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 BS 2555 .S44 1917 
 
 Sell, Henry T. 1854-1928. 
 
 Studies in the four Gospel 
 
STUDIES IN THE 
 FOUR GOSPELS 
 
BIBLE STUDY BY TEXT- BOOKS 
 
 A New Method for Bible Classes 
 By HENRY T. SELL 
 
 Ten Interesting Studies 
 
 i. Supplemental Bible Studies. 
 
 2. Bible Studies by Books. 
 
 3. Bible Studies by Periods. 
 
 4. Bible Studies by Doctrines. 
 
 5 . Bible Studies in the Life of Christ. 
 
 6. Bible Studies in the Life of Paul. 
 
 7. Studies in the Life of the Christian. 
 
 8. Studies in Early Church History. 
 
 9. Bible Studies in Vital Questions. 
 10. Studies in the Four Gospels. 
 
STUDIES IN THE 
 FOUR GOSPELS 
 
 The Master Books of the World 
 
 By 
 
 HENRY T.^SELL, D.D. 
 
 Author of "The Sell Series of Bible Studies 
 
 for Adult Classes " 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 London and Edinburgh 
 
Copyright, 1917, by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
 London: 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 
 
Foreword 
 
 In " Studies in the Four Gospels " an effort is made 
 to set forth the circumstances under which the Gospels 
 came to be written, their respective view-points, char- 
 acteristics, agreements, differences, arguments and 
 analyses, together with an appraisement of their mes- 
 sages to the ancient and to the modern world. 
 
 In the reawakening interest in Bible study, the need 
 of a thorough understanding of the Gospels is easily 
 first. All history turns, as on a pivot, upon their 
 record. Our modern religion and civilization are 
 founded upon them. Time is reckoned as b. c. and 
 a. d m as with the advent of Jesus Christ a new and 
 a brighter era dawned for man. They are the key- 
 stone of the Biblical arch. They are the vouchers 
 of our Christian faith. They reveal the sources of life 
 and set forth the principles of conduct which make life 
 worth while. They easily outrank all ancient and 
 modern books. Their message never grows old ; it is 
 a means of inestimable comfort and power to those 
 who accept it. Their supreme aim is the production 
 of belief in a risen Lord and Saviour and, through 
 Him, the moral, the social and the political regener- 
 ation of mankind. 
 
 Each Gospel has a distinct and definite purpose in 
 view. It sets forth in its own way, from a common 
 
 5 
 
6 Foreword 
 
 source of facts, the world's greatest story. This work 
 is not done dully but with a heartiness and enthusiasm 
 that know no bounds. Each evangelist thoroughly 
 believed in the cause he advocated. 
 
 To apprehend the meaning of the Gospel writers 
 and " Why Four Gospels ? " their books should be 
 studied separately and consecutively — as is attempted 
 in this volume — and then, while the view-point of each 
 is fresh in mind, they should be diligently compared 
 with each other. The details should also be studied 
 in the light of the whole and not the whole in the 
 light of the details. In this way, and in no other, can 
 the great all around message of the Christ be made 
 known to us. We need to see it all in order to get the 
 larger perspective. It is through such a study of the 
 Gospels that there may emerge for us the true historic 
 figure of the Christ. 
 
 The greatest question of the early Church was — 
 " Who is Jesus Christ ? " This to-day is not only the 
 greatest question of the modern Church but of the 
 modern world. This master question can only be 
 sufficiently and satisfactorily answered for us, as it was 
 of old, in the Gospels — " The Master Books of the 
 World." 
 
 In the making of this volume the author wrote to 
 eight eminent New Testament scholars in the United 
 States and asked for lists of the latest and best books 
 upon the Gospels. Very satisfactory replies were re- 
 ceived but the lists received are too long to be quoted 
 here. Many of the books have been diligently studied 
 
Foreword 7 
 
 by the author and the results of that study are incor- 
 porated in this volume. The chief authority, however, 
 is the Gospels themselves. 
 
 This book is for use in adult Bible, pastors', Y. M. 
 C. A. and Y. W. C. A. classes, young peoples' so- 
 cieties, schools, colleges and private study. 
 
 While each one of the nine studies, presented in this 
 book, may be considered in a single session of the 
 class, much better results may be attained by devoting 
 two or more sessions to each study and assigning 
 topics to individuals in advance. 
 
 This is the tenth volume to be issued in the author's 
 "Series of Bible Studies," of which about two hun- 
 dred thousand copies have been sold. 
 
Contents 
 
 The Making of the Four Gospels • 1 1 
 (Introductory Study) 
 
 The Gospel of Matthew 
 
 II. 
 
 The Plan of Matthew 
 
 . 29 
 
 III. 
 
 The World's Messiah . 
 
 The Gospel of Mark 
 
 . 44 
 
 IV. 
 
 The Object of Mark . 
 
 . 62 
 
 V. 
 
 The Authority of the Christ 
 The Gospel of Luke 
 
 . 76 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Purpose of Luke . 
 
 . 89 
 
 VII. 
 
 The Certainty of the Saviour . 
 The Gospel of John 
 
 . 106 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The Clear Vision of John . 
 
 . 124 
 
 IX. 
 
 The Revelation of the Christ . 
 
 . 144 
 
STUDY I 
 THE MAKING OF THE FOUR GOSPELS 
 
 Origin. — We do not have the Christ because of the 
 Gospels but the Gospels because of the Christ. These 
 writings are an effort to answer the question, " Who 
 is Jesus Christ ? " and to express and chronicle His 
 life, teaching, death and resurrection. They are con- 
 nected in a very vital way. " It is indispensable to 
 detect the running stream of life that winds steadily, 
 for all its eddies and backwaters, between and through 
 these varied writings ; and this is impossible till the 
 critic stands beside the life which they presuppose and 
 out of which they rise." 
 
 Definition. — Gospel means " Good Tidings " (Luke 
 2 : 10-14). In the mouth of Christ and those whom He 
 sent forth it was the good tidings of the kingdom of 
 God (Luke 4 : 16-21 ; Matthew 4 : 23 ; 9 : 35 ; 10 : 7 ; 
 11 : 1-6; Mark 1 : 14 ; 16: 15; Luke 9:2; 10: 1-9; 
 John 1 : 1-18). This " Good Tidings " was inseparably 
 associated with Christ. It is His Gospel. 
 
 Literary Form. — The Gospels must be classified by 
 themselves as having a specific literary form. " They 
 are authoritative statements of the acts and words of 
 Christ. As in the machinery of public life we have 
 protocols reciting with authority facts or documents 
 
 11 
 
12 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 upon which political action is to be founded, so the 
 authors of the Gospels drew up, and the early Church 
 accepted, what were, not in themselves books of law, 
 but the best authority for the acts and words of their 
 Founder to which the Church looked for its supreme 
 law. And this technical description is borne out by 
 the language of the preface to Luke's Gospel (i : 1-4). 
 No doubt the Gospel of John differs widely in spirit 
 from the other three. Its prologue elaborates a theo- 
 logical position, which the body of the work supports, 
 but this necessitates only a slight modification of the 
 formula, used above ; the ' Acts ' of Jesus become in 
 John's writings, * Signs ' ; His ■ Words ' are brought 
 forward as ' Witness ' of His Divine essence and mis- 
 sion. Thus the fourth Gospel may be placed in the 
 same category with the other three." 
 
 The Background — The time, of the life and work 
 of Christ which the Gospels record, was within about 
 the first thirty-three years of the first century. The 
 place was Palestine, under Roman rule. Galilee and 
 Judea were thickly settled portions of Palestine. Here 
 was the midway between the east and west of the vast 
 Roman Empire. Caravans were constantly traversing 
 this district — what was said and done here would 
 speedily be heralded throughout the known world. It 
 was a fitting place to proclaim the " Good Tidings " 
 which was to influence the world. The population 
 of the Empire was about 120,000,000, of which only 
 about 20,000,000 were citizens — the rest were slaves 
 and tributaries, for the most part. Some authorities 
 
The Making of the Four Gospels 13 
 
 claim that there were only about 4,000,000 Roman 
 citizens in full. There was a vast variety of political 
 conditions. 
 
 Outwardly It Was a Splendid Age. — The world 
 state seemed to be realized. The arts and sciences 
 were highly cultivated. Commercial traffic and pleas- 
 ure travel were made easy by splendidly kept military 
 roads which extended to the farthest confines of the 
 Empire. There was a general use of the Greek 
 language. 
 
 Internal Conditions Were Bad. — The old philoso- 
 phies and religions were worn out. The temples 
 fostered all sorts of evils. Seneca, the great Roman 
 philosopher, wrote : " All things are full of crimes and 
 vices." He agreed with what Paul wrote, along the 
 same line, to the Romans (1 : 18-32). Human life 
 was considered of little value ; it was daily sacrificed, 
 for the pleasure of the populace, in the shows of the 
 circus. 
 
 There Was a Reawakening of the Religious Sense. — 
 To this the Gospel appealed. It presented an adequate 
 object of worship. It insisted on purity in moral con- 
 duct. It emphasized the value of human life. It 
 preached a faith and hope which rejuvenated the 
 hearts of men. It so worked for good that the adher- 
 ents of Christ were found in great numbers, through- 
 out the Empire, within thirty years after His Gospel 
 was made known. 
 
 The Oral Period. — The Gospel was first proclaimed 
 through the spoken word. Christ used this method 
 
14 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 (Matt. 5:1, 2). He instructed His disciples to use 
 this method (Luke 9 : I, 2; 10 : 1 ; Acts 1 : 8). In the 
 days when there were no newspapers, coming in streams 
 from fast running presses, and no deluge of printed 
 books, when everything had to be written out carefully 
 by hand, it was the most effective way to get the 
 u Good Tidings " before the people. Men's memories 
 were more highly cultivated, then, on account of the 
 lack of the constant presence of the printed page. 
 
 It was customary to preserve narratives and teach- 
 ings for a considerable period in oral form before put- 
 ting them into writing. " The Jewish Targums " — 
 paraphrases of the Old Testament books in the ver- 
 nacular — " existed orally for a century or more before 
 assuming definite written form/' 
 
 The oral way of instruction had been the way of 
 great philosophers and religious teachers for centuries. 
 Socrates, the father of Greek philosophy, left no writing 
 of any sort. Epictetus, the Stoic, likewise wrote noth- 
 ing. Yet through their spoken words, they created a 
 new world of philosophy. Their disciples, afterwards, 
 wrote down what they remembered of their words. 
 
 Remarkable results followed the proclamation of the 
 oral Gospel by Jesus Christ. Crowds followed Him 
 everywhere and hung upon His words. After His 
 resurrection, His disciples, taking up the work of oral 
 preaching, stirred great cities — like Antioch, Ephesus, 
 Corinth and Rome — of hundreds of thousands of in- 
 habitants, to their very depths, and made a multitude 
 of converts. What more effective method could have 
 
The Making of the Four Gospels 15 
 
 been used ? To-day, when great crises arise, men 
 gather to hear the spoken word, as even more effective 
 than the printed page. 
 
 The Oral Period Has Not Yet Come to an End. — 
 Men still desire to hear the spoken Gospel. 
 
 The Writing Age. — There came a time, however, 
 in the history of the early Church, when Christian 
 communities had multiplied rapidly and were widely 
 scattered over the Roman Empire. Those who had 
 heard and seen the Christ, or had been with those who 
 had seen Him, were passing away. It was felt that 
 what Christ taught and did should be preserved, in its 
 purity. The Christians wanted, in written form, His 
 Gospel. They had heard it repeated again and again, 
 they could repeat it themselves. But what of those 
 who would come after them ? So while things were 
 fresh in the memory, the first attempts at Gospel 
 making were made. Luke's preface to his Gospel 
 (1 : 1-4) is the classic example of the record of 
 these efforts. It was easy to remember and to repeat 
 what Christ had said and done. It was not difficult 
 to write it out. He spoke in parables ; in striking, 
 pithy sentences. He was unique and original in His 
 way of putting truth. Then the truth which He 
 taught was new and startling. His works of power 
 could not help but impress people. 
 
 At just what time " The Writing Age " began it is 
 impossible to say. The bounds of " The Oral 
 Period " have been roughly placed between 30 and 
 50 A. d. ; " The Writing Age," 50 to 100; " Collect- 
 
16 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 ing the Writings " of the New Testament, ioo to 150. 
 But within " The Oral Period " New Testament scholars 
 now tell us that there must have been many letters de- 
 scribing the Christ and what He said and did. Some 
 of these letters may have been quite lengthy and gone 
 quite into detail. We see this tendency in the Epistles 
 of Paul, which he began to write in about 52 a. d. 
 
 Some scholars place the beginnifig of Gospel making 
 as early as 40 a. d. Professor James Moffatt, of Ox- 
 ford, in his " Introduction to the Literature of the New 
 Testament " (page 215), says : " Nevertheless by at least 
 50 a. D. such notes and collections (in regard to the 
 words and works of Christ) may have begun to exist 
 in rough form. The current was, at any rate, setting 
 unmistakably in that direction. By the time of Paul's 
 later literary activity, written evangelic narratives 
 were in existence here and there, especially within the 
 primitive Palestinian churches. The primary need for 
 these is to be found in the fact that a new generation 
 was rising, who were dependent for their history of 
 Jesus upon a fast diminishing company of eye-wit- 
 nesses, in the rapid extension and consolidation of the 
 Christian communities." 
 
 The Four Forms of the Gospel, which have come 
 down to us, bear the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke 
 and John. Two apostles and two companions of 
 apostles. There were other attempts at Gospel 
 making, which have perished. These Gospels, each 
 in its own sphere, were considered — by those in the 
 early Church, who had immediate, or the best, knowl- 
 
The Making of the Four Gospels 17 
 
 edge of the things of which they relate — most truly to 
 set forth the words and works of the Christ. 
 
 The first three Gospels are called " The Synoptic 
 Gospels " (seeing together) because they largely relate 
 to the same events in the ministry of Christ in Galilee. 
 " They are built upon the same general historical 
 framework. Thus they all contain, after an account 
 of the preaching of John the Baptist, and of the bap- 
 tism and temptation of Jesus, a narrative of Jesus' 
 Galilean ministry, of a journey to Jerusalem, of the 
 last week in Jerusalem, and of the post-resurrection 
 story ; all omitting the early Judean ministry of which 
 the fourth Gospel has an account." They resemble 
 each other in the recording and in the general order 
 of the events which they relate. The resemblance 
 between Mark and Luke is especially close. By far 
 the larger part of the verbal agreement, in the three 
 Gospels, is found in the giving of the words of others, 
 especially the words of Jesus. Yet there are marked 
 differences. Each has a specific motive and arranges 
 the common matter, in specific instances, somewhat 
 differently. There are additions and omissions. Mat- 
 thew contains 330 verses not found elsewhere ; Mark 
 68 and Luke 541. Take this added matter in Luke 
 9 : 51-18 : 34 ; there is here a series of events and dis- 
 courses, which constitute about one-third of this Gos- 
 pel and which have no parallel elsewhere. In narrative 
 Matthew occupies about one-fourth of his Gospel, Luke 
 one-third and Mark one-half. These resemblances and 
 differences constitute what is known as " The Synop- 
 
18 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 tic Problem." But, " Behind our present four Gospels 
 there doubtless lay, as Luke's preface indicates, an 
 oral tradition, ultimately derived from eye-witnesses." 
 The written Gospels resemble each other so much, 
 probably, because the oral teaching of the apostles 
 had taken a settled form. The apostles would be 
 anxious to use, and their hearers to require the use of, 
 the words of Christ in the way in which He spoke 
 them. There was a careful selection of material, for 
 each Gospel, for the purpose which the author had 
 before him. We are frankly told in the Gospel of 
 John of this selection of material for a particular pur- 
 pose (John 20:30, 31) — "And many other signs 
 truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which 
 are not written in this book : But these are written 
 that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son 
 of God; and that believing ye might have life 
 through His Name." 
 
 Ihe fourth Gospel, written long after the first three, 
 does not contradict or supplant but supplements Mat- 
 thew, Mark and Luke. It was conceived in a different 
 atmosphere, when the Church had shaken itself free 
 from questions of the Jewish law and more spiritual 
 matters had come to the front. It is the intensity of 
 the present communion with the living Lord, in the 
 Spirit, which dominates the fourth Gospel. Recent 
 criticism of the first three Gospels has brought them 
 nearer to John in that the things set forth in them — 
 especially in Mark — in regard to Jesus Christ, as the 
 Son of God, are elaborated and brought to full flower 
 
The Making of the Four Gospels 19 
 
 in this fourth Gospel. The Synoptic Gospels concern 
 themselves, chiefly, about the reporting of the events 
 of Christ's ministry in Galilee while the fourth Gospel 
 has to do, for the most part, with the ministry in 
 Judea. But the fact is that none of the Gospels pro- 
 fesses to give a complete account of Christ's life on 
 earth. In John's Gospel there are repeated references 
 to the ministry in Galilee (4:43; 6 : 1 ; 7:1), while 
 expressions occur in the other Gospels which would be 
 unintelligible if the ministry had been strictly confined 
 to Galilee (Matt. 23 : 37 ; Luke 13 : 34). 
 
 Problems and Key-notes. — Each Gospel had a sepa- 
 rate problem before it. The key-note of Matthew is 
 — " Fulfillment of Prophecy " (1 : 22 ; 2 : 5, 6, 15, 17, 
 23, etc.); Mark — "The Authority of the Christ" 
 (1 : 22, 27, etc.) ; Luke — " The Certainty of the His- 
 torical Christ " (1:4); John — " The Lordship (1 : 1) 
 and Saviourhood of the Christ " (20 : 30, 31). 
 
 Four Great Points of Agreement. — There is a cen- 
 tral mass of historical truth around which Matthew, 
 Mark, Luke and John group their materials. This is 
 the fundamental element which makes them preach 
 the u Good Tidings." 
 
 1. The incarnation of the Son of God. Each 
 evangelist sets this forth in his own way (Matt. 1:23; 
 3:17; Mark 1 : 1, 11; Luke 1:4; 2 : 1 1 ; John 
 1 : 1-18). 
 
 2. The life of Christ on earth in human form and 
 subject to human conditions. The central portion of 
 each Gospel is taken up with this life. 
 
20 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 3. Large space is given to the events of His last 
 week : the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Temple 
 discourses, the last supper and the trials in which Jesus 
 sets forth His claims as the Messiah and Saviour 
 (Matt. 26 : 26-29 J 26 : 62-64 ', Mark 14 : 22-24 ; 
 14 : 61,62 ; Luke 22: 14-20; 22: 66-71 ; John 13:1- 
 17:26; 18:29-19:19), His rejection by the Jews, 
 His trials and His death by crucifixion (Matt. 27 : 1- 
 66 ; Mark 15 : 1-47 ; Luke 23 : 1-56 ; John 19 : 1-42). 
 
 4. His resurrection. The rising from the dead on 
 the third day, the parting instructions to the disciples 
 and the ascension are all amply set forth (Matt. 28 ; 
 Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20 and 21). 
 
 Authorship and Authenticity.— As far back as we 
 can go, in the early records of the Church, the Gospels 
 bore the names we now know them by — Matthew, 
 Mark, Luke and John. These " Writings " were well 
 known in the second century. 
 
 Some of the early testitnonies are as follows : 
 
 Tatian made a Harmony of the Gospels, which was 
 published about 170 A. d. The " Diatessaron," as it 
 was called, became very popular. It was a compilation 
 of our four named Gospels. It began with the open- 
 ing verses of John's Gospel — thus putting at the fore- 
 front the claim of the Divinity of Christ. 
 
 Irenosus (115-202 a. d.) was born in Asia Minor 
 and spent his early life there. He afterwards became 
 bishop of Lyons in France. He was well acquainted 
 with the four named Gospels, in the form in which we 
 now have them. In his writings he uses the New 
 
The Making of the Four Gospels 21 
 
 Testament with great freedom. He makes several 
 hundred references to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. 
 Of John, he writes specially, " having previously 
 spoken of the three other Gospels and their authors," 
 " Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also 
 leaned upon His breast, did himself publish a Gospel 
 during his residence at Ephesus in Asia " (" Adv. 
 Haer.," Ill, 1). He thus commenced his teaching 
 in the Gospel — " In the beginning was the Word, 
 and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," 
 etc. (John I : 1). Irenaeus, while he lived in Asia 
 Minor, was a pupil of Polycarp (bishop of the church 
 at Smyrna) who was a disciple of John, the Apostle, 
 who was bishop at the near-by city of Ephesus. 
 Paul had made a long stay at Ephesus and founded 
 the church there. Irenaeus had an opportunity to get 
 knowledge at first hand from Polycarp, who had 
 known and talked with many eye-witnesses and ear- 
 witnesses of what Jesus had said and done. Irenaeus 
 gives this testimony in a letter — " For I remember the 
 occurrences of those days better than the more recent ; 
 so I can tell the very spot in which the blessed Poly- 
 carp sat and conversed, and his outgoings and his in- 
 comings, and the character of his life, and the form of 
 his body, and the conversations which he held with 
 the multitude ; and how he related his familiar inter- 
 course with John and the rest who had seen the Lord, 
 and how he rehearsed their sayings, and what things 
 they were which he had heard from them with regard 
 to the Lord and His miracles and teaching. All these 
 
22 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 things Polycarp related in harmony with the writings, 
 as having received them from the eye-witnesses of the 
 Word of life " (" Early Christian Literature Primers," 
 
 II, 55). 
 
 Polycarp : his life (69-155) " spans with one grand 
 arch the entire chasm of historic uncertainty which 
 appears in our accounts of the early Church." One 
 abutment rests upon the eye- and ear-witnesses of our 
 Lord and the other upon Irenaeus and men of his age. 
 The apostolic traditions are borne, in security, over 
 this bridge. One epistle, out of a number which 
 Polycarp wrote, remains to us (" Early Christian 
 Literature Primers," I, 80-87). This letter begins — 
 " Polycarp and the presbyters that are with him to the 
 church of God, which is at Philippi : mercy unto you, 
 and peace from God Almighty, and the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, our Saviour, be multiplied." It shows that the 
 Gospel writings had become so popular that they had 
 entered into the common life and language of the 
 people. Four things are here brought to our notice : 
 I. "He states the fact of our Lord's resurrection and 
 ascension to glory." 2. " He refers to the teaching 
 of our Lord and His Apostles." 3. " He refers to the 
 * Oracles of Our Lord ' which were the words for the 
 written Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John." 
 4. " He quotes the language of Matthew, Luke, John, 
 Acts, Peter and Paul." " Here, then, we get a link in our 
 chain which connects us with the actual writers of the 
 New Testament and assures us that its contents were 
 in the hands of men who lived before the last of the 
 
The Making of the Four Gospels 23 
 
 apostles were dead." Polycarp was martyred (burned 
 to death) for his faith in his Lord. 
 
 We Are Carried Over Into the First Century by the 
 Testimony of Papias. — Papias (70-150) was bishop of 
 Hierapolis and a contemporary of Polycarp. He was 
 hearer of many intimate acquaintances of the apostles. 
 He knew two men, who were disciples of the Lord. 
 He knew the daughters of the apostle Philip. He 
 was a careful observer and writer. He wrote a work 
 in five books — " Interpretation of the Sayings of the 
 Lord," which is now lost. The last trace of it was in 
 1 218 a. d. It may come to light again. A number 
 of quotations from this work are preserved to us by 
 Irenaeus and Eusebius. He was an eager inquirer 
 after the truth as shown by the following brief selec- 
 tions : " But, if indeed, anywhere, one who had fol- 
 lowed the elders came, I inquired searchingly about 
 the words of the elders — what Andrew or what Peter 
 said, or what Philip, or what Thomas, or James, or 
 what John or Matthew ; or what other of the Lord's 
 disciples (had spoken) that which also Aristion and the 
 presbyter John, disciples of the Lord, spoke." Of the 
 authorship of Mark's Gospel, he says : " Mark, being 
 the interpreter of Peter, wrote accurately whatever he 
 remembered, though indeed not (setting down) in order 
 what was said or done by Christ ; for he did not hear 
 the Lord, nor did he follow Him : but afterwards, as I 
 said (he followed) Peter, who adapted his discourses to 
 the necessities of the occasion, but not so as to furnish 
 a systematic account of the ' Oracles of the Lord'; 
 
24 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 so that Mark committed no fault when he wrote some 
 things as he recollected them. For of one thing he 
 took care — to pass by nothing which he heard and 
 not to falsify in anything." Papias further says — 
 " Matthew wrote the oracles in the Hebrew tongue 
 and every one interpreted them as he was able." By 
 " Oracles " is here meant the teachings of Christ. 
 
 There Was a Vast Audience, Eager for the Gospels. 
 — There is much other testimony along the above 
 lines which cannot be given here for lack of space. 
 At the time when Polycarp and Papias lived there 
 were great numbers of Christians in Asia Minor. 
 This fact is shown independently by the celebrated 
 letter of Pliny, the Roman governor of the province 
 of Bithynia in Asia Minor, written about 112 a. d. 
 to the emperor Trajan, in which he speaks of the wide 
 prevalence of Christianity. As early as 64 A. D., 
 within thirty-one years after the resurrection of Christ, 
 Tacitus, the great Roman historian, informs us that 
 the number of Christians in Rome was " ingens mul- 
 tudino " — a great multitude. He tells us this in con- 
 nection with the fierce persecution that broke out at 
 that time. Before this time Paul had gone on his 
 three great missionary journeys, carrying the Gospel 
 into the big metropolitan centers of population and 
 winning converts by the thousands. 
 
 The modern view of the Gospels is that while the 
 authors did not themselves put their names to them 
 yet that tradition is right in assigning their sources to 
 them. Mark's Gospel was written in Greek ; he was 
 
The Making of the Four Gospels 25 
 
 the interpreter of Peter — Peter narrating and Mark 
 writing — hence we have here the Gospel of Peter, an 
 eye-witness and an apostle. Papias tells us that Mat- 
 thew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew — " The Teachings 
 of Christ." Matthew was also an eye-witness and an 
 apostle. But this Gospel was quite early rewritten, or 
 translated, into the Greek. In the narrative part it has 
 much in common with Mark, as also has Luke. But 
 only one-quarter of the Gospel of Matthew, in Greek, 
 is taken up with narrative, thus keeping its original 
 character of " The Teachings of Christ " for a special 
 purpose. If Matthew's Gospel, with Luke, follows, in 
 the main, the narrative in Mark, then we still have the 
 narrative direct from the testimony of an eye-witness. 
 Luke, a companion of Paul, declares plainly how and 
 why he composed his Gospel (1 : 1-4) in a his- 
 torian's way, getting at the evidence from " eye-wit- 
 nesses and ministers of the word." In John, the 
 author of the fourth Gospel, we have also an eye-wit- 
 ness and an apostle. It has been claimed that this 
 Gospel is a series of discourses which were delivered 
 by John to his church in Ephesus. As there were 
 two Johns— the " Apostle " and the " Elder," there 
 has been a tendency, for certain reasons on the part 
 of some scholars, to assign this Gospel to the " Elder." 
 But in either case it is claimed that we have the cor- 
 rect reporting of the discourses and events. There is 
 still ample evidence that the sources are from the 
 " Apostle " and an eye-witness. The early Church 
 believed and taught that this Gospel was that of John, 
 
26 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 the " Apostle." For more about this matter see the 
 eighth study in this book, sub-head authorship. 
 
