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BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 LITERATURE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 
 (Now ready) 
 
 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 In collaboration with Carl Everett Purinton 
 (Now ready) 
 
 In Preparation 
 THE ACHIEVEMENT OF ISRAEL 
 
 THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE MASTER 
 In collaboration with Sadie Brackett Costello 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 
 
LITERATURE 
 OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
wer 
 By 
 ohh es 
 
 
 

 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 BY | 
 HERBERT R. 'PURINTON 
 
 PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE AND RELIGION 
 IN BATES COLLEGE 
 
 AND 
 
 CARL EVERETT PURINTON 
 
 FELLOW OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL ON 
 RELIGION IN HIGHER EDUCATION 
 
 NEW YORK 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 
 1925 
 
Copyricut, 1925, py 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In trying to reproduce the historical background of 
 the Bible there is always the danger that its docu- 
 ments shall seem to belong to a past generation and 
 not to the present. The books of our New Testament 
 were written especially for men living within a century 
 after the death of Jesus, and therefore more than 
 eighteen hundred years ago. And even these books 
 were written from several different points of view. 
 What meaning can they have for us? 
 
 The New Testament was written to tell about Jesus. 
 And it is Jesus that modern readers of the Bible want 
 to know. The example of his life and his ideals are 
 more important than ever when other lights are failing. 
 
 Men have always described Jesus in different ways. 
 One day on the road with his disciples, Jesus asked 
 them who people said he was. There were different 
 answers that day. The letters, biographical narratives, 
 all the books of the New Testament, are answers to this 
 question, answers written by different men, at different 
 times, under different circumstances, but all give a por- 
 trait of Jesus and his solution for their problems. _ 
 
 The answers of these writers about Jesus can be 
 traced through several stages of development. The first 
 stage was the time before the first of Paul’s letters was 
 written. Jesus was the Messiah of the Jews. Followers 
 of Jesus still attended the temple worship and the syna- 
 gogue. 
 
 But in the second period the Christian church began 
 to break away from Judaism. Then, too, Paul the 
 
 Vv 
 
vl PREFACE 
 
 scholar talked about Jesus in terms of the schoolmaster. 
 This was the beginning of doctrine. 
 
 The final and complete separation between the Chris- 
 tian and Jewish churches came with the destruction of 
 Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A. D. A further devel- 
 opment of church practices was only natural. And now, 
 too, we find full-fledged biographies of Jesus. One was 
 written by a well-to-do Greek physician, another by a 
 trained Jewish writer; yet all portray the same Jesus 
 and deliver his great conception of the Kingdom of God. 
 
 A fourth period was that of the persecutions. In dan- 
 
 ger of their lives, Christian leaders wrote tracts to en- 
 courage their followers to endure hardship, all in the 
 name of Jesus. 
 
 Lastly came dangers from within, the heresies. It 
 was necessary to settle disquieting arguments as to 
 what Jesus was not by firm statements of what he was. 
 More authority was placed in the hands of church 
 leaders. Thus the new enemy was attacked. 
 
 In the five different stages of development traced in 
 the New Testament, we find the ideals of Jesus en- 
 shrined in many different and changing forms, making 
 it necessary to separate between what was changeable 
 and what was permanent in the religious life of each 
 generation. 
 
 Yet it is the same Jesus that we find on all the pages 
 of the book. The Jesus of Paul is the Jesus of the Gos- 
 pels. The meek yet strong figure of the Master strides 
 through the pages of the book from cover to cover. In 
 every age and in every land men have sought and found 
 him. He is still to be found to-day. 
 
 Caru EvERETr PuRINTON. 
 JERUSALEM, PALESTINE, 
 April 21, 1925. 
 
iT 
 
 II. 
 III. 
 
 XII. 
 
 XIII. 
 XIV. 
 XV. 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PART 1 
 THE ORAL PERIOD 
 PAGE 
 ee TG) Lae Vat WV TRA rs he ey Decay eae ee 
 
 Te MAVEN Of SORUGEY air ce Abee Wile baat « 6 
 Lhe: Deeds-08 J esusis. 2 c68. Bice wa Oa Lees. 12 
 
 PART 2 
 
 THE PERIOD OF PAUL 
 
 The First New Testament Book................ 17 
 The Magna Charta of Christianity............. 22 
 A Picture of the First Great City Church....... 28 
 Paul’s Struggle and Victory at Corinth.......... 34 
 The Message to the World’s Capital............ 39 
 pres: Prison Letters. so). 0 os is ees Cen hign 44 
 Paul's Last bettors 8.0 8. oC A FS 50 
 
 PART 3 
 
 THE PERIOD OF THE FALL OF JERUSALEM 
 A Comparison of the First Three Gospels....... 55 
 The Life Story of the Author of the Gospel of 
 
 BA AER i ce wale aa dlikre ate aiprurnhee hs aoe ahaa MORAN 60. 
 The Gospel ‘of Marke) Oe sas ba eae 66. 
 The Gospel of Matthew. .............0. 0000006 73. 
 The Sermon on the Mount Ea ly HRSA A len a nd Cay 79 
 
 vu 
 
Vill 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 XVII. 
 XVIII. 
 XIX. 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 The Parables of the Kingdom................ 89 
 The <ospel OF Likes ei. eis ee ac ete sake 96 
 Luke, the First Christian Artist.............. 105 
 Pen-Pictures of the Early Church............. 111 
 PART 4 
 THE PERIOD OF PERSECUTION 
 The Drama of Revelation................... 116 
 An Oration on Loyalty..................0.0. 123 
 A’ Message of Hope tio seat coe S cuee 129 
 A Christian Critic....... bite | pat a alatg soca eae 136 
 PART 5 
 THE PERIOD OF THE BEGINNINGS OF HERESY 
 The Fourth Gospel: Its Historical Setting and 
 Purpobe 53 eae | ee eS ad, ea 1438 
 Dramatic Presentation of the Gospel.......... 150 
 The Gospel of the Living Christ.............. 159 
 Three Letters of John: ......6.5 6.6 seg. e eee es 166 
 The Letters to Timothy and Titus............ 172 
 
 The Two Latest Books of the New Testament. 176 
 
 181 
 
Part 1 
 THE ORAL PERIOD 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE LIVING WORD 
 
 1. Christianity Had No Sacred Book of Its Own. 
 
 Jesus did not write a book. The only record that we 
 have of his writing at all is that once upon a time he 
 wrote on the sand. He depended upon the spoken word 
 for the proclamation of his message. His disciples went 
 forth ‘in a sort of breathless haste to tell the story.” 
 They did not think of using the pen, because the time 
 was short and because neither they nor their hearers 
 were accustomed to books. These hearers who heard 
 the good news of Jesus so gladly were uneducated men 
 and women—fishermen, farmers, shepherds, and slaves. 
 
 But this does not mean that books were not being 
 written and read in the time of Jesus. In Jerusalem 
 many of the upper classes had the Old Testament in 
 Hebrew, which had already been translated into Greek. 
 This translation is known as the Septuagint and con- 
 tained, besides the thirty-nine books of the Old Testa- 
 ment, the fourteen apocryphal books. Paul had books 
 and showed in his later epistles that he had studied the 
 Septuagint very carefully. As a boy in Tarsus he had 
 either read the Greek poets himself or had been in- 
 structed in them by his teachers, because he quotes 
 
 1 
 
2 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 them in his speech at Athens. In the cities of the Ro- 
 man Empire the higher classes of people were familiar 
 with a wide range of literature, including Homer, Plato, 
 Cicero, Virgil, and Horace. All this world of scholarship, 
 however, was practically unknown to the common peo- 
 ple of Palestine. They depended upon the living voice 
 for their inspiration and instruction. 
 
 2. Use of the Old Testament by Christians. 
 
 While the early followers of Jesus had no purely 
 Christian literature, they were all very familiar with 
 the sacred books of the Jews, the Old Testament. In- 
 deed, the first Christians were Jews and inherited the 
 Jewish Bible. From it the early Christian preachers 
 quoted passages to prove that Jesus of Nazareth was 
 the long-expected Messiah. From it, also, came the 
 suggestion in later years that Christianity, like Juda- 
 ism, should have its sacred book, which in case of con- 
 troversy could be quoted as authority. Only a few per- 
 sons in the time of Jesus could read the Hebrew Bible, 
 for Hebrew had become a dead language, and Aramaic 
 had taken its place. Fewer people still could afford to 
 own scrolls of the Law, Prophets, and Psalms. Copies of 
 these would be found in the synagogues, where on the 
 Sabbath the Hebrew would be translated into Aramaic 
 for the benefit of the hearers, and on other days the 
 older boys would study both the Hebrew and the oral 
 law. 
 
 When Paul wrote his letters to the church in the 
 years 50 to 65, and when the Gospels were published 
 a few years later, it was the custom to quote from the 
 Septuagint rather than from the Hebrew. This is shown 
 by the words and phrases in the New Testament which 
 clearly follow the peculiarities of the Greek translation. 
 
THE LIVING WORD 3 
 
 But few Christians would be able to read the Greek. 
 They were ignorant alike of the Old Testament in He- 
 brew and in Greek. They looked to something besides 
 books for their inspiration and instruction. 
 
 3. The Radiance of a Life. 
 
 Jesus was the radiant centre of Christianity. Life 
 and power and healing flowed from his presence. The 
 story of the woman who touched the hem of his gar- 
 ment and was healed is symbolical of his whole career. 
 When Jesus spoke it was with “authority,” that is, 
 with peculiar power. The people heard him gladly. He 
 did not make long arguments based on ancient records; 
 he did not quote authorities for this statement or that, 
 but spoke from his heart. The common people heard 
 him gladly; the crowds thronged about him for a touch 
 of that new life. 
 
 His first disciples carried the good news to others by 
 word of mouth. Andrew won Peter; Peter converted 
 three thousand; and the disciples, scattered by perse- 
 cution, told the story of Jesus far and wide. It was like 
 the ceremony of lighting the candles at the Church of 
 the Holy Sepulchre. From the first the light spreads 
 to all. From Jesus the joyous news of redemption ran 
 through Palestine by the voice of happy believers. No 
 letter of Paul was written within twenty years of the 
 crucifixion, no Gospel within forty years, yet the 
 churches multiplied everywhere through the power of 
 the living voice. 
 
 4. Jerusalem the Home of the Living Voice. 
 
 After the resurrection of Jesus the disciples came to- 
 gether in Jerusalem, and within a few weeks thousands 
 were added to their membership (Acts 2:41; 4:4). 
 
4 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 For them the words of Jesus, although they were not 
 yet written, became the chief authority. A church his- 
 torian, writing at a later date (Papias, 130 A. D.), 
 speaks of the fact that there in Jerusalem they can 
 give “the living and abiding voice.” 
 
 It was in Jerusalem that Peter and John at the Beau- 
 tiful Gate of the Temple proclaimed the message of 
 Jesus (Acts 3 and 4). There, also, Peter gave his great 
 sermon on the day of Pentecost. In Jerusalem, too, 
 James, the brother of Jesus, became the head of a 
 great church and was recognized as qualified to speak 
 the mind of Jesus. Until Paul, twenty years later, be- 
 came the leader, all Christians looked to Jerusalem as 
 the headquarters of the faith. And to this day Zion is 
 the Holy City, because there the “living voice’’ first 
 proclaimed the message of eternal life. 
 
 5. Two Reasons Why the Gospels Were Not Written 
 Earlier. 
 
 Those who had heard Jesus had no need of a book 
 to tell them what to do. His vivid personality, his 
 memorable stories, and his example were ever before 
 their minds. 
 
 When, a little later, it might have seemed desirable 
 to reduce Jesus’ words to writing, his followers were 
 not interested in the project because they believed 
 that before the end of their generation he would come 
 again and bring the world to an end. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 1. How were the words of Jesus preserved? 
 2. poet class of people did Jesus speak? Mark 1: 16-20; 
 
Oo orf & 
 
 oF Whe 
 
 THE LIVING WORD 5 
 
 . What great book was familiar to the followers of Jesus? In 
 
 what two languages was it published? 
 
 . Give examples of the radiance of Jesus’ life. 
 . What is the meaning of the “living and abiding voice”? 
 
 Give examples. 
 
 . Two reasons why the words of Jesus were not written down 
 
 earlier. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 . Were class distinctions as pronounced then as now? 
 . What people among the Jews would be the best educated? 
 
 What preyoReDs of the people was not able to read and 
 write ? 
 
 . What was the Septuagint? ’ 
 . Were the early Christians correct in believing that Christ 
 
 would come again to earth before the end of that genera- 
 tion? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 . Find a passage in the book of Acts in which Paul quotes a 
 
 Greek poet. 
 
 . Write a list of the Aramaic words used by Jesus which are 
 
 retained in the New Testament. Mark 5:41; 7:11; 7:34; 
 14:36; 15: 34. 
 
CuHaptTer II 
 THE SAYINGS OF JESUS 
 
 1. A Discovery in Egypt. 
 
 In the ruins of the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus, 
 there was discovered in the year 1897 the tattered leaf 
 of a papyrus book written in the second century. On 
 this leaf were several sayings of Jesus, some of them 
 identical with words of Jesus found in the New Testa- 
 ment. One of these verses, although incomplete, ver- 
 bally agrees with a well-known New Testament say- 
 ing, “‘. . . and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out 
 the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.”? Compare 
 Matthew 7: 5. 
 
 Other discoveries of this kind will probably be made 
 in many parts of Egypt and Palestine, where the early 
 Christians were teaching about Jesus and were making 
 collections of his sayings to help them in their evan- 
 gelistic work. This agrees with the opening sentence 
 in the Gospel of Luke, “ Forasmuch as many have 
 taken in hand to draw up a narrative concerning those 
 matters which have been fulfilled among us... .” 
 
 Henry van Dyke has made use of this discovery in 
 his Towling of Felix. 
 
 “But this word the Master said 
 Long ago and far away, 
 Silent and forgotten lay 
 Buried with the silent dead, 
 Where the sands of Egypt spread 
 Sea-like, tawny billows heaping 
 Over ancient cities sleeping, 
 
 6 
 
THE SAYINGS OF JESUS 7 
 
 While the river Nile between 
 
 Rolls its summer flood of green, 
 
 Rolls its autumn flood of red: 
 
 There the word the Master said 
 Written on a frail papyrus, wrinkled, scorched by fire and torn, 
 Hidden by God’s hand was waiting for its resurrection morn.” 
 
 2. How the Sayings of Jesus Were First Written. 
 
 Imagine yourself with the crowd of people to whom 
 Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. They used the 
 Aramaic language, and so the famous sayings of Jesus 
 were reported in this tongue. When the disciples and 
 other people went away from that place, they began to 
 tell what Jesus had said. Everywhere they repeated 
 
 the sayings of Jesus in this Aramaic language. It is well ; 
 known that the Oriental peoples have a remarkable | 
 
 memory. A little later it was a requirement of all can- 
 
 didates for the Christian ministry that they be able to ! 
 
 Pend 
 
 repeat the Psalms from memory. It is not surprising, | 
 
 then, that the very words of Jesus were accurately 
 quoted year after year. 
 
 As time went on, many of those who had heard Jesus 
 speak died. The question arose how should these say- 
 ings of the Master be handed down to the next genera- 
 tion. The result was that in many different parts of 
 Palestine the words of Jesus were written down in 
 Aramaic. An evidence that Aramaic was the language 
 Jesus used is seen in such verses as Mark 14: 36, where 
 the Aramaic abba is used for the Greek father. It is 
 reported by Papias, a bishop of Asia Minor, that the 
 apostle Matthew made a collection of these Aramaic 
 sayings of Jesus. This group of sayings has usually 
 been referred to as the Logia. Papias said: ‘‘So then 
 Matthew composed the Logia in the Hebrew language, 
 and every one interpreted them as he was able.”” When 
 Papias said “Hebrew,” he meant Aramaic, which was 
 
si 
 
 8 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 the current dialect. This collection was probably made 
 about the year 50 A. D. 
 
 3. Why the Sayings of Jesus Were Translated into 
 Greek. 
 
 As the disciples of Jesus carried his 3 message to Sa- 
 maria, Galilee, and to the more distant regions of 
 Syria and Egypt, they would meet people who could 
 not understand the Aramaic. They would be com- 
 pelled, therefore, to translate the sayings of Jesus into 
 the Greek language, which was the universal tongue of 
 
 . the time. In John 12:20, 21, we read that certain 
 
 Greeks said, ‘‘We would see Jesus.” The story of 
 Jesus would have to be told to them, of course, in 
 Greek. 
 
 In this oral period of Christianity, then, we are to 
 think of the words of Jesus as being repeated by ‘the 
 living voice” in two languages, and while the gospel 
 was being spread largely by the spoken word, yet here 
 and there men were writing down the sayings of Jesus 
 in both Greek and Aramaic. 
 
 4. The Final Process by Which the Sayings of Jesus 
 Became a Part of Our Present Gospels. 
 
 Only a few of the sayings of Jesus have been recov- 
 ered from the sands of Egypt, but in the Gospels of 
 Matthew and Luke we find more than two hundred of 
 them preserved in a beautiful form. Matthew, chap- 
 ters 5-7, and Luke 6: 20-49, contain groups of these 
 sayings, and many of those in Luke are parallel to those 
 in Matthew. 
 
 If one would understand how these sayings came to 
 find a place in these two Gospels, he should try the ex- 
 periment of tracing the life history of the Beatitudes, 
 
THE SAYINGS OF JESUS 9 
 
 as follows: Jesus spoke them in Aramaic; his hearers 
 repeated them and later reduced them to writing; when 
 the disciples of Jesus sought to convert the Greek- 
 speaking peoples, they transposed these Beatitudes into 
 oral Greek and finally into written Greek. 
 
 Thirty or forty years later, when the Gospels were 
 written, the Beatitudes were found in circulation in 
 more than one form. An example of this is found in 
 Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.””. Luke 
 chose another form (6:20), “Blessed are ye poor.” 
 This is most interesting evidence of the existence of 
 many groups of the sayings of Jesus before our present 
 Gospels were written. While the sayings in the differ- 
 ent groups were often verbally alike, yet the existence 
 of such differences as we see in the first Beatitude indi- 
 cates that they did not lay great stress on verbal accu- 
 racy. 
 
 The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 
 11: 2-4) is another example of the indifference of the 
 early followers of Jesus with respect to the exact form 
 of his words. This prayer, also, like the Beatitudes, 
 shows that Jesus spoke in a rhythmical style that ap- 
 proached poetry. This made it both pleasant to repeat 
 and easy to remember. The Beatitudes illustrate this 
 nicely. They fall into the regular form of Hebrew par- 
 allelism: 
 
 Blessed are the poor in spirit: 
 For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 The Lord’s Prayer is more complex and is patterned 
 after the envelope figure in Hebrew poetry of which 
 we have a good example in Psalm 8. 
 
 Our Father which art in heaven: 
 Hallowed be thy name; 
 
10 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Thy kingdom come, 
 Thy will be done, 
 As in heaven, so on earth. 
 
 5. The Religious Message. 
 
 When we read these Beatitudes, the Lord’s Prayer, 
 and the wonderful short stories of Jesus, we are not 
 surprised to learn that his religion made rapid progress 
 among the people. His joyous view of the loving heav- 
 enly Father was described in simple language that 
 stood in contrast with the difficult philosophy of the 
 Greeks. Jesus also taught that any person could ap- 
 proach the Father directly, without the intervention of 
 money-loving priests or elaborate temple ceremonial. 
 He also presented his lofty moral ideals in such simple 
 language that his meaning was plain to all. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . How do we know that there were earlier forms of the teach- 
 ings of Jesus than our present Gospels? 
 
 . Why were the sayings written down at that time? 
 
 . What Lge es have we that they were first written in Ara- 
 maic? 
 
 . What need arose for translating the words of Jesus into 
 Greek? 
 
 . Show that one saying of Jesus was repeated in different forms. 
 
 ao -. WN = 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 1. Discuss the probabilities for and Sip ie discovering other 
 words of Jesus in Palestine and E 
 
 2. In promoting a cause, Aboot is the “Ate efficient, a living 
 messenger or a book? 
 
 3. Which form of the first Beatitude did Jesus himself use? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 1. Study and read aloud to the class the most interesting section 
 of Henry van Dyke’s poem, The Toiling of Feliz. 
 
 2. Write a brief essay on the influence of Alexander the Great 
 in making the Greek a world language. 
 
THE SAYINGS OF JESUS 11 
 
 3. Write out the Lord’s Prayer as given by Matthew and Luke 
 in parallel columns and underline the differences in red. 
 
 4, Make a list of three sayings of Jesus found in Egypt which 
 do not occur in the Gospels. Barton, Archeology and the 
 Bible, 428-431. 
 
CuHapTer III] 
 THE DEEDS OF JESUS 
 
 1. The Threefold Preparation for the Gospels. 
 
 In this oral period of Christianity, before any of our 
 New Testament books were written, three processes 
 were being carried on which resulted in the New Tes- 
 tament. First, the eye-witnesses of Jesus’ deeds were 
 repeating what he had done. They had organized 
 themselves into a church and established the belief in 
 Jesus as the Messiah and in the Resurrection, and by 
 the use of the forms of baptism and the Lord’s Supper 
 they kept in mind clearly their experience with Jesus. 
 These facts and beliefs were handed down from gen- 
 eration to generation by the living voice. Second, the | 
 sayings of Jesus had been remarkably preserved in the 
 memories of men and were being collected for later use 
 in the Gospels. Third, we have now to consider how the 
 stories about Jesus which we find so picturesquely told 
 in the Gospel of Mark were preserved. 
 
 2. The Sayings of Jesus and the Sayings about 
 Jesus. 
 
 Bishop Papias in Asia Minor, who reported to us the 
 tradition that Matthew wrote the sayings of Jesus, 
 has preserved for us another interesting story: 
 
 Mark, who was Peter’s interpreter, wrote down accurately, 
 though not in order, all that he recollected of what Christ 
 had said or done. For he was not a hearer of the Lord nor 
 a follower of his; he followed Peter, as I have said, at a 
 
 12 
 
THE DEEDS OF JESUS 13 
 
 later date, and Peter adapted his instructions to practical 
 needs, without any attempt to give the Lord’s words sys- 
 tematically. 
 
 This description of the deeds of Jesus was written 
 probably in the city of Rome. The disciples of Jesus 
 were spreading his gospel all over the world. Before 
 the Gospel of Mark was written, there were Christian 
 churches in Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, 
 Rome, and many other cities. In each of these places 
 stories about Jesus were being repeated by local Chris- 
 tian workers. So far as our information goes, the only 
 city in which the gospel story was written down was 
 Rome. 
 
 It seems strange that in the city of Rome the first 
 record of Jesus’ deeds should be made. Yet it may be 
 accounted for by three facts: Rome was the recognized 
 centre of the world; from it radiated roads that touched 
 - remote provinces; so the Christians there would see 
 the opportunity and feel the obligation of perpetuating 
 and promoting the gospel of Jesus. Also, Paul had died 
 there, and the memory of his work must have had a 
 strong influence on the church. Again, Peter as the 
 only eye-witness in Rome of the events in Jesus’ life 
 would naturally take measures to preserve the stories 
 of Jesus’ deeds which he had been repeating. This 
 makes it easy to believe that Mark, who had been 
 Peter’s assistant in the great metropolis, wrote as accu- 
 rately as possible all that he could remember of Peter’s 
 preaching about Jesus. 
 
 It is important to remember why we have so few 
 facts from the life of Jesus. The explanation is that 
 these stories which Mark gathered together were only 
 those incidents in the life of Jesus which the preachers 
 told for evangelistic purposes. These stories, as now 
 
14 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 preserved in the Gospel of Mark, show their fitness for 
 use in converting people to believe in Jesus. Each 
 story is accompanied by a verse or two of exhortation. 
 An example may be found in Mark 2: 23-27, where 
 Jesus is pictured as disregarding the strict Sabbath 
 laws of the Jews, and then the principle which the 
 story illustrates is stated, “The Sabbath was made for 
 man.” 
 
 3. The Broken String of Pearls. 
 
 This picture of Jesus eating the wheat and of David 
 taking the forbidden bread is one of many in Mark. 
 This has led some one to compare the gospel to ‘‘a string 
 of pearls, of which the string has been broken, and the 
 pearls all scattered.””’ The truth of the comparison 
 will be seen if one makes a list of the word pictures 
 in the third chapter of Mark. There four scenes follow 
 one another in rapid succession, each one accompanied 
 by an important statement or deed or general princi- 
 ple of conduct. When we come to the other Gospels, 
 we shall be troubled by many gaps in the narratives 
 and by a lack of order in the stories about Jesus. The 
 followers of Jesus hesitated to put his message into 
 fixed form. They had perhaps seen so much abuse of 
 the law of Moses that they did not want a second law 
 for the scribes to twist and pervert, or they instinc- 
 tively shrank from the danger of losing the spirit of 
 Christ in a written document. They knew that Jesus 
 did not write, and none of them had heard Jesus ask 
 his disciples to write about him. A passage from Dry- 
 den well describes this situation: 
 
 “He could have writ himself, but well foresaw 
 The event would be like that of Moses’ Law; 
 
THE DEEDS OF JESUS 15 
 
 No written laws could be so plain, so pure, 
 But wit may gloss and malice may obscure. 
 
 At any rate, there is no doubt that very many inci- 
 dents in the life of Jesus have been lost, but we ought 
 to be thankful that so many pearls have been pre- 
 served, If in other cities where Jesus was preached 
 there had been reporters like Mark, we should have 
 had a fuller account of the life of Jesus. 
 
 4. Mark and Peter. 
 
 Picture the scene of Peter’s preaching in Rome. He 
 speaks Aramaic, while his audience understands Greek. 
 His situation is like that of a missionary from America 
 who is addressing an audience in Tokio. He must have 
 an interpreter. John Mark, who later wrote the gospel, 
 repeats every Aramaic sentence of Peter in the Greek 
 language, for Greek was commonly spoken in all the 
 great cities of the world. After Peter’s death, Mark 
 wrote down many of the things that Peter had said 
 and put them into his Gospel. : 
 
 5. Religious Thought. 
 
 Had not the followers of Jesus been zealous to win 
 converts, we should never have had the Gospels; for, 
 while the first three Gospels do not state their purpose, 
 yet they were written with the aim that moved the 
 author of the fourth Gospel, “These are written that 
 ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of 
 God; and that believing ye may have life in his name” 
 (John 20: 30). 
 
16 
 
 Oo - GC bd 
 
 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . What threefold preparation was made for our New Testa- 
 
 ment in this dimly known period before the first New 
 Testament book was written? 
 
 . What nearly contemporary testimony have we concerning 
 
 Mark as a writer? 
 
 . Why is it that we do not have a connected story of the life of 
 
 Jesus from Peter? 
 
 . What do we mean by comparing the Gospel of Mark to a 
 
 string of pearls? 
 
 . Name four of these pearls or pictures in Mark 3. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 . Did the New Testament create the church, or the church the 
 
 New Testament? Show how the attempt to win converts 
 to Christ led to the writing of the New Testament. 
 
 . Give some reasons why the first record of Jesus’ deeds was 
 
 written in Rome. 
 
 . Discuss the question whether we have enough facts about 
 
 Jesus to prove him an historical character. 
 Who had more influence in the making of the New Testament, 
 Mark or Peter? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 . Write a sketch of Bishop Papias, showing how he might have 
 
 been well informed about the work of Mark and Peter. 
 (See a dictionary of the Bible.) 
 
 . Were there Christians in Rome before the time of Paul? 
 . Write a sketch of Peter, noting especially the times and places 
 
 of his contact with Mark. 
 
Part 2 
 THE PERIOD OF PAUL 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 THE FIRST NEW TESTAMENT BOOK 
 
 1. The Transition from the Spoken to the Written 
 Word. 
 
 The great Christian missionary Paul, “the most 
 prominent figure of all the great men who have adorned, 
 or advanced the interests of, the Christian Church,” 
 was the first one to resort to writing to propagate 
 Christianity. It is convenient to regard him as the 
 one who put an end to the oral period, for it was more 
 than twenty years after Paul wrote I Thessalonians 
 that our earliest Gospel was written. 
 
 It should be remembered that Paul had no idea, 
 however, of writing letters which would later be col- 
 lected together as part of the sacred book of the Chris- 
 tians. His epistles were purely incidental to his work 
 aS a missionary. When a difficulty arose in one of 
 Paul’s churches and he was not able to attend to the 
 matter in person, he was accustomed to send a letter 
 to the church without having given any special atten- 
 tion to the literary form of that letter. 
 
 It is interesting to compare Jesus and Paul with Soc- 
 rates and Plato. Socrates talked to a few friends in 
 
 17 
 
18 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Athens, and because Plato wrote out his sayings, peo- 
 ple of all nations can still listen to him. Jesus never 
 went a hundred miles from his home, yet because Paul 
 wrote about Jesus, all the world knows about him, and 
 his religion became cosmopolitan. 
 
 2. Letter-Writing in the Ancient World. 
 
 The custom of writing letters, both formal and in- 
 formal, was common in the Roman Empire. The let- 
 ters of thirty-one different Latin authors have been 
 preserved. It is interesting to compare the letters of 
 Paul with those of Cicero. Cicero’s letter on the death 
 of his daughter to his friend Servius Rufus may be 
 compared with Paul’s epistle to Philemon, and his let- 
 ter on Sczpio’s Dream is somewhat parallel to Paul’s 
 letter to the Romans. As Cicero regarded Scipio’s 
 Dream as his masterpiece, so Paul doubtless regarded 
 Romans as his chief work. Thus Paul had before him 
 many excellent examples of letter-writing when he pro- 
 duced that first letter to the Thessalonians which in 
 time proved to be the oldest sacred document of the 
 Christian church. Of all the letters from that ancient 
 world, none have proved so interesting and important 
 as those of Paul. 
 
 3. The Scene. 
 
 We shall understand our New Testament better if 
 we try to think ourselves back nineteen hundred years 
 and imagine that we are in a house in Corinth. Paul 
 was the guest of Gaius, who had recently been con- 
 verted to Christianity. While he was being entertained 
 there, Timothy came to him from Thessalonica with 
 some news from the church that Paul had founded a 
 few months before. Two matters needed attention at 
 
THE FIRST NEW TESTAMENT BOOK 19 
 
 once, so Paul called for a scribe and dictated to him 
 this historic little document. 
 
 The scribe’s name was probably Tertius (Romans 
 16 : 22), and he brought with him his writing-material, 
 consisting of a reed pen and a bottle of brown ink and 
 some leaves of papyrus, from which we get our word 
 “naper.”’ This was made by pressing together the 
 tape-like strips of the pith of the papyrus-plant, which 
 formed a writing material not unlike birch bark. 
 
 As Paul dictated this message to the church at Thes- 
 salonica, he doubtless walked restlessly back and forth 
 across the room. We shall select two items for study 
 in this letter. 
 
 4. The Two Main Points of I Thessalonians. 
 
 Paul’s letters usually had an introduction and a 
 conclusion and three or more main points. We shall 
 study the form of these letters later and now deal only 
 with the two chief messages to Thessalonica. First, he 
 had to comfort these new converts because of the per- | 
 secution they suffered from their Greek and Jewish | 
 neighbors. Second, he had to explain why Christ had / 
 not come again from heaven as soon as they had an- 
 ticipated. Read I Thessalonians 4: 13-18 and note 
 that Paul directly answers the question concerning the 
 fate of those who had died before the return of Christ 
 from heaven. He said that the dead would be raised 
 when Christ appeared and that with the living they 
 would be assembled together in the presence of Christ. 
 
 It is noteworthy that this letter and all the others 
 of Paul were written in view of some immediate need, 
 so that we are dependent upon a knowledge of the his- 
 torical background for a full understanding of the 
 Apostle’s writings. 
 
20 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 5. II Thessalonians. 
 
 In the year 50 A. D., two or three months after the 
 first letter was written, a report came to Paul in Cor- 
 inth that the church-members had misunderstood his 
 teaching concerning the second coming of Christ and 
 that they had stopped working (II Thessalonians 3 : 10). 
 So Paul dictated this second, shorter letter, to correct 
 their view concerning the coming of Christ and the 
 end of the world. Read II Thessalonians 2: 1-3: 15. 
 Paul here teaches that Jesus will not return so soon as 
 they think. His coming is postponed until after some 
 later, vague, historical event (2:3). 
 
 6. The Religious Importance. 
 
 From the crucifixion of Jesus to 50 A. D., the time 
 of the writing of Paul’s first letter, there was no writ- 
 ten record of what the church did or what the church 
 believed. I Thessalonians, then, is a document of first- 
 rate importance for both history and doctrine. It is 
 evidently the substance of what Paul was preaching, 
 and it contains a remarkable number of words and 
 phrases which had evidently come to bear a peculiar 
 meaning for the Christians. Also it contains state- 
 ments about Jesus that appeared in writing for the 
 first time. 
 
 When taken together with II Thessalonians, this let- 
 ter suggests an important thought in connection with 
 the second coming of Christ. It teaches that the best 
 way to prepare for this coming is to do our daily task 
 with patience and not to be disappointed if Christ de- 
 lays his return (II Thessalonians 3: 7-15). 
 
 ‘Every toiler in the quarry, every builder on the shore, 
 Every chopper in the palm-grove, every raftsman at the oar, 
 
THE FIRST NEW TESTAMENT BOOK 2) 
 
 Hewing wood and drawing water, splitting stones and cleaving 
 
 sod, 
 All the dusty ranks of labor, in the regiment of God, 
 March together toward his triumph, do the task His hands pre- 
 
 pare: 
 
 Honest toil is holy service; faithful work is praise and prayer.” 
 
 Om G hw -& OuRCWh & 
 
 mem Che 
 
 —The Toiling of Felix, Henry van Dyke. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . How long after the crucifixion of Jesus was it before the first 
 
 New Testament book was written? 
 
 . Why did Paul write letters? 
 
 . What was the occasion of I Thessalonians? 
 
 . Why did Paul write II Thessalonians? 
 
 . Name two of the reasons why these two letters are very im- 
 
 portant to the Christian church. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 . Was Paul practical in his method of dealing with the second 
 
 coming? IL Thessalonians 2: 1-3 and 3: 10. 
 
 . Which was more important to Christianity, Jesus or Paul? 
 
 Give a reason for your answer. 
 
 . Discuss the question why Paul’s letters are more widely read 
 
 than Cicero’s. 
 
 . Tell the story of the writing of I Thessalonians. 
 . What are a half-dozen facts about Jesus in I Thessalonians 
 
 that can be found in no earlier document? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 . Write the substance of I Thessalonians in 150 words. 
 . Write the substance of II Thessalonians in 175 words. 
 . Read an outline of one of Cicero’s letters to the class and 
 
 state one difference in style between Cicero and Paul. 
 
 . Describe the method and materials of writing in the time of 
 
 Paul. Look up the word “papyrus.” 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE MAGNA CHARTA OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 The Personal Experience of Feu Underlying this Letter. Ga- 
 latians 1:15, 16; Acts 9: 
 
 The New Religion ‘and the Ou Galatians 3: 1-14; 23-29. 
 
 Results of the New Religion. Galatians 5: 22-24. 
 
