HOW THE GOSPELS WERE WRITTEN AND HOW PRESERVED.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1797, 15 August 1906, Page 2

HOW THE GOSPELS WERE WRITTEN AND HOW PRESERVED.

-ißy. Eev. J. J.'North.) Being a sermon preached in the Wellington Baptist Church on Sunday evening, July 29, 1906. Text: 11. Peter i 16. We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we' made known unto you the Power anil Coining of Our Lord’ Jesus 'Christ. Quodions of origin fascinate. The mightiest- book of our generation is - called .‘‘The Origin of Species.” It pleases a, child’s fancy to plunge his hand into the head waters of a river on whose lower banks a- city clusters, and on whosebroader waters the commerce ol' an Empire floats. There are two" beginnings, which are supremely exciting, .and they can bo named together without incongruity. These are the beginning of the Earth and the beginning of Christianity. On both of these subjects vast toil has been spent and a .huge literature Ims accumulated. -• Tlie consequence is that a modern man is brought far on the back- , ward journey toward .those absorbing events. The evolutionary theory has thrown a flood of light on the. method of creation. Criticism and scholarship, and research in-the Enet lias thrown a flood of light en Christian origin's. There was a time when fantastic accounrs -were given of tho origin of the earth. Our Norse ancestors believed that the high gods in victorious conflict with giants' formed earth of their flesh, and ocean of'their blood. Now no better tiling can be said than. the foreword of the Hebrew hook, ‘Tn the beginning God created Heaven and Earth.” Eanrustic accounts, of the origin of •'Christianity are still current. I dealt with two last week. I showed the impossibility of the theory that some supreme literary genius had invented the Gospels. I. aim showed what I behove to be tlie. greater -improbability .of the theory winch is. running its little day, viz., that a scries of ecstatic disciulos card over the e.hiple, life cf a Jewish pronhet the tribute, oy rubbish.: rather, of their-dreams-and tli.eir profanities. • Concerning' that account of the origin of . Christianity I repeat. I have not credulity enough ’to believe it. The question was leit open in the last address, as to how our Gos’pels did originate. I try to answer that question to-day. . "; Thare are two points', at which- our' Gospels stand in striking contrast with /ybc-r sacted books. The one is' their brevity. ' Gilmour of Mongolia bad to encounter this objection. The sacred books of the. Mongolian Buddhiists are so large. Thdr" Gan.iore' .runs into 101) volumes ■'each two feet:long. 'While the authorised commentary thereupon, the Bandore runr-i info 200 volumes more. The books stand like pillars' iiy their tempi-.s. To borro-w a Buddhist Bible a string' of camels aro necessary. But our Gospels can he legibly printed in a waistcoat pocket .edition, and can be eaw-ilv read in one evening. The exceeding brevity of the books is very notable'. 'The-other point' of contrast with many other sacrod books is the total -absence of any special claim-. The -Gospels do not ;uiiiouncq their inspiration, nor do .they offer us, beyond the trifling introduction- by L-uke,' any account of how they came'to !be written. Herein they are Poles apart . from Mohammed's book. That prophet taught that the archetype of his hook is eternal in tlie highest heaven,'.'find that Gabriel of .huv'- merey dictated it to him. 'The revelation occasioned Mohammed extreme agony, together with the symptoms of epilepsy. The book so strangely, produced claims net only, verbal inspiration; but also - literary perfection, a claim over which Gibbon vents a characteristic sneer. Rut the Gospels make no claim to inspiration. Their author© hide themselves in their ; work. - Luke's hint, shows7ns that they!:, used The ordinary means of the historian, . inquiry, criticism, scrutiny of varying accounts and. industry. It seems to me- * 'to be a striking thing that the books which have made-Mb' much noise'in the world -shotildotay so simple and. unpretentious .7a thing about themselves. To the ’ most polished people of antiquity, the Greeks,' inspiration 'meant- loss of self-control. An hypnotic state was' in-* fluted. (At Delphi fumes of sulphur Imstepecl the- t-raneb" of the priestess.