Supernatural Religion, Vol. 2 (of 3)
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Title: Supernatural Religion, Vol. 2 (of 3)
Author: Walter Richard Cassels
Release date: August 28, 2011 [eBook #37232]
Language: English
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Credits: Produced by David Widger
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUPERNATURAL RELIGION, VOL. 2 (OF 3) ***
Produced by David Widger
SUPERNATURAL RELIGION:
AN INQUIRY INTO THE REALITY OF DIVINE REVELATION.
By Walter Richard Cassels
In Three Volumes: Vol. II.
Complete Edition.
Carefully Revised.
London:
Longmans, Greenland Co.,
1879.
PG EDITOR'S NOTE: This file has been provided with an image of the
original scan for each page which is linked to the page number in the
html file. Nearly every page in the text has many Greek passages which
have been indicated where they occur by [------] as have many complex
tables; these passages may be viewed in the page images. Some of the
pages have only a few lines of text and then the rest of the page is
taken up with complex footnotes in English, Greek and Hebrew. The reader
may click on the page numbers in the html file to see the entire page
with the footnotes. --DW
AN INQUIRY INTO THE REALITY OF DIVINE REVELATION
PART II.
CHAPTER V. THE CLEMENTINES--THE EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS
We must now as briefly as possible examine the evidence furnished by
the apocryphal religious romance generally known by the name of "The
Clementines," and assuming, falsely of course,(1) to be the composition
of the Roman Clement. The Clementines are composed of three principal
works, the Homilies, Recognitions, and a so-called Epitome. The
Homilies, again, are prefaced by a pretended epistle addressed by the
Apostle Peter to James, and another from Clement. These Homilies were
only known in an imperfect form till 1853, when Dressel(2) published
a complete Greek text. Of the Recognitions we only possess a Latin
translation by Rufinus (a.d. 402).
{2}
Although there is much difference of opinion regarding the claims to
priority of the Homilies and Recognitions, many critics assigning that
place to the Homilies,(1) whilst others assert the earlier origin of the
Recognitions,(2) all are agreed that the one is merely a version of the
other, the former being embodied almost word for word in the latter,
whilst the Epitome is a blending of the other two, probably intended
to purge them from heretical doctrine. These works, however, which are
generally admitted to have emanated from the Ebionitic party of the
early Church,(3) are supposed to be based upon older Petrine writings,
such as the "Preaching of Peter" [------], and the "Travels of Peter"
[------].(4)
{3}
It is not necessary for our purpose to go into any analysis of the
character of the Clementines. It will suffice to say that they almost
entirely consist of discussions between the Apostle Peter and Simon
the Magician regarding the identity of the true Mosaic and Christian
religions. Peter follows the Magician from city to city for the purpose
of exposing and refuting him, the one, in fact, representing Apostolic
doctrine and the other heresy, and in the course of these discussions
occur the very numerous quotations of sayings of Jesus and of Christian
history which we have to examine.
The Clementine Recognitions, as we have already remarked, are only known
to us through the Latin translation of Rufinus; and from a comparison of
the evangelical quotations occurring in that work with the same in the
Homilies, it is evident that Rufinus has assimilated them in the course
of translation to the parallel passages of our Gospels. It is admitted,
therefore, that no argument regarding the source of the quotations can
rightly be based upon the Recognitions, and that work may, consequently,
be entirely set aside,(1) and the Clementine Homilies alone need occupy
our attention.
We need scarcely remark that, unless the date at which these Homilies
were composed can be ascertained, their value as testimony for the
existence of our Synoptic Gospels is seriously affected. The difficulty
of arriving at a correct conclusion regarding this point, great under
almost any circumstances, is of course increased by the fact that the
work is altogether apocryphal, and most certainly not held by any one to
have
{4}
been written by the person whose name it bears. There is in fact nothing
but internal evidence by which to fix the date, and that internal
evidence is of a character which admits of very wide extension down the
course of time, although a sharp limit is set beyond which it cannot
mount upwards. Of external evidence there is almost none, and what
little exists does not warrant an early date. Origen, it is true,
mentions [------],(1) which, it is conjectured, may either be the same
work as the [------], or Recognitions, translated by Rufinus, or
related to it, and Epiphanius and others refer to [------];(2) but
our Clementine Homilies are not mentioned by any writer before
pseudo-Athanasius.(3) The work, therefore, can at the best afford no
substantial testimony to the antiquity and apostolic origin of our
Gospels. Hilgenfeld, following in the steps of Baur, arrives at the
conclusion that the Homilies are directed against the Gnosticism of
Marcion (and also, as we shall hereafter see, against the Apostle Paul),
and he, therefore, necessarily assigns to them a date subsequent to a.d.
160. As Reuss, however, inquires: upon this ground, why should a still
later date not be named, since even Tertullian wrote vehemently against
the same Gnosis.(4) There can be little doubt that the author was a
representative of Ebionitic Gnosticism, which had once been the purest
form of primitive Christianity, but later, through its own development,
though still more through the rapid growth around it of Paulinian
doctrine, had
{5}
assumed a position closely verging upon heresy. It is not necessary
for us, however, to enter upon any exhaustive discussion of the date at
which the Clementines were written; it is sufficient to show that there
is no certain ground upon which a decision can be based, and that even
an approximate conjecture can scarcely be reasonably advanced. Critics
variously date the composition of the original Recognitions from about
the middle of the second century to the end of the third, though the
majority are agreed in placing them at least in the latter century.(1)
They assign to the Homilies an origin at different dates within a period
commencing about the middle of the second century, and extending to a
century later.2
In the Homilies there are very numerous quotations
{6}
of sayings of Jesus and of Gospel history, which are generally placed
in the mouth of Peter, or introduced with such formulae as: "The teacher
said," "Jesus said," "He said," "The prophet said," but in no case does
the author name the source from which these sayings and quotations are
derived. That he does, however, quote from a written source, and not
from tradition, is clear from the use of such expressions as "in another
place [------](1) he has said," which refer not to other localities or
circumstances, but another part of a written history.(2) There are in
the Clementine Homilies upwards of a hundred quotations of sayings of
Jesus or references to his history, too many by far for us to examine
in detail here; but, notwithstanding the number of these passages, so
systematically do they vary, more or less, from the parallels in our
canonical Gospels, that, as in the case of Justin, Apologists are
obliged to have recourse to the elastic explanation, already worn so
threadbare, of "free quotation from memory" and "blending of passages"
to account for the remarkable phenomena presented. It must, however,
be evident that the necessity for such an apology at all shows the
insufficiency of the evidence furnished by these quotations. De
Wette says: "The quotations of evangelical works and histories in the
pseudo-Clementine writings, from their nature free and inaccurate,
permit only an uncertain conclusion to be
{7}
drawn as to their written source."(1) Critics have maintained very
different and conflicting views regarding that source. Apologists, of
course, assert that the quotations in the Homilies are taken from
our Gospels only.(2) Others ascribe them to our Gospels, with a
supplementary apocryphal work: the Gospel according to the Hebrews, or
the Gospel according to Peter.(3) Some, whilst admitting a subsidiary
use of some of our Gospels, assert that the author of the Homilies
employs, in preference, the Gospel according to Peter;(4) whilst others,
recognizing also the similarity of the phenomena presented by these
quotations with those of Justin's, conclude that the author does not
quote our Gospels at all, but makes use of the Gospel according to
Peter, or the Gospel according to the Hebrews.(5) Evidence permitting of
such divergent conclusions manifestly cannot be of a decided character.
We may affirm, however, that few of those who are
{8}
willing to admit the use of our Synoptics by the author of the Homilies
along with other sources, make that concession on the strength of the
absolute isolated evidence of the Homilies themselves, but they are
generally moved by antecedent views on the point. In an inquiry like
that which we have undertaken, however, such easy and indifferent
judgment would obviously be out of place, and the point we have to
determine is not whether an author may have been acquainted with our
Gospels, but whether he furnishes testimony that he actually was in
possession of our present Gospels and regarded them as authoritative.
We have already mentioned that the author of the Clementine Homilies
never names the source from which his quotations are derived. Of these
very numerous quotations we must again distinctly state that only two or
three, of a very brief and fragmentary character, literally agree with
our Synoptics, whilst all the rest differ more or less widely from
the parallel passages in those Gospels. Some of these quotations are
repeated more than once with the same persistent and characteristic
variations, and in several cases, as we have already seen, they agree
more or less closely with quotations of Justin from the Memoirs of the
Apostles. Others, again, have no parallels at all in our Gospels, and
even Apologists are consequently compelled to admit the collateral
use of an apocryphal Gospel. As in the case of Justin, therefore, the
singular phenomenon is presented of a vast number of quotations of which
only one or two brief phrases, too fragmentary to avail as evidence,
perfectly agree with our Gospels; whilst of the rest, which all vary
more or less, some merely resemble combined passages of two Gospels,
others merely contain the sense, some
{9}
present variations likewise found in other writers or in various parts
of the Homilies are repeatedly quoted with the same variations, and
others are not found in our Gospels at all. Such phenomena cannot
be fairly accounted for by any mere theory of imperfect memory or
negligence. The systematic variation from our Synoptics, variation
proved by repetition not to be accidental, coupled with quotations which
have no parallels at all in our Gospels, more naturally point to the
use of a different Gospel. In no case can the Homilies be accepted as
furnishing evidence even of the existence of our Gospels.
As it is impossible here to examine in detail all of the quotations in
the Clementine Homilies, we must content ourselves with this distinct
statement of their character, and merely illustrate briefly the
different classes of quotations, exhausting, however, those which
literally agree with passages in the Gospels. The most determined
of recent Apologists do not afford us an opportunity of testing
the passages upon which they base their assertion of the use of our
Synoptics, for they simply assume that the author used them without
producing instances.(1)
The first quotation agreeing with a passage in our Synoptics occurs
in Hom. iii. 52: "And he cried, saying: Come unto me all ye that are
weary," which agrees with the opening words of Matt. xi. 28, but the
phrase does
1 Teschendorf only devotes a dozen linos, with a note, to
the Clemontinos, and only in connection with our fourth
Gospel, which shall hero-after have our attention. Wann
wurden u. s. w., p. 90. In the same way Canon Westcott
passes them over in a short paragraph, merely asserting the
allusions to our Gospels to be "generally admitted," and
only directly referring to one supposed quotation from Mark
which we shall presently examine, and one which he affirms
to be from the fourth Gospel. On the Canon, p. 251 f. [In
the 4th edition he has enlarged his remarks, p. 282 ff.]
{10}
not continue, and is followed by the explanation: "that is, who are
seeking the truth and not finding it."(1) It is evident, that so short
and fragmentary a phrase cannot prove anything.(2)
The next passage occurs in Hom. xviii. 15: "For Isaiah said: I will open
my mouth in parables, and I will utter things that have been kept secret
from the foundation of the world."(3) Now this passage, with a slightly
different order of words, is found in Matt. xiii. 35. After giving a
series of parables, the author of the Gospel says (v. 34), "All these
things spake Jesus unto the multitudes in parables; and without a
parable spake he not unto them; (v. 35) That it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by the prophet (Isaiah), saying: I will open my mouth in
parables, &c." There are two peculiarities which must be pointed out in
this passage. It is not found in Isaiah, but in Psalm lxxviii. 2,(4) and
it presents a variation from the version of the lxx. Both the variation
and the erroneous reference to Isaiah, therefore, occur also in the
Homily. The first part of the sentence agrees with, but the latter part
is quite different from, the Greek of the lxx., which reads: "I will
utter problems from the beginning," [------].(5)
The Psalm from which the quotation is really taken is, by its
superscription, ascribed to Asaph, who, in the Septuagint version of II.
Chronicles xxix. 30, is called a
{11}
prophet.(1) It was, therefore, early asserted that the original reading
of Matthew was "Asaph," instead of "Isaiah." Porphyry, in the third
century, twitted Christians with this erroneous ascription by their
inspired evangelist to Isaiah of a passage from a Psalm, and reduced the
Fathers to great straits. Eusebius, in his commentary on this verse
of the Psalm, attributes the insertion of the words, "by the prophet
Isaiah," to unintelligent copyists, and asserts that in accurate MSS.
the name is not added to the word prophet. Jerome likewise ascribes the
insertion of the name Isaiah for that of Asaph, which was originally
written, to an ignorant scribe,(2) and in the commentary on the Psalms,
generally, though probably falsely, ascribed to him, the remark is made
that many copies of the Gospel to that day had the name "Isaiah," for
which Porphyry had reproached Christians,(3) and the writer of the same
commentary actually allows himself to make the assertion that Asaph was
found in all the old codices, but ignorant men had removed it.(4) The
fact is, that the reading "Asaph" for "Isaiah" is not found in any
extant MS., and, although "Isaiah" has disappeared from all but a few
obscure codices, it cannot be denied that the name anciently stood in
the text.(5) In the Sinaitic Codex, which is probably the earliest
MS. extant, and which is assigned to the fourth century, "the prophet
_Isaiah_" stands in the text by the first hand, but is erased by the
second (b).
{12}
The quotation in the Homily, however, is clearly not from our Gospel.
It is introduced by the words "For Isaiah says:" and the context is so
different from that in Matthew, that it seems most improbable that the
author of the Homily could have had the passage suggested to him by the
Gospel. It occurs in a discussion between Simon the Magician and Peter.
The former undertakes to prove that the Maker of the world is not the
highest God, and amongst other arguments he advances the passage:
"No man knew the Father, &c.," to show that the Father had remained
concealed from the Patriarchs, &c., until revealed by the Son, and in
reply to Peter he retorts, that if the supposition that the Patriarchs
were not deemed worthy to know the Father was unjust, the Christian
teacher was himself to blame, who said: "I thank thee, Lord of heaven
and earth, that what was concealed from the wise thou hast revealed to
suckling babes." Peter argues that in the statement of Jesus: "No man
knew the Father, &c.," he cannot be considered to indicate another
God and Father from him who made the world, and he continues: "For the
concealed things of which he spoke may be those of the Creator himself;
for Isaiah says: 'I will open my mouth, &c.' Do you admit, therefore,
that the prophet was not ignorant of the things concealed,"(1) and so
on. There is absolutely nothing in this argument to indicate that the
passage was suggested by the Gospel, but, on the contrary, it is used in
a totally different way, and is quoted not as an evangelical text, but
as a saying from the Old Testament, and treated in connection with the
prophet himself, and not with its supposed fulfilment in Jesus. It may
be remarked, that in the corresponding part of
{13}
the Recognitions, whether that work be of older or more recent date, the
passage does not occur at all. Now, although it is impossible to say
how and where this erroneous reference to a passage of the Old Testament
first occurred, there is no reason for affirming that it originated in
our first Synoptic, and as little for asserting that its occurrence
in the Clementine Homilies, with so different a context and object,
involves the conclusion that their author derived it from the Gospel,
and not from the Old Testament or some other source. On the contrary,
the peculiar argument based upon it in the Homilies suggests a different
origin, and it is very probable that the passage, with its erroneous
reference, was derived by both from another and common source.
Another passage is a phrase from the "Lord's Prayer," which occurs in
Hom. xix. 2: "But also in the prayer which he commended to us, we have
it said: Deliver us from the evil one" [------]. It need scarcely be
said, however, that few Gospels can have been composed without including
this prayer, and the occurrence of this short phrase demonstrates
nothing more than the mere fact, that the author of the Homilies was
acquainted with one of the most universally known lessons of Jesus, or
made use of a Gospel which contained it. There would have been cause for
wonder had he been ignorant of it.
The only other passage which agrees literally with our Gospels is also
a mere fragment from the parable of the Talents, and when the other
references to the same parable are added, it is evident that the
quotation is not from our Gospels. In Hom. iii. 65, the address to
the good servant is introduced: "Well done, good and faithful servant"
[------], which agrees
{14}
with the words in Matt. xxv. 21. The allusion to the parable of the
talents in the context is perfectly clear, and the passage occurs in
an address of the Apostle Peter to overcome the modest scruples of
Zaccheus, the former publican, who has been selected by Peter as his
successor in the Church of Caesarea when he is about to leave in pursuit
of Simon the Magician. Anticipating the possibility of his hesitating
to accept the office, Peter, in an earlier part of his address, however,
makes fuller allusions to the same parable of the talents, which we must
contrast with the parallel in the first Synoptic. "But if any of those
present, having the ability to instruct the ignorance of men, shrink
back from it, considering only his own ease, then let him expect to
hear:"
[--Table--]
{15}
The Homily does not end here, however, but continues in words not found
in our Gospels at all: "And reasonably: 'For,' he says, 'it is thine,
O man, to put my words as silver with exchangers, and to prove them as
money/"(1) This passage is very analogous to another saying of Jesus,
frequently quoted from an apocryphal Gospel, by the author of the
Homilies, to which we shall hereafter more particularly refer, but
here merely point out: "Be ye approved money-changers" [------].(2) The
variations from the parallel passages in the first and third Gospels,
the peculiar application of the parable to the _words_ of Jesus, and
the addition of a saying not found in our Gospels, warrant us in denying
that the quotations we are considering can be appropriated by our
canonical Gospels, and, on the contrary, give good reason for the
conclusion, that the author derived his knowledge of the parable from
another source.
There is no other quotation in the Clementine Homilies which literally
agrees with our Gospels, and it is difficult, without incurring the
charge of partial selection, to illustrate the systematic variation
in such very numerous passages as occur in these writings. It would be
tedious and unnecessary to repeat the test applied to the quotations
of Justin, and give in detail the passages from the Sermon on the Mount
which are found in the Homilies. Some of these will come before us
presently, but with regard to the whole, which are not less than fifty,
we may broadly and positively state that they all more or less differ
from our Gospels. To take the
{16}
severest test, however, we shall compare those further passages which
are specially adduced as most closely following our Gospels, and neglect
the vast majority which most widely differ from them. In addition to
the passages which we have already examined, Credner(1) points out the
following. The first is from Hom. xix. 2.(2) "If Satan cast out Satan
he is divided against himself: how then can his kingdom stand?" In the
first part of this sentence, the Homily reads, [------] for the [------]
of the first Gospel, and the last phrase in each is as follows:--
[------]
The third Gospel differs from the first as the Homily does from both.
The next passage is from Hom. xix. 7.s "For thus, said our Father, who
was without deceit: out of abundance of heart mouth speaketh." The Greek
compared with that of Matt. xii. 34.
[------]
The form of the homily is much more proverbial. The next passage occurs
in Hom. iii. 52: "Every plant which the heavenly Father did not plant
shall be rooted up." This agrees with the parallel in Matt. xv. 13, with
the important exception, that although in the mouth of Jesus, "_the_
heavenly Father" is substituted for the "_my_ heavenly Father" of the
Gospel. The last passage pointed out by Credner, is from Hom. viii.
4: "But also 'many,' he said, 'called, but few chosen;'" which may be
compared with Matt. xx. 16, &c.
[------]
{17}
We have already fully discussed this passage of the Gospel in connection
with the "Epistle of Barnabas,"[1] and need not say more here.
The variations in these passages, it may be argued, are not very
important. Certainly, if they were the exceptional variations amongst a
mass of quotations perfectly agreeing with parallels in our Gospels, it
might be exaggeration to base upon such divergences a conclusion that
they were derived from a different source. When it is considered,
however, that the very reverse is the case, and that these are passages
selected for their closer agreement out of a multitude of others either
more decidedly differing from our Gospels or not found in them at all,
the case entirely changes, and variations being the rule instead of the
exception, these, however slight, become evidence of the use of a Gospel
different from ours. As an illustration of the importance of slight
variations in connection with the question as to the source from which
quotations are derived, the following may at random be pointed out. The
passage "See thou say nothing to any man, but go thy way, show thyself
to the priest" [------] occurring in a work like the Homilies would,
supposing our second Gospel no longer extant, be referred to Matt viii.
4, with which it entirely agrees with the exception of its containing
the one extra word [------]. It is however actually taken from Mark i.
