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THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHOO!
BURSE
BOOKS
CAMBRIDGE
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH
A POPULAR ACCOUNT
OF THE COLLECTION AND RECEPTION
OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES.
BY
BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT, M.A.,
FORMERLY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
AUTHOR OF "INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE GOSPELS," ETC.
SECOND EDITION.
London and Cambridge.
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1866.
[The right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved.]
Our Teacher said:
SHOW YOURSELVES TRIED Money-CHANGERS.
CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
TO THE
REV. CHARLES BRODRICK SCOTT,
HEAD-MASTER OF WESTMINSTER,
THIS ESSAY
IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED,
IN MEMORY OF
COLLEGE DAYS.
NOTICE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
THIS Edition is a simple reprint of the First
Edition with the exception of a few verbal correc-
tions and a more accurate account of the MS. of
the Syriac Bible in the Cambridge University
Library. For the latter I am indebted to Mr
R. L. Bensly, M.A. of Caius College, who has
kindly collated the description in the Catalogue,
which I followed before, with the manuscript
itself, and furnished me with many important and
interesting corrections.
HARROW,
January 26, 1866.
B. F. W.
PREFACE.
THE present book is an attempt to answer a request
which has been made to me from time to time, to
place in a simple form, for the use of general readers,
the substance of my History of the Canon of the
New Testament. It seemed to me that I could not
do this by a mere abstract; and at the same time
I felt that a History of the whole Bible, and not of
the New Testament only, would be required, if those
unfamiliar with the subject were to be enabled to
learn in what manner and with what consent the
collection of Holy Scriptures was first made and
then enlarged and finally closed by the Church.
The history of the Old Testament in the Christian
Churches is intimately connected with the history
of the New Testament. The two histories may be
separated, but each illustrates the other in a re-
markable degree, and when combined they show
with the greatest clearness the principles by which
the Church was guided in the ratification of the
books of the Bible, and the power which she claimed
to exercise in the work.
Viii
PREFACE.
The task which I have undertaken is essentially
historical. I wish to insist on this with marked
distinctness, lest I should seem to have forgotten at
any time that the Bible is more than a collection
of Scriptures. The Bible may be treated histori-
cally or theologically. Neither treatment is com-
plete in itself; but the treatments are separable;
and, here, as elsewhere, the historical foundation
rightly precedes and underlies the theological in-
terpretation. The Bible has suffered, and is in
danger of suffering more, from the inversion of this
order. The truest and most faithful historical
criticism alone can bring out into full light that
doctrine of a Divine Providence separating (as it
were) and preserving special books for the perpetual
instruction of the Church, which is the true corre-
lative and complement of every sound and reverent
theory of Inspiration.
Sk
Within the limits thus marked out I have
endeavoured to make this little book complete in
itself. Every technical term is, I believe, explained
when it first occurs; and the addition of slight
historical characteristics of men or ages will enable
the reader to appreciate fairly the relative import-
ance of the evidence which they contribute. It
would have been foreign to my object to have given
the original texts which are quoted. The refer-
ences will enable the scholar to verify them; and
I have spared no pains to represent accurately in
translation both their spirit and their words. But
PREFACE.
ix
4
while the essay is intended to be simple and popular
in its method, I have for this very reason aimed
at the strictest accuracy. Indeed it is obvious that
accuracy is nowhere so much needed as where (for
the most part) it will not be tested. It has, there-
fore, been my desire to set down nothing which is
not certainly justified by satisfactory evidence. In
every case I have studied rather to understate than
to overstate the positive conclusions which are to
be drawn from the testimonies adduced; and wher-
ever a conjecture has been introduced, for the pur-
pose of connecting or explaining the statements of
different fathers, this fact is expressly noticed. In
numerous instances I have been enabled to correct
what has been previously written upon the subject,
by the investigation of fuller evidence or better
texts. From the nature of the case the corrections
are generally made silently, but it may be always
assumed that where anything is stated otherwise
than is generally done, the variation is deliberately
adopted and on grounds which appear to me to be
conclusive.
It may seem to be somewhat presumptuous to
offer these explanations of the character and pur-
pose of a very unpretending little book; but they
seem to be due to the subject of which it treats.
No one who has patiently laboured on the history
of the Bible can fail to be deeply grieved by the
hasty and peremptory tone with which it is com-
monly discussed. And it is hard to say whether
b
X
PREFACE.
Holy Scripture is more injured by those who assail
or by those who defend it.
If the Bible were only
a collection of ancient writings its readers would
have a right to claim that those who deal with
it should be conversant with the laws of literary
criticism, and the methods of historical inquiry.
And if it is, as we devoutly believe, the very
source and measure of our religious faith, it seems
impossible to insist too earnestly on the supreme
importance of patience, candour and truthfulness
in investigating every problem which it involves.
The first steps towards the solution of a difficulty
are the recognition of its existence and the deter-
mination of its extent. And, unless all past ex-
perience is worthless, the difficulties of the Bible
are the most fruitful guides to its divine depths.
It was said long since that God was pleased
to leave difficulties upon the surface of Scrip-
ture, that men might be forced to look below the
surface.'
6
Indeed the moral of the History of the Bible is
full of the noblest lessons for all times, and not least
for our own. If I am not wholly wrong in inter-
preting the sure facts which I have recorded, they
teach us that the formation of the collection of
Holy Scriptures was to use a term which ought
never to be supposed even to veil the action of
a Present God-according to natural laws: that
slowly and with an ever-deepening conviction the
Churches received, after trial, and in some cases
PREFACE.
xi
after doubt and contradiction, the books which we
now receive: that the religious consciousness which
was quickened by the words of prophets and apo-
stles in turn ratified their writings. They teach us
that the judgment which was in this manner the
expression of the fulness of Christian life, was not
confined in early times by rigid or uniform laws, but
realized in ecclesiastical usage: that the Bible was
not something distinct from, and independent of,
the Christian body, but the vital law of its action :
that the Church offered a living commentary on
the Book, and the Book an unchanging test of the
Church. They teach us that the extreme limits of
the collection were not marked out sharply, but
that rather the outline was at times dim and wa-
vering, yet not so as to be incapable of satisfactory
adjustment. They teach us that a corrupted Bible
is a sign of a corrupted Church, a Bible mutilated
or imperfect, a sign of a Church not yet raised to
the complete perception of Truth. It is possible
that we might have wished much of this or all
this otherwise: we might have thought that a Bible
of which every part should bear a visible and
unquestioned authentication of its divine origin,
separated by a solemn act from the first from the
sum and fate of all other literature, would have
best answered our conceptions of what the written
records of revelation should be. But it is not thus
that God works among us. In the Church and in
the Bible alike He works through men.
As we
b2
xii
PREFACE.
follow the progress of their formation, each step
seems to be truly human; and when we contem-
plate the whole, we joyfully recognize that every
part is also divine.
It would be ungrateful not to acknowledge the
help which I have found in Hody's great work De
Bibliorum Textibus Originalibus, especially with
regard to mediæval writers. This contains in a
very condensed form the most honest and accurate
History of the Canon with which I am acquainted
up to the time (1705) at which it was written. The
Scholastical History of Bishop Cosin is essentially
polemical and not historical, and must be read with
the greatest caution. The best work on the Ro-
manist side (as far as I can judge) is an Essay
published anonymously (by J. Keil, I believe) in
answer to E. Wernsdorff's treatise on the Mac-
cabees (Auctoritas utriusque libri Maccab. adserta
Vienna, 1749). No book of Credner's can
be without value; and I have been indebted to
his posthumous Geschichte d. Neutest. Kanon (Ber-
lin, 1860) for some suggestive remarks on the in-
fluence of Eusebius upon the Constantinopolitan
Bible; but the work in its present form is certainly
not such as Credner himself would have published,
and the carelessness and inaccuracy of his editor
have done grievous wrong to the memory of a most
truthful and acute scholar.
It is with a feeling of no unworthy fear that I
now commend my Essay to the Christian reader.
PREFACE.
xiii
The subject is one on which it is impossible to
write without misgiving. If I have said anything
which can be rightly construed as derogatory from
the divine majesty of Holy Scripture, I am the
first to wish it unsaid. If I have said anything
inaccurately (and with all care it can scarcely be
otherwise), I sincerely trust that I may be correct-
ed. If I have said anything which may lead one
student of the Bible to just and faithful views of
its Divine authority, I thank God humbly for this
fruit of painful and anxious work. In His hand
are both we and our words.
HARROW,
Christmas Eve, 1863.
B. F. W.
}
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
THE Bible characterized by its connexion with a
long history.
I
A record of various revelations.
Gradually extended.
Successively acknowledged………..
Successive names
··
Difficulties arising from this fact
Traits from contrasted forms of life.
Apparent conflict of successive dispensations.
Fragmentariness of records
Periods of transition
Corresponding advantages
Unity not uniformity
A complete training
A witness in itself
Object: not to discuss veracity: authority: inspira-
tion of the sacred Books; but in what manner,
when, and with what consent or variety of opinion
they were accepted as a written Rule of doctrine
Limits: the Apostolic age.
The age of the Reformation
PAGE
I-6
I-4
4~6
6-11
6, 7
9
JO
II-16
I 1
12-14
14
16
17
xvi
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
The Bible of the Apostolic Age.
The Dispersion of the Jews in relation to the spread
of the Bible
i.
I.
The Septuagint generally intelligible
The evidence of Jewish writers as to the contents
of the Old Testament
2.
...
2.
JOSEPHUS (Palestine)
PHILO (Alexandria).
The TALMUD (Babylon)
Express quotations in
•••
3.
ii. The evidence from the Apostolic writers as to
the contents of the Old Testament
Collective titles for the Bible...
...
..
The Apostolic work....
I. The Synoptic Gospels, Acts, Catholic Epistles
The Pauline Epistles
3. The Writings of St John...
•
No special quotation from the Apocrypha
Silent quotations....
Express quotations of uncertain origin
Summary
CHAPTER II.
The Growth of the New Testament.
The oral teaching of the Apostles historical
An oral Gospel formed
committed to writing.
""
""
The origin of the Epistles...
•
PAGE
19-23
23
24-38
25-30
30-35
35-38
38-49
39-41
41
42
ib.
44
45
46-49
49
52-57
57
57,58
59
бо
CONTENTS.
xvii
Antagonism of Jew and Gentile...
The writings of St John......
The close of the Apostolic age
Judaizing,
Mystical,
Pauline schools
The range of the Apostolic Fathers
i. Their relation to the Apostolic teaching.
I.
CLEMENT OF ROME..
2.
IGNATIUS
3. POLYCARP.
4. BARNABAS
ii. Their relation to the Gospels
iii. Their quotations
1
CHAPTER III.
The Apostolic Fathers.
....
From the Old Testament and Apocrypha
From the New Testament..
They do not recognize a New Testament, but
prepare the way for it
...
...
CHAPTER IV.
The Age of the Apologists.
Characteristics of the age
PAPIAS
JUSTIN MARTYR …………..
PAGE
61-65
65
67
69-72
73
74-76
76-79
79, 80
80, 81
81-83
84
85
86-89
90-94
95-97
97-105
xviii
CONTENTS.
Memoirs of the Apostles
The Clementine Homilies...
Extent of references to the books of the New Tes-
tament up to this time
The Hebrew Canon of the Old Testament admitted
to be a complete Bible
HEGESIPPUS....
HERMAS
Assaults on the Old Testament
The Bible of MARCION
....
Note. Meaning of the word Canon.
The Muratorian Canon.
I. Asia Minor.
IRENEUS
MELITO...
The First Christian Bible.
2. Alexandria.
Progress of Christianity in the Second Century....
Retrospect of the history of the New Testament..
CHAPTER V.
3. North Africa.
4. Syria.
Use of Apocrypha......
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA…….
0
PAGE
100-105
105, 106
106
106,7
107
108
108, 109
109-11
112-116
117
118-120
121-123
124
125
125, 127
TERTULLIAN.
127, 128
The Old Latin Version of the Bible... 128-131
THEOPHILUS.
SERAPION...
131
The Old Syrian Version (Peshito)……..... 132, 133
CONTENTS.
xix
Testimony to the disputed books of the New Tes-
tament (Antilegomena)
ORIGEN
Asiatic and Syrian writers..
Heretical and heathen writers..
CHAPTER VI.
The Bible Proscribed and Restored.
The characteristics of third century..
Persecution of Diocletian
i. The Canon of the Donatists.
ii. The Canon of EUSEBIUS..
Canon of the NEW TESTAMENT.
Canon of the OLD TESTAMENT.
Constantine's Bible
iii. The Canon of ATHANASIUS
CHAPTER VII.
The Age of Jerome and Augustine.
The growth of the Roman Church....
I.
The Bibles of the East
i. Asia Minor and Palestine..
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS.
CHIUS
CYRIL OF JERUSALEM.
Council of Laodicca………..
…………
ii. Alexandria
••
··
AMPHILO-
DIDYMUS. EUTHALIUS. CYRIL
EPIPHANIUS
……….
PAGE
133, 134
134-137
138
139, 140
141-143
143-145
145, 146
146-158
148-153
153
155-158
158-162
163, 164
165–176
166—171
166, 167
168
169—171
171-173
171
132, 173
XX
CONTENTS.
iii. Syria.
:
CHRYSOSTOM
The Apostolical Constitutions..
Note. The Apostolical Canons.
2. The Bibles of the West
PHILASTRIUS
RUFFINUS.....
FI
HILARIUS OF POITIERS
JEROME....
AUGUSTINE
Canon of the OLD TESTAMENT
Canon of the NEW TESTAMENT…………….
Council of Carthage....
§ 2. The Church of Italy.
Papal Decretals
Codex Amiatinus
...
CASSIODORUS..
Later writers
Council of Florence..
CHAPTER VIII.
The Bible of the Middle Ages in the West.
The character and work of the Western Churches 191, 192
§ 1. The Church of North Africa.
PRIMASIUS. JUNILIUS
§ 3. The Church of Spain.....
Connexion with North Africa
§ 4. The Transalpine Churches.
CHARLEMAGNE. ALCUIN
HUGO DE S. CARO, &c......
PETER OF CLUGNY, &c..
NICOLAUS DE LYRA……………..
•
...
PAGE
………….
174, 175
175, 176
177-190
177
178-180
180
180-183
181-183
183, 184
184-190
188, 189
"
193, 194
194-196
196
197
198
199
199-201
201
202, 203
203
204, 205
206
CONTENTS.
xxi.
§ 5. The Churches of Britain.
The ancient [Irish] Church.
NOTKER of St Gall..
The Saxon Church.
ALFRIC...
Epistle to the Laodicenes..
JOHN OF SALISBURY, &c.
The Wycliffite Bible....
Popular usage. R. GROSSETESTE………………….
CHAPTER IX.
The Bible of the Middle Ages in the East.
Decay of the Eastern Churches
SI. The Greek Church
The Quini-Sextine Council
LEONTIUS OF BYZANTIUM
COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES
JOHANNES DAMASCENUS..
The Canonists
The Sixty Books
The Stichometry of NICEPHORUS
Confusion of the lists..
Later history of the Canon..
•
§ 2. The Nestorian Churches
The School of Nisibis
EBED JESU
……..
PAGE
207
208
209
210
211-213
214, 215
216
217-229
217, 218
219, 220
220, 221
222
223, 224
224
225, 226
226, 227
227, 229
229, 234
230
231-234
Note.
Syrian MS. of the Bible.
234, 235
§ 3. The (Monophysite) Coptic Church
§ 4. The (Monophysite) Abyssinian Church... 236—239
§ 5. The (Monophysite) Armenian Church...
239, 240
xxii
CONTENTS.
§ 6.
§ 2.
Later Syrian writers.
The Bible in the East never definitely fixed.. 242-244
co
The (Monophysite) Jacobite Church......
The Karkaphensian Version
The Hexaplaric Version
The general religious character of the age
§ 1. The Romish Church
CHAPTER X.
The Bible in the Sixteenth Century.
$ 4.
Earlier Scholars: XIMENES
ERASMUS
CAIETAN
CATHARINUS
The Council of Trent.
SIXTUS SENENSIS
··
•
...
The Saxon School of Reformers
LUTHER on the Apocrypha of Old Tes-
tament...
Antilegomena of New Tes-
""
tament
KARLSTADT
§3. The Swiss School of Reformers.
ZWINGLI
···
ECOLAMPADIUS
CALVIN
BEZA.....
Public Confessions
The Arminian School.
GROTIUS
$5. The English Church.
Translations of the Bible.
....
PAGE
240
241
ib.
242
………
245-248
249-259
249
249-253
253
255
ib.
258
259-269
260-262
262-265
266–269
269-278
269
270
270-273
273
275-278
279, 280
TYNDALE. COVERDALE.
MATTHEW.
CRANMER. Bishops'. Authorized...... 281-287
CONTENTS.
xxiii
Conclusion
Articles ...
APPENDIX A.
On the History of the Canon of the Old Testa-
ment before the Christian era
APPENDIX B.
On the Contents of the most ancient MSS. of the
Christian Bible
cas
SI. Codex Alexandrinus
§ 2.
Codex Vaticanus
§ 3. Codex Sinaiticus
§ 4. The list of Sacred Books in the Codex
Claromontanus...
INDEX
PAGE
288
293
297-301
302-311
303
305
307
308
313
INTRODUCTION.
There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God
which worketh all in all. -1 Cor. xii. 6.
I religion, that it is based upon a his-historical
IT
T is one of the chief characteristics of the Christianity
and
Christian
long history.
tory. Its great doctrines are the simple inter- nected with a
pretation or necessary results of facts. The Gos-
pel, according to the instinctive judgment of ages,
is emphatically a narrative of passages from the
Life of Christ. This history, again, is not itself
isolated, but bound up with a previous history
which reaches to the primitive covenant of God
and man. If the Coming of Messiah was in one
sense sudden and unexpected, in another it was
duly heralded and announced by other voices
than that of the Baptist as near at hand. If His
Doctrine was strange, yet it was strange only to
those who had acquiesced in the superficial mean-
ing of the Divine promises. To those who looked
deeper the Life of our Blessed Lord was the
consummation of long periods of struggle and
repose, of Divine instruction and Divine silence,
which can still be traced in clear outlines up to
the first separation of a chosen people; and so, on
the other hand, His teaching contained the ful-
filment of all that had entered into the soul of
1
2
THE BIBLE
DUCTION.
INTRO- lawgiver, or psalmist, or prophet. Whatsoever
was written aforetime served for the foundation
of the Christian Revelation; and its own les-
sons were recorded not in one way only, but in
many, that it might embrace all ages and all
minds. It was preceded by a preparation most
full and varied: it was portrayed in a record
which reflects the most opposite sides of its doc-
trine. Thus it is that the whole Bible is rightly
claimed as the pledge and type of the compre-
hensiveness and unity of the Christian Faith, a
Book manifold by the variety of times and cir-
cumstances in which its several parts had their
rise, one by the inspiring presence of the same
spiritual Life.
For as Christianity is historical, so too almost
every part of the Bible is historical. Not only is
a large portion of both Testaments professedly a
narrative of events, but even the special charac-
teristics of psalms, prophecies and epistles reflect
most distinctly the external circumstances in
which they were composed. Other sacred books
are, for the most part, purely ritual or specula-
tive, avowedly the product of a brief period, or
wholly separated from the region of fact; but
the Bible is, in its origin, a slow growth of time,
intimately connected with a long development of
national life, bearing on its surface the impress
of successive revelations, extended from time to
time by the addition of new elements, accepted in
its present form not by one act once for all, but
gradually, and, as far as can be traced by the
help of existing records, according to natural
General his- laws of criticism, exerted within definite limits.
torical cha-
racteristics of
the Bible.
The slow process by which the contents of the
sacred volume were determined will be brought
The Bible es-
sentially his-
torical.
IN THE CHURCHI.
со
out as we proceed the differences by which
the several books themselves are marked are
legibly inscribed upon them. There is no need
of any detailed investigation to show that the
constituent parts of the Bible, when looked at
separately, have a distinct and peculiar meaning,
and that long periods must (in the natural order
of things) have intervened between particular
books, and that others, more nearly contempo-
raneous in origin, are scarcely less broadly dis-
tinguished by the personal characteristics of their
authors. Such lines of demarcation appear to
exist between the Law and the Prophets, between
the books of Kings and Chronicles, between the
earlier and later Prophets, or, to take examples of
a different kind, between the epistles of St James,
St Paul and St John, and between the first three
Gospels and the fourth. No one, indeed, would
be inclined to question seriously the existence of
these diversities of teaching, or even to deny that
he finds special parts of the Bible best adapted to
his own wants or to the wants of some particular
phase of society; yet practically all err more or
less, in regarding everything as spoken directly
and in its original form to themselves. If the
grosser faults which were defended in ruder times
by the letter of Holy Scripture are now repressed
by the moral influences of life, yet we are too apt
to forget that in every age God spoke to men such
as they then were and by men; and that conse-
quently all true interpretation of the record must
turn upon the relation of the act to the persons
engaged in it, of the word to the speaker and the
hearer, of the judgment to the spirit of which it
witnessed. The unity of the Bible is not uni-
formity, and its variety is not discrepance; but
:
INTRO-
DUCTION.
1-2
4
THE BIBLE
INTRO-
DUCTION.
rather, to borrow an image from Scripture, the
whole is like a "living creature," made up of living
creatures. The parts have a distinct life as well
as the sum; the members are individually complete
as well as the entire body. Each progressive
phase in the development of the revelation has
been preserved as well as the matured form; and
thus at different points we can trace the rise and
operation of different elements, which, though
they contribute largely to the final result, might
have been wholly unobserved if that result alone
had remained.
The Names of
the Bible in
Jewish and
،
The very names of the Bible bear a striking
witness to the instinctive sense which men have
had from time to time of its manifoldness and its
unity. Its proper IIebrew title is simply the enu-
meration of its triple division, 'The Law, the
Prophets, and the [Holy] Writings;' and this title
is recognized in the New Testament both in its full
form, "The Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms'
(Luke xxiv. 44), and briefly The Law and the
Prophets' (Matt. xi. 13; Acts xiii. 15). More
generally, however, the Old Testament is quoted
simply as 'The Writings,' 'The Scriptures' (Matt.
xxi. 42; Mark xiv. 49; Luke xxiv. 32; John v. 39;
Acts xviii. 24; Rom. xv. 4; &c.), while the cor-
responding singular term, the Scripture'-is
always used for a special passage and not as at
present both for the part and for the whole (Luke
iv. 21; John xx. 9; James ii. 8; &c.). At the be-
ginning of the Christian era the Jews had in fact
no singular name for their sacred books; nor was
this strange, since at that time they could not have
felt their entire completeness. Yet it is worthy
of notice that the term 'The Law' was extended
popularly to both the other divisions of the Bible,
IN THE CHURCH.
ст
to the Psalms (John x. 34; xii. 34; xv. 25), and
to the prophets (1 Cor. xiv. 21), for this was neces-
sarily regarded as including in itself the whole
growth of Judaism.
The establishment of Christianity gave at once Christian
a distinct unity to the former dispensation, and times.
thus St Paul could speak of the Jewish Scriptures
by the name which they have always retained
since, as the 'Old Testament' or 'Covenant' (2 Cor.
iii. 14), adapting and extending the earlier phrase
for the Law 'the Book of the Covenant' (2 Kings
xxiii. 2). At the close of the second century the
terms 'Old' and 'New Testament' were already
in common use, though a vain endeavour was
made by scholars, both then and afterwards, to
substitute for Testament the word Instrument (or
Record). In such cases the popular habit prevails;
and it is a matter of rejoicing that that title has
been retained which represents the sacred books
in connexion with their ultimate Giver rather
than that which only regards them as official or
authoritative documents.
INTRO-
DUCTION.
the whole.
The first simple collective title of the whole First collec-
Bible appears to be that which is found in Je- tive name for
rome, in the Ivth century, 'The Divine Library'
(Bibliotheca Divina), which afterwards passed
into common use among Latin writers, and thence
into our own Anglo-Saxon language. About the
same time Greek writers came to use the term
"The Books' (Biblia, pl.) for the Bible. In pro-
cess of time this name, with many others of Greek
origin, passed into the vocabulary of the Western
Church; and in the XIIth century, by a happy
solecism, the neuter plural came to be regarded
as a feminine singular, and 'The Books' became
by common consent 'The Book' (Biblia, sing.) in
،
6
THE BIBLE
INTRO- which form the word has passed into the lan-
DUCTION. guages of modern Europe.
'The Scriptures,' 'The Books,' 'The Library,'
'The Book,' each phrase is pregnant with mean-
ing, and it were to be wished that no one had
passed out of use, or been deprived of the fresh
vigour of its original sense. Of all, perhaps, the
Library, the term which seems to have been
irrevocably lost, is the most expressive and in-
cludes the idea of the Book' and 'the Books'
with the most felicitous simplicity. But the word
which is denied to popular use still lives for the
student, and as long as we regard the Bible as
the divine Library, the treasury of divine records,
of things old and new-the works of many authors,
the products of many ages-we shall be protected
from numerous dangers which are supposed to
arise from a candid study of its history and con-
tents, and prepared to feel to the full the infinite
grandeur of the one message of love fashioned in
a thousand shapes.
i. Difficulties
which spring
from the com-
position of
the Bible.
For while the Bible is one it is manifold; and
it is well if the apprehension of an inward rather
than an outward unity leaves the mind free to
1. Traits from observe the distinctness of the parts of which it
contrasted
forms of life.
is made up. The records which it contains ex-
tend over a period of twelve hundred years, on
any theory, and probably over a much longer
period. Whatever authoritative revision the books
of the Old Testament may have undergone, the
original substance at least remains unchanged,
and presents pictures drawn from the most widely
contrasted forms of life. If we compare with
these the scenes reflected in the apostolic writ-
ings, the full width of the range of the Bible will
be clearly felt. How great, for example, is the
Special valuc
of several
names.
IN THE CHURCH.
7
INTRO-
chasm between the freshness of patriarchal life and
that Roman prison from which St Paul wrote for DUCTION.
the confirmation of the churches: between the
discipline in the wilderness and the growth of
the Christian Church: between Leviticus and the
Pastoral Epistles; or even between the periods of
the judges, the kingdom and the hierarchy. The
intervals are undoubtedly filled up more or less
by periods of preparation and transition, but yet
there are crises of change; and the grandeur of
the scale on which the history is drawn encou-
rages the student to note them. It would be
strange if it were not so. The rise and fall of the
empires of the ancient world are but as episodes
in the vast human drama which is contained in
the Bible. The Bible contains the history of man,
and not of a nation only. And in the course of
this living portraiture of human nature men in
every position bear and receive the Divine mes-
sage, each according to the circumstances of his
character, his country, his age, furnished with
various gifts, actors at once and speakers on the
Divine stage, yet so acting and so speaking that
their personal characteristics form an essential
element of the part committed to them.
|
Interpreta-
One of the chief difficulties which arise from Consequent
this manifold complexity of the Bible lies in the difficulty of
practical interpretation of its contents, and though tion.
this question is not now immediately before us,
it cannot be passed by wholly without notice;
for it belongs to the very constitution of the
Book. It is obvious that the records of the Di-
vine teaching, addressed to societies thus widely
separated, by men who, while messengers of God
and prophets, were no less fellowmen of those
whom they addressed, must vary much as to the
8
THE BIBLE
DUCTION.
INTRO- form under which they present the truth. Their
permanent lessons cannot be gained by one uni-
form and dead law of literal interpretation. There
will be need, even as a first step towards entering
into these several lessons, of a distinct concep-
tion of the meaning of the words when they were
uttered, of the character of the act when it was
wrought. No part of the Bible, it is true, will
ever be antiquated, because all that is old there
yet retains the spirit with which it was at first
quickened, but still much in it belongs to modes
of thought and life with which we are wholly un-
familiar. Our habitual use of language belonging
to the past under new conditions, increases the
difficulty of understanding its real import. A
vigorous and constant effort is needed in order
that we may remember that the associations
which we attach to the words of Holy Scripture
are no part of their original meaning.
The difficulty which has been thus briefly
noticed is placed in its clearest light when we
regard the different series of revelations (so to
speak) which the Bible contains. These various
phases of the progressive revelation answer in a
great degree to the periods of social progress
already marked out, but they present them
under bolder and more comprehensive forms. If,
for instance, we compare the revelations which
God was pleased to make during the patriarchal
period with those which accompanied the giving
of the Law, we feel at once that they were not
only addressed to men in different positions, but
are also themselves different in scope and cha-
racter. The difference is yet greater if we com-
pare the letter of the Law with the writings of
the prophets, and the prophets with the Apostles.
2. Apparent
conflict of
successive dis-
pensations.
IN THE CHURCH.
Instinctively we make some adaptation and ac-
commodation of the contrasted parts. We clear
away difficulties by putting out of sight parts of
the data from which they arise. But no solution
of the many problems which arise from a com-
parison of Judaism and Christianity, and of va-
rious sides of Judaism and Christianity in their
mutual relations to one another will ever be satis-
factory, or even tend to place the harmony of
Scripture in its true aspect, which is not based
upon that principle of proportion which has been
already indicated. The teaching of Scripture, as
addressed to men, must be relative. To discover
the relation of a dispensation or a message to
those for whom it was primarily designed, is the
first condition of ascertaining what is its bearing
upon us and upon the general scheme of Divine
Providence.
INTRO-
DUCTION.
There is yet another feature inherent in the 3. The Bible
fragmentary.
very formation of the Bible, which cannot be
omitted in any estimate of its characteristics.
It is fragmentary. With the partial exception of
the Pentateuch, it does not anywhere present the
semblance of completeness. Where we can trace
the history of the component writings with the
greatest precision, it does not appear that they
were designed to form part of a written code of
doctrine or discipline. Humanly speaking, they
arose out of passing circumstances and were de-
signed to meet occasional wants. That annals
and prophecies and letters, thus (apparently)
casual in their origin, should combine into a whole
marvellously complete and symmetrical in its
spiritual teaching is, indeed, a clear intimation of
the presence of a controlling power both in their
composition and in their preservation. But the
10
THE BIBLE
INTRO- grand outline which they mark out is not every-
DUCTION. where complete. The several books necessarily
present many gaps in their record which we can-
not now fill up. The Divine stream sinks for a
time, though it shortly reappears with undimin-
ished strength. As soon as the whole history is
examined critically, it is evident that much must
remain obscure and perplexing. Yet the same
criticism which brings difficulties to light fixes a
practical limit to them. It is enough if we can
see where our ignorance is a fair answer to objec-
tions, without interpolating imaginary combina-
tions of events into the narrative of the Bible and
perilling its truth on our own ingenuity.
This fragmentariness of the Scriptures, when
viewed in their outward and purely historic as-
pect, is made yet more marked by the general
characteristics of the epochs in which they were
composed. In the main they belong to periods
of conflict and transition. They are the records
of the Divine teaching by which the religious
progress of the people of God was advanced from
one stage of development to another. They are
'not (with rare exceptions) the products of times
of silent growth and thought, but prophetic voices
which prepared a nation for new phases of life.
The Exodus, the first conquest of Canaan, the
establishment of the Kingdom, the Fall of the
divided kingdoms, the Captivity and the Return,
leave a distinct impress on the groups of books
which severally belong to them; and it is not
without a strange significance that the Divine
record closes when Israel was first brought into
contact with Greece. At present comparatively
little progress has been made in the study of the
Old Testament in the light of its special history.
4. The books
mainly be-
long to criti-
cal epochs.
G
IN THE CHURCH.
11
A narrow and unworthy view of the spiritual INTRO-
authority of its constituent parts still commonly DUCTION.
leaves out of account the peculiar characteristics
of each era and form of thought, as it refused to
recognize for a long time the diversities of cha-
racter and feeling in the sacred writers. In the
New Testament more fruitful labour has been
spent in this most difficult field of study, since
the diversities of apostolic teaching, however
pregnant with instructive difficulties, are con-
fined within a narrow compass. But whether the
fact yet be fully or partially acknowledged, it
seems most certain that the Bible represents a
progress by antagonism, a conflict and a recon-
ciliation of partial views of one truth, a whole
which is complete because it includes each sepa-
rate element in a distinct and proportionate
form.
For while we admit most fully the momen- ii. Corre-
sponding ad-
tous difficulties which are involved in the true vantages.
appreciation and interpretation of Holy Scripture,
yet it is evident that these difficulties are amply
compensated by corresponding advantages. If
the popular aspect of the Bible,-as one book,
written in one dialect, fashioned in one mould,
impressed with one moral and intellectual type,
intelligible by one rule, no less than inspired by
one Spirit-puts out of sight many perplexing
questions, it neglects equally many of the most
precious lessons which the Scriptures reveal to
all ages. It is only by acknowledging the variety
and distinctness of the parts of which the Bible
is composed that we can gain any adequate sense
of its real unity, of its inherent completeness, of
its internal witness to its proper Divine authority. 1. Unity of
The noblest external characteristic of the uniformity.
the Bible, not
12
THE BIBLE
INTRO-
DUCTION.
Bible is its unity as distinguished from mere
uniformity. Uniformity is the natural conse-
quence of a limited design: unity is the outward
expression of one great principle embodied in
many ways. The one comes from without, the
other from within: the one is the sign of con-
straint, the other of freedom: the one answers,
in its highest shape, to organization, the other to
growth. Take away the frank recognition of the
human element in the Bible, widening with the
increase of experience, which is of the very es-
sence of the entire Divine word, and the neces-
sary conditions on which its unity rests are at
once removed. Deny the antithetic teaching of
the Law and the Prophets, of St Paul and St
James, and there remains nothing to lead to that
fuller truth in which apparent contradictions are
resolved. One Evangelist, or the first three
Evangelists without St John, would have offered
comparatively few difficulties, but any one can
feel that the combination is the ground of a fuller
harmony than could have been constructed from
any uniform narratives.
2. The com-
pleteness of
the moral
training
which it con-
tains.
But the diversity of the Scriptures makes
itself chiefly conspicuous in the completeness of
the moral training which they convey. It is, as
we have seen, one of their distinguishing marks
that they belong to separate periods, to contrasted
phases of life, to various forms of culture, to dis-
tinct habits of thought, and the peculiarities
which they reflect are ever repeating themselves
in history. No temptation is more subtle or
more potent than that which bids us judge every-
Largeness of thing by one standard. Practically we are inclined
sympathy.
to measure others by ourselves, other ages by
our own, other forms of civilization by that under
IN THE CHURCH,
13
which we live, as the true and final measure of all.
Against this error, which is sufficient almost to
cloud the whole world, the Bible contains the
surest safeguard. In that we see side by side
how God finds a dwelling-place among nations
and families in every stage of social advancement,
and recognizes faithful worshippers even where
they are hidden from the eyes of prophets. The
absorbing cares of daily life, the imperious claims
of those immediately around us, tend to narrow
our sympathies, but the Bible shows to us, in an
abiding record, every condition and every power
of man blessed by the Divine Spirit. It lifts us
out of the circle of daily influences and introduces
us to prophets and kings and deep thinkers and
preachers of righteousness, each working in their
own spheres variously and yet by one power and
for one end. It may be objected that devout
students of the Bible have often proved to be
the sternest fanatics. But the answer is casy.
They were fanatics because they were students
not of the whole Bible but of some one fragment
of it to which all else was sacrificed. The teach-
ing of one part only, if taken without any regard
to its relative position in connexion with other
times and other books, may lead to narrowness
of thought, but the whole recognizes and ennobles
every excellence of man.
Nor is it only that the various character of the Breadth of
different parts of the Bible, if fairly regarded, view.
widens our sympathy: it enlarges our conceptions
alike of the destiny of the human race and of the
working of Providence. There are times when
men are inclined to regard religion merely as an
individual matter, as a kind of righteous egoism,
and then it is that we may dwell with especial
INTRO-
DUCTION.
14
THE BIBLE
INTRO-
DUCTION.
Patience.
3. The Bible
its own wit-
ness.
•
1
trust on those sublimer views of our social and
national connexions which are opened in the
broad outlines of the history of Israel and sanc-
tioned afresh in the imagery used in the New
Testament to portray the nature of the Church.
All history as unfolded there is but a preparation
for the establishment of 'the kingdom of God.'
The single citizen is never disregarded, as was
likely to be the case in some of the noblest sys-
tems of the ancient world, but he is never con-
templated without reference to a divine common-
wealth. And, again, when each part of the Bible
is examined in relation to the rest, we cannot but
be struck by what may be called the patience of
God, the slow fulfilment of His counsels. The
fabric of His Church, like the earth on which we
live, advances almost imperceptibly from age to age,
on what we might be tempted to call the ruins of
the past. The laws of its progress, marvellous and
inexplicable when contemplated in their special
working, are yet seen on a wider view to be most
natural, if by nature we mean (and a Christian can
hardly mean anything else) man's apprehension of
the expression of the one, harmonious, will of God.
In this sense each separate book of Holy Scripture
reveals some one portion of the growing work,
and the perception of progress is gained by the
comparison of successive records. Painfully, slowly,
with many drawbacks and terrible chastisements,
the people of Israel were trained to fulfil their
task; and their chequered history at once warns
and encourages those who compare the tardy
spread and scanty influence of the Gospel with
the largeness of its claims and promises.
It seems to follow from what has been said,
that the Bible contains in itself the fullest witness
1
IN THE CHURCH.
15
to its Divine authority. If it appears that a large
collection of fragmentary records, written, with
few exceptions, without any designed connexion,
at most distant times and under the most varied
circumstances, yet combine to form a definite
whole, broadly separated from other books; if it
further appear that these different parts when
interpreted historically reveal a gradual progress
of social spiritual life uniform at least in its gene-
ral direction; if without any intentional purpose
they offer not only remarkable coincidences in
minute details of facts, for that is a mere question
of accurate narration, but also subtle harmonies
of complementary doctrine; if in proportion as
they are felt to be separate they are felt also to
be instinct with a common spirit; then it will be
readily acknowledged that however they came
into being first, however they were united after-
wards into the sacred volume, they are yet legibly
stamped with the Divine seal as 'inspired by God'
in a sense in which no other writings are.
INTRO-
DUCTION.
Nature.
Thus the old analogy of Nature and the Bible Bible and
is again forced upon us. The harmonious relation
of facts, the subordination of details to great ends,
the convergence of the separate phenomena towards
one centre, the general laws of order and progress
which rule the whole are equally characteristic of
both. In both too there are residuary difficulties,
some of which may perhaps be removed by wider
knowledge, while others are probably inherent in
the necessarily finite view which we must take
both of the scope and method of the Divine plans.
ties in both.
The difficulties of the physical and moral Final difficul-
worlds-all that is involved in the ideas of pain
and sin-we bear almost unconsciously; and yet
there are no difficulties in the written record of
16
THE BIBLE
INTRO-
DUCTION.
Origen,
Philoc. 2.
Object of the
Essay,
God's Word deeper or more perplexing than these.
Nay the difficulties of Scripture spring, as we have
seen, from the very conditions which determine its
human and abiding value; and to quote once
again the pregnant words of the first great critic
of Holy Scripture, 'he who has once received the
Scriptures as derived from the Creator of the
world, must expect to find in them also all the
difficulties which meet those who investigate the
system of Creation.' But that this may hold true in
the highest sense, it is necessary that both Nature
and the Bible should be investigated in the same
manner. Each part must be interrogated faithfully
and patiently. We must approach both as learners.
There was a time when physical speculators in-
dulged in the not very innocent occupation of
forming imaginary worlds which should be free
from the imperfections which they found in ours.
Truer science has swept away their presump-
tuous dreams, and we may hope for the time
when the student of Holy Scripture will look for
what it contains, and not measure its contents by
preconceived notions of the manner and form in
which its lessons must have been given.
It has been the object of the preceding re-
marks to point out the necessity of the full recog-
nition of the distinctness of the various parts of
which the Bible is composed, both for the right
understanding of their special lessons for us and
for a comprehensive view of the progress of the
Divine preparation for the Gospel. It is now
possible to turn to the special subject of our in-
quiry, the history of the recognition of these de-
tached records as a complete written rule of
Christian doctrine. In tracing this history it is
no part of our object to discuss the origin, the
IN THE CHURCH.
17
DUCTION.
veracity, or the inspiration of the sacred books, INTRO-
but simply in what manner, when, and with what
consent or variety of opinion they were accepted
as containing an authoritative rule of faith. The
problem is purely historical; yet in such a case
history is the truest guide to right opinion. The
limits of the inquiry are naturally fixed at the
Apostolic age and the Reformation. The history
of the Old Testament before the Apostolic age is
most meagre and unsatisfactory ; and the era of
the Reformation exhibited the last great array
of authoritative judgments on the contents of the
Bible, which have been variously elaborated and
enforced in the last three centuries.
periods.
The period thus marked out falls into several Division of
natural divisions. The first includes the Apo-
stolic age (A.D. 30-80), in which we trace first the
recognition and limits of an Old Testament as
determined both directly by Jewish writers and
incidentally by the Apostles and our Lord Him-
self (Chap. 1.); and next the general circum-
stances which attended the composition of the
New Testament Scriptures (Chap. IL). The se-
cond division (A.D. 80-120) is characterized by
the organization of the Catholic Church, in which
the distinguishing elements of the different books
of the New Testament were embodied in the one
Faith (Chap. III.). The third is the age of the
Apologists (A.D. 120—170), in which Christianity
appears in conflict with heathen and Jewish an-
tagonists, and the writings of the New Testament
begin to be used habitually in the same manner
as those of the Old Testament (Chap. IV.). The
fourth (A.D. 170-303) presents to us the first
definite New Testament, varying slightly in its
1 See Appendix A.
2
18
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
INTRO-
DUCTION.
contents, but in the main universally recognized
throughout Christendom (Chap. v.). Then follows
the eventful era in which the Bible (New Tes-
tament) was first proscribed and then restored
(A.D. 303-397), (Chap. vI.). From this time the
contents of the New Testament were practically
fixed, but a division arose in the Western Church
on the extent of the Old Testament, part includ-
ing and part excluding the Apocrypha (Chap. VII.).
The real history of the Canon, as far as it has
any original value, closes here, but it will be in-
teresting to follow the course of ancient opinion
in the Western (Chap. VIII.) and Eastern Churches
(Chap. 1x.) till modern times, noticing in some
detail the conflicting opinions which were main- '
tained in the age of the Reformation (Chap. x),
to which all recent theories may be referred.
J
CHAPTER I.
THE BIBLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
What advantage then hath the Jew?... Much every way :
chiefly, because that unto them were committed the
oracles of God.-Rom. iii. 1, 2.
AT
A.D. 30-80.
The Disper-
beginning of
era.
T the commencement of the Christian era the CHAP. I.
Jewish nation was already widely scattered
throughout the old world. The fears or the policy
of the successive conquerors of the East had set- sion of the
tled colonies of Jews in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Jews at the
Syria; and the influence of commerce increased the Christian
and consolidated the power of these communities.
Thus the 'Dispersion,' as it was called, gathered
strength and consistency during upwards of five
centuries and under the most varied circum-
stances. Many of the lessons of the captivity were
permanently embodied in wide-spread societies,
and Judaism was placed in close and lengthened
contact with the teaching of Persia, Egypt, and
Greece. It necessarily followed that from the
time of the Exile this Dispersion became a most
important element in shaping the character and
fulfilling the destiny of the whole nation; and
more than any one outward cause, prepared the
way both materially and intellectually for the
propagation of a universal faith.
and division
It would be impossible here to enter with any The origin
detail into the history of the Dispersion. There of the Dis-
is much that is obscure in the accounts of the persion.
2-2
20
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
;
CHAP. I. earliest colonies; but the contemporary writings
A.D. 30-80. of Philo and Josephus bear clear witness to the
extent and character of the foreign Jewish settle-
ments in the first age; and the books of the New
Testament contain no less distinct proof of the
influence which they exercised upon the spread of
Christianity. At this time the Dispersion was
divided into three great sections, the Babylonian,
the Syrian, and the Egyptian. The Roman colony,
which dated from the time of Pompey (A.D. 63),
seems to have been confined within narrower limits
and to have held closely to Palestinian tradi-
tions. The Babylonian 'Dispersion' was the
oldest and claimed precedence before the others.
It extended through Media, Persia and Parthia
and in later times Babylon became one of the most
distinguished centres of Jewish learning. The
Jewish colonies in Egypt owed their origin mainly
to the wisdom of Alexander the Great and the
earlier Ptolemies. From Alexandria the Jews
advanced along the north coast of Africa, and a
considerable Jewish population was settled at
Cyrene and Berenice (Tripoli). The Syrian Dis-
persion was yet wider in its extent. Seleucus
+ B.C. 281. Nicator removed large bodies of Jews to his
western provinces, and they spread rapidly
through Armenia, Asia Minor, and Greece. But
however widely removed from the 'Holy City,'
however much despised by the stricter adherents
of the Law, the Jews of the Dispersion still main-
tained a loyal connection with the one Temple of
their nation. All paid the customary tribute, and
testified, though in various degrees, their depend-
ence on the religious authorities at Jerusalem.
Apart from the religious effect of this Disper-
sion upon the Jews themselves-the necessary
The general
effects of the
THE BIBLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
21
A.D. 30-80.
Dispersion as
ity.
relaxation of ceremonial observances, the steady
spiritualization of worship, when prayer and ex-
hortation were substituted for sacrifice, the recog-
nition of a sacred bond of union between societies a preparation
most widely separated by place and circumstances, for Christian-
the gradual substitution, in short, of the idea of a
faith for that of a kingdom-its external effect
was of the greatest moment. Everywhere the
Jews formed a nucleus of pure monotheists.
Their pagan neighbours became acquainted prac-
tically with the worship of one God; and the
'devout Greek' obtained a recognized connexion
with Israel, without accepting the complete bur-
den of the Law. The Apostles everywhere availed
themselves of the opening thus created in the
cities which they visited. Even when the Jews
rejected the message which was first addressed
to them, the imperfect proselytes who had ga-
thered around them were eager to receive a
Gospel of which they could feel the full value.
Without some such preparation, the spread of
Christianity in the first age would be historically
inconceivable. The mode in which the prepara-
tion was effected offers one of the most remarkable
examples of Divine Providence which we are
allowed to contemplate.
CHAP. I.
quent circu-
ment.
But dismissing all detailed discussion of the The conse-
effects of the Dispersion upon the progress and lation of the
development of Christianity, whether by further- Old Testa-
ance or by antagonism, we must yet notice one
special point with which we are directly concerned.
As far as can be ascertained the Jews, however
widely scattered, carried their sacred books every-
where with them. 'Moses,' St James says, ‘of old Acts xv. 21
time hath in every city them that preach him,
being read in the synagogue every sabbath day.'
22
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 30-80.
·
CHAP. I. No testimony could express more strongly the
extent of Judaism, or the universal use of the
ancient Scriptures in the Apostolic age; for, as we
learn from other passages, the special mention of
Acts xiii. 15. Moses does not exclude the public recitation of
the Psalms and the Prophets. Not to speak now
of the intimate acquaintance with almost every
part of the Old Testament which is assumed by
our Lord to exist in all his hearers, and after-
wards by the Apostles within the limits of Judæa,
we find a like acquaintance apparent everywhere
wherever we can catch a glimpse of the religious
life of the Jews. The Ethiopian chamberlain no
Acts xvii. 11; less than the Jews of Beroa and Rome 'searched
the Scriptures.' At Antioch, at Thessalonica, at
Corinth, at Ephesus, at Rome, St Paul took for
granted that his Jewish hearers were familiar
with Scripture, and ready to abide by the conclu-
sions which could be drawn from it. Philo, as
will be seen, shows that the same was the case in
Egypt. From Babylonia alone all contemporary
evidence fails us; but the tostimony of a later age
proves that there is no reason to suspect that
there was any variation here from the general
feeling of the Jews.
xxviii. 23.
We find then at the beginning of the Apostolic
age ‘the twelve tribes scattered abroad' through-
Acts xxvi. 7. out the civilized world-and it is instructive to
James i. 1.
1 Pet. i. 1.
notice that the Dispersion itself obliterated the
ancient division of the nation and restored its spi-
ritual unity:-we find them everywhere in posses-
sion of sacred books, described generally as 'the
Law and the Prophets;' we find that these books,
or parts of them, were habitually read, and that
their contents were recognized as authoritative.
The Jews had then at that time a 'Bible' of some
THE BIBLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
23
kind, sanctioned by ancient usage, and it re-
mains to inquire whether there is sufficient evi-
dence to determine its contents. For this pur-
pose it will be most convenient to examine first
the evidence of Jewish writers (i), and then the
evidence which can be drawn from the New Tes-
tament (ii).
CHAP. I.
A.D. 30-80.
tament gene-
Greek Trans-
LXX.)
But before doing this it may be well to notice The Old Tes-
a difficulty which may occur to some who have rally intelli-
not realized the condition of the Roman world at gible in the
the Christian era. What provision, it may be lation (the
asked, was made by the translation of the Hebrew
Scriptures for their circulation through so many
distant provinces? The answer is most simple.
The Greek Version-the Septuagint—which was
made gradually at Alexandria, at various dates,
from about the middle of the third century B. C.
sufficed (to speak generally) for all. It is, indeed,
possible that parts of the Old Testament were
already translated into Syriac and Latin, but the
evidence for this opinion is very slight; and there
is little reason to doubt that Greek was under-
stood in the cities of the far East, and it was
certainly well known throughout the chief towns
of Africa, Syria, Asia Minor, Italy, and Gaul.
During the early period of the Empire a single rule
embraced the known world, and a single language
opened the way to all hearts. But that language
was the proper language neither of the Conqueror
nor of the Teacher. Jerusalem gave the Divine
message wrought out in a world-long history,
during which she had gathered in struggles and
sufferings all the wisdom of the East: Greece gave
the language which had gained from the labours
of poets, philosophers, and orators, a power and
plasticity never since equalled: Rome gave the
24
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
!
A.D. 30-80.
CHAP. I. facilities of imperial organization and the dig-
nified protection of sovereign law, unknown before
that marvellous epoch, which in every aspect was
indeed 'the fulness of time.'
i. The evi-
dence of
Jewish wri-
ters as to the
the Old Tes-
contents of
tament.
i. These great facts, the broad unity of the
Roman Empire and the Dispersion of the Jews,
coextensive with its limits, and yet bound toge-
ther round one centre, form the foundation of all
understanding of the Apostolic age. At a later
time the destruction of Jerusalem put an end to
the external connexion of the Jewish societies,
and the Christian Churches made no attempt, till
long afterwards, to embody the Catholic Faith in
one outward organization. But during the lifetime
of St Paul every condition was realized for pro-
claiming the Gospel to the whole world, and reap-
ing the full fruits of the earlier preparation for
its message. There was variety in the form and
relations of Judaism combined with substantial
unity. This unity, it will appear, was preserved
by the use of the same Scriptures as well as by
the observance (more or less complete) of the
ritual which was based upon them. It is with
the first point alone that we are now concerned.
And when we inquire what contemporary Jew-
ish evidence there is as to the contents of the
Sacred Volume in the first century, two writers
at once offer themselves, Josephus in Palestine,
and Philo at Alexandria, representing the two
chief sections of the Jewish Church; for though
the Alexandrine Dispersion was inferior to that
of Babylon in antiquity and to that of Syria in
extent, it was superior to both in intellectual
vigour. The testimony of Babylon we must draw
from a later source; that of Syria from the casual
notices in the Apostolic writings,
w
THE BIBLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
25
A.D. 30-80.
1. FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS (that is, Joseph, born CHAP. I.
A.D. 37, died after A.D. 97), in whose Romanized
name we do not at first recognize the name of the
Patriarch, was eminently fitted by birth, character 1. Joserпus.
and education to be the historian of his nation.
He was of priestly descent and connected on his
mother's side with the noble family of the Mac-
cabees. At an early age he studied with diligence
the tenets of the various Jewish sects, and at a
later time gained an extensive acquaintance with
Greek literature, especially such as bore on the
history of the East. It is unnecessary to follow
the course of his life during the war of independ-
ence. After a distinguished but unavailing re-
sistance he surrendered himself to Vespasian,
whose future elevation he is said to have foretold,
though he did not immediately gain his confi-
dence. At length, on the accession of Vespasian
to the imperial throne, Josephus was released
from confinement; and during the reign of the
Flavian emperors Vespasian, Titus and Domi-
tian (whose family name he assumed), he was
treated with great distinction. His works-The
History of the Jewish War, The Antiquities of
the Jews, his Autobiography, and the Books
against Apion, on the Antiquity of the Jews-
were composed at Rome, and the first, at least,
was admitted into the Palatine Library. His
Treatise on the Antiquity of the Jews (or
against Apion, as it is commonly called) was com-
posed some time after A.D. 93, and was intended
to maintain the belief in the early origin and re-
cords of the Jewish nation against the objections
drawn from the silence of the Greeks. With this
object Josephus points out the late introduction of
writing to the western nations, and the absence of
A.D. 67.
A.D. 63.
26
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 30-80.
CHAP. I. early authentic registers of public events among
them. In skill of composition, the East, he says,
yields to Greece, but not in the accurate history
of antiquity, and still less in the special history
of different nations. In illustration of this state-
ment he quotes first the primitive annals of the
Egyptians, Babylonians and Phoenicians; and then
goes on at once to speak of the Jewish records in
greater detail, as the fact of their antiquity was
not equally familiar to his readers. The whole
passage, though long, is of the highest interest;
dismissing all inquiry into the records of Egypt,
Babylon and Greece, as it is universally admitted
that they date from the earliest time, "I shall
c. Ap. i. 7. 9 endeavour," he says, "to show briefly that our
forefathers exhibited the same care as the nations
already mentioned in the record of events, for I
do not stop to maintain that it was even greater,
as they enjoined this duty on the high priests and
prophets, and [further, I shall show] how this cus-
tom has been preserved up to our time with great
exactness, and, to venture on a bold assertion,
how it will still be preserved. For not only did
we commit this charge in the first instance to the
best men and those who were devoted to the
service of God, but we also took care to preserve
the priestly race constantly pure and unmixed...
...(even) in Egypt and Babylon, and in any other
place in the whole world, where any of the priestly
race are scattered......Our accuracy in this respect
is most conclusively proved by the fact that the
descent of our priests is preserved in our records
by name from father to son two thousand years
back......Naturally, therefore, or rather necessa-
rily [this accuracy is found in our Archives] inas-
much as the making the record did not rest upon
IIis special
testimony.
THE BIBLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
27
A.D. 30-80.
the simple will of any, and there is no discrepancy CHAP. I.
in the facts recorded; but the prophets only
[composed our annals] who narrate the most re-
mote and ancient events through the inspiration
of God, and compiled exactly the history of the
occurrences of their own time. For we have not
tens of thousands of books discordant and con-
flicting, but only twenty-two, containing the re-
cord of all time, which have been justly believed
to be Divine. And of these five are the books
of Moses, which embrace the laws and the tra-
dition of the creation of man reaching up to his
(Moses') death. This period is little short of three
thousand years. Next, the prophets who suc-
ceeded, compiled the history of the period from
Moses to the reign of Artaxerxes the successor of
Xerxes, king of Persia, in thirteen books, [relat-
ing severally] what was done in their times. The
remaining four books embrace hymns to God, and
practical directions for men. From the time of
Artaxerxes to our own time each event has been
recorded; but the records have not been deemed
worthy of the same credit as those of earlier date,
because the exact succession of the prophets was
not continued. But what faith we have placed
in our own writings is seen by our conduct; for
though so long a time has now passed, no one has
dared either to add anything to them, or to take
anything from them, or to alter anything. But
all Jews are instinctively led from the moment of
their birth to regard them as decrees of God, and
to abide by them, and, if need be, gladly to die
for them. So ere now many of our captive coun-
trymen have been often seen to endure tortures
and all kinds of deaths in theatres, that they
might utter no word against the laws and the
28
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 30-80.
CHAP. I. records which are united with these. And what
Greek would endure such a test in like case?
Nay, rather, no Greek will endure even an ordi-
nary loss to save the whole literature of his nation
from destruction."
Conclusions
from his
statements.
:
When every allowance is made for the rhe-
torical character of the passage, and the evident
desire of Josephus to adapt his statements to the
feelings of heathen readers, several important
conclusions may be certainly deduced from it.
*
(1) The Sacred Writings were distinctly
limited in number; and this number (it appears)
was admitted by universal consent.
(2) The reign of Artaxerxes (c. 450 B. C.)
was regarded as the extreme limit of the Divine
history (i. e. according to Josephus, the Book of
Esther).
(3) The books were esteemed Divine, and
this without any distinction between the three
classes into which they were divided (Law, Pro-
phets, Psalms, or, to use the technical term, Ha-
giographa, i. e. Holy Writings).
His arrange-
At present we are concerned only with the
ment of the first of these conclusions, the number of the Sa-
Books of the
Old Testa-
ment.
cred Books. This number itself, the number of
the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, indicates an
artificial arrangement, and in later times was
adapted to various mystical speculations. But
Josephus divides the books in an unusual manner,
and as he gives no special enumeration of them,
some doubt has arisen as to the way in which he
reckoned up his thirteen books of the prophets,
and four books of the Hagiographa. The usual
enumeration gives eight books of the Prophets
(Joshua, Judges and Ruth, 1, 2 Samuel, 1, 2
Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Lamenta-
THE BIBLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
29
tions, and 12 minor Prophets), and reckons the
remaining nine as Hagiographa. Sometimes Ruth
and Lamentations are reckoned separately, and
added to the Hagiographa, in which case the total
number of books is twenty-four instead of twenty-
two. Josephus follows a different arrangement;
and if we observe the peculiar definitions which
he gives of the two classes, it will appear that
he necessarily includes all the historical books
among the writings of the prophets, so that the
books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther,
as well as Daniel and Job, are included in the
second class; while Psalms, Canticles, Proverbs
and Ecclesiastes alone satisfy the description
which he gives of the third class.
CHAP. I.
A.D. 30-80.
expression of
nion; and
Thus the list of the books of the Old Testa- His testi-
ment given by Josephus exactly coincides with mony not the
our own; and there is nothing in his language to private opi-
countenance the suspicion that he is expressing
the opinion of one sect or country. The popular
belief that the Sadducees, like the Samaritans,
received only the Pentateuch, rests on no ade-
quate evidence. It is possible that they (like the
Alexandrine Jews) drew a less sharp line of divi-
sion between the books of the Old Testament and
other books; but if they had rejected all the
sacred writings except the books of Moses, Jose-
phus could hardly have omitted such an import-
ant trait in the description which he elsewhere
gives of the opinions of the sect, as he expressly
notices their rejection of tradition.
The casual quotations in Josephus give the supported by
same result. With the exception of Proverbs, tions,
casual quota-
Ecclesiastes and Canticles, which furnished no
materials for his history, and Job, which, even if
historical, lay without his scope, he quotes all the
30
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
•
A.D. 30-80.
CHAP. I. remaining books included in his list, either as
divinely inspired or as authoritative sources of
truth. On the other hand, while he uses the first
book of Maccabees as the basis of his history of
the period of which it treats, he definitely ex-
cludes it from the list of sacred books by the
chronological limit within which he confines them.
With the remaining books of the Apocrypha he
shows no acquaintance; though Judith and
2 Maccabees must have been noticed by him, if
he had known them and held them to be trust-
worthy.
2. Our next witness PHILO is somewhat ear-
lier in date than Josephus, but his evidence is
less precise. He was born at Alexandria, proba-
bly about the year B. c. 20, and, like Josephus,
was of priestly descent. The one important fact
in his life, of which we have certain information,
was an embassy to Rome, which he undertook
A. D. 40, with four others of his countrymen, in
the hope of obtaining from the emperor Caius
(Caligula) some mitigation of the decrce by which
he had enjoined even on the Jews the adoration
of his image. The embassy failed in its object,
but the death of the emperor in the following
year averted the worst dangers which it was in-
tended to remove. At the time of this mission,
Philo was already advanced in years, and he ap-
pears to have devoted all his carlier life to study.
It would, indeed, be difficult to imagine any Jew,
still faithful to the Law, who could have entered.
with a larger sympathy into the speculations of
Greek philosophy before the spread of Christian-
ity. Christianity has necessarily changed our ap-
preciation of Judaism, but Philo was emphati-
cally a Jew before Judaism was widely declared
2. PHILO.
THE BIBLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
31
A.D. 30-80.
to culminate in a universal religion. Many, with- CHAP. I.
out doubt, had preceded him in the endeavour to
reconcile the precepts of the Law with the teach-
ing of philosophy, but he combined into a system
what was before fragmentary, and at the outset
announced his great thesis, that "the true servant
of the Law is necessarily the true citizen of the
world."
relation to the
It would carry us too far from our immediate His general
purpose to indicate the method by which Philo Old Testa
extracted the spiritual lessons which he supposed ment.
to be hidden under the veil of patriarchal history.
All the Law appeared to him to be full of pro-
found allegories and subtle harmonies; and he
recognized with equal readiness the truths which
had been laid open by Greek (and Eastern) philo-
sophers, so that it was a common saying, "Either
Philo teaches Plato (Platonizes), or Plato teaches
Philo." The reverence which he shewed for the
letter of the Law, as the sure groundwork of
its spiritual significance, is remarkable on many
grounds. The ecclesiastical constitution of the
Alexandrine Jews was comparatively lax. The
Old Testament existed among them only in a
Greek translation, and that made at different
times, by different persons, without any unity of
plan or execution, and apparently without any
final and authoritative revision or sanction. At
the same time other books which, though of high
religious interest, were not acknowledged as of
Divine authority in Palestine, were translated into
Greek, (for instance 1 Maccabees, Ecclesiasticus,
&c.), and circulated together with the translations
of the Hebrew Scriptures. Some books of similar
character were also written at Alexandria it-
self, and by their intrinsic worth challenged wide
32
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. I. respect (as Wisdom). All these circumstances must
have tended to obscure the notion of a definite
Bible, or at least to have modified its contents,
either by confining it to the Law, or by including
within its range (as we shall see was actually the
case at a later time) all the writings which were
sanctioned in any way by public or ecclesiasti-
cal use.
..
AD 30-80.
His special
testimony
to the con-
tents of the
Old Testa-.
ment.
Fr. p. 628.
Euseb. Pr.
Ev. viii. 6.
In spite of these disturbing influences by which
he was surrounded, Philo appears to have held
the same opinion as Josephus on the number of
the sacred books. The Pentateuch, indeed, as
was natural, occupied the first place in his regard.
