^%i OF fmcj^^ i£^0GICAL8t' THE BIBLE HAND-BOOK THE BIBLE HAND-BOOK AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF SACRED SCRIPTURE by/the lat JOSEPH^NGUS, A NEW EDITION, THOROUGHLY REVISED AND IN PART RE-WRITTEN BY SAMUEL G. GREEN, D.D. AUTHOR OF 'HANDBOOK TO THE GRAMMAR OF THE GREEK TESTAMENT ' HANDBOOK OF CHURCH HISTORY.' ETC. ETC. FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY NEW YORK, CHICAGO, TORONTO The Editor of the present Volume desires to acknowledge much valuable assistance received in its preparation ; especially/ from Prof S. W. Green, M.A., Eegenfs Park College, University of London, and the late Bev. W. H. Beckett, of Chelmsford, PREFACE 1% yrORE than a half-century has passed since the pub- -^-^ lication, in 1853, of Dr. Angus's Bible Handbook. The discoveries and research of the intervening years have furthered our knowledge of the Bible in a degree perhaps unequalled by any previous period, and the results have appeared in a wealth of literature accessible to the English student. For some years before his death in 1902 it had been the intention of Dr. Angus himself to undertake a new edition of his work, a desire accentuated by his own share in the Revised Version of the Nev\" Testament issued in 1881. That the task has fallen into other hands must inevitably mean loss, especially in unity of treatment. But it is believed that the Handbooh still holds unchal- lenged the place it has made for itself among aids to the interpretation of the Scriptures, by the bold compre- hensiveness of its plan, carried out with rare combination of scholarship and profound reverence for the Bible as the inspired and authoritative Word of God. In this reissue the original plan has been retained, with some rearrangement, substantially unaltered. The matter of the book liowever has been freely dealt with. While large portions most characteristic of the author's vi PREFACE standpoint and purpose have been kept, with but slight revision, much else has been rewritten or added in view of later scholarship, and much omitted under necessities of space. The book is, therefore, a combination of old and new, and here and there the seams may possibly be apparent. Yet it is hoped that even students of the old Handbook will welcome the new, and that after more than fifty years of usefulness it may, in spite of the in- evitable limitations under which this revision has been conducted, fulfil still more amply the aim stated in the original Preface, ^ to teach men to understand and appre- ciate The Bible.' CONTENTS PART I THE BIBLE AS A BOOK Chapter I PAOK Introductory 3 §§ 1-3 Claims of the Bible ; Spirit in which to study it. 4-8 Its Titles : Bible, Scriptures, Testaments, Old Testament, Law and Prophets. 9 The Canon of Scripture. 10 Extra- Canonical Books : the Old Testament Apocrypha. Chapter II The Old Testament : Language, Canon, Trans* mission. Versions 12 §§ 11 External features. 12-18 Hebrew : the Language of Canaan. Aramaic admixture. Cognates : Arabic, Ethiopic. 19 Importance of Cognate Languages. 20 History of the Hebrew. 21, 22 History of the Old Testament Canon, General Considerations. 23, 24 The Canon in Christian and pre-Christian times. 25, 26 Transmission of the Text ; Fidelity in copying. 27 The pre-Massoretic Text, 28-32 Versions of the Old Testament : TheTargums ; Samaritan Pentateuch ; Septuagint, and other Greek Versions (Origen's Hexapla) ; Old Latin and Jerome's Vulgate ; Syriac (the Feshitta), Ethiopic, Coptic, Gothic, Armenian, &c. 33 Preservation of the Original Text. Chapter III The New Testament 36 §§34 General View. 35-37 Gradual Formation of the Canon ; the Gospels ; the Epistles of Paul ; the remaining Books. 38 Early Catalogues. 39, 40 Language of the viii CONTENTS PAOS New Testament : Hellenistic Greek ; a mixture of Dialects. 41, 42 Manuscripts : Uncial and Cursive. 42 Threefold Division of the New Testament. 43, 44 Enumeration of MSS. : Uncial, Cursive. " 45 Lectionaries. 46, 47 Ancient Versions : Syriac, Armenian, Coptic ; Old Latin, Vulgate. 48, 49 Early Quotations : Ecclesiastical Witnesses. 50-54 Editions of the Text : Textus Receptus ; Critical Editions ; Pleas for the Traditional Text ; Editions for the General Reader. Chapter IV On the Text of the Old and New Testaments . 66 §§55 Twofold Method of Criticism. 56 External Testimony to the Text. 57-59 Textual Variations : Accidental Errors ; Intentional Changes; the Text not materially affected. 60-64 Principles and Rules of Criticism : External Evidence ; Internal Evidence ; Application of Critical Canons (to i Jn 5*^ and other passages). Chapter V The Credentials and Claims of the Bible . . 85 §§ 65, 66 The Claims of the Scriptures themselves ; the Mission of our Lord, of the Apostles, of Paul ; the Apostolic Writings generally ; Testimony of the New Testament to the Old. 67 Genuineness involves Authenticity. 68 Evidence Classified ; Syllabus. 69-71 External Evidence : I. Miracle (Exploded Objections) ; the Evangelic Testimony ; Meaning of Miracles. 72, 73 II. Prophecy : its Nature and Fulfilment. 74-78 Internal Evidence : Morality of the Bible ; Comparison with human ethical systems ; the Character of our Lord ; of Christians ; the Harmonies of Revelation. 79 Spiritual Evidence : Experimental. 80, 81 Summary of the Evidence ; universally accessible ; Hindrances to its reception. Chapter VI Inspiration and Revelation 116 §§ 82 The Bible as Inspired: the Divine Word. 83,84 Method of Inspiration ; Theory of the Reformers. 85 Divine and Human Elements in Scripture. 86 DiflSculties. 87 The Bible as Revelation. 88 Harmony between Natural and Revealed Religion. 89, 90 Meaning of Revelation ; Written Revelation. 01-05 Method of Revelation : its matter Religious Truth ; its course gradual and progressive ; Relation of Prophecy CONTENTS PAGE. to Practice ; Unity of Revelation ; manifest in Diversity. 96 Essential things in Revelation. 97-99 Its unsystematic character ; fitting it for every country and age : Character above System. 100, lOi Revelation authoritative ; the Seat of Authority in religion. Chapter VII The Bible as Translated 147 §§ 102 Latin Versions. 103, 104 The German Bible and Versions founded thereon. 105 French translations. 106 Versions in other European Languages. 107 Versions by Missionaries. 108 The English Biele. 109 Early Versions. 110 The Wyclif Bible. Ill Tindale's Versioia and others. 112 The Authorized Version. 113 Proposals for Revision. 114 The Revised Version. 115 English Translations compared with the Original ; Different classes of E.MENDATION illustrated. 116 Archaic and obsolete words and phrases, with List. 117-119 Special features of the English Versions: (i) the use of italics, (2) the Marg'n, {3) Summaries of Chapters (in A. V.) ; Titles of the Psalms (from Heb.) ; Subscrip- tions to the Epistles ; Chapters, Verses, and Paragraplis. Chapter VIII On the Interpretation of Scripture.— I . , . 176 §§ 120, 121 Importance of the Study ; Mental and spiritual prerequisites. 122-130 Rules of Interpretation : (i) Inter- pret grammatically, (2) according to the context, (3) according to the scope or design of the book, (4) by comparison of Scrip- ture with Scripture. 131-133 Helps from the Original Scriptures ; Etymology ; Grammatical peculir.rities. 134-138 Interpretation of Figurative Language ; Classification of Figures ; Definitions ; Laws of Symbolic Language. 139-141 Allegory, Type, and Parable. 142-151 Prophecy and its Interpreta- tion ; Succession of Prophets in Israel ; Nature of the Prophetic Gift ; History, Type, Prediction ; Specialities of Prophetic Lan- guage ; Principle of Interpreting Prophecy ; New Testament Applications; Various Interpretations of Expositors. 152-157 Quotations of the Old Testament in the New ; Sources of Quota- tions ; LXX and Hebrew ; Beaiings of Quotations upon Doctrine ;. Old Testament foreshadowings of the Gospel. 158-166 Scrip- ture Difficulties: to be expected ; Difficult phrases, passages, allusions ; Apparent discrepancies ; Alleged contradictions to Secular History ; Summary of Difficulties in the Revelatiui> itself, and in Doctrine ; how to be settled. CONTENTS Chapter IX PAOB On the Interpretation of Scripture.— 11. On the Use of External Helps 276 §§ 167-177 Geography: Bible Lands; Palestine; Names, Boundaries, Divisions ; Jerusalem ; the Highland region ; the Jordan Valley ; Transjordanic Country ; Inhabitants of Canaan, earlier and later ; Climate ; Applications of Geographical Facts ; Modern local names (Arabic). 178-182 Historv: (i) Egypt, the Hyksos ; the Oppression ; the Exodus ; Subsequent relations with Egypt ; Palestine between great empires. 183 (2) Moab, relations with Israel. 184 (3) Phoenicia, relations with Israel. 185 (4) Syria and Hamath : Petty northern states. 186 (5) The HiTTiTES, a great forgotten empire. 187-190 (6) Assyria. Kings mentioned in Old Testament : Tiglath-pileser, Jargon, Sennacherib. 191,192 (7) Babylon: Second Baby- lonian Empire ; Narrative in Daniel. 193 New Testament and ■Contemporary History. 194 Historical illustrations of Bible passages ; Light from heathen religions. 195-200 Chronology : Old Testament period, in six divisions. 201 Chronological Eras of different nations. 202 New Testament Chronology. 203 Incidental Lessons of Chronology. 204, 205 Natural History : the Vegetable World ; the Animal Kingdom. 206- 210 Manners and Customs : Habitations ; Cities and Towns ; Dress ; Food ; Taxation and Tribute. 211-214 Modes of Reckoning : Linear Measure ; Measures of Capacity ; Weights and Coins ; Lessons of the Tables. 215-217 Reckoning of Time: the Day; the Year; the Jewish Calendar (Table); the Seasons as a Note of Time. 218 Miscellaneous Customs. Chapter X On the Study of the Scriptures in Relation to Doctrine and to Life 358 §§ 219 Great Purposes of Bible Study. 220-223 System in Doctrine : Method of Investigation ; Relative Importance of Truths; Rules and their Application. 224-228 The Guidance OF Life : Doctrine and Practice ; Moral and Positive Precepts ; Example a Guide to Conduct ; Promises and their Application ; Conditions of Scripture Promises. CONTENTS xi PART II THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE Chapter XI PAGE introductory 381 §§ 229 Recapitulation. 230 The two parts of Scripture. 231 Use of the respective Testaments. 232 Summary of the whole. 233 True Place of the Old Testament. 234 Classi- fication of Old Testament Books. Chapter XII The Pentateuch : Its Genuineness, Unity, and Authenticity 387 §§ 235 The Five Books. 236 Genuineness : Difficulties at the Outset ; how met. 237 Moses the author. 238-240 Unity : the Mosaic Origin ; Critical Theories ; the Proposed Reconstruction criticized. 241 Authenticpty : Truth of the record. 242-245 The Separate Books : Genesis, Divisions, and New Testament references. 246, 247 Exodus, and New Testa- ment references. 248, 249 Leviticus, and New Testament references. 250, 251 Numbers, and New Testament references. 252, 253 Deuteronomy: its variations from preceding books, and New Testament references. 254 Design of the Law : Hypo- thetical and actual methods of Revelation. 255, 256 Theo- cracy : the Sanctuary and Priesthood. 257, 258 Sacrifices : their Material, Method, "Varieties, and Significance. 259 Festivals : their Threefold significance ; Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles. Fasts : the Day of Atonement. The Sabbatic Year ; the Jubilee. Objects of the Festivals. Chapter XIII Historical Books: From the Entrance into Canaan to the Death of Solomon .... 434 §§ 260-263 Historical Books enumerated : their Inspiration. Characteristics of Bible History. Divisions of the History. 264-267 Book of Joshua : his name and career ; Main divisions of the Book ; Fulfilment of the Divine Purposes ; New Testa- ment references. 268-270 Book of Judges : Authorship ; Outline ; New Testament references. 271-273 Book of Ruth : its design ; Outline and lessons ; New Testament reference xii CONTENTS rAQE 274-284 Books of Samuel: General View ; Book I, clis. i-8, Eli and Samuel; Book I, clis. 9-31, Designation of Saul as King; Saul and David; Book II, David king in Jei-usalein ; his thanksgiving and last words ; References in the Psalms and in the New Testament ; Revival of the Prophetic Spirit in Samuel and David. 285-287 Books of Kings: General View; Com- parison with Chronicles ; Theocratic character of the History. 288 Death of David and Accession of Solomon. 289-292 Books of Chronicles : General View ; Comparison with Samuel and Kings; Books I-II. 9, Outline; Note on the Reigns of David and Solomon. Chapter XIV Historical and Prophetical Books : From the Death of Solomon to the Babylonian Captivity . 467 §§ 293 Division of the Kingdom. 294, 295 The Northern Kingdom : its successive dynasties and history ; Alliance with heathen powers ; Subjugation by Assyria (origin of Samaritans). 296-298 Kingdom of Judah : Outlines; External Dangers, specially from Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon ; tlie Captivity. 299, 300 References to the History in the Psalms, and to Kings and Chronicles in New Testament. 301-304 Prophets of this Period ; Chart of the Prophets. 302 Revival of the Prophetic spirit. 303 General Lessons of Prophecy. 304 Prophets in two gro\ips ; the Assyrian period. 305-307 The Book of Jonah : an Israelite prophet ; Outline and spiritual lessons. 