Can our author's assertion be absolutely true that "Tertullian and Epiphanius were only dogmatical, and not in the least critical"? How could they be otherwise than to a certain extent critical? They were not critics in the way of taking nothing for granted, after the modern fashion; but they must have weighed, compared, and tested Marcion's views while writing against them. "The spirit of the age," he says, "was indeed so uncritical, that not even the canonical text could awaken it into activity." This is a sentence which suggests that the position in the Church of the canonical text was so evident, that to question it was then unwarrantable, as, indeed, it has continued to be to this day. The combined internal and external evidences harmonising with the believer's consciousness, his necessities, and his aspirations, were sufficient to preclude sceptical and captious criticism.
The Christian contemporaries of Irenæus, Tertullian, and Epiphanius were uncritical in that they did not doubt that the foundations of their faith were sure. The gospel which had been preached to them, which had changed the whole course of their lives, corresponded in its main features with the four books which were held in estimation by the Church at that time above all other writings; and they would not be likely to wrangle about the title instead of cultivating the faith they possessed. They could not, perhaps, prove by the rules of logic that "God is, and is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him;" that Christ is the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his Person; but they knew that He had said,—"Ye believe in God believe also in me;" "In my Father's house are many mansions;" and, "I go to prepare a place for you." "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." They lived in the consciousness of these truths, and died (Bishop Pothinus, for instance) a martyr's death rather than deny them.
There is this remark to be made in reference to the alleged uncritical age of the Fathers. How is it that Marcion is seen to be so critical? He is surely after the modern model. He who wrote the "Antithesis," and, as our author says, anticipated in some of his opinions those held by many in our own time; he who wrote,—"If the God of the Old Testament be good, prescient of the future, and able to avert evil, why did he allow man, made in his own image, to be deceived by the devil, and to fall from obedience of the law into sin and death?[42] How came the devil, the origin of lying and deceit, to be made at all?"[43] surely he is an instance of a man in that age possessing the critical faculty. He has the boldness to question, and say,—"Yea, hath God said?" "Anticipating the results of modern criticism," says our author, "Marcion denies the applicability to Jesus of the so-called Messianic prophecies" (p. 106).
If the research which is going on as to the Gospel of Marcion be conducted in a proper manner, and from a proper motive, not from antipathy to "parsons" and ecclesiastical assumptions, which was the incentive of Strauss in attacking Christianity, good will come of it. As Justin Martyr did not, as far as we know, suppose the book to be a corrupted version of the Gospel according to Luke, Tertullian may have been mistaken, and it may have been an independent work, one of the many Luke refers to, the existence of which does not necessarily invalidate the canonical ones. We may naturally suppose that events of such marvellous speciality and importance as those which had "come to pass" in those days among the Jews, would be more or less described in letters and other writings by many persons who were eye-witnesses. Such writings would be collected and read when the first Christians assembled. The difference between the four canonical Gospels and other manuscripts would consist in their being compiled by persons competent to the task, who, like Ezra, were instruments Divinely influenced to compile and "set forth in order a declaration of those things," for the benefit of future ages and the religious instruction of the race.
The analysis of the text of Marcion by Hahn, Ritschl, Volkmar, Helgenfeld, and others, who have examined and systemised the data of the Fathers, is supposed to be sufficient to awaken in any inquirer uncertainty, and stimulate conjecture (p. 101). I do not doubt it. German hypercriticism is able, by a process of ratiocination, to discredit any truth, even to persuade men that the Throne of the universe is vacant, and that the only altar that man has the knowledge to rear is one to the Unknown God; but
They who believe in the inspiration by the Holy Ghost of the prophets of the Old Testament see no difficulty in regard to the inspiration of the writers of the New. If Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel had supernatural communications made to them, in order that the Eternal Creator might be manifested, why not Paul and John and Matthew? It is the foregone conclusion, on the part of critics, that the miraculous is impossible, which embarrasses their researches. One of John Stuart Mill's last sentences is: "It remains a possibility that Christ actually was what He supposed Himself to be." If this had occurred to the great reasoner at the outset of his career instead of the close, how much might the world have been advantaged!
Tatian is a witness whose evidence our author next tries to set aside. He was an Assyrian by birth, a disciple of Justin Martyr at Rome, and afterwards, having joined the sect of the Eucratites, a conspicuous exponent of their austere and ascetic doctrines. The only one of his writings extant is his Oration to the Greeks, written after Justin's death, as it refers to that event, and it is generally dated A.D. 170-175. One point contested is Canon Westcott's affirmation that it contains a "clear reference" to a parable recorded by Matthew:[44] "The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for his joy he goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field." And the supposed reference by Tatian is, "For by means of a certain hidden treasure he has taken to himself all that we possess, for which, while we are digging, we are indeed covered with dust, but we succeed in making it our fixed possession."[45]
There is certainly not much similarity between the two passages, although Tatian may be well supposed to have had the parable in his mind when he wrote. The more important question is, Did Tatian write "A Harmony of Four Gospels," which recognises our four Evangelists? Was his Diatessaron such a book, or was it the Gospel according to the Hebrews? If the latter, what is the Gospel according to the Hebrews? I say it is probable it is the corrupted Hebrew translation of the Greek Gospel of Matthew, and this conjecture has more in its favour than our author's hypothesis.