The later books, according to his principles of in-
terpretation, were but partial elucidations of its
teaching, and their writers "companions of Moses"
or "members of his sacred band." Of the Law he
says, that “after a lapse of more than two thou-
sand years [the Jews] had not changed a single
word of what had been written by [Moses], but
would sooner endure to die a thousand times than
consent to violate his laws and customs;" and all
his works are based upon a verbal criticism of
the Septuagint text, which he accepts as the faith-
ful reflex of the Divine original. But while the
Law is thus prominent in his writings, some books
from each of the other divisions of the Old Testa-
ment are quoted, though far less frequently than
the Pentateuch, as Divine or authoritative. Thus of
the 'former prophets,' Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel,
1 Kings are quoted as 'the sacred word,' 'the
Divine oracle,' or mystically interpreted; of the
'later prophets,' Isaiah and Jeremiah of the
greater,' Hosea and Zechariah of 'the less,' are
said in various places to have spoken by Divine
inspiration; of the 'historical Hagiographa,'
THE BIBLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
33
;
1 Chronicles and (probably) Ezra are quoted; of
the 'poetical Hagiographa,' Psalms, Proverbs and
Job. On the other hand, though it is impossible that
Philo should have been unacquainted with some
(at least) of the Apocryphal writings (as Ecclesiasti-
cus), yet he never makes a quotation from them¹.
of the sacred
books.
It further appears from a remarkable passage His division
in Philo's description of the life of the Therapeu-
tæ-the true forefathers of the Christian monks-
that the threefold division of the Palestinian Bible
was not unknown in Egypt. "In each house of De Vit. Cont.
these ascetics there is," he says, "a temple which § 3.
is called...a monastery (a solitary cell), in which
they perform the rites of a holy life, introducing
therein nothing...which is needed for the necessi-
ties of the body, but laws, and oracles delivered
by prophets, and hymns and the other [books] by
which knowledge and piety are mutually increased
and perfected." The last words are somewhat
ambiguous, still from the connexion in which they
stand it seems reasonable to suppose that already
some addition was made to the contents of the
three divisions of the sacred books which were
recognized in Palestine; but at present these new
writings formed a distinct class and were not in-
corporated in the several parts of the Bible with
which they were specially connected.
Briefly it may be said that we can trace in
Philo the conflict between the traditional view of Summary of
Philo's testi-
the Jews on the Old Testament, and the looser
opinions which, as has been already remarked,
were almost forced upon him by the circumstances
mony.
1 The passage in De Praem. § 19, which is com-
monly said to have been taken from some unknown
apocryphal book, is an obvious adaptation of Ex. xxiii.
26 (LXX.).
CHAP. I.
A.D. 80-80,
3
34
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 30-80.
CHAP. I. of his position, as well as by the general character
of his speculations. Like other Jews, he held the
Pentateuch to be the spring of all later teaching,
the complete record of the Divine law. But he
held this view with peculiar distinctness: nor
could it be otherwise. The Pentateuch was raised
into preeminence at Alexandria not only by its
intrinsic character, but practically scarcely less.
by the fact that for some time it was the only
book accessible to a Greek-speaking population.
The books of Moses formed then the first Bible.
Round them the other books which were received
in Palestine were gradually collected, but in such
a way that the sense of their unity as parts of one
whole was obscured or even destroyed; and at
the same time other writings came into popular
use, and probably were joined in the same volume
with the older books. Yet Philo, in the midst of
this confusion, retained a hold upon the definite
belief of the Palestinian Jews. Though he drew
his chief illustrations from the Pentateuch, which
formed the subject of his work, yet he also ex-
plained a few passages from the later historical
books in a mystical sense, showing that he did not
regard them as differing in kind from the books
of Moses. His system led him to regard every
one who shares in the Divine reason as being in
some sense a prophet, yet even for him "the pro-
phets" were a definite body, through whom "the
Father of the Universe gave oracles." But it is
easy to see even in Philo a tendency to break
down the boundaries of the Old Testament, by an
undue exaltation of the Pentateuch in comparison
with the other books. This tendency, which was
restrained in his case by a familiarity with the
opinions of his countrymen in Palestine, was ne-
THE BIBLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
35
cessarily far more powerful among less educated
Alexandrines; and it is most likely that the Greek
Bible popularly received among them was already
enlarged beyond the limits of the original Hebrew
Bible. Yet this enlargement, whether it was
already commenced or took place at a later time,
was a result of habit and not of judgment. It
was not determined by any conflict or agreement,
but by the circumstances under which the books
themselves were first introduced and afterwards
studied.
1 The Talmud consists of two parts: the text,
Mishnah (a repetition, i. e. a second law), which was
committed to writing in the third century, and a com-
mentary, Gemara. There are two Gemaras, that of
CHAP. I.
A.D. 30-80.
MUD.
3. It is necessary to come to a much lower 3. The TAL-
date to obtain the judgment of the Babylonian
Jews. This first appears in a written form about
the close of the 5th century in the TALMUD, the
great summary of the unwritten law, which had
been preserved in very many cases by exact tra-
dition from the time of the Return from Captivity,
or even from a yet earlier age. The account given
of the formation of the Old Testament appears to
be in substance of the most venerable antiquity,
and probably contains the most ancient opinion of
the Jews upon the subject which has been pre-
served. In estimating its historical value it is
well to bear in mind the tenacity with which Ori-
entals retain a definite traditional record, and yet
more, the special repugnance of the Eastern Jews
to committing their opinions to writing, till the
successive persecutions and destruction of their
schools made this the only method of saving them
from complete oblivion. The passage in question
is contained in the Babylonian Gemara¹, in the Baba Bathra,
f. 146.
3-2
36
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 30-80.
CHAP. I. section which treats of the division of property.
It is difficult to account for its occurrence in such
a connexion, but the whole arrangement of the
Gemara is most strange and inartificial. It runs
as follows: 'But who wrote [the books of the
Bible]? Moses wrote his own book, the section
about Balaam and Job. Joshua wrote his own
book and [the last] eight verses of the Pentateuch.
Samuel wrote his own book, the books of Judges
and Ruth. David wrote the book of Psalms [of
which some were composed] by the ten venerable
elders, Adam the first man, Melchizedek, Abra-
ham, Moses, Haman, Jeduthun, Asaph, and the
three sons of Korah. Jeremiah wrote his own
book, the books of Kings and Lamentations.
Hezekiah and his friends [wrote the books in-
cluded in] the memorial book JAMSHAK, i.e. Isaiah,
Proverbs (Meshalim), Canticles (Shir hashirim),
and Ecclesiastes (Koheleth). The men of the
Great Synagogue, [the books included in] the
memorial word Kandag, i.e. Ezekiel, the twelve
(minor prophets), Daniel, and Esther. Ezra wrote
his own book and continued the genealogies of the
books of Chronicles down to his own times....But
who completed them (the books of Chronicles)?
Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah.'
The context
of the passage.
This remarkable passage stands in close con-
nexion with two others which bear upon the same
subject. One of these treats of the binding toge-
ther of the sacred books, the other of their order.
From the former it appears that a question had
been raised whether the Law should be alone,
the Prophets alone, and the Hagiographa alone,
but it was decided that he who bound all toge-
Jerusalem and that of Babylon: the former is some-
what earlier in date, but the latter is the more full.
THE BIBLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
37
A.D. 30-80.
ther did rightly. The second passage gives a list CHAP. I.
of books according to the three divisions, Law,
Prophets, Hagiographa, reckoning Ruth and
Lamentations as separate books among the Ha-
giographa. But these traditions are far inferior
both in interest and (as it appears) in antiquity
to that which has been quoted. For it is impor- Its import-
tant to notice that this contains no trace of the ance.
triple division of the books, which is found in the
context, and on the contrary places together
books from the Hagiographa and the Prophets.
It is also another most striking feature in the tra-
dition that while several of the books are said to
have been 'written,' that is, reduced to their pre-
sent form by others than their proper authors,
yet it does not appear that anything was sup-
posed to be detracted from their Divine author-
ity by this revision.
tions.
The functions of the men of 'the great assem- Later tradi
bly¹,' as described in this earliest notice of their
labours, are confined within very reasonable and
trustworthy limits. In later times this tradition-
for it is impossible not to believe that it is sub-
stantially præ-Christian-was fabulously embel-
lished. Thus in the Second Book of Esdras, which
cannot be much later than the close of the first
century, Ezra is represented as writing again by 2 Esdr. xiv.
immediate inspiration the sum of the divine reve-
lation, and delivering to the people twenty-four
books in place of those which had been lost. The
same story is repeated by many early Christian
Fathers, for example, by Irenæus, Clement of
20-40.
1 See Appendix A.
(C
2 The true reading in 2 Esdr. xiv. 44 is ninety
and four." When the "seventy" books reserved for
"the wise among the people" (v. 46) are removed, this
number gives the contents of the original collection.
38
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 30-80.
CHAP. I. Alexandria, and Tertullian. As a singular pen-
dant to the popular story of the origin of the Sep-
tuagint the legend is not without historical inte-
rest; but at present it is chiefly remarkable as a
striking testimony to the recognized number of
the public sacred books of the Old Testament ;
and an indication of the manner in which the later
apocryphal writings were connected in theory
with the original collection.
Thus far we have seen the substantial unity of
the opinion of the Jewish churches in Palestine,
Egypt and Babylonia upon the contents of the Old
Testament. All agree in confirming the authority
of those twenty-two or twenty-four books only
which we receive; but this agreement is com-
bined with characteristic differences¹. In Pales-
tine the books appear in a definite and symmetri-
cal arrangement completely marked off from all
the other literature of the people. In Alexandria
the line of separation is practically on the point of
being obliterated or even broken. In Babylonia
the tradition of the origin of the books is con-
nected with the enumeration of them. We next
pass to the examination of the evidence which
can be gathered from the apostolic writings, which,
though casual and disconnected, is of the highest
interest and importance.
Summary.
ii. The evi-
dence of the
Apostolic
writers as to
the contents
of the Old
Testament.
ii. One of the most important characteristics
of the apostolic writings in their historical aspect,
in which alone we now regard them, is their variety.
1 The uniformity of the contents of the Hebrew
Bible at later times will be seen in the catalogues of
Melito, Origen and Jerome, which are based on Jew-
ish authorities.
The limitation of the Samaritan Bible to the Pen-
tateuch was the necessary consequence of historical
and political conditions (App. A).
THE BIBLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
39
A.D. 30-80.
Even on the most cursory view it is obvious that
they fall into distinct groups which represent typi-
cal forms of thought and feeling. These groups, Variety of
as will be seen afterwards, are distinguished by Apostolical
writings.
broad lines of difference. Thus their independ-
ence multiplies the force of their testimony; and
so far as they combine in presenting the same
general result as to the contents of the Old Testa-
ment, the result depends not on one witness but
on the concurrent evidence of several. Speaking
roughly we may divide the books of the New Tes-
tament into three such groups. The first group
includes the first three (synoptic) Gospels, the
Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St James,
St Peter, and St Jude: the second group, the
Epistles of St Paul with the Epistle to the He-
brews: the third group, the writings of St John.
titles for Holy
Scripture.
Before proceeding further we may notice the Collective
indications which these different groups contain
of the existence of a definite collection of sacred
writings generally known and recognized. The
plainest of these lies in the name by which the
books of the Old Testament are most commonly
called 'the Scriptures, 'the Writings.' This
title, which is as definite in its apostolic use as
with us, is found in each group (Matt. xxii. 29;
Acts xvii. 11; 1 Cor. xv. 3; John v. 39), and
the records to which it is applied are assumed to
contain the sum of the divine revelation (Matt. xxvi.
54; 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4), and to be the source of autho-
ritative argument (Luke xxiv. 27; Acts xviii. 28).
This general title is further explained by the fuller
phrase the Law and the Prophets (or Moses and
the Prophets, Luke xvi. 29, 31), which is also used
in cach group to describe the whole of the Old
Testament (Matt. vii. 12; Rom. iii. 21; John i. 46);
CHAP. I.
40
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 30-80.
CHAP. I. the title of the Law itself is extended by a re-
markable usage, which has been already noticed,
to the Psalms (John x. 34; xv. 25), and Pro-
phets (1 Cor. xiv. 21), and the Old Testament gene-
rally (John xii. 34). In one passage the triple
division of the books is clearly recognized, where
it is said that 'all things must be fulfilled which
were written in the Law of Moses and in [the]
Prophets and in Psalms....' (Luke xxiv. 44);
though the certain omission of the article in the
last clause and its suspiciousness in the second,
point to the conclusion that the reference is
rather to different parts of the sacred writings
and not to the Bible as a whole under its com-
plex title.
·
Importance
of this usage.
The Hebrew
collection of
sacred books
preserved by
the study of
the original
text.
The existence of these collective titles, the
universal assumption of their intelligibility, the
absence of all trace of doubt as to their applica-
tion in the districts over which the evidence ex-
tends, the unhesitating appeal to the writings
described by them, the absolute equality of the
different parts which are recognized in the whole
collection, have an important bearing both posi-
tively and negatively upon the special testimonies
to separate books. They extend the testimony
from one book to a group of books, and they ex-
clude the inference that a possible use of other
books places them on the same footing with those
which belonged to the recognized collection.
The definiteness of this collection of sacred
books was secured in Palestine by a special
guarantee. Whatever may have been the general
currency of Greek in social intercourse, however
widely or even universally the Septuagint may
have been used in public and private religious
exercises, yet it is certain that an influential school
THE BIBLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
41
#
of public teachers still maintained the study of
the Hebrew text. Thus there was no danger in
Palestine, as in Egypt, that the original limits of
the Old Testament should be obscured. Popular
usage, even if it went astray, was corrected by the
presence of the original records; and there is not
the slightest evidence to show that the Hebrew
Bible ever included any more books than are now
contained in it.
CHAP. I.
A.D. 30-80.
The range of the express quotations from the 1. Express
Old Testament in the first group of the Apostolic quotations in
writings extends (in each division) to the Law,
the Prophets and the Hagiographa, without any
difference in the mode of citation. In the synop- The first
tic Gospels the quotation is made sometimes by three Go-
spels.
the Lord Himself, sometimes by the Evangelist,
sometimes by the Jews, in a way which shows be-
yond all doubt the equality of authority which was
attributed to all the sacred books, the unanimity,
with which this authority was admitted, and the
extent of the collection of Scriptures within nar-
row limits. Thus our Lord quotes passages from
Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, 1 Sa-
muel, Psalms, Isaiah, Daniel, Hosea, Jonah
and Malachi, with the most distinct recognition
of their binding moral force; and it is worthy of
notice that St Mark, who introduces no quota-
tion in his own person except in the preface to
his Gospel (xv. 28 is an interpolation), yet agrees
with the other Evangelists in preserving those
which occur in the Lord's discourses. The list of
books quoted in the first three Gospels is in-
creased by St Matthew and St Luke, by the addi-
tion of Leviticus, Jeremiah, Micah, and Zecha-
riah. The quotations in the Acts spread over The Acts.
the same field, including passages from Genesis,
42
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 30-80.
Epistles.
2. Express
quotations in
of St Paul.
CHAP. I. Exodus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Isaiah, Joel,
Amos, and Habakkuk. In the Catholic Epistles
The Catholic (with the exception of the Epistles of St John)
quotations occur from Genesis, Isaiah and Pro-
verbs. The wide extent of these references when
compared with the brief compass of the books in
which they occur is a remarkable proof of the
familiar acquaintance of the Jews with the Old
Testament; and the fact that in each subordinate
group of books passages are found from all the
three classes into which the writings of the Old
Testament were subdivided, seems to show that
no practical difference existed in the use of them.
In the Epistles of St Paul, or rather in that
the Epistles great group of his epistles which is composed of
1, 2 Corinthians, Galatians and Romans, the
range of quotations is a little more extensive,
including Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deutero-
nomy, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, Job, Psalms, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Hosea, Habakkuk, and Malachi; but
in his remaining epistles there are only three or
The Epistle at most four express quotations. In the Epistle
to the Hebrews the quotations are proportion-
ately still more numerous, and it is a character-
istic difference that they are in every case intro-
duced by a word which implies the living voice
of the speaker-‘he saith,' 'he spake,' 'he beareth
witness'-and not merely the testimony of the
record-it hath been written.' The quotations
in this Epistle are made from Genesis, Exodus,
Deuteronomy, 2 Samuel, Psalms, Proverbs,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Haggai.
to the He-
brews.
In the Gospel of St John passages are quoted
3. Express
quotations in from Exodus, Psalms, Isaiah, and Zechariah.
In his epistles and the Apocalypse no express
quotations occur, though the latter is in a great
St John.
>
THE BIBLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
43
measure constructed out of the language of the CHAP. I.
Old Testament.
A.D. 30-80.
biblical remi-
For it must be remembered that the express such quota-
quotations in the Apostolic writings include only tions only a
a very small portion of the passages borrowed small part of
from the Old Testament. It is scarcely possible niscences.
to read many consecutive verses in any part of
the New Testament without meeting with words
or phrases which are obviously reminiscences of
the Septuagint; and the ease and naturalness
with which these are introduced prove more dis-
tinctly than anything else could do, how com-
pletely this great Greek version was inwrought
into the minds of the devout Jews of the Apos-
tolic age. But setting aside silent quotations
and coincidences, every book in the Hebrew Bible
is distinctly quoted in the New Testament with
the exception of Joshua, Judges, Chronicles,
Canticles, Ecclesiastes, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther,
Obadiah, Zephaniah, and Nahum; and, with the
limitations already noticed, there is no percep-
tible difference between the different groups of
the Apostolic books as to the range or character
of the quotations which they contain.
tations.
The general evenness of the biblical quota- General sum-
tions throughout the New Testament may be con- mary of quo-
veniently exhibited by a brief summary of the
direct quotations in the several groups of books.
Some differences may arise in the enumeration of
them, but the number of distinct references, not
reckoning repetitions in the same group, is ap-
proximately as follows:
•
44
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. I.
A.D. 30-80.
i.
ii.
7
4
Synoptic Gospels...... 15
Acts
Catholic Epistles......
The Epistles of St
Paul
Epistle to the He-
**
..
Law. Prophets. Hagiographia.
21
6
9
7
1
2
13
...
25
11
11
brews
iii. The writings of St
John (Gospel)
2
6
6
Of special books Isaiah and the Psalms fur-
nish by far the largest number of references, as
might naturally be expected from their extent
and character; and the absence of quotations
from the books which have been mentioned is to
be explained by the peculiar and limited naturę
of their contents.
28
4
No special
quotation
from the
On the other hand there is not one direct quo-
tation in the whole of the New Testament from
Apocrypha. any of the books included in the Apocrypha,
though the book of Wisdom has very numerous
points of contact with Christian doctrine. This
fact is universally admitted, and is of the greatest
interest, for even if it appear that some of the
Apostolic writers were acquainted with one or
other of the books of the Apocrypha, yet their know-
ledge and use of the books prove nothing as to
their reception among the Canonical Scriptures,
Acts xvii. 28, unless the same claim be conceded to Aratus or
29.
Tit. i. 12.
Epimenides. So far as the clear evidence extends,
the books of the Hebrew Bible are quoted as
writings sui generis, and as forming part of a
definite and known collection, the limits of which
are fixed by independent witnesses in such a way
as to harmonize exactly with the casual quota-
tions of the Apostolic writers. But it is never-
theless evident that it would be impossible to
determine the contents of the Old Testament
THE BIBLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
45
by the express quotations in the New, without
the complementary evidence of direct testimony.
Quotations and general references are necessarily
valid only as far as they actually extend. They
have in themselves no negative force. And it is
only when taken in combination with explicit
catalogues of the sacred books that they show in
the clearest manner how the formal belief was
actually ratified in practice.
1 It may be well to add that this statement is made
after a careful examination of the passages alleged in
the late thorough discussion of the question in Ger-
many. The most striking parallels which have been
adduced are: Wisd. v. 18-21 || Eph. vi. 13-17.
CHAP. I.
A.D. 30-80.
silent, verbal,
This corroborative power belongs properly and Extent of
in its full weight only to express quotations; and historical
if, however, account be taken of coincidences coincidences.
of thought or expression, the extent of the evi-
dence is very greatly enlarged. In this case the
whole number of quotations in the New Testa-
ment from the Old cannot be less than seven
hundred, and is probably still greater. Yet most
of these references are taken from the same books
as furnish the direct quotations, though it appears
certain that passages of Joshua, 1 Chronicles, John iv. 5.
and probably also of Esther, were present to the James ii. 25.
minds of the apostolic writers. On the same Apocrypha.
grounds it seems likely that St Paul and (perhaps) Acts vii. 47 K
St James were acquainted with the book of 12.
Wisdom; and the author of the Epistle to the Mark vi. 22,23
Hebrews alludes to the facts related in 2 Mac-Hebr. xi. 37.
cabees, though he may not have derived his know-
ledge of them from that book. The alleged refer-
ences to Ecclesiasticus are extremely doubtful;
and there are certainly none to Judith, Tobit, or
any other of the Apocrypha¹.
Jos. xxiv. 32.
Chron. xvii.
Esth. v. 3.
Old Testa-
ment.
46
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. I.
A.D. 30-80.
Express
quotations
of doubtful
origin.
Luke xi,
49-51.
But there are four or five apparently distinct
references to "passages of Scripture" in the New
Testament of which the original sources cannot be
certainly traced, and it has been frequently sup-
posed that these must have been derived from
lost Apocryphal books¹. The passages occur in
Luke xi. 49, 51; James iv. 5; 1 Cor. ii. 9; Eph.
v. 14; John vii. 38. Each of these requires a short
notice. The passage in St Luke is introduced by
the phrase ‘Therefore also said the Wisdom of
God, and the substance of the words which follow
is assigned to the Lord Himself in Matt. xxiii. 34.
Thus both the mode of reference, which is with-
out a parallel, and the character of the quotation
are unfavourable to the belief that it was directly
borrowed from any writing. The general tenor
of the passage is contained in 2 Chron. xxiv. 19;
and it is not improbable that those words had
been remoulded at an early time, and preserved,
like other traditional sayings, till they were
Wisd. xv. 7 || Rom. ix. 21. Wisd. ii. 12 || James v. 6.
Wisd. vii. 27 || Hebr. i. 3. Ecclus. v. II | James i. 19.
Ecclus. vii. 10 || James i. 6. Tobit iv. 16 || Matt. vii.
12. Wisd. ii. 16—18 || Matt. xxvii. 43-54. Any one
who will examine the character of the coincidences in
these passages, and their relation to the language of
the Old Testament, will readily feel how slender the
evidence is on which the apostles are affirmed to
have been acquainted with the writings in question.
The last parallel is, in many respects, the most re-
markable, and one which appears to be most certainly
casual.
1 As the words Apocrypha, Apocryphal are ambi-
guous, it may be well to notice that I have limited the
terms Apocrypha or books of the Apocrypha to the ec-
clesiastical books added to our Bibles. Apocryphal
books or writings, on the other hand, are those which
are admitted to be unauthentic. This distinction will
be always observed in the following pages.
THE BIBLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
47
A.D. 30-80.
finally ratified by the Lord¹. The passage in St CHAP. I.
James is much more difficult. Or do ye think
that the Scripture saith in vain, Doth the Spirit James iv. 5.,
that dwelleth in us (or rather which He caused
to dwell in us) lust to envy? As the words
stand it seems most natural to believe that the
words Doth the Spirit......envy? are a quotation,
and according to the true reading, a quotation
from a Christian writing. The only alternative
is to suppose that the verse consists of two dis-
tinct questions, and that the first has reference
only to the general scope of the teaching of Scrip-
ture. But such a use of 'saith' is apparently
without a parallel; and, on the other hand,
there is not the slightest trace of words like the
assumed quotation in any other place. The
supposition that the reference is to a Christian
writing gains some confirmation from Eph. v. 14. Eph. v. 14.
Wherefore he (or one) saith, Awake thou that
sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ
shall give thee light. For here it seems almost
certain that the words quoted are part of a
Christian hymn, an opinion supported by Seve-
rian early in the fifth century, though some Fa-
thers referred the quotation to an apocryphal
book of Elias 2. Another quotation of St Paul,
1 Cor. ii. 9, As it is written, Eye hath not seen, 1 Cor. ii. 9.
1 The reference in Matt. ii. 23 which was spoken
by the prophets is not wholly dissimilar; for in this it
appears that the general scope of several prophetic
passages was summed in a phrase which does not
occur in any one of them. Compare John i. 46 with
Is. liii. 3, Ps. xxii. 6.
2 The phrase in 1 Tim. v. 18, The labourer is wor-
thy of his hire, is apparently only a popular proverb,
and not a reference to Luke x. 7. Compare John iv.
37, 2 Pet. ii. 22 (the second proverb).
48
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
F
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man, the things which God hath pre-
pared for them that love Him, was also referred
at a very early time (at the beginning of the third
century by Origen, or perhaps at the middle of
the second by Hegesippus) to an Apocalypse of
Elias. From the direct testimony of several com-
petent witnesses there can be no doubt but that
the passage did occur in an apocryphal writing in
this form; but it seems equally certain that the
groundwork of the passage is Is. lxiv. 4, and
in this (as in some other places) St Paul seems to
have availed himself of a traditional rendering,
which may have been widely current. There is,
at least, no evidence to show that the Apocalypse
of Elias was earlier than his Epistle¹. The words
John vii. 38. in St John vii. 38, He that believeth on Me, as
the Scripture hath said (or said), out of his belly
shall flow rivers of living water, appear to be
(like Luke xi. 49-51) a free adaptation of Old
Testament imagery (Is. xliv. 3; Zech. xiii. 1), but
with this difference, that the adaptation was one
suggested by the immediate circumstances of the
discourse, and moulded by our Lord to suit the
figure which He had used immediately before
(drink, out of his belly).
CHAP. I.
A.D. 30-80.
Quotation
of St Jude
There yet remains the remarkable quotation
from Enoch. of St Jude from Enoch (Jude 14, 15): Enoch
also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of
these saying, Behold the Lord cometh......against
1 Traces of Jewish tradition are found 2 Tim. iii. 8
(Jannes and Jambres); Jude 9 (Michael and Satan);
Hebr. ix. 19 (the book), &c.; and the phrases in Matt.
vii. 2 (with what measure...); Matt. vii. 5 (cast the
mote...); Matt. xii. 25 (every kingdom divided...), &c.,
appear to have been proverbial.
THE BIBLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
49
A.D. 30-80.
Him. The words thus quoted exist substantially CHAP. I.
in the Apocryphal book of Enoch, which is still
preserved in an Æthiopic translation. From the
form in which the quotation occurs, it is impos-
sible to determine whether St Jude derived it
from tradition or from this so-called Apocalypse.
Yet as the book of Enoch was widely circulated
at a very early time, it seems almost certain that
the quotation was made directly from it; and it
is needless to inquire from what ulterior source
the words were originally taken. It is enough
that St Jude simply adopts the language of his
time in speaking of words with which his readers
were probably familiar. They may have been
handed down orally from primitive times-many
will be inclined to think that it must have been
so from St Jude's use of them-but of this there
is not the slightest external evidence.
From what has been said it will be evident
how little ground there is for believing that our
Lord or the Apostles sanctioned the authoritative
use of the Apocrypha or Apocryphal books. The
books with which they offer certain coincidences
were never admitted into the Hebrew Bible, nor,
as far as is known, ever made a claim to admission
to the Christian Bible till late times when, with
the partial exception of Enoch, they were univer-
sally rejected. Yet, on the other hand, the pas-
sages last quoted from St Jude, St James, and
Ephesians tend to show that the formula of the
citation of Scripture were not always used with
exclusive strictness; and the wide freedom of
citation which was admitted is seen in the other
references.
The general conclusions which follow from the General
review of all the earliest evidence as to the con-
result.
4
50
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. I.
A.D. 30-80.
The early
history of the
Old Testa-
ment to be
traced in that
of the New.
tents of the Jewish Bible may be briefly stated.
(1) The books which are definitely enumerated as
part of the collection of Holy Scripture are ex-
actly the same as those books of the Old Testa-
ment which are now received; and there is no
trace of any explicit difference of opinion on the
subject, or of any attempt to extend the collec-
tion by the addition of later writings. (2) The
casual testimony of the New Testament harmo-
nizes completely with the direct evidence ob-
tained from other sources, both as to the exist-
ence of a recognized body of 'Scriptures,' and as
to the books contained in it. (3) In Palestine all
the books included in the collection-The Law
and the Prophets'-are placed on the same foot-
ing as authoritative sources of divine truth, with-
out any distinction of character; and no con-
clusion can be drawn from the use of the books
in the New Testament as to the peculiar pre-
eminence of any part of them. But, on the other
hand, (4) In Egypt, and probably wherever the
influence of Palestine was not predominant, the
Law was placed in such a position of supreme
and complete authority, that the distinction be-
tween the remaining books of Scripture and the
ordinary religious literaturo of the people was in
danger of being disregarded.
Such was the Bible at the time when it was
destined to receive its final complement. In the
next Chapter we shall trace the circumstances
under which a New Testament gradually and
without conscious purpose grew up by the Will of
Providence under the shadow of the Old. The
mode of this growth, which can be followed with
tolerable exactness, will explain better than any-
thing else the corresponding process in the for-
THE BIBLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
51
mation of the Jewish Bible. Indeed, in the
absence of adequate original evidence, it is only
in this way that we can understand how the Old
Testament was formed historically; nor is it an
essential difference between the two cases, that
the productive energy of the divine teachers was
extended in the one case over many centuries
while it was limited in the other to a single gene-
ration¹.
1 A sketch of the history of the formation of the
Hebrew Bible, as distinct from the history of the
origin of the separate books, is given in Appendix A.
CHAP. I.
A.D. 30-80.
4-2
CHAPTER II.
CHAP. II.
THE GROWTH OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
Not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the
things which are now reported unto you by them
that have preached the Gospel unto you with the
Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.—1 Pet i. 12.
IF
F it is always difficult to realize the beginning
of any great movement, to picture the exter-
nal appearance which it must have presented to
study of the those among whom it arose, to appreciate with-
A.D. 30-80.
The critical
Apostolic age
a source of
hope.
out reference to later experience the judgments
which must have been passed upon it, to follow
out the partial or conflicting developments which
it must have received, before it gained its final
shape, this difficulty becomes almost overwhelm-
ing in studying the rise of Christianity. Not only
are the conditions of the problem in this case
complicated beyond all example, but the subject
is necessarily veiled under a halo of religious awe.
It seems to be irreverent to attempt to analyse
the first forms of that life which animates all
Christendom, to separate what has been united
by the instinct of centuries, to contemplate as his-
tory wrought out upon earth, in the midst of mis-
understanding and conflict and error, that which
is now seen most readily in its heavenly power;
THE GROWTH OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
53
A.D. 30-80.
yet Christianity not only admits a purely critical CHAP. II.
inquiry into the outward circumstances under
which it arose and spread, but even invites it.
It was the consolation of St Paul that Christ's
strength is made perfect in weakness. And if on 2 Cor. xii. 9.
a closer scrutiny traces of human infirmity can
be discovered in that earliest age of the Church,
in which the presence of a Divine power is most
certainly visible, the result will be not a lessening
of the majesty of the past, but a bringing of hope
and confidence to the study of other periods,
where the darkness of present misconceptions still
hides the working of Providence. The temper
which isolates the first age does injustice to its
abiding power, and takes away a large measure
of that instructiveness which we may believe it
was designed to preserve for all time. The more
free and more truly reverent study of its records
finds that they have a vital connexion with our
life. The apostles though full of the Holy Ghost
and of power, could yet proclaim that they were
men of like passions with their Gentile hearers; Acts xiv. 15.
and conversely as we picture to ourselves their
working, we may believe that in spite of divisions
and disappointments, the promise of Christ has
not yet failed, according to which He is with Matt. xxviii.
His Church always, even to the end of the
world.
20.
In order to appreciate the Apostolic age in The work of
the Apostles
its essential character, it is necessary to dismiss to preach, not
not only the ideas which are drawn from a col- to write.
lected New Testament, but those also, in a great
measure, which spring from the several groups of
writings of which it is composed. The first work
of the Apostles, and that out of which all their
other functions grew, was to deliver in living
54
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 30-80.
CHAP. II. words a personal testimony to the cardinal facts
of the Gospel-the Ministry, the Death, and the
Resurrection of our Lord. It was only in the
course of time, and under the influence of ex-
ternal circumstances, that they committed their
testimony, or any part of it, to writing. Their
peculiar duty was to preach. That they did in
fact perform a mission for all ages in perpetuat-
ing the tidings which they delivered, was due not
to any conscious design which they formed nor to
any definite command which they had received,
but to that mysterious power which is for men
the outward expression of the action of God, Who
uses the results of our free agency for the fulfil-
ment of His designs.
Their training
makes the
New Testa-
Everything in the national and spiritual posi-
tion of the Apostles was unfavourable to the forma-
ment a moral tion of a written record of Christian history or
miracle.
doctrine. The training of the Palestinian Jews
was exclusively oral. The Old Testament was an
inexhaustible field for study, which admitted no
rival and seemed to require no supplement. Even
those teachers who, like Gamaliel, were acquaint-
ed with Greek literature, remained faithful to the
ancient tradition, which forbade them to commit
anything to writing. And this discipline under
which St Paul was schooled, must have been less
incompatible with literary effort than the rude
life of Galilee. As soon as the Apostles are seen
in their historical relations, the supernatural
energy with which they were inspired is revealed
beyond all cavil. That the New Testament should
havo been written by Jews-and St Luke is the
only Gentile, if, indeed, he was a Gentile, among
the apostolic writers-is a moral miracle of over-
whelming dignity, if only account be taken of the
THE GROWTH OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
55
traditions and prejudices among which they, like CHAP. II.
all their countrymen, were born and reared.
A.D. 30-80.
ward to no
long historic
The general disinclination of Jews for literary The Apostles
work must have been greatly increased in the looked for-
case of the Apostles by the spiritual position
which they occupied. For them the kingdom of future.
God was already at hand in the fulness of its
completed triumph. The close of the old dispen-
sation appeared to coincide with the final consum-
mation of the new. The slow development of
countless ages was brought together in their per-
spective in the one awful scene of the revelation
of the Lord. The time seemed to be imminent
when they which were alive and remained should 1 Thess. iv. 17.
be caught up to meet Him. The future to which
they looked forward was one in which there would
be no need for written monuments of the first
coming of Christ, for it was to be enlightened by Rev. xxi. 23.
the abiding glory of the Saviour.
into tho Eter-
ration.
But while the Apostles, like the prophets in Their insight
former times, failed to see the full meaning of nal, one sign
their own work, the same circumstances which hid of their inspi-
from them the history of following generations
enabled them to pierce through all that is seen
and temporal to the spiritual and eternal. 'Men
wrote history, as it had never been written, whose
present seemed to have no natural sequel; and
unfolded doctrine with far-seeing wisdom, while
they looked eagerly for that divine presence in
which all partial knowledge should be done away.'
They erred not in their spiritual apprehension of
things, but as to the temporal dress in which they
arrayed them. The 'Lord came' and His 'king-
dom' was established, yet not so as to dispense
with the long labour of men in realizing its bless-
ings. Thus it is that the writings of the Apostles
56
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 30-80.
CHAP. II. and Evangelists are instinct with inexhaustible
lessons. If we look at them on their historical
side it is this peculiarity of their origin which is
the condition of their divine authority. They
reach forward to the end of the dispensation in
which we are living. Like Christianity itself they
belong to no one age. Their authors wrote in the
immediate contemplation of that glorious triumph
of Christ in which it culminates. 'Heaven lay
about them,' and as that light faded from the
world, a Christian literature succeeded to a New
Testament.
The teaching
The records which have been preserved of
of the Apos- the working of the Apostles fully confirm the
tles oral not
written.
Gal. i. 12, 16.
view which has been given of their office. They
first witnessed by oral teaching to the facts of the
Life of Christ, and then proclaimed the truths
which flowed from them. The qualification for
the Apostolate was to have known Christ person-
Acts i. 21, 22. ally; and St Paul himself claimed this direct and
personal knowledge. The common work of the
twelve was prayer and the ministry of the word;
and St Paul writes that Christ sent him...to preach
the Gospel. The message with which they were
charged was to be enforced by the living voice :
they could not but speak the things which they
had seen and heard. The Gospel was what the
witnesses of Christ had seen...and looked upon
and...handled of the word of life. The question
which expressed best the spirit in which they
went forth was how shall men hear without a
preacher? As yet it was impossible that they
could feel that the brightness of the image of
Christ could fade away from the minds of men, or
the memory of His words be effaced. The repeated
experience of many ages has even yet hardly suf-
Acts vi. 4.
1 Cor. i. 17.
Acts iv. 20.
1 Jolm i. 1.
Rom. x. 14.
The need of
a written
record felt
later.
THE GROWTH OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
57
A.D. 30-80.
ficed to show that a permanent record of His CHAP. II.
words and deeds, open to all, must coexist with
the living body of the Church, if that is to con-
tinue in pure and healthy vigour. In the first
glow of Christian love it might seem that such
a power needed nothing from without to sus-
tain and temper it. That which is still a life
can rarely be apprehended as a history or a doc-
trine.
substance
But while the work of the Apostles lay Their oral
chiefly in preaching, this was substantially histo- teaching in
rical. The narrative of the Acts contains several historical.
examples of the way in which the Gospel mes-
sage was delivered. Two may be taken to repre-
31.
sent the general character of all. St Peter before Acts x. 37–43.
Cornelius, and St Paul in the synagogue at An- Acts xiii. 23-
tioch, base their teaching on the facts of the Sa-
viour's life. Both briefly sketch the outlines of
His ministry from the Baptism of John to the
Resurrection; and the discourse of St Peter,
which was the immediate preparation for Bap-
tism, is, as it were, a brief commentary on the
events which are included in the Apostles' Creed.
Everywhere one fact-the Resurrection-was the
starting-point of the Apostolic teaching. By all
alike and in every place this was set forth as the
spring of all faith. In Palestine, in Asia Minor,
in Greece, in Italy, before popular assemblies, in
the council and in the synagogue, the same wit-
ness was delivered. The Gospel claimed to be an
announcement of facts, and in the first generation
it triumphed in virtue of its claim.
One of the first effects of this oral historical The forma-
tion of an
oral Gospel.
teaching of the Apostles must have been the
separation of a cycle of facts which formed the
centre of their message. Out of the infinite mul-
58
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. II. titude of those things which Jesus did and suf-
fered, a few only could be preserved for the in-
struction of the Church: how few, perhaps we
can hardly realize, without reckoning up what a
small number of days contribute all the incidents
of the Gospels, and how little remains even in the
record of those to bear witness to the labours
Mark vi. 31. which left no leisure so much as to eat. Thus the
selection of representative facts from the history
of the Lord was one of the first steps towards the
establishment and instruction of a Christian soci-
ety. Apart from all considerations of immediate
Divine guidance, it is obvious that the experience
which the Apostles gained in their preaching
would define the general character of the facts
suited to the fulfilment of their work, and the
limits within which they ought to be confined.
Thus gradually an oral Gospel would be con-
structed, varying slightly in its contents from
time to time, but fashioned according to the
same general model. By constant repetition,
especially in the instruction for Baptism, the form
of each constituent narrative would gain a certain
consistency; and at the same time the prominence
given to particular acts and discourses of the Lord,
would tend to destroy the recollection of those
other incidents in His Life, which were not allow-
ed by Divine Providence to be included in the
Evangelic cycle.
A. D. 30-80.
John xxi. 25.
Traces of a
historic tra-
dition in the
Epistles.
There are several traces in the Epistles of the
existence of this Evangelic tradition, which con-
stitutes the first stage in the composition of our
1 Cor. xi. 23; Gospels. Thus St Paul speaks of 'delivering' to
others what he had himself 'received' as to the
details of the Last Supper, the Passion and the
Resurrection. St Luke, again, speaks of the ac-
IV. 3.
THE GROWTH OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
59
A. D. 30-80.
count of the Lord's Life which they delivered CHAP. II.
which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and
ministers of the word. And in close connexion Luko i. 2.
with these distinct traces of a historical tradition,
must be taken those other passages which speak
more generally of the deposit committed to the
Evangelist, or of the revealed mystery of godli- 1
ness, which is described in words that seem to
reflect the outlines of a primitive Creed.
Tim. vi. 20.
2 Tim. i. 12,
14; iv. 5.
1 Tim. iii. 16.
Gospel com-
While the Gospel thus gradually assumed a The oral
definite shape in the oral teaching of the Apostles, mitted to
many, as it seems from St Luke's words, endea- writing.
voured to commit it to writing; and some, per-
haps, formed collections of the words of the Lord,
others of His acts, others of the events of the
Passion. In doing this they gave a new form to
that which was the common inheritance of Chris-
tians (Luke i. 2...as they delivered them unto us);
but there is nothing to show that they attempted
either to enlarge or to modify the contents of the
oral Gospel. They designed to do what was after-
wards done under Apostolic sanction. As long as
the twelve were still at Jerusalem, they were in
themselves abiding witnesses to the facts which
they announced; and, if we may believe the ac-
cordant traditions of the early Church, it was not
till they were scattered and their work of preach-
ing well nigh finished, that the first authoritative
record of the Gospel was composed. Thus St
Mark is said to have written down the substance!
of St Peter's public preaching. "St Luke," in
like manner, "committed to a book the Gospel
which Paul used to proclaim ;" and, though this
rests upon a later authority, St Matthew, when he
was about to go to a fresh field of labour, left his
Gospel to supply the place of his oral teaching in
60
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 30-80.
CHAP. II. Palestine. The Gospel of St John belongs to a
yet later period, and is wholly separated from the
cycle of oral narratives. It is essentially a per-
sonal witness of the one beloved disciple, and not
a reflection of the common public witness of the
twelve. And, unlike the others, this Gospel was
composed in its present form with a definite pur-
pose, and without any direct reference to what
was already known: these (signs) 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.
The extension of the work of the Apostles
gave rise to another form of composition, which
probably contributed the first written elements of
the Christian Scriptures. The founders of scat-
tered Churches had need to counsel or reprove
or instruct those whom they had admitted to the
faith. Such was the origin of most of the Epistles
of St Paul. Others again felt drawn by peculiar
ties towards large societies of men on whom
they wished to enforce special aspects of truth,
as St Paul in writing to the Romans, St John in
the Apocalypse, and the author of the Epistle to
the Hebrews; and with a more general scope
St James, St Peter and St Jude. As the Churches
grow, some directions were needed for their ma-
nagement, and thus the Pastoral Epistles were
written. At a still later time St John, looking
back over a whole generation of believers, could
address to his 'children' the earliest type of a
Christian pastoral (1 John). And besides all
these, there must have been need of much indivi-
dual communication between Christians, of which
specimens yet remain in 2, 3 John, and the Epis-
tle to Philemon.
Jolin xx. 30,
31.
Comp. Luke
i. 1-4.
The origin of
Epistles.
THE GROWTH OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
61
CHAP. II.
A.D. 30-80.
composition
All this took place in the natural way of his-
tory. The Apostles when they speak claim to
speak with Divine authority, but they nowhere No combined
profess to give in writing a system of Christian design in the
doctrine. Gospels and Epistles, with the excep- of the differ-
tion, perhaps, of the writings of St John, were ent books.
called out by special circumstances. There is no
trace of any designed connexion between the
separate books, except in the case of the Gospel
of St Luke and the Acts, still less of any outward
unity or completeness in the entire collection. On
the contrary, it is not unlikely that some epistles
of St Paul have been lost; and though in point of
fact the books which remain do combine to form
a perfect whole, yet this completeness is due, not
to any conscious co-operation of their authors,
but to the Will of Him by whose power they wrote
and wrought.
tament still
Bible by the
Indeed it appears from what has been already The Old Tes-
said that the Old Testament was the Bible of the felt to be a
Apostolic Church. In embracing Christianity, complete
the Jewish convert found the key to the myste- Jew.
rious words of the Prophets. What was obscure
before was now flooded with a new light. It was
seen that all the prophets from Samuel and Acts iii. 21,24.
those that follow after, as many as have spoken,
foretold the fortunes of Christ and His Church.
The old Scriptures were felt to be able to make & Tim. iii. 15.
men wise unto salvation through faith which is
in Christ Jesus. There was no sense of incom-
pleteness in their record, no desire for any per-
manent supplement to their contents, no purpose
of composing any new Law to interpret the old.
For the Gentiles, on the other hand, the simple The Gentile
facts of the Apostolic message were sufficient. of a Bible.
The tidings of the Resurrection was for them a
felt no want
62
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 30–80.
CHAP. II. complete Gospel. Yet silently and in distant
places the New Testament was written, so that
when the want of it was first felt, the Jew might
read there in unfading characters the fulfilment
of the earlier dispensation, and the Gentile be led
to trace back through the ancient Scriptures how
by the discipline of ages that Church was prepared,
into the fulness of which he was admitted.
This fundamental contrast of feeling between .
Jew and Gentile, which exercised a considerable
influence on the collection of the Christian Scrip-
tures, was manifested in a yet more striking dif-
ference of teaching. Difference soon degenerated
into antagonism, and the Apostolic writings re-
veal the speedy development of the great forms
of heresy, which in various shapes have ever con-
tinued to disturb the Church. Even within the
Church the fulness of truth was only slowly real-
ized; and the earliest heresy was simply the per-
verse and obstinate retention of that which had
once been the common belief, after that a wider.
view had been sanctioned by Divine authority.
Thus in its primitive form the Apostolic Church
was simply a congregation of Jews, who added to
the observance of the Law a belief in Jesus as
Acts iii. 21. the Messiah, with the immediate hope of a resti-
tution of all things. In this stage there was no
idea of the abrogation of the Law before the Se-
cond Coming of Christ. The Hellenist Stephen
Acts vi. 13, 14. first proclaimed the change of the customs which
Moses delivered, and the storm which followed
on his teaching sufficiently shows the novelty of
its form. Afterwards, when a mightier Stephen
was already prepared in the person of 'Saul the
persecutor,' the full privileges of the Church were
extended to 'devout' Gentiles, of whom Cornelius
Antagonism
of Jew and
Gentile in the
Apostolic age.
Acts x. xi.
THE GROWTH OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
63
A.D. 30-80.
was the type, yet not without misgivings and op- CHAP. II.
position from those that were of the circumcision.
The same opposition was repeated with greater
violence, when, through the preaching of St Paul,
God had opened the door of faith unto the Gen- Acts xiv. 27.
tiles. Cornelius rendered at least a partial hom-
age to the Law, and a Divine sign testified to his
acceptance, but the work of St Paul was based on
the broad principle of the openness of the Gospel Acts xv.
to all alike. Again the law of progress was affirm-
ed, and freedom was assured to the heathen con-
verts. Yet another step remained. The Jews
hitherto had held to their Law by common con-
sent. Jerusalem was still the seat of the twelve:
the Temple was their habitual place of worship:
the national Festivals were still hallowed by their
observance. St Paul conformed in practice to
the customs of his countrymen, but after a little
experience in his Divine work, he declared that
the keeping of the Ceremonial Law was a matter
of indifference even to Jewish converts. This was
the last struggle, and the Epistle to the Galatians
bears witness to the fierceness with which it was
contested. Perhaps it may be said that the issue
would have been doubtful but for the fall of Jeru-
salem and the abolition of the Temple service,
which ratified by an awful judgment the perfect
liberty of the Christian Church.
nism reflected
Till this consummation, however, two great par- This antago-
ties of Christians were necessarily opposed to one in the New
another within the Church, those who observed the Testament,
both in the
Law and those who neglected it. The opposition of
Epistles, and
the leaders was in reality an alliance based upon the
Gal. ii. 7.
recognition of complementary work; but among
their followers the observance of the Law dege-
nerated into Judaism, and the rejection of it into
THE GROWTH OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
63
A.D. 30-80.
was the type, yet not without misgivings and op- CHAP. II.
position from those that were of the circumcision.
The same opposition was repeated with greater
violence, when, through the preaching of St Paul,
God had opened the door of faith unto the Gen- Acts xiv. 27.
tiles. Cornelius rendered at least a partial hom-
age to the Law, and a Divine sign testified to his
acceptance, but the work of St Paul was based on
the broad principle of the openness of the Gospel Acts xv.
to all alike. Again the law of progress was affirm-
ed, and freedom was assured to the heathen con-
verts. Yet another step remained. The Jews
hitherto had held to their Law by common con-
sent. Jerusalem was still the seat of the twelve:
the Temple was their habitual place of worship:
the national Festivals were still hallowed by their
observance. St Paul conformed in practice to
the customs of his countrymen, but after a little
experience in his Divine work, he declared that
the keeping of the Ceremonial Law was a matter
of indifference even to Jewish converts. This was
the last struggle, and the Epistle to the Galatians
bears witness to the fierceness with which it was
contested. Perhaps it may be said that the issue
would have been doubtful but for the fall of Jeru-
salem and the abolition of the Temple service,
which ratified by an awful judgment the perfect
liberty of the Christian Church.
nism reflected
Till this consummation, however, two great par- This antago-
ties of Christians were necessarily opposed to one in the New
another within the Church, those who observed the Testament,
Law and those who neglected it. The opposition of
the leaders was in reality an alliance based upon the
recognition of complementary work; but among
their followers the observance of the Law dege-
nerated into Judaism, and the rejection of it into
both in the
Epistles, and
Gal. ii. 7.
THE GROWTH OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
65
presents the acts of Christ with the spirit of St
Peter. Such differences occur naturally in sepa-
rate records of any great events, for they lie deep
in the mental characteristics of men; but that
which makes their presence in the Gospels full of
instruction is, that each form finds its represen-
tation in a particular treatment of common ma-
terials, and that the Gospels are connected in this
way with distinctive types of Apostolic doctrine
and critical phases of Apostolic history.
CHAP. II.
A.D. 30-80.
of St John.
The destruction of Jerusalem, which decided The writings
for ever the earliest controversy in the Church,
brought another question to a head. If the Gospel
had vindicated its essential freedom from Judaism,
what points of connexion could it show with the
wider aspirations of humanity? The answer to
this inquiry came from one of the first Apostles,
who in this sense had fulfilled the spiritual mean-
ing of His Lord's words, and 'tarried till He came.' John xxi. 22.
St John, without the appearance of any conscious
purpose, beyond that most general one which he
describes, shows how the spiritual teaching of St John xx. 31.
Paul had its foundation in the words of the Lord;
how from the first a preparation had been made for
the gradual establishment of a universal Church;
how, finally, throughout all time the Word, Who John i. 3–11.
at last was made flesh, had been present in the
world which He had created as the light of men.
of its divine
authority.
The writings of St John complete the cycle of The historic
variety of the
the Apostolic Scriptures, and contain the fullest New Testa-
revelation which has been given of those highest ment a sign
forms of Truth in which the differences of the
early Church are resolved. Yet it is evident that
the understanding of St John depends in a great
measure upon the recognition of previous differ-
ences. And at the same time each part of the
5
66
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
:
A.D. 30-80.
CHAP. II. New Testament gains immeasurably in solemn
meaning when it is regarded in its true light as
the monument of an epoch in the growth of the
Church. In this aspect the wide range over which
the Apostolic writings extend as to their authors,
their subjects, their dates, gives a historic gran-
deur to their sum, of which all sense is lost when
the circumstances of their origin are disregarded.
He only who watches how each writing was called
forth by some passing need, how it was welcomed
and preserved by some section of the Church,
how it was related to other manifestations of the
one infinite Truth,-who marks the sovereign
authority which is everywhere assigned to the
Scriptures of the Old Testament, and the assumed
completeness of their teaching which underlies
the use which is made of them,-who recognizes
the complete absence of design in the relations of
the several books, the utter unconsciousness of a
common purpose in their writers, the directness
with which they seem to be addressed to present
wants, can truly feel the marvel of their unity,
which is the outward pledge of their divine power,
or fully understand how the New Testament is the
historical symbol of the Catholic Church. How it
became so will form the subject of the next
Chapter.
CHAPTER III.
THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS.
All the body by joints and bands having nourishment
ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the
increase of God.-Col. ii. 19.
ΑΤ
CHAP. III.
A.D. 80-120.
The dark
aspect of the
T the close of the apostolic age the external
prospects of the Christian Church were per-
haps as much overcast by danger and discourage-
ment as at any later time. The writings of St
Paul are full of anxious forebodings for the future, close of the
Apostolic
Even in one of his earliest epistles the falling Age.
away was put forward as one of the necessary 2 Thess. ii. 3.
conditions of the manifestation of Christ to which
he was eagerly looking forward. At a subsequent
time he noticed the fulfilment of his sad prophecy
at Miletus, when he told Timothy that all they Acts xx. 29.
which are in Asia were turned away from him.
The same dark traits appear in the picture which
St John draws of the seven churches in the
Apocalypse. Of these some had left their first
love, and were in danger of speedy and fatal judg-
ment. So-called Apostles were active among them
which were indeed liars; and others there were Apoc. ii. 2.
of the synagogue of Satan which said they were Apoc. iii. 9.
Jews, and were not; and others which held the Apoc. ii. 15.
doctrine of the Nicolaitanes. Thus the words of
2 Tim. i. 15.
5--2
68
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 80-120.
CHAP. III. the Lord received their accomplishment, in which
He spake of the false prophets who should arise
before His coming to judgment on Jerusalem,
and of the power which they should exercise upon
those who had followed Him.
Speculation
then quick-
ened into
marvellous
fertility.
Nothing, indeed, is more remarkable in the
history of Christianity than the rapidity with
which it passed through the most varied develop-
ments. In a single generation the germs of the
new life were embodied in every variety of form ;
and from the same vivifying source men quickened
for themselves shapes of partial truth or prevailing
error. The intellectual advance which was made
in the apprehension of the work of Christianity-
to regard the subject in no other light—during
the course of the apostolic preaching was as mar-
vellous as it is commonly unnoticed. If the dis-
course of St Peter on the day of Pentecost be
compared with the first epistle of St John, it is
hard perhaps to realize that the whole interval
between them is filled up by the ministry of a
single life. And no other fact has been so fruit-
ful in specious error as the disregard of this ex-
tremo fertility of thought among those to whom
the message of the Gospel was first given. It
has seemed to many that a longer period than
one generation is needed for the growth of the
various opinions which are noticed in the New
Testament: and the suspicion would have been
just if the world had not been then waiting for
that which kindled all the hopes, pure or wild,
which it cherished. The tidings of the Advent
fell upon the ears of men already prepared to in-
terpret it according to their aspirations; and in
the record which has been preserved of its recep-
tion an outline is drawn for all time of the varied
THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS.
69
working of the Gospel upon the human mind, CHAP. III.
which was given, according to the prophecy of A.D. 80-120.
Simeon, that the thoughts of many hearts may Luke ii, 35.
be revealed.
divisions of
It would be impossible to follow out in any The great
detail the divisions which thus arose, yet some opinion.
brief sketch of them is necessary, both to show
how the exaggerations of heresy witness to the
manifold teaching of the Catholic Church, and
also to place in a yet clearer light the fulness of
the New Testament, as preserving the essential'
truths which lie at the base of each typical de-
velopment of Christianity. Several great lines of
difference in the first apprehension of the Gospel
have been already noticed. These ended in the
formation of distinct parties. The oldest, and for The extreme
some time the most powerful section in the
Jewish party:
apos- Ebionites.
tolic Church, was that of Jews zealous for the Acts xxi. 20.
Law, who still retained their earliest form of
Christian belief, though the divine leading guided
them to larger views, and thus fell gradually more
and more into the position of adversaries to the
true faith. Their distinguishing characteristic was
Legalism, and as they began by regarding the
Lord as a Teacher, so they naturally lost in the
course of time those higher views of His Person
and Work which were unfolded by St Paul and
St John. Under the name of Cerinthians and
Ebionites they continued to exist as separate so-
cicties long after the close of the apostolic age;
but their real power coased with the destruction
of the Temple, and they remained isolated and
purposeless, like fragments of an earlier system
left standing in a new world.
I
Jewish party:
Others, starting at first from the same point, The orthodox
clung with a lasting devotion to the ancient Law, Nazarenes.
70
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 80-120.
CHAP. III. though they did not insist on its observance : such
was the Church at Jerusalem, which retained for
several generations the succession of Bishops of
the circumcision. These occupied an important
position in a period of transition. They remained
as living witnesses to the divine and permanent
significance of the Old Testament, and still con-
tinued to fulfil their mission when the fall of Je-
rusalem had finally put an end to the literal ob-
servance of the Mosaic ritual. Their work was
only transitory, but it was of the greatest moment
for the complete development of the Church. For
while St Paul himself had maintained in essence
the principle which they embodied, the example
of Marcion, two generations afterwards, shows that
those who professed to follow his teaching felt
themselves at liberty to cast aside all allegiance
to the past. Against this error the Nazarenes, as
these Jewish believers were called, protested.
And even when the Catholic Church had definitely
accepted the truth to which they bore witness,
some of them retained their ancient customs, and
combined a faith generally orthodox with the par-
tial observance of the Jewish ritual.
The mystical
school:
Gnostics.
The characteristic of Judaism in Palestine
was in one shape or other Legalism, a complete
devotion to the letter of the Old Testament, to
the form and order of Divine revelation: in Egypt
and in parts of Asia Minor it was Mysticism, an
attempt to penetrate, as it were, to the very soul
of things, and to realize by thought the final truths
of which all outward institutions are the veils and
symbols. Both tendencies correspond with na-
tural instincts of man, and claim satisfaction from
Christianity. The first, as we have seen, which
was by many exaggerated into a heresy, contri-
THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS.
71
A.D. 80-120.
buted an important element to the constitution CHAP. III.
of the Church, and preserved through all the crises
of change a faith,unbroken in the coherence of
the old and new dispensatións. The second came
into play somewhat later, but exercised even a
more lasting influence upon the fortunes of the
Church. The search after knowledge (Gnosis)
occupied for nearly two centuries many of the
subtlest minds among those who professed to
follow Christianity. Heathenism, which probably
first excited this form of speculation among the
Jews, continued to mould its later phases. At
one time it was connected with physical question-
ings, at another with strange sorceries, at another
with intellectual dreams of creation, but it always
centred in the effort to determine the relation of
nature to man and to God, to pierce below phe-
nomena to the mysteries of being and becoming.
The Gnostic passed by insensible gradations into
the heathen, just as the Judaizer passed into the
Jew. Meanwhile the Church welcomed such ele-
ments of a true Gnosticism as were given in the
doctrine of the Creative, Illuminative Word, as
shadowed out by St John, and in the typical inter-
pretations of the Law sanctioned by St Paul and
the Epistle to the Hebrews. So much lay within
the scope of the Church. What was more than
this was no necessary part of her teaching.
Pauline
At first sight it may seem strange that the The extreme
logical development of Christian truth which was party:
drawn out by St Paul was not made the founda- Marcionites.
tion of any sect in the Apostolic age. Some in-
deed called themselves by his name during his
life-time, but the first great body who professed
to follow his peculiar teaching (the Marcionites)
was not founded till seventy years after his death;
72
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
:
A. D. 80-120.
CHAP. III. and then his characteristic doctrines, as they re-
presented them, were greatly modified by the ad-
mixture of foreign tenets. Yet, perhaps, it will
appear that in the first age St Paul was more
likely to act on individuals than on large congre-
gations. In such a period of society the mass of
men had need of a system more external or more
contemplative; and thus it happened that till the
full awakening of new races in the xv th and xvith
centuries his power was nearly dormant in the
Church at large.
The truths
contained in
the partial
teaching of
sects com-
bined in
But though at one time the principle of order
and legal observance, at another the principle of
mysticism, at another the principle of logical ex-
position, has been most powerful in the Christian
Catholic Church, yet from the first all were embraced
Christianity.
The Apostolic Within it, all are ratified by the New Testament.
Fathers. Some time elapsed before the separate societies,
or the separate books, were formally united; but
the catholicity which was realized in combined
action, and the complete Bible which was gradu-
ally built up by the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
are implicitly recognized in the earliest Christian
records of the sub-apostolic age. These scanty
remains, which consist only of a few epistles, a
vision, and some scattered fragments, occupy a
most important position in the history of Chris-
tianity. Like the Apocrypha of the Old Testa-
ment they form a connecting link between the
literature of inspiration and the literature (so to
speak) of art or reason. They belong to an age
which was conservative and not creative. Their
authors write rather with authority than with
argument. They composed not essays or apolo-
gies, but letters. They were impelled to write
not by any literary impulse, but by the deep sense
THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS.
73
A.D. 80-120.
of their fellowship with believers as members of CHAP. III.
the one great family of Christ. They were not
yet far enough from the first age to appreciate
consciously its full majesty, and yet their instinct,
if nothing else, taught them to repose absolutely
in its lessons. Thus they bear a twofold witness
to the Bible, to its contents and to its use. And
specially they show that the representative forms
of doctrine which are recognized in the New Tes-
tament-or, in other words, the characteristics of
the different groups of books of which it is made
up-were simultaneously present in the Church
from the first; and that, even if the Apostolic
books were not absolutely gathered into a collec-
tion, parallel to the Old Testament, in the gene-
ration which followed the death of their authors,
they were still thus early looked upon as invested
with a special authority. They prove that the
teaching of every part of the Bible was active in
shaping the opinions of Christians, and that the
principles on which the New Testament was formed
were already acknowledged and in operation.
Three figures stand out with marked pre-emi- The range of
the Apostolic
nence in the sub-apostolic age, CLEMENT of Rome, Fathers..
IGNATIUS of Antioch, and PoLYCARP of Smyrna.
BARNABAS and HERMAS (who really belongs to a
later period) are little more than names known
by the writings to which they are attached. The
work of PAPIAS falls within the verge of the next
generation. It may be a mere coincidence, yet it is
worthy of notice, that these three represent three
provinces of the Church, and stand in connexion
with the received centres of the Apostolic labours
of St Peter, St Paul and St John. The exact
historic position of Ignatius and Polycarp can be
determined with greater certainty, but Clement
74
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. III. has been invested by tradition with a shadowy
dignity which is without parallel in the annals of
the Ante-Nicene Church. It seems tolerably cer-
tain that he was a disciple of St Peter and that he
presided over the Roman Church, yet in what
order of succession must remain doubtful. At a
very early time he was taken as a chief character
in a Christian romance, and thus his real personal
history was lost in the part which he was made to
play as the representative of the spirit of order
and organization among his contemporaries. But
though his character has been painted by imagi-
nation, yet it is evident that the traits which the
picture presents were not arbitrarily chosen.