 Dates. — There has here been quite a wide diver- 
 gence of opinion, as the Gospels are themselves un- 
 dated. There are certain bounds within which they 
 must have been written. There is still much to be 
 adjusted. The modern tendency is to move back 
 towards the earlier dates. It is perfectly possible 
 to hold, with good evidence, that the first three 
 Gospels, in Greek, were written between 60 and 70 
 A. D. The Hebrew Matthew might have been written 
 five or ten years earlier. John's Gospel saw the light, 
 in all probability, in the ninetieth year of the first cen- 
 tury. The order in Greek is — Mark, Matthew, Luke 
 and John. 
 
 Professor Harnack, in his book — " Date of the Acts 
 and Synoptic Gospels" — tells us (page 124), "It 
 seems now to be established beyond question that 
 both books (The Gospel of Luke and The Acts) of 
 this great historical work were written while Paul was 
 still alive." He further declares (page 133), "That 
 tradition asserts no veto against the hypothesis that 
 St. Luke, when he met St. Mark in the company of 
 St. Paul, the prisoner, was permitted by him to peruse 
 a written record of the Gospel history which was es- 
 sentially identical with the Gospel of St. Mark given 
 to the Church at a later time." 
 
 The Messages of the Gospels will be considered 
 under the chapters — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, 
 in this book. 
 
The Making of the Four Gospels 27 
 
 The Significance of the Facts and the Faith 
 which produced the Gospels cannot be overestimated. 
 These Writings have withstood the assaults of the ages. 
 They are still alive with great spiritual power. The 
 primary concern is what the writers believed about 
 Jesus rather than with the exact forms in which they 
 happened to express that belief. The distinctive note 
 of the new religion, whether in hymn or Gospel, was 
 the person of Christ. This is what distinguished the 
 Gospels from Judaism and Hellenism and it is a dif- 
 ference which is immensely greater than any difference 
 between one Gospel and another. The fundamental 
 conviction is here expressed that with Jesus a new re- 
 lationship to God has been effected and manifested. 
 It is faith in a living Lord that is set forth. It is a 
 growing conviction of New Testament scholars that 
 the filial consciousness of Jesus preceded the Mes- 
 sianic. " It is the recognition of this filial conscious- 
 ness of Jesus as the crucial element in the Christology 
 of the first three Gospels which enables us to under- 
 stand the continuity between them and the fourth 
 Gospel." In regard to the belief of the early Church, 
 one of the greatest of modern scholars, Professor 
 James Moffatt — author of " The Introduction to the 
 Literature of the New Testament " — tells us in " The 
 Theology of the Gospels" (page 174), " My point is 
 that an examination of the earliest records, of the 
 sources behind Mark and the other two synoptic Gos- 
 pels, shows the Messianic drapery or setting of His per- 
 son was not the result of Paulinism impinging upon 
 
28 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 the pure and original memory of a humanitarian 
 figure, who lived and died for the sake of a message 
 which amounted to a little more than a doctrine of 
 theism plus brotherly love. . . . The Jesus of the 
 Primitive Church was a Jesus whom believers hailed 
 and worshipped as the Christ of God." 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 What can be said of the origin of the Gospels, definition 
 and literary form? What was the background, the out- 
 ward and internal conditions ? How was there an awaken- 
 ing of the religious sense ? What was the oral period and 
 how was it customary to preserve narratives and teachings ? 
 What can be said of the oral way of instruction of great 
 philosophers and teachers? What remarkable results fol- 
 lowed the proclamation of the oral Gospel ? What was the 
 writing age ? When did it begin ? How early were there 
 attempts at Gospel making ? What can be said of the four 
 forms of the Gospel? The first three and the fourth? 
 Problems and key-notes ? The four points of agreement ? 
 What can be said of the authorship and authenticity? 
 What are some of the early testimonies, Tatian, Irenseus, 
 Polycarp, Papias? What can be said of the audience 
 ready for the Gospels ? What is the modern view of the 
 Gospels ? What can be said of the dates of the Gospels ? 
 What can be said of the facts and the faith which produced 
 the Gospels? 
 
STUDY II 
 
 THE PLAN OF MATTHEW 
 
 The Aim of Matthew is to present a biography 
 with a purpose. It is to take the great ideal of the 
 Master and to set it forth by facts, discourses, mir- 
 acles and parables, arranged in historic order. This 
 is also the method of the other Gospel authors. They 
 all write about the same subject but the view-points 
 are different. Hence the difficulty in reconciling, in 
 their accounts, that which is not intended to be rec- 
 onciled. They do not contradict — they supplement 
 each other. Much is gained by this four-sided pre- 
 sentation of Christ and His mission on earth. With 
 the setting forth, in this way, of the life, words and 
 works of the Saviour, each Gospel has also a definite 
 problem before it for solution. 
 
 The Problem, which the Gospel of Matthew was 
 set to solve, was not an easy one. Jesus had been 
 heralded as, and had proclaimed Himself, the long ex- 
 pected Jewish Messiah ; yet the Israelitish nation, as a 
 nation, had disowned Him in life, and in death, and 
 had persecuted His followers — after His resurrection. 
 The hope that Jesus would become a political Messiah 
 — a Jewish Caesar — had faded away. There were 
 many individual Jews who believed in the " New 
 
 29 
 
30 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 Way " but they seemed reluctant to give up the ob- 
 servance of the customs of the Jewish law. The 
 Christian cause, however, was not failing — for increas- 
 ing multitudes of Gentiles were pressing into its com- 
 munion — but it was rapidly becoming Greek. There 
 was not the slightest doubt of the wonderful success 
 of the Gospel outside of Judaism. But what had be- 
 come of all the promises to Israel, when the Messiah 
 should come? Were the Old Testament prophets 
 wrong ? They had associated " The Messianic De- 
 liverer with the redeemed nation, but the event of his- 
 tory had disappointed this hope. What did it mean ? " 
 These were questions which were troubling the Jewish 
 Christians and perplexing also those of Gentile origin. 
 How could they be answered ? 
 
 How Can Jesus Christ be The World Messiah ? — 
 Here is the task of the book of Matthew. It has been 
 called — " The first historic apology for universal Chris- 
 tianity." 
 
 In the solution of this problem the argument is : 
 
 First : that Jesus Christ has come from Abraham, 
 through the royal line of David ; that He is truly be- 
 gotten of the Holy Spirit ; that He is divinely ac- 
 knowledged as the Messiah at His baptism and that 
 He fulfilled all the requirements of the Old Testament 
 prophecies in regard to the Messiahship. " That it 
 might be fulfilled which was spoken through the 
 prophet " is a frequent expression. He is the long 
 expected Jewish Messiah. 
 
 Second : that the proofs, of the true Messiahship of 
 
The Plan of Matthew 31 
 
 Jesus Christ, having been given to the Israelitish 
 nation that this nation rejected them and Him and 
 deliberately crucified Him. 
 
 Third : that the Messiah having been rejected by 
 His nation that that nation has in turn been rejected 
 by the Messiah. The House of Israel is left desolate. 
 
 Fourth : that the " Messianic kingdom has ceased 
 to be in any distinctive sense Jewish, and in place of 
 the old national dispensation there was created by 
 Jesus Himself, the true Jewish Messiah, a kingdom of 
 all nations ; thus universal Christianity, freed from all 
 national restrictions or peculiarly Jewish institutions, 
 becomes the true successor of the Old Testament re- 
 ligion ; the true Jew must be a follower of Jesus, and, 
 in consequence, leave Judaism behind." 
 
 It is important to carefully observe each step in this 
 magnificent presentation of Matthew. 
 
 " The author's aim is by no means attained when 
 he has advanced evidence that Jesus is the Messiah. 
 He reaches his goal only when, with this as the first step 
 of his argument, he has shown that Jesus the Messiah 
 founded a kingdom of universal scope, abolishing all 
 Jewish limitations." 
 
 The World Religion thus, as it is shown in Mat- 
 thew, emerges from Judaism. The command of Jesus 
 Christ — " Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, bap- 
 tizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son 
 and the Holy Ghost " — concludes this book. " The 
 religion of Jesus was not merely the Judaism of the 
 temple, plus a belief in Jesus as the Messiah, but a 
 
32 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 world religion, freed from all bounds and restrictions, 
 local and national. The book of Matthew carries the 
 doctrine of the apostle Paul to the conclusion which 
 Paul saw to be involved in it, but to which he was not 
 wont himself to press it." Before this each nation had 
 its own gods — they were purely national. The in- 
 terests of the gods were bound up with the nations 
 who worshipped them. When the nations died, the 
 gods died. But here was the old religion of Jehovah 
 rising up, in its Messiah, to judge its own nation and 
 condemn it — while it began its victorious career as 
 u The World Religion." As such we receive it to- 
 day, as knowing no nationality but inviting all men to 
 share in its blessedness. 
 
 The Readers for Whom the Book Was Primarily 
 Intended seem to be Jewish-Christians. The argu- 
 ments and quotations from the Old Testament, the use 
 of Jewish descriptive titles, the reporting of the words 
 of Jesus which emphasize His mission to the Jews and 
 the passages which refer to the downfall of Jerusalem, 
 all seem to indicate a Jewish-Christian audience. But 
 the wide scope of the thought here carries it far be- 
 yond any Jewish interest. 
 
 The Times in which the Gospel of Matthew saw 
 its final form were troublous in the extreme. There 
 was great need of strengthening statements in regard 
 to the Christian faith that men's hearts might not fail 
 them in a trying crisis, such as came in the years from 
 64 to 70 A. d., or from the first Roman persecution of 
 the Christians in the time of Nero, until the destruc- 
 
The Plan of Matthew 33 
 
 tion of Jerusalem. Christianity had made a wonderful 
 progress in the sixth decade of the Christian era. It 
 was in this time that Paul completed his missionary 
 journeys and other disciples had carried the glad news 
 of the Gospel far and wide. But in the latter part of 
 the seventh decade there came such reversals in the 
 religion of Jesus Christ that made many doubt its 
 power to survive. In the year 64 of the fourteen 
 wards of the city of Rome ten were destroyed by fire. 
 The Christians were accused of setting the fire and 
 this was made an excuse for the breaking out of a 
 great persecution. They were crucified, thrown to the 
 wild beasts, torn asunder and burned alive — all for 
 their faith in Christ. Although Nero, the instigator 
 of the persecution, died in 68 the persecution did not 
 cease. Judea was revolting and the black shadow of 
 the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple was being 
 cast over the land (Matt. 24). It was a time of earth- 
 quakes, inundations, volcanic outbursts and horrible 
 prodigies. In the midst of woes past and woes to 
 come the sun of life, for the Christians, seemed to be 
 setting in seas of blood. Yet this Gospel, probably, 
 receiving its final touches in these fearful times, be- 
 trays no lack of confidence in the survival of the re- 
 ligion of Christ (which its enemies hoped to destroy). 
 It reflects the spirit of the Master, who predicted 
 these troublous times and bade His disciples not to be 
 afraid for He was to conquer the world. 
 
 Authorship. — This Gospel was universally regarded 
 by the early Church as the work of Matthew — one of 
 
34 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 the twelve apostles. The same tradition declared that 
 this Gospel was written in Aramaic — the vernacular of 
 Palestine. Yet the Gospel of Matthew, as we know 
 it, is in the Greek language, practically embodying the 
 Aramaic. 
 
 Matthew was a representative Jew and an apostle 
 of Jesus Christ. His father's name was Alphaeus 
 (Mark 2 : 14). His call came (Matt. 9:9; Mark 
 2:14; Luke 5 : 27) when he was attending to his 
 business, as a customs' officer, at the toll gate near 
 Capernaum on the Great West Road from Damascus 
 to the Mediterranean Sea. That he was an upright 
 and good business man is evidenced by the fact that 
 there was not, as there was in the case of Zaccheus, 
 any hint of restoring dishonest gains (Luke 19 : 8). 
 Immediately upon being called to follow Christ " He 
 left all, rose up and followed Him." That he left all 
 the gain and the means of gain, which meant so much 
 to a Jew, showed the complete change wrought in 
 him. His unselfish and noble nature is shown by the 
 interesting side-light we get from the Gospels. " For 
 while Mark (3:18) and Luke (6 : 15), in their lists of the 
 apostles, give us the order • Matthew and Thomas,' he, 
 himself, has placed Thomas first ■ Thomas and Mat- 
 thew ' (Matt. IO : 3). And not only so, but he alone 
 of the Evangelists attaches to his name the despised 
 designation of ' the publican.' It is as if he wished to 
 emphasize in the strongest manner the greatness of 
 the change that had been wrought in him, and, by 
 reminding others of the lowliness of his origin, to lead 
 
The Plan of Matthew 35 
 
 them to magnify along with him the Hand that had 
 worked his deliverance." He seems to have been a 
 man " swift to hear and slow to speak." So far as the 
 records go, he took no prominent place amongst the 
 apostles, but that he was a keen observer and an ac- 
 curate recorder of what he observed is evidenced by 
 his Gospel. He writes as an eye-witness. He omits 
 the whole of the first year of the ministry of Jesus 
 because he had had no personal knowledge of what 
 Jesus said and did in Judea, the scene of His first 
 year's work. For the same reason he touches lightly on 
 the early months of the Galilean ministry, before his call. 
 The Making of the Gospel. — Although this Gospel 
 is not specifically claimed by its maker yet in the 
 oldest Greek manuscripts the title is — " After Mat- 
 thew." The early Fathers of the Church " constantly 
 connect this Gospel with Matthew, sometimes ex- 
 pressly describing him as the publican or the apostle. 
 The earliest of these testimonies is that of Papias, 
 quoted by Eusebius — " Matthew accordingly composed 
 the oracles (sayings) in the Hebrew dialect, and each 
 one interpreted them as he was able" (Eusebius, 
 H. E., Ill, 39). Later writers frequently repeat this 
 assertion that Matthew wrote in Hebrew, yet accept 
 our Greek Gospel as Matthew's, many of them ap- 
 parently having no direct acquaintance with the He- 
 brew book (Prof. E. D. Burton, " Int. to Gospels," 
 p. 9). That Matthew wrote the first Gospel and 
 wrote it in the Hebrew, or Aramaic, the vernacular of 
 Palestine, is well attested. This Gospel was in use 
 
36 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 some time before the others. But the version that we 
 know is in the Greek language. It seems to be ac- 
 knowledged amongst scholars that all that the Hebrew 
 contained is embodied in the Greek — with added mat- 
 ter, in harmony with it. u To relieve the difficulty 
 some have conjectured that Matthew wrote his Gospel 
 both in Aramaic and in Greek. This was the view of 
 Bengel and Home (" Int. to the Holy Scriptures," 4, 
 420). No one would question that Matthew, the tax 
 collector at Capernaum, would be able to write in 
 both languages. Josephus wrote his ■ History of the 
 Jews in Aramaic and in Greek ' " (" Int. to Century 
 Bible "). But other scholars view the matter in a 
 different light. The Greek Matthew came after the 
 Hebrew Matthew and stands second in the making 
 of the Greek Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and 
 John. The contents of the Matthew Gospel, in He- 
 brew and in Greek, as authentic and historical, are 
 unquestioned. If the Greek is by another hand, it is 
 a sympathetic one, who did for Matthew what Mark 
 did for Peter, in setting forth what Matthew saw and 
 heard as an eye- and ear-witness of his Lord. It was 
 received as Matthew's Gospel. 
 
 The Unity of This Book. — " It is essential, at the 
 outset, to feel the massive unity of this book, if any 
 justice is to be done to it either from the literary or 
 from the religious standpoint. Jesus, the true Mes- 
 siah, born and trained under the Jewish law, and yet 
 Lord of a church, whose inward faith, organization, 
 procedure, and world-wide scope transcended the legal 
 
The Plan of Matthew 37 
 
 limitations of Judaism — this is the dominant concep- 
 tion of Matthew's Gospel from beginning to end." 
 " He wishes to show that in spite of the contemporary- 
 rupture between Judaism and Christianity there has 
 been a divine continuity realized in the origin and 
 issues of faith in Jesus as the Christ, (a) * Thou shalt 
 call His name Jesus : for He shall save His People 
 from their sins ' (Matt. 1 : 21). That People is no 
 longer Israel but a wider community (Matt. 21 : 43). 
 
 (b) A greater than the temple is here, One who is also 
 
 (c) the promulgator of a new law which transcends the 
 old (Matt. 5: 17 f. ; 28:20). The three sacred pos- 
 sessions of Judaism have thus passed into higher uses, 
 as the result of the life of Jesus, the Christian Messiah. 
 It is Matthew's aim to justify this transition by show- 
 ing from the life of Jesus how it was not the claim of 
 a heretical sect who misread the Bible by the light of 
 their own presumptuousness, but the realization of a 
 Divine purpose and the verification of Divine prophe- 
 cies in the sphere of history" (Prof. James MofTatt, 
 " Int. to the Lit. of the New Testament," p. 244). 
 
 Here is no patchwork put together, with differing 
 thoughts, by different hands or by a single editor who 
 strove to put in all the evangelic matter he could 
 find. It is a real book, with a clearly defined thought 
 and a definite aim. The material is selected with a 
 distinct purpose in view of which we are not left in the 
 least doubt. 
 
 This book takes rank, above other books, for the 
 loftiness of its conception of The World Messiah. It 
 
38 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 is specially remarkable that Matthew could disregard 
 his Jewish training and prejudices and grasp this view 
 of a universal religion. 
 
 It was probably the first book to bear the name of 
 " The Gospel " which was afterwards extended to 
 Mark, Luke and John. 
 
 The Theology of Matthew. — It is at once " more 
 precisely Messianic and more definitely Christian than 
 the other Gospels, in the sense that Jesus, as the Son 
 of God, is more than Messiah. As the Son of the 
 Father and as the Lord of men, He occupies a place 
 which does not depend upon any arguments from 
 prophecy," although these arguments are made use of. 
 
 Characteristics and Use. — In shaping up this Gospel 
 there seems to have been two things held clearly in 
 mind — First : the problem to be solved in regard to 
 the person and work of Jesus as The World Messiah, 
 and — Second : the arrangement of the material of the 
 words and works of Jesus for the efficient use of teach- 
 ers and evangelists. Both of these objects were ac- 
 complished in a masterly way. 
 
 The number of teachers, prophets and evangelists 
 multiplied very rapidly. This rapid multiplication 
 both helped and hindered the work of the Church. It 
 helped when those who taught others were, them- 
 selves, rightly instructed. It hindered when those 
 who taught got twisted ideas of the truth ; Paul con- 
 tinually complains of false teachers who played havoc 
 with the churches he had founded. 
 
 The use of Matthew's Gospel, for the requirements 
 
The Plan of Matthew 39 
 
 of these agents, is plainly to be seen. " The grouping 
 of the discourses and events might have begun in the 
 oral Gospels ; but in Matthew, chapters 5-7 (The 
 Sermon on the Mount), in the collection of parables, 
 chapter 1 3, and in the eschatological discourses, chap- 
 ters 24-25, as well as the narratives of the Passion and 
 Resurrection, 26-28, there seems to be revealed a 
 method and a purpose. The evangelical story, while 
 carrying out its purpose to set forth The World 
 Messiah, was put in a form which would suit the mem- 
 ory of teachers and hearers." 
 
 The Certainty of Success. — Although this Gospel 
 was written at a time when Matthew, humanly speak- 
 ing, could not have been sure of its success, yet there 
 is not a single pessimistic note in it. He speaks with 
 the utmost confidence of the triumph of the Christ, 
 who is represented even in the dark days that pre- 
 ceded His death as encouraging His followers to be- 
 lieve in the ultimate triumph of His Kingdom — " In 
 the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good 
 cheer I have overcome the world." 
 
 Relation to the Old Testament. — Matthew was 
 placed next to the Old Testament scriptures because 
 it was considered that it linked the old dispensation 
 with the new more closely than the other Gospels. It 
 is especially rich in Old Testament references and 
 quotations, having no parallel elsewhere. The proph- 
 ecies are regarded as divinely given. The genealogical 
 table in the first chapter of Matthew is designed to 
 show that Jesus was descended from David and 
 
4-0 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 Abraham, as in accordance with prophecy the 
 Messiah must be. This table is a matter of interest 
 to the writer, if not also of argument, " That the gen- 
 erations from Abraham to Moses are (by virtue of 
 slight omissions and double counting) divisible into 
 three groups of fourteen (twice seven) generations, a 
 fact that suggests that the Messiah appeared at an ap- 
 propriate time, at the end of three periods, the cul- 
 mination of each of the two preceding of which had 
 been marked by a great event in Jewish history. 
 Throughout the Gospel, but especially in the early and 
 later parts, he calls attention to passages of the Old 
 Testament which he interprets as finding their fulfill- 
 ment in events of Jesus' life (Matt. I : 22 f. ; 2 : 5, 6, 15, 
 I7f., 23; 4:14-16; 8:17; 12:17-21; 13:35; 
 21 : 4 f. ; 27 : 9). These eleven passages, most of them 
 introduced by the formula, * That it might be fulfilled 
 which was spoken through the prophet ' (sometimes 
 with the insertion of the phrase • by the Lord ' ), are a 
 marked feature of this Gospel. They are a special 
 contribution of this evangelist, having no parallel 
 passages in Mark or Luke. Nor with the exception 
 of Mark I : 2, and Luke 3 : 4 fif., parallel to Matthew 
 3 : 3, are there any similar passages in the other syn- 
 optic Gospels. They show, in the clearest way, the 
 author's special interest in the Messianic prophecies 
 of the Old Testament and in their fulfillment in Jesus," 
 who came, through the Jews, to found a new spiritual 
 kingdom of universal scope, even as their prophets had 
 foretold. 
 
The Plan of Matthew 41 
 
 Relation to the Other Gospels This topic, with 
 
 the time of writing, has already been considered in the 
 first study. It seems to be very plain that each evan- 
 gelist had before him a certain definite task in setting 
 forth the life and work of the Master. 
 
 The matter peculiar to Matthew, and alone found 
 there, is as follows : 
 
 First, Incidents : I. The whole of chapter second : 
 (a) The coming of the Magi, guided by the star in the 
 east, (p) The massacre of the innocents, (c) The 
 flight into Egypt, (d) The return to Nazareth. 
 2. The coming of the Pharisees and Sadducees to 
 John's baptism (3 : 7). 3. Peter's attempt to walk 
 upon the water (14 : 28-31). 4. Payment of the temple 
 tax (17 : 24-27). 5. In connection with the Passion: 
 
 (a) The covenant of Judas for thirty pieces of silver; 
 his repentance and his end (26:14-16; 27:3-10). 
 
 (b) The dream of Pilate's wife (27 : 19). (c) The ap- 
 pearance of saints in Jerusalem (27 : 52). 6. In con- 
 nection with the Resurrection : (a) The watch place 
 at the sepulchre (27 : 62-66). (&) The soldiers bribed 
 to spread a false report (28 : 1 1— 15). (c) The earth- 
 quake (28 : 2). 
 
 Second, Discourses : 1. A large part of the Sermon 
 on the Mount (chapters 5 to 7). 2. Invitation to the 
 heavy laden (11 : 28-30). 3. Idle words (12 : 36, 37). 
 
 4. The blessing pronounced on Peter (16:17-19). 
 
 5. The greater part of chapter eighteen on humility 
 and forgiveness. 6. The rejection of the Jews (21 : 43). 
 7. The denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees as a 
 
42 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 connected discourse (chapter 23). 8. The description 
 of the judgment (25 : 31-46). 9. The last commission 
 and promise (28 : 18-20). 
 
 Third, Miracles: I. Cureof two blind men (9: 27-31), 
 2. The stater in the fish's mouth (17 : 24-27). 
 
 Fourth, Parables : I. The tares (13: 24-30). 2. The 
 hid treasure (13:44). 3. The pearl of great price 
 (13:45, 46). 4. The draw net (13:47-50). 5. The 
 unmerciful servant (18:23-35). 6. The laborers in 
 the vineyard (20 : 1-16). 7. The two sons (21 : 28-32). 
 8. Marriage of the king's son (22:1-14). 9. The 
 ten virgins (25 : l-*3). 10. The talents (25 : 14-30) 
 (" Intro. Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges — 
 Matthew "). 
 
 Relation to Our Age. — The book of Matthew is 
 timeless in its great message to all men of all classes 
 and conditions in all ages. It comes with the same 
 pertinency to our age as it came to that in which it 
 saw the light. It will come to future ages with the 
 same blessed truth. Jesus Christ is the Saviour of all 
 mankind — to all who trust in Him. All else may fail, 
 but He cannot fail. He will not be judged by any 
 civilization, but He will judge all civilizations — those 
 which do not heed His message will be cast aside. 
 His last command is still sounding forth — a world 
 message from The World Saviour — " All power is 
 given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye there- 
 fore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name 
 of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost : 
 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have 
 
The Plan of Matthew 43 
 
 commanded you : and lo, I am with you alway, even 
 unto the end of the world " (28 : 18-20). 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 What is the aim of Matthew's Gospel ? What is its prob- 
 lem? How can Jesus Christ be the world Messiah? What 
 are the four points in the argument? What can be said of 
 the religion of Jesus Christ as a world religion ? For what 
 readers was this Gospel, primarily, intended ? What of the 
 times in which it saw its final form ? What can be said of 
 its authorship ? What can be said of the making of this 
 Gospel ? What of its unity ? What is its theology ? What 
 are its characteristics and use ? What of the certainty of 
 success ? What is its relation to the Old Testament ? What 
 is its relation to the other Gospels ? What matter is peculiar 
 to Matthew ? What is its relation to our age ? 
 
STUDY III 
 
 THE WORLD'S MESSIAH 
 
 The Great Question, in the early age of the Church, 
 was — " Who is Jesus ? Who do men say the Son of 
 Man is ? " The entire record of the New Testament 
 is intended to furnish an answer to this question (John 
 6 : 42 ; 7 : 40-43). The solution is shown in Matthew 
 16: 16 and John 20 : 31. The earliest declaration was 
 that Jesus is the Christ — the Messiah (Acts 2 : 36; 17 : 
 3; 18:5,28). The first converts were baptized into 
 the name of Jesus (Acts 2 : 38 ; 10 : 48 ; 19:5; Rom. 
 
 10:9). 
 
 Both Jews and Gentiles would want to know — as we 
 do — whether Jesus corresponded to the prophetic 
 description of the Messiah. They would also want to 
 know how from being the Jews' Messiah He came to 
 be the World's Messiah. Here is the task of Mat- 
 thew's Gospel. To grasp the significance of the un- 
 folding of this movement this Gospel needs to be 
 studied section by section and chapter by chapter. 
 