- . Weird ravings were regarded' as the . holiest words. But behind our Gospels are inot the wild eyes of a Sibyl, nor the dreamy. eyes of an hypnotic victim, nor the seizures of a Mohammed, Jutt the sane eyes of painstaking liumimnswho wi'ote of things (bey had seen and heard- and for the truth of which, be it noted, they had embraced a life of privati«n and peril ending commonly in the horrors of martyrdom./ Surely it .is a notable thing that the Gospels do not claim that, inspiration.which wo feel to bo in them, and av notable .thing that no fantastic account of their origin i.s given. . Our Gospels are protestant. They challenge you to discover _ their inspiration for yourself. No voice of

- ;vcouncil, no'-bull of the Pope can make ' that inspired which is' insipid. Nor can ; nay claim to inspiration he so mighty /-■ as that .•which- Is: silently - made by the ;• -.grip- of the' narrative on our convictions. .//-.The sun does hot propound the nebular ' hypothesis. It-gives us -its heat. The •violet doee not offer ing a chemical formula, it -offers..us -its incense. So is it with the Go-spels. I .submit that the fact is. impressive. .The.'inspiration, which . :;is/Believed in -not because, of advertisement, but/ because of experience, will no.t,- ho.shaken, by any'theory. _ .“Whoso has felt the. spirit of tlie Highest • Cannot confound nor doubt Him nor deny;' : ' y Yea, with one -voice-.0 World, -tho’ thou , deniest Stand thou on that side for on this /V - . am H; v ; h-: :/-;>•• : ■/..;!• : But hoiv. came it that these unpres- / tending Gospels were written ? First of ' nil a prejudice had to be broken down. The, Evangelists beloilged to a nation ; that was not. literary; sThe Jew had one written book: For ages the traditions. : -of. the fathers were' handed, down orally. .Gamaliel,' at whose feet Paul sat r was a ' convinced.!'adyocate of. the oral method. It is In'itself almost a -.miracle that the'. Mnc-hb-readable hook.-j in the world should bo! the work of. Jews. The need for ; • writing down , what Jesus said! and did ‘ only v became gradually imiuifest. .There , is no evidence that-the,Apostles intended to'write a new! testament. Even Luke,, - .Who was. Dr! Ramsay, tells its, a supreme :. . histo-rioal : genius, .did- not recognise the importance of Paul’s Tetters, for lie -does v uotyin tho - Acts'.- tell / us of their dis- ./: patchy \- The /position./ivas: -this. The /, l Ahoetles'. were preachers, /not'.authors, - -/Tho ■last commiadon ran : ££ Go ye into: all tho wbrid ahd'preach;■;!; Paul also says: sent me to preach the Gospel.” ’'The Apostles told tlie facts about Jesus ’. -•in every; place, / They, recited His parables, ■ 'described iHii miracles, - and .- the - supreane .miracle. Himself ;■ they told of His death; and; of the' Easter Victory ' • - That ’ which they ; told appealed, to' men. '/.--They found, themselves Tn the; presence -of saving power; They li.yed the risen ./life. -..This Avaythe method. of the Apostles. . In the earliest days -the need of. . -another method'was hot- obvious, When ; you -think of the charm of the spoken Avord/ as Compared with the toil of read-. . tingy/you Will : not/‘wonder. /■' Who- /that - could hear Peter Oreach would, ’a-sk that the - words should/ bo - _ imprisoned, in ' a • - book?/ There is a "hufions confirmation //. hie- this in early .Christian history..' One ; . Pahias,/ who died/thirty years after St. ■v ; John/ wrote .at-book called ‘‘The. Exposition 'of. the.!Oracles- of . the- Lord,” and: r: lie tel W-us (the. paragraiih is preserved by . Eusebius): - lfc>w eagerly he ciuestionedevery one lie met who had known an / in-ostleV "and how he" himself also - had •/eonversed with two. who had-seen our' Lord in the -flesln for he eays naively, - ; T did not think I •could, get w much,profit from/the words of it hook as from . .i-thn utteraaice of a., living voice./’ This, then,/was the situation. ‘While. *•.the ApOst)es lived:'-men' were more .than -ccn.tent-to hear their voice. They did / not.