308-310 The Book of Amos : Sent from Judah to Israel ; Outline ; New Testament references. 311 The Book of HosEA : a prophet of Israel. 312-314 Personal history of Hosea ; its application ; New Testament references. 315-317 Book of Joel : a prophet in Jerusalem ; Outline ; Joel and Amos ; New Testament references. 318-320 Book of Isaiaii : his Personal History ; the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel in his time ; his earlier propliecies. 321-325 Later prophecies ;. their Date and Authorship: the 'Servant of Jehovah'; the Evangelical Prophet ; New Testament quotations. 326-328 Book of Micah : his personality and prophecies ; New Testament quotations. 329-331 Book of N ahum: his personal history and prophecies ; New Testament reference. Prophets of the Chaldiean. period. 332 Book of Zephaniah. 333, 334 His prophecies, and New Testament references, 335-337 Book of Habakkuk : liis times and prophecies ; New Testament references. 338,330 Book of Jeremiah : his personal history and prophetic con- temporaries. 340,341 Arrangement of Jeremiah's discourses; New Testament quotations and references. 342 Book of Lamentations. 343 Book of Ezekiel : his position and history. 344, 345 His prophecies and New Testament references. 346, 347 Book of Obadiah : his prophecies. CONTENTS xiii PAGE Chapter XV Historical and Prophetical Books : From the Babylonian Captivity to the Close of the Old Testament Canon 528 §§ 348, 349 The Captivity and its Duration. 350 Events in Judaea. 351 Life in Babylonia. 352 Literature of the Period. 353, S54 Book of Daniel : his personal liistory, and Outline of the Book. £55 Parallels to Daniel in the Apoca- lypse. 350 The Restoration, according to tlie decree of Cyrus. 357-360 Book of Ezra : Contents ; Connexion with prophecy ; Tr;iditions respecting J'zra ; the * Great Synagogue.' 361, 3&2 Bock of Nehejiiah : Authorship and Contents. 363, 364 Book of Esther : Jews in foreign lands ; an episode in the history ; Lo-sons ; the Fen st ofPurira, 365-367 Book of Haggai : its Period and Contents ; New Testament reference. 368, 369 Book of Zechariah : its Contents ; Divisions of the Book ; 1 heories ; New Testament references. 370-372 Book of Malachi : Name and ministry of the prophet ; Contents ; New Testament references. Contents of the Prophetical Books in chronological order : Table, pp. 556, 557. Chapter XVI Poetical Books and 'Wisdom-Literature' . . 558 §§ 373-375 Characteristics of Hebrew Poetry; Parallelism and its Varieties. 376-381 Book of Job : its Title, Subject, Age, Contents ; Comparison with other Old Testament Books ; References in New Testament. 382-385 Book of Psalms ; Title ; Arrangement (the Five Books) ; Authorship, and Value. 386- £89 Titles of the Psalms ; their Historical Circumstances ; their Character and Contents ; the later Psalms. 390-392 Classi- li cation and approximate chronological arrangement ; New Testament quotations and references. 393, 394 Wisdom- Literature of the Old Testament ; Solomon and his followers. S95-397 Book of Proverbs : Contents ; Outline ; their applica- tion illustrated. 398, 399 Book of Ecclesiastes : Title, Age, Authorship, and Design. 400-403 The SoNO op Songs (Canticles): Authorsliip and Cnnonicity; Personages of the poem ; Scenes and dialogue ; Dififerent interpretations (the Shepherd-Lover, Wedding-songs) ; Allegorical use of the poem. Chapter XVII Jewish History from Malachi to John the Baptist 597 §5 404 The Successive Periods. 405 The Persian Rule : its duration and character. 406 Rise of Samaritan worship. xiv CONTENTS PAGl 407 Persia and Egypt. 408 Alexander and his successors. 409 Egyptian Rule ; the Ptolemies. 410 Syrian Rule ; Antiochus Epiphanes. 411, 412 The Maccabaean uprising ; Reconsecration of the Temple. 413 The Jews in Egypt. 414 Palestine under Maccabaean rule ; the Brothers. 415 Hyrcanus I ; Line of Priest-Kings. 416 Intervention of Rome. 417 Genealogical Table of Priest-Kings ; the High- Priests. 418 Supremacy of Rome ; Herod the Great. 419 Governors of Judaea ; Table of the Herodian Family. 420 Moral and Religious History ; Adhesion to Mosaism. 421 The Septuagint. 422 Apocryphal Books. 423-425 Jewish Sects : Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes. 426-428 Tradition : the Talmud, Massora, Kabbalah. 429 The Scribes. 430 Synagogues. 431 The Sanhedrin. 432 Zealots, Herodians, Proselytes. 433 The Samaritans : their Pentateuch and Worship. Chapter XVIII The New Testament : the Gospels . . . 627 §§ 434, 435 Meaning of Gospel' ; The Four Gospels. 436- 439 The Synoptic Problem ; Sources of the first three Gospels ; Use of Mark and * Logia ' by Matthew and Luke ; Luke's Prologue. 440 Table of Early Witnesses to the Gospels. 441-446 Gospel according to Mark: its Author; his personal history ; Date and Integrity of the Gospel (the last twelve verses) ; Contents and Characteristics. 447-449 Gospel according to Matthew : Author; Genuineness; Integrity ; Date ; Contents ; Characteristics. 450-452 Gospel according to Luke : Author ; Genuineness ; Integrity ; Date ; Contents ; Characteristics. 453 Details peculiar to Luke. 454-456 Gospel according to John : his personality ; Relationship to Jesus ; his place in the Apostolic history. 457-459 Genuine- ness of this Gospel ; External testimony ; Internal evidence ; Objections and Difficulties considered. 460-462 Integrity of this Gospel ; Date ; Summary of contents. 463 Details peculiar to John (Note on works advocating the Genviineness and Authority of the Fourth Gospel). 464, 465 Tables of Parables and Miracles recorded in the several Gospels. Chapter XIX The Acts of the Apostles 667 §§ 466 Title and Plan of the Book ; its relation to the Gcspels. 467-470 Author, Date, Historical Value. 471 Objections and Difficulties considered. 472, 473 Its Contents and Chronology. CONTENTS Chapter XX XY PAOK The Epistles 6^^ §§ 475 Purpose of the Epistles, and rules for studying them. 476 Reception of the Epistles in the Church (Table). 477- 479 I Thessalonians : Thessalonica ; Paul's labours there ; Con- tents of the Epistle : Key- words and notable expressions. 480- 482 2 Thessalonians : Object of the Epistle ; its contents and special teachings. 483-485 i Corinthians : Corinth ; its Position and Character ; the Church there founded ; Time and place of writing the Epistle ; Special questions considered ; Place of the Epistle in the series. 486-488 2 Corinthians : Occa- sion of the Epistle ; Contents and general lessons ; Key-words and peculiar expressions. 489-492 Galatians : Position and Extent of the Province ; Occasion and tenor of the Epistle ; Con- tents; Key-words and peculiar expressions. 493-496 Romans: Jewish, Gentile, and Christian Communities in Rome ; Date of the Epistle ; Contents (detailed analysis) ; Key-wordsand expressions. 497-499 The Prison Epistles : 'Ephesians' : to whom addressed; Character and contents of the Epistle ; Key-words and charac- teristic expressions. 500-503 Colossians : the city of Colossae y Place and time of writing the Epistle (comparison with ' Ephe- sians') ; Contents; Key-words and phrases. 504,505 Phile- mon : a private letter ; subject, contents, and characteristics ;. Key- words and phrases. 506-509 Philippians : Introduction of the Gospel to Europe ; Place and time of writing ; Character of the Church at Philippi ; Contents of the Epistle ; Key-words and phrases. 510-512 The three Pastoral Epistles : their characteristics. i Timothy : Training and character of Timothy ; Date of the Epistle. 513, 514 Its purpose and con- tents ; Views of the Christian Ministry ; Key-words and memor- able sayings. 515-518 Titus : Notices of his life ; the Gospel in Crete; Contents of the Epistle ; Key-words and special phrases. 519-521 2 Timothy : When and where written ; its purpose and contents; Key-words and special allusions. 522,523 Hebrews: occasion and object of the Epistle ; Time and place of writing. 524 Authorship of the Epistle ; Various views. 525 To whom addressed. 526, 527 Outline; Characteristic words and special passages. 528 The Seven Catholic Epistles. 529-531 James : writer of the Epistle ; Contents ; Key- words and unusual expres- sions. 532-535 I Peter : the writer's history (his alleged- residence in Rome) ; Destination, character, ar.d contents of the Epistle ; Leading ideas and peculiar expressions. 536- 538 2 Peter : Destination and purpose of the Epistle ; Question of its authenticity ; Special words and phrases. 539-541 Jude : his personality ; Purport, contents, and date of the Epistle ;. Peculiar expressions and allusions. 542-544 i John : Char- acter and destination of the Epistle ; Errors denounced ; Truths- enforced ; Leading words and phrases. 545, 546 2 John : Letter to a Christian lady ; its main topics and language^ xvi CONTENTS PAOB 547, 548 3 John : a Letter to one Gaiua ; Characteristic words (Insight into the character of the Church at the close of first century). Chapter XXI The Revelation of John 758 §§ 549 Place and date of writing (the word Apocalypse). 550 Character of the Book. 551, 552 Contents, in two main divisions ; Sevenfold arrangement. 553 Various Interpreta- tions of the Visions ; the 'Praeterist,' 'Historical' or 'Continuous,' '■ Futurist/ and ' Ideal.' 554 Distinct and Certain Prophecies; * Babylon' and the ' Heavenly Jerusalem.' 555 Peculiar words and phrases in the Apocalypse ; Conclusioa. APPENDICES Appendix I. Chronology of the Bible, with Contemporary Annals ; Old Testament History ; Interval between the Old and New Testaments ; New Testament History .... •n'j-2 Appendix II. Natural Hlstory of the Bible : the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms ; Minerals •rpg ALPHABETICAL INDEX , , . . 815 Part j the bible as a book Its Characteristics, Literary History, and Interpretation *I use the Scriptures not as an arsenal to be resorted to only for arms and weapons . . . but as a matchless temple, where I delight to contemplate the beauty, the symmetry, and the magnificence of the structure ; and to increase my awe and excite my devotion to the Deity there preached and adored.'— Boyle : On the Shjle of Scripture, 3rd obj. 8. * Scarcely can we fix our eyes upon a single passage in this wonderful book which has not afforded comfort or instruction to thousands, and been met with tears of penitential sorrow or grateful joy drawn from eyes that will weep no more.' — Payson : The Bible above all Price. 'This lamp, from off the everlasting throne, Mercy took down, and in the night of time Stood, casting on the dark her gracious bow, And evermore beseeching ruHn with tears And earnest sighs, to hear, believe, and live.'— Pollok CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY 1. The Claims of the Bible. — Even as a literary com- position, the sacred Scriptures form the most remarkable book the world has ever seen. They are of high antiquity. They contain a record of events of the deepest interest. The history of their influence is the history of civilization. The wisest and best of mankind have borne witness to their power as an instrument of enlightenment and of holiness ; and having been prepared by men who * spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost '\' to reveal ' the only true God and Him Whom He did send, even Jesus Christ b,' they have on this ground the strongest claims upon our attentive and reverential regard. The use of a handbook of Scripture requires one or two cautions, which both writer and readers need to keep before them. 2. First, we are not to contemplate this glorious fabric of Divine truth as spectators only. It is not our business to stand before Scripture and admire it : but to stand within, that we may believe and obey it. In the way of inward communion and obedience only shall we see the beauty of its treasures. It yields them to none but the loving and the humble. We must enter and unite ourselves with that which we would know, before we can know it more than in name °. • a Pet i2i R. V. * Jn 17S R. V. • Pr a^-* .In f\ B 2 4 INTRODUCTORY 3. Secondly, the study of a help to Scripture must not be confounded with the study of Scripture itself. Such helps may teach us to look at truth so as to see its position and proportions, but it is the entrance of truth alone v/hich gives light. The road we are about to travel may prove attractive and pleasing, but its great attraction is its end. It leads to the 'wells of salvation.' To suppose that the journey, or the sighi of the living water — perhaps, even of the place whence it springs — will quench our thirst, is to betray most mournful self-deceit or the profoundest ignorance. Our aim — ' the sabbath and port of our labours ' — is to make more clear and impressive the Book of God, 'the god of books,' as it has been called, the Bible itself. 4. Titles. — The names by which this volume is desig- nated are The Bible or The Sckiptures : it is divided into The Old Testament and The New Testament, while the Old Testament or parts of it are referred to in the New as The Law or The Law and the Prophets. 