 The Coming of Jesus Christ, as the Messiah, was 
 a Historic World Movement of Which the Outer 
 Form was Hebrew. — " A distinguishing feature of 
 Matthew is his philosophic grasp of the ministry of 
 
 44 
 
The World's Messiah 45 
 
 Jesus Christ as a great historic movement. Mark, 
 Luke and John, with Matthew, use repeatedly the 
 phrase ' the Kingdom of Heaven ' or • the Kingdom 
 of God/ which must have been a regular expression 
 of Jesus Himself. Of the use of this phrase one hun- 
 dred and eleven times in the four evangelists Matthew 
 uses it forty-seven times. But he is wholly occupied 
 in tracing the development of this ' Kingdom of 
 Heaven ' : its development as a conception, from a 
 mere idea of a counterpart to the Roman Empire, 
 which animated those who first hailed the Baptist's 
 announcement, to the conception of a universal spiri- 
 tual kingdom founded on service and self-denial, which 
 Jesus with such difficulty inculcated in the minds of 
 the inner circle of disciples ; the development again 
 of a visible ■ Kingdom of Heaven ' in human society, 
 in antagonism with the ruling powers which crushed 
 it only to give it its power of finally rising. It is 
 natural that a historian of this type should give special 
 prominence to the discourses of Jesus. 
 
 " Matthew gives that which the modern mind seeks, 
 a connected view of the most sacred incidents. We 
 get a view, through him, of the flowering of Old 
 Testament history. The historic books of the Old 
 Testament are the story of a theocracy in conflict with 
 the secular : a national sense of divine kingship is 
 gradually dissipated by assimilation to the visible 
 government of the surrounding peoples. Thus the 
 Old Testament history is a history of failure: the 
 secular government culminates in national exile, and 
 
46 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 the restored Jewish Church becomes spiritual at the 
 price of increased exclusiveness. A truer conclusion 
 to the history of the Old Testament is found in the 
 Gospel of Matthew ; here a ■ Kingdom of God ' that is 
 essentially spiritual is seen developing in conflict with 
 secular powers which drive out of it all that is not spir- 
 itual, eternal and universal. There can be no more 
 fitting close for this narrative of Matthew than his 
 brief picture of the risen Lord, on the mountain of as- 
 cension, giving to the band of disciples the command 
 to make disciples of all nations, animated by a pres- 
 ence that will be in their midst even to the end of the 
 world " (" The Modern Reader's Bible—Matthew "). 
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 
 
 The Gospel of Matthew seems to be naturally di- 
 vided into three parts. 
 
 First. — Early Days of the Messiah (1 : 1-4 : 16). 
 
 The second and third parts are introduced by the 
 words — " From that time" (4 \\J and 16: 21). 
 
 Secojtd. — Signs and works of the Messiah — " From 
 that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent : 
 for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (4:17- 
 16 : 20). 
 
 Third. — Passion of the Messiah — " From that time 
 forth began Jesus to shew unto His disciples how He 
 must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the 
 elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and 
 be raised again the third day" (16 : 21-28 : 20). 
 
The World's Messiah 47 
 
 EARLY DAYS OF THE MESSIAH 
 (1:1-4: 16) 
 
 Matthew sees in Jesus the fulfillment of Messianic 
 prophecy in His preparation for the World's Mes- 
 siahship. The Old Testament is continually before 
 his eyes as he writes his story. In the first two chap- 
 ters he makes six references to the fulfillment of the 
 prophecies of the Messiah in Jesus Christ. 
 
 7. The birth (1 : 1-25). — Jesus is of the royal line 
 of David. He comes in accordance with prophecy. 
 Joseph is told to call His name Jesus — " For He shall 
 save His people from their sins." Matthew hails Him 
 at the outset as the true Emanuel for — " They shall 
 call His name Emanuel, which being interpreted is, 
 'God with us."' 
 
 2. The wise men (2 : 1-23) coming to the birth of 
 Jesus, ask, " Where is He that is born King of the 
 Jews ? for we have seen His star in the east and are 
 come to worship Him." All this moves on in ac- 
 cordance with the prophets whom Matthew quotes. 
 Even the going into Egypt, and the return to Naza- 
 reth, to him is part of a prearranged program. 
 
 j. The Herald of the Messiah is John the Baptist 
 (3:1-12). — He comes, " saying, Repent ye: for the 
 kingdom of heaven is at hand." Again Matthew links 
 up his narrative by referring back to an Old Testa- 
 ment prophet — " For this is he that was spoken of by 
 the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying 
 in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, 
 make His paths straight." 
 
48 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 4.. The threefold testimony to Jesus by John, " the 
 Sprit of God " and " a Voice from Heaven "(3:1 1-17) 
 at the baptism. Here Matthew strikes a new note in 
 reporting what the " Voice from Heaven " said — 
 " This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." 
 " Jesus as the Son of God is more than Messiah. As 
 the Son of the Father and as the Lord of men, He 
 occupies a place which does not depend on any argu- 
 ments from prophecy " (Prof. James MofTatt, " The 
 Theology of the Gospels," p. 13). Thus early in this 
 Gospel is shown its teaching of the unique relation of 
 Jesus Christ — who came through prophecy — to God 
 the Father. 
 
 5. The three temptations (4:1-11). — We have 
 here clearly set forth the objects and aims of the 
 Kingdom of Heaven as opposed to the Kingdom of 
 Evil. As the true Messiah Jesus here rejects the 
 unreal greatness which was the aim of all false Mes- 
 siahs. These temptations cover the same ground as 
 " the lust of the flesh," the " lust of the eyes " and 
 " the pride of life." 
 
 To understand these temptations it should be kept 
 in mind that the Jews at this time expected a miracle- 
 working Christ who would dazzle them by His power ; 
 a Messiah who would suddenly leap to political great- 
 ness and put all kingdoms, at once, under Him and 
 His nation. For Jesus to have yielded to these ex- 
 pectations would have placed Him at the head of a 
 great national movement, while defeating, in the end, 
 the real purpose of His coming. It must also be 
 
The World's Messiah 49 
 
 remembered that as God-man that He was subject to 
 limitations and ambitions from the human side of His 
 being. The appeals to assume command of the king- 
 doms of the world and to cast Himself down from a 
 pinnacle of the temple were real temptations to make 
 His name and claims at once known in a startling 
 way, and He had the power to do it. In remaining 
 true to His mission, Jesus gives His answer to the 
 Tempter in the words of the Old Testament Scriptures. 
 
 6. The departure of Jesus into Galilee (4: 12-16). 
 — Again Matthew turns to an old prophet and de- 
 clares that this is in accordance with what Isaiah said 
 should come to pass (Isa. 9:1,2) — "The land of 
 Zabulon and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of 
 the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles : the 
 people which sat in darkness saw great light ; and to 
 them which sat in the region and shadow of death 
 light is sprung up." 
 
 In reading the account of the " Early Days of the 
 Messiah " as given in this Gospel it is plainly shown 
 that the writer believes that He came, in due time, in 
 accordance with Old Testament prophecy. Here is 
 the first element in the answer that was sought for the 
 question — " Who is Jesus ? " 
 
 SIGNS AND WORKS OF THE MESSIAH 
 (4: 17-16: 20) 
 
 This section opens with the words — " From that 
 time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for 
 the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand " (4 : 17). It con- 
 
50 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 eludes with the great declaration of Peter, and Jesus' 
 acceptance of that declaration, " Thou art the Christ, 
 the Son of the living God" (16 : 13-20). 
 
 1. The public ministry in Galilee. — It seems to be 
 a part of the plan of Matthew to omit the events of 
 the first year of Jesus' work in the south — another 
 evangelist has taken that up. In the account given 
 in 4 : 17-25 we find Jesus in the full swing of a mag- 
 nificent work. 
 
 Galilee, where Jesus now was, had an area of about 
 sixteen hundred square miles of territory. Josephus 
 tells us that there were two hundred and four towns — 
 each town having over fifteen thousand inhabitants. 
 The whole population numbered about three millions. 
 A large commerce was carried on with the outer 
 world. Through Galilee ran the great caravan routes 
 from the near and far east to the Mediterranean Sea 
 and Egypt. In many respects Galilee was better 
 fitted for proclaiming the Gospel of the new Kingdom 
 than Judea, which was a little to one side of the great 
 routes of travel and world commerce. Capernaum, the 
 city which Christ chose for His headquarters, was the 
 strategic point in Galilee. 
 
 2. The call of the four disciples (4 : 18-22), Peter 
 and Andrew, James and John. This is the first step 
 taken by Jesus in the organization of His work and 
 in training men for service. 
 
 j. The fame of Jesus (4 : 23-25). — He made tours 
 in all directions about Galilee, " preaching the Gospel 
 of the Kingdom and healing all manner of sickness 
 
The World's Messiah 51 
 
 and all manner of disease among the people." " In a 
 short time the whole province was ringing with His 
 name; He was the subject of conversation in every 
 house in the whole region ; men's minds were stirred 
 with the profoundest excitement and every one desired 
 to see Him. Crowds began to gather about Him. 
 They grew larger and larger. They multiplied into 
 many thousands. They followed Him wherever He 
 went. The news spread far and wide and brought 
 hosts from Jerusalem, Judea, Perea, even from Idumea, 
 in the far south, and Tyre and Sidon, in the far north. 
 He could not stay in any town because the crowds 
 blocked up the streets and trod upon one another. 
 He had to take them out to the fields and deserts. 
 The whole country was on fire with excitement about 
 Him." 
 
 What caused all this excitement? There were 
 doubtless a number of elements in it; the marvellous 
 healing power of Jesus would be one ; another would 
 be His gracious words of teaching ; these two powers 
 were largely exerted. Still another would be the feel- 
 ing that He was the Messiah : the preaching of the 
 Baptist had prepared the way for this. 
 
 4.. The teaching — the Sermon on the Mount (chap- 
 ters 5 to 7). — It had been seen what Jesus could 
 do ; now what had He to say ? Here is a statement 
 of the principles of the " Kingdom of Heaven " from 
 His own lips. Here are characteristic examples of His 
 teaching. 
 
 The Beatitudes form a text for the sermon and are 
 
52 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 an appeal to the inner life. The sermon has been 
 analyzed as follows : (a) The righteousness of the 
 Kingdom of Heaven described and its rewards an- 
 nounced (5 : 2-9). (b) The righteousness as exhibited 
 in life (5 : 10-16). (c) Relations of this new right- 
 eousness to the righteousness of the Old Testament 
 — revealed first in ethics and second in religion 
 (5 : 17-6: 18). (d) Relations of the new righteous- 
 ness to secular life (6 : 19-34). (*) The teaching of 
 the new righteousness ; precepts and warnings to 
 disciples as teachers (7 : 1-23). (/) Consequences of 
 the acceptance or rejection of the precepts of the new 
 righteousness (7 : 24-27). 
 
 He is no teacher guessing at the truth, " For He 
 taught them as one having authority and not as the 
 scribes." 
 
 The difference in the principles here set forth, from 
 the old, lies upon the surface. The opening sentence 
 (5 : 3), " Blessed are the poor in spirit," shows how 
 Jesus shifted the center of gravity for human life and 
 conduct. Here is a new and startling doctrine. It 
 is a great turning point in teaching. It is to the poor 
 in spirit that the exaltation of the new Kingdom 
 comes. We note its reiteration in the sevenfold ex- 
 pansion. " The mourners are blessed, and not the 
 gay ; the meek, and not the mighty ; those who hunger 
 after a righteousness they had not attained, and not 
 the satisfied Pharisee ; the pure and not the worldly ; 
 the peacemaker and not the conqueror ; the persecutor 
 is beneath his victim. Again, in contrast with the 
 
The World's Messiah 53 
 
 received ideal of a personal righteousness that would 
 outshine that of others, the second and third maxims, 
 with their images of the salt and the lamp, put forward 
 an exaltation that exalted only so long as it exerts its 
 purifying and illuminating force on others." This 
 teaching does not relax the law but intensifies it. The 
 new righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and 
 Pharisees. 
 
 It is difficult to realize, in our age, what a startling 
 doctrine Jesus presented. The Jews were not looking 
 for any new doctrines of life and conduct ; they were 
 looking for a Messiah — a Jewish Caesar — who could 
 make every other nation bow to theirs. They failed 
 utterly to comprehend the majesty of this new spiritual 
 Kingdom of Christ. Its conception was so far beyond 
 them that they did not at first see how it condemned 
 and cast aside all the things in which they had so 
 fondly trusted. When they did see, the bitter antag- 
 onism, which drove Jesus to His death, began to mani- 
 fest itself. 
 
 5. The authority of Jesus is shown by many signs 
 — miracles — of power (chapters 8 and 9). These are 
 recorded as proofs that the Messiah, the Lord of 
 Glory, has come and has control over disease (8:2); 
 over nature (8 : 26) ; and over death (9 : 25). They 
 also show Christ's great love and compassion for man. 
 They follow, in order, the Sermon on the Mount to re- 
 inforce its teaching. In 9:9 is recorded the call of 
 Matthew. 
 
 6. Workers — the twelve apostles — are sent forth 
 
54 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 to proclaim the good news of the coming Kingdom 
 (10 : i-i I : i). They were the heralds of the Messianic 
 King and Kingdom. They were to preach, saying, 
 " The kingdom of Heaven is at hand." The people 
 were eager to hear this Gospel. They were not only 
 to preach but also " to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, 
 raise the dead, cast out devils " ; they were to give as 
 freely as they had received. They were to go " to the 
 lost sheep of the house of Israel." The door was not 
 yet opened to the Gentiles. 
 
 j. The question of the Messiahship (n : 2-1 5) was 
 definitely brought to the front and definitely answered 
 when John the Baptist, in prison and discouraged, 
 sent disciples to Jesus to settle the matter, which Jesus 
 did. All this was in accordance with what Isaiah 
 (29 : 18 and 35 : 4-6) said should take place when the 
 Messiah should come ; the blind should see, the lame 
 walk, the lepers be cleansed, etc. Jesus makes it plain 
 that He is the Messiah. 
 
 8. The beginning of the rejection of the Messiah 
 (11 : 16-24) which Jesus sees in the hostile attitude of 
 Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum. Jesus turns to 
 the true hearted who could receive His message (11: 
 25-30). 
 
 p. The issue is joined betwee?i the Pharisees and 
 Jesus (12 : 1-50) when they would not or could not 
 understand His message in regard to the glory of the 
 new Spiritual Kingdom of God and fixed their hopes 
 upon a great material earthly kingdom. This grow- 
 ing antagonism is well shown in this chapter in the 
 
The WorlcTs Messiah 55 
 
 controversies which arose out of the true use of the 
 Sabbath Day and the means by which Christ per- 
 formed His miracles ; the accusation of His being in 
 league with Beelzebub is fully refuted. Again in re- 
 gard to the claims of Christ (12 : 17-20) Matthew re- 
 fers back to the prophet Isaiah. Here also we find 
 the beginning of the turning to the Gentiles — The 
 World Messiah — brought out (12 : 21). 
 
 10. The new teaching by parables in regard to 
 the nezv Kingdom (13: 1— 58). These seven parables 
 — " The Sower," " The Tares," " The Mustard Seed," 
 11 The Leaven," " The Treasure Hid in the Field," 
 " The Pearl of Great Price " and " The Net,"— show 
 the different aspects and purposes of the Kingdom, its 
 growth and how it is received. 
 
 11. A great crisis in the ministry is shown when 
 John the Baptist is killed by Herod Antipas (14 : 
 1-36). The story of the " wicked king and the faith- 
 ful prophet " is well brought out in the Scripture nar- 
 rative. As the excitement, due to the murder of John 
 the Baptist, might lead to a political insurrection, and 
 it seemed to be a part of the plan of Jesus to have no 
 connection with it, He withdraws " into a desert place 
 apart" (14: 13-36). The common people, who have 
 not yet broken with Him, seek Him out. He heals 
 their sick and gives a great feast to five thousand. 
 He walks on the water and His disciples worship Him 
 as the Son of God (14: 22-33). Thus another stage 
 is reached in the conception of the place and power 
 of the Christ. 
 
56 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 12. The contrast between Jewish legalism and the 
 principles of the new Kingdom is clearly brought out 
 by Jesus (15 : 1-16: 12). It is shown why there can 
 be no compromise (Isa. 29 : 1 3). They stand for 
 things between which, and those which Christ advo- 
 cated, there can be reconciliation. The Pharisees, 
 looking for outward conformity to law with no thought 
 of the inner righteousness, love, justice and mercy 
 which Christ so loved to set forth, could find only one 
 way of ending the controversy and that was by com- 
 passing the death of Christ, which they began to plot. 
 
 ij. The great declaration of Peter — " Thou art the 
 Christ, the Son of the living God " — to which Jesus 
 answered, in acceptance of the title — " Blessed art thou 
 Simon Barjona ; for flesh and blood hath not revealed 
 it unto thee but my Father which is in heaven " (16 : 
 1 6, 17). The time and place of this unveiling of the 
 majesty of the Christ was on a journey to the coasts 
 of Caesarea Philippi (16:13-20). There can be no 
 doubt now in the unfolding of the plan for The World 
 Messiah: while the time waits a little for the full 
 revelation (16 : 20). 
 
 PASSION OF THE MESSIAH 
 (16 : 21-28 : 20) 
 This section opens with the words — " From that 
 time forth began Jesus to shew unto His disciples how 
 that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many 
 things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and 
 be killed, and be raised again the third day " (16 : 21). 
 
The World's Messiah 57 
 
 It seems to be quite evident that Matthew intended 
 to mark here the beginning of a new division of his 
 book and of a new period of the work of Jesus, char- 
 acterized by the preparation of His disciples for His 
 death. " It is already clear that He must die at the 
 hands of the Jews, and in Jerusalem ; and moreover 
 that the minds of the disciples must be prepared for 
 this event. From this time on, the evangelist indi- 
 cates, this preparation fills a prominent place in Jesus' 
 work and His face is towards Jerusalem, where He is 
 to die," and be raised the third day. Peter is taken to 
 task for his adverse criticism (16 : 22, 23). 
 
 /. Jesus makes four predictions of His humiliation, 
 suffering, death and resurrection beginning with the 
 one recorded in 16:21-23. Notice how when He 
 predicts His death, He also predicts His rising again 
 from the dead ; there is this hopeful uplifting note. 
 
 First. — At Csesarea Philippi (16 : 21). 
 
 Second. — At Capernaum (17 : 22, 23). 
 
 Third. — Near Jerusalem (20 : 18, 19). 
 
 Fourth. — At Jerusalem (26 : 1, 2). 
 
 2. The certainty of the triumph of Christ in the 
 end, and the reward of those who follow Him, is made 
 known in unmistakable words — " For the Son of man 
 shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels ; 
 and then He shall reward every man according to his 
 works" (16: 24-28). 
 
 J. The transfiguration, wherein Jesus is declared 
 to be the Son of God (17 : 1-27). This is a glorious 
 manifestation of the majesty of the Christ. Moses 
 
58 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 and Elias, who appeared on the mount, were the rep- 
 resentatives of the law and prophecy. This evidence 
 of the greatness of the Messiah — coming now to the 
 estate of The World Messiah — as the Son of God, was 
 a strong consolation to the disciples in the dark days 
 that followed (17 : 1-13). The casting out of an evil 
 spirit (17 : 14-21). Another prediction of Christ of 
 His death and resurrection (17 : 22, 23). The giving 
 tribute (17 : 24-27). 
 
 4. Jesus instructs His disciples in regard to the 
 meaning of ambition, humility, forgiveness and com- 
 passion in the Kingdom of God (18 : 1-35). 
 
 5. The last journey — through Perea to Jerusalem 
 (19:1-20:34). He still continues His healing min- 
 istry. He answers the Pharisees concerning divorce. 
 He blesses little children. He answers the question 
 of the rich young ruler about eternal life. He gives 
 instruction on riches and rewards of discipleship. He 
 again foretells His crucifixion. He is unceasing in 
 His efforts to make known the Kingdom of God. 
 
 6. The last days in Jerusalem — Passion Week (2 1 : 
 1-27 : 66). The last offer of Jesus, of Himself, as the 
 Jews' Messiah and His final rejection. 
 
 Symbolic proclamation of Himself as the Messiah 
 — the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the cleans- 
 ing of the temple (21 : 1-17). 
 
 Symbolic prediction to the disciples of the rejection 
 of the nation (21 : 18-22). 
 
 The mutual rejection. The Jews resist the claim 
 of Jesus ; He reiterates His warning and prediction 
 
The World's Messiah 59 
 
 (21 : 23-23: 39). The Jews challenge His authority. 
 The three parables of warning — (1) The two sons ; 
 (2) The husbandman ; (3) The marriage of the king's 
 son. Three questions of the Jewish rulers — (1) Pay- 
 ing tribute ? (2) The resurrection ? (3) The greatest 
 commandment ? Here is shown the sad plight of the 
 nation which has rejected Him as the Messiah ; it is 
 in turn rejected (21 123-22:40). The Jews are si- 
 lenced with His question — " What think ye of Christ ? " 
 (22 : 41-46). 
 
 A discourse of Jesus against the Pharisees — showing 
 their corrupt doctrines and practices — closing with a 
 lament over Jerusalem and the pronouncing of the 
 final judgment, " Behold your house is left unto you 
 desolate " (23 : 1-39). 
 
 Prophetic discourse to the disciples concerning the 
 end of the nation and the end of the age (24 : I- 
 
 25 : 46). 
 
 Preparation for the death of Jesus — (1) by His ene- 
 mies, the plot to put Him to death ; (2) by His 
 friends, the anointing; (3) by Judas, the bargain to 
 betray Him; (4) by Jesus Himself; the Last Supper; 
 the warning to the disciples ; the prayer and the 
 agony (26 : 1-46). 
 
 The consummation of the rejection of Jesus by the 
 Jews — the arrest, the trial (in which Jesus declares 
 Himself to be the Christ — 26 : 62-66), the crucifixion 
 and death, the burial and the watch at the tomb 
 (26 : 47-27 : 66). 
 
 The Risen Lord and the World's Messiah 
 
6o Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 (28 : 1-20). — The resurrection of Jesus. The appear- 
 ance on the resurrection morning, the report of the 
 watch and the attempt of the Jews to suppress the 
 evidence. The appearance in Galilee and the universal 
 nature of the new Kingdom with its world-wide mes- 
 sage. The commission of the disciples by " The 
 World's Messiah " to win all nations to Him. 
 
 The Victory of the Christ. — With the crucifixion 
 of Christ and the placing of His body in the tomb 
 His career seemed to be ended. But with the resur- 
 rection all was changed. The very means taken by 
 His enemies to suppress Him produced the beginning 
 of a triumph — the glorious consummation of which no 
 man can foretell. 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 What was the great question in the early age of the 
 Church ? What can be said for the coming of Jesus Christ 
 as a world movement ? What of the analysis of this Gospel 
 — into how many parts is it naturally divided ? Under the 
 first head, or section, what did Matthew see in Jesus? 
 What can be said of the birth of Jesus ? The wise men ? 
 The Herald ? The threefold testimony to Jesus, by John, 
 the Spirit and a Voice ? What were the three temptations ? 
 Under the second section — How does it open, with what 
 words ? What can be said of the public ministry of Christ 
 in Galilee ? The call of the four ? The fame of Jesus ? 
 The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount ? The authority 
 of Jesus ? The workers sent out ? How was the question 
 of the Messiahship definitely brought to the front ? What 
 was the beginning of the rejection of the Messiah ? How 
 
The World's Messiah 61 
 
 was the issue joined between Jesus and the Pharisees? 
 What was the new teaching by parables ? What marked a 
 great crisis in the ministry? Give the contrast between 
 Jewish legalism and the principles of Christ. What was the 
 great declaration of Peter ? What did Jesus say about it ? 
 Under the third section — With what words does Matthew 
 open it ? Where does Jesus make four predictions of His 
 death and resurrection? What does Jesus say about the 
 certainty of His triumph ? How was Jesus declared to be 
 " The Son of God " at the transfiguration ? What can be 
 said about Jesus' instruction to His disciples? About His 
 last journey to Jerusalem ? What can be said in regard to 
 Jesus proclaiming Himself as the Messiah ? His rejection 
 by the Jews ? Jesus' rejection of the Israelitish nation ? 
 What of the prophetic discourse of Jesus in regard to the 
 end of the nation ? What of the death of Jesus ? What 
 can be said of the Risen Lord and the world's Messiah ? 
 What of the world-wide commission? What of the tri- 
 umph of the Christ ? 
 
STUDY IV 
 
 THE OBJECT OF MARK 
 
 The New View-Point. — Jesus Christ is presented 
 in the Gospel of Mark as The Mighty Worker — " The 
 Son of God." It is the same story as that of the other 
 evangelists but a new aspect is brought out to meet 
 the need of the Gentiles who looked at things differ- 
 ently from the Jews. Mark, following Peter, in min- 
 gling with the Gentiles, had come to understand some- 
 thing of their way of thinking. What they wanted to 
 know about any one who was brought to their atten- 
 tion was, not who his ancestors were or what they had 
 done, but what he was and what he could do by him- 
 self alone. What was his message and how could he 
 substantiate it ? Hence we find in this Gospel very 
 few references to Jesus as the Jewish Messiah ; the 
 birth story and the genealogy are omitted ; these 
 would have comparatively small interest to the Gentile 
 Romans. 
 
 7 he emphasis is placed upon what Christ is in 
 Himself. It is " The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus 
 Christ, the Son of God " (i : i). He begins to speak 
 and His word is law (i : 22-45). He is power incar- 
 nate. He heals all manner of disease. He casts out 
 
 62 
 
The Object of Mark 63 
 
 unclean spirits. When He speaks there is instant 
 obedience. Everything is done with celerity ; the 
 words " straightway " and " immediately " are used 
 over forty times to show how quickly the results He 
 desires are accomplished. Men are amazed at the 
 omnipotence of His command and His fame imme- 
 diately spreads through Galilee (1 : 28). 
 
 The appeal is not for Jesus in relation to the past 
 or the Old Testament prophecies, so potent with the 
 Jew, but " Jesus as He appeared to His contempo- 
 raries in, and a powerful factor of, the history of His 
 own times." The narrative is confined to the most 
 active period of Jesus' life, chiefly to the busy Galilean 
 ministry and the still more crowded Passion Week. 
 It is rapid, picturesque, condensed, abrupt. It re- 
 minds one of the words of Peter : " Jesus of Nazareth, 
 a man approved of God unto you by mighty works 
 and wonders and signs which God did by Him in the 
 midst of you " (Acts 2 : 22). 
 
 The theology of Mark " is not a description of how 
 a genial humanitarian Jesus went about doing good, 
 unconscious of any specific divine functions. Mark's 
 Gospel is the story of Jesus as a supernatural figure, 
 compelling homage from the invisible world of de- 
 mons, and exercising the powers of divine forgiveness 
 and authority on earth as Son of God and Son of 
 Man. He essays to make His personality vivid, but 
 that personality has a divine vocation which supplies 
 the controlling interest in the story ; Jesus is the 
 Christ, the Son of God. In this respect the Chris- 
 
64 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 tology of Mark is not so distant from the essential 
 features even of the Gospel of John" (Prof. James 
 MofTatt, " The Theology of the Gospels," p. 12). 
 