44, and not from the first Gospel. Then again, supposing that our first
Gospel had shared the fate of so many others of the [------] of Luke,
and in some early work the following passage were found: "A prophet is
not without honour except in his own country
{18}
and in his own house" [------]t this passage would undoubtedly be
claimed by apologists as a quotation from Mark vi. 4, and as proving the
existence and use of that Gospel. The omission of the words "and among
his own kin" [------] would at first be explained as mere abbreviation,
or defect of memory, but on the discovery that part or all of these
words are omitted from some MSS., that for instance the phrase is erased
from the oldest manuscript known, the Cod. Sinaiticus, the derivation
from the second Gospel would be considered as established. The author
notwithstanding might never have seen that Gospel, for the quotation is
taken from Matt. xiii. 57.(2)
We have already quoted the opinion of De Wette as to the inconclusive
nature of the deductions to be drawn from the quotations in the
pseudo-Clementine writings regarding their source, but in pursuance
of the plan we have adopted we shall now examine the passages which he
cites as most nearly agreeing with our Gospels.(3) The first of these
occurs in Hom. iii. 18: "The Scribes and the Pharisees sit upon Moses'
seat; all things therefore, whatsoever they speak to you, hear them,"
which is compared with Matt, xxiii. 2, 3: "The Scribes and the Pharisees
sit upon Moses' seat; all things therefore, whatsoever they say to
you, do and observe." We subjoin the Greek of the latter half of these
passages.
{19}
That the variation in the Homily is deliberate and derived from the
Gospel used by the author is clear from the continuation: "Hear _them_
[------], he said, as entrusted with the key of the kingdom, which is
knowledge, which alone is able to open the gate of life, through which
alone is the entrance to eternal life. But verily, he says: They possess
the key indeed, but to those who wish to enter in they do not grant
it."(1) The [------] is here emphatically repeated, and the further
quotation and reference to the denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees
continues to differ distinctly from the account both in our first and
third Gospels. The passage in Matt, xxiii. 13, reads: "But woe unto you,
Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut the kingdom of heaven
against men; for ye go not in yourselves neither suffer ye them that are
entering to go in."(2) The parallel in Luke xi. 52 is not closer. There
the passage regarding Moses' seat is altogether wanting, and in ver.
52, where the greatest similarity exists, the "lawyers" instead of the
"Scribes and Pharisees" are addressed. The verse reads: "Woe unto you,
Lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in
yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered."(3) The first
Gospel has not the direct image of the key at all: the Scribes and
Pharisees "shut the kingdom of
{20}
heaven;" the third has "the key of knowledge" [------] taken away by the
lawyers, and not by the Scribes and Pharisees, whilst the Gospel of the
Homilies has the key of the kingdom [------], and explains that this
key is knowledge [------]. It is apparent that the first Gospel uses an
expression more direct than the others, whilst the third Gospel explains
it, but the Gospel of the Homilies has in all probability the simpler
original words: the "key of the kingdom," which both of the others have
altered for the purpose of more immediate clearness. In any case it is
certain that the passage does not agree with our Gospel.(1)
The next quotation referred to by De Wette is in Hom. iii. 51: "And also
that he said: 'I am not come to destroy the law.... the heaven and the
earth will pass away, but one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass
from the law.'" This is compared with Matt. v. 17, 18:(2) "Think not
that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to
destroy but to fulfil, (v. 18) For verily I say unto you: Till heaven
and earth pass away one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from
the law, till all be fulfilled." The Greek of both passages reads as
follows:--
[------]
{21}
That the omissions and variations in this passage are not accidental is
proved by the fact that the same quotation occurs again literally in
the Epistle from Peter(1) which is prefixed to the Homilies in which the
[------] is
repeated, and the sentence closes at the same point The author in
that place adds: "This he said that all might be fulfilled" [------].
Hilgenfeld
considers this Epistle of much more early date than the Homilies, and
that this agreement bespeaks a particular text.(2) The quotation does
not agree with our Gospels, and must be assigned to another source.
The next passage pointed out by De Wette is the erroneous quotation from
Isaiah which we have already examined.(3) That which follows is found
in Hom. viii. 7: "For on this account our Jesus himself said to one who
frequently called him Lord, yet did nothing which he commanded: Why dost
thou say to me Lord, Lord, and doest not the things which I say?" This
is compared with Luke vi. 46:(4) "But why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do
not the things which I say?"
[------]
This passage differs from our Gospels in having the second person
singular instead of the plural, and in substituting [------] for
[------] in the first phrase. The Homily, moreover, in accordance with
the use of the second person singular, distinctly states that the saying
was addressed to a person who frequently called Jesus "Lord," whereas
in the Gospels it forms part of the Sermon on the Mount with a totally
impersonal application to the multitude.
{22}
The next passage referred to by De Wette is in Hom. xix. 2: "And he
declared that he saw the evil one as lightning fall from heaven." This
is compared with Luke x. 18, which has no parallel in the other Gospels:
"And he said to them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."
[------]
The substitution of [-------] for [-------], had he found the latter
in his Gospel, would be all the more remarkable from the fact that the
author of the Homilies has just before quoted the saying "If Satan cast
out Satan,"(1) &c. and he continues in the above words to show
that Satan had been cast out, so that the evidence would have been
strengthened by the retention of the word in Luke had he quoted that
Gospel. The variations, however, indicate that he quoted from another
source.(2)
The next passage pointed out by De Wette likewise finds a parallel only
in the third Gospel. It occurs in Hom. ix. 22: "Nevertheless, though all
demons with all the diseases flee before you, in this only is not to
be your rejoicing, but in that, through grace, your names, as of the
ever-living, are recorded in heaven." This is compared with Luke x. 20:
"Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto
you, but rejoice that your names are written in the heavens."
[------]
{23}
The differences between these two passages are too great and the
peculiarities of the Homily too marked to require any argument to
demonstrate that the quotation cannot be successfully claimed by
our third Gospel. On the contrary, as one of so many other passages
systematically varying from the canonical Gospels, it must rather be
assigned to another source.
De Wette says: "A few others (quotations) presuppose (voraussetzen) the
Gospel of Mark,"(1) and he gives them. The first occurs in Hom. ii. 19:
"There is a certain Justa(2) amongst us, a Syrophoenician, a Canaantte
by race, whose daughter was affected by a sore disease, and who came to
our Lord crying out and supplicating that he would heal her daughter.
But he being also asked by us, said: 'It is not meet to heal the
Gentiles who are like dogs from their using different meats and
practices, whilst the table in the kingdom has been granted to the sons
of Israel.' But she, hearing this and exchanging her former manner of
life for that of the sons of the kingdom, in order that she might, like
a dog, partake of the crumbs falling from that same table, obtained, as
she desired, healing for her daughter."(3) This is compared with
Mark vii. 24--30,(4) as it is the only Gospel which calls the woman
a Syrophoenician. The Homily, however, not only calls her so, a very
unimportant point, but gives her name as "Justa."
{24}
If, therefore, it be argued that the mention of her nationality supposes
that the author found the fact in his Gospel, and that as we know
no other but Mark(1) which gives that information, that he therefore
derived it from our second Gospel, the additional mention of the name
of "Justa" on the same grounds necessarily points to the use of a Gospel
which likewise contained it, which our Gospel does not. Nothing can
be more decided than the variation in language throughout this whole
passage from the account in Mark, and the reply of Jesus is quite
foreign to our Gospels. In Mark (vii. 25) the daughter has "an unclean
spirit" [------]; in Matthew (xv. 22) she is "grievously possessed by a
devil" [------], but in the Homily she is "affected by a sore disease"
[------]. The second Gospel knows nothing of any intercession on the
part of the disciples, but Matthew has: "And the disciples came and
besought him [------] saying: 'Send her away, for she crieth after
us,'"(2) whilst the Homily has merely "being also asked by us," [------]
in the sense of intercession in her favour. The second Gospel gives the
reply of Jesus as follows: "Let the children first be filled: for it is
not meet to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs.
And she answered and said unto him: 'Yea, Lord, for the dogs also eat
under the table of the crumbs of the children. And he said unto her: For
this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter."(3) The
nature of the reply of the woman is,
{25}
in the Gospels, the reason given for granting her request; but in
the Homily the woman's conversion to Judaism,(1) that is to say
Judeo-Christianity, is prominently advanced as the cause of her
successful pleading. It is certain from the whole character of this
passage, the variation of the language, and the reply of Jesus which is
not in our Gospels at all, that the narrative cannot rightly be assigned
to them, but the more reasonable inference is that it was derived from
another source.(2)
The last of De Wette's(3) passages is from Hom. iii. 57: "Hear, O
Israel; the Lord thy(4) God is one Lord." This is a quotation from
Deuteronomy vi. 4, which is likewise quoted in the second Gospel, xii.
29, in reply to the question, "Which is the first Commandment of all?
Jesus answered: The first is, Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one
Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God," &c. &c. In the Homily,
however, the quotation is made in a totally different connection, for
there is no question of commandments at all, but a clear statement of
the circumstances under which the passage was used, which excludes the
idea that this quotation was derived from Mark xii. 29. The context in
the Homily is as follows: "But to those who were beguiled to imagine
many gods as the Scriptures say, he said: Hear, O Israel," &c, &c.(5)
There is no hint of the assertion of many gods in the Gospels; but, on
the contrary, the question is put by one of the scribes in Mark to whom
Jesus says: "Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God."6 The quotation,
{26}
therefore, beyond doubt, cannot be legitimately appropriated by the
second Synoptic, but may with much greater probability be assigned to a
different Gospel.
We may here refer to the passage, the only one pointed out by him in
connection with the Synoptics, the discovery of which Canon Westcott
affirms, "has removed the doubts which had long been raised about those
(allusions) to St. Mark."(1) The discovery referred to is that of the
Codex Ottobonianus by Dressel, which contains the concluding part of the
Homilies, and which was first published by him in 1853. Canon Westcott
says: "Though St Mark has few peculiar phrases, one of these is repeated
verbally in the concluding part of the 19th Homily."(2) The passage is
as follows: Hom. xix. 20: "Wherefore also he explained to his disciples
privately the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens." This is compared
with Mark iv. 34.... "and privately to his own disciples, he explained
all things."
[------]
We have only a few words to add to complete the whole of Dr. Westcott's
remarks upon the subject. He adds after the quotation: "This is the only
place where [------] occurs in the Gospels."(4) We may, however, point
out that it occurs also in Acts xix. 39 and 2 Peter i. 20. It is upon
the coincidence of this word that
{27}
Canon Westcott rests his argument that this passage is a reference to
Mark. Nothing, however, could be more untenable than such a conclusion
from such an indication. The phrase in the Homily presents a very marked
variation from the passage in Mark. The "all things" [------] of the
Gospel, reads: "The mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens" [------] in
the Homily. The passage in Mark iv. 11, to which Dr. Westcott does not
refer, reads [------]. There is one very important matter, however,
which our Apologist has omitted to point out, and which, it seems to us,
decides the case--the context in the Homily. The chapter commences thus:
"And Peter said: We remember that our Lord and Teacher, as commanding,
said to us: 'Guard the mysteries for me, and the sons of my house.'
Wherefore also he explained to his disciples privately," &c.:(l) and
then comes our passage. Now, here is a command of Jesus, in immediate
connection with which the phrase before us is quoted, which does not
appear in our Gospels at all, and which clearly establishes the use of a
different source. The phrase itself which differs from Mark, as we have
seen, may with all right be referred to the same unknown Gospel.
It must be borne in mind that all the quotations which we have
hitherto examined are those which have been selected as most closely
approximating to passages in our Gospels. Space forbids our giving
illustrations of the vast number which so much more widely differ from
parallel texts in the Synoptics. We shall confine
{28}
ourselves to pointing out in the briefest possible manner some of the
passages which are persistent in their variations or recall similar
passages in the Memoirs of Justin. The first of these is the injunction
in Hom. iii. 55: "Let your yea be yea, your nay nay, for whatsoever is
more than these cometh of the evil one." The same saying is repeated
in Hom. xix. with the sole addition of "and." We subjoin the Greek
of these, together with that of the Gospel and Justin with which the
Homilies agree.
[------]
As we have already discussed this passage(1) we need not repeat our
remarks here. That this passage comes from a source different from our
Gospels is rendered still more probable by the quotation in Hom. xix. 2
being preceded by another which has no parallel at all in our Gospels.
"And elsewhere he said, 'He who sowed the bad seed is the devil'
[------](2): and again: 'Give no pretext to the evil one.'(2) [------].
But in exhorting he prescribes: 'Let your yea be yea.'" &c. The first
of these phrases differs markedly from our Gospels; the second is not in
them at all; the third, which we are considering, differs likewise in an
important degree in common with Justin's quotation, and there is every
reason for supposing that the whole were derived from the same unknown
source.(3) In the same Homily, xix. 2, there occurs also the passage
which exhibits variations likewise found in Justin, which we have
already examined,(4) and now
{29}
merely point out: "Begone into the darkness without, which the Father
hath prepared for the devil and his angels."(1) The quotation in Justin
(Dial. 76) agrees exactly with this, with the exception that Justin
has [------] instead of [------], which is not important, whilst the
agreement in the marked variation from the parallel in the first Gospel
establishes the probability of a common source different from ours.(2)
We have also already(3) referred to the passage in Hom. xvii. 4. "No one
knew [------] the Father but the Son, even as no one knoweth the Son
but the Father and those to whom the Son is minded to reveal him."
This quotation differs from Matt. xi. 27 in form, in language, and in
meaning, but agrees with Justin's reading of the same text, and as we
have shown the use of the aorist here, and the transposition of the
order, were characteristics of Gospels used by Gnostics and other
parties in the early Church, and the passage with these variations was
regarded by them as the basis of some of their leading doctrines.(4)
That the variation is not accidental, but a deliberate quotation from
a written source, is proved by this, and by the circumstance that the
author of the Homilies repeatedly quotes it elsewhere in the same
form.(5) It is unreasonable to suppose that the quotations in these
Homilies are so systematically and consistently erroneous, and not only
can they not, from their actual variations, be legitimately referred to
the Synoptics exclusively, but, considering all the circumstances, the
{30}
only natural conclusion is that they are derived from a source different
from our Gospels.(1)
Another passage occurs in Hom. iii. 50: "Wherefore ye do err, not
knowing the true things of the Scriptures; and on this account ye are
ignorant of the power of God." This is compared with Mark xii. 24:(2)
"Do ye not therefore err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of
God?"
The very same quotation is made both in Hom. ii. 51 and xviii. 20, and
in each case in which the passage is introduced it is in connection
with the assertion that there are true and false Scriptures, and that as
there are in the Scriptures some true sayings and some false, Jesus by
this saying showed to those who erred by reason of the false the cause
of their error. There can scarcely be a doubt that the author of the
Homilies quotes this passage from a Gospel different from ours, and this
is demonstrated both by the important variation from our text and also
by its consistent repetition, and by the context in which it stands.(3)
Upon each occasion, also, that the author of the Homilies quotes the
foregoing passage he likewise quotes another saying of Jesus which is
foreign to our Gospels: "Be ye approved money-changers," [------].(4)4
The saying is thrice quoted without
{31}
variation, and each time, together with the preceding passage, it refers
to the necessity of discrimination between true and false sayings in
the Scriptures, as for instance: "And Peter said: If, therefore, of the
Scriptures some are true and some are false, our Teacher rightly said:
'Be ye approved money-changers,' as in the Scriptures there are some
approved sayings and some spurious."(1) This is one of the best known
of the apocryphal sayings of Jesus, and it is quoted by nearly all the
Fathers,(2) by many as from Holy Scripture, and by some ascribed to the
Gospel of the Nazarenes, or the Gospel according to the Hebrews. There
can be no question here that the author quotes an apocryphal Gospel.(3)
There is, in immediate connection with both the preceding passages,
another saying of Jesus quoted which is not found in our Gospels: "Why
do ye not discern the good reason of the Scriptures?" "[------]; "(4)
This passage also comes from a Gospel different from ours,(5) and the
connection and sequence of these quotations is very significant.
One further illustration, and we have done. We find the following in
Hom. iii. 55: "And to those who
(32)
think that God tempts, as the Scriptures say, he said: 'The evil one
is the tempter,' who also tempted himself. "l This short saying is not
found in our Gospels. It probably occurred in the Gospel of the Homilies
in connection with the temptation of Jesus. It is not improbable that
the writer of the Epistle of James, who shows acquaintance with a Gospel
different from ours,(2) also knew this saying.(3) We are here again
directed to the Ebionite Gospel. Certainly the quotation is derived from
a source different from our Gospels.(4)
These illustrations of the evangelical quotations in the Clementine
Homilies give but an imperfect impression of the character of the
extremely numerous passages which occur in the work. We have selected
for our examination the quotations which have been specially cited by
critics as closest to parallels in our Gospels, and have thus submitted
the question to the test which is most favourable to the claims of
our Synoptics. Space forbids our adequately showing the much wider
divergence which exists in the great majority of cases between them and
the quotations in the Homilies. To sum up the case: Out of more than
a hundred of these quotations only four brief and fragmentary phrases
really agree with parallels in our Synoptics, and these, we have shown,
are either not used in the same context as in our Gospels or are of
a nature far from special to them. Of the rest, all without exception
systematically vary more or less from our Gospels, and many in their
variations agree with similar quotations in other writers,
{33}
or on repeated quotation always present the same peculiarities, whilst
others, professed to be direct quotations of sayings of Jesus, have no
parallels in our Gospels at all. Upon the hypothesis that the author
made use of our Gospels, such systematic divergence would be perfectly
unintelligible and astounding. On the other hand, it must be remembered
that the agreement of a few passages with parallels in our Gospels
cannot prove anything. The only extraordinary circumstance is that, even
using a totally different source, there should not have been a greater
agreement with our Synoptics. But for the universal inaccuracy of the
human mind, every important historical saying, having obviously only
one distinct original form, would in all truthful histories have been
reported in that one unvarying form. The nature of the quotations in the
Clementine Homilies leads to the inevitable conclusion that their author
derived them from a Gospel different from ours; at least, since the
source of these quotations is never named throughout the work, and there
is not the faintest direct indication of our Gospels, the Clementine
Homilies cannot be considered witnesses of any value as to the origin
and authenticity of the canonical Gospels. That this can be said of
a work written a century and a half after the establishment of
Christianity, and abounding with quotations of the discourses of Jesus,
is in itself singularly suggestive.
It is scarcely necessary to add that the author of the Homilies has no
idea whatever of any canonical writings but those of the Old Testament,
though even with regard to these some of our quotations have shown
that he held peculiar views, and believed that they contained spurious
elements. There is no reference in the
{34}
Homilies to any of the Epistles of the New Testament.(1)
One of the most striking points in this work, on the other hand, is
its determined animosity against the Apostle Paul. We have seen that a
strong anti-Pauline tendency was exhibited by many of the Fathers, who,
like the author of the Homilies, made use of Judeo-Christian Gospels
different from ours. In this work, however, the antagonism against the
"Apostle of the Gentiles" assumes a tone of peculiar virulence. There
cannot be a doubt that the Apostle Paul is attacked in it, as the great
enemy of the true faith, under the hated name of Simon the Magician,(2)
whom Peter follows everywhere for the purpose of unmasking and confuting
him. He is robbed of his title of "Apostle of the Gentiles," which,
together with the honour of founding the Church of Antioch, of Laodicaae,
and of Rome, is ascribed to Peter. All that opposition to Paul which
is implied in the Epistle to the Galatians and elsewhere(3) is here
realized and exaggerated, and
{35}
the personal difference with Peter to which Paul refers(1) is widened
into the most bitter animosity. In the Epistle of Peter to James which
is prefixed to the Homilies, Peter says, in allusion to Paul: "For
some among the Gentiles have rejected my lawful preaching and accepted
certain lawless and foolish teaching of the hostile man."(2) First
expounding a doctrine of duality, as heaven and earth, day and night,
life and death,(3) Peter asserts that in nature the greater things come
first, but amongst men the opposite is the case, and the first is
worse and the second better.(4) He then says to Clement that it is easy
according to this order to discern to what class Simon (Paul) belongs,
"who came before me to the Gentiles, and to which I belong who have come
after him, and have followed him as light upon darkness, as knowledge
upon ignorance, as health upon disease."(5) He continues: "If he had
been known he would not have been believed, but now, not being known, he
is wrongly believed; and though by his acts he is a hater, he has been
loved; and although an enemy, he has been welcomed as a friend; and
though he is death, he has been desired as a saviour; and though fire,
esteemed as light; and though a deceiver, he is listened to as speaking
the truth."(6) There is much more of this acrimonious abuse put into
the mouth of Peter.(7) The indications that it is Paul who is really
attacked under the name of Simon are much too clear to admit of doubt.