Dionysius of Corinth, Eusebius tells us, wrote seven epistles to various Churches, and a letter to Chrysophora, "a most faithful sister." Only a few short fragments exist, which are all from the epistle to Soter, Bishop of Rome, whose date in that pastorate is A.D. 168-176. In these fragments we find the following words:—"For the brethren having requested me to write epistles, I write them. And the apostles of the devil have filled these with tares, both taking away parts and adding others, for whom the woe is destined. It is not surprising, then, if some have recklessly ventured to adulterate the Scriptures of the Lord, when they have corrupted these, which are not of such importance."[46] After quoting this passage, our author reiterates his statement that "We have seen that there has not been a trace of any New Testament Canon in the writings of the Fathers before and during this age." Does he suppose his readers will have seen as he sees, or rather refuse to see what is plain enough? He has his own opinion, but he need not assume that he has convinced his readers that he has proved what he alleges. He talks of Westcott's boldness, and of his imagination running away with him, and that it is simply preposterous to suppose that this passage refers to the New Testament. I leave Canon Westcott to defend his own words, but I say it is not preposterous to infer that when Dionysius speaks of the "Scriptures of the Lord" he means Gospel writings, which are included in our New Testament. If it be assumed that the defence of the authority of the New Testament writings and of evangelical views is necessarily based on the synodical authority of the early Church, there may be some weight in his objections; but Christianity has a position independent of ecclesiastical pretensions to infallibility, and the latter may be overthrown without the great institution established by Divine mercy for the recovery of humanity from sin and its consequences being in the slightest degree damaged. Dr. Donaldson is quoted, who remarks: "It is not easy to settle what this term, 'Scriptures of the Lord,' is; but my own opinion is that it most probably refers to the Gospels, as containing the sayings and doings of the Lord. It is not likely, as Lardner supposes, that such a term would be applied to the whole of the New Testament."[47] The word "Scripture," in Greek, ΓραφἡΓραφἡ (Graphé), in Latin, Scriptura, has, no doubt, a meaning which denotes an inspired writing. It is used fifty-one times in the New Testament in the same sense, for Christ and the authors of the New Testament regarded the Old Testament as distinguished from all other writings, as the writing—the writing of God. By speaking of their own books as Graphai, the apostles place them on a level with the Old Testament, and thus assert their Divine character.[48]
Dr. Davidson speaks of the New Testament writings being ranked as "Holy Scripture" by Dionysius of Corinth, A.D. 170.
Our author asserts (p. 167) that "many works were regarded as inspired by the Fathers besides those in our Canon," and mentions especially the Gospel of Peter having been read at Rhossus. He says: "The fact that Serapion, in the third century, allowed the Gospel of Peter to be used in the Church of Rhossus shows the consideration in which it was held, and the incompleteness of the canonical position of the New Testament." Now, he ought to have quoted Serapion's own explanation, which we have preserved by Eusebius. He says (in his treatise written to confute what was false in the Gospel of Peter): "We receive Peter and the other apostles even as Christ; but the writings falsely called by their names, we, as competent critics, renounce, knowing that we received not such things. For when I was with you I supposed that all were agreed with the true faith; and, without reading the Gospel called Peter's, which they brought forward, I said, If this is the only thing that seems to cause you dissension, let it be read." Serapion says he borrowed the book and read it, and found many things agreeable to Christ's doctrine, but some discrepant additions.
Thus the reading of the Gospel of Peter at Rhossus cannot be instanced as a proof that other Gospels besides the canonical ones were used as inspired books, nor can any other be mentioned as having been thus regarded, the Gospel according to the Hebrews not being apocryphal, but a part of the New Testament, whether we take it to be, as our author supposes, the basis of Matthew's Gospel, or, as we say, a corrupted version of that apostle's Greek work. "To argue that because one spurious Gospel was temporarily received among a few persons, therefore there was no real canon of Scripture, and we cannot be sure that any Gospel is genuine, shows about as much common sense and logical acumen as would be displayed by a critic eighteen centuries hence, who, discovering in one of our newspapers an account of the conviction of a gang of coiners, should argue that because their base half-crowns had got into circulation, and had passed current with some persons who might have been expected to detect the fraud, therefore there was no such thing as a legal currency of intrinsic value among us; or if there were, still we did not know or care to inquire into the genuineness of the coin which we accepted and passed."[49]
Our author says (p. 16): "'The Pastor of Hermas,' which was read in the churches, and nearly secured a permanent place in the Canon, was quoted as inspired by Irenæus."[50]
The word Irenæus uses is Graphé, which is sometimes translated, when found in his works, Scripture, and at other times writings, as may best suit the argument of a critic like Dr. Davidson, who does so adapt the translation to suit his purpose.
Whatever erroneous notions might prevail as to apocryphal writings, the discrimination of Serapion, in regard to the Gospel of Peter, shows that such a work as the "Pastor of Hermas," in which, as Mosheim says, the angels are made to "talk more insipidly than our scavengers and porters," would not be put on a level with the books whose internal evidence, as well as historical pretensions, placed them in a much superior position. The contrast is too great for such men as Irenæus and Tertullian, as well as Serapion, not to have recognised the difference. The "gross forgeries" were too gross to be at once accepted as genuine by the Fathers of the slight critical faculty and the ready credulity of our author's argument.
Melito of Sardis, whose writings, it is generally agreed, belong to A.D. 176, because the fragment extant has a phrase indicating that Commodus had been admitted to share the Imperial Government with Marcus Aurelius, is the next witness. He writes to Onesimus, "a fellow-Christian who had urged him to make selections for him from the Law and the Prophets concerning the Saviour and the faith generally, and furthermore desired to learn the accurate account of the old (Palaion) books." "Having gone to the East," Melito says, "and reached the spot where each thing was preached and done, and having learned accurately the books of the Old Testament, I have sent a list of them." Dr. Westcott excites our author's ire because he says "that the use of the word 'old' in this way implies that there must have been a New Testament, and the form of language implies a familiar recognition of its contents." This is "truly astonishing," says our author. I remark, it is truly astonishing that any one should assert that the use of the adjective "old" in this sentence does not plainly indicate the existence of other books of a New Covenant or Testament. If the Jewish Scriptures had been merely described as old books, we could have understood the objection; but as the words occur, "having learned accurately the books of the Old Testament," we must side with Dr. Westcott, in spite of our author's astonishment.
