The Making of the New Testament

by Benjamin Wisner Bacon

At all events the Apostle appears as an old man (v. 1) writing from "Babylon"—rightly taken by the fathers to be a cryptogram for Rome. Salutations are conveyed from Mark, his "son" (cf. Philem. i. 10). The bearer (writer?) is represented to be Silvanus (like Mark a companion of Paul with relations to Jerusalem as well), and Silvanus is commended as a "trustworthy" disciple. The author states it as his object to "exhort and testify that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand."

Ignorant as we are of its author's name it is fortunate for our study of the times that the date of 1st Peter is fairly determinable by the convergence of external and internal evidence. Echoes from it appear already in Clement of Rome (95) as well as in James and Hermas. We must think of it, then, as a hand of cordial encouragement extended by a representative of the Petro-Pauline church at Rome, soon after the outbreak of the persecution of Domitian (c. 90), to the still independent but suffering churches of Asia Minor. If we remember that it undertakes to endorse the doctrine of one third of contemporary Christendom, and (in substance) offers a 'letter of commendation' to Silvanus, it will be obvious that no name of less authority than that of Peter could have served. As Zahn has well remarked: "The significant thing ... is that it is Peter, the most distinguished apostle of the circumcision (Gal. ii. 7) who bears witness to the genuineness of their state of grace."

We must place alongside of 1st Peter one other epistle in which the motive of exhortation to endurance of persecution without relaxation of the moral standard is prominent, though not exclusive, and a second, wherein it appears only in a faint echo of "trials," which turn out, however, as the reader proceeds, to be only "temptations," while the real occasion of writing is plain—moral relaxation without either heresy or persecution to excuse it. The two writings in question are the anonymous "exhortation" handed down under the title "To the Hebrews," and the so-called Epistle (in reality a homily) of James. Hebrews begins as an exposition of the two psalms Paul had quoted in his reference in 1st Cor. xv. 24-28 to the exaltation of Jesus (Pss. viii. and cx.) proving Him to be the Son, who, after temporary subordination to the angels, has been exalted above them to the place of supreme dominion. Christ has thus effected a greater redemption than Moses and Joshua. He is also a "high-priest after the order of Melchizedek" according to Ps. cx.; so that the Aaronic priesthood and ceremonial are surpassed as well as the Mosaic legislation, by the sacrifice of Calvary and intercession of the risen Redeemer. It is no wonder that in the period of debate against Judaism the canon-makers gave to this anonymous sermon a title which ranks it first in the class of subsequent controversial pamphlets "against the Jews." Controversy, however, is subordinate in the writer's purpose to edification. He is not unconscious of the dangers of that superstitious 'worship of the angels,' against which Paul's Asian epistles had been directed, but his demonstration of the superiority of the institutions and aims of Christianity to those of Judaism has the practical object of reinforcing the courage and "faith" of his readers under pressure of persecution. His argument culminates in an inspiring list of Scriptural heroes and martyrs, leading up as a climax to "Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith." As Jesus endured, looking beyond the shame and suffering of the cross to the joy of His reward, so should the readers "endure their chastening." Apostacy will meet a fearful doom in the judgment of fire. To this homily (Heb. i.-xii.) is appended a concluding chapter (probably by the author himself) which transforms it into a letter. The author is a church-teacher of the second generation, as he frankly confesses himself (ii. 3); a disciple of Paul, to judge by his use of Paul's doctrine and some of his epistles, especially Romans. To judge by his rhetorical style and his Alexandrian ideas and mode of thought, he is the sort of teacher Apollos will have been. Just at present he is separated from his flock (xiii. 19). Where they are we can only infer from xiii. 24, which conveys salutations from those in the writer's neighbourhood who are "from Italy." He himself is probably among the Pauline churches, for he sends news of Timothy (xiii. 23) and hopes to come soon in company with him. Ephesus, where Apollos was at last accounts, may possibly be the place of writing. Hebrews would seem then to be written to Rome, long after the first "great fight of afflictions" (the Neronian outbreak of 64) and when the danger of "fainting under the chastening" of a second persecution (that of Domitian c. 90) was imminent. Such slight indications as we have of a literary relation between Hebrews and 1st Peter suggest the priority of Hebrews, but the date and occasion must be nearly the same.

