle to the Philippians,
The Church of Philippi was St Paul's especial
joy. It had been founded amid much affliction
during his second missionary journey (Acts
xvi.), but had given him abundant proofs of
faith and love, and no cause for reproof by a
lapse into error. The Apostle had visited the
Church since its foundation (Acts xx. 2-6) ^ but
St. Luke makes no mention of its condition at
that time. We may gather, however, from St.
Paul's letter, evidence enough that the work of
the Gospel had never slackened in Philippi.
He thanks God for their "fellowship in the
Gospel from the first day until now," and
testifies that they "have always obeyed, not
as in his presence only, but much more in his
absence." And as at the first they had minis-
R
242 Introduction to the New Testament,
tered to Paul's need by sending "once and
again " (iv. 16) relief to him while he was in
Thessalonica, so now in his Roman imprison-
ment their liberality had manifested itself.
They had learnt that he was a prisoner, and
had sent one of their number, Epaphroditus,
to bring him pecuniary aid, and to relieve by
his ministrations the necessity of their beloved
Apostle. Amid his zealous work Epaphroditus
had fallen sick, and news of the sickness had
reached Philippi. He was now recovered, and
himself felt anxious to relieve the minds of his
brethren at home by shewing himself before
them. This was the occasion on which St.
Paul's letter was sent, and above all his Epistles
it is full of Christian exultation, and abounding
with exhortations to joy in the Lord.
The letter opens with a salutation^ and in-
vocation, which is followed (i. 3-1 1) by some
words of thanksgiving and prayer, which, like
the salutations and prayers^ at the end of
^ Timothy is joined with St. Paul in the salutation
because he was well known to the Philippians as the
Apostle's companion. We can see a trace of the growth
of church order in the mention of "bishops and deacons"
along with the congregation, " the saints."
2 " That ye may approve things that are excellent ''
(i. 10) should be " that ye may distinguish between things
that differ," i.e. know to choose the good and refuse the
evil.
Introduction to the New Testament. 243
chapter iv., may be called the setting of the
Epistle. The rest of the letter deals with three
main subjects ; the first, or personal portion, is
contained in i. 12-26; ii. 19-30; iv. 10-18. In
these sections St. Paul sends news to his Philip-
pian friends of the success of Christ's Gospel
in Rome,^ in spite of his own imprisonment,
and the contentions of some of its preachers.
Over this success he rejoices, and is ready now
to die, but feels sure that he will be spared
in life, because God has more fruit yet for him
to reap, even in the Church at Philippi. He
expresses (ii. 19-30) his desire to send Timothy
to them, mentions his own hope of coming, and
their love to him as shewn by the mission of
Epaphroditus, whose services to himself and
zeal for Christ's cause commend him to the
regard of the whole Church at home. Then
{iv. 10-18) the Apostle dwells not only on the
last token of the love of the Philippians, which
he speaks of as a new blooming of their anxiety
for him, but also on their previous unexampled
bounty, which he thankfully accepts as evidence
thas his labour has not been without fruit.
The letter contains two sections of exhorta-
^ " In all the palace" (i. 13), by this the Apostle in-
tends " in the barrack attached to the imperial palace."
In this barrack {jprcEtoriutti) he was a prisoner.
244 Introduction to the New Testament.
tion (i. 27-ii. 18, and iv. 1-9) to unity. The
Apostle had learnt, perhaps from conversation
with Epaphroditus, that some, whom he speaks
of as adversaries (i. 38), had succeeded in foster-
ing a spirit of disunion. For this reason he
exhorts them against vainglory (the parent of
division) and enforces his lesson by the example
of Christ. He specially appeals (iv. 2) to two
female members of the Church (Euodia and
Syntyche) to strive against this spirit of con-
tention, that the Church may have cause for
joy, and that the God of peace may dwell
among them.
The third topic of the Epistle is a warning
against false teachers, and takes up the whole
of chapter iii. The Judaizers, by teaching the
necessity of circumcision, had troubled much
the Gentile converts. The mischief had not
spread in Philippi, but it might do so, and
Paul therefore points out that the legal obser-
vances on which these men insisted had lost
their value now that Christ was preached. And
he points the Philippians to his own life, trained
as the strictest of Jews, but now, through
Christ's grace, enabled to see that the old
things of the law are to be left behind. Not
that the Christian will be without law. He
will ever be learning more of Christ, and thus
Introduction to the New Testament. 245
getting more light about his duty. "There-
fore," he concludes, " be joint-imitators of me,
and shun those who are a law unto themselves,
and who mind earthly things. The Christian's
true country is in heaven, and he is ever look-
ing for the coming of his Lord to call him
thither, that so he may be made like^ Christ
through seeing Him as He is."
There is in the Epistle a passage of much
doctrinal interest (ii. 5-8), where the Apostle
speaks of Christ's humiliation in His life on
earth, which some have interpreted as evidence
against the Divine nature of our blessed Lord.
But the passage must be taken with its context.
St. Paul wants the grandest possible example
of self-denial, and finds it in Christ. Because
Jesus was God and became man, His humilia-
tion is all the greater. But St. Paul does not
here teach other doctrine than St. John. The
Word was indeed made flesh, and dwelt among
us, yet the same Word was also in the begin-
ning, and then was with God, and was God.
^ " Our vile body " (iii. 21) should be "the body of our
humiliation." It signifies the body in which we now
suffer, as contrasted with the glory which shall be re-
vealed in us.
246 Introduction to the New Testament,
if)) The Epistle to Philemon.
The short letter to Philemon arose out of the
following circumstances. Onesimus, a slave of
Philemon, a resident of Colossae (Col. iv. 8),
had deserted and apparently robbed his master,
and, coming to Rome from Asia, had found
out, or been brought to St. Paul, and by him
converted to Christianity. The Apostle must
needs urge on his son in the faith to make
all the atonement possible for the wrong which
he had done, and so enjoined on him to return
to his state of bondage. The letter which St.
Paul wrote was to be carried with him, and
to plead for his forgiveness and reception into
Christian brotherhood. We do not know how
St. Paul first met with Philemon, but the letter
intimates that he was one of the Apostle's
converts, and was in intimate and close relation^
with him. The Apostle addresses not only
Philemon, but also two other persons, one of
whom is generally held to have been the wife,
the other the^ son, of Philemon ; and he like-
* From the expression (Philem. 18), " Put that on mine
account," it has been supposed that the Apostle had
business connection with Philemon, perhaps through some
common trade as in the case of Aquila and Priscilla.
' Archippus appears (from Col. iv. 17) to have been
a minister of the Church at Colossae.
Introduction to the New Testament, 247
wise speaks of the Church to which Philemon
gave a place for assembly in his house. From
all which we may gather that Philemon was
a prominent person among the Christians at
Colossae (Col. iv. 9), and that though St. Paul
had not visited that city, yet elsewhere, per-
haps in Ephesus, Philemon had become closely
united to the Apostle. The letter of St. Paul
is most remarkable for the way in which the
writer forgets himself and his claims. He
speaks much of the good deeds of Philemon,
but merely hints at his own greater services.
He is tender towards the offending slave, even
putting himself in his place, but yet does not
forget that he has offended.
This Epistle forms an unique part of the
New Testament writings. It deals with no
doctrine, but only with a problem of social
life, and it shews us, in so doing, that Christ-
ianity was not meant to effect sudden social
revolutions, such as setting slaves free, but only,
by enforcing true principles, to bring all men
unto freedom and brotherly love, because they
have learnt as Christians that they are to be
one in Christ.
The Epistle has often been compared with
two letters of Pliny (Ep. ix. 21 and 24) on a
similar subject, but the comparison shews how
248 Introduction to the New Testament.
much Christianity has brought the Apostle
beyond the standpoint of the Roman consul.
Pliny's language is doubtless fine, but there is
no plea in it which goes to the heart like Paul's :
"For love's sake, I beseech thee, receive him
as myself." Luther says of it, " Just as Christ
did for us with God the Father, so does St.
Paul for Onesimus with Philemon.
(^) The Epistle to the Colossians.
With Philemon's letter was sent also the
Epistle to the Colossian Church. Colossae, as
well as those other cities of the Lycus valley,
Laodicea and Hierapolis, was the seat of a
Christian community, whom St. Paul knew of,
but had not visited. He had found, however,
as this letter shews, that the Christians of
these Churches were in danger from some
erroneous teaching with regard to the person
and office of Christ, and to avert this is the
most important object of the Epistle. To
this subject is devoted the portion from i. 13
to iii. 4. Men were beguiling the converts
with persuasiveness of speech, making spoil of
them through philosophy and vain deceit, after
the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the
world, and not after Christ. Language like this
is aimed at Gnostic heresy. But there were
Introduction to the New Testament. 249
also some who would pass judgment upon the
Christian flock in respect of meats and drinks,
feasts, new-moons, and Sabbaths. This must
have been the party of the Judaizers. There
were some, too, who were superstitiously de-
voted to the worship of angels, and who seem
to have taught that it was a mark of humility
to approach God, not by direct access, in sup-
plication, to His throne, but by the interposi-
tion of angelic mediators. The Apostle points
out that the humility, which such teachers
professed, was but a cloak for pride, and a way
of arrogating to themselves deeper knowledge
of mysteries than was possessed by others.
With the teaching of these men there was also
joined a stern asceticism, which St. Paul declares
to be a show of self-imposed religious restraints
and mortification of the body, but which did
not truly serve the end of guarding against
excesses of the appetites. Against all these
enemies of the faith St. Paul sets forth Jesus as
the Son of God, the image of the Father, the
Creator of all things, the Head of the Church,
the Redeemer of mankind, and in whom are to
be found all the treasures of wisdom and know-
ledge. He further exhorts the Colossians to
walk as they had been instructed, regarding not
outward rites, as circumcision, nor the arbi-
250 Introduction to the New Testament.
trarily imposed regulations about meats and
drinks, but being buried through baptism with
Christ, to strive like Him to rise to new life,
and to seek those things which are above.
Beyond this important section, the Epistle,
which, like nearly all the rest, opens with a
salutation, thanksgiving, and prayer (i. 1-13),
is devoted to general and special precepts (iii.
5--iv. 6), and after that concludes with some
personal messages (iv. 7-18) and a farewell
greeting. We find from it that Timothy was
now with St. Paul at Rome, and that Epaphras
had brought the Apostle news of the condition
of the Churches at Colossae, Laodicsea, and
Hierapolis ; that Mark, the cousin of Barnabas,
was now working earnestly with St. Paul, and
was probably soon to be sent on a mission to
the Asiatic Churches. Luke, Aristarchus, and
Demas are also mentioned in the final mes-
sages ; so that we can gather that the Apostle
had the solace of much companionship in his
prison, and that an active intercourse was kept
up by him between Rome and the other
Churches for which he was bound to care. We
learn, too, that the letter now sent was not for
Colossae alone, and that another Epistle had
been sent to Laodicaea, which the Colossians
were to consider as addressed to themselves
Introduction to the New Testament, 251
likewise. From this letter, perhaps, more than
from any of the others we get a view of the
activity and unwearying zeal which the Apostle
displayed throughout his whole life, spending
and being spent, and ceasing not, even though
his final words have to be "Remember my
bonds."
{d) The Epistle to the Ephesians.
In the first verse of the Epistle to the
Ephesians some very ancient authorities omit
the words "at Ephesus," and it has therefore
been held by many that this letter was really
intended to be encyclical, and that Tychicus
was at liberty to insert the name of each Church
to which he gave copies in the course of his
Asiatic visit. This view of the character of
the Epistle is supported by the absence of all
personal salutations, which would hardly have
been the case if the letter had been sent to
Ephesus alone, in which city the Apostle had
spent three busy years, and where he must have
had many friends. Like the Epistle to the
Romans, this letter speaks more fully of a doc-
trine which had been set forth briefly when St.
Paul was writing to another Church. He had
dwelt shortly in the Epistle to Colossae on the
252 Introduction to the New Testament,
person and office of Christ ; in this letter he
enters on the subject with greater fulness, set-
ting forth specially the adoption of Christians
in Christ, and their consequent reception of the
gift of the Holy Ghost, and he dwells much on
the universality of the Gospel.
After the address and invocation, the Apostle
proclaims in his words of thanksgiving the
merciful decree of God from all eternity, that
all men alike should attain adoption as sons
of God through Christ; that this was accom-
plished through the death of Christ, whereby
we have forgiveness of sins ; and that in Christ
all things are, in the fulness of time, to be
gathered together in one, to the praise of God's
glory.^ Then in his prayer he implores that
the Church may receive through the Spirit,
wisdom by which to recognize and accept this
* The early Gentile congregations needed to have the
doctrine of God's eternal purpose set before them as it is
in this Epistle. For questions would arise as to whether
there had been a change in God's plan ; whether having
at first chosen the Jews, He had only at a later time en-
larged His mercy to the rest of mankind. St. Paul calms
the minds of the converts on such matters, by shewing
them that the adoption of the Gentiles had been part of
God's eternal purpose, and confirms his teaching (iii. 1-6)
by the assertion that it was specially to make known this
truth, which he himself had received by revelation, that
he was made the minister of the Gentiles.
Introduction to the New Testament. 253
grace of God, which He wrought in Christ when
He raised Him from the dead, and gave Him
to be head over all things to the Church, which
is His body. After this he goes on to shew
that the life which Christ bestows is needed
both by Gentiles and by Jews, and that God
in His mercy hath quickened both with Christ,
offering salvation to both through Him, a salva-
tion by grace through faith. "Ye," he con-
tinues, " were Gentiles, having no share in God's
covenant : aliens, without God in the world.
But now through Christ ye are brought nigh,
and salvation through Him is offered to Jew
and Gentile alike. His cross hath made peace,
broken down the wall of partition, and the glad
tidings of the Gospel are preached to them that
were afar off, and also to them that were nigh.
Therefore ye are now of God's family, a part
of that great spiritual temple of which Christ
is the corjier-stone. I therefore (for I am set
apart as the Apostle to the Gentiles, to make
known unto them the unsearchable riches of
Christ) pray that ye may be strengthened by
the Spirit's power to grasp the greatness of this
love of Christ, that so ye may be filled with all
the fulness of God."
He then proceeds to exhort the converts to
live worthily of this noble calling, and to shew
254 Introduction to the New Testament.
that they are alive to the truth that all things
are to be made one in Christ ; that they waver
not in their faith, nor follow again those lusts
of the Gentiles in which they had once walked ;
but, as awakened Christians, seek unto the light
which is promised in Christ Jesus. Passing
then from general duties to such as are more
particular, he dwells on the relations that should
exist between wives and husbands, children and
parents, servants and masters, in each position
laying down the great principle that the life
should be as unto the Lord, and in His sight.
Then, knowing how hard the conflict would be,
and how vain if attempted in human strength
alone, he describes in a noble passage that
panoply of God which the warfaring Christian
must wear through this world's trials, and
having mentioned constant prayer as the last
of the weapons, he entreats their prayers for
himself that, though in bonds, he may be
strengthened to open his mouth boldly to make
known the mystery of the Gospel. He con-
cludes, after saying that Tychicus, the bearer
of the letter, would tell them all his state, by
a solemn invocation of grace and peace on all
those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sin-
cerity.
This letter closes the list of those writings
Introduction to the New Testament. 255
of St. Paul which fall within the time embraced
in the history of the Acts. For the rest of the
Apostle's letters we have no parallel history
with which to arrange and compare them, but
must draw all that we learn from the scanty
contents of the letters themselves.
(xi. xii. xiii.) THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
The Pastoral Epistles, as the two letters to
Timothy and the one to Titus are called, have
that name because they consist mainly of direc-
tions for the guidance of these two disciples in
\h^\Y pastoral care. Timothy had been exhorted
by St. Paul to tarry at Ephesus (i Tim. i. 3)
while the Apostle himself crossed over into
Macedonia, and in a similar way Titus had been
left by St. Paul in Crete to superintend the
Church organization in that island. Before
noticing the contents of these three Epistles, it
may be well to piece together, as far as we are
able, the allusions contained in them which help
us to frame some probable account of St. Paul's
movements after his release from his first
imprisonment. We know (Philem. 22) that his
purpose was to visit Colossae, and of course the
other Churches close at hand, as soon as he was
set free. He intended also to go to Philippi
256 Introduction to the New Testament.
(Phil. ii. 24) ; but if he carried out his wish to
send Timothy to that Church, we may well
suppose that his own visit to the Philippians
was postponed until he had crossed over into
Asia. Thither it seems likely that Timothy
came to him, and they perhaps both made some
stay among the Christians of the valley of the
Lycus with whom this would be St. Paul's first
opportunity of gaining a personal knowledge.
Coming on towards the coast, and tarrying
some time in Ephesus, Paul then resolved to
go over into Macedonia, but urged his younger
companion to stay behind, and take for a while
the oversight of the Christians in that great
metropolis, and it was probably from some place
in Macedonia that the first letter to Timothy
was sent for his guidance in the oversight
of the Ephesian Churches. Nothing would be
more natural than that the Apostle from
Philippi should take the journey which he had
taken before, and going into Greece should visit
again the Church of Corinth, from which city
the voyage to Crete would be easily made.