5. Bible. — The term Bible, hook, is one which affirms two things, unity and pre-eminence. We use it as a singu- lar, ' Book ' not ' Books,' and without any distinguishing adjective. The Bible is one book, and in a sense is the only book. The appropriateness of such a title can hardly be questioned : this conception of oneness through all its parts, of unity amid diversity, has been endorsed by the Christian consciousness and has had far-reaching influence. It is curious that this title should have been due in part to a mistake. ' Bible' is the English form of the name given to the Latin Scriptures, Biblia. This also is a singular, but, in turn, it is the Latin form of the Greek word Pi^Kia, which is not singular, but the plural of (Si^Kiov, book, a diminutive of fii^Xa, a name given to the outer coat of the papyrus reed. This was stripped off and glued together to form writing material : thus, by transference from material to the use made of it, tii^Kos came to mean book and liifiXiov a little book. (So in Latin ' liber * first means bark, then book; the diminutive Mibellus' is a little book; our English libel suggests the use sometimes made of little books THE SCRIPTURES 5 or pamphlets as the vehicle of abu.^e and calumny.) In the New Testament the terms Pi^Xos and pi^Kiov are applied to a single book of the Old Testament or to such a group as the Pentateuch *. In the Old Testament we find the plural used of the Prophets ^, and once in the Apocrypha " the Old Testament generally is spoken of as ' the holy books/ It was this plural use that passed over into the Christian Church : from the middle of the second century the Scriptures are spoken of as 'the books,' tlie 'holy,' 'divine* or 'canonical books.* The same notion of plurality rather than unity is seen in another term applied to the Scriptures by certain of the Latin Fathers and later writers, Bibliotheca, ' Library ' or the ' Divine Library.' But when once the Greek plural noun 0iP\ia was adopted in Latin, its original force was forgotten. Biblia in grammatical form may be either a neuter plural or a feminine singular : the growing conception of unity in the sacred writings helped to its interpretation as a singular ; and so, by error, out of biblia, books, came biblia, book, i. e. Bible. In our study of the Bible we may need to return to the primitive and proper significance of the term, considering first the parts rather than the whole. But we may also thankfully retain the changed signifi- cance as one that has wonderfully helped to give sharpness and fixity to the conception of one Word of God, constant and uniform amid all the separateness and diversity of His words to men. The Bible is at once a Library and a Book. 6. Scriptures. — The name applied in the New Testament to the books of the Old Testament collectively is at ypacfjai, the writings, or in Latin The Scriptures d. Once we find the phrase 'holy scriptures %' and once, with a different form of the Greek word, 'sacred writings f.' When the singular occurs, it is with reference not to the whole but to some particular passage, e. g. ' To-day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears «,' following a quotation from Is 6i. The collective use of ' Scripture,' familiar to us and embodying the sense of oneness already referred to, was still in the making. The earlier usage is writings, books : the later, though not the less true, is Scripture, Bible. 7. Testament. — The application of the term Testament carries us beyond the simple fact of books or writings to some indication of their main theme. Woven into the very " Mk 1226 Lu ^17 20<2. b p^ 98. c i Mac I2'\ •^ Mt 21*2 2229 Jn 53''. « Ro i2. * a Tim s^^ R. V. « Lu 421 : see also Mk iqI" Jn 738.42^ 6 INTRODUCTOEY texture of the Old Testament is the idea of a Covenant between God and man. First made with Noah, repeated with Abraham, renewed with Israel on the deliverance from Egypt, symbolized in the Ark of the Covenant, it recurs again and again throughout history, psalm, and prophecy, as the relation into which God entered with His chosen people. In Jeremiah, prophecy reaches its height in tiie sublime prediction of the new covenant, a prediction de- clared by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews to be fulfilled in Jesus Christ \ The phrase, New Covenant, was appropriated by Christ at the Last Supper, and is claimed by Paul as the substance of the ministry to which he was called^. This distinction of a new covenant involved a contrast with the old, and it was but a step to speak of the Jewish Scriptures as pertaining to the old covenant. Thus Paul refers to the Pentateuch in the words, ' at the reading of the old covenant*^.' As the Gospels and other apostolic writings gradually took their place as Scripture they were distinguished by the name of 'the new covenant,' a usage established by the beginning of the third century, when Origen can speak of 'the Divine Scriptures, the so-called Old and New Covenants.' The Hebrew term for covenant, bSrlth, is rendered in the Greek Old Testament by SiaO'jKr], and this is the word used in the New Testament writings and afterwards applied to the collection of the New Testa- ment books, T/ KQivj) diaOrjKr], ' the New Covenant.' The Latin Vulgate renders this by Novum Testamentum, whence our title, New Testa- ment. If the Latin teslamentum were the equivalent of hiaO-qurj^ covenant, no more would need to be said. But, properly, it is not ; nor is it certain that centuries of usage have quite succeeded in fixing this alien meaning upon the title. The Greek hiadrjKr] has a double mean- ing, (i) disposition, will, testament, (2) covenant ; tlie student may note how in Heb 9^^-^'' the writer avails himself of this double force to illustrate a twofold significance of the death of Christ, as ratifying a covenant and as securing an inheritance ^. The Latin teslamentum • Jer 3i"-3* Heb S^-'^ iqIs-i'. b Lu aa'^" 1 Cor ii^s a Cor 3«. «= a Cor 3I* R. V. «* K. V. mg. THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS 7 has only the former of these meanings : it is the proper rendering of diaerj/cT], will, not of SiadrjKT], covenant. In the Latin New Testament, however, perhaps because of this passage in Hebrews, it is employed in this second sense in place of the more correct Old Testament rendering of herith by fcedus or pactum, and so came to be the title of the completed book, 8. The Law and the Prophets. — The books of the Old Testament fall into several divisions, the grouping of the English version differing from that of the original. The Hebrew Scriptures are divided into — The Law (Torali), The Prophets (Ncbhiim), The Writings (Kethu- hhwi). This last division was, by a pardonable paraphrase, rendered by the Greek translators Ilagiographa, sacred writings. Among the Prophets are reckoned in a separate class certain of the historical books. It will be noticed that the number of books in the Hebrew Bible is considerably less than in the English Old Testament, twenty-four against thirty-nine. This is because the following are reckoned as one book each — i and 2 Samuel, i and 2 Kings, i and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, the twelve Minor Prophets. Thus the grouping of the Hebrew Scriptures is as follows :— Law. I Genesis 2 Exodus 3 Leviticus 4 Numbers 5 Deuteronomy Prophets. Former. 6 Joshua 7 Judges 8 Samuel 9 Kings Latter. 10 Isaiah 11 Jeremiah 12 Ezekiel 13 The Twelve Writings {Hagiographa). 14 Psalms 15 Proverbs 16 Job 17 Song of Songs > i8 Ruth 19 Lamentations L The five EoUs (Megilloth) 20 Ecclesiastes 21 Esther / 82 Daniel 23 Ezra and Nehemiah 24 Chronicles 8 INTEODUCTORY The five Megilloth are so called because each was written on a roll for reading at Jewish festivals, the Song of Songs at Passover, Ruth at the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, Ecclesiastes at the Feast of Tabernacles, Esther at the Feast of Purim, while Lamentations was recited on the anniversary of the destruction of Jerusalem. There was also current a grouping into twenty -two books, given by Josephus and adopted by Jerome. It joins Euth to Judges and Lamentations to Jeremiah, and is probably intended to correspond to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The grouping of the English version follows that of the Latin Vulgate, which in turn is based upon that of the Septuagint (LXX) or Greek version, which receives its name from the tradition of its seventy (septuaginta) translators. The division is obviously according to subject-matter, viz. Law (five books), History (twelve books), Poetry (five books), and Prophecy (seventeen books). A glance at the grouping of the Hebrew books will show that its principle is not so obvious. Probably the three divisions mark three stages in the process of collecting the sacred writings — in other words, in the history of the Canon. The earliest Jewish Bible was the Law, the five books of Moses or Pentateuch. Later on, this expanded into the ' Law and the Prophets ' : later still, a final group was recognized as of Divine authority, its general title suggesting the miscellaneous character of its contents ; and the Canon was complete — Law, Prophets, and Writings. The New Testament references to this ancient grouping of the Jewish Scriptures are interesting. TJie first division is referred to as 'The Law ' in places where there is clearly an allusion to or a quota- tion from the Pentateuch*. But in accordance with the peculiar reverence attached by the Jews to this portion of the sacred writings, the terra Law becomes a designation of Old Testament Scripture generally, and is so used in reference to citations from the Psalms •* and from Isaiah", A fuller title for the Old Testament combint-s the first two of its • Mt 12'^ 2a'^6 Lu io''8. " Jn lo^* 12'* 15-='. «= i Cor 14'^^ THE CANON 9 three divisions, ' The Law and the Prophets *.' Only once is there a distinct reference to the threefold grouping : ' that all things must needs be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me \' Here either ' the Psalms,' as the first book of the Hagiographa, stands for the whole of the third division, or our Lord adds to the Law and the Prophets the one other Old Testament book which is most familiar and precious, as well as clearest in its Messianie prediction. 9. Canon. — The twenty -four books of the Hebrew- Scriptures, or the thirty-nine of the English version, con- stitute what is termed the Canon of the Old Testament. Each book is spoken of as Canonical (in distinction, as will be explained, from books that are regarded as Apocryphal) : the terms are similarly applied to the New Testament. Thus the Canon of Scripture means the complete collection of the books which are regarded as of Divine authority. The word Canon is Greek {Kavuv) and means literally a straight rod, rule or measure : this essential idea of straightness is easily discei-nible in other words from the same root, e. g. cane, canal, cannon. The term came into metaphorical use, and by a transference of meaning common in the history of words was applied not only to that which measures, but to that which is so measured. Thus we speak of the canons of art, of taste, of grammar, and so forth. A canon of the Church is so called, not because the lesser clergy are expected to mould their lives on the pattern and measure of his, but because he was originally a member of a clergy house, a community of which all the members were bound to conform to a certain rule of faith and conduct : the word was transferred from the rule to the man who was subject to the rule. In its primary metaphorical sense of a standard rule of faith, the word occurs in the New Testament : ' as many as shall walk by this rule («ava;i/), peace be upon them <'.* It may hav^ been in this most appropriate sense that in the fourth century the word came to be applied to Scripture, as containing the authoritative Rule by which human thought and life are to be moulded. But it was the Church that under Divine guidance formed the Canon, determining only after ages of doubt and debate what books should be received as Scripture and what rejected. Hence it is probable that we must » Mt 51" 712 22*" Lu i629 342^ Ko 321. ^ Lu 24** K. V. " Gal 619: bee also 2 Cor lo"-^''-!®. 10 INTRODUCTORY rather look to the secondary sense of tlie word, and suppose that the books were first termed Canonical, not as ruling, but as ruled, i. e. declared by authority of the Church to be of Divine inspiration. To canonise a book was to include it by ecclesiastical sanction among the books of Holy Scriptuje. See further on Church authority, § 34. 