 1. Setting of Galatians. 
 
 In the spring of 52 A. D., about a year after Paul 
 wrote the letter to the Thessalonians, he left Corinth 
 and journeyed to Antioch in Syria, a town well known 
 because there believers were first called Christians. 
 There, we may believe, he went to the home of an old 
 friend, a Greek merchant, for rest and recuperation. 
 This merchant was a wholesale dealer and had agents 
 travelling all over Asia Minor and near-by territories. 
 One day a salesman of his arrived at Antioch from the 
 region of the Galatian churches which Paul had found- 
 ed. He brought bad news for Paul. Enemies were 
 working against him among the Christians in Galatia. 
 Paul’s host hesitated to convey the bad news to him, 
 but finally did so. Paul was greatly agitated. Imme- 
 diately he sent for a scribe and dictated what has been 
 called his most vigorous and emphatic letter—that to 
 the Galatians. 
 
 2. Literary Form. 
 
 A good literary style involves two things, ideas and 
 expression of those ideas. Paul’s ideas are among the 
 greatest the world has ever known, but his expression 
 
 22 
 
THE MAGNA CHARTA OF CHRISTIANITY 23 
 
 of them, while it is direct and forcible, is not so formal 
 and elaborate as that of the best writers of his time. 
 A letter-writer like William James gives delight to a 
 select class of readers by a wide range of allusions, 
 witty sayings, and happy turns of speech. But Paul 
 was not writing to the literary class. His readers were 
 the common people, although educated men have not 
 failed to find great satisfaction in them. Miss Wild, 
 in her Literary Guide to the Bible, says: ‘‘We do not go 
 to Paul’s letters for entertainment and rest. They are 
 so strenuous with moral purpose that if we are very 
 weary, we had better not undertake them. He does 
 indeed strike fire, he even scintillates, but he does not 
 go out of his way to show his familiarity with the 
 learning of the day.” 
 
 The letter to the Galatians is a good example of 
 Paul’s method. He always has a good introduction 
 and conclusion. In this letter, however, these are un- 
 usually brief because at the time he wrote he was very 
 indignant and wrote with much more vehemence than 
 usual. 
 
 A convenient analysis is as follows: 
 
 Greeting, 1: 1-5. 
 
 I. Paul’s Personal Experience, 1: 6-2: 21. 
 
 II. Doctrinal Discussion, chapters 3, 4. 
 
 III. Moral Exhortation, 5: 1-6: 16. 
 
 Conclusion, 6:17, 18. 
 
 3. The Personal Experience of Paul Underlying This 
 Letter. 
 
 The first step toward the understanding of Galatians 
 is a knowledge of Paul’s career and of his personality. 
 A sketch of Paul’s career shows that he was first of all 
 in a liberal atmosphere in Tarsus, the place of his 
 
24 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 birth. During his college course in Jerusalem he was 
 under a conservative influence, yet his teacher, Gama- 
 liel, was a very broad-minded man. A little later when 
 he became a member of the Sanhedrin, he was sur- 
 rounded by Jews who were almost all conservative. 
 When he saw what havoc the Christians were making 
 of the old Jewish religion, he became the leader of 
 those who were persecuting them. At Damascus Jesus 
 suddenly revealed himself to Paul and entirely changed 
 the course of his career. In the words of Tennyson, 
 ““God’s glory smote him in the face.” In this letter 
 Paul claims that te got his thought about Jesus and 
 his whole Christian belief straight from heaven. This 
 accounts for the intensity with which he opposed those 
 who had been teaching a different view. 
 
 4. A Progressive Religion. 
 
 The chief task of Paul’s life was to free the religion 
 of Jesus from all entanglements with the old Jewish 
 faith. The conservatives felt that they ought to retain 
 circumcision and several of the other forms of the Old 
 Testament church. Paul perceived that Christianity 
 was for people of all races and that it was absolutely 
 free from any peculiar form. So he was greatly dis- 
 turbed when he found that some Jewish teachers were 
 telling his people that they could not be saved unless 
 they obeyed the law of Moses. So indignant was Paul 
 that he used very strong expressions, ‘‘O senseless 
 Galatians, who has bewitched you—!” The word 
 “‘bewitch”’ expresses the height of their folly. It is as 
 if the Christians had been charmed by a magician, by 
 the ‘evil eye,” as a bird is fascinated by a serpent. 
 
 This contention between the progressives and con- 
 servatives was the great battle of Paul’s life. More 
 
THE MAGNA CHARTA OF CHRISTIANITY 25 
 
 than any other man of his time, he saw the importance 
 of freeing Christianity from all Jewish forms. Should he 
 admit that the Jews had any peculiar rights over the 
 gospel, then universal religion was at an end. “Ye 
 observe days, and months, and seasons, and years” 
 (Galatians 4:10). Paul would agree with the modern 
 writer Rauschenbusch, who declares that ‘Religion 
 in the past has always spent a large proportion of its 
 force on doings that were apart from the real business 
 of life, on sacrificing, on endless prayers, on travelling 
 to Mecca, Jerusalem, or Rome, on kissing sacred stones, 
 bathing in sacred rivers, climbing sacred stairs, and a 
 thousand things that had at best only an indirect bear- 
 ing on the practical social relations between men and 
 their fellows.” 
 
 5. The Permanent Message of Galatians. 
 
 In Galatians 5: 22 Paul explains the religion of Jesus 
 as purely spiritual, and in 5:1 he tells us to “stand 
 fast”’ in this spiritual freedom. It was Galatians which 
 inspired Martin Luther to break away from the formal 
 and immoral system of the church of the Middle Ages, 
 and Galatians still warns us against depending upon 
 any external means of salvation. 
 
 The message of this letter is that every one is saved 
 by faith alone, that is, by a childlike attitude of trust 
 in God. As Jesus was a good son of the Father in — 
 heaven, we also are to be loving, obedient children. 
 This produces not Pharisees who pride themselves on 
 having kept certain forms, but rather humble followers 
 of Jesus who are loving, joyous, kind, and willing to 
 be taught. 
 
 Trust in God and service to man sum up the religion 
 of Paul as we find it in Galatians. Men show that they 
 
26 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 do really have faith in God by their love for men. 
 Longfellow, in his Legend Beautiful, teaches that the 
 formal requirements of the church may not be sub- 
 stituted for the kindly deeds which men need at our 
 hands. The monk thought that he would lose the 
 vision of Christ if he left the cell where he was praying 
 and went out to feed the poor at the monastery gate, 
 but, on returning to the chamber, 
 
 “He paused with awe-struck feeling 
 At the threshold of his door, 
 For the Vision still was standing 
 As he left it there before, 
 When the convent bell appalling, 
 From its belfry calling, calling, 
 Summoned him to feed the poor. 
 Through the long hour intervening 
 It had waited his return, 
 And he felt his bosom burn, 
 Comprehending all the meaning, 
 When the Blessed Vision said, 
 ‘Hadst thou stayed, I must have fled!’”’ 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . Why was Galatians written? 
 
 . What are the three main sections of the letter? 
 
 . Quote a verse from chapter 1 which shows the source of Paul’s 
 authority. 
 
 . What was the chief task of Paul’s life? 
 
 } sty @ verse in chapter 3 which best explains Paul’s new re- 
 
 igion. 
 . In what sense is Galatians the Magna Charta of Christianity ? 
 
 Oo ne Choe 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 1. When Paul says that the gospel came to him “through reve- 
 lation of Jesus,”” what does he mean? 
 
 2. Did Feus show a Christian spirit in the third chapter of Gala- 
 tians ? 
 
 3. What discussion in Jerusalem had prepared Paul for this 
 crisis in Galatia? Acts 15. 
 
THE MAGNA CHARTA OF CHRISTIANITY rif 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 1. Write a list of the words or phrases in Galatians which show 
 that Paul was indignant. 
 
 2. To what experiences in his life does Paul refer in the expres- 
 sion, ‘‘marks of the Lord Jesus,’ in Galatians 6:17? Com- 
 pare Acts 14:19; 16: 22, 23; II Corinthians 11: 24, 25. 
 
 3. Explain what is meant by the phrase “filial attitude,’ ’ Which 
 rae seems to regard as the most important, thing in reli- 
 
 4, Tell ie story of Longfellow’s Legend Beautiful. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 A PICTURE OF THE FIRST GREAT CITY 
 CHURCH 
 
 Fragments of a aa Letter. I Corinthians 5: 9-13; II Corin- 
 thians 6: 14-7 
 
 The One TodnAaton. I Corinthians 3 : 10-23. 
 
 Giving Way in Non-Essentials. I Corinthians 8. 
 
 The Hymn of Love. I Corinthians 13. 
 
 1. Lost Letters. 
 
 During the twenty years of Paul’s active career as a 
 missionary he probably wrote hundreds of letters. The 
 New Testament preserves only ten from his pen. Let- 
 ters were more frequently lost in ancient times than 
 now, because there was no regular mail system. An 
 example of the fact that letters were often lost is found 
 in the common custom of sending letters in duplicate. 
 
 Moreover, if a letter reached its destination safely, 
 even though it were a letter of a great Apostle like Paul, 
 it would not long be preserved. The Christian churches 
 that received Paul’s letters had no idea that they 
 would constitute a part of a New Testament. Further- 
 more, the papyrus on which the letters were written 
 was dry and fragile and would not last more than a 
 few months if it was being used by the church. In the 
 case of many letters it would not be thought necessary 
 to make copies since they dealt with incidental mat- 
 ters. 
 
 This accounts for the loss of a part of Paul’s corre- 
 spondence with the church of Corinth. One of these 
 
 28 
 
A PICTURE OF THE FIRST GREAT CITY CHURCH 29 
 
 lost letters seems to be preserved in part in I Corin- 
 thians 5:9-13 and II Corinthians 6: 14-7:1. If one 
 reads II Corinthians 6: 11-13 and attaches directly to 
 it the second verse of the seventh chapter, he does not 
 discover any gap in the thought by the omission of 
 6: 14-7:1. This is an evidence that the passage origi- 
 nally belonged elsewhere. It is a happy conjecture 
 that these verses taken together with I Corinthians 
 5:9-13 were in the first letter. As a matter of fact, 
 they do connect with the situation in Corinth. It is 
 better to speak of four letters to Corinth rather than 
 two, since each of these four letters represents a dis- 
 tinct historical situation in the church. In that case 
 the order and extent of the letters would be as follows: 
 
 1. The Lost Letter. I Corinthians 5: 9-13; II Co- 
 
 rinthians 6: 14-7: 1. 
 
 2. I Corinthians 1-16 (except 5: 9-13). 
 
 3. II Corinthians 10-13. 
 
 4. II Corinthians 1-9 (except 6: 14-7: 1). 
 
 2. The Setting of I Corinthians. 
 
 Three or four years before the writing of I Corin- 
 thians, Paul had founded a Christian church in Cor- 
 inth, the greatest metropolis of Greece. He was now 
 preaching in Ephesus, a sail of only a few hours from 
 Corinth. Both cities were important commercial cen- 
 tres and intercourse between them was very frequent. 
 Paul had letters from Corinth, and sometimes messen- 
 gers came to him from that church. One day while he 
 was working at his trade of tent-making in Ephesus 
 with Aquila and Priscilla, he received a letter reporting 
 a case of immorality in the church at Corinth. 
 
 We must remember that the city of Corinth was 
 notorious throughout Europe as a centre of luxury and 
 
30 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 vice. The temples to the Greek gods and goddesses 
 were places of immorality. The slaves outnumbered 
 all the rest of the population, and slavery is always a 
 source of corruption. Another cause of degeneracy was 
 the multitude of mixed people passing through the 
 port of Corinth every year. So we can understand 
 why the church had to appeal to Paul very often with 
 reference to the conduct of its members. 
 
 In I Corinthians 5:9 Paul refers to an earlier letter 
 which has not been preserved, with the exception of 
 the fragments mentioned above. Questions kept com- 
 ing to him in letters and by messengers concerning im- 
 portant matters in the church (7:1; 8:1; 12:1). Our 
 present letter called I Corinthians was written in an- 
 swer to these questions. It is regarded as one of the 
 most important historical documents ever written, be- 
 cause it is a contemporary record of definite events in 
 the city and church of Corinth in the first century 
 A. D. Some one has said that I Corinthians takes the 
 roof off the meeting-house and gives us a glimpse of a 
 primitive church programme and an understanding of 
 the character of the members. 
 
 3. Uniting on Jesus. 
 
 As in our day, there were exciting controversies over 
 doctrine in the early Christian church. At Corinth, for 
 example, there was one group that favored Peter’s in- 
 terpretation of Christianity. They were inclined to 
 observe some of the Jewish forms. Another group 
 stood by Paul’s original doctrine. They believed in a 
 Christianity free from all the ancient religious cere- 
 monies. Others were of the party of Apollos, the elo- 
 quent Alexandrian Jew. These favored a philosophic 
 type of Christianity. Paul gave the remedy by re- 
 
A PICTURE OP THE FIRST GREAT CITY CHURCH 31 
 
 minding these parties that they all agreed on one thing, 
 namely, that Christ was the one foundation for all. 
 Why quarrel, then? Why not proceed to build the 
 great cathedral of the faith, letting each person and 
 each group fill its own place in the building? Why not 
 recognize that they all belong to Christ and that 
 Christ belongs to God (3 : 21-23)? 
 
 These controversies have their counterpart in our 
 churches to-day. One denomination competes with 
 another, and within a single denomination faction op- 
 poses faction, and there is a great loss of energy which 
 should be used for the building of the Kingdom of God. 
 
 4. Giving Way in Non-Essentials. 
 
 A curious controversy arose in Corinth over the cus- 
 tom of buying meat in the market-place. When a lamb 
 was sacrificed to Apollo, only certain parts would be 
 used in the temple, and the remainder would be sold 
 for food. To some Christians it seemed a sin to eat 
 meat which had thus been connected with the worship 
 of idols. Paul advised them not to eat of such meat if 
 their conscience forbade. But he hastened to say that 
 in reality such meat was not a whit inferior to any 
 other. The Mohammedan Bible is less liberal on this 
 point. Sura II, paragraph 168, says: “That (flesh) over 
 which any other name than that of God hath been in- 
 voked is forbidden you.” 
 
 In the course of this discussion Paul made a remark 
 which the centuries have exalted into a permanent, 
 principle of life, “If meat causeth my brother to stum- 
 ble, I will eat no flesh for evermore, that I cause not 
 my brother to stumble.’”’ This means that in questions 
 where right and wrong are not involved we should give 
 way to others for the sake of harmony. 
 
32 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 5. The Poem on Love. 
 
 Gardiner, in The Bible as Literature, describes the 
 writing of Paul in the following way, ‘‘The most strik- 
 ing characteristic of his style is the way in which pas- 
 sages of reasoning soar into bursts of splendid eloquence 
 which have far more of the nature of poetry than of 
 scientific precision.’”?” Examples of such outbursts into 
 pure poetry are found in Romans 8: 35-39 and I Co- 
 rinthians 15: 54-57, and I Corinthians 13. 
 
 The thirteenth chapter of this letter is not a detached, 
 unnecessary addition to the advice and counsel which 
 Paul has been giving them, but connects directly with 
 all that Paul has been saying about their daily life. 
 It states the principle which, if adopted, would do 
 away with all their party strife, immorality, and sel- 
 fishness. It is the principle of love, or willingness to 
 serve, which is proclaimed with a fine outburst of 
 poetry. 
 
 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, 
 But have not love, 
 
 I am become like sounding brass or a clanging cymbal; 
 Though I have the gift of prophecy, 
 
 And know all mystery and all knowledge, 
 
 And have such faith that I can remove mountains, 
 
 But have not love, I am nothing. 
 
 Though I distribute all my goods to feed the poor, 
 And give up my body to be burned, 
 
 But have not love, it profits me nothing. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Evidence that there was a lost letter of Paul to the Corinthians. 
 
 2. What difficult situation did a Christian church have in such 
 a city as Corinth? 
 
 3. What cure for factions did Paul recommend to the Corin- 
 thian Christians? 
 
A PICTURE OF THE FIRST GREAT CITY CHURCH 33 
 
 . What principle grows out of Paul’s discussion of meat offered 
 
 to idols? 
 
 . Describe the most striking characteristic of Paul’s literary 
 
 style. 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 . Were those letters of Paul which were lost as important as 
 
 those which have been preserved? 
 
 . Read the last part of chapter 6 and the first part of chapter 7 
 
 of II Corinthians, omitting 6: 14-7:1, and see if there 
 is any gap in the thought. 
 
 . Should not Paul have devoted all his time to his preaching, 
 
 instead of working at a trade as he did? 
 
 . What problems in our churches to-day are like those of the 
 
 Corinthian church? 
 
 . How does chapter 13 complete the thought of chapter 12? 
 
 Special Assigninents 
 
 . Draw a plan of the city of Corinth, showing the market-place, 
 
 Port Street, and an imaginary location for the church and 
 the synagogue, and the historical locations of several build- 
 ings designated in any encyclopedia. 
 
 . Write a brief statement of the effect of slavery on the moral 
 
 life of a nation. 
 
 3. Make a list of the denominations in your community. Are 
 
 they all founded on Christ? 
 
Cuapter VII 
 
 PAUL’S STRUGGLE AND VICTORY AT 
 CORINTH 
 
 The Great Invective. II Corinthians 11: 3-15. 
 
 Paul’s Perils and Sufferings. 11 Corinthians 11: 16-33. 
 The Chief Mark of a Christian. II Corinthians 4: 7-18. 
 Our Hope of the Future. JI Corinthians 5: 1-21. 
 
 1. Light from History on II Corinthians. 
 
 II Corinthians has been a neglected book for most 
 people because it has been so difficult to understand. 
 At the end of chapter 9 there is a break in the thought, 
 and all that comes after that seems to contradict what 
 comes before. For in chapters 1-9 Paul says harmony 
 and peace have been restored in the Corinthian church, 
 while in chapters 10-18, which in our Bible close the 
 Corinthian correspondence, harmony and peace dis- 
 appear and all is strife and contention. 
 
 It has been suggested that chapters 10-13 should be 
 regarded as the third part of the correspondence which 
 is later referred to in chapter 2:4 and 7:12 of the 
 fourth letter. With this clew in our hands, we may re- 
 arrange the whole Corinthian correspondence and read 
 these chapters with new interest and understanding. 
 
 There was, then, a first letter, now lost, but referred 
 to in I Corinthians 5:9, a fragment of which is found 
 in6: 14-7: 1. The fact that this is found now in If Cor- 
 inthians has been explained by Lewis in his volume, 
 How the Bible Grew: “ We know that it was the custom 
 in those days to copy letters on papyrus leaves. One 
 
 34 
 
PAUL’S STRUGGLE AND VICTORY AT CORINTH 35 
 
 such leaf would just about have sufficed for the pas- 
 sage in our II Corinthians 6: 14-7:1. In the hands of 
 a careless copyist such a leaf might easily have slipped 
 out of the letter to which it belonged and then have 
 found a place among the leaves containing our II 
 Corinthians. Once there, the copyist would easily have 
 assumed it to be a part of II Corinthians and copied 
 it as that when the next copy was made, just as though 
 it were a part of the letter with which it chanced to 
 be.” 
 
 The second part of Paul’s correspondence with Cor- 
 inth, I Corinthians, chapters 1-16, implies that the 
 church had obeyed Paul’s first letter and had sub- 
 mitted numerous questions to him. These questions 
 are answered in our I Corinthians. When a little later 
 new troubles arose, Paul made a flying visit from 
 Ephesus to Corinth, which is referred to in chapter 
 13:1. “But this second visit to Corinth was a sorrow- 
 ful failure.. The opposition to him from the Judaizers, 
 who claimed to be the Christ party, was led by one to 
 whom he refers in chapter 2:5 and chapter 7: 12. 
 These ill-mannered representatives of Jewish exclusive- 
 hess, invading the Christian church, sneered at Paul’s 
 low stature and lack of authority; they treated him as 
 an interloper in his own church; they said that he was 
 crafty and caught the Corinthians by guile, and that 
 he had taken advantage of them’’ (Horton, The 
 Growth of the New Testament). 
 
 He returned to Ephesus and wrote II Corinthians 
 10-13, which might be called his great invective against 
 Corinth. This letter was carried by Titus to Corinth, 
 and Paul waited anxiously for a report concerning the 
 effect of this message. So impatient was Paul that he 
 left Ephesus and went to Macedonia on his way toward 
 
36 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Corinth (II Corinthians 2: 13). There Titus met Paul 
 and reported that the church was repentant and recon- 
 ciled. Then Paul wrote II Corinthians 1-9, which 
 breathes intense relief and gratitude. 
 
 2. Paul’s Defense of His Career. 
 
 Chapters 10-13 are noteworthy not only as an invec- 
 tive against the Corinthians but also as a remarkable 
 vindication of his claim as a worthy apostle of Christ. 
 Read 11:3-15 and note Paul’s declaration of his au- 
 thority. In 11: 16-33 Paul gives a remarkable account 
 of his suffering for the cause of Christ. Von Soden, in 
 his Early Christian Literature, says: ‘In this epistle we 
 view the mighty personality of the Apostle in continual 
 movement, illuminated by sudden flashes of light and 
 ever from a new standpoint. We feel the quick beating 
 of his heart. It is as though his voice trembles with 
 emotion as he speaks. We learn all the secrets of that 
 storm-tossed soul—what depresses it to despondence, 
 what elevates it with joy, what brings to it the blessing 
 of peace. This letter is the richest of all in personal 
 confession, which often proceeds from unfathomable 
 depths of the soul. The Apostle has here left a memo- 
 rial of himself in which his personality stands forth 
 clearly before our very eyes.” 
 
 3. Paul’s Last Message to Corinth. 
 
 We may imagine the Apostle Paul in the house of 
 Lydia at Philippi in conference with Titus, who has 
 just returned from Corinth. Titus has just told Paul 
 that the party of opposition has become reconciled 
 and that the whole church recognizes Paul’s authority 
 and that they are anxiously awaiting a visit from him. 
 A few weeks later Paul went to Corinth but meanwhile 
 
PAUL’S STRUGGLE AND VICTORY AT CORINTH 37 
 
 writes this last word of affection and advice. It is filled 
 with quotable sayings and exalts among others two 
 great thoughts: humility as the mark of a Christian, 
 and our eternal hope, through Christ. 
 
 In chapter 4: 7-18 we have the words which convey 
 the same spirit which Jesus praised in the first Beati- 
 tude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the 
 kingdom of God.” Christians are not to seek glory for 
 themselves but freely to ascribe all credit to God. 
 Their lives are based on a different set of values from 
 those that have prevailed among men. Humility, ab- 
 sence of pride and selfishness, receives the chief place 
 among the marks of a Christian. This absence of self- 
 assertion and willingness to go to great extremes in the 
 service of others lifts the ideal of Paul far above the 
 ideals of the time. Even the Old Testament conception 
 of life, with its emphasis on material rewards and pun- 
 ishments, fell far below Paul’s standard. The newness 
 of Christianity lay hidden in that phrase ‘‘not unto 
 ourselves,’ which meant the absence of selfishness. 
 
 Another passage of great beauty and spiritual power 
 is II Corinthians 5: 1-21. The life which Paul is seek- 
 ing to build up in the individual stands the test not 
 only of earth but of heaven. It is eternal. We find a 
 fuller statement of Paul’s idea of the future life in 
 I Corinthians 15. Both passages present the wonder- 
 ful thought that one who follows Jesus becomes “a 
 new creature; old things are passed away; behold, they 
 are become new.” This new life has no end. This pas- 
 sage breathes the beautiful hope which Whittier has 
 expressed in his Eternal Goodness : 
 
 “T know not what the future hath 
 Of marvel or surprise, 
 Assured alone that life and death 
 His mercy underlies, 
 
38 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 I know not where his islands lift 
 Their fronded palms in air; 
 
 I only know I cannot drift 
 Beyond his love and care.” 
 
 OQIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Make a list of the four parts of the Corinthian correspondence. 
 
 2. Why did Paul write the letter contained in II Corinthians 
 10-13? 
 
 3. Name three or four claims for himself that Paul makes in 
 II Corinthians 11: 3-15. 
 
 4. Why is Paul’s last message to Corinth, II Corinthians 1-9, 
 filled with joy and gratitude? 
 
 5. What are the chief marks of a Christian, according to 4: 7-5:21? 
 
 Oral Discussion: 
 
 1. Does II Corinthians 13: 11-14 fit better at the end of the 
 thirteenth or the ninth chapter of II Corinthians? 
 2. Arguments for and against accepting the theory of Lewis 
 concerning II Corinthians 6: 14-7: 1. 
 3. Was or was not Paul boasting in the passage II Corinthians 
 11: 16-33? 
 . Is it possible for a man to be both humble and dominating in 
 his attitude toward others? 
 . Do you find both humility and great power over others in 
 Jesus and Paul? 
 6. Does a belief in the future life influence our present life? 
 
 iS 
 
 or 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 1. Write an outline of the experiences Paul was having in Ephe- 
 sus, where he was living when he wrote these letters. 
 Acts 19: 1-20:1. 
 2. Does historical criticism, as used in the case of the Corinthian 
 letters, prove helpful? 
 . Make a list of all the persons mentioned in I and II Corin- 
 thians and tell at least one thing about each person. See 
 a dictionary of the Bible. 
 4, Read Browning’s Reverie and report four or five of the best 
 stanzas to the class. 
 
 ew) 
 
Cuapter VIII 
 
 THE MESSAGE TO THE WORLD’S CAPITAL 
 
 The Essence of the Gospel. Romans 3: 21-30. 
 
 A Mirror of the Human Soul. Romans 7: 15-25. 
 The Christian Pean of Victory. Romans 8: 31-38. 
 Paul’s Sermon on the Mount. Romans 12. 
 
 1. A Statesmanlike Purpose. 
 
 Paul had long dreamed of carrying his message to 
 Rome, the capital of the world. He had finished his 
 conquest of Greek lands, and his eye roved westward 
 to Rome and even to Spain. As Paul himself says, ‘IT 
 am ready to preach the gospel to you also that are in 
 Rome” (1:15), and then ‘I will go on by you unto 
 Spain” (15:28). Rome was the great metropolis of 
 the empire. All roads led to Rome, and if Christianity 
 was to become the universal religion of Paul’s dreams, 
 it must make the universal city its citadel. 
 
 Paul wished to present to the Christians already 
 gathered in the city a clear statement of the gospel of 
 Christ and perhaps to organize them into a powerful 
 church. But his great task of collecting the money for 
 the Jerusalem church prevented him from going imme- 
 diately. It was recognized that it was a dangerous trip, 
 and before Paul finally left Corinth for Jerusalem he 
 wrote for the Romans his great argument for Chris- 
 tianity, which is universally regarded as the best single 
 statement of his belief and the best picture of the man 
 himself as the greatest statesman-missionary of the 
 world. 
 
 39 
 
40 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 2. A Cathedral of the Christian Faith. 
 
 Coleridge has called the book of Romans the “‘ cathe- 
 dral of the Christian faith.” If in imagination we carry 
 out the figure and compare Romans with a cathedral, 
 we may better understand the contents and the sym- 
 metry of this wonderful book. 
 
 As we enter the doorway (1: 1-15) and walk straight 
 down the centre aisle to the altar where both Roman 
 and Jew could confess their sins (1: 16-3: 20), we see 
 there the great sacrifice of Jesus who made it possible 
 for all to understand and follow the way of childlike 
 faith in God (8: 21-30). 
 
 In the west transept is an image of Moses pointing 
 to the law which was a schoolmaster to bring men to 
 Christ and so was not a useless thing (3: 21-4: 25). 
 Far across the nave in the east transept stands the 
 figure of Abraham pointing to the altar of Christ and 
 reminding Moses that it was always simple faith that 
 was man’s best sacrifice to God (Genesis 15: 6). 
 
 As we face away from the altar and look into the 
 vast recesses of the nave, we see in the lofty heights of 
 the building the possibilities of high attainments and 
 great happiness in this new relation to God in the 
 friendship of the Holy Spirit (chapters 5 and 6). In 
 vision we see groups of men coming into this building 
 with their struggles (chapter 7) and going out with a 
 new principle of life in their souls (chapter 8). 
 
 In a darkened chapel beyond the altar is a group of 
 Jews who have missed the way (chapters 9-11). As 
 the preacher stands in the pulpit on the side of the 
 nave, he commands a view of the altar where men are 
 to present their bodies a living sacrifice (12:1, 2) and, 
 on the other hand, a view of the mass of worshippers 
 
THE MESSAGE TO THE WORLD’S CAPITAL 4] 
 
 with all their varying gifts (12: 3-21) and their many 
 duties to society and to individuals (chapters 13-15). 
 
 3. The New and the Old. 
 
 In Romans 3:21-30 Paul anticipates a question 
 which would often have been put to him had he been 
 in Rome, “How does your religion differ from the many 
 other beliefs around us?’”’? The answer would be that 
 true religion does not depend upon any system of phi- 
 losophy or upon any Greek or Jewish forms of worship, 
 but it is simply the filial attitude toward a loving 
 father, which we learn to take by following Jesus. 
 Such a religion would be sincere and genuine. Under 
 the old systems one could be a hypocrite and correctly 
 observe the forms of sacrifice and obey the petty pre- 
 cepts of the law; but only one whose heart is right can 
 become a true child of the father in heaven. When 
 men give themselves utterly to this childlike relation 
 to God, their sins are forgiven, and they have begun a 
 life of growing goodness. 
 
 4. The Struggle and the Victory. 
 
 Paul’s own intense struggle made him much more 
 successful in helping other men. “For that which I 
 do, I know not: for not what I would, that do I prac- 
 tise; but what I hate, that I do.” It is an intensely 
 human experience, repeated in the life of every indi- 
 vidual. The dramatist Goethe seized upon this passage 
 and made his greatest character, Faust, declare: 
 
 “Two souls, alas! are lodg’d within my breast, 
 Which struggle there for undivided reign.” 
 
 But Paul has conquered the lower self, ‘‘for the law 
 of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free.”? And 
 
42 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 in the last part of the eighth chapter Paul again reaches 
 one of the loftiest heights of thought and pure poetry. 
 He breaks forth into the pzan of victory: 
 
 For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
 principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 
 nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to 
 pear us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our 
 
 rd. 
 
 5. Paul’s Sermon on the Mount. 
 
 It has often been said that Paul did not know Jesus 
 and that his teaching formed practically a new gospel. 
 To the contrary, Paul is our earliest and perhaps most 
 authoritative witness to the life and message of Jesus. 
 As a contemporary of Jesus, Paul must have known the 
 man whose followers he persecuted to the death. Had 
 he not known of what Jesus taught and of his shame- 
 ful death, Paul’s conduct could not have been ac- 
 counted for. After his conversion, Paul was frequently 
 with the disciples of Jesus, while his memory was still 
 fresh and vivid in their minds. Incidental references in 
 the letters of Paul to the city of David as Jesus’ birth- 
 ' place, to the mother of Jesus, to James, the Lord’s 
 brother, to the Last Supper, and to the Resurrection 
 make it evident that Paul knew the main events of his 
 life. No doubt when Paul was preaching in a community 
 which did not know the gospel story, he recited many 
 other details in the Master’s earthly life. | 
 
 In his own message Paul is clearly influenced by the 
 character and teachings of Jesus. The thirteenth chap- 
 ter of I Corinthians is nothing more nor less than a 
 verbal portrait of Jesus; the long list of virtues in Gala- 
 tians 5: 22-24 are the virtues of Jesus, and the same 
 holds true of other similar passages. 
 
THE MESSAGE TO THE WORLD’S CAPITAL 43 
 
 The twelfth chapter of Romans is strikingly parallel 
 
 to the Sermon on the Mount. For example, the passage 
 in 12:17, beginning, “‘ Render to no man evil for evil” 
 is merely a negative form of Jesus’ own sayings con- 
 cerning non-resistance in Matthew 5:38, 39. Here in 
 the twelfth chapter of Romans, written earlier than 
 the Gospels which preserve the sayings of Jesus for us 
 to-day, we have proof that Paul knew and preserved 
 the spirit of the gospel message. 
 
 mm Oo bom 
 
 > OO bo 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . Why is it correct to call Paul a statesman? 
 . Why did he not go to Rome immediately after leaving Cor- 
 
 inth? Romans 15:25, 26. 
 
 . Quote the verse in 3: 21-30 which best represents Paul’s new 
 
 religion. 
 
 . What races and religions had failed to produce a satisfactory 
 
 type of goodness? 3:9-80. 
 
 . Why did Paul write his pean of victory? Romans 8: 31-38. 
 . Name one passage in Romans 12 which is equivalent to one 
 
 of the sayings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, 
 Matthew 5-7. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 . Which was more important, that Paul should carry a collec- 
 
 tion of money to Jerusalem or go to Rome and strengthen 
 the church there? 
 
 . Was Moses or Abraham nearer to Christ in thought? 
 . What is the meaning of Romans 12:1? 
 . Under which system. was it easier to be a religious man, the 
 
 Jewish or the Christian? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 . Present a map study of the extent of Paul’s travels. 
 . Name the successive steps in Paul’s description of the Chris- 
 
 tian faith in Romans. 
 
 . Make a list of some of the requirements of the Jewish oral 
 
 law in the time of Jesus. 
 
CuHAPTER IX 
 
 THREE PRISON LETTERS 
 
 The Plea for a Slave. Philemon 8-20. 
 
 The Superiority of Christ. Colossians 2: 8-10; 2: 18-3: 4. 
 Building a Life by the Image of Christ. Colossians 3: 9b—17. 
 A Prayer of Paul. Ephesians 3: 14-21. 
 
 Christian Unity. Ephesians 4: 1-16. 
 
 God’s Valiant Knight. Ephesians 6: 10-20. 
 
 1. Why Paul Was Imprisoned. 
 
 When Paul reached Jerusalem with his great contri- 
 bution of money for the poor which he had collected 
 from the Gentile churches throughout Asia and Eu- 
 rope, he did not accomplish all that he had hoped. 
 The Jewish Christians were so antagonistic to Paul’s 
 broader view of Christianity, which adapted it to the 
 needs of the Gentiles, that they almost forgot to thank 
 him for the collection of money for the poor. This 
 Jewish opposition resulted in a riot in the temple, dur- 
 ing which Paul was arrested and confined in the castle 
 of Antonia, at the northeast section of the temple plat- 
 form. Hearing of a conspiracy to assassinate Paul, the 
 Roman officer in charge hastily sent his distinguished 
 prisoner to Cesarea, the official capital of the district. 
 
 At the end of two years in prison at Cesarea, Paul 
 appealed to Rome, demanding that as a Roman citizen 
 he should be tried at the court of Cesar. After a hard 
 voyage and the shipwreck so brilliantly described in 
 Acts 27, Paul at last reached the Eternal City. At 
 first he was placed in the ordinary barracks, where he 
 was allowed only the bare necessities of life. Later he 
 
 44 
 
THREE PRISON LETTERS 45 
 
 was permitted to hire a house of his own. All of the 
 time, however, he was chained by his left arm to a 
 Roman guard. So when we speak of Paul imprisoned 
 at Rome, we mean that he was confined to the house 
 which he had rented and where he awaited his trial. 
 The hard part of it was that he was fastened day and 
 night by a chain to a Roman soldier. Whether eating 
 or sleeping, writing his letters or at prayer, never a 
 moment of privacy. This was the worst kind of 
 prison. It is from this situation that Paul wrote his 
 letters to Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians, and Philip- 
 pians. In this chapter we will deal with the first three 
 only. 
 