There can be little doubt that he occupied a
position corresponding to that of St Peter in the
first age.
He was the acknowledged mediator
between the Judaizing and Gentile believers and
the first legislator of the Christian society.
The writings which bear the name of CLEMENT
are numerous and extensive, including the earliest
law-books of the Church (the Apostolical Canons
and Constitutions), and the earliest romance (the
Clementine Homilies and Recognitions), which
under the form of a personal history contains
strange depths of thought and wisdom; and if
often wild and unsound, yet reveals the existence
of a power of speculation in the primitive Church
not inferior to that of any later time. Two Greek
epistles attributed to him are included in the list
of the books of the Bible in the Alexandrian MS.
The latter of these is a fragment and obviously
spurious. The former is undoubtedly genuine.
His Epistle This Epistle to the Corinthians, written in the
name of the Church of Rome, both by its style,
its doctrine and its theory of Church govern-
to the
Corinthians.
A.D. 80-120.
1. CLEMENT
of Rome.
Ilis alleged
writings.
!
THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS.
75
A.D. 80-120.
with ST PAUL
ment, confirms the view which has been given of CHAP. III.
the relation of Clement to the Apostles. It was
probably written at the close of the first century
(c. A.D. 95), and it shows in each respect a definite
advance, a fusion of elements formerly contrasted,
which harmonizes completely with the idea of a
considerable interval of silent growth between
it and the Apostolic writings. Two or three ex- Connexion
amples must suffice. In speaking of justification, and ST
Clement uses the same examples as were used by JAMES.
St James and St Paul, and combines the com-
plementary truths which they drew from them.
"Through faith and hospitality a son was given to c. x.
Abraham in old age, and by obedience he offered
him a sacrifice to God.' 'Through faith and hos- c. xII.
pitality Rahab was saved.' 'We are not justified,' c. xxx.
he says, 'by ourselves...nor by works which we
have wrought in holiness of heart, but by our
faith, by which Almighty God justified all from
the beginning of the world:' and then he adds
shortly afterwards, in the spirit of St James, 'Let c. xxx.
us then work from our whole heart the work of
righteousness.'
and with
C. VII.
Again, it is impossible not to feel the mind of With ST JOHN
St John in such passages as these. 'The blood of
Christ gained for the whole world the offer of the
grace of repentance.' Through Him we look
steadfastly on the heights of heaven: through
Him we view as in a glass His spotless and most
excellent visage: through Him the eyes of our
heart are opened: through Him our dull and
darkened understanding-like a flower in a sun-
less cavern (such is the image)—is quickened
with new vigour on turning to His marvellous
light.'
Once more: the language of the Epistle to the
76
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. III. Hebrews is so constantly repeated by Clement
that an old tradition ascribed to him the author-
ship of it. In immediate connexion with the pas-
sage last quoted he proceeds: "Through Him our
Lord wished us to taste of immortal knowledge,
Who being the brightness of His majesty is so
much greater than angels, as He hath obtained
by inheritance a more excellent name.'
A.D. 80--120.
The Epistle
to the
Hebrews.
Heb. i. 3, 4.
2. IGNATIUS.
His Epistles.
Thus in the narrow compass of a single letter
we find the clearest traces of the certain presence
of each of the typical forms of Apostolic doctrine
which are contained in the New Testament. There
is no effort, no design: Clement simply shows
that the Church in which he lived welcomed the
teaching, not of one Apostle only, nor of one group
of books, but of all; he shows that if the Catholic
Church was not yet universal in range, it was
from the first universal in its grasp of truth.
The Epistles of IGNATIUS carry us forward to
a still later epoch in the history of the Church.
They were written on his way to martyrdom,
A.D. 107 (or, according to some, A.D. 116), and
contain the parting charge of one who felt that
he was called away from his flock at a momen-
tous crisis, when the government of bishops was
not yet firmly established in the place of that of
Apostles, and heresies within and persecutions
without endangered the unity of the weakened
Church. The energy of his language is to be
explained by the peculiarity of his position; and
it is hard to say how a Christian bishop could
have written otherwise who 'believed that epis-
copacy was the bond of unity, and unity the safety
of the Church.'
The Epistles, as is well known, exist in three
distinct forms, a longer Greek recension, a shorter
3
77
THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS.
A.D. 80-120.
Greek recension, and a still shorter Syriac recen- CHAP. III.
sion. The first is undoubtedly interpolated; and
it seems scarcely less clear that the last is epi-
tomized. The shorter Greek recension forms a
complete and harmonious whole, bound closely
together by unity of thought and language; and
the light which has been thrown lately on the
history of early heresies goes far to explain some
difficulties which had been urged as fatal to its
authenticity. But in fact if the letters are re-
duced within the narrowest limits which can be
justified by historical criticism, the character of
Ignatius stands out with vivid individuality.
And the traits which it presents are in part at
least not those which would have been feigned
by a writer of a later age. Zeal against schism
might be simulated at any time (though perhaps
hardly with the speciality which it has in the
Ignatian letters), but not so the denunciation of
Judaism and of the errors of the Docetæ, who
supposed that the Lord as manifested to men
was a mere phantom. When Christ came to
Peter and those with him,' so Ignatius writes to
the Church at Smyrna, 'He said to them: "Take
hold, handle Me and see, that I am not an in-
corporeal spirit." And straightway they touched
Him and believed, being convinced by His Flesh
and by His Spirit...If these things were done in
appearance by our Lord, I too am bound in ap-
pearance. Yea, why have I delivered myself to
death, to fire, to the sword, to wild beasts? But
he that is near the sword is near God.'... In such
words there seems to be a reality and vividness
which attests their authenticity.
Their charac-
The characteristic feature of the letters of teristics.
Ignatius is the prominence which is there given the Church.
The idea of
C
78
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. III. to a definite ecclesiastical order.
ad Magn. VI.
In them first
'the Catholic Church' is distinctly drawn, ac-
cording to the image of St Paul, as the body of
Christ. In this body the bishop is the visible
representative of Christ, the spiritual Head. He
is the centre of unity in each congregation as the
ad Magn. 111. Father Himself is " Bishop of all." Or briefly,
as the idea is expressed in the most startling
passage, the Bishop presides in the congregation
as representative of God, and the presbyters as
representatives of the Apostolic Council.' But
while Ignatius defines and systematizes very
much that is left open in the New Testament,
yet the polity which he constructs is based upon
Eph. v. 23 ff. a logical development of the cardinal passage of
St Paul. And it is in this that the historical
importance of his writings chiefly lies. They pre-
sent the last stage of an order which is seen to
be gradually evolved in the Pastoral Epistles and
the Epistle of Clement. The principles were
given by the Apostles. The combination and
practical adaptation of them to the wants of the
Christian society was left to their successors.
And when the process of construction can be
traced in various stages following one another
harmoniously, as far as they can be seen in tho
scanty records of the early Church, up to the
fundamental teaching of apostolic writings, it
follows as a certain conclusion that these writings
contain what was accepted by Christians as the
rule of action from the first.
A.D. 80-120.
ad Smyr.
VILI.
Connexion
Though the Pauline type of thought is most
with S. JOHN. predominant in the letters of Ignatius, owing to
the character of the subjects with which he deals,
there are abundant traces in them of the influence
of St John. 'Faith,' he says, 'is the beginning,
THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS.
79
A.D. 80-120.
ad Eph. xiv.
VIII.
and love the end of life.' 'Faith is our guide up- CHAP. III.
ward, but love is the road that leads to God.'
'Jesus Christ the Son of God is the Eternal Word
by whom God manifested Himself to men,' 'the ad Eph. ix.
Door by which we come to the Father. The true ad Magn.
meat of the Christian is 'the bread of God, the ad Philad.xx.
bread of heaven, the bread of life, which is the ad Rom. vII.
flesh of Jesus Christ,' and his drink is 'Christ's
blood, which is love incorruptible.' Such phrases
as these, and they do not stand alone, could not
have been used unless it had been assumed that
those for whom they were written were familiar
with the teaching of the fourth Gospel¹.
(or 116).
The short Epistle of POLYCARP contains far 3. POLYCARP.
more clear references to the writings of the New
Testament than any other work of the age. It
was written shortly after the martyrdom of Igna- c. A. D. 107
tius, and in part reflects the image of the same
dangers against which Ignatius contended. In
one passage Polycarp seems even to have caught
the language of his predecessor, where he says
that Christians are to be subject to the priests c. v.
and deacons, as to God and Christ.' The phrase
is important, as showing the urgency of the feel-
ing by which it must have been dictated; and it
is further characteristic of the position which Poly-
carp occupied that he is called in the contempo-
rary account of his martyrdom (c. A. D. 167) 'bishop
of the Catholic Church at Smyrna?? The title
6
1 The account of the Martyrdom of Ignatius seems
to be mainly authentic. It contains coincidences of
language with Romans, Corinthians (1, 2), Galatians,
and 1 Timothy. The parallelisms with the Acts (chapp.
iii, iv) are yet more remarkable, as references to that
book are comparatively rare in early times.
2 It is in the letter of Ignatius to this church that
the term first occurs.
80
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A. D. 80-120.
V, VIII.
CHAP. III. had thus become a technical one in the course of
half a century; and the description which is given
Polyc. Mart. of Polycarp praying 'for the churches through-
out the world,' shows in what way he practically
realized some of the lessons which it conveys.
This last trait conveys a true impression of the
martyr. His soul seems centred in the practical
work of faith. He speaks generally with the tone
of St Peter, as enforcing the idea of the Christian
Law, so that the similarity of his epistle to the
H. E. 1v. 14. first Epistle of St Peter was noticed by Eusebius.
But there is nothing exclusive in his teaching.
His references to St Paul, and especially to the
Pastoral Epistles, are clear and frequent. St John
has left the slightest impress upon his writing,
though one passage in his Letter is obviously bor-
rowed from St John's first Epistle. The fact is
not without interest, for it was with this Apostle
that he was directly connected. He heard St
John, and was himself heard by Irenæus. His
testimony connects two ages. His life and work
extend over the whole period of the consolidation
of the Church. In his extreme old age he taught
Iren. Iv. 3, 4. 'that which he had learned from the Apostles,
and which continued to be the tradition of the
Church.'
C. VII.
4. BARNABAS.
The letter of BARNABAS, which is found toge-
ther with The Shepherd at the close of the New
Testament in the Sinaitic MS. of the Bible, is
very different in character from the letters which
have been hitherto noticed. It was probably
written at the beginning of the second century;
and is addressed generally to Christians ('sons
and daughters'), without any apparent historical
occasion. In this latter respect, no less than in
its whole scope, it occupies the same position
THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS.
81
A.D. 80-120.
among the writings of the Apostolic Fathers as CHAP. 111.
the Epistle to the Hebrews among the writings of
the New Testament. The resemblance between
the two Epistles as to object, principles, and ma-
terials, is most striking; and the contrast of me-
thod and effect not less complete. In the Epistle
to the Hebrews there is a reserve in dealing with
typical interpretation, a confinement to broad
and fruitful illustrations of its use, an instinctive
sense of the proportion of one part of the dispen-
sation of God to another, a recognition of the
growth, so to speak, of the Divine plan as mani-
fested among men; but in the Epistle of Barna-
bas it is far otherwise. The author insists on the
value of the lessons which he teaches for all; he
descends to the minutest details with reckless
confidence; he misrepresents the very purpose of
the Law as a discipline; 'he makes Judaism a
mere riddle of which Christianity is the answer.'
The other writings of the sub-Apostolic age illus-
trate the history of the New Testament, by show-
ing in what way the teaching of its constituent
parts contains the germ and rule of the varied
thought of the generation which followed their
composition. The Epistle of Barnabas does more.
It exhibits in a crucial example (to use Bacon's
expressive phrase) the unspeakable difference be-
tween the ordinary products of early Christian
labour and piety and those writings of the first age
which the experience of a later time has welcomed
as containing the written rule of Christendom.
lic Fathers to
Thus far it has been shown that the Apostolic The relation
teaching, as preserved in the Epistles of the New of the Aposto-
Testament, was the basis of the teaching of the the Gospels.
next generation. Every characteristic form of
doctrine which is found in them reappears in the
6
82
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 80-120.
CHAP. III. Scanty records of the following age, and that with-
out the addition of any new principle. But
nothing has been said yet of the relation of our
Gospels to the writings of the Apostolic Fathers.
The occurrence of a key-word, or marked phrase,
from one of the Epistles, in a later writer, is suffi-
cient to show that he was acquainted with the
source in which it first occurs, or at least that the
phrase must be referred to that definite origin.
But it is not so in the case of the Gospels. Silent
coincidences in facts and words with the Evan-
gelic texts in themselves prove nothing as to the
use of the Gospels by those in whose writings they
occur. The Gospels were, as has been seen, based
on an oral tradition, and that tradition still lived
after it had been reduced to a permanent shape.
Those who had heard the voice of Apostles neces-
sarily cherished the memory of the spoken word
more than the letter of the record. There is
always something more direct and personal in the
fruits of immediate intercourse than in the remote
relationship of books. This sentiment was power-
ful, as we shall see, even in the next generation,
and with those who had seen the Apostles it must
have been paramount. It can then create no
surprise if the testimony of the Apostolic Fathers
is to the substance and not to the authenticity of
the Gospels. With the single exception of Bar-
nabas, no one of them quotes any words contained
in our Gospels as 'written.' But though their
testimony is thus circumscribed, it establishes an
important fact. Even in the first generation after
the Apostles the contents of the Gospel were fixed
within their present limits. Some mysterious
working of Providence suppressed the countless
John xxi 25. multitude of things which Jesus did of which the
THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS.
83
Apostles could have told. Two sayings of our CHAP. III.
Lord are preserved in the letters of Barnabas A.D. 80-120.
and Ignatius, which are not contained in the
Gospels, and may possibly be independent and
original¹; but otherwise the great outlines of His
life and teaching which can be drawn from the
Apostolic Fathers, exactly coincide with those
preserved in the first three Gospels. The Incar-
nation, the Baptism, the Passion, the Resurrec-
tion, the Ascension-the historic substance of the
ancient creeds-form the sure and broad ground
of the hope of the early Christians. These facts
were from the first the 'glad tidings' which were
proclaimed without ceasing to the world. Yet
in this glorious circle a difference may be ob-
served. Other events are noticed more rarely,
by one writer or another, but the Resurrection
(as in the New Testament) is the common theme
of all.
ture anony-
In the direct citation of Scripture the usage Their cita-
of the Apostolic Fathers agrees generally with tions of Scrip-
that of the Apostles. They continued to look mous.
upon the Old Testament as a full and lasting
record of the revelation of God. In one remark-
able particular they carried this belief yet further
than it had been carried before. With them the
individuality of the several writers falls into the
background. They practically regarded the whole
1 Another saying is commonly attributed to our
Lord on the authority of the Latin translation of the
Letter of Barnabas: Let us resist all iniquity and hold
it in hatred. The lately recovered Greek text in the
Codex Sinaiticus shows that the words which precede
it should be (by the change of three letters in the
Latin) as becomes sons of God,' and not, as it stands
at present, as says the Son of God.' This example
may serve to show with what facility a grave error
may arise and be propagated.
6-2
84
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 80-120.
CHAP. III. Book as one Divine utterance; and, with the ex-
ception of Barnabas, no one of them ever makes a
distinct reference by name to any book of the
Old Testament. Clement sometimes uses the com-
mon formula 'It is written ;' and more frequently
'God saith,' or 'One saith;' sometimes he intro-
duces the language of the LXX. into his text
without any mark of quotation. The two quo-
tations from the Old Testament in Ignatius are
introduced simply by 'It is written.' In the
Greek text of Polycarp there is no mark of quo-
tation at all; and little confidence can be placed
in the Latin Version in which formulæ of scriptu-
ral reference are applied to passages from the
Old and New Testaments. Barnabas, on the
other hand, makes several explicit references to
passages from the Law, the Psalms and the Pro-
phets, and it is in him first that a saying of the
Lord is quoted as the words of Scripture¹.
The range of
their quota-
Old Testa-
ment.
The range of the quotations which they make
tions from the from the Old Testament is nearly identical with
that in the New Testament. The Psalms and
Isaiah furnish to them also by far the largest
number of passages. In addition to the books
quoted by the Apostles, Clement makes use of the
history of Esther; and Barnabas quotes a verse
from Zephaniah. On the other hand, Clement uses
the narrative of Judith in exactly the same man-
ner as that of Esther; and Barnabas, as might
have been expected from an Alexandrine writer,
appears to have been familiar with Wisdom and
cc. VI, XIX. Ecclesiasticus, and he quotes the Second book of
Esdras (4 Ezra) as the work of a prophet. The
C. XII.
C. LV.
C. XII.
L. c.
1 The Greek text of the Codex Sinaiticus places
the reading beyond doubt; c. 4, As it is written, Many
are called, but few are chosen. (Matt. xx. 16.)
THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS.
85
references of Clement to Wisdom and of Poly- CHAP. IIL
carp to Tobit are very doubtful.
A.D. 80-120.
the New
Of the New Testament by far the greater Their coinci-
number of the didactic books were certainly used dences with
by them. There are clear traces in their writings Testament.
of the Epistles of St Paul to the Romans, Corinth-
ians (1, 2), Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians,
and to Timothy (1, 2); of the Epistle to the
Hebrews; of the Epistles of St James, 1 St Peter,
and 1 St John. The allusions to the Epistles of
St Paul to the Thessalonians, Colossians, to Titus
and Philemon are very uncertain; and there are,
I believe, no coincidences of language with the
Epistles of St Jude, 2, 3 St John, and 2 St
Peter; or with the Apocalypse. The only certain
reference to the historical books is that to St
Matthew, which has been already quoted from
Barnabas.
In addition to these passing adaptations of Definite refer-
apostolic language, there are three definite no- ences to
St Paul's
tices of Epistles of St Paul on the several occasions
Epistles.
when it was natural to expect them. 'Take up c. XLVII.
the Epistle of the blessed Paul, the Apostle,' is
the charge of Clement to the Corinthians ………….in
truth he spiritually charged you concerning him-
self and Cephas and Apollos.......' 'Those who c. x.
are borne by martyrdom to God,' Ignatius writes
to the Ephesians, 'pass through your city. Ye Eph. v. 32.
share the knowledge of mysteries with Paul, the
sanctified, the martyred, worthy of all blessing...
who in every part of his letter (or in every letter)
makes mention of you in Christ Jesus.' 'The c. 111.
blessed and glorious Paul,' says Polycarp to the
Philippians, 'wrote letters to you¹, into which if
1 Thus it appears that the letters of St Paul were
a common possession of the churches.
86
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. III. ye look diligently ye will be able to be built up to
[the fulness of the faith given to you.']
It cannot, however, be denied that the idea of
a New Testament consisting of definite books and
equal in authority to the Old, was foreign to the
sub-Apostolic age¹. Such an idea is necessarily
the growth of time. Distance is a necessary condi-
tion for the right estimate of objects of vast pro-
portions. If it be true that a prophet is not
received in his own country, it is equally true that
he is not received in his own age. His full
majesty is not seen till his whole work can be
contemplated in the history of the times in which
he lived. And if the person of the prophet can-
not be duly appreciated by his contemporaries,
still less can his writings. These at most are
fragmentary and occasional, and only long expe-
rience can prove their Divine worth. Yet further,
the New Testament is made up not of the writings
of one prophet only, but of many, differing widely
both in work and character. Thus the difficulties
which beset the recognition of the practical com-
pleteness of the fragmentary records of one pro-
phet's teaching are multiplied tenfold; and it
would have been unnatural, opposed, that is, to
all that we can learn of the dealings of God with
man, that the New Testament should have been
stamped from the first with that distinctive cha-
racter of plenary authority with which it was in-
vested in after times.
A₁D. 80-120.
The Apostolic
Fathers have
no definite
idea of a
New Testa-
mont.
The immediate successors of the Apostles did
for it by sc- not, then, we fully admit, perceive that the written
But they pro-
paro the way
parating the
1 Polycarp speaks (c. VII.) of those who 'porvert
the oracles of the Lord to their own desires;' but
these, as the context shows, were spoken and heard,
and not written.
THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS.
87
A.D. 80-120.
from their
memoirs of the Lord, and the scattered writings CHAP. III.
of His first disciples, would form a sure and suf-
ficient source or test of doctrine when the current Apostolic
tradition had grown indistinct or corrupt. Con- writings
scious of a life in the whole Christian body, and own.
realizing the present power of its Head, as later
ages cannot do, they did not feel that the Apostles
were providentially charged to express once for
all in their writings the substance of the New
Covenant. Trained for the most part in mystic
schools, they found a rich depth of meaning in the
Scriptures of the Old Testament, which is hidden
from more critical eyes, and fancied that these
alone contained the sum of all Christianity. The
position which they held did not command that
comprehensive view of the nature and fortunes of
the Church by which the true relation of its origi-
nal records to its subsequent development is sug-
gested and confirmed. But still they certainly
had an indistinct sense that their own work was
essentially different from that of their predeces-
sors. They declined to perpetuate their title,
though they may have retained their office. Al-
ready they began to separate the Apostles from
the teachers of their own time, as possessed of an
originative power. Without any exact perception
of the completeness of the Christian Scriptures,
they began to draw a line between them and their
own writings. As if by some providential instinct,
each one of those Fathers who stood nearest to
the Apostolic writers plainly contrasted his writ-
ings with theirs, and placed himself upon a lower
level. The fact is most significant; for it shows
in what way the formation of a New Testament
was an intuitive act of the Christian Body, derived
from no reasoning, but realized in the course of
*
88
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. III. its natural growth, as one of the first results of
its self-consciousness.
A.D. 80-120.
Clement, the earliest of the Fathers, lays aside
the individual authority of the Apostle in writing
to the Church of Corinth, and writes simply in
the name of the Church of Rome. He even apo-
logizes in some measure for the tone of authority
which he uses, and at the same time refers them
to the Epistle of the blessed Paul, who wrote to
them 'spiritually,' and certainly with the fullest
assertion of absolute power.
Polycarp, in like manner, who had listened
to St John, freely confesses that 'neither he, nor
any like him, is able to attain fully to the wisdom
of the blessed and glorious Paul.'
Ignatius, who, if we receive the testimony of
the writings attributed to him, was little inclined
to disparage the power of his office, twice dis-
ad Rom. IV. claims the idea that he wished to 'impose his
commands like Peter and Paul. They were Apo-
stles,' he adds, 'while I am a condemned man
condemned to death, that is, and no less spiritu-
ally guilty.
CC. VII,
XLVII.
ad Phil. 111.
CC. I, IV.
The Bible and
the Church
grew silently.
Barnabas, again, twice reminds his readers
that he speaks 'as one of them,' not as a teacher
with authority, but as a member of Christ's
Church.
Thus silently and slowly, without any formal
deliberations or open contests, the work of God
went forward. The principles which the Apostles
set forth separately were combined and systema-
tized. The societies which they founded were
more fully organized according to the outlines
which they had drawn. The writings which they
left were preserved and studied, and exercised
more and more a formative authority. The para-
THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS.
89
ble of the mustard-seed was fulfilled. The Church CHAP. III.
rose and spread, not by any sudden miracle, but
by the gradual assimilation of all around which
could contribute to its growth, in virtue of the
action of that Spirit which is its Life.
at Jerusalem
But though we have heard voices from An- The Church
tioch and Alexandria, from Smyrna and Rome', as yet silent.
one Church is as yet silent. The Christians of
Jerusalem contribute nothing to the written por-
traiture of the age. The peculiarities of their
belief were borrowed from a system destined to
pass away. They embodied no permanent form
of Apostolic doctrine. The Jewish Church was
an accommodation, if we may use the word, and
not a substantive form of Christianity. Its teach-
ing was inherently defective and transitory. How
far, nevertheless, it prevailed and influenced the
early Church, will be seen in the next Chapter.
1 The Proverbs of XISTUS (Sixtus), which have
been recently found in a Syriac translation, exhibit
the influence of St James and St John (Ewald, Gött.
Gel. Anz. 1859, p. 266); but the history of these
fragments is too doubtful to allow of their being used
as a production of the first Roman Bishop of the
name (A. D. 119—127).
A.D. 80-120.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAP. IV.
THE AGE OF THE APOLOGISTS.
First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn
in the ear.-St Mark iv. 28.
That was not first which is spiritual, but that which is
natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
-I Cor. xv. 46.
IT appears from the evidence which has been
A.D.120-170
Contrast of
the state of
Christianity
in the sub-
and the age
of the Apolo-
gists.
adduced, that before the end of the first
quarter of the second century, the chief part of
the apostolic letters which are included in the
New Testament were familiarly known and ge-
Apostolic age nerally used by Christians; that the great types
of apostolic teaching which are represented in
them were simultaneously active in shaping the
popular views of doctrine; that the contents of
the Evangelic tradition coincided very closely
with the records preserved in our Gospels, though,
from the nature of the case, the earliest Fathers
refer more commonly to the words and sufferings
and resurrection of Christ than to the acts of His
ministry. But as yet there was no recognized
New Testament, or rather the New Testament
was still a collection of facts, and not a collection
of books, of the spirit, and not of the letter. The
substance of the apostolic doctrine was thus em-
THE AGE OF THE APOLOGISTS.
9.1
A.D. 120-170.
æra.
bodied in a period of comparative quiet: the CHAP. IV.
necessity of a written rule was enforced by times
of sharp and protracted conflict within and with-
out. Till some years after the close of the first
century the Church grew up silently and almost
secretly. To the mass of superficial observers
the Christians had hitherto seemed merely a sect
of the Jews, and had enjoyed with them a con-
temptuous toleration, interrupted only by po-
pular outbreaks, as at Rome in the time of Nero.
Individuals had attracted attention and suffered
for their faith in the provinces, but as yet such
cases were extremely rare. The famous letter A. D. 101-
of Pliny to Trajan marks the beginning of a new
The Christians had at length grown so
numerous that as a body they called for the spe-
cial notice of the civil government; and the pecu-
liarities of their belief became too well known to
allow them to be confounded with Jews. Mean-
while the false teaching, which had been frag-
mentary and unformed in the apostolic age, was
systematized and supported by the arguments of
philosophy. Thus during the next stage of its
history the Church had to maintain an open
struggle against official persecution, organized
heresies, and philosophic controversy. In little
more than half a century the battle was won,
though the times of suffering were not past; and
the close of the age of the Apologists' leaves us
in the presence of a vast Christian society, Ca-
tholic in range and doctrine, formidable in num-
bers, illustrious by the genius of its champions,
armed against error by the possession of a Bible
made up of the 'scriptures of the prophets, the
evangelists, and the apostles.'
The Christian literature of the sub-Apostolic Extent of
92
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. IV. age was all of the same form. A few letters -
bore witness to the mutual intercourse of Chris-
A.D. 120-170. tians and to the presence of a common faith
Christian li-
terature in
Apologists.
among them. The writings of the next age were
the age of the varied in accordance with the changed position
of the Church. Letters, chronicles, essays, apo-
logies, visions, tales, and even poems, attested the
activity and exhibited the claims of the new
faith. But of these by far the greater part have
perished. The Letter to Diognetus, some of the
writings of Justin, the Clementine Homilies, and
part of the Shepherd of Hermas, alone remain
in their original Greek. In addition to these
there is a complete Latin translation of the
Shepherd, a Syriac translation of the Apology of
Melito, and a series of precious quotations from
lost books, due mainly to the industry of Euse-
bius. The Exposition of Papias, the treatises of
Justin and Agrippa Castor against Heresies, the
didactic and controversial works of Melito, the
Chronicles of Hegesippus, have perished, and
with them the most direct sources of information
on the history of this period of the Church.
But the works which have been preserved
possess a distinctly representative character. The
Apologies of Melito and Justin, and the Letter
to Diognetus, offer three very different types of
treatment of the same subject; and the Shepherd
and the Clementines, which have many points of
resemblance, illustrate in a striking manner the
different developments of a legal view of Chris-
tianity within and without the Church. Above
all, the writings of Justin, which are by far the
most extensive literary remains of the period,
reflect the spirit of the age most clearly. No
one could exhibit better than he does the cha-
Its charac-
teristics.
THE AGE OF THE APOLOGISTS.
93
A.D. 120-170.
racter of the Greek apologist. For him philoso- CHAP. IV
phy was truth, reason a spiritual power, Christi-
anity the fulness of both. The Apostolic Fathers
portray the vigour of the Faith among believers;
their successors point out how it satisfies the
deepest wants of men. It remained for the Latin
Apologists at a later period to establish its right
to supplant as well as to fulfil what was partial
and vague in earlier systems. The time was not
ripe for this when Justin wrote. For as Christi-
anity was shown to be the completion of Judaism
before the Church was separated from the syna-
gogue, so it was set forth as the Truth towards
which the old philosophies converged, before it
was declared to supersede them.
Judaism
This was one great work of the period, to The final
proclaim Christianity as the Divine answer to the separation of
manifold questionings of heathendom. Another from Chris-
tianity.
was to separate Christianity finally from Jewish
observances. Hitherto the Jewish Church of
Syria had continued to exist in the north of Pa-
lestine, the cradle of the Faith, retaining one of
the oldest names of believers-Ebionim, 'the
poor'-stationary while all other churches moved
onwards in obedience to the leading of God,
clinging tenaciously to an imperfect creed, and a
falsified hope, but yet still honoured in some de-
gree as the mother Church of Christendom. After
the founding of Ælia upon the site of Jerusalem A.D. 130.
and the establishment of a Gentile Church there,
the 'Ebionim' sank into the rank of a sect.
Some cherished still more fervently what they
held to be the substance of their ancient observ-
ances, others transferred the spirit of their party
to Rome and embodied it in a new shape. The
sect speedily became a heresy, and though it lin-
i
94
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
1
A.D. 120-170.
CHAP. IV. gered on till the beginning of the fourth cen-
tury, its power was gone before the close of the
second. So fell the Church which by outward
descent claimed to be the Church of the Twelve,
the Church of the Brethren of the Lord. No-
where perhaps has a false conservatism issued in
a more tragic end.
Importance
of the Judaiz-
ing writers
to the Go-
spels.
Yet before it fell the Jewish Church did good
service to the Christian cause. Papias, Justin
as witnesses and Hegesippus, sympathized more or less with
one at least of its great principles-the superior
prominence given to the prophetic office of the
Lord over the Apostolic interpretation of His
work, and it is to Judaizing sources that we
must look for the first direct evidence for the
authority of our written Gospels. As yet we
have traced only the influence of the Apostolic
doctrine and Epistles and of the oral Gospel.
Papias and Justin, with the Clementine Homilies,
will fill up the gap which remains. It is natural
that they should do so. One essential difference
between the Catholic and Judaizing parties in
the Church was, as has been said, that the for-
mer rested their faith on the interpretation of
the Lord's life and work by the Apostles, the
latter on the Lord's explicit teaching. For the
one the Apostolic tradition was of the highest
moment, for the other the Evangelic tradition.
The difference is one confined to no single age or
country. There are always some who will look
rather to what Christ said than to what He was;
and in this aspect the history of the Ebionim is
not without the deepest interest for our own
times¹.
1 Nothing perhaps strikes the student of Church
history more than the spread of this essential Ebionism
THE AGE OF THE APOLOGISTS.
95
The 'Expo-
PAPIAS.
The earliest account of the Gospels is given by CHAP. IV.
PAPIAS, who was bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia A.D.120-170.
at the beginning of the second century. He
was a friend of Polycarp and of others who had sition' of
known the apostles. His congregation appears
to have been in close connexion with the Churches
of Judæa; and the Epistle of St Paul to the
neighbouring Church of Colossæ shows the cha-
racteristic dangers of the country-the home of
the wildest heathen fanaticism-from which Pa-
pias himself does not seem to have wholly es-
caped. The work by which his name is known
was 'An Exposition of Oracles of the Lord, based
upon the teaching of the elders.' The exact
translation of the title, which has been strangely
misinterpreted, plainly shows that the object of
Papias was not to write a Life of Christ—a Gos-
pel-from current traditions, but rather to give
an explanation of some of the Lord's sayings,
illustrated by such reports of what the Apostles
had said as he could collect. With this object
he might well say that 'The information which Ap. Euseb.
he could draw from books was not so profitable II. E. III. 39.
as that which was preserved in a living tradition.'
For there is nothing to indicate that the 'books'
of which he speaks were (as many have assumed)
our Gospels, and not commentaries like his own,
of which many were current at a very early time
among heretical sects.
The manner in which Papias speaks of two His testimony
of our Gospels confirms the view which has been to the Gospels
given of his own object. 'Matthew,' he said, thew and St
of St Mat-
Mark.
Euseb. I. c.
in the present day. How often is it said that the Ser-
mon on the Mount is the sum of Christianity. Judaism
in ritual and Judaism in doctrine are opposite poles of
the same error.
96
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. IV. 'compiled the oracles¹ in Hebrew; but cach one
A.D. 120–170. interpreted them as he was able.' 'This also,'
he writes, 'the Elder [John] used to say: Mark
having become Peter's interpreter wrote accu-
rately all that he [Peter] mentioned, though he
did not [record] in order that which was either
said or done by Christ. For he neither heard
the Lord nor followed Him; but subsequently, as
I said, [attached himself to] Peter, who used to
frame his teachings to meet tho wants [of his
hearers]; and not as making a connected narra-
tive of the Lord's discourses. So Mark committed
no error, as he wrote down some particulars as
he [Peter] related them; for he took heed to
one thing to omit nothing of what he heard,
and to state nothing falsely in his record.'
2
But it has been argued that these notices of
Papias cannot refer to the Gospels at present
received as St Matthew's and St Mark's. The
'oracles' which St Matthew is here said to have
compiled were in the Aramaic dialect of Pales-
tine, and the narrative of St Mark was not 'in
order,' while the arrangement of his Gospel at
present is at least as orderly as that of the
Gospels of St Matthew and St Luke. To these
objections the answer is really simple. There
can be no doubt that Papias speaks of the original
collection of the oracles' of the Lord made by
St Matthew, of which our Greek Gospel is the
representative and not the exact reproduction;
How the Tes-
timony ap-
plies to our
present Go-
spels.
1 It is important to observe the definite article in
this case, which is omitted in the title of Papias' trea-
tise.
2 The original word is ambiguous. It may mean,
as he (Mark) called them to mind.' So also the word
above translated 'mentioned' may mean 'remembered,'
in which sense Papias elsewhere uses it.
THE AGE OF THE APOLOGISTS.
97
On the other
but at the same time he speaks of it in such CHAP. IV.
a way as to show that in his time it already A.D. 120-170.
existed substantially in Greek.
hand, the account which he gives of the origin
of St Mark's Gospel is exactly that which, as
we have already seen, holds true of the first pp. 57, ff.
three Gospels. They were not intended to be
chronological Lives of Christ, but were simply de-
signed to preserve a summary of representative
facts, given according to a moral and not a his-
toric sequence in the oral teaching of the Apostles,
to satisfy the requirements of those to whom they
preached the Gospel ('some particulars, not in
order, to meet the wants of his hearers').
TYR.
1. c.
While Papias was busy in collecting the Justin Mar-
scattered traditions of the first age in this remote
city, regretting, it may be, the growing freedom
of Christian thought, and shaping wild dreams
of a speedy millennium, JUSTIN MARTYR was now Euseb. H. E.
actually engaged in proclaiming to Jew and Gen-
tile alike the New Philosophy which he had
found. Justin has left us a slight sketch of his
life, and his writings are in complete harmony
with his early history. He was of Greek descent, His early life.
but his family had been settled for some time at
Flavia Neapolis, which was founded by Vespasian
on the site of the ancient Sichem. His country-
men, he tells us, were still in his time (c. A.D.
100-120) addicted to the errors of Simon Ma-
gus; but he himself escaped this delusion, and
sought for truth in the schools of Greek philo-
sophy. He applied in succession to Stoics, Peri-
patetics and Pythagoreans, but without gaining
that for which he longed. At last a better hope
was beginning to dawn upon him in the teaching
of a Platonist, when a new master appeared. As
7
98
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 120-170.
CHAP. IV. he sought a place of calm retirement on the sea-
shore, an aged man, meck and venerable, turned
his thoughts in a fresh direction, from Plato to
the prophets. 'Pray before all things,' were the
last words of this strange teacher, 'that the
gates of light be opened to you; for [the truths
for which you seek] are not comprehensible by
the eye or mind of man, unless God and His
Christ give him understanding.'
Dial. c. 7.
His conver-
sion.
'Immediately a fire was kindled in my soul,'
Justin adds, and I was possessed with a love
for the prophets and those men who are Christ's
friends; and as I discussed his arguments with
myself I found Christianity to be the only philo-
sophy that is sure and suited to man's wants.
Thus then and for this cause I am a philoso-
pher?'
His works.
In the strength of his new faith he travelled
far and wide to spread the truth which he had
found; and the large list of his writings attests
A.D. 140-150. his intellectual zeal and activity. Of those which
now bear his name two Apologies and the Dia-
logue with Trypho are genuine beyond doubt;
and present a lively picture of the relations of
Christianity, not indeed to the Christian Church,
but to Judaism and heathenism. This distinc-
tion is of the greatest importance in dealing
with the evidence which they furnish on the his-
tory of the Christian Scriptures. From a disre-
gard of the original destination of Justin's essays
the most false deductions have been drawn. It
is obvious that the life of Christ and not the
apostolic teaching would be the centre of his
arguments both with Jew and Gentile. Prophecy
and history were the open provinces in which he
could freely work. He may have been, and pro-
THE AGE OF THE APOLOGISTS.
+
99
A.D. 120-170.
bably was, constitutionally inclined to dwell on CHAP. IV.
this external aspect of Christianity, as distin-
guished from its logical development; but under
any circumstances his work necessarily led him
to rest in it, at least in those writings which have
come down to us. It was enough if he could
bring men to listen to the fuller instruction of
the Christian teacher. It was not his task to
anticipate the discipline or duties of the catechist.
To forget this limitation of his office was to forget
the very business of an Apologist. Thus we may
expect from him the outlines of the Gospel, but
not an exposition of Christian doctrine.
to the con-
This expectation is largely fulfilled. It would His testimony
be possible to re-write from Justin's works a con- tents and
siderable part of the records of Christ's Life as
given by the first three Evangelists¹. By putting
together various passages from these we can col-
lect almost all the details of the history of the
Birth and Infancy of our Lord, of the mission of
John, of the Baptism, of the Passion, Resurrec-
tion and Ascension, which are given in the synop-
tic Gospels. The references which they contain
to the Miracles are naturally very few. On the
contrary, with the exception of the Parables,
quotations occur from most of the Lord's Dis-
courses. At times the narratives of St Matthew
and St Luke are interwoven: here and there the
addition of some minute trait, or the higher co-
louring of the picture, marks the freedom with
which the rhetorician uses his materials; but
generally Justin's references present the closest
1 The character of St John's Gospel-the Gospel
for Christians-evidently placed it out of the range of
Justin's arguments. In casual phrases he shows his
acquaintance with it.
Jorm
7-2
100
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. IV. resemblance both in range and substance to the
contents of our Gospels.
Nor is the general resemblance of the quo-
tations which he makes from Christ's teaching
to the style of the Evangelists less striking.
However much he condenses, combines, trans-
poses, the words which they have preserved,
yet, with very few exceptions, he retains through
all these changes the characteristics of the New
Testament dialect without the admixture of any
foreign element.
A.D. 120-170.
style of the
Gospels.
The source of
his quota-
tions.
(
We are not, indeed, wholly left to conjecture
as to the source from which Justin derived his
Memoirs of knowledge of the Gospel history. Hitherto all
the Apostles.
the references to the words of Christ (with one
exception) have been anonymous. These were
still for some time after the close of the first
century utterances of a living voice unconnected
with any written record. But Justin, while he
habitually represents Christ as speaking, and not
the Evangelist as relating His discourse, distinctly
refers to 'Memoirs of the Apostles' in which
he found written all things concerning Jesus
Christ.' The statement is significant. It shows
that tradition had now no special store. Papias,
in Justin's judgment, might illustrate the mean-
ing of the Evangelic narratives, but he could not
add anything essential to their completeness.
The purpose of Justin did not call for any exact
description of these 'Memoirs,' but he mentions
incidentally several points of interest about them.
In his first Apology he refers to them twice di-
rectly. When explaining the celebration of the
Eucharist he adds: 'The Apostles in the Memoirs
made by them, which are called Gospels¹, have
1 It is foreign to our purpose to enter into details
Apol. r. 66.
THE AGE OF THE APOLOGISTS.
101
CHAP. IV.
A.D. 120-170.
handed down that it was thus enjoined on them.'
…..And again, when describing the Christian ser-
vice, he notices that 'the Memoirs of the Apo- Apol. 1. 67.
stles or the writings of the Prophets are read as
long as the time admits.'
Memoirs.
In the Dialogue the references to the Memoirs The author-
are more numerous, fifteen in all; for Trypho ship of these
himself was acquainted with the written ‘Gospel.'
Of these, two deserve special notice. In one Jus-
tin describes the authorship of the Memoirs
somewhat more exactly than by a general re-
ference to the Apostles. 'In the Memoirs,' he Dial. 103.
writes, 'which I say were composed by the Apo-
stles and those who followed them, [it is written]
that sweat, as drops [of blood], streamed down
[from Jesus], as He was praying and saying "Let
this cup, if it be possible, pass away from me.
The description, it will be seen, precedes the quo-
tation of a passage found only in St Luke, the
follower of an Apostle, and not an Apostle him-
self. In the other place he refers to 'the Me- Dial. 106.
moirs of Peter' for a fact which is contained only
in the Gospel of St Mark, whose Gospel, as we
have already seen, was believed to be the record
of St Peter's teaching¹. A passage of Tertullian
"""
of criticism, yet it may serve as an illustration of the
perverse ingenuity which has been brought to bear
upon the question, to notice that one of the ablest and
most trustworthy scholars who has discussed Justin's
quotations says, that, if he had had our four Gospels in
his mind he must have said the four Gospels.' What
missionary now would speak so?
It may be noticed that the name Memoirs was evi-
dently chosen by Justin himself (after the model of
Xenophon's Memoirs of Socrates) to suit a literary taste.
1 See p. 96. The original word for Memoirs is
the substantive derived from the verb there used for
'related.'
102
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. V. seems to fix the sense of Justin's words beyond
all doubt. When discussing the authorship of the
New Testament he says, 'In fine, John and Mat-
thew, out of the number of the Apostles, implant
faith in us; Luke and Mark, out of the number
of their followers, renew it...'
A. D. 120-170.
Adv. Marc.
IV. 2.
The coinci-
The remaining references made by Justin to
dence of ex- the Apostolic Memoirs all contain facts or words
which are found in our Gospels. Of the seven
press quota-
tions of the
Memoirs
spels.
with our Go- passages which give quotations from them, five
agree verbally (excepting one slight variation)
with the Evangelic text, as given by good early
authorities; the sixth gives a reading supported
by considerable patristic evidence; the seventh
appears to give only a free adaptation of words of
St Matthew and St Luke.
The general
for the iden-
tity of the
Memoirs with
our Gospels.
Briefly then this is the sum of what Justin
says of the Memoirs which he used. They were
several and yet one: they were called Gospels:
they contained a record of all things concerning
Christ: they were known and admitted by Chris-
tians generally: they were read in their public
services habitually with the books of the Old Tes-
tament: they were of Apostolic authority though
not exclusively of Apostolic authorship. Further
than this we gather that they recorded facts which
are severally peculiar to each of the Synoptic
Gospels, and that they contained nothing which
these do not substantially contain. If we include
in our consideration the whole mass of Justin's
anonymous references to the Life and Teaching of
Christ the general effect is the same. In the
one case the coincidence is more complete, in the
other it is more extensive. And when account is
taken of the general notoriety and official use of
the documents which he employs as authentic, it
THE AGE OF THE APOLOGISTS.
103
A.D. 120-170.
seems to be a necessary conclusion that they were CHAP. IV.
no other than the Gospels which we receive, un-
less arguments can be brought forward on the
opposite side more difficult to face than the idea
of a revolution in the practice of the Christian
Church, a revolution which in the course of a
single generation entirely changed the records of
the life of Christ publicly used by Christians.
the identifi-
cation.
Some have thought that such arguments can objections to
be found. It is urged that Justin nowhere men-
tions the Evangelists: that the text of his quota-
tions in many instances differs materially from
that of our Gospels: that he introduces apocry-
phal additions into his narrative. To answer
completely these objections to the identification
of the Memoirs with our Gospels requires a full
analysis of all the passages in question, and like-
wise an examination of Justin's quotations from
the LXX. At present it must suffice to give
very briefly the results of such an inquiry.
less or in-
The first objection is based upon inattention These objec-
to the usage of the Apologists. As a rule the later tions ground-
Apologists always quote the Gospels anonymously. sufficient.
Tertullian, for example, who in his other writings
quotes the Gospels continually and mentions every
Evangelist by name, nowhere cites the Gospels in
his Apology, while he gives in it a general view
of Christ's life and teaching. Of the books of the
Old Testament, Justin quotes the prophets con-
stantly by name-it was needful that he should
do so--and the only book of the New Testament
which he assigns to a special author is the Apo-
calypse, the one prophetic book in the collection,
which was written, he says, by revelation, by
'a man named John, one of the Apostles of Dial. 81.
Christ...."
104
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. IV.
A.D. 120-170.
Dial. 88.
The inexactness of Justin's quotations from
the Gospels is completely illustrated by his mode
of dealing with the LXX. In texts which he pro-
fessedly cites from this, he frequently combines
distinct passages, adapts others to his immediate
purpose, and yet more frequently errs by defect
of memory, ascribing words to wrong authors, and
differing widely from himself in a second and
third citation of the same text. But it is further
urged that some of Justin's peculiar readings in
his Evangelic references occur more than once;
while some are found also in the Clementines or
in fragments of heretical Gospels. The latter
cases are very rare, and outweighed by differences
from the unauthoritative texts far more numerous
and important. The former may be due in part
to that facility with which a peculiar form of
words becomes habitual, and in part to real vari-
ations of reading. It is not, indeed, an exaggera-
tion to say that one known MS., the Codex Bezæ,
contains more peculiar readings in the same
space than an average sample of Justin's quota-
tions.
The occurrence of Apocryphal details in Jus-
tin's references is no more than might have been
expected from a writer at his time: there are
even more in Codex Bezæ, to recur to the exam-
ple which has been given above, a MS. which re-
presents a very early and widely-current text of
the Gospels. Yet in the most remarkable inci-
dent which he gives, the kindling of a fire in the
Jordan, when Christ descended into the water, he
evidently distinguishes the traditional detail from
what was recorded by the Evangelists. 'When
Jesus,' he says, 'came to the Jordan, where John
was baptizing, when he descended to the water,
THE AGE OF THE APOLOGISTS.
105
both a fire was kindled in the Jordan, and the CHAP. IV.
Apostles of Christ Himself recorded in writing A.D. 120-170.
that the Holy Spirit as a dove lighted upon
Him.'
the written
sources which
It follows from what has been said, that Our Gospels
there is no reason to believe that Justin made
use of any written record of the Lord's Life ex- Justin used.
cept our Gospels, and that it is to these only he
refers when he speaks directly of Memoirs of the
Apostles. At the same time, most of his refer-
ences are manifestly not taken directly from
books. He is the representative of an age of
oral teaching. The texts both of the Old and
New Testament in his time were popularly
moulded afresh in many cases, and tradition,
though formally set aside, yet contributed some
few details to the sum of the evangelic records.
But this fact does not detract from the value of
his testimony. On the contrary, it shows with
what definite accuracy the received Gospels re-
presented and controlled the traditional accounts
of Christ's Life, and thus carries back their sub-
stantial authority to a time earlier than that at
which they were in general or exclusive use.
tine Homilies.
What has been said of Justin's quotations The Clemen-
applies almost without modification to the quo-
tations in the Clementine Homilies, the most c. A.D. 160.
remarkable product of philosophic Ebionism. In
these also there is great freedon of citation in
passages both from the Old Testament and from
the Gospels; and at the same time they preserve
phrases characteristic of each of the four Gospels.
For in one respect they supplement the evidence
of Justin. The allusions to St John's Gospel in
his writings are confined to casual coincidences of
106
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 120-170.
CHAP. IV. language. In the Homilies there is a very dis-
tinct quotation from the history of the restora-
Ilom. XIX. 22. tion of the man born blind. St John's Gospel
was also largely used by the Ophites, one of the
earliest heretical sects; and its teaching is re-
flected clearly in the exquisite fragment which
closes the Letter to Diognetus.
4. A.D. 150.
Extent of re-
ferences to
the other
books of
New Testa-
ment up to
this time.
The Old Tes-
tament that
brew Canon.
of the He-
Cohort. ad
Gentes, 13.
If we extend our inquiry from the Gospels
to the remaining books of the New Testament,
it appears that shortly after the middle of the
second century every book which it contains is
recognized as familiarly known, if not authori-
tative among Christians, except 1 Thessalonians,
2 Peter, 2, 3 John, and Jude; for the silent
incorporation of the language of Scripture in
another writing is a sure sign of the familiar use
of it. And it must be remembered that the
evidence thus gained is collected from writings
which are not, if put together, much larger in
bulk than the New Testament itself. Thus the
references of the earliest Fathers to the New
Testament are proportionately more complete and
extensive than those of the Apostolic writers to
the Old Testament.
The quotations from the Old Testament in
Justin and the Clementine Homilies confirm ex-
clusively the books of the Hebrew Bible. There
is no quotation, I believe, in these books of the
Apocrypha of the Old Testament, though Wis-
dom, at least, would have fallen in with much
of Justin's reasoning. Indeed, to use the words
of a contemporary writer, it was regarded as a
'work of Divine Providence that the books which
were of critical importance to the Christian re-
ligion were preserved in the hands of Jews.' In
THE AGE OF THE APOLOGISTS.
107
another respect Justin offers a marked contrast to CHAP. IV.
the Apostolic writers. In dealing with the Old A.D. 120-170.
Testament, he allows himself a license of mys-
tical interpretation which is bound by no rules.
It could hardly be otherwise. The prophets ac-
cording to him 'proclaimed the same truths which Dial. 48, 119.
Christ taught:' the Holy Spirit 'proclaimed be- Apol. 61.
forehand through them all things concerning
Jesus' For him the Old Testament was a com-
plete Bible, historically and doctrinally.
tament recog-
For it must be again repeated that even at No New Tes-
this time there is no clear sense anywhere ex- nized at pre-
pressed of a New Testament corresponding to the sent.
Old Testament. The idea of such a collection of
Christian Scriptures was doubtless present to
many of the most far-seeing teachers of the age,
and was in part practically carried out, for it is
found firmly established in the next generation.
But at present the collection was incomplete, and
not fixed by an express rule. The time was not
yet ripe for any universal decision on the subject.
Papias, who 'quoted testimonies from the former The Judai-
Epistle of John and that of Peter,' appears to zers within
have made no allusion whatever to the Gospel of rejected St
St Luke, the Acts or the Pauline Epistles. As a
friend of Polycarp he could not have been un-
acquainted with them, but it is probable that his
sympathies remained with the Twelve,' accord-
ing to the narrow interpretation of their teach-
ing, and that he declined to admit the writings
which bore the stamp of the Apostle of the Gen-
tiles as having a decisive authority for the Church.
The Ebionim, again, even before they sank into
a heretical sect, definitely declined to accept St
Paul's teaching; and it is not unlikely that HE- HEGESIPPUS.
GESIPPUS formally shared their judgment, though C. A.D. 140.
the Church
Paul.
(
108
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 120-170.
CHAP. IV. he found the 'right principles' of the faith at
Corinth, where, as he relates, the Epistle of Cle-
ment was still read, in which the authority and
doctrine of St Paul is distinctly affirmed. For
the Judaizing party were already accepting prac-
tically the fulness of the Apostolic faith. Inter-
course and experience had broken down the
barriers of isolated congregations and cherished
prejudices. In other words, Rome, the centre of
the world, and not Jerusalem, was the centre of
the Church; and the effect appears in the new
limits imposed upon Judaizing thought. The
Shepherd of Hermas, which is most legal in its
spirit, and bears the same relation to the other
writings of the first century after the Apostles
that the Epistle of St James does to the re-
mainder of the New Testament, yet recognizes
clearly each typical form of Apostolic doctrine,
and shadows forth under a remarkable image the
outward building of the Catholic Church from
many different elements.
HERMAS.
C. A.D. 150.
Assaults
Testament.
Meanwhile the authority of the Old Testament
upon the Old was called in question. At the time when Justin
was urging the letter of the prophets on Jew and
Gentile, as conveying clear proof of the truth of
Christianity, others were labouring to overthrow
partially or entirely the divine claims of the old
dispensation. Those who failed to apprehend the
proportionate and progressive character of the
revelations of God, culminating in Christianity,
maintained either that the Mosaic revelation had
been corrupted in successive transcriptions, or
that it was not originally divine. The two opi-
nions found able and energetic supporters; and
modern controversies may find their prototypes
in the history of the second century. Here it is
THE AGE OF THE APOLOGISTS.
109
A.D. 120-170.
The whole
Christian
sufficient to have indicated that the Church had CHAP. IV.
to win, so to speak, the whole Bible: to maintain
the Old Testament against the false literalism
which stereotyped its precepts, and the false Bible gained
literalism which ignored its spirit: to construct by the
the New Testament out of scattered books which Church.
consecrated for the use of all ages every essen-
tial form of Christian truth. The one work
was wrought in conflict, the other comparatively
in silence: the one was an effort of thought, of
reason: the other an operation of instinct, of life.
Both were achieved essentially at the same epoch ;
and the next Christian writers who meet us wit-
ness to their accomplishment. Both were com-
bined with the firmest belief in the immediate
teaching of the Spirit; or rather it was this be-
lief in a living Word which gave to true Chris-
tians a lively trust in the written Word. To use
the noble language of a writer who sums up the
blessings and the faith of the age in which he
lived, at this time 'the fear of the Law is chanted, Ep. ad
and the grace of the Prophets is recognized, and Diogn. c. 11.:
the faith of the Gospels is established, and the
tradition of the Apostles is guarded, and the
grace of the Church has free and exulting course.
And if thou dost not grieve His grace,' he adds,
'thou shalt further learn what the Word commu-
nicates [in intercourse with us], through whom
He chooses, when He wills. For all that we
were moved to declare by the will of the Word
which bade us, with toil, from love of that which
has been revealed to us, we impart to you?'
MARCION.
One definite attempt, indeed, was made with- The Bible of
in this period to define a Christian Bible. Mar-
cion, the son of a bishop of Sinope, claimed to
vindicate Christianity from the corruptions which
110
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
1
A.D. 120-170.
CHAP. IV. had grown round it. His object was to restore
the Gospel of St Paul to its original simplicity,
and to cast out all Jewish elements from the
Christian faith. With this view he formed a
collection of sacred books as the basis and test of
his teaching. This was divided into two parts,
the Gospel and the Apostolicon. The Gospel
was an adaptation of St Luke-a conclusion in
which critics of the most opposite schools now
acquiesce: the Apostolicon consisted of ten epi-
stles of St Paul, excluding the Pastoral Epistles
and the Epistle to the Hebrews. There is no
evidence to show on what grounds Marcion
limited his collection of the Pauline letters. The
writings which depended on the authority of the
other Apostles, and the Acts which ratified their
teaching, he necessarily rejected; but it does not
follow that he regarded them as unauthentic be-
cause he rejected them as unauthoritative.
Such is the first clear notice of a Canon¹ of
1
1 The word Canon, which springs from a root found
in its simplest form in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin
(kanch, canné, canna) for a reed, (Engl. cane), is con-
nected with a large class of derivatives (canal, channel,
cannon) in which the idea of 'straightness' prevails.
Canon itself, which is a classical Greek term, signifies
properly a straight rod, especially a carpenter's rule.
Thus the word came to be used for the standard in art
and literature and morals. At the same time it was
also used passively for that which was definitely mea-
sured (comp. 2 Cor. x. 13—16).
In the first three centuries the word is not used of
the Scriptures, but of the traditional Rule (Canon) of
the Church, Rule of Truth, Rule of Faith, the law by
which the progress of the Church was regulated, and
specially of the Creed in which that law was embodied.
Afterwards by a natural transition the special deci-
sions made on points of Christian discipline were called
canons.'
THE AGE OF THE APOLOGISTS.
111
A. D. 120-170
•
Christian Scriptures, of a written rule, that is, of CHAP. VI.
Apostolic doctrine. Yet it is most improbable
that Marcion first carried the idea of such a col-
lection into effect. He is more likely to have fol-
lowed an example which he found, than himself
to have given an example to the Church at large.
His adversaries, in fact, always represent him as
mutilating something which already existed, and
not as imposing a new kind of test of truth. But
if, as seems most probable, similar collections of
Apostolic writings existed before his time in the
orthodox churches, they probably were confined
to separate districts, and differed, more or less,
as to their contents¹.
The first application of the word to Scripture is in
the derivatives canonize and canonical. The authori-
tative books of the Bible are spoken of as those which
are or have been canonized, that is ratified by the rule
of the Church. And the first meaning of canonical
was also in all probability passive, 'admitted by rule,'
and not (as at a later time) 'giving the rule.'
In the fourth century Canon itself was applied to
the Bible. After a list of the sacred books has been
given it is said 'this would be the most unerring Rule
(Canon) of the Inspired Scriptures' (Amphilochius.
See Ch. vii.), that is the measure for testing them, and
thus approximately, an index or catalogue. From this
sense Canon was naturally transferred to the collection
of books included in the index.
The chief point of interest to be observed in these
fluctuating meanings of the terms is that the verb and
not the substantive is first applied to the Bible. That
was first tried by a rule and ratified, which afterwards
became itself the rule.
In the following pages the word Canon will be used
in its proper sense for 'the measure of the contents' of
the Bible.
1 The indication of such a collection is found in a
phrase of DIONYSIUS, of Corinth (c. A.D. 160-170),
referring to the conduct of Marcion. It is not mar-
vellous that 'some,' he says, 'have attempted to adul-
112
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 120-170.
rian Frag-
ment.
CHAP. IV. The memorial of one such collection has been
preserved by a most remarkable chance-if such
a word can be rightly used-in the famous Mu-
The Murato- ratorian Fragment on the Canon, which forms an
appropriate conclusion to this part of our inquiry,
and offers a striking contrast to the partial
New Testament of Marcion. This precious relic
was first published by Muratori (1740) from a
MS. in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, which
had originally belonged to the great Irish mo-
nastery of Bobbio. It was found in a volume of
Latin fragments and translations which dates
apparently from the VIIIth century. But the
fragment itself was evidently copied from a MS.
of much higher antiquity; for it was mutilated
both at the beginning and end before it was
transcribed. The writer claims to be a contem-
porary of Pius, who was bishop of Rome in the
middle of the second century; so that its date
may be fixed with tolerable certainty between
A.D. 160-170. The text of the fragment is not
only mutilated, but corrupt. The Latin in which
it is preserved is evidently a rude translation
from a Greek original; and this copy is unusually
disfigured by the manifold errors which abound
in Irish MSS. of the period when it was written.
But notwithstanding these defects the general
scope of the fragment is clear, and it expresses
with fair distinctness the first known judgment
terate the Dominical Scriptures, when they have laid
hands on those which are not such as they are' (quoted
by Euseb. H. E. II. 25]. So a little later MELITO (c.
A.D. 170–180) speaks of 'the Old Books,' 'the Books
of the Old Testament,' phrases which clearly imply the
existence of a New Testament, a written anti-type to
the Old.
THE AGE OF THE APOLOGISTS.
113
of the Catholic Church' on the sum of the Chris- CHAP. IV.
tian Scriptures.
A.D.120-170.
The author is entirely unknown. He was pro- Its source.
bably an Italian, as may be concluded from his
intimate knowledge of the Roman Church, but
not a resident in Rome, for he speaks of the city
by name. From the internal character of the
passage it seems to have been taken from a con-
troversial rather than from a historic work, and
probably from some book against heresy. If this
conjecture be correct, it confirms what has been
said before of the necessary limitation of the early
evidence for the use of the Apostolic writings,
from the character of the works of the oldest
Fathers which have been preserved. If any of
the earliest treatises against heresy, as those of
Agrippa Castor (c. A.D. 130), or Justin, or Dio-
nysius of Corinth (c. A.D. 165), or Melito (c. A.D.
175), had been preserved, it would doubtless have
been easy to trace in them the recognition of the
authority of the Books of the New Testament,
which is now first seen in the scattered words of
their opponents¹.
The four
The Fragment commences with words which Its substance.
evidently refer to the Gospel of St Mark. The Gospels.
Gospel of ‘Luke the physician,' the companion of
St Paul, it is there said, stands third. The fourth
1 The first quotation of the Apostolic Epistles as
divine Scripture, the first Canon of the New Testa-
ment, the first Commentary on an apostolic book (Hera-
cleon on St John) are due to heretics. In the frag-
inents from early heretics contained in the Philosphu-
mena of [Hippolytus] the Gospels of St Luke and St
John, and the Epistles of St Paul to the Romans,
Corinthians (1, 2), and Ephesians, are quoted as 'Scrip-
ture.' The earliest quotation is in a fragment of Basi-
lides, c. A.D. 130.
8
114
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
C
A. D. 120-170.
CHAP. IV. place is given to the Gospel of John a disciple
of the Lord, which he wrote 'at the request of
his fellow-disciples and bishops, in obedience to a
revelation given to the Apostle Andrew, aided
by the revision of all'...... What wonder is it
then,' the author adds, 'that John so constantly
brings forward each detail even in his Epistles,
1 John i. 1. saying in his own person, What we have seen
with our eyes, and heard with our ears, and
our hands have handled, these things have we
written? For so he professes that he was not only
an eye-witness, but also a hearer, and moreover,
a historian of all the wonderful works of our
Lord.'
The Acts and
Epistles.
+
a
Though there is no reference to St Matthew's
Gospel, we may assume that this occupied the
first place in the enumeration. And at the close
of it the writer says: 'And so, though various
principles are taught in each of the Gospels, it
makes no difference to the faith of believers,
since in all of them all things are declared by one
guiding Spirit concerning the Nativity, the Pas-
sion, the Resurrection, the Conversation [of the
Lord] with His disciples, and His double Advent,
at first in humility, and afterwards in royal power,
as He will yet appear.' Thus clearly does he re-
cognize the unity of the Gospels in contents, in
purpose, in inspiration. He notices no doubt as
to their authority, no limit as to their reception.
