Celsus wrote a work entitled "True Doctrine," which is not extant, and of which Origen wrote a refutation. Our author says "it refers to incidents of Gospel history and quotes some sayings which have parallels, with more or less of variation, in our Gospels;" but "Celsus nowhere mentions the name of any Christian book, unless we except the Book of Enoch, and he accuses Christians, not without reason, of interpolating the Book of the Sibyl, whose authority he states some of them acknowledged" (p. 236). He goes into the question of the date, which he makes out to be probably not between A.D. 150-160, as Tischendorf suggests, but much later.
In the last fragment of early literature examined—the Canon of Muratori—the Book of Luke is alluded to as "the third Gospel," and our author says (p. 241) "the statement regarding the Third Gospel merely proves the existence of that Gospel at the time the fragment was composed," and that "the inference" that there was a first and second Gospel is a mere conjecture. I remark that if the statement does prove that Luke's Gospel existed at the time the fragment was composed, we gratefully accept the acknowledgment; and as to the adverbs "mere" and "merely," which qualify the noun "conjecture" and verb "proves," when our author's third volume appears, if it does not furnish more than "mere conjecture" that the first and second preceded it, we will allow the adverbs properly applied, and the logic perfect.
The sentences in which such words as certainly, it is certain, it is undeniable, there is no question, it is impossible to suppose, it is obviously mere speculation, &c., are used, where the reasoning does not warrant them, are innumerable; and it is only after becoming familiar with the special pleading which is characteristic of the work throughout, that the unsophisticated reader escapes from the bewilderment into which the evidences of Christianity seem to get entangled. The author seems to have got the reader into a gloomy cavern of criticism, and it is only after the eye has become accustomed to the partial darkness that he can make out whether what he is taken to see are real figures, images, or ghosts. When he has got to the middle of the second volume, however, he begins to see the light again, and breathe more freely. He sees a way right through the cavern, and finds that the figures of this underground chamber of horrors are all phantoms.
The "Examiner" justly says: "For our part we see no reason why the Synoptic[54] Gospels may not have assumed their present form by the end of the first century;[55] and we cannot think that our author's German oracles have succeeded in establishing their dissimilarity from the documents quoted by the Primitive Fathers. Justin Martyr's references to the Sermon on the Mount, for instance, appear to us to be actually derived from Matthew. If, however, as is contended, they were taken from the lost "Gospel of the Hebrews," this merely proves the substantial identity of the two. The question of Justin's acquaintance with the Fourth Gospel is more difficult. We are nevertheless disposed to resolve it in the affirmative."
This is a sensible comment on our author's general argument.
CHAPTER V.
THE FOURTH GOSPEL.
"Every trace has vanished of the great nameless one."
Baur.