 2. The Plea for a Runaway Slave. 
 
 In Asia Minor, about a hundred miles east of Ephe- 
 sus, there was a little city called Colosse on the banks 
 of the river Lycus. Paul had never been there, but his 
 gospel had been carried there by some of his Ephesian 
 converts. A little church had grown up and, not hav- 
 ing a church-building, they had met in the house of 
 Philemon, a wealthy convert. Like all other wealthy 
 men of that day, Philemon had slaves. One of these, 
 named Onesimus, a white boy perhaps eighteen years 
 old, became restless, stole some of his master’s money, 
 and ran away to Rome. 
 
 By some chance after he had been in Rome for a 
 while, he was led to the house of Paul and was con- 
 verted. He immediately attached himself to Paul as a 
 servant. But when Paul heard the whole story of his 
 life, he persuaded the slave boy to return to his master 
 in Colosse. The wonderful little letter which we call 
 Philemon, the only strictly personal letter in the New 
 Testament, was delivered by Onesimus and must have 
 
46 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 secured his pardon. This little document has a four- 
 fold interest for the modern reader: it is a brilliant ex- 
 ample of letter-writing; it is unique in the Bible; it 
 throws new light upon the breadth of Paul’s sympa- 
 thies; and it shows the attitude of the greatest follower 
 of Christ toward slavery. Paul does not attempt to 
 overthrow slavery, but urges that master and slave 
 treat one another as Christian brothers. 
 
 3. The Twofold Message of Colossians. 
 
 While Paul was a prisoner at Rome, he received a 
 visit from Epaphras, a minister of the church at Colos- 
 se. From Epaphras he learned that some of the mem- 
 bers of the church were being led astray by certain 
 false teachers and were substituting for the simple gos- 
 pel of Christ a curious belief in a system of angels, and 
 an ascetic view of life like that of John the Baptist. 
 In Colossians 2: 8-10 and 2: 18-3:4, Paul shows the 
 superiority of Christ to all heavenly beings and exalts 
 him as their only hope of salvation. “Let no man rob 
 you of your prize.’”’ He also teaches that Christianity 
 is not a negative thing as you would suppose from 
 what these false teachers said: ‘‘Handle not, touch 
 not, taste not,” but it is rather a positive and whole- 
 some way of living. 
 
 The second great message of Colossians, found in 
 3: 9b-17, may be illustrated by a story told by Henry 
 Drummond. A young girl, who had long been the 
 favorite of her companions, was suddenly taken sick 
 without hope of recovery. She had always been known 
 as one of the happiest of girls and one who would not 
 consent to do wrong. One day her most intimate 
 friend asked her, “What is the secret of your good 
 life?”? The sick girl opened a locket and showed the 
 
THREE PRISON LETTERS 47 
 
 fine script within, ‘‘Whom having not seen I love.” 
 This image of Jesus in her mind had helped her do 
 right. Paul says to the Colossians, ‘‘ You have adopted 
 Jesus as your ideal of life. His image is in your minds. 
 You are to build your lives atcording to that image by 
 doing day by day good things and casting off all evil 
 habits. His image within you will work a transforma- 
 tion in your character and conduct.” 
 
 This letter of Paul was despatched by Tychicus, who 
 accompanied Onesimus on the long journey to Colossz. 
 
 4. A Circular Letter. 
 
 The so-called letter “To the Ephesians” is now gen- 
 erally regarded as a circular letter to the whole group 
 of churches in Asia Minor rather than to the church 
 at Ephesus. The words ‘‘at Ephesus” in chapter 1:1 
 are omitted in the most ancient authorities. Also, if 
 Paul had been writing to Ephesus where he had spent 
 three years, he would not have failed to send personal 
 messages to his many friends there. The purpose of 
 the letter is much the same as that of Colossians. 
 
 In a beautiful prayer, Ephesians 3: 14-21, Paul ex- 
 presses the hope that Christians may be filled with the 
 knowledge and spirit of Jesus, ‘‘that ye may know the 
 love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may 
 be filled unto all the fulness of God.” Jesus is central; 
 to be a Christian means to be Christlike. 
 
 In chapter 4:1-16 Paul touches upon a matter 
 which is of especial significance in modern times, the 
 call for Christian unity. 
 
 Paul’s description of the Christian warrior, Ephesians 
 6: 10-20, was especially effective because he was mak- 
 ing reference to something well known to all his read- 
 ers. What Christian who might read Paul’s letters was 
 
AS LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 not familiar with the armof of the Greek hoplite, or a 
 Roman legionary? The Christian soldier’s belt is 
 Truth or Sincerity; his breastplate is Righteousness or 
 Good Conduct; the foundation on which his feet rest 
 is the Gospel; his shield is Faith; his helmet is Salva- 
 tion or knowledge that his sins are forgiven; his sword 
 is God’s Word. This Christian knight, thus armed, 
 might say with Sir Galahad: 
 
 “‘My strength is as the strength of ten, 
 Because my heart is pure.’ 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 . How ae Paul happen to be imprisoned at Cesarea for two 
 years 
 
 What gave Paul the right to be transferred to Rome? 
 
 To what extent was Paul a prisoner in Rome? 
 
 . Why did Paul write a letter to Philemon? 
 
 What error among the churches in Asia occasioned the letter 
 to the Colossians? 
 
 . Name four things stated or implied in Ephesians 4: 1-7 on 
 
 which all Christians should agree. 
 
 st 
 
 OP oo bo 
 
 for 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 1. Does the letter to Philemon condemn slavery? . 
 
 2. Was it practicable to do away at once with slavery in the 
 Roman Empire? 
 
 3. Where Ee ae early Christians hold their meetings? Phile- 
 mon 1:2; Colossians 4: 15. 
 
 4, What two ideas does Paul condemn in Colossians 2: 8-10 and 
 
 5. What do we mean by saying that one may have the image of 
 Jesus in his mind? 
 
 6. Why do we regard Ephesians as a circular letter rather than 
 as one addressed to a single church? 
 
 7. For what did Paul especially pray in Ephesians 3: 14-21? 
 
 8. Compare a soldier’s armor with the Christian equipment. 
 
THREE PRION LETTERS 49 
 
 Special Assignments 
 1. The extent of slavery in the Roman Empire. Who might 
 become slaves? 
 2. Look up modern theosophy and compare it with the view 
 which Paul condemns in Colossians 2: 8-10 and 2: 18-3: 4. 
 3. Describe by the aid of a map the route of Onesimus and Tychi- 
 cus from Rome to Colossz. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 PAUL’S LAST LETTER 
 
 The Imitation of Christ. Philippians 2: 1-11. 
 
 Pressing toward the Goal. Philippians 3: 12-16. 
 
 The Combined Message of Jerusalem and Athens. Philip- 
 pians 4; 4-9. 
 
 1. Paul Active to the End. 
 
 This great Christian missionary is near the end of 
 his work. His death at the hands of the Roman Goy- 
 ernment cannot be much longer postponed. Chained 
 day and night to the arm of a Roman soldier, suffering, 
 it is probable, from his old enemy, malaria, annoyed 
 by many hardships, such as the lack of warmth in his 
 house (II Timothy 4:13), yet the aged Paul continued 
 his Christian activity with unabated vigor. 
 
 This is proved, first of all, by his influence on the 
 city of Rome itself. His loving personality and his 
 convincing arguments won to Christ even the soldiers 
 who guarded him and the slaves who chanced to come 
 within the sound of his voice (Philippians 4: 22). Many 
 men and women outside the slave class also yielded to 
 his persuasive presentation of the gospel. If we could 
 know the life history of the persons mentioned in II 
 Timothy 4:21, we should doubtless have an interest- 
 ing commentary on the influences radiating from the 
 personality of Paul throughout the different classes of 
 society in this great city. A little later there was a 
 great Christian church in Rome, and before the cen- 
 tury was over the literary activity was so great among 
 the Christians that it was there rather than in Jerusa- 
 lem that the first gospel was written. 
 
 50 
 
PAUL’S LAST LETTER 51 
 
 But most interesting of all is the way that Paul 
 keeps up his contact with the world outside Rome. 
 Messengers from different parts of the world come and 
 go from that little house on a side street in Rome as 
 though its humble occupant were a king on his throne. 
 His ambassadors and his written messages did in fact 
 prepare the way for the greatest empire that the world 
 has ever seen. 
 
 2. The Occasion of His Last Letter. 
 
 Philippians has been called “the love-letter”’? among 
 the epistles of Paul. It was his most affectionate mes- 
 sage and was sent to Philippi to thank the church there 
 for all their kindness shown to him in many ways since 
 the time when he founded that little congregation on 
 his first visit to Europe. 
 
 When the Philippians heard that Paul was in prison, 
 they sent one of their members, Epaphroditus, with 
 money and clothing and with instructions to remain 
 and wait upon Paul as long as he should be confined. 
 But Epaphroditus was taken sick and had to return, 
 so Paul sent by him this letter which has made that 
 church immortal. 
 
 3. The Imitation of Christ. 
 
 One of the incidental passages which has lifted this 
 little letter to fame is found in 2:1-11. This was a 
 new way of meeting an old question. The problem was 
 how to harmonize the different groups in the Philippian 
 church. As in all other churches, so in this, there were 
 differences of opinion and differences of temperament 
 that led to the formation of little factions. Paul de- 
 sired that they might forget their little differences and 
 unite on a programme of Christian work. Instead of 
 
52 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 arguing with them, he points them to Jesus, that 
 Prince of Heaven who because of his great love for 
 men gave up his special privileges and came to earth. 
 Not only did he suffer the usual limitations of men, 
 but also died on the cross, the supreme example of 
 humility and willingness to serve. Should they not 
 forget their differences and have that mind in them 
 which was in Christ Jesus? 
 
 4. Pressing toward the Goal. 
 
 That was a wonderful confession made by Paul when 
 he said in Philippians 3: 12-16 that he was far from 
 having attained the goal of life. Great men have a 
 zeal for self-improvement, a passion for progress. 
 When Paul had the vision of Christ near Damascus 
 many years before, there came to him a new concep- 
 tion of what he ought to be, and he was still striving 
 to make that vision real. 
 
 Another thought suggested by this passage is the 
 duty of having a progressive goal: “TI press on, if so 
 be that I may lay hold on that for which I also was 
 laid hoid on by Christ Jesus.” Every new stage of 
 progress widens the horizon and broadens the concep- 
 tion of the ideal of life. The great joy of life is not in 
 reaching the goal of that first vision, but the reward 
 of all effort and struggle is a deeper perception of the 
 wonder and beauty of the goal of life. The ideal is 
 ever far ahead of us, and the noblest life is one that 
 pursues the ideal to the end. Browning has put this 
 thought into his poem, Life in a Love: 
 
 “My life is a fault at last, I fear: 
 It seems too much like a fate, indeed ! 
 Though I do my best I shall scarce succeed. 
 But what if I fail of my purpose here? 
 
PAUL’S LAST LETTER 53 
 
 It is but to keep the nerves at strain, 
 To dry one’s eyes and laugh at a fall, 
 And, baffled, get up and begin again,— 
 So the chase takes up one’s life, that’s all. 
 While look but once from your farthest bound 
 At me so deep in the dust and dark, 
 No sooner the old hope goes to ground 
 Than a new one, straight to the selfsame mark, 
 J shape me— 
 Ever 
 Removed!” 
 
 5. Where Jerusalem and Athens Meet. 
 
 In the last selection which we have chosen for study, 
 4:4-9, occurs a verse which is the most quotable of 
 any in the letter. ‘‘Whatsoever things are true, what- 
 soever things are honest, whatsoever things are pure, 
 whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of 
 good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any 
 praise, think on these things.”’ Von Soden says of this 
 passage, ‘It is the only time that the Greek idea of 
 virtue appears in the New Testament, for in ‘what- 
 soever is lovely, whatsoever is of good report’ the 
 beautiful stands side by side with the good in close fel- 
 lowship. It is as if one heard the ripple of the waves 
 at the meeting of the two streams which have their 
 source in Zion and the Parthenon. Paul in Athens and 
 at the same time Paul raised high above all the glories 
 and the afflictions of earth—this, figuratively speaking, 
 is the twofold memorial that the Apostle has left of 
 himself in his last epistle, which may in truth be called 
 his ‘swan-song.’”’ 
 
 It would seem that Paul, near the end of his life, had 
 an intuition of the future relation of Hebrew religion 
 and Greek philosophy. For in the second and third 
 centuries after Christ the best that the Greeks had 
 thought was combined with the great religious teach- 
 
 + 
 
54 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 ing of the Jews to form that Christian system which 
 went forth to conquer the world. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . What proves that Paul had great influence in the city of 
 
 Rome? 
 
 . Give evidence that Paul’s prison-house exerted an influence 
 on many distant cities. 
 
 Why was Philippians written? 
 
 . By what method did Paul seek to harmonize all the different 
 
 groups in Philippi? 
 
 . Where did Paul first catch a vision of his goal? 
 
 . The best thought of what two nations is combined in Philip- 
 
 pians 4:8? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 . How did Paul’s imprisonment affect the spread of Christian- 
 
 ity? Philippians 1: 12. 
 
 . Wouldn’t it have been better if Epaphroditus had not come 
 
 to visit Paul? 
 
 . Which is more valuable in a debate, a figure of speech or an 
 
 argument? See Paul’s method, Philippians 2: 5—i1. 
 
 . Find a reference in Philippians 3 : 12-16 to the Greek Olympic 
 games. 
 
 Which is more interesting, to reach the goal or to run the 
 race? Discuss Browning’s view of that subject. 
 
 ao FP &O te 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 . Write a brief story of the death of Paul. Smyth, Life and 
 Letters of Paul, page 222. 
 
 2. Give a list of the points of contact between Pau! and the 
 church at Philippi. Acts and Philippians. 
 
 . Is there in Philippians 3: 12-16 a parallel to the following 
 passage in The Choir Invisible, by James Lane Allen: 
 
 “Ideals are of two kinds. There are those which corre- 
 
 spond to our highest sense of perfection. ‘They express 
 what we might be were life, the world, ourselves, all differ- 
 ent, all better. . . . There are ideals of another sort: ... 
 as we advance into life, out of larger experience of the 
 world and of ourselves, are unfolded the ideals of what 
 will be possible to us if we make the best use of the world 
 and of ourselves, taken as we are.” 
 
 —_ 
 
 i) 
 
Part 3 
 THE PERIOD OF THE FALL OF JERUSALEM 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 A COMPARISON OF THE FIRST THREE 
 GOSPELS 
 
 1. Consequences of the Fall of Jerusalem. 
 
 It is a curious fact that none of the Gospels were 
 written in Palestine, the home of Jesus. It is probable 
 that Mark was written in Rome, Matthew in Antioch 
 of Syria, and Luke in Ephesus. One explanation of 
 this complete transfer of leadership in Christianity to 
 the Gentiles was the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 
 A. D., which marked the end of Jewish national life. 
 This was a decisive blow to Jewish Christianity, that 
 section of the church which opposed the Apostle Paul, 
 and a vindication of the view that Christianity should 
 be freed from all Jewish entanglements, and go forth 
 as @ universal religion to win all the world. 
 
 No longer could men look to Jerusalem for the 
 guidance of that “living word”’ which had kept them 
 informed of the words and deeds of Jesus. They needed 
 a written record of Jesus’ life. Moreover, up to this 
 time, large numbers of Christians had looked for the 
 bodily return of the Messiah before the end of that 
 generation. The preaching which they had heard from 
 Paul and the Apostles dealt largely with the Cruci- 
 fixion, the Resurrection, and the second coming of 
 
 +14) 
 
56 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Christ. When the view prevailed that the Kingdom of 
 God was to be built up on the earth, the need was felt 
 of a record of the life of Christ which should show 
 Christians how to live in human society. This need 
 became imperative after Christianity had spread widely 
 among Greek-speaking peoples. 
 
 2. Characteristics of the First Three Gospels. 
 
 Mark is the shortest and most vivid of the Gospels. 
 It is a straightforward presentation of the deeds of 
 Jesus that proved him to be the Son of God. These 
 deeds are described in a series of pictures. A good 
 example is the first chapter of Mark, in which Jesus 
 teaches and heals in the synagogue in the morning, in 
 the afternoon is entertained at the house of Peter and 
 performs a cure, and in the evening works miracles for 
 the crowd that assembles at the door. Mark omits the 
 Sermon on the Mount, the stories of the birth, and all 
 the parables except those in chapter 4. The use of the 
 word “immediately”? more than forty times in sixteen 
 chapters gives it an appeal to the practical man and 
 especially adapts it to the Romans. 
 
 Matthew is distinctly the Jewish Gospel, in contrast 
 with Mark, which has been called the Roman Gospel. 
 While Mark explained the meaning of Old Testament 
 customs for the benefit of Gentile readers, Matthew 
 never does this; on the contrary, he quotes more than 
 forty passages from the Old Testament, thus assum- 
 ing that his readers had an acquaintance with Jewish 
 thought. Great emphasis is placed upon the fact that 
 Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies of the 
 Messiah. While Mark dealt with the deeds of Jesus, 
 Matthew gives large space to the teachings, the Sermon 
 on the Mount occupying three long chapters. Although 
 
A COMPARISON OF THE FIRST THREE GOSPELS 57 
 
 Matthew has more Jewish elements than the other 
 Gospels, it is perhaps the broadest and most catholic 
 of them all, as we see from Matthew 28:20. Its aim 
 was to prove to the Jews of the Dispersion that Jesus 
 was the Messiah and that the Messiah’s kingdom was 
 universal. 
 
 Luke may be called the social Gospel, because of the 
 large place it gives to the poor and to women and 
 children. It is the Gospel that contains the most beau- 
 tiful stories of the birth and childhood of Jesus. Here 
 alone one finds the songs of Elisabeth and Mary and 
 the description of the home of Mary and Martha. 
 Luke’s aim was to present as complete a history as 
 possible of the life of Jesus for his Greek friend The- 
 ophilus, yet it is by no means dry history. More than 
 the other Gospels, it reveals the compassionate love of 
 God for ‘all sorts and conditions of men.” 
 
 3. The Striking Similarity of the Synoptic Gospels. 
 
 The most remarkable fact about Mark, Matthew, 
 and Luke is that they are “synoptic’’—that is, that 
 they see as one. There is, in fact, only one story of the 
 life of Jesus in these Gospels, and that is the record 
 given by Mark. Matthew and Luke borrowed almost 
 all of Mark and used it in their Gospels. Eleven- 
 twelfths of Mark is found in Matthew, and Luke has 
 taken over nearly as much. 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting evidence of the de- 
 pendence of both Matthew and Luke upon Mark is 
 their adoption of the order of events in Jesus’ life as 
 given by Mark. The ministry of Jesus, according to 
 Mark, is divided into five great periods: three periods 
 of the ministry in Galilee, the Perean ministry, and 
 Passion Week. Matthew and Luke follow Mark’s 
 
58 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 arrangement in almost every detail. Also, all these 
 Gospels contain an account of the preaching of John 
 the Baptist, of the baptism and temptation of Jesus, 
 and the record of the events after the Resurrection. 
 Furthermore, they all agree in omitting the early Ju- 
 dean ministry, to which the fourth Gospel gives so large 
 a place. 
 
 Another likeness is the use of the same words by 
 the three Gospels in describing the same event in many 
 cases. This is even more noticeable in the original, or 
 Greek, version. One reading the Gospels in the Greek 
 cannot avoid the conclusion that Matthew and Luke 
 are verbally quoting Mark in very many places. The 
 following example may be given: 
 
 MATTHEW 12:3, 4 
 
 But he 
 said unto them, 
 Have ye not read 
 what David did, 
 when he was an 
 
 MARK 27'25-27 
 
 And he said unto 
 them, Did ye never 
 read what David did 
 when he had 
 need and was an 
 
 LUKE 6:3, 4 
 
 And Jesus an- 
 swering them, said, 
 Have ye not read even 
 this, what David did, 
 when he was an hun- 
 
 hungered, and they 
 that were with him; 
 how he entered into 
 the house of God 
 
 and did eat the 
 shewbread, which it 
 
 was not lawful for 
 him to eat, neither 
 for them that were 
 
 with him, but only for 
 
 the priests? 
 
 hungered, he and they 
 that were with him ? 
 How he entered into 
 the house of God when 
 Abiathar was high 
 priest, and did eat 
 the shewbread which 
 
 it is not lawful to 
 eat save for the 
 priests? 
 
 gered, he, and they that 
 were with him; 
 
 how he entered into 
 the house of God 
 
 and did take and eat 
 the shewbread, and 
 gave also to them that 
 were with him; which 
 it is not lawful to 
 
 eat save for the priests 
 alone? 
 
 4. The Central Figure of the Gospels. 
 While the Gospels agree in the great essentials, they 
 
 differ in many little details. Yet these differences only 
 accentuate the fact that all the great lines point toward 
 the figure of Jesus Christ. A good illustration of this is 
 
A COMPARISON OF THE FIRST THREE GOSPELS 59 
 
 Helman Hunt’s painting entitled, Finding Christ in the 
 Temple. It is a very complex picture. There is a large, 
 ornate building, several groups of hostile people, be- 
 sides Joseph and Mary and Jesus. As you study the 
 picture, whether you look at Mary or at a rabbi or one 
 of the women in the background, you will see that the 
 lines of composition focus on the face of Jesus. So it is 
 in our three Gospels. 
 
 Oo 
 
 = WwW Nw -& 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . In what ways did the fall of Jerusalem affect the writing of 
 
 the Gospels? 
 
 . Compare the three Gospels, noticing one important character- 
 
 istic of each. 
 
 . Give three or more evidences that Matthew and Luke copied 
 
 Mark. 
 
 . What was the main purpose of all the Gospels? Compare 
 
 Holman Hunt’s painting, Finding Christ in the Temple. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 . Would it have made any difference in the future of Christian- 
 
 ity if Jerusalem had not been destroyed by the Romans? 
 
 . Which of the three Gospels is the greatest help in winning a 
 
 person to Christ? 
 
 . Which Gospel has the largest amount of the teachings of 
 
 Jesus? 
 
 . Quote a verse from the Gospel of Luke which shows that it 
 
 has great interest in the poor. 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 . Which of the four Gospels omit the account of the birth of 
 
 Jesus? 
 
 . On a page of your note-book arrange verses from the synop- 
 
 tics to show how a harmony of the Gospels is made. 
 
 . Compare Matthew, Mark, and Luke with reference to the 
 
 number of Messianic prophecies which they quote. 
 
CHAPTER XIT 
 
 THE LIFE STORY OF THE AUTHOR OF THE 
 GOSPEL OF MARK 
 
 1. A Boy at the Arrest in Gethsemane. 
 
 There is a tradition that John Mark, the author of 
 our earliest Gospel, was known as the “‘stump-fingered ”’ 
 in the early church. It may be that the tips of his fin- 
 gers were cut off in the garden of Gethsemane when 
 the soldiers arrested Jesus.. In Mark 14:51, 52, we 
 read, ‘‘And a certain young man followed with him, 
 having a linen cloth cast about him, over his naked 
 body: and they laid hold upon him; but he left the 
 linen cloth and fled naked.” Earlier that evening 
 Jesus had eaten supper with his disciples at the home 
 of Mark’s mother, a widow named Mary. It has been 
 suggested by Hunting, in The Story of Our Bible, that 
 the soldiers who had been sent to arrest Jesus went 
 first to the house of Mary and, failing to find him 
 there, hastened away to the garden of Gethsemane. 
 Mary sent her son, John Mark, to warn Jesus. He had 
 been sleeping on his mattress and stopped only to 
 wrap a linen sheet about him before he ran to Geth- 
 semane. But he was too late to give the warning. He 
 saw Peter cut off the ear of the servant of the High 
 priest, the arrest of Jesus, and the flight of the disci- 
 ples. The eager boy followed along behind and in his 
 curiosity crept too close to the rabble. Some of them 
 seized him roughly, but he struggled free, leaving his 
 
 60 
 
THE AUTHOR OF THE GOSPEL OF MARK 61 
 
 ® 
 linen sheet behind, not, however, until he had been in- 
 jured by the slash of a sword. Mark might well have 
 said in later years, ‘On the scene of this tragic world- 
 drama I myself appeared for an instant and in one of 
 its darkest hours.” 
 
 2. A Scene at the House of His Mother. 
 
 John Mark’s mother had a home in Jerusalem with 
 a large enclosed porch before it and an assembly room 
 within. This room may have been used by the dis- 
 ciples of Jesus, for we know that Peter was often a 
 guest there and spoke of Mark affectionately as his 
 son (I Peter 5:18; Acts 12:12, 18). Barnabas was a 
 cousin of John Mark and with Paul was, no doubt, a 
 guest at the house. 
 
 We may imagine a scene in the house of Mary after 
 the Crucifixion of Jesus that profoundly influenced the 
 future of John Mark. The disciples had gathered there, 
 as they often did, and were recalling sorrowfully some 
 of their experiences with Jesus. They told of that 
 first Sabbath in Capernaum with its synagogue service 
 and its miracles of healing, of the curing of the para- 
 lytic, of the feeding of the thousands by the lake, and 
 of many other wonderful incidents in the life of their 
 lost leader. Repentant and remorseful, Peter would 
 be there, unable to forget his denial of the Master. 
 Mark would be in and out among them and, like any 
 other boy of his age, would be impressed by these 
 stories about Jesus, and his imagination would be so 
 stirred that in future years he would be able to recall 
 these memories of the Christ and be able to picture 
 them with great vividness. It may be that scenes like 
 this contributed to the lifelikeness of his description, 
 many years later, when he wrote the Gospel of Mark. 
 
62 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 3. Mark’s Failure as a Missionary. 
 
 After John Mark had finished his college course and 
 had been engaged in teaching for several years, Barna- 
 bas and Paul were entertained at his mother’s house. 
 They had come with a gift of money for the starving 
 Christians and Mark became very much interested 
 in the distribution of the gifts. He heard the eager 
 and eloquent Paul describing a new enterprise which 
 he was planning, the carrying of the good news about 
 Jesus to the larger world. Mark’s enthusiasm was 
 aroused, and he got the consent of Barnabas and Paul 
 to join them in their first missionary journey. They 
 sailed from the port of Antioch and began their work 
 in Cyprus. But missionary life was not what John 
 Mark had anticipated. When they left Cyprus, he was 
 much discouraged. At Perga, Paul was ill and the 
 journey that they had planned over the mountains 
 would lead them into a region beset by robbers and 
 lacking in food and shelter. Mark’s thoughts turned 
 homeward, and in a moment of weakness he deserted 
 (Acts 13:13). Two or three years later Barnabas in- 
 vited Mark to go with them again, but Paul would not 
 trust him. This led to the separation of Barnabas from 
 Paul, and they never met again (Acts 15: 37-40). We 
 read, however, in Colossians 4:10, that Mark was in 
 Rome in friendly relations with Paul. So Mark proved 
 himself in later years a good Christian worker and 
 was in good standing with the Apostle. 
 
 4. Mark in Rome. 
 
 I Peter 5: 13 states that Mark was in Babylon (which 
 means Rome) with Peter and their relations were so 
 friendly that Peter was accustomed to call Mark his 
 son. Later traditions of the church also describe Mark 
 
THE AUTHOR OF THE GOSPEL OF MARK 63 
 
 as doing Christian work with Peter in the great metrop- 
 olis. Irenzus, about 180 A. D., referring to a period 
 after the death of Peter and Paul in Rome, writes, 
 “Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also 
 hand down to us in writing what had been preached 
 by Peter.” A still earlier testimony comes from Papias, 
 a bishop in Phrygia about 125 A. D. He says, ‘‘ Mark, 
 having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down 
 accurately, though not indeed in order, whatsoever he 
 remembered of the things said or done by Christ.” 
 
 Peter probably spoke only the Aramaic, while Mark 
 used both the Greek and the Aramaic languages. Mark 
 was accustomed to repeat the sermons of Peter in the 
 Greek language for the benefit of the audiences in 
 Rome. In this way Mark became very familiar with 
 Peter’s ideas about the gospel of Christ. 
 
 5. Mark’s Method in Writing His Gospel. 
 
 When Mark was a boy at home he had heard the 
 disciples tell short, disconnected stories from the life 
 of Jesus. This experience, along with his opportunity 
 of seeing Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, made him 
 almost an eye-witness of the events in the life of Jesus. 
 Moreover, his work in Rome with Peter gave him 
 knowledge of the main facts in the life of Jesus. Euse- 
 bius reports Papias as crediting Mark with great accu- 
 racy, “‘For he was careful of one thing, not to omit 
 any of the things which he had heard and not to state 
 any of them falsely.”” The vividness and rapidity of 
 the narrative in Mark’s Gospel is no doubt in part 
 due to the brilliant way in which Peter used to preach. 
 
 Mark’s Gospel may be compared to the great Church. 
 of Saint Mark at Venice. Ruskin, in his Stones of Ven- 
 ice, describes two features of the church that have a 
 
64 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 parallel in the Gospel: the mosaics form, “underfoot 
 and overhead, a continual succession of crowded im- 
 agery, one picture passing into another . . . the mazes 
 of interwoven lines and changeful pictures lead always 
 at last to the Cross, lifted and curved in every place 
 and upon every stone . . . it is the Cross that is first 
 seen and always, burning in the centre of the temple, 
 and every dome and hollow of its roof has the figure 
 of Christ in the utmost height of it, raised in power, 
 or returning in judgment. . . .”’ So the Gospel is made 
 up of a rapid succession of pictures, all of them por- 
 traying the glory of the Christ and some of them 
 pointing toward the Cross. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 . Give evidence that John Mark witnessed the arrest of Jesus in 
 Gethsemane. 
 
 . Where probably did Mark first hear many of the wonderful 
 incidents in the life of Jesus? 
 
 . Describe Mark’s first experience as a missionary. 
 
 . Give two or more evidences that in later years Mark had de- 
 veloped into a good Christian worker. 
 
 . Name two characteristics of the Gospel of Mark, which are 
 paralleled in the church of Saint Mark in Venice. 
 
 mo DW ee 
 
 & 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 . Was Mark’s failure on the first missionary journey dueto any 
 lack in his home training? 
 
 . Which is more favorable to the development of a strong char- 
 acter, success or failure at the beginning of one’s career? 
 
 . When Papias says that Mark wrote accurately from memory, 
 is he thinking of verbal accuracy or of the correctness of 
 the substance of the story? 
 
 nD 
 
 oe) 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 1. Write a brief essay on the houses of Palestine and draw an 
 imaginary sketch of the house of Mary, the mother of 
 
THE AUTHOR OF THE GOSPEL OF MARK 65 
 John Mark. See Barton, Archeology and the Bible, pp. 126- 
 
 128. 
 2. Write a list of the references to John Mark in the New Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 3. Describe the visit of Peter to the house of John Mark. See 
 Acts 12: 5-17. 
 
Cuaprer XIII 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF MARK 
 
 The Baptism and the Call. Mark 1: 1-18. 
 
 The Beginning of the Ministry. Mark 1: 14-35. 
 
 The Conflict with the Pharisees. Mark 3: 1-6. 
 
 Withdrawal from Galilee for Security. Mark 7 : 24-37. 
 
 The Final Journey to Jerusalem. Mark 10: 32-34; 11: 1-11. 
 
 The Cleansing of the ee and the Conflict with the Phari- 
 sees. Mark 11: 15-33 
 
 The Arrest and Trial. Mark 14: 43-65. 
 
 The Crucifixion. Mark 15: 15-38. 
 
 The Resurrection. Mark 16: 1-8. 
 
 1. The Earliest Portrait of Christ. 
 
 No photograph ef Jesus was ever taken, but the 
 word-pictures painted in the Gospel of Mark bring us 
 face to face with him. This priceless record of the 
 Master is a little book, twenty pages or so in length, 
 and can easily be read through in half an hour. So 
 brief and incomplete was it that the early church did 
 not call it a Gospel. After Matthew and Luke had 
 used practically all of it in their Gospels, Mark was 
 sadly neglected and, if we may judge from the muti- 
 lated copy made use of in preparing our New Testa- 
 ment, it came near being added to that long list of lost 
 books and letters. 
 
 Modern men regard Mark as the most important of 
 all the biographies of Jesus. The following estimate by 
 Burkitt, in The Gospel History and Its Transmission, 
 may be accepted as true: ‘If we want to begin at the 
 beginning and reconstruct the portrait of Christ for 
 ourselves, we must start from the Gospel of Mark. 
 
 66 
 
THE GOSPEL OF MARK 67 
 
 The other Gospels, even the Gospels according to 
 Matthew and Luke, give us an interpretation of Jesus 
 Christ’s life. An interpretation may be helpful, illu- 
 minating, even inspired, but it remains an interpreta- 
 tion. The thing that actually occurred was the life 
 that Jesus Christ lived, and our chief authority for the 
 facts of that life is the Gospel according to Mark.” 
 
 In a book as important as Mark’s Gospel undoubt- 
 edly is to multitudes of the human race, we should ex- 
 pect to find evidences of its historic truth. Two tests 
 may be applied: first, does the history in Mark fit into 
 the historic framework of those times; second, is the 
 book self-consistent? Mark satisfactorily stands both 
 tests. From Josephus and other non-Christian his- 
 torians, we know the general outlines of the history of 
 Palestine. They picture for us the social culture, and 
 the religious beliefs of the Jewish population in the 
 first century. Mark is in harmony with this picture 
 drawn by contemporaries. In order to test the self- 
 consistency of this Gospel we may ask: ‘Has it the 
 same characteristics from beginning to end? Is it all 
 objective, ‘a transcript from life’? realistic and vivid? 
 full of details? characterized by action?’”? When tested 
 in this way Mark reveals its unity and consistency. 
 
 This portrait of Jesus is the more valuable because 
 it stands alone in the early Christian literature in giv- 
 ing details of the Galilean ministry of Jesus. The writ- 
 ings which preceded Mark among the Christians (the 
 letters of Paul and the Logia of Matthew) dealt with 
 the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the arguments from 
 prophecy, and the sayings of Jesus. Concerning the 
 facts of Jesus’ life there was almost nothing on record. 
 To Mark alone we owe the preservation of the recol- 
 lections of Peter concerning the deeds of Jesus. 
 
68 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Hunting, in his Story of Our Bible, has the following 
 excellent statement concerning the dependence of Mark 
 upon Peter for the material found in his Gospel: ‘‘So 
 Mark wrote for the Roman Christians the book which 
 - we call the Gospel of Mark. It was largely a collection 
 of the stories of Peter. To some extent it probably re- 
 produced Peter’s own language. Naturally enough, the 
 chief character in it, next to Jesus, was Peter. We even 
 find in it the story of Peter’s denial, which is just what 
 honest, humble Peter would have wished. Throughout 
 his book Mark tried to be accurate. He seems to have 
 had accurate information regarding all the more im- 
 portant events, but his sources of information were not 
 always perfect. For example, he did not know the 
 exact order in which many of the events in Jesus’ life 
 occurred. He had heard Peter relating one anecdote 
 or another in accordance with the needs of his hearers, 
 and he evidently set down these events in the order 
 that seemed most probable. To some extent, in addi- 
 tion to what he remembered from Peter, he made use 
 of narratives which had already been written, copying 
 them into his book. Sometimes he copied two stories’ 
 which he thought represented two distinct events, but 
 which are really two different accounts of the same 
 event (compare Mark 6:30-43 with Mark 8: 1-9). 
 