 Origin. — This Gospel contains no statement, in it- 
 self, of its origin or authorship. The author has hid 
 himself behind his work. The ancient writers and the 
 earliest manuscripts, however, uniformly ascribe it to 
 Mark. It is as uniformly narrated that the apostle 
 Peter, who knew the facts in regard to Jesus Christ as 
 few men did, is the chief source. Papias, 70-150 
 A. D., bishop of Hierapolis for a number of years and 
 intimate friend of men who knew the apostles and 
 who, himself, was acquainted with certain disciples of 
 the Lord, tells us, " Mark, having become the inter- 
 preter of Peter, wrote accurately whatever he remem- 
 bered, not, however, recording in order the things that 
 were said and done by the Christ. For neither did 
 he hear the Lord, nor did he follow Him ; but after- 
 wards, as I said, (he followed) Peter, who adapted his 
 teaching to the need of the occasion, but not as if he 
 were making a systematic arrangement of the words 
 of the Lord. So that Mark did not err at all in writ- 
 ing some things as he remembered them. For he was 
 careful for one thing, not to pass over any of the things 
 that he had heard or to state anything falsely in them " 
 (Eusebius, H. E., Vol. Ill, 39, quoted from Papias). 
 " So greatly, however, did the light of piety enlighten 
 the minds of Peter's hearers that it was not sufficient 
 to hear but once, or to receive the unwritten teaching 
 of the divine preaching, but with all manner of en- 
 
The Object of Mark 65 
 
 treaties they importuned Mark, whose Gospel we have, 
 and who was a follower of Peter, that he should leave 
 them in writing a memorial of the teaching that had 
 been orally communicated to them. Nor did they 
 cease their solicitations until they had prevailed with 
 the man, and thus became the cause of that writing 
 which is called the Gospel according to Mark. They 
 say also that the apostle (Peter) . . . authorized 
 the work for use by the churches." This is stated by 
 Clement in the sixth book of his Institutions and is 
 corroborated by Papias (Eusebius, H. E., II, 15). 
 
 Relation of This Gospel to Peter, an apostle of the 
 Lord and an eye- and ear-witness of His deeds and 
 words. " A constant tradition of the early Church, 
 reaching back to the confines of the apostolic age and 
 harmonizing with the notices of the New Testament, 
 certifies us that Mark was a companion of Peter (t. e. t 
 in his missionary labors) ; was with him towards the 
 end of his life and wrote the Gospel to preserve his 
 Master's teaching." 
 
 The time of Mark's close association with Peter was 
 probably in the ten or twelve years which elapsed be- 
 tween the last mention of Mark in the Acts and Paul's 
 reference to his cooperation in Rome. It was during 
 this period, or the latter part of it, that this Gospel 
 was put into shape by Mark on the basis of notes oi 
 Peter's discourses, and giving a faithful record of thfc 
 Apostle's remembrances of the words and deeds of tht 
 Lord. 
 
 Personal knowledge. — The general character of this 
 
66 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 Gospel indicates first hand knowledge and such first 
 hand knowledge as Peter would have. It is lifelike, 
 definite and assured in its statements. It points to an 
 eye-witness as directly or indirectly its author. " It 
 alone tells us that ' Simon and they that were with 
 him followed after' Jesus when He withdrew to a sol- 
 itary place at the beginning of His ministry (i : 36) ; 
 that it was Peter who called the Lord's attention to 
 the withered fig tree (11 : 21); that it was he also, 
 with his brother and the sons of Zebedee, who asked 
 Him on the Mount of Olives about the destruction of 
 the temple (13 : 3). Many of the things which it re- 
 ports are those immediately concerning Peter, and 
 such as would be personally known to him. Things 
 in which Peter had a personal interest mark important 
 stages in Christ's ministry, e.g. y his call, his confession, 
 the message sent to him by the Risen Lord. Narra- 
 tives like those of the raising of the daughter of Jairus, 
 the Transfiguration, and the Agony, have details and 
 peculiarities, as given by Mark, which suggest a more 
 intimate knowledge of the circumstances, and such a 
 knowledge as Peter, an actor in all these scenes, might 
 nave had." 
 
 The style of this Gospel remarkably resembles that 
 of Peter's discourses in the Acts and Epistles (Acts 
 10 : 36-40)- 
 
 The call of Peter was to preach the Gospel to the 
 Gentiles — to whom this Gospel is addressed. Speak- 
 ing to the First Council of Churches, in Jerusalem, he 
 says : " Men and brethren, ye know how that a good 
 
The Object of Mark 67 
 
 while ago God made choice among us, that the Gen- 
 tiles by my mouth should hear the word of the Gospel 
 and believe " (15 : 7). In this he referred back to his 
 experience given in Acts 10; see verses 34, 35, 38 
 and 45. 
 
 The Writer. — Mark is first mentioned in the New 
 Testament in Acts 12 : 12, where he comes before us 
 in connection with Peter's deliverance from prison. 
 He was the son of a certain Mary who lived in Jeru- 
 salem. She seems to have been a person of means. 
 Her house was a rallying point for the Christians in 
 those dangerous early days. Mark went with his 
 cousin (Col. 4 : 10) Barnabas and Paul on the first mis- 
 sionary journey but, for some reason, turned back at 
 Perga (Acts 12 : 25 ; 13 : 13). Paul would not accept 
 Mark on the second missionary journey and this 
 caused a disagreement between him and Barnabas 
 (Acts 15:36-40). Paul and Mark were afterwards 
 reconciled, for we find him with Paul in his first im- 
 prisonment in Rome (Col. 4 : 10 ; Phile. 24). Some 
 time later he was with Peter in Babylon (Rome?) 
 (1 Peter 5:13). Ancient writers, with one consent, 
 make Mark the interpreter of Peter. On his return to 
 Asia Minor he seems to have been with Timothy at 
 Ephesus, for Paul, during his second imprisonment at 
 Rome, wrote to Timothy to come to him and to bring 
 Mark with him (2 Tim. 4 : 11). In the Gospel of 
 Mark some think the writer has mentioned himself in 
 the " man bearing a pitcher of water " in preparation 
 for the passover (14 : 13) and with the young man who 
 
68 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 followed Jesus on the night of the betrayal " having a 
 linen cloth cast about him, over his naked body " (14: 
 51, 52). Outside the New Testament he is described 
 as an evangelist, as Peter's companion in Rome, as 
 sent by Peter on a mission into Egypt and as the 
 founder of the church in Alexandria. 
 
 His close association with the leaders in the early 
 Church gave him exceptional opportunities to know 
 the exact truth about Jesus Christ His extensive 
 travels, and experiences with all sorts and conditions 
 of men, enabled him to test the truth and to see the 
 splendid results which came through its acceptance. 
 
 The Readers. — For whom was this Gospel written? 
 Evidently not for the Jews but for the Gentiles. Ex- 
 planations of Hebrew and Aramaic names are given — 
 " Boanerges " (3 : 17) ; " Talitha cumi " (5 : 41) ; " Cor- 
 ban" (7:11); "Eloi, Eloi, lama, sabachthani " (15 : 
 34 ; etc.). Money is reduced to Roman currency (12 : 
 42). So too Jewish customs, such as seasons, wash- 
 ings, localities and the like are explained; also the 
 position of the Mount of Olives, the " Preparation " or 
 the day before the Sabbath, etc. (7:3,4; 13:3; 
 15 : 42). These explanations for Jewish readers would 
 have been without any significance. The Old Testa- 
 ment has here a much smaller place than in the other 
 evangelists. Matthew seems so impregnated with the 
 Old Testament that it has almost a Hebraic aspect ; 
 while Mark has only twenty-three quotations of one 
 kind and another and these belong almost entirely to 
 our Lords sayings. 
 
The Object of Mark 69 
 
 This Gospel found and met the need of the Gentile 
 Romans on their own level, and sought to raise it to 
 a higher one. The key to the character of the 
 Romans was power but it was the power of the state 
 and limited to this world. It was force manifesting 
 itself in action and mighty deeds. The Romans were 
 great conquerors, imposing their will upon subject 
 nations. In time the Roman state was deified as the 
 greatest manifestation of power and then the Caesar 
 who ruled over all. Scripture and prophecy, so 
 potent with the Jew, would count but little with the 
 Roman. Reason and philosophy, so dear to the heart 
 of the Greek, would often be openly scoffed. But 
 both Jew and Roman believed in the supremacy of 
 law; with the former it was the law of the unseen 
 God, with the latter the law of the empire. Both 
 started with the idea of duty ; with the former it was 
 allegiance to the theocracy, with the latter to the 
 state. Mark found the material level of the Roman 
 and sought to raise it to the higher spiritual one. 
 Christ is presented as The Mighty Worker whose will 
 was law. He is the Master not only of the seen but 
 of the unseen universe. He has, and exercises, su- 
 preme power over nature, men, disease and death. He 
 speaks and the storm is stilled ; a few loaves and fishes 
 in His hand increase, at once, to feed thousands. He 
 speaks and the leper is cleansed, the blind receive their 
 sight and the dead are raised. He has power to lay 
 down His life and power to take it again. His king- 
 dom is declared to be omnipotent. It is a spiritual 
 
7<d Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 and unseen kingdom, more powerful than any earthly 
 state, and destined to last forever. 
 
 Here, thus early, was presented the invitation and 
 challenge of Christianity. The issue was clearly pre- 
 sented. The acceptance of the invitation for alle- 
 giance to the higher spiritual kingdom of Jesus Christ 
 brought thousands into the fold of the early Church. 
 The acceptance of the challenge of the supremacy of 
 the authority of the Christ, by the Roman Empire, 
 brought about the bloody persecutions which created 
 such havoc in the ranks of the first Christians. 
 
 Characteristics. — Each Gospel makes a special 
 contribution to the story of the Saviour of Israel and 
 of the world. Mark is " a succession of pictures in 
 which a painter represents a complete history." 
 
 Brevity. — It is the shortest Gospel with its number 
 of chapters at sixteen, while Matthew has twenty- 
 eight, Luke twenty-four and John twenty-one. 
 
 Directness. — Here is no attempt at elaboration. 
 We have a plain direct businesslike narrative of things 
 as Mark saw them himself or heard them from Peter 
 or others. It is a record of facts and not a product of 
 art or a work of reflection. It is the story of a man 
 who wastes no words in the telling of it. 
 
 Compactness. — Every sentence is fraught with 
 meaning. On this account the transitions often seem 
 abrupt. Yet the words are full of charm and color as 
 they depict the wonder-working life of Jesus Christ. 
 The movement of events is energetic and active. 
 Jesus calls men and they " straightway " follow Him. 
 
The Object of Mark 71 
 
 He teaches and heals and " immediately " His fame 
 spreads throughout all Galilee (1 : 28). In the first 
 chapter, typical of the rest, we find condensed the 
 ministry of John the Baptist, the temptation, and the 
 beginning of the ministry in Galilee. 
 
 Vividness and Realism. — " There is a sharpness and 
 color in the descriptions of this Gospel which might 
 challenge comparison with the best achievements of 
 the art which conceals art. The peculiarly graphic, 
 lifelike quality of its narrative at once arrests attention. 
 It makes us see things as if they were beneath our own 
 eye in all their sharpness. Thus it is that it chooses 
 so often the direct form of speech — < Peace be still ' 
 (4 : 39) ; ' Come forth, thou unclean spirit, out of the 
 man '(5:8); ' Send us into the swine ' (5 : 12) ; * Come 
 ye yourselves apart' (6: 31); * Thou dumb and deaf 
 spirit, I command thee, come out of him, and enter no 
 more into him ' (9 : 25). Things are given as if the 
 eye of the writer were upon the objects and his pen 
 followed his eye. It is a reproduction rather than a 
 representation." 
 
 Circumstantiality. — Mark is rich in details which 
 impart a certainty and distinctiveness to the narrative. 
 The scenery is painted with a thousand touches — " the 
 house, the sea, the followers, the growing throng, the 
 names of persons, the numbers of the men and of the 
 animals and the pieces of money, the greenness of 
 the grass and the pillow in the stern of the boat on 
 Gennesareth." 
 
 Action and Power. — The acts rather than the words 
 
72 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 of Christ are set forth — especially the deeds which 
 show His power. The greater discourses, with the 
 Sermon on the Mount, are omitted. The report of 
 the parables is meagre — only four are recorded (4 : 3- 
 8 ; 4 : 26-29 ; 4 : 30-32 ; 12 : 1-1 1), with three of the 
 minor or germ parables (2:21 and 22; 3:24-26). 
 Considerable space is given to dialogue and not a few 
 of our Lord's briefer sayings are recorded, yet these 
 seem to be introduced because of their connection 
 with events and acts of power — the one great excep- 
 tion is the Eschatological Discourse in the thirteenth 
 chapter. Jesus is represented as having superhuman 
 power. He had the gift of miracle. This Gospel 
 shows how He frequently exercised that gift and what 
 impression He produced by it upon the people and 
 upon His disciples (1:27; 2:12; 7:37). It is 
 plainly set forth " How the multitudes recognized it, 
 and believed in it, and were eager to avail themselves 
 of it, by bringing their sick and distressed ones to 
 Him, not doubting that He was able to relieve and 
 heal; how they were so certain indeed of this that 
 they thought it enough if they could but get Him to 
 notice them, or could even touch His garments (1 : 32 ; 
 3: 10; 5 : 28 ; 6: 56)." Large space is given to re- 
 cording eighteen special acts of power-miracles : The 
 healing of the demoniac in the synagogue (1 : 23-28); 
 Peter's wife's mother (1 : 30-31) ; the leper (1 : 40-45) ; 
 the paralytic (2:3-12); the man with the withered 
 hand (3: 1-5) ; the stilling of the storm (4:35-41); 
 the Gadarene demoniac (5 : 1-17) ; the woman with 
 
The Object of Mark 73 
 
 the issue of blood and the daughter of Jairus (5 : 21- 
 43) ; the five thousand and the walking on the sea 
 (6 : 30-52) ; the Syrophoenician woman's daughter and 
 the deaf mute (7 : 24-37) ; the four thousand and the 
 blind man at Bethsaida (8 : 1-9, 22-26) ; the lunatic 
 boy (9 : 17-29) ; Bartimaeus (10 : 46-52) and the with- 
 ering of the fig tree (11 : 12-14). ^ n these acts of 
 superhuman power the humanity of Jesus is shown, 
 for most of them come under the class of " The Heal- 
 ing Miracles." He has taken upon Himself a nature 
 identical with our own, with all His power (11 : 12; 
 4:38; 14:36; 4:34; 8:2; 14:8; 4:37-40; 
 l S 1 5)> f° r m this way He is able to do the most 
 for us. 
 
 Arrangement of Matter. — After the introduction 
 (1 : 1— 13) this Gospel falls into two great blocks of 
 narrative — " The one occupied with the Galilean min- 
 istry (1 : 14 to 9 : 50), the other with the events of the 
 last week in Jerusalem (n : 1 to 16: 20). There is a 
 difference between the two. In the first the narrative, 
 while always vivid and at some points full, is often 
 compressed. In the second it is minute, circumstan. 
 tial and more of the nature of a journal ; this Passion 
 Week narrative occupies about one-third of the whole 
 Gospel." The intervening story (chapter ten) is an 
 account of the journey from Galilee, through Perea 
 and Judea, to Jerusalem. 
 
 Place of Writing and Date. — Place. — There is 
 nothing in this Gospel that gives the slightest evidence 
 as to the place of its composition. Ancient tradition, 
 
74 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 however, in so far as it bears upon this question, is 
 almost wholly on the side of Rome. 
 
 Time. — It is not easy to specify the exact date, as the 
 Gospel itself is undated. Some scholars have con- 
 tended for a very early date and others for a very late 
 date. The time has been placed as early as 42 or 43 
 A. D. or between the years 57 and 58. For an early 
 date it is pointed out that some of the colophons of 
 our ancient manuscripts speak of the book as pub- 
 lished ten or twelve years after our Lord's ascension. 
 From many considerations, from an examination of 
 the text and ancient testimony, it is now quite gener- 
 ally held that this Gospel came into its present form 
 in the first part of the sixth decade of the first century. 
 
 Relation to Matthew and Luke. — Matthew, Mark 
 and Luke, known as the Synoptical Gospels, have 
 much in common and substantially cover the same 
 field ; yet cover it in different ways. The Gospel of 
 Mark has only fifty verses peculiar to itself and not 
 found in Matthew and Luke. Mark has a certain 
 proportion of matter which appears in Matthew and 
 not in Luke, or in Luke and not in Matthew ; and in 
 narratives which are common to the three, or to Mark 
 and one of the others, he adds in not a few cases con- 
 siderably to our knowledge by his richer detail. Each 
 Gospel has its own field to cover, using common ma- 
 terial for its own specific purpose. But the sources 
 from which these Gospels draw their material and the 
 use they make of it constitutes what is known as The 
 Synoptical Problem. For a most able discussion of 
 
The Object of Mark 75 
 
 this problem, the student is referred to Professor 
 Peake's " Critical Introduction to the New Testament," 
 pp. 101 to 124. 
 
 As we have the Synoptical Gospels, in their present 
 form, Mark is looked upon as the first written. 
 
 Value. — The worth of the writing of Mark, as the 
 testimony of one who had an intimate friendship with 
 Peter and Paul and a first hand knowledge of the tri- 
 umphant progress of early Christianity, cannot be 
 overestimated. 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 What is the new view- point set forth ? Where is the em- 
 phasis placed ? What is the appeal ? What is the theology 
 of Mark ? What is the origin of this Gospel ? What is its 
 relation to Peter? What was the time of Mark's close as- 
 sociation with Peter ? What about the style of this Gospel ? 
 To whom was Peter's call to preach? What can be said of 
 the writer of this Gospel ? For what readers was this Gos- 
 pel written? How did this Gospel meet the need of the 
 Gentile Roman ? What are some of the characteristics of 
 this Gospel — Brevity, Directness, Compactness, Vividness 
 and Realism, Circumstantiality, Action and Power? What 
 can be said of the arrangement of the matter ? What is the 
 place of writing and the date? What is the relation to Mat- 
 thew and Luke ? What is the value ? 
 
STUDY V 
 
 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHRIST 
 
 The Supremacy of the Authority of Jesus Christ 
 was a burning question with the first disciples and 
 their converts. Was it before and above all else? 
 That this supremacy was believed and taught is 
 abundantly attested. Its repeated assertion was what 
 brought Christianity into a direct and bitter conflict 
 with Judaism and the Roman Empire. Had Chris- 
 tianity been content to take a second place or a place 
 alongside of other religions — or to bow to the power of 
 the Roman state — there would have been no contro- 
 versy, and it doubtless, very soon, would have per- 
 ished as an obscure Jewish sect. 
 
 It was claimed that in Jesus Christ all the demands 
 of true religion had been met and that He was the 
 center from which all its forces should operate. He 
 was the first true king of the true community of the true 
 God and as nothing could be conceived as supplanting 
 Him, He would reign forever with irresistible power. 
 
 Mark was not, in his Gospel, simply jotting down a 
 number out of many incidents which had been told him 
 about the Christ, but he realized that he was writing 
 with a tremendous purpose about the supreme object 
 of faith for all men. He had witnessed at close range, 
 in his attendance upon Paul and Peter in their mis- 
 
 76 
 
The Authority of the Christ 77 
 
 sionary journeys, the difficulties of the mighty battle 
 in which Christianity was engaged. 
 
 We are left in no doubt as to whom Mark is writing 
 about and how he regards Him — " The beginning of 
 the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God " (1 : 1). 
 " Jesus " — the personal name. " Christ " — the official 
 title—" The Anointed One "— " The Messiah." « The 
 Son of God " — not the son of Abraham or the son of 
 David but " The Son of God." Thus he clears the 
 way for what he has to say about " One " whom he 
 regards as all in all. 
 
 "Jesus, in His teaching, rested upon His own au- 
 thority as absolute. — He did not hesitate to place His 
 own word above the Mosaic law ; He proclaimed His 
 message now as His own, now as His Heavenly Fa- 
 ther's, with no distinction ; He taught His disciples to 
 look to Him as their only means of entrance into the 
 higher life — a colossal assumption surely, if He were 
 but a man ; a clear statement and a challenge to all 
 ages, sublime in its boldness, but justified by the di- 
 vine greatness of His character, the matchless sub- 
 limity of His teaching, and proved to succeeding gen- 
 erations by the historic success of His work " (Dr. 
 Jeremiah W. Jenks, Professor of Political Economy in 
 Cornell University, " Political and Social Significance 
 of the Life and Teachings of Jesus," p. 39). 
 
 In What Does Christ's Authority Consist ? — How 
 is it shown ? These questions are answered in many 
 ways in the Gospel of Mark. Yet it is not Mark who 
 is answering them so much as it is his plain reporting 
 
78 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 of what Christ said and did. The answers are shown 
 to lie on the surface of the narrative. Notice how 
 chapter after chapter (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc.) bears its 
 testimony to the power of the Christ. 
 
 " He taught them as one that had authority and not 
 as the scribes " (1 : 22). The answers to the questions 
 in regard to the relation of God to man, of man to 
 God, of man to man have never been surpassed. He 
 also ordained others to teach and to heal (3 : 13-15). 
 
 " With authority commandeth He even the unclean 
 spirits, and they do obey Him " (1 : 27). The great 
 problem to-day is, as of old, to clean out the un- 
 clean spirits who degrade the individual and foul the 
 social life. It is only the uplifted Christ who can 
 conquer them, as of old, and make life worth living. 
 
 Power to cure the sick (1 : 30, 31 and 34). — The heal- 
 ing touch is a great blessing. Physicians possess it in 
 different degrees. In Christ it was at its fullness. 
 
 Authority to forgive sins. — Christ did not leave this 
 point in doubt, for He said : " That ye may know that 
 the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins." 
 Notice the positiveness of this statement (2 : 5-10). 
 
 The extent ( 3 : 22-27) an & growth (4 : 30-32) of 
 Christ's authority are shown by what He says in re- 
 gard to His kingdom and that of Beelzebub and the 
 parable of the mustard seed. 
 
 He had control over nature (4 : 36-40). — At His 
 word a great storm was stilled on lake Galilee. He 
 multiplied loaves and fishes to feed a multitude. We 
 are learning much in these days about the control 
 
The Authority of the Christ 79 
 
 over nature. The president of the United States 
 touches a button and, at once, an electric impulse 
 starts over a wire on its journey of three thousand 
 miles across a continent and the wheels of the ponder- 
 ous machinery of an international exposition begin to 
 revolve. But why use a wire ? We take away the 
 wire and we send by " wireless," still using the button. 
 But why use a button ? As means have been found to 
 do away with the wire, may not means be found to do 
 away with the button and a man may stand and by an 
 impulse of his will do that which has hitherto been 
 done by a wire, a button and an electric current ? 
 What we to-day call " a miracle is not really a breach 
 of the order of nature ; it is only an apparent breach 
 of laws that we know, in obedience to other and higher 
 laws that we do not know." St. Augustine (•' De 
 Civitate Dei," I, 8) said in the early centuries, " We 
 say that all miracles (or prodigies, portenta) are con- 
 trary to nature ; but they are not. For how can that 
 be contrary to nature which takes place by the will of 
 God, seeing that the will of the great Creator is the 
 true nature of everything created ? So miracle is not 
 contrary to nature, but only to what we know of 
 nature (contra quam est nota natura)." Herbert 
 Spencer once said to Professor John Fiske of Harvard 
 University, " You cannot take up any problem in 
 physics without being quickly led to some metaphys- 
 ical problem which you can neither solve nor evade " 
 (Prof. John Fiske, " Life Everlasting," p. 50). 
 
 He had power to raise the dead (5 : 22-24, 35-42). 
 
80 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 He calls back to life the daughter of Jairus. There is 
 no argument for this power; it is exercised as the most 
 natural thing in the world. 
 
 The people marvel at His mighty works (6 : 1-6, 
 14, 56). 
 
 Peter s testimo?iy to the Christ (8 : 27-29). 
 
 The attestatioti of His authority in the event of the 
 transfiguration (9 : 1-7). " This is my beloved Son : 
 hear Him " (9 : 7). 
 
 Christ has authority over the future (9 : 38-50) ; His 
 authority is exalted (11 : 9, 10) ; The delegation of His 
 authority (13 : 34-37) ; An attempt is made to break 
 the power of the Christ (14: 10 to 15 147); Jesus de- 
 clares that He is the Christ and that He will come 
 again in great power (14 ; 61, 62) ; The victory for the 
 Christ (chapter 16). 
 
 The use of Christ's power was always to help, to 
 benefit and to heal. It was never exercised on His 
 own behalf. It was, and is, for the uplift of the indi- 
 vidual, society and the state. *' The Christian religion 
 has proved itself of practical authority in politics, and 
 statesmen are realizing, as never before, that Christ 
 cannot be left out as a factor in public affairs." 
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE GOSPEL OF MARK 
 The Gospel of Mark falls naturally itito four 
 divisions : 
 
 The beginning of the ministry of Jesus Christ 
 
 (i:i-I3). 
 
 The ministry in Galilee (1 : 14-9 : 50). 
 
The Authority of the Christ 81 
 
 The ministry in Judea (10 : 1-5 2). 
 
 The ministry in Jerusalem (n : 1-16 : 20). 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE MINISTRY 
 (1:1-13) 
 This introduction, consisting of only thirteen verses, 
 is short but very much to the point. Every sentence 
 is packed with meaning. It is " Good News " — Gospel 
 — about Jesus Christ, " The Son of God." Mark has 
 no time or space for circumlocution. He states in the 
 fewest possible words, yet every word a word painting 
 of wondrous beauty, that the " Son of God " has come 
 in accordance with ancient prophecy. His forerunner 
 has proclaimed Him as " One mightier than I," al- 
 though all the land has been startled and stirred by 
 John the Baptist's preaching. The Christ will baptize 
 with the Holy Ghost. The Christ is authenticated — we 
 are not left to conjecture as to His place and power — 
 at His baptism by a voice from heaven saying, " Thou 
 art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." 
 Here are two statements in thirteen verses in regard 
 to Christ as the M Son of God," the supreme topic of 
 this Gospel. He is not represented as one who slowly 
 gathers a consciousness of His place but one to whom 
 His proper place is assured from the beginning. 
 
 THE MINISTRY IN GALILEE 
 (1:14-9:50) 
 This is divided into two parts — The Eastern (1 : 14 
 to 7 : 23) and The Northern (7 : 24-9 : 50). 
 
82 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 The Eastern Galilean Ministry (i : 14-7 : 23).— 
 Galilee, the scene of this ministry, was the most 
 northerly of the four provinces of Palestine. It was 
 very fertile and very populous. " The great highways 
 from Egypt to Damascus and from Phoenicia to the Eu- 
 phrates passed here and made it a vast hive of traffic. 
 Besides the larger cities of Capernaum — the head- 
 quarters of Christ — Bethsaida and Chorazin, the shore 
 of the lake of Galilee was studded with towns and 
 villages, and formed a perfect beehive of swarming 
 human life. The territory about the lake bore 
 abundant crops and fruits of every description and 
 the waters teemed with fish, affording employment to 
 thousands of fishermen. Many boats for fishing, trans- 
 port and pleasure moved to and fro on the surface of 
 the lake, so that the whole region was a focus of 
 energy and prosperity." What was done in this sec- 
 tion was known very quickly throughout Palestine and 
 in the Eastern as well as the Western World ; the cara- 
 vans were the great news carriers. The place for the 
 dissemination of the " Good News " of the Messiah was 
 well chosen. 
 
 The story of Christ's work in Eastern Galilee is told 
 in three parts. 
 
