Volume I Part 34 (1/2)

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that, later, Jerome became doubtful of this view, but it seems to us that this is not the case, and certainly Jerome in his subsequent writings states that it was generally held to be the original of Matthew.(1) That this Gospel was not identical with the Greek Matthew is evident both from the quotations of Jerome and others, and also from the fact that Jerome considered it worth while to translate it twice. If the Greek Gospel had been an accurate translation of it, of course there could not have been inducement to make another.(2) As we shall hereafter see, the belief was universal in the early Church that Matthew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew. Attempts have been made to argue that the Gospel according to the Hebrews was first written in Greek and then translated into Hebrew,(3) but the reasons advanced seem quite insufficient and arbitrary,(4) and it is contradicted by the whole tradition of the Fathers.

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It is not necessary for our purpose to enter fully here into the question of the exact relation of our canonical Gospel according to Matthew to the Gospel according to the Hebrews. It is sufficient for us to point out that we meet with the latter before Matthew's Gospel, and that the general opinion of the early church was that it was the original of the canonical Gospel This opinion, as Schwegler(1) remarks, is supported by the fact that tradition a.s.signs the origin of both Gospels to Palestine, and that both were intended for Jewish Christians and exclusively used by them. That the two works, however originally related, had by subsequent manipulation become distinct, although still amidst much variation preserving some substantial affinity, cannot be doubted, and in addition to evidence already cited we may point out that in the Stichometry of Nicephorus, the Gospel according to Matthew is said to have 2500 [--Greek--], whilst that according to the Hebrews has only 2200.(2)

Whether this Gospel formed one of the writings of the [--Greek--] of Luke it is not our purpose to inquire, but enough has been said to prove that it was one of the most ancient(3)

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and most valued evangelical works, and to show the probability that Justin Martyr, a Jewish Christian living amongst those who are known to have made exclusive use of this Gospel, may well, like his contemporary Hegesippus, have used the Gospel according to the Hebrews; and this probability is, as we have seen, greatly strengthened by the fact that many of his quotations agree with pa.s.sages which we know to have been contained in it; whilst, on the other hand, almost all differ from our Gospels, presenting generally, however, a greater affinity to the Gospel according to Matthew, as we might expect, than to the other two. It is clear that the t.i.tle ”Gospel according to the Hebrews” cannot have been its actual superscription, but merely was a name descriptive of the readers for whom it was prepared or amongst whom it chiefly circulated, and it is most probable that it originally bore no other t.i.tle than ”The Gospel” [--Greek--], to which were added the different designations under which we find it known amongst different communities.(1) We have already seen that Justin speaks of ”The Gospel” and seems to refer to the ”Memoirs of Peter,” both distinguis.h.i.+ng appellations of this Gospel, but there is another of the names borne by the ”Gospel according to the Hebrews,” which singularly recalls the ”Memoirs of the Apostles,” by which Justin prefers to call his evangelical work. It was called the ”Gospel according to the Apostles”(2)

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[--Greek--], and, in short, comparing Justin's Memoirs with this Gospel, we find at once similarity of contents and even of name.(1)

It is not necessary, however, for) the purposes of this examination to dwell more fully upon the question as to what specific Gospel now no longer extant Justin employed. We have shown that there is no evidence that he made use of any of our Gospels, and he cannot, therefore, be cited even to prove their existence, and much less to attest the authenticity and character of records whose authors he does not once name. On the other hand it has been made evident that there were other Gospels, now lost but which then enjoyed the highest consideration, from which his quotations might have been, and probably were, taken. We have seen that Justin's Memoirs of the Apostles contained facts of Gospel history unknown to our Gospels, which were contained in apocryphal works and notably in the Gospel according to the Hebrews; that they further contained matter contradictory to our Gospels, and sayings of Jesus not contained in them; and that his quotations, although so numerous, systematically vary from similar pa.s.sages in our Gospels. No theory of quotation from memory can satisfactorily account for these phenomena, and the reasonable conclusion is that Justin did not make use of our Gospels, but quoted from another source. In no case can the testimony of Justin afford the requisite support to the Gospels as records of miracles and of a Divine Revelation.

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CHAPTER IV. HEGESIPPUS--PAPIAS OF HIERAPOLIS.