Claudius Apollinaris, Eusebius says, was Bishop of Hierapolis, and there is the fragment of a letter of Serapion, Bishop of Antioch, which supports the statement, and in which Apollinaris is referred to as the "most blessed." The date of his writings, in consequence of an allusion to the Thundering Legion of the army of Marcus Aurelius, may be fixed at about A.D. 174. None of them are extant. We have only two brief fragments, in which the controversy respecting the observance of the Christian Passover is alluded to. The following passage is important: "There are some, however, who through ignorance raise contentions regarding these matters in a way which should be pardoned, for ignorance must not be pursued with accusation, but requires instruction. And they say that the Lord, together with His disciples, ate the lamb on the great day of unleavened bread, and they state that Matthew says precisely what they have understood; hence their understanding of it is at variance with the law, and according to them the Gospels seem to contradict each other." Tischendorf and Westcott naturally adduce this passage in support of the position of the four canonical Gospels. Our author demurs, arguing that "there is such exceedingly slight reason for attributing these fragments to Claudius Apollinaris, and so many strong grounds for believing that he cannot have written them, that they have no material value as evidence for the antiquity of the Gospels" (p. 191).
Athenagoras wrote an apology, entitled "The Embassy of Athenagoras the Athenian, a Philosopher and a Christian, concerning Christians, to the Emperors Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, Armeniaci Surmatici, and, above all, Philosophers;" and also a "Treatise on the Resurrection of the Body." A passage from the former occurs in the work of Methodius on the Resurrection, and is preserved by Epiphanius and by Photius.
"For we have learnt not only not to render a blow, nor to go to law with those who spoil and plunder us; but, to those who inflict a blow on one side, also to present the other side of the head in return for smiting; and to those who take away the coat, also to give besides the cloke."[51]
Of this our author says: "No echo of the words of Matthew has lingered in the ear of the writer, for he employs utterly different phraseology throughout; and nothing can be more certain than the fact that there is not a linguistic trace in it of acquaintance with our Synoptics" (p. 194).
The value of our author's conclusions may be measured by what he here asserts. It seems to me that the reverse may be asserted. (1) That words in Matthew did "linger in the ear of the writer;" (2) that he does not "employ utterly different phraseology throughout;" and (3) that many things "can be more certain than the fact that there is not a linguistic trace in it of acquaintance with our Synoptics."
The next passage which is referred to is as follows:—"What, then, are those precepts in which we are instructed? I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that persecute you; that ye may be sons of your Father which is in the heavens, who maketh his sun," &c.[52]
There is also the following:—"For if ye love, them which love you, and lend to them which lend to you, what reward shall ye have?"[53]
Of this passage, our author says it is evident that it does not agree with either of the Synoptics. "We have seen," says he, "the persistent variation in the quotations from the Sermon on the Mount which occur in Justin, and there is no part of the discourses of Jesus more certain to have been preserved by living Christian tradition, or to have been recorded in every form of Gospel. The differences in these passages from our Synoptics present the same features as mark the several versions of the same discourse in our First and Third Gospel, and indicate a distinct source" (p. 195). I remark, every step our author takes in this sort of criticism tends to the confirmation of our Christian faith, which is not the Christianity of a creed or a Church, but the belief in a Person. The more independent accounts of His life and discourses which can be traced, the greater the proof of His advent and mission. The Sermon on the Mount cannot be accounted for apart from the superhuman. "Never man spake like this man." The more it is quoted the more it is established as a sublime fact in literature, which neither the Jewish race, nor the Augustan era, nor indeed any other race or any other age, could have originated apart from Divine intervention.
The Epistle of Vienne and Lyons, written from the Churches in those towns to their brethren in Asia and Phrygia, about the year A.D. 177, giving an account of the terrible persecution which had broken out, is in part preserved by Eusebius. It contains words similar to those used in regard to Zacharias and Elisabeth, where they are said to have "walked in all the commandments and ordinances of God, blameless." And it has also the words, "And himself having the Spirit more abundantly than Zacharias," which compares with Luke i. 67: "And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied." In reference to these passages, our author's comment is as follows: "The state of the case is, we find a coincidence, in a few words in connection with Zacharias, between the Epistle and our Third Gospel; but so far from the Gospel being in any way indicated as their source, the words in question are, on the contrary, in association with a reference to events unknown to our Gospels, but which were indubitably chronicled elsewhere. It follows clearly, and few will venture to doubt the fact, that the allusion in the Epistle is to a Gospel different from ours, and not to our Third Synoptic at all" (p. 204). The event unknown to our Gospels is the martyrdom of Zacharias, which our Gospels make no mention of.
Ptolemæus and Heracleon, two Gnostic leaders, are next referred to. Of the former, Epiphanius has preserved "The Epistle to Flora," addressed to one of his disciples, which contains passages similar to sentences found in Matthew xii. 25, xix. 8, 6, xv. 4-8, v. 38, 39.; but our author objects that the Epistle "was in all probability written towards the end of the second century, and therefore it does not come within the scope of our inquiry;" and he goes into considerable detail to justify this statement.
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.
"Every trace has vanished of the great nameless one."
Baur.
"The denial of the authenticity of John's Gospel is a source of far greater difficulties than its acknowledgment."
Ritschl.
"The doctrine of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is the fundamental doctrine of Christianity. Without it Christianity, as a theological and as a philosophical system, cannot rank above Rabbinism and Mahommedanism."
The evidence that to John the Apostle is to be ascribed the Fourth Gospel, is worthy of the best attention we can bestow upon it. After that apostle had been dead half a century, this book, as is acknowledged by our author and all other critics, occupied a prominent place among the manuscripts of the Christians, with the name of John, as the author, attached; and the question now arises, after nearly eighteen centuries of belief in its authorship and authority, is there reasonable ground for doubting that it can be properly attributed to the apostle who was the companion, disciple, and bosom friend of Jesus? I think the question may be answered with confidence upon the evidence within our reach.