 1. From the first announcement of the ki?igdom and 
 the call of the first disciples to the beginning of the 
 conflict with the official classes (1 : 14-3: 12). Jesus 
 begins preaching in Galilee. He calls four fishermen. 
 He spends a Sabbath in Capernaum. He preaches in 
 synagogues throughout all Galilee (1 : 14-45). The 
 
The Authority of the Christ 83 
 
 reading of this first chapter shows how intense His 
 activity was. He speaks and teaches and heals with 
 authority. Multitudes throng Him. His fame spreads 
 throughout all the region. ** We see here the author's 
 conviction, as announced in the first line of his book, 
 that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, and that 
 Jesus believing, from the beginning, in His own 
 Messiahship and Divine Sonship, convinced His fol- 
 lowers of it, not by affirmation or by argument but by 
 living ; so the evangelist, holding at the outset to the 
 Messiahship of Jesus, depends not on formulated 
 argument, but on the story of the life to carry this 
 conviction to the readers " (Prof. E. D. Burton, " In- 
 troduction to the Gospels," p. 40). 
 
 2. From the call of the twelve apostles to the 
 rejection at Nazareth (3 : 1 3-6 : 6). In choosing " The 
 Twelve " Jesus will leave nothing to chance. He has 
 a plan and will have them know of this plan that, 
 being rightly instructed, they may instruct others. 
 When He is teaching the multitude which throng 
 Him (3 : 20) they must take account of what His 
 kingdom is (3 : 22-35), how it differs from that of 
 Beelzebub and what it means to be a citizen of that 
 kingdom. He teaches by the seaside and shows by 
 parables the principles and the growth of this kingdom 
 (4 : 1-34). The teaching about the kingdom is followed 
 by some wonderful manifestations of power (4: 35-5 143), 
 the stilling of a great storm on lake Galilee, delivering 
 of one possessed of a legion of devils, healing a woman 
 with a bloody issue and the raising from the dead the 
 
84 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 daughter of Jairus. Bitter opposition is encountered 
 by Jesus when He goes back to His home town. It 
 was acknowledged that many mighty works were 
 wrought by Him, but the people, unable to recon- 
 cile His origin with His claims, rejected His claims 
 (6:i-6). 
 
 j. From the sending out of "The Twelve" on 
 a mission to the withdrawal of Jesus to the borders 
 of Tyre and Sidon (6:7-7:23). The unfolding of 
 the plan of Jesus is seen as He instructs His disciples 
 as to what their message shall be and how it should be 
 delivered (6 : 7-13). The incident of King Herod and 
 his opinion of Jesus (6 : 14-29). 
 
 The return of " The Twelve " who tell Jesus what 
 they had done and taught (6 : 30). 
 
 Jesus continues His former work in Galilee with the 
 reappearance of the same features of teaching and 
 healing and the thronging multitudes, with the works 
 of power of feeding five thousand and the walking on 
 the water (6:31-56). Jesus encounters new opposi- 
 tion in the Scribes and Pharisees who come from 
 Jerusalem. They are shown the difference between a 
 religion that is of the heart and that which is of a 
 worthless tradition, which does not decrease their op- 
 position (7 : 1-23). 
 
 The Northern Galilean Ministry (7 : 24-9 : 50). 
 
 This story is told in two parts. 
 
 I. First withdrawal from Galilee into the borders 
 of Tyre and Sidon and the return (7 : 24-8 : 26). 
 Here occurs the incident of the casting out of an un- 
 
The Authority of the Christ 85 
 
 clean spirit from the daughter of a Syrophcenician 
 woman (7 : 24-30). The return to Galilee. The deaf 
 man healed. The four thousand fed. A blind man 
 of Bethsaida receives his sight (7 : 31-8 : 26). 
 
 2. A second withdrawal from Galilee " into the 
 towns of Csesarea Philippi " and the return (8 : 27- 
 9 : 50). On the way to Caesarea Philippi Jesus ac- 
 knowledges that He is the Christ and teaches that the 
 kingdom of His power must be won through suffering 
 and death (8 : 27-38). Jesus is transfigured and ac- 
 knowledged as the beloved Son of the Father. On 
 coming down from the Mount of Transfiguration 
 Jesus heals a demoniac boy (9 : 1-29). Jesus returns 
 to and passes through Galilee (9 : 30-50). He again 
 predicts His death and resurrection (9 : 30-32). He 
 teaches what true greatness is in His kingdom, also 
 true humility and self-denial (9 : 33-50). 
 
 THE MINISTRY IN JUDEA 
 (10:1-51) 
 This chapter, ten, is an account of the incidents and 
 teaching of Jesus on His journey from Galilee to 
 Jerusalem. The discourse on divorce (10:1-12). 
 The incident of the blessing of little children and its 
 lesson for the kingdom (10 : 13-16). The question of 
 what one can do to inherit eternal life (10 : 17-27). 
 The question of gain in the kingdom (10:28-30). 
 Jesus again predicts His death and resurrection (10: 
 32-34). The question of precedence in the kingdom 
 
86 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 (10 : 35-45). Jesus restores the sight of blind Bar- 
 timaeus of Jericho (10 : 46-52). 
 
 THE MINISTRY IN JERUSALEM 
 (11 : 1-16:20) 
 
 This section occupies about one-third of the Gospel 
 of Mark, which shows the great importance attached 
 to the narrative. The events are reported, in a 
 journal like form, as they took place from day to day. 
 " Jesus causes Himself to be announced as Messiah ; 
 comes into conflict with the leaders of the people ; 
 predicts the downfall of the Jewish temple and capital." 
 He rises from the dead, as He said He would, and be- 
 comes the victorious Messiah and ascended Lord. 
 
 Passion Week. 
 
 Sunday. — The Holy City at last reached, Jesus 
 makes a triumphal entrance as its Lord and Master — 
 the long expected Messiah (11 : 1-11). 
 
 Monday. — The fig tree, which bore no fruit, sym- 
 bolical of the Jewish nation, is cursed and withers 
 away. The temple is cleansed (11 : 12-19). 
 
 Tuesday (11:20-13:37). — This is the great day 
 of teaching in the temple. Christ's comment on the 
 withered fig tree and the good in faith (1 1 : 20-26). 
 Christ's authority is challenged. He answers the 
 challenge (11 : 27-33). Jesus takes His critics to task 
 and shows them in the parable of the wicked hus- 
 bandman, and in the questions concerning the tribute 
 money, the resurrection, the greatest commandment 
 and giving, the true nature of His kingdom and its 
 
The Authority of the Christ 87 
 
 requirements (12:1-44). The prophetic discourse 
 concerning the downfall of the temple and the city 
 ( J 3 • l ~37)t after Jesus left the temple. 
 
 Wednesday (14:1-11). — The Jews plot to put 
 Jesus to death. Jesus is anointed in the house of 
 Simon the leper. Judas makes a bargain with the 
 Jewish leaders to betray Jesus to death. 
 
 Thursday (14 : 12-52). — Jesus now enters the 
 shadow of the cross. The last supper, symbolical of 
 the broken body and shed blood of Christ, is instituted 
 (14:12-26). Peter's denial is foretold (14:27-31). 
 The agony in Gethsemane (14 : 32-42). The betrayal 
 and arrest of Jesus (14 : 43-52). 
 
 Friday (14:53-15:47). — The trial before the 
 Jewish authorities in which Jesus, in prospect of an 
 ignominious death, declares that He is the Christ, 
 "The Son of the Blessed" (14: 53-65). Peter's de- 
 nials (14 : 66-72). The trial before Pilate (15 : 1-20). 
 The crucifixion and burial (15 : 21-47). 
 
 The Resurrection (16 : 1-8). — Holy women visited 
 the tomb very early in the morning of the Sabbath 
 day following, to find that Jesus had risen from the 
 dead, as He said He would. 
 
 Appendix (16:9-20). Brief summary of the ap- 
 pearances of Jesus, after He had risen from the dead. 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 What can be said of the supremacy of the question of the 
 authority of Jesus Christ with the early disciples ? Are we 
 left in any doubt as to the one about whom Mark was writ- 
 
88 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 ing ? In what does Christ's authority consist ? Teaching 
 — forgiveness of sins — healing the sick — control over nature 
 — raising the dead ? In an analysis of the book of Mark 
 into what divisions does it naturally fall ? What can be 
 said of the beginning of the ministry ? What can be said 
 of the ministry in Galilee ? Into what two parts is it di- 
 vided ? Into how many parts are these two divided ? 
 What can be said of the ministry in Judea ? What can be 
 said of the ministry in Jerusalem ? What are the events of 
 the days ? What can be said of the resurrection ? 
 
STUDY VI 
 
 THE PURPOSE OF LUKE 
 
 The Preface of the Gospel of Luke. — We have here 
 the advantage of a direct statement, from the author, 
 in regard to his purpose. 
 
 " Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set 
 forth in order a declaration of those things which are 
 most surely believed among us, even as they delivered 
 them unto us, which from the beginning were eye- 
 witnesses, and ministers of the word ; it seemed good 
 to me also, having had perfect understanding of all 
 things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, 
 most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know 
 the certainty of the things, wherein thou hast been in- 
 structed." 
 
 Many other narratives of the words and acts of Jesus 
 Christ were already in existence. — Within thirty years 
 after the death and resurrection of Jesus, His Gospel 
 had won its way from Jerusalem to Rome and Chris- 
 tian churches had been established in the large as well 
 as the small cities throughout the Roman Empire. 
 During the latter half of this period Paul had written 
 his epistles, copies of which were widely circulated 
 amongst the churches. It is not known how early 
 the written attempts at Gospel making began : some 
 
 8 9 
 
90 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 scholars place them quite early. Prof. James Moffatt, 
 of Oxford, in his introduction to " The Literature of 
 the New Testament " tells us that " by at least 50 A. D. 
 such notes and collections (in regard to the words and 
 works of Christ) may have begun to exist in rough 
 form. . . . By the time of Paul's later literary 
 activity evangelic narratives were in existence here 
 and there. . . . The primary need for these is to 
 be found in the fact that a new generation was rising, 
 who were dependent for their history of Jesus upon a 
 fast diminishing company of eye-witnesses, in the 
 rapid extension and consolidation of the Christian 
 communities." With these many narratives, Mark, in 
 the Greek, and Matthew, in the Hebrew, at least, were 
 well known, for Luke makes use of both. That he 
 used other narratives and oral traditions is evident 
 from the large amount of new matter, not found in 
 Mark or Luke, which he incorporates in his Gospel. 
 All was attested by eye-witnesses and companions 
 of Jesus (1 : 2). 
 
 The Threefold Purpose of Luke. 
 
 First — Historical. Luke was a painstaking and 
 careful investigator of the sources of his information 
 in regard to Christ ; he was not a personal follower of 
 the Lord. " He professes to write a complete, correct 
 and chronological (in the sense of well arranged, or 
 logical) account of the primitive narrative (or inherit- 
 ance) as received from the first generation of disciples. 
 This attempt was neither new nor superfluous. Luke 
 had numerous predecessors in the enterprise, but their 
 
The Purpose of Luke 91 
 
 work did not wholly satisfy his purpose ; he resolved 
 to make a fresh essay." He desired to furnish Chris- 
 tians a more accurate knowledge of their Lord's life. 
 
 Second — Religious. The life of Christ is, to Luke, 
 of supreme religious importance. He sees in Him 
 " The Power " which is to regenerate the world 
 (4: 16-21, 32-41). Here is his primary interest; it is 
 similar to that of John (John 20 : 31). 
 
 Third — Personal. Luke's Gospel and the Acts of 
 the Apostles, its sequel, are addressed to a person— a 
 certain Theophilus. In this it resembles Paul's epistles 
 to Timothy, Titus and Philemon. Theophilus is a gen- 
 uine proper name ; nothing is known of him " except 
 what may be inferred from Luke's language, viz., that 
 he was not simply an outsider interested in the faith, 
 but a Christian who desired or required fuller acquaint- 
 ance with the historic basis of the Christian Gospel ; 
 also that he was a man of rank. Luke's emphasis 
 on the relation between Christianity and the Roman 
 Empire, and his stress upon the temptations and hin- 
 drances of money, would tally with the hypothesis that 
 his friend belonged to the upper and official classes," 
 but nothing is known beyond these inferences. 
 
 The Author. — The third Gospel was assigned to 
 Luke by the Church of antiquity and his authorship 
 has never been disputed. Irenaeus of Asia Minor, 
 who had ample opportunity to sift the facts and who 
 wrote in Gaul in the second century, says : " Now if 
 any one reject Luke, as if he did not know the truth, 
 he will manifestly be casting out the Gospel of which 
 
92 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 he claims to be a disciple." Irenaeus quotes from 
 nearly every chapter. The Muratorian canon, prob- 
 ably somewhat earlier, ascribes this Gospel to Luke. 
 Later on, trustworthy tradition, " as preserved by 
 Eusebius and Jerome, has it that Luke was a native 
 of Antioch in Syria, or at least had his usual residence 
 there, and that he was a proselyte or follower of Paul." 
 
 To Luke was also assigned the authorship of The Acts 
 of the Apostles, the continuation of the Gospel of Luke. 
 They are both addressed to Theophilus (Luke 1:3; 
 Acts 1 : 1) and the style is the same. 
 
 Three things may be said of Luke, which made him 
 a proper instrument for the important work which he 
 did. 
 
 First — He was a converted Gentile Greek. Thor- 
 oughly acquainted with Greek ideals, he knew how to 
 adapt the Gospel of Christ in order to win the Greek. 
 
 Second — He was a physician. Paul calls him (Col. 
 4:14)" Luke, the beloved physician." It has been 
 thought that Luke accompanied Paul from Troas to 
 Philippi (Acts 16: 11, 12) on the occasion of their first 
 meeting, to minister to Paul in a malady from which 
 he was suffering (2 Cor. 12:7). " There is a remark- 
 able work by Dr. Hobart on ' The Medical Language 
 of St. Luke,' in which the author makes a minute 
 comparison of the words used in the third Gospel and 
 The Acts with words employed by Galen, Hippo- 
 crates, and other medical writers of antiquity; the 
 result is that many of our evangelist's favorite words, 
 and many of the words used by him exclusively among 
 
The Purpose of Luke 93 
 
 New Testament writers, are found to be characteristic 
 of those authors. ... It will be seen, too, that in 
 several instances where Luke is giving an account of a 
 miracle of healing, he enters into details of the con- 
 dition of the sufferer more fully than the other evan- 
 gelists." All of which goes to show that Luke was a 
 painstaking and accurate observer and that he care- 
 fully made sure of his facts before recording them. 
 
 Third — He was a travelling companion of Paul and 
 was with him in the city of Rome. He had ample and 
 abundant opportunity to meet those who had seen 
 Christ in the flesh and had been with Him. He also, 
 journeying with Paul, saw the marvellous results of the 
 preaching of the Christ in heathen communities. Paul 
 mentions him three times by name in his epistles (Phile. 
 24; Col. 4: 14; 2 Tim. 4: 11). The steadfast and 
 courageous character of Luke is incidentally brought 
 out in the fact that, in Paul's second imprisonment, a 
 time of great danger and sorrow, Luke only dared 
 stand by him (2 Tim. 4 : 7-1 1). The painstaking care 
 of Luke is shown in his writing of the Acts : when he 
 is not with the company, he uses the personal plural 
 pronoun " They " ; when he is with the company he 
 uses " We " or " Us " ; the latter are known as the 
 " We-sections " (Acts 16 : 10-40 ; 20 : 6-21 : 18 ; 27 : 1- 
 28: 16 or 31). 
 
 Arrangement of Material. — In the preface to the 
 third Gospel, Luke states that, " It seemed good to me 
 also, having had perfect understanding of all things 
 from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most 
 
94 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 excellent Theophilus." The setting down of things 
 " In order " and " Accurately " was the special care of 
 Luke. 
 
 There is a chronological order. — Certain dates are 
 given and these follow in succession of time. " Luke 
 alone, among the evangelists, sets his Gospel in rela- 
 tion to contemporary great world movements. He 
 fixes his dates with reference to the Jewish kings, the 
 reigning Caesars, and provincial Roman governors 
 (i : 5 ; 2 : I ; 3 : i). The author's desire is to be ac- 
 curate and definite in the historical relations of the 
 narrative. Another reason is that, at the time this 
 Gospel was written, there was no universal accepted 
 numerical calendar, some people using the Greek 
 Olympiads, some the names of Roman consuls, some 
 the reigns of the emperors. Again Luke, in this way, 
 desires to emphasize the world-wide character of 
 Christianity. He is somewhat a man of the world and 
 he likes to think of the Gospel as a factor in the life of 
 the world. A Gentile himself, dedicating his book to 
 a Gentile of rank in the Roman world, he is the last 
 man to take a sectarian and exclusive view of a move- 
 ment that sprang up in Jewish circles, but soon burst 
 all national and racial bounds. He is not one to allow 
 the Gospel to run in a small canal apart from the Em- 
 pire's life. He will not have his Gospel confined to 
 the Ghetto. To supercilious Roman gentlemen, the 
 church may seem to be but a Jewish sect. He would 
 like to open their eyes to its true nature as the leaven 
 that is to penetrate every stratum of society. . . . 
 
The Purpose of Luke 95 
 
 He desires to win an entrance for the Gospel among 
 the citizens of the Empire. Here he is just treading in 
 the footsteps of his master. There is an imperial 
 breadth of outlook." 
 
 There is a logical order of events. — After the preface 
 (1 : 1-4) this Gospel falls naturally into six divisions. 
 
 First (1 : 5-2 : 52), Narrative of the birth, childhood 
 and youth of John the Baptist and Jesus. 
 
 Second (3 : 1-4 : 1 3), The preparation for the public 
 work of Christ. 
 
 Third (4 : 14-9 : 50), Christ's Galilean ministry. 
 
 Fourth (9:51-19:28), Christ's journey to Jeru- 
 salem, through Samaria and Perea. 
 
 Fifth (19 : 29-23 : 56), The events of Passion Week. 
 
 Sixth (24 : 1-53), From the resurrection of Christ to 
 His ascension. 
 
 Sources and New Matter. — The third Gospel has 
 much in common with both Mark and Matthew. The 
 Gospel of Luke has the framework of Mark. We 
 know that Mark and Luke were together, in Rome, 
 with Paul (Col. 4:10, 14 ; Phile. 24). Professor Har- 
 nack, in his " Date of The Acts and the Synoptic 
 Gospels " (page 133), says : " Tradition asserts no veto 
 against the hypothesis that St. Luke, when he met 
 St. Mark, in company with St. Paul the prisoner, was 
 permitted by him to peruse a written record of the 
 Gospel history which was essentially identical with the 
 Gospel of St. Mark given to the church at a later 
 time." The arrangement of matter in Luke is differ- 
 ent from that in Matthew — " Thus while Matthew 
 
96 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 contains great blocks of continuous teaching, in Luke 
 the teaching is more mingled with the narrative out of 
 which it is seen to spring. For instance the Lord's 
 prayer in Matthew (6:9-13) occurs as a part of the 
 Sermon on the Mount, but in Luke (11 : 1-4) it is 
 given by Jesus because His disciples having watched 
 Him in prayer, have asked Him to teach them to pray." 
 
 Each Gospel writer, being near to the original 
 sources, had abundant materials from which to draw. 
 No Gospel professes to record all that Jesus said and 
 did (John 20 : 30, 31 ; 21 : 25). 
 
 It has been calculated that if the contents of the 
 Synoptic Gospels are divided into 172 sections, of 
 these 172 Luke has 127, Matthew 114 and Mark 84 ; 
 and of these 172 Luke has 48 which are peculiar to 
 himself, Matthew has 22 and Mark has 5. 
 
 If we reckon by the number of verses Matthew has 
 1,068 verses, of which 337 are not found in Mark or 
 Luke ; Mark has 674 verses of which fifty are peculiar 
 to this Gospel ; while Luke has 1,149 verses of which 
 612 are only found there. 
 
 The matter peculiar to Luke is rather more than 
 half of the whole Gospel. 
 
 Of the recorded miracles six are peculiar to Luke, 
 three to Matthew and two to Mark. Of the parables, 
 eighteen are peculiar to Luke, ten to Matthew and 
 one to Mark. The most notable narratives, peculiar 
 to Luke, appear in the first three chapters, and in 
 Christ's journey to Jerusalem (9 : 51-19 : 27). 
 
 It is to Luke's painstaking research that we havi 
 
The Purpose of Luke 97 
 
 preserved to us such miracles as, " The raising of the 
 widow's son at Nain," " The miraculous draught of 
 fishes," " The ten lepers," " The healing of Malchus " 
 etc., and such parables as, " The two debtors," " The 
 good Samaritan," " The rich fool," " The lost sheep," 
 " The lost piece of silver," " The prodigal son," " The 
 unjust steward," " Dives and Lazarus," " The Pharisee 
 and the publican," etc. 
 
 Among the remarkable utterances and incidents, 
 alone set down by Luke, are John the Baptist's 
 answers to the people (3:10-14); Christ's weeping 
 over Jerusalem (19:41-44); the conversation with 
 Moses and Elias on the Mount of Transfiguration 
 (9 : 28-36) ; the bloody sweat (22 : 44) ; the sending of 
 Jesus to Herod (23 : 7-12); the address to the daugh- 
 ters of Jerusalem (23 : 27-31); the prayer, " Father, 
 forgive them " (23 : 34) ; the penitent robber (23 : 39-43) ; 
 the disciples at Emmaus (24 : 13-31) ; particulars of the 
 ascension (24 : 50-53, etc.). 
 
 Characteristics. — There are certain marked features 
 of this Gospel which distinguish it from its com- 
 panions, give it an individuality of its own and reveal 
 the spirit and temper of its author. 
 
 Glad tidings for all men. — It is a Gospel of joyous 
 song. Luke is the first Christian hymnologist. In? 
 the opening chapters are the songs which the Church 
 has ever since been delighted to use, as they embody 
 her highest hopes and aspirations : " The Ave Maria "" 
 (1 : 28-33), the good tidings of the angel Gabriel to 
 Mary; "The Magnificat" (1 : 46-55), Mary's song of 
 
98 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 rejoicing, " My soul doth magnify the Lord " ; " The 
 Benedictus " (1 : 68-79), Zacharias' hymn of praise 
 that " the Lord God had visited and redeemed His 
 people Israel"; " The Gloria in Excelsis" (2:13, 14), 
 the praise of the heavenly host of angels at the birth 
 of the Christ, " Glory to God in the highest, and on 
 earth peace, good- will towards men " ; " The Nunc 
 Dimittis " (2 : 29-32), the rejoicing of Simeon, when 
 he took the young child Jesus in his arms and blessed 
 God that his eyes had seen the salvation, through the 
 Christ, that he longed for, " A light to lighten the 
 Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel." This 
 gladness of this Gospel shines out again and again ; it 
 is specially prominent in the fifteenth chapter of the 
 three parables of the finding of the lost sheep, the lost 
 coin and the lost boy. 
 
 Praise and Thanksgiving. — Mention is made again 
 and again of glorifying God. There is here an exal- 
 tation of spirit which moves men to praise (2 : 20 ; 
 5:25; 7:16; 13: 13; 17:15; 18:43; 23:47). 
 
 Prayer. — We find here more frequent references to 
 prayer than in the other Gospels. There is not only 
 a record of the Lord's prayer, as in Matthew, but 
 Luke alone tells us that our Lord prayed on " six dis- 
 tinct and memorable occasions: 1. At His baptism ; 
 2. After cleansing the leper ; 3. Before calling the 
 Twelve Apostles ; 4. At His Transfiguration ; 5. On 
 the cross for His murderers, and 6. With His last 
 breath. Luke insists, reporting Christ, on the duty of 
 unceasing prayer (18 : 1 ; 11:8; 21: 36)." In the 
 
The Purpose of Luke 99 
 
 parable of the Pharisee and the publican (18: 10-14) he 
 shows what kind of prayer is acceptable and what is not. 
 In the parable of the friend at midnight (11 : 5-1 3) and 
 of the unjust judge (18 : 1-8) he shows the need of a 
 persistent energy and a holy importunity in prayer. 
 
 Good-will and tolerance. — It is the Gospel of a 
 Saviour for all men and of a universal good-will to 
 all classes and conditions. The Christ came heralded 
 by angel carols (2:13, 14) ; He departs blessing men 
 with uplifted hands (24 : 50). 
 
 What a contrast between the Jewish religion which 
 Christ found and that which He came to preach ! 
 The former had degenerated into a religion of ha- 
 treds. " The then * religious world/ clothing its own 
 egotism under the guise of zeal for God, had for the 
 most part lost itself in a frenzy of detestations. The 
 typical Pharisee hated the Gentiles ; hated the Samari- 
 tans ; hated the tax gatherers. He despised poverty 
 and despised womanhood. There was a deadly blood 
 feud between the Jews and the Samaritans. Into this 
 atmosphere of ill-will and intolerance Luke represents 
 our Lord coming as Christus Consolator towards every 
 age, either sex, all nations, all professions, men of 
 every opinion and every shade of character ; He is 
 the good Physician of bodies and souls ; the Gospeller 
 of the poor ; the Brother who loves all His brethren 
 in the great family of men ; the unwearied Healer and 
 ennobler of sick and suffering humanity ; the Desire 
 of all nations ; and the Saviour of the world, who went 
 about doing good." Christ taught the largest toler- 
 
loo Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 ance when He chose the Good Samaritan, rather than 
 the indifferent priest of the cold-hearted Levite, as the 
 type of love of neighbor. He rebuked two of His 
 disciples who would call down fire from heaven upon 
 an inhospitable Samaritan town. 
 
 Womanhood. — What a host of good women are 
 mentioned and commended ! Mary and Elizabeth, 
 the mothers of Jesus and John the Baptist. Mary is 
 supposed to be one of the eye-witnesses from whom 
 Luke got much of his information, recorded in the 
 first chapters. Then there are the lifelike portraits of 
 Anna, the aged prophetess ; the Magdalen, as one 
 from whom Jesus cast out seven demons ; the widow at 
 Nain, whose son He restores to life ; Mary and Martha, 
 whom we see serving and worshipping ; the women of 
 Jerusalem, who sympathize with Jesus on His way to 
 the cross. He ever delights to honor womanhood. 
 
 Sympathy with the poor and the outcast. — The rec- 
 ords are frequent of the mercy of Christ towards the 
 humble and the despised. It was an angel who ap- 
 peared to Mary, the humble maiden of Nazareth. It 
 was a heavenly host which announced the birth of 
 the Christ to the humble shepherds. Jesus chose the 
 disciples, who were to be nearest to Him and who were 
 to be His spokesmen after His resurrection, from the 
 humble fishermen of Galilee. The poor, the lame, the 
 halt are invited to a great supper. The humble are to 
 be exalted. The point, in the parables of the Rich 
 Man and Dives and the Rich Fool, is not against 
 riches but that the rich man, in his thoughtless self- 
 
The Purpose of Luke 101 
 
 indulgence, is apt to neglect his suffering neighbor. 
 Riches will, if great care is not taken, stifle everything 
 good in a man's heart. Luke is the only evangelist 
 that records our Lord's advice that when we make a 
 feast we should not be content to invite our personal 
 friends and our wealthy neighbors but should gather 
 in the poor and afflicted for our guests. It is the 
 heart that is to be kept humble towards God. 
 