10. Apocrypha. — The Latin Vulgate, the Bible of the Roman Church, contains the following books in addition to those of the Hebrew Canon : Tobit; Judith ; Esther io*-i6-*; The Wisdom of Solomon ; The Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach or Ecclesiasticus ; Baruch ; The Song of the Three Holy Chil- dren, The History of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon (these three are additions to the Book of Daniel) ; The Prayer of Manasses, 3 and 4 Esdras (these three are placed at the end of the New Testament ; i and 2 Esdras of the Vulgate are the canonical books of Ezra and Nehemiah) ; i and 2 Maccabees. These additions are derived from the Greek (Septuagint) Version, though with some differences in detail both as to amount and arrangement. Broadly speaking, the Apocrypha is the excess of the Latin Vulgate over the Hebrew Old Testament. The sixth Article of the Church of England, after enumerating the canonical books (Ezra and Nehemiah being cited as i and 2 Esdras), prefaces a list of these additional books with these words, * And the other books (as Hierome saith) the Church doth read for example of life and instruc- tion of manners ; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine.' See Part II, § 422, pp. 612-614. This limitation of the use of the word Apocrypha is convenient, but does some violence both to the original meaning of the word and to the character of certain of the writings to which it is applied. It means literally hidden away (^diroKpv^pa), and properly designates books dealing with what is secret, mysterious, occult. The remains of later Jewish and of early Christian literature afford examples of works of an apocalyptic character, dealing with the mysteries of the spirit world and revealing in symbol and allegory the future of Israel. Instances are the Book of Enoch*, the Assumption of Moses, the Apocalypse of Baruch, the Ascension of Isaiah. It was, indeed, from • Ju". APOCRYPHA 11 very early times a common practice of religious and philosophical sects to have their secret literature, books for the initiated, literally hidden away from all but the elect. In sharp distinction from all such esoteric teaching, Christianity claimed to be for all men. There are traces in the New Testament of this antithesis, in the studied associa- tion of the word mystery (fxvaT-qpiov) with the opposite idea of revelation or knowledge*, in Paul's contention with those at Corinth who loved a hidden wisdom ^, and especially in the declaration to the Colossians that in Christ are all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom hidden away {diroKpvcpoi) •. There is no knowledge hidden away except in Him, and He may be known by all. Now, since publicity and accessibility to all are obvious marks of truth, while what is false and fraudulent loves the darkness, apocryphaX easily passed from its sense of hidden aicay to that of spurious, and so came to be applied to books whose claim to a place in the Christian Bible was disallowed. In Keformation times it was definitely so applied to the books contained in the Vulgate but excluded from the Hebrew Canon, and to this opposition to canonical it lent the dis- paragement which attached to its use in connexion with the Jewish and Jewish-Christian occult apocalyptic literature already referred to, and with the apocryphal Gospels. But the Reformed Church regarded the uncanonical books as valuable ' for example of life and instruction of manners,' though not of authority in matters of faith. Some of them are of high value, literary, historical, and ethical ; notably I Maccabees and Ecclesiasticus. The Apocrypha is to be regarded as holding an intermediate place, in parts higher, in parts lower, between inspired Scripture and that secret apocalyptic literature to which the name originally attached. See further, Part II, Ch. XVII. • Mt 13I1 Col t2«. b I Cor I, 2. « Col 2\ CHAPTER II THE OLD TESTAMENT: LANGUAGE, CANON, TRANSMISSION, VERSIONS 11. External features of the Old Testament. — Before dealing with the Old Testament as Scripture it is necessary to inquire what it is as a book, and how on the human side it came to be. What is the language in which it was written ? It consists of many books widely separated in date : when and how were these brought together ? How may we be assured that the books have come down to us as they were written ? These questions of Language, Canon, and Text are prior to that deeper study suggested by the inspired declaration that God of old time spake ' unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners,' and that 'men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost.' The Language of the Old Testament 12. The English versions of the Old Testament, the A. V. of 1611 and the K. V. of 1885, are of course transla- tions from the Hebrew. There are other earlier versions which are of great importance, especially the Septuagint (begun in the third century B.C.) and the later Greek versions of Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus, as well as the Old Latin, and Jerome's Vulgate (c. a. d. 400), partly a revision of this, and partly a new translation. But the actual Old Testament is the twenty-four books as they are preserved in the original Hebrew, and to them a first- hand study must always direct itaelf. THE HEBREW LANGUAGE 13 13. The Hebrew language was the language of the Hebrews or Israelites during their independence. The people themselves were known among other nations by the name of Hebrews and Jews, not by the name of Israel- ites. The epithet of Hebrew, however, applied to their lan- guage, occurs first in the Prologue to the apocryphal Book of Ecclesiasticus (c. b. c. 130). Josephus also uses the term Hebrew language (rAoio-cra twv 'E^paiW) of the old Hebrew, and this is the uniform meaning of the phrase in his writ- ings. The Targums call the Hebrew ' the sacred tongue,' and in the Old Testament it is called the 'lip of Canaan %* or the 'Jews' language^.' 14. Canaanitish. — That the Hebrew language was the common tongue of Canaan and Phoenicia is indicated by such monuments of the Canaanitish dialects as we possess, especially the glosses on the Tel el-Amarna tablets (fifteenth century b.c), borrowed Semitic words found in Egyptian papyri of a still earlier date, and a few Phoenician inscrip- tions. The silence of Scripture as to any difference between the language of Canaanites and of Hebrews is also noteworthy. They both dwelt in the land, and yet no difference of speech is noticed, though tlie difference between the language of Hebrew and Egyptian (Ps 81^ 114^) is recognized, and even between the Hebrew and cognate languages ; as in the case of the Aramaic used by the Assyrians (Is 36^^), and of the Eastern Aramaic used by the Chaldees (Jer 5^^). 15. Aramaic admixture. — Hebrew, then, may be re- garded as the Israelitish dialect of the Canaanitish language. But Israel was surrounded by peoples speaking the cognate Aramaic, the language of Aram, a district including northern Mesopotamia, Syria, and a large portion of Arabia Petraea. The pressure of these Semitic tribes was increased after the fall of Samaria and disappearance of the Northern Kingdom (B.C. 722), and Hebrew began to suffer a process of decay • Is 19I8 mg. »» Is 3613 a Ki i82«-«». 14 THE OLD TESTAMENT LANGUAGE which ended in its extinction as a spoken language. It was still the language of Jerusalem in the time of Nehe- miah (13^*), about b.c. 430, but long before the time of Christ it had been entirely superseded by Aramaic, and its literature was intelligible only to scholars. 16. This Aramaean or Aramaic, like Hebrew, is of Semitic origin. From a very early date it was probably spoken in the vernacular in Babylon and Assyria, even while Assyrian was the official language. Some few in- scriptions in this old Aramaic still remain. The language spread widely, ultimately dispossessing Hebrew in Palestine itself. It was the language commonly spoken by Christ and His Apostles. Its most important literary remains are, portions of the Old Testament (Ezr 48-6^^, 7I2-26. Dn 2*- 7^8) and the Jewish Targums or Paraphrases of the Old Testament books. The term Syriac is properly applied to the Aramaic of Edessa in Western Mesopotamia, where the language received a literary form. But by usage the term came to cover other Aramaic dialects, including the verna- cular of Palestine. The important Syriac versions of the New Testament will be dealt with later. The term Chaldee is sometimes applied to the Aramaic portions of the Old Testament, and is so used by Jerome, but incorrectly. The Chaldaeans pursued for ages a hostile immigration into Babylonia from the south, and finally won the kingdom, Chaldaea becoming by the sixth century b.c. identical with Babylonia. The Chaldee language was the Babylonian cuneiform, almost the same as that of Assyria. The only correct term for these Old Testament passages is Aramaic. 17. Of all Semitic languages the Arabic has by far the richest modern literature : and next to the Hebrew it is the most important. It is still spoken in a large portion of Asia, and in part of Africa. The two chief dialects of it are the Himyaritic, formerly spoken in Yemen, and now extinct, and the Coreitic, spoken in the north-west of Arabia, and especially at Mecca. This was a spoken language long SEMITIC LANGUAGES GENERALLY 15 before the time of Mohammed, and is still the popular dialect. The old Arabic differs from this language in its forms, which are more various, and in its matter, which is more copious. 18. A colony of Arabians, speaking the Himyaritic, early settled on the opposite side of the Red Sea in Ethiopia, and introduced their language into that country. This language, modified by time and circumstances, is the ancient Ethiopic, which is closely related to the Arabic. The district where it was spoken is the modern Abyssinia, and Amharic, or Giz, is the present language of the people. 19. All these Semitic languages are of value in guiding the student of tlie Old Testament to an accurate knowledge of the original tongue, and no Hebrew Lexicon can be regarded as a satisfactory authority unless compiled with a constant reference to the meaning of the roots of Hebrew words in the cognate tongues. It Is upon the knowledge and use of these tongues that the superiority of modern lexicographers cliiefly depends. 20. History of the Hebrew. — The Hebrew language undoubtedly underwent modifications in the period covered by the Old Testament writings. Attempts have been made to mark off successive stages in this development and to assign certain books to certain periods on linguistic grounds. The data, however, are too scanty and too uncertain for this to be done with any confidence. Some books contain Persian and Aramaic words which suggest a late date, as well as other common elements which may be regarded as characteristic of ' New Hebrew.' To this post-classical period are generally assigned the Books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes, and Daniel. The golden age, or classical period, is best exhibited in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Deuteronomy. Of the ante-classical or early Hebrew too little is known to warrant confident statements as to the date of Old Testament writings. 16 THE OLD TESTAMENT CANON The Canon of the Old Testament 21. History of the Old Testament Canon. — The mean- ing of the term Canon and the actual contents of the Old Testament Canon have already been dealt with^ The question now arises, how did the books come together? What evidence have we as to the age in which the Canon was formed and as to the authority by which the inclusion or exclusion of individual writings was determined? Is the Canon in its completeness due to a single epoch and a single decision of the Church, or may we distinguish the different stages of its beginnings, its extension, and its close ? It is important to keep this inquiry within its proper historical limits. It does not ignore the Divine control ; indeed, its issue is to bring this element in the case into sharp relief ; but its immediate concern is with the human facts. It recognizes that each of the canonical books pos- sesses a quality which determined its acceptance. A book is not raised to the dignity and authority of Scripture by the Church's acceptance of it : it was accepted because first perceived to be of Divine origin, and, theoretically at least, the same insight may yet lead to the widening or the narrowing of the Canon. Questions of authenticity and inspiration lie in the background, but for the present they must be kept there. An historical fact lies before us in a completed Old Testament Canon : our business is, if we can, to date that fact and to trace the earlier historical facts in which it has its explanation. It will be seen that the evidence is of a fragmentary nature. A few out- standing facts must be pieced together into a consistent narrative by the help of scattered indications ; even the probabilities of the case must be relied on where direct testimony is wanting. » See §§ 8, 9. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 17 22. General Considerations. — There are certain general considerations which may help us to interpret the evidences for the formation of the Canon. I. The Canon is the result of a gradual groictli. Ecclesi- astical authority did not create it : all it could do was to give formal sanction and fixity to that collection of writings which had gradually won recognition as Divine. Several indications converge upon this natural probability of gradual formation. a. It is suggested, as already pointed out, by the threefold division of the Canon. The Law stands first, not only because it deals with the beginnings of Jewish history, but because the Pentateuch formed the first collection of books recognized as of Divine authority. The group known as the Writings, or Hagiographa, owes its geneial title and the varied character of its contents to the fact that it represents the final stage in the canonization of the Jewish sacred books. h. It is certain that Ezra had some part in the formation of the Canon. But as the Canon includes the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah he must have left it incomplete. c. Ezra gave the people * the Book of the Law of Moses*'. Tlie title and other indications in the narrative make it probable that this was the Pentateuch only. d. This priority ©f the Law in a gradual process of canonization is confiimed by the exceptional reverence which the Jews have always attached to this portion of their sacred writings. This appears in the later parts of the Old Testament itself, Psalm 119 being a conspicuous example. The last of the Prophets admonishes the people almost in his final words, ' Remember ye the law of Moses My servant.' When we turn to the New Testament we find the Old Testament generally quoted as the Law ^ The perplexity of the Sadducees as to the resur- rection and our Lord's choice of a proof-text ° are more easily under- stood, if we may suppose that this sect not only rejected the authority of oral tradition, but exalted the Law in their estimate of the Old Testament writings. c. The Samaritan Temple on Mount Gerizim was founded by Manasseh, grandson of Eliashib, a renegade Jewish priest expelled by Nehemiah. To this day the Samaritan Bible consists of the Penta- teuch only. An explanation of this fact would be that at the time of the rupture the only Jewish Scriptures which had been formally • Ne 81. * See § 8. « Mt aa^^-s'. C 18 THE OLD TESTAMENT CANON * canonized ' were the five books of the Law. This is confirmed by the archaic characters in which the Samaritan Pentateuch is written (see § 28, 2, Versions). 