They held in his time a position of clear and un-
questioned supremacy.
Next to the Gospels the book of the Acts is
mentioned as containing a record by Luke of what
fell under his own observation. Thirteen Epistles
are attributed to St Paul, of which nine were
addressed to Churches, and four to individual
THE AGE OF THE APOLOGISTS.
115
A. D. 120-170.
Christians. The first class suggests an analogy CHAP. IV.
with the Apocalypse. As St John, when writing
for all Christendom, wrote specially to seven
Churches, so St Paul also 'wrote by name only
to seven Churches, showing thereby the unity of
the Catholic Church, though he wrote twice to the
Corinthians and Thessalonians for their correc-
tion.' The second class includes all the books which
we receive, 'an Epistle to Philemon, one to Titus,
and two to Timothy,' which though written only
'from personal feeling and affection, are still hal-
lowed in the respect of the Catholic Church, in
the arrangement of ecclesiastical discipline.'
(
Moreover,' it is said 'there is in circulation Disputed
writings.
an Epistle to the Laodiceans, [and] another to
the Alexandrians, forged under the name of
Paul, bearing on the heresy of Marcion; and
several others, which cannot be received into the
Catholic Church. For gall ought not to be mixed
with honey. The Epistle of Jude, however, and
two Epistles of John, who has been mentioned
above, are held in the Catholic [Church]…………..We
receive also the Apocalypses of John and Peter
only, which [latter] some of our body will not
have read in the Church.'
After this mention is made of the Shepherd
of Hermas, which is excluded from the collection
of Scriptures, in which it appears to have been
already placed by some, and of writings of Valen-
tinus, Basilides and others, of whom,' the writer
says, 'we receive nothing;' and so the Fragment
ends abruply in the middle of an unfinished sen-
tence.
Thus it will be observed, that no mention is The omis-
made of those Catholic Epistles which are attest- sions of the
ed by the earliest and most complete 'evidence,
Fragment.
8-2
116
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A. D. 120-170.
CHAP. IV. 1 John¹, and 1 Peter. The Epistle of St James,
the Epistle to the Hebrews, and 2 Peter, are
also omitted. With these exceptions the cata-
logue includes every book in our New Testament,
and adds only one book to it, the Apocalypse of
St Peter, which, it is said, was not universally
admitted.
The Fragment
probably
a cento of
sages.
Various conjectures have been made to ex-
plain the omissions of the Fragment. The true
distinct pas- explanation of them is probably to be found in
the mutilation of the text, which seems to be
made up of detached pieces. The first Epistle of
St John is, in fact, quoted as the work of the
Apostle in the notice of his Gospel; and a re-
markable allusion to 'the book of Wisdom (Pro-
verbs) written by the friends of Solomon' was
perhaps made originally in explanation of the
reception of the Epistle of the Hebrews, which
was written by a friend of St Paul, and not by
the Apostle himself. But it is needless to enter
into a discussion of these details. The broad out-
lines of this earliest list of the Christian Scrip-
tures are clear and full; and doubts, it will be
seen, still existed in the next generation, as to the
reception of some books, though the Churches of
Christendom were then generally agreed as to
the contents of their New Testament.
1 It may be noticed that there is reason to think
that two Epistles of St John, and not three, were first
popularly received. The two shorter Epistles may
have been reckoned together as one. See p. 122.
...
CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN BIBLE.
Built upon the foundation of the apostles and pro-
phets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner
stone.-Eph. ii. 20.
A. D. 170-303.
The progress
of second
N the last quarter of the second century we CHAP. V.
emerge at length into the full light of Chris-
tian history. From this time the Church stands in
open strength, and challenges the power of the of Christian-
empire, lately guided by philosophers, and now ity at the end
hastening to its fall. From this time Christianity century.
leaves its stamp on the schools of heathen thought,
and in the contact receives much even where it
gives most. It had won the heart of men: it
now stood forth to conquer their intellect. From
this time Christian writers made good their claim
to stand in the first rank among the teachers of
their time, for eloquence, for vigour, for grace,
for freedom. From this time they speak to us
with voices, full and manifold, in which he who
wills may follow the simple strains of faith, min-
gled and at times confounded, yet never wholly
lost, amidst strange sounds of strife, of violence, of
pride. From this time, as Truth was necessarily
bound in ever stricter forms, the sense of a living
communion with the Word was more and more
withdrawn from the mass of believers, though, by
|
118
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. IV. the blessing of God, it has never yet wholly ceased
to be the noblest heritage of great and humble
souls.
A D. 170-303.
the earlier
ment.
Retrospect of Before we enter upon this period of fuller
history of the knowledge, the earlier age still demands a brief
New Testa- review. As we look back over it, we can now
gather in a few sentences the sum of what it
teaches on the formation of the New Testament,
and better appreciate the manner in which its
testimony is given. In their origin the writings
of the Apostles are seen to have been casual and
fragmentary. Their authors claim for themselves
distinctly the gift of the Holy Spirit, but they
nowhere express any design of conveying to their
readers a full outline of the Faith. Still less do
they indicate any idea of supplementing the Old
Testament by a new collection of Scriptures.
With the exception of the Apocalypse, no Book
professes to contain a direct and complete revela-
tion destined for the use of all Christians. Nor
again is there the slightest reason to suppose
that the different writers consciously combined
to portray various aspects of Christianity. Yet
it is equally certain that the New Testament does
form a whole. Its different elements are united
internally by the closest and most subtle harmo-
nies. No part can be taken away without sensible
injury to its unity and richness. Thus in the
following generation we find various sections in
the Church who followed out one form or other
of Apostolic teaching, as it is still preserved
in the New Testament, or combined different
forms more or less perfectly. But there is no
type of doctrine of which the New Testament does
not offer a perfect explanation and present the
Divine germ. Still, however, the memory of the
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN BIBLE.
119
A. D. 170-303
Apostolic age was too fresh, the anticipation of CHAP. V.
the Coming of Christ too vivid, to allow of any
definite collection of Christian Scriptures being
made for the use of future times. An instinctive
reverence invested the immediate disciples of the
Lord with a natural dignity; and their writings
moulded the thoughts of those who succeeded
them. Experience soon deepened and defined
the impression of this Divine instinct. Contro-
versy brought out the decisive authority of the
Apostolic texts. The corruption of the Evangelic
tradition placed the simple grandeur of the four
Gospels in clear preeminence. The words of the
Apostles were placed more and more frequently
by the side of the words of the prophets, as the
teaching of Christ had always been placed by
that of the Law. Partial collections of the Scrip-
tures of 'the New Testament' were formed with-
out the Church; and as the whole Christian
Body realized the fulness of its common life, the
teaching and the books which had been in some
sense the symbol of a part only, were ratified by
the whole. And all this came to pass without
any sudden transition or powerful personal influ-
ence. During the whole period no single cha-
racter is marked out by the possession of creative
genius. The age of great teachers followed after-
wards. As a necessary consequence the evidence
which can be adduced, though partial and frag-
mentary, is always consistent. The movement to
which it witnesses was steadily set in one direc-
tion towards greater breadth and comprehensive-
ness. Nor did it cease till the New Testament
was approximately, if not absolutely, the same as
we receive now.
Such was the Divine process by which during The history
120
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. V. fifty or sixty years after the death of the last
A.D. 170–303. Apostle, or about a hundred and twenty years
from the beginning of the Apostolic mission, the
Christian Scriptures, were gathered and set apart
and at last combined with those of the Old Tes-
tament, which meanwhile after a long conflict
had been vindicated for the universal Church
from the interpretation of Jewish literalism. If
the history is obscure in any part, if any details
in it are yet uncertain, we may still quiet the im-
patience of regret by reflecting how little likely
it was that the remains of Christian literature,
scanty in extent and limited in scope, should have
furnished an outline consistent, intelligible, natu-
ral, in every respect as this is. The New Testa-
ment is itself the truest clue to the investigation
of the first half of the second century, the 'dark
age' of Church history. For the rest it will be
enough to seek in the fuller testimony of the next
generation the expression of convictions, which, if
they were not current everywhere at the close of
the period through which we have passed, must
at least have been formed within it.
1
to be judged
by reference
to the re-
mains of
Christian
literature.
The first
great Fathers
the inter-
earlier age.
For the Fathers who lived at the end of the
second century, however much they were raised
preters of an above their predecessors in power and range of
thought, were trained by that earlier generation
which they surpassed. They made no claims to
any fresh discoveries in Christian truth: on the
contrary they affirmed as their chief glory that
they retained unchanged the tradition of the
Apostolic age. Their testimony is the clear ex-
pression of an earlier faith and not the enuncia-
tion of novel deductions. They are the inter-
preters of the past, and not the mouthpieces of a
revolution.
!
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN BIBLE.
121
sent distinct
By one of those remarkable chances, which so CHAP. V.
often strike the student of history, if we may A.D. 170-303.
not rather call them by a higher name, the three These Fa-
great writers who meet us first represent three thers repre-
great divisions of the Church. The traditions of divisions of
Asia Minor, Egypt, and North Africa, find fit the Church.
exponents in Irenæus, Clement of Alexandria,
and Tertullian. The testimony of the far East is
written in the venerable Syrian Version, the
Peshito; and that of the Latin-speaking churches
is confirmed by the Old Vulgate (Vetus Latina),
which is of nearly equal antiquity.
It is uncertain at what time IRENEUS left Asia IRENEUS.
Minor on his mission to Gaul. In his early youth
he had been trained there under Polycarp, and
had heard from him what St John, and others
who had seen the Lord, had told of 'the mighty Euseb. II. E.
works and teaching, in all things harmonious with v. 22.
the Scriptures.' The recollection of these early
lessons was more vivid, he tells us, in his old age
than that of events just past; and he appeals
with solemn earnestness to them in attestation of
the opinions which he held in his latest years.
When a presbyter at Lyons (Lugdunum) he was
commended by the confessors of the Church to
Eleutherus, bishop of Rome, as 'zealous for the c. a.d. 177.
covenant of Christ'; and when he afterwards be- Euseb. II. E.
came bishop of the city (c. A.D. 177—202) he con-
tinued to take a watchful regard of 'the sound Euseb. II. E.
ordinances of the Church' throughout Christen-
dom. His predecessor in the episcopate, Po-
thinus, was ninety years old when he died for
Christ, so that through him Irenæus was bound
yet by another link with the apostolic age. Of
his numerous writings one has been preserved,
though for the most part only in a very early
V. 4.
v. 20.
122
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
to the Gos-
pels.
CHAP. V. Latin translation, his Refutation of Knowledge
falsely so called, a treatise against heresies, in
five books. In this he deals in passing with the
inspiration and authority of Scripure. Nothing
can be clearer than his assertion of the equal
dignity of the Old and New Testaments, of the
permanent spiritual value of every part of them,
of their supreme power as 'the rule of truth.'
His testimony The very form of the Gospels seems to him full of
divine mysteries, foreshadowed both in the an-
cient Law and in nature itself. For, as in the
Jewish Church the visible form of God rested on
the four-faced Cherubim, 'so Christ, when mani-
fested to men, gave us His Gospel under a four-
fold form, though held together by One Spirit,'
Id. 1. 11. 3. and on these Gospels He rests. And, again, 'as
there are four regions of the world in which we
are, and four several winds-as the Church is
scattered over the whole earth, and the Gospel is
the pillar and support of the Church—we might
expect,' he argues, 'that it should have four
pillars [and four winds, as it were], breathing on
all sides immortality, and kindling [the heavenly
spark in] men.'
A. D. 170-303.
Adv. Hær.
III. 11. 8.
Ilis testi-
mony to the
Elsewhere, he repeats the statement, already
several books quoted from Papias, as to the origin of the Gospels
of St Matthew and St Mark, adding that Luke
of the New
Testament.
Adv. Hær.
III. 1. 1.
Quoted by
V. 8.
committed to writing the Gospel proclaimed by
Paul, and that last of all John, the disciple of the
Euseb. H. E. Lord, published his Gospel, while living at Ephe-
sus.' Of the remaining books of the New Testa-
ment, he quotes repeatedly as Scripture, the Acls,
twelve Epistles of St Paul, (there is no reference
to Philemon,) the Apocalypse and the first Epis-
tle of St John, and 1 Peter. In one place he
brings forward a passage from 2 John as part
II. 16. 8.
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN BIBLE.
123
A.D. 170-303.
v. 26.
of the first Epistle. But he makes no references CHAP. V.
whatever to the Epistles of St James, St Jude,
3 John, 2 Peter. Eusebius says that in a work
now lost he quoted the Epistle to the Hebrews; Euseb. II. E.
and a passage from it is found in a fragment
attributed to him. On the whole, it is probable
that he was acquainted with the book, but did
not attribute it to St Paul. He also brings for-
ward (as Eusebius noticed) a sentence from the v. 20. 2.
Shepherd as 'Scripture.'
mony to the
The use which Irenæus makes of the books of His testi-
the Old Testament shows the growing influence Old Testa
of the LXX. in extending the limits of the collec- ment, and use
of the Apo-
tion of Scriptures, as the Jewish element became
crypha.
less powerful in the Church. This disregard of
the strict limits of the Hebrew Bible has been
already noticed in Barnabas. At a later time it
will be still more apparent wherever the autho-
rity of the Greek translation was paramount, whe-
ther directly, or in the old Latin Version, which
was derived from it. Thus Irenæus quotes the
apocryphal additions to Daniel, Baruch and
Wisdom, side by side with the undoubted books
of Scripture. And though in his account of the
miraculous origin of the Septuagint, he assumes
that its contents were identical with those of the
Hebrew Bible, it is obvious that in the absence
of all power of criticism he, like other Fathers
who were unacquainted with Hebrew, would
receive all the writings which he found in the
ordinary Greek collection as parts of the one
'inspired' translation.
Some, indeed, moved by a more critical spirit, The East
were anxious to gain from others accurate infor- furnished
mation on a subject which they could not examine of the Old
for themselves; and the exigences of controversy
the standard
Testament
124
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A. D. 170-303.
MRLITO.
C. A.D. 172.
Quoted by
IV. 26.
CHAP. V. with the Jews must have shown the necessity for
accuracy as to the common sources of argument.
One most interesting memorial of such an inquiry
exists; and this shows beyond doubt that the
judgment of the East, or in other words of Pales-
tine, was that which was held to be decisive on
the contents of the Old Testament. Onesimus, a
Christian of Asia Minor, had frequently expressed
a desire to learn the exact truth with regard to
the Old Books, how many they were in number,
and their order.' MELITO, bishop of Sardis-' who
directed the whole conduct of his life in the Holy
Euseb. II. E. Spirit'-after 'a visit to the East, and even to the
very spot where [all which we believe] was pro-
claimed and done, in which he obtained exact
knowledge of the Books of the Old Covenant,'
sent a list of them to his friend. "The names of
them are,' he says, 'Five Books of Moses, Gene-
sis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy;
Jesus, the son of Naue, Judges, Ruth; four Books
of Kings, two of Chronicles; a Book of the Psalms
of David, the Proverbs of Solomon, which is also
called Wisdom, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs,
Job; the Books of the Prophets Isaiah, Jere-
miah, the Twelve in a single Book; Daniel, Eze-
kiel, Esdras (Ezra).' One important feature of
this list has been strangely overlooked. It is evi-
dent from the names, the number, and the order
of the books, that it was not taken directly from
the Hebrew, but from the LXX. revised by the
Hebrew. In other words, it appears to be a ca-
talogue of the books in the Palestinian LXX., the
Greek Bible which was used by our Lord and the
Apostles. Three books of our Old Testament are
not mentioned in it, Lamentations, Nehemiah
and Esther. The two former were commonly
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN BIBLE.
125
1
A. D. 170-303.
attached to Jeremiah and Ezra respectively. It CHAP. V.
has been supposed that Esther also was included
in the latter book; but it is more likely that a
real difference of opinion existed in Palestine
from an early time as to the character of the
narrative (of which there are many other traces),
and that Melito did not find it admitted by the
authorities which he consulted.
The greatest license in the citation of 'Scrip- The use of
Apocrypha
ture' prevailed at Alexandria. Several causes common at
have been already noticed which tended to ob- Alexandria.
literate the limits of the Old Testament even
among the Alexandrine Jews. Among Christians
the confusion of the original books of the Hebrew
Bible with the later additions was more rapid and
complete. Some of the books of the Apocrypha
seemed to the Alexandrine Fathers to foreshadow
Christian truths with prophetic power, and the
fulness with which they recognized the working of
the divine Word in men at all times, inclined them
to have little regard for historic data as fixing the
boundaries of a written revelation. For they used
'apocryphal' writings of the New Testament no
less freely than those of the Old Testament. At
times they speak with more critical exactness,
but generally it is necessary to interpret their
testimony with due regard to their national cha-
racteristics.
Alexandria
CLEMENT (Titus Flavius Clemens) is in every CLEMENT of
respect a truc representative of his adopted
Church. Of most varied training and extensive
knowledge, he was full of wide and generous
thoughts, large sympathies, and yet strangely de-
ficient in critical sagacity and chastened judg-
ment. He felt truth rather than found it; and
he commends it to the heart more often than to
126
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A. D. 170-303.
VI. 13.
CHAP. V. the reason. The title of his great work, Patch-
work(Stromateis or Stromata) of Hints for Know-
Euseb. H. E. ledge in accordance with true Philosophy, re-
flects a fair image of his character. For about ten
years he presided over the Greck Catechetical
School of Alexandria, which was famous even in
the middle of the second century. Like Irenæus,
he succeeded a man (Pantænus) who was removed
by one generation only from the Apostles; and
Strom. 1. § 11. he affirms that his writings contain only the sha-
dow and outline of what he had heard from men
...who preserved the true tradition of the blessed
doctrine directly from Peter and James, from
John and Paul' (the connexion is worthy of no-
tice), "the holy Apostles, from father to son, even
Strom.v1.§88. to our time...'. Like Irenæus, he dwells on 'the
harmony of the Law and the Prophets, of the
Gospel and the Apostles, and that under-current
of melody which flows on from teacher to teacher
through all the changes of persons.' 'The rule
of the Church,' he says, by which Scripture is in-
terpreted, 'consists in the perfect combination of
all the notes and harmonics of the Law and the
Prophets with the Testament delivered at the
presence of the Lord.' For in all the Scriptures,
Strom. IV. §2.' in the Law, in the Prophets, and in the blessed
Gospel'-'which are ratified by Almighty power'
we have the Lord as the spring of our teach-
ing, Who, by the various ministrations of His
servants in sundry times and in divers man-
C. A.D.
191-202.
Strom. VI.
$125.
ners, from beginning to end, guides the course of
Strom. 11.§ 29. knowledge,' ruling all their words 'by a wise eco-
nomy to suit the age and culture of those who
heard them.'
His testi-
mony to spe-
cial books of
the Bible.
The writings of Clement contain no special
catalogue of the sacred books. In addition to the
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN BIBLE.
127
A.D. 170–303.
books of the Hebrew Bible (including Esther) CHAP. V.
he quotes Baruch, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Tobit,
Judith, and 2 Esdras. Of the New Testament
he quotes the Four Gospels, the Acts, twelve
Epistles of St Paul (there is still no reference
to Philemon), the Epistle to the Hebrews (as St
Paul's), 1 John, 1 Peter, Jude, the Apocalypse.
There is no express reference in his works to 2,
3 John, though the existence of one or both is
implied; and it seems certain that he was unac-
quainted with the Epistle of James and 2 Peter.
On the other hand, he quotes as inspired the
Preaching (Apocalypse) of Peter, the Shepherd;
and also the letters of Clement of Rome and Bar-
nabas as apostolic. Other apocryphal books, as
the Gospels according to the Hebrews and accord-
ing to the Egyptians, he uses, but without giving
them any place among the Christian Scriptures.
Church.
The Churches of Asia Minor were mainly con- The African
servative: the Church of Alexandria was liberal,
yet subtle and speculative: the Church of North
Africa was fervent, impassioned, pitilessly stern.
If Clement embodies the spirit of Alexandria
TERTULLIAN (Quintus Septimius Florens Tertul- TERTULLIAN.
lianus) is no less fitted to express the genius of
Carthage and Hippo. Restless, impatient of con-
trol, glowing with unmeasured zeal, bearing down
all opposition with the force of impetuous rhe-
toric, carried even to the heresy of Montanism by
his aspirations after a stricter life, he has left
writings which will charm as long as the Latin
tongue is read, and a name which will live while
courage is a Christian virtue. It does not appear
that the African Churches had had any great
teacher before him. But Tertullian repeats the
testimony which we have already heard from
C. A.D.
190-220.
128
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
1
A.D.170-303.
IV. 5.
CHAP. V. others. He professes to teach only that which had
been taught from the first. The whole record of
God's revelation-the collection of Scriptures of
the Old and New Testaments-is in his judg-
ment one 'Divine Instrument' (i.e. record). He
appeals to the historic tradition of the Churches
to show the authenticity of the apostolic writings.
adv. Marc. 'If,' he says, 'it is acknowledged that that is
more true which is more ancient, that more an-
cient which is even from the beginning, that from
the beginning which is from the Apostles; it will
in like manner assuredly be acknowledged that
that has been delivered by the Apostles which
has been preserved inviolate in the Churches of
the Apostles.' So, he goes on to say at length,
the Epistles of St Paul have been preserved in
the Churches which he founded: so too the four
Gospels have been handed down to us in due suc-
cession on the authority of the apostolic Churches.
6
These,' he adds, are the summary arguments
which we employ when we discuss the Gospels
with heretics, maintaining both the order of time,
which excludes the later works of forgers, and the
authority of Churches, which upholds the tradition
of the Apostles; because truth necessarily pre-
cedes forgery, and proceeds from those to whom
it has been delivered.' In the possession of the
de Præscr. 37. New Testament he proudly says elsewhere 'I am
the heir of the Apostles.'
The Old Latin
Bible.
Its origin.
The Canon of Tertullian is intimately con-
Version of the nected with that of the Old Latin Version of the
Bible, which he habitually used. The origin of
this venerable translation, the 'Peshito,' so to
speak, or 'simple' Version of the West, is lost in
complete obscurity. Yet it can be affirmed with
certainty that it was made in Africa, and that it
(
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN BIBLE.
129
A.D. 170-303.
was so far authorized by popular use even in the CHAP. V.
time of Tertullian, as to form the theological
dialect. It may seem strange that the birth-place
of the Vulgate was Africa and not Italy; but all
evidence points to this conclusion. Up to the
close of the second century Greek was the lan-
guage of the Christians of Rome. All the Chris-
tian writings which were published at Rome were
Greek. The names of the bishops with few ex-
ceptions are Greek. The first sermons which
were preached there were in Greek. And the
'Kyrie' still remains to witness to the Greek of
the earliest Liturgy. On the other hand, the
dialect of the version exhibits every peculiarity of
African Latin in its rudest form, and, as Greek
was little used in Africa, the need of the Version
must have been felt as soon as Christianity was
firmly planted there. This cannot have been later
than the middle of the second century, and to
that date we must refer the origin of the Old
Latin Vulgate. The Jews who were settled in
North Africa seem to have spoken Greek ex-
clusively, or it might be supposed that parts of
the Old Testament had been rendered into Latin
before the introduction of Christianity. On in-
ternal grounds the existence of some such a ver-
sion may be plausibly supported. Its currency
would have fixed the outlines of a theological
dialect, and would readily explain the substantial
similarity of the translation in different parts of
the Old and New Testaments. The work, at any
rate, whenever it was begun, like the LXX. from
which the Old Testament was taken, seems to
have been accomplished by successive and yet
not independent efforts of individuals. The text
thus made was afterwards variously altered, and
9
130
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D.170—303
CHAP. V. gradually became so corrupt, by the introduction
of glosses and the combination of readings, that
at the close of the fourth century Jerome was
induced to revise it by the help of the original
Greek. His labours, indeed, did not end with
that revision, nor were they even thus far univer-
sally welcomed. In Ireland and Great Britain
especially, the Old Latin continued to be used
widely for several centuries; and at a later time
its influence greatly modified the New Vulgate,
which was finally accepted as the authorized Ver-
sion of the Western Churches.
Its Canon.
The translation of the Old Testament in the
Old Latin was taken from the Alexandrine LXX.
It consequently contained the books of the Apo-
crypha, which were added to the Greek Bible,
and some others which are not at present found
there, as 2 Esdras, and perhaps the Book of
Enoch. In the New Testament it erred by de-
fect and not by excess. From considerations of
style it seems certain that the Epistle to the He-
brews, the Epistle of St James, and 2 Peter
did not form part of the Version in its original
form.
Tertullian's quotations reach generally to the
same limits. He uses passages from Baruch,
Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus, without reserve as
delab.Mul.3. to their authority. The Book of Enoch he quotes
on the ground of its recognition by St Jude,
though he admits that it was not received 'into
the Jewish ark.' In addition to the Four Gos-
pels, the Acts, thirteen Epistles of St Paul (Phi-
lemon is expressly included), 1 Peter, 1 John,
the Apocalypse, and Jude, he notices the Epistle
to the Hebrews, under the title of the 'Epistle of
de Pudic. 20. Barnabas,' and says that it was 'more generally
The Canon of
Tertullian.
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN BIBLE.
131
A.D. 170–303,
received in the churches than the apocryphal CHAP. V.
Shepherd;' but the text which he gives evidently
shows that he found no current version of the.
book, but rendered the passage himself from the
Greek. There is nothing in his writings to show
that he was acquainted with the Epistle of James,
2 Peter, 2, 3 John; and he refers to only one
'apocryphal' book besides the Shepherd, the
Acts of Paul and Thecla, which he declares to
be a detected forgery. The 'Shepherd,' he says, de Orat. 12.
was pronounced spurious by every council of the de Pudic. 10.
churches; and the presbyter who composed the
'Acts of Paul' was degraded after confessing his de Bapt. 17.
fraud. The two statements are not without in-
terest as showing that in his time at least some
criticism was used in discussing the claims of
writings which professed to be Apostolic or in-
spired.
Church.
C. A.D.
ad Autol. II.
،
18.
Of the early Greek literature of the Syrian The Syrian
Church, three books of Theophilus, bishop of An-
tioch, to Autolycus, on the 'Elementary Evidences
of Christianity,' and a few fragments, alone are
left. THEOPHILUS quotes the Gospel of St John THEOPHILUS.
as written by one of those 'who were moved by 168-180.
the Spirit,' and Eusebius mentions that he quoted
the Apocalypse in a work now lost. One coinci- H. E. iv. 24.
dence of language with 2 Peter His word
shining as a light in a chamber, enlightened the
world'―deserves remark from the great scarcity
of even possible indications of the use of the
Epistle. SERAPION, the second in succession SERAPION.
from Theophilus, shows in a remarkable passage
the spirit in which the Apostolic writings were
received in his time, and also the tenacity with
which some in remote districts still continued to
use apocryphal books. Having found the Gospel
9-2
132
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 170-303.
VI. 12.
CHAP. V. according to St Peter in use at Rhossus, a small
town in Cilicia, he allowed the use of it for a time
Euseb. H. E. with some cautions, as being on the whole ortho-
dox, though he pronounced it unauthentic. 'We
receive,' he says, in writing to the Church there,
'both Peter and the other Apostles as Christ;
but as experienced men, we reject the writings
falsely inscribed with their names, since we know
that we did not receive such from our fathers.'
The Peshito.
The Old Tes-
tament.
See ch. ix.
The New Tes-
tament.
As a supplement to this meagre evidence the
testimony of the Eastern Churches is fully given
in their great Version of the Bible, the Syriac
Peshito (i. e. simple, literal version). This was
made as far as can be determined in the same
manner as the Old Latin, but at an earlier date.
The Old Testament, no less than the New, was
certainly translated by a Christian, and the whole
work was probably revised and completed early
in the second century, at Edessa, which was at
that time the centre of an important Christian
school.
The Version of the Old Testament was taken
directly from the Hebrew, yet not without refer-
ence to the Palestinian LXX. Its contents are
therefore limited to the books of the Hebrew
Bible. The Syriac translations of the apocry-
phal books and the additions to Daniel were not
made till a much later date.
The New Testament contains the Four Gos-
pels, the Acts, fourteen Epistles of St Paul (in-
cluding the Epistle to the Hebrews), the Epistle
of James, 1 Peter, 1 John. The translations of
the Epistle of Jude, 2 Peter, 2, 3 John, and
the Apocalypse, which are given in the printed edi-
tions, were made at a later time, and have found
only partial acceptance in the Eastern Churches.
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN BIBLE.
133
A.D. 170-303.
Summary.
Briefly to sum up what has been said, it ap- CHAP. V.
pears that towards the close of the second cen-
tury there was little critical constancy in the use
of the books of the Old Testament. Where the
influence of the Alexandrine LXX. prevailed, all
the books which it included were commonly re-
ceived as Scripture, yet not by any deliberate
judgment, but from a natural habit, from inad-
vertence, and, in part, from the character of
some of the apocryphal books themselves. On
the other hand when discussion arose, appeal was
made to the Hebrew Bible, which was faithfully re-
produced in the Version of the Eastern Churches.
Of the New Testament, the Four Gospels,
the Acts, thirteen Epistles of St Paul (for the
partial omission of the Epistle to Philemon is
obviously accidental), 1 Peter, 1 John, were uni-
versally received in every Church, without doubt
or limitation, as part of the written rule of Chris-
tian faith, equal in authority with the Old Scrip-
tures, and ratified (as it seemed) by a tradition
reaching back to the date of their composition¹.
In the Western and African Churches. the The partial
Epistle of St Jude, 2, (3) John, and the Apo- reception of
the disputed
calypse, were received as parts of the New Testa- Books of the
ment in the East the Epistle of St James and New Testa-
the Epistle to the Hebrews, of which the latter
was also known and partially admitted in other
ment.
1 These Books will in future be spoken of as the
acknowledged Books of the New Testament-Homo-
logumena according to the technical term of Eusebius;
the remaining books may be described by the cor-
responding term Antilegomena, the disputed Books.
The same terms may be applied to the Hebrew Canon
of the Old Testament, and the Apocrypha respectively;
yet the book of Esther occupies an anomalous posi-
tion.
134
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
!..
•
CHAP. V. Churches. The Second Epistle of St Peter alone
of the books which we receive appears to have
been almost or entirely unused and unknown.
A.D. 170-303.
Of other books the Shepherd of Hermas ob-
tained a limited authority, but its claims were
distinctly set aside by the decisive judgment of
those who were best acquainted with its origin.
The evidence which can be gathered from the
the Fathers Fathers of the third century confirms completely
Testimony of
of the third
Books.
century to the the results which have been obtained as to the
Disputed
judgment of the different churches upon the
disputed' books. In the Western Churches
(North Africa, Italy) various writers quote as
Divine Scripture the Epistle of St Jude (an
anonymous writer against Novatus), 2 John
(Aurelius), and the Apocalypse (Cyprian, Com-
modian, Victorinus, Lactantius, Hippolytus); and
there is no reason to think that any one of these
books was ever rejected there, unless indeed
Caius rejected the Apocalypse. On the other
hand, all direct and indirect evidence combines to
show that the Western Fathers unanimously
denied the Pauline authorship of the Epistle to
the Hebrews; and they make no use of the
Epistle of James, 2 Peter, or 3 John. In
the New Testament they admit no apocryphal
books; but, like Tertullian, they use the Apocry-
pha of the Old Testament freely and withont
(
reserve.
The judgment of ORIGEN must be noticed a
little more in detail. Among all the Fathers of
the first three centuries, Origen-the Adaman-
tine-stands out with the noblest individuality.
II. E. VI. 25. Unsurpassed in Christian zeal, unrivalled in uni-
A.D.
186-254.
ap. Euseb.
The testi-
mony of
ORIGEN.
versal learning, he devoted a long life to the
study of the Scriptures. He believed that the
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN BIBLE.
135
Bible contained all treasures of wisdom, and so
he often appears to see mysteries in it which the
critic refuses to recognize. He believed that
Christianity contained the answer to every human
instinct, and so he often presses with unchastened
boldness to offer an explanation in its name for
that which must as yet be hidden from men. His
faults, like the faults of every great man, were
themselves great; but his genius is still powerful
to warm and to enlighten. No canonization has
hallowed his name, but none the less his influence
on after ages has been equal to that of the great-
est saints-Augustine, Athanasius and Jerome.
tament.
The peculiar studies of Origen give additional His Canon of
importance to his statements on the Bible. In the Old Tes-
his commentary on the first Psalm he gives a list
of the canonical books' of the Old Testament
according to 'the tradition of the Hebrews.'
'They are,' he says, 'twenty-two, equal to the
number of letters in their alphabet.' In his enu-
meration he gives the Hebrew as well as the
Greek names of the books. The order is as
follows: The Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, and
Ruth, Samuel (1, 2), Kings (1, 2), Chronicles
(1, 2), Esdras (1, 2, i. e. Ezra and Nehemiah),
Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Isaiah,
Jeremiah with Lamentations and the Epistle,
Daniel, Ezekiel, Job, Esther. The twelve Minor
Prophets (in one book) are omitted by an error
of Eusebius or his transcriber, as they are neces-
sary to make up the number. The addition of
the Apocryphal Letter (Baruch, ch. vi.) to Jeremiah
is probably a mistake of Origen, who found the
Letter in that position in the LXX. At least
there is no reason to believe that it was ever in-
cluded in the Hebrew Bible. At the close of the
•
CHAP. V.
A.D. 170-303.
+
136
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 170-303.
CHAP. V. list Origen says, 'the Books of the Maccabees are
not included in these' [scriptures of the Jews].
In his other writings he uses apocryphal books
as Divine and authoritative, yet not without no-
ticing the difference of opinion on the subject.
But even in his case the familiar use of the Greek
Bible practically overpowered his knowledge of
the original Hebrew Canon; and in his famous
'Letter to Africanus' he expressly defends the
reception among Christians of the additions found
in the Alexandrine LXX.
1
His Canon of
tument.
The testimony which Origen gives to the
the New Tes- books of the New Testament is more complete
than any which has been yet obtained. No one
of the writings which we receive escaped his
wide research, though he remarks that some were
not universally admitted. "There are,' he says,
'four Gospels only uncontroverted in the Church
of God spread under heaven. Peter has left one
Epistle generally acknowledged; and perhaps a
second, for that is disputed. John wrote the
Apocalypse and an Epistle of very few lines ;
and, it may be, a second and third, since all do
not admit them to be genuine.' Of the Epistle to
the Hebrews, he writes, that 'the thoughts are
the thoughts of the Apostle Paul;...but who it
was who wrote the Epistle, God only knows. cer-
tainly?' Elsewhere he quotes the Epistles of
James and Jude, but at the same time alludes to
the doubts entertained as to their right to be
classed among the Christian Scriptures.
In various places he refers to 'apocryphal'
writings, as the Epistle of Barnabas, the Shep-
herd of Hermas, the Preaching of Peter, the
Gospel according to the Egyptians, and more or
less decisively questions or rejects their authority.
Quoted by
Euseb. 1. c.
His reference
to apocry-
phal writings.
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN BIBLE.
137
A.D. 170-303.
Yet he claims for himself a right of judgment CHAP. V.
from time to time, and the general principles by
which he was guided are set out very clearly in a
passage of his 'Commentaries on St Matthew,' Comm. in
Matt. § 28.
which unfortunately is preserved only in a Latin
translation. As for the use of apocryphal books,
he says, 'it is the part of a great man to hear
and fulfil that which is said, Prove all things:
hold fast that which is good. Still for the sake
of those who cannot, "like moneychangers" dis-
tinguish whether words are to be held as true or
false, and cannot guard themselves carefully, so as
to hold that which is true, and yet abstain from
all evil appearance, no one ought to use for the
confirmation of doctrines any books which are not
included in the canonized Scriptures. Yet if any
one receives the Epistle to the Hebrews as the
work of Paul'...[he does not ill]. Thus strictly
Origen would limit the Bible, in the highest sense,
to the acknowledged books both in the Old and
in the New Testament, that is, the Hebrew Canon
and the Four Gospels, the Acts, 1 Peter, 1 John,
thirteen Epistles of St Paul, and the Apocalypse;
for he seems to have been unacquainted with the
doubts which were raised as to the last book.
The use of other writings he commits to the 'dis-
cretion of individuals, without suppressing his
own opinion as to the very unequal value of dif-
ferent books.
Alexandria.
In the later Fathers of the Alexandrine Later testi-
Church there is little to notice on the history of mony at
the Canon, except the judgment of DIONYSIUS, † A.D. 265.
a scholar of Origen, upon the Apocalypse. He
fully accepted the book as inspired and divine,
but on internal grounds denied that it was writ-
ten by the author of the Gospel. His arguments
138
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH
CHAP. V. are full of interest, but he does not attempt to
A.D. 170–303. support them by any historic proof. In spite of
his influence, however, the earlier opinion con-
tinued to prevail, and the usage of Alexandria
more and more turned in favour of the disputed
books of the New Testament¹.
Asia Minor.
The first great
Christian
Library.
A.D. 309.
In Asia Minor various writers use as Scrip-
ture the Epistle to the Hebrews (Gregory Thau-
maturgus, Methodius), the Apocalypse (Metho-
dius), and perhaps 2 Peter (Firmilian); but
there is no trace of the acceptance there of any
other of the disputed books (James, Jude, 2, 3
John), or of any apocryphal book of the New
Testament. In the Old Testament Methodius
uses the Apocrypha (Ecclesiasticus, Baruch,
Wisdom) without reserve as 'Scripture.'
Meanwhile a Christian Library was established
at Cæsarea by PAMPHILUS, a devoted admirer of
Origen. Manuscripts still exist which claim to
have been compared with copies which were pre-
served there. In one of these the Epistle to the
Hebrews is placed among the Epistles of St
Paul. And Euthalius, who published an edition
of the Acts and seven Catholic Epistles at the
close of the fourth century, says that his work
1 Epiphanius places among the heresies which he
describes one which he calls that of the Alogi- those
who deny the Word (the Logos)-which consisted in
the rejection of the writings of St John. It seems
probable, however, that he only wished to characterize
an opinion, and not to describe any actual body of
men bearing the name, and professing this tenet as
their characteristic mark.
2 This doubtful reference may deserve more consi-
deration from the fact that MELITO of Sardis, at the
conclusion of his Apology, clearly refers to the sub-
stance of 2 Pet. iii. 10, 12, though not by name.
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN BIBLE.
139
was 'collated with the accurate copies in the CHAP. V.
library of Eusebius Pamphilus at Cæsarea.'
Thus we stand at length in a position to which
existing records extend¹. The New Testament,
though with some reserve, has now been extended ing MSS. go
A.D. 170-303.
Summary of
this date to
which exist-
at Alexandria to the limits which we allow. In back.
the Western Churches, on the contrary, the Epi-
stle of St James and 2 Peter were still unknown
or unused, and the Epistle to the Hebrews was
not admitted as apostolical. But, with the ex-
ception of the Peshito, every authority at present
from Alexandria, Africa, Asia and Rome, sup-
ports the inspired authority, and, with one ex-
ception, the apostolic authorship of the Apoca
lypse. In the Old Testament the enlarged Canon
of the Alexandrine LXX. was sanctioned by
popular use, but appeals were made to the He-
brew Canon, which alone was universally and
formally admitted.
mony of here-
The great heresies by which the Church was The testi-
disturbed bear witness to the general accept- tical and
ance of one Bible among all Christians. In the
earliest controversies on the Holy Trinity with
Praxeas and Theodotus, the Scriptures generally c. A.D. 170.
were recognized as the common ground of con-
flict. Tertullian when he welcomed the outpour-
ing of the Spirit (as he believed) under the
teaching of Montanus, yet supposed that it was C. AD 170.
given to define and explain, and not to supersede
the revelations in the common records of the
ancient Scriptures.' Even Mani, when he claimed
the right of reconstructing Christianity, was con- c. a.d. 277.
strained to admit to some extent the authority of
1 Compare App. B. The Contents of the most An-
cient MSS. of the Bible.
140
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. V. the apostolic writings which were commonly re-
ceived.
A.D. 170-303.
heathen
writers.
C. A.D. 180.
†A. D. 304.
At the same time heathen writers gained a
clearer knowledge of the Christian books. CEL-
sus quotes 'the writings of the disciples of Jesus'
concerning His Life as possessing undoubted
authority; and the special facts which he brings
forward show that these were our four Gospels.
It seems likely also that both he and PORPHYRY
were acquainted with the Epistles of St Paul.
In other heathen writers there is scarcely any-
thing which bears upon the history of the Chris-
tian Scriptures. These have indeed little in har-
mony with the Stoicism and Scepticism above
which the noblest thinkers of the West rarely
rose; and the revived Philosophies of Alexandria
-the later schools of Plato and Aristotle-
claimed to be, as it were, new revelations.
CHAPTER VI.
THE BIBLE PROSCRIBED AND RESTORED.
Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day
shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire;
and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort
it is. -1 Cor. iii. 13.
IF
the third
F we look back over the last period of our CHAP. VI.
history, it will be evident by what a wide A.D. 303-340.
interval it is separated from that which immedi- The Charac-
ately preceded it. The influence of great men teristics of
succeeded the antagonism of great principles. Century.
A period of speculation followed the struggle for
substantial existence. The heresies which arose,
if not less perilous than those of the earlier age,
were more confined. They sprang more directly
from the interpretation of fundamental records,
than from essential differences in the apprehen-
sion of the nature of Christianity. On the other
hand, the great Fathers of the Church were dis-
tinguished by larger views of the claims and
destinies of the Truth than their predecessors
had gained. Research and thought were com-
bined with almost boundless freedom. Experi-
ence had not yet found out the limits of inquiry,
and the divine instinct of Christendom had not
fixed the range within which it might be exer-
142
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 303-340.
CHAP. VI. cised. One by one the various sides of Christi-
anity were explored, and its manifold treasures
were everywhere exposed to view, but it was not
yet exactly defined or reduced to a system.
An appeal
to antiquity.
Still in every Church, by every writer, an un-
always made hesitating appeal was made to the use and judg-
ment of antiquity. The boldest speculator made
no claim to novelty. 'The rule of Truth,' 'the
rule of the Church,' was the one standard by
which each professed to be bound; and this
(such was the general belief) found its expres-
sion in the words of Scripture, and its embodi-
ment in universal Christian practice. No date
was fixed for its origin. It was affirmed to have
grown with the growth of the Christian body.
However impalpable such a rule may seem to us,
it was yet most real and powerful in the third
century. And thus though speculation was for-
mally unrestrained, it was tempered by what
may be called the tone of Christian feeling, the
spirit of Christian life. Already that power was
silently working in the whole society which in
the next generation moulded the age of Coun-·
cils.
The import-
ance of this
nexion with
the history of
the Bible.
This characteristic of the period illustrates a
appeal in con- remarkable feature in the history of the Bible.
The Bible was received as a heritage secured by
prescription. Even controversy failed to raise
any spirit of historical criticism. The sacred
books generally had been received from the first.
Common consent had allowed their authority.
de Pudic. 10. Tertullian appears to allude once to synodal dis-
cussions on the Canon, but with that doubtful
exception there is nothing to show that the sub-
ject was ever debated by churches. For them
it was decided by usage, and single writers only
THE BIBLE PROSCRIBED AND RESTORED.
143
A.D. 303-340.
repeat this traditional testimony. Books which CHAP. VI.
were received everywhere were at once admitted
without further inquiry as 'acknowledged;' those
which were only admitted in some places were
reckoned, equally without inquiry, as 'disputed.'
No attempt was made to trace the history of
the one class, or to determine the critical basis of
the doubts which attached to the other. In some
cases, as far as we can see, a book was 'doubted'
or 'gainsayed' because it was unknown in parti-
cular churches; in others, because the apostolical
authority of its writer was uncertain; in others,
from its internal character. Yet in all alike the
doubt was suffered to remain historically inde-
terminate and undecided. The practical solution
of the question, when it was fairly put forward,
was left to the judgment of the churches. And
we, who receive the Bible which was thus fixed—
we know not how-may well believe that this
judgment was not without the guidance of the
Spirit.
tion of Dio-
A.D. 303.
The freedom of inquiry, the power, the out- The persecu-
ward prosperity which Christians enjoyed during cletian.
a great part of the third century, bore at last
bitter fruit. Eusebius prefaces his account of
the persecution of Diocletian with a sad picture H. E. viii. 1.
of the pride and rivalry and hypocrisy and schism
among Christians, which seemed to him to call for
divine chastisement. The first gentle visitation,
he says, was disregarded, and then 'the Lord Lam. ii. 1, 2
covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in
His anger, and cast down from heaven unto the
earth the beauty of Israel...'
The persecution of Diocletian offers a singular Compared
parallel to that which Antiochus Epiphanes di-
rected against the Jews. Both were specially Epiphanes.
with that of
Antiochus
144
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
VIII. 2.
CHAP. VI. designed to effect the destruction of the Scrip-
A.D. 308-840. tures. Both resulted in determining more clearly
than before the limits of the Sacred Volume, by
giving scope to the practical exhibition of the
popular feeling, hitherto vague and wavering.
This peculiar characteristic of Diocletian's edict
Euseb. II. E. —‘that the churches should be razed, and the
Scriptures consumed with fire' was probably
due to the suggestions of Hierocles, proconsul of
Bithynia, who is said to have originated and
guided the persecution. Hierocles himself was
well acquainted with the Christian books, and
the provision which he made for their destruction
shows the position which they held in the Church.
One of the first results of the persecution was
the persecu- to create dissensions in the Church itself. Some
The effects of
tion.
(
Christians purchased impunity by the actual sacri-
fice of Scriptures of the Law,' as the Sacred
Books were now called. Others availed them-
selves of the means of escape which were offered
by lenient magistrates, and were acquitted on the
surrender of 'useless writings.' Others viewed
this compromise with reasonable jealousy, and
branded as 'traitors' (traditores) those who ob-
tained exemption from persecution by the simu-
lation of guilt. Various causes increased the
fierceness of the strife, and the schism of the Do-
natists witnessed for more than three centuries
to its implacable bitterness. Yet good sprang
out of persecution and schism. All parties were
equally interested in determining exactly the
limits of the Bible. The stricter Christians
sought clear grounds for the punishment of the
'traditores: the more lax were anxious not to
compromise their faith while they were willing to
secure impunity by concession in that which they
THE BIBLE PROSCRIBED AND RESTORED.
145
thought indifferent. Their enemics aimed at a CHAP. VI.
special mark; and from this time the phrase A.D. 303-340.
'Canonical' Scriptures became a familiar title, if
it was not now first used.
Canon may
mined.
Yet even this persecution failed to call out How its rela-
any general decision on the contents of the Bible. tion to the
The question, which cannot have been left open, be deter-
was still determined in practice rather than by
debate, and we may look for the result in the
judgment of those who passed through the ordeal.
The persecution, which extended over the whole
Roman Empire, with the exception of Gaul,
where Constantius Chlorus, the father of Con-
stantine, shielded the Christians, raged with
peculiar severity in Africa and Syria. From both
these countries a testimony is preserved as to
the range of Holy Scripture, when the trial was
past.
the Donatists
DONATUS (A. D. 329) headed a party who op- The Canon of
posed the appointment of Cæcilian to the bishop-in Africa.
ric of Carthage, on the ground that he had been
ordained by Felix a 'traditor.' In spite of the
good offices of Constantine the rupture became
complete. Thus the betrayal of the Holy Scrip-
tures was the ground of the Donatist schism, and
we may see in the opinion of the Donatists the
strictest judgment of the African Churches upon
the Canon. Now Augustine in his controversial
works against them expressly affirms that Do-
natist and Catholic alike were 'bound by the Ep. cxxix. 3.
authority of both Testaments,' and that they ad-
mitted equally 'the Canonical Scriptures.' 'And c. Cresc. i.
what are these,' he asks, 'but the Scriptures of
the Law and the Prophets? To which are added ment.
the Gospels, the Apostolic Epistles, the Acts of
the Apostles, the Apocalypse of John.' The am-
I. XXXI. 3.
New Testa-
10
146
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A. D. 303-340.
CHAP. VI. biguity of Augustine's language about the Epistle
to the Hebrews leaves some doubt as to the posi-
tion which this book occupied in the Donatist
Canon. Otherwise the trial through which they
passed left the African Churches in possession
of a complete and pure New Testament.
37-46.
With regard to the Old Testament the influ-
ence of the LXX. still prevailed, and the Apo-
2 Macc. xiv. cryphal books were quoted by Donatists in sup-
port of some of their wildest tenets. Augustine,
as we shall see, at times reproached them with
using an authority not admitted by the Jews.
But in spite of occasional protests, persecution
consecrated, as it were, the tradition which reck-
oned these among the Scriptures. Hitherto the
Churches of North Africa had been wholly shut
off from communication with the East. The
Alexandrine LXX. was for them the original of
the Bible. And even when Augustine gained
clear knowledge of the Hebrew usage, he found
it impossible in the end to exclude from the
Bible books which had been hallowed by the
memories of suffering.
Old Testa-
ment.
It was otherwise in Palestine. Among the
witnesses of the persecution there was EUSEBIUS,
the friend of Pamphilus, afterwards bishop of
Cæsarea, and the historian of the early Church.
H.E. VIII. 2. 'I saw,' he says, 'with my own eyes the houses of
prayer thrown down and razed to their founda-
tions, and the inspired and sacred Scriptures con-
signed to fire in the open market-place.' Among
such scenes he could not fail to learn what books
men judged to be more precious than their lives;
and it may have been what he then saw which
induced him to pay special attention in his his-
tory to early notices of the different parts of
The Canon of
EUSEBIUS.
† c. A.D. 340.
!
THE BIBLE PROSCRIBED AND RESTORED.
147
A.D. 303-340.
Scripture. There is, indeed, some obscurity and CHAP. VI.
several apparent contradictions in what he has
said in different places on the books of the New
Testament. For this and for like faults in other
parts of his narrative he has been judged harshly.
But he himself pleads justly the character of his
work as an excuse for his shortcomings. It was
the first comprehensive history of the Church, and
his object was to gather from earlier writers all
that was of chief interest for his subject. The
result is that he made a vast collection of mate-
rials for a history, and not a history. He does
not pause to weigh or compare his authorities.
Frequently he writes under the immediate influ-
ence of the author whose judgment he has just
recorded, and it is but natural that he has over-
looked some facts which have an important bear-
ing upon points which he professes to discuss in
detail.
treats of the
New Testa-
ment.
The manner in which he treats the history of The passages
the Canon illustrates the desultory character of in which he
his work. After mentioning the succession of Canon of the
Linus to the see of Rome 'upon the martyrdom
of Peter and Paul,' he proceeds without further II. E. 111. 3.
preface to reckon up the writings attributed to
those two Apostles. In this passage he notices
1 Peter as indisputably genuine; 2 Peter as
strongly supported, but yet not in the Testa-
ment.' The Acts, the Gospel, the Preaching, and
the Apocalypse of Peter he rejects absolutely,
'because no ecclesiastical writer in ancient times
or in our own has made habitual use of the testi-
monies to be drawn from them.' He then attri-
butes fourteen Epistles to St Paul, but notices
the doubts as to the authenticity of the Epistle
to the Hebrews which were still entertained by
10-2
148
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH..
A.D. 303-340.
CHAP. VI. some on the authority of the Church of Rome.
The mention of St Paul leads to that of Hermas
(Rom. xvi. 14), who was supposed by many to
have been his friend. "The Shepherd,' he says,
'has been gainsayed by some, though it has been
publicly read in the Churches, as most necessary
for those who need elementary instruction in the
faith.' 'The Acts of Paul also are not,' he adds,
'indisputably genuine.'
After this Eusebius continues his narrative
to the reign of Trajan, and then while noticing
the last labours of St John, he pauses abruptly
H. E. 111. 24. to notice 'the indisputable writings of this apo-
stle also. First he names his Gospel 'clearly
recognized in all the churches under heaven.'
This leads him to speak of its place as last of
the four, of its relation to the other Gospels, of
the scantiness of the Apostolic writings; he then
adds that 1 John is also universally acknow-
ledged; 2, 3 John gainsayed; and that 'about
the Apocalypse men's opinions are very generally
divided. Though in due course [the authority of]
this book also will be decided by the testimony of
the ancients.'
Then follows the great passage in which he
gives his general opinion on the whole subject,
only leaving the character of the Apocalypse to
be determined by the evidence which he will ad-
duce later. This passage must be given at length.
'Now we have come to this point,' he writes,
ledged Books. it seems reasonable that we should give a sum-
Acknow
mary catalogue of the writings of the New Tes-
tament which we have indicated. And first then
we must place the holy quaternion of the Gospels,
which are followed by the narrative of the Acts
of the Apostles. After these we must reckon the
H. E. 111. 25.
THE BIBLE PROSCRIBED AND RESTORED.
149
A.D. 303-340.
[fourteen] Epistles of Paul; and next to them cпɅР. VI.
we must ratify the Epistle circulated as the for-
mer of John, and in like manner that of Peter.
After these books we must place-if at least
such a view seem correct-the Apocalypse, the
judgments on which we shall set forth in due
course. And these are reckoned among the
books “acknowledged."
'Among the controverted books which are
nevertheless well-known [and used] by most, we
class the Epistle circulated under the name of
James, and that of Jude, as well as the second
Epistle of Peter, and the so-called second and
third of John, whether they really belong to the
Evangelist or possibly to another of the same
name.
Uncanonical)
'We must rank among the spurious the account Spurious (i.e.
of the Acts of Paul, and the so-called Shepherd, Books.
and the Apocalypse of Peter. And besides these
the Epistle circulated under the name of Bar-
nabas, and the so-called Teachings of the Apos-
tles; and moreover, as I said, the Apocalypse of
John, if such a view seem correct, which some,
as I said, reject, while others reckon it among
the books "6 acknowledged." We may add that
some reckoned in this division also the Gospel
according to the Hebrews, to which those He-
brews who have received [Jesus as] the Christ
are especially attached. All these then will
belong to the class of "controverted" books.
'It has been necessary for us to extend our
catalogue, even to these latter works [in spite of
their questionable authority], having distinguished
the writings which, according to the tradition of
the Church, are true and genuine and universally
acknowledged, and the others besides these
Controverted
Books.
150
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 303-340.
Books.
CHAP. VI. which though they are not in the Testament
(Canonical), but in fact controverted, are yet con-
stantly recognized in most of the ecclesiastical
writers, that we might be acquainted not only
with these but also with the writings brought
forward by heretics in the name of the Apostles
Apocryphal as containing the Gospels of Peter and Thomas
and Matthias and some others, or the Acts of
Andrew and John and the other Apostles, which
no one in the different successions of ecclesiastical
writers has deigned to mention. And further
also, the character of the language which varies
from the Apostolic spirit, and the sentiment and
purpose of their contents, wholly discordant with
true orthodoxy, clearly prove that they are forge-
ries of heretics; whence we must not even class
them among the spurious books, but set them
aside as every way monstrous and impious.'
Ilis general
divisions.
A careful examination of the classification
here made leaves no doubt that Eusebius divided
all the writings which claimed to be apostolical
into three principal divisions-the Acknowledged,
the Controverted, the Heretical. The terms are
used in a modified sense, and must be explained
with reference to the immediate purpose of the
arrangement. That a book should be acknow-
ledged' as Canonical, it was requisite that its
authenticity should be undisputed, and that its
writer should have been possessed of apostolic
authority; if it were supposed to fail in satisfying
either of these conditions it was 'controverted,'
though it might confessedly satisfy the other; if
it failed absolutely either in authenticity or apos-
tolic sanction, then it was 'spurious.'
This definition of the words of Eusebius clears
the way to a satisfactory explanation of his judg-
THE BIBLE PROSCRIBED AND RESTORED.
151
(
Hebrews is
' acknow-
ment. As to the class of 'acknowledged' Books, CHAP. VI.
one remark only is necessary. He speaks gene- A.D. 303-340.
rally of the Epistles of Paul,' without noticing How the
the Epistle to the Hebrews specially in any place. Epistle to the
But both from his general usage and from his
former mention of 'the fourteen Epistles of Paul,' ledged.'
it seems certain that he looked upon it himself as
' acknowledged.' In other words, for him, like
Origen, the uncertainty was simply as to 'who
wrote it; but whoever wrote it, he received the
book as stamped with the spirit and sanction of
the Apostle¹.
cation of '
( contro-
Books.
The second class of 'controverted' Books in- The classifi-
cludes all those which claiming inspiration or
apostolicity had obtained a partial reception in the verted'
Church2. This class is again subdivided. Some
were popularly admitted, though their claims
were not beyond question either as to authenti-
city (2 Peter) or as to apostolicity (James, Jude,
2, 3 John). If 2 Peter were written by the author
whose name it bore, then it was canonical. On
the other hand, it was allowed that James, Jude,
2, 3 John, were written by men of that name, but
it was doubted whether they were Apostles or
possessed of Apostolic authority. These formed
the first group. They were controverted, but yet
used. The second group was made up of books,
which, in the opinion of Eusebius, were positively
deficient in one or other of the conditions of a
1 Such a sense of the word 'acknowledged' is im-
plied also in its application to the Apocalypse below.
2 The Epistle of Clement, though used in the
Church, made no claims to apostolical authority; and
hence, it appears, Eusebius omits to mention it here,
though in other places he calls it a 'controverted book:
II. E. VI. 13.
¿
152
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 303-340.
CHAP. VI. canonical writing. Two of these still remain, the
Shepherd and the Epistle of Barnabas; the
others have been lost, and it is impossible to form
any opinion as to their character. With regard
to these two, it might have been plausibly urged
that if the Shepherd was an authentic work of a
friend of St Paul, its internal claims to inspiration
must be admitted: that if the Epistle was by the
Acts xiv. 14. 'Apostle' then it also was canonical. But Euse-
bius decided that both were certainly not works
of Apostolic men, and therefore, in his sense,
spurious.
The anoma-
The Apocalypse alone remains. The objec-
lous position tions to this were based, as we have seen, not on
of the Apo-
calypse.
historical data, but on the criticism of its style.
If then it were allowed that its style certainly
shewed that it was not written by the author of
the fourth Gospel, a division of opinion might
yet arise. Some, like Dionysius himself, would
look upon it as Apostolic in the same sense as
the Epistle to the Hebrews, and so still call it
' acknowledged:' others would regard the dis-
proof of direct Apostolic authorship as a mark of
'spuriousness.' The peculiarity of the position of
the Book followed from the peculiarity of the
evidence adduced against its claims. Its autho-
rity was questioned from its internal character,
and not from the deficiency of external support,
as in the case of 2 Peter. It could not, there-
fore, remain in the same group with books of
which history was almost silent; and, it must be
added, Eusebius himself seems to have been ab-
solutely undecided as to the position in which it
should be placed.
Eusebius'
quotations
of New Tes-
tament.
The usage of Eusebius in the quotation of the
books of the New Testament generally agrees
ܕ
THE BIBLE PROSCRIBED AND RESTORED.
153
A.D. 303-340.
with his summary judgment which we have just CHAP. VI.
examined. He cites the Epistle to the Hebrews
constantly, as being substantially St Paul's, though
he inclined to the belief that it was actually writ-
ten by Clement of Rome. He mentions a collec- II. E. 111. 37.
tion of 'the seven, so called, Catholic Epistles,'
and constantly quotes St James, but appears to
make no use of St Jude, 2 Peter, 2, 3 John. The
Apocalypse he quotes rarely, and simply as the
Apocalypse of John;' and in one passage in his
History he leaves the alternative open, that ‘it H. E. 111. 39.
was seen by the presbyter and not by the Apo-
stle.'
(
of the Old
Testament.
Eusebius has left no express judgment on the His Canon
contents of the Old Testament. In three places
he quotes from Josephus, Melito and Origen, lists
of the books (slightly differing) according to the
Hebrew Canon. These he calls in the first place
'the Canonical Scriptures¹ of the Old Testament,
undisputed among the Hebrews; and again, 'the
acknowledged Scriptures of the Old Testament;'
and, lastly, 'the Holy Scriptures of the Old Tes-
tament.' In his Chronicle he distinctly separates
the Books of Maccabees from the 'Divine Scrip-
tures; and elsewhere mentions Ecclesiasticus
and Wisdom as 'controverted' books. On the
other hand, like the older Fathers, he quotes in
the same manner as the contents of the Hebrew
Canon passages from Baruch and Wisdom. On
the whole, it may be concluded that he regarded
the Apocrypha of the Old Testament in the same
light as the books in the New Testament, which
were 'controverted and yet familiarly used by
many.' The books of the Hebrew Canon alone
were in his technical language ‘acknowledged.'
1 Literally 'Scriptures in the Testament.'
154
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. VI.
A.D. 303-340.
His judgment
based on
ancient testi-
mony.
One general characteristic of his judgment
must not be neglected. It is based expressly on
the collective testimony of antiquity expressed
in the works of the chief ecclesiastical writers.
There was no combined decision of any number of
Churches to which he could appeal; no definite
catalogue of sacred books of the New Testament
supported by anything more than individual au-
thority. According to Eusebius the only method
by which the contents of the Bible could be de-
termined was that of a simple historical inquiry
into the belief and practice of earlier generations,
and this did not appear to him to lead to a cer-
tain conclusion in every case. He could not feel,
as those of a later age can do, the complete unity
and fulness of the New Testament, which had but
lately assumed its final shape, nor grasp the real
difference between the books of the Hebrew Bible
and the later additions to the Alexandrine LXX.
in relation to the divine teaching of the Jews.
Yet even thus his limited investigation led to re-
sults generally identical with those which wider
experience has confirmed.
The part which Eusebius had to fulfil in regard
to the history of the Christian Bible was not
limited to the investigation of ancient testimonies.
It was to his single judgment that Constantine
committed the preparation of fifty copies of Holy
Scripture for public use in his new capital. The
commission was given when Eusebius had com-
pleted his History; and thus his private opinion
found a public, and, in virtue of the imperial
sanction, an authoritative expression.
General
consent on
Scripture in
It is said that at the time when Constantine's
imagination was moved by the sight of the hea-
Constantine. venly cross he 'devoted himself to the reading of
the time of
His con-
nexion with
Constantine.
THE BIBLE PROSCRIBED AND RESTORED.
155
A.D. 303–340.
