Part 35 (1/2)

[330:2] _Ib_. iii. 14. 2.

[331:1] Cf. _Adv. Haer._ iv. 13. 1.

[332:1] The varieties of reading in this verse are exhibited in full by Dr. Westcott, _On the Canon_, p. 120, notes 4 and 5.

[336:1] Matt. v. 28 is omitted as too ambiguous and confusing, though it is especially important for the point in question as showing that Tertullian himself had a variety of MSS. before him.

[336:2] St. Matthew's Gospel is wanting in this MS. to xxv. 6; two leaves are also lost, from John vi. 50 to viii. 52.

[346:1] _Strom_. ii. 20.

[347:1] In a volume ent.i.tled _The Authors.h.i.+p and Historical Character of the Fourth Gospel_, Macmillan, 1872. I may say with reference to this book--a 'firstling' of theological study-- that I am inclined now to think that I exaggerated somewhat the importance of minute details as an evidence of the work of an eye-witness. The whole of the arguments, however, summarised on pp. 287-293 seem to me to be still perfectly valid and sound, and the greater part of them--notably that which relates to the Messianic expectations--is quite untouched by 'Supernatural Religion.'

[348:1] It is instructive to compare the canons elaborately drawn up by Mr. M'Clellan (_N.T._ i. 375-389) with those tacitly a.s.sumed in 'Supernatural Religion.' The inference in the one case seems to be 'possible, therefore true,' in the other, 'not probable, or not confirmed, therefore false.' Surely neither of these tallies with experience.

[352:1] This, perhaps, is one that is apt to be overlooked. In order to be quite sure that the process of a.n.a.lysis is complete it must be supplemented and verified by the reversed process of synthesis. If a compound has been resolved into its elements, we cannot be sure that it has been resolved into _all_ its elements until the original compound has been produced by their recombination. Where this second reverse process fails, the inference is that some unknown element which was originally present has escaped in the a.n.a.lysis. The a.n.a.lysis may be true as far as it goes, but it is incomplete. The causes are 'verae causae,' but they are not all the causes in operation. So it seems to be with the a.n.a.lysis of the vital organism. We may be said to know entirely what air and water are because the chemist can produce them, but we only know very imperfectly the nature of life and will and conscience, because when the physiological a.n.a.lysis has been carried as far as it will go there still remains a large unknown element. Within this element may very well reside those distinctive properties which make man (as the moralist is _obliged_ to a.s.sume that he is) a responsible and religious being. The hypotheses which lie at the root of morals and religion are derived from another source than physiology, but physiology does not exclude them, and will not do so until it gives a far more verifiably complete account of human nature than it does at present.

[354:1] Mr. Browning has expressed this with his usual incisiveness and penetration:--

'I hear you recommend, I might at least Eliminate, decra.s.sify my faith ...

Still, when you bid me purify the same, To such a process I discern no end, Clearing off one excrescence to see two; There's ever a next in size, now grown as big, That meets the knife: I cut and cut again!

First cut the liquefaction, what comes last But Fichte's clever cut at G.o.d himself?'

But also, on the other hand:--

'Where's The gain? how can we guard our unbelief?

Just when we are safest, there's a sunset-touch, A fancy from a flower-bell, some one's death, A chorus ending from Euripides,-- And that's enough for fifty hopes and fears, As old and new at once as Nature's self, To rap and knock and enter in our soul ...

All we have gained then by our unbelief Is a life of doubt diversified by faith, For one of faith diversified by doubt: We called the chess-board white,--we call it black.'

_Bishop Blongram's Apology_.

[359:1] As to the defects of the present edition, see Tischendorf, Prolegomena to _Vetus Testamentum Graece juxta LXX Interpretes_, p. liii: 'Eae vero (collationes) quemadmodum in editis habentur non modo universae graviter differunt inter se fide atque accuratione, sed ad ipsos princ.i.p.ales testes tam negligenter tamque male factae sunt ut etiam atque etiam dolendum sit tantos numos rara liberalitate per Angliam suppeditatos criticae sacrae parum profuisse.' Similarly Credner, in regard to the use of the Codex Alexandrinus, _Beitrage_, ii. 16: 'Wahrhaft unbegreiflich und unverzeihlich ist es, da.s.s die Herausgeber der kostbaren Kritischen Ausgabe der LXX, welcher zu Oxford vor wenigen Jahren vollendet und von Holmes und Parsons besorgt worden ist, statt cine sorgfaltige Vergleichung des in London aufbewahrten Cod. Alex. zu veranstalten, sich lediglich auf die Ausgabe von Grabe beschrankt haben, dessen Kritik vielfach nicht einmal verstanden worden ist.'

APPENDIX.

SUPPLEMENTAL NOTE ON THE RECONSTRUCTION OF MARCION'S GOSPEL.

If the reader should happen to possess the work of Ronsch, Das Neue Testament Tertullian's, to which allusion has frequently been made above, and will simply glance over the pages, noting the references, from Luke iv. 16 to the end of the Gospel, I do not think he will need any other proof of the sufficiency of the grounds for the reconstruction of Marcion's Gospel, so as at least to admit of a decision as to whether it was our present St. Luke or not.

Failing this, it may be well to give a brief example of the kind of data available, going back straight to the original authorities themselves.

For this purpose we will take the first chapter that Marcion preserved entire, Luke v, and set forth in full such fragments of it as have come down to us.

We take up the argument of Tertullian at the point where he begins to treat of this chapter.

In the fourth book of the treatise against Marcion Tertullian begins by dealing with the Ant.i.theses (a sort of criticism by Marcion on what he regarded as the Judaising portions of the Canonical Gospel), and then, in general terms, with the actual Gospel which Marcion used. From the general he descends to the particular, and in c.6 Tertullian pledges himself to show in detail, that even in those parts of the Gospel which Marcion retained there was enough to refute his own system.

Marcion's Gospel began with the descent of Jesus upon Capernaum in the fifteenth year of Tiberias. Tertullian makes points out of this, also from the account of His preaching in the synagogue and of the expulsion of the devil. After this incident Marcion's Gospel represented our Lord as retiring into solitude. It did this as it would appear in words very similar to those of the Canonical Gospel. I place side by side the language of Tertullian with that of the Vulgate (Codex Fuldensis, as given by Tregelles). I have also compared the translation in the two codd., Vercellensis and Veronensis, of the Old Latin in Bianchini's edition. It will be remembered however that Tertullian is admitted to have Marcion's (and _not_ the Canonical) Gospel before him, and he probably translates directly from that.

In solitudinem procedit.... Detentus a turbis: _Oportet me,_ inquit, _el aliis civitatibus_ _annuntiare regnum dei._