Paul had learnt in some way (Tit. i. 5) much
about the needs of the Church in that island,
and in whatever manner he came thither, he
deemed it wise to leave Titus in charge, that he
might ordain elders, and set in order the things
Introdtiction to the IVew Testament, 257
that were wanting. He himself then departed,
and going, -it may be, to Ephesus or into
Macedonia, purposed to pass the coming winter
in NicopoHs. There were several cities of this
name, but the one most likely to have been
intended by St. Paul (Tit. iii. 22) is the well-
known city in Epirus, built near the scene of
the battle of Actium. This was the opinion
of St. Jerome. Thither he arranged that Titus
was to come to him, and he would send either
Artemas or Tychicus to undertake in his stead
the care of the Churches of Crete. We do not
know from what place the Apostle wrote his
letter to Titus. It was probably written before
he reached NicopoHs, and it may have been
sent either from Ephesus, or from some town
in Macedonia, as Paul crossed towards Epirus.
But if the intention of wintering there was
carried out, he must afterwards have come
again towards Philippi, and have crossed the
iEgean once more. For we find that he visited
Troas (2 Tim. iv. 13), where, in the care of
Carpus, he left his cloak and books and parch-
ments. From the fact of these things, which
must have been specially precious to St. Paul,
being left there, some have thought it probable
that at Troas, from some cause or other, the
Apostle was seized by the authorities, and that
S
258 Introduction to the New Testament.
here began the second period of imprisonment
which was ended only by his death. If this be
true, it is not unHkely that he was sent on to
Ephesus, as the chief city of Asia, and at this
time may have occurred those services of Onesi-
phorus to which Paul alludes with such grati-
tude (2 Tim. i. 18), and of which Timothy was
a witness. At Ephesus he may have felt con-
strained once more to appeal to the Imperial
power as his only hope of justice. For to
Rome he was carried as a prisoner (2 Tim. i. 16,
17) and thither from some cause Onesiphorus
came afterwards, and searching out the im-
prisoned Apostle, repeated the kind attentions
which he had bestowed before, and was brave
enough to do so, though to sympathize now
with Paul was not so free from peril as it had
been in his first imprisonment. And the
danger had its effect on those who were round
about St. Paul. In his second letter to
Timothy, written from Rome, entreating him
to come speedily thither, we have a gloomy
catalogue of defections. "Thou knowest," he
writes (2 Tim. i. 15), "that all that are in Asia
turned away from me, of whom are Phygellus
and Hermogenes." And again (2 Tim. iv. 10),
" Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this
present world." Then the needs of the Churches
Introduction to the New Testament. 259
appear to have called Crescens from Rome into
Galatia, and Titus, who had been replaced in
Crete by Artemas, was now gone into Dalmatia,
and Tychicus was sent to Ephesus. " Only
Luke is with me," writes the prisoner, to whom
sympathy and companionship must have been
as the breath of his nostrils. " Take Mark," he
adds, "and bring him with thee." But it was
not a selfish wish that prompted the injunction ;
for he proceeds to say, " he is profitable to me
for the ministry." The way by which St. Paul
himself had come this time to Rome was
through Miletus (2 Tim. iv. 20), where Trophimus
was obliged to be left behind because he was
sick, and at Corinth the Apostle's party was
still further lessened by the staying there of
Erastus. Probably by the same way Timothy
would travel, if he was able to come to Rome,
as we can hardly doubt he would strive to
do. But of that we are not told. We only
know that when the second letter was sent to
him, the Apostle's case had been partly heard
(2 Tim. iv. 16) and that on his first defence no
one took his part, but all forsook him. " But
the Lord," he exclaims, "stood by me and
strengthened me, and I was delivered out of the
mouth of the lion." What Paul meant by the
last words we cannot say with certainty. But
26o Introduction to the New Testament.
the letter shews us that he was still a prisoner,
and the relief which he had experienced was
but for a short time. We have nothing but
tradition to tell us how he died, yet that is
unvarying in the record that he never was freed
from his second prison, but was beheaded
during the reign of Nero.
{a) The First Epistle to Timothy.
As was to be expected, the contents of these
letters exhibit much similarity. In the first
Epistle to Timothy, after the salutation, the
Apostle turns at once to the reason for his leav-
ing his friend at Ephesus. Certain men there
were teaching a different doctrine, giving heed
to fables and endless genealogies. The allusion
here, as we see by the mention of the law in a
subsequent verse (i. 8), is to the traditions which
the Jews had grafted upon the written law, and
to which they attached more importance than
to the Divine Word itself. Thus they used the
law unlawfully. Instead of such teaching, the
presiding pastor is to proclaim that the end of
the charge is love out of a pure heart and a
good conscience and faith unfeigned. With
further words about the teachers of error, and a
devout thanksgiving for his own call from his
Introduction to the New Testament. 261
life as a persecutor of the people of the Lord, to
be a minister of Christ, Paul proceeds to the
details of the charge which he has committed
to Timothy. First he inculcates the necessity
of constant public prayer to be made for all
conditions of men, he gives directions about
the behaviour of women in the public services,
checking 1 that tendency to prominence which
seems to have made itself apparent in many of
the women in the early Christian congregations.
He next describes the character of those who
would be true overseers or deacons in the
Church of Christ, as well as of those women
helpers in holy things, of whom the early
Church made such abundant use. Again he
turns to warning against the false teachers and
those who go after them, those who in a
Judaizing spirit insist on outward observances
more than inward holiness, laying more stress
on asceticism and mortification of the flesh than
* "She shall be saved in childbearing" (ii. 15). These
words would be clearer if we read ''''through childbearing."
If women did their duty in that which is pre-eminently
their work, as mothers in the care of their children, this
should be their way of winning salvation. But in the
Greek there is a larger allusion, " She shall be saved
through the childbearing," i.e. through the incarnation of
our Lord Jesus Christ, woman thus being brought into
closest union with the Messiah at His birth.
262 Introduction to the New Testament.
on a pure conscience. From this he passes to a
series of directions for Timothy's own guidance
in his study and in his behaviour towards old
and young, both men and women ; gives orders
about the regulation of those widows who were
engaged in religious works, about the character
and duties of elders, and how they shall be
chosen ; about slaves and their behaviour to-
wards Christian masters, on which subject the
false teachers appear to have inculcated lessons
of rebellion. Of such teaching St. Paul speaks
with much severity. He then turns to the
rr' 'die, c^^ ^es, whom he exhorts to content-
ment, and to the rich, whom he warns against
the evils of covetousness. After once more al-
luding to the false teachers and their unworthy
motives, he exhorts Timothy to prove himself a
good soldier and a faithful servant of Christ, to
give special charge to the rich, that they use
their wealth so that by good works they may
lay up for themselves a good foundation against
the time to come. And then the letter closes
with a solemn injunction, '* Timothy, keep that
which is committed unto thee ; " and it is
against the profane and vain babblings and
oppositions of that knowledge which is falsely
so called that this parting warning is specially
Introduction to the New Testament. 263
{b) The Epistle to Titus.
The Epistle to Titus^ opens with an address
more full than usual, after which it deals briefly
with directions for the appointment of elders
and bishops, who must be men of blameless
character and also able to set forth the sound
doctrine, and to convict gainsayers, of whom
there was no lack in Crete; mainly such as gave
heed to Jewish fables and the commandments
of men. The second chapter contains exhorta-
tions to continue in the sound doctrine, points
out what should be the behavior the i*j,-.d
and of the young, how servants should be in
subjection all the more because they are Chris-
tians. These were to be the themes on which
Titus was to speak earnestly to his people, also
to enforce obedience to all that were in author-
ity, and to warn against offences of the tongue,
in which they had once indulged, but which
^ Titus seems to have been first brought into connection
with St. Paul at Antioch, from which place he accom-
panied the Apostle to Jerusalem (Gal. ii. i). He appears
to have taken part in the mission to Galatia, and he was
afterwards with St. Paul at Ephesus, from whence he was
sent to Corinth. He was also at a later time in Macedonia,
then left as president of the Church in Crete, and is last
heard of as sent into Dalmatia (2 Tim. iv. 10).
264 Introduction to the New Testmnent,
were unfit for those who had the promise of
eternal life. Faith, too, must be attended by-
good works ; and foolish questions, genealogies,
and strivings about the law are to be avoided.
With some parting personal information and
directions, and a final exhortation that those
who are " ours," that is, of the Christian body,
should maintain good works, the letter closes
with a very brief salutation and benediction.
if) The Second Epistle to Timothy
The second letter to Timothy was written from
a Roman prison, when the Apostle was yearn-
ing for the presence of his younger fellow-
labourer. After the salutation comes a thanks-
giving, followed by an expression of intense
longing that Timothy should come to him.
Paul had known his faith, built up in him by
the teaching of a holy mother and grandmother.
This gift the Apostle urges him to keep alive,
and without shame to testify of the Gospel of
Christ. Though himself a prisoner for the
cause, he urges Timothy to be still steadfast
therein, and then tells how others have fallen
away, though the love of Onesiphorus has been
a comfort amid all these trials. " But do thou,"
he continued, " be strong, endure hardness,
Introduction to the New Testament. 265
prove thyself a good soldier of Christ, with
whom if we would reign, we must also expect to
suffer. Let all men see that thy work is ap-
proved unto God, and avoid strifes about words
and vain babblings which some indulging in
have taught that the resurrection is already
past." Then, with exhortations to avoid youthful
lusts and foolish questionings, which befit not
the Lord's servant, the Apostle goes on to warn
against the evil times that are to come, when
men shall abound in vices, being lovers of
pleasure and of their own selves more than
lovers of God, holding a form of godliness, but
denying the power thereof Timothy had
known the doctrine for which Paul had suffered
so much. That let him hold fast, in the light
of the Holy Scripture, whereby the man of
God may be complete, furnished amply for
every good work. The closing chapter con-
tains exhortations to earnest preaching and
teaching. Evil days are coming when men will
not endure sound doctrine. So much the more
need that Timothy should prove himself a true
Evangelist. The Apostle's own time is drawing
to a close. He is ready to be offered. But he
longs for Timothy to come to him, for his
friends have been called away and some have
forsaken him, so that in his prison he has only
266 Introduction to the New Testament.
Luke as his companion. The charge against
him has been once heard, and out of some great
peril he has been delivered, as God, he is sure,
will ever deliver him. Then, after final greet-
ings and a repeated entreaty, ''Do thy diligence
to come," the letter ends with a brief blessing.
The objections that have been raised to the
genuineness of these Epistles have been already
dealt with, but there is one feature of their
character on which it appears worth while to
dwell. It is noteworthy how in these, his final
letters, letters intended specially for the guid-
ance of those who were to be leaders of the
Christian Churches when St. Paul was taken
away, the prominent portion is that which in-
sists on the necessity and power of a good life.
Of doctrine there is very little mention. The
errors of the false teachers are condemned, and
the precious deposit of true doctrine is alluded
to more than once ; but the chief way by
which false teaching is to be overcome is by the
weighty example of a holy life. " Follow after
righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience,
meekness." '* Let them which have believed in
God be careful to maintain good works."
" Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we
should live soberly, righteously, and godly in
this present world." Such are the final precepts,
Introduction to the New Testament. 267
the results of the life's experience of St. Paul.
To influence others no teaching is equal to the
power of a holy example ; to combat false
doctrine and selfish worldliness, the best weapon
is a conduct before all men void of offence.
" The end of the commandment is charity out
of a pure heart, and of a good conscience and of
faith unfeigned" (i Tim. i. 5).
CHAPTER VII.
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS.
This Epistle is unique among the writings of
the New Testament, inasmuch as we have in it
no indication who the writer was, nor even that
he was an Apostle, nor to what Church the
letter was addressed. That there is something
to be said for the Pauline authorship may be
assumed, seeing that in the Revised Version it
is still called " the Epistle of Paul the Apostle,"
but we shall find that the earliest traditions
went counter to this opinion. Perhaps the best
way of approaching the subject will be to notice
what is said in the letter itself about those to
whom it was sent. They were persons who had
received the Gospel message of salvation, not
from the Lord Himself, but from those who
heard it from Him (ii. 3) ; and in their midst
signs and wonders and gifts of the Holy Ghost
had confirmed the truth of what was preached
unto them (ii. 4). The writer calls them (iii. i),
" holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling,"
Introduction to the New Testament. 269
but at the same time (iii. 14), warns them
against "an evil heart of unbelief" whereby
they might "fall away from the living God,"
and he speaks more than once of a need of
perseverance (iv. i, 2), and of " holding fast the
confession " of the faith which they had made
(iv. 14; X. 23). They were clearly in no good
spiritual condition ; for he addresses them (v. 11)
as " dull of hearing," and goes on to say that
whereas "by reason of the time" {i.e. since
they first heard and accepted the Gospel) " they
ought to be teachers, they nevertheless have
need themselves to be taught again, yea, even
the very first principles of the oracles of God."
They seem to have forgotten, or to have been
in danger of forgetting (vi. 1-3), the elementary
lessons of repentance and faith, and those simple
truths of the Christian religion which are em-
braced in a baptismal creed. Indeed, the solemn
language of the writer (vi. 6) appears to be
directed against a grievous impending apostasy.
It had not come, but he was in fear of it. He
adds, however, " We are persuaded better things
of you, and things that are near unto salvation,
though we thus speak." They had worked for
God, he knew; they had shewn love toward
His name, yea, their ministrations to the saints
were still continued (vi. 10). But they needed
270 Introduction to the New Testament.
to have marshalled before them the mighty
champions of the army of the faithful, that
thereby they also might be strengthened to
draw near to God in full assurance of faith,
remembering the cloud of witnesses by which
they were encompassed.
In the early days of their Christian profession
(x. 32) they had endured " a great conflict of
sufferings/' being themselves by their afflictions
rendered a gazing-stock, and also made to
be sharers in the reproaches heaped on others.
They had been spoiled of earthly possessions,
but had been able in those first days to bear
in mind their better and abiding possession.
This boldness now they were almost casting
away, and so the Apostle reads them a grand
roll of the deeds of others who aforetime had
suffered in faith, and had refused to seek any
deliverance which God did not send, that so
they might attain to a better resurrection. He
reminds them too (xii. 4) that their own resist-
ance had not yet extended to the shedding
of their blood, while the chastening they had
suffered was a sign that they were not forgotten
of the Father. We can see from language like
this that those addressed were well nigh fainting
in the Christian conflict ; they had hands that
hung down, and knees that were palsied, and
Introduction to the New Testament, 271
their faltering steps were ready to be turned
out of the way. Hence there was sent to them
this "word of exhortation" (xiii. 22) by one
who was intimately conversant with their con-
dition, its needs and its perils. It might almost
be supposed, from a portion of the language
used (xii. 15, 16), that there was some one
individual who was specially responsible for the
condition into which these Christians had been
brought, and who is spoken of as a "root of
bitterness " and a " profane person like Esau."
But of this we cannot be sure ; for " the divers
and strange teachings " (xiii. 9) may equally
apply to the greater portion of the Church, if
they had occupied themselves profitlessly in
questions about meats. And it is clear that
they all needed to be reminded of those first
teachers (xiii. 7) that "spake unto them the
word of God," and to be pointed to the issue
of those lives, and to their faith, which was
worthy to be taken as an example.
From the contents of the Epistle, which com-
pares the dispensation under which God spake
to men by the prophets, with the latter days
in which He has spoken through His Son,
which shews the superiority of Christ above
Moses, and of the priesthood of Christ above
the priesthood under Law, we can see that the
272 Introduction to the New Testament.
persons addressed were Israelites, who, after
having embraced Christianity, were in danger
of a relapse into Judaism, but Judaism of such
a kind that their state would be worse than
if they had never been instructed in the Chris-
tian faith. They had learnt enough about
Christ's religion to be shaken utterly in their
allegiance to the older belief, and if faith in
Christ were cast aside, there was nothing to
fall back upon, in which they could any longer
put their trust, and for this reason it is that the
writer speaks in such hopeless language of the
state in which their apostasy, if it came to that,
would leave them (vi. 6 ; x. 26-29).^
The Epistle, then, is written to the Hebrews.
But what Hebrews? They can hardly have
been those dwelling in Palestine, for they would
have heard of Christ while He was on earth,
and not merely through the mission of those
whom He sent to be His evangelists (ii. 3).
And does the Scripture history point us to any
country but Italy, where there could be found a
congregation of Hebrews who had been exposed
* In the two passages to which reference is here made
the Apostle is only speaking of what man can do, not of
what is possible with God. He sees no power in Chris-
tian instruction, given anew, to bring back men who have
fallen into the apostasy which he dreads for the Hebrews.
Introduction to the New Testament. 273
for their faith's sake, at the outset, to sufferings
such as the writer of this Epistle mentions ?
Italy suggests itself too, because in the closing
words of the letter we find (xiii. 24), " They of
Italy salute you." Such an expression might
very fitly be used by one who from Asia or
Greece was writing to the Hebrews in Italy,
and had about him some few persons who
belonged to that land. But it could with equal,
perhaps greater, propriety be employed by a
writer in Italy addressing a congregation else-
where. So that all the conclusion we are able
to draw thus far is that the persons addressed
were most likely resident out of Palestine, and,
it may be, were in Rome or in some part of
Italy, though that cannot be asserted with
confidence.