A.D. 325.
the divine Scriptures' that he might find there the CHAP. VI.
interpretation of his vision; and in later times he
professed the deepest reverence for the Christian
'Law.' At the Council of Nicæa, which he sum-
moned immediately after he became sole Emperor, A.D. 321
the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testa-
ments were silently admitted on all sides to have
a final authority¹. And no better proof could be
wished of the general uniformity of opinion as to
the contents and character of the Bible, than that
it was not made the subject of discussion in any
of the four great Councils2. It underlay all con-
troversy as the sure and known source and sup-
port of Truth.
my
commission
After the close of the Council, Constantine Constantine's
continued to exercise with no less zeal than be- to Eusebius
fore the power with which he felt himself in- to prepare
vested as "bishop in outward matters, appointed public usc.
by God. According to Eusebius he 'studied the
a Bible for
1 Some of the Arians rejected the Epistle to the
Hebrews. Too little is known at present of the Gothic
Version which was made by ULPHILAS (†A.D. 388) to
allow of any certain conclusion as to its contents. It
is said that it contained all the Scriptures except the
Books of Kings,' which were omitted as being likely to
inflame the warlike spirit of the Goths (Philostorg. II.5).
The reason alleged seems to be ridiculous, but the fact
may be true.
Of the Old Testament very scanty frag-
ments remain of Psalms, Ezra, and Nehemiah. Of the
New Testament a large part is preserved; but at pre-
sent there are no traces of the Acts, the Catholic Epis-
tles, or the Apocalypse. A supposed reference to the
Epistle to the Hebrews, in a fragment of a Commentary
on St John, is somewhat doubtful.
2 Jerome's statement that "the Synod of Nicea is
said to have reckoned the book of Judith in the num-
ber of the Sacred Scriptures" (Præf. in Judith), can
only refer to some use made of the book there, if it
be not entirely erroneous.
156
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 303-340.
C. A.D. 332.
Euseb. Vit.
CHAP. VI. Bible in his palace,' 'giving himself up to the
meditation of the Inspired Oracles,' and per-
suading 'multitudes to receive rational support
for rational souls by divine readings.' It cannot
be by a mere figure of rhetoric that the Scrip-
tures are brought thus prominently forward in
the record of his life. They doubtless appeared
to him as the Code of the Faith which he had
adopted, the Law-to use the term which he
constantly applies to them-of the imperial re-
ligion. The founding of Constantinople furnished
him an occasion for giving marked expression to
his judgment. It was then that he applied to
Eusebius to provide a number of copies of the
Bible in a manner suited to the importance of
his object. His words are full of interest. 'In
Const. IV. 36. the city which bears our name,' he writes, 'by
the help of the providence of God our Saviour,
a very great multitude of men have attached
themselves to the most holy Church. Since
everything there is increasing most rapidly, it
appears very fitting that more churches should
be constructed in the city. Wherefore welcome
with all zeal the judgment which we have formed.
For it appeared becoming to us to signify to
your wisdom that you bid fifty copies of the
divine Scriptures (of which you judge the pre-
paration and use to be most necessary for the
purpose of the Church) to be written on prepared
skins, by skilled scribes who are well acquainted
with their craft. For this purpose,' he adds,
'orders have been issued to the governor of the
province to furnish everything required for the
work'; and authority was given to Eusebius to
employ 'two public carriages for the speedy
conveyal of the books, when finished, to the Em-
6
THE BIBLE PROSCRIBED AND RESTORED.
157
A. D. 303-340.
peror.' Everything was designed to give import- CHAP. VI.
ance to the commission. The copies were for
the service of the churches of the new capital;
they were to be executed with the greatest care;
and every part of the work was to be marked by
the sanction of imperial authority.
bian Bible.
Eusebius simply adds that he fulfilled the The contents
charge. How he fulfilled it can only be gathered of the Buse-
from what he tells us elsewhere on the subject.
Thus we are led by what has been already stated
to the belief that the first complete Greek Bible
issued by authority for public use contained the
Books of the Hebrew Canon in the Old Testa-
ment, with the Alexandrine Apocrypha as an
appendix. But one Book must be left in a doubt-
ful position. The Catalogues which Eusebius him-
self quotes and later Greek usage differ as to the
canonical authority of Esther; and there is no-
thing to show certainly where Eusebius himself
placed it. For the rest, the Constantinopolitan
Bible included all the Books of the New Testa-
ment which we now receive, with the exception
of the Apocalypse, which may have been added
as an appendix. The 'controverted' Epistles
in the New Testament seem to have been ar-
ranged with the others, and not separately; but
the whole group of the seven Catholic Epistles
stood after the Epistles of St Paul, and not, as
in the Alexandrine lists, immediately after the
Acts. The Old Testament Apocrypha more pro-
bably was placed separately, as in the best MSS.
of Jerome's Vulgate, and in our own Bible, and
not, as in the copies of the Alexandrine LXX.,
among the acknowledged' books according to
their contents.
None of the most ancient MSS. present these
No copy at
present
158
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 303-340.
CHAP. VI. characteristics. The attempts to identify any
one of the four great copies with the Bible of
Eusebius fail at first sight¹. But though this
fact shows how great must have been the perils
to which the most jealously-guarded MSS. were
exposed, recent discoveries hold out the hope
that an original monument of his labours may
yet reward the zeal of some future scholar. But
whether this be so or not, his work was not with-
out fruit. He furnished a standard which had a
powerful influence on those who came after him.
The apocryphal books of the Old Testament fell
definitely into a second rank in the Greek Church,
though they were quoted with respect from time
to time, and resumed in the copies of the LXX.
the places which they had long held in the old
Alexandrine Bible. The difference between the
'controverted' and 'acknowledged' Epistles of
the New Testament was done away. Only on.
the Apocalypse there were still doubts: some
received and some rejected it. But on this a
judgment clear and weighty was soon given,
supported by the prescription of primitive tra-
dition.
ATHANASIUS.
†A.D. 373.
In the knowledge of Christian antiquity Eu-
sebius was without a rival among his contempo-
raries; but there was one among them-ATHA-
NASIUS of Alexandria-far greater in grasp of
mind and clearness of conception, who completed
as far as his authority reached the work which
Eusebius began. It may have been that Atha-
nasius viewed with some jealousy the decisive
influence of Eusebius, whose orthodoxy was not
beyond suspicion, in such a matter as the deter-
¹ See Appendix B.
THE BIBLE PROSCRIBED AND RESTORED.
159
A.D. 303-340.
mination of a common Bible, or still more probably CHAP. VI.
he felt that the act required ecclesiastical rather
than imperial sanction. At any rate, after the
fall of the house of Constantine he availed him-
self of an opportunity furnished by his position
as metropolitan of Egypt to publish a list of the
Sacred Scriptures. It had long been the custom
of the Bishop of Alexandria to announce by
letter to the different churches of his province
the date of Easter from year to year, on which
the other moveable festivals depended. These
Paschal or Festal Letters, as they were called,
gradually assumed the character of Pastorals,
and were received with great respect. Large
extracts from the Festal Letters of Athanasius
have been preserved in the original Greek; and
a considerable part of them has been found
also in a Syriac translation among the treatises
brought from the Nitrian desert. In the 39th,
which was written in the year A.D. 365, Athana-
sius, after contrasting the relation of heretics and
true believers towards Holy Scripture, prays his
reader to bear with him if he touches on a sub-
ject with which they were familiar, and seeks to
avert the danger which might arise from the use
of apocryphal books. The passage occurs both
in the Greek and Syriac texts, and alike from its
form and from its substance is of the highest
interest. As I am about to speak of the [divine His catalogue
Scriptures],' he says, 'I shall use for the support of the Bible.
of my boldness the model of the Evangelist
Luke, and say as he does, Forasmuch as some
have taken in hand to set forth in order for
themselves the so-called Apocrypha, and to mix
these with the inspired Scripture which we most
surely believe, even as they delivered it to our
of the Books
160
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 303-340.
CHAP. VI. fathers which from the beginning were eye-
witnesses and ministers of the word; it seemed
good to me also, having been urged by true bre-
thren, and having learnt [the truth] from the
first, to publish the books which are admitted in
the Canon and have been delivered to us and
are believed to be divine, that if any one has
been deceived he may condemn those who led
him astray, and he that has remained pure from
error may rejoice in being again reminded [of
the truth].
The Old
Testament.
The New
Testament.
'All the Books then of the Old Testament are
in number twenty-two; the number, as I have
heard, of the Hebrew letters. In order and
name they are as follows: Genesis...Joshua,
Judges, Ruth (separately)...Psalms...then Isa-
iah, Jeremiah, and with him Baruch, Lamenta-
tions and the Letter; and after him Ezekiel and
Daniel...Again, we must not shrink from men-
tioning the Books of the New Testament, which
are these: Four Gospels...After these the Acts
of the Apostles and the so-called Catholic Epi-
stles of the Apostles, seven in number, in the
following order: James...Jude. In addition to
these fourteen Epistles of the Apostle Paul: to
the Romans... Thessalonians (1, 2); and that to
the Hebrews and in succession to Timothy (1, 2)...
and last one to Philemon. And again the Apo-
calypse of John. These are the fountains of sal-
vation, so that he who thirsts may satisfy himself
with the oracles in these. In these alone the
lesson of piety is proclaimed. Let no one add
to these nor take anything from them. It was
of these that the Lord reproached the Sadducees,
saying: Ye err, not knowing the Scriptures;
and it was of these He charged the Jews:
THE BIBLE PROSCRIBED AND RESTORED.
161
A.D. 303-340.
Search the Scriptures, for they are they which CHAP. VI.
testify of me. But for the sake of greater accu-
racy I add this also, writing of necessity, that
there are also other [ecclesiastical] books not in-
cluded in these, nor admitted in the Canon, which
have been framed by the fathers to be read for the Apocrypha.
benefit of those who are just approaching [Chris-
tianity], and wish to be instructed in the word of
piety: the Wisdom of Solomon, and the Wis-
dom of Sirach [i. e. Ecclesiasticus], and Esther
and Judith and Tobias, and the so-called In-
struction of the Apostles, and the Shepherd.
And yet, beloved, neither among those included
in the Canon, nor in those which are read, is
there anywhere mention of the Apocryphal
books; but they are a device of heretics..."
Christian
n. 2.
In the New Testament this list gives exactly The first
the books which we receive, in the order in which Bible.
they stand in the oldest Greek MSS. In the Old
Testament it offers several points of difference
from our Bibles. Baruch and the Letter are
added to Jeremiah; Esther is placed among the
Apocrypha; and the Books of Maccabees are
omitted altogether. It is unnecessary to dwell
on these details. Other authorities omit Esther See p. 173,
from the Old Testament, and include Baruch
and the Letter. The language of Athanasius
shows that he had no knowledge of Hebrew, and
it is obvious how easily errors might arise as to
the exact contents of the Hebrew Bible. At
least there can be no doubt that Athanasius in-
tended (like Melito and Origen) to give the
Books of the Old Testament which were received
by the Jews. In spirit his judgment agrees
completely with the judgment of our own Church;
and he professes to repeat only what he had
11
162
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 303-340.
CHAP. VI. himself received. If we revert to the testimony
of Origen we shall see that his appeal to anti-
quity is essentially confirmed, though his wider
experience enabled him to speak with greater
confidence on some points than Origen could do.
The judgment which was originally laid down by
the help of almost universal learning was con-
firmed by the voice of a tried and subtle cham-
pion of truth; and we may rejoice that we receive
our Christian Bible, with solemn and significant
warning, from the hands of that Christian Father
first, who, by God's help, saved Christianity from
degenerating into mere philosophy or polytheism,
in the greatest crisis through which it has ever
passed.
1
CHAPTER VII.
THE AGE OF JEROME AND AUGUSTINE.
Let every one be persuaded in his own mind.
Let us not judge one another any more: but judge this
rather, that no man put a stumbling-block or an
occasion to fall in his brother's way.-Rom. xiv.
5, 13.
IT
of the Roman
T does not fall within our scope to examine in CHAP. VII.
detail the causes which led to the rapid A. D. 340-450.
growth of the power of the Latin Churches to- The growth
wards the end of the fourth century. Some of of the power
them lie upon the surface. On the one side the Church.
characteristic work of the Greek Church was
drawing to a close. The broad outlines of 'or-
thodoxy' were marked out, and already the spirit
of the Church was turned with restless subtlety
towards those metaphysical speculations which
multiplied sects, and at last prepared the way
for the future desolation of the East. The unity
which Constantine had endeavoured to centre in
the control of the imperial supremacy had been
rudely broken. Antioch, Alexandria, and Con-
stantinople were rivals for power; and the pre-
cedence which was yielded to Constantinople
was more than counterbalanced by the influence
which a corrupt court exercised upon the Church
of the capital. At Rome all was otherwise.
11-2
164
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. VII. From the first the Roman Church had chosen
'catholicity' rather than 'orthodoxy' for its sym-
bol; and the time was come when it could ex-
hibit with imposing dignity the framework of
that society which embodied the idea. The
transference of the seat of government to Con-
stantinople gave free range for the outward ex-
tension of an ecclesiastical system which had
already caught something of the majesty of Old
Rome. The same spirit which had organized
the Empire remained to inspire the Church,
powerful to subdue and to incorporate all which
fell within its reach, slow to innovate but reso-
lute to retain every position which it had once
taken. Rome could not abdicate her sovereignty
though she might change her throne. It has
been said that 'Papal Rome is the ghost of im-
perial Rome sitting crowned upon the grave
thereof.' The saying is as true as it is noble;
but there was a time when the monuments of
ancient grandeur were falling but not fallen, and
the genius of Rome still lingered among them
to consecrate her last treasures of law and order
to the service of Christianity. It was too at this
crisis that the two greatest of the Latin Fathers
-wholly different in temper, in genius, in edu-
cation—were raised up to complete the glory of
the Latin churches by adding the distinctions of
thought and learning and eloquence to the tri-
umphs of organization. There have been other
men in the West with larger hearts, subtler in-
tellects, bolder originality than Jerome and Au-
gustine, but none have ever equalled them in
the extent and permanence of their influence.
The one gave a Bible to all the Western
Churches: the other drew out at length that doc-
A.D. 340-450.
THE AGE OF JEROME AND AUGUSTINE.
165
trine of original sin which has lain at the foun- CHAP. VII.
dation of all Western theology.
A.D. 340-450.
Before we consider the history of the Bible The Bibles of
in the West at this momentous epoch, we must the East.
trace its history yet a little further in the East.
There were, as it has been seen, three distinct
forms in which the Bible was circulated there
shortly after the middle of the fourth century ;
and each was supported by grave authority. The
Constantinopolitan Bible, as determined by Eu-
sebius, either omitted the Apocalypse altogether,
or placed it only in a second rank. The Alexan-
drine Bible, determined by Athanasius, expressly
included the Apocalypse among the Canonical
Scriptures. With regard to the Old Testament,
the Constantinopolitan and Alexandrine Bibles
were apparently in complete accordance. Euse-
bius, as far as can be determined, and Athanasius
expressly, admitted the Apocrypha of the Old
Testament (to which Athanasius added the In-
struction of the Apostles and the Shepherd in
the New Testament) as an appendix to the Ca-
nonical Scriptures, but denied to them any ori-
ginal or final authority. On the other hand, the
Syrian Bible, determined by the old translation,
differed from both as well in the Old Testament
as in the New. This excluded from the New
Testament the Apocalypse and the Epistles of
St Jude, 2 Peter, and 2, 3 John; and gave no
place to the Apocrypha of the Old Testament.
Thus not one of the Eastern Bibles contained ex-
actly the Books which we receive and those only,
though their variations are included within very
narrow limits, and the Bible of Athanasius is
essentially identical with our own.
The characteristic differences of the Constan-
166
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 310-450.
CHAP. VII. tinopolitan, Alexandrine and Syrian Bibles, con-
tinued to exist for some time in the Canon of
Holy Scripture which was generally admitted in
the districts with which they were naturally con-
nected. The first was used chiefly in Asia Minor
and Palestine: the last at Antioch and in the far
East. The Alexandrine Canon was for a time
confined to Egypt. The differences which were
thus locally sanctioned were not, as will be scen
in a later chapter, ever formally discussed or
removed. Usage alone in process of time intro-
duced a general uniformity; and in this case, as
in all similar divergences of opinion, the broadest
range of books was that which was sanctioned by
popular consent.
Ch. ix.
Nazianzus.
† A.D. 390.
Two Fathers of Asia Minor have left Cata-
logues of the Books of Holy Scripture. One of
GREGORY of these was written by GREGORY of Nazianzus,
Bishop of Constantinople. It is in the form of
a set of verses, in which metres and quantities
are strangely confused. 'In order,' he says, 'that
you may not be cheated by strange books...re-
ceive, my friend, this my approved (or exact)
enumeration.' He then gives a list of the, Hc-
brew Canon of the Old Testament, reckoning
twelve Books as historical, five as metrical, and
five as prophetical, 'together equal in number to
the Hebrew letters; but in doing this he counts
Ruth as a distinct Book, and omits Esther. In
the New Testament he enumerates the four Go-
spels, the Acts, fourteen Epistles of St Paul,
seven Catholic Epistles; and then adds, 'You
have all [the Books]: if there be any besides
these, it is not among the genuine [Books].' The
catalogue of AMPHILOCHIUS, Bishop of Iconium,
which is often included in the writings of his
i. The fathers
of Asia Mi-
nor.
AMPHILO-
CHIUS.
† A.D. 395.
THE AGE OF JEROME AND AUGUSTINE.
167
A. D. 340-450.
friend Gregory of Nazianzus, is also written in CHAP. VII.
verse, but with greater regularity and correct-
ness than that of Gregory, and not without some
vigour. It is also fuller and more explicit, 'You
may not,' Amphilochius writes, 'safely believe
every book which claims to be Scripture...Some
are of intermediate value, and near (so to speak)
to the words of truth; some, again, are spurious
and very perilous... Therefore I will enumerate
separately the inspired Books...' He then gives a
list of the Books of the Old Testament exactly
the same as that of Gregory; but continues,
'some add Esther to these.' The order of the
Books of the New Testament which he gives is
the same as before, but he adds three important
notes to the 'controverted' Books. 'Some affirm,'
he says, 'that the Epistle to the Hebrews is spu-
rious, speaking not well, for the grace [i. e. the
revelation which it gives] is genuine.' Further,
some say that we ought to receive seven Ca-
tholic Epistles, but others three only, one of
James, one of Peter and one of John. Some
again include the Apocalypse of John [in the
Bible], but the greater number, on the other
hand, say that it is spurious. This,' he concludes,
'will be the most truthful Canon of the Inspired
Scriptures, which if you shall obey you will escape
the snares of the world...'
C
In both of these Catalogues the influence of The Relation
Eusebius is obvious. The list of Amphilochius is of these Cata-
logues to
little more than a rhythmical version of his judg- Eusebius.
ment. With one exception the same points are
left open by both; but Amphilochius reckons the
Epistle of James as an acknowledged' Book,
following in this respect the opinion of the Syrian
Churches. On the other hand the definiteness of
168
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCII.
† A.D. 379.
CHAP. VII. the list of Gregory perhaps indicates that it was
taken directly from a copy of the Constantino-
politan Bible. The incidental evidence which
can be gathered from the writings of Gregory
and Amphilochius, and from those of their con-
†c. A.D. 395. temporories GREGORY of Nyssa and his brother
BASIL of Cæsarea, adds something to the evi-
dence of the Catalogues. All agree in using the
Epistle to the Hebrews as essentially St Paul's :
all (except Amphilochius) use the Apocalypse
with marked respect, or as Scripture; but no
one of them (as it appears) uses any of the '
troverted' Catholic Epistles except that of St
James (Gregor. Naz., Basil). On the other hand,
several of the books of the Apocrypha are quoted
in the same manner as the Canonical books: Ba-
ruch (Amphilochius, Basil), Wisdom (Basil), Ad-
ditions to Daniel (Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus).
con-
A.D. 340-450.
Incidental
evidence,
Palestine.
CYRIL Of
Jerusalem.
† A.D. 386.
The influence of Eusebius was not limited to
Asia Minor: it extended naturally also to Pales-
tine. CYRIL, who died Bishop of Jerusalem, has
left a series of Instructions designed for the use
of those who were being trained in the Christian
Faith. The subject of one of these is 'the Di-
vine Scriptures,' in which he defines the extent
and the foundation of the Canon, mainly after
the model of Eusebius. The need of clear teach-
ing on the Sacred Books seems to have become
urgent from the wide circulation of the Apocry-
phal writings which were brought into use by the
Manichees, a supposition which derives some
weight from the precision with which Cyril for-
bids the use of all Books not included in the
Canon under any circumstances. 'Learn from
the Church,' he says, 'what are the Books of the
Old Testament, and what of the New, and I pray
THE AGE OF JEROME AND AUGUSTINE.
169
A.D. 340-450.
you read nothing of the Apocryphal books….. CHAP. VII.
Read the Divine Scriptures, the twenty-two Books
of the Old Testament, which were translated by
the seventy-two translators'...' For the translation
of the Divine Scriptures which were spoken by
the Holy Spirit was accomplished through the
Holy Spirit. Read the twenty-two Books which
these rendered, but have nothing to do with
Apocryphal writings. Study these only with dili-
gence, which also we read with confidence in the
Church. The Apostles and the ancient bishops,
the heads of the Church who delivered these [to
us] were much wiser than thou. Do thou, then,
being a child of the Church, not violate her laws.'
After this preface Cyril enumerates of the Old
Testament twelve historical books-including
Esther, without remark, and adding Ruth to
Judges as one book-five metrical books, and
five books of the Prophets, adding Baruch and
the Letter to Jeremiah: of the New Testament
the four Gospels, the Acts, the seven Catholic
Epistles, and the fourteen Epistles of St Paul.
'But let all the rest,' he concludes, 'be placed
without [the Canon] in a second rank; and what-
ever books are not read in churches, neither do
thou read in private.'
The prominence which Cyril gives to the ac- The Council
count of the contents of the Bible in his Instruc- of Laodiceu.
tions, no less than the metrical Catalogues of
Gregory and Amphilochius, shows the popular
interest which was excited in the subject in some
provinces about the middle of the fourth century.
But as yet no decision had been made by any
council or synod upon the Bible. Every one who
dealt with the question appealed to tradition,
to usage, to antiquity, but not to any definite
170
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. VII. decree. At last, however, a decree was made
a.D. 340–450. upon the Sacred Books at the Synod of Laodicea,
a small gathering of clergy from parts of Lydia
and Phrygia, which was held about A.D. 363.
After other disciplinary ordinances the last Canon
runs: 'Psalms composed by private men must
not be read in the Church, nor books not ad-
mitted into the Canon, but only the Canonical
[books] of the New and Old Testaments.' To
this decree in the printed editions of the Canons
and in most MSS., a list of the Holy Scriptures
is added, which is absolutely identical with Cy-
ril's, except as to the position of Esther and Job,
adding Baruch and the Letter to Jeremiah, and
omitting the Apocalypse. But this list is with-
out doubt a later addition. It is omitted in good
Greek MSS., in two distinct Syriac versions, pre-
served in MSS. of the sixth or seventh century,
in one of the two complete Latin versions, and
in the oldest digests of the Canons. Yet it was
in all probability a very early gloss, derived either
directly from Cyril, or from the usage of the
Churches which Cyril himself followed.
The authenticity of the
of the Decree tion of very little moment.
The character
list is really a ques-
on Scripture.
Even if it were au-
thentic, it could in itself have no binding au-
thority for the Church at large. The Synod was
small and (as it seems) unorthodox. But the
genuine decree has none the less considerable
historical interest. For the first time the Canon-
ical Books of Scripture were invested with a
special and exclusive ecclesiastical authority.
Cyril, in opposition to Athanasius, had already
marked out the same law, though general usage
still sanctioned a wider range of ecclesiastical
books. The change was called for by the circum-
10
THE AGE OF JEROME AND AUGUSTINE.
171
:
A D. 340-450.
stances of the Church; and as the Arian party, CHAP. VII.
of whom the Synod appears to have been com-
posed, were always inclined towards the stricter
view of the Canon, it was natural that they
should touch upon the subject in a series of dis-
ciplinary rules. But if the origin of the Laodi-
cene decrces is not above suspicion, they were
fully ratified at a later time by the Eastern
Church at the Quinisextine Council of Constan-
tinople, and sometimes with the appended list of
the sacred books, sometimes without it, passed
into the general code of Christendom.
A.D. 692.
See Ch. ix.
Church of
No special list of the Books of Holy Scripture ii. The
has been given by any Alexandrine writer of the Alexandria.
fourth or fifth centuries in addition to that of
Athanasius. DIDYMUS, who probably wrote be- †c. A.D. 395.
fore Athanasius' Festal Letter was issued, pub-
lished a commentary on the Seven Catholic
Epistles, but especially remarked that 2 Peter
was [accounted] spurious, and not included in
the Testament, though it was publicly read.' The
statement is preserved only in a translation, and,
like the corresponding remark of Eusebius upon
the Epistle of St James, probably refers to the
doubts entertained by some as to the Book
and does not express the judgment of Didymus
himself. At least it is evident from the range of
his Commentary that the seven Epistles were
popularly reckoned as forming a complete whole;
and he uses the Second Epistle of Peter himself
frequently and without reserve. This is also
shewn by the later work of EUTHALIUS, who c. A.D. 450.
published an edition of fourteen Epistles of
St Paul and of seven Catholic Epistles by the
help of ancient MSS. The incidental quotations
of CYRIL of Alexandria († A.D. 444), ISIDORE
172
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. VII. († A.D. 440), and MACARIUS (†c. A.D. 390) bear
witness generally to all the disputed books of
the New Testament.
A. D. 340-450.
The usage of these later Alexandrine Fathers
with regard to the books of the Apocrypha
agrees with that of Origen and Athanasius.
They cite them habitually as Scripture; and
though they use them less frequently on the
whole than the books of the Hebrew Canon-the
references to Maccabees and Judith are extremely
rare-yet in other respects they treat them in
the same way as the Canonical Scriptures. Ba-
ruch and Wisdom in especial were placed in
practice on the same footing as the undoubted
works of Jeremiah and Solomon. To take one
Father only, Didymus quotes Wisdom, Baruch,
the additions to Daniel, and Ecclesiasticus as
Scripture. The example of Athanasius himself
shows how this custom must be interpreted.
Hær. LXXVI.
p. 941.
De Pond. et
Mens. 4.
Hær. VIII. 6.
The testimony of EPIPHANIUS, bishop of Con-
stantia (Salamis) in Cyprus, may be connected
with that of Athanasius, though the narrow
spirit of the mere disciple of tradition had little
real sympathy with that of the great teacher
Hær. vIII. 6. whom he professed to follow. Epiphanius has
left three partial Catalogues of the Books of the
Bible. In these he expressly reckons the Books
of the Old Testament as twenty-two (including
Esther), according to the Hebrew Canon. In
one place he adds to Jeremiah 'the Letters of
Jeremiah and Baruch:' in another he remarks
that 'the Letters of Baruch' are not found in the
Hebrew Bible. He is equally inconsistent or un-
certain with regard to Wisdom and Ecclesias-
ticus. 'These,' he says, 'occupy a doubtful place.
They are useful, and still they are not reckoned
Use of the
Apocrypha at
Alexandria.
EPIPHANIUS.
† A.D. 404.
De Pond. 4.
THE AGE OF JEROME AND AUGUSTINE.
173
A.D. 340-450.
among the acknowledged Books, nor were they CHAP. VII.
ever placed in the Ark of the Covenant (i. e. re-
ceived as Scripture by the Jews).' Yet again
after enumerating summarily all the Books of
the Old and New Testaments, he adds, 'and the Hær. p. 941.
books of Wisdom, that of Solomon, and of the
son of Sirach, and generally all divine writ-
ings? It is evident that he wishes to combine
the practice of the early Fathers with their
direct teaching. He will sacrifice nothing which
had even the appearance of authority; and this
characteristic of the man gives weight to his re-
peated statement that the Books of the Old
Testament 'were twenty-seven, counted as twenty-
two.' The Hebrew Canon was that which he,
like all the other Greek Fathers, wished to mark
as definitely authoritative; though he admitted
to a second place the books which had been sanc-
tioned in some measure by Christian usage2.
1 Augustine (De Doctr. Christ. II. 12. See p. 187)
distinguishes between 'divine' and 'canonical' writ-
ings. The 'canonical' writings are one class only of
the divine' writings.
،
2 It may be well to mark the differences with
regard to the Old Testament.
Esther is omitted by Gregory of Nazianzus, Amphi-
lochius (doubtfully): is admitted by Cyril of Jerus.
(Council of Laodicea), Epiphanius.
Baruch and the Letter are admitted by Cyril of Jerus.
(Council of Laodicea), Epiphanius (once): Baruch is
omitted (silently) by Gregor. Naz., Amphilochius; and,
as not in the Hebrew canon, by Epiphanius (once).
But it may be added that the writers who omit
Baruch also omit Lamentations, which was reckoned
with it as an appendix to Jeremiah; and there can be
little doubt that from a mistake as to the extent of the
Hebrew book of Jeremiah, dating from the time of
Origen (p. 135), Baruch and the Letter were generally
received in the Greek Church in the 4th and 5th
174
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 340-450.
iii. The
Syria.
tA.D. 407.
Bened.
The Churches of Antioch and Eastern Syria
remained for some time faithful to the Canon of
the Peshito at least in the New Testament. In
Churches of the works of CHRYSOSTOM, a presbyter of Antioch
and afterwards patriarch of Constantinople, a
Synopsis of the Old and New Testament has
been preserved which is probably genuine and
Tom. VI. cd. certainly a Syrian Catalogue of Chrysostom's time.
In this the contents of the Old Testament are
described somewhat indistinctly. The enumera-
tion of the historical books contains only those
of the Hebrew Canon (except Esther) though
reference is made to the Maccabæan war. Eccle-
siasticus (the Wisdom of Sirach) is added to the
moral books; and the Psalter is reckoned among
the Prophets. In the Synopsis itself, Esther,
Tobit, Judith, Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus are
analysed without any note as to their character.
CHAP. VII.
The order in which the Books of the New
Testament are cited is remarkable: the fourteen
Epistles of St Paul, the four Gospels, the Acts,
and three of the Catholic Epistles (i. e. James,
1 Peter, 1 John). The quotations in Chrysos-
tom's voluminous writings confirm the same
Canon. He never uses the Apocalypse, nor the
four Catholic Epistles which are omitted in the
tc. A.D. 458. Peshito. THEODORET also has nowhere quoted
these 'controverted' books. THEODORE of Mop-
suestia appears to have gone further. He re-
jected the Epistle of James; and in the Old Tes-
tament Job, Canticles and Chronicles. But his
judgment is that of an independent critic, and
not a record of that of his age and country. The
† A.D. 428.
centuries. Didymus (De Trin. I. p. 80) expressly says
that the book of Jeremiah and Baruch is one.'
THE AGE OF JEROME AND AUGUSTINE.
175
evidence of EPHREM SYRUS, deacon at Edessa, CIAP. VII.
'the prophet of the Syrians,' is unfortunately
ambiguous. In his Syriac writings he refers
(I believe) once to the Apocalypse, and once to
2 Peter, from among the books omitted by the
Peshito, but in his works, which are preserved
only in Greek, he appears to use all the books of
our New Testament.
A. D. 340-450,
† A.D. 578.
With regard to the Old Testament, the usage Use of the
of the Syrian fathers coincides with that of the Apocrypha.
Greek fathers generally. They use the Apocry-
phal books freely, and without distinguishing them
from the books of the Hebrew Canon. Thus Chry-
sostom, to take only one example, quotes passages
from Baruch, Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom as Di-
vine Scripture.
lical Consti-
One remarkable testimony of Eastern origin The Aposto-
yet remains to be noticed. In the Apostolical tutions.
Constitutions, a collection of Ecclesiastical Laws
of various dates, which probably assumed its pre-
sent form in the 5th century, is a description of
the celebration of public worship in which the
reading of Holy Scripture occupies a prominent
place. The passage itself is in all likelihood as
old as the third century. When the congregation
is gathered in silence, 'Let the Reader,' it is said, Const. ap.
C
II. 57.
standing upon some raised place, read the Books
of Moses, and Joshua the son of Naue, the Books
of Judges and of the Kings, the Books of Chro-
nicles, and those of the Return [Ezra, Nehemiah]:
in addition to these the Books of Job and of Solo-
mon and the Books of the 16 Prophets. But as
the readings are made two at a time, let another
chant the Hymns of David, and let the people
chant in response the close of the verses. After
this let our Acts (the Acts of the Apostles, in
176
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. VII. whose name the passage is written) be read, and
the Epistles of Paul, our fellow-worker, which he
enjoined on the Churches, according to the guid-
ance of the Holy Spirit; and after these books
let a deacon or presbyter read the Gospels which
we Matthew and John gave to you, and which
the fellow-workers of Paul, Luke and Mark, having
received, left to you. And whenever the Gospel
is being read, let all the presbyters and the dea-
cons and all the people stand in complete silence,
Deut. xxvii. 9. for it is written, Be silent and hear, O Israel.'
Unless the Book of Esther be omitted, the Canon
of the Old Testament is exactly that of the Jews.
In the New Testament the Catholic Epistles are
probably included in the Acts¹. But however the
omission may be explained, the glimpse which is
here opened of the Bible in an early Christian
gathering is full of interest. Above all, the solemn
silence and standing when the Gospel was read—
a custom which has descended even to our own
times-seems to mark the description as belong-
ing in spirit to the earliest age².
A.D. 340-450.
绞
​1 This opinion is strongly supported by the sub-
scription of a Syrian (Karkaphensian) version, in which
at the close of the Catholic Epistles, which follow the
Acts, it is said 'The end of the Acts' (Wiseman, Hora
Syriacæ, p. 217. See ch. IX).
2 The List of the Books of the Bible in the 85th of
the Apostolical Canons was introduced into its present
place at a much later date. Yet the List itself is re-
markable, and probably Alexandrine in origin. It
contains the Books of the Hebrew Canon with three
books of Maccabees (Judith is a later insertion). Be-
sides these, the Wisdom of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) is re-
commended for the instruction of the young. In the
New Testament are enumerated 'the four Gospels, 14
Epistles of St Paul, two of Peter, three of John, one
of James, [one of Jude]; two of Clement; and our (i. e.
THE AGE OF JEROME AND AUGUSTINE.
177
A.D. 370-450.
From the East we now turn to the West. It CHAP. VII.
will have been seen that the love of outward order
and uniformity which prevailed there, and the The Bible of
tenacity with which the Western Churches held the West.
to all which they had once received, had already
prepared the way for a great change in the
Bible of a large section of Christendom. The
old Latin version, which was current in North
C
Africa, was based upon the Alexandrine LXX. and See p. 130.
included the Apocrypha as an integral part of Holy
Scripture. The use of the same version extended to
Spain and Northern Italy; and in the fourth cen-
tury also to Rome. But as yet no formal decision
was made upon the contents of the Bible in the
Latin Churches. Usage alone and popular tra-
dition fixed its contents. In the New Testament
this continued unfavourable to the Apostolic au-
thority of the Epistle to the Hebrews, but the
earlier doubts as to the 'controverted' Catholic
Epistles seem to have been practically set aside
after the persecution of Diocletian.
† A.D. 397.
t
'
The first Italian writer who gives any account PHILASTRIUS.
of the Canon is PHILASTRIUS, bishop of Brescia.
This he does in his Treatise on Heresies,' but
both the text of his book and the style of its com-
position are very unsatisfactory. In one place he
writes: 'It has been determined by the Apostles Iær.
and their successors that nothing else ought to
be read in the Catholic Church except the Law
and the Prophets, and the Gospels and the Acts
of the Apostles, and thirteen Epistles of St Paul,
LXXXVIII.
the Apostles) Constitutions in eight books.... and the
Acts of the Apostles.' This Canon, together with the
Canon of Carthage, was ratified at the Quinisextine
Council, and had a powerful influence on many of the
Eastern Churches. See Chap. IX.
12
178
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 370-450.
CHAP. VII. and seven others, two of Peter, three of John,
one of Jude, and one of James, which seven are
joined with the Acts. Secret, i. e. Apocryphal
writings, although they ought to be read for
moral instruction by the perfect, ought not to be
read by all.' In this list, which appears to give
the ecclesiastical usage which he followed, no
mention is made of the Epistle to the Hebrews
or the Apocalypse; but elsewhere he marks as
'heretics' those who rejected these books; and
notices an 'Epistle to the Laodicenes' which was
read privately 'by some, but not read in the
Church, in which only thirteen Epistles of St
Paul were read, and the Epistle to the Hebrews
sometimes...' The latter book, he adds, was used
with reserve on account of its teaching on re-
pentance and the Person of Christ. With regard
to the Apocrypha of the Old Testament, he no-
tices that one sect 'used the Book of the Wisdom
of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), who wrote after Solo-
mon, that is, after a long interval, a Book of
Wisdom;' yet he himself quotes Wisdom as the
work of 'a prophet.'
Hæer. LX.
LXXXIX.
flær.
LXXXIX.
Hær. LVI.
Hær. XXVI.
LXXIX.
RUFFINUS.
RUFFINUS gives a much clearer account of
tc. A.D. 410. the Canon than his fellow-countryman Philas
trius. His experience was much larger. While
still young he spent many years at Alexandria
and in Palestine, and devoted himself with spe-
cial zeal to the writings of Origen. After his
return to Italy he composed an 'Exposition of
the Apostles' Creed' at the request of a bishop
Laurentius. In this he treats of the Books of the
Bible with singular precision. Having discussed
some points in our belief in the Holy Spirit, he con-
tinues; This then is the Holy Spirit Who inspired
the Law and the Prophets in the Old Testament,
Comm. in
Symb. §§ 36,
37, 38.
THE AGE OF JEROME AND AUGUSTINE.
179
A.D. 370-450.
6
the Gospels and the Apostles in the New,'-the CHAP. VII.
complete parallelism is worthy of notice...and
therefore it seems fitting in this place to mark by a
clear enumeration what are the Books of the Old
and New Testaments, which according to the tra-
dition of the ancients are believed to have been
inspired by the Holy Spirit, and delivered to the
Churches of Christ, as we have received them
from the records of the Fathers.' Then follows
a catalogue exactly agreeing with our own, ex-
cept in order; and he concludes: These are the
Books which the Fathers included within the
Canon, and from which it was their will that the
dogmas of our faith should be maintained. Yet
it must be known that there are other books
which have been called by the ancients not Ca-
nonical but Ecclesiastical, that is, the Wisdom
(as it is called) of Solomon, and the other Wis-
dom of the Son of Sirach...The Book of Tobit
is of the same class, and Judith, and the Book
of the Maccabees. In the New Testament the
book which is called the 'Shepherd,' or 'Her-
mas,' [and] that which is called 'The two ways,
or the Judgment of Peter,' [are of the same
order]. All which [the Fathers] willed should
be read in churches, but not alleged to support
any article of faith. The other Scriptures they
called apocryphal, and these they did not allow
to be read in churches.' The close connexion
of this list with that of the Alexandrine Church
(Athanasius) is evident at once; and the re-
markable order in which Ruffinus arranges the
Catholic Epistles (Peter, James, Jude, John)
agrees with that of Origen in a Homily which
he translated. His testimony, therefore, is from
the East and not from the West, but is full of
12-2
180
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A. D. 370-450.
CHAP. VII. interest as marking the growth of the literary
influence of the Greek on the Latin Church,
and of the division on the Canon between the
conservative (African) party, and the critical
party of trained scholars.
The earliest instance of this influence is
offered by HILARY, Bishop of Poitiers, the
champion and fellow-confessor of Athanasius,
who died in exile in Asia. In the Prologue to
his 'Commentary on the Psalms,' in which he
is said generally to have followed Origen very
closely, he gives a free rendering of the list of
the Books of the Old Testament which Eusebius
has preserved from Origen in the original Greek.
At the end he remarks: 'Some, however, have
thought fit, by the addition of Tobit and Judith,
to reckon twenty-four books, according to the
number of the Greek letters; the Roman lan-
guage [with its alphabet of twenty-three letters]
being comprised between the Hebrew and the
Greek. Because it is in these three languages
especially that the Sacrament of the will of God,
and the expectation of the blessed kingdom, is
preached.' The passage is interesting and cha-
racteristic. The insertion of Tobit and Judith
in the place of Ruth and Lamentations shows
the natural introduction of an error into the list
from imperfect knowledge; and though the evi-
dence of Hilary cannot be held to possess inde-
pendent authority, it is at the same time a record
of the readiness of the literary chiefs of Western
Christendom to abide by the decisions of the
Eastern Church on the contents of the Bible.
Hilary adopts in France the same standard which
Ruffinus adopted in Italy.
But the great representative of Western
HILARIUS.
† A.D. 368.
See p. 135,
Prol. in Ps.
§ 15.
See p. 29.
JEROME
(Hierony-
inus).
A.D. 329-420.
THE AGE OF JEROME AND AUGUSTINE.
181
learning, its true head and glory, and the rich CHAP. VII.
source from whom almost all critical knowledge A.D. 370-450.
of Holy Scripture in the Latin Churches was
drawn for ten centuries, was JEROME (Sophro-
nius Eusebius Hieronymus). Jerome was born at
Stridon in Dalmatia, A.D. 329. After long and
zealous studies in the East and West he went to
Rome in 382, and from the next year to his death
at Bethlehem in 420, devoted himself with con-
centrated energy to the study of Holy Scripture.
In the course of his labours he revised the Old
Latin Version of the New Testament with the
help of Greek MSS. (383), and also the Old Latin
Version of the Old Testament by the help of the
Greek Versions and the collations of Origen and
the original text, (c. 383 −390). In 391 he began
his new translation of the Old Testament from
the original Hebrew, which was finished about
404. By slow degrees his work, variously modi-
fied, became the 'Vulgate,'-the common Ver-
sion-of all the Latin Churches. The Psalms in
our Prayer-Book are a direct rendering of one
of his revisions of the Psalter (the Gallican);
and all the vernacular versions of Europe are
indebted more or less to his toil and judgment.
Jerome prefaced his great work-the new The Helmed
translation of the Old Testament- with what he Prologue.
styled 'a Helmed Prologue' (Prologus Galeatus)¹,
in which he gave an account of the Canonical
Scriptures of the Hebrew Bible. These he enu-
1 The exact meaning of this remarkable phrase
has been variously given; yet it seems tolerably cer-
tain that Jerome intended to signify that this Preface.
was to be his general apology for limiting his special
work to the books of the Hebrew Canon, a limitation
which would expose him to the assaults of many in
182
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 370-450.
CHAP. VII. merates exactly, noticing the double numbering
of twenty-two and twenty-four Books, according
as Ruth and Lamentations were reckoned sepa-
rately, or added to Judges and Jeremiah, and
then adds: "This Prologue to the Scriptures may
suit as a helmed preface to all the Books which
we have rendered from Hebrew into Latin, that
we may know'-my readers as well as myself—
"that whatever [book] is beyond these must be
reckoned among the Apocrypha. Therefore the
Wisdom of Solomon, as it is commonly entitled,
and the book of the Son of Sirach [Ecclesiasti-
cus] and Judith and Tobias and the Shepherd
are not in the Canon.' Jerome, it is clear, deli-
berately wished to make the formal distinction
between the Hebrew Canon and the Apocrypha
as clear in the Latin as it was in the Greek
Ep. ad Dard. Churches. 'We follow,' as he says elsewhere,
129, § 3.
speaking of the New Testament, by no means
the custom of this time, but the authority of an-
cient writers.' Again and again he insists on
the difference between the 'canonical' and 'ec-
clesiastical' books. As the Church,' he writes,
'reads the books of Judith, and Tobit and Mac-
cabees, but does not receive them among the
Canonical Scriptures, so also it reads Wisdom
and Ecclesiasticus for the edification of the peo-
ple, not for the authoritative confirmation of doc-
trine.' At the same time he was careful to ex-
plain distinctly that the apocryphal additions to
Esther, Daniel and Jeremiah (Baruch) had no
Pref. ad
Libros Sol.
the African Churches. At the close of the Preface,
following out the image, he prays Paula and Eusto-
chium, to whom it was addressed, to 'oppose the
shields of their words against the detraction' of his
enemies.
THE AGE OF JEROME AND AUGUSTINE.
183
A.D. 370-450.
place in the Hebrew Canon, and therefore no CHAP. VII.
claim to be included in the Christian Bible as
Canonical Scripture. So strongly did he desire
to emphasize the distinction which he drew, that
he resolved to 'correct only the Canonical Scrip-
tures,' but afterwards, yielding to the impor-
tunity of friends, he made a hasty version of
Tobit and Judith. The rest of the Apocrypha
in the modern Vulgate have been added to Je-
rome's work from the Old Latin.
use of the
Apocrypha.
But while Jerome thus drew a clear line be- Jerome's
tween the books of the Hebrew Bible and the
later additions to it, he still reserved for the
Apocrypha an ecclesiastical use, quoting them,
as Hilary did before him, with marked respect,
and even as 'Scripture.' In this he followed the
example of Athanasius, and furnished a rule
which it were to be wished that the Western
Churches had universally followed.
Testament.
In the New Testament he accepted the com- His Canon
plete Canon of the Greek Church, though he of the New
mentions from time to time the doubts which
had been entertained as to the 'controverted'
books. In his revision the Epistle to the Hebrews
was still placed after the undoubted Epistles of St
Paul; and he appears to have questioned at least
its Pauline authorship, though he made no scru-
ple as to its canonical authority. 'If,' he writes, Ep. ad Dard.
'the custom of the Latins does not receive it 129, § 3.
among the Canonical Scriptures, neither do the
Greek Churches (using the same freedom) ac-
cept the Apocalypse of John; and still we ac-
cept both, by no means following the custom of
this time, but the authority of ancient writers.'
The Epistles of James and Jude were doubted, De virr. •
he says, at first, but in course of time came to
illustr. 2, 4.
184
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
Quæst. ad
Hedib. 11.
(Ep.120, c.10.)
CHAP. VII. be reckoned among the Holy Scriptures; and ac-
A.D. 370–450. Cording to him the contrast of style between the
First and Second Epistles of St Peter is to be
explained by the supposition that the Apostle
Comp. Ep. ad employed different 'interpreters' in writing them.
Paul. 53, §8. In addition to these canonical books Jerome no-
tices many apocryphal writings claiming to be of
apostolic origin, but never attributes to them
any ecclesiastical authority.
AUGUSTINE.
AUGUSTINE (Aurelius Augustinus), in spite of
A.D. 351–130. his logical power, his passionate devotion, his
moving eloquence, was not endowed with critical
sagacity or historical learning. He had very little
knowledge of Greek, and fully shared the com-
mon prejudices which were entertained against
a new translation of the Old Testament from the
original Hebrew. His life was spent in action and
controversy, and not (like Jerome's) in the student's
cell. Born at an inland town of Numidia, in A.D. 354,
he had much of the fiery nature of his country-
man Tertullian. For some time he was attached
to the Manichees, but was converted to the Ca-
tholic Church by Ambrose in 387. In 395 he
became Bishop of Hippo Regius in North Africa,
and died there in 430. The vigour and fulness
of his polemical writings, the fearless vigour of
his deductions, the symmetry of his doctrinal
system, not to speak of his higher graces of faith,
spirituality, submission to the Divine Will, made
him the evangelical master of the middle ages,
and even of our own. His acknowledged claims
as a profound reasoner gave him authority even
in matters of criticism; and his judgment on the
Canon (falling in with popular usage in form
though not in spirit) furnished the occasion for
the definite equalization of the Apocrypha of the
THE AGE OF JEROME AND AUGUSTINE.
185
Old Testament with the Books of the Hebrew CHAP. VII.
Bible, which was completed by the Council of A.D. 354-430.
Trent.
which led
tion of the
Canon.
Augustine's attention seems to have been di- The motive
rected towards the attainment of a conciliar de- him to seek
termination of the contents of the Bible soon a determina-
after his conversion. His former connexion with
the Manichees, who were especially addicted to
the use of 'apocryphal' Gospels and Acts, pro-
bably impressed him keenly with the sense of
the necessity of some such decision. The wide
circulation of the Manichæan books had already
moved Cyril of Jerusalem to write upon the sub-
ject, and afterwards led the Spanish bishops to
seek the assistance of the Roman Church in
checking their spread. The fact is important,
for it explains the motive which may have led
Augustine to hold the distinction between the
'controverted' and 'acknowledged' books of the
Old Testament as of comparatively little moment.
It might have seemed well to him if both could
be placed in a position wholly and for ever sepa-
rate from the pernicious writings which had
been turned to heretical uses. Their mutual re-
lations might be determined when the pressing
danger was averted.
The first discussion on the Canon in which The decrees
of Hippo.
Augustine took part was at a Council at Hippo
in A.D. 393. The decision which was then made
is lost, but the statutes of the Council were re-
vised and confirmed by the Council of Carthage
in A.D. 397. In the mean time Augustine wrote Augustine's
his essay, 'On Christian Doctrine,' in which he treatise On
treats of the Books of Scripture, and the mode Doctrine.
in which he handles the subject justifies the
Christian
186
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 354-430.
II. 12, 13.
CHAP. VII. view which has been given of his purpose. 'He
will be,' he says, 'the wisest student of the divine
De Doctr. Chr. Scriptures who shall have first read and learnt...
those which are called canonical. For the rest
he will read with greater security when furnished
with faith in the truth, [as there is danger] lest
they preoccupy a mind as yet unstable, and in-
stil some ideas contrary to sound understanding
by perilous fictions and fancies. In [judging of]
the Canonical Scriptures let him follow the au-
thority of as many Catholic Churches as possi-
ble, among which assuredly are those [like Rome]
which were deemed worthy to be apostolical sees,
and to have Epistles addressed to them. He
will therefore hold this course in [judging of] the
Canonical Scriptures, that he prefer those which
are received by all Catholic Churches to those
which some do not receive; of those again which
are not received by all, those which more and
more influential Churches receive to those which
are held by Churches fewer in number or inferior
in authority. If, however, he find some writings
maintained by more Churches, others by more
influential Churches (though this case can hardly
be realized), I fancy that they must be held to be
of equal authority. The whole Canon of Scrip-
tures in which we say that this question turns is
made up of these books: Genesis….[Joshua the
son of] Naue... Chronicles; Job, Tobias, Esther,
Judith, Maccabees (2), Ezra (2)...; then the pro-
phets, among which is the Psalter of David,
three books of Solomon.. For those two books,
which are inscribed Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus,
are said to be Solomon's from a certain resem-
blance [which they bear to his writings], for it is
L
THE AGE OF JEROME AND AUGUSTINE.
187
a most certain tradition that Jesus the Son of CHAP. VII.
Sirach wrote them¹; and still since they have
been deemed worthy to be received into autho-
rity, they must be reckoned among the prophetic
books. The remaining books are of those who
are properly called prophets... In these forty-four
books the authority of the Old Testament is
closed. Of the New Testament, four Gospels...
fourteen Epistles of St Paul...(that to the He-
brews last), Peter (2), John (3), Jude, James,
Acts, Apocalypse. In all these books those who
fear God and cherish humble piety seek the will
of God.'
judgment.
<
n. 1.
The whole tone of the passage shows that he The spirit of
was contemplating a definite danger from apo- Augustine's
cryphal books used by heretics, and other reli-
gious writings claiming to be of authority, which
he called generally divine Scriptures,' and dis- Comp. p. 173,
tinguishes from 'canonical Scriptures.' His ob-
ject was to mark distinctly those books which
had any ecclesiastical authority. The authority
itself was admitted to vary in an indefinite de-
gree. In accordance with the liberty which he
thus gave, Augustine himself admitted a distinc-
tion between the Hebrew Canon and the Apo-
crypha. In one place he even limited the term
Canonical' in its strict sense to the Books De Civ. Dei,
which were received by the Jews. The Jews, he XVIII. 36.
says frequently, are our librarians, our witnesses.
He allowed that objections might fairly be urged
to passages quoted from Wisdom and Ecclesi-
asticus in support of doctrine, as the books were
not of unquestioned authority, though long cus-
tom had entitled them to respect. When the
1 Augustine in his 'Retractationes' corrects this
strange mistake.
A.D. 354-430.
188
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 354-430.
CHAP. VII. Donatists urged a passage from 2 Maccabees in
defence of suicide, he disparaged their proof by
showing that the book was not received into the
Hebrew Canon to which Christ bore witness,
though it had been received by the Church not
unprofitably, provided it were read or heard ju-
De Civ. Dei, diciously...' These books (the Maccabees),' he
elsewhere says, 'the Church, and not the Jews,
holds for canonical on account of the marvellous
sufferings of some martyrs which they relate ;'
and in the context distinguishes them from the
'Holy Scriptures.'
1. c.
،
The decree
of Carthage.
So far the teaching of Augustine, if inter-
preted by his practice, does not differ essentially
from that of Jerome. But his Canon was soon
separated from his gloss upon it. At the Council
of Carthage, A. D. 397, at which Augustine was
present, a decree was ratified which determined
the list of 'Canonical Scriptures' in accordance
Can. 39 (47). with his opinion. ['It is decreed] that nothing
except the Canonical Scriptures be read in the
Church under the name of divine Scriptures.
The Canonical Scriptures are Genesis....five
books of Solomon [Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Can-
ticles, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus]....Ezechiel, To-
bias, Judith, Esther, Esdras (2), [Maccabees, 2]¹.
Of the New Testament the four Gospels, Acts,
thirteen Epistles of St Paul, the Epistle of the
same to the Hebrews, Peter (2), John (3), James,
Jude, Apocalypse. Note. Let the transpoutine
(Roman) Church be consulted about the confirm-
ation of that Canon. Also let it be allowed that
the Passions of Martyrs be read on the celebra-
tion of their anniversaries.'
1 The two books of Maccabees are wanting in many
authorities.
THE AGE OF JEROME AND AUGUSTINE.
189
A.D. 354-430.
astical use
It will be observed that the object of this CHAP. VII.
decree was to limit the ecclesiastical use of
books, and that it contains nothing formally to The decree
exclude the liberty for which Augustine pleaded. affects ecclesi-
Indeed, as the council was ruled by his influence, only.
he probably contemplated such an interpretation
of the decree. But in this he forgot the natural
inaptitude of men for critical labour. The books
were all placed together without distinction, and
it was inevitable that they should all be consi-
dered popularly as exactly equal in authority.
renewed.
The confirmation which was sought from The decree
Rome seems not to have been obtained. At
another Council of Carthage in 419, at which
also Augustine presided, the decree was re-
newed¹, and again a note added: 'Let this also
be notified to our brother and fellow-priest Bo-
niface, Bishop of Rome, or to other bishops of
those parts, for the purpose of confirming that
Canon.' It does not, however, appear that any-
thing more was done. Yet already a revolution
was wrought. The question of the Canon had
been taken, so to speak, out of the domain of
criticism. A provincial assembly had decided
upon it, as a subject to be settled by the autho-
rity of the Christian Church. And from this
time no new element was introduced into the
History of the Bible till the Council of Trent.
As a general rule popular usage and the judg-
ment of scholars were at variance in the West
till the era of the Reformation. Usage received
1 In this revised decree one significant change was
made. In place of the strange circumlocution by
which the Epistle to the Hebrews is described separately
as St Paul's, the Epistles of St Paul are reckoned to-
gether as fourteen.
?
190
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
A.D. 354-430.
CHAP. VII. all the books of the enlarged Canon more and
more generally as equal in all respects; learned
tradition kept alive the distinction between the
Hebrew Canon and the Apocrypha which had
been drawn by Jerome.
The Bibles
of the West
in the 5th
century..
The decree of Carthage was framed with
reference to the Old Latin Version. In 397
Jerome's New Version was not finished, much
less generally received. But from the begin-
ning of the fifth century three different Bibles
were circulated in the West, of which no one had
paramount authority. The first was the Old
Latin Bible, containing all the books included in
Augustine's Canon, and often 2 Esdras and the
Shepherd: the second, Jerome's New Transla-
tion of the Old Testament according to the He-
brew Canon, with his revised New Testament;
the third was Jerome's Translation (except the
Psalter) of the Hebrew Canon, with the addition
of the Apocrypha, arranged in the manner of the
Old Bible. The Old Bible gradually fell into
disuse. No complete MS. of it has yet been dis-
covered; but in England and Ireland it was
found till the eighth and ninth centuries, and
probably later. Manuscripts of Jerome's Bible,
to which the books of the Apocrypha are some-
times added as an appendix, or a separate sec-
tion, are rare. From the ninth century the
mixed Bible was almost universally current, and
2 Esdras, which was not included in Augustine's
Canon, was very frequently added to the Apo-
crypha of the Old Testament, and the Epistle to
the Laodicenes to the New Testament. How
widely these differences extended will be seen in
the next Chapter.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES IN
THE WEST.
The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a
woman took, and hid in three measures of meal till
the whole was leavened.-Matt. xiii. 33.
AF
the Western
FTER the death of Jerome the study of CHAP.VIII.
Greek rapidly declined in the West. A The work and
few scholars, especially in the great Irish monas- character of
teries, still kept alive a faint knowledge of the Churches in
language, and retained at the same time some- the Middle
Ages.
thing of that generous freedom which it seems
to confer as its constant gift; but the intellectual
commerce of the East and West was broken.
The Latin Churches were speedily left alone to
do their appointed work, to preserve civilization
from the wreck of the Roman Empire; to sub-
due new races; to mould a Christian society;
to vindicate the majesty of Divine Law in the
face of barbarous despotism; to witness to the
reality of the eternal and the unseen in the face
of rude passion and brute force. It is no part
of our object to discuss how the work was per-
formed, where it failed, what it accomplished.
Enough was done to form the sure basis of our
modern life: enough was left undone to call for
a Reformation, when Greece again claimed her
192
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. VIII. intellectual sovereignty. But it is necessary to
mark distinctly the general character of the
work of the Western Churches from the sixth to
the fifteenth century, that it may be seen why
all original investigation of the Bible would have
been well nigh impossible in that period. It was
not a time for historical criticism, but for law
and discipline and logical analysis. Men were
content to receive without question 'the books
which the authority of the Catholic Church de-
livered.' Scholarship very rarely amounted to
more than the quotation or adaptation of a note
of Jerome on the Hebrew or Greek text. Verbal
interpretation, with very rare exceptions, was
the mere reproduction of opinions already re-
corded. The brief critical commentaries (Cor-
rectoria) which began to be written in the twelfth
century were almost exclusively made up of old
materials. Thus the history of the Bible till the
fifteenth century is the history of a tradition, or
rather of a tradition in conflict with usage. Its
interest lies in the distinctness with which the
Hieronymian Canon was maintained by all the
greatest teachers against the (supposed) authority
of the papal decretals and common practice.
For the sake of clearness it will be convenient
to take each division of the Western Church
separately; and for the present the Apocrypha
of the Old Testament alone will claim our atten-
tion. The New Testament was received by all in
its present shape. The last trace of any division
of opinion upon it is found in a decree of the
fourth Council of Toledo (632) which forbade under
pain of excommunication the rejection of the
Apocalypse, or the refusal to read it in the public
service in due course.
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
193
:
CHAP. VIII.
SEOT. I. The Church of North Africa.
the African
Churches.
The dissensions by which the African Church The fall of
was torn during the time of Augustine were mul-
tiplied afterwards by the introduction of new
elements of strife. To the fierceness of the Do-
natist schism was added the equal fierceness of
an Arian controversy. Christianity was almost
exhausted by the conflicts through which it
passed, and when the Arabian invaders appeared,
the oldest Latin Churches-the Churches of Ter-
tullian and Cyprian-fell helplessly before the
concentrated power of Islam.
C. A.D. 550.
Yet the meagre remnants of later literature
show that the decree of Carthage was not held
to be binding even in Africa, so far at least as it
has been taken to affirm the absolute equality of
the books which it pronounced to be 'canonical.'
PRIMASIUS, Bishop of Adrumetum, repeats the PRIMASIUS.
mystical interpretation which Jerome attached
to the twenty-four wings of the four living crea-
tures of the Apocalypse, and the twenty-four
elders round the throne of God. 'They are,' he In Apoc. 4.
says, 'the books of the Old Testament which we
receive of that number as possessing canonical
authority.' Another contemporary African bi-
shop, Junilius, diverges yet further from the let- JUNILIUS.
ter of the Carthaginian Canon, though, in point
of fact, he only carries out in detail the theory
of Augustine, by distinguishing books as pos-
sessed of 'complete' and 'intermediate' autho-
rity, according as they were severally received
by all or very many. But in doing this he fol-
lows a very remarkable tradition. He divides all
the books of the Bible into books of history, pro-
phecy, proverbs, and simple doctrine. In history
C. A.D. 550.
!
1
13
194
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. VIII. he reckons the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges,
Ruth, Samuel (2), Kings (2), and the four Go-
spels and the Acts, as of 'perfect' authority;
Chronicles (2), Job, Ezra (2), Judith, Esther,
Maccabees (2), as of 'intermediate' authority.
"They are not,' he says, 'included among the Ca-
nonical Scriptures, because they were received
among the Hebrews only in a secondary rank’
(such appears to be his meaning), 'as Jerome and
others testify. In prophecy, Psalms and the
sixteen prophets are of perfect authority. 'As
to the Apocalypse, there are,' he adds, 'great
doubts in the East. In proverbs, the Proverbs
of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus are of perfect
authority, 'to which some join Wisdom and Can-
ticles. In simple doctrine, 'sixteen are canoni-
cal, Ecclesiastes, fourteen Epistles of St Paul,
1 Peter, 1 John.. Very many add five others
which are called "Canonical Epistles of the Apo-
stles,” James, 2 Peter, Jude, 2, 3 John¹. This,
he says, was the judgment of the teachers of Ni-
sibis, where biblical criticism was made a subject
of professed study, like rhetoric; and this judg-
ment he feels himself free to adopt and promul-
gate among his countrymen. No other proof is
needed to show that a distinction in authority
between the 'Canonical' Scriptures (improperly
so called) was not supposed in his time to be ex-
cluded by the decision of the Council of Car-
thage.
1
De part.
legis, 1.3-7.
SECT. II. The Churches of Italy.
The decretal
The earliest alleged judgment of the Roman
of INNOCENT Church upon the Canon of Scripture is found in
I.
1 Tobit is omitted entirely. It seems difficult to
believe that the list is free from corruptions.
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
195
a letter of INNOCENT I. addressed to Exsuperius, CHAP, VIII.
