Supernatural Religion, Vol. 3 (of 3)
by Walter Richard Cassels · English · Gutenberg #37233 · 884,130 chars · public domain (US)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Supernatural Religion, Vol. 3 (of 3)
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: Supernatural Religion, Vol. 3 (of 3)
Author: Walter Richard Cassels
Release date: August 28, 2011 [eBook #37233]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37233
Credits: Produced by David Widger
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUPERNATURAL RELIGION, VOL. 3 (OF 3) ***
Produced by David Widger
SUPERNATURAL RELIGION:
AN INQUIRY INTO THE REALITY OF DIVINE REVELATION.
IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III.
COMPLETE EDITION. CAREFULLY REVISED.
LONDON:
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.,
1879.
[The Right of Translation is Reserved.]
"Credulity is as real, if not so great, a sin as unbelief."
Archbishop Trench.
"The abnegation of reason is not the evidence of faith, but the
confession of despair."
Canon Lightfoot.
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
SUPERNATURAL RELIGION: AN INQUIRY INTO THE REALITY OF DIVINE REVELATION
PART IV. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
CHAPTER I. THE EXTERNAL EVIDENCE
Before we proceed to examine the evidence for miracles and the reality
of Divine Revelation which is furnished by the last historical book of
the New Testament, entitled the "Acts of the Apostles," it is well that
we should briefly recall to mind some characteristics of the document,
which most materially affect the value of any testimony emanating from
it. Whilst generally asserting the resurrection of Jesus, and his bodily
ascension, regarding which indeed it adds fresh details, this work
presents to us a new cycle of miracles, and so profusely introduces
supernatural agency into the history of the early church that, in
comparison with it, the Gospels seem almost sober narratives. The
Apostles are instructed and comforted by visions and revelations, and
they, and all who believe, are filled with the Holy Spirit and speak
with other tongues. The Apostles are delivered from
{2}
prison and from bonds by angels or by an earthquake. Men fall dead or
are smitten with blindness at their rebuke. They heal the sick, raise
the dead, and handkerchiefs brought from their bodies cure diseases and
expel evil spirits.
As a general rule, any document so full of miraculous episodes and
supernatural occurrences would, without hesitation, be characterized as
fabulous and incredible, and would not, by any sober-minded reader, be
for a moment accepted as historical. There is no other testimony for
these miracles. Let the reader endeavour to form some conception of
the nature and amount of evidence necessary to establish the truth of
statements antecedently so incredible, and compare it with the testimony
of this solitary and anonymous document, the character and value of
which we shall now proceed more closely to examine.
It is generally admitted, and indeed it is undeniable, that no distinct
and unequivocal reference to the Acts of the Apostles, and to Luke as
their author, occurs in the writings of Fathers before one by Irenaeus(1)
about the end of the second century. Passages are, however, pointed out
in earlier writings as indicating the use and consequent existence of
our document, all of which we shall now examine.
{3}
Several of these occur in the "Epistle to the Corinthian s," ascribed
to Clement of Rome. The first, immediately compared with the passage to
which it is supposed to be a reference,(1) is as follows:--
[------]
The words of the Epistle are not a quotation, but merely occur in the
course of an address. They do not take the form of an axiom, but are a
comment on the conduct of the Corinthians, which may have been suggested
either by written or oral tradition, or by moral maxims long before
current in heathen philosophy.2 It is unnecessary to enter minutely into
this, however, or to indicate the linguistic differences between the
two passages, for one point alone settles the question. In the Acts:
the saying, "It is more blessed to give than to receive," is distinctly
introduced as a quotation of
{4}
"words of the Lord Jesus," and the exhortation "to remember" them,
conveys the inference that they were well known. They must either have
formed part of Gospels now no longer extant, as they are not found in
ours, or have been familiar as the unwritten tradition of sayings of the
Master. In either case, if the passage in the Epistle be a reference
to these words at all, it cannot reasonably be maintained that it must
necessarily have been derived from a work which itself distinctly quotes
the words from another source. It would be against every principle
of evidence, under such circumstances, to affirm the passage to be an
allusion to this special work, of whose previous existence we have
no independent evidence.(1) The slight coincidence in the expression,
without indication that any particular passage is in the mind of the
author, and without any mention of the Acts, therefore, is no evidence
of the existence of that work.
A few critics point to some parts of the following passage as showing
acquaintance with Acts:--"Through jealousy Paul also pointed out the way
to the prize of patience, having borne chains seven times, having been
put to flight, having been stoned; having become a preacher both in
the East and in the West, he gained the noble renown due to his faith;
having taught the whole world righteousness, and come to the extremity
of the West, and having suffered martyrdom by command of the rulers,
he was thus removed from the world and went to the holy place, having
become a most eminent
{5}
example of patience."(1) The slightest impartial consideration, however,
must convince any one that this passage does not indicate the use of the
"Acts of the Apostles." The Epistle speaks of seven imprisonments, of
some of which the Acts make no mention, and this must, therefore, have
been derived from another source.(2) The reference to his "coming to the
extremity of the West" [------], whatever interpretation be put upon it,
and to his death, obviously carries the history further than the Acts,
and cannot have been derived from that document.
The last passage, which, it is affirmed,(3) shows acquaintance with the
Acts of the Apostles is the following: "But what shall we say regarding
David who hath obtained a good report [------]? unto whom [------] God
said: 'I found a man after mine own heart, David, the son of Jesse: in
everlasting mercy I anointed him.'"(4) This is said to be derived from
Acts xiii. 22: "And when he removed him he raised up to them David for
king; to whom also he
{6}
gave testimony [------]: I found David the son of Jesse, a man after
mine own heart, who will do all my will."(1) The passage, however, is
compounded of two quotations loosely made from the Septuagint version
of the Old Testament, from which all the quotations in the Epistle are
taken. Ps. lxxxviii. 20: "I found David my servant; in holy mercy I
anointed him."(2) And 1 Sam. xiii. 14: "A man after his own heart."(3)
Clement of Alexandria quotes this passage from the Epistle, and for "in
everlasting mercy" reads "with holy oil" [------]
as in the Psalm.(4) Although, therefore, our Alexandrian MS. of the
Epistle has the reading which we have given above, even if we suppose
that the Alexandrian Clement may have found a more correct version in
his MS., the argument would not be affected. The whole similarity lies
in the insertion of "the son of Jesse," but this was a most common
addition to any mention of David, and by the completion of the passage
from the Psalm, the omission of "who will do all my will," the
peculiar phrase of the Acts, as well as the difference of introductory
expressions, any connection between the two is severed, and it is
apparent that the quotation of the Epistle may legitimately be referred
to the Septuagint,(5) with which it agrees much more closely
{7}
than with the Acts. In no case could such slight coincidences prove
acquaintance with the Acts of the Apostles.(1)
Only one passage of the "Epistle of Barnabas" is referred to by any
one(2) as indicating acquaintance with the Acts. It is as follows, c. 7:
"If therefore the son of God, being Lord, and about to judge quick and
dead [------] suffered," &c. This is compared with Acts x. 42... "and to
testify that it is he who has been appointed by God judge of quick and
dead" [------]. Lardner, who compares the expression of the Epistle
with Acts, equally compares it with that in 2 Tim. iv. 1... "and Christ
Jesus who is about to judge the quick and dead" [------], to which it is
more commonly referred,(3) and 1 Pet. iv. 5... "to him who is ready to
judge quick and dead" [------]. He adds, however: "It is not possible to
say, what text he refers to, though that in Timothy has (he same words.
But perhaps there is no proof that he refers to any. This was an article
known to every common Christian; whereas this writer (whoever he be) was
able to teach the Christian religion, and that without respect to any
written gospels or epistles."(4) It is scarcely
{8}
necessary to add anything to this. There is of course no trace of the
use of Acts in the Epistle.(1)
It is asserted that there is a "clear allusion"(2) to Acts in the Pastor
of Hermas. The passages may be compared as follows:-- [------]
The slightest comparison of these passages suffices to show that the one
is not dependent on the other. The Old Testament is full of passages in
which the name of the Lord is magnified as the only source of safety and
salvation. In the Pauline Epistles likewise there are numerous passages
of a similar tenour. For instance, the passage from Joel ii. 32, is
quoted Rom. x. 13: "For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
shall be saved" [------](3) There was in fact no formula more current
either amongst the Jews or in the early Church; and there is no
legitimate ground for tracing such an expression to the Acts of the
Apostles.(4)
{9}
The only other passage which is quoted(1) as indicating acquaintance
with Acts is the following, which we at once contrast with the supposed
parallel:-- [------]
Here again a formula is employed which is common throughout the
New Testament, and which, applied as it is here to those who were
persecuted, we have reason to believe was in general use in the early
Church. It is almost unnecessary to point out any examples. Everywhere
"the name" of God or of Jesus is the symbol used to represent the
concrete idea, and in the heavenly Jerusalem of the Apocalypse the
servants of God and of the Lamb are to have "his name" on their
foreheads. The one expression, however, which is peculiar in the
passage: "counted worthy,"--in the Acts [------], and in the Pastor
[------],--is a perfectly natural and simple one, the use of which
cannot be exclusively conceded to the Acts of the Apostles. It is found
frequently in the Pauline Epistles, as for instance in 2 Thes. i. 5,
where, after saying that they give thanks to God for them and glory
in the churches of God for the patience and faith with which the
Thessalonians endure
{10}
persecutions, the writer continues: "which is a token of the righteous
judgment of God, that ye may he counted worthy [------] of the kingdom
of God, for which ye also suffer [------];" and again, in the same
chapter, v. 11, 12, "Wherefore we also pray always for you that our
God may count you worthy [------] of the calling, and fulfil all good
pleasure of goodness and work of faith with power; _that the name of
our Lord Jesus may he glorified in you_ [------]" &c. The passage we are
examining cannot be traced to the "Acts of the Apostles."(1) It must be
obvious to all that the Pastor of Hennas does not present any evidence
even of the existence of the Acts at the time it was written.(2)
Only two passages in the Epistles of pseudo-Ignatius are pointed out as
indicating acquaintance with the Acts, and even these are not advanced
by many critics. We have already so fully discussed these Epistles that
no more need now be said. We must pronounce them spurious in all their
recensions and incapable of affording evidence upon any point earlier
than towards the end of the second century. Those, however, who would
still receive as genuine the testimony of the three Syriac Epistles must
declare that they do not present any trace of the existence of the Acts,
inasmuch as the two passages adduced to show the use of that work do not
occur in those letters. They are found in the shorter recension of
the Epistles to the Smyrnaeans and Philadelphians. We might, therefore,
altogether refuse to examine the
{11}
passages, but in order to show the exact nature of the case made out by
apologists, we shall briefly refer to them. We at once compare the first
with its supposed parallel.(1)
[------]
There is nothing in this passage which bears any peculiar analogy to the
Acts, for the statement is a simple reference to a tradition which is
also embodied both in the third Synoptic(2) and in the fourth Gospel;(3)
and the mere use of the common words [------] and [------] could not
prove anything. The passage occurs in the Epistle immediately after a
quotation, said by Jerome to be taken from the Gospel according to the
Hebrews, relating an appearance of Jesus to "those who were with Peter,"
in which Jesus is represented as making them handle him in order to
convince them that he is not an incorporeal spirit.(4) The quotation
bears considerable affinity to the narrative in the third Synoptic
(xxiv. 39), at the close of which Jesus is represented as eating with
the disciples. It is highly probable that the Gospel from which the
writer of the Epistle quoted contained the same detail, to which this
would naturally be a direct
{12}
descriptive reference. In any case it affords no evidence of the
existence of the Acts of the Apostles.(1)
The second passage, which is still more rarely advanced,(2) is as
follows:-- [------]
The only point of coincidence between these two passages is the use of
the word "wolves." In the Epistle the expression is [------], whilst in
Acts it is [------]. Now the image is substantially found in the Sermon
on the Mount, one form of which is given in the first Synoptic, vii.
15,16, and which undeniably must have formed part of many of the Gospels
which are mentioned by the writer of the third Synoptic. We find Justin
Martyr twice quoting another form of the saying: "For many [------]
shall arrive in my name, outwardly indeed clothed in sheep's skins,
but inwardly being ravening wolves [------]."(3) The use of the term
as applied to men was certainly common in the early Church. The idea
expressed in the Epistle is more closely found in 2 Timothy iii. 1 ff.,
in the description of those who are to come in the last days, and who
will (v. 6) "creep into the houses and make captive [------] silly women
laden with sins, led away with divers lusts."
{13}
The passage cannot be traced to the Acts,(1) and the Ignatian Epistles,
spurious though they be, do not present any evidence of the existence of
that work.(2)
Only two sentences are pointed out in the "Epistle of Polycarp" as
denoting acquaintance with the Acts. The first and only one of these on
which much stress is laid is the following:(3) [------]
It will be obvious to all that, along with much similarity, there is
likewise divergence between these sentences. In the first phrase the use
of [------] in the Epistle separates it from the supposed parallel,
in which the word is [------]. The number of passages in the Pauline
Epistles corresponding with it are legion (e.g. 2 Cor. iv. 14, Ephes.
i. 20). The second member of the sentence, which is of course the more
important, is in reality, we contend, a reference to the very Psalm
quoted in Acts immediately after the verse before us, couched in not
unusual phraseology. Psalm xvi. 10 (Sept. xv.), reads:
{14}
"For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell" [------].(1) In Ps. xviii.
5 (Sept. xvii. 5) we have, "The pains of hell [------] compassed me
about."(2) The difference between the [------] of the Epistle and the
[------] of the Acts is so distinct that, finding a closer parallel in
the Psalms to which reference is obviously made in both works, it is
quite impossible to trace the phrase necessarily to the Acts. Such a
passage cannot prove the use of that work,(3) but, if it could, we might
inquire what evidence for the authorship and trustworthiness of the Acts
could be deduced from the circumstance?(4)
The second passage, referred to by a few writers,(5) is as follows:--
[------]
It is not necessary to do more than contrast these passages to show
how little the "Epistle of Polycarp" can witness for the "Acts of the
Apostles." We have already examined another supposed reference to
this very passage, and the expressions in the Epistle, whilst scarcely
presenting a single point of linguistic analogy to
{15}
the sentence in the Acts, only tend to show how common and natural such
language was in the early Church in connection with persecution. Whilst
we constantly meet with the thought expressed by the writer of the
Epistle throughout the writings of the New Testament, we may more
particularly point to the first Petrine epistle for further instances of
this tone of exhortation to those suffering persecution for the cause.
For instance, 1 Pet. ii. 19 ff, and again iii. 14,(1) "But if ye even
suffer [------] for righteousness' sake, blessed are ye." In the
next chapter the tone is still more closely analogous. Speaking of
persecutions, the writer says, iv. 13, ".... but according as ye are
partakers of Christ's sufferings rejoice," &c. &c. 14. "If ye are
reproached in Christ's name [------] blessed are ye, for the spirit
of glory and of God resteth upon you." 15. "For let none of you suffer
[------] as a murderer," &c. &c. 16. "But if as a Christian, let him
not be ashamed, but let him praise God in this name [------]" &c. &c.
Nothing but evidential destitution could rely upon the expression in the
"Epistle of Polycarp" to show acquaintance with Acts.
Few apologists point out with confidence any passages from the
voluminous writings of Justin Martyr, as indicating the use of the Acts
of the Apostles. We may, however, quote such expressions as the more
undaunted amongst them venture to advance. The first of these is the
following:(2) "For the Jews having the prophecies and ever expecting
the Christ to come knew him not [------], and not only so, but they also
maltreated him. But
{16}
the Gentiles, who had never heard any thing regarding the Christ until
his Apostles, having gone forth from Jerusalem, declared the things
concerning him, and delivered the prophecies, having been filled with
joy and faith, renounced their idols and dedicated themselves to the
unbegotten God through the Christ"(1) This is compared with Acts xiii.
27, "For they that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers not knowing this
(man) [------] nor
yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day,
fulfilled them by their judgment of him," &c. 48. "But the Gentiles,
hearing, rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord," &c.(2) We may
at once proceed to give the next passage. In the Dialogue with Trypho,
Justin has by quotations from the prophets endeavoured to show that the
sufferings of Christ, and also the glory of his second advent had been
foretold, and Trypho replies: "Supposing these things to be even as thou
sayest, and that it was foretold that Christ was to suffer [------],
and has been called a Stone, and after his first coming, in which it had
been announced that he was to suffer, should come in glory, and become
judge of all, and eternal king and priest;" &c.,(3) and in another
place, "For
{17}
if it had been obscurely declared by the prophets that the Christ should
suffer [------] and after these things be lord of all," &c.(1) This is
compared with Acts xxvi. 22, ".... saying nothing except those things
which the prophets and Moses said were to come to pass, (23) whether
the Christ should suffer [------], whether, the first out of the
resurrection from the dead, he is about to proclaim light unto the
people and to the Gentiles."(2) It is only necessary to quote these
passages to show how unreasonable it is to maintain that they show
the use of the Acts by Justin. He simply sets forth from the prophets,
direct, the doctrines which formed the great text of the early Church.
Some of the warmest supporters of the canon admit the "uncertainty"
of such coincidences, and do not think it worth while to advance them.
There are one or two still more distant analogies sometimes pointed out
which do not require more particular notice.(3) There is no evidence
whatever that Justin was acquainted with the Acts of the Apostles.(4)
{18}
Some apologists(1) claim Hegesippus as evidence for the existence of the
Acts, on the strength of the following passages in the fragment of his
book preserved by Eusebius. He puts into the mouth of James the Just,
whilst being martyred, the expression: "I beseech (thee) Lord God,
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." This is compared
with the words said to have been uttered by the martyr Stephen, Acts
vii. 60, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.,, The passage is more
commonly advanced as showing acquaintance with Luke xxiii. 34, and we
have already discussed it.(2) Lardner apparently desires it to do double
duty, but it is scarcely worth while seriously to refer to the claim
here. The passage more generally relied upon, though that also is only
advanced by a few,(3) is the following, "This man was a faithful witness
both to Jews and Greeks that Jesus is the Christ,"(4) [------]. This
is compared with Acts xx. 21, where Paul is represented as saying of
himself, ".... testifying fully both to Jews and Greeks repentance
toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" [------]. The two
passages are totally different both in sense and language, and that the
use of Acts is deduced from so distant an analogy only serves to show
the slightness of the evidence with which apologists have to be content.