-ask for a; book. The .constant ropi- - tition -of Itne sayings..aiid.doiiigs'.of Jesustended toward -.fixity of phrase.- It is. reasonable' to believe'! that the'apostles .'. collaborated.. They agreed upon those : ■ feafur-es of our Lord’s -life .which were!' - ■ representative!: /.These can ...be traced -in. the first three/Evangelists. • Identity / of phrase and of . order Tuns through many-of their chapters. Now Luke, tells .us that many people Wrote down the. tilings theyTieard.' These were probably /Greeks. ,' Possibly ,the*Ly action, 'jxossiblythe.', inaccuracy- of their work, forced 'upon the Apostles the necessity of au- ■ thp rdtativo - records °f the words and; y; -works :of ; Jesus'. ; And it was done, done A kit • first by three handfs. . There .was no : ! dictation .by an angel; There was no // hysteria.- Memory was; used, memory • • elevated-by:God’s Judgment was f used, judgment clarified by divine in-.--'fine-iieo, ■ Aiid iher.o lie- tho, hooks. One ;.> of the/ earliest;, cif the Christian- authors, x ..-gives a; 'Vefy reasonable account of their.-! origin. He . tells us t-hat:Mattl 1 etv wrote :/ him Gospel for tlic Hebrews-, !/which in- | seeing; that it- abounds ,j witii’quotatipfisvfT'Oih the Old Testament- j .. /It :W ! as surely .a very Christian thing that i . .-the'publican yhohad. tasted.tho scorn of ; /'fhn Jeiys should make -reprisals by. 'giy-.'i ,/: "i tigtheip : a -• GospClt ;He -toils ns that j ;;-'Mai'h'AAvoto his gospel,in Home,-whither j ho had gone with Peter,. The Romans, j / charmed:';with the Apostle’s •.preaching, j :/ tirgod/ his .'comrade : to write for them. | ; :/tho. message,-, and Peter approved of the j A request/and apnrored of the toils of his j ■/'friend. ,'He tells us tlxat. Luke, - while j / • making independent research, ■ ivrote-.the: j ■ Gospel which Paul preached.-John wrote/ /.' his Gospel fn. his extreme old age, when : A the :first century was nearing its death j /: and; Vhdn maiiy had .gone j 'forth/ • Urged* by the. -Elder's of the j Church at .Ephesus,:.he- wrote; /avoiding i '.Avhat, ;had ’been said; by • the. three," and j ; enipjiaßisiug tlie more private teachings I which j had received a new emphasis thrpugh the , :!flux-iof ;time. This•/• account- given by > the/early 'Ohristiausis entirely rebso'n- .: and' has t-he tone oT honesty. This, /, then, was the fact. Tho Gospels began /-! /£orm : 1 themselves; 'from.. !thm 4av of : tile" Resurrect ion, in the preaching : of / ;t : heA.iiostles.. And let'it be remembered that the persecutions .and poverty clieerl- f-ttily endured .bA r these.-Apostles are the • ; . uvagmficent proof .they .offer to the world / of-their liohosiy. - Paley -ha® never been . v refuted. : They./spoke tlie -,things they

heard and saw. By the year 70 the first three Gospels had been written. Twenty years later John’s Gospel completed flic cycle. "These' Avrittcn Gospels safeguarded- the Avoids of Jesue. Flagging memories, the inroads of death-could no more imperil the words of Jesus. , Notice now how our Gospels bear the -marks of honesty upon them. That there should he four Gospels is ii: itself striking. Wo are not left- at the mercy of one mail. Every man, even an Evangelist. has limitations. O. W. ' Holmes says /it pungently, -.