Bishop of Toulouse, in A.D. 405. Among other
questions, of a very miscellaneous character, Ex-
superius is said to have enquired of Innocent
what books were to be received in the Canon.
In reply Innocent gives a list identical in con-
tents with that of the Council of Carthage, but
differing in the arrangement of the books. In
addition to this there is a second papal list at-
tributed most commonly to GELASIUS, who was The decretal
pope A.D. 492-496, and in other forms to DA-
MASUS (A.D. 366-384), and HORMISDAS (A.D. 514—
523). This list also includes the Apocrypha
(with some variations in different copies) among
the books of the Old Testament.
of GELASIUS.
But it must be admitted that both these lists
are open to the gravest suspicion. It is impos-
sible to point out in detail here the grounds on
which they appear to belong to a later age. It
must be enough to notice that the lists them-
selves are African, and not Italian, in form,—- See p. 197.
that they were unknown to Cassiodorus, who
carefully collected the different lists of Holy
Scripture current in his time, and at a still
later time to Isidore of Seville, that the text
of the Gelasian list varies considerably in differ-
ent copies, and in such a way as to indicate that
the variations were not derived from one origi-
nal. The earliest historical traces of the decre-
tals of which they form a part are found in the
eighth century¹. The letter of Innocent was sent
to Charlemagne in A.D. 774 by Hadrian I. in the
B
-
1 The letter of Innocent is found in the collection
of Decretals of the Popes attributed to Dionysius
Exiguus (c. A.D. 500); but this collection is very dif-
ferent in character from Dionysius' genuine collection
13-2
196
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. VIII. Code of Ecclesiastical Law, and from that time
it exercised some influence upon the judgment
of the Church. The list of the Canonical Books
in the decree of Gelasius does not distinctly ap-
pear till about the tenth century; and even in
later times was comparatively little known.
These lists
use.
But however interesting the question of the
regard only authenticity of these lists may be in a critical
aspect, it has little bearing on the history of the
Canon in the strictest sense. Both lists simply
repeat the decision at Carthage, and determine
the Ecclesiastical Canon, the books, that is, which
might be publicly used in the Church services.
They do not touch upon the character of the
books as sources of dogmatic teaching, and are
in fact perfectly reconcileable with the more exact
judgment of Jerome and the Eastern Churches
on their doctrinal authority. The ecclesiastical
use was practically the matter of chief moment
from the sixth to the twelfth century; and a re-
markable monument of the rapidity with which
it prevailed over the critical arrangement of the
books of the Old Testament is found in the old-
est and most precious MS. of the Vulgate. This
tinus.
Codex Amia- MS., known as the Codex Amiatinus, was writ-
ten c. A.D. 541, about a hundred and thirty-five
years after Jerome's version was completed, and
in it the books of the Hebrew Canon (in Je-
rome's translation) are mixed with the books of
the Apocrypha just as in the Old Latin Version ;
and the compound book is called by Jerome's
name.
A yet more signal proof of the indifference
▸
of Conciliar Canons, and cannot be accepted as au-
thentic without further examination. The biblical
catalogue of Gelasius is not found in the collection.
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
197
lect. 11-14.
،
with which the question of the Canon was viewed, CHAP. VIII.
apart from its ecclesiastical value, is given by
the writings of CASSIODORUS. This distinguished Cassiodorus
statesman and scholar, after enjoying the highest †C. A.D. 570.
civil honours under Theodoric and his immediate
successors, retired in A.D. 537 to a monastery
which he founded in Calabria, and devoted him-
self to literary labour with the object of raising
the character of the clergy of Italy. Among
other works designed for this end he wrote
(c. A.D. 556) an 'Introduction to the Study of
Holy Scripture,' in which he gives a threefold
enumeration of the sacred books, first according Instit. ad div.
to Jerome, next according to Augustine, and
lastly according to the old translation and the
Septuagint.' The first list is of course confined
to the books of the Hebrew Canon and the books
of the New Testament as they are commonly
received. The Apocrypha are passed over in
silence. The second list is substantially identical
with that already quoted from Augustine, with
some differences in order. The third gives the
Augustinian Canon of the Old Testament, but
differs widely from Augustine in the New Testa-
ment. In this it reckons four Gospels, the Acts,
the (1) Epistle of Peter 'to the Gentiles,' the
Epistle of James, the 1 Epistle of John 'to the
Parthians,' fourteen Epistles of Paul, and the
Apocalypse¹. But though Cassiodorus records
these wide differences of opinion both in the Old
and New Testaments, he does not dwell upon
them for a moment. The question of the Canon
was for him an open question, and he nowhere
¹ In the editions the Epistle of Jude is added, but
this is omitted in all the MSS. (four) which I have
examined.
198
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. VIII. indicates that it had been made the subject of
any final and binding decision at Rome.
The same conclusion may be drawn from the
language of GREGORY the Great, who apologises
for quoting a passage from 1 Maccabees on the
In Tob.xix.13. ground that the book was 'put forth for the edi-
fication of the Church, though it was not canoni-
cal.' It is evident that he could not have spoken
in these terms if he had been acquainted with
the decretals of Innocent and Gelasius, or at
least if he had placed that construction upon
them which was enforced afterwards.
GREGORY the
Great.
† A.D. 604.
Anastasius
Biblioth.
† c. A.D. 880.
See Ch. IX.
GRATIAN.
THOMAS
AQUINAS.
† A.D. 1274.
JOHANNES
GENUENSIS.
C. A D. 1280.
Later Italian writers contribute little to the
history of the Canon, but that little tends to
show that the critical side of the question was
still open within certain limits, though the eccle-
siastical usage was fixed. Thus ANASTASIUS, the
'Librarian' of the Roman Church, when he
translated into Latin the Ecclesiastical History
of Nicephorus, gave without question or com-
ment the remarkable list of the books of Holy
Scripture which it contains, though this excludes
the Apocrypha and Esther from the Old Testa-
ment, and the Apocalypse from the New Testa-
ment. GRATIAN in his collection of Decretals
(A. D. 1151) gives the catalogues of Innocent and
Carthage, but not that of Laodicea, nor the Bi-
blical Catalogue of Gelasius. THOMAS AQUINAS
recognizes the doubts which attach to the autho-
rity of Ecclesiasticus, and appears to exclude
Wisdom definitely from the Canonical Scrip-
tures. JOHANNES BALBUS of Genoa, in his Ca-
tholicon, a Latin Glossary, gives as a definition
of an 'apocryphal' book in a good sense (with a
direct reference to Jerome) 'a book whose author
is unknown, but whose truth is patent, which the
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
199
Church receives for instruction of manners and CHAP. VIII.
not for the proof of faith;' and this definition
was frequently quoted from him in later times.
Among others ANTONINUS, Archbishop of Flo- ANTONINUS
rence, makes use of the definition, and affirms in FLORENT.
the plainest manner the judgment of Jerome.
C. A.D. 1460.
of Florence.
On the other hand is alleged a decree of the The decree of
Council of Florence, which was held in A.D. 1439 the Council
for the purpose of effecting a union between the
Greek and Latin Churches, in which the books
of the Old and New Testament, 'received and
venerated' by 'the Holy Roman Church,' are enu-
merated after the order of the common copies of
the Vulgate and Augustine, the Apocrypha being
inserted among the other Scriptures. But there
is not the slightest evidence to show that this
list was the result of any joint discussion of the
question at the Council, or that it was ratified
by the Council in any way. Even from the form
in which it is written it appears clear that it
emanated directly from the pope Eugenius IV.,
and was a mere repetition of the earlier lists of
Innocent and Gelasius, which in his time were
generally received as authentic.
SECT. III. The Church of Spain.
the 6th cen-
The question of the Canon continued to be The condition
of considerable moment in Spain till the final of Spain in
conversion of the Goths to the Catholic faith in tury.
A. D. 589. During the fifth century the Priscil-
lianists, following in this the example of the
Gnostics and Manichees, from whom they derived
much of their doctrine, had introduced a vast
multitude of apocryphal writings into common
use, which usurped the place of the Scriptures.
To collect and destroy these was one of the
200
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
of Hormisdas.
See p. 195.
CHAP. VIII. chief cares of the orthodox bishops. The Goths,
again, as Arians probably rejected the Epistle
to the Hebrews and the Apocalypse no less than
the Apocrypha of the Old Testament. On their
conversion they bound themselves to submit to
the decision of the papal rescripts generally, and
so also on the subject of the Holy Scriptures.
The decretal It is to this concession that the origin of the
peculiar recension of the Gelasian decree which
bears the name of Hormisdas, Bishop of Rome
514-523, must be attributed. The list of 'Books
to be received and not to be received,' which
seems to have been the genuine substance of the
earlier recensions of the decree, is in this case
prefaced with a list of the Books of Scriptures,
and the decree thus supplemented appears to
have been addressed to Spain. The Books of the
Bible are given according to the enlarged Canon
of Augustine. The same Canon is given by ISI-
DORE of Seville, who follows Augustine expressly
in dealing with the Old Testament Apocrypha.
'These which constitute a fourth class with us,' he
says, 'are not in the Hebrew Canon.' 'The He-
brews do not receive them, but the Church
reckons them among the Canonical Scriptures.'
Yet elsewhere he speaks of Ezra arranging 'the
whole of the Old Testament in twenty-two Books ;'
and says that the edition of Jerome' (which pro-
perly included only the Books of the Hebrew
Canon) 'was generally used by all the Churches¹?'
The Augustinian Canon is also given by Eʊ-
GENIUS, Bishop of Toledo, and HILDEFONSUS his
6
† A.D. 636.
† A.D. 657.
† A.D. 667.
1 Alcuin does not hesitate to quote Isidore (though,
as it seems, unfairly) as agreeing with Jerome in re-
gard to the inferior authority of Ecclesiasticus. Com-
pare p. 202.
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
201
successor. The latter simply transcribes Augus- CHAP. VIII.
tine's words, with his explanation of the unequal
authority of different books.
This close adherence of the early Spanish The connex-
ion of Africa
Church to the opinion of Augustine is of interest and Spain.
and importance as showing its intimate con-
nexion with the Church of North Africa. Not
only were the churches closely united by lan-
guage, by feeling and by history, but even the
circumstances under which the canonical contents
of the Bible were determined in both were the
same. Augustine, as we have seen, embodied the
custom and tradition of the old Latin Churches
in a decree directed to meet a special danger
from the wide use of Apocryphal books. The
same danger existed in Spain, and the same de-
cision was adopted there. But the decision in
both cases was not absolute, but relative. The
decree separated all the books which it enume-
rated for exclusive ecclesiastical use, but left the
question of their equality untouched.
ment of the
6
In the later Spanish Church the judgment of The judg-
Jerome was expressly maintained. One exam- later Spanish
ple will suffice. ALPHONSUS TOSTATUS, Bishop Church.
of Avila, 'the marvel of the world' for his learn- A.D. 1450.
Quoted by
ing, discusses the authority of the Apocrypha at Hody, p. 659
length. They are reckoned,' he states, among
the books of Holy Scripture, but set without the
Canon.' 'No one of them, even though they are
read among the other books of the Bible, and
read in the Church, is of so great authority that
the Church argues from it to maintain any truth.'
The same, we shall see afterwards, was the opi-
nion of a yet greater man, Cardinal Ximenes, to Chap. x.
whom belonged the glory of first printing the
complete Bible in the original languages.
202
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. VIII.
The French
Church.
p. 187.
Aug. Ep.
ccxxvi.
CHARLE-
MAGNE.
ALCUIN.
† A.D. 804.
18, p. 883.
ALCUIN, a British scholar, the pupil of Bede,
was the chief literary adviser of Charlemagne.
In controversy with a Spanish bishop he dis-
tinctly affirmed (on the authority of Jerome and
c. Elipand. I. Isidore) that Ecclesiasticus was a doubtful
Scripture,' and not to be alleged for the proof of
doctrine. But in common practice he suffered
the ordinary ecclesiastical usage to remain un-
changed. Towards the close of his life he was
commissioned by Charlemagne to undertake a
revision of the Latin Bible for public use. The
simultaneous use of the old Latin and Jerome's
new Version had led to great corruption of the
text. Alcuin restored the original readings of
C. A.D. 802.
SECT. IV. The Transalpine Churches.
6
The Church of Spain was originally connected
with Africa, that of France was connected with
Asia Minor. Thus we have already seen that
French divines demurred to receiving a passage
from Wisdom quoted by Augustine as not ca-
nonical,' while Hilary reproduced Origen's judg-
ment on the Old Testament. 'But the develop-
ment of the national Church was checked as
rapidly by invasion and war in France as in
Britain. When order was at length restored to
the desolated provinces, CHARLEMAGNE fully re-
cognized his ecclesiastical allegiance to the see
of Rome; and the code which he established at
Aix for the government of the Church was
moulded in a great measure upon that which he
received from pope Hadrian. It was enjoined
in this, that the canonical books only he read in
the Church;' but it appears that no definite list
of these was given, though in the editions the list
of Laodicea is added,
6
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
203
Jerome in a great measure in the books which CHAP. VIII.
he had translated or corrected, but he made no
endeavour to separate the Apocrypha as Jerome
had done. Several magnificent MSS. remain
which claim to be directly derived from Alcuin's
own revision. One of the finest of these (known
as 'Charlemagne's Bible') is among the chief or-
naments of the Library of the British Museum;
and it is a singular proof of the small interest
which attached in the ninth century to the ex-
actness of the Canon, that it contains the Apo- See p. 209.
cryphal Letter to the Laodicenes as a fifteenth
letter of St Paul.
Elsewhere there are abundant proofs of the
uncertainty which prevailed as to the exact con-
tents of the Bible. The Augustinian Canon is
confirmed for ecclesiastical purposes by RABANUS † a.d. 856.
MAURUS, who transcribes Isidore, and by Ivo, † A.D. 1115.
Bishop of Chartres, who follows the list added
to the decretal of Gelasius. PETRUS DE RIGA C. A.D. 1170.
in his metrical paraphrase of Scripture uses the Hody, p. 655.
books of the Apocrypha, but distinguishes them
from the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Ca-
non; yet though they are distinguished, he says,
'the usage of the Church declares them authen-
tic.' This wavering opinion is illustrated by the
language of HUGO DE S. CARO, who gives a metri- † a.d. 1260.
cal catalogue of the books of the Hebrew Bible, Ilody, p. 656.
in which the whole ancient Law is completely
contained,' and then adds the Apocrypha, ac-
cording to the enumeration of Jerome. These
books,' he continues, 'because they are doubtful
are not reckoned in the Canon ; but because their
strain is true the Church receives them."
Meanwhile there was a great increase of
learning, if not of historical criticism, in Europe,
204
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
PETER Of
Clugny.
CHAP.VIII. consequent upon that intellectual impulse from
the East, which found its characteristic expres-
sion in Scholasticism. One result of this is seen
in the growing clearness of the teaching of the
most celebrated French doctors on the Canon.
c. A.D. 1157. RADULPHUS FLAVIACENSIS expressly separates To-
bit, Judith and Maccabees from the other histo-
rical books of the Bible. Although they are
read,' he says, 'for the instruction of the Church,
yet they have not perfect authority.' PETER of
†A. D. 1156. Clugny in a controversial passage enumerates
all the books of the Hebrew Bible as necessary
(throughout). to be received and of equal authority. He then
adds, 'After these authentic books of Holy
Scripture there remain six books which I must
still mention, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Tobit,
Judith, Maccabees (2), which, although they
have not been able to reach the sublime dignity
of the preceding Books, yet on account of their
praiseworthy and very necessary teaching, have
been held worthy to be received by the Church.'
HUGO DE S. VICTORE¹ is even more decided. After
Ep. contra
Petrobus.
HUGO of St
Victor.
† A.D. 1140.
1 The testimony of Hugo de S. Victore is pecu-
De Script. 6. liarly interesting from the form in which it is given.
He follows Jerome in dividing the Scriptures of the
Old Testament into three classes; but he evidently
regards the classes as indicating a difference of rank
as well as a difference of character in the books them-
selves. The first class (Ordo) contains the Pentateuch;
the second the Prophets; the third the Hagiographa.
Hugo then applies the same arrangement to the New
Testament. The first class includes the four Gospels;
the second class the Acts, the Pauline Epistles, the
Catholic Epistles, the Apocalypse ('also four books');
the third class, the Decretals in the first place, and
then, in the second place, the writings of the Fathers;
'but,' he adds, 'these writings of Fathers are not
reckoned in the text of Divine Scriptures; since in
the Old Testament (as we have said) there are certain
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
205
1
enumerating the twenty-two Books, as Jerome CHAP. VIII.
does, he subjoins the six Apocrypha, with the
note that these are read, but not reckoned in
the Canon' and in a later passage of the con-
text he appears to place them in the same rank
with the decretals and the works of the Fathers.
It is needless to quote at length the evidence of
RUPERT, Abbot of Deutz († A.D. 1135), of JoHN
BELETH of Paris (c. A.D. 1162), of PETRUS COMES-
TOR of Troyes (†A. D. 1198), to the same effect.
It is more worthy of notice that HONORIUS of
Autun (c. A.D. 1130) repeats the old ecclesiastical
Canon (of Augustine) with some singular criti-
cisms, describing the books as 'those to be read
in the sacred offices¹.'
C
Gloss.
The Ordinary Gloss,' a brief marginal or in- The Ordinary
terlinear commentary on the Bible, dates pro-
bably, for the most part, from the twelfth cen-
tury, though parts of it are much earlier. In
books which are not written in the Canon, and still
are read, as the Wisdom of Solomon, and the rest.'
Thus he appears to wish to make a complete parallel
between the three classes in the two Testaments, add-
ing the Apocrypha to the Old Testament and the
patristic writings to the New Testament as appen-
dices. But still, in conclusion, he reckons the 'whole.
body of Scripture as consisting properly of thirty
books, twenty-two of the Old Testament, and eight of
the New Testament. The other writings being, as it
were, added and flowing from these.'
How completely the papal decretals were placed
by the Canonists on the same footing with Scripture,
may be seen from the heading of Gratian, Part I.
Distinct. 19, c. 6. "The Decretal Epistles are reckoned
among the Canonical Scriptures." "Compare p. 222, n.
1 In a Gallican service-book (Hody, Col. 74) a list
of the canonical books is given in which 'the book of
the Sacraments' (that is probably the selections of
Scripture used in the offices) is reckoned among them.
206
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. VIII. this notes are added to Judith, Tobit, and Mac-
cabces, to the effect that they are 'not in the
Canon.'
NICOLAUS DE
LYRA.
† A.D. 1340.
i
Of later commentators, NICOLAUS DE LYRA
(Lyranus) was one of the greatest and most
popular. He was a Fleming of Jewish descent,
and was consequently able to apply an indepen-
dent judgment to the criticism of the Old Testa-
ment. After he had completed his commentary
on 'the canonical books of Holy Scripture from
Genesis to the Apocalypse,' he undertook one, as
he says, on those which are 'not of the Canon.'
'It must be known,' he goes on to say, 'that the
books which are called canonical are of so great
authority, that whatever is contained there is
held to be certainly true...The books which are
not of the Canon have been received by the
Church that they may be read for moral instruc-
tion; yet their authority is considered less ade-
quate to prove points which are debated ...'
SECT. V. The Churches of Britain.
The old Latin Version continued to be com-
monly used in the Irish, Welsh, and Northum-
brian Churches till the eighth and ninth centu-
ries, and even later¹. The memorials of this
which still remain in rich abundance have not
yet been thoroughly examined, nor can anything
be said accurately with regard to the ancient
British Canon. The only complete MS. of the
New Testament-the famous Book of Armagh—
written at the beginning of the ninth century,
1 One minute trace of this is preserved in the order
of the Pauline epistles. In the oldest Saxon MSS.
the Epistle to the Colossians is placed after those to the
Thessalonians, as by Augustine.
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
207
contains the Epistle to the Laodicenes, but with CHAP.VIII.
the note that 'Jerome says that it is not St
Paul's.'
§§ 1 ff. ed.
In the absence of direct and immediate evi- NOTKER.
dence from our own islands, the opinion of Not-
ker, abbot of St Gall (†A. D. 912), may be taken
as the expression of the judgment of the ancient
Irish church, from which the monastery of St Gall
derived its origin, and with which it maintained
a close literary connexion. Notker gives a sum-
mary of 'the Interpreters of the Holy Scriptures.'
In doing this he passes in review the various
books. First he notices the 'Pentateuch, Joshua De Int. SS.
and Judges, Samuel and Kings and the Prophets;' Migne.
next the 'Psalter, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Can-
ticles;' he then comes to Wisdom, 'which,' he
says, 'is wholly rejected by the Hebrews, and
held uncertain among us; still because our forc-
fathers were accustomed to read it for the use-
fulness of its teaching, while the Jews have it
not, it is called an ecclesiastical book also among
us. It is right too that you should hold the same
opinion about the book of Jesus the Son of Sirach
(Ecclesiasticus), except that that is held and read
by the Hebrews.' He then notices Job and Tobit
and Ezra, observing that Bede wrote 'a com-
mentary on the two last books, rather pleasing
than necessary, because he endeavoured to turn
simple history into allegory. What shall I say,'
he continues, 'of Judith and Esther and Chro-
nicles...since their letter is not considered as
having authority, but only as possessing a histori-
cal and literary value? You will be able to guess
that the same is the case with the Books of Mac-
cabees. On the Books of the New Testament
he makes no remarks, though he places them in
Vor M
208
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. VIII. an order somewhat unusual in the West, Gospels,
epistles of St Paul, Acts, the Seven 'Canonical'
Epistles, the Apocalypse.
Another anonymous writer, who probably be-
longed to the Irish Church, and lived towards
the end of the seventh century, is still more ex-
plicit in limiting the title of Canonical Scripture
to the Hebrew Books. In a treatise 'On the
S. Ser. 11. 34 Marvels of Holy Scripture' he gives a summary
De Mirab.
(ap. S. Au-
gust. Opera,
III.).
of the chief events in both Testaments. The se-
cond book closes with the return from Babylon,
and the writer adds: 'In these two books I have
given a historical summary of the marvels of the
Holy Scripture of the Old Testament...Although
some incidents are found in the books of Macca-
bees suitable to be inserted in the list of marvels,
yet I shall not distress myself with any care about
these; because I have only professed to touch on
...the marvels of the Divine Canon'
Anon. ap.
August.
BEDE.
† A.D. 735.
ALFRIC.
BEDE, the great father of English learning,
who connects historically the British and Saxon
Churches, distinctly recognizes Jerome's division
of the Hebrew Canon. On the other hand, he
wrote an allegorical exposition of Tobit, referred
to by Notker, though he never claims for it the
rank of authoritative Scripture. The first Saxon
writer who expressly treated of the Canon was
ALFRIC, a distinguished Benedictine scholar, who
1 As an illustration of the absence of exact know-
ledge on the subject of the Canon, it may be observed
that this writer quotes one part of the Apocryphal
additions to Daniel (iii. 49, 50), but says shortly after-
wards the history of the den and the carrying of
Habbacuc to Babylon in the legend of Bel and the
Dragon (Dan. xiv.) is not set in this synopsis, because
[those legends] are not held to possess the authority of
Divine Scripture.' (c. XXXII.)
?
Maol
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
209
L'Isle, p. 14.
died Archbishop of Canterbury in A.D. 1005. IN CHAP. VIII.
an interesting little treatise, 'On the Old and New
Testaments,' he gives a summary account of the
sacred books. After mentioning the earlier writ-
ings, he comes to those of Solomon: 'Solomon,' Translation
he says, 'by his wisdome wrote 3 bookes, one is by W. De
Paraboles, that is Proverbs. His second booke
is called Ecclesiastes. The third is called Cantica
Canticorum (Canticles)...And these bookes are
still in the Bible...Now there are two bookes p. 17.
more placed with Solomons workes, as if he made
them: which for likenesse of stile and profitable
use have gone for his; but Jesus the son of Sirach
composed them. One is called...the Booke of
Wisdome; and the other Ecclesiasticus. Very
large bookes, and read in the Church, of long cus-
tome, for much good instruction.' As the last
books he notices Tobit, Esther, Judith and Mac-
cabees (2), which are reckoned in the number of
the books of the Bible as 'tending to the glory of
God.' In the New Testament he enumerates all
the books in detail, but assigns fifteen epistles to
St Paul 'as loud as thunder to faithful people,' of
which the last is that to the Laodicenes.
The introduction of this spurious epistle into The Latin
Epistle to the
the Latin Bible is one of the most remarkable Laodicenes.
episodes in the history of the Canon. It was pro-
bably of African origin, and first appears, as far
as can be traced, in the sixth century. The two
earliest documents in which it appears contain
also the famous interpolation of 'the three hea- 1 John v. 7.
venly Witnesses.' At the close of that century,
Gregory the Great noticed that St Paul wrote
fifteen epistles, though the Church received only
fourteen; and this partial recognition of the
epistle gave it increased currency. In England
6
14
210
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP.VIII. and France it seems to have been especially popu-
lar. It is contained in the two finest MSS. of the
Vulgate in the library of the British Museum (of
the ninth century), and in very many later MSS.
John of Salisbury, in the twelfth century, ex-
pressly affirms that it was 'written by St Paul,
though it was the common and almost universal
opinion that St Paul wrote only fourteen.' The
insertion of the epistle in the Bible is instructive.
It offers a clear proof, if any proof were needed,
of the utter absence of the power of historical
criticism at the time, and of the unwillingness
even of the learned to give up anything which
came with the seeming sanction of adequate au-
thority. St Paul says that he wrote to the Laodi-
cenes—such is the argument of John of Salisbury
-therefore this epistle which purports to be ad-
dressed by him to them is genuine.
This testimony of JOHN of SALISBURY is the
more remarkable, because he treats of the Canon
in the context with some independence. 'I have
been asked,' he writes, 'what I believe to be the
number of the books of the Old and New Testa-
ments...Because then I read manifold and dif-
ferent opinions of the fathers as to the number of
the books, following Jerome, the teacher of the
Catholic Church, whom I consider to be the most
approved authority.... I believe that there are
twenty-two books of the Old Testament, arranged
in three classes... Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus,
Judith, Tobit and the Shepherd are not reckoned
in the Canon, nor the book of Maccabees...As for
the book called the Shepherd, I do not know
whether it exists anywhere...To these are added
eight volumes of the New Testament: (1-4) four
Gospels, (5) fifteen epistles of St Paul (the 15th
1
JOHN OF
SALISBURY.
Ep. 172.
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
211
to the Laodicenes)..., (6) seven Canonical (i.e. CHAP.VIII.
Catholic) epistles, (7) Acts, (8) Apocalypse. And
that this is the number of the books which are
admitted into the Canon of Holy Scripture, is the
current and undoubted tradition in the Church.'
The language of WILLIAM OCKHAM, the repre- w. OCKHAM.
sentative of a very different literary school, is not †c. A.D. 1347.
less distinct as to the subordinate position of the
Apocrypha. He compares with them the exposi-
tory writings of the Fathers of the Church, and
says that these are of no greater authority than
the Apocrypha, 'which are read for the edifica-
tion of the people, but not for the establishment
of doctrine.'
tc. A.D. 1345.
The contemporary evidence of ANDREW HORNE, A. HORNE.
a great jurist, may be added as coming from a
witness of another character. All Law, he argues,
is based upon Holy Scripture. Thus for him the
Canonical books had a binding legal value; and
he limits them strictly. Of the Old Testament he
cnumerates the books of the Hebrew Canon, and
adds: 'Besides these there are other books in the
Old Testament, although they are not authorized
as Canonical, as Tobit, Judith, Maccabees, Eccle-
siasticus.'
Bible.
Towards the close of the fourteenth century The Wycliffile
the great Wycliffite versions of the Bible were
made, which formed a new epoch in the history
of the Bible in England. The first version which
was completed under Wycliffe's care, and, pro-
bably, in part by his hand, contains all the books
of the Apocrypha except 2 Esdras; but, like
the contemporary MSS. of the Vulgate from
which it was translated, it gives Jerome's Pre-
faces, in which he affirms the exclusive authority
of the Hebrew Canon of the Old Testament, and
14-2
212
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. VIII. separates the Apocrypha from it. In the revised
version which was afterwards put forth by Pur-
vey, these prefaces are omitted in the Old Testa-
ment, at least in most copies, and a general Pro-
logue is added in their place. This opens with
an account of the Canon, which may be tran-
scribed at some length for the sake of its interest
as the first English discussion of the contents of
the Bible:
C. A.D. 1388.
Wycliffe's
Bible, ed.
Madden and
Forshall, 1.
pp. 1 ff.
sing
(
Fyue and twenty bookis of the olde testament
ben bookis of feith, and fulli bookis of holy writ;
the first is Genesis...and these fyue ben the
bookis of Moises, whiche ben clepid propurly the
law; the vi book Josue, the vii book is Judi-
cum, that enclosith the story of Ruth...the xiiii
book is Esdre, that comprehendeth Neemye, and
al is o bok anentis Ebreyes, as Jerom seith, but
anentis Grekis and Latyns these ben twey bookis
...the xvi is Joob...the xxi...xxiiii ben the foure
grete prophetis...the xxv book is o book of xii
small prophetis. And what euer book in the
olde testament is out of these fyue and twenty
byfore seid, shal be set among apocrifa, that is,
with outen autorite of bileue; therefore the book
of Wisdom and Eclesiastici and Judith and
Tobie be not of bileue. The first book of Ma-
chabeies was founden write in Ebreu and the ii
book of Machabeyes was writen first in Grek.
Jerom seith al this sentence in the prologe on
the first book of Kyngis. Also the book of Ba-
ruc and the pistle of Jeremye ben not of the
autorite of the bible anentis Ebreyes, ne the
preyer of Manasses, as Jerom witnessith, and
how mich of the book of Hester and of Daniel
is of autorite anentis Ebreyes, and in Ebreu
lettre, it is told in the same bookis by Jerom hym
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
213
self...Therefore as holy chirche redith Judith CHAP.VIII.
and Tobie and the bookis of Machabeies but
resceyveth not tho among holy Scripturis, so the
Chirche redith these ii, bookis Eclesiastici and
Sapience (Wisdom) to edifying of the people, not
to conferme the autorite of techingis of holy
Chirche; Jerom seith this pleynly in the prologe
on Proverbis...But sothely alle the bookis of the
newe Testament, that is foure gospelleris.. xii
[so in the MSS.] pistelis of Paul, vii smale pistils,
the Dedis of Apostlis, and the Apocalips ben
fulli of autorite of bileue.'
In the translation itself the books of the
Apocrypha are placed among the other books, as
in the common Latin Bibles. In the New Testa-
ment the order is remarkable, Gospels, Epistles
of St Paul, Acts, Catholic Epistles, Apocalypse.
In many MSS. the Epistle to the Laodicenes is
added after the Colossians with a note: But
this Epistle is not in common Latin books, and
therefore it was but late translated into English
tongue.' The Epistle however had been excluded
both by Wycliffe and Purvey, and the MSS. in
which it is found are not earlier than about the
middle of the fifteenth century.
Nor was this distinction of the Canonical and THOMAS OF
Ecclesiastical Books any peculiarity of the follow- WALDEN,
ers of Wycliffe. THOMAS of WALDEN, in a work
written against them, quotes Jerome in the
'Helmed Prologue' in support of the opinion,
that there were twenty-two Books of Canonical
authority in the Old Testament.
Popular use
the distinc-
But while the critical judgment of the an- disregarded
cient churches was thus kept alive, general use tion of the
placed all the books of the Ecclesiastical Bible books of the
on the same footing. The manuscripts of the ment.
Old Testa-
214
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP.VIII. Latin Bible rarely made any distinction between
the apocryphal books and the books of the He-
brew Canon; and it was scarcely possible that
those who used them should habitually distin-
guish elements which were always offered to
them without distinction¹. One example may
suffice. ROBERT GROSSETESTE, Bishop of Lincoln
A.D. 1235–1253, was justly regarded as one of
the most accomplished scholars of his age. He
had even some acquaintance with Greek and
Hebrew, but it does not appear that he was led
to examine specially the exact limits of Holy
Scripture, and consequently his usage falls in
with the popular custom of his age. He quotes
Wisdom, 1, 2 Maccabees, and especially Ecclesi-
asticus, in his Letters as books of Scripture; and
it is a singular illustration of the strange want
of critical skill in the time at which he lived, that
he quotes also a passage from the apocryphal
Testament of the twelve Patriarchs as an au-
thentic prophecy. This is the more remarkable,
as in the letter which immediately precedes he
insists on the supreme importance of the study
of the Old and New Testaments. 'Let your
morning lectures,' he says, writing to the regents
of Oxford, ‘be taken exclusively from these. In
the morning the foundation of after teaching is
best laid. And that foundation must be sought
in Scripture.'
R. GROSSE-
TESTE.
Ep. cxxiv.
(Ed. Luard).
This usago as
yot ratified
Thus slowly in the different churches of Eu-
by no specific rope usage was setting aside the distinction be-
judgment,
1 Of the large number of Latin Bibles in England
which I have examined, one only contains the Hebrew
Canon separate from the Apocryphal books, which are
placed in a distinct class. This MS., which is in the
British Museum, was brought from the Netherlands.
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
215.
tween the books of the Bible which was still CHAP.VIII.
preserved by scholars. But this usage was rati-
fied by no public or general authority: it was not
affirmed to imply any dogmatic estimate of the
value of the writings to which it extended: it
coëxisted with the most explicit recognition of
the Athanasian Canon, and even of still narrower
collections of the sacred books. In a word, it
was simply an ecclesiastical usage answering to
the current copies of the Bible, and not an eccle-
siastical judgment. Before examining the con-
flict which arose in the sixteenth century, when
this usage was exalted by some into an absolute
law of complete doctrinal force, it will be neces-
sary to trace in rapid outline the history of the
Bible during the corresponding period in the
Eastern Churches.
CHAP. IX.
Decay of
Eastern
Churchies.
CHAPTER IX.
THE BIBLE OF THE middle AGES IN
THE EAST.
Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until
the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.-St Luke xxi.
24:
HE history of the Eastern Churches from the
a melancholy picture of
decay and ruin. Exhausted by internal divisions,
hampered by the civil power, blindly tenacious of
ancient customs, they could offer but little effeo-
tual resistance to the desolating invasion of Ma-
hommedanism, when at last that new scourge
was directed against them. At the time when
the Latin Church was moulding the barbarian
conquerors of the old empire by a new civiliza-
tion and gathering strength from their allegiance,
the Churches of Egypt and Syria and Asia Minor
were reduced, first in one province and then in
another, to mere remnants, which were barely
able to preserve the name and tradition of their
past glory. All vigorous and independent life
was crushed out of them. They lived and live
still, in virtue of the past, till the time shall be
fulfilled, that the divine germ which they preserve
may be quickened to some new activity.
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
217
CHAP. IX.
SECT. I. The Greek Church.
Church
Even in the midst of this general desolation The Greek
the Greek Church has vindicated its claim to its learned but
chosen title, and preserved an 'orthodox' faith not critical.
through successive revolutions. In one respect,
indeed, the Greek Church offers a favourable con-
trast to that of the West. The spirit which for- Conc. Car-
thag. iv.
bad Bishops to read Gentile books never found a cun. XIV.
welcome there, and learning had a home at Con-
stantinople as long as it remained a Christian
city. But while the Greek fathers cherished
learning with true devotion and refused to change
or add to the dogmas of antiquity, they brought
little more critical sagacity to the solution of his-
torical questions than Western scholars. The one
conciliar decision on the Canon, which was made
(by implication and not directly) at Constantino-
ple, involves the ratification of two absolutely
inconsistent lists of the sacred books, those of
Carthage and the Apostolical Canons; and nei-
ther of these lists is supported by the independent
evidence of any Greek Fathers.
cil of Constan-
A.D. 553.
A.D. 680.
▸
This decision of the so-called Quini-Sextine The Quini-
Council is remarkable on many grounds. No dis- Sextine Coun-
ciplinary Canons had been enacted at the fifth tinople.
and sixth Councils of Constantinople-the so-
called fifth and sixth general councils-which
were occupied with the condemnation of the
errors of Origen and the Monothelites. To sup-
ply this deficiency a Council of 227 bishops was
held in A. D. 692 (691) in a hall of the imperial
palace (Trullus, i.e. the Cupola), who enacted a
large and comprehensive code of laws, which is
still valid in the Greek Church. The first canon
is occupied with the assertion of the orthodox
218
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. IX. faith in the Blessed Trinity against the various
errors which had been condemned in successive
councils. The second contains an enumeration of
those canons already enacted, which 'from hence-
forth are to be held sure and certain for the nur-
ture and healing of souls.' In these are included
the 'eighty-four Canons of the holy and glorious
Apostles,' and especial reference is made to the
catalogue of Holy Scriptures which they contain
by a notice of the Apostolical Constitutions.
(
This book, as we have seen, was included in
the Apostolic Canons among the books of the
Bible, but now, it is said, it must no longer be
received as part of the genuine teaching of the
Apostles,' owing to the interpolations of heretics.
Thus the Epistles of Clement, which are also
contained in the Apostolic Catalogue, are abso-
lutely ratified as Holy Scripture. Yet further
the Canons of Carthage are confirmed, and con-
sequently the enlarged Bible of Augustine; and
to make the confusion still more complete, the
Canons of Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzus,
and Amphilochius, who expressly exclude the
Apocrypha from the Old Testament, are also
admitted among those which it is unlawful 'to
change or subvert.'
See p. 176,
n. 2.
The exact de-
termination
of the Canon
of Scripture
was not re-
garded as of
serious mo-
ment.
It may be argued that the ratification of these
various decrees does not descend into every de-
tail, that the ecclesiastical list of sacred writings
formed at Carthage is not inconsistent with the
critical list of Athanasius, that the object of the
Quini-Sextine decree was disciplinary and not
doctrinal; but when every allowance is made on
these or other grounds, it is obvious that the
decree is a signal proof of the indifference with
which the exact determination of the contents of
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
219
the Bible was regarded at Constantinople in the CHAP. IX.
seventh century. The Catalogues of Holy Scripture
were prominent parts of the codes which were
authorized; in one case at least they were revised;
and yet the large residuum of discrepances
which they contained elicited no discussion or
remark.
act in usage.
Individual writers exhibit the same absence Later fathers
of all desire for a precise determination of the equally inex-
limits of the Bible. Even where they give a
formal opinion, they do not hold themselves
bound by it in practice. Thus the later Greek
fathers universally exclude the Apocrypha from
their lists of the books of the Bible, and still
constantly use them with respect in their own
writings. In this respect their evidence forms
an instructive commentary on that of earlier
writers. Citation alone, with whatever marks of
reverence it may be accompanied, cannot be con-
fidently accepted as a test of the admitted canon-
icity of a book.
BYZANTIUM.
C. A.D. 600.
The judgment of LEONTIUS of BYZANTIUM, Leontius of
who has been called by an impartial judge 'the
most accomplished theologian of his age,' will help
to connect the catalogues of the fourth century
with the decision of the Quini-Sextine Council.
It is singularly explicit and complete. Leontius
prefaces his discussion of the opinions of different
sects by an enumeration of 'the ecclesiastical De Sectis, 11.
books,' as the natural basis of his inquiry. 'Of
the Old Testament there are,' he says, 'twenty-
two books...The historical books are twelve...The
first five, called the Pentateuch, are according to
universal testimony the books of Moses: those
which follow are by unknown authors, namely
Joshua...Judges…..Ruth,..Kings (in two books)…..
220
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. IX. Chronicles...Ezra...The prophetic books are five,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the twelve
Prophets... The didactic books are four, Job,
which some thought to be a composition of Jose-
phus (?), Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles...These
three books are Solomon's. The Psalter follows.
[In these] you have the books of the Old Scrip-
ture. Of the New there are six books. Of these
two contain the four Evangelists, the first Mat-
thew and Mark, the second Luke and John.
The third is the Acts of the Apostles. The fourth
the Catholic Epistles, in number seven...They
are called catholic or general, because they are
not written to one nation, as those of St Paul,
but generally to all. The fifth is the fourteen
Epistles of St Paul. The sixth, the Apocalypse
of St John. These are the books reckoned as
canonical in the Church, both old and new; of
which the Hebrews receive all the old.'
COSMAS Indi- ·
copleustes.
C. A.D. 535.
Top. Christ.
v. p. 242
The testimony of the Egyptian monk COSMAS,
who was surnamed Indicopleustes (the Indian
voyager), from his original profession of a mer-
chant, belongs to an earlier period; but this
must be regarded rather as a bold expression of
personal opinion than as a reflection of a popular
or current view. There is joy and exultation,'
he says, 'to those who are really Christians, who
obey all the Divine Scripture-the Old and the
New Covenant... Who will not reverence...the
harmony of the Old and New Covenants?...All
[the sacred writers] as guided by One Spirit sig-
nified the same things by words and by deeds or
types, and all look forward to the future con-
stitution of the world.' So far he repeats the old
catholic belief; and in the pursuit of this har-
mony he examines passages from the prophets
p. 243.
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
221
(sixteen) of the Old Testament, and the Evangel- CHAP. IX.
ists and Apostles in the New. But with this
remarkable omission, that he neglects altogether
the Catholic Epistles and the Apocalypse. In a Top. Christ.
later passage he notices the objection which had VII. P. 292
been brought against his views from 2 Pet. iii. 12;
and after urging other reasons against its conclu-
siveness, he goes on to state that the Catholic
Epistles were held as of doubtful authority by
the Church from ancient times. And of all
those who have commented on the Divine Scrip-
tures, not one has taken account of the Catholic
Epistles. And yet more, all those who have
drawn up lists of the canonical books of the Di-
vine Scripture have reckoned them as debate-
able; I mean Irenæus,... Eusebius, Athanasius,
Amphilochius...who plainly declared that they
were of doubtful authority. And in like manner
Severian, bishop of Gabala...rejected them. For
most say that they are not the works of the Apo-
stles, but of some others, simple presbyters.'
Wherefore, he continues, Eusebius and Irenæus
agree in reckoning only the first of St John and
the first of St Peter as genuine. Others reject
these also. Others receive the Epistle of James
with these two: others receive all. Among the
Syrians, only the three above-mentioned are
found, 1 Peter, 1 John, and James; for the rest
are not admitted among them.' The evident
exaggeration with which Cosmas writes, and the
unfairness with which he transfers to all the Ca-
tholic Epistles what Eusebius and others say only
of some of them, detract from the value of his
evidence as to the rejection of all the Catholic
Epistles by some in his time. Yet whatever may
be his historical inaccuracy, his argument still
222
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. IX. remains a conspicuous proof of the freedom of
opinion which was still considered to be permis-
sible in the sixth century with regard to some of
the books of the New Testament¹.
NUS.
IV. 18.
JOHN of DAMASCUS (JOHANNES DAMASCENUS),
the last of the great Greek fathers, whose writings
† after v. 754. are still regarded with the deepest reverence in
the Eastern Church, treats the question of the
Canon very summarily; or rather he adopts opi-
nions which he found expressed in earlier writ-
ings, without submitting them to any independent
De Fide Orth. examination. For the Old Testament, he tran-
scribes almost verbally one of the lists of Epipha-
nius, which gives only the books of the Hebrew
Canon as of primary authority. To these Eccle-
siasticus and Wisdom are subjoined as an ap-
pendix, 'being noble and good books, though not
prophetical. The other books of the Apocrypha
are not specially noticed; but even in this case
usage prevailed so far, that Damascenus quotes
Wisdom as the work of Solomon; and Baruch
as 'Divine Scripture.' In the New Testament, he
gives all the books commonly received with the
addition of the Apostolic Canons. To these one
MS. adds the two Epistles of Clement, but the
clause has been introduced without doubt from
the last of the Apostolic Canons..
The preface with which Damascenus intro-
duces this catalogue gives force to the judgment
which he expresses. 'The Law and the Prophets,
JOHANNES
DAMASCE-
De Imag. 1.
p. 325. De
Fide Orth.
IV. 6.
See p. 176, n.
His general
views on
Holy Scrip-
ture.
l.c.
1 A remarkable proof of the converse wish to ex-
tend the limits of the absolutely authoritative sources
of doctrine is found in a decision of Justinian (after
A.D. 535), enacting that 'the dogmas of the first four
General Councils are to be honoured as the divinely-
inspired Scriptures' (Voellii et Justelli Bibl. Jur. Can.
II. 1346).
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
223
Evangelists and Apostles, and Shepherds and CHAP. IX.
teachers spake,' he says, 'by the Holy Spirit.
All inspired Scripture, therefore, is wholly pro-
fitable¹. So that it is best and most profitable
for the soul to search the Divine Scriptures...
Let us then knock that we may enter that fairest
paradise... But let us not knock carelessly, but
rather with zeal and steadfastness. Let us not
faint in knocking; for thus it shall be opened
to us...Let us draw from the fountain of Paradise
perennial and most pure streams springing up
into eternal life...But if we can gather anything
useful from other sources without, it is not for-
bidden. Let us show ourselves tried money-
changers, storing up the genuine and pure gold,
but declining the base...' Thus clearly and fully
is the spirit of Origen reproduced by the last
father who used his language.
Canonists.
The later Greek Commentators on the Conci- The Greck
liar Decrees add nothing of importance to the
evidence which has been already adduced. In
their case the power of exact criticism was prac-
tically extinct; and they seem to have been
incapable of realizing the discrepances between
the different lists of the Sacred Books which the
Ecclesiastical Code included.
Can. (Voel-
Thus PHOTIUS, patriarch of Constantinople, in t c. A.D. 891.
his summary of the Laws of the Church, refers Biblioth. Jur.
for the list of Canonical Books to the Catalogue, lius et Just.)
of the Apostolic Canons, the Council of Carthage II. p. 898.
and the Council of Laodicea. ZONARAS, one of
the chief Byzantine historians and theologians of
the twelfth century, in a note on the Catalogue of
1 The best MSS. of Damascenus omit the con-
junction (inspired and profitable) with several ver-
sions.
224
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. IX. the Apostolic Canons, remarks that 'some admit
besides those which were there enumerated the
Wisdom of Solomon, and Judith, and Tobit, and
the Apocalypse of [John] the Divine.' Again, in
another note he appeals to 'the exact enumera-
tion of the books of the Old and New Testaments
which ought to be read' made by Athanasius,
Gregory of Nazianzus, Amphilochius and the
Beveridge,l.c. Council of Carthage. ALEXIUS ARISTENUS (a
c. A.D. 1165. distinguished ecclesiastical officer of Constanti-
nople) gives às a list of 'the only books which
ought to be judged venerable and holy by clergy
and laity' the Hebrew Canon, with the addition
of three books of Maccabees, and the received
New Testament with the two Epistles of Clement,
and the Apostolical Constitutions. Wisdom and
Ecclesiasticus are added as an appendix to the
Old Testament; and notice is also taken of the
decision of the Quini-Sextine Council against the
Sce p. 176, n. Apostolical Constitutions. With this exception,
Alexius accepts in the most complete manner the
Beveridge,l.c. Catalogue of the Apostolic Canons. THEODORUS
c. A.D. 1180. BALSAMON, who became patriarch of Antioch,
C. A.D. 1255. and ARSENIUS, patriarch of Constantinople, both
Justellus, l. c. refer generally to the chief Greek Catalogues, and
that of Carthage, without any attempt to recon-
cile them.
Beveridge,
Synodicon,
1. 56.
Among other titles which were given to the
Bible in the Greek Church was that of 'The Sixty
Books.' The enumeration which suggested this
title has been preserved in a list of the Holy
Scriptures which is still found in some ancient
Montf. Bibl. MSS. The list is styled 'Of the Sixty Books
and those which are without (i. e. not included
Hody, p. 649. in) them.' It contains the Pentateuch (5); the
Historical Books (7); the Poetical Books (5),
Coislin.
p. 193 f.
The 'Sixty
Books,'
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
225
and Ezra (1); the Lesser Prophets (12); the CHAP. IX.
Greater Prophets (4); the Gospels (4), the Acts (1),
the Catholic Epistles (7), the Epistles of St Paul
(14). Those which are without the Sixty are,'
the list continues, ‘the Wisdom of Solomon, the
Wisdom of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Maccabees (4),
Esther, Judith, Tobit. Those which are Apo-
cryphal: Adam, Henoch...the Psalms of Solomon
...the Revelation of Esdras [2 Esdras]...the Re-
velation of Peter...the Epistle of Barnabas...(in
all 25).'
Esther and
It is possible that the number (sixty) may Omission of
not always have been made up in the same way, Apocalypse.
but under any circumstances the list is a remark-
able monument of the permanence of the doubts
entertained from an early time in the Eastern
Church as to the canonicity of Esther. The total
omission of the Apocalypse is yet more worthy of
notice. Nothing could more significantly express
the division of opinion about the book than the
fact that the author of the Catalogue does not
place it among the apocryphal or the acknow-
ledged books.
metry of
The catalogue which has been just quoted is The Sticho-
sometimes ascribed to ANASTASIUS SINAITA, pa- NICEPHORUS.
triarch of Antioch. The evidence in support of † A.D. 599.
this opinion as to its authorship is wholly un-
trustworthy; and though it may possibly have
been derived from some Syrian source, it is per-
haps more natural to refer its origin to Asia
Minor. There is, however, another important list
of the Holy Scriptures which is referred with
great probability to Antioch. This is found in a
short Compendium of History (Chronographia)
compiled by NICEPIIORUS, patriarch of Constan-
tinople, in which it occurs after the list of the
A.D. 828.
15
226
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. IX. patriarchs of Antioch. To the title of each book
is added the number of lines (stichoi) which it
contained according to the ancient mode of writ-
ing. From this circumstance the list is known
as the Stichometry of Nicephorus, but its contents
and arrangement show that it must be assigned
to a very early date, probably in the 4th century.
The books are ranged in three classes, (1) 'The
Divine Scriptures received (or used) in the
Church and which have been canonized,' (2)
"Those which are disputed,' (3) 'The Apocryphal.'
To the first class belong all the books of the He-
brew Canon except Esther with the addition of
Baruch (22 in all); and all the received books of
the New Testament except the Apocalypse. The
second class comprises in the Old Testament
Maccabees (3), Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, the
Psalms of Solomon, Esther, Judith, Susanna,
Tobit; and in the New Testament: the Apoca-
lypse of John, the Apocalypse of Peter, the Epi-
stle of Barnabas, and the Gospel according to the
Hebrews. The third class includes among other
books Enoch...the Ascension of Moses...and in
the New Testament...the Epistles of Clement,
Ignatius, Polycarp and the Shepherd.
This Stichometry of Nicephorus appears to
have been widely circulated. It was translated
into Latin by Anastasius of Rome in an ecclesias-
tical history, and was combined with the Festal
Letter of Athanasius in the Synopsis of Holy
Scripture, which commonly passes under the
name of that great father. When viewed in con-
nexion with the other catalogues of the biblical
Confusion in books which were sanctioned by the Greek
the Greek
Church.
Church, it completes the picture of the confusion
which was allowed to remain within it as to the
See p. 198.
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
227
exact limits of the canonical writings. Ne less CHAP. IX.
than six different lists of the Scriptures were
received there more or less widely in the 10th
century: that of Laodicea and Cyril, which adds
Baruch in the Old Testament and omits the Apo-
calypse in the New: that of Carthage which in-
cludes all the Apocrypha of the Old Testament:
that of the Apostolical Canons which adds the
two Epistles of Clement to the New Testament,
and omits the Apocalypse: that of Gregory Na-
zianzen, which omits Esther and the Apocalypse:
that of Amphilochius, which reckons Esther,
2, 3 John, 2 Peter, Jude and the Apocalypse as
doubtful that of Nicephorus, which reckons only
Esther and the Apocalypse as doubtful. At a Quoted by
later time still another catalogue was added. Hody, p. 648.
Nicephorus Callistus, in a metrical catalogue,
based on those of Gregory and Amphilochius,
reckons up the books of the Bible, in which he
includes all that we receive as canonical except
Esther. Some,' he says, 'add Esther, Judith
and Tobit? Of the other Apocrypha of the Old
Testament he makes no mention; nor does he
notice the doubts which had been entertained as
to the Antilegomena of the New Testament; and
at the close of his list he adds, 'besides these
every writing is spurious.'
C. A.D. 1333.
6
of the Bible
LUCAR
The later history of the Bible in the Greek Later history
Church exhibits the same uncertainty and vacil- in the Greek
lation as to its exact contents which was involved Church.
in the Quini-Sextine decree. CYRIL LUCAR, the CYRIL
reforming patriarch of Constantinople, in his
Confession of Faith, gives a definition and list of
the Canonical Books which reflect the protestant Kimmel,
opinions with which he was imbued. 'We call by
the name Holy Scripture,' he writes, all the
Libri Symb.
I. p. 42.
15-2
228
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. IX. Canonical books which we receive and keep as
the rule (Canon) of our faith; especially because
the teaching which they set before is given by
Divine inspiration and sufficient to instruct, to
illuminate and to perfect him who comes to the
faith. These Canonical books we believe to be
so many in number as the synod of Laodicea de-
clared, and the Catholic and Orthodox Church
enlightened by the most Holy Spirit confesses.
But those which we call Apocryphal, have this
name for this reason, that they do not possess
the same ratification from the most Holy Spirit,
as the books which are properly and indisputably
canonical.' Then follows a list shortly describing
the twenty-two books of the Old Testament (with-
out Baruch) and all the Books of the New Testa-
ment which we receive, including the Apocalypse,
though this was not contained in the Laodicene
Catalogue. The judgment of Cyril Lucar is con-
firmed by that of his friend METROPHANES CRITO-
PULUS, in whose Confession of the Catholic and
Kimmel, 11. Apostolic Eastern Church a list of the books of
the Old Testament is given, according to the He-
brew Canon, and also of the New Testament as
they are commonly received; 'but the remaining
books,' it is added, 'which some wish to include
in the Holy Scripture, such as Tobit, Judith, the
Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Jesus the
son of Sirach [Ecclesiasticus], Baruch, and the
books of the Maccabees, we do not hold to be
worthy to be entirely cast aside, for many moral
precepts, worthy of the greatest praise, are con-
tained in them; but the Church of Christ never
received them as canonical and authentic; as
many others bear witness, but especially St Gre-
gory the Divine, and St Amphilochius, and last of
p. 105.
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
229
all, St John of Damascus. Wherefore we do not CIAP. IX.
endeavour to establish our doctrines from these,
but from the thirty-three canonical and authentic
books, which we also call inspired and Holy
Scripture.'
Church.
This opinion of Metrophanes is quoted with The Russian
approbation by Platon, formerly Metropolitan of
Moscow, in his Orthodox Teaching; and in the
authorized Russian Catechism, the Hebrew Canon
is quoted and supported by the authority of the
fathers; though in this the Apocrypha are recom-
mended, after the example of Athanasius, as
forming a useful study preparatory to the study
of the Bible.
On the other hand, in the Synod of Jerusalem, Synodic
judgments.
in 1672, which was directed against 'the Calvin-
ists' (i.e. the party of Cyril Lucar), under the
pressure (as it is said) of Latin influence, the
books of the Apocrypha were distinctly reckoned
as 'genuine parts of the Scripture,' even though
it is allowed that they had not always been
received. But this judgment appears to be iso-
lated. In the contemporary Synod of Constanti-
nople notice was taken of the variations in the
lists of Laodicea, Carthage and the Clementine
Constitutions. And it was then added that
'those books which are not embraced in the enu-
meration of the Holy Writers, are not rejected
and treated as pagan and profane; but styled
good and excellent.'
SECT. II. The Nestorian Churches.
the Eastern
The disastrous controversies which were Divisions of
brought to an issue at the Councils of Ephesus Church.
and Chalcedon left the orthodox Eastern Church
crippled in power and narrowed in range. The
230
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. IX. regions of the far East retained or adopted with
characteristic fervour the doctrines of Nestorius,
which were extended from the banks of the Eu-
phrates through Arabia, Persia and India, and
even (it is said) to China. The teaching of the
Monophysites (Jacobites) on the other hand,
found a firm support in Egypt, Abyssinia, West-
ern Syria and Armenia. Both the Nestorian and
Monophysite Churches retained for a long time
their early vigour, even in the face of Mahom-
medanism, and a noble series of scholars gives
lustre to their history. It does not appear that
the question of the Canon of the Bible was ever
brought forward as a subject of discussion in the
controversies which thus divided the East. Nes-
toriaus and Monophysites alike wished, as far as
can be seen, to retain the original Bible of the
Churches from which they sprang; or if they dif-
fered, the difference was the result of habit and
not of design. At Nisibis alone a remarkable
(Nestorian) school of biblical criticism cherished
the ancient freedom of Syrian thought.
The judgment of the school of Nisibis has
been already quoted from Junilius. According
to this, the books of the Bible were divided into
two classes as possessed of 'complete' or 'inter-
mediato' authority, and it is worthy of special
remark that the former class in the Old Testa-
ment did not include all the books of the Hebrew
Canon. The books of perfect authority are the
Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel (2),
Kings (2), Proverbs, Ecclesiasticus, Ecclesiastes,
Psalms, sixteen Prophets; the Gospels (4), Acts,
fourteen Epistles of St Paul, 1 Peter, 1 John.
On the other hand Chronicles (2), Job, Ezra (2),
Judith, Esther, Maccabees (2), Wisdom, Canti-
The School of
Nisibis.
See p. 193.
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
231
cles; James, 2 Peter, Jude, 2, 3 John, Apoca- CHAP. IX.
lypse are reckoned as of doubtful or intermediate
authority, as being received only partially. Thus
Ecclesiasticus is raised to complete canonical
dignity; and Chronicles (2), Job, Ezra, Nehe-
miah, and Esther are placed on the same level
with the additional books of the Alexandrine
Bible. In the New Testament, the Epistle to
Hebrews alone of the 'disputed' books is allowed
to possess complete authority.
،
It is impossible to determine on what evi- Peculiarities
dence or at what time this classification was
made. In part at least it seems to be the result
of internal criticism, and probably it was confined
to scholars. In the New Testament it differed
from the usual judgment of the Syrian Churches
by the exclusion of St James from the books of
perfect authority. In the Old Testament it ap-
pears to stand alone in the peculiaritics which it
presents; but even this fact scarcely lessens the
interest which attaches to it.
of the Canon
of Nisibis.
The second testimony on the Nestorian Canon, EBRD Jesu.
which is derived from a later Metropolitan of
Nisibis, is very different in character. EBED † A.D. 1318.
JESU, one of the most accomplished of Nestorian
theologians, was raised to that dignity c. A.D.
1286; and in a poetical catalogue of ecclesiastical
writers he has given a list of the books of the Old
and New Testaments. This list indeed forms the
opening paragraphs of his work, but it is written
in such a form that the account of the books of
the Old Testament can only be received with the
greatest caution. This¹ commences with the Pen-
tateuch, and then enumerates without break Jo- Badger, Nes-
Assemani,irr.
1. 4 ff
torians and
their rituals,
II. 361 ft.
1 I have followed the translation of Assemani.
232
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
1
CHAP. IX. shua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles and
Ruth, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles,
Bar-Sira (i. e. Ecclesiasticus), Wisdom, Job, six-
teen Prophets, Judith, Esther, Susanna, Esdras,
and the lesser Daniel (i. e. Bel and the Dragon),
the Epistle of Baruch, and the Book of the tradi-
tion of the Elders (i. e. the Mishnah). 'Of Josephus
there remain Proverbs, and the history of the
Sons of Samona (i.e. Maccabees, 4). Another Book
of Maccabees (Book 1 or 2?), and the history
of Herod the King, and the book of the last de-
struction of Jerusalem by Titus; and the book of
Asenath the wife of Joseph the Just, son of Jacob;
and the book of Tobias and Tobit, just Israelites.'
Having completed this list, which is evidently
intended to be a complete list of all Jewish lite-
rature, Ebed Jesu continues, 'Now having com-
pleted the Old let us approach the New Testa-
ment,' just as if he had confined himself to an
exact enumeration of the Sacred Books. His
list of the writings of the New Testament includes
the four Gospels, the Acts, fourteen Epistles of
St Paul, 'three Epistles assigned to the Apostles
in every copy and tongue, James and Peter (1),
and John (1).'
،
See p. 238.
Badger, II
pp. 81 ff.
The later Nestorians appear to have paid no
attention to the discussion of the contents of the
Bible. Their ecclesiastical books recognize both
the Catalogue of the Apostolic Canons and also
the Canon of the Alexandrine LXX. And the
B. M. Rich, only complete modern Nestorian MS. of the Syriac
Old Testament in the British Museum gives the
books in the following order: Pentateuch, Jo-
shua, Judges, Kings (4), Wisdom of Solomon,
Ecclesiastes, Ruth, Canticles, Ecclesiasticus,
Job, Isaiah, twelve Minor Prophets, Jeremiah,
7149.
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
233
Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Bel and the CHAP. IX.
Dragon¹.
1 There is a MS. of the Syriac Bible in the Univer-
sity Library, at Cambridge, which was found in one
of the Churches of the Syrian Christians in the interior
of Travancore, at the foot of the mountains,' and
presented to Dr Buchanan, by a Syrian bishop. This
is written in the Estrangelo character, without points,
but its date has not yet been accurately determined.
With the exception of a copy at Milan, it is probably
the only complete ancient MS. of the Syriac Bible in
Europe; and offers a complete example of the en-
larged Syriac Canon. The order of the books is re-
markable; and the number of lines (Stichoi, see p.
309) in each book is given at the end.
Genesis, 4509 lines.
Leviticus, 2454 lines.
Deuteronomy, 2796 lines.
Job ("The book of Job the Just was written by
the Prophet Moses, but it was not inserted among
his other books because Job was a Gentile and not
of the sons of Jacob...'), 2553 lines.
Joshua and Judges, 4233 lines (i. e. Joshua 2167,
Judges 2066).
1, 2 Samuel, 3436 lines.
Psalms, 150 in five books, 4830 lines.
1, 2 Kings, 5327 lines.
is 5326).
Exodus, 3626 lines.
Numbers, 3521 lines.
(At the end the number
Chronicles, 5603 lines.
Proverbs, 1863 lines.
Ecclesiastes, 627 lines.
Canticles (Solomon's Wisdom of Wisdoms'), 296
lines.
Wisdom ('The book of the Great Wisdom of the
same Solomon; concerning which it is doubtful whe-
ther some other wise man of the Hebrews did not
compose it by the spirit of prophecy, though he wrote
it in the name of Solomon; and it has been so re-
ceived'), 1236 lines.
Jeremiah.