 Matthew and Luke copied into their Gospels practically the 
 whole of Mark. It is to Mark, therefore, that we are chiefly 
 indebted for our knowledge of the course of Jesus’ life. And 
 what a story he has told us! Not that Mark was a literary 
 genius. His language is not particularly elegant. He simply 
 told what he knew in plain, straightforward sentences. But 
 through him we hear Peter’s voice, telling us of his associa- 
 tion with the Master. Through Mark, for example, we go 
 with Peter and Jesus into Peter’s lowly fisherman’s cottage 
 in Capernaum. Through Mark we seem to hear the voice of 
 Jesus calling to us, across the rippling waves of the lake: 
 
THE GOSPEL OF MARK 69 
 
 “Follow Me.’ Countless multitudes, through Mark’s story, 
 have “‘left all,” like Peter, to follow Jesus. Above all, what. 
 an influenee has been wielded by Mark’s story of Passion 
 Week: from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the be- 
 trayal, arrest, trial, Crucifixion, and Resurrection! What. 
 would the Christian religion be without the story of the 
 Cross? We may truly say that this story as told by Mark 
 has created Christian history, and it remains to-day: the su- 
 preme influence for the creation and development of Chris- 
 tian character. 
 
 It is interesting to recall the tradition that Peter 
 was entertained in Rome by Priscilla and her son, the 
 senator Pudens. In the catacomb which bears Pris- 
 eilla’s name, the word Peter, both in its Greek and 
 Latin forms, appears repeatedly. These pictures and 
 inscriptions in the great catacomb remind us of the 
 permanent significance of Peter’s work in Rome. But 
 Rome transformed the simple faith of Peter into the 
 most complex religious system on earth, Roman Cath- 
 olic Christianity. 
 
 2. Pictures in Mark Drawn by Peter. 
 
 Students of the life of Jesus naturally turn to this 
 earliest Gospel for a knowledge of the facts. These facts 
 are presented in a series of pictures or short stories 
 which are so vivid and clear-cut that they might be 
 called cartoons. For our purpose we shall select nine 
 typical scenes which carry us from the baptism of 
 Jesus to his resurrection. 
 
 We first see the carpenter of Nazareth answering the 
 call of John the Baptist and submitting to baptism in 
 the river Jordan. He goes at once into the wilderness 
 of temptation, convinced that he has been given a mis- 
 sion from heaven. After the death of John the Baptist, 
 Jesus begins his independent ministry in Capernaum 
 by teaching in the synagogue and by deeds of healing 
 
70 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 that called to him multitudes of people. Soon the 
 Pharisees began to criticise him for breaking the Sab- 
 bath law and for assuming power that belonged to 
 God. Throughout his career the opposition of the 
 Pharisees increased, and they were finally strengthened 
 by the support of the Sadducees and the Herodians. 
 Herod Antipas also showed hostility to the Great 
 Teacher and he was compelled to withdraw again and 
 again for safety to regions outside the territory of 
 Herod. 
 
 After a year or two of wonderful teaching and mira- 
 cles of healing, the opposition to him became so great 
 and he lost so many followers because of the strictness 
 of his requirements and the newness of his views, that 
 he decided to go to Jerusalem and boldly face the crisis 
 that was approaching. The disciples followed him in 
 great bewilderment and fear. On Sunday morning of 
 the last week of his life he rode into Jerusalem on an 
 ass, while the multitudes shouted, ‘‘ Blessed is he that 
 cometh in the name of the Lord!” On Tuesday he 
 cleansed the temple, driving out the traders and money- 
 changers, and thus incurred the deadly enmity of the 
 Sadducees, who had a monopoly of the business in the 
 temple. His arguments with the Pharisees increased 
 their anger, and the result of all his words and deeds 
 was the union of all forces against him. He was arrested 
 and summarily tried and crucified on Friday morning 
 at nine o’clock. The ending of the Gospel of Mark 
 which would have described his Resurrection has been 
 lost, but from the first eight verses of the sixteenth 
 chapter we may assume that Jesus arose from the 
 dead and appeared to the two Marys and to Salome. 
 In this brief way Mark sketches the earthly career 
 which has so profoundly changed human history. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF MARK 71 
 
 3. The Effect of the Portrait on Those Who Study It. 
 
 Doctor George A. Gordon, of the New Old South 
 Church, Boston, has told the following experience: 
 When he was a young man in Harvard College, the 
 study of the sciences raised doubts in his mind con- 
 cerning the Christian faith. He resolved to study the 
 Gospels faithfully for half an hour every morning before 
 breakfast. “The result was the surprise of our student’s 
 vexed life; slowly there dawned upon him that sacred 
 Syrian land; slowly its ranges of hills and fertile plains 
 fell into due order; slowly the light of the sun and the 
 stars rested upon them; life and color came again to 
 the face of nature; the people lived once more among 
 whom Jesus walked and taught; and slowly there rose 
 the strange, mysterious person of the incomparable 
 friend of man and Prophet of the Soul of the universe, 
 till our student thus led felt it to be not presumption 
 but the simple, august truth to cry out in his joy, ‘I 
 have seen the Lord face to face.’”’ This was not a 
 unique experience. Thousands of other persons have 
 found in the Gospels the inspiration that changed their 
 whole lives. In-all the Gospels there are no more effec- 
 tive presentations of Christ than the pictures in the 
 Gospel of Mark. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. How does Mark differ from Matthew and Luke as an author- 
 ity on the life of Christ? 
 
 2. What distinctly new thing does Mark contribute to the litera- 
 ture of the early Christian church? 
 
 3. Name nine or more phases of the life of Jesus according to 
 Mark. See headings at beginning of chapter. 
 
 4. How did Christ’s cleansing of the temple on Tuesday of Pas- 
 sion Week hasten his death? 
 
¢2 
 
 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 1. Discuss the question whether or not Mark can be regarded 
 
 bo 
 
 o> Oo Wo 
 
 Cobo 
 
 as authentic history. 
 
 . How can you account for the story of Peter’s denial, if Peter 
 
 is really the one who furnished Mark with the materials 
 for these stories? 
 
 . Does Mark 6: 30-44 report the same event as Mark 8: 1-9? 
 . If Mark had not written his Gospel, would we have known 
 
 the facts about the life of Christ? 
 
 . Tell the story of the life of Jesus, following the outline at the 
 
 head of the chapter. 
 
 . What proves the religious value of Mark? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 . Do the medizval and modern paintings of Jesus give us a 
 
 good idea of what he really was? See Bailey, Art Studies 
 in the Life of Christ, 179-181. 
 
 . Quote from Josephus what he said about Jesus. 
 . Write an explanation of the fact that the Gospel of Mark 
 
 seems to end with Mark 16:8. See Burgess, Life of Christ, 
 p. 281, 
 
Cuapter XIV 
 THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 
 
 1. The Scene of the Writing. 
 
 The books of the New Testament were all produced 
 in the great cities of the world. Paul wrote his letters 
 in Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome; Rome, too, gave birth 
 to the Gospel of Mark. Matthew, which has been 
 called the “most important book ever written,’ was 
 probably produced in Antioch “The Golden,” on the 
 river Orontes. 
 
 Antioch was a magnificent city. Two broad streets 
 paved with granite intersected at the centre of the 
 city. Four miles away was the famous Grove of 
 Daphne. There were beautiful public buildings, and 
 parts of the streets were colonnaded. Here lived the 
 highly educated Jew who wrote the Gospel of Matthew 
 in Greek. 
 
 Why the author wrote a Greek Gospel of Matthew 
 between 70 and 80 A. D. may best be understood if we 
 recall the scene that took place there twenty or thirty 
 years before, when Paul and Barnabas returned from 
 their first missionary journey. The Christians had a 
 church building on Singon Street, where Paul made the 
 report of his success among the Gentiles. He explained 
 to the congregation the necessity of keeping the gospel 
 of Jesus entirely free from the legal requirements of 
 the Pharisees. In the audience, we may imagine, was 
 a young man who afterward wrote our present Gospel 
 of Matthew. He knew of the presence of the Judaizers 
 in the city, and he heard the earnest discussion between 
 
 73 
 
74 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Paul and the church-members concerning these narrow 
 Jewish Christians. This future writer was entirely won 
 over to Paul’s side. 
 
 During the succeeding years this man who was to 
 write an important part of our New Testament ob- 
 served the steady trend away from Jewish Christianity 
 to the broader Gentile view. When Jerusalem was de- 
 stroyed in 70 A. D. and a final end was made of Jewish 
 nationality, history seemed to render a verdict against 
 the Jewish form of Christianity which had its official 
 centre in the church at Jerusalem. The church was 
 scattered by the fall of the city and never again at- 
 tained great influence. Jerusalem’s prestige passed to 
 Antioch, and the Gentile Christian church there felt 
 that its liberal position was justified. It increased rap- 
 idly in numbers, sent forth missionaries through Asia 
 and Europe, and, within two hundred years after the 
 writing of Matthew, was the seat of the bishop of the 
 churches of all Asia. 
 
 In view of these changes, and especially because of 
 the fall of Jerusalem, the author of Matthew under- 
 took to write the book which was for several genera- 
 tions the only one entitled ‘‘Gospel” by the Christian 
 church-leaders. He wished to show that Jesus was 
 really the Messiah and that the Jews had made a mis- 
 take in opposing and crucifying him. Furthermore, he 
 declared that, although Christianity was rooted in the 
 Old Testament and was closely related to Judaism, 
 yet it was a new religion. Jesus had told them in the 
 Sermon on the Mount that Moses’ words were no longer 
 binding, for he had shown them a better way. 
 
 From Matthew 28:19, 20, and from the parables 
 which show that Christianity was not limited to the 
 Jews, it would seem that one great purpose of the 
 
THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 75 
 
 writer was to teach the universality of Christianity in 
 harmony with Paul’s view. Many students of Matthew 
 think that the main purpose was to convince the Jews 
 by means of more than forty quotations from Old Testa- 
 ment prophecy that Jesus of Nazareth had fulfilled 
 the Old Testament hope and that the Jewish nation 
 should accept him. 
 
 2. The Author’s Method. 
 
 The first source of Matthew was the Gospel of Mark, 
 which had been written a few years before. Not only 
 did it borrow practically the whole of Mark, but it 
 adopted the whole framework. This is best shown by 
 the following table: 
 
 MARK MATTHEW 
 1:1-2:13 Introduction. 3:1-4:11 
 2:14-6:13 Jesus’ work in Galilee. 4:12-13:58 
 6:14-9:50 Rejection of Jesus in Galilee and the 
 
 organization of the church. 14: 1-18:35 
 10: 1-52 Jesus in Perea and Jerusalem. 19 : 1-20: 34 
 11:1-16:8 Passion Week and Resurrection. 21: 1-28:8 
 
 The second source used by Matthew was a copy of 
 the Aramaic sayings of Jesus, which had already been 
 translated into Greek. Luke later used these sayings, 
 as one may easily perceive by comparing the following 
 passages in Matthew and Luke: 
 
 MATTHEW LUKE 
 3: 7-10 3: 7-9 
 4:3-11 4:3-13 
 5:11, 12 6: 22, 23 
 6 : 25-33 12 : 22-31 
 
 Matthew used so many Old Testament verses that 
 it has been supposed he had a pamphlet of quotations 
 from the Old Testament. 
 
76 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Again, the Gospel contains a record of the birth of 
 Jesus, chapters 1 and 2, which is entirely different 
 from anything found in Mark, and so must have come 
 from a different source. The account of the birth in 
 Matthew, if historical, is evidently based upon inci- 
 dents related by Joseph. 
 
 Two other sources of information from which the 
 author of Matthew got some of his incidents in Jesus’ 
 ministry have been called the Galilean and Perean 
 Documents. 
 
 3. What Matthew Added to Mark. 
 
 Matthew is much longer than Mark. On one of the 
 rolls which they used to employ before the discovery 
 of printing, Mark would require nineteen feet in length, 
 while Matthew would occupy thirty. Matthew adds 
 the account of the birth, the Sermon on the Mount, 
 and other discourses. Indeed, Matthew might be 
 called a book of sermons. It contains (1) the Sermon 
 on the Mount, 5-7; (2) instructions given to the apos- 
 tles in view of their first mission, chapter 10; (8) a col- 
 lection of the parables of the kingdom, chapter 13; (4) 
 rules regulating the relation of members in the new 
 society, chapter 18, and (5) the discourse on last 
 things, chapters 24 and 25. 
 
 Matthew has fifteen parables, while Mark has only 
 four. He also has more material on the Galilean and 
 Perean ministries. The completeness of Matthew’s 
 Gospel was regarded in the early church as constitut- 
 ing it a real Gospel in distinction from Mark, which 
 was only a tract. 
 
 Matthew has another interesting addition in his 
 peculiar arrangement in groups of three, five, and 
 seven. It is supposed that he did this in order to assist 
 
THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW U7 
 
 the memory. There are three fourteens in the gene- 
 alogy (1:17); three temptations (4: 1-11); three signs 
 to the Pharisees (12: 38-42); the five great discourses 
 mentioned above may each be divided into five para- 
 graphs. There are seven parables in chapter 13, and 
 seven woes in chapter 23. 
 
 4. Religious Message. 
 
 The expression ‘‘ Kingdom of Heaven” occurs thirty- 
 seven times in Matthew and not once in the other two 
 synoptic Gospels. It means that God’s ideal for human 
 society will be fulfilled on the earth. The Kingdom of 
 Love, or the Kingdom of Things as They Are in Heaven 
 shall take the place of the reign of evil in human life 
 and make the earth a province of heaven. This won- 
 derful idea has been the chief inspiration of all those 
 Christian workers and missionaries who have gone 
 forth in the name of Jesus to banish evil and unhappi- 
 ness from the world. 
 
 Matthew is the only Gospel which mentions the 
 church. It exalts the church as the chief agent in the 
 establishment of God’s kingdom. All other institu- 
 tions in our world are of less importance than this 
 organization, which stands as the representative of 
 Jesus. 
 
 This Gospel affords an excellent example of a writer 
 who was born and thoroughly trained in the Jewish 
 faith, with all its tendencies toward the past, yet was 
 able to break away from the bondage of ancient things 
 and accept the new truth when he saw it. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Why was the Gospel of Matthew written in Antioch rather 
 than in Jerusalem? 
 
78 
 
 cri Cb 
 
 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 . Name two or more aims of the writer of Matthew. 
 . Make a list of six possible sources used by the author in writ- 
 
 ing this Gospel. 
 What does Matthew contain which is not found in Mark? 
 
 . Note the most important religious messages in Matthew. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 . Why were the books of the New Testament written in great 
 
 cities? 
 
 . What advantage was it to have the Gospel of Matthew in 
 
 Greek rather than in Aramaic? 
 
 3. Did the destruction of Jerusalem necessarily prove that Jew- 
 
 ish Christianity was less acceptable to God than Gentile 
 Christianity ? 
 
 . What has been the influence on civilization of the gospel 
 
 teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven? 
 
 . Is the church necessary to the progress of the Kingdom of 
 
 God? 
 Special Assignments 
 
 . Write a sketch of Antioch. 
 . Make a list of the parables in Matthew. How many of these 
 
 are found in Mark? 
 
 3. Write a brief essay on the difficulty of accepting new ideas, as 
 
 illustrated by Jews hke James in Jerusalem. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 
 
 The Beatitudes. Matthew 5: 1-12. 
 
 The Salt of the Earth. Matthew 5:13. 
 The Light of the World. Matthew 5: 14. 
 The New Law. Matthew 5:17-48. — 
 The New Worship. Matthew 6: 1-17. 
 The New Life. Matthew 6: 19-34. 
 Seven Things to Do. Matthew 7: 1-29. 
 
 1. The Importance of the Sermon. 
 
 Jesus is the central figure of history, and his Sermon 
 on the Mount is central in the literature of the world. 
 It is this sermon that brings us into most direct rela- 
 tion with Jesus. Ian Maclaren, in The Mind of the 
 Master, says of this document: “It was Christ’s mani- 
 festo and the constitution of Christianity. When 
 Jesus opened his mouth, his new society was in the 
 air. When he ceased every one knew its nature and 
 also on what terms a man might belong to it.”’ Presi- 
 dent King, of Oberlin, in The Ethics of Jesus, declares 
 that in it “‘there are to be found the great central con- 
 ceptions of Jesus as to God, as to men, and as to life. 
 Here are set forth in unmistakable terms the life of 
 love for God and man, and all that love involves.” 
 C. W. Votaw, in Hastings’ Bible Dictionary, states 
 that Jesus’ meaning is so unmistakably clear in his 
 Sermon on the Mount that “through the Christian 
 centuries the kind of life which he here describes has 
 been the guiding star of civilization.” 
 
 Indeed, this clearness and simplicity are surprising 
 to us in a great discourse, that is generally recognized 
 
 79 
 
80 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 as a new law of life in contrast with the old Mosaic 
 law. One might expect to find here language very 
 formal and technical. On the contrary, it is so simple 
 that we often fail to understand it in our vain search 
 for something strange and deep. 
 
 2. The Form of the Sermon. 
 
 The literary form of this new constitution of the 
 Kingdom of Heaven is remarkable. Dean Charles R. 
 Brown of Yale says: “‘In the Sermon on the Mount, 
 brief though it is, there are no less then fifty-six meta- 
 phors, which are really word-pictures. Salt, light, can- 
 dle, bushel, treasure, moth, rust, lilies, ravens, splinter, 
 beam, bread, fish, scorpion—these are samples. Fifty- 
 six of them! The entire Sermon on the Mount can be 
 read aloud in fifteen minutes. These fifty-six meta- 
 phors mean, therefore, that in this particular utter- 
 ance word-pictures came from his lips at the rate of 
 more than three per minute.” 
 
 One can easily convince himself that this is very far 
 removed from the ordinary legal document by looking 
 up the following forms: metaphors in Matthew 5: 13, 
 14; symbol in 5: 29; parable in 7 : 24-27; hyperbole in 
 5: 39-42. 
 
 Richard G. Moulton, in his Modern Reader’s Bible, 
 arranges the Sermon on the Mount in seven sections. 
 These have been printed at the head of this chapter. 
 He believes that the Beatitudes are all expansions of 
 the first, ‘‘Blessed are the poor in spirit,”’ which is de- 
 veloped by “sevenfold illustration.”’ This suggestion, 
 like many others of Doctor Moulton, is worthy of 
 study and use. For example, it has often been noted 
 that Jesus used the proverbial form of speech so char- 
 acteristic of our book of Proverbs. The Sermon on the 
 
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT $1 
 
 Mount is full of these Wisdom sayings: “Ye are the 
 salt of the earth,” ‘‘ Ye are the light of the world.” At 
 the beginning of the fourth section of the Sermon we 
 find the following couplet, which is a clew to the whole 
 division which follows: 
 
 Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: 
 I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. 
 
 The next thirty verses develop the implications of 
 this couplet, and the reader gains a new insight into 
 the meaning of the whole passage if he perceives this 
 fine literary form into which Jesus cast his thought. 
 
 The next section opens with the following lines: 
 
 Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to 
 be seen of them: 
 Else ye have no reward with your Father which is in heaven. 
 
 This gives us the key thought of the verses follow- 
 ing, and enables one to understand the meaning of 
 phrases that otherwise might not be clear. 
 
 In the midst of the fifth section occurs the Lord’s 
 Prayer, which is in poetic form. Note that the first 
 and fifth lines form an envelope containing three lines, 
 all of which modify the word ‘‘Father”’ in the first 
 line. This was printed in chapter 2. 
 
 The sixth section of the Sermon opens with the fol- 
 lowing triplet stanzas, which are antithetic in meaning 
 and symmetrical in form: 
 
 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, 
 Where moth and rust doth consume, 
 And where thieves break through and steal: 
 
 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, 
 Where neither moth nor rust doth consume, 
 And where thieves do not break through nor steal. 
 
82 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 The last section of the Sermon, with its seven divi- 
 sions, is notable for its use of a line or a couplet or a 
 triplet saying, followed by a prose development of the 
 thought. A good example is 7:1, which should be 
 printed as follows: 
 
 Judge not: 
 That ye be not judged. 
 
 The thought in this little couplet is developed in 
 verses 2-5. 
 
 3. The Scene of the Sermon. 
 
 The fact that the sayings of Jesus found in Matthew 
 5-7 have a parallel in Luke 6: 20-49 has raised the 
 question whether we can locate this great address of 
 Jesus at any one time or place. Matthew says it was 
 delivered on a mountain and that his disciples consti- 
 tuted the audience; Luke introduces his version of the 
 Sermon by saying that Jesus stood in the plain and 
 that his hearers included both the disciples and a great 
 multitude of the people. Matthew agrees with Luke 
 in dating the Sermon in the early part of the Galilean 
 ministry; Luke adds that the occasion was the choice 
 of the twelve disciples. He says that Jesus went up 
 on to a mountain to pray (6:12) and continued in 
 prayer all night. In the morning he chose his disciples, 
 then came down with them to the plain, and gave the 
 Sermon to a great multitude. 
 
 Probably the best view is that there was one occa- 
 sion when on one of the hills in the range west of the 
 Sea of Galilee, Jesus gave an address to his disciples. 
 We might expect that he would give one of his most 
 important discourses in connection with the appoint- 
 
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 83 
 
 ment of the twelve men who were to take charge of his 
 work. That was a great event in his ministry. 
 
 It is likely that Luke has reproduced more nearly 
 the original form of that Sermon. Matthew is enough 
 like Luke to show that there was a common source. 
 In Matthew’s Sermon there are one hundred and seven 
 verses, of which Luke has twenty-six in his report. 
 But scattered through the Gospel of Luke we find 
 thirty-two other verses which have:a parallel in Mat- 
 thew’s sermon, but which Luke has placed in different 
 historical setting. We conclude that Matthew has 
 brought together in one address many sayings of Jesus 
 that were uttered originally in different circumstances. 
 This would be in keeping with Matthew’s method in 
 other instances. He had the habit of collecting words 
 of Jesus from different sources and belonging to differ- 
 ent occasions and arranging them according to their 
 subject-matter. 
 
 4. The Sermon Regarded as a New Law. 
 
 Matthew’s report of the Sermon represents it as a 
 new law in contrast with that delivered at Mount 
 Sinai. The opening paragraph suggests this, for as 
 when the law was made on Ebal and Gerizim there 
 were blessings and curses, so in the Sermon on the 
 Horns of Hattin there were Beatitudes. Later in the 
 Sermon we have verse after verse contrasting the new 
 life under the gospel with the old life under the law. 
 Jesus said that his teaching changed many of the 
 commands of Moses. 
 
 Yet Jesus did not, like Paul, utterly break with the 
 law. He was only seeking to secure a larger and truer 
 fulfilment of the law. But his fulfilment was of such a 
 character that in the end it was fatal to the law itself. 
 
84. LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 He laid down the principle that external forms do not. 
 affect the real issues of man’s higher life. This principle 
 pronounces the doom of the old conception of religion. 
 
 Jesus reduced the whole law to two great command- 
 ments, love toward God and toward man. “Not only, 
 then, did Jesus reduce the law to its purely ethical 
 requirements and simplify even these until they could 
 all be comprised in one or two, but he showed that in 
 the last resort the very idea of law must give place to 
 another. The real task of men was to attain to a moral 
 autonomy. They were to bring their wills into such 
 harmony with the will of God that on every occasion, 
 however new and unexpected, they should know what 
 God desired of them and do it of their own accord. 
 Christianity has never yet risen to the height of this 
 ideal of Jesus. Paul, indeed, with his clear insight into 
 the central meanings of the gospel, declared that the 
 law had now been abolished and had been replaced 
 by the living Spirit; but the church has never found 
 courage to follow him. Within a generation after Jesus’ 
 death his message was formulated as a ‘new law,’ 
 superior to the old one but still consisting of definite 
 commands. This qualification of the Christian ethic is 
 perhaps necessary. A time may never come when it 
 will be safe to release men from all external law and 
 trust them to the sole direction of their own will. Jesus 
 himself recognized that. no man can possess the right 
 will until he has undergone a profound inward change. 
 He made his ethic conditional on his religion.” 
 
 5. The Difference that Jesus Made. 
 
 Jesus recognized that his religion was a new thing in — 
 the world, as we see from his illustration of the new 
 wine in old bottles. When the kind of life that he ad- 
 
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 85 
 
 vocated was established, it would be found to be some- 
 thing different from that ever dreamed of in either 
 the Jewish or the Gentile world. It was that far- 
 reaching principle of love that made his religion new. 
 
 Love toward the Father in Heaven was not the love 
 of a natural son, a matter of family pride. The Jews 
 thought of God as a natural father, and the Greeks 
 believed themselves descendants of the gods. Jesus 
 did not mean that kind of filial relation. The love 
 which he taught was wholly a moral thing, the delib- 
 erate choice of one whose heart had been changed 
 from coldness and indifference to reverence and sym- 
 pathy. This love toward God would be shown not by 
 observance of some form of worship or by keeping the 
 precepts of the law, for one might do all those things 
 and yet all the time be acting from evil motives. His 
 heart might still be bad. What Jesus meant by love 
 was a purpose to obey God and to have sympathy with 
 all God’s plans, even though through weakness there 
 might be failure to carry them out in the deeds of love. 
 God judges us for what we try to be. 
 
 “Not on the vulgar mass 
 Aalied ‘work,’ must sentence in 
 
 But all, the ead 8 coarse igen 
 And finger failed to plumb; 
 So passed in making up the main account; 
 
 All I could never be, 
 All, men ignored in me, 
 This I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped.” 
 
 Jesus taught a love for humanity not because of 
 any philosophy that taught that we were all descended 
 from one father, nor because we belonged to the same 
 church or the same race, but rather because there had 
 
86 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 been created in our hearts a love for mankind like the 
 love that God has for all. Jesus illustrated this by the 
 Good Samaritan. It meant that one who had love has 
 a, willingness to help any one who is in need, and that 
 he looks for nothing in return. This is a very lofty 
 ideal of life. It is attained only through long training 
 or, as Tennyson expressed it, through great suffering: 
 
 “Love took uP ee harp of Life, and smote on all the chords 
 with m 
 ah ee the chord of Self, that, trembling, pass’d in music out 
 sight.” 
 
 Such love requires no law and no executor outside of 
 self. It is wholly an inner thing. The Sermon on the 
 Mount is best studied from the starting-point of the 
 inner nature of love. This thought of love for the 
 brother based on the idea that love is at the centre of 
 the universe is the theme of the Sermon. From that 
 centre everything radiates. The Beatitudes are only 
 illustrations of that theme. The next great section of 
 the Sermon, in which there is a contrast between the 
 law of Christ and the law of Moses, is only an elabora- 
 tion of the same thought. The section on worship de- 
 clares that nothing less than reverence of the heart 
 itself is real worship. And so on through the whole dis- 
 course, everything depends on the attitude of the inner 
 life. 
 
 Love has been called the most beautiful thing in the 
 world, but it is also the most terrible thing in the 
 world. The punishment for any offense against love 
 does not wait upon the interpretation of any precepts 
 of the law nor depend upon the whims of any executor, 
 but is immediate and deadly. Hell “has been painted 
 as a place of fires. But when we contemplate that men 
 come to it with the holiest flames in their nature 
 

 
 THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 87 
 
 quenched, we shall justly feel that it is rather a dreary 
 waste of ash and cinder, strewn with snow—some 
 ribbed and frosted Arctic zone, silent in death, for 
 there is no life there, and there is no life there because 
 there is no Love, and no Love because men in rejecting 
 or abusing her have slain their own power ever again 
 
 to feel her presence.”—George Adam Smith, The 
 Twelve Prophets, p. 354. 
 
 
 
 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . What is the best evidence that the Sermon on the Mount is 
 
 important? ‘ 
 How many word-pictures are there in the Sermon on the 
 Mount? Give examples of six. 
 
 . How does it happen that the Sermon is longer in Matthew 
 
 than in Luke? 
 
 . In what way was the Sermon on the Mount different from the 
 
 law of Moses? 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 . Compare the importance of the Sermon on the Mount with 
 
 the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 . What did Jesus mean by the metaphor, “Ye are the salt of 
 
 the earth”? 
 
 . Discuss the place of the giving of the Sermon on the Mount. 
 . Prove that Jesus did not utterly break with the old law. 
 . What two commandments summarized the old law, according 
 
 to Jesus? 
 
 . When would it be safe to release men from all external law? 
 . How did Jesus differ from the Jews and the Greeks in his idea 
 
 of the Father in Heaven? 
 
 . How is love for God to be tested? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 . Enlarge upon Richard Moulton’s suggestion in The Modern 
 
 Reader’s Bible concerning the expansion of the first Beati- 
 tude into the ‘“‘sevenfold illustration.”” Show how all the 
 rest of the Beatitudes are an expansion of the first. 
 
 . Find in the book of Proverbs the statement on which Jesus 
 
88 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 built his parable of the House on the Rock and the House 
 on the Sand. Matthew 7 : 24-27. 
 
 3. Read Browning’s Rabbi Ben Ezra. 
 
 4. What changes would take place in your community if all the 
 people should adopt Jesus’ ideal in Matthew 6: 19-34? 
 
 
 
Cuapter XVI 
 THE PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 
 
 1. The Picture Teaching of Jesus. 
 
 Jesus did so much for religion and practical life that 
 his great contribution to literature and artistic beauty 
 has not often been brought to mind. Yet he was 
 “earth’s supreme literary artist.”” Newell Dwight 
 Hillis did not exaggerate when he said: ‘Christ’s 
 thoughts, injured by translators and marred by copy- 
 ists, seem like those precious marbles from the hands 
 of Phidias, the very fragments are so beautiful as to 
 evoke the admiration of all the beholders. Neverthe- 
 less, his words as quoted by his four biographers repre- 
 sent in form and thought the highest products of genius 
 that the literary art has ever produced. Charles Dick- 
 ens was the great master of the pathetic style. When 
 the novelist was asked what is the most touching story 
 in literature, he answered, ‘The story of the Prodigal 
 Son.’ Coleridge took all knowledge to his province, 
 and his conversation sparkled with jewels of thought, 
 yet, when asked for the richest passage in literature, 
 he answered, ‘The Beatitudes.’ Edmund Kean was a 
 great actor and artist, but there was one passage so 
 full of tears that he thought no man could properly 
 render it—the one beginning, ‘Come unto me all ye 
 that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you 
 rest.’”’ 
 
 89 
 
90 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Perhaps the parables afford us the finest examples of 
 Jesus’ literary work. He did not create that form of 
 literature called the parable, but he brought it to per- 
 fection. This perfection consists partly in the theme 
 and partly in the literary style. 
 
 The great theme of the parables is found in that 
 expression which Jesus used at the beginning of his 
 Galilean ministry, “the Kingdom of Heaven is at 
 hand.” This phrase, ‘Kingdom of Heaven,” which 
 Luke always renders as the ‘‘ Kingdom of God,” was not 
 understood by Jesus’ hearers in the sense that he meant 
 it. They thought it was a temporal kingdom, a thing 
 of politics, war, and food. His great task was to teach 
 them that the Kingdom was purely moral and spiritual. 
 For this purpose he resorted to the parables. From 
 the every-day life of the time Jesus drew wonderful 
 pictures that have never been forgotten. 
 
 He tried to make clear the essential meaning of his 
 Kingdom by showing that God was like the shepherd 
 who searches for his lost sheep, or the woman sweep- 
 ing her floor for a lost coin, or the loving father wel- 
 coming home his wandering son. In these parables the 
 life of his time is vividly presented to us. We see the 
 slow-growing grain, the vineyard ready for the har- 
 vests, the birds in their nests, the poor widow, the 
 mother kneading her dough. Some one has said that 
 the parables are the perfection of realistic art; the 
 tremendous paradoxes are driven home with the 
 simplicity that has the apparent unconsciousness of 
 a flower. By the use of these Jesus not only con- 
 vinced many of his own generation, but also left on 
 record for the whole world these wonderful figures 
 which clearly express what Jesus wanted his Kingdom 
 to be. 
 
THE PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 91 
 
 2. The Prodigal Son and the Arabic Tale of the Mer- 
 chant. 
 
 A comparison of one of the parables of Jesus with 
 the best parable which may be selected from those 
 outside the New Testament will show the superior 
 quality of the work of Jesus. We might go to the Old 
 Testament, The Arabian Nights, or to some other part 
 of world literature for a parable to contrast with the 
 Prodigal Son. Even fables, like those of Ausop or that 
 of Jotham (Judges 9: 8-15), might be used, for the only 
 difference between a fable and a parable is that the 
 latter deals with possible experiences, while the former 
 has fanciful and impossible situations. For example, in 
 fKsop’s “The Turtle and the Eagle,” the two animals 
 carry on a conversation; on the other hand, all para- 
 bles picture possible occurrences, or those that were 
 sincerely deemed possible at the time of writing. 
 
 We may select for study the Arabic “Tale of the 
 Merchant.” 
 
 A merchant who possessed an hundred pounds of iron, being 
 obliged to be absent for a few days, entrusted his stock to 
 the care of a friend, and having at his return demanded to 
 have it returned to him, was answered, that the mice had 
 eaten it; to which he made no other reply than that he had 
 heard of the sharpness of their teeth in biting iron, remoy- 
 ing by this declaration all suspicion of incredulity; but as 
 he was going away, he chanced to meet the son of his friend 
 and, seizing him, led him away to his own house. On the 
 morrow the father came to him in great haste, to ask if he 
 knew anything of his son: the merchant told him that as he 
 was returning home the preceding day he saw a hawk carry 
 off a young lad, who probably might be his son. “Is it 
 credible,” exclaimed the father, ‘“‘Or was it ever heard of, 
 that a hawk carried away a child?” ‘Indeed,’ answered 
 the merchant, “in a country where the mice can eat a 
 hundred pounds of iron, it is not incredible that hawks 
 should be able to carry off the elephants.’”’ Upon this the 
 father confessed his theft, paid the merchant the price of 
 his iron, and demanded in return his son. 
 
92 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 In comparison with this read the Prodigal Son 
 (Luke 15: 11-32) and note its superiority in four re- 
 spects. First, the greatness of its theme, the loving 
 father, is characteristic of the parables of Jesus. The 
 parables outside the Bible are often humorous, but 
 their themes are not great. The subject of dishonesty 
 treated in the ‘‘ Tale of the Merchant”’ is important, but 
 it does not compare in scope or in its appeal to the 
 emotion with the subject of the Prodigal Son. Second, 
 the delineation of character in the Biblical story has 
 never been surpassed. The loving father, the phari- 
 saical elder brother, and the repentant son are sketched 
 in lines that can never be forgotten. Third, the Biblical 
 story is noteworthy for its brevity; by the omission of 
 modifying clauses and adjectives, it describes in few 
 words several scenes, and pictures clearly three char- 
 acters. Such compression, combined with adequate 
 description, is not to be found elsewhere in literature. 
 Fourth, its power of appeal is immeasurable. Thomas 
 de Quincey distinguished between real literature and 
 all other kinds of writing by the test of its power of 
 appeal. If this test should be applied to the Prodigal 
 Son, it would be found to stand high in the literature 
 of the world. 
 