“Smith gives us the •Smithate of Truth,. BroAvn the Brownate.” But four men,. observe, investigate and Avrite -the supreme history, THie. of itself/ suggests a desire for exactitude. / MJien the outlook of the four ,is considered, the four-fold Gospel ■will he felt by most to .be- providential. Matthew has antiquarian interests. He loves the prophets of Israel. He sees in Jewus the consummation of tlieir visions. He breaks into music as one by one tlieir great prophesies find tlieir fulfilment in his Lord. Mark is a man engrossed in the present. His Gospel is full of energy and movement 7% He caught: the spirit of the city in which ho wrote'it. He does not dwell in tlie parst;. He gives the moist .vivid...picture of Christ as He ivas. Luke is a man Avith Avido liorisons'. He AA*as a Greek, and Avas conscious of the world. To him the Avoids and works of Jesus had a Avqiicl-ividp significance. He preserves the parable of the Prodigal and tells ur of the penitent thief. John sees the /eternals. ' He loved, and love climbs the. highest heavens. The outlook of the four Evangelists is-, demonstrably different, hut taken.in combination they give' a complete , A’isio-n. You will -observe that there are at- least four ways -of; contemplating .'most things, In an encyclopaediac article on coal, for instance, tlle-re .will be the treatment of it from a geological;standpoint. _ Matthew n-.an- the geologist. There will he eonsi rJe ratio mof -ito present utility/and significance, its place in the civilisation of to-day. Mark was of this temper. There will also be an outlook on the future, on the relation of-coal to electrical energy; , and to -the possibilities of the- coming day. This . was Luke’s bent. There avas in the late Captain Hutton’s Hobart speech a fourth' outlook. Ho frankly reccgnised' a- thought of the Eternal God in this provision for man’s, need ; and this was. the vision of St- John. .So then / we have not Smivh giving.- us the Smithate of truth, we haA r e four/representative' minds offering -in -combination a complete A'ision. of the Man, of Nazareth.

-Another / sign of tlie. honesty of their' narrations is- the presence of - discre'pancies. It /■ used to he the /custom to attempt to harmoniso the discrepancies. There is a more :excellent'■ ivay. Let. us recognise that bn©..Evangelist- speaks, of two blind men at the gates .or Jericho, and another of but one: that one telle that Christ could not do- any mighty works-/in Nazareth; another, that Ho,.could riot- do many; that one suggests 1 that our Lord was scourged after his final condemnation by Pilate, another that the scourging occurred before; and eo forth. What conclusion should be drawn from these discrepancies ? Surely the honesty of. the. narrators. Surely ateo the uncon-t-aih.ina.ted condition, of. the narratives. If the documents- liad .been tampered with/ the first, task had boon to smooth out these very things at which a nearsighted scepticism makes complaint. % regard them as a- distinguished mark of the honesty and independence of our Gospels, '• '- This brings me. to the second part of my/subject. Have tho Gospels been well preserved '? We. are awed hv 1800 years. What may not .hermits and monk®' and puritan zealots have done 'with our four narratives? I shall not. burke the question.. The- original MSfeV have, of course, perished. They have been copied and rac-opied .a' times. If you want, old MSS. ._ the v oldest arejli' one lying in the British Museum, which gold'cannot buy. It is eallp'd tlie Alexandrian. AISS. • Archaeologists have /determined that it- belongs to the fifth century, -walywritten in the days of Ambrose; and Augustine. (2) In Rome- there lies a withered'hook af, -least. 10# years older than the Alexandrian MSS., and there- is in St. Petersburg one of a similar ago to that held by the Pope. It was • very I'e-cently discovered at a monastery, at Mount Sinai. and was filched, from the monks, there, and is now -.in; Russian cwstody.y Hieea two versions are of tlie age of Constantine tho Great. The question is, are These oldest./ MSS.' extant reliable. y copies of the Gospels as/ they tvere Avritten by Matthew. Mark. Luke, and John, We can; I think,, he sure that- they are. Thero is' a point of time, at,which extreme critics admit that the four were in tho. hands, of the church. At the year 180 there flourished in three different parts of the world three'famous men. The first of these. Clement, was of Alexandria," and Alexandria was then an in/'olieotual centre. Grecian thought landed on the African coast. The lTniversity of Alexandria was famed everywhere. • The - church in that city had caught.the prevailing Lone-. Her teachers Avero liberal and enlightened. . Clement's. writings remain to us. The second avas/ Tertulian. He Ava® a North '.African-, and by profession a lawyer. He was also'a puritan. His volinninous Avritinas are in our lands. Tlie third resided in France, though hi.-- native province was an Asia Minor. His mime is