Isaiah, 4801 lines.
Lamentations (subscription mutilated).
Prayer of Jeremiah (Lam. v.).
The first Epistle of Baruch.
The second Epistle of Baruch (Baruch).
234
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. IX. SECTS. III-VI. The Monophysite Churches.
SECT. III. The Coptic Church.
The Monophysite heresy, which was an exag-
geration and distortion of the great truth to
which Athanasius bore a life-long witness, found
a speedy acceptance in Egypt; and the rivalry
between the Monophysites and the orthodox is
The Epistle of Jeremiah (Baruch vi.).
Ezekiel, 4154 lines.
The twelve Minor Prophets, 3021 lines.
Daniel with Bel and the Dragon, 2263 lines.
Ruth. Susannah. Esther. Judith.
Ezra with Nehemiah, 2361 lines.
Ecclesiasticus (subscription mutilated: 2500 in
Bodl.).
1 Maccabees, 2766 lines.
2 Maccabees (apparently 1600 lines).
3 Maccabees, 1400 lines.
Josippon, i. e. 4 Maccabees ('The history of Jo-
sippon concerning Eleazer and his seven sons').
1 Esdras ('This first book of Ezra we have written
according to the LXX., because we could not find it
in the Simple Version').
Tobit (imperfect at the end).
Four Gospels, 9938.
XIV Epistles of St Paul (Hebrews last).
A cls.
James.
J Peter.
I John.
2 Peter, 195 lines.
2 John, 40 lines.
3 John, 47 lines.
I
Jude, 97 lines. (Thus conclude these seven Ca-
tholic Epistles of the Holy Apostles'.)
The Clementine Constitutions in eight Books. (The
last two books are lost, and the whole is much muti-
lated.) For the description of this MS. I am in-
debted to Mr R. L. Bensly, M.A. of Caius College.
Very similar notes and numbers are given by Prof.
Payne Smith from Bodleian MSS. in his account of
the Syriac MSS. of that collection.
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
235
said to have contributed greatly to the success of CHAP. IX.
the Arabian invasion. This division, however,
led to no difference as to the authority or con-
tents of the Bible. Translations of the Sacred
Writings into the dialects of Upper and Lower
Egypt had existed from the third century; and
one of these, the Memphitic (Coptic), still remains
in use in the native Church, though the language
is at present unintelligible to the congregation.
The translation of the Old Testament in these
Versions was made from the LXX. ; but so little
is known of them that at present it is impossible
to say whether they contained all the books of
the Apocrypha, or whether the whole work was
completed at once or only by successive efforts.
The oldest Version in the dialect of Upper Egypt
(Sahidic, or Thebaic), which was probably made
early in the third century, contained all the books
of the New Testament which we receive, of which
fragments still remain. The Memphitic Version
of all is preserved entire.
At a later time (thirteenth century) the Apo-
stolic Canons were adopted as part of the Eccle-
siastical Code of the Coptic Church, and conse-
quently the Catalogue of Scriptures which they
contain, including 'the two Epistles of Clement See p. 176, n.
and the eight books of the Apostolic Constitu-
tions,' received an authoritative sanction. But Assemani,
this fact did not hinder some at least from ac-
cepting the books of the Apocrypha, which were
omitted in the Apostolic Catalogue, as Canonical
Scripturo; and on the other hand there is not,
as far as appears, any evidence that the Clemen-
tine writings were added to the Coptic New Tes-
tament.
Bibl. Or.
III. 1. p. 6, n.
236
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. IX.
The Abys-
sinian Ec-
clesiastical
Code.
SECT. IV. The Abyssinian Church.
The history of the Canon in the Abyssinian
Church offers some points of interest. The ear-
liest evidence as to the extent of the Abyssinian
collection of Sacred Books is found in the Ethi-
opic translation of the Bible, which was made
about the fourth or fifth century from the Alex-
andrine Greek text. By whom this translation
was made is wholly unknown. Indeed from in-
ternal evidence it appears that it was made by
various hands and at various times. It contains
at present not only all the canonical books with
the Apocrypha of the Old Testament, but also
several other books, as Enoch, the Ascension of
Isaiah, the Book of Jubilees, &c. which are not
now found elsewhere, but different copies and
lists present very great discrepancies. No MS.
contains the whole Bible; but from the connexion
in which the acknowledged and disputed or apo-
cryphal books are found in the several smaller
collections of sacred writings, it appears certain
that the books of different ranks were intermin-
gled from a very early time, as in the Alexan-
drine LXX. The different classes may have been
distinguished originally, but the evidence of this
distinction is now entirely lost.
After the establishment of the Mohammedan
supremacy in Egypt, a new literary æra com-
menced in Abyssinia. The influence of Greek,
which had been paramount up to that epoch,
gave way to that of the Arabian conquerors. In
process of time this was exhibited in revisions or
additions to the Ethiopic Bible; and at a later
period still more directly in an authorized defini-
tion of its contents. Shortly after the thirteenth
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
237
century a code of canon law which was originally cHAP. IX.
compiled for the Arabo-Coptic Church of Egypt
was introduced into Abyssinia, and under the name
of the Royal Code was accepted as the authori-
tative basis of spiritual and civil right. In this
code a statement is made as to the 'number of
the books which are or ought to be received in
the Church.' This is derived from that contained
in the Coptic recension of the Apostolic Canons.
The Coptic Catalogue itself is found in two forms;
and the Ethiopic Catalogue differs widely from
the Greek Catalogue which has been already
quoted, and on which it was based. Altogether
the number of the sacred books is reckoned as
eighty-one. In the Old Testament Tobit, Mac-
cabees (1, 2) and Wisdom (the so-called 'Wisdom
of Bozor' is Prov. XXX. xxxi.) are added to the
Hebrew Canon. Besides these the Wisdom of
Sirach and 'the book of Josephus ben-Gorion'
are noticed as suited for the instruction of the
young. The New Testament contains all the
received books without apocryphal additions.
But it will be observed that the books thus enu-
merated will not make up the required number;
and it seems probable that the sum was origi-
nally completed by the addition of the 'two Epi-
stles of Clement and the eight books of the Con-
stitutions' which are contained in the Catalogue
of the Apostolic Canons. In process of time the
'Synodus,' a collection of early conciliar and other
canons, was substituted for the Constitutions,
and like that reckoned as eight books; by which
means, with the addition of the two appended
books, the sum of eighty-one books was again
made up. But in fact while the number of Sa-
cred Books was held firmly and without variation,
238
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. IX. the books by which it was completed varied con-
siderably. The New Testament remained fixed
as containing our twenty-seven books with the
eight books of the Synodus; but the forty-six
books of the Old Testament were reckoned now
in one way and now in another, though some of
the Apocrypha are always found among them.
An Ethiopic One Catalogue which is contained in a MS. in the
British Museum, may be given as an example:
"The number of the Scriptures of the Law of
Moses 5, Judges 3, Jubilees 1, Kings 4, Chroni-
cles 1, Job 1, books of Solomon 5 (Proverbs is
divided into two), Isaiah 1, Jeremiah 1, Ezekiel 1,
Daniel 1, the Minor Prophets 12, Ezra 2, Mac-
cabees 1, Tobit 1, Judith 1, Assenath 1, Esther 1,
Ecclesiasticus 1, Psalms 1, Ozias 1. The sum of
the Old Testament is forty-six. The Gospels 4,
Epistles of Paul 14, Epistles of the Apostles 7,
Acts 1, the Vision of John 1, the Book of Cle-
ment with the Synodus 8¹?
In this it will be observed that there are the
Books of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Maccabees (1),
Judith and Tobit, which belong to the Greek
Apocrypha; and besides these are reckoned the
Apocryphal story of Asenath the wife of Jo-
seph, the Book of Jubilees, a strange Judaic com-
mentary on Genesis, and an unknown apocryphal
writing 'Ozias.' The list, as all the other Æthi-
opic lists, is indeed a curiosity and nothing more.
It expresses no critical or exact traditional judg-
ment on the canon. As far as it has any histo-
rical value it is to show the powerlessness of an
Catalogue of
Scripture.
Dillmann,
Cat. MSS.
Mth. p. 4
The list with-
out any cri-
tical value.
See p. 232.
1 A second Catalogue is given by Dillmann (1. c.
p. 40) which is found in another MS. which differs
both in contents and order. Baruch is very rarely
found.
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
239
isolated and rude Christian Society to preserve CHAP. IX.
a pure Bible, and to place in a clear light the
function which literary criticism has to exercise
in preserving the treasures once committed to
the Church.
SECT. V. The Armenian Church.
The Armenian Version of the Bible, which
has been called by competent scholars 'the Queen
of Versions,' was made by Micsrob, the real
founder of Armenian literature, in the fifth cen-
tury. The version was made from the Hexaplaric
revision of the LXX. and not from the Hebrew.
The New Testamont was translated directly from
the Greek. Moses Choronensis, who was himself
a nephew of Micsrob, states that the translation
included originally 'all the twenty-two books' (that list. Arm.
is the Hebrew Canon), 'and the New Testament.'
But in process of time the other books of the
Alexandrine Greek Bible were added. These,
however, are said generally to be distinguished
from the first work by their diffuse, inexact and
ambitious style.
III. 53.
Bibles wholly
The printed editions of the Armenian Bible The printed
differ considerably as to their contents. The Latin in
most important copies have been published under form.
Latin influence; and if this has not affected their
text, it has certainly affected their contents.
Even the edition which was printed at St Peters-
burg (A. D. 1817) for the Jacobite Church under
the patriarch of Etchmiazin,' which may be sup-
posed to represent the authorized collection of
the Armenian Scriptures, is a mere reflex of the
Latin Vulgate. The volume is styled 'the Di-
vinely inspired Books of the Old and New Testa-
240
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. IX. ments according to our ancient and pure Arme-
nian Version. The index prefixed to it contains
all the Books of the Hebrew Canon and the Apo-
crypha with the addition of 3 Maccabees; and
after the Apocalypse, the Prayer of Manasses
and 4 Ezra (i. e. 2 Esdras) are added, 'that they
may not be altogether lost, as they are sometimes
quoted by the Holy Fathers and are found in
some Latin Bibles both manuscript and printed.'
It is further noticed that 1, 2 Esdras, the Prayer
of Manasses and 3 Maccabees are 'out of the
order of the Canonical Books which the Council
of Trent adopted and declared to be canonical¹.?
The list of books therefore has evidently no inde-
pendent value; and on the other hand the Epistle
of the Corinthians to St Paul and an Epistle of
St Paul's in reply to it, which are sometimes
added to the Armenian Version of the New Tes-
tament, are merely apocryphal additions which
have no canonical authority in the Church.
SECT. VI. The Jacobite (Monophysite)
Churches of Syria.
It is wholly uncertain at what time the Syriac
translations of the Apocrypha of the Old Testa-
ment, which are added to the Peshito, were first
made. Some of the books-as Maccabees—seem
not to have been translated in the time of Eph-
raem Syrus; but as the intercourse between the
Syrian and Greek Churches increased, it could
not be but that all the books which had any eccle-
siastical dignity as parts of the current Greek
1 For the collation of this edition of the Armenian
Bible I am indebted to the kindness of M. Deutsch of
the British Museum.
:
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
241
acæ, p. 213.
Bible would be rendered into Syriac. A MS. of CHAP. IX.
the recension of the Peshito which was made for
the Monophysite (Jacobite) Church (called the
Karkaphensian) may be taken as exhibiting a The Karka-
phensian Vor-
good specimen of the later Syrian Bible which sion.
was thus formed. This MS. gives the books of Wiseman,
the Old Testament in the following order, the Hore Syri-
Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Job, Samuel,
Psalms, Kings; Isaiah, the Minor Prophets,
Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, the Epistle of
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel (with the additions);
Proverbs, Wisdom, Ecclesiastes, Canticles;
Ruth, Esther, Judith; Ecclesiasticus. The New
Testament is divided into three sections, the Acts
and three Catholic Epistles; the fourteen Epi-
stles of St Paul; the four Gospels. Thus in the
Old Testament Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, as
well as Tobit and Maccabees, are wanting. In
the New Testament those books only are omitted
which are excluded from the Canon of the Pe-
shito.
In the seventh century a new version was The Syriac
made from Origen's revision of the LXX. (called Version.
Hexaplaric
the Hexaplar Greek text) by a Monophysite,
Paul of Tela. A considerable part of this has
been preserved, and among other books Wisdom,
Ecclesiasticus and Baruch, so that it seems cer-
tain that it included all the books of the Alexan-
drine Bible. A new translation of the New Tes-
tament had been made by the direction of ano-
ther Monophysite, Philoxenus, in the preceding
century. This included in all probability trans-
lations of the disputed Catholic Epistles (2 Peter,
Jude, 2, 3 John). This version was itself revised
in the seventh century by Thomas of Harkel,
and the Harclean New Testament contains all
16
242
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. IX. the books of our New Testament except the Apo-
calypse. It is wholly uncertain at what time the
version of this book which is found in the Syrian
Bibles was first made.
The Canon of the Peshito was however still
generally retained in the New Testament, even
after the disputed books were translated. Thus
† C. A.D. 708. JACOB OF EDESSA, in his notes on the Syriac Bible,
explains words in Baruch, Judith and Ecclesi-
asticus, but not in the four controverted Catholic
Epistles or the Apocalypse. At a much later
time DIONYSIUS BAR SALIBI notices the doubts on
the Catholic Epistles as generally current. And
GREGORY (ABULPHARAGIUS) BAR HEBRÆUS, the
last of the great Syrian writers, gives in the New
Testament the Canon of the Peshito. In the
Old Testament he comments on Wisdom, Eccle-
siasticus and the Additions to Daniel, while he
omits Chronicles and Esther as well as Judith
and Maccabees. Yet in his collection of ecclesi-
astical laws he gives the Catalogue of the Apo-
stolic Canons as the standard of the collection of
Holy Scripture, adding to it, apparently with
approbation, the notes of Athanasius on the Apo-
crypha of the Old and New Testament, of Diony-
sius of Alexandria on the Apocalypse, and of
Origen on the Epistle to the Hebrews¹.
The general result of all that has been col-
lected as to the Bible of the East during the
Assemani,
II. p. 499.
Assemani,
1. c.
í
Assemani,
II. p. 282.
MS. Brit.
Mus. Rich.
7186.
The Bible of
the East
never defi-
nitely fixed.
1 The note ends, "The revelation of Paul also with
other revelations is received in the Church, and
the letters (sic) of Barnabas, and Tobias, and the
Shepherd, and Bar-Asira (i. e. Ecclesiasticus), but
many do not receive the book of the Shepherd and the
Revelation of John' (Mai, Script. Vett. Coll. Nova,
x. Part 2, pp. 53, 54).
THE BIBLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
243
middle ages may be summed up very briefly. In CHAP. IX.
no one of the Eastern Churches was there any
fixed judgment or consistent tradition as to its
contents. The Catalogue in the Apostolic Ca-
nons, which became a part of the Ecclesiastical
law in almost every Church, gained a wide accept-
ance, but yet not so as to exclude or even practi-
cally to modify other opinions on the range of
Holy Scripture which were recommended by
ancient usage. In the West, the conflict on the
Canon was reduced to the comparison of the rela-
tive authority of the ecclesiastical Canon of Au-
gustine and the critical Canon of Jerome. With
the exception of the Epistle to the Laodicenes
and 2 Esdras no single books claimed authority
or were discussed on their own merits. The
question was one of principle and not of detail.
In the East it was otherwise. The Hebrew Ca-
non itself was not universally accepted. Esther,
indeed, was on the whole less supported than
Baruch. And the list of books which obtained
a partial authority was very large. Yet on the
other hand it cannot be doubted but that the
wish of the Eastern Churches, and of the Greek
Church in particular, was to confine the Old Tes-
tament to the Hebrew Canon, and to complete
the received Canon of the New Testament by the
addition of the Apocalypse. Popular custom Custom at
went further, and even those fathers who (like
Athanasius) limited the contents of the Bible ment.
most exactly in their express judgments, com-
monly quoted the additional books of the Alex-
andrine LXX. with the same respect as those
which were universally acknowledged. But the
same sanction was not extended to the Apocry-
pha of the New Testament. The ecclesiastical
variance with
critical judg-
16-2
244
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
See App. B.
CHAP. IX. recognition which was accorded in the fullest
terms to the Epistles of Clement, and partially
to the Shepherd, never gained for those writings
more than a very narrow influence. Of the former
only one imperfect copy has been preserved in
the Alexandrine MS. of the Bible: of the latter,
besides Latin translations, only a fragment of the
original Greek remains at the end of the Sinaitic
MS. Yet even in the judgment of Athanasius the
Shepherd was placed on the same footing as Wis-
dom or Ecclesiasticus.
No central
power to
guide popu-
lar use.
No errors
ratified.
One other fact will be noticed. The Eastern
Bibles, as a general rule, became more and more
corrupt as they were further removed from the
direct influence of Greek literature. There was
no one central power by which they could be
restrained or guided; and in later times Latin
influence corrupted yet more the vague traditions
on Scripture which they had followed originally.
But whatever may be the errors of usage in
the East, no Eastern Church is committed to
error on the subject of Holy Scripture. No
Council of Trent has bound any one to a decision
equally untrue morally and historically. If the
question of the Canon has not been absolutely
settled there, it is at least capable of a right set-
tlement. In the West, on the other hand, the
steady divergence of usage and critical truth
during ten centuries was fixed in a final and
hopeless antagonism. How this came to pass
will be traced in the next Chapter.
CHAPTER X.
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came
not to send peace, but a sword.—St Matt. x. 34.
races for the
THE sixteenth century places us again face to CHAP. X.
face with the combined powers of the East The work of
and West. For a time each had gone on fulfil- the German
ling its own work, but the fall of Constantinople Bible.
brought them once more into contact. It was not
only that 'Greece had arisen from the dead with
the New Testament in her hand,' but the East
had risen with a Bible which was again felt to be
a record of real facts, able to quicken faith amidst
the conflicts of a world struggling towards a new
life. We have already seen generally the part
which Palestine, and Greece and Rome had to
fulfil in the history of the Canon. A work was
still reserved for the German races, and when
the time came for its accomplishment, men were
found to do it. Whatever may be thought of
some of Luther's special judgments, however
hasty and self-willed and imperious they may be,
it is impossible to read his comments on Holy
Scripture, without feeling that he realizes its
actual historic worth and consequent spiritual
246
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X. meaning in a way which was unknown before.
For him the words of apostles and prophets are
'living words,' direct and immediate utterances
of the Holy Spirit, penetrating to the inmost
souls of men, and not mere premisses for argu-
ments or proofs.
The elements
combined in
the discus-
sion on the
Bible in the
This intense sense of the personal character
of Holy Scripture, so to speak, springing out of
the recognition of its primary historical origin,
16th century. Which found a bold and at times an exaggerated
expression in Luther, was more or less character-
istic of the whole period. On all sides there was
a tendency in the sixteenth century, even when
it was repressed, to appeal to history and reason.
The mere authority of usage, which at earlier
times had been denied only by scholars, was then
questioned by many in all classes. The study of
Greek had made criticism possible, and laid open
the true approach to the investigation of the
growth of the Church. But still the real force of
historical evidence was as yet imperfectly under-
stood. The materials for testing and tracing to
its source a current tradition were still scattered
or unknown. And even those who felt most
deeply that the Books of the Bible had their ori-
gin in human life, among men of like passions
with themselves, were yet far removed from a
simple and absolute trust in their historical
transmission and confirmation by the body to
which they were delivered. On the one hand a
supposed intuitive perception of the Divine au-
thority of Scripture, immediate and final, was
assumed to exist in the individual and to super-
sede the judgment of the Christian society. On
the other an ecclesiastical usage was invested, as
it were, with a creative power, by which books,
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
247
which had been deliberately set aside in a second CHAP. X.
rank, were raised to a new dignity as infallible
sources of doctrine.
As doctrinal controversy grew wider and An antago-
keener, the question of the Canon was debated ciples.
nism of prin-
with a vehemence unknown before. To concede
to the Church in every age the prerogative of ex-
tending by its own power the range of the au-
thoritative sources and tests of doctrine, was (as
it appeared) to sacrifice the historical basis of a
faith once delivered to men. And at the same
time the denial of the existence of an absolute
living criterion of truth seemed to make it neces-
sary to transfer to the Bible, in its collected
form, every attribute of that infallibility which
before had been supposed to reside in the Church
or in its earthly head. The collection of Holy
Scripture was first narrowed to the strict limits
fixed by ancient criticism, at least in the Old
Testament, and then step by step it was taken
out of the field of historical inquiry. A move-
ment which began by the assertion of the value
of historical evidence ended in the suppression
of all historical criticism by the later Lutheran
and Genevan schools.
feeling more
cism.
It is not part of our subject to trace the The debate
effects for good and for evil which followed from guided by
the general prevalence of this later theory of the than by criti-
Bible in Protestant Churches up to our own
time. However repugnant it may be to the
wider views of ecclesiastical history which are
now opened to us, it would not, perhaps, be dif-
ficult to show that it fulfilled an important func-
tion in preserving a true sense of the Divine au-
thority of Holy Scripture, as a whole, during a
period of transition. If the tendency of the later
248
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X. schools was to reduce the Bible to a mere text
book; the Book itself was in danger of falling
to pieces under the free treatment of Luther.
At present it is necessary only to notice that the
controversy on the Canon in the sixteenth cen-
tury-the first occasion on which the subject was
debated as a question of doctrine in the Catholic
Church-was really conducted by feeling rather
than by external evidence. The evidence on the
subject was not available, even if the disputants
could have made use of it. But a more summary
method offered itself. In a word the Romanists
followed popular usage, regarding the Bible as
one only out of many original sources of truth :
the Lutherans, or more strictly Luther, judged
the written Word by the Gospel contained in it,
now in fuller now in scantier measure, to which
the Word in man bore witness: the Calvinists,
accepting without hesitation the Old Testament
from the Jewish Church and the New Testament
from the Christian Church, set up the two records
as the outward test and spring of all truth, abso-
lutely complete in itself and isolated from all
history.
It would be a fruitful inquiry to follow out
the growth and antagonism of the principles
involved in these general views: to trace the
truth which each embodies and exaggerates: to
indicate the influence which partial or faulty
teaching on Scripture exercised on other parts
of the Christian doctrine in which they were
included; and even in the purely historical
sketch to which we are now limited, a 'reference
to these most interesting questions will give a
unity and significance to what might otherwise
appear a fragmentary discussion.
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
249
1 Sixtus Senensis (see p. 258) with an obvious
reference to this passage alters it most significantly:
"The books which are without the Canon of the He-
brews, which the Church reads for edification, are given
only in Greek, &c.' (Bibl. S. 1v. Franciscus Xymenius.)
CHAP. X.
SECT. I. The Roman Church.
XIMENES.
A. D.
At the dawn of the Reformation the great Cardinal
Romanist scholars remained faithful to the judg-
ment on the Canon which Jerome had followed in 1437-1517.
his translation. And Cardinal XIMENES, in the
preface to his magnificent Polyglott (Biblia Com-
plutensia)-the lasting monument of the Univer-
sity which he founded at Complutum or Alcala,
and the great glory of the Spanish press-sepa-
rates the Apocrypha from the canonical books.
The books, he writes, which are without the
Canon, which the Church receives rather for the Prolog. 111. v.
edification of the people than for the establish-
ment of ecclesiastical doctrines, are given only in
Greek, but with a double translation¹.
Cardinal Ximenes spoke only of the disputed
books of the Old Testament. His great literary
rival went further. ERASMUS, in his edition of ERASMUS.
the New Testament, (the first published in the
original Greek A. D. 1516,) which was dedicated
to Leo X., notices the doubts which had been
raised as to the controverted books, without
pronouncing more than a critical judgment upon
them. Thus he distinctly maintains that the
Epistle to the Hebrews was not written by St Ilis opinions
Paul, both on the ground of its style, and also
from questionable statements on points of doc-
trine (c. vi. 6), while he prefaces his criticism with
the remark, I would wish you, good reader, not
to consider this epistle of less value because
on Hebrews.
6
A.D.
1467-1536.
250
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X. many have doubted whether it is the work of
Paul or some other writer. Whoever wrote it
it is worthy of being read by Christians on many
accounts.' So again, he supposes that the Epi-
stles of James and 2, 3 John were written not by
the Apostles, but by some other persons of the
same names. On the Apocalypse he speaks at
greater length; and his words are so character-
istic that they may be quoted here as a singular
illustration of the manner in which the best
scholars of the sixteenth century approached the
criticism of Holy Scripture. "St Jerome," he
says, “bears witness that the Apocalypse was not
received by the Greeks even in his time; and
moreover that some most learned men had
assailed the whole substance of the book with
severe criticisms as a mere romance, on the
ground that it presents no trace of Apostolic
dignity, but contains only an ordinary history
disguised in symbols. To say nothing at present
of these opinions, I have been somewhat moved
by other conjectures and also by the fact that
the author while writing the Revelation is so
anxious to introduce his own name: 'I John,'
'I John,' just as if he were writing a bond and
not a book, and that not only against the custom
of the other Apostles but much more against his
own custom, since in his Gospel, though the sub-
ject is less exalted, he nowhere gives his own
name, but indicates it by slight references....
Further in the Greek MSS. which I have seen
the title is not 'of John the Evangelist,' but 'of
John the Divine;' not to mention that the style
is widely different from that of the Gospel and
Epistle...These arguments, I say, would some-
what move me to decline to believe that the work
James,
2, 3 John.
Apocalypse.
Nov. Test.
p. 625.
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
251
belongs to John the Evangelist, unless the general
consent of the world called me to another con-
clusion, but especially the authority of the Church,
if at least the Church approves of this work with
that feeling, that she wishes it to be considered
the work of John the Evangelist and to be held
of equal weight with the other canonical books...
In fact, I observe that ancient theologians quote
passages from this book rather for illustration
and ornament than for the support of a serious pro-
position. Since even among jewels there is some
difference; and some gold is purer and better
than other. In sacred things also, one thing is
more sacred than another. He who is spiritual,'
as Paul says, 'judges all things, and is judged by
no one.""
CHAP. X.
With this strange conflict of criticism and
authority, with this half suppressed irony, and in-
sinuated doubt, with this assertion of a final appeal
to private judgment, the great work of Erasmus
closes; and it is probable that the last words
best express the freedom of his real judgment.
For some time his notes seem to have been un-
challenged; but the spread of the reformed opi-
nions directed attention to the statements which
they contained in opposition to the current opi-
nion of the Roman Church. An attack was made Du Plessis,
Collect, Jud.
upon them before the Theological Faculty of de nov. error.
Paris (the Sorbonne) in 1524; and in 1526 the 1 Jud. iv.;
French doctors considered and condemned a
large number of propositions which were taken
from his New Testament, and the defence which
he had previously made. In this censure the
Sorbonne declared that it was an error of faith
to doubt as to the author of one of the books' (of
the New Testament). Though formerly some
11. 53 ff.
C
252
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X. have doubted about the authors of particular
books,' the decision runs, 'yet after that the
Church has received them under the name of
such authors by its universal usage, and has ap-
proved them by its judgment, it is not any longer
right for a Christian to doubt of the fact, or to
call it in question.' This general judgment is
then enforced by a special affirmation of the
authenticity of the Epistle to the Hebrews (as
St Paul's), 2 Peter and the Apocalypse, with
references to the Councils of Laodicea, Carthage,
and the Apocryphal Council at Rome under
Gelasius.
Tom. IV.
A.D. 1525
(quoted by
liody).
A.D. 1533.
<
Meanwhile Erasmus had extended his criti-
cisms to the Apocrypha of the Old Testament.
This he was led to do in the edition of Jerome,
on which he was engaged for many years. At
the time when the Sorbonne was discussing his
criticisms on the New Testament, he repeated
what he had said in the Preface to a volume of
his Jerome, but with a significant addition. 'For
the rest,' he writes, it is not yet agreed in what
spirit the Church now holds in public use books
which the ancients with great consent reckoned
among the Apocrypha. Whatever the authority
of the Church has approved I embrace simply as
a Christian man ought to do... Yet it is of great
moment to know in what spirit the Church ap-
proves anything. For allowing that it assigns
equal authority to the Hebrew Canon and the
Four Gospels, it assuredly does not wish Judith,
Tobit and Wisdom to have the same weight as
the Pentateuch. At a later time his judgment
still wavered. In an Exposition of the Creed he
gives the Hebrew Canon (without Esther) as
containing the books of the Old Testament 'which
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
253
it would be impious to doubt;' and then goes on
to say that Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Tobit, Ju-
dith, Esther, and the Additions to Daniel have
been received into ecclesiastical use. Whether,
however, the Church receives them as possessing
the same authority as the others the spirit of the
Church must know.'
CHAP. X.
CAIETAN.
A.D.
Erasmus was the real leader both of the lite-
rary and critical schools of the Reformation. His
influence extended both to his own Church and
to the Protestant Churches of Germany and
Switzerland; and opinions which he intimated
with hesitation and doubt found elsewhere a bold
expression. To take one example from Romanist
scholars, Cardinal CAIETAN (Jacob [Thomas] de Cardinal
Vio), the adversary of Luther at Augsburg in 1518,
gives an unhesitating adhesion to the Hebrew 1469-1534
Canon in his Commentary on all the Authentic
Historical Books of the Old Testament, which
was dedicated to Clement VII. 'The whole A.d. 1532.
Latin Church,' he says, 'owes very much to Pont. Max.
Ad Clem.VII.
St Jerome...on account of his separation of the
canonical from the uncanonical books. Since by The Apocry-
this he freed us from the reproach of the He- pha.
brews, [who blamed us] for framing books or
parts of books of the ancient Canon, which they
are absolutely without.' After completing his
commentary on Esther, he adds: 'In this place In Esth. c. x.
we close our commentaries on the historical books
of the Old Testament, for the remaining books
(Judith, Tobit, Maccabees 1, 2) are reckoned by
St Jerome without the canonical books and placed
among the Apocrypha together with Wisdom
and Ecclesiasticus...Nor must you be disturbed
by the strangeness of the fact, if you shall any-
where find those books reckoned among the
254
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X. Canonical books, either in the Sacred Councils or
in the Sacred Doctors. For the language of
Councils and Doctors must alike be revised by
the judgment of Jerome; and according to his
opinion those books and any others there may be
like them in the Canon of the Bible are not ca-
nonical in the sense of establishing points of faith;
yet they can be called canonical for the edifica-
tion of the faithful, inasmuch as they are received
in the Canon of the Bible for this purpose, and
treated with respect. For with this distinction
you will be able to understand the words of Au-
gustine, and what was written in the Florentine
Council under Eugenius IV., and what was writ-
ten in the provincial Councils of Carthage and
Laodicea, and by Popes Innocent and Gregory.'
The authority of Jerome had equal weight with
Cardinal Caietan in dealing with the Antilego-
mena of the New Testament. Thus in the pre-
face to his commentary to the Epistle to the He-
brews he writes, 'Since we have received the
rule of Jerome let us not err in the separation
of the canonical books (for those which he deli-
vered as canonical we hold canonical, and those
which he separated from the canonical books we
hold without the Canon); therefore as the author
of this epistle is doubtful in the opinion of Je-
rome, the epistle also is rendered doubtful, since
unless it is Paul's it is not clear that it is canon-
ical. Whence it comes to pass that if anything
arise doubtful in faith it cannot be determined
from the sole authority of this epistle. See how
great mischief an anonymous book creates!' In
like manner he quotes Jerome for the doubts
entertained as to the authority of St James,
2 Peter, 2, 3 John and St Jude. Of the three
•
See p. 186.
The disputed
books of New
Testament.
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
255
last he expressly says that 'they are of less au- CHAP. X.
thority than those which are certainly Holy Scrip-
ture.' On 2 Peter alone he decides favourably,
for the argument from style is, he maintains, very
fallacious. The Apocalypse he dismisses in a Sub fin.
Comm. in
sentence. 'I confess that I cannot interpret the
Ep. Judæ.
Apocalypse according to the literal sense. Let
him interpret it to whom God has given the
power.'
These statements of Cardinal Caietan passed
unchallenged during his lifetime, but shortly
after his death they were assailed by CATHAR- CATHARINUS.
INUS, a vehement controversialist whose life was
spent in disputes. Yet Catharinus abandoned
Comm.
of Trent.
the argument from history, and simply took Annot. in
refuge in the decrees of Popes Innocent, Gelasius Caietani,
and Eugenius as decisive upon the extent of the Lib. I. (1542).
Canon. This simple mode of determining the
question was unhappily adopted, and probably in
part through his influence, at the COUNCIL OF The Council
TRENT, in which he played an important part.
The Council held its first Session on Dec. 13th,
1545. In the third session (Feb. 4th, 1546) the
Nicene Creed was recited and ratified. The sub-
ject of Holy Scripture and Tradition was then
brought forward for preliminary discussion on
Feb. 12th. Four articles taken from the writings
of Luther were proposed for consideration or
rather for condemnation. Of these the first
affirmed that Scripture only (without tradition)
was the single and complete source of doctrine;
the second that the Hebrew Canon of the Old
Testament and the acknowledged books of the
New Testament ought only to be admitted as
authoritative. These dogmas were discussed by
about thirty divines in four meetings. On the
256
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
Opinion.
CHAP. X. first point there was a general agreement. It
was allowed that tradition was a co-ordinate
source of doctrine with Scripture. On the second
Varictics of there was a great variety of opinion. Some pro-
posed to follow the judgment of Cardinal Caietan
and distinguish two classes of books, as, it was
argued, had been the intention of Augustine.
Others wished to draw the line of distinction yet
more exactly, and form three classes, (1) the
Acknowledged Books, (2) the Disputed Books of
the New Testament, as having been afterwards
generally received, (3) the Apocrypha of the Old
Testament. A third party wished to give a bare
list, as that of Carthage, without any further defi-
nition of the authority of the books included in
it, so as to leave the subject yet open. A fourth
party, influenced by a false interpretation of the
earlier papal decrees, and necessarily ignorant of
the grave doubts which affect their authenticity,
urged the ratification of all the books of the en-
larged Canon as equally of Divine authority. The
first view was afterwards merged in the second,
and on March 8 three minutes were drawn up
embodying the three remaining opinions. These
were considered privately, and on the 15th the
third was carried by a majority of voices. The
decree in which it was finally expressed was pub-
lished on the 8th of April, and for the first time
the question of the contents of the Bible was
made an absolute article of faith and confirmed
by an Anathema. The holy, oecumenical and
general Council of Trent,' so the decree runs,
"...following the examples of the orthodox fathers
receives and venerates all the books of the Old
and New Testaments...and also traditions per-
taining to faith and conduct...with an equal feel-
Decree on
tho Canon of
Scripture.
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTII CENTURY.
257
Then follows the CIAP. X.
ing of devotion and reverence.'
list of the books of the Old and New Testaments,
including Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus,
1 and 2 Maccabees, in the same order as the de-
cree of Eugenius IV. and the decree proceeds,
'If, however, anyone does not receive the entire
books with all their parts as they are accustomed
to be read in the Catholic Church and in the old
Latin Vulgate edition (i. e. Jerome's with the
additions) as sacred and canonical, and knowingly
and wittingly despises the aforesaid traditions,
let him be Anathema.'
This fatal decree, in which the Council, ha- The decree
rassed by the fear of lay critics and ‘grammarians,' dented.
gave a new aspect to the whole question of the
Canon, was ratified by fifty-three prelates, among
whom there was not one German, not one scholar
distinguished for historical learning, not one who
was fitted by special study for the examination of
a subject in which the truth could only be deter-
mined by the voice of antiquity. How com-
pletely the decision was opposed to the spirit and
letter of the original judgments of the Greek and
Latin Churches, how far it was at variance in the
doctrinal equalization of the disputed and ac-
knowledged books of the Old Testament with the
traditional opinion of the West, how absolutely
unprecedented was the conversion of an ecclesi-
astical usage into an article of belief, will be seen
from the evidence which has been already ad-
duced. If historical criticism had made as much
advance as grammatical criticism at the time
when the decree was enacted, no anathema at
least would have been directed against differences
of opinion on books or parts of books; for on one
point at least scholarship gained the day. It was
17
258
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X. decided after much discussion that no anathema
should be added to the second part of the decree
which affirmed the authority of the Latin Vul-
gate.
It is unnecessary to continue the history of
the Canon in the Romish Church. The attempts
which have been made from time to time by Ro-
manist Scholars to claim some freedom of opinion
on the subject, can find no excuse in the terms of
the decree. One judgment only will be added,
which has considerable interest from the circum-
stances under which it was pronounced.
The state-
The Bibliotheca Sancta of the Dominican
ment of SIX- SIXTUS SENENSIS, which was dedicated to Pius V.,
TUS SENEN-
SIS.
as 'the chief author of the Index of prohibited
books and the purifier of Christian literature,'
may be taken as the authorized expression of the
general views which prevailed in the Council.
Sixtus divides the books of the Bible into two
classes. The books of the first class (Protocanon-
ical) are those of which there has never been any
doubt in the Church, or to use the term which
has been already explained the 'acknowledged'
books of the Old and New Testaments except
Esther. The books of the second Class ('called
Ecclesiastical in former times but now Deutero-
canonical') are those which were not generally
known till a late period, 'as in the Old Testament
Esther, Tobit, Judith, and Baruch, the Letter of
Jeremiah, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus,
the Additions to Daniel, Maccabees (2). And in
the New Testament, in like manner, Mark xvi.
9—20; Luke xxii. 43, 44; John vii. 53—viii. 11,
the Epistle to the Hebrews, James, 2 Peter,
2, 3 John, Jude, Apocalypse, and other books of
the same kind (?), which formerly the ancient
A.D. 1566.
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
259
fathers of the Church held as Apocryphal and not CHAP. X.
Canonical, and at first permitted to be read
only before catechumens (as Athanasius wit-
nesses)...then (as Ruffinus writes) allowed to be
read before all the faithful, not for the con-
firmation of doctrines, but merely for the instruc-
tion of the people: and...at last willed that they
should be adopted among the Scriptures of irre-
fragable authority...' Apocryphal writings (in a
good sense) are those of which 'the Fathers of
the Church did not venture to decide whether
their authors were inspired by the Holy Spirit,
and therefore forbade them to be alleged for the
support of doctrines...and allowed them to be
read only privately...Such are the 3rd and 4th
Books of Esdras, the 3rd and 4th Books of Mac-
cabees, the Appendix to Esther…..'
The concessions and claims made in this pas-
sage are equally significant. The determination
of the books which come within the limits of the
Bible is taken out of the domain of historical
criticism. It is admitted that for nearly four
centuries the Hebrew Canon of the Old Testa-
ment was alone received. It is affirmed that the
Church has power not only to fix the extent of
the Canon, but also to settle questions of text.
The field of Biblical study is definitely closed
against all free research.
SECT. II. The Saxon School of Reformers.
Meanwhile a spirit was awakened in Ger- LUTHER.
many which for a time cast a vivid if a partial
light upon the Bible as the depository of the Di-
vine teaching transmitted to the Church. The
discovery of a Latin Bible, we are told, turned
the thoughts of Luther into a new channel. And
17-2
260
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X. Luther on his side found in the Bible something
which had long been hidden from the world, not
as to its doctrine only, but as to its general rela-
tion to God and men. The study of the Bible
was a life-long passion with him. Were I but a
great poet,' he said, 'I would write a magnificent
poem on the utility and efficacy of the Divine
word.' His judgment on the different Books is
given in detail in his Prefaces. These are so full
of life, and so characteristic of the man, that they
can never lose their interest; and as a whole they
form an important chapter of the history of the
Bible. It will be sufficient to quote fragments
from his remarks on the controverted books of
lis judgment the Old and New Testaments. If the truth of
on Judith.
Werke, cd.
the history of Judith, he says, 'could be esta-
Walch. XIV. blished by satisfactory evidence, it would be a
81.
noble and beautiful book, which might well find a
place in the Bible... As it is there are errors and
doubts both as to dates and names which I cannot
in any way clear up. [But if we look at it as a
Divine Allegory] it is a beautiful, good, holy, pro-
fitable book, which we Christians shall do well to
read. For we must so understand it, as if a spi-
ritual, holy poet or prophet spoke by the Holy
Ghost, who presents such characters [as the book
describes] and through them preaches to us.'
The Book of Wisdom he refers to the author-
ship of Philo. Yet even so he affirms that 'there
is very much that is good in it, and it is well
worthy of being read...' It is, in fact, 'a true
exposition and pattern of the first Commandment;'
and from this book we can see 'how all wisdom
springs and flows from this Commandment, which
is the true sun whereby the wise see all they see
...And this is the chief reason why it is well to
Wisdom.
Id. p. 86.
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
261
read this book, that we may learn to fear and CHAP. X.
trust God: Thereto may He help us with grace.'
'What we have said of Judith,' he remarks, Tobit.
Id. p. 89.
we may say also of Tobit.. If it is a history, it
is a holy history. If it is a poem, it is truly a
right beautiful, wholesome, profitable poem, the
work of a gifted poet...Judith is a good, serious,
brave Tragedy; Tobit an elegant, pleasing, godly
Comedy...Therefore is the book profitable and
good for us Christians also to read, as the work
of an elegant Hebrew poet, who deals with no
light matters, but with serious matters, and so
far handles them in a Christian spirit.'
Ecclesiasticus 'is a profitable book for an or- Ecclesiasti-
dinary man; for all its purpose is to make the
citizen or the head of a family God-fearing, pious
and wise... We might well call it a "Book of house-
hold Discipline," or "of the virtues of a good
Housholder."'
cus.
Id. p. 92.
Id. p. 93.
'Of very little worth is the Book of Baruch, Baruch.
whoever the worthy Baruch may be...So that I
had very nearly excluded it with 3 and 4 Ezra
(1, 2 Esdras) from my translation. For these
two books we would not translate, because they
have nothing in them which you might not find
better in Esop...However, we have admitted
Baruch, because he writes so strongly against
idolatry, and maintains the Law of Moses.'
The first book of Maccabees is 'one of those 1 Maccabees.
Id. p. 94.
which are not found in the Hebrew Bibles. Yet
it presents almost the same form as other books
of Holy Scripture in style and language, and
would not have been unworthy to be included in
the Bible, since it is a very necessary and useful
book for the understanding of Dan. xi...For that
262
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X. reason it is useful for us Christians to read and
to be acquainted with it.'
Of the Second Book of the Maccabees he says,
Rightly as the first book might have been taken
into the number of the Holy Scriptures, so rightly
is this book cast out, though there is some good
in it.'
2 Maccabees.
Id. p. 97.
Additions to
Daniel and
Esther.
Id. p. 97.
Differences in
the New Tes-
tament.
la. p. 104.
C
The additions to Daniel and Esther he likens
to 'corn-flowers' which he had taken out of the
books in which they stood in the Latin texts, but
afterwards placed in a separate bed that they
might not wither, because there was much good
in them, especially the Benedicite. ‘Susanna,
Bel, Habacuc and the Dragon appear to be
pretty spiritual poems; for their names admit of
a symbolic meaning.'
The general result of these special prefaces is
given in the short explanation which was prefixed
to the first collected edition of the Apocrypha
and preserved in the standard edition of the
Bible (1545). "The Apocrypha, that is books,
which, while they are not placed on the same
footing as the Holy Scripture, are yet profitable
and good for reading¹?
In dealing with the New Testament Luther
shows equal freedom and boldness. For him
there is a Gospel within the Gospel, a New Tes-
tament within the New Testament. From all
this,' he says, 'you can rightly judge between all
1 The catalogue given (I quote from the edition of
1534) is: Judith, Wisdom, Tobias, Sirach (Ecclesias-
ticus), Maccabees (1, 2), pieces in Esther, pieces in
Daniel. The Prayer of Manasses is added at the end
without note or preface, and at the conclusion of this
follows the end of the books of the Old Testament.'
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
263
the books, and distinguish which are the best. CHAP. X.
For St John's Gospel, and St Paul's Epistles,
especially that to the Romans, and St Peter's
First Epistle are the true marrow and kernel of
all the books; which properly also might be the
first, and each Christian should be counselled to
read them first and most, and make them as com-
mon by daily reading as his daily bread... Briefly
St John's Gospel and his first Epistle, St Paul's
Epistles, especially those to the Romans, Gala-
tians, Ephesians, and St Peter's first Epistle:
these (the words are emphasized in the original)
are the books which show thee Christ, and teach
all which it is needful and blessed for thee to
know, even if you never see or hear any other
book, or any other doctrine. Therefore is the
Epistle of St James a right strawy Epistle com-
pared with them, for it has no character of the
Gospel in it.'
selves.
Agreeably to this general statement Luther Some of the
disputed
placed the Epistle to the Hebrews, James, Jude and books placed
the Apocalypse at the end of his translation, after by them-
the other books of the New Testament, which he
called 'the true and certain, Capital-books of the 1d. p. 147.
New Testament.' Of the Epistle to the Hebrews
he says that it was certainly (ii. 3) by a disciple of
the Apostles, and not by an Apostle, by one 'who
did not lay the foundation of faith (vi. 1), but who
yet built upon it gold, silver, precious stones.
Therefore even if we find perhaps wood, straw, ΟΙ
hay mingled with it, that shall not prevent us
from receiving such instruction with all honour;
though we do not place it absolutely on the same
footing with the Apostolic Epistles.'
'I admire,' he says, 'the Epistle of St James, Epistle or
though it was rejected by the ancients, and still St James.
1
264
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
/
Id. p. 148.
CHAP. X. hold it as good, for this reason that it lays down
no teaching of man, and presses home the law of
God. Yet to express my own opinion, without
prejudice to any one, I do not hold it to be the
writing of any Apostle, for these reasons: (1) It
contradicts St Paul and all other Scripture in
giving righteousness to works...(2) It teaches
Christian people and yet does not once notice the
Passion, the Resurrection, the Spirit of Christ...'
Yet it is the duty of a true Apostle to preach
Christ's Sufferings and Resurrection….. And therein
all true, holy books agree, that they preach and
urge Christ. That too is the right touchstone
whereby to criticise all books, whether they urge
Christ or not, for all Scripture testifies of Christ
(Rom. iii. 21)...That which does not teach Christ
is still not Apostolic, even if it were the teaching
of St Peter or St Paul. Again, that which
preaches Christ, that wero Apostolic, even if
Judas, Annas, Pilate and Herod preached it.' 'I
cannot then place it among the true Capital-books;
but I will forbid no one to place and elevate it
as he pleases; for there are many good sayings
in it.'
Id. p. 149.
Id. p. 150.
Epistle of
St Jude.
Id. p. 150.
The Apoca-
lypse.
The Epistle of St Jude is 'indisputably an
extract or abstract from the Second Epistle of
St Peter...Therefore, though I applaud it, it is
not an Epistle which can claim to be reckoned
among the Capital-books, which ought to lay the
foundation of faith.'
Of the Apocalypse he simply says (A. D. 1534)¹
1 At an earlier time (A.D. 1522) he had spoken far
more disparagingly of the book. For several reasons
I hold it to be neither apostolic nor prophetic...My
spirit cannot acquiesce in the book:...I abide by the
books which present Christ clear and pure to me.
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
265
Id. p. 152.
(
that no man ought to be hindered from holding CHAP. X.
it to be a work of St John or otherwise, as he
will...' Reckless interpretations had brought it
into dishonour. And though it was yet 'a dumb
prophecy,' the true Christian, he shows, can use it
for consolation and warning. Briefly, our Holi-
ness is in heaven where Christ is, and not in the
world before our eyes, as some paltry ware in the
market. Therefore let offence, factions, heresy
and wickedness be and do what they may; if only
the Word of the Gospel remains pure with us,
and we hold it dear and precious, we need not
doubt that Christ is near and with us, even if
matters go hardest; as we see in this Book that
through and above all plagues, beasts, evil angels,
Christ is still near and with His saints.'
The freshness and power of Luther's judg-
ments on the Bible, the living sense of a fellow-
ship with the spirit which animates them, the
bold independence and self-assertion which sepa-
rate them from all simply critical conclusions,
combined to limit their practical acceptance to
individuals. Such judgments rest on no definite
external evidence. They cannot be justified by
the ordinary rule and measure of criticism or
dogma. No Church could rest on a theory which
makes private feeling the supreme authority as
to doctrine and the source of doctrine. As a na-
tural consequence the later Lutherans abandoned
the teaching of their great master on the written
Word. For a time the 'disputed' books of the
New Testament (Antilegomena) were distinguished
from the remainder; but in the early part of the
seventeenth century this difference was looked
upon as wholly belonging to the past, and towards
its close the very letter of the printed text of
266
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X. Scripture was treated by great Lutheran Divines
as possessing an inherent and inalienable sanctity
beyond the reach of historical discussion. Yet
the Lutheran Church has no recognized definition
of canonicity, and no express list of the Sacred
Books. The nearest approach to this is in the
Lutheran Bible, in which the Apocrypha are placed
by themselves and separated distinctly from 'the
Holy Scripture. But on the other hand four of
the Antilegomena of the New Testament are re-
moved equally from their places in the Latin
Bible and placed as a kind of Appendix, though
without any special notice. And the detailed
judgments which Luther delivered are not more
favourable to one class than to the other. To a
certain extent therefore the question was left
open; and usage alone has determined finally the
subordinate position of the Apocrypha to the Old
Testament, and elevated the Antilegomena of the
New Testament to an equality with the remaining
books.
KARLSTADT.
One attempt, however, was made to investi-
gate independently the extent of the Canon and
the principles on which it was formed. Among
the early friends of Luther was ANDREW Boden-
STEIN of KARLSTADT (Carlstadt), who is commonly
known by the name of his native town, Arch-
deacon of Wittenberg. As the Reformation ad-
vanced, Luther and Karlstadt were separated by
theological differences, and after long sufferings
Karlstadt found an honourable retreat in Switzer-
land. By Bullinger's recommendation he was
made professor of theology at Basle and died
there in 1541. While he was still working with
Luther, in 1520, he published a treatise, On the
Canonical Scriptures, which exhibits a remark-
SAR
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
267
tion of Scrip-
able sense of the real bearings and principles of CHAP. X.
an investigation into the constitution of the Bible.
The book was in advance of the age and appears
to have produced no effect at the time. It con-
sists of five parts, (1) On the majesty of Scripture.
(2) On the force and strength of Scripture. (3)
On the number and order of the Sacred books.
(4) On the Catalogues of Jerome and Augustine.
(5) A general classification of Scripture. It is His classifica-
with the last division alone that we are now con- ture.
cerned. In this Karlstadt divides all the books
of Scripture into three classes of different dignity,
almost as Hugo de S. Victore had done before See p. 204 n.
him. The first class contains only the Penta-
teuch and the four Gospels, 'the clearest lumina-
ries of the whole Divine truth.' The second class
includes the Prophets, according to the Hebrew
reckoning, and the acknowledged Epistles of the
New Testament (Paul 13, 1 Peter, 1 John). The
third class contains the Hagiographa of the He-
brew Canon and the seven disputed books of the
New Testament¹.
Of the books of the Apocrypha he judges On the Apo-
crypha.
Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Judith, Tobit and 1, 2
Maccabees to be uncanonical and yet holy writ-
ings: 1, 2 Esdras, Baruch, the Prayer of Ma- §§ 113, 114.
nasses, and the Additions to Daniel are wholly
Apocryphal and to be condemned.' 'If I were § 118.
asked for my opinion,' he adds, 'as to reading
such books [as Tobit, Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus]
I should thus answer: That what they contain is
1 The Acts is entirely omitted. Probably the book
was looked upon by Karlstadt as an Appendix to St
Luke's Gospel: see De Canonicis Scripturis, § 136.
Yet again in §§ 65 ff, he appears to pass over the
book purposely.
268
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X. not to be despised at once, and still that it is not
right that a Christian should relieve much less
slake his thirst with them. The springs which
are far from all suspicion must be sought which
can have no poison in them; that is, before all
things the best books must be read, those which
are canonical beyond all controversy; afterwards
if there shall be leisure, it is allowed to peruse
the controverted books, provided that you com-
pare and collate the non-canonical books with
those which are truly canonical.'
§ 91.
§ 37.
This short summary of Karlstadt's results can
give no idea of the breadth and subtlety of many
of his remarks. The whole evidence was not
before him and consequently he erred in his con-
clusions; but even as it is, his treatise is not
without use in the present day. It was the first
clear assertion of the independent supremacy of
Holy Scripture, and so far the first enunciation of
the fundamental principle of the Reformation.
Yet at the same time Karlstadt recognized the
historic function of the Church in collecting and
ratifying the sacred books. 'Why,' he asks, in
reference to Luther's objections to the Epistle of
St James, 'if you allow the Jews to stamp books
with authority by receiving them, do you refuse
to grant as much power to the Churches of Christ,
since the Church is not less than the Synagogue?'
And though he placed the different books of the
Bible in different ranks, yet he drew a broad line
between all of them and the traditions or decrees
of Christian teachers. 'You see,' he writes, 'kind
reader, how great is the authority of the Holy
Scriptures. Whether willingly or unwillingly
you will allow the extent of their authority,
whose slightest sign all other arts and sciences,
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
269
as far as they affect the moulding of life, revere, CHAP. X.
regard, dread, adore. Therefore rightly the laws
of men, the canons of popes, the customs of the
people, yield to [the Bible] as their mistress, and
minister to it.' 'We judge of the opinions of all § 5.
and each from the Sacred Scriptures,' he else-
where says, 'and therefore we pronounce [the
Bible] to be the queen and mistress of all and the
judge who judges all things while she herself is
judged by none…..' 'The Divine Law, single and § 6.
alone, is placed beyond all suspicion of error, and
draws all other laws within its dominion, or ut-
terly destroys them if they strive against it.'
SECT. III. The Swiss School of Reformers.
A. D.
1484-1531.
Karlstadt forms a link between the Saxon
and Swiss Reformers. While Luther was bat-
tling for the one great principle of faith, a more
comprehensive movement was begun in Switzer-
land. ZWINGLI, the foremost of its champions, ZWINGLI.
was only a few weeks younger than Luther, and
he had not yet heard Luther's name, as he writes,
when he began to preach the Gospel. But Zwin-
gli was not contented with the compromise which
Luther was willing to make with all that was
hallowed by usage, provided it was not positively
superstitious. He aimed at forming a strictly
logical system based on Scripture only, irrespec-
tive of tradition or custom. In this respect he
carried out, in intention at least, the principles
which Karlstadt had maintained; and the me-
thod which he followed became characteristic of
the Swiss Churches. The Saxon reformation was
in essence conservative: the Swiss reformation
was in essence rationalistic.
"
270
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
Zwingli himself does not appear to have dis-
cussed the Canon of Scripture. In his notes on
the Epistle to the Hebrews and St James he
takes no account of the doubts which had been
raised as to their authority. Of the Apocalypse
alone he declares that 'it does not present the
Reuss, § 335. style and spirit of St John.' While Zwingli was
Quoted by
A.D.
Reuss, 1. c.
A.D. 1530.
labouring to spread his doctrines at Zurich, his
ŒCOLAMPA- friend ECOLAMPADIUS carried on the same work
at Basle. In a letter to the Waldenses, Ecolam-
1482-1531. padius explains the views of his party on the
Canon. 'We do not despise,' he writes, ‘Judith,
Tobit, Baruch, the last two books of Esdras, the
three books of Maccabees, the last two chapters
of Daniel, but we do not allow them Divine au-
thority, equally with those others [of the Hebrew
Canon].' 'In the New Testament we receive
four Gospels, with the Acts of the Apostles, and
fourteen Epistles of St Paul, and seven Catholic
Epistles, together with the Apocalypse; although
we do not compare the Apocalypse, the Epistles
of James, and Jude, and 2 Peter and 2, 3 John
with the rest.'
CHAP. X.
DIUS.
CALVIN.
A.D.
1509-1564.
·
This judgment of Ecolampadius may be taken
as a fair representation of the feeling in the Ger-
man Churches of Switzerland. But even before
his death, which happened in the same year as
that of Zwingli, Farel had begun that movement
in the French cantons which under the direction
of Calvin influenced more or less the theology of
all Western Europe.
The famous French Bible published at Neuf-
châtel in 1535, under the name of Olivetan, but
really by CALVIN, whatever may be its other
faults, contains a clear expression of the opinion
of the French Reformer upon the Apocrypha.
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
271
The title of the book is 'The Bible, that is all the CHAP. X.
Holy Scripture, in which are contained the Old
Testament and the New, translated in French,
the Old from the Hebrew and the New from the
Greek.' After the completion of the translation
of the books of the Hebrew Canon follows, The Hisjudgment
on the Apo-
Volume of the Apocryphal Books contained in the crypha.
vulgate translation which we have not found in
Hebrew or Chaldee¹? This collection is prefaced
by an epistle on the authority of the books in
which the judgment of Jerome is given in detail?.
These books are of doubtful authority, it is said,
but we have 'the witness of the Prophets and
Apostles more clear than the day.' The lawyer
refuses to speak without the text of human law
to support him, and how much more shall the
Christian shrink from going beyond the law of
the living God to support their faith. Rather,
'let us leave the things that are uncertain to
follow the certain, holding us and resting us on
them, and fastening our anchor there as in a sure
place.'
legomena of
With regard to the Antilegomena of the New On the Anti-
Testament, Calvin expresses himself with hardly the New Tes
less boldness than Luther, though he practically tament.
followed common usage. He passes over 2 and
3 John and the Apocalypse in his Commentary
1 The books contained are 3, 4 Esdras, Tobit,
Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch and the Epistle,
1, 2 Maccabees, additions to Esther and Daniel, the
Prayer of Manasses.
2 This preface is the more interesting from the fact
that it was transferred in a translation to Matthew's
English Bible of 1557, and with one singular alteration
to Cranmer's Bible of 1540 (see p. 284). It is strange
that this curious fact should have been overlooked by
those who have written on the English Versions.
272
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X.
The Epistle
to the He-
brews.
2 Peler.
without notice, and writes of 1 John as simply
'the Epistle of John.' 'I embrace,' he says, '[the
Epistle to the Hebrews] without doubt among
the Apostolic Epistles; nor do I doubt but that
it was through a device of Satan that some
have questioned its authority... Wherefore let
us not allow the Church of God and ourselves
to be bereft of so great a blessing; but let us
vindicate for ourselves the possession of it with
firmness. We need, however, feel little anxiety
as to who wrote it...I cannot myself be brought
to believe that Paul was the author...The method
of instruction and style sufficiently show that the
writer was not Paul, and he professes himself to
be one of the disciples of the Apostles (ii. 3)
which is wholly alien from Paul's custom...'
'The fact that Eusebius says that doubts were
formerly entertained on [2 Peter] ought not to
deter us from reading it...I am more moved by
the statement of Jerome, that some, led by the
difference of style, did not think Peter the au-
thor of it. For although some likeness with his
style can be observed, yet I confess that there is
an obvious difference which indicates a different
writer. There are also other plausible conjec-
tures from which we may gather that it was the
work of some other than Peter... But if it is re-
ceived as canonical, we must confess that Peter
was its author, since not only is it inscribed with
his name, but the writer himself witnesses that
he lived with Christ...I therefore lay down that,
if the Epistle be deemed worthy of credit, it
proceeded from Peter, not that he wrote it him-
self, but that some one of his disciples at his
command included in it what the necessity of the
times required...Certainly, since the majesty of
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
273
the Spirit of Christ exhibits itself in every part CHAP. X.
of the Epistle, I feel a scruple at rejecting it
wholly, however much I fail to recognize in it
the genuine language of Peter.'
Of the Epistle of St James he speaks more St James.
confidently. It is known,' he writes, 'from the
evidence of Jerome and Eusebius, that this Epi-
stle was not received formerly without a struggle
by many churches. There are cven at the pre-
sent day some who do not think it worthy of
authority. Still I willingly embrace it without
doubt, because I see no sufficiently good reason
for rejecting it... Certainly, it cannot be required
of all to treat the same topic.' And of the Epi-
stle of St Jude he speaks in similar terms: 'Al- St Jude.
though different conflicting opinions were enter-
tained about this Epistle also among the ancients;
still because it is useful for reading, and does
not contain anything foreign to the purity of
Apostolic doctrine, while already in former times
it gained authority with the best writers, I will-
ingly add it to the others.'
In each case a personal and not a critical or
historical test was applied. The result could
not be long doubtful. The edition of the New
Testament which was dedicated by BEZA to BEZA.
Queen Elizabeth in the year of Calvin's death, A.D. 1564.
exhibits very clearly the influence which usage
exercised in the suppression of the early doubts
on the Antilegomena. In his preface to the
Epistle to the Hebrews, Beza examines and meets The Epistle
the arguments which had been brought against to the He-
the belief in its Pauline authorship, and then
concludes: 'Let us, however, allow liberty of
judgment on this point, provided only we all
agree in this, that this Epistle was truly dictated
brews.
18
274
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X. by the Holy Spirit...while it is written in so ex-
cellent and so exact a method, that (unless we
can suppose Apollos wrote it, whose learning and
eloquence combined with the greatest piety are
highly praised in the Acts) scarcely any one ex-
cept St Paul could have been the writer.' He
afterwards notices generally the doubts enter-
tained as to James, 2 Peter, 2, 3 John, Jude,
but sets them aside without discussion. His
preface to the Apocalypse is far more elaborate.
In this he discusses in some detail the objec-
tions raised by Erasmus to its Apostolic origin,
and pronounces them in general to be severally
weak and futile. "This being the case,' he ar-
gues, although I do not think that we ought to
dispute too obstinately as to the name of the
writer, still I should be inclined to assign the
book to John the Apostle rather than to any one
else...If, however, it were allowed to form a con-
jecture from the style, I should assign it to no
one rather than Mark, who also is himself called
John. The character of this book being similar
to and almost identical with that of the Gospel
of Mark, not only in words but also in general
phraseology... Finally, we are led to believe that
the Holy Spirit was pleased to gather into this
most precious book those predictions of the ear-
lier prophets which remained to be fulfilled after
the coming of Christ, and also added some par-
ticulars, as far as He knew that it concerned us
to be acquainted with them.'
From what has been said it will appear that
the subject of the Canon was not one which ex-
cited any marked interest among the chief Swiss
reformers. Custom fixed the details of their
judgment, and by a gradual process the Bible
The Catholic
Epistles.
The Apoca-
lypse.