We may perhaps gain a little light from
another quarter. The persons addressed were,
it appears, well acquainted with Timothy (xiii.
23), as was also the writer of the letter.
Timothy had lately been in prison, but was
now set at liberty, and was contemplating a
visit to the Hebrews to whom this letter was
sent, and in that visit the writer proposes to
bear him company. Now there is no place
so likely for Timothy to have been imprisoned
in as in Rome. If this were the case, then it
T
2 74 Introduction to the New Testament.
would be strange in the Apostle to ask the
Christians in Rome or in Italy if they had
heard of Timothy's release, for they were sure
to have known of it. And the places in which
Timothy would have most interest, and would
be most likely to visit when set free, so far as
we know of his history from the New Testa-
ment, would be rather in Macedonia or pro-
consular Asia, than anywhere in Italy, It may
therefore be that the author of this letter is
writing from Italy to Macedonia or Asia, and
addressing a Hebrew congregation among whom
Timothy had laboured, but who did not yet
know that he had been set at liberty. To
them he very naturally sends the greetings of
the Italian Christians among whom he himself
was living, and the message about the brother
in Christ to whom they were so dear. On the
whole, this seems the conclusion which suits
best with the small amount of internal evidence
supplied by the Epistle. There were probably
many societies of Hebrew Christians, both in
Macedonia and Asia, to whom the description
in the letter might be applied. We know the
great struggles and contentions to which St.
Paul was subjected in both countries. " With-
out were fightings, within were fears," he says
(2 Cor. vii. 5), when in the one land ; and he is
Introduction to the New Testament. 275
probably thinking of his life in the other when
he speaks (i Cor. xv. 32) of "fighting with
beasts at Ephesus." To some unnamed Hebrew-
Christian body then, in one of these lands, it
may be, that our letter was written.^
And who wrote it ? Here we are met by a
conflict of tradition. The Epistle is first noticed
in the Western Church, a fact which favours
the conclusion that it was written from Italy.
Clement of Rome, who wrote his Epistle to the
Corinthians before the close of the first century,
quotes from it frequently, but makes no mention
of the author, though he evidently considers it
of the same value as other portions of the New
Testament writings which he uses. After this
it is excluded from the list of St. Paul's writings
by all the rest of the Western evidence down to
the middle of the third century. Thus in the
* By reason of the large use in this Epistle of that
allegorical and spiritualizing method of exposition of the
Old Testament, which flourished so much in later times
in Alexandria, it has been suggested that it was to the
Jewish Christians in that city that the letter was ad-
dressed. The Jews formed a large part of the com-
munity there, and we may be sure that as in other places,
so in that, the Christian body at first was largely com-
posed of Hebrews. But the allegorical mode of interpre-
tation on which this suggestion is based would be equally
well explained if we suppose the writer of the Epistle to
have been ApoUos the learned Jew of Alexandria. *"•
276 Introduction to the New Testament.
Canon of Muratori (A.D. 170) thirteen epistles
are attributed to St. Paul, of which nine were
addressed to Churches, and four to individual
Christians ; and in reciting the list of the
Churches there is no mention of the Hebrews,
Similarly of Caius, a Roman presbyter, who
lived about A.D. 213, Eusebius {H. E.^ vi. 20)
tells us that he enumerated only thirteen
Epistles of St. Paul, omitting that to the
Hebrews. The same is reported of his con-
temporary, Hippolytus ; while Irenseus, who,
though a native of Asia, was made bishop of
Lyons at the commencement of the third cen-
tury, and so may be counted among Western
testimonies, quotes twelve Epistles of St. Paul,
omitting that to Philemon, but nowhere refers
to the Epistle to the Hebrews. Thus, though
known and used very early in the Roman
Church and its neighbours, there is no trace
there of its ascription to St. Paul.
When we turn to the Churches of North
Africa, we are told by Tertullian (A.D. 200) that
there existed an Epistle to the Hebrews by
Barnabas, and he proceeds ^ at once to quote
from it the words of our Epistle (Heb. vi. 4-8).
His manner of doing this is such as to shew
that the letter from which he makes his extract
1 De pudicitia^ 20.
Introduction to the New Testament. 277
was well known, and therefore the tradition that
it was written by Barnabas equally so. Follow-
ing TertuUian by about fifty years, Cyprian,
Bishop of Carthage, though not naming Bar-
nabas as the writer of this letter, speaks ex-
pressly of Paul as writing to seven Churches,
and among them he does not enumerate the
Hebrews. Further, the Old Latin Version of
the New Testament, generally in use in Africa
in Tertullian's time, did not at first include in
its canon the Epistle to the Hebrews, and when
it was subsequently added, no author's name
was attached to it, and, as Jerome said at a
later date, " the custom of the Latins received
it not." Thus, when assigned to any author
by writers in North Africa, it was never set
down as St. Paul's. When we go farther east-
ward, we find Clement of Alexandria, who died
about A.D. 220, quoting the words of "the
blessed presbyter," by which it is agreed that
he meant his predecessor, Pantaenus, to this
effect : " Since the Lord, being the Apostle of
the Almighty, was sent to the Hebrews, Paul
out of modesty, as having been sent to the
Gentiles, avoids inscribing himself Apostle of
the Hebrews, both because of the reverence
due to the Lord, and because it was a work of
supererogation in him to write to the Hebrews,
278 Introduction to the New Testament.
when he was preacher and Apostle to the
Gentiles." So far Clement is reporting Pan-
taenus, who clearly held the Epistle to be St.
Paul's. But in the very same chapter of
Eusebius from which the above quotation is
made {H. E., vi. 14) we find Clement's own
opinion about the letter given. He, too, says
that it was the work of St. Paul ; but evidently
feeling that he is bound to account for some
difference in the style of it, when compared
with the other Pauline letters which have been
preserved to us, he adds that it was written to
the Hebrews in the Hebrew tongue, and trans-
lated into Greek by St. Luke, and hence there
is much similarity between its language and
expressions and those found in the Acts of
the Apostles. At a little later date we have
another Alexandrian opinion, viz. that of
Origen, who flourished there in the first half
of the third century. He ascribes to St. Paul
fourteen Epistles, and in them reckons that to
the Hebrews, but he adds concerning it (Eus.
H.E.y vi. 25), "that every one who is competent
to judge will admit that the language of this
Epistle has not about it that rudeness which
St. Paul (2 Cor. xi. 6) himself allowed that
there was in his own speech, but that it is
written in better Greek ; while everybody would
Introduction to the New Testament. 279
acknowledge that the thoughts contained in it
are wonderful and do not fall behind those
in the acknowledged letters of the Apostle."
After this he expresses his own opinion : " I
should say, then, that the thoughts are those
of St. Paul, but that the words and arrangement
are due to some one who reported from memory
the Apostle's speech, and illustrated, as a com-
mentator, what had been said by his master.
If, however," he continues, "any Church hold
this letter to be St. Paul's, let it have credit
for so doing, for it was not rashly that the men
of old time handed it down as St. Paul's. But
as to who really wrote the letter, of this God
knows the truth ; yet there has come down to
us one tradition that it was written by Clement,
the Bishop of Rome ; another, that it was by
Luke, who wrote the Gospel and the Acts."
It is clear from Origen's language what he
meant when he spake of Luke having written
this letter. If he accepted that tradition, he
did so only in the sense that the basis of
the whole letter was St. Paul's teaching. This
Luke, or Clement, had remembered, and cast
into shape, and in this sense only was the letter
to be taken as their composition. But the
gradual change in these Alexandrian judgments
is very noteworthy. They are given by men
28o Introduction to the New Testame
than whom few were better qualified to judge
of a Greek style, and each holds less firmly than
his predecessor to the opinion that the words
of this Epistle are St. Paul's own. Pantaenus
finds a reason why the Apostle did not place
his name at the head of it ; Clement thinks
it a translation from a Hebrew original, and
Origen a precis of what St Paul had written
or spoken, but that it is given with an expan-
sion, comment, or arrangement which is due
to some other person. And to some such
conclusion nearly all have come who in recent
times have discussed the authorship of the
Epistle. It breathes in most parts the spirit
of Paul, but in many particulars it differs from
the other Epistles, and especially in the arrange-
ment and gradation of its several parts. We
miss in it also the parenthetic style of St. Paul,
his manner of starting aside at a word to pour
out some thought which has been suddenly
borne in upon him, while the tone in which a
relapse into Judaism is spoken of has lost much
of that severity which was engendered of the
opposition and enmity under which St. Paul
suffered from his own countrymen : there is
none of that strong language of condemnation
which we find in the Epistle to the Galatians.
It would be possible (and it has been done)
Introduction to the New Testament, 281
to bring together a long array of words and
phrases to which parallels can be found in the
acknowledged letters of St. Paul, and an equally
large list might be produced of expressions
unusual with that Apostle. But such collec-
tions prove nothing. All the New Testament
writers drew largely from the diction of the
LXX., with which they were very familiar, and
both the Epistle to the Hebrews and the other
Epistles might be shewn to be full of phrases
due to the Greek version of the Old Testament.
We can therefore come no nearer to answering
the question, " Who wrote this Epistle ? " than
the men of old time came. There is a sense
in which the Epistle may be called Pauline, and
for that reason probably in the recent revision
the title of the Authorized Version was not
altered, though it has less MS. authority than
the simpler heading, "to the Hebrews." But
by him who is first found quoting it, the letter
is not ascribed to Paul, nor was it for a long
time accepted under his name in Western
Christendom, while those who in the East at
first held it for his work came at length, from
earnest study, to recognize that it was not his
in the same sense as the Epistle to the Romans.
At the time of the Reformation, a suggestion
was put forward by Luther, that the letter was
282 hitroduction to the New Testament.
written by Apollos, and in recent times this
opinion has found able supporters. But Apollos
would be in the same class with Luke, or
Barnabas, or Clement. His writings would
breathe the same tone as those of the Apostle
with whom he laboured, and he would draw
largely on St Paul for thoughts and argument.
He, like the others, would have lived in a circle
where Paul was the moving spirit, and, like
them, could speak of Timothy as " our brother."
Until, therefore, some means be found of dif-
ferentiating between these several persons, we
must be content to leave the question only
partly answered, as Origen did when he wrote,
" The truth in the matter God knows."
It was no doubt because the author of the
Epistle could not be certainly known that the
Epistle to the Hebrews came to be reckoned
by Eusebius in the number of antilegomena,
i.e. books against which some objection had
been raised, and which were not at the first
included in the canon. It could not be for
any other reason, for we have seen that in the
first century Clement of Rome quoted from
it in the same way as from the books that
were accepted by all ; while in the East, Justin
Martyr, early in the second century, proves by
his allusions to it that it was regarded there
Introduction to the New Testament. 283
as of Apostolic authority in discussions con-
cerning the Christian faith. And when in the
fourth century the question of the New Testa-
ment canon was definitely discussed and settled
by the authority of a Council, this book was
on all hands included, although some of the
Fathers of that age were careful to make known
that the question of its authorship must still
remain undecided. And from that time it has
continued to be a valued portion of the sacred
volume, all men acknowledging its preciousness,
though differing often in their judgment of
when arid where and by whom it was written.
There is but one passage (ix. 1-9) which
might seem to give us some help towards
fixing the date of the Epistle. There the
writer is speaking of the tabernacle, its furni-
ture, and the services therein. But when he
comes to verse 6, as if he were carried in
thought away from the tabernacle to the
temple, he says, according to an accurate
translation, "Now these things having been thus
prepared, the priests go in continually into the
first tabernacle." From this use of the present
tense, it has been argued that the temple was
still standing when this Epistle was written.
But the author is speaking merely of what
was appointed under the Pentateuchal Law,
284 Introduction to the New Testament.
and uses " go'^ to describe what was the rule
there laid down, and without reference to his
own date in any way. The general colouring
of the Epistle warrants us in believing that the
temple was still undestroyed, for it would hardly
have been possible to discuss the ritual of the
temple to such a degree as is here done, with-
out some allusion to the overthrow of the Holy
City, had that event been already in the past.
It is part of the writer's argument that the
Mosaic and Levitical institutions were to be
superseded, and he would surely have pointed
to the temple ruins, had they been there, to
emphasize his position by the teachings of
history. We may conclude, then, that the
date of the Epistle to Hebrews is perhaps a
year or two before the capture of Jerusalem.
The contents of this Epistle are arranged
with a more definite plan than is to be seen
in those which we know as Pauline Epistles.
The writer has one end in view. He is address-
ing persons in danger of falling back from
Christianity into Judaism, from which he had
once thought them to have been set free. He
therefore displays before them the greater glory
of the Christian covenant. He states his theme
at the very outset. God in old times spake to
the fathers in the prophets, but now in the end
Introduction to the New Testament, 285
of these days He has spoken to us in His Son.
And this new revelation is above the old, be-
cause (i) He through whom it is given has
become " better than the angels." On this the
writer dwells in chapters i. and ii. Then he
sets forth (2) that Christ "has been counted
worthy of more glory than Moses," the chief
minister of God for the giving of the older
covenant. This point of the argument extends
from iii. i to iv. 13 ; after which he goes on
to shew (3) that Christ hath "obtained a more
excellent ministry" than the priests who were
under the law, seeing that " He is the media-
tor of a better covenant, enacted upon better
promises." This, the longest section of his
argument, extends from iv. 14 to xii. 29. Each
of these divisions comprises some special ex-
hortation arising out of the point with which it
deals; and (4) the Epistle then closes with a
chapter (xiii.) devoted to the enforcement of
various Christian duties. The whole reasoning
of the Epistle may be summarized thus : —
I. Christ whom the Apostle describes as " the
effulgence of God's glory, and the very image
of His substance," is made so much higher than
the angels, through whose ministry the older
covenant was revealed,^ and who were the fore-
^ Of the Jewish tradition that the law was delivered by
286 Introduction to the New Testament,
most of God's servants under that dispensation,
as the name and position of a Son is beyond
that of messengers and ministering spirits.
This has been set forth in the Scriptures from
of old, and specially in the revelations made
to David and his house. For the Son is pro-
claimed to be a king, whose Divine throne
endureth for ever, and whom all the angels are
bidden to worship. It behoves us therefore to
give more earnest heed to the new revelation
made known to us by Him, unto which God
has borne witness by the signs and wonders
which He wrought through those who were the
first preachers of this message. Now in this
later dispensation it is God's purpose to raise
mankind, at first made subject to the angels,
to a place and dignity far above theirs. This
is not yet done. But in Christ we have the
pledge that it shall be ; for He took man's
nature, He has shared man's subjection, and
is now raised to glory and power over the
world to come.^ And to this exaltation He at-
tained by suffering and death. He is crowned
angels, there are other notices in the New Testament.
Cf, Acts vii. 53 ; Gal. iii. 19 ; Heb. ii. 3.
^ "The world to come whereof we speak" (ii. 5), signi-
fies the same as "that city which is to come" (xiii. 14),
and the "better and abiding possession" (x. 34), and
" the kingdom that cannot be shaken " (xii. 28).
Introduction to the New Testament. 287
because He has died. And it was for men that
He underwent this pain. He who is the Author
of salvation to mankind was made perfect
through suffering. And in Christ all who are
sanctified by Him become sons of God,^ and
so heirs with Him of glory, for which reason
they are named His brethren. That they might
be so, Christ gave His help to flesh and blood, ^
and by His death destroyed him that had the
power of death, and freed mankind from fear
and bondage. Thus is He fitted to be a merci-
ful High Priest, and since He has been tempted,
He can succour those who are tempted.
II. Christ has been counted worthy of more
glory than Moses ; for Christ is a Son over the
house of God, that is, the company of the faith-
ful, while Moses was but a servant within it.
For we are Christ's household if we fall not
away from the faith. Now the fate of Israel
under the first covenant should warn us who
are under the new dispensation. They did not
enter into God's rest, because they held not
1 " He that sanctifieth {viz. Christ) and they that are
sanctified are all of one" (ii. 1 1), i.e. they have all one
Father.
' ii. 16. The Revised Version gives, "Not of angels
doth He take hold, but He taketh hold of the seed of
Abraham." The whole idea implied is the assuming of
humanity that He might thus be able to help mankind. ,
288 Introduction to the New Testament.
fast their faith. And now the words, " To-day
if ye will hear His voice," are spoken to us
through the Son, and a day of grace is fixed
for us as for ancient Israel. Let us then be-
ware of unbelief. Let us exhort each other
unto faithfulness, for by faith it is that we are
made partakers of Christ. Hearken to the
lesson taught by Israel's fall. They provoked
and angered God, so that He sware in His
wrath that they should not enter into His rest.
This they did from want of faith. They might
have entered, but did not. Yet God would
have some to enter in. He has therefore made
a new covenant, and fixed for us a new "to-
day." This He did in David, long after
Joshua's^ time, which shews us that Israel had
not found the rest under their first leader and
mediator. The words, then, "To-day if ye will
enter," refer now to the new covenant. Let us
therefore strive to enter in ; let us beware of
unbelief, for the Word of God, like God Him-
self, will try our hearts, and make it clear if
we be not faithful.