Irenaeus. A recent critic of tiie writings of these three Fathers, said: "You would as soon' question 'whether Mr Spurgeon or Canon Liddon knew our Gospels ao Avhether. these men did.” Largo parts of our Gospels can he re-writ-tcii from their writings. Now, the year 180 is 80 years removed from tlie death of the last of the apostles. Eighty years afo long or short, according aa i they are contemplated. This 80 years is short for two reasons. (1) Irenaeus had-, a, direct relationship Avith the apostles through Ids teacher, Poly carp. He tells in his book. lioav, in-'hi-s-early. home, lie heard that Martyr . tell o-f St. John, cif Avliat he had said, and- lioav he had taught. Ho av.us removed by but one life front the Apostles themselves. (2) The other fact that makes the 80 years short, is an argument employed by Irenaeus. He-, in one place, likens tho four Gospels to the four faccfc- of the'Cherubim, and to the four cardinal points of the compass. As- there cannot be more than four points, he says, so is it Avith tho Gospels. We think the contt parison fanciful.. But its value is great, ] for it implies that there was not Avithin the horizon, of Irenaeus’s memory (and that reached hack through Polycarp to John) any Gospel that- could rival the four; there never had been, so far as ho knew, more than four accepted records of Jesus, and there had not been less. This implies an antiquity, for the four such, as is confessed by.'the church, and/ this mbkcrj the 80 years short ; indeed it bridges them. But there is more evidence. We have. the writings-of • o-ne Just-in. wlio flourished in Rome aliout the year 150. Justin- is a notable figure. He was by training a- philosopher. After, hip conversion he still wore the- philosopher's robe. • Ho lia-d found the supreme philosophy/ He tells in . an apology written for the eye of the Emperor liiniself, lioav the Christians met- at their worship and how they read. from /’the Memoirs of the Apostles.” In one place he further defines the memoirs by saying, they Avere by the Apostle® and those who folloAved them—a singularly -accurato description of our Gospels. In Justin’s hooks all -the great features of our Lord’s life are referred to. An outline .of tlie/ Gospel facts can be won from Justin. The slight additions he makes to ,our knowledge, /such as the ■fact that the. stable at Bethlehem was a cave, and that. the' Avork of the Carpenter of Nazareth wa-s ox-yokes and goads, are ref enable to local knowledge, for he Avao born in'Samaria. Noav there av as in the circle of Justin’s acquaintance. a man named Tatian, aa-lio, as Eusebius' tells ns. wrote a book called ■'‘Diatessaron.” Tho title suggests that it was-'a harmony of the- four Gospels. The book.' Avas. however, till recently, lost, and the scepticism of the author of/ ■'•'Supernatural Religion” was vehement .that the Diatessaron could . not bo a harmony of our four Gospels. It was h:s theory that- the original Gospels u'ore lost, and-mythical Gospels substituted for them somewhere about tlie middle of the second century. The Diatessaron - was, however, recently recovered, and was,- as,Christians anticipated, a harmony of our Gospels, commencing ivith the first yerise of. St.- John, and weaving..the four-fold narrative into one. This.