{19}
Papias need not long detain us, for it is freely admitted by most
divines that he does not afford evidence of any value that he was
acquainted with the Acts. For the sake of completeness we may however
refer to the points which are sometimes mentioned. A fragment of the
work of Papias is preserved giving an account of the death of Judas,
which differs materially both from the account in the first Synoptic and
in Acts i. 18 f.(1) Judas is represented as having gone about the world
a great example of impiety, for his body having swollen so much that
he could not pass where a waggon easily passed, he was crushed by
the waggon so that his entrails emptied out [------]. Apollinaris of
Laodicaea quotes this passage to show that Judas did not die when he hung
himself, but subsequently met with another fate, in this way reconciling
the statements in the Gospel and Acts.(2) He does not say that Papias
used the story for this purpose, and it is fundamentally contradictory
to the account in Acts i. 18, 19. "Now this man purchased a field with
the reward of the unrighteousness, and falling headlong burst asunder
in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out" [------]. It is scarcely
necessary to argue that the passage does not indicate any acquaintance
with Acts(3) as some few critics are inclined to assert.(4) The
{20}
next analogy pointed out is derived from the statement of Eusebius that
Papias mentions a wonderful story which he had heard from the daughters
of Philip (whom Eusebius calls "the Apostle,") regarding a dead man
raised to life.(1) In Acts xxi. 8, 9, it is stated that Philip the
evangelist had four daughters. It is hardly conceivable that this should
be advanced as an indication that Papias knew the Acts. The last point
is that Eusebius says: "And again (he narrates) another marvel regarding
Justus who was surnamed Barsabas; how he drank a baneful poison and by
the grace of the Lord sustained no harm. But that this Justus, after the
Ascension of the Saviour, the holy apostles appointed with Matthias, and
that they prayed (on the occasion) of the filling up of their number
by lot instead of the traitor Judas, the scripture of the Acts thus
relates: 'And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was
surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said,' &c."(2)
Whatever argument can be deduced from this, obviously rests entirely
upon the fact that Papias is said to have referred to Justus who was
named Barsabas, for of course the last sentence is added by Eusebius
himself, and has nothing to do with Papias. This is fairly admitted by
Lardner and others. Lardner says: "Papias does undoubtedly give some
confirmation to the history of the Acts of the Apostles, in what he says
of Philip; and especially in what he says of Justus, called
{21}
Barsabas. But I think it cannot be affirmed, that he did particularly
mention, or refer to, the book of the Acts. For I reckon, it is Eusebius
himself who adds that quotation out of the Acts, upon occasion of what
Papias had written of the before-mentioned Barsabas."(1) There is
no evidence worthy of attention that Papias was acquainted with the
Acts.(3)
No one seriously pretends that the Clementine Homilies afford any
evidence of the use or existence of the Acts; and few, if any, claim the
Epistle to Diognetus as testimony for it.(3) We may, however, quote the
only passage which is pointed out. ".... these who hold the view that
they present them (offerings) to God as needing them might more rightly
esteem it foolishness and not worship of God. For he who made the
heaven and the earth, and all things in them, and who supplies to us all
whatever we need, can himself be in need of none of those things which
he himself presents to those who imagine that they give (to him)."(4)
This is
{22}
compared with Acts xvii. 24: "The God that made the world and all things
in it, he being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made
with hands; (25) neither is served by men's hand as though he needed
anything, seeing he himself giveth to all life and breath and all
things."(1) There is nothing here but a coincidence of sense, though
with much variation between the two passages, but the Epistle argues
from a different context, and this illustration is obvious enough to be
common to any moralist. There is not a single reason which points to the
Acts as the source of the writer's argument.
Basilides and Valentinus are not claimed at all by apologists as
witnesses for the existence of the Acts of the Apostles, nor is Marcion,
whose Canon, however, of which it formed no part, is rather adverse to
the work than merely negative. Tertullian taunts Marcion for receiving
Paul as an apostle, although his name is not mentioned in the Gospel,
and yet not receiving the Acts of the Apostles in which alone his
history is narrated;(2) but it does not in the least degree follow from
this that Marcion knew the work and deliberately rejected it.
A passage of Tatian's oration to the Greeks is pointed out by some(3)
as showing his acquaintance with the Acts. It is as follows: "I am not
willing to worship the creation
{23}
made by him for us. Sun and moon are made for us: how, therefore, shall
I worship my own servants? How can I declare stocks and stones to be
gods?... But neither should the unnameable [------] God be presented
with bribes; for he who is without need of anything [------] must not
be calumniated by us as needy [------]."(l) This is compared with Acts
xvii. 24, 25, quoted above, and it only serves to show how common such
language was. Lardner himself says of the passage: "This is much the
same thought, and applied to the same purpose, with Paul's, Acts xvii.
25, _as though he needeth anything_. But it is a character of the Deity
so obvious, that I think it cannot determine us to suppose he had an
eye to those words of the Apostle."(2) The language, indeed, is quite
different and shows no acquaintance with the Acts.(3) Eusebius states
that the Severians who more fully established Tatian's heresy rejected
both the Epistles of Paul and the Acts of the Apostles.(4)
Dionysius of Corinth is rarely adduced by any one as testimony for the
Acts. The only ground upon which he is at all referred to is a statement
of Eusebius in mentioning his Epistles. Speaking of his Epistle to the
Athenians, Eusebius says: "He relates, moreover, that Dionysius the
Areopagite who was converted to the faith by Paul the Apostle, according
to the account given in the
{24}
Acts, was appointed the first bishop of the church of the Athenians."(1)
Even apologists admit that it is doubtful how far Dionysius referred to
the Acts,(2) the mention of the book here being most obviously made by
Eusebius himself.
Melito of Sardis is not appealed to by any writer in connection with
our work, nor can Claudius Apollinaris be pressed into this service.
Athenagoras is supposed by some to refer to the very same passage in
Acts xvii. 24, 25, which we have discussed when dealing with the work of
Tatian. Athenagoras says: "The Creator and Father of the universe is
not in need of blood, nor of the steam of burnt sacrifices, nor of
the fragrance of flowers and of incense, he himself being the perfect
fragrance, inwardly and outwardly without need."(3) And further on: "And
you kings indeed build palaces for yourselves; but the world is not
made as being needed by God."(4) These passages occur in the course of a
defence of Christians for not offering sacrifices, and both in language
and context they are quite independent of the Acts of the Apostles.
In the Epistle of the Churches of Vienne and Lyons, giving an account of
the persecution against them, it is said that the victims were praying
for those from whom they suffered cruelties: "like Stephen the perfect
martyr:
{25}
'Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.' But if he was supplicating
for those who stoned him, how much more for the brethren?"(l) The prayer
here quoted agrees with that ascribed to Stephen in Acts vii. 60. There
is no mention of the Acts of the Apostles in the Epistle, and the source
from which the writers obtained their information about Stephen is of
course not stated. If there really was a martyr of the name of Stephen,
and if these words were actually spoken by him, the tradition of the
fact, and the memory of his noble saying, may well have remained in
the Church, or have been recorded in writings then current, from one
of which, indeed, eminent critics conjecture that the author of Acts
derived his materials,2 and in this case the passage obviously does not
prove the use of the Acts. If, on the other hand, there never was such
a martyr by whom these words were spoken, and the whole story must be
considered an original invention by the author of Acts, then, in that
case, and in that case only, the passage does show the use of the
Acts.(3) Supposing that the use of Acts be held to be thus indicated,
what does this prove? Merely that the Acts of the Apostles were in
existence in the year 177-178, when the Epistle of
{26}
Vienne and Lyons was written. No light whatever would thus be thrown
upon the question of its authorship; and neither its credibility nor its
sufficiency to prove the reality of a cycle of miracles would be in the
slightest degree established.
Ptolemaeus and Heracleon ueed not detain us, as it is not alleged that
they show acquaintance with the Acts, nor is Celsus claimed as testimony
for the book.
The Canon of Muratori contains a very corrupt paragraph regarding the
Acts of the Apostles. We have already discussed the date and character
of this fragment,(1) and need not further speak of it here. The sentence
in which we are now interested reads in the original as follows:
"Acta autem omnium apostolorum sub uno libro scribta sunt lucas obtime
theofile conprindit quia sub praesentia eius singula gerebantur sicute et
semote pas-sionem petri euidenter declarat sed et profectionem pauli ab
urbes ad spania proficescentis."
It is probable that in addition to its corruption some words may have
been lost from the concluding phrase of this passage, but the following
may perhaps sufficiently represent its general sense: "But the Acts of
all the Apostles were written in one book. Luke included (in his work)
to the excellent Theophilus only the things which occurred in his own
presence, as he evidently shows by omitting the martyrdom of Peter and
also the setting forth of Paul from the city to Spain."
Whilst this passage may prove the existence of the Acts about the end of
the second century, and that the authorship of the work was ascribed
to Luke, it has no further value. No weight can be attached to the
statement of
{27}
the unknown writer beyond that of merely testifying to the currency of
such a tradition, and even the few words quoted show how uncritical he
was. Nothing could be less appropriate to the work before us than the
assertion that it contains the Acts of _all_ the Apostles, for it must
be apparent to all, and we shall hereafter have to refer to the point,
that it very singularly omits all record of the acts of most of the
apostles, occupies itself chiefly with those of Peter and Paul, and
devotes considerable attention to Stephen and to others who were not
apostles at all. We shall further have occasion to show that the writer
does anything but confine himself to the events of which he was an
eye-witness, and we may merely remark, in passing, as a matter. which
scarcely concerns us here, that the instances given by the unknown
writer of the fragment to support his assertion are not only irrelevant,
but singularly devoid themselves of historical attestation.
Irenaeus(1) assigns the Acts of the Apostles to Luke, as do Clement
of Alexandria,(2) Tertullian,(3) and Origen,(4) although without any
statements giving special weight to their mention of him as the author
in any way counterbalancing the late date of their testimony. Beyond
showing that tradition, at the end of the second century and beginning
of the third, associated the name of Luke with this writing and the
third Gospel, the evidence of these Fathers is of no value to us. We
have already incidentally mentioned that some heretics either ignored or
rejected the book, and to the Marcionites and Severians
{28}
we may now add the Ebionites(1) and Manichaeans.(2) Chrysostom complains
that in his day the Acts of the Apostles were so neglected that many
were ignorant of the existence of the book and of its authors.(3) Doubts
as to its authorship were expressed in the ninth century, for Photius
states that some ascribed the work to Clement of Rome, others to
Barnabas, and others to Luke the evangelist.(4)
If we turn to the document itself, we find that it professes to be
the second portion of a work written for the information of an unknown
person named Theophilus, the first part being the Gospel, which, in our
canonical New Testament, bears the name of "Gospel according to Luke."
The narrative is a continuation of the third Synoptic, but the actual
title of "Acts of the Apostles," or "Acts of Apostles" [------],(5)
attached to this [------] is a later addition, and formed no part of the
original document. The author's name is not given in any of the earlier
MSS., and the work is entirely anonymous. That in the prologue to the
Acts the writer clearly assumes to be the author of the Gospel does
not in any way identify him, inasmuch as the third Synoptic itself
is equally anonymous. The tradition assigning both works to Luke the
follower of Paul, as we have seen, is first met with
{29}
towards the end of the second century, and very little weight can be
attached to it. There are too many instances of early writings,
several of which indeed have secured a place in our canon, to which
distinguished names have been erroneously ascribed. Such tradition is
notoriously liable to error.
We shall presently return to the question of the authorship of the
third Synoptic and Acts of the Apostles, but at present we may so far
anticipate as to say that there are good reasons for affirming that they
could not have been written by Luke.(1)
Confining ourselves here to the actual evidence before us, we arrive at
a clear and unavoidable conclusion regarding the Acts of the Apostles.
After examining all the early Christian literature, and taking every
passage which is referred to as indicating the use of the book, we see
that there is no certain trace even of its existence till towards the
end of the second century; and, whilst the writing itself is anonymous,
we find no authority but late tradition assigning it to Luke or to any
other author. We are absolutely without evidence of any value as to
its accuracy or trustworthiness, and, as we shall presently see, the
epistles of Paul, so far from accrediting it, tend to cast the most
serious doubt upon its whole character. This evidence we have yet to
examine, when considering the contents of the Acts, and we base our
present remarks solely on the external testimony for the date and
authorship of the book. The position, therefore, is simply this: We
are asked to believe in the reality of a great number of miraculous and
supernatural
1 The reader is referred to an article by the author in the
Fortnightly Rev., 1877, p. 496 ff., in which some
indications of date, and particularly those connected with
the use of writings of Josephus, are discussed.
{30}
occurrences which, obviously, are antecedently incredible, upon the
assurance of an anonymous work of whose existence there is no distinct
evidence till more than a century after the events narrated, and to
which an author's name--against which there are strong objections--is
first ascribed by tradition towards the end of the second century. Of
the writer to whom the work is thus attributed we know nothing beyond
the casual mention of his name in some Pauline Epistles. If it were
admitted that this Luke did actually write the book, we should not be
justified in believing the reality of such stupendous miracles upon his
bare statement As the case stands, however, even taking it in its most
favourable aspect, the question scarcely demands serious attention, and
our discussion might at once be ended by the unhesitating rejection of
the Acts of the Apostles as sufficient, or even plausible, evidence for
the miracles which it narrates.
CHAPTER II. EVIDENCE REGARDING THE AUTHORSHIP
If we proceed further to discuss the document before us, it is from
no doubt as to the certainty of the conclusion at which we have now
arrived, but from the belief that closer examination of the contents of
the Acts may enable us to test this result, and more fully to understand
the nature of the work and the character of its evidence. Not only will
it be instructive to consider a little closely the contents of the Acts,
and to endeavour from the details of the narrative itself to form
a judgment regarding its historical value, but we have in addition
external testimony of very material importance which we may bring to
bear upon it. We happily possess some undoubted Epistles which afford us
no little information concerning the history, character, and teaching of
the Apostle Paul, and we are thus enabled to compare the statements
in the work before us with contemporary evidence of great value. It is
unnecessary to say that, wherever the statements of the unknown author
of the Acts are at variance with these Epistles, we must prefer the
statements of the Apostle. The importance to our inquiry of such further
examination as we now propose to undertake consists chiefly in the light
which it may throw on the credibility of the work. If it be found that
such
{32}
portions as we are able to investigate are inaccurate and untrustworthy,
it will become still more apparent that the evidence of such a document
for miracles, which are antecedently incredible, cannot even be
entertained. It may be well also to discuss more fully the authorship of
the Acts, and to this we shall first address ourselves.
It must, however, be borne in mind that it is quite foreign to our
purpose to enter into any exhaustive discussion of the literary problem
presented by the Acts of the Apostles. We shall confine ourselves to
such points as seem sufficient or best fitted to test the character of
the composition, and we shall not hesitate to pass without attention
questions of mere literary interest, and strictly limit our examination
to such prominent features as present themselves for our purpose.
It is generally admitted, although not altogether without exception,(1)
that the author of our third synoptic Gospel likewise composed the
Acts of the Apostles. The linguistic and other peculiarities which
distinguish the Gospel are equally prominent in the Acts. This fact,
whilst apparently offering greatly increased facilities for identifying
the author, and actually affording valuable material for estimating
his work, does not, as we have already remarked, really do much towards
solving the problem of the authorship, inasmuch as the Gospel, like its
continuation, is anonymous, and we possess no more precise or direct
evidence in connection with the one than in the case of the other. We
have already so fully examined the testimony for the third Gospel that
it is unnecessary for us to recur to it. From about the end of the
second century we find the Gospel and Acts of the
{33}
Apostles ascribed by ecclesiastical writers to Luke, the companion of
the Apostle Paul. The fallibility of tradition, and the singular phase
of literary morality exhibited during the early ages of Christianity,
render such testimony of little or no value, and in the almost total
absence of the critical faculty a rank crop of pseudonymic writings
sprang up and flourished during that period.(1) Some of the earlier
chapters of this work have given abundant illustrations of this fact. It
is absolutely certain, with regard to the works we are considering, that
Irenaeus is the earliest writer known who ascribes them to Luke, and that
even tradition, therefore, cannot be traced beyond the last quarter of
the second century. The question is--does internal evidence confirm or
contradict this tradition?
Luke, the traditional author, is not mentioned by name in the Acts of
the Apostles.(2) In the Epistle to Philemon his name occurs, with those
of others, who send greeting, verse 23, "There salute thee Epaphras, my
fellow-prisoner in Christ Jesus; 24. Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke,
my fellow-labourers." In the Epistle to the Colossians, iv. 14, mention
is also made of him:--"Luke, the beloved physician,(3) salutes you, and
Demas." And again, in the 2 Epistle to Timothy, iv. 10:--"For
{34}
Demas forsook me, having loved this present world, and departed into
Thessalouica, Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia: 11. Only Luke is
with me."
He is not mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament;(1) and his name is
not again met with till Irenaeus ascribes to him the authorship of the
Gospel and Acts. There is nothing in these Pauline Epistles confirming
the statement of the Fathers, but it is highly probable that these
references to him largely contributed to suggest his name as the
author of the Acts, the very omission of his name from the work itself
protecting him from objections connected with the passages in the
first person to which other followers of Paul were exposed, upon the
traditional view of the composition. Irenaeus evidently knew nothing
about him, except what he learnt from these Epistles, and derives from
his theory that Luke wrote the Acts, and speaks as an eye-witness in the
passages where the first person is used. From these he argues that Luke
was inseparable from Paul, and was his fellow-worker in the Gospel, and
he refers, in proof of this, to Acts xvi. 8 ff.,(2) 13 ff., xx. 5 ff.,
and the later chapters, all the details of which he supposes Luke to
have carefully written down. He then continues: "But that he was not
only a follower, but likewise a fellow-worker of the Apostles, but
particularly of Paul, Paul himself has also clearly shown in the
Epistles, saying:..." and he quotes 2 Tim. iv. 10, 11, ending: "Only
Luke is with me," and then adds, "whence he shows that he was
{35}
always with him and inseparable from him, &c, Ac."(1) The reasoning of
the zealous Father deduces a great deal from very little, it will be
observed, and in this elastic way tradition "enlarged its borders" and
assumed unsubstantial dimensions. Later writers have no more intimate
knowledge of Luke, although Eusebius states that he was born at
Antioch,(2) a tradition likewise reproduced by Jerome.(3) Jerome
further identifies Luke with "the brother, whose praise in the Gospel
is throughout all the churches" mentioned in 2 Cor. viii. 18, as
accompanying Titus to Corinth.(4) At a later period, when the Church
required an early artist for its service, Luke the physician was
honoured with the additional title of painter.(5) Epiphanius,(6)
followed later by some other
{36}
writers, represented him to have been one of the seventy-two disciples,
whose mission he alone of all New Testament writers mentions. The view
of the Fathers, arising out of the application of their tradition to the
features presented by the Gospel and Acts, was that Luke composed
his Gospel, of the events of which he was not an eye-witness, from
information derived from others, and his Acts of the Apostles from what
he himself, at least in the parts in which the first person is employed,
had witnessed.1 It is generally supposed that Luke was not born a Jew,
but was a Gentile Christian.
Some writers endeavour to find a confirmation of the tradition, that
the Gospel and Acts were written by Luke "the beloved physician," by the
supposed use of peculiarly technical medical terms,(2) but very
little weight is attached by any one to this feeble evidence which is
repudiated by most serious critics, and it need not detain us.
As there is no indication, either in the Gospel or the Acts, of the
author's identity proceeding from himself, and tradition does not offer
any alternative security, what testimony can be produced in support of
the ascription of
{37}
these writings to "Luke"? To this question Ewald shall reply: "In
fact," he says, "we possess only one ground for it, but this is fully
sufficient. It lies in the designation of the third Gospel as that
'according to Luke' which is found in all MSS. of the four Gospels.
For the quotations of this particular Gospel under the distinct name
of Luke, in the extant writings of the Fathers, begin so late that they
cannot be compared in antiquity with that superscription; and those
known to us may probably themselves only go back to this superscription.
We thus depend almost alone on this superscription."(1) Ewald generally
does consider his own arbitrary conjectures "fully sufficient," but it
is doubtful, whether in this case, any one who examines this evidence
will agree with him. He himself goes on to admit, with all other
critics, that the superscriptions to our Gospels do not proceed from the
authors themselves, but were added by those who collected them, or
by later readers to distinguish them.(2) There was no author's name
attached to Marcion's Gospel, as we learn from Tertullian.(3) Chrysostom
very distinctly asserts that the Evangelists did not inscribe their
names at the head of their works,(4) and he recognizes that, but for
the authority of the primitive Church which added those names, the
superscriptions could not have proved the authorship of the Gospels. He
conjectures that the sole superscription which may
{38}
have been placed by the author of the first Synoptic was simply
[------].(1) It might be argued, and indeed has been, that the
inscription [------], "according to Luke," instead of [------] "Gospel
of Luke," does not actually indicate that "Luke" wrote the work any
more than the superscription to the Gospels "according to the Hebrews"
[------] "according to the Egyptians" [------] has reference to
authorship. The Epistles, on the contrary, are directly connected
with their writers, in the genitive, [------], and so on. This
point, however, we merely mention _en passant_. By his own admission,
therefore, the superscription is simply tradition in another form, but
instead of carrying us further back, the superscription on the most
ancient extant MSS., as for instance the Sinaitic and Vatican Codices of
the Gospels, does not on the most sanguine estimate of their age, date
earlier than the fourth century.(2) As for the Acts of the Apostles, the
book is not ascribed to Luke in a single uncial MS., and it only begins
to appear in various forms in later codices. The variation in the titles
of the Gospels and Acts in different MSS. alone shows the uncertainty of
the superscription. It is clear that the "one ground," upon which Ewald
admits that the evidence for Luke's authorship is based, is nothing but
sand, and cannot support his tower. He is on the slightest consideration
thrown back upon the quotations of the Fathers, which begin too late for
the
{39}
purpose, and it must be acknowledged that the ascription of the
third Gospel and Acts to Luke rests solely upon late and unsupported
tradition.