2. The beginnings of the Canon are not to be confounded with the beginnings of Hebreiv sacred literature. The writings must first be there before that process of selection could begin which would issue in a Canon of Scripture having religious authority. To canonize a book — the word belongs to Christian times, but the fact is pertinent to the Old Testament Canon — meant (i) the recognition that its teach- ing was in a unique sense Divine ; (2) the consequent ascrip- tion to it of a religious authority by a community or its leaders. See § 9. It is quite possible that writings of this sort might exist for ages in a community overlooked, or even forgotten, until some national crisis might awaken the people to discern anew their value, and bring home the need of separating them, and of putting upon them this seal of Divine authority. 3. A book may have had a long literary liistory before its adm,ission into the Canon. This is perhaps most obvious in regard to the Book of Psalms. Many of those inspired songs were certainly held to be of Divine authority before all were written, and therefore before the Psalter as a whole was 'canonized.' In other books we may clearly discern the inclusion of fragmentary material, venerable for its anti- quity. In the Pentateuch are imbedded separate codes of Law which in all probability are older than the books in which they appear. A store of national religious poetry is indicated by the Song of Deborah, the Song of Moses and the Children of Israel after the crossing of the Red Sea, the Dirge of David over Saul. The titles of two such collections are preserved in ' The Book of the Wars of the Lord' Nam 21^* and 'The Book of Jasher' (the Upright) Jos 10", 2 Sa i^^. History was preserved in the same way : tbe historical books contain refer- ences to such earlier chronicles as * Tbe iiistory of Samuel the seer and the history of Nathan the prophet and the history of Gad the seer' i Ch ag'^R. V. : 'The Book of the Acts of Solomon' i Ki ii*^ 'The histories THE CANON IN CHRISTIAN TIMES 19 of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer' 2 Ch 12^^, and others. The prophetical books, again, are obviously collections of utterances sepai-ately spoken and separately preserved. Behind the books of the Old Testament we may frequently discern an earlier literature, the primitive records in song, law, history, prophecy, of the nation's life and the nation's faith. And we may recognize in the making of an Old Testament book the three stages— the primitive material, the editing into present literary form, and the canonization or final acceptance as Scripture. It need hardly be added that to acknowledge this principle of literary growth neither impairs the Divine authority of the books nor involves the extravagant analysis of some modern imaginative criticism. 23. The Canon in Christian times. — The Jewish litera- ture of the second century a. d. shows clearly that the Canon was then complete, though the right of some few books to a place in it was not free from criticism. The earliest decisive witness is that of the Jewish historian Josephus, who about a.d. 90 writes'*: * For we have not (i. e. as the Greeks have) myriads of books disngreeing and contradicting one another, but only twenty-two . . . justly believed in. And of these, five are the books of Moses which comprise the laws and the traditions of the origin of mankind till his death. . . . The pi'ophets who were after Moses wrote down what was done in their times in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God and precepts for the conduct of human life.' The ' twenty-two ' is probably reached as explained in § 8. In the context Josephus gives emphatic expression to the reverence with which his countrj^men regard their collections of sacred writings, no one venturing ' to add or to remove or to niter a syllable.' By this time, then, the Canon was virtually settled. The testimony of Josephus is the more striking because he is writing in Greek to Greeks. Both he and they were fomiliar Avith the LXX version, which, as we have seen, contains the apocryphal books. But writing as the spokes- man of his nation he expressly limits the Old Testament Canon to the writings contained in the Hebrew Scriptures. And his evidence leads us to look for the mark of canonicity, rather in long recognition of these books as ancient and as divinely inspired than in some formal ecclesiastical decision. At the same time, it is probable that such a decision, endorsing received opinion, was pronounced at the Council of Jamnia, near Jaffa, the chief centre of Palestinian Judaism after the fall of Jerusalem. The scattering of the nation and destruction of the Temple might well lead to increased care for the sacred virritings. * Against Apion, i. 8. C 2 20 THE OLD TESTAMENT CANON - It is certain that about a.d. 90 thei-e were debates at Jamnia, of which the outcome was to give greater fixity to the Canon. Of its virtual completion long before this date of a.d. 90 we have decisive evidence in the New Testament. There is no need, and this is not the place, to speak of the reverence accorded by Christ and His Apostles to the Old Testament Scriptures, or of the extent to which, both in direct quotation and in allusion, they pervade the whole of the New Testa- ment. This recognition of inspired ' oracles of God ' is indubitable : the question is whether it enables us to de- termine the limits of the Canon in New Testament times. It has been held on various grounds that the apostolic writings do not give satisfactory evidence of a closed Canon identical with the Hebrew Scriptures, and the matter is of sufficient importance to call for some examination. 1. It is pointed out that the Apostles' Bible, from which they habitually quote, was the LXX, and that this version contains the apocryphal books. That they used the LXX is true, and, unless they quote its Apocryjjha as Scripture, is also irrelevant. Whether they do will be considered below (see 3 infra). Josephus used the LXX, but distinguishes with precision between its canonical books and Hhose which have not been accounted equally worthy of credit.' 2. It is further noted that some books of the Jewish Canon have no direct quotation in the New Testament. The fact is as stated : the wonder is that these books are so few in number — Obadiah and Nahum among the Prophets, Ezra and Nehemiah, Esther, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes. But no question can arise as to the canonicity of Obadiah and Nahum, for they form part only of a single book of which there is ample recognition, the Book of the Twelve Prophets. As to the rest we have only to consider whether, assuming them to be in the Canon, they con- tain matter likely to have been quoted, to see how futile this argument from silence is. Moreover, Esther, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes belong to a single group of five (the Megilloth), of which the remaining two do receive a recognition which, it may fairly be argued, applies to the whole group. Ezi'a (including Nehemiah) again stands in a final group of three, with Daniel and Chronicles. The Book of Daniel lias specific mention*. There are also words of our Lord referring to a Chronicles, which gain new point if we suppose that He is passing • Mt 24^'*. THE CANON IN PRE-CHRISTIAN TIMES 21 in review not so much the rnngo of Jewish history as the range of the Canon from its first book to its last, Genesis to a Chronicles : 'from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar *. 3. The apostolic writers are said to show an acquaintance with and even to cite as Scripture certain of the apocryphal books. The acquaintance is undoubted : the writer to the Hebrews makes use of I and 2 Maccabees^ : the citation cannot be maintained. The alleged instances " cannot be assigned to any passages of the Apocrypha, and may, with one exception, be explained as presenting the substance of several Old Testament utterances as a single quotation. The exception is Jude ^*-^6 . but as the Book of Enoch there cited is not in the Apocrypha, and never had any pretensions to canonicity, Jude's use of it has no bearing upon this question of the New Testament evidence to the Old Testament Canon. The attempt, therefore, to show that the New Testament writers are not clear in their witness to the limits of Old Testament Scripture breaks down. The facts are all the other way. Though there is only one distinct reference to the threefold division ^^, the evidence is decisive that not only the Law and the Prophets, but the Writings also, had full recognition as long-established Scripture from Christ and His Apostles, and that the Word of God, which fed the springs of their life, fashioned their thought, and inspired their message to the world, was that Old Testament which is in our hands to-day. 24. The Canon in pre-Christian times. — Tracing back still farther the history of the Canon, we come upon two important pieces of evidence in the apocryphal Book of Ecclesiasticus or 'the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach.' The prologue to the book is by the author's grandson, who, c. B.C. 130, translated his grandfather's Hebrew work into Greek. It contains three distinct references to the Hebrew Scriptures under the threefold division of the Jewish Canon — ' the Law and the Prophets and the others that have » Mt 2335 E. V. 2 Ch 24-1. '' Heb ii»'-3». " Mt 279 Lu 11*9 Jn f'-''' I Cor a^ Eph 5'* Ju '*- «* See § 8. 22 THE OLD TESTAMENT CANON followed in their steps,' Hhe Law and the Proi^hets and the other books of our fathers,' 'the Law itself, and the prophecies and the rest of the books ' E. V. Further, Jesus ben Sirach wrote his book soon after B.C. 200. In chapters 44-50 he has a long eulogy of the great men of Israel, beginning, ' Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us.' His descriptions are mostly taken from the canonical books, to the reading of which his grandson tells us he had * much given himself.* There is specific reference to every book of the Law and the Prophets and to most of the Hagiographa. The order of their narrative is followed, while an express mention of 'the Twelve Prophets ' shows that in his time this collection as it appears in the Hebrew Canon had long been formed. Here then is proof that two centuries before the Christian era the Law and the Prophets and, at least, the greater part of the Hagiographa had taken their place as Scripture. The 250 years which lie between ben Sirach and Ezra yield no evidence, yet it is almost certain that within this period the Canon was gradually formed. Ages before Ezra the Jews had had their sacred writings. Law, Prophecy, History, Psalms were treasured and revered, as many Old Testament passages plainly show ^. But the peculiar task of Ezra was to lead the people to accept a written and sacred code of law as the absolute rule of faith and life ^\ This is to establish a Canon, and, by common consent, the begin- ning of the Old Testament Canon is to be found in Ezra's promulgation of the Law (b. c. 444). So far as the evidence goes this is the extent of Ezra's connexion with the Canon. To him and his coadjutors is due the first division of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Law (cp. § 22, i). The fantastic Jewish legend found in the Fourth * Book of Esdras (c. A. D. 100% and repeated by many Christian Fathers and divines * e.g. Ex 31 '8 4o'^o Dt 3120 ^ ^.