In Hom. xi. 35, Peter, warning the Church against false
{36}
teachers, says: "He who hath sent us, our Lord and Prophet, declared to
us that the evil one.... announced that he would send from amongst his
followers apostles(1) to deceive. Therefore, above all remember to avoid
every apostle, or teacher, or prophet, who first does not accurately
compare his teaching with that of James called the brother of my Lord,
and to whom was confided the ordering of the Church of the Hebrews in
Jerusalem," &c., lest this evil one should send a false preacher to
them, "as he has sent to us Simon preaching a counterfeit of truth in
the name of our Lord and disseminating error."(2) Further on he speaks
more plainly still. Simon maintains that he has a truer appreciation
of the doctrines and teaching of Jesus because he has received his
inspiration by supernatural vision, and not merely by the common
experience of the senses,(3) and Peter replies: "If, therefore, our
Jesus indeed was seen in a vision, was known by thee, and conversed with
thee, it was only as one angry with an adversary.... But can any one
through a vision be made wise to teach? And if thou sayest: 'It is
possible,' then wherefore did the Teacher remain and discourse for a
whole year to us who were awake? And how can we believe thy story that
he was seen by thee? And how could he have been seen by thee when thy
thoughts are contrary to his teaching? But if seen and taught by him for
a single hour thou becamest an apostle:(4) preach his words, interpret
his sayings, love his
{37}
apostles, oppose not me who consorted with him. For thou hast directly
withstood me who am a firm rock, the foundation of the Church. If thou
hadst not been an adversary thou wouldst not have calumniated me, thou
wouldst not have reviled my teaching in order that, when declaring what
I have myself heard from the Lord.
I might not be believed, as though I were condemned.... But if thou
callest me condemned, thou speakest against God who revealed Christ to
me,'"(1) &c. This last phrase: "If thou callest me condemned" [------]
is an evident allusion to Galat. ii. II: "I withstood him to the face,
because he was condemned" [------].
We have digressed to a greater extent than we intended, but it is not
unimportant to show the general character and tendency of the work we
have been examining. The Clementine Homilies,--written perhaps about the
end of the second century, which never name nor indicate any Gospel
as the source of the author's knowledge of evangelical history, whose
quotations of sayings of Jesus, numerous as they are, systematically
differ from the parallel passages of our Synoptics, or are altogether
foreign to them, which denounce the Apostle Paul as an impostor,
enemy of the faith, and disseminator of false doctrine, and therefore
repudiate his Epistles, at the same time equally ignoring all the other
writings of the New Testament,--can scarcely be considered as giving
much support to any theory of the early formation of the New Testament
Canon, or as affording evidence even of the existence of its separate
books.
{38}
2.
Among the writings which used formerly to be ascribed to Justin
Martyr, and to be published along with his genuine works, is the short
composition commonly known as the "Epistle to Diognetus." The ascription
of this composition to Justin arose solely from the fact that in the
only known MS. of the letter there is an inscription [------] which,
from its connection, was referred to Justin.(1) The style and contents
of the work, however, soon convinced critics that it could not possibly
be written by Justin,(2) and although it has been ascribed by various
isolated writers to Apollos, Clement, Marcion, Quadratus, and others,
none of these guesses have been seriously supported, and critics are
almost universally agreed in confessing that the author of the Epistle
is entirely unknown.
Such being the case, it need scarcely be said that the difficulty of
assigning a date to the work with any degree of certainty is extreme, if
it be not absolutely impossible to do so. This difficulty, however,
is increased by several circumstances. The first and most important of
these is the fact that the Epistle to Diognetus is neither quoted nor
mentioned by any ancient
{39}
writer, and consequently there is no external evidence whatever to
indicate the period of its composition.(1) Moreover, it is not only
anonymous but incomplete, or, at least, as we have it, not the work of
a single writer. At the end of Chapter x. a break is indicated, and
the two concluding chapters are unmistakably by a different and later
hand.(2) It is not singular, therefore, that there exists a wide
difference of opinion as to the date of the first ten chapters, although
all agree regarding the later composition of the concluding portion. It
is assigned by critics to various periods ranging from about the end of
the first quarter of the second century to the end of the third century
or later,(3) whilst some denounce it as a mere modern forgery.(4)
Nothing can be more insecure in one
{40}
direction than the date of a work derived alone from internal evidence.
Allusions to actual occurrences may with certainty prove that a work
could only have been written after they had taken place. The mere
absence of later indications in an anonymous Epistle only found in a
single MS. of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, however, and which
may have been, and probably was, written expressly in imitation of early
Christian feeling, cannot furnish any solid basis for an early date.
It must be evident that the determination of the date of this Epistle
cannot therefore be regarded as otherwise than doubtful and arbitrary.
It is certain that the purity of its Greek and the elegance of its style
distinguish it from all other Christian works of the period to which so
many assign it.(1)
The Epistle to Diognetus, however, does not furnish any evidence even
of the existence of our Synoptics, for it is admitted that it does not
contain a single direct quotation from any evangelical work.(2)We shall
hereafter have to refer to this Epistle in connection with the fourth
Gospel, but in the meantime it may be well to add that in Chapter xii.,
one of those, it will be remembered, which are admitted to be of later
date, a brief quotation is made from 1 Cor. viii. 1, introduced merely
by the words, [------].
CHAPTER VI. BASILIDES--VALENTINUS.
We must now turn back to an earlier period, and consider any evidence
regarding the Synoptic Gospels which may be furnished by the so-called
heretical writers of the second century. The first of these who claims
our attention is Basilides, the founder of a system of Gnosticism, who
lived in Alexandria about the year 125 of our era.(1) With the exception
of a very few brief fragments,(2) none of the writings of this Gnostic
have been preserved, and all our information regarding them is,
therefore, derived at second-hand from ecclesiastical writers opposed
to him and his doctrines; and their statements, especially where
acquaintance with, and the use of, the New Testament Scriptures are
assumed, must be received with very great caution. The uncritical and
inaccurate character of the Fathers rendered them peculiarly liable to
be misled by foregone devout conclusions.
Eusebius states that Agrippa Castor, who had written a refutation of
the doctrines of Basilides: "says that he had composed twenty-four books
upon the Gospel."(3)
{42}
This is interpreted by Tischendorf, without argument, and in a most
arbitrary and erroneous manner, to imply that the work was a commentary
upon our four canonical Gospels;(1) a conclusion the audacity of which
can scarcely be exceeded. This is, however, almost surpassed by the
treatment of Canon Westcott, who writes regarding Basilides: "It
appears, moreover, that he himself published a Gospel--a 'Life of
Christ' as it would perhaps be called in our days, or 'The Philosophy
of Christianity,(2)--but he admitted the historic truth of all the facts
contained in the canonical Gospels, and used them as Scripture. For,
in spite of his peculiar opinions, the testimony, of Basilides to our
'acknowledged' books is comprehensive and clear. In the few pages of his
writings which remain there are certain references to the Gospels of
St. Matthew, St. Luke, and St. John,"(3) &c. Now in making, in such
a manner, these assertions: in totally ignoring the whole of the
discussion with regard to the supposed quotations of Basilides in the
work commonly ascribed to Hippolytus and the adverse results of learned
criticism: in the unqualified assertions thus made and the absence
either of explanation of the facts or the reasons for the conclusion:
this statement must be condemned as only calculated to mislead readers
who must generally be ignorant of the actual facts of the case. We know
from the evidence of antiquity that Basilides made use of a Gospel,
written by himself it is said, but certainly called after his own
name.(4) An attempt has
2 These names are pure inventions of Dr. Westcott's fancy,
of course.
3 On the Canon, p. 255 f. [Since these remarks were first
made, Dr. Westcott has somewhat enlarged his account of
Basilides, but we still consider that his treatment of the
subject is deceptive and incomplete.]
{43}
been made to explain this by suggesting that perhaps the work mentioned
by Agrippa Castor may have been mistaken for a Gospel;(1) but the
fragments of that work which are still extant(2) are of a character
which precludes the possibility that any writing of which they formed a
part could have been considered a Gospel.(3) Various opinions have been
expressed as to the exact nature of the Gospel of Basilides. Neander
affirmed it to be the Gospel according to the Hebrews which he brought
from Syria to Egypt;(4) whilst Schneckenburger held it to be the Gospel
according to the Egyptians.(5) Others believe it to have at least been
based upon one or other of these Gospels.(6) There seems most reason
for the hypothesis that it was a form of the Gospel according to the
Hebrews, which was so generally in use.
Returning to the passage already quoted, in which Eusebius states, on
the authority of Agrippa Castor, whose works are no longer extant, that
Basilides had composed a work in twenty-four books on the Gospel
{44}
[------], and to the unwarrantable inference that this must have been
a work on our four Gospels, we must add that, so far from deriving
his doctrines from our Gospels or other New Testament writings, or
acknowledging their authority, Basilides professed that he received his
knowledge of the truth from Glaucias, "the interpreter of Peter," whose
disciple he claimed to be,(1) and thus practically sets Gospels aside
and prefers tradition.(2) Basilides also claimed to have received from
a certain Matthias the report of private discourses which he had heard
from the Saviour for his special instruction.(3) Agrippa Castor further
stated, according to Eusebius, that in his [------] Basilides named for
himself, as prophets, Barcabbas and Barcoph (Parchor(4)), as well as
invented others who never existed, and claimed their authority for his
doctrines.(5) With regard to all this Canon Westcott writes: "Since
Basilides lived on the verge of the apostolic times, it is not
surprising that he made use of other sources of Christian doctrine
besides the canonical books. The belief in Divine Inspiration was still
fresh and real,"(6) &c. It is apparent, however, that Basilides, in
basing his doctrines upon tradition and
{45}
upon these Apocryphal books as inspired, and in having a special Gospel
called after his own name, which, therefore, he clearly adopts as
the exponent of his ideas of Christian truth, completely ignores the
canonical Gospels, and not only does not offer any evidence for their
existence, but proves, on the contrary, that he did not recognize
any such works as of authority. There is no ground, therefore, for
Tischendorfs assumption that the commentary of Basilides "on the
Gospel" was written upon our Gospels, but that idea is negatived in
the strongest way by all the facts of the case.(1) The perfectly
simple interpretation of the statement is that long ago suggested by
Valesius,(2) that the Commentary of Basilides was composed upon his own
Gospel,(3) whether it was the Gospel according to the Hebrews or the
Egyptians.
Moreover, it must be borne in mind that Basilides used the word "Gospel"
in a peculiar sense. Hippolytus, in the work usually ascribed to him,
writing of the Basilidians and describing their doctrines, says: "When
therefore it was necessary, he (?) says, that we, the children of God,
should be revealed, in expectation of whose revelation, he says, the
creation groaned and travailed, the Gospel came into the world, and
passed through every principality and power and dominion, and every name
that is named."(4) "The Gospel, therefore,
{46}
came first from the Sonship, he says, through the Son, sitting by the
Archon, to the Archon, and the Archon learnt that he was not the God of
all things but begotten,"(1) &c. "The Gospel, according to them, is
the knowledge of supramundane matters,"(2) &c. This may not be very
intelligible, but it is sufficient to show that "the Gospel" in a
technical sense(3) formed a very important part of the system of
Basilides. Now there is nothing whatever to show that the twenty-four
books which he composed "on the Gospel" were not in elucidation of the
Gospel as technically understood by him, illustrated by extracts from
his own special Gospel and from the tradition handed down to him by
Glaucias and Matthias. The emphatic assertion of Canon Westcott that
Basilides "admitted the historic truth of all the facts contained in the
canonical Gospels," is based solely upon the following sentence of the
work attributed to Hippolytus; Jesus, however, was generated according
to these (followers of Basilides) as we have already said.(4) But when
the generation which has already been declared had taken place, all
things regarding the Saviour, according to them, occurred in like manner
as they have been written in the Gospel."(5) There are, however, several
important points to be borne in mind in reference to this passage. The
statement in question is not made in
{47}
connection with Basilides himself, but distinctly in reference to his
followers, of whom there were many in the time of Hippolytus and long
after him. It is, moreover, a general observation the accuracy of which
we have no means of testing, and upon the correctness of which there
is no special reason to rely. The remark, made at the beginning of the
third century, however, that the followers of Basilides believed that
the actual events of the life of Jesus occurred in the way in which they
have been written in the Gospels, is no proof whatever that either
they or Basilides used or admitted the authority of our Gospels. The
exclusive use by any one of the Gospel according to the Hebrews, for
instance, would be perfectly consistent with the statement. No one who
considers what is known of that Gospel, or who thinks of the use made
of it in the first half of the second century by perfectly orthodox
Fathers, can doubt this. The passage is, therefore, of no weight as
evidence for the use of our Gospels. Canon Westcott himself admits that
in the extant fragments of Isidorus, the son and disciple of Basilides,
who "maintained the doctrines of his father," he has "noticed nothing
bearing on the books of the New Testament.."(1) On the supposition that
Basilides actually wrote a Commentary on our Gospels, and used them as
Scripture, it is indeed passing strange that we have so little evidence
on the point.
We must now, however, examine in detail all of the quotations, and they
are few, alleged to show the use of our Gospels, and we shall commence
with those of Tischendorf. The first passage which he points out is
found in the Stromata of Clement of Alexandria. Tischendorf guards
himself, in reference to these quotations,
{48}
by merely speaking of them as "Basilidian" (Basilidianisch),(1) but
it might have been more frank to have stated clearly that Clement
distinctly assigns the quotation to the followers of Basilides
[------],(2) and not to Basilides himself.(3) The supposed quotation,
therefore, however surely traced to our Gospels, could really not prove
anything in regard to Basilides. The passage itself compared with the
parallel in Matt. xix. 11, 12, is as follows:--
[------]
Now this passage in its affinity to, and material variation from, our
first Gospel might be quoted as evidence for the use of another Gospel,
but it cannot reasonably be cited as evidence for the use of Matthew.
Apologists in their anxiety to grasp at the faintest analogies as
testimony seem altogether to ignore the history of the creation of
written Gospels, and to forget the very existence of the [------] of
Luke.(4)
The next passage referred to by Tischendorf(5) is one
{49}
quoted by Epiphanius(1) which we subjoin in contrast with the parallel
in Matt. vii. 6:--
[------]
Here, again, the variation in order is just what one might have expected
from the use of the Gospel according to the Hebrews or a similar work,
and there is no indication whatever that the passage did not end here,
without the continuation of our first Synoptic. What is still more
important, although Teschendorf does not mention the fact, nor otherwise
hint a doubt than by the use, again, of an unexplained description of
this quotation as "Basilidianisch" instead of a more direct ascription
of it to Basilides himself, this passage is by no means attributed by
Epiphanius to that heretic. It is introduced into the section of his
work directed against the Basilidians, but he uses, like Clement, the
indefinite [------], and as in dealing with all these heresies there is
continual interchange of reference to the head and the later followers,
there is no certainty who is referred to in these quotations and, in
this instance, nothing to indicate that this passage is ascribed to
Basilides himself, His name is mentioned in the first line of the first
chapter of this "heresy," but not again before this [------] occurs in
chapter v. Teschendorf does not claim any other quotations.
{50}
Canon Westcott states: "In the few pages of his (Basilides') writings
which remain there are certain references to the Gospels of St. Matthew,
St. Luke,"(1) &c. One might suppose from this that the "certain"
references occurred in actual extracts made from his works, and that
the quotations, therefore, appeared sc(5) (sp.) in a context of his own
words. This impression is strengthened when we read as an introduction
to the instances: "The following examples will be sufficient to show his
method of quotation."(2) The fact is, however, that these examples
are found in the work of Hippolytus, in an epitome of the views of
the school by that writer himself, with nothing more definite than a
subjectless [------] to indicate who is referred to. The only examples
Canon Westcott can give of these "certain references" to our first
and third Synoptics, do not show his "method of quotation" to much
advantage. The first is not a quotation at all, but a mere reference to
the Magi and the Star. "But that every thing, he says [------], has its
own seasons, the Saviour sufficiently teaches when he says:... and
the Magi having seen the star,"(3) &c. This of course Canon Westcott
considers a reference to Matt. ii. 1, 2, but we need scarcely point out
that this falls to the ground instantly, if it be admitted, as it must
be, that the Star and the Magi may have been mentioned in other Gospels
than the first Synoptic. We have already seen, when examining the
evidence of Justin, that this is the case. The only quotation asserted
to be taken from Luke is the phrase: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon
thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow
{51}
thee,"(1) which agrees with Luke i. 35. This again is introduced by
Hippolytus with another subjectless "he says," and apart from the
uncertainty as to who "he" is, this is very unsatisfactory evidence as
to the form of the quotation in the original text, for it may easily
have been corrected by Hippolytus, consciously or unconsciously, in the
course of transfer to his pages. We have already met with this passage
as quoted by Justin from a Gospel different from ours.
As we have already stated, however, none of the quotations which we have
considered are directly referred to Basilides himself, but they are all
introduced by the utterly vague expression, "he says," [------] without
any subject accompanying the verb. Now it is admitted that writers of
the time of Hippolytus, and notably Hippolytus himself, made use of the
name of the founder of a sect to represent the whole of his school,
and applied to him, apparently, quotations taken from unknown and later
followers.(2) The passages which he cites, therefore, and which appear
to indicate the use of Gospels, instead of being extracted from the
works of the founder himself, in all probability were taken from
writings of Gnostics of his own time. Canon Westcott himself admits the
possibility of this, in writing of other early heretics. He says: "The
evidence that has been collected from
{52}
the documents of these primitive sects is necessarily somewhat vague. It
would be more satisfactory to know the exact position of their authors,
and the precise date of their being composed. It is just possible that
Hippolytus made use of writings which were current in his own time
without further examination, and transferred to the apostolic age forms
of thought and expression which had been the growth of two, or even of
three generations."(1) So much as to the reliance to be placed on
the work ascribed to Hippolytus. It is certain, for instance, that
in writing of the sect of Naaseni and Ophites, Hippolytus perpetually
quotes passages from the writings of the school, with the indefinite
[------],(2) as he likewise does in dealing with the Peratici,(3) and
Docetae,(4) no individual author being named; yet he evidently quotes
various writers, passing from one to another without explanation, and
making use of the same unvarying [------] In one place,(5) where he
has "the Greeks say," [------] he gives, without further indication,
a quotation from Pindar.(6) A still more apt instance of his method is
that pointed out by Volkmar,(7) where Hippolytus, writing of "Marcion,
or some one of his hounds," uses, without further explanation, the
subjectless [------] to introduce matter from the later followers of
Marcion.(8) Now, with regard to
{53}
Basilides, Hippolytus directly refers not only to the heretic chief, but
also to his disciple Isidorus and all their followers,(1) [------]
and then proceeds to use the indefinite "he says," interspersed with
references in the plural to these heretics, exhibiting the same careless
method of quotation, and leaving the same complete uncertainty as to
the speaker's identity as in the other cases mentioned.(2) On the
other hand, it has been demonstrated by Hilgenfeld, that the gnosticism
ascribed to Basilides by Hippolytus, in connection with these
quotations, is of a much later and more developed type than that which
Basilides himself held,(3) as shown in the actual fragments of his own
writings which are still extant, and as reported by Irenaeus,(4) Clement
of Alexandria,(5) and the work "Adversus omnes Haereses," annexed to the
"Praescriptio haereticorum" of Tertullian, which is
{54}
considered to be the epitome of an earlier work of Hippolytus. The
fact probably is that Hippolytus derived his views of the doctrines of
Basilides from the writings of his later followers, and from them made
the quotations which are attributed to the founder of the school.(1)
In any case there is no ground for referring these quotations with an
indefinite [------] to Basilides himself.
Of all this there is not a word from Canon Westcott,(2) but he ventures
to speak of "the testimony of Basilides to our 'acknowledged' books," as
"comprehensive and clear."(3) We have seen, however, that the passages
referred to have no weight whatever as evidence for the use of our
Synoptics. The formulae (as [------] to that compared with Luke i. 35,
and [------] with references compared with some of the Epistles) which
accompany these quotations, and to which Canon Westcott points as an
indication that the New Testament writings were already recognized as
Holy Scripture,(4) need no special attention, because, as it cannot be
shown that the expressions were used by Basilides himself at all,
they do not come into question. If anything, however, were required to
complete the evidence that these quotations are not from the works of
Basilides himself, but from later writings by his followers, it would
be the use of such formulae, for as the writings of pseudo-Ignatius,
Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Papias, Hegesippus,
{55}
and others of the Fathers in several ways positively demonstrate, the
New Testament writings were not admitted, even amongst orthodox Fathers,
to the rank of Holy Scripture, until a very much later period.(1)
2.
Much of what has been said with regard to the claim which is laid to
Basilides, by some apologists, as a witness for the Gospels and the
existence of a New Testament Canon, and the manner in which that claim
is advanced, likewise applies to Valentinus, another Gnostic leader,
who, about the year 140, came from Alexandria to Rome and flourished
till about a.d. 160.(2) Very little remains of the writings of this
Gnostic, and we gain our only knowledge of them from a few short
quotations in the works of Clement of Alexandria, and some doubtful
fragments preserved by others. We shall presently have occasion to refer
more directly to these, and need not here more particularly mention
them.