III. Christ has obtained a more excellent
* " If Jesus had given them rest" (iv. 8, A.V.). Jesus
and Joshua are the same name. But it is better to use
the Old Testament form in this passage and in Acts
vii. 45, to avoid confusion.
Introduction to the New Testament. 289
ministry than those who were priests under the
old law. He possesses indeed all the qualifi-
cations of those priests, He can feel for and
with those who suffer and wander astray. But
He is without sin, and in this He is more ex-
cellent than they. And He has not taken the
office upon Himself, but has been appointed
thereto by God. Also He is better than the
priests of old, in that He is a priest after the
order of Melchizedek. " But," says the Apostle,
"for such teaching as I would give you con-
cerning this priesthood ye are become dull of
hearing, ye need to begin again the lessons
of the Christian faith. Yet I will not think of
you as utterly gone backward, I will not go
over again with you the first steps. Surely ye
have not fallen back into that former state from
which ye had been raised,^ and into which if ye
sink once more ye will be in worse case than
if ye had never advanced beyond it. For ye
will be like that land which, after having drunk
in the rain from heaven, bringeth forth not
' The expression (vi. 5) " tasted the good word of God
and the powers of the world to come," means that these
Hebrew Christians had found God's promises to be sure,
and had received of those spiritual gifts which were at
first shed on the Christian Church, but which truly belong
only to the age that is to come, the kingdom of Christ in
the future.
U
290 Introduction to the New Testament.
profitable fruit, but briers and thorns, and so
is worthless and nigh unto cursing. But I will
not think thus of you. Ye did shew forth good
fruits of faith, ye were true followers of those
who inherit God's promises — promises which
cannot fail, for they are confirmed by God's
own oath. I will therefore speak to you of this
great High Priest after the order of Mel-
chizedek ; for Melchizedek, king of peace and
righteousness, is a priest for ever, and the
silence of God's Word about his generation or
his death makes him in a figure to be a fore-
shadowing of Christ. He was greater than the
priests of Aaron's house ; for Abraham, the
father of the whole race of Israel, paid tithes
to Melchizedek, and received from him a bless-
ing. And it is the less who takes a blessing
from the greater. Such an eternal High Priest
is Jesus, neither is He after the line of Aaron.
But the introduction of a priest not sprung
from Levi ^ implies that the Levitical covenant
is at an end. And this new High Priest is
more excellent too, in that he does not die, as
did the priests of old, nor is He changed ; and
thus He is fit to be the author of eternal salva-
tion to those who are made His people by the
^ Jesus, to whom the Messianic prophecy of Ps. ex.
appHes, was of the tribe of Judah.
Introduction to the New Testament. 291
new covenant. For the law of Moses, with its
temple, its priests and sacrifices, was only an
imperfect shadow of the new covenant, the
eternal and availing atonement of Christ. And
the character of our High Priest is, that He is
holy, guileless, undefiled, separate from sinners,
and made higher than the heavens.
" And He is the minister of no earthly taber-
nacle, while His covenant is better than the
old. The first covenant was not faultless ; this
God Himself hath declared. The better pro-
mises of Christ's covenant are, that God's law
shall be written in the hearts of men, and that
the promises shall no longer be limited to one
people, but all men shall be drawn to know,
obey, and love the Lord. Moreover, the ordin-
ances of the first covenant were an earthly
tabernacle, priests who went in often, while the
High Priest alone went into the Holiest once
a year, and must make atonement for himself
as well as for the people. Under the new
covenant the true tabernacle is heaven itself;
thither Christ has entered in once for all, and
in sign of an accomplished work He sitteth ever-
more at God's right hand. He needs not to
ofifer for Himself, but for us presents His own
blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
" For Christ as our High Priest has suffer£d
292 IntrodMciion to the New Testament.
death, and by this offering has put away sin.
Thus His covenant, which makes us heirs, may
be called a testament,^ and His death hath re-
deemed the transgressions that were under the
first covenant. This the old law could not do.
Those sacrifices did not, could not, make
perfect. But Christ's was a perfect and per-
fecting offering. He then need not offer often,
for God hath by promise accepted His sacrifice
once for all, having said, * Their sins and their
iniquities will I remember no more/
" Having then such a High Priest, let us hold
fast and use the privileges of the new dispensa-
tion. Let us draw near to God, be firm in faith,
and grow in love and in good works. Let us
not, even amid persecution, withdraw from the
assembling of the congregation to worship.
For the day of Christ is drawing near. Other-
wise we shall merit God's vengeance, for we
shall have sinned wilfully after we have received
the knowledge of the truth.^ Remember then
^ I.e. it may be so styled because its force and validity
come through the death of Christ, the High Priest of
the covenant, in the same way as an inheritance comes
to the heirs through the death of the testator.
^ The very strong language used in these verses (x.
26-31) is meant to check these Hebrews in their ten-
dency to apostatize. The Apostle points out that it will
be of no use to offer them again the lessons against which
Introduction to the New Testament, 293
your former days in which ye were content,
nay joyful, amid suffering, and do not cast away
your confidence, for soon Christ will come and
ye shall inherit the promises."
Then, to animate the hearts of these fainting
Hebrews, the writer lays before them the
glorious roll of God's faithful servants in the
times of old, and afterwards appeals to them
that they should imitate these noble deeds ; and
if they be called upon to suffer much, still to
look unto Christ, who endured even the shame
of a death upon the cross. Let them remember,
too, he continues, that God-sent trials are true
fatherly chastisement, and should bring forth
fruits of righteousness and peace and confirma-
tion in the faith. For to us a revelation has
not been made with terrors like those of Sinai,
but we have come near to Mount Zion, to the
heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.
" See then that ye refuse not Him that speak-
eth. For His voice hath shaken all the former
things, which are passed away, for they were
perishable ; and all things shall be so shaken,
except the heavenly kingdom, which is offered
they have sinned. The ordinary means of God's grace
will have been spurned, and they must then be left to
God's own hand. They will have despised the sacrifice
once offered, and there is no other that can save from sin.
294 Introduction to the New Testament,
by Christ. Seek then for grace to serve God
with reverence and godly fear."
IV. The concluding chapter contains exhor-
tations of various kinds, to brotherly love, to
hospitality, to kindness of heart, to chastity,
to liberality, and to contentment such as they
may have who rest on God's promises. The
Apostle urges, too, that the Hebrews should
have in mind the lessons, the lives and ends of
those who first instructed them in the faith, and
thus, remembering that Jesus Christ changeth
not, they may avoid strange doctrines. And
let them not go back to seek strength in the
discarded observances of Judaism, doctrines
which dealt with clean and unclean meats. Let
their sacrifice be one of praise and thanksgiving
offered on Christ as the altar, through Christ
as the priest, and pleading Christ's blood as the
sacrifice ; for the sacrifices of the tabernacle
have not profited those who have been occupied
in them.^ He also urges on them obedience
* The connection in these difficult verses (xiii. 9-14)
seems to be of this kind. " Fall not back on Jewish ritual
observances, but seek to be established by grace. For
they who are still in bondage to the ritual of the law can
have no part at our altar, the cross of Christ. And this
was prefigured by the acts of the great day of atonement.
That day's sacrifice spake most directly of Christ, and it
was not eaten, but altogether burnt without the camp
Introduction to the New Testament. 295
to their present leaders, asks for their prayers
on his own behalf, and commends them to the
keeping of the God of peace. Then, with an
expression of hope that they would bear with
this word of exhortation from him, a mention
of Timothy's release, and the salutations of
those of Italy, the letter concludes, leaving us
uncertain still who its writer may have been,
though few seem more fitted to have sent it
forth than that Jew of Alexandria, learned and
mighty in the Scriptures, Apollos, who, after
being taught the way of God more fully by
Aquila and Priscilla, became acknowledged by
St. Paul as a worthy waterer of what the great
Apostle himself had been permitted to plant.
the blood only being presented as an offering. This
foreshadowed the abolition of laws about meats, and
pointed on to Christ, whose blood was shed, for the
sanctification of His people, outside Jerusalem. Let us
go forth then to Him, away from what speaks of Judaism
and its ritual, glorying in our altar though it be the shame-
ful cross. Thus may we shew that we are looking for
a home beyond this world, and offer through Christ our
praise and thanksgiving continually."
CHAPTER VIII.
THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES.
The name " Catholic " has been given from
early times to those Epistles in the New
Testament which bear the names of James,
Peter, John, and Jude. They are seven in
number, and are called " Catholic " because they
are mainly addressed, not to individuals or
particular Churches, but generally to the whole
Christian body, or to the Christians of an ex-
tensive district. Thus, St. James writes to " the
twelve tribes of the Dispersion ; " St. Peter to
** the Dispersion " in a wide district of Asia
Minor ; while St. John's first Epistle may be
looked upon as a legacy to the Church at large,
whom the beloved disciple in his closing years
might fitly address as his " little children."
{a) The Epistle of St. James.
First among these Epistles in our English
Bibles stands that of St. James, which is prob-
ably the work of that James who is called in
296
Introduction to the New Testament. 297
the Gospels "the Lord's brother." The four
persons who are so called were most likely the
children of Joseph, the Virgin Mary's husband,
by a former wife. This James was bishop of
Jerusalem (cf. Gal. i. 19, with Gal. ii. 9, 12), and
presided over the Christian Church, in its
earliest days (Acts xii. 17 ; xv. 13 ; xxi. 18), and
therefore must have continued to reside in
Jerusalem when the Apostles had gone forth
on their missionary labours. Now the writer
of the Epistle was so well known that he only
needs to begin his letter, " James ... to the
twelve tribes." This is an opening such as
would be written by the first acknowledged
head of the Christian community, and hardly
by any other. Again, the writer does not call
himself an Apostle. Now it is stated that for
a long time after the list of the Apostles was
complete our Lord's brethren " did not believe
on Him" _(John vii. 5), and when they are
mentioned after the Ascension (Acts i. 14), they
are severed from the Apostolic body, and placed
last in the enumeration, as if they were the
last who had become disciples. The change
in their opinions had been thought by many
to be accounted for by the statement of St.
Paul (i Cor. XV. 7), that Jesus after His
resurrection " was seen of James." Such a
298 Introduction to the New Testament.
vision it is supposed brought conviction to
the doubter, who, in the Apocryphal "Gospel
according to the Hebrews," is said to have been
inclined to believe even before the Crucifixion.
We can well understand why this James did
not name himself " the Lord's brother " in his
letter, first, because he would feel that his un-
belief made him unworthy of the title, and next,
because he, as also his brother St. Jude, would
have no wish to use a name which might seem
to claim for them a nearer place to Jesus than
was held by any of the twelve. Eusebius {H. E.,
ii. 23) tells us that this James who had earned
from all men the title of "the Just," was
martyred by the Jews, being cast down from
a pinnacle of the temple, and killed by blows
from a fuller s club after his fall.^
The Epistle is addressed to the " Dispersion."
This word was used in New Testament times
to signify the Jewish population scattered away
from the Holy Land. And when the writer
calls them " the twelve tribes," we see that he
writes to those who had been converts from
Judaism. To them their ancient faith was still
of high importance, indeed of somewhat more
1 The martyrdom of St. James took place shortly after
the end of the procuratorship of Festus, about A.D. 61
or 62.
Introduction to the New Testament, 299
importance than it ought to have been. This
explains why St James' Epistle partakes so
largely of the character of the preaching of
John the Baptist, and of our Lord's earliest
teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. He is
writing to Jews not yet alive to the full mean-
ing of faith in Christ, and he strives to stimulate
the converts to a,, higher standard of Christian
practice, warning them specifically in a large
section of the letter (i. 22-ii. 26) against the
danger which beset Jewish Christians of trust-
ing to a faith which produced no results in the
form of Christian love.
But it was not only for those at a distance
that the Epistle was written. It bears internal
evidence that it was addressed to those who
were involved in sufferings at home. "Count
it all joy when ye fall into manifold tempta-
tions," is the opening language, and the writer
returns to the same topic at its close. Now
if written from Jerusalem, by the Bishop there,
in times included within the history of the Acts
of the Apostles, such language suits best with
that persecution of the Church by Herod
Agrippa I., in which that other James, the
Apostle and brother of John, was put to death.
And it is an additional indication that the
Epistle was written about that time, that in it
300 Introduction to the New Testament.
there is no word of that contention, on the
question of circumcision, which soon afterwards
agitated the whole Christian Church in Syria,
and about which James the Bishop pronounced
a decision in A.D. 51. It seems most reason-
able therefore to place the date of this Epistle
about midway between A.D. 44, the time of
Herod's persecution, and A.D. 51, when the
synod of Jerusalem was held ; and as all
tradition tells us that James did not leave the
Holy City, we may assume that Jerusalem was
the place of its writing.
In the times of Eusebius (A.D. 325) this
Epistle was reckoned among those writings not
fully accepted by the Church, yet we find it
quoted long before in the writings of Clement
of Rome, and it is included in the Peshito
Syriac Version of the New Testament. Origen
quotes from it ; as does Dionysius of Alexandria
(a.d. 245), and at the Council of Laodicea
(a.D. 363) it was authoritatively included among
the canonical books. So that although not so
widely circulated as some portions of the New
Testament, the result probably of its practical
rather than doctrinal character, there is no
reason to doubt its authenticity. That the
nature of its contents might gain it little
acceptance was seen in the case of Luther, who
Introduction to the New Testament. 301
styled it " a veritable epistle of straw," because
he imagined that it went counter to St. Paul's
teaching of justification by faith, forgetting that
the failings and needs of those to whom it was
sent account sufficiently for the way in which
St. James insists that " faith without works is
dead," a doctrine which St. Paul would have
maintained as stoutly under the same con-
ditions.
Immediately after the address, the writer
turns at once to the subject of his letter. Be
patient (he urges) under afflictions, and to attain
thereunto ask in faith for wisdom from God.
It is because men have not faith, that their
requests are not answered, and want of faith
shews itself in undue regard to worldly things.^
Those who fail in trial must not charge God
with the blame. God's gifts come from above. ^
When He sends trials, they are to make of men
an offering meet for Himself. Such should be
that he is exalted and taken into the brotherhood of
Christ, the rich is likewise to rejoice because his Chris-
tian faith has brought him unto true humihty.
^ i. 19. " No variableness, neither shadow of turning."
The figure is taken from a tropical sun which shines
directly downward, and casts no shadow. God is like
this, He is never in the shadow, nor can any be in the
shadow from Him.
302 Introduction to the New Testament,
teachable, patient, and should not trust in hear-
ing which is not followed by doing. Respect of
persons is another form of the same evil, to in-
dulge which is to be unlike God and to forget
the royal law. Faith without works is the faith
of devils, not like that of Abraham and Rahab,
which bore fruit in action. Then the desire of
many to be teachers ^ is alien to the teachable
spirit. The tongue is a great evil, harder to
tame than anything else, and to use it for
cursing and blessing alike is as unnatural as
for a tree to bring forth two kinds of fruit, or
for the same spring to give two kinds of water.
The truly wise shews his wisdom in his good
life, while jealousy and faction have no part in
the wisdom that is from above. Discord in the
world comes from the pursuit of pleasures, and
from covetousness which alienates men from
God. He chooses the humble, the pure, and
the penitent. These God will exalt. Men
should avoid evil-speaking, refrain from plans
about the distant future, for life is but a vapour.
Rich men, who trust in riches, shall find them
a devouring fire. The last times are close
at hand. Let those who look for the Lord be
patient. Avoid rash oaths. In affliction pray,
* iii. I. " Be not many masters." Rev. Ver., " Be not
many teachers."
Introdtiction to the New Testament, 303
in joy sing praises. In sickness seek unto the
Lord as well as unto physicians, for now, as of
old, prayer is mighty. Strive to win sinners
from their way, so shall their sins and yours
also be covered.
{h) The First Epistle of St Peter.
Concerning the first Epistle of St. Peter,
there was never any question raised in the early
Church. It has always been received for what
it claims to be, the writing of the principal
member of the Apostolic band. It is only in
modern times that some, who represent thie
differences between Peter and Paul to have been
as great as the forged writings of the second
century picture them, have conceived it im-
possible that Peter could have written anything
so entirely in harmony as this letter is with the
writings of the great Apostle of the Gentiles.
But to accept this opinion we must ignore all
the testimony of antiquity. We have evidence
that the Epistle was known and accepted by
Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Theophilus, Ire-
naeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian,
while Origen testifies that its authority had
never been disputed. In the face of such an
array of early testimony, no amount of modern
304 Introduction to the New Testament.
criticism can avail to throw discredit on its
genuineness and authenticity, seeing further
that the heretic Marcion rejected it from his list
of Scripture but did so on the ground that it
was written by St. Peter.
In the closing verses of the Epistle, the
Apostle writes, sending the greeting of her {i.e.
the Church) " that is in Babylon." By reason of
this expression much argument has been used
to prove that St. Peter wrote this letter from
Babylon in Chaldaea, but there is no evidence
to shew that the Apostle ever visited that city,
or that in his time there was a Christian Church
there, while the use of this name for Rome can
be shewn to have been common among Jewish
writers. It is therefore more probable that the
Apostle was in Rome when he wrote, where he
is much more likely to have had Silas at hand
for his messenger, and Mark for his companion,
than in the veritable Babylon.
