The affirmation that St. Paul was not thoroughly acquainted with the details of our Lord's ministry, and that after his conversion he was simply absorbed in the contemplation of a divine Christ is incredible. When we are asked to accept a startling proposition, it is necessary that it should not offend against the first [pg 425] principles of human nature. That a man like St. Paul did not make accurate inquiries into the facts of his Master's life is inconceivable. In his eyes His human was the manifestation of His divine life. Did not the persecutor Saul thoroughly inform himself respecting the life and actions of Him whose divine mission he denied, and whom he believed to be an impostor? Was not this the obvious course to take, in order to enable him to expose imposition, and to destroy the Church? On the other hand, the converted Paul was animated by a more intense love for Jesus than one man ever felt for another. Is it conceivable that such love did not impel him to treasure up in his bosom every reminiscence which fell within his reach, and to inquire with the most profound interest into the life and actions of him who was become the object of his adoration? Is it conceivable that the man who was incessantly inquiring into the condition of his converts, made no inquiry about the life and actions of his Master?
The position of St. Paul, the ardour of his temperament, the fierceness of his opposition, and the intense self-sacrifice with which he afterwards consecrated himself to Jesus Christ, falling into communication as he must with persons who had witnessed His earthly ministry, are sufficient proof that the Apostle had used every available means of becoming acquainted with the facts of His life. But in the Epistles themselves, although owing to the circumstances which called them forth, they contain few direct references to it, the indirect allusions are quite sufficient to prove that St. Paul and those whom he addressed, were in possession of a number of facts respecting their Master's life which formed the subject of a common Christology. I am quite ready to admit that when the Apostle wrote, none of our present Gospels were in [pg 426] existence. The converts had to receive their instruction orally, or from short written memoranda. But instruction of some kind they must have had. Without it, converts from Paganism could have known nothing about Him to whom in the act of joining the Church they professed allegiance; Jewish converts living in Gentile cities, but little. As Christianity was not a mere body of dogmas, like a philosophy, but consisted in direct adhesion to a person, it is clear that it could not be propagated at all without at the same time communicating information respecting His history. The early missionaries announced that Jesus was the Christ. Such an announcement would have been meaningless unless they had given an account of who Jesus was, what He had done to claim the homage of those addressed, and what was the nature of His office. These considerations establish the fact that an oral account of His life must have been handed down in the Church prior to the publication of written Gospels, sufficiently definite to constitute the Christianity of the converts. The intimations contained in the Epistles prove that such was the fact.
First let us consider St. Paul's own positive assertions. The most important is in 1 Cor. xv. “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you (γνωρίζω, I remind you of, or refresh your memories respecting) the Gospel (τὸ εὐαγγέλιον) which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all (ἐν πρώτοις, as matter of prime importance) that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”
Let it be observed that the subject which the Apostle was here discussing with certain members of this Church—the possibility of a resurrection of the dead—led him to refer to the first principles of Christianity as he had taught them. They denied the truth of a material resurrection. St. Paul draws their attention to the fact that Christianity as taught by him consisted of a body of facts. The following points are clearly deducible from the passage before us.
1. The εὐαγγέλλιον, or message of good news, which the Apostle had announced at his first preaching at Corinth, consisted of a body of facts as distinct from mere doctrinal teachings; and that whatever doctrines he taught were built on them as a foundation.
2. Among the facts of prime importance which he announced, was the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
3. He states that in his preaching there were matters of prime importance, of which Christ's death and resurrection was one. It follows therefore that there were other matters of prime importance, which his present argument did not require him to notice. This is obvious from the nature of the case: the announcement of Christ's death and resurrection would have been scarcely intelligible without the addition of a great many other facts to give it meaning. But further, the assertion that there were facts of prime importance, implies that there were also points of secondary importance, which he must have announced likewise, or in other words, that the Gospel which he proclaimed must have consisted of an account, more or less full, of the human life of Jesus.
4. This account the Apostle says that he delivered to the Corinthian Church. The words imply that he committed it in a formal manner to their keeping, as [pg 428] the ground of their Christian instruction. This he likewise affirms that he had no less formally received.
5. As his statement respecting the Resurrection is somewhat minute, the inference is, that the other facts of prime importance were communicated with equal detail. It is also fairly presumable that in his oral communications the Apostle did not give a bare list of the appearances of Jesus after his Resurrection, but a detailed account of them; and so with respect to his other facts. This his converts would naturally have required him to do, if we suppose that they were only animated by common curiosity. The less important facts would be necessary to connect together those of primary importance. In short, the Apostle's narrative must have been what we may call a brief Gospel.
6. As St. Paul states that one of the facts which he committed to the Church was that Christ died for our sins, it follows that he must have given an account of his death more or less resembling those in our present Gospels.