Tischendorf, the self-constituted modern Defensor fidei,(3) asserts,
with an assurance which can scarcely be characterized otherwise than
as an unpardonable calculation upon the ignorance of his readers, that
Valentinus used
{56}
the whole of our four Canonical Gospels. To do him full justice, we
shall as much as possible give his own words; and, although we set aside
systematically all discussion regarding the fourth Gospel for separate
treatment hereafter, we must, in order to convey the full sense of
Dr. Tischendorf s proceeding, commence with a sentence regarding that
Gospel. Referring to a statement of Irenaeus, that the followers of
Valentinus made use of the fourth Gospel, Tischendorf continues:
"Hippolytus confirms and completes the statement of Irenaeus, for he
quotes several expressions of John, which Valentinus employed. This most
clearly occurs in the case of John x. 8; for Hippolytus writes: 'Because
the prophets and the law, according to the doctrine of Valentinus, were
only filled with a subordinate and foolish spirit, Valentinus says: On
account of this, the Saviour says: All who came before me were thieves
and robbers.'"(l) Now this, to begin with, is a practical falsification
of the text of the Philosophumena, which reads: "Therefore all the
Prophets and the Law spoke under the influence of the Demiurge, a
foolish God, he says, (they themselves being) foolish, knowing nothing.
On this account, he says, the Saviour saith: All who came before me,"
&c. &c.(2) There is no mention whatever of the name of Valentinus in the
passage, and, as we shall presently
{57}
show, there is no direct reference in the whole chapter to Valentinus
himself. The introduction of his name in this manner into the text,
without a word of explanation, is highly reprehensible. It is true
that in a note Tischendorf gives a closer translation of the passage,
without, however, any explanation; and here again he adds, in
parenthesis to the "says he," "namely, Valentinus." Such a note,
however, which would probably be unread by a majority of readers, does
not rectify the impression conveyed by so positive and emphatic an
assertion as is conveyed by the alteration in the text.
Tischendorf continues: "And as the Gospel of John, so also were the
other Gospels used by Valentinus. According to the statement of Irenaeus
(I. 7, Sec. 4), he found the said subordinate spirit, which he calls
Demiurge, Masterworker, emblematically represented by the Centurion of
Capernaum (Matt. viii. 9, Luke vii. 8); in the dead and resuscitated
daughter of Jairus, when twelve years old, (Luke viii. 41), he
recognized a symbol of his 'Wisdom' (Achamoth), the mother of the
Masterworker (I. 8, Sec. 2); in like manner, he saw represented in the
history of the woman who had suffered twelve years from the bloody
issue, and was cured by the Lord (Matt. ix. 20), the sufferings and
salvation of his twelfth primitive spirit (Aeon) (I. 3, Sec. 3); the
expression of the Lord (Matt. v. 18) on the numerical value of the iota
('the smallest letter') he applied to his ten aeons in repose."l Now,
in every instance where Tischendorf here speaks of Valentinus by the
singular "he," Irenaeus uses the plural "they," referring not to the
original founder of the sect, but to his followers in his own day, and
the
{58}
text is thus again in every instance falsified by the pious zeal of the
apologist. In the case of the Centurions "they say" [------] that he is
the Demiurge;(1) "they declare" [------] that the daughter of Jairus is
the type of Achamoth;(2) "they say" [------] that the apostasy of Judas
points to the passion in connection with the twelfth aeon, and also the
fact that Jesus suffered in the twelfth month after his baptism; for
they will have it [------] that he only preached for one year. The case
of the woman with the bloody issue for twelve years, and the power
which went forth from the Son to heal her, "they will have to be Horos"
[------]{3} In like manner they assert that the ten aeons are indicated
[------] by the letter "Iota," mentioned in the Saviour's expression,
Matt v. 18.(4) At the end of these and numerous other similar references
in this chapter to New Testament expressions and passages, Irenaeus says:
"Thus they interpret," &c. [------].(5) The plural "they" is employed
throughout.
Tischendorf proceeds to give the answer to his statement which is
supposed to be made by objectors.: "They say: all that has reference to
the Gospel of John was not advanced by Valentinus himself, but by his
disciples. And in fact, in Irenaeus, 'they--the Valen-tinians--say,'
occurs much oftener than 'he--Valentinus--says.' But who is there so
sapient as to draw the line between what the master alone says, and that
which the disciples state without in the least repeating the
{59}
master?"(1) Tischendorf solves the difficulty by referring everything
indiscriminately to the master. Now, in reply to these observations,
we must remark in the first place that the admission here made by
Tischendorf, that Irenaeus much more often uses "they say" than "he
says" is still quite disingenuous, inasmuch as invariably, and without
exception, Irenaeus uses the plural in connection with the texts in
question. Secondly, it is quite obvious that a Gnostic, writing about
a.d. 185-195, was likely to use arguments which were never thought of by
a Gnostic, writing at the middle of the second century At the end of the
century, the writings of the New Testament had acquired consideration
and authority, and Gnostic writers had therefore a reason to refer to
them, and to endeavour to show that they supported their peculiar views,
which did not exist at all at the time when Valentinus propounded his
system. Tischendorf, however, cannot be allowed the benefit even of such
a doubt as he insinuates, as to what belongs to the master, and what to
the followers. Such doubtful testimony could not establish anything, but
it is in point of fact also totally excluded by the statement of Irenaeus
himself.
In the preface to the first book of his great work, Irenaeus clearly
states the motives and objects for which he writes. He says: "I
considered it necessary, having read the commentaries [------] _of
the disciples of Valentinus_, as they call themselves, and having had
personal intercourse with some of them and acquired full knowledge of
their opinions, to unfold to thee," &c., and he goes on to say that
he intends to set forth "the opinions of those who are _now_ teaching
heresy; I speak
{60}
particularly of the followers of Ptolemaeus, whose system is an offshoot
of the school of Valentinus."(1) Nothing could be more explicit than
this statement that Irenaeus neither intended nor pretended to write
upon the works of Valentinus himself, but upon the commentaries of
his followers of his own time, with some of whom he had had personal
intercourse, and that the system which he intended to attack was that
actually being taught in his day by Ptolemaeus and his school, the
offshoot from Valentinus. All the quotations to which Tischendorf refers
are made within a few pages of this explicit declaration. Immediately
after the passage about the Centurion, he says: "such is their system"
[------, and three lines below he states that they derive their views
from unwritten sources [------].(2) The first direct reference to
Valentinus does not occur until after these quotations, and is for the
purpose of showing the variation of opinion of his followers. He says:
"Let us now see the uncertain opinions of these heretics, for there are
two or three of them, how they do not speak alike of the same things,
but contradicted one another in facts and names." Then he continues:
"For the first of them, Valentinus, having derived his principles from
the so-called Gnostic heresy, and adapted them to the peculiar character
of his school declared this:" &c., &c.3 And
{61}
after a brief description of his system, in which no Scriptural allusion
occurs, he goes on to compare the views of the rest, and in chap. xii.
he returns to Ptolemaeus and his followers [------].
In the preface to Book ii, he again says that he has been exposing the
falsity of the followers of Valentinus (qui sunt a Valentino) and will
proceed to establish what he has advanced; and everywhere he uses the
plural "they," with occasional direct references to the followers of
Valentinus (qui sunt a Valentino).(1) The same course is adopted in
Book iii., the plural being systematically used, and the same distinct
definition introduced at intervals.(2) And again, in the preface to Book
iv. he recapitulates that the preceding books had been written against
these, "qui sunt a Valentino" (Sec. 2). In fact, it would almost be
impossible for any writer more frequently and emphatically to show that
he is not, as he began by declaring, dealing with the founder of the
school himself, but with his followers living and teaching at the time
at which he wrote.
Canon Westcott, with whose system of positively enunciating unsupported
and controverted statements we are already acquainted, is only slightly
outstripped by the German apologist in his misrepresentation of the
evidence of Valentinus. It must be stated, however, that, acknowledging,
as no doubt he does, that Irenaeus never refers to Valentinus himself,
Canon Westcott passes over in complete silence the supposed references
upon
{62}
which Teschendorf relies as his only evidence for the use of
the Synoptics by that Gnostic. He, however, makes the following
extraordinary statement regarding Valentinus:
"The fragments of his writings which remain show the same natural and
trustful use of Scripture as other Christian works of the same period;
and there is no diversity of character in this respect between the
quotations given in Hippolytus and those found in Clement of Alexandria.
He cites the Epistle to the Ephesians as 'Scripture,' and refers clearly
to the Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Luke, and St. John, to the Epistles
to the Romans,"(1) &c.
We shall now give the passages which he points out in support of these
assertions.(2) The first two are said to occur in the Stromata of the
Alexandrian Clement, who professes to quote the very words of a letter
of Valentinus to certain people regarding the passions, which are
called by the followers of Basilides "the appendages of the soul." The
passage is as follows: "But one only is good, whose presence is the
manifestation through the Son, and
1 On the Canon, p. 259 f. [In the 4th ed. of his work, published since
the above remarks were made, Dr. Westcott has modified or withdrawn
his assertions regarding Valentinus. As we cannot well omit the above
passage, it is right to state that the lines quoted now read: "The few
unquestionable fragments of Valentinus contain but little which points
to passages of Scripture. If it were clear that the anonymous quotations
in Hippolytus were derived from Valentinus himself, the list would be
much enlarged, and include a citation of the Epistle to the Ephesians
as 'Scripture,' and clear references to the Gospels of St. Luke and St.
John, to 1 Corinthians, perhaps also to the Epistle to the Hebrews, and
the first Epistle of St. John," (p. 295 f.). In a note he adds: "But a
fresh and careful examination of the whole section of Hippolytus makes
me feel that the evidence is so uncertain, that I cannot be sure in this
case, as in the case of Basilides, that Hippolytus is quoting the words
of the Founder" (p. 295, n. 5). Under these circumstances the statements
even in the amended edition present many curious features.]
{63}
through Him alone will the heart be enabled to become pure, by the
expulsion of every evil spirit from the heart. For many spirits dwelling
in it do not allow it to be pure, but each of them, while in divers
parts they riot there in unseemly lusts, performs its own works. And, it
seems to me, the heart is somewhat like an inn. For that, also, is both
bored and dug into, and often filled with the ordure of men, who abide
there in revelry, and bestow not one single thought upon the place,
seeing it is the property of another. And in such wise is it with the
heart, so long as no thought is given to it, being impure, and the
dwelling-place of many demons, but as soon as the alone good Father
has visited it, it is sanctified and shines through with light, and the
possessor of such a heart becomes so blessed, that he shall see God."(1)
According to Canon Westcott this passage contains two of the "clear
references" to our Gospels upon which he bases his statement, namely to
Matt. v. 8, and to Matt. xix. 17.
Now it is clear that there is no actual quotation from any evangelical
work in this passage from the Epistle of Valentinus, and the utmost
for which the most zealous apologist could contend is, that there is a
slight similarity with some words in the Gospel, and Canon
{64}
Westcott himself does not venture to call them more than "references."
That such distant coincidences should be quoted as evidence for the
use of the first Gospel shows how weak is his case. At best such vague
allusions could not prove anything, but when the passages to which
reference is supposed to be made are examined, it will be apparent that
nothing could be more unfounded or arbitrary than the claim of reference
specially to our Gospel, to the exclusion of the other Gospels then
existing, which to our knowledge contained both passages. We may,
indeed, go still further, and affirm that if these coincidences are
references to any Gospel at all, that Gospel is not the canonical, but
one different from it.
The first reference alluded to consists of the following two phrases:
"But one only is good [------]..... the alone good Father" [------].
This is compared with Matt. xix. 17:{1} "Why askest thou me concerning
good? there is one that is good" [------].(2) Now the passage in the
epistle, if a reference to any parallel episode, such as Matt. xix. 17,
indicates with certainty the reading: "One is good the Father" [------].
There is no such reading in any of our Gospels. But although this
reading does not exist in any of the Canonical Gospels, it is well known
that it did exist in uncanonical Gospels no longer extant, and that
the passage was one upon which various sects of so-called heretics laid
great stress. Irenseus quotes it as one of
{65}
the texts to which the Marcosians, who made use of apocryphal
Gospels,(1) and notably of the Gospel according to the Hebrews, gave a
different colouring: [------](2) Epiphanius also quotes this reading as
one of the variations of the Marcionites: [------].(3) Origen, likewise,
remarks that this passage is misused by some Heretics: "Velut proprie
sibi datum scutum putant (haeretici) quod dixit Dominus in Evangelio:
Nemo bonus nisi unus Deus pater."(4) Justin Martyr quotes the same
reading from a source different from our Gospels,(5) [------](6) and in
agreement with the repeated similar readings of the Clementine Homilies,
which likewise derived it from an extra canonical source,(7) [------.8
The use of a similar expression by Clement of Alexandria,9 as well as
by Origen, only serves to prove the existence of the reading in extinct
Gospels, although it is not found in any MS. of any of our Gospels.
The second of the supposed references is more diffuse: "One is good and
through him alone will the heart be enabled to become pure [------]...
but when the alone good Father has visited it, it is sanctified and
shines through with light, and the possessor of such a heart becomes so
blessed, that he shall see God" [------]
{66}
[------]. This is compared(1) with Matthew v. 8: "Blessed are the pure
in heart, for they shall see God" [------]. It might be argued that this
is quite as much a reference to Psalm xxiv. 3-6 as to Matt. v. 8, but
even if treated as a reference to the Sermon on the Mount, nothing is
more certain than the fact that this discourse had its place in much
older forms of the Gospel than our present Canonical Gospels,(2) and
that it formed part of the Gospel according to the Hebrews and other
evangelical writings in circulation in the early Church. Such a
reference as this is absolutely worthless as evidence of special
acquaintance with our first Synoptic.(3)
Tischendorf does not appeal at all to these supposed references
contained in the passages preserved by Clement, but both the German
and the English apologist join in relying upon the testimony of
Hippolytus,(4) with regard to the use of the Gospels by Valentinus,
although it must be admitted that the former does so with greater
fairness of treatment than Canon Westcott. Tischendorf does refer to,
and admit, some of the difficulties of the case, as we shall presently
see, whilst Canon Westcott, as in the case of Basilides, boldly makes
his assertion, and totally ignores all adverse facts. The only Gospel
{67}
reference which can be adduced even in the Philosophumena, exclusive
of one asserted to be to the fourth Gospel, which will be separately
considered hereafter, is advanced by Canon Westcott, for Teschendorf
does not refer to it, but confines himself solely to the supposed
reference to the fourth Gospel. The passage is the same as one also
imputed to Basilides: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee;" which happens to agree with
the words in Luke i. 35; but, as we have seen in connection with Justin,
there is good reason for concluding that the narrative to which it
belongs was contained in other Gospels.(1) In this instance, however,
the quotation is carried further and presents an important variation
from the text of Luke. "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore the thing begotten
of thee shall be called holy"(2) [------]. The reading of Luke is:
"Therefore also the holy thing begotten shall be called the Son of God"
[------]. It is probable that the passage referred to in connection with
the followers of Basilides may have ended in the same way as this, and
been derived from the same source. Nothing, however, can be clearer than
the fact that this quotation, by whoever made, is not taken from our
third Synoptic, inasmuch as there does not exist a single MS. which
contains such a passage.
We again, however, come to the question: Who really made the quotations
which Hippolytus introduces so indefinitely? We have already, in
speaking of Basilides,
{68}
pointed out the loose manner in which Hippolytus and other early
writers, in dealing with different schools of heretics, indifferently
quote the founder or his followers without indicating the precise person
quoted. This practice is particularly apparent in the work of Hippolytus
when the followers of Valentinus are in question. Tischendorf himself
is obliged to admit this. He asks: "Even though it be also incontestable
that the author (Hippolytus) does not always sharply distinguish between
the sect and the founder of the sect, does this apply to the present
case"?(1) He denies that it does in the instance to which he refers,
but he admits the general fact. In the same way another apologist of
the fourth Gospel (and as the use of that Gospel is maintained in
consequence of a quotation in the very same chapter as we are now
considering, only a few lines higher up, both the third and fourth are
in the same position) is forced to admit: "The use of the Gospel of John
by Valentinus cannot so certainly be proved from our refutation-writing
(the work of Hippolytus). Certainly in the statement of these doctrines
it gives abstracts, which contain an expression of John (x. 8), and
there cannot be any doubt that this is taken from some writing of the
sect. But the apologist, in his expressions regarding the Valentinian
doctrines, does not seem to confine himself to one and the same work,
but to have alternately made use of different writings of the school,
for which reason we cannot say anything as to the age of this quotation,
and from this testimony, therefore, we merely have further confirmation
that the Gospel was early(2) (?) used in the
2 Why "early"? since Hippolytus writes about a.d. 225.
{69}
School of the Valentinians,"(1) &c. Of all this not a word from Canon
Westcott, who adheres to his system of bare assertion.
Now we have already quoted(2) the opening sentence of Book vi. 35, of
the work ascribed to Hippolytus, in which the quotation from John x.
8, referred to above occurs, and ten line3 further on, with another
intermediate and equally indefinite "he says" [------], occurs the
supposed quotation from Luke i. 35, which, equally with that from
the fourth Gospel, must, according to Weizsaecker, be abandoned as a
quotation which can fairly be ascribed to Valentinus himself, whose
name is not once mentioned in the whole chapter. A few lines below the
quotation, however, a passage occurs which throws much light upou the
question. After explaining the views of the Valentinians regarding
the verse: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee," &c., the writer thus
proceeds: "Regarding this there is among them [------] a great question,
a cause both of schism and dissension. And hence their [------] teaching
has become divided, and the one teaching according to them [------] is
called Eastern ['------] and the other Italian. They from Italy, of
whom is Heracleon and Ptolemaeus, say [------] that the body of Jesus was
animal, and on account of this, on the occasion of the baptism, the Holy
Spirit like a dove came down--that is, the Logos from the Mother above,
Sophia--and became joined to the animal, and raised him from the dead.
This, _he says_ [------] is the declaration [------],"--and here be it
observed we come to another of the "clear
{70}
references" which Canon Westcott ventures, deliberately and without a
word of doubt, to attribute to Valentinus himself,(1)--"This, he says,
is the declaration: 'He who raised Christ from the dead shall also
quicken your mortal bodies,'(3) that is animal. For the earth has come
under a curse: 'For dust, he says [------] thou art and unto dust shalt
thou return.'(3) On the other hand, those from the East [------], of
whom is Axionicus and Bardesanes, say [------] that the body of the
Saviour was spiritual, for the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, that is the
Sophia and the power of the Highest."(4) &c.
In this passage we have a good illustration of the mode in which the
writer introduces his quotations with the subjectless "he says." Here he
is conveying the divergent opinions of the two parties of Valentinians,
and explaining the peculiar doctrines of the Italian school "of whom is
Heracleon and Ptolemaeus," and he suddenly departs from the plural "they"
to quote the passage from Romans viii. 11, in support of their views
with the singular "he says." Nothing can be more obvious than that "he"
cannot possibly be Valentinus himself, for the schism is represented as
taking place
{71}
amongst his followers, and the quotation is evidently made by one
of them to support the views of his party in the schism, but whether
Hippolytus is quoting from Heraclcon or Ptolemaeus or some other of the
Italian(1) school, there is no means of knowing. Of all this, again,
nothing is said by Canon Westcott, who quietly asserts without
hesitation or argument, that Valentinus himself is the person who here
makes the quotation.
We have already said that the name of Valentinus does not occur once in
the whole chapter (vi. 35) which we have been examining, and if we turn
back we find that the preceding context confirms the result at which we
have arrived, that the [------] has no reference to the Founder himself,
but is applicable only to some later member of his school, most probably
contemporary with Hippolytus. In vi. 21, Hippolytus discusses the heresy
of Valentinus, which he traces to Pythagoras and Plato, but in Ch. 29
he passes from direct reference to the Founder to deal entirely with
his school. This is so manifest, that the learned editors of the work
of Hippolytus, Professors Duncker and Schneidewin, alter the preceding
heading at that part from "Valentinus" to "Valentiniani." At the
beginning of Ch. 29 Hippolytus writes: "Valentinus, therefore, and
Heracleon and Ptolemaeus and the whole school of these (heretics)...
have laid down as the fundamental principle of their teaching the
arithmetical system. For according to these," &c. And a few lines
lower down: "There is discernible amongst them, however, considerable
difference of opinion. For many of them, in order that
1 The quotation from an Epistle to the Romans by the Italian
school is appropriate.