And the time when the letter was written
must be fixed at some date, when the Christians
in Asia, to the Churches of which it is addressed,
had become objects of persecution. This can
hardly have been the case before A.D. 64, the
year in which Nero laid the blame of the
burning of Rome to their charge, an accusation
which would make enemies for them wherever
Introduction to the New Testament. 305
the Roman power extended. This date, or a
little later, is the time favoured by internal
evidence also ; for the writer is acquainted with
some of St. Paul's letters {e.g. the Epistle to
the Ephesians) which were not in existence
much before; while, though writing, as we
believe, from Rome, he does not mention St.
Paul, because, about a year before, the Apostle
of the Gentiles had been released from his im-
prisonment, and was gone on those journeys
to Philippi, Ephesus and elsewhere, which in
the Epistles of the Captivity he had spoken of
making. But as neither Apostle lived long after
A.D. 64, we ought not to date this letter more
than a year after that time.
The Epistle is intended primarily, as the
address shews, for Jewish Christians, probably
because St. Peter knew more of them ; but it
is sent to Churches in which St. Paul had also
laboured, and was well known, and there is no
word in the teaching it contains which cannot
be profitably applied both by Gentile and Jew.
And it is this feature of the Epistle alone which
has made those who will insist on seeing
hostility between the teaching of Peter and
Paul impugn its genuineness.
After the salutation the letter deals first, with
the value, joy and blessedness of the Christian
X
3o6 Introduction to the New Testament.
revelation, in a spirit of deep thankfulness for
all the comforts and the glories of the gospel-
message, that message of salvation which the
prophets foretold, though they were not con-
scious of the full meaning of all that the Spirit
revealed through their ministry. From this it
passes to exhortation unto a sober and holy life,
befitting those who are called by Christ. For
they are intended to be a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar
people ; therefore all guile and malice must be
put away from them. And the times in which
they are living make it all the more needful
that the conversation of Christians should be
such as, by its faultlessness, to silence gainsayers.
Therefore they must submit to all lawful author-
ity, knowing that rulers are sent by God. Nay,
more, even if they suffer undeservedly, they are
to take it patiently, remembering that their
Master suffered in hke wise. The writer next
turns to speak of the duties of wives and hus-
bands, and then of the mutual kind offices
which should abound among the whole Chris-
tian society. He exhorts them to be armed
with the same mind which was in Christ. He
suffered for the sins of others. Himself being
free from sin. But being put to death in the
flesh He was quickened in the Spirit. So Chris-
Introduction to the New Testament, 307
tians may die to sin, and they should strive so
to do. For the end of all things is at hand.
Men should therefore be sober, and watch unto
prayer, should foster charity and liberality, and
should make a right use of all their gifts, that
God may be glorified in them all. Neither let
them faint at suffering, if only they suffer in the
cause of Christ, but let them commit their souls
to God's keeping.
Then with words of exhortation to elder and
younger, and with an invocation of God's grace
upon them all, the letter ends, having only a
notice that Silvanus is to be the bearer of it,
and that Mark is the Apostle's companion and
joins with the Church in Babylon in Christian
greetings.
{c) The Second Epistle of St. Peter,
The second Epistle of St. Peter, though in-
cluded, at the council of Laodicaea, among the
canonical books, was not generally accepted in
the early Church. Eusebius (a.d. 325) says of
it, " that which is circulated as his (St. Peter's)
second Epistle, we have received to be not
canonical." Yet of its early existence there is
no doubt. Passing over the allusions which
seem to be made to it by Clement of Rome
and Theophilus of Antioch (a.D. 170), we fiod
3o8 Introduction to the New Testament,
certain notice of it by Clement of Alexandria,
by Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus, by Firmilian,
Bishop of Caesarea, and by Origen, all before
A.D. 250. We may therefore be sure that it was
not without authority that it was included in
the canon in A.D. 363.
Turning to the Epistle itself, we find the
writer calls himself Symeon ^ Peter, an Apostle
of Jesus Christ. He says (iii. i) he is the author
of a previous Epistle addressed to the same per-
sons to whom this is sent. He calls himself an
old man (i. 14) whose death cannot be far off,
and claims an old man's right of exhortation.
The language and illustrations shew that he was
a Jew, and he asserts in most solemn terms
that he was a witness of the Transfiguration.^
We can hardly believe that a writer making
such declarations, in a letter directed against
false teachers, can himself (as modern critics
suggest) have been guilty of a deliberate forgery.
Now the destination of this second Epistle
^ See margin of A.V. The same spelling of the name
is found Acts xv. 14.
2 The language of the original in this section (i. 13-18)
contains many parallelisms and allusions to the accounts
of the Transfiguration which cannot be brought out by a
translation, but which are strong evidence that the writer
of the Epistle was one who had been present on that
occasion.
Introduction to the New Testament. 309
may very well have been the same as the first ;
for both appeal to a body of Christians of
whom a large number must have been converts
from Judaism, both make some use as well of
Old Testament illustrations as of Jewish oral
tradition, both are addressed to readers who
must have known St. Paul's Epistles, and have
been known to the friends of that Apostle,^
while both bespeak the author's intimate know-
ledge of those whom he addresses, and his
kindly interest in all their concerns and welfare.
Moreover, the writer of both letters looked
for the near approach of the end of this world,
in both he teaches that prophecy does not bear
with it its own interpretation, in both he dwells
on the small number of persons saved at the
Deluge, in both we find the same sentiments on
the nature and right use of Christian liberty,
and on the value of prophecy.
Once more, in both letters we find a like use
of figurative words, such as in i Peter, where in
i. 13, the writer speaks of "girding up" the
loins of the mind, and, ii. 15, of "muzzUng " for
putting men to silence ; in ii. 16, of a "veil,"
not a material one, but of maliciousness ; in ii.
20, of men " slapped with the hand," who are
buffeted for faults ; in iv. i, of "putting on the
* Cf. I Pet. V. 12, 13, and 2 Pet. iii. 15, 16.
3IO Introduction to the New Testament.
armour " of mental resolution. Like these, in
2 Peter we have (i. 9) a man " winking tight his
eyes" for him that cannot see afar off; in i. 13,
14, we read of the body as a " tabernacle ; " of
mental slumbering (ii. 3) we have the word " to
nod" in sleep; in iii. 16, those who wrest the
Scriptures are pictured as " putting them on the
rack." And both these lists might be largely
increased, while in both letters alike there are
found a great many words of unique character
occurring in these two Epistles, and nowhere
else in the New Testament, and these remark-
able words not the same in both the letters.
Further, when we compare this second Epistle
with the acknowledged words of St. Peter in
the Acts, we have, among others, the following
striking resemblances. The expression, "day
of the Lord," is found only in Acts ii. 20, and
2 Peter iii. 10, and once in St. Paul's Epistles (r
Thess. V. 2) ; but the two passages first quoted
will be seen to have much other similarity in
diction. St. Peter uses " wages of iniquity "
concerning Judas (Acts i. 18), and the same
phrase is found twice in the Epistle (2 Peter ii.
13, 15), and nowhere else in the New Testa-
ment. The English version conceals this
similarity, but in the original the resemblance is
very noteworthy. So the word for " punishing,"
Introduction to the New Testamejit. 3 1 r
in Acts iv. 2 r (a narrative certainly supplied by
St. Peter), is the same as in 2 Peter ii. 9, and
does not occur again. Turning to the Gospels,
we know that St. Mark was called the "in-
terpreter" of St. Peter. It is therefore worth
notice that the word for " giving " in Mark xv.
45, is found nowhere else but in 2 Peter i. 3 ;
the word for " toiling " in rowing only in Mark
vi. 48 and 2 Peter ii. 7, 8 ; and though " storms "
are mentioned often enough in the New Testa-
ment, yet the word in the original of Mark iv.
37 is only found again in 2 Peter ii. 17. Look-
ing then to the resemblances in language in the
two Epistles, and the coincidences found in the
second of them with words which are St. Peter's
in the Acts, and most probably his in St
Mark's Gospel (examples of which could be
largely added), we find something to warrant us
in accepting the writer of the second Epistle for
what he himself claims to be.
There is another form of evidence which goes
to prove that the letter is of the date which it
professes to be. It deals with the same subjects
exactly in the same way as St. Paul does. It
speaks as he speaks, of the " ever growing
knowledge " {iTzv^vwcri^), of misleading " fables,"
of the " covetousness " of false teachers, of their
vain " promises of liberty," of the end for which
312 Introduction to the New Testament,
God's long-suffering was displayed, of the
heresies " privily brought in by lying brethren,"
and indeed the whole position assumed by St.
Peter towards heretical teaching is exactly the
counterpart of that held by his brother apostle,
and utterly different from that which would
have been taken by a writer of the late date to
which objectors would relegate this Epistle
There are also many points in which the
writer reverts indirectly to the language and
acts of Jesus, as would only be done by one
who wrote with personal knowledge. Such ex-
pressions as " Gird up the loins of your mind,"
" Feed the flock of God which is among you,"
" Commit the keeping of your souls to God," all
fall from the writer in the most natural way, yet
all carry us back in a moment to the Lord's
words from which they are suggested, while the
account of our Lord's sufferings contains, in the
original Greek (ii. 19-24), descriptive touches
which could hardly have come from any but one
who had seen the mangled body after the
Crucifixion. Thus the writer's language is that
of other New Testament writers at the date he
professes to be writing, and his naturalness in
allusions bespeaks the truth of what he states.
His relation to St. Jude will be considered when
we speak of that Epistle.
Introduction to the New Testament, 313
In spite then of the doubts expressed in
early times, since we see this letter was accepted
as canonical by the council of Laodicaea, and as
its teaching accords with that of the Gospels
and Epistles, as its view of the Christian Church
is in harmony with other writings of the Apos-
tolic age, and as it fits into its place among the
canonical Scriptures, while its language, allu-
sions, and style, have much which mark it as St.
Peter's, we gladly receive it as his, feeling sure
that evidence, which we do not possess, con-
vinced the Fathers of old that they were right in
assigning it to him whose work it claims to be.
Its contents may be summed up thus :
Writing to those who have received the like
precious faith with himself, the Apostle urges
them to labour that they may advance in holi-
ness. Such growth increases men's knowledge
of Christ, and those who do not so grow are
blind, and fall back from their former state of
blessing. Of this he would now put them in
mind, for he will soon be taken away. And he
has good warrant for what he says, as he be-
held our Lord's Transfiguration and was an eye-
witness of His divine majesty. Beside which,
he and they have the word of the prophets, who
spake through the Holy Ghost. Yet words of
warning are needed, for as of old, so now, false
314 Tntroduction to the New Testament.
teachers will come ; but their doom has been
foreshadowed in the judgments on the world
before the Flood. Nevertheless he gives marks
by which these deceivers may be known ; their
lawlessness, their self-indulgence, their lying
promises. "I write to you" (he continues), " be-
cause the danger is near. The scoffers will come
and ask, Where is the promise of Christ's appear-
ance } Do not follow nor be like them, nor
count God slack because He does not strike
down sinners at once. He is long-suffering, but
His day will come ; therefore walk in all holy
conversation. We Christians look for a new
heaven and a new earth : let us make ourselves
fit for them. God's long-suffering is meant, as
St. Paul teaches, for man's salvation, but men
wrest that Apostle's words to their own destruc-
tion. Being warned, fall ye not away, but grow
in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, to
whom be all the glory."
{d) The First Epistle of St. John.
That the first Epistle of St. John was the
writing of the " beloved disciple," and known as
such in the Church from the earliest times, we
have abundant evidence from the days of the
Apostolic Fathers downwards. And the lan-
guage of the Epistle bespeaks its origin. It is
Introdicdion to the New Testament. 315
the doctrinal outcome of the fourth Gospel,
and couched very often in the same words as
the discourses of Christ which St. John has
recorded. There are between thirty and forty
passages in this short letter which are virtually
qnotations from the Gospel. And yet they are
used in such a way as only the author of both
could have employed them. The one is not a
patchwork compilation from the other, but is in-
stinct with life, and with a practical application
of the Gospel history to refute errors which rose
in the Apostolic age, and are likely to rise again.
All tradition unites in the statement that
the latter years of St. John's life were passed at
Ephesus, and his connection with that city and
the rest of proconsular Asia may be assumed
from the opening chapters of the Apocalypse.
Whether that work be his or not, it is written
by one who knew, and was aware that his
readers knew, of St. John's authority among the
" Churches of Asia." It is therefore most likely
that this Epistle was written in Ephesus. That
city was a great meeting-point of Greek philo-
sophy with Oriental mysticism. Even the
great goddess and her worship were of Eastern
origin, yet called by the name of a Greek
divinity. In such a place it was most probable
that the erroneous teaching, which we know in
3i6 Introduction to the New Testament,
a later time strove to graft itself on Christianity,
would make its appearance. This false doctrine
shewed itself mainly in two ways. First, in
teaching that the world was under the influence
and power of two great principles — one of light,
the other of darkness — and that between them
there was perpetual conflict, and from the latter
was the origin of evil. Besides this, the heretical
teachers held wrong opinions on the Incarna-
tion, teaching that the assumption of humanity
by the Christ was only in appearance, either
explaining that his body was merely a phantom,
or that the union between the Divine and human
subsisted only for a time, the Godhead entering
into Jesus at His baptism but departing from
Him before the Crucifixion. Against elemen-
tary stages of these errors the Epistle of St.
John is directed, not in the manner of contro-
versy, but by the assertion of the true doctrine
concerning God and Christ, the great lessons
being — " God is light, and in Him is no dark-
ness at all ; " "He that doeth sin is of the devil,
whose works the Son of God was manifested to
destroy ; " " Every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God."
The statement of these truths, and of their
practical operation on the lives of men, is St.
John's method of combating the rising error.
Introduction to the New Testament. 3 1 7
The Apostle may be supposed to have written
such a letter for circulation among all the
Churches of Asia, while still occupying his place
in Ephesus. It would thus be meant as a sort
of encyclical epistle, and in this way the absence
of any name or salutation might be accounted
for. But perhaps that feature of the Epistle
is rather due to the character of St. John than
to anything else. He shews the same desire to
be unnamed in his Gospel, and his habit of re-
tiring into the background is well illustrated in
the Acts, by the description of his share in the
first preaching at Jerusalem. He is there side
by side with St. Peter, but ever his fellow-dis-
ciple comes to the front. His life throughout
is a comment on the words of the Gospel, "He
came first to the sepulchre, yet went he not in."
We may gather from the contents of the
Epistle that Jewish opposition to the Gospel
was not any longer an object of dread. There-
fore we conclude that Jerusalem had been des-
troyed before this letter was written. But yet
active persecution against Christians is not
dreaded, so that the reign of Domitian was not
over. Thus the date of the Epistle is after A.D.
70, and probably before A.D. 90, though it was
not written immediately after the destruction of
the Holy City, or we should have had some
3i8 Introduction to the New Testament,
allusion to that event so important in the story
of the progress of Christianity. A date very
near A.D. 90 seems the most natural point to
which to assign it.
There is one verse (v. 7) of the Epistle as it
stands in our Bibles, which does not belong to
the text. The verse, with that which follows it,
should read, " There are three that bear witness,
the Spirit and the water and the blood," all the
other words which appear in the A.V. being
only a gloss and interfering with the reasoning.
The Apostle has been speaking in verse 6 of the
water and the blood by which Christ came, and
of the Spirit that beareth witness thereto, and
he emphasizes this by their repetition. The
words which are by the Rev. Ver. properly re-
jected from the sacred text, viz. "in heaven, the
Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost, and
these three are one, and there are three that
bear witness in the earth," are known as the
text of " the three heavenly witnesses." They
cannot be found in any MS. of an earlier date
than the 8th century. They have been intro-
duced from some marginal notes made in illus-
tration of the text, but have no warrant from
the original authorities, and spoil the sequence
of the reasoning. Sir Isaac Newton's remark
on the passage as it stands in our Bibles was.
Introduction to the New Testament. 319
" Let them make good sense of it who are able ;
for my part, I can make none."
The contents of the Epistle may be briefly
sketched thus: (i) The introduction. "We de-
clare unto you that which we have seen of the
Word of life, and this we do that ye, like
us, may have fellowship with the Father and
the Son, and thus attain unto fulness of joy.
(2) Our message is, ' God is light,' and those
who have fellowship with Him must walk in the
light, and then they become cleansed from sin
by the blood of Jesus. He is our advocate with
the Father, and the propitiation for our sins,
and for those of all the world. None can know
Christ, who do not strive to keep His com-
mandments, and walk after Him. The com-
mandment which I give you is not new, and
yet in a sense it is new. It is a commandment
to live a life of brotherly love. This was taught
you from the first, but has received a new force
from the life of Christ. He that loveth not
his brother is still walking in darkness."