In the first place, Irenæus believed it was the Gospel according to John the Apostle; and who was Irenæus, that his belief in it should be good evidence? He was not John's contemporary, but there was one between John and Irenæus who was so intimate with both that the link of evidence is fully to be relied upon, and that link is Polycarp. Therefore, Irenæus, who was a hearer of Polycarp, can tell us something about it. Now Polycarp was born in the time of Nero, so he was for thirty-two years a contemporary of John's, and was his disciple. And Irenæus says in a letter written to a person called Florinus, and preserved by Eusebius: "When I was yet a youth, I saw thee in Asia Minor, at Polycarp's house, where thou wert distinguished at court, and obtained the regard of the bishop. I can more distinctly recollect things which happened then than others more recent, for events which happened in youth seem to grow with the mind, and to become part of ourselves. So I can tell the place where the blessed Polycarp used to sit and discourse, and his going out and coming in, and the manner of his life, and his personal appearance, and his discourses to the people, and how he related his intercourse with John, and the rest who had seen the Lord; and how he rehearsed their sayings, and what things there were which he had heard from them about the Lord, and about His miracles, and about His doctrine; and how Polycarp, having learned from the eye-witnesses of the Word of Life, narrated all things agreeably with the Scriptures. And to these things, by God's mercy bestowed on me at that time, I used diligently to listen, writing the remembrance of them, not on paper, but in my heart; and, by God's grace, I am always meditating affectionately upon them."[56]
Now we may be certain that Polycarp would be likely to know the truth of the matter, and Irenæus declares that "John, the disciple of the Lord who leaned on the bosom of the Lord at supper, wrote the Apocalypse."[57] So we have here reliable evidence that John wrote both the Apocalypse and the book whose author leaned on our Lord's bosom at supper. Not only this from Polycarp. There is extant "The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians," which Irenæus believed to be genuine, and in it we find these words: "For whosoever doth not confess Jesus Christ hath come in the flesh, is antichrist." I compare this with the words in John's Epistle: "And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God, and this is that spirit of antichrist." Our author says it is not a verbatim quotation. I say it is a quotation, if not verbatim. It is acknowledged that the author of the First Epistle of John and the Fourth Gospel is the same, the ideas and style being so much alike. "The two writings," says Rénan, "present the most complete identity of style, the same peculiarities, the same favourite expressions."
It is impossible to doubt that Polycarp would have learned from John himself whether he was the author of a Gospel; and if Irenæus had never heard Polycarp allude to the Gospel as John's, he could not have believed in it as he did, and have plainly stated that John wrote it and the Apocalypse. There would have been in this case a justifiable inference from "silence." If Polycarp in his teaching had never alluded to John's Gospel, it would have been so strange that Irenæus would have deemed it spurious altogether, and unworthy of the estimation with which he regarded it; for it is one of the four Gospels that he fancifully likens to the four corners of the earth, the four principal winds, and the four wings of the Seraphim. It is to be remembered that our author acknowledges Irenæus so regarded all the four Gospels, for he alludes (p. 91) to "the arbitrary assumption of exclusive originality and priority for the four Gospels" by Irenæus, Tertullian, and Epiphanius. It is evident that this Fourth Gospel could not have first appeared as late as A.D. 150, but must have been in existence long before; and on the testimony of Irenæus, through Polycarp, from John himself, its authenticity may be considered established.
The evidence from the work of Hippolytus, entitled, "The Refutation of all Heresies," that Basilides quoted from the Fourth Gospel, our author dismisses in one paragraph (p. 371), having fully referred to the testimony from that writer in treating of the Synoptics. There are, however, two very distinct passages which cannot be objected to as quotations, and the attempt to get rid of them by the substitution of the plural pronoun "they" for the singular one "he," in the text of Hippolytus, is an utter failure. The first is from John i. 9, "The true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world;" and the words in "The Refutation," by Hippolytus, are, "And this, he says, is that which has been stated in the Gospels, 'He was the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.'" The other is, "Mine hour is not yet come," agreeing with John ii. 4. The discovery of the work, "The Refutation of all Heresies," in the year 1841, at Mount Athos, by the erudite Minoides Mynas, a Greek, in the employ of the French Government, was important as bearing on this question, for it proves that the Fourth Gospel was in existence thirty years earlier than the Tübingen criticism asserted. Our author's want of appreciation of the evidence found in Hippolytus is one of the weakest points in his book.
Is the Fourth Gospel quoted by Justin Martyr? Our author says, No! I say, Yes! to the question. In his Dialogue with Tryphon (p. 316) occur the words, "I am not the Christ, but the voice of one crying," which is evidently from that Gospel, for we know of no other which makes John the Baptist say the same. He says "the evangelical work of which Justin made use was obviously different from our Gospels, and the evident conclusion to which any impartial mind must arrive is, that there is not only not the slightest ground for affirming that Justin quoted the passage (as above) from the Fourth Gospel, from which he so fundamentally differs, but every reason on the contrary to believe that he derived it from a particular Gospel, in all probability the Gospel according to the Hebrews" (p. 302). I remark, that the words, "I am not the Christ, but the voice of one crying," could not be quoted from the Gospel according to the Hebrews if that supposed independent book did not contain them, and there is no evidence that it did. On the contrary, our Gospel of Matthew, compiled, as we suppose, partly from it, would have in that case had the words; and as it has not, and as only John's Gospel has them, the inference is clear that Justin had seen the latter, as well as the other Gospel or Gospels from which the earlier part of the sentence is taken. The whole of Justin's sentence is as follows: "For John sat by the Jordan and preached the baptism of repentance, wearing only a leathern girdle and raiment of camel's hair, and eating nothing but locusts and wild honey." Men supposed him to be the Christ, wherefore he cries to them, "I am not Christ, but the voice of one crying (or preaching). For he cometh who is greater than I, whose shoes I am not meet to bear."
We find in the second "Apology" (p. 94) these words: "Christ said, 'Except ye be born again ye may not enter into the kingdom of heaven;" and in the very same line is continued the reference to the conversation with Nicodemus, in these words: "But that it is impossible for those who have been once born to enter into their mother's womb, is plain to all." I scarce need remind you how the statement of Christ and the question of Nicodemus are as close together in the Fourth Gospel. The passage there is, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?" The two sentences, coming together in both, leaves no doubt that Justin used the Fourth Gospel, for there is nothing like them in any of the other Gospels.