 There is Fpecial care for the outcast. " For the Son 
 of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost " 
 (19: 10). The three parables in the fifteenth chapter 
 are all to this point. He seeks to save, unto the utter- 
 most, the publican, the harlot, the prodigal. " To give 
 light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of 
 death " (1 : 79). 
 
 The ivorld ministry. — Christ was to be a light to 
 lighten the Gentiles as well as the glory of His people 
 Israel (2 : 32). In Him was fulfilled the prophecy, 
 " That all flesh shall see the salvation of God " (3 : 6). 
 Christ opened (4: 16-21) and closed (24:45-47) His 
 ministry with a declaration of its universality. 
 
 When and Where Written. — It is not easy to de- 
 termine just where this Gospel was given to the world. 
 Luke must have been some time in gathering the ma- 
 terial for it and its companion work, The Acts of the 
 Apostles. It is undated in itself. The attempt to de- 
 termine the date from internal evidence has not resulted 
 in a complete success. Many scholars favor a date 
 after the destruction of Jerusalem, or between 70 and 
 80. It is perfectly possible to hold, with other schol- 
 
102 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 ars, to a date previous to 70, the year in which Je- 
 rusalem was destroyed. The limits, not wide, of the 
 dates proposed do not count against the perfect au- 
 thenticity of this great work. Professor Harnack, in 
 his " Date of The Acts and the Synoptic Gospels " 
 (page 124), asserts : " It seems now to be established 
 beyond question that both books of this great histor- 
 ical work — The Gospel of Luke and The Acts — were 
 written while St. Paul was still alive." 
 
 For What Readers ? — What is the central idea ? It 
 is certain that each Gospel sets forth Jesus Christ 
 plainly as the Saviour of men, but the writers present 
 the same truth in different forms. 
 
 When the Gospels were written there were three great 
 races — the Roman, the Greek and the Jewish — with 
 their distinctive racial ideas. These ideas have sur- 
 vived the races. 
 
 In the Roman race, " the will, or that part of man 
 which pushes to action, and enables him to control 
 and mould nature and mankind, was the predominant 
 element." The Roman was the man who did things. 
 He believed in power but it was the power of the state 
 and limited to this world. He attempted and accom- 
 plished herculean tasks in the building up of a colossal 
 Empire ; his thoughts did not go beyond this. His 
 measure of a man was what he could do here and now. 
 He made his gods in the likeness of himself. 
 
 The Jewish race had made all the great ventures 
 into the unseen world. It was the law of an unseen, 
 all powerful, God to which the Jew owned allegiance 
 
The Purpose of Luke 103 
 
 and not to that of any earthly potentate, however 
 powerful. The God of the Jew was too great to have 
 any image made by which to worship Him. What 
 had been revealed by this God in the past would be his 
 law. The spirit, or that part of man which links him 
 to God, was the predominant element with the Jew. 
 
 The Greek race conceived its mission as that to 
 perfect humanity. The Greeks were the representa- 
 tives of reason and humanity in the ancient world. 
 They were the cosmopolites of their age. But in their 
 efforts to be broad they stumbled. They made their 
 gods in their own likeness. They deified not only 
 the virtues but the base passions, which were consid- 
 ered as godlike as the virtues. 
 
 It would have been a strange Gospel which would 
 not take into account these racial ideas and attempt to 
 mould them to its new conception of things. It has 
 been asserted that Mark, in writing his Gospel, took 
 into account the Roman conception of things — hence 
 he begins on his level and raises him to a higher one. 
 Jesus is represented as the Mighty Worker, whose 
 will is law in this world and the world to come. Mat- 
 thew begins his Gospel with an appeal, to the past and 
 to the prophets, that Jesus is the long expected Mes- 
 siah sent by the unseen, all-powerful God, whom the 
 Jew had worshipped in the past. 
 
 Luke's Gospel has a world-wide character all its own. 
 It appeals to different readers. It meets the need of 
 the Greek for the real perfection of humanity. — It is not 
 without significance that our New Testament books 
 
1 04 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 are written in the Greek language. There were many 
 good things about the Greek way of looking at things. 
 He considered that his mission was to perfect human- 
 ity. He stood for the supremacy of reason ; he had 
 made all the great adventures into the world of phi- 
 losophy. He brought the arts to a perfection which, 
 in many respects, has never been equalled. He was a 
 world man ; he could meet all men on the common 
 platform of humanity as the Jew and Roman could 
 not. But there were some very serious defects in the 
 Greek way of looking at things. Beside making gods 
 of his virtues and base passions, to be worshipped 
 alike with equal fervor, this bright world was his all. 
 " His theory blotted out the other and higher world 
 and left him utterly worldly, having no hope and with- 
 out God in the world. This world was his home, his 
 province, his grave. He sought his happiness in it. 
 His only wish was that it might last forever. He 
 sought not only to get the utmost out of his mind but 
 also to get the utmost pleasure out of his body, with- 
 out a thought of the virtue or vice of it. This world's 
 revels, dances, theatrical exhibitions, races, battles, 
 academic groves — where literary leisure luxuriated — 
 these were blessedness, and his hell was death. The 
 Greek poets speak pathetically of the misery of the 
 wrench from all that is dear and bright." When Paul 
 preached the resurrection from the dead at Athens, he 
 was openly scoffed at. In many ways the Greek way 
 of looking at things is beginning to make itself felt in 
 our modern civilization — to its detriment. 
 
The Purpose of Luke 105 
 
 The problem of Luke was to meet the Greek on the 
 broad platform of humanity and to ennoble it. He 
 presents Jesus Christ as the ideally perfect Divine 
 Man — as well as Divine Saviour — touching man on all 
 sides and having an interest in man as man. He 
 came into the world, heralded with songs ; disease 
 and pain fled at His touch ; He revealed the beauty 
 of holiness ; He was interested not only in the best 
 but in the worst of men. The longing of the soul of 
 the Greek for the bright here and the hereafter was 
 met. His multitude of deities was swept away and in 
 its place came that of a vision of a great and righteous 
 God. Christ was shown, by Luke, as the universal 
 God Man, the pattern and brother for all ages. 
 
 " This Gospel represents Christ to us in His inti- 
 mate, and yet His universal relationship to men, the 
 Mediator between the one God and all men." 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 The purpose of Luke — what has the preface to say about 
 it ? What can be said of other narratives already in exist- 
 ence? What was the threefold purpose of Luke in writing ? 
 What can be said of the author ? What three things may 
 be said of him? How is the material arranged? What 
 can be said of the sources of this Gospel and the new matter 
 embodied in it? What are the characteristic features of 
 this Gospel — Glad tidings for all men, Praise and thanksgiv- 
 ing, Prayer, Good-will and tolerance, Womanhood, Sym- 
 pathy for the poor and the outcast, The world ministry? 
 When and where written ? For what readers was it writ- 
 ten ? What were the three great racial ideas ? How did 
 Luke meet the wants of the Greek ? 
 
STUDY VII 
 
 THE CERTAINTY OF THE SAVIOUR 
 
 The Appeal to the Facts.— In the end it is this 
 appeal which wins any case. Luke takes his stand 
 upon the " certainty " (i : 4) of the reality of the Christ. 
 He does not argue. He does not plead. With him 
 it is historical proof which counts. He consults eye- 
 and ear-witnesses. He personally associated with 
 those who had personally associated with Jesus during 
 His life upon earth. He presents a careful historical 
 record chronologically arranged without discussion. 
 There is no indefiniteness here, yet withal there is a 
 charm and picturesqueness about the telling which has 
 commanded and held the attention of the world ever 
 since this book was written. 
 
 Before Luke wrote his Gospel he had come to a 
 vivid realization of the power and the world-wide 
 character of Christianity. He had seen this religion, 
 bursting the bounds of Judaism and pursuing its vic- 
 torious course over the Roman Empire, subdue to 
 itself, and gather into its fold, all sorts and conditions 
 of men of different races, mental types and religious 
 beliefs. He had not only been a keen observer of the 
 course of events but also an active worker with Paul, 
 the great missionary. He was well qualified for his 
 work. 
 
 106 
 
The Certainty of the Saviour 107 
 
 The best presentation of any cause is in the showing 
 of the solidity of the foundation of fact upon which it 
 rests. Argument may be met by argument but a fact, 
 well established, does not admit of argument. A fact 
 can take care of itself under any and all circumstances. 
 Luke wisely chose to base his Gospel upon the fact of 
 Christ. It was this fact which would make its own 
 plea to all men for all time. 
 
 The fact of the person of Christ. — Here is no 
 shadowy, ill-defined figure, but one who is born at a 
 certain time, in a certain place and who, on coming to 
 manhood's estate, stands out as the chief person of his 
 race and all races. His is the strong personality about 
 which all the events of the book group themselves. 
 With Him a new era began not only for His own race 
 but for the whole world. Notice how in the very be- 
 ginning of this Gospel Luke ties up the narrative of 
 the birth of Christ with contemporaneous events — 
 " There was in the days of Herod the king " (1 : 5), 
 " There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that 
 all the world should be taxed " (2 : 1), " In the fifteenth 
 year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar " (3:1). Luke 
 wants us to know just when Christ came and what was 
 happening in the world at large. He tells us that 
 Mary, the mother of Jesus, declared — " From hence- 
 forth all generations shall call me blessed " (1 148) : 
 a wonderful prophecy of what has actually come to 
 pass. Again he tells us that Simeon, a devout man, 
 waiting in the temple for the consummation of his 
 hope of seeing the Christ in the flesh, declared, when 
 
108 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 he saw the child Jesus, that He was " A light to 
 lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people 
 Israel " (2 : 25, 26, 32) : here is another remarkable 
 forecast of what has actually come to pass. Christ is 
 to-day the light of the Gentiles and the Jews have in 
 Him their greatest hero. So has Christ's personality 
 impressed itself upon the world that this world reckons 
 its time, a. d., as from a new age which began with 
 Him. 
 
 The fact of the work of Christ. — It is not always easy 
 for a man to find the work for which he is fitted, or 
 for others to find it for him. But with Christ, accord- 
 ing to Luke, there is no doubt as to the work which 
 He came to do. Here is no groping after a mission. 
 One has only to read the first three chapters to see 
 how clearly this work is defined. The program is set 
 forth here, which He literally followed. He is born — 
 " A Saviour, which is Christ the Lord "(2:1 1). At 
 the opening of His ministry, in the city of Nazareth, 
 in the synagogue, He read from the prophet Isaiah — 
 " The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath 
 anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor ; He 
 hath sent Me to heal the broken hearted, to preach 
 deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to 
 the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to 
 preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And He 
 closed the book and gave it again to the minister and 
 sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the 
 synagogue were fastened on Him. And He began to 
 say unto them, ■ This day is this Scripture fulfilled in 
 
The Certainty of the Saviour 109 
 
 your ears '" (4: 16-21). But the sixty-first chapter 
 of Isaiah, from which the above is quoted, is a descrip- 
 tion of the work of the Messiah. Jesus, in declaring 
 this Scripture fulfilled in Him, declared Himself to be 
 the Messiah. In His parting instructions (24 : 44-5 3) 
 to His disciples it is shown how Jesus had broadened 
 His mission, so that it might include all nations. 
 
 The fact of the authority and power of Christ. — With 
 the wisest and strongest men power and authority- 
 exist in limited degrees. In this narrative of Luke 
 power and authority exist unlimited in the Christ. 
 Men hesitate to believe in acts that are beyond the 
 ordinary capacity of man to accomplish : this is one 
 reason for the hesitancy to believe in acts of power 
 and authority of the Christ, which we call miracles. 
 But we are beginning to see, in our day, that a man 
 with a highly endowed mental equipment and a su- 
 perior knowledge of the laws of nature may easily do 
 things which are perfectly incomprehensible to the or- 
 dinary man. A higher power will always dominate a 
 lower. The lower law must give way to the higher. 
 We have by no means solved the problem of the mir- 
 acles of Christ ; but we do begin to see the light that 
 this high and all commanding personality of Christ 
 easily controlled nature. Luke would have been dere- 
 lict in his duty, as a historian, if he had not given to 
 us the accounts, as he had them vouched for, of the 
 wonderful works which Christ did. He does not stop 
 to argue about them, he records them, which is what 
 we want in a historian. In the person of Christ is a 
 
l io Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 mighty being whose word is with power (4 : 32) and 
 authority (4 : 36). He heals the sick, He commands 
 nature, He raises the dead. We are here dealing, ac- 
 cording to Luke, not with heresay or argument, but 
 with well attested facts. 
 
 The fact of the teaching of Christ. — First — Manner. 
 He taught with Authority. He did not quote prece- 
 dents as other teachers ; it was an " I say unto you." 
 He spoke as One whose own eyes were gazing on the 
 objects of the eternal world. 
 
 He taught with Graciousness. There was an infinite 
 tenderness in all that He said. He had come to win 
 men to a new life and man's soul was a thing infinitely 
 precious to Him. His object was to seek and to save 
 the lost. " It mattered not under what humble dress 
 or social deformity the pearl of the soul was hidden ; 
 it mattered not even beneath what rubbish and filth of 
 sin it was buried ; He never missed it for a moment. 
 Therefore He spake to His hearers of every grade 
 with the same respect. Surely it was the graciousness 
 of divine love itself, uttering itself from the innermost 
 recess of the divine being, that spoke in the parables 
 of the fifteenth chapter of Luke." 
 
 He taught with Power. " They were astonished at 
 His doctrine for His word was with power." His 
 hearers were profoundly moved when He spoke. 
 
 He taught with Boldness. " Lo, He speaketh 
 boldly." He did not hesitate to expose shams and 
 hypocrisy. 
 
 He taught with Originality. " Never man spake 
 
The Certainty of the Saviour 1 1 1 
 
 like this man." His was a new philosophy of sorrow 
 and suffering ; a new law of self-sacrifice and a new 
 law of love for fallen humanity. 
 
 He taught with Penetration and Vitality. His 
 words reveal men to themselves and they impart new 
 life. 
 
 Second — Form. He mostly used short, pithy sen- 
 tences packed with the weightiest truths. Never long ; 
 He ceases to speak when the interest is at its highest 
 point. He taught by paradoxes, parables, figures of 
 speech as well as by direct discourse. He was a dili- 
 gent student of the Old Testament Scriptures, of 
 nature, of society, of ways of business ; He used them 
 all. He took the most common objects and made 
 them glow with spiritual truth. The multitudes were 
 captivated by this Wonderful Teacher ; they thronged 
 Him wherever He appeared. 
 
 Third — Matter. His great subjects were : 
 
 (A) " The Kingdom of God," " The Kingdom of 
 Heaven." He labors to express what this Kingdom 
 is ; the character required of its members ; His 
 Father's and His own relation to it. The incidents of 
 His teaching were — how to escape from sin, become 
 like God and attain to eternal life. In its spiritual 
 character this " Kingdom of God " was opposed by 
 the Jews who were looking for the Messiah to estab- 
 lish a great temporal kingdom on this earth. 
 
 (B) " The center and soul of Christ's preaching 
 was Himself. He contained within Himself the new 
 era. He not only announced it, but created it. The 
 
112 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 new character which made men subjects of the King- 
 dom was to be got from Him alone. Therefore the 
 practical issue of every address of Christ was the com- 
 mand to come to Him, to learn of Him and to follow 
 Him." 
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 
 
 After the preface this Gospel falls naturally into six 
 unequal parts. 
 
 THE LITERARY PREFACE 
 (i : 1-4) 
 Luke here states his object in writing this Gospel. 
 The key word is " Certainty." The plainly ex- 
 pressed desire is to assure Theophilus of the historical 
 reality of the Christian truths in which he had been 
 instructed. 
 
 i. THE ADVENT OF THE SAVIOUR 
 (i : 5-2 : 52) 
 
 1. The promised birth of John the Baptist, the 
 Forerunner of the Saviour (i : 5-25). 
 
 #. The annunciation to Mary, of the birth of Jesus, 
 by the angel Gabriel (I : 26-38). 
 
 3. The visit of Mary to Elizabeth. — Songs of thanks- 
 giving of Mary and Elizabeth for the honor given to 
 them (1 : 39-5 6). 
 
 J/.. Birth and youth of John the Baptist, the Fore- 
 runner of the Saviour. The song of thanksgiving of 
 his father, Zacharias (1 : 57-80). 
 
The Certainty of the Saviour 113 
 
 6. The birth of Jesus, the Saviour, in a manger. 
 The announcement, by an angel, to the shepherds — 
 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a 
 Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 11 The thanksgiving 
 song of the Heavenly Host (2 : 1-20). 
 
 6. The circumcision of Jesus and His presentation in 
 the Temple. — Songs of thanksgiving of Simeon and 
 Anna when they saw Jesus. The youth of Jesus 
 (2 : 21-52). 
 
 2. PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF 
 
 THE SAVIOUR 
 
 (3: i-4:i3) 
 
 1. The preparatory preaching of John the Baptist. 
 He announces the speedy coming and the work of the 
 Saviour (3 : 1-20). 
 
 2. The baptism of Jesus. — The descent of the Holy 
 Ghost and a Voice from heaven declaring of Jesus, 
 " Thou art my Beloved Son ; in thee lam well pleased 11 
 (3:21, 22). 
 
 3. The genealogy of Jesus is traced to Adam and 
 to God (3 : 23-38). 
 
 4. Jesus 1 victory over the tempter (4 : I— 1 3). 
 
 3. THE WORK OF THE SAVIOUR IN 
 GALILEE 
 
 (4:14-9:50) 
 1. Events in Nazareth. — Jesus now begins a very 
 active career in His presentation of Himself as the 
 promised Messiah and the Saviour. He exhibits His 
 
1 14 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 divine power, at first, for the salvation of the chosen 
 people Israel. His fame is heralded throughout all 
 Galilee. He goes into the synagogue in Nazareth 
 and taking the Old Testament Scriptures, turns to the 
 sixty-first chapter of Isaiah. He declares that this 
 prophecy of Isaiah, in regard to the Messiah and 
 Saviour to come, is fulfilled in Himself — " This day," 
 He says, " is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." He 
 could not speak more plainly and more to the point. 
 It is upon this declaration that He is rejected and is 
 obliged to leave Nazareth. Luke is in no doubt, in 
 his effort after " Certainty," that the Messiahship of 
 Jesus was not an afterthought, but one that He claimed 
 for Himself at the beginning of His career (4: 14-30). 
 
 2. Events in Capernaum. — In this city Jesus, at 
 the first, casts out an unclean spirit from a man and 
 heals many who are sick. His fame continues to in- 
 crease. The people marvel at His power and authority 
 over evil spirits. The devils, which were cast out by 
 Him, cried out, saying, " Thou art Christ, the Son of 
 God " (4 : 31-41). 
 
 3. Events in Galilee. — Jesus now seeks a wider 
 field and preaches throughout Galilee (4 : 42-44). 
 
 4,. From the call of the first disciples to the choosing 
 of the Twelve (5 : 1-6 : 1 1). — In the miraculous draught 
 of fishes (5 : 1-11), the cleansing of the leper (5 : 12- 
 16), and forgiving the sins of the paralytic man before 
 healing him (5 : 17-26), Jesus shows His power to 
 control nature, heal disease and forgive sin. The call 
 of Levi from the receipt of custom (5 : 27, 28) is fol- 
 
The Certainty of the Saviour 115 
 
 lowed by a discussion upon fasting and the proper 
 keeping of the Sabbath day (5 : 29-6 : 1 1), in which 
 Jesus makes His position very clear. 
 
 5. From the choosing of the Twelve Apostles to the 
 sending them out (6 : 12-8 : 56). — The choosing of the 
 Twelve was preceded by Jesus praying all night, on a 
 mountain, to God (6 : 12-16). After the calling of the 
 Twelve, Jesus sets forth the great principles of the 
 Kingdom of God in the Sermon on the Mount 
 (6 : 17-49). The working out of man's faith and the 
 compassion of Jesus are shown in the healing of the 
 centurion's son and the raising from the dead of the 
 widow's son of Nain (7:11-17). The ability and 
 willingness of Jesus to help, heal and save men, is 
 shown in His reply to the disciples of John the Baptist 
 and His rebuke of a Pharisee (7 : 18-50). Jesus con- 
 tinuing to tour Galilee, He goes into every city and 
 village and preaches the glad tidings of the Kingdom 
 of God, the twelve being with Him (8 : 1-3). In the 
 parable of the sower He shows how the growth and 
 development of the Kingdom of God depend upon 
 how men hear and heed its behests (8 : 4-18). In His 
 reply to His mother and His brethren He shows the 
 difference between natural and spiritual kinship (8 : 19- 
 21). In the stilling of the tempest on the lake of 
 Galilee, the healing of the Gadarene demoniac, the 
 cure of the woman with an issue of blood and the 
 raising from the dead of the daughter of Jairus, Jesus 
 again reveals His supreme power over nature, evil, 
 disease and death (8 : 22-56). 
 
1 16 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 6. From the sending out of the Twelve Apostles to 
 their return (9 : 1-17)- — The Twelve, having been fully 
 instructed, are sent forth to preach what Jesus has 
 taught them and with His full authority. When they 
 return they give a report of their success to their 
 Master. Being in a desert place belonging to the city 
 of Bethsaida, the people, from all quarters, throng 
 them and Jesus gives a great feast to thousands of 
 people. 
 
 7. From the great declaration of Peter that Jesus 
 is "The Christ of God, 11 and the transfiguration of 
 Christ } to His final departure from Galilee (9 : 18-50). — 
 Jesus had declared, according to Luke, that the Mes- 
 sianic prophecy of Isaiah (61 : 1) was fulfilled in Him 
 at the very opening of His ministry in Galilee (4 : 18- 
 21). Now at the close of that ministry He asks His 
 disciples what impression He has made during 
 that ministry. He asks what people say of Him. 
 Among the answers He receives is that of Peter — 
 " Thou art the Christ of God," which He acknowledges 
 to be the true one. He follows this acknowledgment 
 with the unexpected announcement that He must be 
 rejected of His people and be crucified. This is fol- 
 lowed by the astonishing revelation that He will be 
 raised from the dead upon the third day. All this 
 shows, according to Luke, how fully Jesus understood 
 His mission as the Messiah and Saviour and how He 
 sought to prepare His disciples for that which was 
 shortly to come to pass. The transfiguration scene in 
 which there was a voice from heaven — " This is my 
 
The Certainty of the Saviour 1 1 7 
 
 beloved Son " — must have still further prepared His 
 disciples, as they remembered it afterwards, for their 
 work after Jesus had been raised from the dead and 
 had ascended from whence He came. 
 
 4. THE JOURNEY OF THE SAVIOUR 
 
 TO JERUSALEM 
 
 (9:51-19:28) 
 
 This journey was through Samaria and Perea. 
 
 This section of Luke records the departure of Jesus 
 for the final conflict in Jerusalem. It is the travel 
 narrative of a " slow, solemn and public progress from 
 Galilee to Jerusalem " of which some of the events 
 seem to be grouped by subjective considerations. 
 Many incidents and parables related here (the lost 
 sheep, the lost coin, the prodigal son, the good Sa- 
 maritan, etc.) are not found in the other Gospels. 
 Jesus understands fully that an ignominious death 
 awaits Him in Jerusalem. He looks forward to His 
 supreme sacrifice there; yet in that sacrifice He sees 
 the triumph of His cause. When He foretells His 
 death He also foretells His resurrection — " The Son 
 of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of 
 the elders, and chief priests and scribes, and be slain 
 and be raised the third day " (9 : 22). " And it came 
 to pass, when the time was come that He should be 
 received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to 
 Jerusalem " (9 : 5 1). 
 
 1. The final departure from Galilee (9 : 51)- 
 
 2. A Samaritan village refuses to receive Him, — • 
 
1 1 8 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 This gives Jesus an opportunity to show what the 
 spirit of His disciples should be (9 : 51-56). 
 
 8. Three answers to three men, who would follow 
 Him, as to what following Him meant (9 : 57-62). 
 
 4.. Seventy disciples are sent out, " two by two, be- 
 fore His face into every city and place, whither He 
 Himself would come." These are given instructions 
 in regard to the preaching of the coming Kingdom 
 (10: 1-24). 
 
 5. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the 
 entertainment in the house of Martha and Mary, and 
 the talk on prayer (with the Lord's prayer) Jesus 
 shows who is the good neighbor, the one thing need- 
 ful, and the necessity for being earnest in prayer (10 : 
 25-1 1 : 13). 
 
 6. In the incidents related in chapters 11 : H- 13 : 
 21 is shown the contrast between the Kingdom of God 
 and Satan; true religion and false conceptions of it. 
 Here is also recorded the opposition with which the 
 Pharisees met the teaching of J ssus and what He said 
 about it. The incidents are- Casting out demons 
 (11 : 14-28) ; The sign of Jonah (11 : 29-36) ; Jesus 
 pronouncing woes against the Pharisees (11 : 37-54) J 
 Warnings against hypocrisy and covetousness (12: 
 1-59); The Galileans slain by Pilate (13: I -9) ; The 
 woman healed on the Sabbath (13 : 10-21). 
 
 7. In answer to the question, "Are there few that be 
 saved V (13:23) Jesus shows the true way of salvation, 
 that it is not confined to any class or race, but is for all 
 who accept its terms (13:22-35). Chapter 14 is a 
 
The Certainty of the Saviour 119 
 
 continuation — in the incidents of the man healed on 
 the Sabbath, the wedding guest, who to invite to a 
 feast, the guests who made excuses when invited to a 
 great supper and the discourse on counting the cost 
 of following Christ — of the answer to the question — 
 " Are there few that be saved ? " For salvation it is 
 shown that there must be humility, regard for the 
 poor, obedience of the divine call, the laying of proper 
 foundations and a whole-hearted earnestness. 
 
 8. In the three parables of grace, given in chapter 
 15 — the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost boy — 
 the cause of Christ's coming is shown to be, from His 
 own statement, to seek and to save the lost. In this 
 seeking His power is exerted unto the uttermost. In 
 the two parables of warning, given in chapter 16 — 
 the unjust Stewart and Dives and Lazarus — some of 
 the evil consequences of failing to seek the higher 
 riches are shown. 
 
 9. As Jesus continues to draw near to Jerusalem 
 He continues His discourses on His mission, He heals 
 the sick, He utters parables and He still further pre- 
 pares His disciples for the consummation of His work 
 in His death and resurrection (17:1-19:28). The 
 following are the incidents, parables, etc. : Discourse 
 concerning offenses, forgiveness and faith (17: 1-10) ; 
 The cleansing of ten lepers (17 : 11-19); Discourse as 
 to " How and when the Kingdom shall come "(17: 
 20-37) J The importunate widow (18 : 1-8) ; The par- 
 able of the Pharisee and the Publican and the blessing 
 of little children (18 : 9-17) ; The incident of the rich 
 
no Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 young ruler who asks the question, " What shall I do 
 to inherit eternal life?" (18 : 18-30); Jesus again pre- 
 dicts His death and resurrection (18:31-34); Jesus 
 restores the sight of a blind man near Jericho (18 : 35- 
 43) J Jesus enters and passes through Jericho on His 
 way to Jerusalem. We have here related, on His way, 
 the incident of the visit to Zaccheus and the parable 
 of the pounds (19: 1-27) ; Jesus now ascends up to 
 Jerusalem (19: 28). 
 