^ ^q-jg j^ 3^16 ^ Ki 22»-i». ^ See Ne 8- 10. "^ ' Second ' of A. V. THE CANON IN PKE-CHEISTIAN TIMES 23 down to Reformation times, how that all the books of Scripture perished by fire when Jerusalem was destroyed, and that Ezra was inspired to recall them to memory and commit them to writing, is not worthy of further notice. Its place was taken, from the sixteenth century, by a tradition of the ' Men of the Great Synagogue,' a Council of which Ezra was President, and which included among its 120 members Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Daniel, and Simon the Just. To this Council is attributed the work of separating out the inspired Scriptures from spurious writings, of rectifying the sacred text, and of fixing once for all the Canon with its triple division. But the evidence for this tradition will not bear examination : by a consensus of modern scholars the very existence of the Great Synagogue is regarded as a Rabbinic fiction * ; and Ezra's work, so far as it can be known, was limited to the canonizing of the Pentateuch. How soon the Law was supplemented by the second division — the Prophets (including the historical Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings), cannot be determined. A tradition, which may be based on truth, is preserved in 2 Maccabees ^\ asserting of Nehemiah that ' he, founding a library, gathered together the books about the kings and prophets, and the books of David, and letters of kings about sacred gifts.' This would be at any rate the preparation for the enlargement of the Canon, but when the second division was formally canonized we cannot say. What is certain is that in the 250 years from Ezra to ben Sirach (B.C. 444 — c. 200) a Canon of sacred books was formed prac- tically identical with that of the Hebrew Scrij^tures. It should be added that nearly two centuries before Ezra, there is mention of an authoritative book. In the eighteenth year of King Josiah (b. c. 621) repairs were being made in the Temple, and 'Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the Law in the houst of the Lord^.' Shaphan read it himself, and again before the king, who rent his clothes in consternation. After appeal to Huldah the prophetess, the king, undaunted by * See Ryle, Canon of the Old Testament, Excursus A. ^ a Mac a^'. « 2 Ki 22**. 24 THE OLD TESTAMENT the threatened woes, read in the ears of all the people ' llie words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the Lord.' Vigorous religious reforms followed, *to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book.' There can hardly be a doubt that this book, so strangely- recovered and recognized at once as of Divine authority, was among the writings afterwards canonized by Ezra. The narrative of 2 Kings 22 and 23 would seem to point to some- thing considerably briefer than the Pentateuch, clear and emphatic in its teaching concerning national duty. Many indications suggest that what Hilkiah found, and the king used to correct religious abuse and neglect, was the Book of Deuteronomy. The Transmission of the Text of the Old Testament 25. Transmission of the Text. — We pass from the question of the formation of the Canon to that of the trans- mission of its contents to modern times. In a. d. 1477, twenty-seven years after the invention of printing, the first portion of a printed Hebrew Bible appeared — the Book of Psalms. In 1488 came the first complete Hebrew Bible. For the purposes of our inquiry we must of course pass beyond the printed text to the MSS. which preceded it, and trace back as far as we may the history of the sacred text transmitted from age to age by the labour of the copyists. At once we encounter two striking facts: (i) The earliest MS. which has been preserved is that of the latter prophets dated a.d. 916, while the oldest MS. of the entire Old Testa- ment is 100 years later, a.d. ioio. Both these are preserved in the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg. (2) The existing MSS. show no divergence of text, That is, from the tenth TRANSMISSION OF THE TEXT 25 century onwards we possess a fixed text of the Old Testa- ment, but a gap of 1,500 years separates this from the days of Ezra. The difference between the textual history of the Old Testament and that of the New is very marked. The two oldest MSS. of the Greek Testament may be dated about a. d. 350, i. e. nearly 300 years after the books were written. Moreover, while the bulk of the available MSS. present a certain uniformity of text, among the minority there are considerable divergences. All textual critics are agreed that the true text is to be reached by an elaborate process of com- parison between the existing materials. A good critical edition of the New Testament contains in all probability a much purer text than would be gained by printing any single manuscript, even the most ancient, as it stands. Now this fixity of the Old Testament text declares to us the fidelity with which the copyists have done their work, guarding the trust committed to them from those perils of corruption which inevitably attend the process of copying, and handing down through the ages the text, lett(ir for letter, as they received it. Even the strange disappearance of more ancient MSS. has been ascribed to the same fidelity ; it is said that when too much worn for use they were destroyed, lest they should suffer any profanation. The question remains : when, and under what conditions did the text receive its fixity ? Has it been so from the first, so that we may believe that the sacred autographs have come down to us practically without change ? Or must we rather suppose that at some period one form of the text was declared by authority to be the true one, deviations from it being suppressed and rapidly becoming extinct ? It is important to determine what it is that the scribes have passed on through the ages w^ith such reverent care. We have seen that we can trace back the stream of manu- script copies to the opening of the tenth century a.d. : there it is lost, but we know it must have flowed down con- tinuously from the time of Ezra. Are there indications which enable us to say anj^thing about it beyond mere speculation ? In reply, it is impo^-tant to note, in the first place, that 26 THE OLD TESTAMENT the work of transmitting the text was entrusted to a guild of specially trained scholars. We shall better realize the necessity of this when we remember that already at the time of Christ Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language. The 'holy tongue,' as it was called, in which the sacred books were written, was handed down by oral tradition. The scribe had his MS. to copy, but apart from the interpretation the text was practically in an unknown tongue. Hence his work was not simply to copy, but to transmit what his teacher communicated to him of the meaning. 1. Apart from the unfamiliarity of what was now only a written literary language, not the spoken dialect of ordinary life, there was a special source of ambiguity common to Hebrew with other Semitic languages. As originally written, it consisted of consonants only, the vowel sounds being supplied by the reader. But it is obvious that there might be words of widely different meaning consisting of the same consonants variously vocalized. The word as written is in fact ambiguous ; its interpretation depends upon the accuracy of tradition. An actual instance may be quoted by way of illustration. In Heb ii'^^ it is said of Jacob that he 'worshipped leaning upon the top of his staff,' whereas in Gen 47^^ the words run, 'He bowed himself upon the bed's head' R.V.,A. V. The Hebrew for both bed and staff consists of the three consonants MTH, which in the Hebrew text are thus vocalized, M'TT'^H, htd ; the author of Hebrews quotes from the Septuagint, which reads the word thus, M'^TT^H, staff. 2. Again, the connexion of words is often ambiguous. Take an illustration from the New Testament in Ro 9^ 'of whom is the Christ as concerning the flesh, He Who is over all, God blessed for ever.' The words as they stand are a unique assertion of the deity of Christ. But if a full stop be put at ' flesh ' — * of whom is the Christ as concerning the flesh. He Who is over all, God, blessed for ever* — the whole sense of the passage is altered. Again, in Is 40^, are we to read ' the voice of one that crieth in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord,' or ' the voice of one that crieth, In the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord'? 3. All such matters of interpretation of individual words and the general sense of tlio passage were handed down by tradition. They were not discussed or altered, but simply passed on with absolute unchanging authority. In our printed Hebrew Bibles they are settled for us, for there an elaborate system of accents fixes the meaning of each word, its pronunciation, its exact cadence in the synagogic recitation and the connexion of the words. But this was not invented and worked out till about a. d. 800. It reduces to written form a body FIDELITY IN COPYING 27 of tradition — Massora— collected and handed down by the Massoretes; and the text thus interpreted is called the Massoretic Text. 26. Fidelity in copying. — There are in Hebrew MSS. and our printed Bibles curious indications of the exact fidelity with which the original MS. we have spoken of was reproduced. Some words have odd marks over them not understood, perhaps originating in an accidental splutter of the pen, but faithfjuUy repeated in every copy. Sometimes we find a letter almost double the ordinary size and sometimes one unusually small — again, possibly, a per- petuation of mere accident. Sometimes a letter is placed above the line. The books have notes appended, stating such points as the number of words and the middle word. In addition to what appears in our Bibles, there are huge collections of Massoretic notes, dealing with such matters as how often each letter of the Hebrew alphabet occurs in the Old Testament, and how many verses contain all the letters of the alphabet. All this fills us with amazement, and with thankfulness for the microscopic accuracy with which these men did their work oi preserving the sacred text. To a small extent also they hand down authoritative criticism of the text. They make us aware that the text perpetuated is not faultless ; here and there a word ought to be inserted or changed, or left out. But all such traditional criticism — it does not amount to much — is in the margin : the text is too sacred to be tampered with even when declared to be wrong. But we have seen that the consonants were the real text, the vowels a human device of interpretation. Accordingly, if a word in the text was judged to be superfluous, it was left, but was not provided with any vowels ; if a word was to be inserted, its vowels were written without consonants ; if a word was to be changed, its consonants were left, but were provided with the vowels of the word to be substituted. The con- sonants of the correct word are given in the margin with a note to the effect that so-and-so is written (Kethibh), but so-and-so is to be read (Qeri), 28 THE OLD TESTAMENT VERSIONS Versions of the Old Testament 27. The Text in pre-Massoretic times. — By the work of the Massoretes, then, and their predecessors from the close of the first century onwards, the stream of the trans- mitted Hebrew text was made to run in a clear-cut channel and guarded from the possibility of defilement. They have given us with extraordinary fidelity what they received. It only remains to consider whether the same process of faithful preservation and reproduction can be traced back from apostolic times to the days of Ezra and beyond. It must be frankly admitted that it cannot, and that we are dependent for the purity of the Hebrew text on the skill with w^hich the Massoretic text was determined and the scrupulous care with which it has been transmitted. Im- portant evidence is here afforded by the Versions, which indicate more or less precisely the Hebrew text of the age in which they were made. 28. Semitic Versions. — i. Among these versions, the first place must be given to the Targums, as the nearest in language to the Hebrew original. When the Jews returned from Babylonian exile they had to a great extent lost the use of their own language. It was needful, therefore, not only to read the Scriptures to them in the original, but to ' give the meaning ' (see Ne 8^). This was done orally, paraphrastically. After a while, the paraphrased translation was written down in a series of targums (' interpretations ') in the ' Chaldee,' or more correctly, the Eastern Aramaic dialect. These tar- gums were no doubt numerous ; those which have descended to us are all dated after the Christian era. The oldest are that on the Law, by Onkelos, a friend of Gamaliel, and that on the Prophets, by Jonathan ben Uzziel, said to have been a disciple of Hillel. Two others on the Pentateuch are THE SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH 29 earlier than the seventh century : one wrongly attributed to this same Jonathan, the other (now existing only in fragments) known as the Jerusalem Targum. All of these, with others of less imiDortance on the Hagiographa, contain vapid paraphrases and fabulous additions, but are useful, with due caution, in the examination of the Hebrew text ^ 2. The Samaritan Pentateuch. — This, in a dialect kindred with the Hebrew, and written in the old Hebrew characters, is rather a recension than a translation of the Hebrew text. Copies are referred to by Eusebius and Cyril, but it was long thought that the whole had perished. In the early part of the seventeenth century, however, a copy was transmitted from Constantinople to Paris. Ussher after- wards procured six copies, and Kennicott collated sixteen. The account of this recension, regarded as most probable by Kennicott and many subsequent critics, is that it was carried into the northern kingdom at the time of the secession of the Ten Tribes. Could this view be substan- tiated, it would form important evidence for the antiquity of the Pentateuch. National animosity, it was contended, would prevent this reception, in the Israelite kingdom, of the Prophets and Hagiographa. The ancient form of the letters, it was also maintained, would prove an early date — at the latest, some time before the Babylonian captivity. It is now, however, held by most scholars that this copy of the Pentateuch was carried to Samaria by Manasseh, at the establishment of rival worship on Mount Gerizim. The question, which has given rise to much controversy, cannot yet be regarded as fully settled. The critical value of the readings of this recension was at first over-estimated, but now they are lield to be not at all superior to the Hebrew. The LXX seems to have followed it more frequently than * The Targums on the Pentateuch, by Onkelos and the Pseudo- Jonathan, have been translated into English by J. W. Etheridge (Longmans, 1862, 1865^ 30 THE OLD TESTAMENT VERSIONS the present Hebrew text, from which, however, it does not materially differ. Gesenius deems its readings preferable to the Hebrew in Gen 4^, wliere it supplies the words 'Let us go into the field'; in Gen 14^*, wliere it reads * he numbered,' instead of 'he armed'; in Gen 22^^, where it omits the words ' beliind him' ; and in Gen 49^*, wliere the difference is in expression only and not in sense. The Samaritan copy is of great value in determining the history of the Hebrew vowels, and in confirming the general accuracy of the present text, but it is not a source of valuable independent emendation. The ancient Samaritan Pentateuch must not be confounded with the more modern Samaritan version, which is printed with tlie other in the Polyglots. This is a very literal translation into modern Samaritan. 