Then, after enumerating those classes of per-
sons to whom he writes, the Apostle declares
unto them the things which they must not love,
if they would walk in the light ; and after this
proceeds to point out how the darkness is mani-
fested by the presence of Antichrists, who deny
320 Introduction to the New Testament,
the Son, and therefore have no share in the
Father.
(3) The next part of the message is " God is
love," and by doing righteousness men may be
called His sons. This knowledge should lead
men to purify their lives ; for those who sin are
not sons of God, but of the devil. And the test
of doing righteousness is love of the brethren,
not love in word, but in deed and in truth.
Through this love we approach the blessedness
of sonship. But not every spirit is the result
of this sonship, therefore they should be tried.
Perfect love is the best test. If that be not
present, the spirit cannot be of God. And love
itself is tested by faith. To be born of God,
we must believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
Then, in a conclusion which recapitulates the
previous argument, and after a solemn warning,
the letter closes with a sentence very fit to be
addressed to dwellers in the city of Ephesus,
" Guard yourselves from idols."
[ej) The Second and T hird Epistles of St. John.
For the second and third Epistles of St. John,
there is not much external evidence to be pro-
duced, for their brevity made them less Hkely
to be quoted or alluded to by the early Christian
writers. But the second is alluded to in the
Introduction to the New Testament. 321
Muratorian Canon, and Dionysius, the disciple
of Origen, makes definite allusion to the third.
They are without a name, in which point they
resemble the first Epistle, and they also abound
in forms common to that Epistle. There is
therefore no reason for disregarding the tradition
which ascribes them to St. John, and they were
probably written from Ephesus.
In the second, the writer, who is apparently
staying in a place where he is brought into
contact with some of the children of her to
whom he writes, expresses his joy over the faith
which is manifest in them, and adds a solemn
warning against those teachers who confess not
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. He hopes
soon to see her to whom he writes, and sends
her the greetings of another Christian sister.
The third Epistle is addressed to Gaius the
beloved, to whom the Apostle wishes all pros-
perity, and tells of his own joy at hearing that
he walks still in the truth. The kindness which
Gaius has shewn to Christian strangers is a
good work. These men are gone forth for
the sake of 'God's name; to welcome them is
to become fellow-workers with the truth. The
conduct of Diotrephes is the opposite of this,
and is to be avoided. The Apostle, when he
comes, will not forget his deeds. He loves
Y
32 2 Int7'oduction to the New Testament,
pre-eminence, and, while he does not himself re-
ceive the brethren, would hinder those who are
willing to do so. Demetrius (the Apostle adds,
perhaps speaking of the messenger who carried
the letter) is well spoken of by all men, and I
give my witness with the rest. Then, as hoping
to see Gaius ere long, while sending his own
and his friends' salutations to the Christian
body of which Gaius was a member, the writer
closes with the briefest prayer for peace.
{g) The Epistle of St. Jiide.
The writer of the Epistle of St Jude calls him-
self only Jude, the brother of James, and does
not name himself an Apostle. He was probably
therefore the brother of that well-known James,
the Bishop of Jerusalem, and so one of the
"Lord's brethren." He seems to state expressly
that he was not one of the Apostles ; for he
writes (ver. 17), "Remember ye the words which
have been spoken before by the Apostles of our
Lord Jesus Christ, how that they said unto you,"
etc. And he, like St. James, refrained from
mentioning his close connection with Jesus,
because he did not desire to lay stress on a
position which none of the other disciples could
claim, and this feeling would be the stronger
because for a long time the "brethren of the
Introduction to the New Testament, 323
Lord " had not believed in Him, and this may
be the reason why both James and Jude call
themselves bondservants of Jesus Christ.
The Epistle bears evidence that it was written
for Christians who had been Jews; for all the
illustrations used in it are such as would be
employed only by a Jew writing for Jews.
The deliverance from Egypt, the fallen angels,
Sodom and Gomorrah, Michael's contention
with Satan, the allusions to Cain, Balaam, and
Korah, shew an acquaintance in the writer, and
presumed on in the readers, not only with
Jewish Scripture, but with tradition also.
This Epistle was by many classed among
the doubtful portions {antilegomend) of the New
Testament writings. Yet the evidence to be
derived from quotations in the Fathers is that
it was known in Italy and the Churches of
Northern Africa, as well as in Alexandria, by
the middle or in the latter half of the second
century, though its acceptance in the East was
not general till the beginning of the fourth
century. It appears however, from a statement
of Jerome, that the chief reason why it won its
way to acceptance so late was that it contains a
quotation "from the book of Enoch, which is
apocryphal."
As might be expected in so brief a letter,
324 Introduction to the New Testament.
there is very little to guide us to the date when
it was written. Yet the writer exhorts his
readers to remember the words which have been
spoken by the Apostles, and the language in the
original here implies something pronounced and
heard directly. Therefore we may suppose that
those for whom the letter was intended had
listened to the preaching of some of the twelve.
And this is confirmed by what is said in another
verse : " Remember how they said to you." As
we know from Eusebius that St. Jude was dead
before the time of Domitian, we are constrained
to date the letter previous to A.D. 80, and it
may have been written as early as A.D. 65,
though it seems most natural to conclude that
it was written after the second Epistle of St.
Peter. It is generally admitted that one of
these writers knew of the work of the other, or
else that they were drawing their illustrations
from a common source, viz., some previously
existing Jewish writing. But in the Epistle of
St. Peter it is said (ii. i), "There shall be false
teachers, who shall privily bring in heresies,"
etc., and elsewhere, "scoffers shall come,"
while St. Jude's language refers to a different
time. He says the evil exists, and is not still
to come. " There are certain men crept in un-
awares." With him the "spots" in the "feasts of
Introduction to the New Testament, 325
charity " already exist, and he beholds the false
teachers " pasturing themselves without fear."
And in the characters portrayed there is an
advance in St. Jude upon the description given
by St. Peter. The latter speaks of "teachers,"
men who "with feigned words make merchan-
dise of you," who "beguile unstable souls."
But St. Jude's picture is painted in much darker
colours. There is no mention of the offenders
as teachers ; they are simply degraded in their
lives by wicked lusts, they " turn the grace of
God into lasciviousness," they walk after their
own lusts," they " are sensual," and " what they
know naturally in those things they corrupt
themselves." Thus the letter of St. Jude ap-
pears to have been written when evil lessons
had brought forth their fruit in evil lives.
Moreover St. Jude seems to have expanded
the illustrations of St. Peter, so that they apply
more definitely to the sensual excesses against
which he had to write. This will be specially
apparent on reading what is said about the
overthrow of the cities of the plain (2 Pet. ii. 6,
and Jude 7). St. Jude charges his picture more
deeply, because he has in his mind a scene of
a grosser character. The sinners of whom he
speaks glory in their wickedness. Under the
public gaze they have no feeling of shame;
326 Introduction to the New Testament.
they are doubly dead, and it is for ever that for
them the blackness of darkness is reserved.
Some time then must have passed by before
the teachers of St. Peter had developed into
the hopeless condition pictured by St. Jude.
The Epistle opens with a salutation and in-
vocation of blessing on those addressed. The
writer was minded to have sent them a letter
dealing with the general doctrines of the Chris-
tian faith, but the existence of false teachers
calls for a prompt and special Epistle. He re-
minds his readers that among those who came
up from Egypt there were faithless men whom
God destroyed, that even angels which sinned
are kept in bonds for judgment, while the over-
throw of the cities of the plain is a warning for
such sinners for all time. Yet now there have
arisen ungodly men, who commit the like gross
sins, who despise authority, and give free rein
to their animal nature. Continuing his descrip-
tion, he classes these sinners with Cain, Balaam,
and Korah ; they are foul stains on the Chris-
tian community, and shamelessly make public
their own disgrace. Enoch prophesied of such
offenders and their end. Then the writer turns
to exhortation. Such mockers had been fore-
told by the Apostles, now they have appeared.
Let the faithful hold firm to the end, praying
Introduction to the New Testament. 327
and waiting for the mercy of Christ. Next he
directs how the offenders are to be treated/ and
with a solemn ascription brings his brief letter
to an end:
The Book of Enoch, from which a quotation
is made in the Epistle, exists now only in an
iEthiopic version ; but it was current in the
early Christian centuries in Greek, and we may
almost certainly assume that it was in Greek
that Tertullian and Augustine (who speak of it)
knew it. The original may have been in some
Hebrew dialect ; and though in the course of
time additions may have been made to it, recent
investigations have shewn that there is no satis-
factory reason for disbeheving that the ground-
work of the book existed in the times of our
Lord, and that from this St. Jude made his
quotation.
* In verses 22-23 there is some uncertainty about the
Greek text. That which seems to have most authority-
would be rendered as in the Rev. Ver. "And on some
have mercy, who are in doubt ; and some save, snatching
them out of the fire ; and on some have mercy with fear,
hating even the garment spotted by the flesh." Thus the
sinners for whose salvation Christians are to labour are
put in three classes, each being in a worse state than the
former. First, the waverers ; second, those who are all
but in the fire of sin ; third, those who are so far gone
that it is only great love for souls that will prompt men
to go through the danger of trying to rescue them.
CHAPTER IX.
THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN.
This book, sometimes called the "Apocalypse,"
from the Greek word signifying " revelation,"
differs in the character of its contents from all
other books of the New Testament. The rest
contain history, doctrinal teaching, and exhor-
tation ; the Revelation is the sole prophetical
book of the Christian canon. It claims to be
the work of a certain John, whom the evidence,
both internal and external, attests to have been
the "beloved disciple." That he should name
himself simply John shews that he was aware
that he would be recognised among Christians
as the most celebrated bearer of that name in
the time when he lived ; while the address to
the seven Churches of Asia is what would be
natural in one who had taken Ephesus for the
scene of his apostolic labours. Moreover the
writer calls himself, like the rest of the Apostles,
a bondservant of Jesus, says that he is bearing
record of the Word of God, and of the testi-
328
hitrodudion to the New Testament, 329
mony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he
had seen. Language could scarcely indicate
more clearly that this John is one who " from
the beginning was an eye-witness and minister
of the Word."
Accordingly, though some doubts about the
authorship were raised, even in very early times
(Eus., H. E.f vii. 25), the general testimony
of antiquity has assigned this book to the
author of the fourth Gospel. Beginning in the
early part of the second century with Papias,
Bishop of Hierapolis, who was a friend of
Polycarp, St. John's disciple, and who main-
tained the Divine inspiration of the Apocalypse,
and commented upon some part of it, the list
of witnesses is very large down to the time
when this book was inserted in the Canon in
the middle of the fourth century. Justin
Martyr, who lived A.D. 150, says, "Moreover
also among us a man named John, one of the
Apostles of Christ, prophesied in a revelation
made to him that those who have believed
on our Christ shall spend a thousand years
in Jerusalem." At the time when Justin was
martyred, Dionysius appears to have been
Bishop of Corinth, and he speaks of "the woe
appointed for those who take away some things
and add others [to the Scriptures]," a manifest
330 Introduction to the New Testament.
allusion to Apoc. xxii. i8. Then the Revela-
tion is included in the Canon of Muratori (A.D.
170), and there it is expressly ascribed to St.
John ; and at the same date Melito of Sardis
wrote a treatise on the book, which shews that
by that time it was circulated and accepted as
the work of the Apostle St. John. Such wit-
nesses might be cited through the whole time
before the settlement of the Canon, but it will
be enough to mention that Irenaeus not only
quotes the text of the book, but speaks of the
oral testimony thereto of the very persons who
had seen St. John face to face ; and in a letter
written by the Christians of Lyons and Vienne
(a.d. 171), over whom Irenaeus became bishop,
the Apocalypse (xxii. 11) is directly referred to,
and the allusion is prefaced by the expression
"that the Scripture might be fulfilled." Thus
to the opinion of very early antiquity, both
about the author of the book and its scriptural
character, we have evidence as strong as could
be desired. And though in the council of
Laodicaea the Apocalypse is not mentioned in
the Canon, this is because the list there given
is expressly defined as of "those books which
were read in the churches," to which use, from
the nature of its contents, this book was not
deemed well adapted. Yet by the council of
Introdi(,ction to the New Testament. 331
Carthage, about thirty years later, it is specially
noticed as the work of St. John.
When we approach the question of date, it is
not without much difficulty that we can come
to a conclusion where and when the Apocalypse
was written. The language of Irenaeus is very
express, that " the Revelation was seen no long
time since, but almost in our own generation,
towards the end of the reign of Domitian " (A.D.
96) ; and Eusebius quotes the same writer as
saying, "As it is reported, John, at once
Apostle and Evangelist, while still continuing
in life, was condemned to dwell in the island
of Patmos, on account of the testimony which
he bore to the Divine Word." To this state-
ment, Eusebius adds that, "after Domitian's
death, the Apostle, coming back from his exile
in the island, resumed his residence at Ephesus."
This is the prevailing opinion of antiquity, and
thus it has been inferred that the Apocalypse
was written either in Patmos, or after the return
to Ephesus, and hence that its date must be
fixed after A.D. 96.
But in spite of this very definite evidence
from old times, we cannot help seeing, as we
read the book itself, that it bears the stamp of
an earlier date, and there are some witnesses
from antiquity who place the exile of St. John
332 Introduction to the New Testament,
much earlier than the reign of Domitian.
Theophylact tells us that St. John was in
Patmos thirty-two years after the Ascension,
and in the preface to the Syriac version of
the Apocalypse we read that he was banished
thither by the Emperor Nero ; so that the
external testimony is not entirely accordant.
Looking, then, at the internal evidence, it seems
very improbable that the writer would have said
(xi. 2), " The holy city shall they [the Gentiles]
tread under foot forty and two months," if, at
the time when he was writing, Jerusalem had
been already destroyed. And this opinion is
strengthened when we see that the city which
is to come down from heaven is to be " a new
Jerusalem," and that the Lamb is to stand on
Mount Sion (xiv. i), as a prelude to the preach-
ing of the Gospel to every nation and kindred
and tongue and people. The city which the
writer knew, and which God had chosen to
place His name there, was still, to St. John at
this time, the place whence " the Word of the
Lord should go forth, and where the mountain
of the Lord's house was to be established in the
top of the mountains." And in harmony with
this notion of its composition before the over-
throw of Jerusalem, the whole book abounds
with Old Testament imagery, and (with the
Introduction to the New Testament. 333
exception of the Temple) looks forward to the
preservation of much of the Old Testament
economy. The description of the Son of Man
(i. 12-16) is a reproduction of the visions of
Ezekiel and Daniel, and He is afterwards
spoken of (iii. 7) as " He that hath the key of
David." The same remark applies also to the
vision of God enthroned, and surrounded by the
elders and the mystic beasts. So, too, those
who are sealed as the servants of God are of all
the tribes of the children of Israel, while the
offence of some of the sinners in the Asiatic
Churches is that "they say they are Jews while
they are not, but are the synagogue of Satan."
Then the view which the writer holds con-
cerning the near approach of our Lord's coming
harmonizes entirely with the opinions prevalent
in the first years of the Christian Church, but
which were modified in the minds of all the
New Testament writers as time went on, and
the character of which was changed after the
overthrow of the Holy City. That one "com-
ing " of Christ made clearer the Spirit's lessons
about the further coming for which men should
look. But in the Apocalypse that first event
is still in the future. " The time is at hand."
" Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye
shall see Him, and they also which pierced
334 Introduction to the New Testament,
Him." The suddenness and unexpected cha-
racter of the coming of the Son of Man " as a
thief in the night," a description found in the
Synoptic Gospels, but not in St. John, is con-
stantly before the eyes of the writer of the
Apocalypse (iii. 3 ; xvi. 5), while the " Blessed
is he that watcheth" is an exact echo of St.
Luke's language (xii. 37), "Blessed are those
servants whom the Lord, when He cometh,
shall find watching." This tone is sustained
throughout the whole Book of Revelation ; and
as though this subject formed the most impor-
tant part of the message, the writer closes with
the solemn repetition, "He which testifieth
these things saith, Behold, I come quickly,"
and the prayer of the Apostle to whom the
vision is vouchsafed is, "Even so, come, Lord
Jesus."
How different this expectation of "things
which must shortly come to pass" upon the
earth is from that coming of which the same
John writes in the Gospel, when the earthly
manifestations of Christ's earlier coming were
past, and through heaven-sent illumination their
lesson had been made clear! In the Gospel the
" coming " speaks not to Jews only, but to all
the world. The departed Lord has gone into
heaven, and will come again to receive His
chosen ones unto Himself, and they, in His
Introduction to the New Testament. 335
absence, shall be strengthened by the Com-
forter. Christ's kingdom, and the union of
Christians with Him, shall be through the
sanctification of the Spirit. Christ will dwell
in His Church, but His coming is not to be
pictured by external visitations such as are
spoken of in the Apocalypse, nor is His victory
merely as the lion of the tribe of Judah, the
root of David. The early language of the New
Testament times, which speaks of signs in the
sun and in the moon and in the stars, and upon
the earth distress of nations with perplexity,
the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts
failing them for fear, and for looking for those
things which are coming upon the earth, all
finds its parallel in the Revelation, and the
whole conception of the book bespeaks a time
before Judaism was scattered by the armies of
Rome. Michael and his angels carry on the
war in heaven (xii. 7) ; those who are victorious
over the beast sing the song of Moses, the
servant of God (xv. 3) ; and the typical names
of the nations that are led astray are " Gog and
Magog," names drawn from Ezekiel, and oft
used in Jewish literature to describe those
peoples who should rise up to oppose the
kingdom of the Messiah ; while the Gentile
nations are, as of old, to be God's ministers for
the punishment (xi. 2) of His offending people.