{72}
the Pythagorean doctrine of Valentinus may be wholly pure, suppose, &c.,
but others," &c. He shortly after says that he will proceed to state
their doctrines as they themselves teach them [------]. He then
continues: "There is, he says [------]" &c. &c., quoting evidently one
of these followers who want to keep the doctrine of Valentinus pure, or
of the "others," although without naming him, and three lines further
on again, without any preparation, returning to the plural "they say"
[------] and so on through the following chapters, "he says" alternating
with the plural, as the author apparently has in view something said
by individuals or merely expresses general views. In the Chapter (34)
preceding that which we have principally been examining, Hippolytus
begins by referring to "the Quaternion according to Valentinus,"
but after five lines on it, he continues: "This is what they say:
[------]"(1) and then goes on to speak of "their whole teaching"
[------], and lower down he distinctly sets himself to discuss the
opinions of the school in the plural: "Thus these (Valentinians)
subdivide the contents of the Pleroma," &c. [------], and continues with
an occasional "according to them "[------] until, without any name being
mentioned, he makes use of the indefinite "he says" to introduce the
quotation referred to by Canon Westcott as a citation by Valentinus
himself of "the Epistle to the Ephesians as Scripture."(2) "This is,
he says, what is written in Scripture," and there follows a quotation
which, it may merely be mentioned as Canon Westcott says nothing of it,
differs considerably from the passage in the Epistle
{73}
iii. 14--18. Immediately after, another of Canon West-cott's quotations
from 1 Cor. ii. 14, is given, with the same indefinite "he says," and in
the same way, without further mention of names, the quotations in Ch. 35
compared with John x. 8, and Luke i. 35. There is, therefore, absolutely
no ground whatever for referring these [------] to Valentinus himself;
but, on the contrary, Hippolytus shows in the clearest way that he is
discussing the views of the later writers of the sect, and it is one of
these, and not the Founder himself, whom in his usual indefinite way he
thus quotes.
We have been forced by these bald and unsupported assertions of
apologists to go at such length into these questions at the risk of
being very wearisome to our readers, but it has been our aim as much
as possible to make no statements without placing before those who are
interested the materials for forming an intelligent opinion. Any other
course would be to meet mere assertion by simple denial, and it is only
by bold and unsubstantiated statements which have been simply and in
good faith accepted by ordinary readers who have not the opportunity, if
they have even the will, to test their veracity, that apologists have so
long held their ground. Our results regarding Valentinus so far may be
stated as follows: the quotations which without any explanation are
so positively imputed to Valentinus are not made by him, but by
later writers of his school;(1) and, moreover, the passages which are
indicated by the English apologist as references to our two Synoptic
Gospels not only do
(74)
not emanate from Valentinus, but do not agree with our Gospels, and are
apparently derived from other sources.(1)
The remarks of Canon Westcott with regard, to the connection of
Valentinus with our New Testament are on a par with the rest of his
assertions. He says: "There is no reason to suppose that Valentinus
differed from Catholic writers on the Canon of the New Testament."(2) We
might ironically adopt this sentence, for as no writer whatever of the
time of Valentinus, as we have seen, recognized any New Testament Canon
at all, he certainly did not in this respect differ from the other
writers of that period. Canon Westcott relies upon the statement of
Tertullian, but even here, although he quotes the Latin passage in a
note, he does not fully give its real sense in his text. He writes in
immediate continuation of the quotation given above: "Tertullian says
that in this he differed from Marcion, that he at least professed to
accept 'the whole instrument,' perverting the interpretation, where
Marcion mutilated the text." Now the assertion of Tertullian has a
very important modification, which, to any one acquainted with the very
unscrupulous boldness of the "Great African" in dealing with religious
controversy, is extremely significant. He does not make the assertion
positively and of his own knowledge, but modifies it by saying: "Nor,
indeed, if Valentinus seems to use the
2 On the Canon, p. 259. [Dr. Westcott omits these words
from his 4th ed., but he uses others here and elsewhere
which imply very nearly the same assertion.]
{75}
whole instrument, (neque enim si Valentinus integro instrumento uti
videtur),"(1) &c. Tertullian evidently knew very little of Valentinus
himself, and had probably not read his writings at all.(2) His treatise
against the Valentinians is avowedly not original, but, as he himself
admits, is compiled from the writings of Justin, Miltiades, Irenaeus, and
Proclus.(3) Tertullian would not have hesitated to affirm anything
of this kind positively, had there been any ground for it, but his
assertion is at once too uncertain, and the value of his statements
of this nature much too small, for such a remark to have any weight as
evidence.(4) Besides, by his own showing Valentinus altered Scripture
(sine dubio emen-dans),(5) which he could not have done had he
recognized it as of canonical authority.(6) We cannot, however, place
any reliance upon criticism emanating from Tertullian.
All that Origen seems to know on this subject is that the followers of
Valentinus [------] have altered the form of the Gospel [------].(7)
Clement of Alexandria, however, informs us that Valentinus, like
Basilides, professed to have direct traditions from the Apostles, his
teacher being Theodas, a disciple of the Apostle Paul.(8) If he had
known any Gospels which he believed to have apostolic authority, there
would clearly not have been any need of such tradition. Hippolytus
distinctly affirms that Valentinus derived his system from Pythagoras
and Plato,
{76}
and "not from the Gospels" [-----], and that consequently he might more
properly be considered a Pythagorean and Platonist than a Christian.(1)
Irenaeus, in like manner, asserts that the Valentinians derive their
views from unwritten sources [------],(2) and he accuses them of
rejecting the Gospels, for after enumerating them,(3) he continues:
"When, indeed, they are refuted out of the Scriptures, they turn round
in accusation of these same Scriptures, as though they were not correct,
nor of authority....
For (they say) that it (the truth) was not conveyed by written records
but by the living voice."(4) In the same chapter he goes on to show that
the Valen-tinians not only reject the authority of Scripture, but also
reject ecclesiastical tradition. He says: "But, again, when we refer
them to that tradition which is from the Apostles, which has been
preserved through a succession of Presbyters in the Churches, they
are opposed to tradition, affirming themselves wiser not only than
Presbyters, but even than the Apostles, in that they have discovered the
uncorrupted truth. For (they say) the Apostles mixed up matters which
are of the law with the words of the Saviour, &c.... It comes to this,
they neither consent to Scripture nor to tradition. (Evenit itaque,
neque Scripturis jam, neque Traditioni consentire eos.)"(6) We find,
therefore, that even in the time of Irenaeus the Valentinians rejected
the writings
{77}
of the New Testament as authoritative documents, which they certainly
would not have done had the Founder of their sect himself acknowledged
them. So far from this being the case, there was absolutely no New
Testament Canon for Valentinus himself to deal with,(1) and his
perfectly orthodox contemporaries recognized no other Holy Scriptures
than those of the Old Testament.
Irenaeus, however, goes still further, and states that the Valentinians
of his time not only had many Gospels, but that they possessed one
peculiar to themselves. "Those indeed who are followers of Valentinus,"
he says, "again passing beyond all fear, and putting forth their own
compositions, boast that they have more Gospels than there actually are.
Indeed they have proceeded so far in audacity that they entitle their
not long written work, agreeing in nothing with the Gospels of the
Apostles, the Gospel of Truth, so that there cannot be any Gospel among
them without blasphemy."(2) It follows clearly, from the very name of
the Valentinian Gospel, that they did not consider that others contained
the truth,(3) and indeed Irenaeus himself perceived this, for he
continues: "For if what is published by them be the Gospel of Truth,
yet is dissimilar from those which have been delivered to us by the
Apostles, any may perceive who please, as is demonstrated by these very
Scriptures, that that which has been handed down from the Apostles is
not the Gospel of Truth."(4) These passages speak for
{78}
themselves. It has been suggested that the "Gospel of Truth" was a
harmony of the four Gospels.(1) This, however, cannot by any possibility
have been the case, inasmuch as Irenaeus distinctly says that it did
not agree in anything with the Gospels of the Apostles. We have been
compelled to devote too much space to Valentinus, and we now leave him
with the certainty that in nothing does he afford any evidence even of
the existence of our Synoptic Gospels.
{79}
CHAPTER VII. MARCION
We must now turn to the great Heresiarch of the second century, Marcion,
and consider the evidence regarding our Gospels which may be derived
from what we know of him. The importance, and at the same time the
difficulty, of arriving at a just conclusion from the materials within
our reach have rendered Marcion's Gospel the object of very elaborate
criticism, and the discussion of its actual character has continued with
fluctuating results for nearly a century.
Marcion was born at Sinope, in Pontus, of which place his father was
Bishop,(1) and although it is said that he aspired to the first place in
the Church of Rome,(2) the Presbyters refused him communion on account
of his peculiar views of Christianity. We shall presently more fully
refer to his opinions, but here it will be sufficient to say that he
objected to what he considered the debasement of true Christianity by
Jewish elements, and he upheld the teaching of Paul alone, in opposition
to that of all the other Apostles, whom he accused of mixing
{80}
up matters of the law with the Gospel of Christ, and falsifying
Christianity,(1) as Paul himself had protested.(9) He came to Rome about
a.d. 139--142,(3) and continued teaching for some twenty years.(4) His
high personal character and elevated views produced a powerful effect
upon his time,(5) and, although during his own lifetime and long
afterwards vehemently and with every opprobrious epithet denounced by
ecclesiastical writers, his opinions were so widely adopted that in the
time of Epiphanius his followers were to be found throughout the whole
world.(6)
Marcion is said to have recognized as his sources of Christian doctrine,
besides tradition, a single Gospel and ten Epistles of Paul, which in
his collection stood in the following order;--Epistle to Galatians,
Corinthians (2), Romans, Thessalonians (2), Ephesians (which he had with
{81}
the superscription "to the Laodiceans"),(1) Colossians, Philippians,
and Philemon.(2) None of the other books which now form part of
the canonical New Testament were either mentioned or recognized by
Marcion.(3) This is the oldest collection of Apostolic writings of
which there is any trace,(4) but there was at that time no other "Holy
Scripture" than the Old Testament, and no New Testament Canon had yet
been imagined. Marcion neither claimed canonical authority for
these writings,(5) nor did he associate with them any idea of divine
inspiration.(6) We have already seen the animosity expressed by
contemporaries of Marcion against the Apostle Paul.
The principal interest in connection with the collection of Marcion,
however, centres in his single Gospel, the nature, origin, and identity
of which have long been actively and minutely discussed by learned men
of all shades of opinion with very varying results. The work itself is
unfortunately no longer extant, and our only knowledge of it is derived
from the bitter and very inaccurate opponents of Marcion. It seems to
have borne much the same analogy to our third Canonical Gospel which
existed between the Gospel according to
{82}
the Hebrews and our first Synoptic.(1) The Fathers, whose uncritical
and, in such matters, prejudiced character led them to denounce every
variation from their actual texts as a mere falsification, and without
argument to assume the exclusive authenticity and originality of our
Gospels, which towards the beginning of the third century had acquired
wide circulation in the Church, vehemently stigmatized Marcion as an
audacious adulterator of the Gospel, and affirmed his evangelical work
to be merely a mutilated and falsified version of the "Gospel according
to Luke."(2)
This view continued to prevail, almost without question or examination,
till towards the end of the eighteenth century, when Biblical criticism
began to exhibit the earnestness and activity which have ever since
more or less characterized it. Semler first abandoned the prevalent
tradition, and, after analyzing the evidence, he concluded that
Marcion's Gospel and Luke's were different versions of an earlier
work,(3) and that the so-called heretical Gospel was one of the numerous
Gospels from amongst which the Canonical had been selected by the
Church.(4) Griesbach about the same time also rejected the ruling
opinion, and denied the close relationship usually asserted to exist
between the two Gospels.(5) Loffler(6) and Corrodi(7) strongly supported
Sender's
{83}
conclusion, that Marcion was no mere falsifier of Luke's Gospel, and J.
E. C. Schmidt(1) went still further, and asserted that Marcion's Gospel
was the genuine Luke, and our actual Gospel a later version of it
with alterations and additions. Eichhorn,(2) after a fuller and more
exhaustive examination, adopted similar views; he repudiated the
statements of Tertullian regarding Marcion's Gospel as utterly
untrustworthy, asserting that he had not that work itself before him at
all, and he maintained that Marcion's Gospel was the more original
text and one of the sources of Luke. Bolten,(3) Bertholdt,(4)
Schleiermacher,(5) and D. Schulz(6) likewise maintained that Marcion's
Gospel was by no means a mutilated version of Luke, but, on the
contrary, an independent original Gospel A similar conclusion was
arrived at by Gieseler,(7) but later, after Hahn's criticism, he
abandoned it, and adopted the opinion that Marcion's Gospel was
constructed out of Luke.(8)
On the other hand, the traditional view was maintained by Storr,(9)
Arneth,(10) Hug,(11) Neander,(12) and Gratz,(13) although with little
originality of investigation or argument; and
{84}
Paulus(1) sought to reconcile both views by admitting that Marcion had
before him the Gospel of Luke, but denying that he mutilated it, arguing
that Tertullian did not base his arguments on the actual Gospel
of Marcion, but upon his work, the "Antitheses." Hahn,(2) however,
undertook a more exhaustive examination of the problem, attempting
to reconstruct the text of Marcion's Gospel(3) from the statements of
Tertullian and Epiphanius, and he came to the conclusion that the
work was a mere version, with omissions and alterations made by the
Heresiarch in the interest of his system, of the third Canonical Gospel.
Olshausen(4) arrived at the same result, and with more or less of
modification but no detailed argument, similar opinions were expressed
by Credner,(5) De Wette,(6) and others.(7)
Not satisfied, however, with the method and results of
{85}
Hahn and Olshausen, whose examination, although more minute than any
previously undertaken, still left much to be desired, Ritschl(l) made a
further thorough investigation of the character of Mansion's Gospel, and
decided that it was in no case a mutilated version of Luke, but, on the
contrary, an original and independent work, from which the Canonical
Gospel was produced by the introduction of anti-Marcionitish passages
and readings. Baur(2) strongly enunciated similar views, and maintained
that the whole error lay in the mistake of the Fathers, who had, with
characteristic assumption, asserted the earlier and shorter Gospel of
Marcion to be an abbreviation of the later Canonical Gospel, instead of
recognizing the latter as a mere extension of the former. Schwegler(3)
had already, in a remarkable criticism of Marcion's Gospel declared
it to be an independent and original work, and in no sense a mutilated
Luke, but, on the contrary, probably the source of that Gospel.
Kostlin,(4) while stating that the theory that Marcion's Gospel was
an earlier work and the basis of that ascribed to Luke was not very
probable, affirmed that much of the Marcionitish text was more original
than the Canonical, and that both Gospels must be considered versions of
the same original, although Luke's was the later and more corrupt.
These results, however, did not satisfy Volkmar,(5) who entered afresh
upon a searching examination of the whole subject, and concluded that
whilst, on the one hand, the
{86}
Gospel of Marcion was not a mere falsified and mutilated form of the
Canonical Gospel, neither was it, on the other, an earlier work, and
still less the original Gospel of Luke, but merely a Gnostic compilation
from what, so far as we are concerned, may be called the oldest codex
of Luke's Gospel, which itself is nothing more than a similar Pauline
edition of the original Gospel. Volkmar's analysis, together with
the arguments of Hilgenfeld, succeeded in convincing Ritschl,{1} who
withdrew from his previous opinions, and, with those critics, merely
maintained some of Marcion's readings to be more original than those
of Luke,{2} and generally defended Marcion from the aspersions of the
Fathers, on the ground that his procedure with regard to Luke's Gospel
was precisely that of the Canonical Evangelists to each other;{3} Luke
himself being clearly dependent both on Mark and Matthew.{4} Baur was
likewise induced by Volkmar's and Hilgenfeld's arguments to modify his
views;{5} but although for the first time he admitted that Marcion had
altered the original of his Gospel frequently for dogmatic reasons, he
still maintained that there was an older form of the Gospel without the
earlier chapters, from which both Marcion and Luke directly constructed
their Gospels;--both of them stood in the same line in regard to the
original; both altered it; the one abbreviated, the other extended
it.{6} Encouraged by this success, but not yet satisfied, Volkmar
immediately undertook a further and more exhaustive examination of the
text of Marcion, in the hope of finally settling the
{87}
discussion, and he again, but with greater emphasis, confirmed his
previous results.(1) In the meantime Hilgenfeld(2) had seriously
attacked the problem, and, like Hahn and Volkmar, had sought to
reconstruct the text of Marcion, and, whilst admitting many more
original and genuine readings in the text of Marcion, he had also
decided that his Gospel was dependent on Luke, although he further
concluded that the text of Luke had subsequently gone through another,
though slight, manipulation before it assumed its present form. These
conclusions he again fully confirmed after a renewed investigation of
the subject.(3)
This brief sketch of the controversy which has so long occupied the
attention of critics will at least show the uncertainty of the data upon
which any decision is to be based. We have not attempted to give more
than the barest outlines, but it will appear as we go on that most of
those who decide against the general independence of Mansion's Gospel,
at the same time admit his partial originality and the superiority of
some of his readings over those of the third Synoptic, and justify
his treatment of Luke as a procedure common to the Evangelists, and
warranted not only by their example but by the fact that no Gospels had
in his time emerged from the position of private documents in limited
circulation.
Marcion's Gospel not being any longer extant, it is important to
establish clearly the nature of our knowledge regarding it, and the
exact value of the data from which various attempts have been made to
reconstruct the text. It is manifest that the evidential force of any
deductions from a reconstructed text is almost wholly
{88}
dependent on the accuracy and sufficiency of the materials from which
that text is derived.
The principal sources of our information regarding Marcion's Gospel are
the works of his most bitter denouncers Tertullian and Epiphanius, who,
however, it must be borne in mind, wrote long after his time,--the work
of Tertullian against Marcion having been composed about A.D. 208,(1)
and that of Epiphanius a century later. We may likewise merely mention
here the "_Dialogus de recta in deum fide_," commonly attributed to
Origen, although it cannot have been composed earlier than the middle of
the fourth century.(3) The first three sections are directed against the
Marcionites, but only deal with a late form of their doctrines.(3) As
Volkmar admits that the author clearly had only a general acquaintance
with the "Antitheses," and principal proof passages of the Marcionites,
but, although he certainly possessed the Epistles, had not the Gospel of
Marcion itself,(4) we need not now more particularly consider it.
We are, therefore, dependent upon the "dogmatic and partly blind and
unjust adversaries"(5) of Marcion for our only knowledge of the text
they stigmatize; and when the character of polemical discussion in
the early centuries of our era is considered, it is certain that great
caution must be exercised, and not too much weight attached to the
statements of opponents who regarded a heretic with abhorrence, and
attacked him with an acrimony which carried them far beyond the limits
of fairness and truth. Their religious controversy bristles with
{89}
misstatements, and is turbid with pious abuse. Tertullian was a master
of this style, and the vehement vituperation with which he opens(1) and
often interlards his work against "the impious and sacrilegious Marcion"
offers anything but a guarantee of fair and legitimate criticism.
Epiphanius was, if possible, still more passionate and exaggerated
in his representations against him.(2) Undue importance must not,
therefore, be attributed to their statements.(3)
Not only should there be caution exercised in receiving the
representations of one side in a religious discussion, but more
particularly is such caution necessary in the case of Tertullian,
whose trustworthiness is very far from being above suspicion, and whose
inaccuracy is often apparent.(4) "Son christianisme," says Reuss, "est
ardent, sincere, profondement ancre dans son ame. L'on voit qu'il en
vit. Mais ce christianisme est apre, insolent, brutal, ferrailleur. II
est sans onction et sans charite, quelquefois merae sans loyaute, des
qu'il se trouve en face d'une opposition quelconque. C'est un soldat
qui ne sait que se battre et qui oublie, tout en se battant, qu'il faut
aussi respecter son ennemi. Dialecticien subtil et ruse, il excelle
h, ridiculiser ses adversaires. L'injure, le sarcasme, un langage
qui rappelle parfois en verite le genre de Rabelais, une effronterie
d'affirmation dans les moments de faiblesse qui frise et atteint meme
la mauvaise foi, voila ses armes. Je sais ce qu'il faut en cela mettre
surde compte de l'epoque.... Si, au second siecle,
{90}
tous les partis, sauf quelques gnostiques, sont intolerants, Tertullian
Test plus que tout le monde."(1)
The charge of mutilating and interpolating the Gospel of Luke is first
brought against Marcion by Irenaeus,(2) and it is repeated with still
greater vehemence and fulness by Tertullian,(3) and Epiphanius;(4) but
the mere assertion by Fathers at the end of the second and in the
third centuries, that a Gospel different from their own was one of the
Canonical Gospels falsified and mutilated, can have no weight whatever
in itself in the inquiry as to the real nature of that work.(5) Their
arbitrary assumption of exclusive originality and priority for the four
Gospels of the Church led them, without any attempt at argument, to
treat every other evangelical work as an offshoot or falsification of
these. The arguments by which Tertullian endeavours to establish that
the Gospels of Luke and the other Canonical Evangelists were more
ancient than that of Marcion(6) show that he had no idea of historical
or critical evidence.(7) We are, however, driven back upon such actual
data regarding the text and contents of Marcion's Gospel as are given
by the Fathers, as the only basis, in the absence of the Gospel itself,
upon which any hypothesis as to its real character can be built. The
question therefore is: Are these data sufficiently ample and trustworthy
for a decisive judgment
{91}
from internal evidence? if indeed internal evidence in such a case can
be decisive at all.