We now turn to Hegesippus, one of the contemporaries of Justin, and, like him, a Palestinian Jewish Christian. Most of our information regarding him is derived from Eusebius, who fortunately gives rather copious extracts from his writings. Hegesippus was born in Palestine, of Jewish parents,(l) and in all probability belonged to the primitive community of Jerusalem.(2) In order to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the state of the Church, he travelled widely and came to Rome when Anicetus was Bishop. Subsequently he wrote a work of historical Memoirs, [--Greek--], in five books, and thus became the first ecclesiastical historian of Christianity. This work is lost, but portions have been preserved to us by Eusebius, and one other fragment is also extant. It must have been, in part at least, written after the succession of Eleutherus to the Roman bishopric (a.d. 177-193), as that event is mentioned in the book itself, and his testimony is allowed by all critics to date from an advanced period of the second half of the second century.(3)

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The testimony of Hegesippus is of great value, not only as that of a man born near the primitive Christian tradition, but also as that of an intelligent traveller amongst many Christian communities. Eusebius evidently held him in high estimation as recording the unerring tradition of the Apostolic preaching in the most simple style of composition,(1) and as a writer of authority who was ”contemporary with the first successors of the Apostles”(2) [--Greek--]. Any indications, therefore, which we may derive from information regarding him, and from the fragments of his writings which survive, must be of peculiar importance for our inquiry.

As might have been expected from a convert from Judaism(3) [--Greek--], we find in Hegesippus manifest evidences of general tendency to the Jewish side of Christianity. For him, ”James, the brother of the Lord,” was the chief of the Apostles, and he states that he had received the government of the Church after the death of Jesus.(4) The account which he gives of him is remarkable. ”He was holy from his mothers womb. He drank neither wine nor strong drink, nor ate he any living thing. A razor never went upon his head, he anointed not himself with

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oil, and did not use a bath. He alone was allowed to enter into the Holies. For he did not wear woollen garments, but linen. And he alone entered into the Sanctuary and was wont to be found upon his knees seeking forgiveness on behalf of the people; so that his knees became hard like a camel's, through his constant kneeling in supplication to G.o.d, and asking for forgiveness for the people. In consequence of his exceeding great righteousness he was called Righteous and 'Oblias,' that is, Protector of the people and Righteousness, as the prophets declare concerning him,”(1) and so on. Throughout the whole of his account of James, Hegesippus describes him as a mere Jew, and as frequenting the temple, and even entering the Holy of Holies as a Jewish High Priest.

Whether the account be apocryphal or not is of little consequence here; it is clear that Hegesippus sees no incongruity in it, and that the difference between the Jew and the Christian was extremely small. The head of the Christian community could a.s.sume all the duties of the Jewish High-Priest,(2) and his Christian doctrines did not offend more than a small party amongst the Jews.(3)

We are not, therefore, surprised to find that his rule [--Greek--] of orthodoxy in the Christian communities

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which he visited, was ”the Law, the Prophets, and the Lord.” Speaking of the result of his observations during his travels, and of the succession of Bishops in Rome, he says: ”The Corinthian Church has continued in the true faith until Primus, now Bishop of Corinth. I conversed with him on my voyage to Rome, and stayed many days with the Corinthians, during which time we were refreshed together with true doctrine. Arrived in Rome I composed the succession until Anicetus, whose deacon was Eleutherus. After Anicetus succeeded Soter, and afterwards Eleutherus.

But with every succession, and in every city, that prevails which the Law, and the Prophets, and the Lord enjoin.”(1) The test of true doctrine [--Greek--] with Hegesippus as with Justin, therefore, is no New Testament Canon, which does not yet exist for him, but the Old Testament, the only Holy Scriptures which he acknowledges, and the words of the Lord himself,(3) which, as in the case of Jewish Christians like Justin, were held to be established by, and in direct conformity with, the Old Testament. He carefully transmits the unerring tradition of apostolic preaching [--Greek--], but he apparently knows nothing of any canonical series even of apostolic epistles.

The care with which Eusebius searches for information regarding the books of the New Testament in early writers, and his anxiety to produce any evidence concerning their composition and authenticity, render his silence upon the subject almost as important as his distinct

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utterance when speaking of such a man as Hegesippus.(1) Now, while Eusebius does not mention that Hegesippus refers to any of our Canonical Gospels or Epistles, he very distinctly states that he made use in his writings of the ”Gospel according to the Hebrews” [--Greek--]. It may be well, however, to give his remarks in a consecutive form. ”He sets forth some matters from the Gospel according to the Hebrews and the Syriac, and particularly from the Hebrew language, showing that he was a convert from among the Hebrews, and other things he records as from unwritten Jewish tradition. And not only he, but also Irenaeus, and the whole body of the ancients, called the Proverbs of Solomon: all-virtuous Wisdom.