33^ Introduction to the New Testament.
It should be noticed also that the Apocalypse,
like the earlier Gospels, dwells on the human
side of Christ's life rather than the Divine. He
is first presented as " one like unto the Son of
Man ; " He now liveth, but has died like man ;
He hath the key of David, and it is as the
representative of mankind that He opens the
book sealed with seven seals ; His praise is sung
as the Lamb that was slain, and who by His
blood redeemed men unto God ; and He is to
be the Judge who shall give to every man
according to his work. He is throughout
proclaimed as the root and offspring of David.
But of the doctrine of His eternal Sonship, and
of His co-existence with the Father, and of
the whole Divine side of the Saviour's life, so
fully set forth in the fourth Gospel, the Revela-
tion gives but the faintest glimpses, such as
may be gathered in the Synoptists, who wrote
before the Christian body had been strengthened
by the Holy Ghost to accept and set forth the
majesty of the Lord in all its fulness.
Yet there is much in the language which
proclaims the writer of the Apocalypse and of
the fourth Gospel to be the same person. With
both the Christ is "the Word" of God; both
speak of Him as "the Lamb," and as "the Shep-
herd;" both use like language of Him as "the
Introduction to the New Testament. 337
Bridegroom," and the books are marked by the
employment of similar images ; thus the hidden
food, bread or manna, and the living water are
spoken of in the same way, and in both books
we have the thought, " the harvest of the earth
is ripe," used with precisely the same import.
Besides these resemblances, the books shew a
fondness in the writer for certain words ; thus
"witness," "sign," "to overcome," "to keep
God's word," " to dwell," or " tabernacle," are
only a few out of many expressions which
equally stand forth in both the Gospel and the
Revelation, and stamp them as coming from
the same hand.
Yet, in spite of the tradition about the date
of St. John's exile, and the positive language
of Irenaeus, the historic setting of the book of
the Revelation, as well as the incomplete view
which it gives of Christ's work and kingdom,
and the great prominence assigned to the Jewish
ceremonial and economy in depicting the de-
velopment of Christianity, make it seem more
reasonable to place the date of its writing
anterior to the overthrow of the Holy City and
the Jewish polity, and its fitting place among
the Christian books appears to be between the
first three Gospels and the fourth.
It has been urged as an objection against this
z
2,3^ IntrodMction to the Nezv Testament.
early date, that St. Paul's labours among the
Churches in Asia only terminated about A.D. 60,
and that the condition of those Churches as
portrayed in the Apocalypse shews a greater
relapse than would be likely to have occurred
in less than ten years. But St. Paul himself, a
a man well able to read the signs of the times,
testified to the elders of Ephesus (Acts xx. 29),
on his departure from them, " I know this, that
after my departing shall grievous wolves enter
in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of
your own selves shall men arise, speaking per-
verse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Therefore watch." And his experience of the
Galatian Churches in a less period than ten
years compels him to address them (Gal. i. 6),
" I marvel that ye are so soon removed from
him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel." It is therefore impossible
to affirm any conclusion about the date of the
Apocalypse from the picture presented in it
before A.D. 70 of some of the Churches to which
St. Paul had given his charge in his last journey
through Asia.
As the Apocalypse is a sort of circular letter
addressed to the seven Churches by the Spirit
through St. John, it may very well have been
written from one of the Churches named in it.
Introduction to the New Testament. 339
and as Ephesus stands first in the list of the
seven, and the Apostle was more closely con-
nected with that Church than with the rest,
there is no need to question the tradition which
states that it was written from Ephesus.
The first three verses may be taken as the
title of the book, which is followed by St. John's
salutation to the Churches, and an account of
the way in which the visions he is to record
were given to him in Patmos by " one like the
Son of Man," who bade him write the things
here revealed, which are expressly named things
which are, and things which shall be hereafter,
to the seven Churches. After this (ii., iii.) fol-
low the letters to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos,
Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicaea,
each with its special message of approval or of
warning, the warnings being the more abundant,
and the whole picture shewing that the religion
of Jesus was at that time in conflict with a false
Judaism, the evil influence of which St. John
emphasizes by naming its adherents " the syna-
gogue of Satan." The speaker in each epistle
is the Son of Man, and at its close each letter
is called " the Spirit's message to Churches."
The next section of the Revelation (iv. to
xi.) leaves particular Churches, and is addressed
to the Church universal. The Apostle in his
340 Introduction to the New Testament.
vision beholds God on His throne in heaven,
surrounded by the elders and the mystic beasts,
and receiving their adoration, which rests not
day and night. In God's right hand is a book
with seven seals, which none could open but
the Lamb that had been slain. To Him, as to
God, the beasts and elders pay their worship,
and sing a new song in praise of the Redeemer.
Each seal in turn is broken, and the Apostle
beholds (i) one sitting on a white horse, and
going forth conquering and to conquer ; (2) one
on a red horse, with power to take peace away
from the earth ; (3) one on a black horse, hold-
ing balances in his hand, and indicative of
famine ; (4) a pale horse, whose rider was
Death, with Hell for his attendant ; (5) under
the altar the souls of the martyrs ; (6) an earth-
quake, followed by signs in heaven and com-
motion on the earth, because the day of God's
wrath is near. But all the terrors portended
by the previous visions are stayed until the
sealing of the servants of God is finished.
Then (7) the last seal is opened ; and, after a
silence in heaven, the seven angels of God go
forth with trumpets, and at the sound of the
first trumpet hail and fire fall upon the earth,
and destroy much of it ; at the second trumpet
a fiery mountain is rolled into the sea, by which
Introduction to the New Testament. 341
both the fish in the sea and the ships upon
it are widely destroyed ; the third sound heralds
the fall of a star from heaven, which makes the
waters of the earth bitter and deadly ; at the
blast of the fourth angel the sun, the moon,
and the stars are smitten, and a cry of woe is
raised in heaven because of the still greater
judgments which are yet to come upon the
world. When the fifth angel sounded, another
star fell from heaven, and opened the bottom-
less pit, from which issued, amid the smoke,
locusts, which are sent to torment the men that
are not sealed, so that they shall desire to die,
yet death shall flee from them. This army,
forming the first woe, are under the leading of
their king, Apollyon. At the sounding of the
sixth trumpet, four angels, which had been
bound, are loosed, and they, with their host,
through the fire and smoke and brimstone
coming from their mouths, destroyed the third
part of the men, yet the rest repented not of
their evil. Then from heaven appears a mighty
angel holding a book, and proclaiming that
time shall be no longer. He gives the Apostle
the book to eat, and afterwards commands him
to measure the Temple and its worshippers ;
but the Court of the Gentiles is not to be
measured, for unto them is given up the Holy
342 Introduction to the New Testament.
City, to be trodden under foot. Then is de-
scribed the prophesying of God's two witnesses,
who yet shall be destroyed by the beast that
Cometh up out of the bottomless pit ; and after
men have triumphed over the death of these
prophets, whose words were their torment, the
Spirit of life from God shall enter into them
and they shall live again and ascend into heaven.
This in his vision the writer sees to come to pass,
and their ascension was followed by an earth-
quake, which terrified men so that they gave
glory to the God of heaven. Afterwards the
seventh trumpet sounds, and the reign of Christ
is proclaimed, and that the time has come for
judgment.
The rest of the book is occupied with visions
which represent the conflicts of the Church of
Christ with the powers of evil under various
figures, and referring, as it seems, to various
times. First (xii.), there appears a woman
clothed with the sun, and while she travails in
birth a dragon with seven heads and ten horns
is ready to devour her child as soon as it shall
be born. To save it from such destruction the
man-child, who is to rule all nations with a rod
of iron, is caught up to the throne of God, while
Michael and his angels fight against the dragon
and prevail, so that he is cast down to the
Introduction to the New Testament. 343
earth, where he persecuted the woman who
had broup^ht forth the child. The woman is
dehvered, but the dragon continues to make
war with her seed.
The next vision (xiii.) is of a beast with seven
heads and ten horns, to whom the dragon gave
his power and seat and authority ; and he
opened his mouth in blasphemy against God.
Then there arose a second beast, who caused
the earth and them that dwell therein to wor-
ship the first beast, and to make an image
unto him, and those who would not worship the
image were to be killed. He caused all men
everywhere to bear the mark, or the name, or
the number of the name of the beast ; and the
number is six hundred threescore and six.
In the next chapter (xiv.) the vision is of the
Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and about Him
those who have His Father's name in their
foreheads ; these are without fault before the
throne of God. Then from the midst of heaven
came forth one angel to preach the everlasting
Gospel, another proclaiming the fall of Babylon,
and a third pronouncing the judgment that
should come on those that worship the beast
and his image. Proclamation is also made from
heaven that the harvest of the world is ripe,
and straightway the vine of the earth is gathered
344 Introduction to the New Testament.
and cast into the winepress of the wrath of
God.
The chapters from xv. to xix. are largely
occupied with the judgment of Babylon, which
is pictured as a harlot drunken with the blood
of the saints. The vision is opened by seven
angels who bear the last seven plagues, and
those who have overcome the beast are seen
standing on a sea of glass, and singing the songs
of Moses and of the Lamb. The angels pour
out each their vial, the first on the earth, when
there falls a sore upon those who had wor-
shipped the beast ; the second vial turns the
sea into blood ; the third destroys the rivers in
like manner ; the fourth vial was poured on the
sun, and all men were scorched with his fire ;
the fifth was poured upon the seat where the
beast had sat, and the sixth upon the river
Euphrates. Then are beheld the spirits of
devils who go forth to gather the kings of the
earth to the battle of that great day of God
Almighty in the place called Har-Magedon.
At the pouring out of the seventh vial, great
Babylon came in remembrance before God, that
He might make her drink the cup of the wine
of the fierceness of His wrath. Then there is
set before the seer the vision, first, of the harlot
Babylon in all her splendour, and an explanation
Introduction to the New Testament. 345
is given to him which connects this figurative
woman with the beast that came forth from the
bottomless pit, and he is shewn how the powers,
of which the horns of the beast are emblems,
make war upon the Lamb, but are overcome.
It is also told him that the woman is "that
great city which reigneth over the kings of the
earth." Then an angel publishes the fall of
Babylon, while the people of God are exhorted
to flee from the midst of her. The kings of
the earth and the merchants are loud in their
wail over her, but heaven and the apostles and
prophets are called on to rejoice at her over-
throw, because in her was found the blood of
the prophets, the saints, and of all that were
slain upon the earth. After this the praise of
God is sung in heaven because He hath thus
avenged the blood of His saints ; for now the
marriage of the Lamb is come, and blessed are
all they that are called to the marriage supper.
Next heaven is opened, and there appears a
white horse, whose rider is called " Faithful and
true," and also "the Word of God," while on
His vesture and on His thigh a name is written,
" King of kings and Lord of lords." An angel
cries unto all the fowls of the heaven to come
and devour, for there is a great slaughter by
the sword of Him that sitteth on the horse,
346 Introduction to the New Testmnent.
while the beast and the false prophet are cast
into the lake of fire.
The next chapter (xx.) reveals how Satan
shall be bound for a thousand years, after which
shall come the first resurrection, and those who
have part therein shall for a thousand years be
priests of God, and reign with Christ. After
this Satan is again to be loosed, and shall
deceive the nations, though in the end he shall
be bound and cast into the lake of fire and
brimstone. Then shall come the general resur-
rection and the judgment day.
Next follows (xxi. i to xxii. 7) a vision of the
New Jerusalem coming down in glory out of
heaven, and voices from heaven proclaim that
now God has made His tabernacle among men.
This new Jerusalem is the bride, the Lamb's
wife. And her grandeur is described as that
of a magnificent city where dwelt the Lord
God Almighty and the Lamb, while the glory
of God was the light thereof, and into it entered
nothing that could defile. Through the city
flowed the river of the water of life, and in the
midst of her grew the tree of life, whose fruit
was for the healing of the nations. There, with
God as their light, His servants shall reign for
ever and ever.
St. John, who had seen these visions, would
Introduction to the New Testament. 2,47
(xxii. 8-20) have worshipped the angel that
shewed them unto him, but was forbidden, and
told that the time for the fulfilment of all that
he had seen was near, and that what had been
revealed was true, neither should any man take
from or add to the words of this book. The
portion of him that doeth so will God take
away out of the book of life.
In the interpretation of these prophetic
visions Christians have evinced from the earliest
times the deepest interest.^ For some centuries,
however, of the first portion of our era, no
regular scheme was elaborated for arranging
and explaining the revelations which St. John
had received. Rome was identified with Baby-
lon, it is true, but this name had before been
given by Jews to the imperial city, and the
sufferings which both Jews and Christians ex-
perienced from Roman rule made the appli-
cation a natural one. The expectation, how-
ever, of the speedy coming of Christ mainly
absorbed men's thoughts, and the reign of Anti-
christ, the millennium, and the day of judgment
were subjects on which these revelations were
^ It is, however, very remarkable that though much
read and studied in Western Christendom, the Apocalypse
was a neglected book in the Churches of the East for
many centuries.
34^ Introduction to the New Testament.
accepted, rather as general representations of
what God had been pleased to make known
concerning the future of Christ's Church, than
as statements which might be subjected to
definite chronological arrangement. This was
the disposition of most men towards the Apoca-
lypse while Christianity was struggling against
heresy and heathenism. But when she had
attained a firmer footing in the West as well
as in the East, and the faith of Christ was
professed by the rulers of the world, the early
conceptions about the fulfilment of these pre-
dictions faded from men's minds, and they no
longer centered their thoughts upon a spiritual
kingdom, in which Christ with His saints would
speedily come to reign upon the earth, but
began to look for the accomplishment of what
had been revealed in the spread of the Christian
religion among the kingdoms of the world.
While the Roman Empire prospered, the Chris-
tians who meditated on these things restricted
their application of the Apocalypse in great
part to Western Christendom, a course into
which very many subsequent commentators
have been betrayed. Thus, the spread of
Roman sway under Christian princes was
looked upon as the divinely appointed channel
for the extension of Christianity. Afterwards,
Introduction to the New Testament. 349
as the decline of Rome came about, interpreta-
tions were framed in which the invaders of
the empire, heretics and barbarians, were identi-
fied with those powers of evil against which
it had been shewn to St. John that Christ's
Church would have to contend. As further
time went on, and instead of the imperial power
the papal authority became paramount in the
West, and when that authority encroached every-
where and became intolerable, men declared once
again that Rome was intended by the apoca-
lyptic Babylon, and that the Pope was the
fulfilment of the vision of Antichrist.
In consequence of the movements which
preceded the Reformation, a degree of greater
definiteness was given to the schemes of inter-
pretation applied to the Book of Revelation,
and the historical application of the figures
which it contains was a fruitful field of labour
from the time of Wyclifie downward, and has
indeed been so from that date to our own, the
spirit of interpretation being more active at some
periods {e.g. in the stirring events which attended
on the French Revolution) than at others. The
historical interpreters have generally regarded
this solemn book as giving a history of the
Church of Christ down to the end of the world,
only differing from one another as to whether
350 Introduction to the New Testament.
the several series of visions should be looked
upon as one successive of the other, or whether
they refer to events which may be going on side
by side. There has, however, been much differ-
ence of opinion as to the significance and appli-
cation of the various signs, on which wide field
our limited space forbids us to enter. We can
only draw the conclusion from the abundance
of applications that have been discovered, that
the full insight into a great deal that is revealed
has not yet been reached, and that, as in his-
tory, events repeat themselves, so to God's
prophecy there may be several lower historical
fulfilments of a partial kind before the end is
reached, which He alone could see from the
beginning. It should be also remarked that
the historical interpreters of the Apocalypse
have, from the engrossing nature of the points
to which their special inquiries attracted them,
been prone to seek the solution of what is re-
vealed in the history of a single limited section
of the Christian world, and in the narrow space
occupied by one exciting period of Church
history, losing sight perhaps in some degree
of the fact that as the Church of Christ is to be
victorious over the whole world, so the conflicts
through which she has to pass may be carried
on in other theatres than Europe.
Introduction to the New Testament,
00
But beside the historical method of interpre-
tation, there have arisen two other classes of
expositors, one of which, restricting the vision
of the writer to the days in which he lived, and
allowing him no more gifts than a wise skill in
foreseeing the course which events were taking,
has maintained that all the troubles and
struggles of which he spake had reference to
Judaism and the Roman Empire, and the
hindrances which both these were likely to cast
in the way of any advance of the Christian
faith. Such men hold that the Revelation has
long ago been accomplished, and that our study
should be confined to gathering the method of
its fulfilment by examination of the events
of the first and second centuries.
On the opposite extreme stand those who
cannot be called interpreters, but who hold
that there will be no fulfilment of these visions
till the last coming of Christ is nigh at hand.