 3. Classification of the Parables. 
 
 A. B. Bruce finds thirty-three parables in the Sy- 
 noptics, which he arranges under three heads: (1) 
 Those teaching the truth of the Kingdom; (2) those 
 teaching the goodness of God; (8) those showing the 
 kind of righteousness required. Under the first head 
 would come the seven parables of Matthew 13, and the 
 following: Mark 4: 26-29; Luke 18:1; 11:5; 17:7; 
 
THE PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 93 
 
 and also three parables on the subject of work and 
 wages, Matthew 20:1, 25:14; Luke 19: 12. 
 
 Under the head of the parables showing God’s good- 
 ness come first the three parables in Luke 15, and the 
 following: Luke 7:40; Matthew 9:14-17; Luke 10: 
 30; 14: 7-11; 14:16; 16:1; 16:19; 18: 9-14. 
 
 The third group, presenting the goodness required in 
 the Kingdom, consists of the following seven parables: 
 Matthew 11:16; Luke 18:6; Matthew 21: 28-44; 
 22:1; 24:45; 25:1. 
 
 4. Two Interesting Groups of Parables. 
 
 Matthew 13 and Luke 15 are the two classic chap- 
 ters in the New Testament among those which contain 
 parables. The stories in Matthew 18 deal with the 
 growth and triumph of the Kingdom. I¢ is instructive 
 to note the order of these parables and the thought 
 which each successive one adds to what has been said 
 before. The Sower explains the unequal growth of the 
 Kingdom; the Tares describes the springing up of good 
 and evil side by side in the Kingdom, the Mustard Seed 
 shows the extent of the Kingdom, and the Leaven, the 
 manner of its development; the Treasure and the 
 Pearl give an estimate of the worth of membership in 
 the Kingdom; and the Drag-net teaches the final sep- 
 aration of the true from the false. 
 
 The parables in Luke 15 have changed the world’s 
 conception of God. Who does not know Jesus’ story 
 of the Lost Sheep or of the woman sweeping her house 
 for the Lost Coin, or of the forgiving father welcoming 
 home his Lost Son? These stories have been called 
 the parables of grace because they represent God as 
 anxiously seeking to save the lost. 
 
94 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 5. Religious Teaching of the Parables. 
 
 The two outstanding lessons of these famous stories 
 are the love of God and the spiritual character of the 
 Kingdom. 
 
 This idea of the love of God was new to the ancient 
 world. No other religion than the Christian has ever 
 presented it to men. Some one has said that ‘‘Jesus 
 had the most joyous idea of God that was ever thought 
 of.” This idea was so fully and clearly expressed in 
 the parables that the whole Christian world has come 
 to accept it as the chief message of the New Testament. 
 One illustration of the power of this thought is found 
 in the realm of art. The artists of the world have 
 again and again painted the stories of the Prodigal 
 Son and the Lost Sheep, and their pictures have power- 
 fully influenced mankind toward the acceptance of the 
 teachings of Jesus. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . Did Jesus make a contribution to literature? 
 
 . What was the theme of the parables? 
 
 . Compare the Prodigal Son with the ‘‘ Tale of the Merchant” in 
 four respects. 
 
 . Give a threefold classification of the parables and an example 
 of each class. 
 
 . What are the two most famous parable chapters in the New 
 Testament and what parables are contained in each? 
 
 ao Se Whe 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 . Where did Jesus get the material which he used in his parables? 
 . Why is a parable more effective than a sermon? 
 . Tell the parable of the Prodigal Son. 
 . Two important teachings of the parables. 
 
 He CO DO i 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 ; eh ea between fable and parable, and tell one of Aisop’s 
 ables. 
 
 j—_ 
 
 te 
 
THE PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 95 
 
 2. Name three or more of the parables in the Old Testament. 
 
 3. What does God require of man according to the following 
 parables: Matthew 11:16; 21: 28-44; 22:1; 24:45; 25:1; 
 Luke 13: 6. 
 
 4, Name some paintings which have been based on parables, 
 
Cuapter XVII 
 THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 
 
 1. The Literary Gospel. 
 
 Luke is called ‘‘the most literary of the Gospels.” 
 It is clear that the author of the book possessed an 
 excellent command of the Greek language and style of 
 writing. The richness of his vocabulary is seen when 
 we know that Luke has 312 words which are not found 
 in any of the other Gospels: In the first four verses of 
 the book, where Luke is not following Mark and is 
 entirely original in style, the language is simple and 
 dignified and suggests an author of broad culture and 
 skill. Even when Luke is modelling his language closely 
 upon the Gospel of Mark, we find him substituting 
 words and phrases here and there to improve upon the 
 Greek. See Mark 1: 29, 30 and Luke 4: 38, 39; Mark 
 1:34 and Luke 4:41. 
 
 2. Luke, the Greek Physician. 
 
 Only three times in the New Testament is Luke 
 named, yet in our imagination we are able to know him ~ 
 well. In the Greek world slaves were often trained to — 
 be doctors, and it is thought that Luke was brought — 
 up as a slave boy in the household of Theophilus, to — 
 whom he later dedicated his Gospel. His kindly mas- — 
 
 ter was attracted to the bright-eyed boy and arranged - 
 
 for him to have a good education. We may believe — 
 
 that he sent him to the best university in the land, 
 
 that at Tarsus. Here at the university Luke became 
 96 
 
 } 
 i 
 
 4 
 i 
 
THE GOSPEL OF LUKE Q7 
 
 acquainted with Paul, with whom he was later so con- 
 stantly associated. Returning to Antioch, the home of 
 his kind master, Luke was brought into touch with 
 the first Christians and converted. Later he settled as 
 a physician in the city of Troas. 
 
 Years passed, and Paul, with Silas and Timothy, 
 came to the little town on the northwest coast of Asia 
 Minor where Doctor Luke had settled as a physician. 
 Here Paul was seized with an attack of sickness, and 
 Luke was called in to give medical aid. How pleased 
 the two must have been to recognize each other! It is 
 evident that Luke became interested in the missionary 
 work Paul was doing for the Christian religion. Paul 
 had planned to work in Asia Minor before he had been 
 forced to stop at Troas, but now Luke suggested that 
 they visit Philippi, where he was well acquainted. He 
 even offered to go with Paul. That night in his sleep 
 Paul beheld the figure of the Macedonian calling: 
 “Come over into Macedonia and help us.’”’ Then be- 
 gan the great mission to Europe. At Philippi Doctor 
 Luke seems to have taken up his profession and re- 
 mained there as a pillar of the church until Paul re- 
 turned seven years later. At that time Luke was 
 named by the church at Philippi as one to go with Paul 
 to carry their part of the money which had been col- 
 lected for the poor at Jerusalem. Once more Luke be- 
 came the companion of Paul and was from this time 
 on constantly with him, remaining with the Apostle 
 during the imprisonment of two years at Cesarea and 
 then at Rome until his death. 
 
 3- How Luke Came to Write. 
 
 Paul is dead, but his great work has not been in 
 vain. Thousands upon thousands of converts have 
 
98 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 been made in Asia Minor and Greece. Luke has taken 
 
 up his residence again in one of the coast towns, per- 
 haps Ephesus. Here he decides-to write a story of the 
 life of Christ. He himself tells why, in a little note in 
 the preface addressed to Theophilus, his old master 
 and patron. ‘ Forasmuch as many have taken in hand 
 to draw up a narrative concerning those matters which 
 have been fulfilled among us, even as they delivered 
 them unto us which from the beginning were eye- 
 witnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good 
 to me, also, having traced the course of all things accu- 
 rately from the first, to write unto thee in order, most 
 
 excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the 
 
 certainty concerning the things wherein thou wast in- 
 structed.” 
 
 It seems that so many partial accounts had arisen 
 concerning the life and deeds of Jesus that the Greek 
 Christians were very much confused in trying to un- 
 derstand what was important for them to know and 
 
 believe. It may be that Theophilus requested Luke to — 
 issue an authoritative record of the life of Jesus. Luke — 
 
 was acquainted with the Gospel of Mark and used it 
 as the framework of his biography. He also had Mat- 
 thew’s sayings of Jesus. With infinite care and elab- 
 orate detail, he sets out to furnish the Greek Christians 
 
 with an orderly statement of the life of Jesus for their 
 
 guidance and instruction. 
 
 4. Paul’s Influence on Luke’s Gospel. 
 Just as the Gospel of Mark shows clear traces of the 
 
 influence of Peter, so in the Gospel of Luke we see the 
 
 result of Paul’s teaching. The church historian Euse- 
 
 bius says, “Luke delivered certain of those things that 
 he had received from his intimacy with Paul.” But 
 
 _— 
 
 
 
THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 99 
 
 there is a difference. Mark tried to remember what 
 Peter had said and to use those sayings with verbal 
 accuracy. Luke did not do that. He informs us that 
 he collected his data from “eye-witnesses.”’ If we say 
 that Mark “interpreted” what Peter had said, we may 
 suggest that Luke “illuminated”? what Paul had taught 
 and did not repeat his exact words or the exact form 
 of his teaching. 
 
 The outstanding difference Benen the Gospel of 
 Luke and the other Gospels is the writer himself. Luke 
 is the only writer of the New Testament who was not 
 a Jew. And if Paul had preached a universal gospel 
 rather than a Jewish one, Luke surely would have been 
 glad to interpret his message for his fellow Gentiles. 
 And we find this to be true. Paul had declared: ‘‘ There 
 can be neither Jew nor Greek. . . . Ye are all one man 
 in Christ Jesus.”? So now Luke writes that Jesus did 
 not come to the Jews alone, but to be the savior of 
 mankind. In the story of the birth of Jesus, Luke 
 makes this distinction. Where Matthew, the author 
 of the Jewish Gospel, had told how the wise men of 
 the East came asking, ‘‘ Where is he who is born King 
 of the Jews?” Luke reported the angels’ announcement 
 from the sky: “I bring you good tidings of great joy 
 which shall be to all peoples.”” Luke is the only one to 
 tell the story of Simeon and the song which he sang: 
 
 Now lettest thou thy servant depart, Lord, 
 According to thy word, in peace; 
 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, 
 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples, 
 A light for revelation to the Gentiles, 
 And the glory of thy people Israel. 
 So Luke’s is the universal Gospel. 
 
 The great words which Paul used in his letters to 
 
 the Gentile churches we find ringing in Luke’s Gospel. 
 
100 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 The word for ‘‘faith”? so common to Paul occurs eight 
 times in Matthew, five in Mark, and eleven times in 
 Luke, and even more, sixteen times in Luke’s other 
 book, Acts. The word “grace” does not appear at all 
 in Matthew nor Mark, but six times in Luke. Paul’s 
 phrase, “‘Holy Spirit,” occurs five times in Matthew, 
 four in Mark, but twelve times in Luke. 
 
 As Luke is the Gospel to all races, so it also. brings 
 the glad tidings to all classes of people and not to the 
 narrower circles to which Matthew and Mark appealed. 
 It is Luke who tells the story of the Good Samaritan. 
 He also presents to us the picture of the hypocritical 
 Pharisee and the repentant Publican. Instead of trac- 
 ing the birth of Jesus back to David, a prominent mem- 
 ber of the Jewish race, Luke traces the relationship 
 back to Adam, the common father of mankind. So 
 through and through this Gospel is a universal one, a 
 non-Jewish, Pauline Gospel. 
 
 Then, again, it is Luke who pays more attention to 
 women. In the Jewish church ceremony it was the 
 custom for the men to repeat thanks to God that they 
 had not been made women. But in the Gospel of Luke 
 we have many beautiful stories of womanhood: Elisa- 
 beth, the Virgin Mary, Martha and Mary, the widow 
 with two mites, and others. 
 
 5. Luke the Historian. 
 
 Luke set himself the task of writing a more complete 
 account than had been written before of the basis of 
 the Christian religion. As a matter of fact, this Gos- 
 pel, together with Luke’s other book, Acts, and the 
 Pauline Epistles, do give us a continuous scheme of 
 New Testament history. So Luke might well be called 
 the first historian of the church. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 101 
 
 His first characteristic as a historian is his method 
 in the use of his materials. As he himself says, he has 
 “‘traced the course of all things accurately,”’ and there 
 is evidence that he also has fitted his story accurately 
 into the current history of Palestine. For example, we 
 find Luke’s method in 1:5, “In the days of Herod, 
 king of Judea,” or again in 3:1, 2, ‘In the fifteenth 
 year of the reign of Tiberius Cesar.” In the latter ref- 
 erence and in 2:1-3 Luke gives us information not 
 found in the other Gospels. 
 
 It seems clear that Luke did go at his work in a sys- 
 tematic fashion. But did he have the sources neces- 
 sary to give us a more complete story than had been 
 written up to the time? Where had he gained his in- 
 formation? In the first place, Luke had been for a 
 long time with Paul. Paul had not been an eye- 
 witness, but he could give Luke a lot of valuable in- 
 formation. And then we remember that visit of Luke 
 to Jerusalem with Paul. For two whole years Luke 
 was in the vicinity of the city where Jesus had died, 
 where many of the earlier followers of Jesus still lived. 
 During this time he may have become acquainted 
 with many of the twelve, with other disciples of Jesus, 
 and with his mother and brothers. He would have 
 visited the upper room where Jesus ate the Last Supper 
 with his followers. How eagerly he would have sought 
 to see Martha and Mary. We have, therefore, reason 
 to believe Luke’s assertion that his story was given to 
 him by those “who from the beginning were eye- 
 witnesses.” 
 
 In conversation with friends and with acquaintances 
 Luke would seek to find out new things in the life of 
 Jesus and new stories of his wonderful deeds. By his 
 questions he would bring to light some almost forgot- 
 
102 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 ten anecdote. Perhaps, in this way, we have preserved 
 to us the Good Samaritan and other incidents which 
 Luke alone has recorded. 
 
 But now how much more do we actually know about 
 the life of Jesus because we have the Gospel of Luke? 
 What does Luke give us that Mark and Matthew do 
 not? (1) He alone has handed down to us an elaborate 
 account of the infancy of Jesus. Matthew has a state- 
 ment of it, but it is brief and different. Mark and John 
 do not mention the birth. (2) Luke uses Mark’s mate- 
 rial largely for the early part of Jesus’ life, but Luke 
 is the sole authority for much of the material from the 
 Perean ministry, which includes the last journey from 
 Galilee to Jerusalem, Luke 9: 51-19:28. (8) At the 
 end Luke gives us a new account of the Resurrection, 
 describing the women and Peter at the tomb, the walk 
 to Emmaus, Jesus’ appearance to the eleven disciples, 
 his farewell instructions, and his departure into heaven. 
 
 6. The Religious Message. 
 
 Luke has more to say about prayer than any of the 
 other Gospel writers. He names seven different occa- 
 sions on which Jesus prayed. It seems that prayer 
 was a constant habit with Jesus. This suggests the 
 value of it to all who seek to follow him. 
 
 In response to a question, Jesus taught his disciples 
 how to pray, suggesting both the form of prayer and 
 persistence in prayer. After teaching them the Lord’s 
 Prayer he told the story of the Friend at Midnight. 
 Just as the friend at night will rise to aid his neighbor, 
 even though it trouble him to do so, so God will gladly 
 listen to the voice of him who prays. 
 
 He also taught that one who prays is supplying a 
 necessary factor in the process of prayer and the an- 
 
THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 103 
 
 swer of prayer. “Ask, and it shall be given you.” 
 Men must make an effort as well as God. As in George 
 Eliot’s poem, Stradivarius, man must do his part: 
 
 “When any Master holds twixt hand and chin 
 A violin of mine, he will be glad 
 That Stradivari lived, made violins, 
 And made them of the best... . 
 . For while God gives them skill, 
 I give them instruments to play upon, 
 God using me to help him... . 
 . .. If my hand slacked, 
 I should rob God, since He is fullest good, 
 Leaving a blank behind, instead of violins; 
 He could not make Antonio Stradivari’s violins 
 Without Antonio.” 
 
 Even more important in the Gospel of Luke is the 
 
 painting of Jesus as the friend of all sorts of men and 
 women. Just as Luke himself is a physician and has 
 learned to know and love the unfortunate as well as 
 the more fortunate people of all groups and classes, so 
 Jesus, likewise a healer, is the friend of publicans and 
 sinners. 
 
 oo PWNE 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . A sketch of Luke, the Greek physician. 
 
 . Luke’s motive in preparing his Gospel. 
 
 . Evidences of Paul’s influence in Luke’s Gospel. 
 
 . What are some of the reasons for calling Luke the universal 
 
 Gospel? 
 
 . Show that Luke is more complete as a historian than the other 
 
 authors of the Gospels. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 1. Do you think that Luke was justified in making the claim 
 
 found in Luke 1:3? 
 
 . Are there any evidences in his Gospel that Luke was a physi- 
 
 cian? 
 
104 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 3. What does Luke contribute to our knowledge of Jesus’ habit 
 of prayer? 
 
 4. Discuss the part that prayer actually plays in human achieve- 
 ment. 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 1. Prepare a brief outline of the Gospel of Luke. See Kent’s 
 Life and Teachings of Jesus, pp. 14, 15. 
 
 2. Make a list of the historical references in Luke. 
 
 3. Write an essay on the materials and means of writing in Paul’s 
 
 day. 
 
 
 
CuarTrer XVIII 
 
 LUKE, THE FIRST CHRISTIAN ARTIST 
 
 1. The Founder of Christian Art. 
 
 The religion out of which Christianity grew, that 
 of the Jews, is very peculiar because of its separation 
 from art. There is a distinct reason for this, for the 
 law which every good Jew obeyed to the letter said, 
 “Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor 
 any manner of likeness. . . .”” So to this day we hear 
 of no great products of art, particularly of sculpture 
 and painting, that have arisen in connection with the 
 Old Testament religion. For fear of violating the law 
 of Moses, the Jews have never dared to make statues 
 or paintings. Their only contribution to art in any 
 form has been in the field of literature and, to a small 
 degree, in that of music. 
 
 Christianity, however, is very different. Almost 
 from the first it was the inspiration of great paintings 
 and musical compositions, and in certain branches of 
 Christianity statues have been very prominent as rep- 
 resentations of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. 
 How does it happen that the Christian religion, spring- 
 ing, as it does, out of the Jewish, should turn so whole- 
 heartedly to the realm of art? Who was the first 
 artist ? 
 
 It was Luke—Luke, the cultured Greek, trained in 
 the Greek classics, a devotee of the Greek love for 
 
 105 
 
106 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 beauty in nature and in human nature, in the products 
 of the hand and mind. Almost from the first he was 
 recognized as the founder of Christian art. Indeed, 
 there is an early church tradition that Luke was him- 
 self a painter. Rossetti has put this ancient idea into 
 verse: 
 
 “Give honor unto Luke, evangelist, 
 For he it was, the ancient legends say, 
 Who first taught Art to fold her hands and pray.” 
 
 In the catacombs there is an inscription which speaks 
 of a crude painting of the Virgin as ‘‘one of the seven 
 painted by Luca.” 
 
 We do not think to-day of Luke as a painter on can- 
 vas, but he painted pen-pictures that have been the 
 inspiration of artists of all kinds, including painters, 
 musicians, and poets. As Plummer has said, ‘‘ Luke 
 has had a great influence upon Christian art, of which 
 in a real sense he may be called the founder.”’ One of 
 the earliest of church pictures, The Shepherd with the 
 Lost Sheep on His Shoulders, comes directly from 
 Luke 15. Ancient and modern painters alike have 
 delighted in representing the scenes portrayed by 
 Luke in the Gospel narrative. Among them may be 
 mentioned Fra Angelico’s The Annunciation, Lerolle’s 
 Arrwal of the Shepherds, Hoffmann’s Christ and the 
 Doctors, Hunt’s Finding of Christ in the Temple. 
 
 2. Luke the Musician. 
 
 The music of the world owes much to Luke. From 
 this Gospel the great oratorios and anthems have bor- 
 rowed many of their most popular sentiments. But the 
 greatest contribution is found in the current hymns of ~ 
 the church. The oldest of these were taken bodily 
 
LUKE, THE FIRST CHRISTIAN ARTIST 107 
 
 from Luke and are known under the following titles: 
 “Gloria in Excelsis,’ Luke 2:14; the “Magnificat,” 
 Luke 1: 46-55; the ‘‘Benedictus,”’ Luke 1: 78-79; and 
 the ‘“Nune Dimittis,” Luke 2:29-32. Among the 
 more recent songs that show the influence of Luke 
 we may mention “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” 
 “Holy Night,” and “The Sweet Story of Old.’”?’ When 
 we consider that these joyous hymns and many 
 hundreds more which are sung by millions of people 
 almost daily would never have been composed if Luke 
 had not written his Gospel, we may consider as reason- 
 able the statement that Luke is the most beautiful 
 and inspiring book in the world. 
 
 3. The Superb Short Stories of Luke. 
 
 It must be remembered that the original author of 
 the short stories found in Luke was Jesus himself. As 
 Phelps tells us: ‘‘He was a supreme literary artist. 
 The short stories that He produced with such collo- 
 quial ease are the finest in the world; they are, indeed, 
 the despair of all professional men of letters.”” Yet we 
 must also remember that it is Luke who preserves these 
 stories for us; it was he who put them into written form. 
 
 Only three out of the twenty-three parables in Luke 
 are to be found in Matthew and Mark. This indicates 
 that Luke must have had a special interest in stories 
 which enabled him better than others to appreciate 
 the parables of Jesus. Luke has been called ‘The 
 Compassionate Physician.” That same title might well 
 have been applied to his Master, for Jesus was pro- 
 foundly interested in the welfare of the poor and the 
 sick. These stories which Luke has kept for us have 
 largely to do with the sort of people who might easily 
 be forgotten, but whom Jesus came especially to help 
 
108 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 and to comfort. So to Luke we owe a debt of grati- 
 tude for preserving one part of the fourfold portrait 
 which we might otherwise miss. The titles of some of 
 the parables found only in Luke will serve both to in- 
 dicate the nature of Luke’s interest and the number of 
 stories found only in his Gospel. The Good Samaritan, 
 The Friend at Midnight, The Rich Fool, The Sower, 
 The Two Debtors, The Chief Seats, The Great Supper, 
 The Lost Coin, The Lost Son, The Unrighteous Steward, 
 
 Dives and Lazarus, The Pharisee and the Publican. | 
 
 4. A Model Short Story. 
 
 The finished literary form of these stories may be 
 appreciated more highly if we realize that they have © 
 been the standard for some of our best modern authors. 
 In the introduction to the complete edition of his works, 
 the famous American short-story writer, Bret Harte, 
 declared it his rule to “‘conform to the rules laid down 
 by a Great Poet who created the parable of the ‘Prodi- — 
 gal Son’ and the ‘Good Samaritan,’ whose works have 
 lasted eighteen hundred years, and will remain when 
 the present writer and his generation are forgotten.” 
 Bret Harte’s two greatest short stories, The Luck of 
 Roaring Camp and The Outcasts of Poker Flat, are strik- 
 ingly similar to the Prodigal Son and the Good Samari- 
 tan. 
 
 The Good Samaritan may be studied as a model. 
 One approach to this study is by the way of the drama. 
 A good test of a story is its dramatic quality. If any 
 person fails to perceive the clearness and the power of 
 this story, let him put it in dramatic form. This is a 
 very simple process, as one may see from Miller’s 
 Dramatization of Bible Stories, p. 103, from which the 
 following brief outline is taken: 
 
LUKE, THE FIRST CHRISTIAN ARTIST 109 
 
 Scene l 
 
 Place: The road from Jerusalem to Jericho. 
 Characters: A Traveller, Thieves, a Priest, a Levite, 
 a Samaritan. 
 
 Scene 2 
 Place: The Inn. 
 Characters: The Samaritan, the Traveller, the Inn- 
 keeper. 
 
 When one has put the words into the mouths of these 
 characters and described the action of the parable, he 
 will admit that the story is wonderfully clear and the 
 action most rapid. It remains for him to see the deep 
 meaning involved, for by this little scene Jesus carried 
 love beyond the bounds of a single race to meet the 
 needs of all mankind. 
 
 5. A Practical Lesson. 
 
 Beautiful form is as important in conveying thought 
 as substantial value. The songs of Luke 2 and 3, and 
 the stories and addresses all through the Gospel, would 
 probably not have been handed down to us if they had 
 consisted of a confused mass of ideas. Their appeal 
 has been to our love of the beautiful as well as to our 
 liking for the good and the true. Beauty has some- 
 thing divine in it. God made the sunset beautiful, and 
 other phases of nature appeal to us because of the ele- 
 ment of beauty in them. Genesis 1:31 may be cor- 
 rectly translated, ‘‘And God saw everything that he 
 had made, and behold, it was very beautiful.”’ One of 
 the chief causes of failure in almost every line of activ- 
 ity in this world is lack of effort to make as perfect as 
 possible everything which we do. 
 
110 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Done Ch me 
 
 moo bo ke 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . Why has Christianity rather than the Jewish religion been an 
 
 inspiration in the field of art? 
 
 . What may account for the element of beauty in Luke’s Gospel? 
 
 Name three or more great paintings of the world that were 
 the direct result of Luke’s Gospel. 
 
 . What great hymns of the church are based on Luke? 
 
 Name five especially beautiful parables found only in Luke. 
 
 . What is the deep meaning of the parable of the Good Samari- . 
 
 tan? 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 . Is it true that art, as the Jews seem to fear, tends to lead 
 
 people from the path of morality? 
 
 . Is it possible that the church would have its present fine list 
 
 of hymns apart from the Gospel of Luke? 
 
 . Tell the story of the Good Samaritan. 
 . Discuss the question whether beauty of form is as important 
 
 as value of substance. 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 . Read Bret Harte’s Luck of Roaring Camp and Outcasts of Poker 
 
 Flat and discover if possible any likenesses to the parables 
 of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan. 
 
 . Write a drama on the Good Samaritan by filling out the out- 
 
 line printed above. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 PEN-PICTURES OF THE EARLY CHURCH 
 
 Pentecost. Acts 2 
 
 Paul’s Conversion. Acts 9 
 
 Conversion of the Roman Ghote Acts 10. 
 Paul’s Oration in Athens. Acts 17. 
 
 Shipwreck of Paul. Acts 27, 28. 
 
 1. What if the Book of Acts Had Been Lost? 
 
 If Acts had been lost, we should not have had any 
 record of the Christian church from the crucifixion of 
 Jesus to the death of Paul, a period of thirty-five years. 
 We should have missed the sketch of Christianity from 
 its origin in Jerusalem until its establishment in Rome. 
 We should not have known the story of the descent of 
 the Holy Spirit, the martyrdom of Stephen, the first 
 evangelistic work, the oration of Paul in Athens, the 
 riot in Ephesus, the first missionary work in Europe, 
 the founding of the great European churches, and the 
 speeches of twenty-five other persons besides Paul. 
 
 The letters of Paul allude to many of these events, 
 but we should not have known the background of those 
 letters, and many scenes in Paul’s life described fully 
 in the book of Acts, which explain the meaning of the 
 letters, would be left without record. In Galatians, for 
 example, there is a reference to the great transition from 
 the narrow Jewish Christianity to world-wide Chris- 
 tianity. Acts describes this fully in chapters 10 and 15. 
 
 2. ‘*Six Waves of Joyous Expansion.” 
 Robert F. Horton has happily expressed the history 
 contained in Acts under the figure of six successive 
 111 
 
112 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 waves of the advance of faith from Jerusalem to Rome. 
 This is the most interesting way to study the contents 
 of the book. The first wave (1:1-6:7) carries the 
 faith from the first little church in Jerusalem through 
 the whole city. The second wave (6: 8-9:381) carries 
 the gospel throughout Palestine. The third wave 
 (9: 32-12:23) advances to Antioch and covers all 
 Syria. The fourth wave (12:25-16:5) sweeps over 
 Asia Minor. The fifth wave (16: 6-19: 9) goes over to 
 Europe and occupies Macedonia and Greece. The 
 sixth wave (19: 10-28: 31) reaches the capital of the 
 world. 
 
 “The pulsing of the waves of the tide, as they climb 
 up the beach of the world, gives the reader the feeling 
 that the book as a whole is the first chapter of a record 
 which would continue until the world should be cov- 
 ered, as the waters cover the sea.’”’ The account of this 
 movement bears the title Acts of the Apostles, but it 
 might better have been called The Acts of the Spirit of 
 the Risen Christ, because from the second chapter on 
 we have the emphasis placed on the leadership of 
 Jesus, whom the tomb could not hold. As in the Gospel 
 of John, Jesus is represented as passing through closed 
 doors, so in Acts no obstacle is great enough to hold 
 him back. He leads his Christian forces against all op- 
 position over the mountains and across the seas, until 
 the centre of the world is reached, and forces are set in 
 motion which are destined in three centuries to con- 
 quer the whole Roman Empire. 
 
 3. The Literary Style. 
 
 There are passages of great power and beauty in 
 Acts, especially Paul’s oration in the seventeenth 
 chapter and the account of the shipwreck in chapters 
 
PEN-PICTURES OF THE EARLY CHURCH 113 
 
 27 and 28. Ernest Renan called this book “a new 
 Homer” because in many respects it is a great literary 
 epic. 
 
 A comparison of the style of Luke’s Diary (16: 10-18; 
 20: 5-16; 21:1-18; 27: 1-28:16), usually called the 
 “we sections,” with the other parts of the book seems 
 to establish the fact that the author of the Diary was 
 also the author of the rest of the book. We have stud- 
 ied the style of Luke in connection with the first four 
 verses of his Gospel. We saw there that he was master 
 of classical Greek and in other parts of the Gospel we 
 found passages of literary beauty. Acts has many of 
 the same characteristics. 
 
 4. Why Did Luke Write Acts? 
 
 After Paul’s death Luke probably settled in Ephe- 
 sus as a physician. In his contact with the educated 
 Greeks he found many like Theophilus (Acts 1:1) who 
 did not know accurately the story of the beginnings of 
 the Christian church. Luke believed that it would 
 strengthen and encourage Christians and perhaps win 
 many Greeks to Christ if he should write out the rec- 
 ord of that wonderful Greek mission of Paul. Having 
 been with Paul in many of the most exciting scenes of 
 his life, Luke would be in a position to describe vividly 
 those events which were so critical in the development 
 of the early church. 
 
 Another reason for writing was that Luke had al- 
 ready told the story of the life of Jesus, and it was 
 natural that he should wish to complete the story by 
 telling what the followers of Jesus had done after the 
 Resurrection. It has often been asked why Luke did 
 not write a third volume, carrying on the story of 
 Christianity from the death of Paul through the next 
 
114 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 generation. No one has been able to answer that ques- 
 tion, but it has been conjectured that Luke did write 
 such a volume and that it has been lost. Others think 
 that Luke may not have lived long enough to complete 
 the record of events in the next generation. We may 
 be thankful that we have two volumes from Luke’s 
 brilliant pen. 
 
 5. The Characters in Acts. 
 
 No other New Testament book equals Acts in the 
 variety and number of the persons described. Here we 
 meet kings and other leading men and women of the 
 Roman Empire; distinguished Jewish rabbis, high 
 priests, and especially Gamaliel, the president of the 
 college in Jerusalem; and, most important of all, Peter, 
 Paul, and scores of men and women who helped carry 
 Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome. 
 
 Peter, who denied Christ, is found in chapter 2 
 preaching on Christ with such effect that three thou- 
 sand people are converted in one day. The first half of 
 Acts is filled with the doings of this impulsive follower 
 of Jesus. The last half of the book is given to a de- 
 scription of Paul and his missionary work in Asia and 
 Europe. Other noteworthy characters who help make 
 Acts the greatest biographical book in the Bible are 
 John, Stephen, Philip, Cornelius the Roman, Barna- 
 bas, Mark, Lydia, Dorcas, Priscilla. 
 
 6. The Great Religious Lesson. 
 
 It teaches that there is a Living Christ, who is tak- 
 ing an active part in the world-wide Christian move- 
 ment. It was his spirit that possessed the disciples on 
 the Day of Pentecost. He gave courage and power to 
 Stephen. He enabled Peter to break away from the 
 
PEN-PICTURES OF THE EARLY CHURCH 115 
 
 narrowness of Judaism and baptize a Roman into the 
 Christian church. It was the spirit of Jesus that ap- 
 peared to Saint Paul at Damascus and that led and 
 comforted him in that wonderful career during which 
 Jewish Christianity was transformed into a cosmopoli- 
 tan religion. From that day to this Christ has been 
 present in this world ready to lead Christianity to suc- 
 cess and has been hindered from complete success only 
 by the lack of men and women who would accept his 
 leadership and abandon themselves to his great cause. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . Name six things that we should not have known had the 
 book of Acts been lost. 
 
 What ‘“‘six waves of expansion” carried Christianity from 
 Jerusalem to Rome? 
 
 . Give examples of the literary qualities of Acts. 
 
 . What is meant by Luke’s Diary? 
 
 . What was the purpose of this book? 
 
 . What is one great lesson that may be learned from Acts? 
 
 Deno bo ee 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 . How do you account for the change in Peter between the 
 time of the trial of Jesus and the Day of Pentecost? 
 
 . How did Paul explain his sudden conversion? 
 
 . What experience broadened Peter’s mind so that he could 
 take a Roman into the church? 
 
 . What reference in Paul’s oration in Athens broke up the 
 meeting? 
 
 . Show that Paul was the most influential man on the ship at 
 the time when the wreck occurred. 
 
 . What has prevented a speedier conquest of the world by 
 Christianity? 
 
 ao on fF WN & 
 
 Special Assignments 
 . Make a list of the addresses in the book of Acts, naming the 
 speaker in each case. 
 . Discuss the problem of Luke’s failure to write a third volume. 
 . Make a list of the chapters in Acts in which the name Peter 
 occurs. 
 . Find a phrase in Acts that has a parallel in Luke. 
 
 Be WH Fe 
 
Part 4 
 
 THE PERIOD OF PERSECUTION 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 THE DRAMA OF REVELATION 
 
 The Vision of Christ. Revelation 1. 
 
 Letters to the Seven Churches. Revelation 2, 3. 
 
 The Vision of God. Revelation 4. 
 
 The Vision of the Book and the Lamb. Revelation 5. 
 Two of the Plagues on Rome. Revelation 9. 
 
 The Final Judgment. Revelation 20. 
 
 The New Jerusalem. Revelation 21. 
 
 1. The Literary Influence of Revelation. 
 
 Lafcadio Hearn, in his lecture at Tokio on the Bible 
 as English Literature, recommends Revelation above 
 all other New Testament books as having more literary 
 power and beauty. He says: “‘I should recommend the 
 reading only of the closing book—the book called the 
 Revelation, or the Apocalypse, from which we have 
 derived a literary adjective ‘apocalyptic,’ to describe 
 something at once very terrible and very grand. 
 Whether one understands the meaning of this mys- 
 terious text makes very little difference; the sonority 
 and the beauty of its sentences, together with the tre- 
 mendous character of its imagery, cannot but power- 
 fully influence mind and ear and thus stimulate literary 
 taste. At least two of the great prose writers of the 
 
 116 
 
THE DRAMA OF REVELATION 117 
 
 nineteenth century, Carlyle and Ruskin, have been 
 vividly influenced by the Book of the Revelation.’ 
 