Let it be remembered that, with the exception of the three passages
in the Pauline Epistles quoted above, we know absolutely nothing
about Luke. As we have mentioned, it has even been doubted whether the
designation "the beloved physician" in the Epistle to the Colossians,
iv. 14, does not distinguish a different Luke from the person of that
name in the Epistles to Philemon and Timothy. If this were the case, our
information would be further reduced; but supposing that the same Luke
is referred to, what does our information amount to? Absolutely nothing
but the fact that a person named Luke was represented by the writer of
these letters,(1) whoever he was, to have been with Paul in Rome,
and that he was known to the church of Colossae. There is no evidence
whatever that this Luke had been a travelling companion of Paul, or that
he ever wrote a line concerning him or had composed a Gospel. He is
not mentioned in Epistles written during this journey and, indeed,
the rarity and meagreness of the references to him would much
rather indicate that he had not taken any distinguished part in the
proclamation of the Gospel. If Luke be [------] and be numbered amongst
the Apostle's [------], Tychicus is equally "the beloved brother and
faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord."(2) Onesimus the
"faithful and beloved brother,"(3)
1 We cannot discuss the authenticity of these Epistles in
this place, nor is it very important that we should do so.
Nor can we pause to consider whether they were written in
Rome, as a majority of critics think, or elsewhere.
{40}
and Aristarchus, Mark the cousin of Barnabas, Justus and others are
likewise his [------].(1) There is no evidence, in fact, that Paul was
acquainted with Luke earlier than during his imprisonment in Rome, and
he seems markedly excluded from the Apostle's work and company by such
passages as 2 Cor. i. 19.(2) The simple theory that Luke wrote the Acts
supplies all the rest of the tradition of the Fathers, as we have seen
in the case of Irenaeus, and to this mere tradition we are confined in
the total absence of more ancient testimony.
The traditional view, which long continued to prevail undisturbed, and
has been widely held up to our own day,(3) represents Luke as the author
of the Acts, and, in
{41}
the passages where the first person is employed, considers that he
indicates himself as an actor and eye-witness. These passages, where
[------] is introduced, present a curious problem which has largely
occupied the attention of critics, and it has been the point most firmly
disputed in the long controversy regarding, the authorship of the Acts.
Into this literary labyrinth we must not be tempted to enter beyond a
very short way; for, however interesting the question may be in itself,
we are left so completely to conjecture that no result is possible
which can materially affect our inquiry, and we shall only refer to it
sufficiently to illustrate the uncertainty which prevails regarding the
authorship. We shall, however, supply abundant references for those who
care more minutely to pursue the subject.
After the narrative of the Acts has, through fifteen chapters, proceeded
uninterruptedly in the third person, an abrupt change to the first
person plural occurs in the sixteenth chapter.(1) Paul, and at least
Timothy, are represented as going through Phrygia and Galatia, and
at length "they came down to Troas," where a vision appears to Paul
beseeching him to come over into Macedonia. Then, xvi. 10, proceeds:
"And after he saw the vision, immediately we endeavoured [------] to
go forth into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us [------]
to preach the Gospel unto them." After verse 17, the direct form of
narrative is as suddenly dropped as it was taken up, and does not
reappear until xx. 5, when, without explanation, it is resumed and
continued for ten verses. It is then again abandoned, and recommenced in
xxi. 1-18, and xxvii. 1, xxviii. 16.
1 It is unnecessary to discuss whether xiv. 22 belongs to
the [------] sections or not.
{42}
It is argued by those who adopt the traditional view,(1) that it would
be an instance of unparalleled negligence, in so careful a writer as the
author of the third Synoptic and Acts, to have composed these sections
from documents lying before him, written by others, leaving them in the
form of a narrative in the first person, whilst the rest of his work was
written in the third, and that, without doubt, he would have assimilated
such portions to the form of the rest. On the other hand, that he
himself makes distinct use of the first person in Luke i. 1-3 and Acts
i. 1, and consequently prepares the reader to expect that, where it
is desirable, he will resume the direct mode of communication; and
in support of this supposition, it is asserted that the very same
peculiarities of style and language exist in the [------] passages as
in the rest of the work. The adoption of the direct form of narrative
in short merely indicates that the author himself was present and an
eye-witness of what he relates,(3) and that writing as he did for
the information of Theophilus, who was well aware of his personal
participation in the journeys he records, it was not necessary for him
to give any explanation of his occasional use of the first person.
Is the abrupt and singular introduction of the first person in these
particular sections of his work, without a word of explanation, more
intelligible and reasonable upon the traditional theory of their
being by the author himself as an eye-witness? On the contrary, it is
maintained, the phenomenon on that hypothesis becomes much more
2 Some writers also consider as one of the reasons why
Luke, the supposed author, uses the first person, that where
he begins to do so he himself becomes associated with Paul
in his work, and first begins to preach the Gospel.
Thiersch, Die Kirche im ap. Zeit., p. 137; Baumgarfen, Die
Apostelgeschichte, i. p. 496.
{43}
inexplicable. On examining the [------] sections it will be observed
that they consist almost entirely of an itinerary of journeys, and that
while the chronology of the rest of the Acts is notably uncertain and
indefinite, these passages enter into the minutest details of daily
movements (xvi. 11, 12; xx. 6, 7,11,15; xxi. 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10,18;
xxvii. 2; xxviii. 7, 12, 14); of the route pursued, and places through
which often they merely pass (xvi. 11,12; xx. 5, 6,13,15; xxi. 1-3, 7;
xxvii. 2 ff.; xxviii. 11-15), and record the most trifling circumstances
(xvi. 12; xx. 13; xxi. 2, 3, 15; xxviii. 2, 11). The distinguishing
feature of these sections in fact is generally asserted to be the stamp
which they bear, above all other parts of the Acts, of intimate personal
knowledge of the circumstances related.
Is it not, however, exceedingly remarkable that the author of the Acts
should intrude his own personality merely to record these minute details
of voyages and journeys? That his appearance as an eye-witness should
be almost wholly limited to the itinerary of Paul's journeys and to
portions of his history which are of very subordinate interest? The
voyage and shipwreck are thus narrated with singular minuteness of
detail, but if any one who reads it only consider the matter for a
moment, it will become apparent that this elaboration of the narrative
is altogether disproportionate to the importance of the voyage in the
history of the early Church. The traditional view indeed is fatal to
the claims of the Acts as testimony for the great mass of miracles it
contains, for the author is only an eye-witness of what is comparatively
unimportant and commonplace. The writer's intimate acquaintance with the
history of Paul, and his claim to participation in his work, begin and
end with his actual
{44}
journeys. With very few exceptions, as soon as the Apostle stops
anywhere, he ceases to speak as an eyewitness and relapses into
vagueness and the third person. At the very time when minuteness of
detail would have been most interesting, he ceases to be minute. A very
long and important period of Paul's life is covered by the narrative
between xvi. 10, where the[------] sections begin, and xxviii. 16, where
they end; but, although the author goes with such extraordinary
detail into the journeys to which they are confined, how bare and
unsatisfactory is the account of the rest of Paul's career during that
time!(l) How eventful that career must have been we learn from 2 Cor.
xi. 23-26. In any case, the author who could be so minute in his record
of an itinerary, apparently could not, or would not, be minute in his
account of more important matters in his history. In the few verses, ix.
1-30, chiefly occupied by an account of Paul's conversion, is comprised
all that the author has to tell of three years of the Apostle's life,
and into xi. 19--xiv. are compressed the events of fourteen years of his
history (cf. Gal. ii. l).(2) If the author of those portions be the same
writer who is so minute in his daily itinerary in the [------] sections,
his sins of omission and commission are of a very startling character.
To say nothing more severe here, upon the traditional theory he is an
elaborate trifler.
Does the use of the first person in Luke i. 1-3 and Acts i. 1 in any way
justify or prepare(3) the way for the
{45}
sudden and unexplained introduction of the first person in the sixteenth
chapter? Certainly not. The [------] in these passages is used solely in
the personal address to Theophilus, is limited to the brief explanation
contained in what may be called the dedication or preface, and is at
once dropped when the history begins. If the prologue of the Gospel be
applied to the Acts, moreover, the use of earlier documents is at once
implied, which would rather justify the supposition that these passages
are part of some diary, from which the general editor made extracts.(1)
Besides, there is no explanation in the Acts which in the slightest
degree connects the [------] with the [------].(2) To argue that
explanation was unnecessary, as Theophilus and early readers were well
acquainted with the fact that the author was a fellow-traveller with the
Apostle, and therefore at once understood the meaning of "We,"(3) would
destroy the utility of the direct form of communication altogether; for
if Theophilus knew this, there was obviously no need to introduce the
first person at all, in so abrupt and singular a way, more especially to
chronicle minute details of journeys which possess comparatively little
interest. Moreover, writing for Theophilus, we might reasonably expect
that he should have stated where and when he became associated with
Paul, and explained the reasons why he again left and rejoined him.(4)
Ewald suggests that possibly the author intended to have indicated his
name more distinctly at the end of his work;(5) but this merely shows
that, argue as he will,
{46}
he feels the necessity for such an explanation. The conjecture is
negatived, however, by the fact that no name is subsequently added. As
in the case of the fourth Gospel, of course the "incomparable modesty"
theory is suggested as the reason why the author does not mention his
own name, and explain the adoption of the first person in the [------]
passages;(1) but to base theories such as this upon the modesty or
elevated views of a perfectly unknown writer is obviously too arbitrary
a proceeding to be permissible.(2) There is, besides, exceedingly little
modesty in a writer forcing himself so unnecessarily into notice, for
he does not represent himself as taking any active part in the events
narrated; and, as the mere chronicler of days of sailing and arriving,
he might well have remained impersonal to the end.
On the other hand, supposing the general editor of the Acts to have made
use of written sources of information, and amongst others of the diary
of a companion of the Apostle Paul, it is not so strange that, for one
reason or another, he should have allowed the original direct form of
communication to stand whilst incorporating parts of it with his work.
Instances have been pointed out in which a similar retention of the
first or third person, in a narrative generally written otherwise,
is accepted as the indication of a different written source, as for
instance in Ezra vii. 27--ix; Nehemiah viii.--x.; in the Book of Tobit
i. 1-3, iii. 7 ff., and other places;s and Schwanbeck has
{47}
pointed out many instances of a similar kind amongst the chroniclers of
the middle ages.(1) There are various ways in which the retention of the
first person in these sections, supposing them to have been derived from
some other written source, might be explained. The simple supposition
that the author, either through carelessness or oversight, allowed the
[------] to stand(2) is not excluded, and indeed some critics, although
we think without reason, maintain both the third Gospel and the Acts to
be composed of materials derived from various sources and put together
with little care or adjustment.(3) The author might also have inserted
these fragments of the diary of a fellow-traveller of Paul, and retained
the original form of the document to strengthen the apparent credibility
of his own narrative; or, as many critics believe, he may have allowed
the first person of the original document to remain, in order himself to
assume the character of eyewitness, and of companion of the Apostle.(4)
As we shall see in the course of our examination of the Acts, the
general procedure of the author is by no means of a character to
discredit such an explanation.
We shall not enter into any discussion of the sources from which critics
maintain that the author compiled his
{48}
work. It is sufficient to say that, whilst some profess to find definite
traces of many documents, few if any writers deny that the writer
made more or less use of earlier materials. It is quite true that the
characteristics of the general author's style are found throughout the
whole work.1 The Acts are no mere aggregate of scraps collected and
rudely joined together, but the work of one author in the sense that
whatever materials he may have used for its composition were carefully
assimilated, and subjected to thorough and systematic revision to adapt
them to his purpose.(2) But however completely this process was carried
out, and his materials interpenetrated by his own peculiarities of style
and language, he did not succeed in entirely obliterating the traces of
independent written sources. Some writers maintain that there is a very
apparent difference between the first twelve
{49}
chapters and the remainder of the work, and profess to detect a much
more Hebraistic character in the language of the earlier portion,(1)
although this is not received without demur.(2) As regards the [------]
sections, whilst it is admitted that these fragments have in any case
been much manipulated by the general editor, and largely contain his
general characteristics of language, it is at the same time affirmed
that they present distinct foreign peculiarities, which betray a
borrowed document.(3) Even critics who maintain the [------] sections
to be by the same writer who composed the rest of the book point out
the peculiarly natural character and minute knowledge displayed in these
passages, as distinguishing them from the rest of the Acts.(4) This
of course they attribute to the fact that the author there relates his
personal experiences; but even with this explanation it is apparent
that all who maintain the traditional view do recognize peculiarities
in these sections, by which they justify the ascription of them to an
eye-witness. For the reasons which have been very briefly indicated,
therefore, and upon other
{50}
strong grounds, some of which will be presently stated, a very large
mass of the ablest critics have concluded that the [------] sections
were not composed by the author of the rest of the Acts, but that they
are part of the diary of some companion of the Apostle Paul, of which
the Author of Acts made use for his work,(1) and that the general writer
of the work, and consequently of the third Synoptic, was not Luke at
all.(2)
{51}
A careful study of the contents of the Acts cannot, we think, leave
any doubt that the work could not have been written by any companion or
intimate friend of the Apostle Paul.(1) In here briefly indicating some
of the reasons for this statement, we shall be under the necessity of
anticipating, without much explanation or argument, points which will
be more fully discussed farther on, and which now, stated without
preparation, may not be sufficiently clear to some readers. They may
hereafter seem more conclusive. It is unreasonable to suppose that a
friend or companion could have written so unhistorical and defective
a history of the Apostle's life and teaching. The Pauline Epistles are
nowhere directly referred to, but where we can compare the narrative
and representations of Acts with the statements of the Apostle, they are
strikingly contradictory.(2)
{52}
His teaching in the one scarcely presents a trace of the strong and
clearly defined doctrines of the other, and the character and conduct
of the Paul of Acts are altogether different from those of Paul of
the Epistles. According to Paul himself (Gal. i. 16--18), after his
conversion, he communicated not with flesh and blood, neither went up
to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before him, but immediately went
away into Arabia, and returned to Damascus, and only after three years
he went up to Jerusalem to visit Kephas, and abode with him fifteen
days, during which visit none other of the Apostles did he see "save
James, the brother of the Lord." If assurance of the correctness of
these details were required, Paul gives it by adding (v. 20): "Now
the things which I am writing to you, behold before God I lie not."
According to Acts (ix. 19--30), however, the facts are quite different.
Paul immediately begins to preach in Damascus, does not visit Arabia
at all, but, on the contrary, goes to Jerusalem, where, under the
protection of Barnabas (v. 26, 27), he is introduced to the Apostles,
and "was with them going in and out." According to Paul (Gal. i. 22),
his face was after that unknown unto the churches of Judaea, whereas,
according to Acts, not only was he "going in and out" at Jerusalem with
the Apostles, but (ix. 29) preached boldly in the name of the Lord, and
(Acts xxvi. 20) "in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judaea,"
he urged to repentance. According to Paul (Gal. ii. 1 ff.), after
fourteen years he went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus,
{53}
"according to a revelation," and "privately" communicated his Gospel
"to those who seemed to be something," as, with some irony, he calls
the Apostles. In words still breathing irritation and determined
independence, Paul relates to the Galatians the particulars of that
visit--how great pressure had been exerted to compel Titus, though a
Greek, to be circumcised, "that they might bring us into bondage," to
whom, "not even for an hour did we yield the required subjection." He
protests, with proud independence, that the Gospel which he preaches
was not received from man (Gal. i. 11, 12), but revealed to him by God
(verses 15, 16); and during this visit (ii. 6, 7) "from those seeming
to be something [------], whatsoever they were it maketh no matter to
me--God accepteth not man's person--for to me those who seemed
[------] communicated nothing additional." According to Acts, after his
conversion, Paul is taught by a man named Ananias what he must do (ix.
6, xxii. 10); he makes visits to Jerusalem (xi. 30, xii. 25, &c), which
are excluded by Paul's own explicit statements; and a widely different
report is given (xv. 1 ff.) of the second visit. Paul does not go,
"according to a revelation," but is deputed by the Church of Antioch,
with Barnabas, in consequence of disputes regarding the circumcision of
Gentiles, to lay the case before the Apostles and elders at Jerusalem.
It is almost impossible in the account here given of proceedings
characterised throughout by perfect harmony, forbearance, and unanimity
of views, to recognize the visit described by Paul. Instead of being
private, the scene is a general council of the Church. The fiery
independence of Paul is transformed into meekness and submission. There
is not a word of the
{54}
endeavour to compel him to have Titus circumcised--all is peace and
undisturbed good-will. Peter pleads the cause of Paul, and is more
Pauline in his sentiments than Paul himself, and, in the very presence
of Paul, claims to have been selected by God to be Apostle of the
Gentiles (xv. 7--11). Not a syllable is said of the scene at Antioch
shortly after (Gal. ii. 11 ff.), so singularly at variance with the
proceedings of the council, when Paul withstood Cephas to the face.
Then, who would recognize the Paul of the Epistles in the Paul of Acts,
who makes such repeated journeys to Jerusalem to attend Jewish feasts
(xviii. 21,1 xix. 21, xx. 16, xxiv. 11, 17, 18); who, in his journeys,
halts on the days when a Jew may not travel (xx. 5, 6); who shaves
his head at Cenchrea because of a vow (xviii. 18); who, at the
recommendation of the Apostles, performs that astonishing act of
Nazariteship in the Temple (xxi. 23), and afterwards follows it up by
a defence of such "excellent dissembling" [------]; who circumcises
Timothy, the son of a Greek and of a Jewess, with his own hands
(xvi. 1--3, cf. Gal. v. 2); and who is so little the apostle of the
uncircumcision that he only tardily goes to the Gentiles when rejected
by the Jews (cf. xviii. (J). Paul is not only robbed of the honour of
being the first Apostle of the Gentiles, which is conferred upon Peter,
but the writer seems to avoid even calling him an apostle at all,(2) the
only occasions upon which he does so being indirect (xiv. 4, 14); and
the title equally applied to Barnabas, whose claim to it is more than
doubted. The
{55}
passages in which this occurs, moreover, are not above suspicion, "the
Apostles" being omitted in Cod. D. (Bezae) from xiv. 14. The former
verse in that codex has important variations from other MSS.
If we cannot believe that the representation actually given of Paul in
the Acts could proceed from a friend or companion of the Apostle, it
is equally impossible that such a person could have written his history
with so many extraordinary imperfections and omissions. We have already
pointed out that between chs. ix.--xiv. are compressed the events of
seventeen of the most active years of the Apostle's life, and also that
a long period is comprised within the [------] sections, during which
such minute details of the daily itinerary are given. The incidents
reported, however, are quite disproportionate to those which are
omitted. We have no record, for instance, of his visit to Arabia at
so interesting a portion of his career (Gal. i. 17), although the
particulars of his conversion are repeated with singular variations no
less than three times (ix. xxii. xxvi.); nor of his preaching in Illyria
(Rom. xv. 19); nor of the incident referred to in Rom. xvi. 3, 4. The
momentous adventures in the cause of the Gospel spoken of in 2 Cor.
xi. 23 ff. receive scarcely any illustration in Acts, nor is any notice
taken of his fighting with wild beasts at Ephesus (1 Cor. xv. 32), which
would have formed an episode full of serious interest. What, again, was
"the affliction which happened in Asia," which so overburdened even so
energetic a nature as that of the Apostle that "he despaired even of
life?" (2 Cor. ii. 8 f.) Some light upon these points might reasonably
have been expected from a companion of Paul. Then, xvii. 14--16, xviii.