All that we know, then, of Marcion's Gospel is simply what Tertullian
and Epiphanius have stated with regard to it. It is, however,
undeniable, and indeed is universally admitted, that their object in
dealing with it at all was entirely dogmatic, and not in the least
degree critical(1). The spirit of that age was indeed so essentially
uncritical(2) that not even the canonical text could waken it into
activity. Tertullian very clearly states what his object was in
attacking Marcion's Gospel. After asserting that the whole aim of the
Heresiarch was to prove a disagreement between the Old Testament and the
New, and that for this purpose he had erased from the Gospel all that
was contrary to his opinion, and retained all that he had considered
favourable, Tertullian proceeds to examine the passages retained,(3)
with the view of proving that the Heretic has shown the same "blindness
of heresy" both in that which he has erased and in that which he has
retained, inasmuch as the passages which Marcion has allowed to remain
are as opposed to his system, as those which he has omitted. He conducts
the controversy in a free and discursive manner, and whilst he appears
to go through Marcion's Gospel with some regularity, it will be
apparent, as we proceed, that
{92}
mere conjecture has to play a large part in any attempt to reconstruct,
from his data, the actual text of Marcion. Epiphanius explains his
aim with equal clearness. He had made a number of extracts from the
so-called Gospel of Marcion which seemed to him to refute the heretic,
and after giving a detailed and numbered list of these passages, which
he calls [------], he takes them consecutively and to each adds his
"Refutation." His intention is to show how wickedly and disgracefully
Marcion has mutilated and falsified the Gospel, and how fruitlessly he
has done so, inasmuch as he has stupidly, or by oversight, allowed much
to remain in his Gospel by which he may be completely refuted.(1)
As it is impossible within our limits fully to illustrate the procedure
of the Fathers with regard to Marcion's Gospel, and the nature and value
of the materials they supply, we shall as far as possible quote the
declarations of critics, and more especially of Volkmar and Hilgenfeld,
who, in the true and enlightened spirit of criticism, impartially state
the character of the data available for the understanding of the text.
As these two critics have, by their able and learned investigations,
done more than any others to educe and render possible a decision of the
problem, their own estimate of the materials upon which a judgment has
to be formed is of double value.
With regard to Tertullian, Volkmar explains that his desire is totally
to annihilate the most dangerous heretic of his time,--first (Books
i.--iii.), to overthrow Marcion's system in general as expounded in
his "Antitheses,"--and then (Book iv.) to show that even the Gospel of
Marcion
{93}
only contains Catholic doctrine (he concludes, "_Christus Jesus in
Evangelio tuo mens est_" c. 43); and therefore he examines the Gospel
only so far as may serve to establish his own view and refute that
of Marcion. "To show," Volkmar continues, "wherein this Gospel was
falsified or mutilated, _i.e._, varied from his own, on the contrary,
is in no way his design, for he perceives that Marcion could retort the
reproach of interpolation, and in his time proof from internal grounds
was hardly possible, so that only exceptionally, where a variation seems
to him remarkable, does he specially mention it."(1) On the other hand
Volkmar remarks that Tertullian's Latin rendering of the text of Marcion
which lay before him,--which, although certainly free and having
chiefly the substance in view, is still in weightier passages verbally
accurate,--directly indicates important variations in that text. He goes
on to argue that the silence of Tertullian may be weighty testimony
for the fact that passages which exist in Luke, but which he does
not mention, were missing in Marcion's Gospel, but he does so with
considerable reservation. "But his silence _alone_," he says, "can only
under certain conditions represent with diplomatic certainty an omission
in Marcion. It is indeed probable that he would not lightly have passed
over a passage in the Gospel of Marcion which might in any way be
contradictory to its system, if one altogether similar had not preceded
it, all the more as he frequently drags in by force such proof passages
from Marcion's text, and often plainly with but a certain sophistry
tries to refute his adversary out of the words of his own Gospel. But it
remains always possible that in his eagerness he has
{94}
overlooked much; and besides, he believes that by his replies to
particular passages he has already sufficiently dealt with many others
of a similar kind; indeed, avowedly, he will not willingly repeat
himself. A certain conclusion, therefore, can only be deduced from the
silence of Tertullian when special circumstances enter."(l) Volkmar,
however, deduces with certainty from the statements of Tertullian
that, whilst he wrote, he had not before him the Gospel of Luke, but
intentionally laid it aside, and merely referred to the Marcionitish
text, and further that, like all the Fathers of the third Century, he
preferred the Gospel according to Matthew to the other Synoptics, and
was well acquainted with it alone, so that in speaking of the Gospel
generally he only has in his memory the sense, and the sense alone of
Luke except in so far as it agrees or seems to agree with Matthew.(2)
With regard to the manner in which Tertullian performed the work he had
undertaken, Hilgenfeld remarks: "As Tertullian, in going through the
Marcionitish Gospel, has only the object of refutation in view, he very
rarely states explicitly what is missing in it; and as, on the one hand,
we can only venture to conclude from the silence of Tertullian that a
passage is wanting, when it is altogether inexplicable that he should
not have made use of it for the purpose of refutation; so, on the other,
we must also know how Marcion used and interpreted the Gospel, and
should never lose sight of Tertullian's refutation and defence."(3)
Hahn substantially expresses the same opinions. He
{95}
says: "Inasmuch as Tertullian goes through the Mar-cionitish text with
the view of refuting the heretic out of that which he accepts, and not
of critically pointing out all variations, falsifications, and passages
rejected, he frequently quotes the falsified or altered Marcionitish
text without expressly mentioning the variations.(1)... Yet he cannot
refrain--although this was not his object--occasionally, from noticing
amongst other things any falsifications and omissions which, when he
perhaps examined the text of Luke or had a lively recollection of it,
struck and too grievously offended him."(2)
Volkmar's opinion of the procedure of Epiphanius is still more
unfavourable. Contrasting it with that of Tertullian, he characterizes
it as "more superficial," and he considers that its only merit is its
presenting an independent view of Marcion's Gospel. Further than this,
however, he says: "How far we can build upon his statements, whether
as regards their completeness or their trustworthiness is not yet made
altogether clear."(3) Volk-mar goes on to show how thoroughly Epiphanius
intended to do his work, and yet that, although from what he himself
leads us to expect, we might hope to find a complete statement of
Marcion's sins, the Father himself disappoints such an expectation by
his own admission of incompleteness. He complains generally of his
free and misleading method of quotation, such, for instance, as his
alteration of the text without explanation; alteration of the same
passage on different occasions in more than one way; abbreviations, and
omissions of parts of quotations; the sudden breaking off of passages
just commenced with
{96}
the indefinite [------], without any indication how much this may
include.(1)
Volkmar, indeed, explains that Epiphanius is only thoroughly trustworthy
where, and _so far as_, he wishes to state in his Scholia an omission or
variation in Marcion's text from his own Canonical Gospel, in which
case he minutely registers the smallest point, but this is to be clearly
distinguished from any charge of falsification brought against Marcion
in his Refutations; for only while earlier drawing up his Scholia had
he the Mar-cionitish Gospel before him and compared it with Luke; but in
the case of the Refutations, on the contrary, which he wrote later,
he did not at least again compare the Gospel of Luke. "It is, however,
altogether different," continues Volkmar, "as regards the statements of
Epiphanius concerning the part of the Gospel of Luke which is preserved
in Marcion. Whilst he desires to be _strictly literal_ in the account of
the _variations_, and also with two exceptions _is_ so, he so generally
adheres _only to the purport_ of the passages retained by Marcion,
that altogether literal quotations are quite exceptional; _throughout_,
however, where passages of greater extent are referred to, these are
not merely abbreviated, but also are quoted in _very free_ fashion,
and nowhere can we reckon that the passage in Marcion ran verbally as
Epiphanius quotes it."(2) And to this we may add a remark made further
on: "We cannot in general rely upon the accuracy of his statements in
regard to that which Marcion had in common with Luke."(3) On the other
hand Volkmar had previously
{97}
said: "Absolute completeness in regard to that which Marcion's Gospel
did not contain is not to be reckoned upon in his Scholia. He has
certainly not intended to pass over anything, but in the eagerness which
so easily renders men superficial and blind much has escaped him."(l)
Hahn bears similar testimony to the incompleteness of Epiphanius. "It
was not his purpose," he says, "fully to notice all falsifications,
variations, and omissions, although he does mark most of them, but
merely to extract from the Gospel of Marcion, as well as from
his collection of Epistles, what seemed to him well suited for
refutation."(2) But he immediately adds: "When he quotes a passage
from Marcion's text, however, in which such falsifications occur, he
generally,--but not always,--notes them more or less precisely, and
he had himself laid it down as a subsidiary object of his work to pay
attention to such falsifications."(3) A little further on he says: "In
the quotations of the remaining passages which Epiphanius did not find
different from the Gospel of Luke, and where he therefore says nothing
of falsification or omission, he is often very free, neither adhering
strictly to the particular words, nor to their arrangement, but his
favourite practice is to give their substance and sense for the purpose
of refuting his opponent. He presupposes the words known from the Gospel
of Luke."(4)
It must be stated, however, that both Volkmar(5) and Hilgenfeld(6)
consider that the representations of
{98}
Tertullian and Epiphanius supplement each other and enable the contents
of Marcion's Gospel to be ascertained with tolerable certainty. Yet
a few pages earlier Volkmar had pointed out that: "The ground for a
certain fixture of the text of the Marcionitish Gospel, however, seems
completely taken away by the fact that Tertullian and Epiphanius, in
their statements regarding its state, not merely repeatedly seem to, but
in part actually do, directly contradict each other."(1) Hahn endeavours
to explain some of these contradictions by imagining that later
Marcionites had altered the text of their Gospel, and that Epiphanius
had the one form and Tertullian another;(2) but such a doubt only
renders the whole of the statements regarding the work more uncertain
and insecure. That it is not without some reason, however, appears from
the charge which Tertullian brings against the disciples of Marcion:
"for they daily alter it (their Gospel) as they are daily refuted by
us."(3) In fact, we have no assurance whatever that the work upon
which Tertullian and Epiphanius base their charge against Marcion of
falsification and mutilation of Luke was Marcion's original Gospel at
all, and we certainly have no historical evidence on the point.(4)
The question even arises, whether Tertullian, and indeed Epiphanius, had
Marcion's Gospel in any shape before them when they wrote, or merely his
work the
{99}
"Antitheses."(1) In commencing his onslaught on Marcion's Gospel,
Terlullian says: "Marcion seems (videtur) to have selected Luke,
to mutilate it."(2) This is the first serious introduction of his
"mutilation hypothesis," which he thenceforward presses with so much
assurance, but the expression is very uncertain for so decided a
controversialist, if he had been able to speak more positively.(3)
We have seen that it is admitted that Epiphanius wrote without again
comparing the Gospel of Marcion with Luke, and it is also conceded that
Tertullian at least had not the Canonical Gospel, but in professing to
quote Luke evidently does so from memory, and approximates his text
to Matthew, with which Gospel, like most of the Fathers, he was better
acquainted. This may be illustrated by the fact that both Tertullian
and Epiphanius reproach Marcion with erasing passages from the Gospel of
Luke, which never were in Luke at all.(4) In one place Tertullian says:
"Marcion, you must also remove this from the Gospel: 'I am not sent but
unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel,'(3) and: 'It is not meet
to take the children's bread, and give it to dogs,'(6) in order, be
it known, that Christ may not seem to be an Israelite."(7) The "Great
African"
{100}
thus taunts his opponent, evidently under the impression that the two
passages were in Luke, immediately after he had accused Marcion of
having actually expunged from that Gospel, "as an interpolation,"(1) the
saying that Christ had not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but
to fulfil them,(2) which likewise never formed part of it. He repeats
a similar charge on several other occasions.(3) Epiphanius commits the
same mistake of reproaching Marcion with omitting from Luke what is
only found in Matthew.(4) We have, in fact, no certain guarantee of the
accuracy or trustworthiness of their statements.
We have said enough, we trust, to show that the sources for the
reconstruction of a text of Marcion's Gospel are most unsatisfactory,
and no one who attentively studies the analysis of Hahn, Ritschl,
Volkmar, Hilgenfeld, and others, who have examined and systematized
the data of the Fathers, can fail to be struck by the uncertainty which
prevails throughout, the almost continuous vagueness and consequent
opening, nay, necessity, for conjecture, and the absence of really sure
indications. The Fathers had no intention of showing what Marcion's text
actually was, and their object being solely dogmatic and not critical,
their statements are very insufficient for the purpose.(5) The materials
have had to be ingeniously collected and sifted from polemical writings
whose authors, so far from professing to furnish them, were only bent
upon seeking in Marcion's Gospel such points as could legitimately, or
by sophistical skill, be used against him. Passing observations, general
{101}
remarks, as well as direct statements, have too often been the only
indications guiding the patient explorers and, in the absence of certain
information, the silence of the angry Fathers has been made the basis
for important conclusions. It is evident that not only is such a
procedure necessarily uncertain and insecure, but that it rests upon
assumptions with regard to the intelligence, care and accuracy of
Tertullian and Epiphanius, which are not sufficiently justified by
that part of their treatment of Marcion's text which we can examine and
appreciate. And when all these doubtful landmarks have failed, too many
passages have been left to the mere judgment of critics, as to whether
they were too opposed to Marcion's system to have been retained by him,
or too favourable to have been omitted. The reconstructed texts, as
might be expected, differ from each other, and one Editor finds the
results of his predecessors incomplete or unsatisfactory,1 although
naturally at each successive attempt, the materials previously collected
and adopted have contributed to an apparently more complete result.
After complaining of the incompleteness and uncertainty of the
statements of Tertullian and Epiphanius, Ritschl affirms that they
furnish so little solid material on which to base a hypothesis, that
rather by means of a hypothesis must we determine the remains of the
Gospel from Tertullian.(3) Hilgenfeld quotes this with approval, and
adds, that at least Ritschl's opinion is so far right, that all the
facts of the case can no longer be settled from external data, and that
the general view regarding the
{102}
Gospel only can decide many points.(1) This means of course that
hypothesis is to supply that which is wanting in the Fathers. Volkmar,
in the introduction to his last comprehensive work on Marcion's Gospel,
says: "And, in fact, it is no wonder that critics have for so long, and
substantially to so little effect, fought over the protean question,
for there has been so much uncertainty as to the very basis (Fundament)
itself,--the precise text of the remarkable document,--that Baur has
found full ground for rejecting, as unfounded, the supposition on which
that finally-attained decision (his previous one) rested."(2) Critics
of all shades of opinion are forced to admit the incompleteness of
the materials for any certain reconstruction of Marcion's text and,
consequently, for an absolute settlement of the question from internal
evidence,(3) although the labours of Volkmar and Hilgenfeld have
materially increased our knowledge of the contents of his Gospel.
We must contend, however, that, desirable and important as it is to
ascertain as perfectly as possible the precise nature of Marcion's text,
the question of its origin and relation to Luke would not by any means
be settled even by its final reconstruction. There would, as we shall
presently show, remain unsolved the problem of its place in that
successive manipulation of materials by which a few Gospels gradually
absorbed and displaced the rest. Our own synoptics
{103}
exhibit unmistakable traces of the process, and clearly forbid our
lightly setting aside the claim of Marcion's Gospel to be considered a
genuine work, and no mere falsification and abbreviation of Luke.
Before proceeding to a closer examination of Marcion's Gospel and the
general evidence bearing upon it, it may be well here briefly to refer
to the system of the Heresiarch whose high personal character exerted so
powerful an influence upon his own time,(1) and whose views continued
to prevail widely for a couple of centuries after his death. It was the
misfortune of Marcion to live in an age when Christianity had passed
out of the pure morality of its infancy, when, untroubled by complicated
questions of dogma, simple faith and pious enthusiasm had been the one
great bond of Christian brotherhood, into a phase of ecclesiastical
development in which religion was fast degenerating into theology, and
complicated doctrines were rapidly assuming that rampant attitude which
led to so much bitterness, persecution, and schism. In later times
Marcion might have been honoured as a reformer, in his own he was
denounced as a heretic.(2) Austere and ascetic in his opinions, he aimed
at superhuman purity, and although his clerical adversaries might scoff
at his impracticable doctrines regarding marriage and the subjugation of
the flesh, they have had their parallels amongst those whom the Church
has since most delighted to honour; and at least the whole tendency
of his system was markedly towards the side of virtue.(3) It would of
course be foreign to our
{104}
purpose to enter upon any detailed statement of its principles, and we
must confine ourselves to such particulars only as are necessary to an
understanding of the question before us.
As we have already frequently had occasion to mention, there were
two broad parties in the primitive Church, and the very existence of
Christianity was in one sense endangered by the national exclusiveness
of the people amongst whom it originated. The one party considered
Christianity a mere continuation of the Law, and dwarfed it into an
Isrealitish institution, a narrow sect of Judaism; the other represented
the glad tidings as the introduction of a new system applicable to
all and supplanting the Mosaic dispensation of the Law by a universal
dispensation of grace. These two parties were popularly represented in
the early Church by the Apostles Peter and Paul, and their antagonism
is faintly revealed in the Epistle to the Galatians. Marcion, a gentile
Christian, appreciating the true character of the new religion and its
elevated spirituality, and profoundly impressed by the comparatively
degraded and anthropomorphic features of Judaism, drew a very sharp line
of demarcation between them, and represented Christianity as an entirely
new and separate system abrogating the old and having absolutely no
connection with it. Jesus was not to him the Messiah of the Jews, the
son of David come permanently to establish the Law and the Prophets, but
a divine being sent to reveal to man a wholly new spiritual religion,
and a hitherto unknown God of goodness and grace. The Creator [------],
{105}
the God of the Old Testament, was different from the God of grace
who had sent Jesus to reveal the Truth, to bring reconciliation and
salvation to all, and to abrogate the Jewish God of the World and of the
Law, who was opposed to the God and Father of Jesus Christ as Matter is
to Spirit, impurity to purity. Christianity was in distinct antagonism
to Judaism, the Spiritual God of heaven, whose goodness and love were
for the Universe, to the God of the World, whose chosen and peculiar
people were the Jews, the Gospel of Grace to the dispensation of the Old
Testament. Christianity, therefore, must be kept pure from the Judaistic
elements humanly thrust into it, which were so essentially opposed to
its whole spirit.