·
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
275
was more and more removed (as was formally CHAP. X.
the case in the Romish Church) from the region
of history. The idea of inspiration was substi-
tuted for that of canonicity. The recognition of
variety and advance in the records of revelation
was virtually forbidden. The test of authority
was placed in individual sentiment, and not in
the common witness of the congregation.
on Scripture
fessions.
p. 104.
The progress of thought thus indicated is Judgments
seen yet more clearly in the public acts of the in the re-
Reformed (Calvinistic) Churches. In these also formed Con-
there is a rapid advance from a general assertion
of the claims of Holy Scripture to an exact and
rigid definition of the character and contents of
the Bible. No notice is taken of the limits of
the Canon in the confessions of faith issued by
Zwingli. In the First Confession of Faith at
Basle (1534), which is said to have been moulded
on the Confession of Ecolampadius, a general Niemeyer,
Coll. Confess.
reference is made 'to Holy Biblical Scripture,'
to which every opinion is submitted. In the
First Helvetic Confession (1536) Canonical Scrip-
ture, that is, 'the Word of God, given by the Holy
Spirit, and set forth by the Prophets and Apo-
stles,' is declared to be 'the oldest and most per- Id. pp. 105,
fect philosophy, which alone contains completely
all piety and all the rule of life.' The same ge-
neral description is found in the Genevan Cate-
chism, published by Calvin A.D. 1545, and in the p. 159.
later Helvetic Confession, 1566. The Belgian p. 467.
Confession (1561-63), which was influenced in
some degree by the English Articles, treats of
the Canon at some length. 'We embrace,' it is Art. 3-7.
`pp. 361-3.
said, 'Holy Scripture in those two volumes of the
Old and New Testament, which are called the
Canonical Books, about which there is no con-
115.
A.D.
1523-1530.
18-2
276
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X. troversy!' Then follows a list of the Hebrew
Canon and of the books of the New Testament,
as we receive them. These books alone,' the
next article continues, 'we receive as sacred and
Canonical, on which our faith can rest, by which
it can be confirmed and established. And we
believe all those things which are contained in
them, and that not so much because the Church
receives and approves them as Canonical, as be-
cause the Holy Spirit witnesses to our consciences
that they emanated from God; and on this ac-
count also that they themselves sufficiently wit-
ness to and approve of themselves this their
proper authority...' 'Moreover, we lay down a
difference between these sacred books and those
which men call Apocryphal, inasmuch as the
Church can read the Apocryphal books, and take
out proof from them so far as they agree with
the Canonical books; but their authority and
certainty is by no means such that any dogma of
Christian faith or religion can certainly be esta-
blished from their testimony...And therefore with
these divine Scriptures, and this truth of God,
no other human writings, however holy, no cus-
tom, nor multitude, nor antiquity, nor prescrip-
tion of time, nor succession of persons, nor any
councils, no decrees or statutes of men in fine,
are to be compared, inasmuch as the truth of God
excels all things.' Statements to the same gene-
ral effect, with some verbal agreements, are found
in the articles of the French reformed Church
(1561); but there is this significant difference,
that the Epistle to the Hebrews is placed in the
French catalogue apart from the Epistles of St
Niemeyer,
p. 311.
1 Altered afterwards to 'there never was any con-
troversy.'
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
277
The West-
Paul. The Westminster Assembly (which first CHAP. X.
met in 1643) followed the same method in dealing
with Scripture, and the words of their Confession minster Con-
fession.
may be taken as an exact and mature expression
of the feelings of the Calvinistic churches on the
subject of the Bible.
Art. 'i...It pleased the Lord at sundry times The humble
and in divers manners to reveal Himself and to de- advice of this
Assembly of
clare His will unto His Church; and...to commit Divines...
the same wholly unto writing; which maketh the PP. 1 ff. ed.
Holy Scripture to be most necessary; those former
ways of God's revealing His will unto His people
being now ceased.
1646.
'ii. Under the name of Holy Scripture, or the
Word of God written, are now contained all the
books of the Old and New Testament, which are
these:
'Of the Old Testament, Genesis...Malachi.
'Of the New Testament, The Gospels according
to Matthew...The Revelation of John.
'All which are given by inspiration of God to
be the rule of faith and life.
'iii. The Books commonly called Apocrypha,
not being of Divine inspiration, are no part of the
Canon of Scripture; and therefore are of no au-
thority in the Church of God, nor to be any other-
wise approved or made use of than other human
writings.
'iv. The authority of the Holy Scripture, for
which it ought to be believed and obeyed, de-
pendeth not upon the testimony of any man or
Church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself)
the Author thereof; and therefore it is to be
received because it is the Word of God.
'v. We may be moved and induced by the
testimony of the Church to an high and reverent
278
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X. esteem of the Holy Scripture...yet notwithstand-
ing our full persuasion and assurance of the infal-
lible truth and Divine authority thereof is from
the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing wit-
ness by and with the Word in our hearts.'
The controversies on the text of the Bible,
which form a painful episode in the ecclesiastical
annals of the seventeenth century, added yet se-
verer precision to definitions like these, which seem
sufficiently stringent. The most exact and rigid
declaration of the inspiration of the Bible which
is found in any public confession of faith was
Swiss Delara- drawn up in the Swiss Declaration of 1675, which
tion of 1675. forms a characteristic close to this division of our
Niemeyer, history. 'Almighty God,' thus the articles com-
p. 730.
mence, 'not only provided that His Word, which
is a power to everyone who believes, should be
committed to writing through Moses, the Pro-
phets, and Apostles, but also has watched over it
with a fatherly care up to the present time, and
guarded lest it might be corrupted by the craft of
Satan or any fraud of man...' Thus 'the Hebrew
volume of the Old Testament, which we have
received from the tradition of the Jewish Church,
to which formerly the oracles of God were com-
mitted, and retain at the present day, both in
its consonants, and in its vowels,-the points
themselves, or at least the force of the points,-
and both in its substance and in its words is
divinely inspired, so that, together with the
volume of the New Testament, it is the single
and uncorrupted Rule of our faith and life, by
whose standard, as by a touch-stone, all Versions
which exist, whether Eastern or Western, must
be tried, and wherever they vary be made con-
formable to it.'
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
279
SECT. IV. The Arminian School.
Yet such doctrines as these were not promul-
gated without opposition. Historical criticism
was universally subordinate to doctrinal contro-
versy, but still at times it made itself felt. In
this respect the influence of the Arminian School
upon the study of Holy Scripture was too great
to be neglected in any account of the history of
the Canon. The principles which were embodied
in their teaching belonged to the dawn of the
Reformation, though they only found adequate
expression at a later time. GROTIUS (de Groot) GROTIUS.
may be taken as their representative, and no one
can have used his Annotations without feeling
that his power of interpreting Scripture, though
practically marred by many faults, was yet in
several respects far superior to that of his con-
temporaries. His Commentary includes notes.
on the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, and the
New Testament. The Apocrypha¹ he places
together as 'the books which are without the
Hebrew Canon;' and in his special prefaces he
discusses their origin, showing that many of them
were by Greek writers, and further arguing that
they had been interpolated by Christians. Yet
he does not expressly determine the limit of the
respect due to them. In another place he quotes
with approbation the opinion of Jerome and the
practice of the English Church. These books Annot. ad
were not written or approved by prophets, as Iv. p. 627 (ed.
those which the Hebrews acknowledge; but the 1679).
Consult. Can.
1 The books which he notices are: Tobit, Judith,
Additions to Esther and Daniel, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus,
Baruch and Letter, 1, 2, 3 Maccabees. Thus he adds
3 Maccabees to the Apocrypha which we receive, and
omits 1, 2 Esdras and Prayer of Manasses.
CHAP. X.
A.D.
1583-1645.
280
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X. Christian Church, or certainly great sections of it,
have believed that there is nothing in them
which does well agree with those books which all
acknowledge.' On the Antilegomena of the New
Testament he speaks in greater detail: 'It is
most obvious,' he says, 'that the Epistle to the
Hebrews was not written by St Paul, from the
difference in style between this Epistle and the
Epistles of St Paul;' and he then points out vari-
ous reasons which lead him to attribute it to
St Luke. 'Those who have rejected the Epistle
of James...had reasons, but not good reasons,
for they saw that it was opposed to their views :
This I remarked that all might see how perilous
it is to recede from the general agreement of the
Church.' 'I believe,' he says, 'that the original
title of 2 Peter was the Epistle of Simeon,' i. e.
of the successor of James in the bishopric of Je-
rusalem; and that the present epistle was made
up of two epistles by this primitive bishop, of
which the second begins at the third chapter.'
'Many of the ancients,' he writes, 'believed that
2 and 3 John were not the works of the Apostle,
with whom Eusebius and Jerome do not disagree;
and there are weighty arguments in favour of
that opinion.' 'I am wholly led to believe that
the Epistle of Jude was the work of Judas, a
Bishop of Jerusalem in the time of Hadrian.' On
the contrary, he maintains that the Apocalypse
is a genuine work of the Apostle.
'Those early
writers believed that it was a work of the Apostle
John, who justly claim our credence.' 'I believe,
however, that it was kept in the care of the preș-
byter John, a disciple of the Apostle, and that
therefore it came to pass that it was supposed by
some to be his work.'
Præf. ad
Hebr.
Votum pro
Pace, IV.
p. 672.
Præf. ad
2 Petr.
Præf. ad
2 Joh.
Præf. ad
Jud.
Præf. ad
Apoc.
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
281
1
CHAP. X.
SECT. V. The English Church.
212.
The history of the Canon in England is clearly
reflected in the history of the English translations
of the Bible. The work which was begun by See pp. 209,
Alfric and Wycliffe was brought to a worthy com-
pletion in the reign of Henry VIII. and his suc-
cessors; and the various Bibles which were
issued exhibit in details of classification and order
the changes of feeling which arose with regard to
the Apocrypha of the Old and the Antilegomena
of the New Testament.
ment.
The first edition of the New Testament which TYNDALE'S
was printed in English was that of W. TYNDALE. New Testa-
This probably was executed at Worms in 1525;
and in the arrangement of the books it follows
the order of Luther's Bible. The Epistle to the
Hebrews, James, Jude, and the Apocalypse, are
placed together at the end. The Second Epistle
of St Peter and 2, 3 John, on the other hand,
are placed with 1 Peter and 1 John.
logues to the several books Tyndale
same doubts which Luther noticed, except that See p. 263.
he passes over the Apocalypse in silence, though
he decides generally in favour of the authority of
In his Pro- On the dis-
notices the puted books.
p. 521 (ed.
the disputed books. Whether [the Epistle to Doctrinal
the Hebrews] were Paul's or no, I say not, but Treatises, &c.
permit it to other men's judgments; neither Park. Soc.).
think I it to be an article of any man's faith, but
that a man may doubt of the author.' But in
spite of these doubts 'this Epistle ought no more Id. p. 523.
to be refused for a holy, godly, and catholic, than
the other authentic Scriptures.' 'Though [the Id. p. 625.
Epistle of St James] were refused in old time,
and denied of many to be the Epistle of a very
Apostle, and though also it lay not the founda-
282
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
Id. p. 531.
CHAP. X. tion of the faith of Christ...methinketh it ought
of right to be taken for Holy Scripture.' 'As for
the Epistle of Judas, though men have and yet
do doubt of the author...I see not but that it
ought to have the authority of Holy Scripture.'
In his Prologues to 2 Peter and 2, 3 John (like
Luther) he does not refer to any doubts as to the
canonicity of the Epistles.
The work of Tyndale, which was most nobly
conceived and executed, was interrupted by his
treacherous imprisonment and martyrdom. In
the meantime, however, a complete edition of the
English Bible had been printed abroad in 1535.
This, according to the title, was 'faithfully and
truly translated out of Douche [German] and
Latyn in to Englishe' by MYLES COVERDALE; and
dedicated to Henry VIII.-'oure Moses' who
brought us out of Egypt 'from the cruell handes
of our spirituall Pharao'-in language of strange
flattery. A list of the books is given, which pre-
sents some peculiarities. "The bokes of the fyrst
parte' comprise the Pentateuch: 'The bokes of the
seconde parte,' Joshua...Esther: "The bokes of
the thyrde parte,' Job...Canticles ('Salomon's ba-
lettes'). Then follow the Prophetes,' including
Baruch; and next 'the Apocrypha.' The books
of the New Testament follow the same order as
in Tyndale's translation¹. The Apocrypha have a
separate title-page which explains distinctly the
position which they were supposed to occupy.
'Apocripha. The bokes and treatises which
amonge the fathers of olde are not rekened to be
of like authorite with the other bokes of the byble,
nether are they foude in the Canon of the He-
COVERDALE'S
Bible.
"
A.D. 1536.
1 The Epistle to the Hebrews is still called 'The
Epistle of St Paul the Apostle.'
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
283
brue. The thirde boke of Esdras, the fourth CHAP. X.
boke of Esdras, The boke of Tobias, The boke of
Judith, Certayne chapters of Hester, The boke of
Wyssdome, Ecclesiasticus, The Storye of Su-
sanna¹, The Storye of Bell, The first boke of the
Machabees, The seconde boke of the Machabees.
Unto these also belongeth Baruc, whom we haue
set amōge the prophetes next vnto Jeremy, be-
cause he was his scrybe and in his tyme?' A
short preface is also given, in which appeal is made
to the judgment of Jerome to show that 'the Apo-
crypha are not judged among the doctors to be
of like reputation with the other Scripture. And
the chief cause thereof is this: there be many
places in them, that seem to be repugnant unto
the open and manifest truth in the other books
of the Bible. Nevertheless I have not gathered
them together (Coverdale continues) to the intent
that I would have them despised or little set by,
or that I should think them false, for I am not
able to prove it. Yea, I doubt not verily, if they
were equally conferred with the other open Scrip-
ture (time, place and circumstance in all things
considered) they should neither seem contrary,
nor be untruly and perversely alleged³?
The work of Tyndale, which was broken off by MATTHEW'S
his death, was continued by his friend JOHN RO- Bible.
1 To this 'the Prayer of Azarias and the Song of
the three Children' are added in the text.
2 This note is specially worthy of notice. A false
historical tradition was strong enough to keep Baruch
among the Canonical Books, though on general grounds
it was declared Apocryphal.
3 In the second edition of Coverdale's Bible, printed
at Zurich (London) 1550, the book of Baruch is placed
after Tobit, and the Prayer of Manasses added after
The Story of Bel.
284
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X. GERS. Tyndale had translated the Old Testament
to the end of 2 Chronicles: Rogers completed
the translation with the help of Coverdale's Version
which (it is said) he revised¹; and added Coverdale's
translation of the Apocrypha. The whole work
was published under the name of THOMAS MAT-
THEW in 1537. The books of the Apocrypha have
a separate title: "The volume of the bookes called
Apocripha contayned in the comen Transl. in La-
tyne, whych are not founde in the Hebrue nor in
the Chalde.' Then follows a list of the books
identical except in some of the titles with that in
the Authorised Version; and a new Preface is
added in place of Coverdale's. This Preface is a
translation of that prefixed to Calvin's French
Bible of Neufchâtel, and affirms in very distinct
language the subordinate position of the Apocry-
pha, as they are not received nor taken as legiti-
mate and lawful as well of the Hebrew as of the
whole Church.' In the New Testament the order
of Tyndale is preserved unchanged; and the Epi-
stle to the Hebrews, though transposed, still bears
the name of St Paul.
See p. 271.
TAVERNER'S
Bible.
CRANMER'S
Bible.
In the Bible of R. TAVERNER (London, 1539),
which follows Matthew closely, there are some
significant changes. The title to the Apocrypha
remains unaltered, but there is no preface; and
in the title of the Epistle to the Hebrews the
name of St Paul is omitted.
In CRANMER'S or the Great Bible of 1540, the
first 'appointed to be read in Churches,' the books
of the Old Testament are divided into three parts,
1 It is, however, remarkable that Tyndale's trans-
lation of Jonah, which appears to have been made and
published about the same time as his translation of the
Pentateuch, was not inserted in it, but Coverdale's.
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
285
'the Pentateuch, the Historical Books, including CHAP. X.
Job, the remaining books of the Hebrew Canon
from Psalms to Malachi. Then follows the
volume of the bokes called Hagiographa. The
list is identical with that in Matthew's Bible, and
the preface of Matthew is added with one singu-
lar change. The title of Hagiographa is substi-
tuted for Apocrypha, but the explanation of the
latter wod is retained as if it were applicable to
the former: the books are called Hagiographa, it
is said, 'because they were wont to be read not
openly and in common, but as it were in secret
and apart. The Epistle of Saynct Paul the
Apostle unto the Hebrues' is placed after that to
Philemon, and the order of the remaining books
is the same as that which is found in our Au-
thorised Version. In the reprint of Nov. 1541,
the title of the books of the Apocrypha is changed.
They are no longer marked by a peculiar name,
but are described in the same terms as the books
of the former three parts: The iiii. parte of the
Byble contayninge these bookes' according to the
list already given. The Preface of Matthew is
also omitted, and the books as they stand appear
to form an integral and equal portion of the Old
Testament. The New Testament is unchanged.
Bible.
The Genevan Bible, which was completed by The Genevan
three English exiles at Geneva in 1560, remained
for three quarters of a century the popular Bible
for common use in England. The books of the
Apocrypha (except the Prayer of Manasses) are
inserted in a new translation and with a new pre-
face. The preface is full of interest. These
books that follow in order after the Prophets
unto the New Testament, are called Apocrypha,
that is, books which were not received by a com-
،
286
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
:
CHAP. X. mon consent to be read and expounded publicly
in the Church, neither yet served to prove any
point of Christian religion, save inasmuch as they
had the consent of the other Scriptures called
canonical to confirm the same, or rather whereon
they were grounded: but as books proceeding
from godly men, were received to be read for the
advancement and furtherance of the knowledge
of the history and for the instruction of godly
manners: which books declare that at all times
God had an especial care of His Church, and left
them not utterly destitute of teachers and means
to confirm them in the hope of the promised Mcs-
siah, and also witness that those calamities that
God sent to His Church, were according to His
providence, who had both so threatened by His
prophets, and so brought it to pass for the de-
struction of their enemies and for the trial of His
children.' The order of the books in the New
Testament is that of the Authorised Version. In
the preface to the Epistle to the Hebrews notice
is taken of the doubts as to whether St Paul
wrote it, (as it is not like'), but no reference is
made to the doubts as to the authority of the
other disputed books.
The Bishops'
Bible.
6
The Bishops' Bible of 1568 follows Cranmer's
in the arrangement of the books. In the table
of contents the Apocrypha form the fourth part
of the Bible called Apocryphus ;' and in the gene-
ral classification of the whole Scripture of the
Bible' into 'legal, historical, sapiential and pro-
phetical' books, the books of the Apocrypha (ex-
cept the Prayer of Manasses) are ranged equally
with the books of the Hebrew Canon in their
respective classes. The title-page of the Apocry-
pha describes them somewhat differently. "The
}
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
287
volume of the bookes called Apocrypha.' No
preface is added. The order of the New Testa-
ment is the same as in Cranmer's Bible, and the
Epistle to the Hebrews is ascribed to 'St Paul
the Apostle¹?
ised Version.
In the Authorised Version of 1611 'the The Author-
bookes called Apocrypha' are marked by a run-
ning title 'Apocrypha' at the top of the page, but
they have no special catalogue or preface as in
earlier editions. Various renderings and refer-
ences are added to them as to the other books,
and in the table of lessons, which is prefixed to
the Bible, they are included in the general title
'Old Testament.'
¹ There is no change in these respects in the edition
of 1572.
2 Thus in the Homilies passages from Tobit and
Wisdom are quoted as Scripture, and Baruch is styled
a prophet.
CHAP. X.
Briefly it may be said that the English Church Summary
remained true throughout to the judgment of
Jerome. The Apocrypha were sanctioned in
every case for ecclesiastical use, but not admitted
(unless perhaps in the later editions of Cranmer's
Bible) to form part of the doctrinal rule. At one
time the line of distinction between them and the
Hebrew Canon is drawn more broadly, at another
less broadly, but there can be no doubt as to the
general spirit of the law by which they were in-
cluded in the Bible. They were retained in the
public services, as possessing a moral and historic
value, but they were not allowed to have an inde-
pendent dogmatic authority. Yet the English
Divines, like Athanasius and Jerome, did not scru-
ple from time to time to quote passages from the
Apocrypha as Scripture 2; and sentences from
288
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X. Tobit are still retained in our Communion Ser-
vice.
Hardwick,
Hist. of
XXXIX. Ar-
If we turn from the indirect to the formal set-
tlement of the English Bible-Canon, it will be
seen that the subject was determined in England
no less than on the Continent, without critical
discussion, by the tacit consent of the leaders of
the Reformation. The Articles of 1552 contain
no list of the books of Holy Scripture. The 5th
Links, p. 270.- article, which declares that 'The doctrine of holie
Scripture is sufficient to Salvation,' consists of the
substance of the first paragraph only of our pre-
sent 6th Article. The same general statement
was repeated in the eleven (provisional) articles
drawn up under the direction of Archbp. Parker,
and sanctioned by the English prelates in 1559.
The 6th of the Latin Articles of 1562 gives a list
of the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and of the
'other books,' enumerating 3, 4 Esdras, Wisdom,
Jesus son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Judith, Tobit,
1,2 Maccabees, which are to be read 'for example
of life and instruction of manners.' The omission
of Baruch is remarkable; and it seems likely
that this book was supposed to occupy the same
relation to Jeremiah as the apocryphal additions
severally to Esther and Daniel, which are also
passed over in the catalogue. In the following
year an English translation of these Articles was
prepared, which was afterwards presented to
Parliament and ratified in 1571.
Formal ar-
ticles on the
Bible-Canon.
Hardwick,
pp. 271 f.
The vith
Article.
Meanwhile the list of the Apocrypha was com-
pleted in the English Articles of 1571, and took
the form which it has at present. The main
clauses of the Article are historically full of
interest:
'In the name of Holy Scripture we do under-
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
289
stand those canonical books of the Old and New
Testament of whose authority was never any
doubt in the Church.'
'The names and number of the Canonical
Books.
'Genesis, Exodus, &c....xii. Prophets the
less.
'And the other books (as Jerome saith) the
Church doth read for example of life and instruc-
tion of manners; but yet doth it not apply them
to establish any doctrine. Such are the fol-
lowing:
'3 Esdras, 4 Esdras...1, 2 Maccabees¹.
'All the books of the New Testament as they
are commonly received we do receive and account
them for Canonical.'
1 It will be noticed that the English Church, fol-
lowing the usage of most Latin MSS. of the Bible,
includes among the Apocrypha some writings which
are not reckoned in the Canon by the Council of Trent:
1, 2 Esdras, and the Prayer of Manasses.
Articles.
The full list of the Apocryphal Books is given
also in the Latin edition of the Articles published
in 1571; and in the Irish Articles of 1615. It is The Irish
likewise worthy of notice that the Irish Articles
give a detailed list of the books of the New Tes-
tament in the order of the Authorized Version as
well as of those of the Old Testament. All Hardwick,
which,' it is added, 'we acknowledge to be given PP. 341 f.
by the inspiration of God, and in that regard to
be of most certain credit and highest authority.
The other books, commonly called Apocryphal,
did not proceed from such inspiration, and there-
fore are not of sufficient authority to establish
any point of doctrine; but the Church doth read
them as books containing many worthy things for
CHAP. X.
19
290
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CHAP. X. example of life and instruction of manners. Such
are these following...'
Articles,
p. 276
One point in the language of the VIth Article
is strangely ambiguous. The definition of Holy
Scripture which is given is, 'those canonical books
of the Old and New Testament, of whose author-
See Belgian ity was never any doubt in the Church? The
form of the definition appears to have been
moulded chiefly with reference to the Apocrypha
noticed afterwards, which had confessedly gained
a partial but not a universal reception in the
Church. But at the end it is said of the 'books
of the New Testament as they are commonly
received,' that 'we receive them and account them
Canonical. The last words must then either be
used loosely in the sense that, though the author-
ity of some of the Apostolic writings had been
doubted, yet these doubts were treated as of no
moment, or be designed to express a difference
between 'Canonical books' and 'those Canonical
books of whose authority was never any doubt in
the Church.' Perhaps it may be conjectured
that some difference of opinion existed among
those who framed the Article, and that the lan-
guage in which it is at present expressed was the
result of a compromise. However this may be,
the fact is remarkable; and a comparison of the
Article with the corresponding articles in the
Belgian, French, Irish and Westminster Con-
fessions makes it almost certain that the freedom
of opinion involved in the ambiguity was pur-
posely conceded to the English clergy. But if it
were so, no one of the great English Divines in
the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries made
use of it. The differences of opinion which had
been entertained as to the disputed books of the
Ambiguity
of the vith
Article.
-
THE BIBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
291
New Testament were forgotten or absolutely set CHAP. X.
aside. The Apocrypha, on the other hand, be-
came the subject of vehement debates. The
Puritans on every occasion protested against
their ecclesiastical use; and among the changes
which were proposed in the last conference at the
Jerusalem Chamber in 1689, was the omission
from the calendar of all lessons from the Apo-
crypha. The controversy was renewed in the
present century; but the growing study of the
Bible shews day by day more clearly the import-
ance of the Apocrypha 'as books good and useful
to be read,' which link together the Old and New
Testaments, and set before the Church in vivid
pictures the working of the Old Dispensation
throughout the Jewish world at times when there
was 'no prophet more.' They witness alike to
what Judaism could do, and to what it could not
do. They prove by contrast that the books of the
Hebrew Canon, as a whole, are generically dis-
tinct from the ordinary religious literature of the
Jews; and establish more clearly than anything
else the absolute originality of the Gospel. In
this respect the Church of England has followed
the golden mean in adhering to the judgment of
Jerome, and thereby borne witness to the true
historic relations of the Bible. In this respect,
as in her teaching generally, she has allowed to
usage and antiquity due regard and reverence,
without narrowing or enlarging the sacred limits
of Faith.
·
19-2
I
CONCLU-
SION.
1. The forma-
tion of the
Christian
Bible slow.
CONCLUSION.
IT
[T may be well, at the end of an inquiry which
has necessarily dealt in a great measure with
details, to point out in a few sentences, the chief
conclusions which appear to flow from it. The
evidence has been already given, and any one
who pleases can test their soundness. The
method and the results are both purely critical ;
but they are not on that account to be set aside
as unworthy of the notice of the spiritual student
of the Bible. On the contrary, historical criticism
furnishes the sure and solid basis on which the
practical application of Holy Scripture rests. Its
lessons claim to be welcomed as opening new
harmonies in the many utterances of the One
Divine Word. And even if it were not so, if
they seemed to our shortsighted prudence to
weaken a time-honoured tradition, they claim to
be received because they are true.
1. In the first place, then, it cannot be denied
that the formation of the complete Christian
Bible was slow and gradual. For at least a cen-
tury after the death of our Blessed Lord, the
Old Testament was the one Bible of Christians.
During this period there was no wide-spread
or definite idea of supplementing the records of
the Old Testament by records of the New Testa-
CONCLUSION.
293
SION.
ment. There was no sense as yet that more was CONCLU-
needed for the guidance of the Church than the
interpretation of the Law and the Prophets in
the light of the Apostolic teaching. But mean-
while a written New Testament was in the very
act of formation. The different types of doctrine
sanctioned by the Apostles found an outward
embodiment; and the original writings in which
those types were preserved stood out with un-
changing power amidst the shifting traditions
which for a time preserved their substance. In
one Church it may have been, the doctrine of
St Paul prevailed at first; in another, the doc-
trine of St John; in another, the doctrine of
St Peter or St James; but early in the second
century the more frequent intercourse and wider
experience of the Christian societies resulted in
the definite establishment of a Catholic Church-
Catholic, because it included all that was true
in the partial views of heresy-and soon after,
the whole Bible was received as the pledge and
witness of the whole Truth.
Christian
by formal de-
4
2. But this issue was the result of a common 2. The con-
life, and not of any formal action. There is not tents of the
the slightest evidence to show that the collection Bible ruled
of the Sacred Books, as the depositaries of doc- by usage not
trine, was ever the subject of a general con- cisions.
ference of the Churches. The Bible was formed,
even as the Church itself was formed, by the
action of that Holy Spirit which is the Life of
both. Usage and not criticism fixed the limits.
of the Christian Bible; but in this case, usage
is only another name for a divine instinct, a pro-
vidential inspiration, a function of the Christian
body. Still, however we call it, the discrimi-
nating power was seen in usage and not in law
294
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
CONCLU
SION.
3. No abso-
lute unifor
mity in the
Churches as
to the con-
tents of the
Bible.
and this is distinctly recognized by the earliest
writers who treat in detail on the New Testa-
ment Canon. Thus Eusebius appeals only to the
universal or general or partial approbation of
churches, as fixing the authority of special books;
and even at a later time, Augustine accepted,
without the slightest misgiving, the startling con-
clusion, that the weight to be allowed to par-
ticular writings was to be measured by a con-
sideration of the number and character of the
churches by which they were received.
3. This judgment of Augustine leads us to
another remark. The usage which fixed the con-
tents of the Bible was by no means uniform. It
differed both in regard to the Old Testament and
in regard to the New Testament. Of those who
received the Hebrew Canon of the Old Testa-
ment only as having binding authority, some
accepted and some rejected Esther. Indeed,
on the whole, if Christian evidence alone be
taken, it appears that there is less evidence for
the reception of this book as canonical in the
fullest sense, than for the reception of Baruch.
And in the New Testament, within certain limits,
the greatest diversity prevailed. There was no
effort, perhaps hardly a wish, to obtain absolute
uniformity. Yet history teaches by the plainest
examples that no one part of the Bible could
be set aside without great and permanent injury
to the Church which refused a portion of the
apostolic heritage. We are now in a position to
estimate what would have been lost if the Epistle
to the Hebrews, or the Epistle of St James, or
the Apocalypse had been excluded from the
Canon. And on the other hand, we can measure
the evils which flow equally from canonizing the
CONCLUSION.
295
Apocrypha of the Old Testament, and denying CONCLU-
to them all ecclesiastical use.
SION.
not an
first ages.
4. It follows necessarily from what has been 4. The limits
said, that the limits of the Bible never formed of the Bible
an article of faith in the early Churches. Certain article of
books, varying to some extent, were set aside faith in the
for public use, but no definition of their character
was imposed upon clergy or laity. Canonicity,
and not inspiration, was the point to which all
the chief authoritative decisions on the Bible
pointed. It was not till the era of the Reform-
ation that a question, which, in one aspect at
least, is essentially a problem of history, was
made the subject of a dogma; and that with
the express and admitted purpose of silencing
criticism. If there were any doubt on the spirit
of that fatal decree of Trent-the first pattern of
so many others-it would be removed by the
consideration of the fact, that the same power
which claimed absolute authority over the ex-
tent of the Bible, claimed equal authority over
the text of it. The history of the adulterous
woman (John vii. 53-viii. 11), the narrative of the Bibl. Sancta
Bloody Sweat (Luke xxii. 43, 44), the conclusion of Sixti Sen. 1. 1.
St Mark's Gospel (Mark xvi. 9—20), are declared by See p. 258.
the mere will of a Council, prior to the examina-
tion of all original evidence, to be 'scripture of
irrefragable authority. It was not thus that
Origen, or Eusebius, or Athanasius, or Jerome,
or Augustine spoke; and it is not thus that the
Church of England speaks. With an unconscious
and instinctive foresight, in which it may not be
presumptuous to see the guiding power of the
Divine will, the Church of England has repro-
duced in essence the judgments of the fourth
century, by which it is our happiness to abide.
296
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
(
parallel to
the history
of the
Church.
5. In a word, the history of the Bible is an
epitome of the history of the Church. Both
5. The history came to their full form slowly, silently, surely,
of the Bible by the combination of manifold elements. Both
grew by the action of an informing power, and
were not constructed from without by any foreign
force. Both include treasures new and old, of
which now this now that is needed for the in-
struction of men. Both have been overlaid by
superstitious additions: both have been injured
by an idolatrous reverence; but in both there
is a life which makes itself felt, and refuses to be
bound in one shape. The Bible, no less than the
Church, is Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic: Holy,
for they who wrote it were moved by the Holy
Spirit Catholic, for it embraces in essence every
type of Christian truth which has gained entrance
among men: Apostolic, for its limits are not
extended beyond that first generation to which
was committed the charge of preaching the Gospel
in the fulness of its original power.
CONCLU-
SION.
1
APPENDIX A.
On the History of the Canon of the Old Testa-
ment before the Christian Era.
THE history of the formation of the Canon of the Old APPEND. A.
Testament in Jewish times can be understood best by
reference to the history of the formation of the Canon
of the New Testament. But there is this grand dif-
ference between the two cases, that while the New Tes-
tament was forined out of writings of one age only, the
Old Testament was formed out of writings which
spread over many centuries. Yet the difference is
one of detail and not of principle. In the case of the
Old Testament the process was necessarily divided
into several stages. Each great group of books had
its separate history; and the national Bible, which
was formed out of them, grew with the slow develop-
ment of Divine revelation.
The familiar division of the Old Testament into A threefold
the Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings (Ha- Jewish Bible.
giographa), probably indicates the three great forms
in which the Bible was successively received by the
Jews. The Law alone seems to have formed the
Jewish Bible up to the Captivity. At the Return a
collection of the Prophets was probably made by Ezra
and added to the sacred Law. Afterwards the col-
lection of the Hagiographa was formed, and the pre-
sent Hebrew Canon completed during the period of
the Persian supremacy.
i. This broad outline of the history of the Hebrew i. The Law.
Bible is confirmed by the scanty historic notices which
have been preserved. From the first 'the book of the
Law' occupied a place in the sanctuary. According
298
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
APPEND. A. to the command of Moses it was 'put in the side of
the ark' (Deut. xxxi. 25 ff.), but not in it (1 Kings
viii. 9); and for our present purpose this testimony
loses little of its value, even if it only represent the
popular belief of the nation at some time after the
death of Moses. This book of the Law' was not
confined to mere precepts and enactments.
It con-
tained also general exhortations (Deut. xxviii. 61) and
historical records (Ex. xvii. 14). Without assuming
anything as to the origin of the Pentateuch, it is evi-
dent that the Pentateuch, as it stands at present,
represents in scope and character such a book as is
contemplated in these and similar passages. But there
is no independent witness to its use till late in the
time of the kingdom. The first clear historic reference
to 'the book of the Law' is in the reign of Josiah,
when Hilkiah found it 'in the house of the Lord'
(2 Kings xxii. 8: comp. 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14); and
there can be no reasonable doubt that the book of
Hilkiah was substantially the Pentateuch which we
now have. Even at this time other records were con-
nected with the books of Moses, which referred to the
later history of the Jews in the times of Joshua (Josh.
xxiv. 26) and Samuel (1 Sam. x. 25). Collections of
proverbs also were made (Prov. xxv. 1); and much of
the teaching of the prophets must have been preserved
in the 'prophetic schools.' In this way a preparation
was made for the future enlargement of the Bible;
but as yet the book of the Lord,' to which Isaiah
appealed as a summary of the Divine teaching, open
to all and certainly authoritative, was probably con-
fined to the Pentateuch (Is. xxxiv. 16).
ii. The Pro-
phets.
ii. One remarkable proof of the truth of this opi-
nion lies in the Bible of the Samaritans, which consists
of the books of Moses only. They evidently retained
a collection of sacred writings which was incomplete,
and did not mutilate one which was originally of wider
range. It is easy to see how this came to pass. The
Samaritans were stationary at a crisis when the Jews
were progressive. The chequered fortunes of the Jews
were so shaped as to fit them to recognize a Divine
authority in the prophetic development of the Law.
When the kingdom, which had seemed at one time to
offer the fulfilment of their national aspirations, was
falling to pieces, the prophets rose up as spiritual
APPENDIX A.
299
EZRA.
rulers. They claimed for themselves to be the imme- APPEND. A.
diate envoys of the God of Israel; and they made
good their claim.. Their written words were felt to
have a sacred (if as yet undefined) authority. The
later prophets (as Jeremiah) were evidently familiar
with the writings of their predecessors. Some collec-
tions of their works must therefore have been made
before the Captivity; and in the time of Zechariah
the Law and the former prophets' were in some
degree co-ordinate (Zech. vii. 12). In like manner,
the title applied to the prophetic writings in the book
of Daniel 'the books' (Dan. ix. 2)-shows that when
that was written the collection was definitely marked
out and known. Popular tradition points to Ezra and The work of
the great assembly'-the council by which he was
assisted—as having revised and closed this collection;
and the belief is supported by strong internal proba-
bility. The discipline of the Exile coming after the
disasters of the kingdom had taught the Jews to wel-
come the wider views of God's purposes which were
revealed by the prophets; and for them the new group
of sacred writings must at once have assumed its true
position beside the Law. But it was otherwise with
those who had known nothing of this long national
training. The Samaritans had hitherto learned Ju-
daism only in its simpler form. For them the letter
of the Divine ritual was more than the spirit; and
when they were excluded from participation in the
work of re-founding the Holy City, they naturally
clung with greater pertinacity to the Law which they
had first received. So from that time there were two
Hebrew Bibles; of which the one led up to Christ,
while the other has preserved unchanged to our own
day-saddest and most venerable of all ancient rites—
the typical paschal sacrifice on Mount Gerizim.
iii. In later traditions the work of Ezra was iii. The Ha-
strangely embellished. It was said that when the giographa.
Scriptures had been wholly destroyed he again dic-
tated them by the direct inspiration of God to chosen
scribes (2 Esdras xiv. 20—48); and this wild fable
was repeated in various forms by many of the earliest
Christian fathers, as Irenæus, Tertullian and Clement
of Alexandria; and at a later time it was borrowed
from Jerome by most of the Latin writers of the West.
The tradition is, in fact, as far as can be conjectured,
2
300
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
APPEND. A. the exact converse of the truth. The work which
Ezra partly accomplished was continued to a much
later period. The final completion of the Hebrew
Bible was not the labour of one man or of one gene-
ration; and this is the truth which is contained in the
story that the men of the Great Assembly 'wrote
Ezekiel, the xii. Minor prophets, Daniel and Esther.'
This Great Assembly or Synagogue, whose existence has
been called in question on insufficient grounds, was
the great council of the nation during the Persian
period, in which the last substantive changes were
made in the constitution of Judaism. The last mem-
ber of it is said to have been Simon the Just (c. B. C.
310-290). It was organized by Ezra, and, as com- ·
monly happens, the work of the whole body was trans-
ferred to its representative member. Ezra, as we have
seen, probably formed a collection of the prophetic
writings; and the Assembly gathered together after-
wards (as the Christian Church at a later time in cor-
responding circumstances) such books as were still left.
without the Canon, though proved to bear the stamp
of the Spirit of God. The decision in the last instance
(like that of Athanasius or Jerome) was, in all likeli-
hood, the expression of a popular consent, through
which (as is commonly the case in such matters) God
made His will known.
The Great
Synagogue.
See p. 36.
The work of
NEHEMIAH.
One remarkable historical statement confirms the
view which has been given of the gradual formation
of the later parts of the Jewish Canon during the
Persian period. Nehemiah, it is said (2 Macc. ii. 13),
'while founding a library gathered together the [writ-
ings] concerning the kings and prophets, and the
[writings] of David, and letters of kings about offer-
ings.' In other words, if we may trust a tradition
which has every mark of truth, Nehemiah completed
the collection of the prophets by the addition of the
later historical books, and added to them a collection
of Hagiographa.
The Bible in
the Macca-
The next glimpse which we have of the Jewish
Bible is in the time of the Maccabean war, when An-
bæan period. tiochus Epiphanes sought out the books of the Law'
and burnt them (1 Macc. i. 56), like Diocletian in hi
persecution of the Christians. The result of this spe
cial assault on the sacred books was, in all probability,
to separate them from all the remaining literature of
·
APPENDIX A.
301
the nation, and Judas Maccabæus, like a second Ne- APPEND. A.
hemiah, 'collected again the [writings] which had been
lost during the war' (2 Macc. ii. 14). After this time,
as is universally acknowledged, no new book gained
admission into the Hebrew Bible.
Thus the whole Palestinian, and therefore in the
truest sense the whole Jewish, Bible was completed
and separated from all other books; and in the Pro-
logue to Ecclesiasticus (c. B. C. 131) the complex title,
'the law, the prophets, and the remainder of the
books,' marks the Old Testament as distinctly as the
corresponding Jewish phrase. The triple division was
not indeed either arbitrary or accidental. It was a
result of the discipline by which the Jews had been
moulded, and an embodiment of the teaching of the
successive stages through which they had passed. The
Law was the foundation of the whole of the old dis-
pensation, the stern power by which the chosen people
was trained to fulfil its work. The Prophetic writings
carry on the history of the struggles by which the
Spirit of God led on a wilful race through triumphs
and sufferings and exile to the contemplation of the
spiritual antitypes of their ritual and constitution.
The Hagiographa exhibit the working of the Divine
power not in the nation, but in the individual life;
and, consequently, as a whole, belong to the final
period of Jewish civilization, so far as they have a po-
pular significance.
At a later time the Greek Version of this three-
fold Hebrew Canon was enlarged by the addition of
other, and chiefly Greek, books; but there is no indi-
cation that this took place before the Christian period;
and the history of the Hebrew and Greek Bibles from
the Christian era has been already traced.
4
APPENDIX B.
The Contents of the most ancient MSS. of
the Bible.
APPEND. B. THREE MSS. of the most venerable antiquity, known
as the Alexandrine, the Vatican, and the Sinaitic, still
remain, which severally contain a very considerable
part of the Greek Bible. No one of them is absolutely
complete; but enough is left of each to indicate within
narrow limits its original contents. It is unneces-
sary to enter into the discussions which have been
raised as to their relative age. They are all probably
older than the first quarter of the fifth century, and
certainly no one is earlier than the beginning of the
fourth. Thus they are living monuments of the eccle-
siastical usage of the Christian Church as to the books
of Scripture at the time of its first connexion with the
Empire. They seem, without doubt, to have been
designed for public use; and as we look at their pages
we are, as it were, transported directly into the pre-
sence of the assemblies of Christians who had known
something of the terrors of the persecution of Dio-
cletian. Their evidence consequently has an interest
though not an authority greater than that which
would attach to the decision of an individual. They
express, in all probability, a popular and not a critical
opinion. This indeed appears to follow from their con-
tents. Each includes the books of the Apocrypha as well
as and among the Canonical Books of the Old Testa-
ment; and the two which contain the later books of
the New Testament, contain also, as part of the same
collection, books which are excluded from our Canon.
In both respects these earliest Christian Bibles furnish
an instructive commentary on the express judgments
of the Greek Fathers, and exhibit the practical tend-
APPENDIX B.
303
ency which exists in every age to retain as sacred APPEND. B.
every thing which has once been consecrated by cus-
tom however partial.
andrine MS.
1. The Alexandrine MS. (Cod. A), which is one of 1. The Alea-
the chief treasures of the British Museum, was pre-
sented to Charles I. by the reforming patriarch of
Constantinople, Cyril Lucar, in 1628. The three
volumes which contain the Old Testament are nearly
complete. The fourth, which contains the New Tes-
tament, has several considerable lacunæ. The greater
part of St Matthew is wanting, and besides this, about
two chapters of St John, and eight chapters of 2 Co-
rinthians. After the Apocalypse follows in the same
hand the first Epistle of Clement, and a fragment of
the so-called Second Epistle. These, as appears from a
table of contents prefixed to the first volume, were
designed to form part of the New Testament.'
table itself will give a complete idea of the substance
and arrangement of the MS., which is attributed with
good reason to the beginning of the fifth century.
"The Creation of the World (Genesis).
The departure from Egypt (Exodus).
The
Leviticus.
Numbers.
Deuteronomy.
Joshua the son of Naue.
Judges.
Ruth.
Together eight Books.
Kingdoms 1 (Samuel 1).
Kingdoms 2 (Samuel 2).
Kingdoms 3 (Kings 1).
Kingdoms 4 (Kings 2).
Paralipomena, i. c. Supplementary histories, 1 (Chro-
nicles 1).
Paralipomena 2 (Chronicles 2).
Together Six books.
Prophets 16.
Osee i.......
Jeremiah xiv. (i. e. Jeremiah, with Baruch, La-
mentations and the Epistle, i.c. Baruch vi.)....
Daniel xvi. (with additions).
Esther (with additions).
Tobit.
Judith.
304
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
APPEND. B.
Ezras I the priest (Esdras 1).
Ezras 2 the priest (Ezra and Nehemiah).
History of the Maccabees 1.
History of the Maccabees 2.
History of the Maccabees 3.
History of the Maccabees 4.
The Psalter, with prefatory letter of Athanasius to
Marcellinus, and Hymns (including the Prayer of
Manasses).
Job.
Proverbs.
Ecclesiastes.
The Song of Songs (The Song of Solomon).
Wisdom, the Book of complete Virtue.
The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach (Ecclesi-
asticus).
The New Testament.
Gospels 4.
According to Matthew.
According to Mark.
According to Luke.
According to John.
Acts of Apostles.
Catholic Epistles 7 (James, 1, 2 Peter, 1, 2, 3 John,
Jude).
Epistles of Paul 14 (Romans....2 Thess., Hebrews,
1 Tim……..Philem.).
Apocalypse of John.
Clement's Epistle 1.
Clement's Epistle 2.
Together......? Books.
Psalms of Solomon xviii.'
Thus briefly this Greek Bible contains in the Old
Testament, in addition to all the books of the Hebrew
Canon, the books of our Apocrypha, except 2 Esdras,
and besides these, 3, 4 Maccabees, which we do not
receive. In the New Testament it contains all the
received books with the addition of 1, 2 Clement, which
are only found in this MS. The omission of the Shep-
herd, no less than the insertion of the Clementine
Epistles, seems to point to Syria rather than Alex-
andria as the real source from which this MS. was
derived. The same conclusion is perhaps indicated
by the order of the Old Testament. For from the
arrangement of the books it appears that Esther-
APPENDIX B.
305
4 Maccabees formed an Appendix to the historical APPEND. B.
books, and Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus an Appendix
to the Hagiographa; and that they were not treated
as, in the fullest sense, canonical.
2. The history of the Vatican MS. (Cod. B) is 2. The Vati-
unknown. It appears to have been in the Vatican can MS.
Library from the close of the fifteenth century, and
it has been conjectured that it was brought from the
East (Constantinople) by Cardinal Bessarion. The
narrative of the various attempts which have been
made to collate it form one of the strangest stories in
literary annals; and the edition lately published (1858)
from the collation of Cardinal Mai, still leaves very
much to be desired. The MS. is referred with con-
fidence to the fourth century, and on the whole it may
be pronounced to be the most correct copy of the
Greek Bible, though it is not free from grave faults.
It is mutilated both at the beginning and at the end,
and consequently has no table of contents like that in
the Alexandrine MS.; nor is there anything to show
whether it originally included the Apocalypse or other
books, as the Epistles of Clement or Hermas. The
books which remain are the following:
[I. The Octateuch.]
Genesis (a fragment).
Exodus.
Leviticus.
Numbers.
Deuteronomy.
Joshua the son of Naue.
Judges.
Ruth.
[II. The Historical Books.]
Kingdoms 1 (1 Samuel).
Kingdoms 2 (2 Samuel).
Kingdoms 3 (1 Kings).
Kingdoms 4 (2 Kings).
Paralipomena I (1 Chronicles).
Paralipomena 2 (2 Chronicles).
Esdras 1 (Esdras 1).
Esdras 2 (Ezra, Nehemiah).
•
20
306
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
APPEND. B.
See p. 161.
[III. The Hagiographa.]
Psalms (part deficient).
Proverbs.
Ecclesiastes.
Song of Solomon.
Job.
Wisdom of Solomon.
Wisdom of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus).
Esther (with additions).
Judith.
Tobit.
[IV. The Prophets.]
12 Minor Prophets (Osee...Malachias).
Isaiah.
Jeremiah.
Baruch.
Lamentations.
The Epistle of Jeremiah (Baruch vi.).
Ezekiel.
Daniel (with the additions).
[V. The New Testament.]
Gospels according to
Matthew.
Mark.
Luke.
John.
Acts of Apostles.
7 Catholic Epistles (James, 1, 2 Peter, 1, 2, 3 John,
Jude).
....
Epistles of St Paul (Romans, 2 Thessalonians,
Hebrews to ix. 14, where the MS. ends).
The book of Daniel is immediately followed by St
Matthew, and from the arrangement of the quires it
is certain that no books ever came between. Thus
the books of Maccabees are wholly wanting. On the
other hand, the MS. includes all the other Apocrypha
except the Prayer of Manasses and 2 Esdras. The
omission of Maccabees and the position of Esther bring
the copy into very close agreement with the canon of
Athanasius; and it seems probable that the Vatican
APPENDIX B.
307
MS. is the truest representation which remains of the APPEND. B.
Alexandrine Bible.
3. The Sinaitic MS. (Cod. ) is one of the latest 3. The Sinai-
tic MS.
and most precious literary discoveries of the present
century. Part of it was first detected by Tischendorf
at the Monastery of St Katharine on Mount Sinai in
1844, in a basket of fragments which were destined,
as he says, for the fire. What he then secured he
published in 1846 under the name of Codex Friderico-
Augustanus; and shortly afterwards he announced the
discovery of another [i. e. other parts of the same] MS.
without indicating the place where he had found it.
After one fruitless journey in 1853, he succeeded in
finding the treasure of which he was in quest in 1859,
when he visited St Katharine's under the patronage
of Alexander II., Emperor of Russia. After various
negotiations, which are not very satisfactorily ex-
plained, the MS. was carried to Europe and deposited
at St Petersburg, where it still remains.
The Sinaitic MS. is probably of the fourth cen-
tury, and is the only one of the greatest MSS. which
contains the New Testament entire. The arrange-
ment of the books both in the Old and New Testa-
ment differs considerably from that in the Vatican
and Alexandrine MSS.
The accompanying table will
shew what the MS. still contains.
[II. The Historical Books.]
1 Chronicles (fragments inserted in 2 Esdras from
a mistake in binding in the copy from which the MS.
was transcribed). [part in Cod. Frid.-Aug.]
2 Esdras (Ezra fragment, and Nehemiah). [Cod.
Frid.-Aug.]
Esther. [Cod. Frid.-Aug.]
Tobit (nearly entire). [part in Cod. Frid.-Aug.]
Judith (nearly entire).
I Maccabees.
4 Maccabees.
[III. The Prophets.]
Isaiah.
Jeremiah. [part in Cod. Frid.-Aug.]
Lamentations to ii. 20.
12 Minor Prophets (except Hosea, Amos, Micah).
20-2
308
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
APPEND. B.
[IV. The Hagiographa.]
Psalms (151).
Proverbs.
Ecclesiastes.
Song of Solomon.
Wisdom of Solomon.
Wisdom of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus).
Job.
[V. The New Testament.]
The Gospels according to
Matthew.
Mark.
Luke.
John.
14 Epistles of St Paul (Romans....2 Thessalonians,
Hebrews, 1, 2 Timothy, Philemon).
Acts.
7 Catholic Epistles (James, 1, 2 Peter, 1, 2, 3 John,
Jude).
Apocalypse of John.
Epistle of Barnabas.
Shepherd (fragment).
Thus the Sinaitic MS. differs from the Alexandrine
and Vatican MSS. both in the Old and in the New
Testament. Of the Apocrypha it includes Tobit, Ju
dith, 1 Maccabecs, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, [Baruch,]
among the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and adds
to these 4 Maccabees. In the New Testament it adds
to the received books the Epistle of Barnabas and the
Shepherd. My attention has been called to the fact
that the arrangement of the quires in the MSS. shews
that 4 Maccabees and the Shepherd formed separate
sections. The books are arranged in groups, and each
group begins and ends a new quire. The last quire
(if occasion calls for it) contains two or three instead
of four sheets. From the fact that 4 Maccabees and
the Shepherd thus stand by themselves, it has been
conjectured that they may have formed appendices to
the other generally received books.
4. The Bibles which have been hitherto examined
are all of Eastern origin. One
One very remarkable list of
African (that is Western) origin has been preserved in
APPENDIX B.
309
1588 (1582).
a Græco-Latin MS., which is in the Imperial Library APPEND. B.
at Paris. This MS. was found by Beza at Clermont
near Beauvais, and is called from the place of its dis- Pref. N. T.
covery the Codex Claromontanus. It contains St
Paul's Epistles in Greek and Latin texts, and is as-
signed to the close of the sixth century. After the
Epistle to Philemon and before that to the Hebrews, a
list of 'The lines of the Holy Scriptures' is given in the
Latin text: there is nothing in the Greek text which
answers to it. It is probable therefore that the scribe
found the list in this place in the Latin copy, which
he transcribed, and, with the usual desire of scribes to
omit nothing, introduced it into his book, though it
had no connexion with his immediate work. The list
itself is as follows:
Genesis..
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua....
Judges...
Ruth
..
··
•••
I Kingdoms
2 Kingdoms
3 Kingdoms
4 Kingdoms
...
Psalms
Proverbs..
Ecclesiastes.
Canticles
Wisdom..
...
Wisdom of Jesus [Ecclesiasticus].
12 Prophets
Hosea
Daniel..
I Maccabees
2 Maccabees
4 Maccabees
Judith..
Esdras.
Esther
Job
Tobias
••
...
....
...
··
··
...
Lines.
4500
3700
2800
3650
3300
2000
2000
250
2500
2000
2600
2400
5000
1600
600
300
1000
2500
3110
530
1600
2300
2300
1000
1300
1 500
1000
1600
1000
310
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH.
APPEND, B.
See p. 130.
4 Gospels,
Matthew
John
Mark
Luke
Epistles of Paul to
Romans
1 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians.
....
Galatians
Ephesians
I Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
James
I John
2 John
3 John
Jude
•
Colossians
Philemon..
I to Peter (thus)
2 to Peter
··
...
...
Epistle of Barnabas
Revelation of John...
Acts of Apostles
Shepherd
Acts of Paul
Revelation of Peter
•
•
Lines.
2600
2000
1600
2900
1040
1060
...70
350
375
208
288
I 40
251
50
200
140
220
220
20
20
бо
850
1200
2600
4000
3560
270
The omissions and additions of the catalogue are
both worthy of notice. It omits 1, 2 Chronicles, and
the Epistles of St Paul to the Thessalonians (1, 2) and
Philippians. The omission of the last three books
at any rate can only have been made through in-
advertence. The Epistle to the Hebrews, also, is not
named, but it has been acutely conjectured that this
is described under the title which it bore in part, at
least, of the African Church, as the Epistle of Bar-
nabas. If this be correct, the list contains in the Old
Testament, in addition to the Hebrew Canon, Wisdom,
Ecclesiasticus, 1, 2, 4 (not 3) Maccabees, Judith and
Tobit; and in the New Testament, in addition to the
APPENDIX B.
311
received books, the Shepherd, the Acts of Paul, and APPEND. B.
the Revelation of Peter. In both respects it may be
taken to represent fairly the books sanctioned for ec-
clesiastical use in some part of the North African
Church at the close of the third or the beginning of
the fourth century.
INDEX¹.
ETHIOPIO MSS, 238
ALEXIUS ARISTENUS, 224
ALFRIO, 208
Alogi, 138.n.
ALPHONSUS TOSTATUS, 201
AMPHILOCHIUS, 166
ANASTASIUS BIBLIOTHEC. 198
Antilegomena (i.e. Disputed
Books), 138 n.
Antoninus of Florence, 199
Apocalypse of Peter, 115, 127,
133, 149
Apocrypha of Old Testament,
alleged use of in New Tes-
tament, 45
Use of, 123, 130, 134, 136,
138, 146, 153, 168, 172,
173n., 174, 178, 179, 182,
198, 200, 207, 214, 226, 228,
232, 237, 240.
in English Church, 287
Apologists, Age of, 90
Apostles, the work of, 53
APOSTOLIC CANONS, 176 n.
APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS, 175
Apostolic Fathers, character-
istics of, 72
their relation to the Gos-
pels, 81
Assembly, The Great, 299, 300
ATHANASIUS, 160
[Athanasius] SYN. S. SCRIP-
TURÆ, 226
AUGUSTINE, 186
Balsamon, Theodorus, 224
Barnabas, Epistle of, 80, 127,
136, 149
i.e. Epistle to Hebrews, 130
Basil, 168
Bede, 208
Beza, 273
Bible, Names of, 4
of, 6
Alexandrine, Athana-
sian, Constantinopolitan, Sy-
rian, 165
Biblia, 5
Bibliotheca, 5.
BODENSTEIN. See CARLSTADT.
Book of Armagh, 206
Historical characteristics
Caietan, Cardinal, 253
CALVIN, 270, 275
Canon, 110 n.
Carlstadt, 266
CASSIODORUS, 197
Catharinus,
Catholic, 79
Celsus, 140
Charlemagne, 202
1 The authorities distinguished by capitals furnish lists of the sacred
books.
314
INDEX.
See JOHANNES.
Charlemagne's Bible, 203
CHRYSOSTOM.
Clement of Alexandria, 125
Clement of Rome, 74
Epistles of, 176 n., 218
Clementine Homilies, 105
Codex Alexandrinus, 303
Amiatinus, 196
Claromontanus, 308
Sinaiticus, 307
Vaticanus, 305
See Book of Armagh, Charle-
magne's Bible.
Tag Se S
CONFESSION, BELGIAN, 275
ENGLISH, 288
Swiss, of 1675, 278
FRENCH, 276
WESTMINSTER, 277
Cosmas Indicopleustes, 220
COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE, 188
CONSTANTINOPLE (1672),
229
FLORENCE, 199
HIPPO, 185
JERUSALEM (1672), 229
LAODICEA, 169
QUINI-SEXTINE, 217
TRENT, 255
Cyril of Alexandria, 171
CYRIL OF JERUSALEM, 168
CYRIL LUCAR, 227
DAMASCENUS. See JOHANNES.
DAMASUS, 195
Didymus, 171
Diocletian, 143
Dionysius of Alexandria, 137
Dionysius of Corinth, 111 n.
Dispersion of the Jews, 19
Donatus, 145
ERED JESU, 231
Ebionites, 69, 93
Enoch, Book of, 48
EPIPHANIUS, 172
Erasmus, 249
EUGENIUS IV., 199
EUGENIUS OF TOLEDO, 200
EUSEBIUS OF CESAREA (New
Testament), 148
Euthalius, 171
Ezra, Legend of, 37, 299
Work of, 299
Firmilian, 138
GELASIUS, 195
Gnostics, 70
Gospel, Oral, 58
GRATIAN, 198
Gregory of Nazianzus, 166
Gregory of Nyssa, 168
Gregory the Great, 198
Gregory the Wonder-worker,
138
Grosseteste, R., 214
Grotius, 279
S
Hagiographa, 28, 37, 299
Hegesippus, 107
Heretics, earliest quotations of
New Testament by, 113 n.
Hermas. See Shepherd.
Hierocles, 144
HILARY OF POITIERS (Old
Testament), 180
HILDEFONSUS OF TOLEDO, 200
Homologumena (i.e. Acknow-
ledged Books), 133, 148
Honorius, 205
HORMISDAS, 195
HORNE, ANDREW, 211
HUGO DE S. CARO, 203
HUGO DE S. VICTORE, 204
JEROME, 181
Ignatius, 76
INNOCENT I., 195
Instrumentum, 5
Johannes Balbus, 198
INDEX.
315
JOHANNES CHRYSOSTOMUS, 174
JOHANNES DAMASCENUS, 222
JOHN BELETH, 205
JOHN OF SALISBURY, 210
JOSEPHUS (Old Testament), 25
Irenæus, 121
Isidore of Pelusium, 171
ISIDORE OF SEVILLE, 200
IVO OF CHARTRES, 203
JUNILIUS, 193
Justin Martyr, 97
KARLSTADT. See CARLStadt.
Laodicenes, Apocryphal Letter
to, (115) 209
LEONTIUS, 219
LUTHER, 259
Macarius, 172
Marcion, 169
Marcionites, 71
Martyrdom of Ignatius, 79 n.
MELITO, 112 N., 124
Memoirs of the Apostles, 100
Methodius, 138
METROPHANES CRITOPULUS,
228
MURATORIAN CANON (New
Testament), 112
Nazarenes, 69
Nehemiah, Work of, 300
New Testament, Historic Origin
of, 57, 60, 65
NICEPHORUS, 225
NICEPHORUS Callistus, 227
NICOLAUS DE LYRA, 206
NOTKER, 207
Ockham, W., 211
ŒCOLAMPADIUS, 270, 275
Old Testament, History of the
formation of, 297
ORIGEN, 135
Pamphilus, 138
Papias, 95
Peter, Apocalypse of. See Apo-
calypse.
Gospel according to, 131
Preaching of, 136
PETRUS CLUNIACENSIS, 204
PETRUS COMESTOR, 205
PETRUS DE RIGA, 203
PHILASTRIUS, 177
Philo, 30
PHOTIUS, 223
Polycarp, 79
Porphyry, 140
Primasius, 193
Prologus galeatus, 181
Quotations from Old Testa-
ment in New Testament,
summary of, 44
Alleged Apocryphal in
New Testament, 46
RABANUS MAurus, 203
Roman Church, originally
Greek, 129
RUFFINUS, 178
RUPERT OF Deutz, 205
Samaritan Bible, 298
Septuagint, Use of, 23, 125, 130
Palestinian, 124
Serapion, 131
Shepherd, The, 115, 123, 127,
130, 134, 136, 148, 161, 182,
210
SIXTUS SENENSIS, 258
Sixty Books, The,' 224
Syrian MSS. of the Bible, 232
TALMUD (Old Testament), 35
Tertullian, 127
Testamentum, 5
Theophilus, 131
Thomas Aquinas, 198
316
INDEX.
THOMAS OF WALDEN, 213
Tradition, Historic, recognized
in New Testament, 58
Traditores, 144
VERSIONS, ETHIOPIO, 237
ARMENIAN, 239
EGYPTIAN, 235
ENGLISH:
WYCLIFFE, 211
TYNDALE, 281
COVERDALE, 282
MATTHEW, 283
CRANMER, 284
GENEVAN, 285
VERSIONS, ENGLISH:
AUTHORIZED, 287
GOTHIC, 155 N.
GREEK (Old Testament),
23, 33, 123-125
LATIN, OLD, 128
NEW, 181, 190
SYRIAC, 132, 232, 241
Ulphilas, 155 n.
Ximenes, Cardinal, 249
Xystus, 89 n.
ZONARAS, 223
Zwingli, 269, 275
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