Volume I Part 35 (1/2)

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same sense as that in the two Gospels, differs as materially from them both as they do from each other, and as we might expect a quotation taken from a different though kindred source, like the Gospel according to the Hebrews, to do. The whole of the pa.s.sages which we have examined, indeed, exhibit the same natural variation.

We have already referred to the expressions of Hegesippus regarding the heresies in the early Church: ”From these sprang the false Christs, and false prophets, and _false apostles_ who divided the unity of the Church by corrupting doctrines concerning G.o.d and his Christ.”(1) We have shown how this recalls quotations in Justin of sayings of Jesus foreign to our Gospels, in common with similar expressions in the Clementine Homilies,(2) Apostolic Const.i.tutions,(3) and Clementine Recognitions,(4) and we need not discuss the matter further. This community of reference, in a circle known to have made use of the Gospel according to the Hebrews, to matters foreign to our Synoptics, furnishes collateral ill.u.s.tration of the influence of that Gospel.

Tischendorf, who so eagerly searches for every trace, real or imaginary, of the use of our Gospels and of the existence of a New Testament Canon, pa.s.ses over in silence, with the exception of a short note(5) devoted to the denial that Hegesippus was opposed to Paul, this first writer of Christian Church history, whose evidence, could it have been adduced, would have been so valuable. He does not pretend that Hegesippus made use of the Canonical Gospels, or knew of any other Holy Scriptures

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than those of the Old Testament, but, on the other hand, he does not mention that he possessed, and quoted from, the Gospel according to the Hebrews. There is no reason for supposing that Hegesippus found a New Testament Canon in any of the Christian communities which he visited, and such a rule of faith certainly did not yet exist in Rome in a.d.

160-170.(1) There is no evidence whatever to show that Hegesippus recognized any other evangelical work than the Gospel according to the Hebrews, as the written source of his knowledge of the words of the Lord.(2)

2.

The testimony of Papias is of great interest and importance in connection with our inquiry, inasmuch as he is the first ecclesiastical writer who mentions the tradition that Matthew and Mark composed written records of the life and teaching of Jesus; but no question has been more continuously contested than that of the ident.i.ty of the works to which he refers with our actual Canonical Gospels. Papias was Bishop of Hierapolis, in Phrygia,(3) in the first half of the second century, and is said to have suffered martyrdom under Marcus Aurelius about a.d.

164-167.(4) About the middle of the second century(5)5 he wrote a work in five books, ent.i.tled

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”Exposition of the Lord's Oracles ”(l) [--Greek--], which, with the exception of a few fragments preserved to us chiefly by Eusebius and Irenaeus, is unfortunately, no longer extant. In the preface to his book he stated: ”But I shall not hesitate also to set beside my interpretations all that I rightly learnt from the Presbyters, and rightly remembered, earnestly testifying to their truth. For I was not, like the mult.i.tude, taking pleasure in those who speak much, but in those who teach the truth, nor in those who relate alien commandments, but in those who record those delivered by the Lord to the faith, and which come from the truth itself. If it happened that any one came who had followed the Presbyters, I inquired minutely after the words of the Presbyters, what Andrew or what Peter said, or what Philip or what Thomas or James, or what John or Matthew, or what any other of the disciples of the Lord, and what Aristion and the Presbyter John, the disciples of the Lord, say, for I held that what was to be derived from books did not so profit me as that from the living and abiding voice”(2). [--Greek--]

It is clear from this that Papias preferred tradition to any written works with which he was acquainted, that he attached little or

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no value to any Gospels with which he had met,(1) and that he knew absolutely nothing of Canonical Scriptures of the New Testament.(2) His work was evidently intended to furnish a collection of the discourses of Jesus completed from oral tradition, with his own expositions, and this is plainly indicated both by his own words, and by the statements of Eusebius who, amongst other things, mentions that Papias sets forth strange parables of the Saviour and teachings of his from unwritten tradition [--Greek--].(3) It is not, however, necessary to discuss more closely the nature of the work, for there is no doubt that written collections of discourses of Jesus existed before it was composed of which it is probable he made use.