5 contradict 1 Thess. iii. 1, 2, in a way scarcely possible in such a
{56}
companion, present with the Apostle at Athens; and in like manner the
representation in xxviii. 17-22 is inconsistent with such a person,
ignoring as it does the fact that there already was a Christian Church
in Rome (Ep. to Romans). We do not refer to the miraculous elements so
thickly spread over the narrative of the Acts, and especially in the
episode xvi. 25 ff., which is inserted in the first [------] section,
as irreconcilable with the character of an eye-witness, because it is
precisely the miraculous portion of the book which is on its trial;
but we may ask whether it would have been possible for such a friend,
acquainted with the Apostle's representations in 1 Cor. xiv. 2 ff., cf.
xii.--xiv., and the phenomena there described, to speak of the gift of
"tongues" at Pentecost as the power of speaking different languages (ii.
4--11, cf. x. 46, xix. 6)
It will readily be understood that we have here merely rapidly and
by way of illustration referred to a few of the points which seem to
preclude the admission that the general author of the Acts could be an
eyewitness,(1) or companion of the Apostle Paul, and this will become
more apparent as we proceed, and more closely examine the contents of
the book. Who that author was, there are now no means of ascertaining.
The majority of critics who have most profoundly examined the problem
presented by the Acts, however, and who do not admit Luke to be the
general author, are agreed that the author compiled the [------]
sections from a diary kept by some companion of the Apostle Paul during
the journeys and voyages to which they relate, but opinion is very
divided as to the person
{57}
to whom that diary must be ascribed. It is of course recognized that
the various theories regarding his identity are merely based upon
conjecture, but they have long severely exercised critical ingenuity.
A considerable party adopt the conclusion that the diary was probably
written by Luke.(1) This theory has certainly the advantage of whatever
support may be derived from tradition; and it has been conjectured,
not without probability, that this diary, being either written by, or
originally attributed to, Luke, may possibly have been the source from
which, in course of time, the whole of the Acts, and consequently the
Gospel, came to be ascribed to Luke.(2) The selection of a comparatively
less known name than that of Timothy, Titus or Silas,(3) for instance,
may thus be explained; but, besides, it has the great advantage that,
the name of Luke never being mentioned in the Acts, he is not exposed
to criticism, which has found serious objections to the claims of other
better known followers of Paul.
There are, however, many critics who find difficulties in the way of
accepting Luke as the author of the "we" sections, and who adopt the
theory that they were pro-
{58}
probably composed by Timothy.(1) It is argued that, if Luke had been the
writer of this diary, he must have been in very close relations to Paul,
having been his companion during the Apostle's second mission journey,
as well as during the later European journey, and finally during the
eventful journey of Paul as a prisoner from Caesarea to Rome. Under
these circumstances, it is natural to expect that Paul should mention
him in his earlier epistles, written before the Roman imprisonment, but
this he nowhere does. For instance, no mention whatever is made of
Luke in either of the letters to the Corinthians nor in those to the
Thessalonians; but on the other hand, Timothy's name, together with that
of Silvanus (or Silas), is joined to Paul's in the two letters to the
Thessalonians, besides being mentioned in the body of the first Epistle
(iii. 2, 6); and he is repeatedly and affectionately spoken of in the
earlier letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. iv. 17, xvi. 10), and his name
is likewise combined with the Apostle's in the second Epistle (2 Cor. i.
1), as well as mentioned in the body of the letter, along with that
of Silvanus, as a fellow-preacher with Paul. In the Epistle to the
Philippians, later, the name of Luke does not appear, although, had he
been the companion of the Apostle from Troas, he must have been known to
the Philippians, but on the other hand, Timothy is again associated in
the opening greeting of that Epistle. Timothy is known to have
{59}
been a fellow-worker with the Apostle, and to have accompanied him in
his missionary journeys, and he is repeatedly mentioned in the Acts as
the companion of Paul, and the first occasion is precisely where the
[------] sections commence.(1) In connection with Acts xv. 40, xvi.
3,10, it is considered that Luke is quite excluded from the possibility
of being the companion who wrote the diary we are discussing, by the
Apostle's own words in 2 Cor. i. 19:(2) "For the Son of God, Christ
Jesus, who was preached among you by us, by me and Silvanus and
Timothy," &c, &c. The eye-witness who wrote the journal from which the
[------] sections are taken must have been with the Apostle in Corinth,
and, it is of course always asserted, must have been one of his
[------], and preached the Gospel.(3) Is it possible, on the supposition
that this fellow-labourer was Luke, that the Apostle could in so marked
a manner have excluded his name by clearly defining that "us" only meant
himself and Silvanus and Timothy? Mayerhoff(4) has gone even further
than the critics we have referred to, and maintains Timothy to be the
author of the third Synoptic and of Acts.
We may briefly add that some writers have conjectured Silas to be the
author of the [------] sections,(5) and others
{60}
have referred them to Titus.(1) It is evident that whether the [------]
sections be by the unknown author of the rest of the Acts, or be part of
a diary by some unknown companion of Paul, introduced into the work by
the general editor, they do not solve the problem as to the identity
of the author, who remains absolutely unknown. We have said enough to
enable the reader to understand the nature of the problem regarding the
author of the third Synoptic and of the Acts of the Apostles, and whilst
for our purpose much less would have sufficed, it is evident that the
materials do not exist for identifying him. The stupendous miracles
related in these two works, therefore, rest upon the evidence of an
unknown writer, who from internal evidence must have composed them very
long after the events recorded. Externally, there is no proof even of
the existence of the Acts until towards the end of the second century,
when also for the first time we hear of a vague theory as to the name
and identity of the supposed author, a theory which declares Luke not
to have himself been an eye-witness of the occurrences related in the
Gospel, and which reduces his participation even in the events narrated
in the Acts to a very small and modest compass, leaving the great
mass of the miracles described in the work without even his personal
attestation. The theory, however, we have seen to be not only
unsupported by evidence, but to be contradicted by many potent
circumstances. We propose now, without exhaustively examining the
contents of the Acts, which would itself require a separate treatise, at
least to
{61}
consider some of its main points sufficiently to form a fair judgment
of the historical value of the work, although the facts which we have
already ascertained are clearly fatal to the document as adequate
testimony for miracles, and the reality of Divine Revelation.
CHAPTER III. DESIGN AND COMPOSITION
The historical value of the Acts of the Apostles has very long been the
subject of vehement discussion, and the course of the controversy
has certainly not been favourable to the position of the work. For a
considerable time the traditional view continued to prevail, and little
or no doubt of the absolute credibility of the narrative was ever
expressed. When the spirit of independent and enlightened criticism
was finally aroused, it had to contend with opinions which habit had
rendered stereotype, and prejudices which took the form of hereditary
belief. A large body of eminent critics, after an exhaustive
investigation of the Acts, have now declared that the work is not
historically accurate, and cannot be accepted as a true account of the
Acts and teaching of the Apostles.(1)
{63}
The Author of the Acts has been charged with having written the work
with a distinct design to which he subordinated historical truth, and
in this view many critics have joined, who ultimately do not accuse
him absolutely of falsifying history, but merely of making a deliberate
selection of his materials with the view of placing events in the light
most suitable for his purpose. Most of those, however, who make this
charge maintain that, in carrying out the original purpose of the Acts,
the writer so freely manipulated whatever materials he had before
him, and so dealt with facts whether by omission, transformation or
invention, that the historical value of his narrative has been
destroyed or at least seriously affected by it.1 On the other hand, many
apologetic writers altogether deny the existence of any design on the
part of the
{64}
author such as is here indicated, which could have led him to suppress
or distort facts,(1) and whilst some of them advance very varied and
fanciful theories as to the historical plan upon which the writer
proceeds, and in accordance with which the peculiarities of his
narrative are explained, they generally accept the work as the genuine
history of the Acts of the Apostles so far as the author possessed
certain information. The design most generally ascribed to the writer of
the Acts may, with many minor variations, be said to be apologetic
and conciliatory: an attempt to reconcile the two parties in the early
church by representing the difference between the views of Peter and
Paul as slight and unimportant, Pauline sentiments being freely placed
in the mouth of Peter, and the Apostle of the Gentiles being represented
as an orthodox adherent of the church of Jerusalem, with scarcely such
advanced views of christian universality as Peter; or else, an effort
of Gentile Christianity to bring itself into closer union with the
primitive church, surrendering, in so doing, all its distinctive
features and its Pauline origin, and representing the universalism by
which it exists, as a principle adopted and promulgated from the very
first by Peter and the Twelve. It is not necessary, however, for us to
enter upon any minute discussion of this point, nor is it requisite, for
the purposes of our inquiry, to determine whether the peculiar character
{65}
of the writing which we are examining is the result of a perfectly
definite purpose controlling the whole narrative and modifying every
detail, or naturally arises from the fact that it is the work of a pious
member of the Church writing long after the events related, and imbuing
his materials, whether of legend or ecclesiastical tradition, with his
own thoroughly orthodox views: history freely composed for Christian
edification. We shall not endeavour to construct any theory to account
for the phenomena before us, nor to discover the secret motives or
intentions of the writer, but taking them as they are, we shall simply
examine some of the more important portions of the narrative, with a
view to determine whether the work can in any serious sense be regarded
as credible history.
No one can examine the contents of the Acts without perceiving that some
secret motive or influence did certainly govern the writer's mind,
and guide him in the selection of topics, and this is betrayed by many
peculiarities in his narrative. Quite apart from any attempt to discover
precisely what that motive was, it is desirable that we should briefly
point out some of these peculiarities. It is evident that every man who
writes a history must commence with a distinct plan, and that the choice
of subjects to be introduced or omitted must proceed upon a certain
principle. This is of course an invariable rule wherever there is order
and arrangement. No one has ever questioned that in the Acts of the
Apostles both order and arrangement have been deliberately adopted and
the question naturally arises: What was the plan ol the Author? and upon
what principle did he select, from the mass of facts which might have
been related regarding the Church in the Apostolic ages, precisely those
{66}
which he has inserted, to the exclusion of the rest?(1) What title will
adequately represent the contents of the book? for it is admitted by
almost all critics that the actual name which the book bears neither
was given to it by its author nor properly describes its intention and
subject.(2) The extreme difficulty which has been felt in answering
these questions, and in constructing any hypothesis which may fairly
correspond with the actual contents of the Acts, constitutes one of
the most striking commentaries on the work, and although we cannot here
detail the extremely varied views of critics upon the subject, they
are well worthy of study.(3) No one now advances the theory which was
anciently current that the Author simply narrated that of which he was
an eye-witness.(4) Its present title [------] would lead us to expect
an account of the doings of the Apostles in general, but we have nothing
like this in the book. Peter and Paul occupy the principal parts of the
narrative, and the other Apostles are scarcely mentioned.
{67}
James is introduced as an actor in the famous Council, and represented
as head of the Church in Jerusalem, but it is much disputed that he was
either an Apostle, or one of the Twelve. The death of James the brother
of John is just mentioned. John is represented on several occasions
during the earlier part of the narrative as the companion of Peter,
without, however, being prominently brought forward; and the rest of
the Twelve are left in complete obscurity. It is not a history of the
labours of Peter and Paul, for not only is considerable importance given
to the episodes of Stephen and Philip the Evangelist, but the account
of the two great Apostles is singularly fragmentary. After a brief
chronicle of the labours of Peter, he suddenly disappears from the
scene, and we hear of him no more. Paul then becomes the prominent
figure in the drama; but we have already pointed out how defective is
the information given regarding him, and he is also abandoned as soon as
he is brought to Rome: of his subsequent career and martyrdom, nothing
whatever is said. The work is not, as Luther suggested, a gloss on the
Epistles of Paul and the inculcation of his doctrine of righteousness
through faith, for the narrative of the Acts, so far as we can compare
it with the Epistles, which are nowhere named in it, is generally in
contradiction to them, and the doctrine of justification by faith is
conspicuous by its absence. It is not a history of the first Christian
missions, for it ignores entirely the labours of most of the Apostles,
omits all mention of some of the most interesting missionary journeys,
and does not even give a report of the introduction of Christianity into
Rome. It is not in any sense a Paulinian history of the Church, for if,
on the one side, it describes the Apostles of the Circumcision as
{68}
promulgating the universalism which Paul preached, it robs him of his
originality, dwarfs his influence upon the development of Christianity,
and is, on the other hand, too defective to represent Church history,
whether from a Paulinian or any other standpoint. The favourite
theory: that the writer designed to relate the story of the spread
of Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome, can scarcely be maintained,
although it certainly has the advantage of a vagueness of proportions
equally suitable to the largest and most limited treatment of history.
But, in such a case, we have a drama with the main incident omitted; for
the introduction of the Gospel into Rome is not described at all, and
whilst the author could not consider the personal arrival at Rome of the
Apostle Paul the climax of his history, he at once closes his account
where the final episode ought to have commenced.
From all points of view, and upon any hypothesis, the Acts of the
Apostles is so obviously incomplete as a history, so fragmentary and
defective as biography, that critics have to the present day failed in
framing any theory which could satisfactorily account for its anomalies,
and have almost been forced to explain them by supposing a partial,
apologetic or conciliatory, design, which removes the work from the
region of veritable history. The whole interest of the narrative, of
course, centres in the two representative Apostles, Peter and Paul, who
alternately fill the scene. It is difficult to say, however, whether
the account of the Apostle of the Circumcision or of Paul is the more
capriciously partial and incomplete. After his miraculous liberation
from the prison into which he had been cast by Herod, the doings of
Peter are left unchronicled, and although he is reintroduced for a
moment to plead the cause of the
{69}
Gentiles at the Council in Jerusalem, he then finally retires from the
scene, to give place to Paul. The omissions from the history of Paul are
very remarkable, and all the more so from the extreme and unnecessary
detail of the itinerary of some of his journeys, and neither the blanks,
on the one hand, nor the excessive minuteness, on the other, are to be
explained by any theory connected with personal knowledge on the part of
Theophilus. Of the general history of the primitive Church and the life
and labours of the Twelve, we are told little or nothing. According to
the Author the propagation of the Gospel was carried on more by angelic
agency than apostolic enthusiasm. There is a liberal infusion of
miraculous episodes in the history, but a surprising scarcity of facts.
Even where the Author is best informed, as in the second part of the
Acts, the narrative of Paul's labours and missionary journeys, while
presenting striking omissions, is really minute and detailed only in
regard to points of no practical interest, leaving both the distinctive
teaching of the Apostle, and the internal economy of the Church almost
entirely unrepresented. Does this defective narrative of the Acts of
the Apostles proceed from poverty of information, or from the arbitrary
selection of materials for a special purpose? As we proceed, it
will become increasingly evident that, limited although the writer's
materials are, the form into which they have been moulded has
undoubtedly been determined either by a dominant theory, or a deliberate
design, neither of which is consistent with the composition of sober
history.
This is particularly apparent in the representation which is given of
the two principal personages of the narrative. Critics have long clearly
recognised that the
{70}
Author of the Acts has carefully arranged his materials so as to present
as close a parallelism as possible between the Apostles Peter and
Paul.(1) We shall presently see how closely he assimilates their
teaching, ascribing the views of Paul to Peter, and putting Petrine
sentiments in the mouth of Paul, but here we shall merely refer to
points of general history. If Peter has a certain pre-eminence as a
distinguished member of the original Apostolic body, the equal claim of
Paul to the honours of the Apostolate, whilst never directly advanced,
is prominently suggested by the narration, no less than three times, of
the circumstances of his conversion and direct call to the office by the
glorified Jesus. The first miracle ascribed to Peter is the healing of
"a certain man lame from his mother's womb" [------] at the beautiful
gate of the Temple,(2) and the first wonder performed by Paul is also
the healing of "a certain man lame from his mother's womb" [------] at
Lystra;(3)
Ananias and Sapphira are punished through the instrumentality of
Peter,(4) and Elymas is smitten with blindness at the word of Paul;(5)
the sick are laid in the streets that the shadow of Peter may fall upon
them, and they are healed, as are also those
{71}
vexed with unclean spirits;(l) handkerchiefs or aprons are taken to the
sick from the body of Paul, and they are healed, and the evil spirits go
out of them;(2) Peter withstands Simon the sorcerer,(3) as Paul does
the sorcerer Elymas and the exorcists at Ephesus;(4) if Peter heals the
paralytic AEneas at Lydda,(5) Paul restores to health the fever-stricken
father of Publius at Melita;(6) Peter raises from the dead Tabitha, a
disciple at Joppa,(7) and Paul restores to life the disciple Eutychus at
Troas;(8) Cornelius falls at the feet of Peter, and worships him, Peter
preventing him, and saying: "Rise up! I myself also am a man,"(9) and in
like manner the people of Lystra would have done sacrifice to Paul, and
he prevents them, crying out: "We also are men of like passions with
you;"(10) Peter lays his hands on the people of Samaria, and they
receive, the Holy Ghost and the gift of tongues,(11) and Paul does
the same for believers at Ephesus;(12) Peter is brought before the
council,(13) and so is Paul;(14) the one is imprisoned and twice
released by an angel,(15) and the other is delivered from his bonds by a
great earthquake;(16) if Peter be scourged by order of the council,(17)
Paul is beaten with many stripes at the command of the magistrates
of Philippi.(18) It is maintained that the desire to equalise the
sufferings of the two Apostles in the cause of the Gospel, as he has
equalised their miraculous displays, probably led the Author to omit all
mention of those
{72}
perils and persecutions to which the Apostle Paul refers in support
of his protest, that he had laboured and suffered more than all
the rest.(1) If Paul was called by a vision to the ministry of the
Gentiles,(2) so Peter is represented as having been equally directed by
a vision to baptize the Gentile Cornelius;(3) the double vision of Peter
and Cornelius has its parallel in the double vision of Paul and Ananias.
It is impossible to deny the measured equality thus preserved between
the two Apostles, or to ignore the fact that parallelism like this is
the result of premeditation, and cannot claim the character of impartial
history.
The speeches form an important element in the Acts of the Apostles,
and we shall now briefly examine them, reserving, however, for future
consideration their dogmatic aspect. Few, if any writers, however
apologetic, maintain that these discourses can possibly have been spoken
exactly as they are recorded in the Acts. The utmost that is asserted
is that they are substantially historical, and fairly represent the
original speeches.(4) They were derived, it is alleged, either from
written sources, or oral
{73}
tradition, and many, especially in the second part, are supposed to have
been delivered in the presence of the Author of the work. This view is
held, of course, with a greater or less degree of assurance as to
the closeness of the relation which our record bears to the original
addresses; but, without here very closely scrutinizing hesitation or
reticence, our statement fairly renders the apologetic position. A large
body of able critics, however, deny the historical character of these
speeches,(1) and consider them mere free compositions by the Author
of the Acts, at the best being on a par with the speeches which many
ancient writers place in the mouths of their historical personages, and
giving only what the writer supposed that the speaker would say under
the circumstances. That the writer may have made use of such materials
as were within his reach, or endeavoured to embody the ideas which
tradition may broadly have preserved, may possibly be admitted, but that
these discourses can seriously be accepted as conveying a correct report
of anything actually spoken by the persons in whose mouths they are put
is, of course, denied. It is,
{74}
obviously, extremely improbable that any of these speeches could have
been written down at the time.(1) Taking even the supposed case that the
Author of the Acts was Luke, and was present when some of the speeches
of Paul were delivered, it is difficult to imagine that he immediately
recorded his recollection of them, and more than this he could not
have done. He must continually have been in the habit of hearing the
preaching of Paul, and therefore could not have had the inducement of
novelty to make him write down what he heard. The idea of recording them
for posterity could not have occurred to such a person, with the belief
in the approaching end of all things then prevalent. The Author of the
Acts was not the companion of Paul, however, and the contents of the
speeches, as we shall presently see, are not of a character to make it
in the least degree likely that they could have been written down for
separate circulation. Many of the speeches in the Acts, moreover, were
delivered under circumstances which render it specially unlikely that
they could have
{75}
been reported with any accuracy. At no time an easy task correctly to
record a discourse of any length, it is doubly difficult when those
speeches, like many in Acts, were spoken under circumstances of great
danger or excitement. The experience of modern times, before the
application of systems of short-hand, may show how imperfectly speeches
were taken down, even where there was deliberate preparation and set
purpose to do so, and if it be suggested that some celebrated orations
of the last century have so been preserved, it is undeniable that what
has been handed down to us not only does not represent the original, but
is really almost a subsequent composition, preserving little more than
some faint echoes of the true utterance. The probability that a correct
record of speeches made, under such circumstances, in the middle of the
first century could have been kept, seems exceedingly small. Even, if
it could be shown that the Author of the Acts took these speeches
substantially from earlier documents, it would not materially tend
to establish their authenticity; for the question would still remain
perfectly open as to the closeness of those documents to the original
discourses; but in the absence of all evidence, whether as to the
existence or origin of any such sources, the conjecture of their
possible existence can have no weight. We have nothing but internal
testimony to examine, and that, we shall see, is totally opposed to the
claim to historical value made for those discourses.