 2. Story of the Author. 
 
 Putting together the few facts which we know in the 
 case, and filling out the details by the aid of our his- 
 torical imagination, we may draw the following picture 
 of the author. A certain John, who as a very young 
 man knew Christ or, at any rate, had been trained by 
 followers of Christ, had become bishop of the church 
 in Ephesus. He was now an old man and highly revered 
 by the people in the city and in those churches that 
 looked up to the church in Ephesus as the authority 
 in all that region. Bishop John used to travel over the 
 fine Roman roads to Smyrna, Philadelphia, and the 
 other cities to which the Roman mail was regularly 
 carried. We may think of him as riding in a tent- 
 covered wagon drawn by mules. During these long 
 journeys the aged man, protected by the covering of 
 the vehicle, would look over his books or make notes 
 of his sermons. On arriving in one of the cities where 
 there was a large church, he would be welcomed by all 
 the Christians and especially by the children, who used 
 to run after his wagon and receive some little token of 
 the old man’s love. 
 
 When the persecution of Domitian was ordered, 
 John was among the first of those arrested and brought 
 before the magistrate in Ephesus. When he refused 
 to worship the image of the emperor, it was the officer’s 
 duty to have him put to death or severely punished, 
 but he could not bear to inflict personal injury on this 
 white-haired old man whom everybody loved. So he 
 sent him away to the island of Patmos into exile. It is 
 possible that on Patmos he had to work with the other 
 
118 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 prisoners in the stone quarries. But on Sundays he 
 would be excused from hard labor because he was an 
 honored Christian preacher. He took occasion on these 
 periods of Sabbath rest to note down on odd scraps of 
 parchment or smooth stones earnest messages to his 
 churches in Ephesus and the near-by places. As oppor- 
 tunity offered, he secretly sent these messages to the 
 mainland. In later years John’s visions and warnings 
 were gathered together into one book, with the neces- 
 sary changes and additions. This is the process by 
 which we may imagine that the book of Revelation 
 was produced. 
 
 3. The Aim of the Author. 
 
 The Roman Emperor Domitian (81-96 A. D.) had 
 announced that he was a god, and proclaimed that in 
 every city his worship should be counted first in im- 
 portance. It was the duty of good citizens to perform 
 some act of worship in front of the image of the em- 
 peror. It was soon observed that Christians refused 
 to worship the emperor on the ground that it was dis- 
 loyal to Christ. When this was reported at Rome, a 
 general order was given to inflict a penalty on all who 
 should refuse. 
 
 There was great danger now that many Christians 
 would be tempted to save their lives or their money 
 by going through some simple ceremony before the 
 emperor’s image. They would reason that they could 
 still be loyal in their hearts to Christ and yet do what 
 the Roman law required. But Bishop John perceived 
 that loyalty to the church required outspoken alle- 
 giance to Jesus, and he wrote those messages which 
 make up our book of Revelation to encourage the 
 Christians to stand by their faith at any cost. 
 
THE DRAMA OF REVELATION 119 
 
 4. The History Back of the Book. 
 
 In veiled language the author of Revelation pictures 
 the struggle between the Roman Empire and the Chris- 
 tian church. Thirty years before, Nero had covered 
 many Christians with pitch and burned them alive. 
 From that time a real battle had been going on between 
 the forces of Christ and those of Rome. In this book 
 the Roman religion and the Roman Government are 
 both spoken of in figurative terms. Rome is called 
 Babylon, and the imperial religion is described as the 
 Beast. But these terms do not conceal the real refer- 
 ence that the author had in mind. Revelation pictures 
 the victory of the Messiah and his church and the 
 fearful scourges and the final defeat which Rome had 
 to endure. As a matter of fact, within two centuries 
 the Christian church won its battle in the Roman 
 Empire. 
 
 5. The Contents. 
 
 The drama starts with a statement of the author’s 
 experience on the Lord’s Day. He heard behind him a 
 voice as loud as a trumpet. He quickly turned and 
 saw before him the figure of the risen Christ, no longer 
 as when he stood before Pilate but clothed with majesty 
 and power. Christ then gives John a commission to the 
 seven churches. This commission constitutes the pro- 
 logue of the drama and closes with chapter 3. The 
 body of the book may be arranged in five acts as fol- 
 lows: ‘ 
 
 Act I 
 
 Scenes in Heaven (4: 1-8: 1) 
 
 A door is opened into heaven, and there God is seen 
 and the Book and the Lamb, who has power to unseal 
 the Book. 
 
120 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Act II 
 
 Convulsions of Nature (8: 2-11: 14) 
 
 Following the sounding of the trumpets, several con- 
 vulsions of nature occur, which are sent as a punish- 
 ment upon the wicked. 
 
 Act III 
 Satan’s Attack on the Messiah (11: 15-13: 18) 
 
 After a declaration of God’s supreme power comes a 
 dramatic scene in heaven in which Satan fails to over- 
 come the Messiah and is ejected from heaven. The 
 Imperial Beast represents Satan on the earth. 
 
 Act IV 
 Preparations for the Final Judgment (14: 1-19: 10) 
 A group of saints, now certain of salvation, are rep- 
 resented as on Mount Zion. This is followed by a 
 prophecy of the judgment when the Son of Man and 
 an angel are pictured as appearing with sickles in their 
 hands. The Son of Man is on a cloud, and the angel is 
 coming out from a temple. Rome is identified as the 
 great enemy of the church, and doom is pronounced 
 upon her. 
 Act V 
 
 Final Judgment and Final Triumph (19: 11-22: 21) 
 
 The Messiah ushers in the millennium, which is fol- 
 lowed by the last conflict and the final judgment. Then 
 the righteous are provided with a new abode in a new 
 world. 
 
 6. Why So Many Difficult Passages? 
 The author made use of earlier apocalyptic books 
 
 and writings. An example of this is the likeness be- 
 tween Revelation 1:13-16 and Daniel 7:9-13 and 
 
THE DRAMA OF REVELATION 121 
 
 10: 5-16. Another comparison may be made between 
 Revelation 22:1, 2 and Ezekiel 47 : 1-12. 
 
 Still more material was borrowed from the book of 
 Enoch, the Assumption of Moses, and several other 
 Jewish apocalyptic books which were popular in the 
 time of Jesus. The book of Enoch is cited by name 
 in the epistle of Jude. A reading of it would make one 
 feel thoroughly at home in the book of Revelation, for 
 nearly all the strange descriptions in Revelation have 
 their parallels in Enoch. One who is acquainted with 
 the old Jewish books of the last century before Christ 
 and the first century A. D. will have no difficulty with 
 Revelation. 
 
 7. The Religious Message. 
 
 The book was intended for the Christians of the 
 first century, as we may see from the first and last 
 paragraphs. ‘‘For the time is at hand” and “The 
 things which must shortly come to pass”’ are the open- 
 ing notes, and the last word of the book is, “Yea, I 
 come quickly.” 
 
 In view of the needs of that time, what message 
 among those presented by this author is most impor- 
 tant? In the letters to the seven churches the expres- 
 sion “‘to him that overcomes” is most common. In 
 the remainder of the book the whole argument leads 
 to the conclusion that the church will overcome the 
 Roman Empire. We may therefore regard this two- 
 fold teaching as the outstanding thing of the book of 
 Revelation: first, the individual who follows Christ 
 with all his heart will overcome evil and be rewarded; 
 second, the church of Christ, if faithful during this great 
 persecution, will come out victorious and will control 
 the whole world under the leadership of the Messiah. 
 
122 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 NTO OT OO 
 
 Oom G bb 
 
 jnmd 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . What conflict is described in Revelation? 
 . Give an estimate of the book as literature. 
 . Who was the probable author? 
 
 What was the aim of the author? 
 
 . What history lies back of the book? 
 . Why may the book be called dramatic? 
 . What is the religious message? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 : jaketles book is more beautiful, Revelation or the Gospel of 
 e? 
 . Why is it probable that John the beloved disciple did not 
 
 write Revelation? 
 
 . What would one have to do in order to obey the law con- 
 
 cerning emperor-worship? 
 
 . Where was the island of Patmos? 
 
 . Who was the Beast in this book of Revelation? 
 
 . What city was called Babylon? 
 
 . When did the church win the Roman Empire to Christianity ? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 . Write the substance of Revelation by filling out the outline 
 
 of the drama printed above. 
 
 2. Write a description of the parallel statements in Revelation 
 
 and the Old Testament books of Ezekiel and Daniel. 
 
 3. Discuss the author’s indebtedness to previous Jewish apoca- 
 
 lypses and if possible quote some of these apocalypses. 
 
CHarpTter XXI 
 
 AN ORATION ON LOYALTY 
 THE BOOK OF HEBREWS 
 
 1. Hebrews an Oration. 
 
 The persecution of Christians gave rise to some of 
 the best writings in the New Testament. Among these 
 are Revelation, Hebrews, I Peter, and James. Reve- 
 lation is dramatic in form; Hebrews is oratorical; I Pe- 
 ter is a letter; and James is a sermon. The New Tes- 
 tament, like the Old, has a variety of literary forms, 
 although the New cannot be compared with the Old in 
 literary beauty. 
 
 We call Hebrews an oration because it lacks those 
 indications of the epistle form which are so common 
 in the letters of Paul. Also, it has the oratorical struc- 
 ture and is eloquent throughout. 
 
 Edmund Gosse says of Hebrews, ‘‘ The extraordinary 
 beauty of the language—for instance, the matchless 
 cadences and images of the first chapter—made a cer- 
 tain impression on my imagination, and were my earli- 
 est initiations into the magic of literature.” Edgar J. 
 Goodspeed writes: “The language of Hebrews shows 
 more elegance and finish than that of any other book 
 of the New Testament. Its author was a trained stu- 
 dent and thinker. What he wrote is so eloquent as to 
 be more like an oration than a letter, and the absence 
 of any superscription such as letters usually have makes 
 it seem all the more oratorical.”’ 
 
 123 
 
124 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 2. The Author and His Times. 
 
 During the persecution of the Christians by the 
 Roman Emperor Domitian (81-96 A. D.), an Italian 
 Christian who had been educated evidently in the Old 
 Testament and in the Greek philosophy of the times 
 was arrested, taken away from Italy, and imprisoned 
 (13:18, 19), perhaps in the island of Sardinia, where 
 he may have had to work in the stone quarries. We 
 may imagine that this man was the author of He- 
 brews, but we have to build up his life from a very small 
 amount of material. One reference (13 : 24) states that 
 the author was writing to a church in Italy. Another 
 verse (13:23) says that he hopes to be restored to 
 his friends very soon. 
 
 We shall not be far out of the way in our view of the 
 author and the circumstances of writing Hebrews if we 
 imagine him in the midst of the general persecution 
 under Domitian. A writer of the third century de- 
 scribes Domitian as a man of Nero’s type of cruelty 
 and as the next emperor after Nero to raise a persecu- 
 tion against the Christians. He caused his own cousin, 
 Flavius Clemens, to be put to death on the charge of 
 being a Christian, and he banished Domitilla, the wife 
 or Clemens. There is an interesting report that the 
 grandchildren of one of Jesus’ brothers was summoned 
 before the emperor, who feared that they might ven- 
 ture to set up royal claims as being of the line of David. 
 But when they appeared, they were so poor and igno- 
 rant that they were dismissed at once. 
 
 At this time Timothy was arrested (13: 23) and put 
 in prison. The author of Hebrews was, like Timothy, 
 no doubt, a distinguished leader in the Christian church. 
 It is probable that he was a member of the Roman 
 church. What his date was is difficult to say. Since 
 
AN ORATION ON LOYALTY 125 
 
 he made use of the ideas in Galatians, I Corinthians, 
 and Romans, he must have lived after the time of Paul. 
 On the other hand, he wrote his eloquent appeal before 
 97 A. D., because Clement of Rome, writing at that 
 time, quoted Hebrews. The horrible persecution by 
 Nero was long past (10:32). Evidently a new trial 
 is at hand (12:3), but it is not yet very severe (12: 4). 
 We may conclude that this unknown author wrote his 
 eloquent plea from some point outside of Italy, where 
 he was unwillingly detained along with other Chris- 
 tians some time between 90 and 96 A. D. 
 
 3. The Occasion and Aim. 
 
 It was long since the Roman Christians had endured 
 the shame and suffering inflicted by the cruel Nero. In 
 that they had been sustained by the hope of the second 
 coming of Christ. Thirty years had passed away, and 
 Christ had not appeared. Moreover, a new period of 
 suffering was upon them, and they were not prepared 
 to meet it with that loyal faith and high hope which 
 had given them courage in the days of Nero. Unbelief 
 had crept in and in many cases the members had either 
 actually abandoned their church or were in danger of 
 giving up their allegiance. 
 
 From his exile a great leader of the church pens this 
 noble oration, exhorting, warning, and inspiring the 
 persecuted church. He hopes to bring back those who 
 have fallen away and to put new courage into the 
 hearts of the faithful but dispirited members. 
 
 4. The Outline of the Author’s Plea. 
 
 (a) The address opens with an eloquent description 
 of Christ as superior to all other mediators and as 
 supreme in the universe (1: 1-2: 18). 
 
126 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 (b) Then Christ is presented as very much greater 
 than Moses (3: 1-6). 
 
 (c) Christ is a mediator more important than any 
 high priest (4: 14-10: 39). 
 
 (d) Jesus exemplifies a faith surpassing that of all 
 the heroes of old and is worthy of their loyalty at any 
 cost (11: 1-13: 25). 
 
 5. The Title ‘‘ To the Hebrews.” 
 
 In the second century this anonymous oration re- 
 ceived the title “To the Hebrews,’ probably because 
 it made such frequent reference to Old Testament cus- 
 toms. When Clement, in 97 A. D., used the document, 
 it had no title, and no mention was made of any 
 author. In later generations the scholars of the church 
 ascribed the book to Paul, but the earlier church 
 fathers acknowledged that they did not know who 
 wrote it. To this day there has been no agreement on 
 the question of the authorship and no certain knowl- 
 edge of the place and time of writing. 
 
 One thing is sure, the author was well acquainted 
 with the Jewish-Alexandrian philosophy which Philo 
 was teaching in Alexandria at the very time that Jesus 
 was engaged in the Galilean ministry. Philo was born 
 just before the beginning of the Christian era and died 
 about 50 A.D. He combined Old Testament religion 
 and Greek philosophy, making an antithesis between 
 the eternal world of reality and the present world of 
 material things, and this antithesis was used by the 
 author of Hebrews. He called Judaism a shadow (8: 5; 
 9:9-24; 10:1) and Christianity the eternal reality 
 (8:2; 10:1). 
 
AN ORATION ON LOYALTY 127 
 
 6. Faith and Loyalty. 
 
 Chapters 11 and 12 are unsurpassed in their appeal 
 for faith and loyalty. The author gives the definition 
 of belief and then calls to mind the great heroes of the 
 past who exemplified unshakable belief in the Unseen. 
 After naming those great characters, he asserts that 
 “apart from us they should not be made perfect.” 
 Chapter 12 follows with its picture of the great cloud | 
 of witnesses in the amphitheatre of life who will ap- 
 plaud us as we ‘“‘lay aside every weight and the sin 
 which doth so easily beset us’’ and run with patience 
 the race, ‘‘looking unto Jesus, the author of our faith.” 
 It is a great appeal for loyalty to him who for us endured 
 the cross. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . What four New Testament books arose out of the persecution 
 of Christians by the Roman Government? 
 
 Why do we call Hebrews an oration instead of a letter? 
 
 Give an estimate of its value as literature. 
 
 . Out of the few materials which we possess, construct a story 
 
 of the author’s life. 
 
 . What were the occasion and aim of the book? 
 
 . Why did the scholars of the second century give to the book 
 
 the title “To the Hebrews”? 
 
 Oo Bwh 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 . What is the noblest sentiment in chapter 11? 
 
 . What person mentioned in chapter 11 is the best example of 
 the subject ? 
 
 . What example is drawn in chapter 12 from the ancient ath- 
 letic games? 
 
 . Do the following passages refer necessarily to a time of severe: 
 persecution: 10: 32; 12:4; 13:3, 18, 19, 28, 24? 
 
 7 BE Mo a in chapters 1 to 4 does the author exalt. 
 
 esus 1 
 . What would you regard as the chief teaching of this book? 
 
 Oo ON & WF NK 
 
128 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 1. Make a list of the most notable oratorical expressions in 
 chapters 1 and 2. 
 
 2. Write in two hundred words the argument of the book, {ol- 
 lowing the outline under section 4 above. 
 
 3. Compare Tacitus’ description of the persecution under Nero 
 with the reference in Hebrews 10: 32-34. See Goodspeed, 
 
 p. 93. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 A MESSAGE OF HOPE 
 I PETER 
 
 1. A Mysterious Blessing Held in Reserve. 
 
 I Peter is very happy in its description of that 
 “wonderful secret”? that will be revealed when Jesus 
 comes. It is a “hope” unbelievably precious. It is an 
 “inheritance” that cannot fade. It is a “salvation” 
 waiting to make itself known at the right moment. It 
 is a “goal” over which Christians will rejoice with tri- 
 umphant, unutterable joy. These very trials that 
 Christians are now enduring are the means of showing 
 that their faith, which enables them to hold out until 
 the end, is more precious than gold, and that those 
 who do hold out will have praise, glory, and honor 
 surpassing all their dreams. 
 
 Prophets foretold the blessings which these Chris- 
 tians were destined to enjoy, but no prophet ever ex- 
 perienced them. Even angels desired to know what 
 the mystery was, but they did not find out and no 
 glimpse will be permitted any one until the great day 
 arrives. Although Jesus cannot now be seen, his fol- 
 lowers should live spiritually, reverently, hopefully, 
 joyously until he is revealed; then they will share his 
 glory and will receive a glorious wreath. 
 
 2. Who Are the Persons Thus Addressed? 
 
 They are part of a brotherhood having members all 
 over the world (5:9), and all the brotherhood is hav- 
 ing the same experience of suffering. This suffering has 
 
 129 
 
130 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 not yet reached in its intensity the regions addressed 
 by I Peter (1:13; 3:15; 4:12). These persons are evi- 
 dently members of small churches in Pontus, Galatia, 
 Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. That they were not 
 Jewish Christians is shown by 1: 14, 18; 2:9, 10; 4:3. 
 They were converts from the Gentiles and are now 
 ‘dispersed’? among the heathen population. 
 
 A study of the map will show that they were remote 
 from Rome. No regular mail would take letters there 
 and the securing of passage on ships and safe conduct 
 over the land routes would require much time. It is 
 easy to see that these distant churches would be among 
 the last to suffer persecution, and that they would also 
 be less well-informed about current events. The tone 
 of the letter implies ignorance and lack of development 
 among these adherents of Christianity. 
 
 The messenger who carried I Peter to the provinces 
 of Asia Minor would go from Rome to some port of 
 Italy, then take ship for Pontus. From Pontus and 
 Bithynia the main road went south to Cappadocia, then 
 turned west into Asia. The letter would be read in the 
 churches on the way, and now and then some church 
 would have a scribe with interest enough in the pres- 
 ervation of such a document to copy the letter and 
 keep it in the box of valuables. 
 
 3. Why and When Was the Letter Written? 
 
 All agree that the Christians addressed were being 
 persecuted, or were about to be persecuted, by Rome 
 (1:6; 2:12; 4:12-19; 5:9). The motive of the writer 
 was twofold: first, to encourage the followers of Jesus 
 to be faithful at all costs; second, to exhort them to 
 live such good lives that to be a Christian could not be 
 regarded as a crime. 
 
A MESSAGE OF HOPE 131 
 
 Was it the persecution of Nero or that under Do- 
 mitian, which continued on into the time of Pliny’s 
 governorship of Bithynia, to which I Peter refers? The 
 persecution by Nero in 64 A. D. was confined to Rome 
 and could not therefore be the occasion of I Peter, 
 which has in mind a serious attack on Christians in 
 Asia Minor. Moreover, Nero punished Christians not 
 for making a profession of Christianity, but rather, as 
 a contemporary writer says, because they ‘‘ were hated 
 for their enormities”’ and ‘‘for hating the human race’”’ 
 (Tacitus, Annals, 15:39). It was probably not until 
 the time of Domitian that to be a Christian became a 
 recognized offense. If so, I Peter 4: 16 shows that the 
 letter was written during the time of Domitian or a. 
 little later. 
 
 This date makes it impossible to think of the Apostle 
 Peter as the author. Who did write the letter no one 
 knows. There is an old church tradition that can be 
 traced back to Irenzus, about 180 A. D., which gives 
 Peter credit for the book, but this cannot be trusted, 
 for it was a common custom of the church fathers to 
 assign an anonymous book to the Apostles, as He- 
 brews was credited to Paul and II Peter to the Apostle 
 Peter. From 5:1 and 5:13 we may conjecture with 
 Goodspeed that “‘a Christian elder of Rome wrote to 
 his brethren throughout Asia Minor a letter of advice 
 and encouragement. Perhaps the epistle to the He- 
 brews had already reached Rome and its ringing chal- 
 lenge to the Romans to be teachers stirred him to 
 write. . . . But, whoever wrote it, it gave the imper- 
 illed Christians all through Asia Minor a message of 
 hope and courage during the persecution of Domitian, 
 pointed out the difference between suffering for being a 
 criminal and suffering for being a Christian, and in- 
 
132 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 spired them to overcome by lives of purity and good- 
 aess the hatred and slanders of the heathen world.”’ 
 
 4. Light on I Peter from a Letter of Pliny. 
 
 An interesting side-light on I Peter has been pre- 
 served for us in a Latin letter by Pliny the Younger. 
 He was governor of Bithynia shortly after I Peter was 
 written. Pliny describes the method of persecuting 
 Christians and uses the phrase ‘‘as Christians,” which 
 is found also in I Peter 4:16. He shows that a sys- 
 tematic legal persecution has been going on for a long 
 time, which furnishes us .a background for under- 
 standing our Biblical letter. 
 
 Pliny’s letter was an official report to the Emperor 
 Trajan about 112 A. D., and is one of our earliest tes- 
 timonies concerning Christian customs. It declares 
 that the only offense committed by Christians was as 
 follows: 
 
 ‘“They affirmed the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that 
 they met on a stated day before it was light, and addressed 
 a form of prayer to Christ, as to a divinity, binding them- 
 selves by a solemn oath, not for the purposes of any wicked 
 design, but never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery, 
 never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they 
 should be called upon ‘to deliver it up; after which it was 
 their custom to separate, and then reassemble, to eat in 
 common a harmless meal. From this custom, however, 
 they desisted after the publication of my edict, by which, 
 according to your commands, I forbade the meeting of any 
 assemblies. After receiving this account, I judged it so much 
 the more necessary to endeavor to extort the real truth, by 
 putting two female slaves to the torture, who were said to 
 officiate in their religious rites; but all I could discover was 
 evidence of an absurd and extravagant superstition.” 
 
 5. The Line of Thought. 
 
 (a) Do not abandon your hope in the risen Christ 
 (1: 1-2: 10). 
 
A MESSAGE OF HOPE 133 
 
 (b) Add to your hope good lives, that you may be 
 examples to the Gentiles, among whom you live 
 (2:11-3:12). 
 
 (c) Even if you suffer, have courage and give a 
 reason for the hope that is in you, remembering that 
 Christ also suffered (8 : 18-4: 11). 
 
 (d) If the trial by fire tests you, rejoice in the hope 
 of that glory which you will share with Jesus Christ 
 (4: 12-5: 14). 
 
 6. Peculiar Passages. 
 
 In 3:18-20 and 4:6 the author states that Jesus 
 
 “went and preached unto the spirits in prison that 
 aforetime were disobedient, when the long-suffering of 
 God waited in the days of Noah.” Also in 4:6 we 
 read, “‘The gospel was preached even to the dead.” 
 On these verses the church has built up its doctrine of 
 Purgatory. 
 
 It has been suggested that I Peter is here expressing 
 a belief which was current in Jewish circles. In the 
 book of Enoch, for example, may be found passages 
 which mean that wicked men have a time of repen-: 
 tance allowed them between the deluge and the final 
 judgment at the end of the world. As in other parts 
 of the Bible, ancient traditions are retained, so here 
 evidently is a belief reported by I Peter but not bind- 
 ing on modern Christians. 
 
 We wonder at the instruction given in 3: 1-6. Wives 
 are told to subject themselves to their husbands, even 
 though the latter are disobedient to God; also, to avoid 
 making an outward show of beauty by braiding the 
 hair, and wearing jewels, and putting on fine apparel. 
 The explanation of these directions lies in the age from 
 which they come. In that day women were regarded 
 
134 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 as inferior to men, and any public attempts to attract 
 attention were the commonly understood evidences of 
 a sinful life. 
 
 7. Two Important Lessons. 
 
 Hope is characteristic of the Christian life. This word 
 occurs several times in this short letter and has been 
 regarded as the key-word. A despairing Christian is an 
 impossibility. I Peter makes that thought clearer than 
 any other book in the Bible. j 
 
 The power of the invisible Christ to win love and 
 change human character is expressed in 1:8. We be- 
 come like that which we admire. Christians who look 
 with love and adoration to Christ become like him. 
 “We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”’ 
 Hawthorne’s story of ‘‘The Great Stone Face” is an 
 excellent illustration of this experience. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . How does I Peter describe the “‘hope”’ of the Christians? 
 
 . Why is it probable that the persons addressed were Gentile 
 hristians rather than Jewish? 
 
 . Two periods of persecution that furnish a suitable background 
 
 for I Peter. 
 
 . Give an argument for the late date of the letter. 
 
 . What was the aim of the author? 
 
 . Give the main thoughts of the letter. 
 
 Omme G be 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 . Locate on the map the churches addressed in this letter. 
 . What is the meaning of being persecuted ‘‘as a Christian’’? 
 . What value would the letter gain if published under the 
 name of the Apostle Peter? 
 . What is the value of Pliny’s letter to students of Christianity ? 
 . What is the Biblical origin of the belief in Purgatory? 
 
 om Whe 
 
A MESSAGE OF HOPE 135 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 1. Give an abstract of Pliny’s letter to Trajan concerning Chris- 
 tianity in Asia Minor. 
 
 2. An imaginary sketch of the elder of the Roman church who 
 wrote I Peter. 
 
 3. Tell Hawthorne’s story of ‘The Great Stone Face.” 
 
 4. Compare the persecution of Christians under Domitian with 
 that under Nero. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 A CHRISTIAN CRITIC 
 
 THE BOOK OF JAMES 
 
 1. A Book of Imperatives. 
 
 George W. Cable’s novel, Dr. Sevier, has a descrip- 
 tive sentence which has been applied to the author of 
 the book of James, ‘‘His inner heart was all of flesh; 
 but his demands for the rectitude of mankind pointed 
 out like the muzzles of cannon through the embrasures 
 of his virtues.”’? James fairly bristles with imperatives. 
 There are fifty-four imperatives demanding virtue in 
 one hundred and eight verses. Examples of these are 
 as follows: ‘‘Be quick to hear, slow to speak’’; “Be ye 
 doers, not hearers only’’; “Hold not the faith with re- 
 spect to persons”; “Resist the devil, and he will flee 
 from you.” 
 
 Back of these pointed, critical sayings, however, was 
 the mind of a literary artist and the heart of a genuine 
 Christian. In the first chapter there are at least eight 
 fine figures of speech, of which ‘‘As the flower of the 
 grass he shall pass away”’ and “Like unto a man be- 
 holding his natural face in a mirror” are good exam- 
 ples. There is just enough good-natured cynicism to 
 hold the reader’s attention. In this respect it reminds 
 us of the book of Ecclesiastes, which has always been — 
 a favorite of literary men. It is full of imagery, yet 
 practical. It is a thoroughly human book, adapted to | 
 the man in the street, nevertheless its style is chaste | 
 and beautiful. 
 
 136 
 
A CHRISTIAN CRITIC 137 
 
 The genuine Christian appeal of James comes out in 
 2:1, “Hold not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with 
 respect to persons’’; 5: 7, “Be patient therefore, breth- 
 ren, until the coming of the Lord’’; and 5:8, “The 
 coming of the Lord is at hand.’’ However, apart from 
 these few references to Jesus there is little to distin- 
 guish James from an Old Testament book. “The name 
 of Jesus is hardly mentioned. His life and death, the 
 cross and forgiveness, find no place here at all. This 
 made Luther call it an ‘epistle of straw,’ by which he 
 meant that it contained no grain by which the soul 
 can live.” 
 
 2. Its Modern Appeal. 
 
 The sharp criticism of snobbishness in this little tract 
 (2: 1-9) makes it popular with modern readers. Our 
 age enjoys the book that condemns church officials and 
 ushers who say to the poor man, “ You can’t sit in these 
 front pews; stand up in the back of the room or sit on 
 the floor.” 
 
 We also like the note of social justice in 5:4 and 
 the pungent remarks on the need of controlling the 
 tongue: ‘The tongue, though small, is as powerful as a 
 little rudder on a great ship, and as dangerous as a 
 little fire in a great forest”’ (8: 1-12). 
 
 In these days, when we hear so much of psycho- 
 therapeutics, 5: 14-15 is interesting to many minds. 
 There are also some good hints on vain professions: 
 “What is the good of a man’s saying he has faith, if 
 he has no good deeds to show? Can faith save him? 
 If some brother or sister has not clothes and has not 
 food enough for a day, and one of you says to them, 
 ‘Good-by, keep warm and have plenty to eat,’ with- 
 out giving them the necessaries of life, what good does 
 
138 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 it do? So faith by itself, if it has no good deeds to 
 show, is dead.” James is here not criticising Paul’s 
 doctrine of faith but condemning an abuse of that 
 doctrine. 
 
 3. Why Was James So Long Refused a Place among 
 the Sacred Books? 
 
 Kusebius, 325 A. D., states that James was among 
 the disputed books of the New Testament. It was not 
 in the accepted list in Rome about 190 A. D. This is 
 shown by the fact that the Muratorian Canon, which 
 gives a list of the New Testament books recognized 
 in Rome at that time, omits James. As this is the 
 oldest known list of these sacred books, its omission of 
 James is regarded as important evidence. It prob- 
 ably signifies that the book was not regarded as apos- 
 tolic or authoritative in the early church. Bishop 
 Jerome, 390 A. D., wrote that the authorship was not 
 definitely known, but that the book was gradually 
 gaining authority. 
 
 Was James too Jewish to be acceptable to the early 
 Christians? It mentions Jesus by name only once. It 
 uses the term synagogue for church (2:2). It is like 
 Proverbs and Ecclesiastes in thought, having many 
 striking parallels with those books. Its form, too, is 
 proverbial and characterized by maxims, paradoxes, 
 and little essays. More offensive still is its criticism of 
 a type of piety which is strong in faith and weak in 
 works. In reading James we are reminded of the criti- 
 cal tone of the ‘‘ Preacher”’ in Ecclesiastes. 
 
 Was the book too Greek in tone for the early Chris- 
 tians? It has been described as a Stoic diatribe. Greek 
 preachers of philosophy used to stand on the street or 
 in the market-place and give discourses or disputations 
 
A CHRISTIAN CRITIC 139 
 
 on morals in many cities of the ancient world. “ Paul 
 at Athens must have presented himself to his hearers 
 as just such a preacher as those to whose diatribes they 
 were accustomed to listen; and such must have been 
 very generally the case with the early Christian mis- 
 sionaries. It is not strange that the diatribe had a 
 very profound and far-reaching effect on the forms of 
 Christian literature for centuries, that its influence is 
 clearly traceable in the epistles of Paul, and that it 
 serves to explain much, both of the form and the con- 
 tent, of the Epistle of James” (Ropes, International 
 Critical Commentary on St. James, page 12). 
 
 It is possible that Martin Luther’s objection to the 
 book was based on the same peculiarities that offended 
 the early church fathers. Luther called it “an epistle 
 of straw” because it seemed to exalt works above 
 faith. Whatever the reason for the unpopularity of 
 James among early Christians, the fact is that it was 
 so unpopular that it only won its way at first in the 
 Syriac translation, and was not recognized as sacred 
 scripture in the Western Church until nearly 400 A. D. 
 
 4. Main Thoughts and Characteristics. 
 
 While James, like Hebrew wisdom and Greek dia- 
 tribe, hastens on rapidly from topic to topic and seems 
 to be a collection of disconnected paragraphs, yet there 
 is a certain unity and progress of thought. The main 
 idea is that conduct is the principal thing in life. First, 
 the author considers what one’s conduct should be in 
 time of trial (1: 1-18). Second, action is declared to be 
 the test of character rather than talk (1: 19-27). 
 Third, it is bad conduct to favor the rich as against 
 the poor. No amount of faith will excuse that; indeed, 
 genuine faith is revealed by good conduct (2: 1-26). 
 
140 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Fourth, the tongue is a revealer of character (3 : 1-12). 
 Fifth, one’s wisdom is shown by his daily conduct, his 
 attitude to pleasure, his submission to God’s will, and 
 kindness to the poor (3 : 18-5: 6). Sixth, an exhortation 
 to patience, prayer, and service in view of the second 
 coming of Christ (5: 7-20). 
 
 Two characteristics may be mentioned: James hates 
 shams of every kind and demands reality. He criticises 
 those who profess and fail to act and those who set 
 themselves up to be teachers. All through the book is 
 the note of common sense. At the same time this critic 
 of shams is undoubtedly a Christian. While he believes 
 that conduct is the chief thing in life, he regards the 
 religion of Jesus as the best means of securing good 
 conduct. This is shown by the strong expression ‘‘our 
 glorious Lord Jesus Christ”? in 2:2 and the emphasis 
 on prayer in 5: 13-18. 
 
 5. Environment and Purpose. 
 
 It is the most difficult book in the New Testament 
 for which to provide an appropriate historical setting. 
 The heading does not help, for no one knows which 
 James it was, and the twelve tribes must be a figura- 
 tive expression for Christians in general. We may find, 
 however, two clews that help us place it in early Chris- 
 tian history in the words “trial” and “faith.” The 
 trials which test faith of which the author makes so 
 much in the first chapter may be the persecutions of 
 Domitian. If so, the persons addressed are evidently 
 remote in place and time from the worst persecutions. 
 We could imagine the Christians in Cesarea about 100 
 A. D. as fulfilling these conditions. 
 
 Moreover, the condemnation of faith apart from 
 works may be an allusion to the tendency in many 
 
A CHRISTIAN CRITIC 141 
 
 churches to exalt theory above practice. The later 
 books of the New Testament, the Fourth Gospel, the 
 epistles of John, Jude, Timothy, and Titus, all em- 
 phasize the importance of correct belief. It may well 
 be that James is a protest against this growing custom 
 to think of Christianity as a theory rather than a 
 life. , 
 
 The author shows acquaintance with I Peter (1:1, 
 6, 23, 24; 2:1; 4:8; 5:5, 9), and implies a period 
 in church life far removed from the beginnings. We 
 may then think of him as in Caesarea, writing shortly 
 after 100 A. D. for the sake of emphasizing good con- 
 duct in a day when the church was tempted to substi- 
 tute correct belief for good conduct. ‘A lax worldly 
 mindedness and unfruitful theological wrangling threat- 
 ened to destroy the religious life.” 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . What shows that the author of James was a man of action? 
 