Some of these go so far as to declare that the
seven Churches of Asia have not yet arisen,
while even those who admit that the first three
chapters of our book may have historical refer-
ence, yet relegate the accomplishment of all
beside to the far distant future.
Now for endeavouring to estimate the cha-
racter of any scheme of interpretation applied
352 Introduction to the New Testament.
to the New Testament Apocalypse, we seem to
have our best aid in the study of those apoca-
lyptic words of Christ Himself, left for us in
the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth chapters of
St. Matthew. There, though commencing with
signs which should precede the destruction of
Jerusalem, and calling that event a coming of
the Son of Man, our Lord yet uses this as a
type of, and introduction to, that greater coming
when He shall appear in glory, and all His holy
angels with Him. With this for our guide, Vv'e
should be unwilling to accept the exposition of
those who hold that the events of which St.
John was directed to speak were all accom-
plished in the immediate future after his book
was written. That the Spirit should have
employed solemn language, like that which
speaks of the Son of Man on His throne of
glory, of the judgment being set, and the books
open, concerning matters which had to do only
with the fall of Jerusalem and the fortunes of
the Roman Empire, is alien to the character
of Divine revelation. Nor can we think it in
harmony with God's other dealings towards
men, that He should give in this book nothing
but a picture of what was to be looked for in
the far distant future. God's revelation has
been ever progressive, and has been given as
Introduction to the New Testament. 353
man became prepared to receive and use it. It
seems therefore reasonable to accept the Chris-
tian Apocalypse as given to be a help and a
warning to the Church from the time when it
was first made known until its complete fulfil-
ment shall arrive. Some "comings" of the
Son of Man have, no doubt, passed by. The
fall of Jerusalem He Himself has so named.
And we may be permitted to recognize others
in the spread of Christianity, in the barbarian
inroads upon the Roman Empire, in the rise
of Mohammedanism, in the darkness of the
Middle Ages, in the Reformation, in the French
Revolution. Each of these great events has
doubtless been a coming of Christ in mercy or
in judgment, and each has brought nearer the
day of that greater coming which shall solve all
the mystery of what St. John was permitted to
behold. To read therefore in history the fulfil-
ment of the visions is a wise employment of
God's Word, and no disappointment should be
felt if there be found in what we see and read
only a partial accomplishment of what has been
revealed. For in giving His own Apocalypse,
Christ gave also the warning : " Ye shall hear
of wars and rumours of wars ; but the end is
not yet ; " and said of the risings of nations, and
of the famines, pestilences and earthqual^es,
A A
354 Introduction to tJie New Testament.
with which God should from time to time reveal
His power upon the earth, that these were but
the beginning of sorrows, while He added, con-
cerning the great day of the Son of Man, that
it should be such as all men would recognize ;
for it should be as the lightning coming from
the east, and shining even unto the west.
LIST OF WRITERS, EVENTS, AND WORKS
CITED AS AUTHORITIES, WITH THEIR
DATES.
Athenagoras, a Greek Apologist . . . a.d. 177
Authorized Version put forth 161 1
Bishop's Bible . . . . . . .1568
Carthage, Council of (third) 397
Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople . . 398
Claudius Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis . . 180
Clemens Alexandrinus 165 — 220
Clemens Romanus .... died about 100
Complutensian Polyglot published . . . 1522
Coverdale's Bible 1535
Cyril of Alexandria died 444
Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage. . . . flor. 250
Dionysius of Alexandria 245
Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth . . . , 165
Erasmus, Greek Testament of, published . . 15 16
Eusebius, Bishop of Cassarea (in Palestine) flor. ^2$
FirmiUan, Bishop of Caesarea (in Cappadocia) . 256
Geneva Bible pubhshed 1557
Great Bible 1539
Hegesippus, early Church historian . . flor. 160
Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus .... 220
Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons .... died 202
Jerome 420
Jerusalem, Fall of . -70
355
356
List of Writers, etc.
Justin Martyr died A.D. 165
Laodicaea, Council of held 363
Letter of Christians in Lyons and Vienne . . 171
LXX version begun probably about . . B.C. 280
Marcion, heretical writer . . . Jlor. K.V). 150
Matthews' Bible published . . . . . 1538
Melito, Bishop of Sardis 1 70
Muratorian Fragment, date of . . . about 170
Origen 180-253
Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis. . . . Jlor. 120
Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna .... died 167
Tertullian, a Presbyter of Carthage . . 160-240
Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus in Syria . . died 6,^6
Theophilus of Antioch Jlor. \^o
Theophylact 1077
Tyndale's New Testament first published . . 1525
Vulgate, Clementine edition of ... . 1592
Wycliffe's Bible 1383
INDEX,
Acts of Apostles, original
title, 97 ; authorship of, 98 ;
date, 99 ; two sections of,
107 ; speeches in, why so
similar, 110 ; value of, 117.
iElfric's Version of the Scrip-
tures, 16.
^ons, Gnostic teaching con-
cerning, 134.
Alexandrian Codex presented
to Charles I., ii.
Antilegomena, what, 282, 323.
Antioch in Syria, reputed
birthplace of St. Luke, 74.
Apocalypse, account of the,
328 ; contents of, 337-339 ',
may be classed with the
Epistles," 119, 338 ; date of,
331 ; neglected for centuries
by Eastern Church, 347 ;
interpretations of, 349.
Apocalyptic words of Christ,
352.
Apollos, notices of, 168, 171,
173, 295.
Aramaic dialect spoken by
our Lord, 29.
Babylon, judgments on, 344.
Babylon = Rome, 304, 347.
Baptisms for the dead, 187.
Barnabas, cousin of St. Mark,
39.
Bible, Great, 19 ; Taverner's,
19 ; Geneva, 20 ; Bishops',
20,
** Brethren of the Lord," who,
297.
** Brother whose praise is in
the Gospel," 199.
Burgon, Dean, on the last
verses of St. Mark, 56.
Captivity, Epistles of the, 238.
Carpus, 257.
Carthage, Council of, 2.
Catholic epistles, 296.
Christian Fathers, readings
preserved by, 15.
Christian society and teaching
progressive, 117, 124.
Christ's frequent retirement, 52.
Christ's covenant, a testament,
292.
58
Index,
Church order, growth of, 127.
Church organization in Pas-
toral Epistles, 151.
Churches, the Seven of Asia,
339-
Circumcision, Council con-
cerning, 300,
Codex Sinaiticus, 6 ; Vati-
camis, 6 ; Alexandrinus, 10 ;
Ephraemi, 10,
Collections for the Jewish
Church, 199.
Colossians, Epistle to, 248 ;
erroneous teaching among
the, 249.
"Comings" of Christ, 353.
Coming of Christ, early teach-
ing about, 145.
Commonwealth, agitation for
a new Revision during the,
20.
Comparison of St. John with
the Synoptists, 92.
Corinth, two Epistles written
at, 206.
Corinthians, First Epistle to
the, 168 ; Second Epistle
to the, 188 ; change of tone
in the Second Epistle, 200.
Corinthian Church, character
of, 171.
Coverdale's Bible, 18.
Cromwell, Thomas, 19.
Curetonian Gospels, 13.
Cursive MSS., 6, 10.
"Day of the Lord," 159.
Demetrius, 322.
Demiurge, the, 73.
Dionysius of Alexandria, 300.
Diotrephes, 321.
Dispersion, Jews of the, 298,
Doctrinal teaching, develop-
ments of, 129.
Doctrinal errors, more promi-
nent, 131.
Doctrinal expressions due to
St. Paul, 139.
Egyptian Versions, 14.
Ellipsis, great use of, by St.
Paul, 137.
Enoch, Book of, 327.
Epaphroditus, 242.
Ephesians, Epistle to the, 251.
Ephesus, mixed population of,
315-
Epistles, a form peculiar to
Christian sacred books, 119;
chronological order of St.
Paul's, 126.
Errors, sources of, in MSS., 9.
Euodia, 244.
Evangelists, did not write
complete lives of Christ, 25.
Gaius the beloved, 321.
Galatians, who were they, 207 ;
Epistle to the, 206.
Galatian Epistle highly valued,
219.
Genealogies of Christ, two, 63.
Gnosticism, notice of, 132
in Pastoral Epistles, 149 ;
developments of, 315.
Gog and Magog, 335.
Index,
359
Gospel of St. Paul, what, 71 ;
according to the Hebrews,
298.
Graphic language of St. Mark,
43-
Greek Testament, first printed,
Harclean Syriac Version, 14.
Har-Magedon, 344.
Hebrews, Epistle to the, 268 ;
contents of, 271-284 ; author
of, 275 ; date of, 283.
Hereford, Nicholas, 17.
Herod Agrippa I., persecution
under, 299.
Hymns in St. Luke's Gospel,
65.
James, son of Zebedee, death
of, 77.
James, St., Epistle of, 296;
our Lord's brother, 297 ;
martyrdom of, 298.
Jerome, evidence of, concern-
ing St. Matthew's Gospel,
30.
Jerusalem Syriac Version, 14.
Jesus = Joshua, 288.
Jews, oft had double names,
26 ; rejection of, discussed,
233-
John, St., Gospel according
to, 75 ; characteristics of, 76 ;
date of, 81 ; plan of, 83;
connexion of, with Apo-
calypse, 93; called "Gos-
pel of the Holy Spirit," 90.
John, St., account of, 78 ;
traditions concerning, 80 ;
First Epistle of, 314 ; date
of, 317; contents of, 319;
Second and Third Epistles
of, 320.
Judaizers, notices of, 132,
209 ; mentioned in Pastoral
Epistles, 148.
Jude, St., who, 322;. Epistle
of, ibid; written, for Jews,
323 ; later than Second
Peter, 324; contents of, 326.
Justin Martyr, Christian books
known to, 4.
Kingship of Christ, theme of
St. Matthew's Gospel, 33.
Lachmann, Greek text by, 7.
Laodicsea, Council of, 2, 300;
Epistle to, 250.
Letter, not St. Paul's, sent to
Thessalonica, 162.
Lion, the mouth of the, 259.
Lord's Supper, primitive ob-
servance of, 185.
Luke St., Gospel according
to, 57; called "Gospel of
the Gentiles," 71; when
written, 59 ; authenticity
of, 72 ; divisions of, 63 ;
additions peculiar to, 67,
68.
Luke, mention of, in New
Testament, 60; fidelity of,
62.
;6o
Index.
Luther on PhUemon, 248 ; on
the authorship of Hebrews,
281 ; on St. James, 301.
LXX. version, how used by
St. Matthew, 29.
Lycus valley. Churches of the,
248, 256.
"Magnificat" the, like Han-
nah's song, 65.
"Man of sin," 165.
Maran atha, 146, 188.
Marcion, evidence of, 73, 304.
Marginal notes find their way
. into text, 9.
Mark, St., Gospel according
to> 39 ; divisions of, 49 ;
perhaps written at Rome,
41 ; written for Gentiles, 41,
49 ; last twelve verses of,
53.
Mark, account of, 39 ; sent for
by St. Paul to Rome, 40;
a companion of St. Peter,
304; "interpreter" of St.
Peter, 41.
Mary, mother of John Mark,
40.
Matthew, St., Gospel accord-
ing to, 26 ; contents of, 32 ;
language of, 28 ; peculiar-
ities of, 38.
Matthew, meaning of the
name, 27.
Matthews' Bible, 19.
Melchizedek, priesthood of,
290.
Miracles, notices of, in the
Epistles, 213.
"Most excellent," meaning of
the title, 61.
Muratorian fragment, 81, 95.
Nero accuses the Christians of
setting fire to Rome, 304.
New Testament, composite
character of, I ; earliest
book in, 2 ; autographs all
lost, 4 ; revised, 20.
Newton, Sir Isaac, quoted,
318.
Nicopolis, where, 257.
Onesimus, 246.
Oral teaching of the Gospel,
24.
Paley's //w^ raiilincc, 116.
Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis,
41.
Parker, Archbishop, labours
for Bible revision, 20.
Passion, the predictions of the,
36.
Pastoral Epistles, genuineness
of, 147 ; contents of, 255.
Paul, St., lost writings of, 5 ;
language of, compared with
Acts, 109 ; visits of, to
Jerusalem, ill ; chief writer
of Epistles, 121 ; history of,
122; style of, 134; jour-
neys of, to Corinth, 165 ;
Epistles of, their genuineness,
Index,
361
141 ; journeys of, after his
first imprisonment, 256 ;
loneliness of, in second im-
prisonment, 258 ; close of
his labours in Asia, 338.
Peshito, Syriac Version, 13,
300-
Peter, St., " the Rock-man,"
48 ; portion of his history in
the Acts, 105 ; First Epistle
of, 303 ; date of, 305 ;
Second Epistle of, 307 ;
peculiarities in, 309 ; tone
of, like St. Paul's letters,
311-
Petrine and Pauline parties,
supposed, 108, 303.
Philemon, Epistle to, 246.
Philippians, Epistle to the,
241.
Philoxenian Syriac Version, 13.
Pliny, letters of, compared
with St. Paul's, 247.
Prophesyings, 173.
" Received Text," what, 12.
Revelation, see Apocalypse.
Rolle, Psalter of, 16.
Romans, Epistle to the, 219 ;
character of, 220 ; several
breaks in, 221 ; salutations
in, 223 ; perhaps a circular
epistle, 224; contents of,
225.
Rome, St. Paul's companions
there, 250 ; debtor both to
Peter, and Paul, 43.
Saxon, Scriptures in, 15.
Scripture Texts noticed.
Matt. xvi. 18, 48.
Mark i. I, 49 ,* xiv. 51-52,
42.
Acts vii. 45, 288.
I Thess. ii. 13, 157 ; iii. 2,
ibid. ; iv. 4, 158 ; v. 22,
i6f.
1 Cor. i. 17, 174 ; i. 18, 140 ;
ii. 6, ibid. ; iv. 5, 176 ; v.
7, 177 ; vi. 18, 179; vii.
36-39, 181; ix. I, ibid.;
ix. 17-18, 182 ; X. 22, 29,
30, 183 ; xi. 10, 184 ; XV.
56, 187.
2 Cor. i. 17, 191 ; ii. 5,
192; iii. 13, 194; iii. 17,
ibid. ; iv. 15, 195 ; v. II,
196; vi. 12, 197; vii. II,
198 ; vii. 15, 199 ; viii. 2,
ibid. ; ix. 6, 16, 202 ; xi.
5, 203 ; xii. 16, 135 ; xii.
19, 203.
Gal. i. 14. 17, 22, 210 ; iii.
9-20, 137 ; iv. 13, 215 ;
V. 5, 216; vi. II, 16,
218.
Rom. i. 7, 226 ; ii. 12-16,
134 ; iii. 3, 227 ; v. 20,
229; vii. II, 230; viii.
19-21, 231 ; ix. 17, 233 ;
xi. II, 234; xiii. 3, 235 ;
xiv. 16, 236.
Phil. i. 10, 242 ; i. 13, 243 ;
iii. 21, 245.
1 Tim. ii. 15, 261.
2 Tim. i. 9, 140.
362
Index.
Heb. ii. 5, 286 ;ii. 1 1, 287
ii. 16, ibid. ; iv, 8, 288
vi. 5, 289 ; vi. 6, 272
X. 26-29, 272, 292 ; xiii.
9-14, 294.
James i. 9-10, 301 ; i. 19,
ibid. ; iii. i, 302.
Jude 22, 23, 327.
Shoreham's Psalms, 16.
Silas, companion of St. Peter,
304.
Stephen, speech of, summa-
rized, lOI.
Symeon Peter, 308.
"Synagogue of Satan," 339.
Synoptic Gospels, 21 ; differ-
ences in, 22.
Syntyche, 244.
Tarsus, a seat of learning, 121.
Taverner's Bible, 19.
Terminology, doctrinal, largely
drawn from St. Paul, 139.
Tertullian, books of Scripture
known to, 4.
Text concerning the three
heavenly Witnesses, 318.
Textual corruption in N. T.
slight, 8.
Theophilus, 61.
Thessalonians, Epistles to, con-
sidered, 141 ; date of, 153 ;
place of writing, 154; con-
tents of First Epistle, 155 ;
Second Epistle to the, 161.
Timothy, in Ephesus, 255 ;
First Epistle to, 260 ; Second
Epistle to, 264 ; a prisoner,
273 ; release of, 295.
Titus, in Crete, 255 ; Epistle
to, 263.
Tongues, gift of, 185.
Troas, St. Paul there, 257.
Tychicus, bearer of St. Paul's
letters, 240, 254.
Tyndale's New Testament, 17.
Uncial MSS., 5.
Versions, use of, 12 ; Syriac,
13 ; Old Latin, 13 ; Egyp-
tian, 14.
"Virgin Mary, perhaps one of
St. Luke's authorities, 65.
Vulgate Version, 13.
Westcott and Hort, quoted, 8.
Whittingham, translator of
Geneva Bible, 20.
Words common to the Apoca-
lypse and fourth Gospel, 337.
Writings of the Apostles lost,
5-
Wycliffe, Bible of, 16.
Ximenes, Cardinal, 1 1.
Butler & ranncr, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, an>.l London.
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