Apologists scarcely maintain that we have in the Acts a record of the
original discourses in their completeness, but in claiming
substantial accuracy most of them include the supposition at least of
condensation.(1) The longest
{76}
discourse in the Acts would not have taken more than six or seven
minutes to deliver,(1) and it is impossible to suppose that what is
there given can have been the whole speech delivered on many of the
occasions described. For instance, is it probable that King Agrippa who
desires to hear Paul, and who comes "with great pomp" with Berenice to
do so, should only have heard a speech lasting some five minutes.
The Author himself tells us that Paul was not always so brief in his
addresses as any one might suppose from the specimens here presented.(2)
It is remarkable, however, that not the slightest intimation is given
that the speeches are either merely substantially reported or are
abridged, and their form and character are evidently designed to convey
the impression of complete discourses. If the reader examine any of
these discourses, it will be clear that they are concise compositions,
betraying no marks of abridgment, and having no fragmentary looseness,
but, on the contrary, that they are highly artificial and finished
productions, with a continuous argument. They certainly are singularly
inadequate, many of them, to produce the impressions described; but at
least it is not possible to discover that material omissions have been
made, or that their periods were originally expanded by large, or even
any, amplification. If these speeches be regarded as complete, and
with little or no condensation, another strong element is added to
the suspicion as to their authenticity, for such extreme baldness and
brevity in the declaration of a new religion,
{77}
requiring both explanation and argument, cannot be conceived, and in
the case of Paul, with whose system of teaching and doctrine we are well
acquainted through his Epistles, it is impossible to accept such meagre
and onesided addresses, as representations of his manner. The statement
that the discourses are abridged, and a mere _resume_ of those
originally delivered, however, rests upon no authority, is a
mere conjecture to account for an existing difficulty, and is in
contradiction to the actual form of the speeches in Acts. Regarded as
complete, their incongruity is intensified, but considered as abridged,
they have lost in the process all representative character and
historical fitness.
It has been argued, indeed, that the different speeches bear evidence
to their genuineness from their suitability to the speakers, and to the
circumstances under which they are said to have been spoken; but
the existence of anything but the most superficial semblance of
idiosyncratic character must be denied. The similarity of form, manner,
and matter in all the speeches is most remarkable, as will presently be
made more apparent, and the whole of the doctrine enunciated amounts to
little more than the repetition, in slightly varying words, of the
brief exhortation to repentance and belief in Jesus, the Christ. that
salvation may be obtained,(1) with references to the ancient history of
the Jews, singularly alike in all discourses. Very little artistic skill
is necessary to secure a certain suitability of the word to the action,
and the action to the word; and certainly evidence is reduced to a
very low ebb when such agreement as is presented in the Acts is made an
argument for authenticity. Not only is the consistency of the sentiments
uttered by
{78}
the principal speakers, as compared with what is known of their opinions
and character, utterly disputed, but it must be evident that the
literary skill of the Author of the Acts was quite equal to so simple
a task as preserving" at least such superficial fitness as he displays,
and a very much greater amount of verisimilitude might have been
attained, as in many works of fiction, without necessarily involving the
inference of genuineness.
It has been freely admitted by critics of all schools that the author's
peculiarities of style and language are apparent in all the speeches of
the Acts,(1) and this has been so often elaborately demonstrated that
it is unnecessary minutely to enter upon it again. It may not be out of
place to quote a few lines from the work of one of the ablest and most
eminent advocates of the general authority of the Acts. Speaking of the
speeches of Paul, Lekebusch says:--"The speeches of our Book, in fact,
are calculated, perhaps more than anything, to excite doubt regarding
its purely historical character. But here everything depends upon an
unbiassed judgment. We are sufficiently free from prejudice to make the
admission to recent criticism that the speeches are not verbally given
as they were originally delivered, but are composed by the author of the
Acts of the
{79}
Apostles. Schleiermacher, certainly, has confidently asserted their
originality. He thinks: 'If the speeches were separately reported they
could not but appear just as we find them in the Acts of the Apostles.'
But his remarks, however ingenious and acute they may be, do not stand
the test of a thorough examination of the individual speeches. No one
who impartially compares these, one with another, and particularly their
style with the mode of expression of the Author in the other sections,
can help agreeing with Eichhorn, when, in consonance with his view
regarding the uniform character of the Acts, on the grounds quoted, page
14, he ascribes the composition of the speeches to the writer from
whom the whole book in all its parts proceeds."(1) To this impartial
expression of opinion, Lekebusch adds a note:--"In saying this, it is
naturally not suggested that our author simply _invented_ the speeches,
independently, without any historical intimation whatever as to the
substance of the original; the_ form_ only, which certainly is here very
closely connected with the substance, is hereby ascribed to him."(2)
Lekebusch then merely goes on to discuss the nature of the author's
design in composing these speeches. The reasons given by Eichhorn, which
Lekebusch quotes at "page 14," referred to above, had better be added
to complete this testimony. After referring to the result of Eichhorn's
"very careful examination" of the internal character of the Acts,
Lekebusch says:--"He finds, however, that, 'throughout the whole Acts
of the Apostles there prevails the same style, the same manner, the same
method and mode of expression' (ii. 35). Not
{80}
even the speeches, which one at first might take for inserted documents,
seem to him 'from a strange hand, but elaborated by the same from which
the whole book, with its three parts, proceeds.' 'Various peculiarities
existing in the speeches' prove this to him, independent of the
similarity of the style, and that, 'although they are put into the
mouths of different persons, they nevertheless follow one and the same
type, make use of one and the same mode of argument, and have so much
that is common to them that they thereby prove themselves to be
speeches of one and the same writer' (ii. 38). From these circumstances,
therefore, it seems to Eichhorn 'in the highest degree probable,
that Luke, throughout the whole Acts of the Apostles, writes as an
independent author, and apart from all extraneous works.' And in this
view he is 'strengthened by the resemblance of the style which runs
through the whole Acts of the Apostles, through speeches, letters, and
historical sections,' as well as by the fact that, 'through the whole
book, in the quotations from the Old Testament, a similar relation
prevails between the Greek text of the Septuagint and that of Luke' (ii.
43)."(1) We have thought it well to quote these independent opinions
from writers who range themselves amongst the defenders of the
historical character of the Acts, rather than to burden our pages with
a mass of dry detail in proof of the assertion that the peculiarities
of the author pervade all the speeches indifferently, to a degree which
renders it obvious that. they proceed from his pen.
Without entering into mere linguistic evidence of this, which will be
found in the works to which we have
{81}
referred,(1) we may point out a few general peculiarities of this nature
which are worthy of attention. The author introduces the speeches of
different persons with the same expression:--"he opened his mouth," or
something similar. Philip "opened his mouth" [------](1) and addressed
the Ethiopian (viii. 35). Peter "opened his mouth (and) said" [------],
when he delivered his discourse before the baptism of Cornelius (x. 34).
Again, he uses it of Paul:--"And when Paul was about to open his mouth
[------], Gallio said," &c. (xviii. 14). The words with which the speech
of Peter at Pentecost is introduced deserve more attention:--"Peter
lifted up his voice and said unto them" [------] (ii. 14). The verb
[------] occurs again (ii. 4) in the account of the descent of the Holy
Spirit and the gift of tongues, and it is put into the mouth of Paul
(xxvi. 25) in his reply to Festus, but it occurs nowhere else in the
New Testament. The favourite formula(3) with which all speeches open is,
"Men (and) Brethren" [------], or [------] coupled with some other term,
as "Men (and) Israelites" [------], or simply[------] without addition.
[------], occurs no less than thirteen times. It is used thrice by
Peter,(4) six times by Paul,(5) as well as by
{82}
Stephen,(1) James,(2) the believers at Pentecost,(3) and the rulers of
the Synagogue.(4) The angels at the Ascension address the disciples as
"Men (and) Galileans" [------].(5)
Peter makes use of [------] twice,(6) and it is likewise employed by
Paul,(7) by Gamaliel,(8) and by the Jews of Asia.(9) Peter addresses
those assembled at Pentecost as [------].(10) Paul opens his Athenian
speech with [------],(11) and the town-clerk begins his short appeal to
the craftsmen of Ephesus: [------].(12) Stephen begins his speech to the
Council with Men, Brethren and Fathers, hear [------], and Paul uses
the very same words in addressing the multitude from the stairs of the
Temple.(13)
In the speech which Peter is represented as making at Pentecost, he
employs in an altogether peculiar way (ii. 25--27) Psalm xvi., quoting
it in order to prove that the Resurrection of Jesus the Messiah was
a necessary occurrence, which had been foretold by David. This is
principally based upon the tenth verse of the Psalm: "Because thou wilt
not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt thou give thy Holy One [------]
to see corruption [------]."(14) Peter argues that David both died and
was buried, and that his sepulchre is with them to that day, but that,
being a prophet, he foresaw and spake here of the Resurrection of
Christ, "that neither was he left in Hades nor did his flesh see
{83}
corruption {------}."(1) Is it not an extremely singular circumstance
that Peter, addressing an audience of Jews in Jerusalem, where he might
naturally be expected to make use of the vernacular language, actually
quotes the Sep-tuagint version of the Old Testament, and bases his
argument upon a mistranslation of the Psalm, which, we may add, was in
all probability not composed by David at all?(2) The word translated
"Holy One," should be in the plural: "holy ones,"{3} that is to say:
"thy saints," and the word rendered [------]corruption, really signifies
"grave" or "pit." 4 The poet, in fact, merely expresses his confidence
that he will be preserved alive. The best critics recognize that Ps.
xvi. is not properly a Messianic Psalm
{84}
at all,(1) and many of those who, from the use which is made of it in
Acts, are led to assert that it is so, recognize in the main that it can
only be applied to the Messiah indirectly, by arguing that the prophecy
was not fulfilled in the case of the poet who speaks of himself, but was
fulfilled in the Resurrection of Jesus. This reasoning, however, totally
ignores the sense of the original, and is opposed to all legitimate
historical interpretation of the Psalm. Not dwelling upon this point
at present, we must go on to point out that, a little further on (xiii.
35--37), the Apostle Paul is represented as making use of the very same
argument which Peter here employs, and quoting the same passage from Ps.
xvi. to support it This repetition of very peculiar reasoning, coupled
with other similarities which we shall presently point out, leads to the
inference that it is merely the author himself who puts this argument
into their mouths,(2) and this conclusion is strengthened by the
circumstance that, throughout both Gospel and Acts, he always quotes
from the Septuagint,(3) and even when that version departs from
{85}
the sense of the original It may be well to give both passages in
juxta-position, in order that the closeness of the analogy may be more
easily realized. For this purpose we somewhat alter the order of the
verses:--
[------]
Not only is this argument the same in both discourses, but the whole of
Paul's speech, xiii. 16 ff., is a mere reproduction of the two speeches
of Peter, ii. 14 ff. and iii. 12 ff., with such alterations as the
writer could introduce to vary the fundamental sameness of ideas and
expressions. It is worth while to show this in a similar way:--
[------]
{86}
[------]
{87}
[------]
{88}
Paul's address likewise hears close analogy with the speech of
Stephen, vii. 2 ff., commencing with a historical survey of the
earlier traditions of the people of Israel, and leading up to the same
accusation that, as their fathers disregarded the prophets, so they
had persecuted and slain the Christ. The whole treatment of the subject
betrays the work of the same mind in both discourses. Bleek, who admits
the similarity between these and other speeches in Acts, argues that:
"it does not absolutely follow from this that these speeches are
composed by one and the same person, and are altogether unhistorical;"
for it is natural, he thinks, that in the apostolical circle, and in the
first Christian Church, there should have existed a certain uniform type
in the application of messianic passages of the Old Testament, and in
quotations generally, to which different teachers might conform without
being dependent on each other.1 He thinks also that, along with the
close analogy, there is also much which is characteristic in the
different speeches. Not only is this typical system of quotation,
however, a mere conjecture to explain an actual difficulty, but it is
totally inadequate to account for the phenomena. If we suppose, for
instance, that Paul had adopted the totally unhistorical application of
the sixteenth Psalm to the Messiah, is it not a very extraordinary thing
that in all the arguments in his
{89}
Epistles, he does not once refer to it? Even if this be waived, and it
be assumed that he had adopted this interpretation of the Psalm, it will
scarcely be asserted that Paul, whose independence and originality
of mind are so undeniable, and whose intercourse with the apostolical
circle at any time, and most certainly up to the period when this speech
was delivered, was very limited,(1) could so completely have caught the
style and copied the manner of Peter that, on an important occasion like
this, his address should be a mere reproduction of Peter's two speeches
delivered so long before, and when Paul certainly was not present. The
similarity of these discourses does not consist in the mere application
of the same Psalm, but the whole argument, on each occasion, is repeated
with merely sufficient transposition of its various parts to give
a superficial appearance of variety. Words and expressions, rare or
unknown elsewhere, are found in both, and the characteristic differences
which Bleek finds exist only in his own apologetic imagination. Let
it be remembered that the form of the speeches and the language are
generally ascribed to the Author of the Acts. Can any unprejudiced
critic deny that the ideas in the speeches we are considering are
also substantially the same? Is there any appreciable trace of the
originality of Paul in his discourses? There is no ground whatever,
apart from the antecedent belief that the various speeches were actually
delivered by the men to whom they are ascribed, for asserting that we
have here the independent utterances of Peter and Paul. It is internal
evidence alone, and no avowal on the part of the author, which leads to
the conclusion that the form of the speeches is the author's, and there
is no internal evidence
{90}
which requires us to stop at the mere form, and not equally ascribe the
substance to the same source. The speeches in the Acts, generally,
have altogether the character of being the composition of one mind
endeavouring to impart variety of thought and expression to various
speakers, but failing signally either from poverty of invention or
from the purpose of instituting a close parallel in views, as well as
actions, between the two representative Apostles.
Further to illustrate this, let us take another speech of Peter which he
delivers on the occasion of the conversion of Cornelius, and it will be
apparent that it also contains all the elements, so far as it goes, of
Paul's discourse. [------]
{91}
[------]
Again, to take an example from another speaker, we find James
represented as using an expression which had just before been put into
the mouth of Paul, and it is not one in the least degree likely to occur
independently to each. The two passages are as follows:-- [------]
The fundamental similarity between these different speeches cannot
possibly be denied;(2) and it cannot be
{92}
reasonably explained in any other way than by the fact that they were
composed by the author himself, who had the earlier speeches ascribed
to Peter still in his memory when he wrote those of Paul,(1) and who, in
short, had not sufficient dramatic power to create altogether distinct
characters, but simply made his different personages use his own
vocabulary to express his own somewhat limited range of ideas. Setting
his special design aside, his inventive faculty only permitted him to
represent Peter speaking like Paul, and Paul like Peter.
It is argued by some, however, that in the speeches of Peter, for
instance, there are peculiarities of language and expression which show
analogy with the first Epistle bearing his name in the New Testament
Canon,(2) and, on the other hand, traces of translation in some of them
which indicate that these speeches were delivered originally in Aramaic,
and that we have only a version of them by the Author of the Acts, or
by some one from whom he derived them.(3) As regards the first of these
suppositions, a few phrases only have been pointed out, but they are
of no force under any circumstances, and the whole theory is quite
groundless.(4) We do not con-
{93}
consider it worth while to enter upon the discussion, and those who
desire to do so are referred to the works just indicated. There are two
potent reasons which render such an argument of no force, even if the
supposed analogies were in themselves both numerous and striking, which
actually they are not The authenticity of the Epistles bearing the
name of Peter is not only not established, but is by very many eminent
critics absolutely denied; and there is no certainty whatever that any
of the speeches of Peter were delivered in Greek, and the probability
is that most, if not all, of that Apostle's genuine discourses must have
been spoken in Aramaic. It is in fact asserted by apologists that
part or all of the speeches ascribed to him in the Acts must have been
originally Aramaic, although opinion may differ as to the language in
which some of them were spoken. Whether they were delivered in Aramaic,
or whether there be uncertainty on the point, any conclusion from
linguistic analogies with the Epistles is obviously excluded. One
thing is quite undeniable: the supposed analogies are few, and the
peculiarities distinguishing the Author of Acts in these speeches are
extremely numerous and general. Even so thorough an apologist as Tholuck
candidly acknowledges that the attempt to prove the authenticity of the
speeches from linguistic analogies is hopeless. He says: "Nevertheless,
a comparison of the language of the Apostles in their Epistles and in
these speeches must in many respects be less admissible than that of the
character and historical circumstances, for indeed if the language and
their peculiarities be compared, it must first be established that all
the reported speeches were delivered in the Greek language, which is
improbable, and of one of which (xxii. 1, 2) the contrary is expressly
{94}
stated willingly admitting that upon this point difference of opinion is
allowable, we express as the view which we have hitherto held that, from
ch. xx. onwards, the speeches delivered by Paul are reported more in
the language of Luke than in that of Paul."(1) This applies with double
force to Peter,(2) whose speeches there is still greater reason to
believe were delivered in Aramaic, and there is difference of opinion
amongst the critics we have referred to even as to whether these
speeches were translated by the Author of the Acts, or were already
before him in a translated form, and were subsequently re-edited by him.
We have already shown cause for believing that the whole discussion is
groundless, from the fact that the speeches in Acts were simply composed
by the author himself, and are not in any sense historical, and this we
shall hereafter further illustrate.
It may be worth while to consider briefly the arguments advanced for
the theory that some of the speeches show marks of translation. It
is asserted that the speech of Peter at Pentecost, ii. 14 ff., was
delivered in Aramaic.(3) Of course it will be understood that we might
{95}
be quite prepared to agree to this statement as applied to a speech
actually delivered by Peter; but the assertion, so far as the speeches
in Acts are concerned, is based upon what we believe to be the erroneous
supposition that they are genuine reports of discourses. On the
contrary, we maintain that these speeches are mere compositions by
the author of the work. The contention is, however, that the speech
attributed to Peter is the translation of a speech originally delivered
in Aramaic. In ii. 24, Peter is represented as saying: "Whom God raised
up having loosed the pains of death [------], because it is not possible
that he should be held [------] by it." It is argued by Bleek and
others(1) that, as the context proves, the image intended here was
evidently the "snares" or "cords" of death, a meaning which is not
rendered by the Greek word [------]. The confusion is explained, they
contend, when it is supposed that, in his Aramaic speech, Peter made use
of a Hebrew expression, equally found in Aramaic, which means as well
"snares" or "cords" as "pains" of death. The Greek translator, probably
misled by the Septuagint,(2) adopted the latter signification of the
Hebrew word in question, and rendered it [------] "pains," which is
absolutely inappropriate, for, they argue, it is very unnatural to say
of one who had already suffered death, like Christ, that he had been
held prisoner by the "pains" of death, and loosed from them by the
resurrection. There is, however, very little unanimity
{96}
amongst apologists about this passage. Ebrard(1) asserts that [------]
"pains" is the correct translation of the Hebrew expression, as in Ps.
xviii. 5, and that the Hebrew word used always expresses pains of birth,
the plural of the similar word for "cord" or "snare" being different.