 . Give evidence that the book was written by a Christian. 
 
 . Three wan penne of the fact that it appeals to modern 
 minds. 
 
 . Prove that James was not acceptable to many early Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 . What is the main thought of the book? 
 
 . Name the probable date and place of writing. 
 
 oon He WN 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 . Read James aloud and explain three or more figures of speech 
 in the book. 
 
 . Why has the book been called cynical? 
 
 . How did James illustrate the power of the tongue? 
 
 . How did James differ from Paul in his view of faith? 
 
 . Find a discussion of the labor problem in James, and note 
 whether the description applies to our own day. 
 
 OrPwhN 
 
142 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 1. Write an imaginary sketch of the author of James. Compare 
 the sketch of Koheleth in the Cambridge Bible Commen- 
 tary on Ecclesiastes. 
 
 2. Read a Stoic diatribe of Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, or Seneca 
 and compare it with James. 
 
 3. The city of Caesarea as rebuilt by Herod the Great. See 
 Bailey and Kent, Hebrew Commonwealth, p. 338, and the 
 Encyclopedia Britannica, 4: 953. 
 
Part 5 
 THE PERIOD OF THE BEGINNINGS OF HERESY 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE FOURTH GOSPEL: ITS HISTORICAL 
 SETTING AND PURPOSE 
 
 1. A Group of Late Books. 
 
 Nine books of the New Testament are so different 
 from all the others in thought and historical allusions 
 that they may be placed in a group by themselves. 
 They are the Fourth Gospel, the three epistles of John, 
 the two epistles to Timothy, Titus, Jude, and IT Peter. 
 
 Three of the marks that distinguish them from the 
 rest of the New Testament are the allusions to a 
 Greek environment, to heresies that are endangering 
 the purity of Christian doctrine, and to an elaborate 
 organization of the churches. Examples of these allu- 
 sions are found in the Fourth Gospel, 1: 1 (Greek word 
 logos), in I John 2: 18, 19 (beginnings of sectarian divi- 
 sions), and in I Timothy 3: 1-13 (elaborate directions 
 concerning church officers). These and many other 
 eharacteristics of these nine documents point to a date 
 beyond the first century and to circumstances far re- 
 moved from the time of Jesus and Paul. 
 
 2. A New Stage in Christian History. 
 
 Paul partly freed Christianity from the old Jewish 
 forms, yet at the time of his death it was still a ques- 
 143 
 
144 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 tion whether the Jews would be converted, give up 
 their old forms, and retain the leadership in the new 
 religion. But this was not to be. The successors to 
 Peter and Paul were to be Greeks and Romans, and 
 the centres of Christianity in the second century were 
 to be Ephesus and Rome. 
 
 This involved a hastening of that process which had 
 already begun in the writing of Mark and Luke and 
 the letters of Paul. This process was the restatement 
 of Jesus’ religion so that it would be better understood 
 by the Greek world. Jesus and all his Apostles were 
 Jews, and Paul and all the writers of the New Testa- 
 ment, except perhaps Luke, were Jews. This meant 
 that not only the phraseology but also the whole 
 thought-world of the early writings of Christianity was 
 Jewish in its coloring. The leaders of Christianity saw 
 that it was necessary to state their religion in terms of 
 the Greek civilization, if the teachings of Jesus were to 
 win that new world into which the gospel had now 
 entered. This explains the great difference between the 
 Fourth Gospel and the Synoptics. 
 
 Moreover, in this new era heresies sprang up that 
 threatened to pervert or destroy the pure religion of 
 Jesus. This explains several features in the nine books 
 that we locate in the first half of the second century. 
 Also, the churches had developed the need of officials 
 with authority to stop heresy and to insist upon the 
 keeping of the ‘“‘faith.”’ 
 
 3. Occasion of the Fourth Gospel. 
 
 At Ephesus there was a large Christian church which 
 was a sort of mother church for several Christian 
 groups in that region. The story of Jesus was familiar, 
 but no formal attempt had yet been made to adapt the 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL 145 
 
 Jewish story to the Greek philosophy and to the popu- 
 lar ideas prevalent in these Greek lands. To meet the 
 demands of the new era an unknown writer who was 
 thoroughly versed in the Synoptic Gospels and in the 
 letters of Paul wrote the Gospel which the church after- 
 ward called by the name of John, although the be- 
 loved disciple probably died forty years before the 
 book was written. 
 
 It is useless to discuss the authorship. Some hold 
 that the beloved disciple lived to a very old age and, as 
 the revered Bishop of Ephesus, prepared this beauti- 
 ful statement of the life of Jesus. Others find it equally 
 plausible that the Presbyter John, mentioned in later 
 writers, was the head of the churches in Asia Minor, 
 and on the basis of certain material that had been 
 handed down from the Apostle John wrote the Fourth 
 Gospel that Christianity might find acceptance with a 
 people who no longer understood the Jewish phrases 
 and the Jewish philosophy of life. Whoever the author 
 was, the reason for his work is very clear. He saw the 
 need of a new presentation of the living Christ to a 
 civilization that had moved away from Old Testament 
 forms of thought toward Greek conceptions of life. 
 
 4. Purpose of the Author. 
 
 The author states his purpose in 20: 31, ‘‘These are 
 written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, 
 the Son of God, and that believing you may have life 
 in his name.”’ In keeping with the intellectual inter- 
 ests of the time the author desired to emphasize belief 
 in the Messiah as the revelation of God. To show that 
 this revelation is in harmony with current thought he 
 introduced his subject by saying that the Messiah was 
 the Word in human form. “Word” was a translation 
 
146 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 of the Greek logos, which meant, in the philosophy 
 taught in Ephesus, the reason that controls the uni- 
 verse. This invisible reason that created and main- 
 tained the world took human form in order that men 
 might believe. So at once the Messiah is described in 
 terms that would be understood. A further hint of the 
 author’s aim in writing is found in his emphasis on the 
 fact that Jesus actually took bodily form (1:14) and 
 in the clear statement that John the Baptist was not 
 the Christ (1: 19-27). In Asia Minor there were two 
 Christian sects that were in error on these two points, 
 and this Gospel was meant to unify Christians by ex- 
 plaining away these heretical notions (I John 4: 2, 3, 
 and Acts 19: 1-7). 
 
 5. Sketch of the Argument. 
 
 At the very beginning John the Baptist points out 
 Jesus as the Lamb of God, which to those who knew 
 Isaiah 53 would signify the Messiah. By his miracle at 
 Cana and his divine authority manifested in the cleans- 
 ing of the temple, the Messiah proves that he is from 
 heaven, where he lived before he came to earth, where 
 indeed he existed before the time of Abraham (8: 58). 
 He told Nicodemus that this new revelation from 
 heaven meant a new life for men. Only those who ob-— 
 tained this life from above through Jesus really pos- 
 sessed the quality of life necessary for membership in 
 the Kingdom of God. God gave his only Son that men 
 might save themselves from perishing by believing in 
 him. 
 
 In the parable of the vine in chapter 15 the author 
 shows that the way to acquire this new life was by 
 mystic contact with the Messiah. By loving, obedient 
 relationship to Jesus, the believer received the power 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL 147 
 
 to bear the fruit which proved that he had spiritual 
 life. The branch had been grafted into the vine and 
 the life-giving sap had circulated through the new 
 member, making it one with the parent stock. 
 
 In the wonderful prayer in John 17, Jesus taught 
 that he shared this spiritual life with the Father, and 
 that all who believed in him would also be one with 
 the Father. So the doctrine becomes. clear. Jesus came 
 to earth to bring to men that eternal life which is the 
 highest good. Those who believe in Jesus as the Son 
 of God receive this life and thus enter into a glorious 
 unity with the Father and the Son in the enjoyment of 
 eternal life. The world that rejects Jesus does not 
 “know” God and so fails to possess eternal life. This 
 is the philosophy of Christianity which the author pre- 
 sented to the Greek world and which was accepted by 
 the church of the second century. 
 
 6. Comparison with the First Three Gospels. 
 
 It is sufficient merely to list here the chief ways in 
 which the Fourth Gospel differs from the Synoptics in 
 order that we may see how far away from the simple 
 history of Jesus the Ephesian author was led by his 
 purpose. 
 
 In place of the Synoptic accounts of Jesus’ birth, 
 baptism, and temptation, the Fourth Gospel substi- 
 tutes the theory of the Logos. The scene of Jesus’ life 
 is almost wholly Jerusalem and Judea, while in the 
 first three Gospels it was chiefly Galilee. From the 
 beginning Jesus announces himself as the Messiah, 
 while in the other Gospels this is kept secret until 
 toward the end. The parables have nearly all disap- 
 peared along with the Sermon on the Mount, and we 
 miss from this later Gospel the teachings concerning 
 
148 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 forgiveness, love of enemies, and the importance of the 
 Kingdom of God. Instead of these we have long dis- 
 courses, very different from those in Matthew, dealing 
 with the origin, nature, and work of the Messiah. At 
 the Last Supper the Fourth Gospel reports long ad- 
 dresses and a prayer. 
 
 In the main the Fourth Gospel agrees with the Sy- 
 noptics regarding the trial, Crucifixion, and Resurrec- 
 tion, but differs widely in the order of other events, in 
 the miracles, and in the description of the conflict with 
 the Pharisees. It adds the miracle at Cana and the 
 raising of Lazarus, and places the cleansing of the tem- 
 ple in the second week of Jesus’ public career rather 
 than in the last week. It omits the statement of Jesus’ 
 growth in wisdom and favor with God and men, the 
 agony in the garden, and other Synoptic suggestions of 
 his humanity and presents Jesus as the perfect Son of 
 God from the beginning. 
 
 Our author’s failure to follow strictly the historical 
 events in the life of Christ is explained by the fact that 
 he tries to find a deeper meaning in all the external 
 incidents. ‘The history resolves itself at every point 
 into a kind of allegory which cannot be rightly appre- 
 hended without a key. In this way we must explain 
 the liberties, strange to our modern mind, which the 
 writer continually takes with historical facts. The 
 event as it happened was to him the adumbration, nec- 
 essarily dim and imperfect, of a spiritual idea. His 
 interest is in the idea, which he regards as the one 
 essential thing—the ‘truth’ or inward reality of the 
 fact. He thinks it not only permissible but necessary 
 to modify the fact, so as to bring out more fully or 
 emphatically the idea at the heart of it” (Scott, The 
 Fourth Gospel). 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL 149 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 What books belong to the fifth period of New Testament 
 history ? 
 
 Name three or more distinguishing marks of these books. 
 
 What new stage of development did.Christianity reach in the 
 second century? 
 
 Describe the occasion and purpose of the Fourth Gospel. 
 
 What Greek philosophical term did the author employ in 
 order to connect his conception of Jesus with the dominant 
 ideas in Ephesus? 
 
 . How does the Fourth Gospel differ from the Synoptics in its 
 
 treatment of the Messiahship of Jesus? 
 . Name six other ways in which they differ. 
 
 ee 
 
 aI 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 . Name some of the churches that may have considered Ephe- 
 sus as the mother church. See Revelation 1: 4-11. 
 
 What were some of the false views that threatened Christian- 
 ity in these churches? 
 
 Give a brief outline of the philosophy of the ‘‘new life” in the 
 Fourth Gospel. 
 
 eee ee 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 ay 
 
 . The heresy called Docetism. See Encyclopedia Britannica. 
 
 2. Give the evidence for the existence of an early heretical sect 
 based on the teachings of John the Baptist. See Acts 
 19: 1-7 and commentaries. 
 
 3. Compare the terms ‘‘eternal life” in the Fourth Gospel and 
 
 “Kingdom of God” in Luke, and consider whether they 
 
 stand for the same conception. 
 
CHAPTER X XV : 
 DRAMATIC PRESENTATION OF THE GOSPEL — 
 
 A NEW STUDY OF THE CONTENTS OF THE FOURTH 
 GOSPEL 
 Introduction. 
 
 If one reads through the Fourth Gospel at one sit- 
 ting he is impressed with its dramatic features. The 
 prologue pictures the Son of God coming from heaven > 
 to introduce a light upon earth which the darkness — 
 never could put out. This light was the knowledge of — 
 God. This knowledge of God is eternal life to all who © 
 will receive it. Then follows a series of events called — 
 signs which prove that Jesus was from heaven. The 
 element of struggle so essential to drama is furnished 
 by the Jews, who are pictured as eager to kill the Mes- 
 siah. The personnel consists of the Forerunner, Nico- 
 demus, the Woman of Samaria, Mary and Martha, 
 Pilate, and others who are described in situations 
 chosen from the Gospel narratives, but not all the ma- 
 terial in the other Gospels is used. Indeed, very few 
 scenes are selected by the author of the Fourth Gospel, 
 only those situations evidently that are adapted to his 
 dramatic unfolding of the redemptive plan. As we — 
 have observed in a previous chapter, the author omit-— 
 ted all the striking parables of Jesus and also the Ser- | 
 mon on the Mount. Peter and the disciples are in the. 
 story, but they are much less conspicuous than in — 
 Matthew, Mark, and Luke. | 
 
 150 
 
DRAMATIC PRESENTATION OF THE GOSPEL 151 
 
 Jerusalem and Judea furnish the stage for this drama 
 of redemption, although in reality Jesus’ life was spent 
 almost wholly in Galilee. Not only is the stage itself a 
 mystery, but Jesus’ appearances on it are sometimes 
 very mysterious. “Although the doors were locked, 
 Jesus came in and stood among them.” This sense of 
 the unearthly and spiritual pervades the whole Gospel. 
 “Tt is a perfect web of enigma, and yet the web is lost 
 in the dazzling light which breaks through it... . 
 The book affects our imagination like a transparent 
 symbol of precious eternal truths. We forget the out- 
 ward narrative and lose ourselves in its deeper signifi- 
 cance. The characters appear in a strange twilight. 
 We neither see them come nor go, we trace in them no 
 development; they suddenly appear and as suddenly 
 vanish. They move as if in the air. They affect us like 
 the stained windows of some dim cathedral as the 
 light passes through them” (Von Soden, Early Chris- 
 tian Literature). 
 
 This book has suffered much from the piecemeal 
 method of reading. Its tone is so devotional and its 
 short sayings so quotable that few have gotten beyond 
 reading short sections. Thus the message of the whole 
 has been lost in the enjoyment of its parts. It is a 
 memorable experience to read the whole production at 
 one sitting. In this way alone will the reader grasp 
 the grandeur of the drama and the splendid adaptation 
 of the work to the Greek world of the second century. 
 
 Prologue 
 
 Jesus, the Son of God, comes to earth and takes hu- 
 man form to play the part of the Messiah promised in 
 the Old Testament. He is Life and Light to mankind. 
 1: 1-18. 
 
152 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Act I 
 
 Public Presentation of the Messiah, 1: 19-2: 25 
 Scene 1. Place: Bank of the River Jordan. 
 Persons: John the Baptist, the Priests and Levites. 
 Crowds have gathered about John, thinking that he 
 
 is the long-expected Messiah. When officially ques- 
 tioned by the priests and Levites, John admits that he 
 is only the forerunner of the Messiah. 1: 19-28. 
 
 Scene 2. Place: Same as before. 
 
 Persons: Jesus, John, and some of John’s disciples. 
 
 Jesus appears walking toward John. John points to 
 him and with awe says: “Behold the Lamb of God.” 
 
 Scene 3. Place: Same as before. 
 
 Persons: Same as before. 
 
 The Messiah wins his first disciples (1: 35-41). 
 
 Scene 4. Place: Cana of Galilee. 
 
 Persons: Jesus, Jesus’ new disciples—Andrew, Peter, 
 John the Beloved; Philip, Nathaniel; Mary (Mother of 
 Jesus), and the Wedding Party. 
 
 Jesus shows that he is the Messiah by the miracle of 
 the wine (2: 1-11). 
 
 Scene 5. Place: The Temple in Jerusalem. 
 
 Persons: Jesus and his Disciples, Dealers in sacrificial 
 animals, Money-changers, and Jewish opponents. 
 
 Jesus as a sign of his Messianic authority drives the 
 money-changers and the dealers out of the temple and 
 orders them not to turn his Father’s house into a mar- 
 ket-place (2: 12-25). 
 
 Act IT 
 
 Testimony of Persons of Three Nationalities to the 
 Messiahship of Jesus, 3: 1-4: 54 
 
 Scene 1. Place: A house in Jerusalem. 
 
DRAMATIC PRESENTATION OF THE GOSPEL 153 
 
 Persons: Jesus and Rabbi Nicodemus, a prominent 
 member of the Sanhedrin. 
 
 Nicodemus, convinced by Jesus’ miracles that he is 
 from God, visits the Master to get further light on his 
 teachings. Jesus makes it very clear that he is the 
 Messiah on whom men must believe if they would pos- 
 sess eternal life (3: 1-36, except 22-30, which should 
 directly follow 2:12). 
 
 Scene 2. Place: Jacob’s Well at Sychar in Samaria. 
 
 Persons: Jesus, a Woman of Samaria and other Sa- 
 maritans. 
 
 Jesus tells the woman that God requires a spiritual 
 worship and that the places and forms of the old Jewish 
 religion are no longer necessary. Jesus announces him- 
 self as the Messiah, and the Samaritans are convinced 
 that he is the savior of the world (4: 1-42). 
 
 Scene 3. Place: Cana of Galilee. 
 
 Persons: Jesus and a Roman officer. 
 
 Jesus cures the officer’s son of a fever, and this mira- 
 cle convinces the Roman that Jesus is what he claims 
 to be (4: 48-54). 
 
 Thus in three scenes we have a Jew, some Samari- 
 tans, and a family of Romans testifying to Jesus’ Mes- 
 siahship. 
 
 Act III 
 
 Tragic Rejection of the Messiah by His Own People, 
 the Jews (5: 1-12: 50) 
 
 (Note the real climax of the act in 11:51, where the 
 High Priest is inspired to predict the Messiah’s death 
 as part of God’s plan for the world.) 
 
 Scene 1. Place: Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. 
 
 Persons: Jesus, sick man, and hostile Jews. 
 
 Jesus heals the sick man and on the ground of this 
 
154 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 miracle asserts, in a long discussion with the Jews, his 
 equality with God (5: 1-47). 
 
 Scene 2. Place: A grassy plain north of the Sea of 
 Galilee, with a hill at one side. 
 
 Persons: Jesus, his Disciples, and a multitude of men 
 and women. 
 
 Jesus miraculously feeds the multitude with five 
 loaves and two fishes. Perceiving that he is the Mes- 
 siah, the people try to crown him as king. The discus- 
 sion with the hostile Jews takes place in Capernaum 
 the next day, during which Jesus declares that he is 
 the bread of life. ‘ Whoever lives on this bread will live 
 forever” (6: 1-71). 
 
 Scene 3. Place: Temple in Jerusalem. 
 
 Persons: Jesus, the crowd, hostile Jews. 
 
 This scene opens with an unfriendly remark by 
 Jesus’ brothers in Nazareth: “‘ You ought to leave here 
 and go to Judea.” ... “If you are going to do these 
 things, let the world see you.” 
 
 The scene closes with the abrupt departure (8 : 59) of 
 Jesus from his enemies in the temple. It is remarkable 
 that the next two scenes open and close in a similar 
 way, each having a special introduction and each clos- 
 ing with Jesus’ sudden disappearance (10:39 and 
 12:37). This is clearly not simply a narrative of the 
 incidents in Jesus’ life, but a special arrangement of 
 some experiences of Jesus for dramatic effect. 
 
 A disputation in the temple on the origin of the Mes- 
 siah, during which Jesus said that he was the light of 
 the world, and that he came from heaven, where he 
 existed before Abraham was born. They pick up stones 
 to throw at him, but he disappears (7 : 1-8: 59). 
 
 Scene 4. Place: In Jerusalem, near the Pool of Siloam, 
 and afterward in the temple. 
 
DRAMATIC PRESENTATION OF THE GOSPEL 155 
 
 Persons: Jesus, the Blind Man, a crowd of people, 
 and the hostile Jews. 
 
 Jesus cures a blind man on the Sabbath, and in a 
 long discussion with his enemies reasserts his Messiah- 
 ship. They try to arrest him, but he suddenly disap- 
 pears (9: 1-10: 42). 
 
 Scene-5. Place: Bethany and gerusalees. 
 
 Persons: Jesus, Mary and Martha, people of Beth- 
 any, and the hostile Jews. 
 
 Jesus raises Lazarus from the grave, and afterward 
 in Jerusalem holds an argument with the Jews con- 
 cerning the work of the Messiah. Two interruptions 
 occur that add great interest to the drama: (1) A voice 
 from heaven (12:28) and (2) the request of certain 
 Greeks that they might see Jesus (12:21). The Jews 
 refuse to believe and Jesus disappears from them (11: 
 1-12: 50). 
 
 Act IV 
 
 Scenes Illustrating the Deeper Meanings of the New 
 Religion. Jesus Reveals Himself Intimately to His 
 Disciples (13 : 1-17 : 26) 
 
 Scene 1. Place: The upper room of a house in Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 Persons: Jesus and his Twelve Disciples. 
 
 Time: Thursday evening. 
 
 Jesus washes the feet of his disciples as an example 
 of humility, and by his miraculous foreknowledge points 
 out that Judas will betray him and Peter will deny 
 him (13 : 1-30). 
 
 Scene 2. Place: The same as before. 
 
 Persons: The same, except that Judas has gone out 
 into the night. 
 
 Jesus’ farewell addresses, telling about heaven (14: 
 
156 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 1-14), the Holy Spirit as an abiding friend and guide 
 (14: 15-31), the mystic relation existing between Jesus 
 and true Christians (15: 1-27), and the Holy Spirit as 
 a permanent representation of the Messiah. The dis- 
 ciples declare themselves convinced that Jesus is the 
 Messiah (14 : 1-16: 33). 
 
 Scene 3. Place: Same as before. 
 
 Persons: Same as before. 
 
 Jesus prays for his disciples and for those whom the 
 disciples may win (17: 1-26). 
 
 Act V 
 
 The Crucifixion and the Resurrection (18 : 1-20: 31) 
 
 Scene 1. Place: Gethsemane. 
 
 Persons: Jesus and the Eleven Disciples, Judas, the 
 officers of the High Priest, and a band of soldiers. 
 
 Judas leads the enemies of Jesus, who are carrying 
 lanterns, torches, and weapons to Gethsemane, and 
 accomplishes the arrest (18: 1-11). 
 
 Scene 2. Place: Palaces of Annas, Caiaphas, and 
 Pilate. 
 
 Persons: Jesus, Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate, Peter, offi- 
 cials, and attendants. 
 
 Jesus is tried and convicted on the charge that he 
 claimed to be King of the Jews. Peter denies thrice 
 over that he ever knew Jesus (18: 12-40). 
 
 Scene 3. Place: Pilate’s Hall of Judgment and Gol- 
 gotha. 
 
 Persons: Jesus, the two Marys, John, the Jews, 
 soldiers, and attendants. 
 
 They scourge Jesus and put a crown of thorns on his 
 head. Pilate tells the Jews that Jesus is innocent; if 
 they want to crucify him, they will have to take the 
 responsibility. Jesus reminded Pilate that the power 
 
DRAMATIC PRESENTATION OF THE GOSPEL 157 
 
 which Pilate exercised was given to him from above. 
 This was all part of a divine plan. Jesus is then led 
 away, bearing his own cross, to Golgotha, and cruci- 
 fied. The body was placed in Joseph’s tomb (19 : 1-42). 
 
 Scene 4. Place: The tomb. 
 
 Persons: Mary Magdalene, John, Peter, the Risen 
 Lord. 
 
 Mary finds the tomb empty. Peter and John go in- 
 side and verify her words. Jesus, standing in the gar- 
 den near by, speaks to Mary, but forbids her to touch 
 him (20: 1-18). 
 
 Scene 5. Place: A house in Jerusalem. 
 
 Persons: The Disciples. 
 
 Jesus suddenly appears in the room, although the 
 disciples had locked the door. Jesus gave them power 
 to forgive sins. The book closes with the statement 
 that it was written to prove that Jesus was the Son of 
 God. There is no account of the ascension of Jesus 
 (20: 19-81). 
 
 Epilogue 
 
 _ This records the appearance of Jesus to Peter and 
 other disciples at the Sea of Galilee, and the charge to 
 Peter to be a good pastor, and also the warning that he 
 is to die the death of a martyr (21: 1-25). 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 1. What are some of the elements of drama in the Fourth Gos- 
 
 pel? 
 
 2. Read through the Gospel at one sitting, using this chapter 
 as a guide, and report six or more mysterious or super- 
 natural occurrences. 
 
 3. Give some evidences that the main purpose of the author is 
 to prove that Jesus is the Messiah. 
 
158 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 1. Why may 11:51 be regarded as the real climax of Act III? 
 2. Did the author plan to have Scenes 3, 4, and 5 in Act III in 
 any sense parallel? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 1. Compare the Fourth Gospel and the Synoptics with reference 
 to the ascension of Jesus. 
 
 2. It is said that the great ideas of this Gospel are revelation, 
 life, light, love, truth, freedom. Find passages that de- 
 scribe these ideas. 
 
 3. Holman Hunt’s Light of the World gives an allegorical illus- 
 tration of John 8:12. Name some of the leading symbols 
 in this painting. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 THE GOSPEL OF THE LIVING CHRIST 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF THE FOURTH GOSPEL 
 
 1. Estimates of the Fourth Gospel. 
 
 Modern attempts to solve the historical problems 
 connected with the Fourth Gospel have obscured tem- 
 porarily its importance and its greatness. E. F. Scott 
 declares that “it would be difficult to overestimate 
 the influence of the Fourth Gospel on the subsequent 
 history of Christianity. . . . It was due in large mea- 
 sure to the influence of his Gospel that Christianity 
 remained true to its original character, amidst the 
 many disturbing forces of the second and third cen- 
 turies. At a time when the primitive tradition was in 
 danger of perishing, this great teacher reasserted it, 
 and embodied it in new and living forms. He gathered 
 up into one final utterance the whole message of the 
 Apostolic Age. The Synoptic history, the theology of 
 Paul, the hopes and beliefs of the early disciples were 
 all harmoniously blended in his Gospel, and became 
 the lasting inheritance of the Gentile church.” 
 
 G. Currie Martin called it “the greatest of the books 
 of the New Testament.”’ Robert F. Horton says: “ Un- 
 counted numbers of human souls, like Louis Harms or 
 the Japanese Joseph Neesima, have, after searching 
 and struggling, entered into life through reading this 
 book. Its miraculous working is always manifest, be- 
 
 159 
 
160 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 cause it is always possible to find people, and those 
 often the most devoted and effectual Christians, who 
 were born again by means of this brief, life-giving 
 tract.” 
 
 2. The Need of Something More than the Historical 
 Christ. 
 
 Harold B. Hunting has given us in his Story of Our 
 Bible the following imaginary picture of the discovery 
 of the living Christ by the author of the Fourth Gospel. 
 
 The earliest disciples had believed that Jesus would quickly 
 return, to judge the wicked, and establish His heavenly 
 kingdom. This hope was one of their sweetest joys. Any 
 one who has counted the days before the homecoming of 
 some dear one can understand how the dreams of those 
 Christian disciples were centred on one thing, the coming of 
 Jesus. ‘‘Jesus is coming soon. Perhaps he will come to- 
 morrow. Come, Lord Jesus.’’ This expectation helped them 
 to feel that Jesus was near and real. But the years passed, 
 and the decades, and Jesus did not return in visible form. 
 . . . They were in danger of losing Jesus altogether. 
 
 This sense of loss was being felt very keenly by many Chris- 
 tians about 100 A. D., when John lived in Ephesus. There 
 was a time when he himself had felt it. To him, as to others, 
 at such times, Jesus was only a wonderful historical charac- 
 ter who lived long ago. Gradually, however, there came to 
 him a strange experience. He somehow became aware of a 
 Presence walking with him day by day. He could not see 
 or hear this Presence with his physical senses, yet it was as 
 real to him as the solid earth beneath his feet. In times of 
 trial and temptation, he could turn to that Presence and 
 receive comfort and strength. In moods of sadness the 
 thought of that Presence would flash into his mind, like the 
 sunshine breaking through the clouds, and all the world 
 would again be bright. Every good impulse and true idea 
 seemed to him now to be a whisper of that Presence. He had 
 rediscovered the living Jesus. ‘‘Jesus is alive.’ At the 
 thought his heart was filled with happiness. He could not 
 pu proclaim the news to his fellow Christians, “Jesus is 
 alive. 
 
 In order to bring home to the men and women of his own time 
 
 this message of the living Christ, John wrote a new account 
 
THE GOSPEL OF THE LIVING CHRIST 161 
 
 of the life of Jesus. As a means of setting forth this truth, 
 the Gospel of John is one of the most original and extraordi- 
 nary books ever written. 
 
 3. The New Teaching in the Fourth Gospel. 
 
 The Synoptics had clung to the idea of Jesus’ physi- 
 cal return (Mark 13, Matthew 24, Luke 21), but John 
 perceives that a Messiah in person can be in one place 
 only at one time (12: 24). What the disciples need is a 
 Christ, a Helper, a Spirit of Truth who can be with 
 them everywhere and all the time. The destruction of 
 Jesus’ body will free his Eternal Spirit to be with them, 
 and even in them (14: 17). 
 
 In a few weeks after the occurrences of Passion Week, 
 the believers became conscious (at Pentecost, Acts 2) 
 of a new and powerful presence which they called the 
 Holy Spirit. The Fourth Gospel interprets that as the 
 “return of Jesus” (14: 18 and 14: 25, 26). Their knowl- 
 edge of his actual return, since he was invisible, de- 
 pended upon their loving obedience and spiritual per- 
 ception. The living Christ could reveal himself only to 
 sincere followers of the historic Christ (14: 19-22). A 
 comparison of 14: 18, 25, 26 with 15: 26, 27 shows that 
 the author identifies the Comforter, and the Spirit of 
 Truth with the Holy Spirit, and that the coming of the 
 Holy Spirit took the place of the visible return of 
 Jesus. 
 
 “He thus transforms the Jewish apocalyptic expec- 
 tation into a spiritual experience,’ and thereby makes 
 a great contribution to the progress of Christianity. 
 
 4. Passages Radiant with this New Teaching. 
 
 Students should early become familiar with the fol- 
 lowing chapters, at least, of the Fourth Gospel, and 
 
 / 
 
162 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 the main ideas for which they stand. They may be 
 listed briefly as follows: 
 
 Chapter 1 is a unique presentation of Christ as the 
 Logos. The definite claim of a heavenly origin for the 
 new religion is made in the story of Nicodemus in 
 chapter 3. The possibility of sincere worship apart from 
 Jerusalem and the temple in chapter 4 is of great im- 
 portance because it frees Christianity from all narrow 
 associations and makes it a world religion. Chapter 10 
 is specially wholesome in its thought of Christianity, as 
 producing a richer and broader life in men. Ii calls us 
 back from all partial and erroneous views of religion to 
 the task of making more worth while the common life 
 of mankind. 
 
 One could continue for a long time noting the sig- 
 nificant passages in this great book; indeed, it seems 
 like unfair discrimination when we select only a few 
 chapters. We cannot, however, pass by the following 
 sections without asking that they be read aloud: 12: 
 24-28; 14: 1-7, 26; 15: 1-7; 16: 12-14; 17:3; 20:31. 
 
 5. Some Important Lessons. 
 
 (1) The Fourth Gospel calls attention to a hidden 
 beauty in the universe when it says in 1:9, “There 
 came a light into the world.” Principal Jacks, in his 
 Lost Radiance of the Christian Religion, writes, it is ‘‘a 
 light that burns within the heart of the world itself, 
 transfiguring the whole length and breadth of exist- 
 ence, from what it seems to be to the eye of sense into 
 the fulness of its reality—the fitting abode of immortal 
 and rejoicing spirits, the Father’s house of many man- 
 sions, where music and dancing await the regenerated 
 soul, not only the music, to which we listen, but the 
 dancing which reproduces the music in the total move- 
 
THE GOSPEL OF THE LIVING CHRIST 163 
 
 ment of our lives. This is what I mean, and nothing 
 less than this, when I speak of the radiance of the 
 Christian religion—not an adventitious quality, nor a 
 mere alleviation or adornment of an otherwise stern 
 and uncompromising code of duty, but an essential and 
 all-pervading energy. . . . It is a Joyous energy, hav- 
 ing a centre in the soul of man. It is not a foreign prin- 
 ciple which has to be introduced into a man from with- 
 out; it belongs to the substance and structure of his 
 nature; it needs only to be liberated there; and when 
 once that is done it takes possession of all the forces of 
 his being, repressing nothing, but transfiguring every- 
 thing till all his motives and desires are akindled and 
 aglow with the fires and energy of that central flame, 
 with its love, its peace, its joy.” 
 
 (2) “It lighteth every man” (1: 9). 
 
 In each person there is a divine spark, which means 
 that there is a capacity to respond to the divine. This 
 explains Jesus’ attitude to every human being, whether 
 an innocent little child or a very sinful woman or a 
 rich and selfish man. He knew that there was hope 
 for every one because that inner spark of goodness 
 night be fanned into flame. 
 
 ‘‘ All year long upon the stage 
 I dance and tumble and do rage 
 So furiously, I scarcely see 
 The inner and eternal me. 
 
 I have a temple I do not 
 
 Visit, a heart I have forgot, 
 
 A self that I have never met, 
 
 A secret shrine—and yet, and yet— 
 
 This sanctuary of my soul 
 
 Unwitting I keep white and whole, 
 Unlatched and lit, if Thou shouldst care 
 To enter or to tarry there.” 
 
164 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 (3) ‘Let not your heart be troubled” (14: 1). 
 
 The world’s greatest need, next after Redemption, is 
 consolation. Jesus said, ‘‘Come unto me... and I 
 will give you rest.”” The Fourth Gospel has met this 
 need better than any other book by its presentation of 
 the Messiah. This was recognized by one of the world’s 
 greatest musicians. Beethoven composed his Mass in 
 D Major while Napoleon was advancing on Vienna; 
 when he came to the last chorus—‘‘ Give us peace’’— 
 he set the words to a fugue on a theme familiar in 
 Handel’s Messiah. This was not accidental, for in this 
 time of war he remembered that the one condition of 
 human peace was the acceptance of the Messiah, the 
 Prince of Peace. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. How did the Fourth Gospel preserve the substance of the 
 primitive Christian tradition when it was in danger of 
 perishing ? 
 
 . How did the author meet the need occasioned by the failure 
 of Christ to come again in bodily form? 
 
 . Prove that the author identifies the Spirit of Jesus and the 
 Holy Spirit. | 
 
 . How, then, does the historical method of study explain the 
 Second Coming of Christ? 
 
 . What is the teaching of (a) John 12: 24-28? (b) 16: 12-14? 
 
 Cro i iGo bo 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 . What do you regard as the most important teaching of the 
 
 Fourth Gospel? 
 