"James" is also a homily exhorting to patient endurance, but there is nothing to suggest its having ever been sent anywhere as a letter, save the brief superscription written in imitation of 1st Pet. i. 1. "James ... to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion." Imagine the mode of delivery! Nor is it called forth by any special emergency. There is an allusion to false doctrine. It is the heresy (!) of "justification by faith apart from works." But the writer is no more conscious of contradicting Paul than is Luke in describing Paul's apostleship and gospel. He merely impersonates the 'bishop of bishops' addressing Christendom at large, deprecating the loquacity of the "many teachers," and commending the 'wisdom' of a "good life" instead. There is protest against oppression. But it is only the oppression of the poor by the rich in the Christian brotherhood. He returns to this subject con amore. Evidently the church of his age is characterized by worldliness both of thought and conduct, among clergy and laity. But all colour of region or period is wanting. Take 1st Peter, substitute the head of the Jerusalem succession for the head of the Roman, remove the Pauline doctrine, the traces of Jesus and his gospel of Son ship, remove the special references to local conditions and particular emergencies, leaving only moral generalities, and the result will be not unlike the Epistle of James. The author has heard something of Paulinism, has read Hebrews (Jas. ii. 21-25; v. 10), and imitated 1st Peter (Jas. i. 1, 18, 21; iv. 6 f.; v. 20). Strong arguments have even been advanced to prove that he was not a Christian at all. He probably was, if only from his literary connection with the above-named earlier writings, and the influence exerted by his own on Hermas (Rome, 120-140), and perhaps Clement (Rome, 95). But as for connection with the historic Jesus—"Elijah" is his example of the man of prayer (v. 13-18), and "Job" and "the prophets" his "example of suffering and patience" (v. 10 f.). Hebrews can show more of the influence of Jesus than this (Heb. v. 7 f., xii. 2-4). Like Hermas (who, however, does not even mention the name of Jesus) 'James' thinks of Him simply as "the Lord of glory," without raising the question how He came to be such.

Apart from the superscription, whose object is only to clothe the homily with the authority of a name revered throughout the 'catholic' church, there is nothing to connect James with Syria rather than any other region outside Paul's mission-field. Even Palestine might be its place of origin if the date were late enough to account for the Greek style. At all events it comes first to our knowledge at Rome. There is some reason to think that Clement of Rome (a.d. 95), whose moralizing is of a similar type, has been directly influenced by James. If so we have in James, Clement and Hermas a series illustrative of the decline at Rome of the Pauline gospel of conscious revelation and inspiration toward the hum-drum levels of mere 'catholic' catechetics.

With every allowance for differences among critics as to date and origin of the non-controversial epistles of the sub-apostolic age, it is easy to see that the resistless march of events is taking up and accomplishing Paul's effort and prayer for the unity of the two branches of the Church. One great event of this period, which for us stands out with startling vividness upon the pages of history, is curiously without trace or reflection in this literature. We search the New Testament in vain for the slightest allusion (outside the writings directly or indirectly derived from Palestine itself) to the fall of Jerusalem in a.d. 70, and the consequent cessation of Jewish national life and temple ceremonial. The remoteness of the writers with whom we are dealing both in time and national interest from the affairs of Jerusalem is not the only cause. The fate of the temple had no effect to weaken the types of Judaism with which the church of the sub-apostolic age had to contend. The Pharisaic legalism of the synagogue became only the stronger when the hollow Sadducean priesthood collapsed, and temple ceremonial became simply a ceremonial on paper, the affair no longer of priest and Levite, but of scribe and Pharisee. So also with the denationalized Judaism of the Dispersion, a more insidious danger for early converts from heathenism than the stricter, legalistic type. The crushing of the nationalistic rebellion, the temporary suppression of the war-party, the Zealots, only strengthened and promoted Pharisaism, and the Dispersion was scarcely affected by the losses of the war. When Jerusalem and the temple fell, temple and city had become entirely superfluous factors to both parties in the great strife of church versus synagogue. Hebrews knows of a type of Judaism which is formidable by reason of the appeal of its ordinances of angels and its sacerdotal system written in a book of acknowledged divine authority. But the characteristic point is that in Hebrews, as truly as in Barnabas and Justin Martyr, it is only the prescription and not the practice which is in question. But for the fact that the "new testament" of Heb. ix. 15 is still unwritten, its controversy might properly be described as a battle of books.