It is something to have from Justin Martyr the evidence that Jesus taught Nicodemus that a man cannot see the kingdom of God without being born of the Holy Ghost. If Justin quoted from an earlier Gospel, it is against our author's non-superhuman theory; and if from our Gospels, it is equally so. But, supposing that he could prove that Justin did not quote, that would not prove that the books were not in existence. Paul's Epistles, 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1 Corinthians, and Romans, all written not later than the year 58, are they quoted, as we might suppose they would be, by Justin? We know nothing as to the extent of his library. He might have had copies of all these Gospels and Epistles, or none at hand to quote verbatim from. Was there a concordance, to help a writer to be exact, after the modern demand?
The internal evidence of the Fourth Gospel is, perhaps, not so appreciable by our author as the external, on account of his foregone conclusion that the superhuman is incredible. But as "there is no feasible explanation of the Divine origin of Christianity without acknowledging the Divine mission of Jesus," so is there no possible explanation of the Fourth Gospel without a recognition of the evangelical doctrine of the triune in the Divine Nature—the threefold manifestation of the one God. Exclude from the Fourth Gospel the idea of the Holy Spirit having inspired John to write it, and there naturally follows the attempt to exclude the book from its historical and authoritative position. It has a perfectly harmonious place in the superhuman means by which spiritual truth is exhibited and enforced for the benefit of mankind, but that place is an advanced one. It was the last of inspired utterances, and it presupposes the development that it supplements, and which it designs to promote. The Holy Spirit, "the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant," to make us "perfect in every good work to do His will," must be recognised and duly honoured if the Bible is to be understood and Christianity successfully exhibited and defended. Let us turn to the book. It opens with allusions to the dignity of Christ the Messiah which no philosophy known in Alexandria had a conception of. Philo and his Platonic school discoursed of the Logos; but their doctrine is distinct from that of this Gospel. Justin takes up their idea, as our author shows (p. 278), and draws a distinction between the Logos and Jesus, describing Jesus Christ as being made flesh by the power of the Logos; for Justin says,—"Through the power of the Word, according to the will of God the Father and Lord of all, he was born a man of a virgin."[58] Philo says,[59]—"The Logos of God is above all things in the word, and is the most ancient and most universal of all things created." I do not deny that Justin got ideas of the Logos from the Old Testament and from the writings of Philo, as shown by our author, but I submit that he confused their doctrine with the more developed truth of the New Testament. "It is certain," he says (p. 291), "that both Justin and Philo, unlike the prelude to the Fourth Gospel, place the Logos in a secondary position to God the Father, indicating a less advanced stage in the doctrine. 'He calls the Word constantly the first-born of all created beings'" (p. 292). Our author says,—"We do not propose in this work to enter fully into the history of the Logos doctrine" (p. 280). Had he done so, he could not have shown that the doctrine reached to the height of the apostolic conception. There is no allusion to the Divinity of the Logos, as John and Paul assert; and no reference to the unquestionable statement of Scripture that, in the Word made flesh, we have a revelation of the mysterious triune nature of Jehovah. A vague notion of it is found in many idolatrous systems of religious worship, and its prevalence is an indication of the truth which tradition, from primitive revelation, has handed down; but the mystery, as Paul says, was hidden for ages and generations, and was not made manifest until, in the fulness of time, the scheme of Redemption was fully unfolded. The gospel is called by Paul "the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest by a clear interpretation of the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith."[60] To concentrate the doctrine in the Fourth Gospel and Paul's later epistles, and then repudiate the writings, is a mode of sustaining the denial of it which is far from being successful. This doctrine is evidently one of the essential elements of Christian truth. As the bread which sustains our bodily life, so the bread of the life of the soul, may be decomposed, but none of the elements must be left out of it if it is to be of use. In the Old Testament we find many passages which show the plurality in the Divine nature. The doctrine, it is true, was not so revealed as to be conspicuous at the time, for if it had been, it would have been misunderstood, and thus tended to interfere with the schooling which the Jews were undergoing to cure them of their proneness to idolatry; but with the New Testament in our hand we see what, without it, would be still hidden in obscurity. As we read the Fourth Gospel in the light of this doctrine, how it harmonises with the "plan of salvation" which believers in all evangelical Churches call Christianity! The book professes to be written that men, believing in Jesus Christ, may have eternal life; records the testimony of John the Baptist that Jesus was the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world (i. 29); and announces the important dogma that the supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit is indispensable to overcome the unwillingness of the soul of man to receive the truths of the Divine revelation. "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him" (vi. 44). "Except a man be born of the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God." It testifies to the Divine nature of Jesus in the most explicit manner. "Therefore the Jews sought to kill him," because he said "God was his Father, making himself equal with God" (v. 18). "That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father" (v. 23). "If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also" (viii. 19). "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am" (viii. 58). "It is he (the Son of God) that talketh with thee. And he (the man who had been blind) said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him" (ix. 38). "I and my Father are one" (x. 30). "For blasphemy" (we stone thee), "and because thou, being a man, makest thyself God" (x. 36). "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" (xi. 25, 26). "Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him" (xiii. 32). "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (xiv. 9).
The doctrine of what we call (not having a better word) the personality of the Holy Spirit is clearly indicated in such passages as the following:—"I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you" (xiv. 17). "But the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (xiv. 26). "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (xvi. 7). "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come" (xvi. 13). The seventeenth chapter I will not refer to in part, but specify entire, begging the reader to meditate on its marvellous comprehensiveness and expressiveness.
Much of the teaching of Jesus would be so far above the comprehension of the disciples when they heard it, that it would not be likely to be impressed on their memory. The Holy Spirit was to be sent, to bring all things to their remembrance; and it is only by this promise being fulfilled that we can understand the inspired words of the Fourth Gospel.
Could Jesus have said what He is described in this book to have said, if God had not been with Him as He never was with any other man? If such a question be pertinent, how utterly needless the further question, Could the book have been written by the nameless unknown some one whom the hypothesis of its non-Johannine origin substitutes as the author?