 : Ayby ey it be considered the most devotional book of the 
 
 ible 
 
 Does the principle of 12:24 apply to others besides Christ? 
 
 Did the coming of Christ to earth put a new element into the 
 universe, or help men discover what was already there? 
 
 . Name the five most popular chapters in the Fourth Gospel. 
 
 What does the mystic meaning of 15: 1~7 mean in terms of 
 our daily experience? 
 
 On pO Nf 
 
THE GOSPEL OF THE LIVING CHRIST 165 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 1. Read the last few pages of Longfellow’s Children of the Lord’s 
 Supper and report to the class passages that remind you 
 of the Fourth Gospel. 
 
 2. Find in The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas 4 Kempis, Book I, 
 chapter XX, On the Love of Solitude, sentiments contra- 
 dictory to the Fourth Gospel. 
 
 3. Write an essay on the ‘‘seven signs” in this Gospel as sym- 
 bols, Encyclopédia Britannica, XV, 452, 453. 
 
CHapter XXVII 
 THREE LETTERS OF JOHN 
 
 1. Authorship and Aim of I John. 
 
 I John uses the same great words—Life, Revelation, 
 Light, Truth, Love—that we have found in the Fourth 
 Gospel. The key thoughts concerning the “world,” 
 “union with the Father,” “eternal life,’’ and “keeping 
 the commandments” as an evidence that we love God, 
 are the same in both books. It is probable, therefore, 
 that one author wrote both. 
 
 Moreover, the allusions to the circumstances and 
 needs of the people addressed in the letter lead us to 
 think of Ephesus and the churches of Asia Minor early 
 in the second century as the place and time of writing, 
 as in the case of the Gospel. For example, the letter 
 insists that the ‘word of life” has been ‘‘seen with our 
 eyes” and “touched with our hands.” This was to 
 correct the heresy called “‘Docetism” against which the 
 Gospel argued in 1:14. This heresy, later included un- 
 der the term Gnosticism, a sort of theosophy, taught 
 that all matter, including human flesh, was evil, and 
 therefore God could not really have become incarnated 
 in Jesus. He only “seemed” to be in a human body. 
 Some claimed that the divine spirit was in the body of 
 Jesus from the baptism until he was about to be cruci- 
 fied, but that it would be impossible to think of God 
 as in Jesus while on the cross. So disputes arose over 
 this question until some people withdrew their mem- 
 bership from the church (2: 19). 
 
 166 
 
THREE LETTERS OF JOHN 167 
 
 This same group, or another like it, was making 
 trouble by claiming to have superior knowledge and 
 holiness. They kept saying, “I know him” (2:4) and 
 ““we have not sinned” (1:10). The result was divisions 
 in the church and a tendency to regard the sins of the 
 flesh as harmless. This made this group popular with 
 the “world” (4: 5). 
 
 The aim of the “elder,” who may have been the 
 bishop of the church at Ephesus, in writing this tract 
 was to combat these two evils so common among 
 Greeks everywhere, vain philosophy and sins of the 
 flesh. He wants Christians to maintain their good fel- 
 lowship and to keep themselves from a state of sinful- 
 ness, 
 
 2. The Author’s Method. 
 
 He bases his argument on experience and upon his- 
 tory. This is the final test, personal experience. The 
 author knows what he is talking about, for his testi- 
 mony grows out of personal fellowship with the Father 
 and the Son. Nine times (2: 3, 5; 3:16, 19, 24; 4: 2, 6, 
 13; 5: 2) in exactly the same words, ‘“‘by this we know,” 
 he urges the Christians of Asia to test the truth of the 
 religion of Jesus in their own lives. They had lost their 
 first love and enthusiasm for Christ and were too ready 
 to welcome religious vagaries. He asks them to test 
 all theories by the witness of the Holy Spirit and their 
 sense of fellowship with the historic Christ. 
 
 His second test is that of history. We have a knowl- 
 edge, an assurance of the truth, based upon a long line 
 of historic facts. In the Christian gospel the church 
 possesses a revelation of God and life which is abso- 
 lute. To this they must be true at all costs. The Holy 
 Spirit which you received at conversion is still in your 
 
168 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 hearts and will teach you everything. Keep in close 
 fellowship with Christ and you cannot go astray (2: 26, 
 27). 
 
 3. The Open Secret. 
 
 It does not require the knowledge of an Initiate, or 
 skill in passwords or ‘‘grips”’ to recognize a Christian. 
 “‘Eivery one who loves is a child of God and knows God” 
 (4:7). Love is the password, and a loving heart rather 
 than a philosophical mind is the open sesame to the 
 secret of Christianity. Indeed, there is no secret or 
 mystery about it. It consists wholly in love to God 
 and man, and the beauty of this is that one’s love 
 to God is shown by his attitude to man (2:9-11; 
 3: 11-16). 
 
 What a wholesome teaching this was to the Greeks! 
 It did away with the pride of knowledge and the con- 
 ceit of class distinctions and many evils that follow in 
 their train. It brought the second-century church back 
 to the simple gospel of the Master—love to God and 
 neighbor. ‘‘No one who does not love his brother is a 
 child of God.” 
 
 Love is the key-note of I John as hope was of I Peter. 
 The word “love” is used more than forty times in this 
 little book, twenty-four times in one chapter. In two 
 places (4: 8 and 16) the author reaches the highest pos- 
 sible conception of religion by the expression ‘‘God is 
 love.”’ “The statement seems to glide out so naturally 
 and inevitably that the reader hardly notices how it 
 has changed the whole aspect of heaven and earth, and 
 the whole relation between God and man. ... The 
 - truth was quivering and vibrating through every fact 
 and teaching of the Gospel, but it was given to this 
 writer to utter it for the first time” (R. F. Horton). 
 
THREE LETTERS OF JOHN 169 
 
 This alone gives this beautiful little letter a high place 
 in the list of the world’s great books. Holtzmann says 
 of this idea of God, “It opens the way for an altogether 
 new presentation of religion based on the facts of moral 
 life.”’ 
 
 4. Two Little Notes by the Same Author. 
 
 While these short letters do not have much of any 
 religious value, yet, ‘‘like drops of water under a micro- 
 scope,” they reveal many facts of the life of the churches 
 in Asia Minor. The author of each is called the “ Elder’ 
 and we may adopt the common opinion that he also 
 wrote I John and the Fourth Gospel. All these books 
 may be assigned to the first quarter of the second cen- 
 tury. 
 
 II John is addressed to the ‘‘elect lady and her chil- 
 dren” by the Bishop of Ephesus, who at the close (verse 
 13) says the ‘‘children of your elect sister wish to be 
 remembered to you.” This “elect lady” is evidently 
 one of the neighboring churches to which the sister 
 church of Ephesus sends greeting. The writer exhorts 
 the members to beware of the heresy that would rob’ 
 them of Christ, for if they lose Christ they lose God. 
 They should not even be courteous to the heretics 
 (8-11). 
 
 In III John the Elder writes to Gaius, a prominent 
 member of the same church, and asks him to be hos- 
 pitable to some missionaries who are travelling through 
 Asia preaching the gospel. He warns Gaius against 
 Diotrephes, who is hostile to the Elder, and who refused 
 to entertain these workers and is threatening with 
 trouble those who welcome them. Demetrius, men- 
 tioned in verse 12, was probably the leader of the mis- 
 sionaries and bearer of the letter, 
 
170 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 5. Three Lessons. 
 
 Experience is the best teacher in religion. I John 
 says we have heard, seen, and touched, and so we feel 
 sure (1: 1-3); keep progressing, the author suggests 
 (2: 27), on the basis of your past experience. Like the 
 blind man in the Gospel, he could declare, “One thing 
 I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” 
 
 “They were all doctors of renown 
 The great men of a famous town 
 With deep brows wrinkled, broad and wise; 
 Beneath their wide phylacteries, 
 The wisdom of the East was theirs; 
 And honor crowned their silver hairs. 
 The man they jeered and laughed to scorn, 
 Was unlearned, poor, and humbly born, 
 But he knew better far than they, 
 What came to him that Sabbath Day. 
 And what the Christ had done for him 
 He knew and not the Sanhedrin.” 
 —John Hay. 
 
 The great need of the world is love—and yet more 
 love. Chapter 4 of the first epistle is remarkable for 
 its discussion of “‘the greatest thing in the world.” 
 Henry Drummond found that the thing which im- 
 pressed the natives of Africa most in their dealings with 
 Mr. Livingstone was his love. He says: ‘‘In the heart 
 of Africa, among the great lakes, I have come across 
 black men and women who remembered the only white 
 man they ever saw before—David Livingstone; and as 
 -you cross his footsteps in that dark continent, men’s 
 faces light up as they speak of the kind doctor who 
 passed there years ago. They could not understand 
 him; but they felt the love that beat in his heart.” 
 
 Warning against factions and lack of good fellow- 
 ship in the church, II and III John will not have been 
 written in vain if they show the beginnings of church 
 
THREE LETTERS OF JOHN 171 
 
 factions and sectarian divisions so clearly that they 
 will remind us of the evil results of these things. 
 
 Oooo be 
 
 an e WOH 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . Two reasons for thinking that the author of the Fourth 
 
 Gospel also wrote I John. 
 
 . What was the need of a letter like I John? 
 . What is the reason for using the expression “by this we 
 
 know’? 
 
 What simple doctrine does I John oppose to the mysterious 
 theories of the heresies? 
 
 wey Hh the significance of the new statement, ‘God is 
 ove 
 
 . What is the chief value of IT and III John? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 Who was the “‘Elder” referred to in II and III John? Kent, 
 Work and Teachings of the Apostles, 293-295. 
 
 What reaction usually follows the claim of superior knowledge 
 and holiness? 
 
 . Show that I John calls the people back from theory to facts. 
 
 What is one of the tasks of the Holy Spirit? 
 
 . How many times is the word ‘‘love”’ used in I John? 
 . What is the most important teaching of the three letters of 
 
 John? 
 Special Assignments 
 
 . The Greek work Gnosis, which means knowledge, is the root 
 
 of the term Gnosticism, the name of the chief heresy among 
 the churches of Asia Minor. How many times is ‘‘know” 
 or ‘‘knowledge” used in I John, and why is it used so 
 many times? 
 
 . Did denominations have their origin in I John 2:19? Discuss 
 
 two main reasons for denominationalism. 
 
Cuaprer XXVIII 
 THE LETTERS TO TIMOTHY AND TITUS 
 
 1. Paul Quoted Half a Century after His Death. 
 
 Paul had left short letters or fragments of his corre- 
 spondence besides the more important epistles like 
 Romans. Fifty years after his death the churches were 
 in great need of authoritative statements of belief, as 
 we see from II Timothy 3:15. Not only was there a 
 demand for a creed, but also for a more elaborate 
 church organization to guard the true faith and to en- 
 force uniformity of belief. So these fragments from 
 Paul’s hand were embodied in the pastoral letters 
 which, according to the author, contained what Paul 
 would have said to this new generation. It is possible 
 to regard II Timothy 1:15-18; 3:10-12; 4: 6-22; 
 Titus 3:12, 13, as some of these fragments. It would 
 give these messages much greater authority if they 
 were ascribed to Paul, and the writer felt justified in 
 doing this because parts were directly from the Apos- 
 tle and the remainder was an urgently needed supple- 
 ment to what Paul had written. 
 
 2. Why May We Not Regard Paul as the Author of | 
 
 These Letters? 
 Five reasons may be briefly stated here. First, there 
 is no place for them in the life of the Apostle. It would 
 be necessary to assume that he was freed from prison 
 
 i 
 : 
 
 { 
 4 
 
 j 
 1 
 
 in Rome and travelled to Ephesus in order to provide © 
 
 172 
 
 ‘ 
 : 
 
THE LETTERS TO TIMOTHY AND TITUS 173 
 
 a proper background for the epistles to Timothy and 
 Titus. But there is no evidence for such an assump- 
 tion, while there is abundant evidence to show that the 
 epistles are not from the hand of Paul. 
 
 Second, the teachings are different from Paul’s well- 
 known doctrines. For example, faith, in these letters, 
 means the creed of the church, but to Paul it always 
 meant the act by which we are saved. Moreover, Paul 
 was strongly opposed to the idea that salvation came 
 by the works of the law, while I Timothy 6:18, 19, 
 clearly teaches it. Paul was also opposed to marriage 
 because he believed that the world was soon coming 
 to an end, but these letters condemn those who forbid 
 people to marry (I Timothy 4:3; 5: 14). 
 
 Third, not only does the thought seem to belong to 
 a much later time, but the literary style and words 
 reveal a different authorship. There are nearly two 
 hundred words in these three short letters which are 
 not found in Paul’s recognized writings. 
 
 Fourth, the letters are filled with opposition to heresy 
 (I Timothy 4:1; Il Timothy 2:18; 3:8; 4:3; Titus 
 3:9, 10) and allusions to the Gnostic sect (I Timothy 
 1:4; 6:20; and Titus 3:9). This agrees with the be- 
 liefs in Asia Minor in the second century, but not with 
 those of the time of Paul. 
 
 Fifth, most evident of all is the wide difference with 
 respect to church government. These letters are largely 
 concerned with lists of church officers and the quali- 
 fications for such positions and the minute regulation 
 of the duties of Christians (e. g., I Timothy 3: 1-13; 
 Titus 1: 5-9). Great emphasis is placed on the author- 
 ity of the church and its officers (Titus 1:3). This 
 points to the first quarter of the second century as the 
 time of writing. 
 
174 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Such a state of things, it is true, seems a serious decline from 
 the high, confident, spiritual enthusiasm of the Apostolic 
 Age. But after the prophet must come the priest, to con- 
 serve and codify the other’s work. And this was what the 
 ey) to Timothy and Titus sought to do. (KE. J. Good- 
 speed. 
 
 3. Testimony to the Power of the Christian Move- 
 ment. 
 
 Heresy has been described as the result of the at- 
 tempt to combine with Christianity beliefs which were 
 not strong enough to compete with the Christian faith. 
 These letters are filled with allusions to sects devoted 
 to asceticism, theosophy, and Judaism, which were 
 trying to fasten on to this powerful new faith in order 
 to save themselves. Pliny’s letter to Trajan (about 112 
 A. D.) shows that Christians had become so numerous 
 that the heathen temples in Asia Minor were almost 
 deserted. By the year 300 the strength of the Roman 
 Empire had been won to Christ and Constantine 
 thought it good political policy for the emperor to be- 
 come a Christian. We should not be misled by the 
 literary and doctrinal weakness of the last five letters 
 of the New Testament into thinking that Christianity 
 was becoming less efficient. 
 
 4. Practical Value. 
 
 We cannot tell who wrote these letters nor the place 
 from which they issued. It is likely that either Rome 
 or Ephesus was the centre from which such messages 
 would issue. The author hides himself behind the great 
 personality of Paul. He makes many practical sugges- 
 tions. One of these is the need of personal leadership. 
 Timothy and Titus, able disciples of Paul, are charged 
 with important duties in the rapidly growing church. 
 
THE LETTERS TO TIMOTHY AND TITUS Wd 
 
 Following them came a long line of leaders—Justin 
 Martyr, Polycarp, Irenzus, Tertullian, Origen, and Au- 
 gustine. Inspiration lives in men more than creeds and 
 institutions. 
 
 Yet creeds and constituted authority have their 
 worth. They are the sign-posts of past attainment. 
 They are the foundations for new progressive efforts. 
 They are the standpoints with which we must become 
 acquainted before we begin our strenuous labors for 
 better institutions and loftier creeds. 
 
 Many passages in these epistles are memorable for 
 their vitality and power of inspiration. Note especially 
 I Timothy 1:15; 3:16; 4:8; 4: 14-16; 6: 10-12; II 
 Timothy 1:12; 3: 14-17; 4: 6-8; Titus 2: 11-14. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 . What situation in Asia Minor called for letters like Timothy 
 and Titus? 
 
 . In what sense were they Pauline? 
 
 . Five reasons for thinking that Paul was not the author. 
 
 . What is a heresy and what testimony do the heresies of Asia 
 Minor in the second century bear to the power of Chris- 
 tianity ? 
 
 . Quote the best passage in these three letters, 
 
 H GW DO — 
 
 Cnr 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 1. What cities might compete for the honor of having produced 
 these letters? 
 
 2. Which is more important: correct creeds or competent per- 
 sonal leadership ? 
 
 3. What is the value of a creed? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 1. Compare the offices of prophet and priest, and classify under 
 one of these heads the author of the letters to Timothy 
 and Titus. 
 
 2. Tell the romantic story of Timothy as recorded in Acts and 
 referred to in Paul’s epistles. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 THE TWO LATEST BOOKS OF THE NEW 
 TESTAMENT 
 
 1. The Last of a Great Series. 
 
 A little more than a hundred years after the Cruci- 
 fixion, the books of Jude and II Peter brought to an 
 end that great literary movement of which Christ was 
 the inspiration. The records of the time show that the 
 church fathers were reluctant to admit these little doc- 
 uments into the list of sacred books. Eusebius, 325 
 A. D., classed Jude among the “‘disputed”’ books, and 
 II Peter had even greater opposition than Jude. 
 
 The exact date is unknown, but it was evidently not 
 far from the middle of the second century. Jude’s 
 “stiff orthodoxy” (8:20) and his reference to the 
 Apostles as belonging to the distant past (17), his allu- 
 sion to a Christian saying as written “long ago” (4), 
 and his use of the apocryphal books Enoch (11, 14) and 
 the Assumption of Moses (9) point to a date well along 
 in the second century. II Peter in his second chapter 
 quotes nearly the whole of Jude, although he evidently 
 has scruples against using the apocryphal books as 
 authority and omits reference to them. We must, 
 therefore, regard II Peter as the latest book in the 
 Canon. Its reference to ‘‘ destructive sects” (2:1) and 
 Jude’s allusion to “‘men who create division”’ (19) sug- 
 gest the latest period of New Testament times. More- 
 over, Jude’s emphasis on the “defense of the faith” 
 (3), the “most holy faith” (20), and the importance of 
 
 176 
 
THE TWO LATEST BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 177 
 
 “authority” (8), along with II Peter’s high estimate of 
 authority (2: 10, 11, 21; 3: 2), show the close affinity of 
 these books with I and II Timothy and Titus. 
 
 2. The Use of Assumed Names. 
 
 It was a common custom in ancient times for authors 
 to publish their writings under the name of some great 
 man of old. It was not done to deceive, but to honor 
 the memory of former leaders and to show what these 
 great men would have taught under new and changed 
 conditions. A writer of the last century before Christ 
 called his book the Psalms of Solomon, and shortly be- 
 fore that another author wrote under the name of 
 Enoch. We have already seen that the books of James 
 and I Peter were not written by those great leaders. 
 It does not detract from the moral value of any book 
 that it goes out under an assumed name. Jude and 
 II Peter are not to be regarded as the work of James’s 
 brother Jude or of the Apostle Peter just because their 
 names are prefixed to the documents, nor should we 
 entertain any prejudice against the contents because of 
 the use of these pseudonyms. 
 
 3. Contents of the Books. 
 
 The author of Jude, probably resident in Asia Minor, 
 was about to write a treatise on ‘‘Our Common §Sal- 
 vation’’ when news came to him that persons who held 
 loose theories about Christ and morality had “sneaked 
 in” to a certain church. He hastens to warn such 
 errorists by examples from the Old Testament and the 
 Apocrypha. His language is strong and statements ex- 
 treme. He urges the church to “build themselves up 
 on the foundations of your most holy faith,” and if 
 possible to snatch the errorists ‘‘out of the fire.” 
 
178 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 The writer of II Peter urges his readers to grow in 
 goodness and knowledge so that they may “be trium- 
 phantly admitted into the eternal kingdom of our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’ (1: 1-11). The inspired 
 message of the prophets (no prophecy ever originated 
 with man but from the Holy Spirit) will be to the 
 church ‘‘as a lamp shining in a dark place” (1: 12-21). 
 False prophets will start sects supported by “pretended | 
 arguments.”’ Quoting Jude, the writer asserts that 
 these false teachers and their followers, who indulge in 
 heresy and immorality, will, like the sinful angels of 
 long ago, be cast into Tartarus (2: 1-22). He then dis- 
 cusses the second coming of Christ (3: 1-18). 
 
 4. Leading Ideas. 
 
 (a) Condemnation of heretical teachers and immoral 
 practices. These practices seem very prevalent in the 
 churches and are condemned in harsh terms and with 
 the warning of terrible judgments. 
 
 (b) “Faith” has now clearly become the body of 
 truth to be defended at all costs. Paul did not use faith 
 in that sense; to him it was the act that saved a person. 
 
 (c) The inspiration of Paul (II Peter 3:15, 16) and 
 all true prophets (1: 20, 21) makes their words authori- 
 tative for the church. 
 
 (d) Respect for authority (Jude 8 and II Peter 2: 10, 
 11, 21 and 3:2), especially of ancient leaders and 
 books. Jude and II Peter do not claim it for them- 
 selves. 
 
 (e) The second coming of Christ is promised. II 
 Peter expects a literal fulfilment of the old apocalyptic 
 warnings (3: 10-13) which the Fourth Gospel inter- 
 preted in a spiritual sense. 
 
ne wr me 
 
 fuasl 
 
 Oo RO to 
 
 THE TWO LATEST BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 179 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 . What books were among the last, if not the very last, to be 
 
 received into the canon of the New Testament? 
 
 . What was the approximate date of these two writings? 
 . What apocryphal books are quoted in Jude as though they 
 
 were recognized authorities? 
 
 . What was the aim of Jude? 
 
 What doctrine seems most important in II Peter? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 . What was Jude about to do when his attention was called to 
 
 a certain heresy? 
 
 . Show that Jude was greatly interested in severe judgments 
 
 recorded in ancient documents. 
 
 What kind of persons does he describe in 12, 13? 
 
 To whom probably does he refer in verse 19 who ‘‘create 
 division”’? 
 
 . To what event does II Peter 1: 16-18 allude? 
 . Meaning of II Peter 1:19, “until the day dawns.” 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 . Compare Jude and II Peter, chapter 2, and underline the 
 
 parallel words and phrases. 
 
 2. Read and report to the class an article on the “‘ Canon of the 
 
 New Testament.”’ Encyclopedia Britannica, 3 : 872-878. 
 
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APPENDIX 
 
 I 
 REFERENCE BOOKS 
 
 Peake, A. 8., A Critical Introduction to the New Testament. New 
 York: Scribners, 1911. 
 
 Goodspeed, The Story of the New Testament. Chicago: The Uni- 
 versity of Chicago Press, 1916. 
 
 Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, in one volume. New York: 
 Scribners, 1909. 
 Soden, H. Von, The History of Early Christian Literature: The 
 Writings of the New Testament. New York: Putnam, 1906. 
 vat ARE The Origin of the New Testament. New York: Har- 
 per, 1909. 
 
 Burton, E. D., Short Introduction to the Gospels. Chicago: The 
 University of Chicago Press, 1904. 
 
 Stevens and Burton, A Harmony of the Gospels. New York: 
 Seribners, 1904. 
 
 Hunting, The Story of Our Bible. New York: Scribners, 1915. 
 
 Encyclopedia Britannica. In this there is a good article on each 
 Biblical book. 
 
 Smyth, J. P., The Story of St. Paul’s Life and Letters. New 
 York: James Pott, 1917. 
 
 Kent, C. F., The Work and Teachings of the Apostles. New York: 
 Scribners, 1916. 
 
 Rauschenbusch, The Social Principles of Jesus. New York: 
 Association Press, 1917. 
 
 Gilbert, A Short History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age. 
 Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1907. 
 
 Bra A. B., The Parabolic Teaching of Christ. New York: 
 
 oran. 
 
 Miller, E. R., The Dramatization of Bible Stories. Chicago: The 
 University of Chicago Press, 1918. 
 
 Ropes, J. H., Critical Commentary on the Epistle of St. James. 
 New York: Scribners, 1916. 
 
 Box, G. H., New Century Bible on St. Matthew. Edinburgh: Ox- 
 ford University Press, 1922. 
 
 Bartlet, J. V., New Century Bible on St. Mark. Edinburgh: Ox- 
 ford University Press, 1922 
 
 181 
 
182 APPENDIX 
 
 Adeney, W. F., New Century Bible on St. Luke. Edinburgh: Ox- 
 ford University Press, 1922. 
 
 Horton, R. F., The Cartoons of Mark. New York: Revell, 1894. 
 
 Barton, G. A., Jesus of Nazareth. New York: Macmillan, 1922. 
 
 Scott, E. F., The Ethical Teachings of Jesus. New York: Mac- 
 millan, 1924. 
 
 Scott, E. F., The Historical and Religious Value of the Fourth Gos- 
 pel. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1909. 
 
 Gilbert, G. H., Acts. (The Bible for Home and School.) New York: 
 Macmillan, 1908. 
 
 Porter, F. C., Messages of the Apocalyptic Writers. New York: 
 Scribners, 1905. 
 
 Goodspeed, E. J., Hebrews. (The Bible for Home and School.) 
 New York: Macmillan, 1908. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS 
 
 Abraham, 146 
 
 Acts, 111-115 
 
 sop, 91 
 
 Africa, 170 
 
 Allen, J. L., 54 
 
 Andrew, 3 
 
 Antioch, 22 
 
 Antonia, Castle of, 44 
 Apocalypse, 116 
 
 Apocalyptic expectation, 161 
 Apollo, 31 
 
 Arabian Nights, 91 
 
 Arabic Tale of the Merchant, 91 
 Aramaic, 2, 7, 8, 75 
 
 Armor, 48 
 
 Art, 105 
 
 Assumption of Moses, 121, 176 
 Athens, 53 
 
 Babylon (Rome), 119 
 Baptism, 69 
 
 Barnabas, 62 
 
 Barton, G. A., 11 
 
 Beast (of Revelation), 119 
 Beauty, Religious value of, 109 
 Beethoven, 164 
 Benedictus, 107 
 
 Bithynia, 130, 131 
 Brown, C. R., 80 
 Browning, Robert, 52 
 Bruce, A. B., 92 
 
 Burkitt, F. G., 66 
 
 Cable, G. W., 136 
 Czsarea, 44, 140, 141 
 
 hoon of New Testament, 176, 
 9 
 
 Capernaum, 69 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 117 
 Catacomb, 69 
 
 Choir Invisible, 54 
 
 Christ, the living, 160 
 Cicero, 2 
 
 Clement of ca 125, 126 
 Coleridge, S. T., 
 
 Colossee, 145 
 
 Colossians, 46 
 
 Comforter, the, 161 
 Constantine, 174 
 
 Corinth, 33, 34 
 Corinthians, I, 28-35 
 Corinthians, I, 34-38 
 Cornelius, 111 
 
 Creeds, 175 
 
 Cyprus, 62 
 
 Damascus, 52 
 
 Daniel, 120 
 
 De Quincey, Thomas, 92 
 
 Diatribe, 138, 139 
 
 Dickens, Charles, 89 
 
 Divinity in man, 163 
 
 Docetism, 166 
 
 Domitian, 166 
 
 Domitilla, 124 
 
 ape of Fourth Gospel, 152- 
 
 Drama of Revelation, 119, 120 
 
 Dramatization of Bible Stories, 
 108, 109 
 
 183 
 
184 
 
 Drummond, Henry, 46, 170 
 Dryden, 14 
 
 Ecclesiastes, 136, 138 
 
 Eliot, George, 103 
 
 Enoch, Book of, 121, 133, 176, 
 177 
 
 Epaphroditus, 51 — 
 
 Epaphros, 46 
 
 Ephesians, Letter to the, 47, 48 
 
 Ephesus, 144, 166, 167, 174 
 
 Eternal Goodness, 37 
 
 Eternal life, 147, 150 
 
 Eusebius, 98, 138, 176 
 
 Ezekiel, 121 
 
 ioe sia in the church, 30, 31, 
 
 171 
 
 Faith, usage of, 100, 172, 173, 
 178 
 
 Faust, 41 
 
 Flavius Clemens, 124 
 
 Fourth Gospel, 141-164 
 
 Fra, Angelico, 106 
 
 Galahad, 48 
 
 Galatians, 22-27 
 Gamaliel, 114 
 
 Gardiner, 32 
 
 Gentiles, 44 
 
 Gethsemane, 60, 63 
 Gloria in Excelsis, 107 
 Gnosticism, 166, 171 
 Goethe, 41 
 
 Good Samaritan, 108, 109 
 Goodspeed, E. J., 123, 131, 174 
 Gosse, Edmund, 123 
 Grace, usage of, 100 
 
 Handel’s Messiah, 164 
 
 Harte, Bret, 108 
 
 Hawthorne, N., 134 
 
 Hay, John, 170 
 
 Hearn, Lafcadio, 116 
 Hebrews, Book of, 123 
 Heresy, 143, 144, 169, 173, 174 
 Herod, 101 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Herod Antipas, 70 
 
 Herodians, 70 
 
 Hillis, N. D., 89 
 
 Hoffmann, 106 
 
 Holtzmann, 169 
 
 Holy Fire, 3 
 
 Holy Night, 107 
 
 Holy Spirit, usage of, 100, 161 
 Homer, 2 
 
 Hope, 129, 134 
 
 Horace, 2 
 
 Horns of Hattin, 83 
 
 Horton, R. F., 35, 111, 159, 168 
 Hunt, Holman, 59, 106 
 Hunting, H. B., 60, 68, 160, 161 
 
 Irenzeus, 131 
 Italy, 124 
 
 Jacks, L. P., 162 
 
 James, 4 
 
 James, Book of, 186-142 
 
 Jerome, 138 
 
 Jerusalem, 44, 53, 55, 162 
 
 Jewish - Alexandrian _ philoso- 
 phy, 126 
 
 Jews, 105 
 
 John the Baptist, 69, 146 
 
 John the beloved disciple, 145 
 
 John, the Guspel of, 141-164 
 
 John, the Letters of, 166-171 
 
 John the Presbyter or Elder, 
 117, 145, 167, 169 
 
 Judaism, 126, 174 
 
 Jude, 121 
 
 Jude, Bock of, 176-179 
 
 Kean, Edmund, 89 
 
 Kent, C. F., 104, 171 
 King, H. C., 79 
 
 Kingdom of God, 146, 148 
 
 Lamb of God, 146 
 Law of Moses, 24, 173 
 Legend Beautiful, 26 
 Lerolle, 106 
 Letter-writing, 18 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Lewis, F. G., 34 
 
 Life in a Love, 52 
 
 Livingstone, David, 170 
 
 Logia, 8 
 
 Logos, 145, 146, 162 
 
 Longfellow, H. W., 26 
 
 Lord’s Prayer, 9, 81 
 
 Lost Radiance of the Christian 
 Religion, 162, 163 
 
 Lost Sheep, 93 
 
 Love, 32, 86, 87, 168, 170 
 
 Luck of Roaring Camp, 108 
 
 Luke, Gospel of, 57, 96 
 
 Luke the Greek Physician, 96, 
 97, 98, 105 
 
 Luke’s Diary, 113 
 
 Luther, Martin, 139 
 
 Lydia, 36 
 
 Maclaren, Jan, 79 
 Magnificat, 107 
 
 Mark, Gospel of, 56, 66, 68 
 Mark, John, 12, 13, 15, 60, 61 
 Martin, G. C., 159 
 
 Mass in D Major, 164 
 Matthew, Apostle, 7, 8 
 Matthew, Gospel of, 56, 73 
 Messiah, 2, 119, 145, 146, 152 
 Miller, EK. R., 108 
 Mohammedan Bible, 31 
 Moulton, R. G., 80 
 
 Mustard seed, 93 
 
 Napoleon, 164 
 
 Neesima, Joseph, 159 
 Nero, 124, 125 
 Nicodemus, 146, 150, 153 
 Noah, 133 
 
 Nunc Dimittis, 107 
 
 O Little Town of Bethlehem, 107 
 Onesimus, 45 
 
 Outcasts of Poker Flat, 108 
 Oxyrhynchus, 6 
 
 Papias, 4, 8, 12, 63 
 Papyrus, 6 
 
 185 
 
 Parables, 76, 89-94 
 Parthenon, 53 
 
 Passion Week, 57 
 
 Patmos, 117 
 
 pi 17, 18, 24, 28, 39, 60, 61, 
 
 Pentecost, 114 
 
 Perean Ministry, 57 
 
 Peter, 3, 4, 15, 114, 157 
 Peter, I, Book of, 129-134 
 Peter, II, Book of, 176-179 
 Pharisees, 70 
 
 Phidias, 89 
 
 Philemon, Letter to, 45 
 Philippi, 36, 97 
 Philippians, Letter to the, 50 
 Philo, 126 
 
 Plato, 2, 17 
 
 Pliny, 131, 182, 174 
 Prayer, 102, 103 
 
 Priscilla, 29, 69 
 
 Prodigal Son, 89, 91, 92 
 Proverbs, 138 
 
 Psalms of Solomon, 177 
 Pudens, 69 
 
 Purgatory, 134 
 
 Rabbi Ben Ezra, 85 
 
 Rauschenbusch, Walter, 25 
 
 Renan, Ernest, 113 
 
 Return of Christ, 160, 161, 178 
 
 Revelation, Book of, 116-122 
 
 Roman Catholic Christianity, 
 69 
 
 Romans, Letter to the, 39-43 
 
 Rome, 138, 112 
 
 Ropes, J. H., 139 
 
 Rossetti, 106 
 
 Ruskin, John, 63, 117 
 
 Sadducees, 70 
 
 Sardinia, 124 
 
 Scott, E. F., 148, 159 
 
 Sea of Galilee, 82 
 
 Septuagint, 1, 2 
 
 Sermon on the Mount, 42, 48, 
 76, 79-88 
 
186 
 
 Silas, 97 
 
 Simeon, 99 
 
 Singon Street, 73 
 
 Smith, G. A., 87 
 
 Smyrna, 117 
 
 Smyth, J. P., 54 
 
 Socrates, 17 
 
 Son of God, 147, 148, 150, 151 
 Sower, Parable of, 93 
 
 Spain, 39 
 
 Spirit of truth, 161 
 
 Stephen, 111, 114 
 
 Stones of Venice, 63, 64 
 Stories of Luke, 107 
 Stradivarius, 103 
 
 Synoptic Gospels, 57, 147, 148 
 
 Tares, Parable of, 93 
 
 Tarsus, University of, 96 
 Tennyson, Alfred, 86 
 
 Tertius, 19 
 
 Theophilus, 96, 113 
 Theosophy, 174 
 Thessalonians, I and II, 19, 20 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Tiberias, 101 
 
 Timothy, 97, 124: 
 
 Timothy, Letters to, 172-175 
 Titus, 36 
 
 Titus, Letter to, 172-175 
 Toiling of Felix, 6 
 
 Trajan, 132 
 
 Troas, 97 
 
 Tychicus, 47 
 
 Van Dyke, Henry, 6 
 
 Venice, 63 
 
 Virgil, 2 
 
 Virgin Mary, 105 
 
 gous Soden, Hermann, 36, 53, 
 51 
 
 ‘Votaw, C. W., 79 
 
 Whittier, J. G., 37 
 Wild, Laura, 23 
 Wisdom sayings, 81 
 Word (Logos), 145, 146 
 
 Zion, 53 
 

 
Date Due 
 
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