-- wus. about- the year 150, but 50 ye are from the death of John. * These 50 years yield us-the names o-f Polycarp, P-apias, and Clement of Rome. • Papins wrote a hook which • ha called “Expositions of the Oracles of the Lord,” which is believed to bo a commentary,on our Gospels, The book i® lost. .but is being eagerly sought for m the East, and may bo found any day. /Tlie- writings of tho three fathevs I have named are instinct- with the spirit of the Gospels, Lot the matter he .Looked at thus. Tlie publication of the Diatdssaron is removed from tlie- death of John by 50 years: and these years arc not Aviihout link®. We are separated by 5)0 years from tho - death, of Wellington. Some of my readers .’ saw Willington avlism they Avere hoys. I myself remember a veteran who fought, with him at- Waterloo. It is impossible that ivith in a'period so brief and’traversed so by AvitnessW a legendary account should grow' up. let it also- bo remembered that the Gospels were given, to a church sliarpiy split, into sect®. On the one hand was a , Jewish party. avlio avouLl fiercely oopo.se any enlargement- of. Hi® claims to Deity. On the other, a Gnostic party, sensitive/ to and half, repelled by' His humanity. • i; Y>th. these-parties accepted the Gospels. Tliey did so m -spite of their prejudice®, because/ their authority was incontrovertible. Let it also he remembered hv those wlio hold an impossible mythical thr-'Qrv. that the early .church was bcat.kered/through tl»e Empiro and was absolutely without a- central- authority; Each ehurcJi,. moreover, wa-s jealous.over the traditions and customs it had received through / t-lie Apostles.' But no church protested against our Evangelist®. There is a cogent .illustration of this. We know that about the year 100 Polycarp journeyed from Asia to Rome to persuade .tho Roman Ohim-h to celebrate Raster on-the some day a,-; tlieir brethren in the llasl. The koitiars celelnutea on tho lllli day. The Syawterns, later. The Roman Bishop Amcotu®. however, while absolutely courteous, declined to change a custom for 'which lie believed luo had apostolical, authority. Vet some credulous people would believe that such men consented to alter not a detail, hut the fundamentals of. their faith. We can, I -maintain, he sure on historical grounds, quite apart from the consideration® Avhich rise fr-om the exalted con-

tents of the books, that our Gospels aro identical - Avith those which came from the hands of the Apostles. There are indeed divergent- readings. Tho Gospels have- been dictated hundreds of times. No miracle wa® performed to prevent sleepy scribes from blundering,, nor a sleepy reader from dictating to the scriptors a marginal note as part of the text. But how does it stand Avith variant readings ? Dr Kenyon, of tlie British Museum staff, is responsible, for the following statement; The words in the Goepels which are beyond challenge, comprise seveneighths of the Avh-010. Of the remaining one-eighth the great bulk are trivial, and do not alter the sense. The words over which- there is real.debate are not m-ore than one-sixtieth of the whole. He adds that no doctrine, of the- faith rests cn a disputed text. _ It is certain that the text of no ancient writing is so abundantly verified’ as is the text of our Gospels. To sum up. Here are - the Gospels. Historically avo can he sure they are the Gospels t hat- overe road by the first Christian®. From literary considerations and a con.-idoration of the by-products, of tlie age w-e can he sure that they are not overlaid with tlie dreams and hysterics'of disciples.. They are natural and si mole in style and. structure, and bear the ball marks of sincerity upon theffn. There a,re four of them and that guarantees an adequate knowledge, of Jesus. They 'do not claim to be inspired. But men find that the-v are. There they lie in-their glory. Every other account of their origin, saving the simple and natural one. just outlined, breaks down. These Gospels give you a- vision of Christ, and -Christ is the , express image of the Father’s glory. . “The ackuoAvledment- of God in Christ Accepted by thy reason, solves fq-i- thee All nrohlems in the Earth and out of it”