Volume II Part 24 (1/2)

We have already discussed the third pa.s.sage regarding the new birth in connection with Justin,(3) and may therefore pa.s.s on to the last and most important pa.s.sage, to which we have referred as contained in the concluding portion of the Homilies first published by Dressel in

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1853. We subjoin it in contrast with the parallel in the fourth Gospel [------]

It is necessary that we should consider the context of this pa.s.sage in the Homily, the characteristics of which are markedly opposed to the theory that it was derived from the fourth Gospel We must mention that, in the Clementines, the Apostle Peter is represented as maintaining that the Scriptures are not all true, but are mixed up with what is false, and that on this account, and in order to inculcate the necessity of distinguis.h.i.+ng between the true and the false, Jesus taught his disciples, ”Be ye approved money changers,”(1) an injunction not found in our Gospels. One of the points which Peter denies is the fall of Adam, a doctrine which, as Neander remarked, ”he must combat as blasphemy.”(2) At the part we are

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considering he is discussing with Simon,--under whose detested personality, as we have elsewhere shown, the Apostle Paul is really attacked,--and refuting the charges he brings forward regarding the origin and continuance of evil. The Apostle Peter in the course of the discussion a.s.serts that evil is the same as pain and death, but that evil does not exist eternally and, indeed, does not really exist at all, for pain and death are only accidents without permanent force--pain is merely the disturbance of harmony, and death nothing but the separation of soul from body.(1) The pa.s.sions also must be cla.s.sed amongst the things which are accidental, and are not always to exist; but these, although capable of abuse, are in reality beneficial to the soul when properly restrained, and carry out the will of G.o.d. The man who gives them unbridled course ensures his own punishment.(2) Simon inquires why men die prematurely and periodical diseases come, and also visitations of demons and of madness and other afflictions; in reply to which Peter explains that parents by following their own pleasure in all things and neglecting proper sanitary considerations, produce a mult.i.tude of evils for their children, and this either through

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carelessness or ignorance.(1) And then follows the pa.s.sage we are discussing: ”Wherefore also our Teacher,” &c., and at the end of the quotation, he continues: ”and truly such sufferings ensue in consequence of ignorance,” and giving an instance,(2) he proceeds: ”Now the sufferings which you before mentioned are the consequence of ignorance, and certainly not of an evil act, which has been committed,”(3) &c. Now it is quite apparent that the peculiar variation from the parallel in the fourth Gospel in the latter part of the quotation is not accidental, but is the point upon which the whole propriety of the quotation depends. In the Gospel of the Clementines the man is not blind from his birth, ”that the works of G.o.d might be made manifest in him,”--a doctrine which would be revolting to the author of the Homilies,--but the calamity has befallen him in consequence of some error of ignorance on the part of his parents which brings its punishment; but ”the power of G.o.d” is made manifest in healing the sins of ignorance. The reply of Jesus is a professed quotation, and it varies very substantially from the parallel in the Gospel, presenting evidently a distinctly different version of the episode. The subst.i.tution of [------] for [------] in the opening is also significant, more especially as Justin likewise in his general remark, which we have discussed, uses the same word. a.s.suming the pa.s.sage in the fourth Gospel to be the account of a historical episode, as apologists, of course, maintain, the case stands thus:--The author of the Homilies introduces a narrative of a historical

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incident in the life of Jesus, which may have been, and probably was, reported in many early gospels in language which, though a.n.a.logous to, is at the same time decidedly different, in the part which is a professed quotation, from that of the fourth Gospel, and presents another and natural comment upon the central event. The reference to the historical incident is, of course, no evidence whatever of dependence on the fourth Gospel, which, although it may be the only accidentally surviving work which contains the narrative, had no prescriptive and exclusive property in it, and so far from the partial agreement in the narrative proving the use of the fourth Gospel, the only remarkable point is, that all narratives of the same event and reports of words actually spoken do not more perfectly agree, while, on the other hand, the very decided variation in the reply of Jesus, according to the Homily, from that given in the fourth Gospel leads to the distinct presumption that it is not the source of the quotation.

It is perfectly unreasonable to a.s.sert that such a reference, without the slightest indication of the source from which the author derived his information, must be dependent on one particular work, more especially when the part which is given as distinct quotation substantially differs from the record in that work. We have already ill.u.s.trated this on several occasions, and may once more offer an instance. If the first Synoptic had unfortunately perished, like so many other gospels of the early Church, and in the Clementines we met with the quotation: ”Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” [------], apologists would certainly a.s.sert, according to the principle upon which they act in

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the present case, that this quotation was clear evidence of the use of Luke vi. 20: ”Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of G.o.d.”

[------], more especially as a few codices actually insert [------], the slight variations being merely ascribed to free quotation from memory.

