The Wave of Scepticism and the Rock of Truth

by M. H. Habershon

The epistle itself makes no mention of the author's name. It purports to be addressed by "the Church of God which sojourns at Rome to the Church of God sojourning at Corinth." But in the Codex Alexandrinus the title of "The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians" is added at the end. Internal evidence shows it was written after some persecution of the Church, either that of Nero, A.D. 64-70, or Domitian, at the end of the century. The epistle contains these words:—

"Especially remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, which he spake teaching gentleness and long-suffering. For thus he said, Be pitiful, that ye may be pitied; forgive, that it may be forgiven you; as ye do, so shall it be done to you; as ye give, so shall it be given to you; as ye judge, so shall it be judged to you; as ye show kindness, shall kindness be shown to you; with what measure ye mete, with the same it shall be measured to you."

Our author himself shows that these precepts cannot be mere floating tradition. He says such "seems impossible" (vol. i. p. 226). They are evidently the words of Jesus taken from a written source, but he contends that they are not a quotation from the Sermon on the Mount, as recorded in the Gospels as we have them, but from some other Gospel which is not extant. He says: "When the great difference is considered between the parallel passages in Matthew and Luke, and still more between these and the passage in Mark, it is easy to understand that that other Gospel may have contained a version differing as much from them as they do from each other."

I remark, supposing that Clement had before him all three versions, which differ from each other, what is more natural than that he should give the sense without adhering to the exact words of any. Only an inquirer who has a bias against Christianity would think of disputing the quotation.

If Epiphanius "clearly wrote without having the Gospel of Luke before him," as our author states on page 100, and if Tertullian "evidently quotes that Gospel from memory," as he also says on the same page; why should it be assumed as a matter of course that Clement had the writings before him? He also may have quoted from memory.

There is something strangely marvellous about the disappearance of these imaginary lost records of the Sermon on the Mount. We know that in the year A.D. 139 Justin Martyr wrote that the "Memoirs of the Apostles," called "Evangels" (gospels), were read after the prophets every Lord's Day in the assembly of the Christians. Where were they then? Were they identical with these memoirs called Gospels? Where were they about the year A.D. 180, when Irenæus proves that four Gospels were held in the highest esteem, and were read in all the Churches; alluding to them as the four columns of the Church, and comparing them to the four quarters of the world, the four principal winds, and the four figures of the Cherubim? Where were they when he says: "So well established are our Gospels, that even teachers of error themselves bear testimony to them: even they rest their objections on the foundations of the Gospels"?[22] This hypothesis of our author is certainly going out of the way to find the reason for a thing. It is to be remembered that what is evidenced by Irenæus, who wrote about A.D. 180, and was the pupil of Polycarp, is highly important. Dr. Mosheim says his five books against heresies, the only writings of his extant, are a splendid monument of antiquity.[23] From the evidence of Irenæus, it is clear that the four Gospels must have been occupying a special and authoritative place in the Church some time before the time he wrote his five books on heresies, about the year 180. Tischendorf, who knows as much as any man about the Scripture manuscripts, says: "It is a well-established fact that, already between A.D. 150 and 200, not only were the Gospels translated into Latin and Syriac, but also that their number was defined to be only four, neither more nor less." The Syriac version of the New Testament called the Peshito, a work of immense value, as the language is almost identical with that spoken by Christ, a translation admirably executed, "is generally assigned," says Tischendorf, "to the end of the second century, though we have not any positive proof to offer;" and "the Latin version had acquired before this period a certain public authority." As the man who translated Irenæus's five books from Greek into Latin follows the Italic version, and as Tertullian, in the quotation which he makes from the Latin translation of Irenæus copies that translator, Tischendorf justly argues that some time must have elapsed between that date when the translation is known to have been in existence, and the period when they were first separated from other Church writings, and attained a prominent and sacred character. Thus we get to the apostolic age for the origin of all the four Gospels, and there seems to be no interval of time sufficient to account for our author's primitive Gospels to have disappeared, leaving no trace of their existence. It is enormously more probable that the four Gospels alluded to by Irenæus and Tertullian contained the records from which Clement quoted the passage of the Sermon on the Mount, than that there were primitive independent writings which were soon lost, obtaining no recognition when the separate Gospel manuscripts became associated with the Old Testament, and were read after them in the Christian assemblies. Our author says the passage quoted by Clement, referring to the Sermon on the Mount, is decidedly opposed to "the pretensions made on behalf of the Synoptics." I do not quite know what "pretensions" he alludes to, but I am not defending pretensions, either ecclesiastical or non-ecclesiastical. It is not necessary, in the defence of the Gospels, to assert that the four Evangelists whose names are attached to them wrote every word; that they only contain records of what those disciples were either eye-witnesses of, or, in the case of Mark and Luke, heard Peter and Paul preach. The formulæ, "according to Matthew," "according to Mark," "according to Luke," "according to John," do not imply that, in the most ancient opinion, these recitals were written from beginning to end by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.[24] It is enough to know that the writings so far emanated from those disciples as to justify the titles they bear, and their reception by the early Church, as the true record of the important transactions to which they refer. That reception of them was sufficiently near to the date of their composition to preclude the probability that the early Christian Church had not the means of testing their genuineness or historical data, while their internal evidence is such as to confirm their truthfulness and authority.

"As to Luke," says Rénan, "doubt is scarcely possible. It is a regular composition, founded on anterior documents, the work of one man, who selects, prunes, and combines. The author is certainly the same as that of the Acts of the Apostles. Now the author of the Acts is a companion of Paul, a title which applies to Luke exactly. The name of Lucus (contraction of Lucanus) being very rare, we need not fear one of those homonyms which cause so many perplexities in questions of criticism relative to the New Testament. It is beyond doubt that the author of the Third Gospel and of the Acts was a man of the second generation, and that is sufficient for our object. The date can be determined by considerations drawn from the Gospel itself. The twenty-first chapter, inseparable from the rest of the work, was certainly written a short time after the destruction of Jerusalem. We are here upon solid ground, for we are concerned with a work written entirely by the same hand, and of the most perfect unity. If the Gospel of Luke is dated, those of Matthew and Mark are dated also; for it is certain that the Third Gospel is posterior to the first two, and exhibits the character of a much more advanced composition."

"Every one drew largely on the Gospel tradition then current. The Acts of the Apostles and the ancient Fathers quote many words of Jesus which appear authentic, and are not found in the Gospels we possess. The life of Jesus in the Synoptics rests upon two original documents—first, the discourses of Jesus collected by Matthew; second, the collection of anecdotes and personal reminiscences which Mark wrote from the recollections of Peter. We may say that we have these two documents still, mixed with accounts from another source, in the two first Gospels, which bear, not without reason, the name of the Gospel according to Matthew, and of the Gospel according to Mark. It was when tradition became weakened, in the second half of the second century, that the texts bearing the name of the apostles took a decisive authority, and obtained the force of law."

I have selected these passages from Rénan's "Life of Jesus," as they bear upon the view of the origin of the Gospels which may be entertained with consistency by those who accept their authority, without insisting upon any such pretensions as our author seems to combat, and which are not necessary for their defence.

I object also to the case being tried upon an indictment which includes a uniform, plenary, and verbal inspiration. Nor is it, I submit, necessary to defend the view that the Old and New Testaments include no words but what are of Divine authority.