Ebrard, therefore, contends that the Psalm (xviii. 5) does not mean bonds
or snares of death but literally "birth-pains of death," by which the
soul is freed from the natural earthly existence as by a second birth
to a glorified spiritual life. We need not enter further into the
discussion of the passage, but it is obvious that it is mere assumption
to assert, on the one hand, that Peter made use of any specific
expression, and, on the other, that there was any error of translation
on the part of the author of Acts. But agreeing that the Hebrew is
erroneously rendered,(2) the only pertinent question is: by whom was the
error in question committed? and the reply beyond any doubt is: by
the lxx. who translate the Hebrew expression in this very way. It is
therefore inadmissible to assert from this phrase the existence of an
Aramaic original of the speech, for the phrase itself is nothing but a
quotation from the Sep-tuagint.(3)
The expression [------] occurs no less than three times in that version:
Ps. xvii. 5 (A. V. xviii.), cxiv. 3 (A. V. cxvi.) and 2 Sam. xxii. 6;
and in Job
{97}
xxxix. 2, we have [------]. When it is remembered that the author of
Acts always quotes the Septuagint version, even when it departs from the
sense of the Hebrew original, and in all probability was only acquainted
with the Old Testament through it, nothing is more natural than the use
of this expression taken from that version; but with the error already
existing there, to ascribe it afresh and independently to the Author
of Acts, upon no other grounds than the assumption that Peter may have
spoken in Aramaic, and used an expression which the author misunderstood
or wrongly rendered, is not permissible. Indeed, we have already pointed
out that, in this very speech, there are quotations of the Old Testament
according to the lxx. put into the mouth of Peter, in which that version
does not accurately render the original.(1)
The next trace of translation advanced by Bleek(2) is found in ii.
33,(3) where Peter speaks of Christ as exalted: "[------]." There can be
no doubt, Bleek argues, that there is here a reference to Psalm ex. 1,
and that the apostle intends to speak of Christ's elevation "_to_ the
right (hand) of God;" whereas the Greek expression rather conveys
the interpretation: "_by_ the right (hand) of God." This expression
certainly comes, he asserts, from a not altogether suitable translation
of the Hebrew. To this on the other hand, much may be objected.
Winer,(4) followed by others, defends the construction, and affirms that
the passage may without
{98}
hesitation, be translated "_to_ the right (hand) of God."(1) In which
case there is no error at all, and the argument falls to the ground.
If it be taken, however, either that the rendering should be or was
intended to be "by the right (hand) of God"(2) i.e., by the power
of God, that would not involve the necessity of admitting an Aramaic
original,(3) because there is no error at all, and the argument simply
is, that being exalted by the right hand of God, Jesus had poured forth
the Holy Spirit; and in the next verse the passage in Ps. ex. 1 (Sept.
cix.) is accurately quoted from the Septuagint version: "Sit thou on
my right (hand)" [------]. In fact, after giving an account of the
crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the speaker ascribes his
subsequent exaltation to the power of God.(4)
We have seen that at least the form of the speeches in Acts is
undoubtedly due to the author of the book, and that he has not been able
to make the speeches of the different personages in his drama differ
materially from each other. We shall hereafter have occasion to examine
further the contents of some of these speeches, and the circumstances
under which it is alleged that they were spoken, and to inquire whether
these do not confirm
{99}
the conclusion hitherto arrived at, that they are not historical, but
merely the free composition of the Author of Acts, and never delivered
at all. Before passing on, however, it may be well to glance for a
moment at one of these speeches, to which we may not have another
opportunity of referring, in order that we may see whether it presents
any traces of inauthenticity and of merely ideal composition.
In the first chapter an account is given of a meeting of the brethren
in order to elect a successor to the traitor Judas. Peter addresses the
assembly, i. 16 if., and it may be well to quote the opening portion of
his speech: 16. "Men (and) brethren, this scripture must needs have
been fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit by the mouth of David spake before
concerning Judas, who became guide to them that took Jesus, 17. because
he was numbered with us and obtained the lot of this ministry. 18.
Now [------] this man purchased a field with the wages of the iniquity
[------], and falling headlong he burst asunder in the midst, and all
his bowels gushed out; 19. and [------] it became known(1) unto all the
dwellers at Jerusalem, so that that field was called in their own tongue
[------] Acheldamach, that is: field of blood. 20. For [------] it is
written in the book of Psalms: 'Let his habitation be desolate, and let
no man dwell therein,' and 'his office let another take,'" &c, &c. Now
let it be remembered that Peter is supposed to be addressing an audience
of Jews in Jerusalem, in the Hebrew or Aramaic language, a few
{100}
weeks after the crucifixion. Is it possible, therefore, that he should
give such an account as that in vs. 18, 19, of the end of Judas, which
he himself, indeed, says was known to all the dwellers at Jerusalem?
Is it possible that, speaking in Aramaic to Jews, probably in most part
living at and near Jerusalem, he could have spoken of the field being so
called by the people of Jerusalem "in their own tongue?" Is it
possible that he should, to such an audience, have translated the word
Acheldamach?
The answer of most unprejudiced critics is that Peter could not have
done so.(1) As de Wette remarks: "In the composition of this speech the
author has not considered historical decorum."(2) This is felt by most
apologists, and many ingenious theories are advanced to explain away
the difficulty. Some affirm that verses 18 and 19 are inserted as a
parenthesis by the Author of the Acts,(3) whilst a larger number contend
that only v. 19 is parenthetic.(4) A very cursory examination of the
passage, however, is sufficient to show that the verses cannot be
separated. Verse 18 is connected with the preceding by the [------], 19
with 18 by [------], and verse 20 refers to 10, as indeed it also does
to 17 and 18, without which the passage from the Psalm, as applied to
Judas, would be unintelligible. Most critics, therefore,
{101}
are agreed that none of the verses can be considered parenthetic.(1)
Some apologists, however, who feel that neither of the obnoxious verses
can be thus explained, endeavour to overcome the difficulty by asserting
that the words: "in their own tongue" [------] and: "that is: the field
of blood" [------] in verse 19, are merely explanatory and inserted by
the Author of Acts.(2) It is unnecessary to say that this explanation
is purely arbitrary, and that there is no ground, except the difficulty
itself, upon which their exclusion from the speech can be based.
In the cases to which we have hitherto referred, the impossibility of
supposing that Peter could have spoken in this way has led writers to
lay the responsibility of unacknowledged interpolations in the speech
upon the Author of Acts, thus at once relieving the Apostle. There are
some apologists, however, who do not adopt this expedient, but attempt
to meet the difficulty in other ways, while accepting the whole as a
speech of Peter. According to one theory, those who object that Peter
could not have thus related the death of Judas to people who must
already have been well acquainted with the circumstances have totally
overlooked the fact, that a peculiar view of what has occurred is taken
in the narrative, and that this peculiar view is the principal point of
it According to the statement made, Judas met his miserable end in the
very field which he had bought with
{102}
the price of blood. It is this circumstance, it appears, which Peter
brings prominently forward and represents as a manifest and tangible
dispensation of Divine justice.(1) Unfortunately, however, this is
clearly an imaginary moral attached to the narrative by the apologist,
and is not the object of the supposed speaker, who rather desires to
justify the forced application to Judas of the quotations in verse 20,
which are directly connected with the preceding by [------]. Moreover,
no explanation is here offered of the extraordinary expressions in verse
19 addressed to citizens of Jerusalem by a Jew in their own tongue.
Another explanation, which includes these points, is still more
striking. With regard to the improbability of Peter's relating, in
such a way, the death of Judas, it is argued that, according to the
Evangelists, the disciples went from Jerusalem back to Galilee some
eight days after the resurrection, and only returned, earlier than
usual, before Pentecost to await the fulfilment of the promise of Jesus.
Peter and his companions, it is supposed, only after their return became
acquainted with the fate of Judas, which had taken place during their
absence, and the matter was, therefore, quite new to them; besides, it
is added, a speaker is often obliged on account of some connection with
his subject to relate facts already known.(2) It is true that some of
the Evangelists represent this return to Galilee(3) as having taken
place, but the author of the third Gospel and the Acts not only
3 Mt. xxviii. 10, 10; Mk. xvi. 7; John xxi. 1. I)r. Farrar,
somewhat pertinently, asks: "Why did they (the disciples)
not go to Galilee immediately on receiving our Lord's
message? The circumstance is unexplained... Perhaps the
entire message of Jesus to them is not recorded; perhaps
they awaited the end of the feast." Life of Christ, ii. p.
441, note 1.
{103}
does not do so but excludes it.(1) In the third Gospel (xxiv. 49), Jesus
commands the disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they are endued with
power from on high, and then, after blessing them, he is parted from
them, and they return from Bethany to Jerusalem.(2) In Acts, the author
again takes up the theme, and whilst evidently giving later traditions
regarding the appearances after the resurrection, he adheres to his
version of the story regarding the command to stay in Jerusalem. In i.
4, he says: "And being assembled together with them he commanded
them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the
Father," etc.; and here again, verse 12, the disciples are represented,
just before Peter's speech is supposed to have been delivered, as
returning from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem. The Author of Acts and
of the third Synoptic, therefore, gives no countenance to this theory.
Besides, setting all this aside, the apologetic hypothesis we are
discussing is quite excluded upon other grounds. If we suppose that
the disciples did go into Galilee for a time, we find them again in
Jerusalem at the election of the successor to Judas, and there is no
reason to believe that they had only just returned. The Acts not only
allow of no interval at all for the journey to Galilee between i. 12-14
and 15 ff., but by the simple statement
2 We shall hereafter have to go more fully into this, and
shall not discuss it here. The third Gospel really
represents the Ascension as taking place on the day of the
Resurrection; and Acts, whilst giving later tradition, and
making the Ascension occur forty days after, does not amend,
but confirms the previously enunciated view that the
disciples had been ordered to stay in Jerusalem.
{104}
with which our episode commences, v. 15: "And in these days" [------],
Peter conveys anything but the impression of any very recent return
to Jerusalem. If the Apostles had been even a few days there, the
incongruity of the speech would remain undiminished; for the 120
brethren who are said to have been present must chiefly have been
residents in Jerusalem, and cannot be. supposed also to have been
absent, and, in any case, events which are represented as so well known
to all the dwellers in Jerusalem, must certainly have been familiar
to the small Christian community, whose interest in the matter was so
specially great. Moreover, according to the first Synoptic, as soon
as Judas sees that Jesus is condemned, he brings the money back to the
chief priests, casts it down and goes and hangs himself, xxvii. 3 ff.
This is related even before the final condemnation of Jesus and before
his crucifixion, and the reader is led to believe that Judas at once put
an end to himself, so that the disciples, who are represented as being
still in Jerusalem for at least eight days after the resurrection, must
have been there at the time. With regard to the singular expressions in
verse 19, this theory goes on to suppose that, out of consideration for
Greek fellow-believers, Peter had probably already begun to speak in
the Greek tongue; and when he designates the language of the dwellers
in Jerusalem as "their own dialect," he does not thereby mean Hebrew
in itself, but their own expression, the peculiar confession of the
opposite party, which admitted the cruel treachery towards Jesus, in
that they named the piece of ground Hakel Damah.(1) Here, again, what
assumptions! It is generally recognized that Peter must have spoken in
{105}
Aramaic, and even if he did not, [------](1) cannot mean anything but
the language of "all the-dwellers at Jerusalem." In a speech delivered
at Jerusalem, in any language, to an audience consisting at least in
considerable part of inhabitants of the place, and certainly almost
entirely of persons whose native tongue was Aramaic, to tell them
that the inhabitants called a certain field "in their own tongue"
Acheldamach, giving them at the same time a translation of the word, is
inconceivable to most critics, even including apologists.
There is another point which indicates not only that this theory is
inadequate to solve the difficulty, but that the speech could not have
been delivered by Peter a few weeks after the occurrences related. It
is stated that the circumstances narrated were so well known to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, that the field was called in their own tongue
Acheldamach. The origin of this name is not ascribed to the priests or
rulers, but to the people, and it is not to be supposed that a popular
name could have become attached to this field, and so generally adopted
as the text represents, within the very short time which could have
elapsed between the death of Judas and the delivery of this speech. Be
it remembered that from the time of the crucifixion to Pentecost the
interval was in all only about seven weeks, and that this speech was
made some time before Pentecost, how long we cannot tell, but in any
case, the interval was much too brief to permit of the popular adoption
of the name.(2) The whole passage has much more the character of a
narrative of
{106}
events which had occurred at a time long past, than of circumstances
which had taken place a few days before.
The obvious conclusion is that this speech was never spoken by Peter,
but is a much later composition put into his mouth,1 and written for
Greek readers, who required to be told about Judas, and for whose
benefit the Hebrew name of the field, inserted for local colouring, had
to be translated. This is confirmed by several circumstances, to which
we may refer. We shall not dwell much upon the fact that Peter is
represented as applying to Judas two passages quoted from the Septuagint
version of Ps. lxix. 25 (Sept lxviii.) and Ps. cix. (Sept cviii.) which,
historically, cannot for a moment be sustained as referring to
him.(2) The first of these Psalms is quoted freely, and moreover the
denunciations in the original being against a plurality of enemies,
it can only be made applicable to Judas by altering the plural "their"
[------] to "his habitation" [------], a considerable liberty to take
with prophecy. The Holy Spirit is said to have
{107}
spoken this prophecy "concerning Judas" "by the mouth of David," but
modern research has led critics to hold it as most probable that neither
Ps. lxix.(1) nor Ps. cix.(2) was composed by David at all. As we know
nothing of Peter's usual system of exegesis, however, very little weight
as evidence can be attached to this. On the other hand, it is clear that
a considerable time must have elapsed before these two passages from the
Psalms could have become applied to the death of Judas.(3)
The account which is given of the fate of Judas is contradictory to
that given in the first Synoptic and cannot be reconciled with it,
but follows a different tradition.(4) According to the first Synoptic
(xxvii. 3 ff.), Judas brings back the thirty pieces of silver, casts
them down in the Temple, and then goes and hangs himself. The chief
priests take the money and buy with it the Potter's field, which is not
said to have had any other connection with Judas, as a place for the
burial of strangers. In the Acts, Judas himself buys a field as a
private possession, and instead
{108}
of committing suicide by hanging, he is represented as dying from a fall
in this field, which is evidently regarded as a special judgment upon
him for his crime. The apologetic attempts to reconcile these two
narratives,(1) are truly lamentable. Beyond calling attention to this
amongst other phenomena presented in this speech, however, we have not
further to do with the point at present We have already devoted too much
space to Peter's first address, and we now pass on to more important
topics.
CHAPTER IV. PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.
We now enter upon a portion of our examination of the Acts which is
so full of interest in itself that peculiar care will be requisite to
restrain ourselves within necessary limits. Hitherto our attention has
been mainly confined to the internal phenomena presented by the document
before us, with comparatively little aid from external testimony,
and although the results of such criticism have been of no equivocal
character, the historical veracity of the Acts has not yet been tested
by direct comparison with other sources of information. We now propose
to examine, as briefly as may be, some of the historical statements in
themselves, and by the light of information derived from contemporary
witnesses of unimpeachable authority, and to confront them with
well-established facts in the annals of the first two centuries. This
leads us to the borders not only of one of the greatest controversies
which has for half a century occupied theological criticism, but also
of still more important questions regarding the original character and
systematic development of Christianity itself. The latter we must here
resolutely pass almost unnoticed, and into the former we shall only
enter so far as is absolutely necessary to the special object of our
inquiry. The document before us professes to give a narrative of the
progress of the
{110}
primitive Church from its first formation in the midst of Mosaism, with
strong Judaistic rules and prejudices, up to that liberal universalism
which freely admitted the christian Gentile, upon equal terms, into
communion with the christian Jew. The question with which we are
concerned is strictly this: Is the account in the Acts of the Apostles
of the successive steps by which Christianity emerged from Judaism, and,
shaking off the restrictions and obligations of the Mosaic law, admitted
the Gentiles to a full participation of its privileges historically
true? Is the representation which is made of the conduct and teaching
of the older Apostles on the one hand, and of Paul on the other, and of
their mutual relations an accurate one? Can the Acts of the Apostles, in
short, be considered a sober and veracious history of so important and
interesting an epoch of the christian Church? This has been vehemently
disputed or denied, and the discussion, extending on every side into
important collateral issues, forms in itself a literature of voluminous
extent and profound interest. Our path now lies through this debatable
land; but although the controversy as to the connection of Paul with
the development of Christianity and his relation to the Apostles of the
Circumcision cannot be altogether avoided, it only partially concerns
us. We are freed from the necessity of advancing any particular theory,
and have here no further interest in it than to inquire whether the
narrative of the Acts is historical or not. If, therefore, avoiding
many important but unnecessary questions, and restricting ourselves to
a straight course across the great controversy, we seem to deal
insufficiently with the general subject, it must be remembered that the
argument is merely incidental to our inquiry, and that we not only do
not
{111}
pretend to exhaust it, but distinctly endeavour to reduce our share in
it to the smallest limits compatible with our immediate object.
According to the narrative of the Acts of the Apostles, the apostolic
age presents a most edifying example of concord and moderation. The
emancipation of the Church from Mosaic restrictions was effected without
strife or heart-burning, and the freedom of the Gospel, if not attained
without hesitation, was finally proclaimed with singular largeness
of mind and philosophic liberality. The teaching of Paul differed in
nothing from that of the elder apostles. The christian universalism,
which so many suppose to have specially characterized the great Apostle
of the Gentiles, was not only shared, but even anticipated, by the elder
Apostles. So far from opposing the free admission of the Gentiles to the
christian community, Peter declares himself to have been chosen of God
that by his voice they should hear the gospel,(1) proclaims that
there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile,(2) and advocates
the abrogation, in their case at least, of the Mosaic law.(3) James,
whatever his private predilections may be, exhibits almost equal
forbearance and desire of conciliation. In fact, whatever anomalies and
contradictions may be discoverable, upon close examination, beneath this
smooth and brilliant surface, the picture superficially presented is
one of singular harmony and peace. On the other hand, instead of that
sensitive independence and self-reliance of character which has been
ascribed to the Apostle Paul, we find him represented in the Acts as
submissive to the authority of the "Pillars" of the church, ready to
conform to their
{112}
counsels and bow to their decrees, and as seizing every opportunity
of visiting Jerusalem, and coming in contact with that stronghold
of Judaism. Instead of the Apostle of the Gentiles, preaching the
abrogation of the law, and more than suspected of leading the Jews
to apostatize from Moses,(1) we find a man even scrupulous in his
observance of Mosaic customs, taking vows upon him, circumcising Timothy
with his own hand, and declaring at the close of his career, when a
prisoner at Rome, that he "did nothing against the people or the customs
of the fathers."(2) There is no trace of angry controversy, of jealous
susceptibility, of dogmatic difference in the circle of the apostles.
The intercourse of Paul with the leaders of the Judaistic party is of
the most unbroken pleasantness and amity. Of opposition to his ministry,
or doubt of his apostleship, whether on the part of the Three, or of
those who identified themselves with their teaching, we have no hint. We
must endeavour to ascertain whether this is a true representation of
the early development of the Church, and of the momentous history of the
apostolic age.
In the epistles of Paul we have, at least to some extent, the means of
testing the accuracy of the statements of the Acts with regard to him
and the early history of the Church. The Epistles to the Galatians,
to the Corinthians (2), and to the Romans are generally admitted to be
genuine,(3) and can be freely used for this purpose. To these we shall
limit our attention, excluding other epistles, whose authenticity is
either questioned or denied, but in doing so no material capable of
really affecting the result is set aside. For the same reason, we
{113}
must reject any evidence to be derived from the so-called Epistles of
Peter and James, at least so far as they are supposed to represent the
opinions of Peter and James, but here again it will be found that they
do not materially affect the points immediately before us. The veracity
of the Acts of the Apostles being the very point which is in question,
it is unnecessary to say that we have to subject the narrative to
examination, and by no means to assume the correctness of any statements
we find in it. At the same time it must be our endeavour to collect from
this document such indications--and they will frequently be valuable--of
the true history of the occurrences related, as may be presented between
the lines of the text.