Whatever difference there is between the composition of the Fourth Gospel and the Apocalyse, there is, at all events, a striking analogy between the opening verses of the former and those in the latter, where the faithful and true witness is referred to as "the beginning of the creation of God,"[61] and as being set down with His Father upon His throne. In the preface to each of the addresses to the seven Churches Christ assumes the attributes and prerogatives of the Deity. The prominence given to the mysterious doctrine of the Divinity of Christ is as great in the one as the other.
It is somewhat singular that from Rénan, who so utterly rejects the miraculous, we should have such a decided opinion that it is appropriately entitled the Gospel according to John. After saying, "I dare not be sure that the Fourth Gospel has been entirely written by a Galilean fisherman," he writes in his introduction to the "Life of Jesus": "No one doubts that towards the year 150, the Fourth Gospel did exist, and was attributed to John. Explicit texts from Justin, Athenagoras, Tatian, Theophilus of Antioch, and Irenæus, show that from thenceforth this Gospel mixed in every controversy, and served as corner-stone for the development of the faith. Irenæus is explicit. Now he came from the school of John, and between him and the apostle there was only Polycarp. The part played by this Gospel in Gnosticism, and especially in the system of Valentinus, in Montanism, and in the quarrel of the Quartodecimans, is not less decisive. The school of John was the most influential in the second century, and it is only by regarding the origin of the Gospel as coincident with the rise of the school, that the existence of the latter can be understood at all."
"The First Epistle, attributed to John, is certainly by the same author as the Fourth Gospel. Now this Epistle is recognised as from John by Polycarp, Papias, and Irenæus. But it is, above all, the perusal of the Fourth Gospel itself which is calculated to give the impression that John must have written it. The author always speaks as an eye-witness. He wishes to pass for the Apostle John. If, then, this work is not really by the apostle, we must admit a fraud of which the author convicts himself. Now, although the ideas of the time respecting literary honesty differed essentially from ours, there is no example in the apostolic world of a falsehood of this kind. Besides, not only does the author wish to pass for the apostle, but we see clearly that he writes in the interest of this apostle."
As to the difference in language and style between it and the Apocalypse, it is not altogether unusual for an author to produce works which differ greatly from each other. An instance is mentioned by the Rev. Kentish Bache, in his letter to Dr. Davidson. "William Penn, within one and the same year (1668) wrote two different works, entitled 'The Sandy Foundation Shaken,' and 'Innocency with her Open Face.' The former pamphlet is circulated by the Unitarians as a tract demolishing the doctrine of the Trinity, while the latter is an earnest defence of that very doctrine; and yet Penn protests that his belief had undergone no change" (p. 35).
One of the difficulties in the way of the reception of the Fourth Gospel is the raising of Lazarus from the dead, which the Synoptics do not record. A probable explanation is suggested by Grotius, who says, as Lazarus was living when the Synoptics were written, and as "the chief priests consulted that they might put him to death, because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus,"[62] the publication of the miracle would have exposed Lazarus to more intense hostility, and endangered his life.
Our author makes the strange assertion that "the Fourth Gospel, by whomsoever written—even if it could be traced to the Apostle John—has no real historical value, being at best the glorified recollections of an old man, written down half a century after the events recorded" (p. 467). This bold assertion ignores the fact that the impressions of early life are, as a rule, indelibly fixed on the memory. Of no historical value, though written by John! Our author knows perfectly well that such an event as the raising of Lazarus from the dead could never fade from the memory of those who witnessed it. Does he overlook, or suppress, the consideration that John's recollection would be daily refreshed by the teaching of the principles of a gospel which consisted of these events and discourses? We can as well conceive of the Duke of Wellington having forgotten, when he was eighty years old, the campaigns of the Peninsula and the battle of Waterloo, as John forgetting the memorable transactions in the life of his Master with which he was so closely identified. Besides, we do not know that the materials for John's book had not long before been noted down. It is not probable that he who wrote the Apocalypse in the year 68 would put nothing into writing of the memoirs until close upon the time when the book was published. Such is not the mode of authorship now, and was not then. Supposing the apostle to have died, leaving behind him unarranged materials, including notes and memoranda made at various times, and that these were, with fidelity, but with more scholarship than John possessed, transcribed, edited, and made a book of, entitled "The Gospel according to John," we have an explanation of the linguistic difficulty which does not overstep the limits of reasonable probability.
Well may Dr. Davidson acknowledge "it is not easy to account for the early belief of its Johannine origin;" and that "if a disciple of John wrote it, he had learned more than his master." It would have been "strange if such an author had continued unknown." If we reject the Johannine origin, we have to believe that during the fifty years between John's death and the time of the book's general acceptance as his there lived some one capable of writing it, of whom history and tradition are silent. This is certainly a large matter for sceptical credulity to swallow. How much easier to believe that the refinement and beauty of composition, whose charm has captivated the world, is the work of a Grecian disciple, who wrote under the superintendence, if not dictation, of the apostle who only could have furnished the materials at the time when it was written. At the close of the first century all the other apostles were dead, and for its authorship we cannot look beyond the circle which surrounded Jesus at the instituting of that ever-abiding memorial of Him, "The Lord's Supper."
Among the anomalies of our author's hypothesis we have to think of the apostles living in the first century, and attaining their reputation as writers during the second. In the first century men appear, but without their writings. In the second century the writings come to light, but without the men. How unnatural, says Dr. Christlieb, is this! Who can fail to see that the hypothesis is incredible?