On the other hand the pressure of persecution without, combined with the disappearance of creative leadership within, is visibly forcing the independent provinces of Christendom toward organic unity under the principle of apostolic authority. First Peter is the first and greatest evidence of this tendency to union promoted by external pressure. Hebrews and James follow as illustrative of the need felt for maintaining the standards both of doctrine and of morals at their full height. Christianity must not be thought of as on a level with Judaism, it is the final and universal revelation. It must not be practised half-heartedly, with "double-mindedness," nor in vain philosophizing and professions belied by deeds. It must be obeyed as a new and royal law, the mirror of divine perfection.

If, then, we turn from these evidences of general conditions in church and empire to the inward dangers revealed by the writings against heresy, we shall see how this disruptive influence, already distinctly apprehended in Paul's later writings, makes itself more and more strongly felt, and in more and more definite form, with Ephesus and the churches of Asia as its chief breeding-place.

The Pastoral Epistles in their present form cannot be dated much before the time when they begin to be used by Ignatius and Polycarp (110-117). Indeed some phrases (perhaps editorial additions) seem to imply a still later date, as when in 1st Tim. vi. 20, Timothy is warned against the "antitheses of miscalled Gnosis," as if with direct reference to Marcion's system of this title. Their avowed purpose is to counteract the inroads of heresy, and the remedy applied is ecclesiastical authority and discipline. Far more of Paul's inspired gospel of Son ship and liberty, far more of his conception of the redemption in Christ as a triumph over the spiritual world-rulers of this darkness, is found in 1st Peter and Hebrews than here. Nothing appears of Paul's broad horizon, his spirit of missionary conquest, his devotion to the unity of Jew and Gentile in their common access to the Father in one Spirit. There is no trace of the great Pauline doctrines of the conflict of flesh and spirit, the superseding of the dispensation of Law by the dispensation of Grace, the Adoption, the Redemption, the Inheritance. The attention is turned wholly to local conditions, maintenance of the transmitted doctrine and order, resistance to the advance of "vain talk," "Jewish fables," "foolish questionings, genealogies and strifes about the Law," which go hand in hand with moral laxity. In short the outlook and temper are those of the Epistle of James, while the remedy is that of Acts and the Epistles of Ignatius. The Paul who here speaks is not the missionary and mystic, but the shrewd ecclesiastic. There is only too much evidence to show that in the Pauline mission-field the remedy resorted to against the licence in thought and action which threatened decadence and dissolution after apostolic inspiration had died out, was the religion of authority, doctrinal and disciplinary, not the religion of the Spirit. Ecclesiastical appointees take the place as teachers and defenders of the faith of those who had been the inspired apostles and prophets of its extension.

And on the other side are the false teachers. They are of Jewish character in their doctrine, aspiring to be "teachers of the Law" though really ignorant of its meaning. The worst of them are actual Jews (Tit. i. 10), which implies that some were not. Moreover the type of doctrine is still less like the Pharisaism of the synagogue than the "philosophy and vain deceit" rebuked by Paul at Colossæ. There is similar distinction of meats (treated in 2nd Tim. iv. 1-5 as a doctrine of "seducing spirits and demons"), and a prohibition of wine and marriage. There is side by side with this ascetic tendency one equally marked toward libertinism and love of money (2nd Tim. iii. 1-9). Both phases remind us of the "concision" of Paul's later letters. But besides the larger development new features appear of Hellenistic rather than Jewish type. The new doctrine of the resurrection as something "past already" is more closely connected with the Pauline mysticism, the present union of the believer with the life of Christ "hid in God," than with the Jewish idea of return to earth in resuscitated flesh. The Paulinist of the Pastorals is already foreshadowing the great conflict of Ignatius, Justin and Irenæus against those who "denied the resurrection," perverting (as the fathers allege) the meaning of Paul's saying, "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (cf. 2nd Pet. iii. 16). And the Pastorals tend toward the un-Pauline doctrine soon to be formulated in the 'catholic' church: "I believe in the resurrection of the flesh." Again the false doctrine now distinctly avows itself a form of Gnosis. "They profess that they know God, but by their works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." And our Paulinist's remedy is the traditional doctrine, the "pattern of sound words," the "deposit" of the Church teacher, more especially the whole-some words, "even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the doctrine which is according to godliness." Thus even the rich, if they do good, and become "rich in good works" will "lay up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come."