In the absence of fuller information, it must not be forgotten that
human nature in the first century of our era was very much what it is in
the nineteenth, and certain facts being clearly established, it will
not be difficult to infer many details which cannot now be positively
demonstrated. The Epistle to the Galatians, however, will be our most
invaluable guide. Dealing, as it does, with some of the principal
episodes of the Acts, we are enabled by the words of the apostle Paul
himself, which have all the accent of truth and vehement earnestness, to
control the narrative of the unknown writer of that work. And where this
source fails, we have the unsuspected testimony of his other epistles,
and of later ecclesiastical history to assist our inquiry.
The problem then which we have to consider is the manner in which the
primitive Church emerged from its earliest form, as a Jewish institution
with Mosaic restrictions and Israelitish exclusiveness, and finally
opened wide its doors to the uncircumcised Gentile, and assumed
{114}
the character of a universal religion. In order to understand the
nature of the case, and be able to estimate aright the solution which is
presented by the narrative in the Acts of the Apostles, it is necessary
that we should obtain a clear view of the actual characteristics of
Christianity at the period when that history begins. We must endeavour
to understand precisely what view the Apostles had formed of their
position in regard to Judaism, and of the duty which devolved upon
them of propagating the Gospel. It is obvious that we cannot rightly
appreciate the amount of persuasion requisite to transform the primitive
Church from Jewish exclusive-ness to Christian universality, without
ascertaining the probable amount of long rooted conviction and religious
prejudice or principle which had to be overcome before that great change
could be effected.
We shall not here enter upon any argument as to the precise views which
the Founder of Christianity may have held as to his own person and work,
nor shall we attempt to sift the traditions of his life and teaching
which have been handed down to us, and to separate the genuine spiritual
nucleus from the grosser matter by which it has been enveloped and
obscured. We have much more to do with the view which others took of the
matter, and, looking at the Gospels as representations of that which was
accepted as the orthodox view regarding the teaching of Jesus, they
are almost as useful for our present purpose as if they had been more
spiritual and less popular expositions of his views. What the Master
was understood to teach is more important for the history of the first
century than what he actually taught without being understood. Nothing
is more certain than the fact that Christianity, originally, was
{115}
developed out of Judaism, and that its advent was historically
prepared by the course of the Mosaic system, to which it was so closely
related.(1) In its first stages during the apostolic age, it had no
higher ambition than to be, and to be considered, the continuation
and the fulfilment of Judaism, its final and triumphant phase. The
substantial identity of primitive Christianity with true Judaism was
at first never called in question; it was considered a mere internal
movement of Judaism, its development and completion, but by no means its
mutilation. The idea of Christianity as a new religion never entered
the minds of the Twelve or of the first believers, nor, as we shall
presently see, was it so regarded by the Jews themselves. It was
in fact, originally, nothing more than a sect of Judaism, holding a
particular view of one point in the creed and, for a very long period,
it was considered so by others, and was in no way distinguished from
the rest of Mosaism.(2) Even in the Acts there are traces of this, Paul
being called "a ringleader of the sect [------] of the Nazarenes,"(3)
and the Jews of Rome being represented as referring to Christianity by
this term.(4) Paul before the Council not
{116}
only does not scruple to call himself "a Pharisee, the son of a
Pharisee," but the Pharisees take part with him against the more
unorthodox and hated sect of the Sadducees.(1) For eighteen centuries
disputes have fiercely raged over the creed of Christendom, and the
ingenuity of countless divines has been exhausted in deducing mystic
dogmas from the primitive teaching, but if there be one thing more
remarkable than another in that teaching, according to the Synoptics,
it is its perfect simplicity. Jesus did not appear with a ready-made
theology, and imposed no elaborate system of doctrine upon his
disciples. Throughout the prophetic period of Mosaism, one hope had
sustained the people of Israel in all their sufferings and reverses:
that the fortunes of the nation should finally be retrieved by a scion
of the race of David, under whose rule it should be restored to a future
of unexampled splendour and prosperity. The expectation of the Messiah,
under frequently modified aspects, had formed a living part in the
national faith of Israel. Primitive Christianity, sharing but recasting
this ancient hope, was only distinguished from Judaism, with whose
worship it continued in all points united, by a single doctrine, which
was in itself merely a modification of the national idea: the belief
that Jesus of Nazareth was actually the Christ, the promised Messiah.
This was substantially the whole of its creed.(2)
{117}
The synoptic Gospels, and more especially the first,(1) are clearly a
history of Jesus as the Messiah of the house of David, so long announced
and expected, and whose life and even his death and resurrection are
shown to be the fulfilment of a series of Old Testament prophecies.(2)
When his birth is announced to Mary, he is described as the great one,
who is to sit on the throne of David his father, and reign over the
house of Jacob for ever,(3) and the good tidings of great joy to all the
people [------], that the Messiah is born that day in the city of David,
are proclaimed by the angel to the shepherds of the plain.(4) Synieon
takes the child in his arms and blesses God that the words of the Holy
Spirit are accomplished, that he should not die before he had seen the
Lord's anointed, the Messiah, the consolation of Israel.(5) The Magi
come to his cradle in Bethlehem, the birthplace of the Messiah indicated
by the prophet,(6) to do homage to him who is born King of the Jews,(7)
and there Herod seeks to destroy him,(8) fulfilling another
{118}
prophecy.(1) His flight into Egypt and return to Nazareth are equally
in fulfilment of prophecies.(2) John the Baptist, whose own birth as
the forerunner of the Messiah had been foretold,(3) goes before him
preparing the way of the Lord, and announcing that the Messianic kingdom
is at hand. According to the fourth Gospel, some of the twelve had been
disciples of the Baptist, and follow Jesus on their master's assurance
that he is the Messiah. One of these, Andrew, induces his brother Simon
Peter also to go after him by the announcement:--"We have found the
Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ" (i. 35ff. 41). And
Philip tells Nathaniel:--"We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and
the Prophets did write: Jesus, the son of Joseph, who is from Nazareth"
(i. 45). When he has commenced his own public ministry, Jesus is
represented as asking his disciples:--"Who do men say that I am?" and
setting aside the popular conjectures that he is John the Baptist,
Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets, by the still more direct
question:--"And whom do ye say that I am? Simon Peter answered
and said:--Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." And in
consequence of this recognition of his Messiahship, Jesus rejoins:--"And
I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
Church."(4)
{119}
It is quite apart from our present object to point out the singular
feats of exegesis and perversions of historical S3nse by which passages
of the Old Testament are forced to show that every event in the history,
and even the startling novelty of a suffering and crucified Messiah,
which to Jews was a stumbling-block and to Gentiles folly,(1) had been
foretold by the prophets. From first to last the Gospels strive to prove
that Jesus was the Messiah, and connect him indissolubly with the
Old Testament. The Messianic key-note, which is struck at the outset,
regulates the strain to the close. The disciples on the way to Emmaus,
appalled by the ignominious death of their Master, sadly confide to
the stranger their vanished hope that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they now
merely call "a prophet mighty in word and deed before God and all the
people," was the Christ "who was about to redeem Israel," and Jesus
himself replies:--"O foolish and slow of heart to believe all that the
prophets spake! Was it not needful that the Christ (Messiah) should
suffer these things and enter into his glory? And, beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning himself."(2) Then, again, when he appears to the
eleven, immediately after, at Jerusalem, he says:--"'These are the words
that I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be
fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses and the prophets and
the Psalms concerning me.' Then opened he their understanding that
they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them:--'Thus it is
written, that the Christ should suffer and rise from the dead the third
day.'"(3)
{120}
The crucifixion and death of Jesus introduced the first elements of
rupture with Judaism, to which they formed the great stumbling-block.(1)
The conception of a suffering and despised Messiah could naturally never
have occurred to a Jewish mind.(2) The first effort of Christianity,
therefore, was to repair the apparent breach by proving that the
suffering Messiah had actually been foretold by the prophets; and to
re-establish the Messianic character of Jesus, by the evidence of his
resurrection.(3) But, above all, the momentary deviation from orthodox
Jewish ideas regarding the Messiah was retraced by the representation
of a speedy second advent, in glory, of the once rejected Messiah to
restore the kingdom of Israel, by which the ancient hopes of the people
became reconciled with the new expectation of Christians. Even before
the Ascension, the disciples are represented in the Acts as asking
the risen Jesus:--"Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to
Israel?"(4) There can be no doubt of the reality and
{121}
universality of the belief, in the Apostolic Church, in the immediate
return of the glorified Messiah and speedy "end of all things."(1)
The substance of the preaching of the Apostles in Acts, simply is that
Jesus is the Christ,(2) the expected Messiah.(3) Their chief aim is
to prove that his sufferings and death had been foretold by the
prophets,(4) and that his resurrection establishes his claim to the
title.(5) The simplicity of the creed is illustrated by the rapidity
with which converts are made. After a few words, on one occasion, three
thousand(6) and, on another, five thousand(7) are at once converted. No
lengthened instruction or preparation was requisite for admission into
the Church.(8) As soon as a Jew acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah he
thereby became a Christian.(9) As soon as the
{122}
three thousand converts at Pentecost made this confession of faith
they were baptized.(1) The Ethiopian is converted whilst passing in his
chariot, and is immediately baptized,(2) as are likewise Cornelius
and his household after a short address from Peter.(3) The new faith
involved no abandonment of the old. On the contrary, the advent of the
Messiah was so essential a part of Judaic belief, and the Messianic
claim of Jesus was so completely based by the Apostles on the fulfilment
of prophecy--"showing by the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ,"--that
recognition of the fact rather constituted firmer adhesion to Mosaism,
and deeper faith in the inviolable truth of the Covenant with Israel. If
there had been no Mosaism, so to say, there could have been no Messiah.
So far from being opposed either to the form or spirit of the religion
of Israel, the proclamation of the Messiah was its necessary complement,
and could only be intelligible by confirmation of its truth and
maintenance of its validity. Christianity--belief in the Messiah--in its
earlier phases, drew its whole nourishment from roots that sank deeply
into Mosaism. It was indeed nothing more than Mosaism in a developed
form. The only difference between the Jew and the Christian was that the
latter believed the Messiah to have already appeared in Jesus, whilst
the former still expected him in the future;(4) though even this
difference
{123}
was singularly diminished, in appearance at least, by the Christian
expectation of the second advent.
It is exceedingly important to ascertain, under these circumstances,
what was the impression of the Apostles as to the relation of believers
to Judaism and to Mosaic observances, although it must be clear to any
one who impartially considers the origin and historical antecedents of
the Christian faith, that very little doubt can have existed in their
minds on the subject. The teaching of Jesus, as recorded in the synoptic
Gospels, is by no means of a doubtful character, more especially when
the sanctity of the Mosaic system in the eyes of a Jew is borne in mind.
It must be apparent that, in order to remove the obligation of a Law
and form of worship believed to have been, in the most direct sense,
instituted by God himself, the most clear, strong, and reiterated order
would have been requisite. No one can reasonably maintain that a few
spiritual expressions directed against the bare letter and abuse of
the law, which were scarcely understood by the hearers, could have been
intended to abolish a system so firmly planted, or to overthrow Jewish
institutions of such antiquity and national importance, much less that
they could be taken in this sense by the disciples. A few passages in
the Gospels, therefore, which may bear the interpretation of having
foreseen the eventual supersession of Mosaism by his own more spiritual
principles, must not be strained to support the idea that Jesus taught
disregard of the Law. His very distinct and positive lessons, conveyed
both by precept and practice, show, on the contrary, that not only he
did not intend to attack pure Mosaism, but that he was understood both
directly and by inference to recognise and confirm it. In the Sermon on
the Mount, Jesus
{124}
states to the disciples in the most positive manner:--"Think not that
I came to destroy the law or the prophets; I came not to destroy but to
fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot
or one tittle shall not pass from the law, till all be accomplished."(1)
Whether the last phrase be interpreted: till all the law be
accomplished, or till all things appointed to occur be accomplished, the
effect is the same. One clear explicit declaration like this, under the
circumstances, would outweigh a host of doubtful expressions. Not only
does Jesus in this passage directly repudiate any idea of attacking
the law and the prophets, but, in representing his mission as their
fulfilment, he affirms them, and associates his own work in the closest
way with theirs. If there were any uncertainty, however, as to
the meaning of his words it would be removed by the
continuation:--"Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these
commandments, even the least, and shall teach men so, he shall be called
least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them,
he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."(2) It would be
difficult for teaching to be more decisive in favour of the maintenance
of the law, and this instruction, according to the first Synoptic, was
specially directed to the disciples.(3) When Jesus goes on to show that
their righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, and
to add to the letter of the law, as interpreted by those of old, his own
profound interpretation of its
{125}
spirit, he only intensifies, without limiting, the operation of the law;
he merely spiritualises it. He does no more than this in his lessons
regarding the observance of the Sabbath. He did not in point of fact
attack the genuine Mosaic institution of the day of rest at all, but
merely the intolerable literalism by which its observance had been made
a burden instead of "a delight." He justified his variation from the
traditional teaching and practice of his time, however, by appeals to
Scriptural precedent.(1)
As a recent writer has said: "....the observance of the Sabbath, which
had been intended to secure for weary men a rest full of love and peace
and mercy, had become a mere national Fetish--a barren custom fenced in
with the most frivolous and senseless restrictions."(2) Jesus restored
its original significance. In restricting some of the permissive clauses
of the Law, on the other hand, he acted precisely in the same spirit.
He dealt with the Law not with the temper of a revolutionist, but of a
reformer, and his reforms, so far from affecting its permanence, are a
virtual confirmation of the rest of the code.(3) Ritschl, whose views on
this point will have some weight with apologists, combats the idea
that Jesus merely confirmed the Mosaic moral law, and abolished the
ceremonial law. Referring to one particular point of importance, he
says:--"He certainly contests the duty of the Sabbath rest, the value of
purifications and sacrifices, and the validity of divorce; on the other
hand, he leaves unattacked the value of circumcision, whose regulation
is generally reckoned as part of the
{126}
ceremonial law; and nothing justifies the conclusion that Jesus
estimated it in the same way as Justin Martyr, and the other Gentile
Christian Church teachers, who place it on the same line as the
ceremonies. The only passage in which Jesus touches upon circumcision
(John vii. 22) rather proves that, as an institution of the patriarchs,
he attributes to it peculiar sanctity. Moreover, when Jesus, with
unmistakable intention, confines his own personal ministry to the
Israelitish people (Mk. vii. 27, Mt. x. 5, 6), he thereby recognises
their prior right of participation in the Kingdom of God, and also,
indirectly, circumcision as the sign of the preference of this people.
The distinction of circumcision from ceremonies, besides, is perfectly
intelligible from the Old Testament. Through circumcision, to wit, is
the Israelite, sprung from the people of the Covenant, indicated as
sanctified by God; through purification, sacrifice, Sabbath-rest must
he continually sanctify himself for God. So long, therefore, as the
conception of the people of the Covenant is maintained, circumcision
cannot be abandoned, whilst even the prophets have pointed to the merely
relative importance of the Mosaic worship."(1)
Jesus everywhere in the Gospels recognises the divine origin of the
law,(2) and he quotes the predictions of the prophets as absolute
evidence of his own pretensions. To those who ask him the way to
eternal life he indicates its commandments,(3) and he even enjoins the
observance of its ceremonial rites.(4) Jesus did not abrogate the
{127}
Mosaic law; but, on the contrary, by his example as well as his
precepts, he practically confirmed it.(1)
According to the statements of the Gospels, Jesus himself observed the
prescriptions of the Mosaic law.(2) From his birth he had been brought
up in its worship.(3) He was circumcised on the eighth day.(4) "And when
the days of their purification were accomplished, according to the law
of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord,
even as it is written in the law of the Lord: Every male, &c, &c, and
to give a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the
Lord," &c, &c.(5) Every year his parents went to Jerusalem at the feast
of the Passover,(6) and this practice he continued till the close of his
life. "As his custom was, he went into the Synagogue (at Nazareth) and
stood up to read."(7) According to the fourth Gospel, Jesus goes up to
Jerusalem for the various festivals of the Jews,(8) and the feast of
the Passover, according to the Synoptics, was the last memorable supper
eaten
{128}
with his disciples,(1) the third Synoptic representing him as saying:
"With desire I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;
for I say unto you that I shall not any more eat it until it be
fulfilled hi the kingdom of God."(2) However exceptional the character
of Jesus, and however elevated his views, it is undeniable that he lived
and died a Jew, conforming to the ordinances of the Mosaic law in all
essential points, and not holding himself aloof from the worship of the
Temple which he purified. The influence which his adherence to the
forms of Judaism must have exerted over his followers(3) can scarcely
be exaggerated, and the fact must ever be carefully borne in mind in
estimating the conduct of the Apostles and of the primitive Christian
community after his death.
As befitted the character of the Jewish Messiah, the sphere of the
ministry of Jesus and the arrangements for the proclamation of the
Gospel were strictly and even intensely, Judaic. Jesus attached to his
person twelve disciples, a number clearly typical of the twelve tribes
of the people of Israel;(4) and this reference is distinctly adopted
when Jesus is represented, in the Synoptics, as promising that, in the
Messianic kingdom, "when the Son
{129}
of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory," the Twelve also "shall sit
upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel;"(1) a promise
which, according to the third Synoptist, is actually made during the
last supper.(2) In the Apocalypse, which, "of all the writings of the
New Testament is most thoroughly Jewish in its language and imagery,"(3)
the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb are written upon the twelve
foundations of the wall of the heavenly Jerusalem, upon the twelve gates
of which, through which alone access to the city can be obtained, are
the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.(4) Jesus
himself limited his teaching to the Jews, and was strictly "a minister
of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made
unto the fathers."(5) To the prayer of the Canaanitish woman: "Have
mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David," unlike his gracious demeanour to her
of the bloody issue,(6) Jesus, at first, it is said, "answered her not
a word;" and even when besought by the disciples--not to heal her
daughter, but--to "send her away," he makes the emphatic declaration: "I
was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel."(7) To her
continued appeals he lays
{130}
down the principle: "It is not lawful to take the children's bread and
cast it to the dogs." If after these exclusive sentences the boon is
finally granted, it is as of the crumbs(1) which fall from the master's
table.(2) The modified expression(3) in the second Gospel: "Let the
children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's
bread and cast it to the dogs;" does not affect the case, for it equally
represents exclusion from the privileges of Israel, and the Messianic
idea fully contemplated a certain grace to the heathen when the children
were filled. The expression regarding casting, the children's bread "to
the dogs" is clearly in reference to the Gentiles, who were so called by
the Jews.(4) A similar, though still stronger use of such expressions,
might be pointed out in the Sermon on the Mount in the first
{131}
Gospel (vii. 6): "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither
cast your pearls before swine." It is certain that the Jews were in
the habit of speaking of the heathen both as dogs and swine--unclean
animals,--and Hilgenfeld,(1) and some other critics, see in this verse
a reference to the Gentiles. We do not, however, press this application
which is, and may be, disputed, but merely mention it and pass on. There
can be no doubt, however, of the exclusive references to the Gentiles in
the same sermon, and other passages, where the disciples are enjoined
to practise a higher righteousness than the Gentiles. "Do not even the
publicans... do not even the Gentiles or sinners the same things."(2)
"Take no thought, &c, for after all these things do the Gentiles seek;
but seek ye, &c, &c."(3) The contrast is precisely that put with some
irony by Paul, making use of the common Jewish expression "sinner" as
almost equivalent for "Gentile;"(4) In another place the first Synoptic
represents Jesus as teaching his disciples how to deal with a brother
who sins against them, and as the final resource, when every effort at
reconciliation and justice has failed, he says: "Let him be unto thee
as the Gentile [------] and the publican." (Mt. xviii. 17.) He could
not express in a stronger way to a Jewish mind the idea of social and
religious excommunication.