"We invariably find that an age which is fertile in literary productions is followed by a conservative period, in which the productions of the foregoing period are collected and digested—first the classical, then the post-classical. Does the second century, in other respects, bear the impress of a productive classical period in literature? On the contrary, its undoubted products breathe a spirit which bears the same relation to the New Testament writings as does the tenour of a post-classical age bear to that of the age preceding it. Did these writings, especially the Fourth Gospel, belong to 'unknown' authors, they would be perfectly inexplicable phenomena as compared with all the other products of that period. It has been well said that it were no less absurd to ascribe the most inspiriting writings of Luther to the spiritless period of the Thirty Years' War, than to transfer the Gospel of John to the middle of the second century."[63]
"Notwithstanding their warm Christian life, the writings of the second century evince such a remarkable dearth of new ideas that one plainly sees how, after the spiritual flood-tides of the first century, the ebb had set in."[64]
"Compare, for instance, the clear and sober-minded spirit of the New Testament epistles, or the quiet sublimity of the Gospel of John, with the epistles of Ignatius, the enthusiasm of which degenerates into a well-nigh fanatic desire for martyrdom; or with the Pastor of Hermas, and the value ascribed by him to ascetic rigour; or with the epistles by Clement of Rome, which tell the fable of the phœnix as a fact; or, again, with the Epistle of Barnabas, which delights in insipid allegories, and gives the most absurd typical interpretations of the Old Testament, justifying Neander's remark, that here we encounter quite another spirit than that of an apostolic man."[65]
Our author produces such a mass of evidence from the early writers, confirmatory of the truths of the Gospel, that his criticism tends to opposite conclusions. Supposing he can prove that the canon of Scripture is not unassailable, he has not accomplished much. It is of more value to have confirmation of the facts and principles of Divine truth, than to be assured that the authorship, construction, compilation, or arrangement of the Scriptures, are just what the Church of Rome authoritatively pronounced. Because we cannot positively settle certain questions of little comparative importance, are we to surrender our faith in essentials? Are we to let the conjectures and queries of German cavillers, with their "Yea, hath God said," destroy our cherished faith and hope? God forbid! It is not the preservation or infallibility of the apostolic writings which makes His incarnation, death, and resurrection, facts in the history of our race. The facts make the history, not the history the facts. Europe was saved from Oriental despotism by Leonidas at Thermopylæ, and the valour and patriotism of the Greeks; by Charles Martel in the eighth century; and again by Prince Eugene in the seventeenth century; but it is not because history has truly or imperfectly recorded these facts that we enjoy to this day the great benefits resulting to civilisation from their heroism.
The truth of Christianity does not, at all events, rest on the quotations of the early Fathers, and our author would have accomplished but little had he proved that there were none found. In the first ages of the Church, when the events were fresh, the voice of the preacher was the channel which conveyed the saving gospel to the souls of men, and there was not the same necessity for reference to the written records as in after times. When a century had elapsed after the death of Christ, then the records of the first disciples became of importance. They then came into prominence, and were abundantly quoted, as our author acknowledges. As time went on that importance increased, and about three hundred years after the events the Emperor Constantine ordered Eusebius to have fifty copies of the Holy Scriptures fairly inscribed on parchment, the use whereof he tells Eusebius he "knew to be absolutely necessary to the Church." Eusebius gives us the emperor's entire letter. They were not so absolutely necessary when most of the Fathers wrote whom our author has referred to. I do not want any written record to prove to me that the Spaniards in the Peninsular War, seventy years ago, poisoned the bread of the British troops. I lived in my youth with an old Christian soldier and his wife who were in the campaign, and used to amuse me with their experience of such facts, as we sat round the fire on a winter's evening. Nor of the American War of Independence do the people of the present generation depend entirely on writings or books for the proof that it took place. Two lives reach from date to date, and no evidence can be stronger than such.
Until we have better reason than our author has adduced for altering our estimate of these sacred writings, so often assailed, but maintaining serenely, century after century, their high pretensions as a message from heaven to culture our moral and spiritual nature, and guide us thither, we should be foolish, oh, how foolish! to question their authority or neglect their guidance. Because we cannot be sure that the Bible is in every detail the perfect transcript of Divine revelation, we are to abandon the only solace that humanity possesses, the only theory which accounts for the wickedness which, without its teaching, is such an anomaly to all else in creation, the only bond which binds society in brotherhood, and makes social existence capable of including happiness here, or the hope of life hereafter. Better a misunderstood revelation than none at all. Better a glimpse of immortality, than the negation which is utter darkness, and makes the issue of existence only death.
We now come to the question of contemporary evidence. Our author says the testimony of the New Testament in favour of the miraculous is inadequate because it is not contemporary. I have to endeavour to show that he has himself proved it to be contemporary.
The "Spectator" describes him as virtually saying: It is as if you tried to prove some unheard-of facts of the civil war in the time of Charles I. by testimony not to be traced higher than the reign of George III. I say we trace the testimony to one of Cromwell's own officers, and our author's own criticism shall be shown to prove it.
I take one piece of evidence of his own which he has elaborately presented. I compare it with proofs of the same kind from other sources. I refer to the authorities specified, and I accept it and endorse it. But I make a different use of it. He uses it to prove that because John, the apostle, wrote the Apocalypse, he cannot have written the Fourth Gospel. I use it to prove that because John wrote the Apocalypse the facts of the Gospel are by contemporary testimony substantiated; and I contend that this evidence—clear, direct, and irrefragable—neutralises his main argument and the object of his book, which is to invalidate supernatural religion and the reality of Divine revelation.
He says (on page 392 of his second volume): "The external evidence that the Apostle John wrote the Apocalypse is more ancient than that for the authorship of any other book of the New Testament, excepting some of the epistles of Paul. Justin Martyr affirms in the clearest and most positive manner the apostolic origin of the work. He speaks to Tryphon of a certain man whose name was John, one of the apostles of Christ, who prophesied, by a revelation made to him, of the Millennium and subsequent general resurrection. The genuineness of this testimony is not called in question by any one."
"As another most important point we may mention that there is probably not another work of the New Testament the precise date of the composition of which, within a very few weeks, can be so positively affirmed. No result of criticism rests upon a more secure basis, and is now more universally accepted by all competent critics than the fact that the Apocalypse was written A.D. 68, 69. The writer distinctly and repeatedly mentions his name. 'The revelation of Jesus Christ ... unto his servant John. John to the seven Churches which are in Asia;' and he states that the work was written in the island of Patmos, where he was 'on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus'" (p. 395).
"It is clear that the writer counted fully upon being generally known under the simple designation of John; and when we consider the unmistakable terms of authority with which he addresses the seven Churches, it is scarcely possible to deny that the writer either was the apostle, or, distinctly desired to assume his personality" (p. 397).