Marcion wrote a work called "Antitheses" [------], in which he
contrasted the old system with the new, the God of the one with the
God of the other, the Law with the Gospel, and in this he maintained
opinions which anticipated many held in our own time. Tertullian attacks
this work in the first three books of his treatise against Marcion,
and he enters upon the discussion of its details with true theological
vigour: "Now, then, ye hounds, yelping at the God of truth, whom the
Apostle casts out,(1) to all your questions! These are the bones of
contention which ye gnaw!"(2) The poverty of the "Great African's"
arguments keeps pace with his abuse. Marcion objected: 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
{106}
by the devil, and to fall from obedience of the Law into sin and
death?(1) How came the devil, the origin of lying and deceit, to be made
at all?(2) After the fall, God became a judge both severe and cruel;
woman is at once condemned to bring forth in sorrow and to serve her
husband, changed from a help into a slave; the earth is cursed which
before was blessed, and man is doomed to labour and to death.(3) The law
was one of retaliation and not of justice,--lex talionis--eye for eye,
tooth for tooth, stripe for stripe.(4) And it was not consistent, for in
contravention of the Decalogue, God is made to instigate the Israelites
to spoil the Egyptians, and fraudulently rob them of their gold and
silver;(5) to incite them to work on the Sabbath by ordering them to
carry the ark for eight days round Jericho;(6) to break the second
commandment by making and setting up the brazen serpent and the golden
cherubim.(7) Then God is inconstant, electing men, as Saul and Solomon,
whom he subsequently rejects;(8) repenting that he had set up Saul, and
that he had doomed the Ninevites,(9) and so on. God calls out: Adam,
where art thou? inquires whether he had eaten the forbidden fruit; asks
of Cain where his brother was, as if he had not yet heard the blood
of Abel crying from the ground, and did not already know all these
things.(10) Anticipating the results of modem criticism, Marcion denies
the applicability to Jesus of the so-called Messianic prophecies. The
Emmanuel of
{107}
Isaiah (vii. 14, cf. viii. 4) is not Christ;(1) the "Virgin" his mother
is simply a "young woman" according to Jewish phraseology;(2) and the
sufferings of the Servant of God (Isaiah lii. 13--liii. 9) are not
predictions of the death of Jesus.(3) There is a complete severance
between the Law and the Gospel, and the God of the latter is the
Antithesis of that of the former.(4) "The one was perfect, pure,
beneficent, passionless; the other, though not unjust by nature,
infected by matter,--subject to all the passions of man,--cruel,
changeable; the New Testament, especially as remodelled by Marcion,(5)
was holy, wise, amiable; the Old Testament, the Law, barbarous, inhuman,
contradictory, and detestable."(6)
Marcion ardently maintained the doctrine of the impurity of matter,
and he carried it to its logical conclusion, both in speculation and
practice. He, therefore, asserting the incredibility of an incarnate
God, denied the corporeal reality of the flesh of Christ. His body was
a mere semblance and not of human substance, was not born of a human
mother, and the divine nature was not degraded by contact with the
flesh.(7) Marcion finds in Paul the purest promulgator of the truth as
he understands it, and emboldened by the Epistle to the Galatians, in
which that Apostle rebukes even Apostles for "not walking uprightly
according to the truth of the Gospel," he accuses the other Apostles of
having depraved the pure form of the Gospel doctrines delivered to them
by
5 We give this quotation as a resume by an English historian
and divine, but the idea of the "New Testament remodelled by
Marcion," is a mere ecclesiastical imagination.
{108}
Jesus,(1) "mixing up matters of the Law with the words of the
Saviour."(2)
Tertullian reproaches Marcion with having written the work in which he
details the contrasts between Judaism and Christianity, of which we
have given the briefest sketch, as an introduction and encouragement to
belief in his Gospel, which he ironically calls "the Gospel according
to the Antitheses;"(3) and the charge which the Fathers bring against
Marcion is that he laid violent hands on the Canonical Gospel of Luke,
and manipulated it to suit his own views. "For certainly the whole
object at which he laboured in drawing up the 'Antitheses.'" says
Tertullian, "amounts to this: that he may prove a disagreement between
the Old and New Testament, so that his own Christ may be separated from
the Creator, as of another God, as alien from the Law and the Prophets.
For this purpose it is certain that he has erased whatever was contrary
to his own opinion and in harmony with the Creator, as if interpolated
by his partisans, but has retained everything consistent with his own
opinion."(4) The whole hypothesis that Marcion's Gospel is a mutilated
version of our third Synoptic in fact rested upon this accusation. It
is obvious that if it cannot be shown that Marcion's Gospel was our
Canonical Gospel merely garbled by the Heresiarch for dogmatic reasons
in the interest of his system,--for there could not be any other
conceivable
{109}
reason for tampering with it,--the claim of Marcion's Gospel to the rank
of a more original and authentic work than Luke's acquires double force.
We must, therefore, inquire into the character of the variations between
the so-called heretical, and the Canonical Gospels, and see how far the
hypothesis of the Fathers accord with the contents of Marcion's Gospel
so far as we are acquainted with it.
At the very outset we are met by the singular phenomenon, that both
Tertullian and Epiphanius, who accuse Marcion of omitting everything
which was unfavourable, and retaining only what was favourable to
his views, undertake to refute him out of what remains in his Gospel.
Tertullian says: "It will then be proved that he has shown the same
defect of blindness of heresy both in that which he has erased and that
which he has retained."(1) Epiphanius also confidently states that, out
of that which Marcion has allowed to remain of the Gospel, he can prove
his fraud and imposture, and thoroughly refute him.(2) Now if Marcion
mutilated Luke to so little purpose as this, what was the use of his
touching it at all? He is known as an able man, the most influential and
distinguished of all the heretical leaders of the second century, and
it seems unreasonable to suppose that, on the theory of his erasing or
altering all that contradicted his system, he should have done his work
so imperfectly.(3) The Fathers say that he endeavours to get rid of the
contradictory passages which remain by a system of false interpretation;
but surely he would not have allowed himself to be driven
{110}
to this extremity, leaving weapons in the hands of his opponents, when
he might so easily have excised the obnoxious texts along with the rest?
It is admitted by critics, moreover, that passages said to have been
omitted by Marcion are often not opposed to his system at all, and
sometimes, indeed, even in favour of it;(1) and on the other hand, that
passages which were retained are contradictory to his views.(2) This is
not intelligible upon any theory of arbitrary garbling of a Gospel in
the interest of a system.
It may be well to give a few instances of the anomalies presented, upon
this hypothesis, by Marcion's text. Some critics believe that the verses
Luke vii. 29--35, were wanting in Marcion's Gospel.(3) Hahn accounts for
the omission of verses 29, 30, regarding the baptism of John, because
they represented the relation of the Baptist to Jesus in a way which
Marcion did not admit.(4) But as he allowed the preceding verses to
remain, such a proceeding was absurd. In verse 26 he calls John a
prophet, and much more than a prophet, and in the next verse (27) quotes
respecting him the words of
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Malachi iii. 1: "This is he of whom it is written: Behold I send my
messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee." It
is impossible on any reasonable ground to account for the retention of
such honourable mention of the Baptist, if verses 29, 30 were erased
for such dogmatic reasons.(1) Still more incomprehensible on such a
hypothesis is the omission of Luke vii. 31--35, where that generation
is likened unto children playing in the market-place and calling to each
other: "We piped unto you and ye danced not," and Jesus continues: "For
John is come neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath
a devil (34). The Son of Man is come, eating and drinking; and ye say:
Behold a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and
sinners." Hahn attributes the omission of these verses to the sensuous
representation they give of Jesus as eating and drinking.(2) What was
the use of eliminating these verses when he allowed to remain unaltered
verse 36 of the same chapter,(3) in which Jesus is invited to eat with
the Pharisee, and goes into his house and sits down to meat? or v.
29--35,(4) in which Jesus accepts the feast of Levi, and defends his
disciples for eating and drinking against the murmurs of the Scribes and
Pharisees? or xv. 2,(5)
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where the Pharisees say of him: "This man receiveth sinners and eateth
with them?" How absurdly futile the omission of the one passage
for dogmatic reasons, while so many others were allowed to remain
unaltered.(1)
The next passage to which we must refer is one of the most important in
connection with Marcion's Docetic doctrine of the person of Jesus. It is
said that he omitted viii. 19: "And his mother and his brethren came to
him and could not come at him for the crowd," and that he inserted in
verse 21, [------]; making the whole episode in his Gospel read (20):
"And it was told him by certain which said: Thy mother and thy brethren
stand without desiring to see thee: 21. But he answered and said unto
them: Who are my mother and brethren? My mother and my brethren are
these," &c. The omission of verse 19 is said to have been made because,
according to Marcion, Christ was not born like an ordinary man, and
consequently had neither mother nor brethren.(3) The mere fact, however,
that Marcion retains verse 20, in which the crowd simply state as a
matter fully recognized, the relationship of those who were seeking
Jesus, renders the omission of the preceding verse useless,(4) except on
the ground of mere redundancy.
Marcion is reported not to have had the word [------] in x. 25,(5) "so
that the question of the lawyer simply ran:
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"Master, what shall I do to inherit life?" The omission of this word is
supposed to have been made in order to make the passage refer back to
the God of the Old Testament, who promises merely long life on earth for
keeping the commandments, whilst it is only in the Gospel that _eternal_
life is promised.(1) But in the corresponding passage, xviii. 18,(2) the
[------] is retained, and the question of the ruler is: "Good master,
what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" It has been argued that the
introduction of the one thing still lacking (verse 22) after the keeping
of the law and the injunction to sell all and give to the poor, changes
the context, and justifies the use there of _eternal_ life as the reward
for fulfilment of the higher commandment.(3) This reasoning, however,
seems to us without grounds, and merely an ingenious attempt to account
for an embarrassing fact. In reality the very same context occurs in the
other passage, for, explaining the meaning of the word "neighbour,"
love to whom is enjoined as part of the way to obtain "life," Jesus
inculcates the very same duty as in xviii. 22, of distributing to the
poor (cf. x. 28--37). There seems, therefore, no reasonable motive
for omitting the word from the one passage whilst retaining it in the
other.(4)
The passage in Luke xi. 29--32, from the concluding words of verse 29,
"but the sign of the prophet Jonah"
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was not found in Marcion's Gospel.(1) This omission is accounted for
on the ground that such a respectful reference to the Old Testament was
quite contrary to the system of Marcion.(2) Verses 49--51 of the same
chapter, containing the saying of the "Wisdom of God," regarding the
sending of the prophets that the Jews might slay them, and their blood
be required of that generation, were also omitted.(3) The reason given
for this omission is, that the words of the God of the Old Testament are
too respectfully quoted and adopted to suit the views of the Heretic.(4)
The words in verses 31--32, "And a greater than Solomon--than Jonah
is here," might well have been allowed to remain in the text, for the
superiority of Christ over the kings and prophets of the Old Testament
which is asserted directly suits and supports the system of Marcion. How
much less, however, is the omission of these passages to be explained
upon any intelligent dogmatic principle, when we find in Marcion's text
the passage in which Jesus justifies his conduct on the Sabbath by
the example of David (vi. 3--4),(5) and that in which he assures
the disciples of the greatness of their reward in heaven for the
persecutions they were to endure:
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"For behold your reward is great in heaven: for after the same manner
did their fathers unto the prophets" (vi. 23).(1) As we have seen,
Jesus is also allowed to quote an Old Testament prophecy (vii. 27) as
fulfilled in the coming of John to prepare the way for himself. The
questions which Jesus puts to the Scribes (xx. 41--44) regarding the
Christ being David's son, with the quotation from Ps. ex. 1, which
Marcion is stated to have retained,(2) equally refute the supposition as
to his motive for "omitting" xi. 29 ff. It has been argued with
regard to the last passage that Jesus merely uses the words of the Old
Testament to meet his own theory,(3) but the dilemma in which Jesus
places the Scribes is clearly not the real object of his question: its
aim is a suggestion of the true character of the Christ. But amongst
his other sins with regard to Luke's Gospel, Marcion is also accused of
interpolating it. And in what way? Why the Heresiarch, who is so averse
to all references to the Old Testament that he is supposed to erase
them, actually, amongst his few interpolations, adds a reference to the
Old Testament. Between xvii. 14 and 15 (some critics say in verse 18)
Marcion introduced the verse which is found in Luke iv. 27: "And many
lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of
them was cleansed saving Naaman, the Syrian."(4) Now is it conceivable
that a man who inserts, as it is said, references to the
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Old Testament into his text so gratuitously, can have been so
inconsistent as to have omitted these passages because they contain
similar references? We must say that the whole of the reasoning
regarding these passages omitted and retained, and the fine distinctions
which are drawn between them, are anything but convincing. A general
theory being adopted, nothing is more easy than to harmonise everything
with it in this way; nothing is more easy than to assign some reason,
good or bad, apparently in accordance with the foregone conclusion, why
one passage was retained, and why another was omitted, but in almost
every case the reasoning might with equal propriety be reversed if the
passages were so, and the retention of the omitted passage as well as
the omission of that retained be quite as reasonably justified. The
critics who have examined Marcion's Gospel do not trouble themselves to
inquire if the general connection of the text be improved by the absence
of passages supposed to be omitted, but simply try whether the supposed
omissions are explainable on the ground of a dogmatic tendency in
Marcion. In fact, the argument throughout is based upon foregone
conclusions, and rarely upon any solid grounds whatever. The retention
of such passages as we have quoted above renders the omission of the
other for dogmatic reasons quite purposeless.(1)
The passage, xii. 6, 7, which argues that as the sparrows are not
forgotten before God, and the hairs of our head are numbered, the
disciples need not fear, was not found in Mansion's Gospel.(2) The
supposed omission
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is explained on the ground that, according to Marcion's system, God does
not interest himself about such trifles as sparrows and the hairs of
our head, but merely about souls.(1) That such reasoning is arbitrary,
however, is apparent from the fact, that Marcion's text had verse 24 of
the same chapter:(2) "Consider the ravens," &c., &c., and "God feedeth
them:" &c., and also v. 28,(3) "But if God so clothe the grass," &c.,
&c., "how much more will he clothe you, O! ye of little faith?" As no
one ventures to argue that Marcion limited the providence of God to the
ravens, and to the grass, but excluded the sparrows and the hair, no
dogmatic reason can be assigned for the omission of the one, whilst the
other is retained.(4)
The first nine verses of ch. xiii. were likewise absent from Marcion's
text,(5) wherein Jesus declares that like the Galilaeans, whose blood
Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices (v. 1, 2), and the eighteen upon
whom the tower in Siloam fell (v. 4), "except ye repent, ye shall all
likewise perish," (v. 3 and 5), and then recites the parable of the
unfruitful fig-tree (v. 6--9), which the master of the vineyard orders
to be cut down (v. 7), but then spares for a season (v. 8, 9). The
theory advanced to account for the asserted "omission" of these
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verses is that they could not be reconciled with Marcion's system,
according to which the good God never positively punishes the wicked,
but merely leaves them to punish themselves in that, by not accepting
the proffered grace, they have no part in the blessedness of
Christians.(1) In his earlier work, Volkmar distinctly admitted that the
whole of this passage might be omitted without prejudice to the text
of Luke, and that he could not state any ground, in connection with
Marcion's system, which rendered its omission either necessary or even
conceivable. He then decided that the passage was not contained at all
in the version of Luke, which Marcion possessed, but was inserted at
a later period in our Codices.(2) It was only on his second attempt to
account for all omissions on dogmatic grounds that he argued as above.
In like manner Hilgenfeld also, with Rettig, considered that the passage
did not form part of the original Luke, so that here again Marcion's
text was free from a very abrupt passage, not belonging to the more
pure and primitive Gospel.(3) Baur recognizes not only that there is no
dogmatic ground to explain the omission, but on the contrary, that
the passage fully agrees with the system of Marcion.(4) The total
insufficiency of the argument to explain the omission, however, is
apparent from the numerous passages, which were allowed to remain in the
text, which still more clearly outraged this part of Marcion's system.
In the parable of the great supper, xiv. 15--24, the Lord is angry (v.
21), and declares that none of those who were
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bidden should taste of his supper (v. 24). In xii. 5, Jesus warns his
own disciples: "Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast
into hell; yea, I say unto you: fear him." It is not permissible to
argue that Marcion here understands the God of the Old Testament, the
Creator, for he would thus represent his Christ as forewarning his own
disciples to fear the power of that very Demiurge, whose reign he had
come to terminate. Then again, in the parable of the wise steward, and
the foolish servants, xii. 41 ff, he declares (v. 46), that the lord of
the foolish servant "will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his
portion with the unbelievers," and (vs. 47, 48) that the servants shall
be beaten with stripes, in proportion to their fault. In the parable of
the nobleman who goes to a far country and leaves the ten pounds with
his servants, xix. 11 ff, the lord orders his enemies, who would not
that he should reign over them, to be brought and slain before him (v.
27). Then, how very much there was in the Epistles of Paul, which he
upheld, of a still more contradictory character. There is no dogmatic
reason for such inconsistency.(1)
Marcion is accused of having falsified xiii. 28 in the following manner:
"There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see _all
the just_ [------] in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves being
thrust, _and bound_ [------] without." The substitution of "all the
just" for "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets," is one of
those variations which the supporter of the dogmatic theory
greedily lays hold of, as bearing evident tokens of falsification in
anti-judaistic interest.(2) But Marcion had in his Gospel
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the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, xvi. 19--31, where the beggar
is carried up into Abraham's bosom.(1) And again, there was the account
of the Transfiguration, ix. 28--36, in which Moses and Elias are seen in
converse with Jesus.(2) The alteration of the one passage for dogmatic
reasons, whilst the parable of Lazarus is retained, would have been
useless. Hilgenfeld, however, in agreement with Baur and Ritschl, has
shown that Marcion's reading [------] is evidently the contrast to
the [------] of the preceding verse, and is superior to the canonical
version, which was either altered after Matth. viii. 12, or with the
anti-Marcionitish object of bringing the rejected Patriarchs into
recognition.(3) The whole theory in this case again goes into thin air,
and it is consequently weakened in every other.
Marcion's Gospel did not contain the parable of the Prodigal Son, xv.
11--23.(4) The omission of this passage,
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which is universally recognized as in the purest Paulinian spirit, is
accounted for partly on the ground that a portion of it (v. 22--32) was
repugnant to the ascetic discipline of Marcion, to whom the killing of
the fatted calf, the feasting, dancing and merry-making, must have been
obnoxious, and, partly because, understanding under the similitude
of the elder son the Jews, and of the younger son the Gentiles,
the identity of the God of the Jews and of the Christians would be
recognized.(1) There is, however, the very greatest doubt admitted as
to the interpretation which Marcion would be likely to put upon
this parable, and certainly the representation which it gives of the
Gentiles, not only as received completely on a par with the Jews, but
as only having been lost for a time, and found again, is thoroughly in
harmony with the teaching of Paul, who was held by Marcion to be the
only true Apostle. It could not, therefore, have been repugnant to him.
Any points of disagreement could very easily have been explained away,
as his critics are so fond of asserting to be his practice in other
passages.(3) As to the supposed dislike of Marcion for the festive
character of the parable, what object could he have had for omitting
this, when he retained the parable of the
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great supper, xiv. 15--24; the feast in the house of Levi, v. 27--32;
the statements of Jesus eating with the Pharisees, vii. 36, xv. 2?
If Marcion had any objection to such matters, he had still greater to
marriage, and yet Jesus justifies his disciples for eating and drinking
by the similitude of a marriage feast, himself being the bridegroom:
v. 34, 35, "Can ye make the sons of the bridechamber fast, while the
bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom
shall be taken away from them: then will they fast in those days." And
he bids his disciples to be ready "like men that wait for their lord,
when he shall return from the wedding," (xii. 36), and makes another
parable on a wedding feast (xiv. 7--10). Leaving these passages, it is
impossible to see any dogmatic reason for excluding the others.(1)
The omission of a passage in every way so suitable to Marcion's system
as the parable of the vineyard, xx. 9--16, is equally unintelligible
upon the dogmatic theory.
Marcion is accused of falsifying xvi. 17, by altering [------],(2)
making the passage read: "But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass,
than for one tittle of my words to fail." The words in the canonical
Gospel, it is argued, were too repugnant to him to be allowed to remain
unaltered, representing as they do the permanency of "the Law" to which
he was opposed.(3) Upon this hypothesis, why did he leave
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x. 25 f. (especially v. 26) and xviii. 18 ff, in which the keeping of
the law is made essential to life? or xvii. 14, where Jesus bids the
lepers conform to the requirements of the law? or xvi. 29, where the
answer is given to the rich man pleading for his relatives: "They have
Moses and the prophets, let them hear them"?(l) Hilgenfeld, however,
with others, points out that it has been fully proved that the reading
in Marcion's text is not an arbitrary alteration at all, but the
original expression, and that the version in Luke xvi. 17, on the
contrary, is a variation of the original introduced to give the passage
an anti-Marcionitish tendency.(2) Here, again, it is clear that the
supposed falsification is rather a falsification on the part of the
editor of the third canonical Gospel.(3)
One more illustration may be given. Marcion is accused of omitting from
xix. 9 the words: "forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham," [------]
leaving merely:
"And Jesus said unto him: This day is salvation come to this house."4
Marcion's system, it is said, could not tolerate the phrase which was
erased.(5) It was one, however, eminently in the spirit of his Apostle
Paul, and in his favourite Epistle to the Galatians he retained the very
parallel
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passage iii. 7, "Ye know, therefore, that they which are of faith,
these are the sons of Abraham."(1) How could he, therefore, find any
difficulty in such words addressed to the repentant Zacchaeus, who had
just believed in the mission of Christ? Moreover, why should he have
erased the words here, and left them standing in xiii. 16, in regard
to the woman healed of the "spirit of infirmity:" "and ought not this
woman, _being a daughter of Abraham_, whom Satan hath bound, lo! these
eighteen years, to be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?" No
reasoning can explain away the substantial identity of the two phrases.