The most interesting part of the work of Papias which is preserved to us is that relating to Matthew and

1 With reference to the last sentence of Papias, Teschendorf asks: ”What books does he refer to here, perhaps our Gospels ? According to the expression this is not impossible, but from the whole character of the book in the highest degree improbable.” (Wann wurden, u. s. w.t p. 109.) We know little or nothing of the ”whole character” of the book, and what we do know is contradictory to our Gospels. The natural and only reasonable course is to believe the express declaration of Papias, more especially as it is made, in this instance, as a prefatory statement of his belief.

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Mark. After stating that Papias had inserted in his book accounts of Jesus given by Aristion, of whom nothing is known, and by the Presbyter John, Eusebius proceeds to extract a tradition regarding Mark communicated by the latter. There has been much controversy as to the ident.i.ty of the Presbyter John, some affirming him to have been the Apostle,(1) but the great majority of critics deciding that he was a totally different person.(2) Irenseus, who, sharing the Chiliastic opinions of Papias, held him in high respect, boldly calls him ”the hearer of John” (meaning the Apostle) ”and a companion of Polycarp”

[--Greek--](3) but this is expressly contradicted by Eusebius, who points out that, in the preface to his book, Papias by no means a.s.serts that he was himself a hearer of the Apostles, but merely that he received their doctrines from those who had personally known them;(3) and after making the quotation from Papias which we have given

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above, he goes on to point out that the name of John is twice mentioned, once together with Peter, James, and Matthew, and the other Apostles, ”evidently the Evangelist,” and the other John he mentions separately, ranking him amongst those who are not Apostles, and placing Aristion before him, distinguis.h.i.+ng him clearly by the name of Presbyter.(1) He further refers to the statement of the great Bishop of Alexandria, Dionysius,(2) that at Ephesus there were two tombs, each bearing the name of John, thereby leading to the inference that there were two men of the name.(3) There can be no doubt that Papias himself in the pa.s.sage quoted mentions two persons of the name of John, distinguis.h.i.+ng the one from the other, and cla.s.sing the one amongst the Apostles and the other after Aristion, an unknown ”disciple of the Lord,” and, but for the phrase of Irenaeus, so characteristically uncritical and a.s.sumptive, there probably never would have been any doubt raised as to the meaning of the pa.s.sage. The question is not of importance to us, and we may leave it, with the remark that a writer who suffered martyrdom under Marcus Aurelius, c. a.d. 165, can scarcely have been a hearer of the Apostles.(4)

The account which the Presbyter John is said to have

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given of Mark's Gospel is as follows: ”'This also the Presbyter said: Mark having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote accurately whatever he remembered, though he did not arrange in order the things which were either said or done by Christ. For he neither heard the Lord, nor followed him; but afterwards, as I said,(1) accompanied Peter, who adapted his teaching to the occasion, and not as making a consecutive record of the Lord's oracles. Mark, therefore, committed no error in thus writing down some things as he remembered them. For of one point he was careful, to omit none of the things which he heard, and not to narrate any of them falsely.' These facts Papias relates concerning Mark.”(2) The question to decide is, whether the work here described is our Canonical Gospel or not.

The first point in this account is the statement that Mark was the interpreter of Peter [--Greek--]. Was he merely the secretary of the Apostle writing in a manner from his dictation, or does the pa.s.sage mean that he translated the Aramaic narrative of Peter into

1 Dr. Lightfoot (Contemp. Bev., 1875, p. 842), in the course of a highly fanciful argument says, in reference to this ”as I said”: ”It is quite clear that Papias had already said something of the relations existing between St. Peter and St Mark previously to the extract which gives an account of the Second Gospel, for he there refers back to a preceding notice.” It is quite clear that he refers back, but only to the preceding sentence in which he ”had already said something of the relations” in stating the fact that: ”Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote, &c.”

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