29. Greek Versions : the Septuagint. — The version by * the seventy ' was made in Egypt by Alexandrian Jews. The story of Aristeas, a writer who pretended to be a Gentile and favourite at the court of Ptolemy Philadelphus, is that this version was made by seventy-two Jews (six from each tribe) sent to Alexandria (b. c. 285) by Eleazar at the request of Demetrius Phalareus, the king's librarian, and that the whole was completed in seventy-two days. To this story various additions were made, claiming miraculous interposi- tion for the work, and infallibility for the translators. Dr. Hody conclusively proved that the narrative could not be authentic : though nothing has been discovered that materially affects either the value or the date of the version, which was probably made at different times after the date assigned. When it was completed, there is no evidence to show. Kegarding the work critically, it may be observed that it contains many Grreco-Egyptian words, and that the Pentateuch is translated with much more accuracy than the other books. The Book of Job, the Psalms, and the Prophets, are all inferior, and especially Isaiah and Daniel. The his- torical books are often inaccurately translated. In the early Christian Church this version was deemed of great value, though writers often appealed against it to the Hebrew. Witli the view of correcting it, Origen formed GREEK VERSIONS: THE SEPTUAGlNT 31 his Hexapla, or six-columned version (a.d. 228), containing, besides the LXX, Greek translations of the Old Testament by Aquila of Pontus (about a. d. 130), Theodotion of Ephesus (about A.D. 160), and Symmachus, a Samaritan (a.d. 218). The other two columns contained (i) the Hebrew text, and (2) the same in Greek characters. This work, which made altogether fifty volumes, perished probably at the sacking of Caesarea by the Saracens, a. d. 653 ; but happily the text of the LXX (which formed one of the columns) had been copied by Eusebius, together with the corrections or addi- tions which Origen had inserted from the other translators. This Hexaplarian text, as it is called, was published by Montfaucon at Paris, in 17 14. The principal MSS. of the LXX are the Vatican (B), the Sinaitic (n), the Alexandrian (A), together with fragments of Codex Ephraemi (C). Among printed editions of the LXX are — the Complu- tensian (151 7), which often follows the Massoretic Hebrew and Origen's Hexa]}la ; the Aldine (1518), exhibiting many of the readings of B ; the Roman or Vatican (1587), based on B ; the Grabian (i 707-1 720), which is taken chiefly from A ; and the Cambridge critical edition of H. B. Swete (1887-1894). The version is rather free than literal, and frequently misses the sense of the original. It is to a great extent useful in settling the original text, but is more valuable in interpretation, although it often fails in difficult passages, from the freeness of its renderings, the carelessness and ignorance of the translators, and the absence of fixed rules of translation. Allowing for these sources of error, it must be added that the LXX often indicates an underlying text different from the Massoretic. 'At some time/ writes Dr. Swete, 'between the age of the LXX and that of Aquila, a thorough revision of the Hebrew Bible must have taken place, probably under official direction.' Again, ' It is sufficient to warn the beginner that in the LXX he has before him the version of an 32 THE OLD TESTAMENT VERSIONS early text which often fliffered materially from the text of the printed Hebrew Bible and of all existing Hebrew MSS.' Again, ' We are driven to the conclusion that the transition from a fluctuating to a relatively fixed text took effect during the interval between the fall of Jerusalem and the completion of Aquila's version.' 30. Old Latin. — Among the earliest versions founded on the LXX was the Latin, made in Africa, and often transcribed in whole or part in various districts of the empire. Some have thought, from the differences in the copies, that several distinct versions were made; but the more probable opinion is that they were all recensions of the same original. Of these recensions, the most important was made in Italy, partly with a view to correct the provincialisms and other defects in the African translation. Augustine ^ refers to this version as the Itdla. Jerome bears testimony to its general excellence. Its prevailing type of text, as may be gathered from fragments which still remain^, accords with the Alexandrian MS., and the version may be traced back, by quotations in Tertullian, at least to the latter part of the second century. The diversities and imperfections of the Latin copies mduced Jerome (a. d. 382) to revise the text, as Origen had previously revised that of the LXX. He employed for this purpose the Hexapla, by which he carefully corrected the whole of the Old Testament ; though portions only of his revision remain. But as his labours were drawing to a close, the LXX, long favourably received by the Jews, began to fall into disrepute, on the ground, probably, that it was appealed to by Christians. To meet this feeling, Jerome undertook to prepare a translation into Latin direct from the Hebrew. He devoted the larger portion of twenty years to this work, which was completed in a. d. 405. A super- stitious reverence for the LXX led many to oppose this version, but it gradually gained influence, and in the time of * De Dodrina Chrifitiana. ii. 15. ** Job, Psalms, some of the Apocrypha, and parts of other books. VULGATE AND SYRIAC $3 Gregory the Great (a. d. 604) it had at least a co-ordinate authority, and was dignified with the name of the Vulgate ('versio vulgata,' the current version). The text was made up in part from the old Latin, in part from Jerome's improved edition of that version, and is in part a new version formed immediately from the Hebrew. Jerome was acquainted with Hebrew expositors, and many of their interpretations are embodied in the Vulgate ; but generally it follows the LXX, even when that version difi^ers from the Hebrew. It is more useful for interpretation than for criti- cism of the text, though for both it is of value. The version of the Psalms was made from the HcxapJa, and is called the Psalterium GaUicanum. The text was early corrupted, and various learned men undertook to revise it, among whom were Alcuin and Lanfranc. An authorized edition was issued in 1590 by Sixtus V, only, however, to be immedi- ately withdrawn, and superseded by that of Clement VIII (1592). Critical editions are those of Vercellone (1861) and Tischendorf (1864)^ 31. The Syriac or Western Aramaic Versions. — The Peshitta ('correct' or 'simple') version of the Scriptures was made direct from the Hebrew, and agrees closely with the Massoretic Text. Neither time nor place of this trans- lation is known, but it is in the highest degree probable that Syrian Christians would, at a very early period, obtain the Scriptures in their own tongue. From internal evidence it is believed that the translators were Jewish Christians, and that they translated the Old Testament from the original Hebrew. This version contains all the canonical books of the Old Testament, and all those of the New, except 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and Revelation. The text differs from all the chief families of MSS., and each in succession has ' Of the Vulgate as prepared by Jerome, the most important MS. is the CocUx Amiatimis now at Florence. It was written in North- umberland about the close of th« seventh century a.i>. D 34 THE OLD TESTAMENT VERSIONS claimed it. It was first printed in the Paris and London Polyglots, and is of great critical value. Its important place in New Testament criticism will be shown in the next chapter, when other Syriac versions, of the New Testament alone, will also be described. 32. other ancient Versions. Ecclesiastical history places the con- version of Ethiopia about a. n. 330, and to the same or following cen- tury belongs the translation of the Scriptures into Gis or EtMopic ; see § 18. Its author is not known. Pei-fect copies of the Old Testa- ment are not common, though Bruce states that he found several ; and there are MSS. of this version in some of the libraries of Europe. Only fragments have been printed. The text is founded entirely on the LXX, and follows the readings of A. Tlie greater part of the Old Testament is also extant in the Coptic dialects of Egypt {Memphitic in the N., Thebaic in the S.), though only a portion has been printed. Tlie most probable date of their origin is the third and fourth century, though some suppose them to have been made as early as the first and second. Both are founded on the LXX, and generally follow the readings of A. The translators are not known. The Gothic version of the Bible was made by Ulphilas, a bishop of the Moeso-Goths, who assisted at the Synod of Constantinople in a.d. 360. The version was made from the LXX, and is of considerable critical value, though unhappily only fragments of it remain. Of the Armenian version little more is known than that it was made about the beginning of the fifth century, and based upon the Syriac, though afterwards revised from the LXX. The translator was the patriarch Mesrob. The Georgian version was made in the following century, from copies of the Armenian translation. The Armenian version has been repeatedly printed (the best edition being that by Zohrab, Venice, 1805) ; and the whole Bible, in Georgian, was printed at Moscow in 1743, parts of it having been previously printed at Tiflis. To the ninth century belongs the Slavic or Slavonic version, made by the brothers Cyril and Methodius of Thessalonica, mission- aries to Bulgaria and Moravia, who rendered this great work possible by first reducing the Slavonic language to writing. It is generally regarded as a descendant of the LXX, though ancient testimony states that it was made, in great part, from the Latin, a statement which recent collation has confirmed. The text was early corrected from Greek MSS., and it is hence deemed of considerable critical value. The whole was printed in 1576, and several editions have since been issued from Moscow OTHER ANCIENT VERSIONS 36 The Arabic versions of several of the books of Scripture, as given in the Paris and London Polyglots, were mado from the LXX, by different authors between the eighth and twelfth centuries ; and of Job, Chronicles, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, and parts of other books, from the Peshitta Syriac. From these facts it is clear that the Targums, the Sama- ritan Pentateuch, the LXX, part of the Vulgate, and the Peshitta Syriac, are all more or less valuable for ascertaining the text of the original Hebrew ; but that other versions of the Old Testament, being made from these and not from the original, are of little or no critical value, except for ascertain- ing the text of those versions from which they were made. 33. And, on the whole, though we may be sure that we have the books substantially as they were written, not a promise dimmed or a truth distorted, and though at least from the close of the first century the purity of the letter has been almost miraculously preserved, we must rest content with something short of the sacred autographs. The imperfections of the letter may well lead us to look to the spirit, from the words to the Word, that abides unshaken and grows in meaning through the ages. oa CHAPTER III THE NEW TESTAMENT The Canon 34. General view. — The remarks on Canonicity in Chapter II apply also to the New Testament. The facts which prove the several books to belong to the accredited catalogue of sacred writings are accessible, simple, and decisive. To take the literary ground alone — there is the same kind of evidence that the books of the New Testament are of apos- tolic origin as that the works of Xenophon, Cicero, or Plutarch proceeded from the authors whose names they bear. Added to this, the great religious interest and im- portance of these books would prevent their reception on insufficient grounds, while watchful adversaries would be alert to mark any inadequacy in the evidence. Apostolicity was the great test ; and this being established, there was no longer any question as to recognition. The Christian Consciousness.