Footnote 136:[ (return) ]
What is meant here is the imminent danger of taking the several constituent parts of the canon, even for historical investigation, as constituent parts, that is, of explaining one writing by the standard of another and so creating an artificial unity. The contents of any of Paul's epistles, for example, will be presented very differently if it is considered by itself and in the circumstances in which it was written, or if attention is fixed on it as part of a collection whose unity is presupposed.
Footnote 137:[ (return) ]
See Bigg, The Christian Platonist of Alexandria, pp. 53, 283 ff.
Footnote 138:[ (return) ]
Reuter (August. Studien, p. 492) has drawn a valuable parallel between Marcion and Augustine with regard to Paul.
Footnote 139:[ (return) ]
Marcion of course wished to raise it to the exclusive basis, but he entirely misunderstood it.