In point of fact, however, the third Synoptic might not at the time have been in existence, and the quotation might have been derived, as it is, from Matt. v. 3. Nothing is more certain and undeniable than the fact that the author of the fourth Gospel made use of materials derived from oral tradition and earlier records for its composition.(1) It is equally undeniable that other gospels had access to the same materials, and made use of them; and a comparison of our three Synoptics renders very evident the community of materials, including the use of the one by the other, as well as the diversity of literary handling to which those materials were subjected. It is impossible with reason to deny that the Gospel according to the Hebrews, for instance, as well as other earlier evangelical works now lost, may have drawn from the same sources as the fourth Gospel, and that narratives derived from the one may, therefore, present a.n.a.logies with the other whilst still perfectly independent of it.(2) Whatever private opinion, therefore, any one may form as to the source of the anonymous quotations which we have been considering, it is evident that they are totally insufficient to prove that the Author of

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the Clementine Homilies must have made use of the fourth Gospel, and consequently they do not establish even the contemporary existence of that work. If such quotations, moreover, could be traced with fifty times greater probability to the fourth Gospel, it is obvious that they could do nothing towards establis.h.i.+ng its historical character and apostolic origin.

Leaving, however, the few and feeble a.n.a.logies by which apologists vainly seek to establish the existence of the fourth Gospel and its use by the author of the pseudo-Clementine Homilies, and considering the question for a moment from a wider point of view, the results already attained are more than confirmed. The doctrines held and strongly enunciated in the Clementines seem to us to exclude the supposition that the author can have made use of a work so fundamentally at variance with all his views as the fourth Gospel, and it is certain that, holding those opinions, he could hardly have regarded such a Gospel as an apostolic and authoritative doc.u.ment. s.p.a.ce will not permit our entering adequately into this argument, and we must refer our readers to works more immediately devoted to the examination of the Homilies for a close a.n.a.lysis of their dogmatic teaching,(1) but we may in the briefest manner point out some of their more prominent doctrines in contrast with those of the Johannine Gospel.

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One of the leading and most characteristic ideas of the Clementine Homilies is the essential ident.i.ty of Judaism and Christianity. Christ revealed nothing new with regard to G.o.d, but promulgated the very same truth concerning him as Adam, Moses, and the Patriarchs, and in fact the right belief is that Moses and Jesus were essentially one and the same.(1) Indeed, it may be said that the teaching of the Homilies is more Jewish than Christian.(2) In the preliminary Epistle of the Apostle Peter to the Apostle James, when sending the book, Peter entreats that James will not give it to any of the Gentiles,(3) and James says: ”Necessarily and rightly our Peter reminded us to take precautions for the security of the truth, that we should not communicate the books of his preachings, sent to us, indiscriminately to all, but to him who is good and discreet and chosen to teach, and who is _circ.u.mcised_,(4) being faithful.”(5) &c. Clement also is represented as describing his conversion to Christianity in the following terms: ”For this cause I fled for refuge to the Holy G.o.d and Law of the Jews, with faith in the certain conclusion that, by the righteous judgment of G.o.d, both the Law is prescribed, and the soul beyond doubt everywhere receives

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the desert of its actions.”(1) Peter recommends the inhabitants of Tyre to follow what are really Jewish rites, and to hear ”as the G.o.d-fearing Jews have heard ”(2) The Jew has the same truth as the Christian: ”For as there is one teaching by both (Moses and Jesus), G.o.d accepts him who believes either of these.”(3) The Law was in fact given by Adam as a true prophet knowing all things, and it is called ”Eternal,” and neither to be abrogated by enemies nor falsified by the impious.(4) The author, therefore, protests against the idea that Christianity is any new thing, and insists that Jesus came to confirm, not abrogate, the Mosaic Law.(5) On the other hand the author of the fourth Gospel represents Christianity in strong contrast and antagonism to Judaism.(6) In his ant.i.thetical system, the religion of Jesus is opposed to Judaism as well as all other belief, as Light to Darkness and Life to Death.(7) The Law which Moses gave is treated as merely national, and neither of

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general application nor intended to be permanent, being only addressed to the Jews. It is perpetually referred to as the ”Law of the Jews,”

”your Law,”--and the Jewish festivals as Feasts of the Jews, and Jesus neither held the one in any consideration nor did he scruple to shew his indifference to the other.(1) The very name of ”the Jews” indeed is used as an equivalent for the enemies of Christ.(2) The religion of Jesus is not only absolute, but it communicates knowledge of the Father which the Jews did not previously possess.(3) The inferiority of Mosaism is everywhere represented: ”and out of his fulness all we received, and grace for grace. Because the Law was given through Moses; _grace and truth_ came through Jesus Christ.”(4) ”Verily verily I say unto you: Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.”(6) The fundamental difference of Christianity from Judaism will further appear as we proceed.

The most essential principle of the Clementines, again, is Monotheism,--the absolute oneness of G.o.d,--which the author vehemently maintains as well against the ascription of divinity to Christ as against heathen Polytheism and the Gnostic theory of the Demiurge as distinguished from the Supreme G.o.d.(6) Christ not only is not G.o.d,

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but he never a.s.serted himself to be so.(1) He wholly ignores the doctrine of the Logos, and his speculation is confined to the [------], the Wisdom of Proverbs viii., &c., and is, as we shall see, at the same time a less developed and very different doctrine from that of the fourth Gospel.(2) The idea of a hypostatic Trinity seems to be quite unknown to him, and would have been utterly abhorrent to his mind as sheer Polytheism. On the other hand, the fourth Gospel proclaims the doctrine of a hypostatic Trinity in a more advanced form than any other writing of the New Testament. It is, indeed, the fundamental principle of the work,(3) as the doctrine of the Logos is its most characteristic feature. In the beginning the ”Word not only was with G.o.d, but ”the Word was G.o.d” [------].(4)