FAITH OF OUR FATHERS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 32, 26 August 1925, Page 51

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS

«.;/ (By the Right Reverend Monsignor Rower, V.F., for the N.Z. Tablet.) r . •' • ■ !• FIV . - B.—INTEGRITY AND VERACITY OF NEW TESTAMENT.

• tb. en we speak of the integrity of the ; Gospels we mean that they are in substantial agreement with the original documents. It is true that Ave cannot consult these original . documents to-day, but this will 'cause no surprise to those who know that we cannot now lay our hands upon even one original of the, Greek and Latin classics. A certain Rationalistic - wiseacre, offered this objection ■ to me some short time ago"; he saw how silly it was when I had informed him that the manuscript of a lecture I had delivered only . thirty-six hours before was not then ii/ existence, I destroyed it when the printed . copy came to hand. There are several,copies of the Gospels in existence, one at. least , dating back to the second century. This and others of the early centuries are in substantial agreement with the original. We know this in the way that we know that our texts 'of Homer and .Virgil are in substantial agreement with the original works of these - poets, and Ave have a much stronger assur- £ ance of it than we have in the case of any of the, ancient classics. Substantial agreement does not exclude minor errors. In later versions of the Gospels through the course of centuries copyists have made minor errors. Bishop Vaughan points. out" one such: in the Second lined; of Kino* we find two contradictory statements that give joy to the heart of the Rationalist; one verse says that Michol, the daughter of Saul. had five sons; another says that Michol had child to the day of her death. This II palpable _ contradiction does not puzzle the |pr student of the Scriptures, who knows that ’ Merob, another daughter of Saul, had indeed five sous. The copyist had inadvertently written Miohol instead of Merob. Copyists feel fatigue at times. The Bishop gives a--1 ■■ modern instance of a telegraph operator who caused great grief some time ago by sending out a message that a certain Earl had died at such a place on such a day; the Earl .' had simply dined; it Avas the dropping of the “n” that caused the grief. It would appear that telegraphists also suffer and ■A make others suffer from fatigue; it is only Rationalists avlio are immune from such weaknesses. ; Such - minor errors are gradually disappearing from the Gospel copies before ripe Biblical scholarship, until uoav, according to ;Westcott and Hort, 7000 out of 8000 verses are to be considered definitely established. In vital matters, as I have said, all the ■q received'Versions are in agreement with the •original text. If the text had been changed in any vital matter, this must have happened , j before the circulation of the oldest version : now existing; but any such change would . have been impossible, because from that date .back to the time of the Evangelists, both Christians and Heretics watched with great ♦ jealousy over the integrity of the Scriptures. -‘'3% .would-be impossible - also, because by the ■3P$, ar 16b a large number of copies must have bjeen . spread 'through Asia and the whole s Ohurch, and it would be an impossible task .to change and corrupt ' , them M all. It ; would .. v r.: , .•. ■ ••• ',-Tr T ' • •

be impossible also to change the Gospel cita-r tions in the voluminous writings of the Early, Fathers. Indeed, it has been well said that had the Gospels themselves disappeared,. it would be an easy task to reconstruct them from these writings. v The Gospels were cherished as a most sacred deposit from the Apostolic Church, they were guarded with great care, and the same solicitude that kept the Apocrypha from being included in the Canon, must have kept themselves safe for all the churches. Amongst European scholars, Harnack, a faVprite with the Rationalists, is one of great authority in all that concerns the literature of the first centuries. In his Propagation of Christianity in the First Three Centuries he enumerates forty-three localities where the existence of Christian communities is historically attested in the first century ; e.g., Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Alexandria, Greece, Macedonia, Rome, etc. How would’ it be possible to corrupt the Scriptures in all these localities in the space of a few years? 1 he third essential 'of authentic history is realised in the New Testament writings. The Evangelists are trustworthy; they knew the facts they have narrated, and were themselves truthful. Saint- Matthew and Saint •John had been constant companions of Our Lord. Saint Mark wrote what he had heard from Saint Peter, who approved it and sent it to the Church with his authority. Saint Luke was in constant intercourse with Our Lord’s contemporaries, and especially with Saint Paul, whose convert and fellowlaborer he was. No one could know better than he the truth of the things about which he wrote. Thus, the Evangelists knew their facts. , , Did they record them truthfully? It is not possible to think that the Evangelists were untruthful; they were holy men, whose simple lives were crowned with martyrdom on account of their writings; it is only an untruthful man- who will lie in order to escape death; no one will lie for the sake of being put to death. Again,' they were writing of the most striking events at a time ■ when these could be easily verified by those to whom they , were of supreme importance ; of events that had taken place in public, and, in the words of Saint Paul, not in a. corner. Even had they wished it, they could not invent what they wrote. John Stuart Mill has well asked: ‘‘Who among the disciples, or among the proselytes, was capable of inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus, or of imagining the life and -character revealed in the Gospels?” Keim says that “no sane persons has ever supposed the Gospels to t be. based solely on recent-.legends,; or modern^ inventions.” To one, not sane, Rosseau replies; “My friend, forgeries are not of this kind, and the acts of* l Socrates, which no one doubts, are not so well attested as the acts of Christ. >’ Resides this only increases the difficulty, '.Far' more inconceivable is it that several men should have combined to fabricate -this book than that there

should have been' one living original whom they, described. No . Jeivish . author could' have fabricated the tone or the moral teach-. • ■- C XI. 1 1- X.r r. - ing of the evangelist. So A powerful, so overwhelming and inimitable is the impress of - truth stamped upon the Gospel, that its inventor * would 'be : a : greater marvel than its hero.” ...... „ ■ . . What has been said about the GoSpels is true also of the Acts of the Apostles; their value as history cannot be called into question. The sceptic, Renan, declares: '“A thing beyond all doubt is that the Acts have the same author as the third 'Gospel and are a continuation of the same.” Harnack is of the same opinion. ' Similarly, the Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, Gelatians, 1 hillipians, and Thessalouians are admitted as authentic historical documents. In proving in the next chapter the Divinity of Christ, amongst other.,writings,. I shall rightly , - therefore, quote the -New Testament as a genuine historical work. It is, of course, more than this, but this Avill be sufficient for my purpose. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the central figure in the Ncav Testament, as He was the supreme object of the writers’ love. That He was a. great and sublime figure for Whom countless thousands were willing to lay down their Jives, is freely recognised by men of all religions and of none. It is for Him that pagans changed their- lives, and lascivious soldiers embraced suffering and self-denial; it is to Him intrepid martyrs .prayed from the crimsoned sands of the Coliseum, to Him such burning words Aver© spoken as came from Andrew on his cross; it is He Who had a balm for every sorroAv, healing for every wound, and life for all avlio died; it is His Avord that cheered the captive, and the manacled slave,, and the outcast of men; that directed ’ their gaze to the common Father m Heaven, Who cared for the sparrows, and would call poor suffering men to His eternal Home. It is to praise Him the greatest poets have written their inspired verse, the musicians have swelled their richest harmonies, the architects have sprung from deep foundations their glorious poems in, stone, and painters have made their fine productions almost breathe with glowing life. It is before Him Ave fall in prostrate adoration, for He is no mere man, but the Eternal, Illimitable God. ‘