 5. THE PASSION WEEK OF THE SAVIOUR 
 
 (19:29-23:56) 
 
 This section covers the time from Sunday to Friday. 
 
 The incidents of these days are narrated by all four 
 
 evangelists with more fullness of detail than any other 
 
 portion of the life of Christ. 
 
 1. Jesus rides in triumph to the city of Jerusalem 
 from the Mount of Olives. He predicts the destruc- 
 tion of the city, which He wanted to save, when He 
 approaches it. He enters the city and cleanses the 
 Temple. At the very beginning of this great last week, 
 He asserts His claim as the Messiah and His authority 
 over the Temple. The multitude cry, " Blessed be 
 the King that cometh in the name of the Lord : peace 
 in heaven and glory in the highest " (19 : 29-48). 
 
 2. The issue between the leaders of Israel and Jesus 
 is now joined. They see no way out of either re- 
 ceiving Him, and acknowledging His claims as the 
 Messiah, or His death. It is quite plain that they are 
 deliberately planning His death (20 : 19, 20). In 
 
The Certainty of the Saviour 121 
 
 chapters 21 and 22 Jesus is sharply taken to task in 
 regard to His authority — " Tell us, it is asked, by what 
 authority doest Thou these things ? " When He an- 
 swers He is put upon the rack again. It is plain that, 
 whatever He may answer, the leaders of Israel are de- 
 termined to put Him to death. Jesus in turn asks 
 questions and shows His questioners the danger of 
 their course of action and what it will result in for 
 them and their nation. The questions, discourses and 
 incidents are as follows : The question of the authority 
 of the Christ (20 : 1-8) ; The reply of the parable of the 
 vineyard let out (20 : 9-18) ; The question about the 
 tribute money (20: 19-26) ; The question of the Sad- 
 ducees in regard to the future state (20 : 27-39) ; The 
 question of Christ, by which He silences the scribes 
 (20 : 40-44) ; Warning of Christ against the hypocrisy 
 of the scribes (20 : 45-47) ; The lesson of the widow's 
 mite (21 : 1-4); Jesus foretells the destruction of the 
 Temple (21:5,6); Jesus unrolls the map of the future 
 and gives the signs and warnings of the last times 
 (21:7-38). 
 
 3. TJie end is at hand. — The death of Jesus is de- 
 creed. The plots of the chief priests and scribes only 
 wait the opportune time (22 : 1-6). Jesus, fully aware 
 that His death is determined upon, institutes " The 
 Last Supper " in which He sets forth the significance 
 of His death (22 : 7-38). The last events hasten to 
 their consummation. The agony in the garden of 
 Gethsemane ; the betrayal by Judas (22 : 39-49) ; The 
 arrest (22:50-53); The trial before the priests and 
 
122 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 Peter's denials with the first derision (22 : 54-65) ; The 
 trial before the Sanhedrin in which Jesus declares His 
 office (22:66-71); The trials before Pilate (with the 
 first acquittal) and before Herod (with the second 
 derision and second acquittal, 23:1-12); Pilate at- 
 tempts to release Jesus but the Jews choose Barabbas ; 
 Jesus is condemned to death (23 : 13-26) ; The wailing 
 women (23:27-31); The crucifixion, the death and 
 burial of Jesus (23 : 32-56). 
 
 6. THE TRIUMPH OF THE SAVIOUR 
 (24: i-53) 
 
 No cause ever seemed so hopelessly lost as that of 
 Jesus when He was crucified. It is scarcely possible 
 to place ourselves back at that time and to appreciate 
 the feelings of the followers of Jesus the day after the 
 entombment. They had hoped for so much and now 
 there was nothing left to hope for. 
 
 It is little to be wondered at that when the first re- 
 port of the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead was 
 heard by the disciples that they could not credit it. It 
 was good news indeed, but too good to be true. When 
 the good news was realized to be true their joy ex- 
 ceeded all bounds. There was now no trouble to make 
 converts. 
 
 1. The resurrection (24 : 1-49). — The announcement 
 by the two men " in shining garments," to the women 
 who had come to the sepulchre, that Jesus had risen 
 from the dead (24 : 1-12) ; The appearance of Jesus to 
 the two disciples on the way to Emmaus (24: 13-32) ; 
 
The Certainty of the Saviour 123 
 
 The appearance of Jesus to the eleven, on the first 
 resurrection day, when He asked them to touch and 
 handle Him that they might be convinced of the 
 reality of His body (24:33-49); Jesus declared the 
 broad scope of His work for all nations (24 : 47). 
 
 & The ascension (24:50-53). — Jesus, having lin- 
 gered upon earth long enough to perfectly assure His 
 disciples, ascended on high. 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 In Luke's appeal to the facts upon what does he take his 
 stand ? What had Luke come to realize before he wrote his 
 Gospel ? How is any cause best presented ? What does 
 Luke have to say about the fact of the person of Christ — 
 His work, His authority and power, His teaching (matter, 
 form and manner) ? Into how many parts, after the pref- 
 ace, is Luke's Gospel divided ? What is the key word of 
 the literary preface ? Give the six points under the advent 
 of the Saviour. Give the four points under the preparation 
 for the work of the Saviour. What can be said of the work 
 of the Saviour in Galilee — events in Nazareth — events in 
 Capernaum — events in Galilee — the points from the call of 
 the first disciples to the choosing of the Twelve — the points 
 from the choosing of the Twelve to the sending of them out 
 — from sending out the Twelve to their return — from the 
 great declaration of Peter to the final departure of Christ 
 from Galilee ? What can be said of the journey of the 
 Saviour to Jerusalem and the nine points set down under it ? 
 What can be said of the Passion Week of the Saviour and 
 the three points set down under it ? What can be said of 
 the triumph of the Saviour — the resurrection and ascension ? 
 
STUDY VIII 
 
 THE CLEAR VISION OF JOHN 
 
 The Object. — The age in which the Gospel of John 
 was written was very different from that of Paul's 
 Epistles and the Synoptic Gospels. Jerusalem, the 
 Holy City, had been destroyed and the Temple 
 overthrown. Christianity had separated itself from 
 Judaism. It was definitely appealing to a Gentile 
 world. Its converts were now mostly Gentile. The 
 hotly debated question, so prominent in Paul's time, as 
 to whether a man ought to become a Jew, and obey 
 the Jewish law, before he became a Christian, had 
 ceased to have the slightest significance. 
 
 After the more than fifty years that had elapsed 
 since the resurrection of the Christ, Christianity found 
 itself in a new political, philosophical and social at- 
 mosphere. During this time the Gospel had been 
 preached throughout the Roman Empire. There had 
 been a multitude to embrace the faith and many had 
 been martyred in the great persecutions that had 
 arisen. The greatness of Christ and His work were 
 more clearly seen by the Church. 
 
 Old opponents had passed away but new ones had 
 taken their places. The arguments formerly used in 
 the Jewish synagogue and the appeals to Old Testa- 
 ment prophecy were losing their force. 
 
 124 
 
The Clear Vision of John 125 
 
 The problem now was how to meet and to win the 
 Gentile Greek — the master thinker of the world. The 
 Greek had already seen the reason in, and the beauty 
 of, the Gospel. He had taken its message to himself 
 but in taking it — here was the trouble — he had 
 mingled it with his philosophy which gave rise to her- 
 esies that perplexed the ablest teachers in the Church. 
 This was an unexpected development. 
 
 Christianity, to live its own life and to make its own 
 way, had now to be disentangled from Greek philo- 
 sophical speculations, which would have smothered it, 
 as Jewish legalism had threatened its life at a former 
 time. In Ephesus, the hotbed of Greek heretical 
 speculations, the crisis was an acute one. 
 
 It was the clear vision of John which revealed the 
 solution of the problem. It is in his Gospel that this 
 matter is really settled. The Gentile Greek is ad- 
 dressed not in a Jewish vocabulary but one which^ 
 speaking a universal language, he can understand. It 
 is the old message of Mark, Matthew and Luke, but it 
 is given with a new phraseology and a new setting 
 adapted to the times. The central doctrine — " The 
 Incarnation of Christ " — of the Christian faith is 
 brought to the front (I: I, 14) — "In the beginning 
 was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the 
 Word was God." " And the Word was made flesh." 
 The reader is never allowed to lose sight of this doc- 
 trine. At the close of the Gospel the author states his 
 purpose — with a due regard for what the other evan- 
 gelists have done — " And many other signs truly did 
 
126 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not 
 written in this book : but these are written that ye 
 might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; 
 and that believing ye might have life through His 
 name." 
 
 " This idea of life to be derived from Jesus, and from 
 no other source, is prominent in the whole Gospel. 
 Christ is the source of life of a real and lasting kind, 
 and it can only be obtained through mystic contact 
 with Him. This is because Jesus is the full revelation 
 of God in human life." Christianity here rests upon 
 a foundation of its own. 
 
 The Subject Matter. — The theological aspect of this 
 Gospel is very prominent. It is that which constitutes 
 its value for the Christian faith. It is that which 
 brought it, at the very first, into the arena of contro- 
 versy ; and it is that which keeps it there. We have 
 this matter, in brief, set forth in : 
 
 The Prologue (i : 1-18). — This is the most careful, 
 compact and to the point piece of writing in the New 
 Testament. " The • Word,' or Greek ■ Logos,' here 
 stands for the divine preexistent nature of the Messiah, 
 which became flesh and dwelt among us as Jesus 
 Christ, the God-man." The working out of this theme 
 engages the whole of the Gospel. 
 
 " The Greek term l Logos ' denoted not simply 
 reason, but the speech in which reason uttered itself. 
 Now the Greek philosophical speculations upon the 
 * Logos ' had been primarily concerned with the prob- 
 lem of the relations between the created universe and 
 
The Clear Vision of John 127 
 
 God, which was supposed to be solved by the theory 
 that the divine reason pervaded the world. Philo, 
 working upon the Jewish conception of the ' Word/ 
 made the ' Logos ' the organ of God's self-revelation 
 to men as well as His creative power." So far so 
 good, but there were many features in the Philonian 
 view which were not so clear and which did not accord 
 with John's idea. But here was a term which the 
 Gentile Greek could understand and an idea which 
 greatly interested him. For John's purpose the 
 Logos-idea was more important in its exodus than in 
 its genesis. It was a point of contact between Greek 
 philosophy and Christianity. 
 
 In this fourth Gospel the " Logos " or the " Word " 
 was baptized into the Christ, the God-man, divine and 
 preexistent, which became flesh and dwelt amongst us. 
 " It served to guide generations of believing men into 
 a fuller apprehension of Jesus than the previous 
 Messianic categories of the synoptic theology could 
 have done." 
 
 Notice how phrase after phrase is most carefully 
 chosen, in the prologue, to give right ideas of the 
 " Word," or Christ, and to prevent misconceptions. 
 " In the beginning " (1 : 1), is the way in which the 
 Old Testament opens. The " Word " was in the be- 
 ginning ; He did not come into existence then ; He 
 was preexistent. He was not an inferior aeon or 
 emanation, subsequent to the original order of things. 
 He was in vital relations with God. He was God by 
 nature. " It was through this ' Word ' alone that God 
 
128 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 created the universe. Through the * Word ' every- 
 thing came into being, and apart from the ' Word ' no 
 existence came into being — a side stroke at the Gnostic 
 theories of creation through angels or a plurality of 
 inferior aeons, of matter as self-existent or of the 
 Creator as distinguished from the Redeemer. . . . 
 Then follows the work of the * Word.' Life — in the 
 pregnant sense of the term — was in the ' Word ' as 
 divine, and that life was the light of men, as opposed 
 to the Gnostic doctrine that the powers of creation were 
 at issue with the highest revelation of God. . . . 
 Those who accept Him — to them He has given the 
 right of becoming God's children, that is to those who 
 believe in His name, who owe their birth to God, not to 
 human blood, nor to any impulse of the flesh, nor (as 
 some Gnostics taught) to the human will. So the 
 • Word ' became flesh (instead of a phantom Jesus, as 
 the docetic Gnostics taught), and tarried among us, 
 and we saw His glory — glory such as an only Son has, 
 who came from His Father, full of grace and truth. 
 . . . From His fullness have we all received grace 
 after grace." 
 
 Selection and Arrangement of Material.— The 
 fourth Gospel, after the prologue (i : 1-18), may be 
 divided into three unequal parts. The theme, as 
 stated before, is the Incarnation of Christ — " And the 
 Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we be- 
 held His glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) 
 full of grace and truth " (1 : 14). That which follows 
 is an elaboration of this theme. There were many 
 
The Clear Vision of John 1 29 
 
 other signs which Jesus gave, many words which He 
 spoke, many journeys which He took of which no ac- 
 count is taken here. The material used is selected 
 and arranged (21 : 25) with a certain carefully thought 
 out purpose and to produce a certain result of faith in 
 an Incarnate Saviour (20: 30, 31). 
 
 1. Christ reveals Himself to the world as the 
 Eternal Word (1 : 19-12:50). He is recognized and 
 testified to by John the Baptist, by the Spirit, by the 
 first disciples and a miraculous sign. His words and 
 works bear out His claims. He proclaims Himself 
 " The Light of the World." He is antagonized yet 
 triumphant. 
 
 2. Christ makes an inner revelation of Himself to 
 His disciples (chapters 13— 17). He manifests Himself 
 to His disciples at the Last Supper in the bread and 
 the wine and in His discourses that they, after His 
 death and resurrection, may carry forward His work 
 and win the world for Him. 
 
 3. The humiliation and glorification of the Christ 
 (chapters 18-21). The Christ is subjected to a hu- 
 miliating death but that very humiliation results in His 
 exaltation and glory, for it was for the saving of men. 
 
 Double Purpose — The effort of this Gospel is to 
 prove, on the one hand, that " Jesus is the Christ, the 
 Son of God," and on the other hand to lead its readers 
 into such belief in Him that they may be truly united 
 to Him and " have life in His name." 
 
 In its attempt to prove that " Jesus is the Christ, the 
 Son of God," the Gospel of John resembles the Gospel 
 
130 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 of Matthew, but its apologetic purpose is avowed even 
 more distinctly and is carried out with even more con- 
 sistency and thoroughness than in the latter work. 
 Moreover the author undertakes to show not simply 
 that Jesus is the Messiah, as Matthew does, but that 
 He is a spiritual being of a higher order than man. 
 This in fact is what the term " Messiah " or " Son of 
 God " means to him when he applies it to Jesus. 
 Jesus is not simply a man called and anointed by 
 God to do a particular work in the world ; He is the 
 incarnation of a preexistent heavenly being, who came 
 from God and at the end of His earthly career returns 
 to God. Thus the author represents Jesus as living 
 constantly under the sense of His higher nature, and 
 all His words and deeds are interpreted in the light 
 of it. His omniscience and His omnipotence are fre- 
 quently emphasized and viewed as manifestations of 
 His higher nature; and the miracles which He per- 
 forms are not primarily for the good of others, as in the 
 Synoptic Gospels, but many of them at least are done 
 simply as signs to show that He has superhuman 
 power and that He is " the Christ, the Son of God " 
 (20: 30, 31). And so the author's apologetic purpose 
 leads him to represent John the Baptist solely in the 
 character as a witness to Jesus (1 : 29-36); leads him 
 to emphasize the testimony of Christ's enemies to the 
 wonderful nature of His signs and miracles (7 : 45, 46 ; 
 1 1 : 46, 47 ; 12:19, 42) ; leads him to call attention to 
 the fact that the betrayal of Jesus and His death at the 
 hands of His enemies were only a fulfillment of His 
 
The Clear Vision of John 131 
 
 own purposes, that they took place only in His own 
 good time and in accordance with His will, and were 
 thus a sign of His power and not of His weakness 
 (10:17, 18; 18:4; 19:11). Many other objections 
 against the Messiahship of Jesus are met and answered 
 by Jesus Himself in this Gospel : for instance, that He 
 has appeared without proper legitimation (9 : 29-41) ; 
 that He has not the Spirit of God, which the true 
 Messiah should have, but on the contrary a devil 
 (8:48-58); and finally that He suffers death instead 
 of abiding and setting up a permanent kingdom as the 
 true Messiah is to do (10: 15-18; 11:51,52; 12:32). 
 But the Gospel of John, though so largely apologetic 
 both in form and in content, is not simply an apology. 
 As already said, it is also an effort to lead its readers 
 into such belief in Christ as shall truly unite them to 
 Him and thus give them life. And so the significance 
 of Christ to the believer, and the true relation between 
 them, are emphasized at great length, that relation 
 being represented in genuine Pauline fashion as a 
 complete mystical unity. It is thus not only Christ, 
 in Himself, in whom the author is interested, but also 
 Christ in His relation to man, and particularly to be- 
 lievers. Indeed, the saving fellowship of the believer, 
 with him, is the ultimate aim of the work. The author 
 would prove Jesus to be the Christ in order to arouse 
 faith in Him, and thus bring about the fellowship 
 which means salvation" (20:31) ("A History of 
 Christianity in the Apostolic Age," by Prof. A. C. 
 McGiffert, D. D., pp. 609, 610). 
 
132 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 Relation of the Fourth Gospel to Mark, Matthew 
 and Luke. 
 
 The four points of agreement. — The fourth Gospel 
 presupposes, on the part of its readers, a knowl- 
 edge of the other three. It aims, with a purpose 
 of its own, to supplement and not to supplant them. 
 " The day is now over, or almost over, when this 
 Gospel and the other three can be played off against 
 each other, as though the latter were matter-of- 
 fact and homogeneous chronicles and the former 
 a spiritual reading of an earlier tradition. . . . 
 Recent criticism of the synoptic Gospels has brought 
 them nearer to the fourth Gospel. . . . All the 
 Gospels were written for the promotion of faith in 
 Christ and the motto of John 20:31 would also 
 apply to the synoptics, but in a special sense to 
 Mark ; for in spite of the difference of angle from 
 which Mark and John view the Messianic dignity of 
 Jesus, both aim at demonstrating that He is the Son 
 of God " (Prof. James Moffatt, D. D., " Introduction 
 to the Literature of the New Testament," pp. 540, 
 541). The same eminent authority also says, in 
 his " Theology of the Gospels," page 174: " To sum 
 up : The Jesus of the primitive Church was a Jesus 
 whom believers hailed and worshipped as the Christ 
 of God. My point is that an examination of the 
 earliest records, of the sources behind Mark and the 
 other two synoptic Gospels, shows that the Messianic 
 drapery, or the setting of His person, was not the re- 
 sult of Paulinism impinging upon the pure and orig- 
 
The Clear Vision of John 133 
 
 inal memory of a humanitarian figure, who lived and 
 died for the sake of a message which amounted to 
 little more than a doctrine of theism plus brotherly 
 love. This is a conclusion upon which several lines 
 of research converge." Here is where the synoptists 
 agree with John in setting forth the Christ of God as 
 the supreme object of faith. Further — " When the 
 filial consciousness of Jesus, in the synoptists, is seen 
 to be prior to the Messianic, the starting-point of the 
 special Christology of the fourth Gospel is at once 
 granted." 
 
 Upon the historical narrative there are four main 
 points of agreement by the four evangelists : 1. The 
 incarnation of the Son of God. Each evangelist sets 
 this forth in his own way. 2. The life of the Son of 
 God on earth in human form and subject to human 
 conditions. 3. They all concur in the great impor- 
 tance of the events of Passion Week ; for, out of twenty- 
 eight chapters, Matthew devotes eight ; Mark, out of 
 sixteen, devotes six ; Luke, out of twenty- four, de- 
 votes six and John, out of twenty-one, devotes ten to 
 what Jesus said and did during this time of the Judean 
 ministry. 4. The resurrection of Christ. 
 
 Differences. — How accounted for? The scene of 
 Christ's ministry in the synoptics is mostly laid in 
 Galilee, while that of the fourth Gospel is mostly laid in 
 Judea and Jerusalem. There are, however, frequent 
 references in the latter Gospel to Jesus being in 
 Galilee, in its cities and by its lake (1 : 43 ; 2 : I ; 2 : 12 ; 
 4:3; 4 : 43-46 ; 6:1; 7:1). This Galilean ministry 
 
134 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 seems to have been well known to John. The pur- 
 pose is evidently, however, to place considerable 
 emphasis, in the matter of the narrative, upon the last 
 week of Christ's ministry upon earth, for out of 
 twenty-one chapters John uses ten in setting forth its 
 events. 
 
 In the fourth Gospel we have an account of five 
 visits of Jesus to Jerusalem and the mention, at least, 
 of three celebrations of the passover (2: 13; 6:4; 
 11 : 55 ; cf. 5 : 1) ; whereas the synoptics mention but 
 one visit to the capital city for the final celebration of 
 the passover. As in the fourth Gospel there are re- 
 peated references to the ministry of Jesus in Galilee, 
 so in the synoptics expressions occur, " such as the 
 Saviour's lamentation over Jerusalem (Matt. 23:37; 
 Luke 1 3 : 34), which would be unintelligible if this 
 ministry had been confined to Galilee." No one of 
 the Gospels professes to be a complete narrative. 
 " In the gaps in the narratives of Mark, Matthew, and 
 Luke there is plenty of room for all that is peculiar to 
 the fourth Gospel. In the spaces, deliberately left by 
 John between his carefully arranged scenes, there is 
 plenty of room for all that is peculiar to the synoptics. 
 When all have been pieced together there still remain 
 large interstices which it would require many more 
 Gospels to fill" (John 21 : 25). 
 
 The peculiarities of style and thought of the Gospel 
 of John may be accounted for to a large extent by the 
 personal characteristics of the author, the vast differ- 
 ence of the circumstances and time under which he wrote 
 
The Clear Vision of John 135 
 
 and those in which the earlier Gospels were made, and 
 the new systems of thought with which Christianity 
 was coming into contact and opposition. " It is gen- 
 erally admitted that the earlier Gospels have reference 
 to distinct types of thought for which they were 
 severally adapted ; and there is nothing surprising in 
 the fact that the fourth, and the latest, Gospel was de- 
 signed to meet the need for a more intellectual and 
 spiritual presentation of divine truth as an antidote to 
 the Gnostic speculations which were imperilling at one 
 time the recognition of the Saviour's Divinity, and at 
 another time that of His humanity." 
 
 " A characteristic standpoint of the fourth Gospel is 
 not the yearning for Jesus, the Messiah, to finish His 
 work : ' It is finished ' (19 : 30). The prophetic and 
 eschatological element in the last supper sounds a still 
 higher note to make it a feast of love and love's duties 
 among Christians. It is the intensity of a present 
 communion with the living Lord, in the Spirit, which 
 dominates the fourth Gospel." 
 
 Material peculiar to the fourth Gospel. — These ad- 
 ditions may be divided into words and works of power 
 of the Christ. 
 
 The words. They are of the highest spiritual char- 
 acter. Among them are the conversations of Jesus 
 with Nicodemus about the " New Birth " (John 3) ; 
 the woman of Samaria (John 4); the Jews at the 
 Feast of Tabernacles and Dedication (John 7 and 8) ; 
 the discourse concerning the shepherd and the sheep 
 (John 10); the great series of talks and the prayer 
 
136 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 upon the occasion of the last supper (John 14 to 17 
 inclusive). 
 
 The works. The six miracles alone recorded by- 
 John show a high display of divine power. 1. At 
 Cana of Galilee the very substance of the water is 
 changed (2 : 1-1 1) ; 2. A nobleman's son is healed 
 from a distance (4 : 46-54) ; 3. The cure of a man dis- 
 eased for thirty-eight years (5 : 1-9) ; 4. The sight of a 
 man, born blind, is restored (9: I -7); 5. The raising 
 of Lazarus (11: 1-44) ; 6. The miraculous draught of 
 fishes (21 : 1-6). 
 
 Authorship. — An ancient and all but uniform tra- 
 dition attributed this Gospel to John the beloved 
 apostle. So the ancient Church and its leaders be- 
 lieved and taught. Among those who gave early tes- 
 timony to John's authorship was Irenaeus — 115 to 202 
 a. d. — bishop of Lyons. He had ample opportunity 
 to know about this matter. He lived when a young 
 man in Asia Minor and was a pupil of Polycarp, 
 bishop of the church at Smyrna, who was a disciple 
 of John the apostle, bishop of the near-by church at 
 Ephesus. Irenaeus makes many references to all four 
 Gospels. He thus speaks of this fourth Gospel — " Af- 
 terwards, John, the disciple of the Lord who leaned on 
 His breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his resi- 
 dence at Ephesus in Asia " (Adv. Haer., Ill, 1). He 
 tells us further how he often heard Polycarp relate what 
 had been told him by John and other disciples of the 
 Lord. " He appeals to the fourth Gospel as John's 
 with a triumphant certainty." Irenaeus is but one of 
 
The Clear Vision of John 137 
 
 many testifiers to John's authorship. So important 
 was this Gospel deemed that the opening verses of the 
 first Harmony of the Gospels, made in the second cen- 
 tury by Tatian, were taken from its prologue. But 
 the testimony for the authenticity of John is even 
 earlier. So the matter remained undisputed until 
 something over a hundred years ago, when the whole 
 matter was thrown into controversy by a theory which 
 disputed the authorship of John. The theories since 
 that time have been legion: The authorship was at- 
 tributed to a Platonist of the second century. It was 
 attributed to John, the Elder, who is said to have lived 
 in Ephesus at the close of the first century, or to an 
 unknown Christian leader of Ephesus, well acquainted 
 with the early Gospels, etc. Again it was declared that 
 while the sources might be from John the apostle, the 
 putting together of the Gospel was by another and an 
 unknown hand, who had performed a work for John 
 similar to that which Mark had accomplished for 
 Peter. The theories are too many for mention here 
 in our limited space. The theological character of the 
 Gospel has served to accentuate the controversy, for 
 this Gospel is not favorable to those who reject the 
 divinity of Christ and would make of Him a mere hu- 
 manitarian figure. One result of this controversy has 
 been to lead scholars of all shades of opinion to ex- 
 amine the external and internal evidences. 
 
 This thorough examination of the evidences has 
 brought this Gospel into a deserved prominence. It 
 is coming out quite clearly that this Gospel correctly 
 
138 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 represents the condition of things which Christianity 
 had to contend with at the close of the first century, 
 in the city of Ephesus, and that the almost unanimous 
 opinion of scholars, of all shades of opinion, is that the 
 sources of this Gospel, irrespective of authorship, are 
 historical. " That this Gospel is a unity has been and 
 still remains the prevalent opinion of critics of all 
 classes " (Prof. A. S. Peake's " Critical Introduction to 
 the New Testament," p. 226). 
 
 It can also be held, with many New Testament 
 scholars, that John the apostle still holds his place as 
 the author, or source, of this Gospel. The evidence, 
 outside the testimony of the early Church, adduced 
 for John's authorship is mainly along five lines : 
 
 1. The writer is shown to be a Jew, who is thor- 
 oughly conversant with the state of things in Palestine 
 and Jerusalem in the time of our Lord. There is a 
 large mass of evidence in this Gospel which proves 
 familiarity with Jewish manners and customs, etc. 
 