"The whole description (of the New Jerusalem) is a mere allegory of the strongest Jewish dogmatic character, and it is of singular value for the purpose of identifying the author" (p. 399).
"There is no internal evidence whatever against the supposition that the 'John' who announces himself as the author of the Apocalypse was the apostle. On the contrary, the tone of authority adopted throughout, and evident certainty that his identity would everywhere be recognised, denote a position in the Church which no other person of the name of John could possibly have held at the time when the Apocalypse was written. The external evidence, therefore, which indicates that Apostle John as the author is quite in harmony with the internal testimony of the book itself" (p. 402).
I have quoted sufficient to show that our author, whose object is to discredit the Fourth Gospel, elaborately and successfully proves that John the Apostle wrote the Apocalypse.
There is other testimony to prove this, easily got at, besides what our author supplies.
Sir Isaac Newton long ago fixed upon the year 68 as the date.
Dr. Davidson says: "We should despair of proving the authenticity of any New Testament book by the help of ancient witnesses, if that of the Apocalypse be rejected."
In the present quarter's "Edinburgh Review" (October 1874) there is a remarkable confirmation of the importance I am attaching to the Apocalypse as a book written by the Apostle John during the nine months' reign of the Emperor Galba, that is, between May 1, 68, and January 15, 69. The writer of the article, which is a review of Rénan's "Antichrist," says: "The arguments which support the assignment of A.D. 68 as the date of its composition are absolutely irresistible." And he adds: "Here we have a book the date of which is positively ascertained, and the writer almost certainly known, while its contents are of a prophetic character, and lay claim (in a marked manner) to inspiration, yet are so peculiarly historical in their character, and deal with a period of history so perfectly well known down to its minutest details, that it can be checked and verified at every turn. Might we not almost say that we have here (as in the Book of Daniel) a gauge by which to measure inspiration, a sample by which to understand prophecy, a key for a full comprehension of what Holy Scripture is and means?"
The Apocalypse is, as our author describes it, an ecstatic and dogmatic allegory. What it is besides, which the believer in Divine inspiration would include in the definition, is out of the range of such a critic's comprehension, and he would not be likely to attach much importance to the words, "Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter." But he seems to have overlooked how much essential evangelical doctrine it expresses, and how much it is imbued with its spirit; that it testifies to the resurrection of Christ and the atonement. Although it is an allegory, its author could no more have written it, if he had known nothing of those doctrines, than Bunyan could have written "The Pilgrim's Progress," or Milton "Paradise Lost" and "Regained." By proving John to be the author of this "highly dogmatic treatise," as he calls the Apocalypse, he takes us to the essence of the dogmas. They must have either been in existence before John wrote it, or he invented them, for they are certainly there.
He seems unconsciously to have furnished the very contemporary evidence which such critics as himself pretend not to have found, and profess they require, before they can accept the miracles and evangelical doctrines of the gospel.
He allows that Matthew was an eye-witness, but denies that he wrote of miracles. He allows that Paul wrote of miracles, but he was not an eye-witness.
Now John both saw them and wrote of them, for he was the son of Zebedee, and he wrote the Apocalypse. This being proved, we have in it, from him, as an eye-witness of the miracles of Jesus, evidence which confirms the Gospels. The vision is from Him "who liveth and was dead; the first begotten of the dead, who cometh with clouds," and to one who was "in the spirit on the Lord's day."
It as evidently presupposes the miraculous facts of the Gospels, and is supplementary to them, as certainly as it presupposes the prophecies of the Old Testament, and supplements the predictions of Daniel.
The allegory of "a Lamb as it had been slain," which is prominent in the vision, is unmistakable. No critic could be so perverse as to deny that this plainly indicates that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and that His death is referred to as a sacrifice for sin in fulfilment of the ancient types and sacrificial rites; nor can it be doubted that the same is in harmony with the gospel which Paul preached and wrote about in his absolutely unquestionable epistles, to which alone we refer, avoiding, for obvious reasons, allusion to the Acts of the Apostles, as our author seems to ignore that book altogether.
Let us turn to the sublime words of this Apocalypse, proved to have been written by John the Apostle, and as we read, imagine, if we can, that the author himself, and the Christians of the seven Churches of Asia and elsewhere, knew nothing of the miraculous facts of the Gospels and the doctrine of the atonement with which they are inseparably connected; and imagine, if we can, that they were both added, according to our author's hypothesis, to the original and lost Gospels a century later. It is entitled "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass."
Among such things—"shortly to come to pass"—affecting the Church, we cannot be wrong in understanding the attack upon Jerusalem by the Romans to be included. If so, the saying of the angel—"Rise and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein," implies that Jerusalem was still standing when the book was written. Also, among the things shortly to come to pass, must be understood the impending judgments on Rome (the mystical Babylon) for the terrible and bloody persecution which had lately happened; for Rome is evidently referred to in the seventeenth chapter, where we read: "Upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the great; and I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and of the martyrs of Jesus." We are left in no uncertainty as to the interpretation of this chapter, for it is given us in the last verse, where we are told—"And the woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth." "The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings, five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come." It is all but certain that the kings referred to are—1 Augustus, 2 Tiberius, 3 Caligula, 4 Claudius, 5 Nero, and the 6th, "which now is," Galba, who reigned nine months, from 1st May, 68, till 15th January, 69; the 7th, to come next, being Otho, who, when he cometh, must continue a short space. It was but "a short space," for on the 20th of April in the same year Vespasian ascended the throne. The beast which was to appear next is undoubtedly Nero; for though he was dead, Tacitus tells us there was a wide-spread rumour, which created great alarm, that the report of his having committed suicide, when the senate had denounced him, was false. He is said to have been personified by a slave, who took up his abode in an island not far from Patmos. When we think of the Roman coins of that date having on them the words "Nero Cæsar," the Hebrew letters for which are identical with the "six hundred threescore and six," the number of the beast, which "he that hath understanding is to count," we cannot avoid the conclusion that Nero, under the symbol of a beast, is referred to.