Upon what principle of dogmatic interest, then, can Marcion have erased
the one while he retained the other?(2)
We have taken a very few passages for illustration, and treated them
very briefly, but it may roundly be said that there is scarcely a single
variation of Marcion's text regarding which similar reasons are not
given, and which do not present similar anomalies in consequence of what
has elsewhere been retained.(3) As we have already stated, much that is
really contradictory to Marcion's system was found in his text, and much
which either is not opposed or is favourable to it is omitted
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and cannot be set down to arbitrary alteration. Moreover, it has
never been shown that the supposed alterations were made by Marcion
himself,(1) and till this is done the pith of the whole theory is
wanting. There is no principle of intelligent motive which can account
for the anomalies presented by Marcion's Gospel, considered as a version
of Luke mutilated and falsified in the interest of his system. The
contrast of what is retained with that which is omitted reduces the
hypothesis _ad absurdum_. Marcion was too able a man to do his work so
imperfectly, if he had proposed to assimilate the Gospel of Luke to
his own views. As it is avowedly necessary to explain away by false and
forced interpretations requiring intricate definitions(2) very much
of what was allowed to remain in his text, it is inconceivable that he
should not have cut the Gordian knot with the same unscrupulous knife
with which it is asserted he excised the rest The ingenuity of most able
and learned critics endeavouring to discover whether a motive in the
interest of his system cannot be conceived for every alteration is,
notwithstanding the evident scope afforded by the procedure, often
foiled. Yet a more elastic hypothesis could not possibly have been
advanced, and that the text obstinately refuses to fit into it, is even
more than could have been expected. Marcion is like a prisoner at the
bar without witnesses, who is treated from the first as guilty, attacked
by able and passionate adversaries who warp every possible circumstance
against him, and yet who cannot be convicted. The foregone conclusion
by which every supposed omission from his Gospel is explained, is, as we
have shown, almost in
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every case contradicted by passages which have been allowed to remain,
and this is rendered more significant by the fact, which is generally
admitted, that Marcion's text contains many readings which are
manifestly superior to, and more original than, the form in which the
passages stand in our third Synoptic.(1) The only one of these to which
we shall refer is the interesting variation from the passage in Luke xi.
2, in the substitution of a prayer for the Holy Spirit for the "hallowed
be thy name,"--[------]. The former is recognized to be the true
original reading. This phrase is evidently referred to in v. 13. We are,
therefore, indebted to Marcion for the correct version of "the Lord's
Prayer."(2)
There can be no doubt that Marcion's Gospelbore great analogy to
our Luke, although it was very considerably shorter. It is, however,
unnecessary to repeat that there were many Gospels in the second century
which, although nearly related to those which have become canonical,
were independent works, and the most favourable interpretation which
can be given of the relationship between our three Synoptics leaves
them very much in a line with Marcion's work. His Gospel was chiefly
distinguished
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by a shorter text,(1) but besides large and important omissions there
are a few additions,(2) and very many variations of text. The whole of
the first two chapters of Luke, as well as all the third, was wanting,
with the exception of part of the first verse of the third chapter,
which, joined to iv. 31, formed the commencement of the Gospel. Of
chapter iv. verses 1--13, 17--20 and 24 were likewise probably absent.
Some of the other more important omissions are xi. 29--32, 49--51, xiii.
1--9, 29--35, xv. 11--32, xvii. 5--10 (probably), xviii. 31--34, xix.
29--48, xx. 9--19, 37--38, xxi. 1--4, 18, 21--22> xxii. 16--18, 28--30,
35--38, 49--51, and there is great doubt about the concluding verses of
xxiv. from 44 to the end, but it may have terminated with v. 49. It is
not certain whether the order was the same as Luke,(3) but there are
instances of decided variation, especially at the opening. As the
peculiarities of the opening variations have had an important effect
in inclining some critics towards the acceptance of the mutilation
hypothesis,(4) it may be well for us briefly to examine the more
important amongst them.
Marcion's Gospel is generally said to have commenced thus: "In the
fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Jesus came down to
Capernaum, a city of Galilee."(5)
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There are various slightly differing readings of this. Epiphanius
gives the opening words, [------].1 Tertullian has: Anno quintodecimo
principatus Tiberiani.... de-scendisse in civitatem Galilsaeae
Capharnaum."(2) The [-------]s of Epiphanius has permitted the
conjecture that there might have been an additional indication of the
time, such as "Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea,"(3) but this has
not been generally adopted.(4) It is not necessary for us to discuss the
sense in which the "came down" [------] was interpreted, since it is
the word used in Luke. Marcion's Gospel then proceeds with iv. 31: "and
taught them on the sabbath days, (v. 32), and they were exceedingly
astonished at his teaching, for his word was power." Then follow vs.
33--39 containing the healing of the man with an unclean spirit,(5) and
of Simon's wife's mother, with the important omission of the expression
"of Nazareth" (Najapipc)6 after "Jesus" in the cry of the possessed (v.
34). The vs. 16--307 immediately _follow_ iv. 39, with important
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omissions and variations. In iv. 16, where Jesus comes to Nazareth,
the words "where he had been brought up" are omitted, as is also the
concluding phrase "and stood up to read."(1) Verses 17--19, in which
Jesus reads from Isaiah, are altogether wanting.(2) Volkmar omits the
whole of v. 20, Hilgenfeld only the first half down to the sitting down,
retaining the rest; Hahn retains from "and he sat down" to the end.(3)
Of v. 21 only: "He began to speak to them" is retained.(4) From v.
22 the concluding phrase: "And said: Is not this Joseph's son" is
omitted,(5) as are also the words "in thy country" from v. 23.(6)
Verse 24, containing the proverb: "A prophet has no honour" is wholly
omitted,(7) but the best critics differ regarding the two following
verses 25--26; they are omitted according to Hahn, Ritschl and De
Wette,(8) but retained by Volkmar and Hilgenfeld.(9) Verse 27,
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referring to the leprosy of Naaman, which, it will be remembered, is
interpolated at xvii. 14, is omitted here by most critics, but retained
by Vojkmar.(1) Verses 28--30 come next,(2) and the four verses iv.
40--44, which then immediately follow, complete the chapter. This brief
analysis, with the accompanying notes, illustrates the uncertainty of
the text, and, throughout the whole Gospel, conjecture similarly plays
the larger part. We do not propose to criticise minutely the
various conclusions arrived at as to the state of the text, but must
emphatically remark that where there is so little certainty there
cannot be any safe ground for delicate deductions regarding motives and
sequences of matter. Nothing is more certain than that, if we criticise
and compare the Synoptics on the same principle, we meet with the most
startling results and the most irreconcileable difficulties.(3) The
opening of Marcion's Gospel is more free from abruptness and crudity
than that of Luke.
It is not necessary to show that the first three chapters of Luke
present very many differences from the other Synoptics. Mark omits them
altogether, and they do not even agree with the account in Matthew. Some
of the oldest Gospels of which we have any knowledge, such as the Gospel
according to the Hebrews, are said not to have had the narrative of the
first two chapters at all,(4) and there is much more than doubt as to
their originality. The mere omission of the history of
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the infancy, &c., from Mark, however, renders it unnecessary to show
that the absence of these chapters from Marcion's Gospel has the
strongest support and justification. Now Luke's account of the early
events and geography of the Gospel history is briefly as follows:
Nazareth is the permanent dwelling-place of Joseph and Mary,(1) but on
account of the census they travel to Bethlehem, where Jesus is born;(2)
and after visiting Jerusalem to present him at the Temple,(3) they
return "to their own city Nazareth."(4) After the baptism and temptation
Jesus comes to Nazareth "where he had been brought up,"(5) and in the
course of his address to the people he says: "Ye will surely say unto me
this proverb: Physician heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done
in Capernaum do also here in thy country."(6) No mention, however, has
before this been made of Capernaum, and no account has been given of any
works done there; but, on the contrary, after escaping from the angry
mob at Nazareth, Jesus goes for the first time to Capernaum, which, on
being thus first mentioned, is particularized as "a city of Galilee,"(7)
where he heals a man who had an unclean spirit, in the synagogue,
who addresses him as "Jesus of Nazareth;"(8) and the fame of him goes
throughout the country.(9) He cures Simon's wife's mother of a fever(10)
and when the sun is set they bring the sick and he heals them.(11)
The account in Matthew contradicts this in many points, some of which
had better be indicated here. Jesus is born in Bethlehem, which is the
ordinary
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dwelling-place of the family;(1) his parents fly thence with him into
Egypt,(2) and on their return, they dwell "in a city called Nazareth;
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets: He shall be
called a Nazarene."(3) After John's imprisonment, Jesus leaves
Nazareth, and goes to dwell in Capernaum.(4) From that time he begins to
preach.(5) Here then, he commences his public career in Capernaum.
In Mark, Jesus comes from Nazareth to be baptized,(6) and after the
imprisonment of John, he comes into Galilee preaching.(7) In Capernaum,
he heals the man of the unclean spirit, and Simon's wife's mother,(8)
and then retires to a solitary place,(9) returns after some days to
Capernaum(10) without going to Nazareth at all, and it is only at a
later period that he comes to his own country, and quotes the proverb
regarding a prophet.(11)
It is evident from this comparison, that there is very considerable
difference between the three Synoptics, regarding the outset of the
career of Jesus, and that there must have been decided elasticity in the
tradition, and variety in the early written accounts of this part of the
Gospel narrative. Luke alone commits the error of making Jesus appear
in the synagogue at Nazareth, and refer to works wrought at Capernaum,
before any mention had been made of his having preached or worked
wonders there to justify the allusions
3 ii. 33. We need not pause here to point out that there
is no such prophecy known in the Old Testament. The
reference may very probably bo a singularly mistaken
application of the word in Isaiah xi. 1, the Hebrew word for
branch being [----] Nazer.
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and the consequent agitation. It is obvious that there has been
confusion in the arrangement of the third Synoptic and a transposition
of the episodes, clearly pointing to a combination of passages from
other sources.(1) Now Marcion's Gospel did not contain these anomalies.
It represented Jesus as first appearing in Capernaum, teaching in
the synagogue, and performing mighty works there, and _then_ going to
Nazareth, and addressing the people with the natural reference to
the previous events at Capernaum, and in this it is not only more
consecutive, but also adheres more closely to the other two Synoptics.
That Luke happens to be the only one of our canonical Gospels, which has
the words with which Marcion's Gospel commences, is no proof that
these words were original in that work, and not found in several of the
writings which existed before the third Synoptic was compiled. Indeed,
the close relationship between the first three Gospels is standing
testimony to the fact that one Gospel was built upon the basis of others
previously existing. This which has been called "the chief prop of the
mutilation hypothesis,"(2) has really no solid ground to stand on beyond
the accident that only one of three Gospels survives out of many which
may have had the phrase. The fact that Marcion's Gospel really had the
words of Luke, moreover, is mere conjecture, inasmuch as Epiphanius, who
alone gives the Greek, shows a distinct variation of reading. He has:
[------]
1 Cf. Luke iv. 23; Matt. viii. 54; Mark vi. 1--6. We do not
go into the question as to the sufficiency of the motives
ascribed for the agitation at Nazareth, or the contradiction
between the facts narrated as to the attempt to kill Jesus,
and the statement of their wonder at his gracious words, v.
22, &o. There is no evidence where the various discrepancies
arose, and no certain conclusions can be based upon such
arguments.
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[------].(1) Luke reads: [------]. We do not of course lay much stress
upon this, but the fact that there is a variation should be noticed.
Critics quietly assume, because there is a difference, that Epiphanius
has abbreviated, but that is by no means sure. In any case, instances
could be multiplied to show that if one of our Synoptic Gospels were
lost, one of the survivors would in this manner have credit for passages
which it had in reality either derived from the lost Gospel, or with it
drawn from a common original source.
Now starting from the undeniable fact that the Synoptic Gospels are
in no case purely original independent works, but are based upon older
writings, or upon each other, each Gospel remodelling and adding to
already existing materials, as the author of the third Gospel, indeed,
very frankly and distinctly indicates,(2) it seems a bold thing to
affirm that Marcion's Gospel must necessarily have been derived from the
latter. Ewald has made a minute analysis of the Synoptics assigning the
materials of each to what he considers their original source. We do not
of course attach any very specific importance to such results, for it
is clear that they must to a great extent be arbitrary and incapable of
proof, but being effected without any reference to the question before
us, it may be interesting to compare Ewald's conclusions regarding the
parallel part of Luke, with the first chapter of Marcion's Gospel. Ewald
details the materials from which our Synoptic Gospels
2 Luke i. 1--4. He professes to write in order the things
in which Theophilus had already been instructed, not to tell
something new, but merely that he might know the certainty
thereof.
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were derived, and the order of their composition as follows, each
Synoptic of course making use of the earlier materials: I. the oldest
Gospel. II. the collection of Discourses (Spruchsammlung). III. Mark.
IV. the Book of earlier History. V. our present Matthew. VI. the sixth
recognizable book. VII. the seventh book. VIII. the eighth book; and IX.
Luke.(1) Now the only part of our third canonical Gospel corresponding
with any part of the first chapter of Marcion's Gospel which Ewald
ascribes to the author of our actual Luke is the opening date.(2) The
passage to which the few opening words are joined, and which constitute
the commencement of Marcion's Gospel, Luke iv. 31--39, is a section
commencing with verse 31, and extending to the end of the chapter,
thereby including verses 40--44, which Ewald assigns to Mark.(3) Verses
16--24, which immediately follow, also form a complete and isolated
passage assigned by Ewald, to the "sixth recognizable book."(4) Verses
25--27, also are the whole
2 The verses iv. 14--15, which. Volkmar wished to include,
but which all other critics reject (see p. 128, note 7),
from Marcion's text, Ewald likewise identifies as an
isolated couple of verses by the author of our Luke inserted
between episodes derived from other written sources. Cf.
Ewald, 1. c.
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of another isolated section attributed by Ewald, to the "Book of earlier
history," whilst 28--30, in like manner form another complete and
isolated episode, assigned by him to the "eighth recognizable book."(1)
According to Ewald, therefore, Luke's Gospel at this place is a mere
patchwork of older writings, and if this be in any degree accepted, as
in the abstract, indeed, it is by the great mass of critics, then
the Gospel of Marcion might be an arrangement different from Luke of
materials not his, but previously existing, and of which, therefore,
there is no warrant to limit the use and reproduction to the canonical
Gospel.
The course pursued by critics, with regard to Marcion's Gospel,
is necessarily very unsatisfactory. They commence with a definite
hypothesis, and try whether all the peculiarities of the text may not
be more or less well explained by it. On the other hand, the attempt
to settle the question by a comparison of the reconstructed text
with Luke's is equally inconclusive. The determination of priority of
composition from internal evidence, where there are no chronological
references, must as a general rule be arbitrary, and can rarely be
accepted as final. Internal evidence would, indeed, decidedly favour the
priority of Marcion's Gospel. The great uncertainty of the whole system,
even when applied under the most favourable circumstances, is well
illustrated by the contradictory results at which critics have arrived
as to the order of production and dependence on each other of our three
Synoptics. Without going into details, we may say that critics who are
all agreed upon the mutual dependence of those Gospels have variously
arranged them in the following order: I. Matthew--
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Mark--Luke.(1) II. Matthew--Luke--Mark.(3) III. Mark--Matthew--Luke.(3)
IV. Mark--Luke--Matthew.(4) V. Luke--Matthew--Mark.(5) VI. All three
out of common written sources.(6) Were we to state the various
theories still more in detail, we might largely increase the variety of
conclusions. These, however, suffice to show the uncertainty of results
derived from internal evidence. It is always assumed that Marcion
altered a Gospel to suit his own particular system, but as one of his
most orthodox critics, while asserting that Luke's narrative lay at
the basis of his Gospel, admits: "it is not equally clear that all the
changes were due to Marcion himself;"(7) and, although he considers that
"some of the omissions can be explained by his peculiar doctrines,"
he continues: "others are unlike arbitrary corrections, and must be
considered as various readings of the greatest interest, dating as they
do from a time anterior to all
1 Of course we only pretend to indicate a few of the critics
who adopt each order. So Bengel, Bolton, Ebrard, Grotius,
Hengstenberg, Hug, Hilgenfeld, Holtzmann, Mill, Seiler,
Townson, Wetstein.
2 So Ammon, Baur, Bleek, Delitzsch, Fritzsche, Gfrorer,
Griesbach, Kern, Eostlin, Neudecker, Saunier, Schwarz,
Schwegler, Sieffert, Stroth, Theilo, Owon, Paulus, De Wette.
3 So Credner, Ewald, Hitzig, Lachmann, (?) Xteuss, Bitschl,
Meyer, Storr, Thiersch.
4 B. Bauer, Hitzig (?) Schnockonburger, Volkmar, Weisse,
Wilke.
5 Busching, Eyanson.
6 Bortholdt, Le Clerc, Corrodi, Eichhorn, Gratz, Hanlein,
Koppe, Kuinoel, Leasing, Marsh, Michaelis, Niemeyer, Semler,
Schleiermacher, Schmidt, Weber. This view was partly shared
by many of those mentioned under other orders.
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other authorities in our possession."(1) Now, undoubtedly, the more
developed forms of the Gospel narrative were the result of additions,
materially influenced by dogmatic and other reasons, made to earlier
and more fragmentary works, but it is an argument contrary to general
critical experience to affirm that a Gospel, the distinguishing
characteristic of which is greater brevity, was produced by omissions in
the interest of a system from a longer work.
In the earlier editions of this work, we contended that the theory that
Marcion's Gospel was a mutilated form of our third Synoptic had not been
established, and that more probably it was an earlier work, from which
our Gospel might have been elaborated. We leave the statement of the
case, so far, nearly in its former shape, in order that the true nature
of the problem and the varying results and gradual development of
critical opinion may be better understood. Since the sixth edition of
this work was completed, however, a very able examination of Marcion's
Gospel has been made by Dr. Sanday,(2) which has convinced us that our
earlier hypothesis is untenable, that the portions of our third Synoptic
excluded from Marcion's Gospel were really written by the same pen which
composed the mass of the work and, consequently, that our third Synoptic
existed in his time, and was substantially in the hands of Marcion. This
conviction is mainly the result of the linguistic analysis, sufficiently
indicated by Dr. Sanday and, since, exhaustively carried out for
ourselves. We still consider the argument based upon the mere dogmatic
views of Marcion, which has hitherto been almost
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exclusively relied on, quite inconclusive by itself, but the linguistic
test, applied practically for the first time in this controversy by Dr.
Sanday, must, we think, prove irresistible to all who are familiar
with the comparatively limited vocabulary of New Testament writers.
Throughout the omitted sections, peculiarities of language and
expression abound which clearly distinguish the general composer of
the third Gospel, and it is, consequently, not possible reasonably
to maintain that these sections are additions subsequently made by a
different hand, which seems to be the only legitimate course open to
those who would deny that Marcion's Gospel originally contained them.
Here, then, we find evidence of the existence of our third Synoptic
about the year 140, and it may of course be inferred that it must have
been composed at least some time before that date. It is important,
however, to estimate aright the facts actually before us and the
deductions which may be drawn from them. The testimony of Marcion does
not throw any light upon the authorship or origin of the Gospel of
which he made use. Its superscription was simply: "The Gospel," or, "The
Gospel of the Lord" [------],(1) and no author's name was attached to
it. The Heresiarch did not pretend to have written it himself, nor did
he ascribe it to any other person. Tertullian, in fact, reproaches him
with its anonymity. "And here
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already I might make a stand," he says at the very opening of his attack
on Marcion's Gospel, "contending that a work should not be recognized
which does not hold its front erect... which does not give a pledge of
its trustworthiness by the fulness of its title, and the due declaration
of its author."(1) Not only did Marcion himself not in any way connect
the name of Luke with his Gospel, but his followers repudiated the idea
that Luke was its author.(2) In establishing the substantial identity of
Marcion's Gospel and our third Synoptic, therefore, no advance is
made towards establishing the authorship of Luke. The Gospel remains
anonymous still. On the other hand we ascertain the important fact that,
so far from its having any authoritative or infallible character at
that time, Marcion regarded our Synoptic as a work perverted by Jewish
influences, and requiring to be freely expurgated in the interests
of truth.(3) Amended by very considerable omissions and alterations,
Marcion certainly held it in high respect as a record of the teaching of
Jesus, but beyond this circumstance, and the mere fact of its existence
in his day, we learn nothing from the evidence of Marcion. It can
scarcely be maintained that this does much to a
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