 #. The writer is shown to be a Palestinian Jew. — He 
 knows his Galilee and its cities well. " He also knows 
 his Jerusalem well ; the Pool of Bethesda by the sheep 
 gate with its five porches, the Pool of Siloam, Gol- 
 gotha, nigh to the city with its garden there, etc." 
 When it is remembered that this Gospel was written 
 many years after the destruction of Jerusalem it is seen 
 that it would not be easy for any one not a native 
 Palestinian to move so freely in the descriptions of a 
 city which had been destroyed. 
 
 3. The writer was an eye-witness. — This is shown by 
 
The Clear Vision of John 139 
 
 the ease with which he moves among the circum- 
 stances that he describes, and by the way in which he 
 constantly realizes the situation. He exhibits a re- 
 markable knowledge of the Messianic beliefs current 
 in the Judaism of the times and he describes how 
 these beliefs affected the attitude of the people towards 
 Jesus. ..." The exact details as to time and 
 place, persons and numbers, point to the recollections 
 of an eye-witness. Special events are associated with 
 definite localities. . . . Points of time are exactly 
 indicated : the sixth hour, the seventh hour, the tenth 
 hour, in the early morning. The length of a period is 
 indicated in several cases : the duration of Christ's 
 stay in Samaria, of His delay before He went to 
 Lazarus, of the interval that elapsed between the death 
 and the raising of the latter. Definite numbers are 
 freely given," etc. The impression is too strong to be 
 shaken off that here is a man who is describing what 
 he sees. One of the most remarkable facts about the 
 writings of recent Jewish critics is their decided tend- 
 ency to confirm the New Testament pictures of ex- 
 ternal Jewish life. " Most remarkable of all has been 
 the cumulative strength of the arguments adduced by 
 Jewish writers favorable to the authenticity of the dis- 
 courses in the fourth Gospel, especially in relation to 
 the circumstances under which they are reported to 
 have been spoken." 
 
 4- The writer was an apostle. — If he was an eye- 
 witness it is hardly conceivable that he could have 
 been any one but an apostle. There are so many 
 
140 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 intimate and personal touches in the narrative that it 
 must have come from the hand of one who was closely 
 associated, for a long time, with Jesus. " Who but an 
 apostle is likely to have been present at so many dif- 
 ferent scenes, in such various places and at such va- 
 rious times." 
 
 5. The writer was the apostle John. — " If he was an 
 apostle at all, only John can be thought of. Of the 
 disciples most intimate with Jesus, Peter, James and 
 John, Peter is excluded by the way in which the Gos- 
 pel speaks of him and James by his early death." The 
 modesty of John is in evidence here, for while he has 
 abundant mention and honor in Mark, Matthew, Luke 
 and Acts he does not mention himself by name in his 
 Gospel, preferring to give honor to others and exploit 
 the cause of his Lord. In the twenty-first chapter of 
 this Gospel, which scholars declare to be an appendix 
 — the Gospel reaching its proper close with 20: 31 — 
 there is a statement of the authorship (21:24; cf. 
 21 : 20) which ascribes it to John, described as the 
 disciple who leaned on Jesus' breast at supper. This 
 appendix has always appeared with this Gospel. " It 
 has been commonly supposed, if not written by the 
 author, that it was added by the Ephesian elders, 
 when the Gospel was first put in circulation." 
 
 Twice in this Gospel the writer, who is described as 
 John, the apostle, in 21 : 24; cf. 21 : 20, claims to be 
 an eye-witness : First (1 : 14), " And the Word was 
 made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His 
 glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) 
 
The Clear Vision of John 141 
 
 full of grace and truth." The second passage is the 
 testimony of one who stood by the cross when Jesus 
 was crucified — " And he that saw it bare record and 
 his record is true : and he knoweth that he saith true 
 that ye might believe " (19: 35), but he who stood by 
 the cross was the " Beloved Disciple " (19: 25-27) to 
 whom Jesus committed the care of His mother. 
 
 John, the Apostle, was well fitted for his task. He 
 was with John the Baptist, as his disciple, when he 
 proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah. He was among the 
 first disciples of Jesus. He followed his Lord all 
 through His life on earth. He was with Him at His 
 trial and crucifixion. He beheld Him when He rose 
 from the dead. He was very prominent in proclaim- 
 ing His Gospel from the very first. He had an inti- 
 mate and first hand knowledge of all that Jesus said 
 and did. 
 
 A brief sketch of his life is as follows : John was 
 the son of Zebedee and Salome (Mark 1 : 19-20 ; 
 Matt. 20 : 20). Zebedee was well off, having boats 
 and hired servants ; he is mentioned quite frequently 
 as the father of James and John. Salome, his mother, 
 ministered to Christ of her substance and was present 
 at the crucifixion (Mark 15 : 40 ; Matt. 27 : 56). John 
 early became a disciple of John the Baptist and was 
 one of the first to follow Jesus, after which, for a short 
 time, he seems to have gone back to his old employ- 
 ment, from which he was again called (Mark 1 : 19, 
 20; Matt. 4: 21, 22) to become a disciple of Jesus. 
 He was one of the chosen group of three, Peter, 
 
142 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 James and John, who were nearest to the Christ and 
 admitted to a more intimate companionship than the 
 rest ; they were with Christ at the time of His greatest 
 glory in the Transfiguration (Matt. 17: I— 13) and at 
 the time of His deep sorrow in the garden of Geth- 
 semane (Mark 1 4 : 33). He followed his Master to 
 the cross and was there to receive His last words, when 
 He gave His mother into his charge (John 19: 26, 27). 
 John was with the apostles who met Jesus after the 
 resurrection. He did a great work in proclaiming the 
 new religion which is recorded in Acts (chapters 3, 4, 
 and 8 : 14-25). 
 
 According to a well supported tradition, for which 
 we have the authority of Irenaeus and Papias and the 
 Muratorian Fragment, as well as Polycrates of Ephe- 
 sus and Clement of Alexandria — all of the second 
 century — John the apostle settled in the great city of 
 Ephesus late in the sixties. Here also Andrew and 
 Philip are said to have resided in their later years. 
 Here John, in virtue of his position as an apostle, 
 acted as a bishop or superintendent of the church in 
 Ephesus and the churches in the neighboring cities. 
 The church in Ephesus was founded by Paul (Acts 19) 
 and later was infected with those errors which Paul 
 had warned it against (Acts 20 : 29, 30) and which to 
 correct, and set forth the truth, John in all probability 
 wrote his Gospel. John lived until about the close of 
 the first century, according to tradition. 
 
 Date and Place of Writing About 90 a. d. and at 
 
 Ephesus in Asia Minor. 
 
The Clear Vision of John 1 45 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 Give the object in writing this Gospel. How had Chris- 
 tianity to disentangle itself from speculations of Greek phi- 
 losophy as it had from Jewish legalism ? Give the situation 
 in which Christianity found itself. What was the clear 
 vision of John ? What doctrine did he set forth as central 
 to the Christian faith ? What can be said of the subject 
 matter ? What does the prologue contend for ? What can 
 be said about the selection and arrangement of material? 
 Into how many parts is this Gospel divided and what is the 
 significance of this division ? What is the double purpose 
 of this Gospel ? What is the relation of the fourth Gospel 
 to the other three — the points of agreement — the differences 
 and how accounted for — material peculiar to this Gospel ? 
 What can be said of the authorship ? What is the evidence 
 adduced for John's authorship — the five lines ? What can 
 be said of the life of John and his fitness to write this Gos» 
 pel ? Date and time of writing ? 
 
STUDY IX 
 
 THE REVELATION OF THE CHRIST 
 
 The Vital Questions of the Christian Faith.— The 
 fourth Gospel saw the light in a time of intense in- 
 tellectuality. The Christian faith was subjected to 
 keen criticism. It was called upon not only to defend 
 itself against its detractors, but also to clearly and 
 plainly define itself in relation to the philosophical, 
 religious and social notions of its times. It was not 
 sufficient to simply set forth the historical facts of the 
 earthly career of its Lord. There was need more now 
 than ever before, since Christianity was claiming to be 
 " The Universal Religion," to show how those facts 
 were related to man's universal desire to know God 
 and to enter into right relations with Him. Irrespective 
 of the age in which he lived, the race to which he be- 
 longed, the circumstances which claimed him, man has 
 ever asked the questions, " Who is God ? " " How is 
 man related to Him ? " " What is the universe and 
 who made it ? " " Is man to live after death ? " and 
 a score of others. Upon the answers given are built 
 up the religious, philosophical and social systems of 
 mankind. Christ gave new answers to the old world- 
 
 144 
 
The Revelation of the Christ 145 
 
 wide questions. If these answers were accepted the 
 old systems must go. But the acceptance of these 
 answers was vital to the Christian faith. Here was 
 the issue. 
 
 In this Gospel it was, and is, believed that there 
 was, and is, a larger revelation of and by the Christ 
 than in any other New Testament writing. That 
 there is here a new and divine revelation of God to 
 man needs to be taken into account if the message is 
 to be understood. 
 
 It is a significant fact that it is in the revelation in 
 this Gospel that we have the fullest, clearest and ablest 
 answers to the world-wide questions of God, life and 
 destiny that have ever been given. Ever since 
 they were given they have been replacing the old 
 answers and the new systems of thought are being 
 built upon them. Some of the questions answered 
 are : 
 
 Who is Jesus Christ f — How is He related to God ? 
 How is He related to the universe ? How is He re- 
 lated to man and what can He and what does He do 
 for him ? These were live questions in Ephesus and 
 they are alive to-day. They have not lost one bit of 
 their interest. Men wanted then, as they do now, 
 direct and positive answers. In the first eighteen 
 verses of the first chapter of this Gospel we have a 
 statement of facts about the Christ. There is here no 
 evasion of the issue. Christ was in the beginning. 
 He was with God. He was God. All things were 
 made by Him. In Him was life : and the life was the 
 
146 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 light of men. ... He became flesh and dwelt 
 among us. . . . No man hath seen God at any- 
 time ; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom 
 of the Father, He hath declared Him. These things 
 were claimed for Him by the writer of this Gospel, but 
 afterwards He claimed them for Himself. There was 
 a divinity and authority in His words. He healed the 
 sick. He forgave sins. He raised the dead. But 
 above all He desired to help and to save men. The 
 universal desire for an earthly manifestation of God is 
 here satisfied : The Word, which was God, was made 
 known in the flesh (John 1 : 1, 14). 
 
 How can a man know God ? — How can he come 
 into actual and intimate relations with Him? The 
 answer, given in the third chapter, in Christ's talk 
 with Nicodemus, Christianity has ever since adopted 
 as its own. Religion is not simply a matter of form 
 and ceremony ; it is a thing of new heart ; a new life.. 
 It is a casting aside of the old and having done with 
 it. But it is exceedingly difficult for a man to make 
 this change for himself; hence divine spiritual help is 
 to be given him by the Christ : " For God so loved the 
 world that He gave His only begotten Son, that who- 
 soever believeth in Him should not perish, but have 
 everlasting life." 
 
 Where and how shall a man worship God? — What 
 is the true worship of God ? Who is God ? Who is 
 the Messiah? These again are universal questions. 
 Nothing can equal the simplicity, the beauty and sub- 
 limity of the answers which Christ gives to these diffi- 
 
The Revelation of the Christ 147 
 
 cult questions in His conversation with the woman of 
 Samaria, recorded in the fourth chapter. The true 
 worshipper is taught that it does not need a particular 
 place or a special time to worship ; he can come into 
 communion with God, in spirit, at any time or at any 
 place. Then follows that wonderful definition of God — 
 " For God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must 
 worship Him in spirit and in truth." This answer of 
 the Christ sounded the death-knell of idolatry — so 
 prevalent in Ephesus and the other cities of the ancient 
 world — and spelled the ruin of the idol temples. It 
 set men free for a spiritual worship of God (4 : 19-26). 
 Who is the Messiah ? " When He is come," the 
 woman of Samaria asserts, " He will tell us all things," 
 to which " Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee 
 am He." He is the interpreter of the old and the 
 herald of the new ; He is the " Light and Life of the 
 world." 
 
 Does God really care for man ? — There is a lone- 
 someness in a man's soul that hungers for the comfort 
 of God. He is the citizen of a great universe which, 
 with all his striving, he fails to understand. Is the 
 great power at the heart of the universe both loving and 
 kind? This question is answered in John 3:16-21 
 and in Christ's discourse on the " Shepherd and the 
 Sheep" (10 : 1-18). There can be no more positive 
 teaching of the love and kindness and care of God for 
 man. See also John 15 : 1— 13, " Greater love hath no 
 man than this, that a man lay down his life for his 
 friends." 
 
148 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 Is man personally immortal f — Man has ever been 
 striving to peer into the future. This has been one of the 
 most debated of all questions because it is of universal 
 interest. The eleventh chapter is taken to answer this 
 question, where we are told how Jesus raised Lazarus 
 from the dead. He desired to make sure to His dis- 
 ciples His lordship over the realm of the other world 
 in that He could call back a man who had been four 
 days dead. He declares : " I am the resurrection and 
 the life : He that believeth in Me, though he were 
 dead yet shall he live : and whosoever liveth and be- 
 lieveth in Me shall never die" (11 : 25, 26). 
 
 These, with other questions (see the analysis which 
 follows) which are answered — in the discourses and 
 conversations of Christ — in John's Gospel are vital to 
 our Christian faith. Let a man get right upon these 
 great things and all the minor ones will adjust them- 
 selves. 
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 After the prologue this Gospel falls naturally into 
 three unequal parts. 
 
 THE PROLOGUE 
 (1 : 1-18) 
 
 The subject is Jesus Christ who is here presented as 
 the Preexistent, Eternal, Divine Word, manifested in 
 the incarnation, heralded by John and commended to 
 the faith of every man. 
 
The Revelation of the Christ 149 
 
 1. THE REVELATION OF CHRIST TO THE 
 
 WORLD 
 
 (1:19-12:50) 
 
 The time, in this section, embraces about three 
 
 years, and three passovers are recorded. The work of 
 
 Jesus was mainly in Judea, but several journeys to 
 
 Galilee and its cities are mentioned. He reveals 
 
 Himself to the world as the Eternal Word. 
 
 1. Christ is proclaimed as the true Word of God 
 (1:19-2:12). — (a) By the testimony of John the 
 Baptist who designates Him as " The Lamb of God, 
 which taketh away the sin of the world," and declares 
 that " He is the Son of God " (1 : 19-34). (b) By the 
 testimony of the disciples who declared, " We have 
 found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the 
 Christ" (1 : 35-51). (c) By the sign of a miracle, in 
 Cana of Galilee, in which the substance of the water 
 is changed (2:1-11). From Cana Christ went to 
 Capernaum (2 : 12). 
 
 2. Christ is recognized by His work and words 
 (2 : 13-4 : 54). — Jesus goes to Jerusalem at the time of 
 the passover (2 : 1 3). (a) As Master of the Temple, 
 which He cleanses (2: 13-25). (b) In the conversa- 
 tion with Nicodemus on the " New Birth " where He 
 shows what a man must do — and what can be done 
 for him — to enter into the Kingdom of God (3 : 1-21). 
 (c) By the renewed testimony of John the Baptist to 
 the supreme character of the revelation in Him (3 : 22- 
 36). (d) In the conversation with the woman of Sa- 
 maria — on the way from Judea to Galilee — in which 
 
150 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 He declares Himself to be the Messiah, so long ex- 
 pected by the Jews (4: 1-42). (e) In the miracle of 
 the healing of the nobleman's son in Capernaum. 
 This great work of mercy, it should be noted, was 
 performed, at a distance, by Christ from Cana o*" Gali- 
 lee (4 : 43-54). 
 
 3. Christ reveals Himself more and more fully. — 
 He declares His mission and His principles (5 : 1- 
 12:50). His relations to God and man are clearly 
 defined. These chapters show the conflict of the 
 " Light of the World " with spiritual darkness. 
 " Many believe on Him and the faith of His disciples 
 is strengthened, but the leaders of the nation reject 
 Him and resolve upon His death." 
 
 (a) He defines His relation to God, the Father 
 (5 : 1-47). The occasion of the discourse, given here, 
 is the healing, in Jerusalem, of a man who had an 
 infirmity for thirty-eight years. He declares in this 
 discourse that " All men should honor the Son, even 
 as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the 
 Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent Him " 
 (5 : 23). 
 
 (b) He declares His relation to men and what He 
 can do for them (6 : 1-7 1). The occasion for this dis- 
 course, which is on " The Bread of Life," is the miracle 
 of the feeding of the five thousand and the attendant 
 events. Jesus had gone up into Galilee and over the 
 Sea of Galilee, where this miracle had been performed. 
 In returning, at night, over the Sea of Galilee there 
 was a storm in which Jesus, who had not gone in the 
 
The Revelation of the Christ 151 
 
 boat with His disciples, had come to them walking on 
 the water. Arriving in Capernaum He entered into 
 the synagogue and talked to the assembled people 
 upon His relation to men. Referring to Himself, He 
 said, " The bread of God is He which cometh down 
 from heaven and giveth life unto the world." . . . 
 " I am the bread of life : he that cometh to Me shall 
 never hunger ; and he that believeth on Me shall 
 never thirst." ..." I am the living bread which 
 came down from heaven : if any man eat of this bread 
 he shall live forever : and the bread that I will give is 
 My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." 
 Such open and plain statements, of the greatness and 
 divine character of His mission for men, angered the 
 Jews. Many of His disciples left Him but the Twelve 
 believed in Him more firmly. 
 
 (c) He makes known His relation to the world, as 
 " The Light of the World," in the discussion which 
 arises over the questions : " Who He is," " Whence 
 He is " and " Whither He goes " (chapters 7 and 8). 
 The events and discussion reported in these chapters 
 took place at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. 
 It is in the seventh chapter that the debate, as to who 
 and what He is, is very animated. The Pharisees be- 
 come more embittered and they, with the chief priests, 
 send officers to apprehend Him ; in this they fail. 
 There is a division of the people because of Him. In 
 the eighth chapter Jesus again goes over His claims, 
 taking for His text the words, " I am the light of the 
 world ; he that followeth Me shall not walk in dark- 
 
152 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 ness but shall have the light of life " (8 : 12). There 
 is no ambiguity in Jesus' statements and claims in this 
 chapter. 
 
 (cl) He claims to be the Divine One. He accepts 
 worship (9 : 38) and declares that men are saved 
 through Him (10 : 9). These claims are once more 
 set forth in the discussions which take place in 
 chapters 9 and 10. In chapter 9 He heals a blind 
 man after which the Jews try to persuade the blind 
 man that the one who had healed him was not a man 
 of God. In this they do not succeed. They cast him 
 out of the synagogue. Jesus finding the blind man, 
 after he had been cast out by the Jews, asks him, 
 " Dost thou believe on the Son of God ? " « He an- 
 swered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might be- 
 lieve on Him ? " " And Jesus said unto him, Thou 
 hast both seen Him and it is He which talketh with 
 thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he wor- 
 shipped Him " (9 : 35-38). In chapter 10 Jesus shows 
 His love and care for men in the parable of the " Good 
 Shepherd." Here He declares His mission and that 
 He is the means of salvation : " I am the door ; by 
 Me if any man enter in he shall be saved." At the 
 Feast of Dedication (10 : 22-42) Jesus in answer to 
 the direct question of the Jews tells them that He is 
 the Christ and declares : " I and My Father are one." 
 The Jews again seek to apprehend Him but He es- 
 capes them. 
 
 (e) He proves Himself to be the Lord of life and 
 death in the raising of Lazarus from the dead (1 1 : I- 
 
The Revelation of the Christ 153 
 
 57). In doing this He said : " I am the resurrection 
 and the life : he that believeth in Me, though he were 
 dead, yet shall he live : and whosoever liveth and be- 
 lieveth in Me shall never die" (11 : 25, 26). 
 
 (/) He publicly sets forth His Messiahship in riding 
 in triumph from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem 
 (12:12-19). Chapter twelve is taken up with the 
 anointing of Jesus, the consultation by the chief 
 priests of how they might put Lazarus to death with 
 Jesus, the triumphal entry, the coming of the Gentiles 
 to see Jesus, Jesus' announcement of His death and 
 its results and His rejection by the Jews. 
 
 2. THE INNER REVELATION OF CHRIST 
 
 TO HIS DISCIPLES 
 
 (13: 1-17:26) 
 
 The discourses reported in these five chapters, 13 to 
 17, occupy but a single evening and were spoken by 
 Christ in the room in Jerusalem, where the Last Sup- 
 per was observed and on the way to the garden of 
 Gethsemane. He is fully aware that His arrest by the 
 Jews is only a matter of a very short time and that, 
 after that, there will follow at once for Him cruel 
 torture and an ignominious death. He knows that 
 His friends and disciples for a while will turn away 
 from Him. Yet in the face of all this, and it is well 
 to remember this, He goes calmly and confidently for- 
 ward, speaking of the great things which pertain to 
 His Kingdom in this life and the life to come. He 
 
154 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 here enters into the closest and most loving fellowship 
 with His disciples. He entreats His disciples not to 
 let their " heart be troubled." He tells them of the 
 solace of the Holy Spirit who will come to them and 
 teach them, and, at the last, He prays for them. 
 
 1. Jesus gives His disciples a lesson of humility 
 and love after the last supper (13 : 1-38). — He washes 
 the disciples' feet and gives a new commandment, 
 " That ye love one another as I have loved you, that 
 ye also love one another." Lofty teaching indeed, 
 for He is now betrayed into the hands of His enemies. 
 
 2. Jesus seeks to comfort His disciples (14: 1-3 1). 
 — He teaches that nothing can go amiss, here or here- 
 after, to those who love and are in harmony with God. 
 
 3. Jesus exhorts to an abiding faith in and a union 
 with Himself, under the figure of the vine and its 
 branches (15 : 1-27). This is the way of life. 
 
 4. Jesus promises the guidance and care of the 
 Holy Spirit. — He knows the weakness of men and 
 that they need the spiritual power that can be obtained 
 through Him (16: 1-33). 
 
 5. Jesus prays for and commends His disciples to 
 the care of God (17 : 1-26). — He knows that it is only 
 as they are kept closely in communion with the Divine 
 Influence that they will be able to withstand the great 
 pressure that will be brought to bear upon them to 
 abandon their faith ; but if they are in the keeping 
 power of God that nothing can harm them. He 
 earnestly prays for the keeping of His disciples for 
 their work. 
 
The Revelation of the Christ 155 
 
 3. THE HUMILIATION AND GLORIFI- 
 CATION OF THE CHRIST 
 (18: 1-21 125) 
 
 1. The humiliation (18 : I- 19 : 42). — Christ, in His 
 death, becomes the source of life as He declared be- 
 forehand (12 : 23, 24 and 17 : 21) : " The hour is come 
 that the Son of Man should be glorified." Yet that 
 hour was an exceedingly painful one. It was one 
 which required the utmost fortitude and courage, even 
 if it was expected and planned for. That suffering 
 was more than physical ; it was a bitter trial of the 
 soul and an utmost agony of the spirit. We may 
 never understand the heaviness of that burden which 
 He carried, to its awful ending in the cross, for man- 
 kind. We have in chapters 18 and 19 the culmina- 
 tion and apparent triumph of hostile unbelief. The 
 events follow in quick succession. Jesus is arrested 
 (18 : 1-14). He has a trial before the Jewish author- 
 ities. Peter denies that he knows Him (18: 15-27). 
 He is tried by Pilate, to whom He declares, upon 
 questioning, His mission and kingship. Pilate en- 
 deavors to save Him but the Jews reject his efforts. 
 They demand His crucifixion, " Because He made 
 Himself the Son of God." Upon this charge He is 
 led out to be crucified (18 : 28-19 * IO )- He is cruci- 
 fied with this inscription over His head, upon the cross, 
 " Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews " (19 : 17-30). 
 His burial (19 : 31-42). 
 
 #. The glorification of the Christ (20: I-21-25). — 
 The triumph of evil was short lived. When it seemed 
 
156 Studies in the Four Gospels 
 
 to have everything its own way, and there seemed to 
 be nothing which could check it, forces were already 
 in operation which would turn its triumph into a rout. 
 The resurrection of Christ stands unique in the history 
 of the world. The Christ whose cause seemed to be 
 wholly and totally lost at His death was now hailed 
 with an enthusiasm which knew no bounds and that 
 enthusiasm, over a risen and glorified Lord, has con- 
 tinued to increase, for He is " The Light of the World," 
 and the One through whom we hope for our salvation. 
 We have in chapters 20 and 21 the restoration and 
 confirmation of our faith. The events are : The find- 
 ing of the empty tomb (20: 1-10). The appearance 
 of Jesus to Mary (20 : 1 1-18). The appearance to the 
 disciples, Thomas being absent (20 : 19-25). The ap- 
 pearance to Thomas with the other disciples. Jesus, 
 as Thomas had doubted, bids him test Him. Thomas, 
 satisfied by his test, exclaims, " My Lord and my 
 God " (20 : 26-31). The appearance of Jesus to seven 
 disciples by the Sea of Galilee and His talk with Peter 
 in regard to his work (21 : 1-25). 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 How are " The Vital Questions of the Christian Faith " 
 related to the universal ones of God, life and destiny? 
 What is the significant fact about the revelation in this Gos- 
 pel ? Give the five questions mentioned here and tell what 
 they mean. Into how many unequal parts, after the pro- 
 logue, is this Gospel divided ? What is the subject of this 
 Gospel set forth in the prologue? In the first section — 
 
The Revelation of the Christ 157 
 
 " The Revelation of Christ to the World " — what is the 
 time embraced and the number of passovers mentioned? 
 Where did Jesus do His work ? How is Christ proclaimed 
 as the true Word of God ? How is He recognized by His 
 work and words ? How does He reveal Himself — His rela- 
 tion to God, the Father — His relation to men — His relation 
 to the world — His claims to be the Divine One and the 
 Messiah? In the second section — " The Inner Revelation 
 of Christ to His Disciples " — how long did the events and 
 discourses reported here last? How did Jesus appear in 
 the face of certain death? Give the five points made 
 — with the prayer— of instruction by Christ. What can be 
 said of the humiliation and the glorification of the Christ ? 
 
 Printed in the United States if America 
 
BIBLE STUDY BY BOOKS 
 
 BY 
 HENRY T. SELL, D.D. 
 
 New Edition, Revised, with Introductory Chapter on Th» 
 Making of the Bible. 
 
 52 CHAPTERS, EMBRACING THE 66 BOOKS 
 IN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 An abridged Analysis of the first five Chapters is here given 
 
 I. GENESIS: The Book of Beginnings. Origin ol the 
 World, Man, Sin, Salvation. Revelations of God asCre- 
 ator,Prsserver, Lawgiver, Judge and Merciful Sovereign- 
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 I. Fundamental Laws of Sacrifice, Purification and 
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 Three Addresses of Moses, I. Remembrance of Gods 
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 Covenant. 
 
 This Series of Studies "Aims to set forth clearly the purpose, 
 contents and analysis of each book and to show its rela- 
 tive place among the other books, especially its share in 
 revealing divine truth." ., , . _.., 
 
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 This book has been translated Into th« Spanish languag* 
 
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 This book is practical, historical and constructive and 
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