The instructions which Jesus gives in sending out the Twelve, however,
express the exclusiveness of the
{132}
Messianic mission, in the first instance at least, to the Jews, in a
very marked manner. Jesus commands his disciples: "Go not into a way of
the Gentiles [------] and into a city of the Samaritans enter ye not;
but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye
go, preach, saying: The kingdom of heaven is at hand."(1) As if more
emphatically to mark the limitation of the mission, the assurance is
seriously added: "For verily I say unto you, ye shall not have gone over
the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man come."(2) It will be observed
that Jesus here charges the Twelve to go rather "to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel" in the same words that he employs to the
Canaanitish woman to describe the exclusive destination of his own
ministry.(3) In coupling the Samaritans with the Gentiles there is
merely an expression of the intense antipathy of the Jews against them,
as a mixed and, we may say, renegade race, excluded from the Jewish
worship although circumcised, intercourse with whom is to this day
almost regarded as pollution.(4) The third Gospel, which omits the
restrictive instructions of Jesus to the Twelve given by the first
Synoptist, introduces another episode of the same description: the
appointment and mission of Seventy disciples,(6) to which we must very
briefly refer. No mention whatever is made of this incident in the other
Gospels, and these disciples are not referred to in any other part of
the New Testament.(6) Even Eusebius remarks that no
{133}
catalogue of them is anywhere given,(1) and, after naming a few persons,
who were said by tradition to have been of their number, he points out
that more than seventy disciples appear, for instance, according to
the testimony of Paul.(2) It will be observed that the instructions, at
least in considerable part, supposed to be given to the Seventy in the
third. Synoptic are, in the first, the very instructions given to the
Twelve. There has been much discussion regarding the whole episode,
which need not here be minutely referred to. For various reasons the
majority of critics impugn its historical character.(3) A large number
of these, as well as other writers, consider that the narrative of this
appointment of seventy disciples, the number of the nations of the earth
according to Jewish ideas, was introduced in Pauline universalistic
interest,(4) or, at least, that the number is
{134}
typical of Gentile conversion, in contrast with that of the Twelve who
represent the more strictly Judaic limitation of the Messianic mission;
and they seem to hold that the preaching of the seventy is represented
as not confined to Judaea, but as extending to Samaria, and that it thus
denoted the destination of the Gospel also to the Gentiles. On the
other hand, other critics, many, though by no means all, of whom do
not question the authenticity of the passage, are disposed to deny
the Pauline tendency, and any special connection with a mission to
the Gentiles, and rather to see in the number seventy a reference to
well-known Judaistic institutions.(1) It is true that the number of
the nations was set down at seventy by Jewish tradition,(2) but, on the
other hand, it was the number of the elders chosen by Moses from amongst
the children of Israel by God's command to help him, and to whom God
gave of his spirit(3)s and also of the national
{135}
Sanhedrin, which, according to the Mischna,(1) still represented the
Mosaic council. This view receives confirmation from the Clementine
Recognitions in the following passage: "He therefore chose us twelve who
first believed in him, whom he named Apostles; afterwards seventy-two
other disciples of most approved goodness, that even in this way
recognising the similitude of Moses the multitude might believe that
this is the prophet to come whom Moses foretold."(2) The passage here
referred to is twice quoted in the Acts: "Moses indeed said: A prophet
will the Lord our God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like
unto me," &c.(3) On examination, we do not find that there is any ground
for the assertion that the seventy disciples were sent to the Samaritans
or Gentiles, or were in any way connected with universalistic ideas.
Jesus had "stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem," and sent
messengers before him who "went and entered into a village of the
Samaritans to make ready for him," but they repulsed him, "because his
face was as though he would go to Jerusalem."(4) There is a decided
break, however, before the appointment of the seventy. "After these
things [------] the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them
two and two before his face into every city and place whither he himself
was about to come."(5) There is not a single word in the instructions
(136}
given to them which justifies the conclusion that they were sent to
Samaria, and only the inference from the number seventy, taken as
typical of the nations, suggests it. That inference is not sufficiently
attested, and the slightness of the use made of the seventy disciples
in the third Gospel--this occasion being the only one on which they are
mentioned, and no specific intimation of any mission to all people being
here given--does not favour the theory of Pauline tendency. So far as we
are concerned, however, the point is unimportant. Those who assert the
universalistic character of the episode generally deny its authenticity;
most of those who accept it as historical deny its universalism.
The order to go and teach all nations, however, by no means carries us
beyond strictly Messianic limits. Whilst the Jews expected the Messiah
to restore the people of Israel to their own Holy Land and crown them
with unexampled prosperity and peace, revenging their past sorrows upon
their enemies, and granting them supremacy over all the earth, they
likewise held that one of the Messianic glories was to be the conversion
of the Gentiles to the worship of Jahveh. This is the burden of the
prophets, and it requires no proof. The Jews, as the people with whom
God had entered into Covenant, were first to be received into the
kingdom. "Let the children first be filled,"(1) and then the heathen
might partake of the bread. Regarding the ultimate conversion of the
Gentiles, therefore, there was no doubt; the only questions were as to
the time and the conditions of admission into the national fellowship.
As to the time, there never had been any expectation that the heathen
could be turned to Jahveh in numbers before the appearance of the
{137}
Messiah, but converts to Judaism had been made in all ages, and
after the dispersion, especially, the influence of the Jews upon the
professors of the effete and expiring religions of Rome, of Greece, and
of Egypt was very great, and numerous proselytes adopted the faith of
Israel,(1) and were eagerly sought for(2) in spite of the abusive terms
in which the Talmudists spoke of them.(3) The conditions on the other
hand were perfectly definite. The case of converts had been early
foreseen and provided for in the Mosaic code. Without referring to
minor points, we may at once say that circumcision was indispensable to
admission into the number of the children of Israel.(4) Participation
in the privileges of the Covenant could only be secured by accepting
the mark of that Covenant. Very many, however, had adopted Judaism to a
great extent, who were not willing to undergo the rite requisite to full
admission into the nation, and a certain modification had gradually
been introduced by which, without it, strangers might be admitted into
partial communion with Israel. There were, therefore, two classes
of proselytes,(5) the first called Proselytes of the Covenant or of
Righteousness, who were circumcised, obeyed the whole Mosaic law, and
{138}
were fully incorporated with Israel, and the other called Proselytes
of the Gate,(1) or worshippers of Jahveh, who in the New Testament are
commonly called [------].
These had not undergone the rite of circumcision, and therefore were
not participators in the Covenant, but merely worshipped the God
of Israel,(4) and were only compelled to observe the seven Noachian
prescriptions. These Proselytes of the Gate, however, were little more
than on sufferance. They were excluded from the Temple, and even the
Acts of the Apostles represent it to be pollution for a Jew to have
intercourse with them: it requires direct Divine intervention to induce
Peter to go to Cornelius, and to excuse his doing so in the eyes of the
primitive Church.(3) Nothing short of circumcision and full observance
of the Mosaic law could secure the privileges of the Covenant with
Israel to a stranger, and in illustration of this we may again point to
the Acts, where certain who came from Judaea, members of the primitive
church, teach the Christians of Antioch: "Except ye have been
circumcised after the custom of Moses ye cannot be saved."(4)
1 We need not discuss the chronology of this class.
2 It is scarcely necessary to speak of the well-known case
of Lzates, King of Adiabene, related by Josephus. The Jewish
merchant Ananias, who teaches him to worship God according
to the religion of the Jews, is willing, evidently from the
special emergency of the case and the danger of forcing
Izates fully to embrace Judaism in the face of his people,
to let him remain a mere Jahveh worshipper, only partially
conforming to the Law, and remaining uncircumcised'; but
another Jew from Galilee, Eleazer, versed in Jewish
learning, points out to him that, in neglecting
circumcision, he breaks the principal point of the Law.
Izates then has himself circumcised. Josephus, Antiq. xx.
2, Sec. 3 f.
3 Acts x. 2 ff, xi. 2 ft. Dr. Lightfoot says: "The Apostles
of the circumcision, even St. Peter himself, had failed
hitherto to comprehend the wide purpose of God. With their
fellow-countrymen they still held it unlawful for a Jew to
keep company with an alien' (Acts x. 28)." Galatians, p.
290.
{139}
This will be more fully shown as we proceed. The conversion of the
Gentiles was not, therefore, in the least degree an idea foreign to
Judaism, but, on the contrary, formed an intimate part of the Messianic
expectation of the later prophets. The conditions of admission to the
privileges and promises of the Covenant, however, were full acceptance
of the Mosaic law, and submission to the initiatory rite.(1) That small
and comparatively insignificant people, with an arrogance that would
have been ridiculous if, in the influence which they have actually
exerted over the world, it had not been almost sublime, not only
supposed themselves the sole and privileged recipients of the oracles
of God, as his chosen and peculiar people, but they contemplated nothing
short of universal submission to the Mosaic code, and the supremacy of
Israel over all the earth.
We are now better able to estimate the position of the Twelve when the
death of their Master threw them on their own resources, and left them
to propagate his Gospel as they themselves understood it. Born a Jew
of the race of David, accepting during his life the character of the
promised Messiah, and dying with the mocking title "King of the Jews"
written upon his cross, Jesus had left his disciples in close communion
with the Mosaism which he had spiritualized and ennobled, but had not
abolished. He himself had taught them that "it becomes us to fulfill all
righteousness," and, from his youth upwards, had set them the example of
{140}
enlightened observance of the Mosaic law. His precept had not belied
his example, and whilst in strong terms we find him inculcating the
permanence of the Law, it is certain that he left no order to disregard
it. He confined his own preaching to the Jews; the first ministers of
the Messiah represented the twelve tribes of the people of Israel;.and
the first Christians were of that nation, with no distinctive worship,
but practising as before the whole Mosaic ritual. What Neander savs
of "many," may, we think, be referred to all: "That Jesus faithfully
observed the form of the Jewish law served to them as evidence that this
form should ever preserve its value."(1) As a fact, the Apostles and
the early Christians continued as before assiduously to practise all the
observances of the Mosaic law, to frequent the Temple(2) and adhere to
the usual strict forms of Judaism.(3) In addition to the influence of
the example of Jesus and the powerful effect of national habit, there
were many strong reasons which obviously must to Jews have rendered
abandonment of the law as difficult as submission to its full
requirements must have been to Gentiles. Holding as they did the Divine
origin of the Old Testament, in which the observance of the Law was
inculcated on almost every page,
{141}
it would have been impossible, without counter-teaching of the most
peremptory and convincing character, to have shaken its supremacy;
but beyond this, in that theocratic community Mosaism was not only the
condition of the Covenant, and the key of the Temple, but it was also
the diploma of citizenship, and the bond of social and political
life. To abandon the observance of the Law was not only to resign the
privilege and the distinctive characteristic of Israel, to relinquish
the faith of the Patriarchs who were the glory of the nation, and to
forsake a divinely appointed form of worship, without any recognized
or even indicated substitute, but it severed the only link between the
individual and the people of Israel, and left him in despised isolation,
an outcast from the community. They had no idea, however, that any such
sacrifice was required of them. They were simply Jews believing in the
Jewish Messiah, and they held that all things else were to proceed as
before, until the glorious second coining of the Christ.(1)
The Apostles and primitive Christians continued to hold the national
belief that the way to Christianity lay through Judaism, and that the
observance of the law was obligatory and circumcision necessary to
complete communion.(2) Paul describes with unappeased
{142}
irritation the efforts made by the community of Jerusalem, whose
"pillars" were Peter, James, and John, to force Titus, a Gentile
Christian, to be circumcised,(1) and even the Acts represent James
and all the elders of the Church of Jerusalem as requesting Paul, long
after, to take part with four Jewish Christians, who had a vow and
were about to purify themselves and shave their heads and, after the
accomplishment of the days of purification, make the usual offering in
the Temple, in order to convince the "many thousands there of those who
have believed and are all zealous for the law," that it is untrue that
he teaches: "all the Jews who are among the Gentiles apostacy [------]
from Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children,
neither to walk after the customs," and to show, on the contrary, that
he himself walks orderly and keeps the Law.(2) As true Israelites, with
opinions fundamentally unchanged by belief that Jesus was the Messiah,
they held that the Gospel was specially intended for the people of the
Covenant, and they confined their teaching to the Jews.(3) A Gentile
whilst still uncircumcised, even although converted, could not, they
thought, be received on an
1 Gal ii. 3 ff. As we shall more fully discuss this episode
hereafter, it is not necessary to do so here.
2 Acts xxi. 18--26; cf. xv. i. Paul is also represented as
saying to the Jews of Rome that he has done nothing"
against the customs of their Fathers."
3 Dr. Lightfoot says: "Meanwhile at Jerusalem some years
past away before the barrier of Judaism was assailed. The
Apostles still observed the Mosaic ritual; they still
confined their preaching to Jews by birth, or Jews by
adoption, the proselytes of the Covenant," &c. Paul's Ep. to
Gal. p. 287. Paley says: "It was not yet known to the
Apostles, that they were at liberty to propose the religion
to mankind at large. That 'mystery,' as St. Paul calls it
(Eph. iii. 3-6), and as it then was, was revealed to Peter
by an especial miracle." A view of the Evidence, &c, ed.
Potts, 1850, p. 228.
{143}
equality with the Jew, but defiled him by contact.(1) The attitude of
the Christian Jew to the merely Christian Gentile, who had not entered
the community by the portal of Judaism, was, as before, simply that of
the Jew to the proselyte of the Gate. The Apostles could not upon any
other terms have then even contemplated the conversion of the Gentiles.
Jesus had limited his own teaching to the Jews, and, according to the
first Gospel, had positively prohibited, at one time at least, their
going to the Gentiles, or even to the Samaritans, and if there had been
an order given to preach to all nations it certainly was not accompanied
by any removal of the conditions specified in the Law.(2) It has been
remarked that neither party, in the great discussion in the Church
regarding the terms upon which Gentiles might be admitted to the
privileges of Christianity, ever appealed in support of their views
to specific instructions of Jesus on the subject.(3) The reason is
intelligible enough. The Petrine party, supported as they were by the
whole weight of the Law and of Holy Scripture, as well as by the example
and tacit approval of the Master, could not have felt even that degree
of doubt which precedes an appeal to authority.
2 Dr. Lightfoot says: "The Master himself had left no
express instructions. He had charged them, it is true, to
preach the Gospel to all nations, but how this injunction
was to be carried out, by what changes a national Church
must expand into an universal Church, they had not been
told. He had indeed asserted the sovereignty of the spirit
over the letter; he had enunciated the great principle--as
wide in its application as the law itself--that' man was not
made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man.' He had
pointed to the fulfilment of the law in the Gospel. So fer
he had discredited the law, but he had not deposed it or
abolished it. It was left to the Apostles themselves under
the guidance of the Spirit, moulded by circumstances and
moulding them in turn, to work out the great change." St.
Paul's Ep. to Gal. 286.
{144}
The party of Paul, on the other hand, had nothing in their favour
to which a specific appeal could have been made; but in his constant
protest that he had not received his doctrine from man, but had been
taught it by direct revelation, the Apostle of the Gentiles, who was
the first to proclaim a substantial difference between Christianity and
Judaism,(1) in reality endeavoured to set aside the authority of the
Judaistic party by an appeal from the earthly to the spiritualized
Messiah. Even after the visit of Paul to Jerusalem about the year 50,
the elder Apostles still retained the views which we have shown to have
been inevitable under the circumstances, and, as we learn from Paul
himself, they still continued mere "Apostles of the Circumcision,"
limiting their mission to the Jews.(2)
The Apostles and the primitive Christians, therefore, after the death of
their Master, whom they believed to be the Messiah of the Jews, having
received his last instructions, and formed their final impressions
of his views, remained Jews, believing in the continued obligation to
observe the Law and, consequently, holding the initiatory rite essential
to participation in the privileges of the Covenant. They held this not
only as Jews believing in the Divine origin of the Old Testament and of
the Law, but as Christians confirmed by the example and the teaching of
their Christ, whose very coming was a substantial ratification of the
ancient faith of Israel. In this position they stood when the
{145}
Gospel, without their intervention, and mainly by the exertions of the
Apostle Paul, began to spread amongst the Gentiles, and the terms of
their admission came into question. It is impossible to deny that the
total removal of conditions, advocated by the Apostle Paul with all the
vehemence and warmth of his energetic character, and involving nothing
short of the abrogation of the Law and surrender of all the privileges
of Israel, must have been shocking not only to the prejudices but also
to the deepest religious convictions of men who, although Christians,
had not ceased to be Jews, and, unlike the Apostle of the Gentiles,
had been directly and daily in contact with Jesus, without having been
taught such revolutionary principles. From this point we have to proceed
with our examination of the account in the Acts of the relation of the
elder Apostles to Paul, and the solution of the difficult problem before
them.
CHAPTER V. STEPHEN THE MARTYR
Before the Apostle of the Gentiles himself comes on the scene, and
is directly brought in contact with the Twelve, we have to study
the earlier incidents narrated in the Acts, wherein, it is said, the
emancipation of the Church from Jewish exclusiveness had already either
commenced or been clearly anticipated. The first of these which demands
our attention is the narrative of the martyrdom of Stephen. This
episode, although highly interesting and important in itself, might, we
consider, have been left unnoticed in connection with the special point
now engaging our attention, but such significance has been imparted to
it by the views which critics have discovered in the speech of Stephen,
that we cannot pass it without attention. If this detention be, on the
one hand, to be regretted, it will on the other be compensated by the
light which may be thrown on the composition of the Acts.
We read(l) that in consequence of murmurs amongst the Hellenists against
the Hebrews, that their widows were neglected in the daily distribution
of alms, seven deacons were appointed specially to attend to such
ministrations. Amongst these, it is said, was Stephen,(2)
{147}
"a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit." Stephen, it appears, by no
means limited his attention to the material interests of the members of
the Church, but being "full of grace and power, did great wonders and
signs [------] amongst the people." "But there arose certain of those of
the synagogue which is called (the synagogue) of the Libertines(1) and
Cyrenians and Alexandrians and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing
with Stephen; and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit
by which he spake. Then they suborned men who said: We have heard him
speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. And they stirred up the
people and the elders and the scribes, and came upon him, and seized
him, and brought him to the Council, and set up false witnesses who
said: This man ceaseth not to speak words against the holy place and
the law; for we have heard him say, that Jesus, this Naza-rene, shall
destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered
to us." The high-priest asks him: Are these things so? And Stephen
delivers an address, which has since been the subject of much discussion
amongst critics and divines. The contents of the speech taken by
themselves do not present any difficulty, so far as the sense is
concerned, but regarded as a reply to the accusations brought against
him by the false witnesses, the defence of Stephen has perhaps been
interpreted in a greater variety of ways than any other part of the
New Testament. Its shadowy outlines have been used as a setting for the
pious thoughts of subsequent
{148}
generations, and every imaginable intention has been ascribed to the
proto-martyr, every possible or impossible reference detected in the
phrases of his oration. This has mainly arisen from the imperfect nature
of the account in the Acts, and the absence of many important details
which has left criticism to adopt that "divinatorisch-combinatorische"
procedure which is so apt to evolve any favourite theory from the inner
consciousness. The prevailing view, however, amongst the great majority
of critics of all schools is, that Stephen is represented in the Acts
as the forerunner of the Apostle Paul, anticipating his universalistic
principles, and proclaiming with more or less of directness the
abrogation of Mosaic ordinances and the freedom of the Christian
Church.(1) This view was certainly advanced by Augustine, and lies at
the base of his famous saying: "Si sanctus Stephanus sic non oras-set,
ecclesia Paulum non haberet,"(2) but it was first clearly enunciated by
Baur, who subjected the speech of Stephen to detailed analysis,(3)
and his interpretation has to
Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/37233