— Nor was this all. The appeal of the writings was to the Christian consciousness. The Holy Spirit, given to the Church, quickened holy instincts, aided discernment between the genuine and the spurious, and thus led to gradual, harmonious, and in the end unanimous conclusions. There was in the Church what a modern divine has happily termed an ' inspiration of selection.' The appeal, it should be especially noted, was to the Church universal. The phrase ' Church authority,' as sometimes used, is misleading. It is very remarkable that no General Council from the earliest times undertook THE CANON 37 to define the Canon. The Scriptures of the New Testament were their own attestation. Certain books which claimed apostolic authority, and were, in some quarters, accepted for a time, gradually disappeared from the list, and survive only as ' apocryphal ' ; in contrast, which every reader can now discern, with those that are Divine. For, in addition to the external evidence, the intrinsic grounds on which the recognition of the Church was either granted or refused are open to ourselves. Between the canonical books and even the best of the uncanonical, there is a distinction which impressively reveals the limits of the unaided Christian intellect and imagination ^. The differ- ence has been aptly illustrated by the contrast of modern and ancient cities. The New Testament is not like the modern towns, with wide suburbs reaching out into the open country, so that the exact boundaries are indiscernible; but rather resembles some city of ancient times, surrounded by walls and bulwarks, well defined and separate from the waste beyond. 35. Gradual formation of the Canon. — How long a time elapsed before the formation of a Canon is quite un- known. The books at first appeared separately, in different localities, and at intervals of time ; were treasured by individual churches as apostolic ; and read, probably with other writings, in the Christian assemblies. The next step was to classify them in groups — the Gospels forming one division, the Pauline Epistles another ; while the Acts and General Epistles were a section by themselves. To these the Apocalypse was added ; and by the end of the second century the collection was practically complete ; the genuine- • See the New Testament Apocrypha^ edited by B. H. Cowper. The once well-known William Hone, in his sceptical days, produced a selection from these works to exhibit their parallel with the New Testament writings. He succeeded only in proving the wonderful contrast between the two. 38 THE NEW TESTAMENT of some books, however, remaining an open question until a later period. We begin with the Gospels. In the early Church many writings were extant professing to give an account of the life and character of our Lord. From Lu i^-^ we learn that the task had been taken in hand by writers who set themselves to transcribe the primitive oral gospel. But at an early period the Four Gospels absorbed and superseded these several accounts, being uni- versally recognized by the Church as authoritative on the ground of their apostolicity ; the Gospels of Mark and Luke being respectively penned under the influence of Peter and Paul. The consideration of their origin belongs to another part of this work. Suffice it here to say that the chain of testimony is complete. The Apostolic Fathers quote them, although without mentioning their authorship, in such a way as to show that their authority in the Church was fully recognized ^ Tatian the Assyrian, pupil of Justin Martyr, combined the Four Gospels into one 'Harmony.' Irenaeus, who in his early days had known Polycarp, disciple of the Apostle John, distinctly recognizes the ' holy qua- ternion ' of writers, giving mystic explanations of the number Four, which in their very absurdity testify to the reception of these books as Divine. Subsequent attestations come from every part of the Church : Tertullian in Africa, Athanasius in Alexandria, Cyril in Jerusalem, and many others, with one voice witnessing to these Four and to no others, as the accepted evangelic narratives. And to these the Book of Acts was added, by general consent, as the second part of Luke. These books then, we conclude, were written by Apostles, to whom our Saviour specially promised * The Apostolic Fathers : Clement of Kome, * Barnabas,' Polycarp, Ignatius, Hermas {The Shepherd), the Didache. ' Barnabas ' was the first to use the formula * it is written ' {yeypavrai) in citing the words of our Lord (Mt afli*). THE CANON 39 His Spirit that He might guide them into all truth, bring to their remembrance whatever He Himself had told them, and qualify them to give His gospel to the world *. 36. So of the Epistles of Panl. There are thirteen of them which bear his name. Generally he wrote by an amanu- ensis, who would become a witness of the genuineness of his writings ^ : in these instances he added his subscription and salutation c. His Epistles were sent by private mes- sengers d. Nine were addressed to public bodies. The earliest of them he commanded to be read in the public assembly ; the second, and indeed all the rest, were read in public too 6; and we know from Ignatius, Polycarp, and Clement, that his Epistles were regarded as inspired Scrip- ture, and read with the Law and Prophets of the Old Testament and the Gospels of the New i\ A yet earlier testimony is given in 2 Pet 3^^-^^, where a name is applied to them (' Scriptures ') which, though occurring fifty times in the New Testament, is in no other instance applied to any other than the canonical books of the Old Testament. 37. The remaining Books. — All the parts of the New Testament mentioned thus far were recognized as apostolic at latest by the close of the second century ; as were also I Peter and i John. The remaining books of the New Testament were called Antihgomena, or, from their forming a part of the Canon only after a second revision, the Deutero-Canonical. That position in the Canon they gained gradually ; at the beginning of the fourth century they were received by most of the churches, and at the end of that century they were received by all. * See further The Early Witness to the Four Gospels (' Present Day Tracts,* R.T.S., No. 78), by S.Walter Green, M.A. *» Ro i622. c I Cor i62i Col ^^^ •^ Ro 16^ Eph 621 Phil 226 QqI ^7.8^ • 2 Cor lis J Tj^ ^27 a xh 2^^ 3«-i^ Col 4^6. ' Ign. To Eph ch. la ; Polyc. To Phil 311-12 Clem. To Cor ch. 47. 40 THE NEW TESTAMENT The special evidence of each book will be given later, The point to be noticed is that the doubts which existed had reference not to the canonicity of the writings of James, Cephas, John, and Jude, but to the question whether the writings bearing their names were really written by them. Nor can these doubts excite surprise. The subject was one of deep interest. Many spurious compositions were abroad under the names of these very Apostles \ Apostolic teach- ing might be quoted in defence of caution ^. The internal evidence of the authorship of these Epistles is peculiar ; the Epistle to the Hebrews, for example, is without the author's name, and differs in style from the Epistles of Paul : the style of 2 Peter differs in the same way from the style of the first Epistle. In James and Jude the authors are de- scribed not as Apostles but as * servants ' of Christ, while in 2 and 3 John the writer describes himself as a presbyter or elder, not as an Apostle. Jude also refers to stories which are contained in apocryphal writings. All these Epistles moreover were addressed either to Christians generally or to private persons, not to specified churches. No body of men, therefore, was interested in preserving them, and external evidence in their favour was necessarily scanty. All these causes of doubt did operate, as we know. In the end there was universal conviction ; and the very doubts which deferred the reception of a small portion of Scripture in certain parts of the early Church now serve to confirm our faith in the rest. 38. Early Catalogues. — Between the years a. d. 200 and A. D. 400 fifteen or sixteen catalogues of the New Testament books were published. Their importance, as well as their variety and independence, is shown in the following brief enumeration « : — • Westcott On the Canon 512-520. •* 2 Th 2^-- i Jn 4*. * For further details, see Charteris. Canonicity (Kirchhofer's Quellen- 9ammlung), Westcott On the Canon q/ the New Testament, and the olde/ THE CANON 41 1. The Mnratorlan Fragfinent, the earliest: Latin MS., discovered by Muratori in the Ambrosian Library, Milan, 1740. Date, near the close of the second century (speaks of Pope Pius I [d. 157] as very recent). Formerly attributed to Caius the Presbyter, brother to Pius (' likely,' Salmon ; 'fictitiously,' Earnack) ; Bishop Lightfoot conjectures Hippo- lytus. The fragment, evidently translated from the Greek, begins with Luke, as the ' third Gospel,' implying the other two, and includes all the New Testament books excepting Hebrews, James, i and 2 Peter, and 2 and 3 John. 2. Clement of Alexandria (in Eusebius), beginning of the third century: first uses the distinction 'the Gospel' and 'the Apostle,' recognizes fourteen Epistles of Paul (including Hebrews), omits James, 2 Peter, 3 John : includes some extra-canonical books. 3. Orig'en (in Eusebius), d. 353, all, excepting James and Jude, to which, however, he refers elsewhere. 4. Eusebius Pamphilus, 315, all ; only that he specifies James, Jude, 2 Peter, a and 3 John, with the Apocalypse, as ' disputed ' by some. 5. Athanasius, 315, all. He speaks of the Shepherd of Hermas as useful, but not canonical ; of others as spurious. 6. Cyril of Jerusalem, 340, all but the Apocalypse. The 'disputed' books mentioned by Eusebius are now generally received. 7. Iiaodicene Council, 364, all, excepting Apocalypse. 8. Epiphanius of Salamis, 370, aU. 9. Gregory Nazianzen, 375, all but the Apocalypse. His list is in metrical form, as an aid to memory. 10. Amphilochius of Iconium, c. 380, includes all, but says that the majority exclude the Apocalypse. Also in metrical form. 11. Fhilastrius of Brescia, c. 380, all. He mentions thirteen Epistles of Paul, and the Epistle to the Hebrews, of which some, he says, doubt if it is his, while others deny the Johannine authorship of the Gospel and Apocalypse. 12. The Synod of Carthagfe, 397, at which Augustine was present, includes all, mentioning the books specifically. The Acts of this Synod are of great value by way of testimony. 13. Jerome, c. 382, includes all : only says that Hebrews is placed by many outside the Pauline circle. 14. Rufinus of Aquileia, c. 390, includes all. 15. Augustine, d. 430, includes and mentions aU, referring to Hebrews as Pauline. 16. Chrysostom, d. 407, in a 'Synopsis' attributed to him, but on work by Jeremiah Jones, 1726, A New and Full Method 0/ Settling thf Ccknonical Authority 0/ th» Ntfv Testament. 42 THE NEW TESTAMENT doubtful authority, enumerates fourteen Epistles of Paul, four Oospeh, the Acts, and three Catholic Epistles, omitting the remainder. The wide diffusion of the above testimony is worthy of note : — Palestine, Syria, and Cyprus, Nos. 4, 7, 8, 16 \ Asia Minor, 6, 9, 10 > Greek. Alexandria, 2, 3, 5 ) N. Africa, 12, 15 ) t i- Italy, r, 11, 13, 14 S After A.D. 400 there is no longer any room for doubt respecting the New Testament Canon. The Language of the New Testament 39. Hellenistic Greek. — The sixteenth century witnessed a singular discussion. Erasmus, after Laurentius Valla, having affirmed that the Greek of the New Testament was corrupted with Hebraisms, both of words and idioms, was opposed with great vehemence by H. Stephens, who, in his Preface to the New Testament (a. d. 1546), undertook to prove that the Greek of the inspired writers was pure and idiomatic. A long controversy springing out of these assertions, the respective parties were called Purists and Hellenists, or Hebraists. The topic was deemed important on several grounds. Inspired writers, it was argued, must employ pure and * perfect ' diction. It was replied that a Hebraistic tincture in the language was an evidence of genuineness. Facts also were conclusive on that side, and the controversy is now practically forgotten. The ' perfection ' of inspired composition is clearly not so much classic purity as intelligibleness and adaptation to its proper end. The Greek of Scripture was written by Hellenists, i.e. by Jews who spoke Greek, whose modes of thought were formed on Hebrew originals, and whose minds were steeped in the language of the Septuagint Version of the Jewish Scriptures. Hence an instructive rule of interpretation. A prime source of New Testament interpretation is the Greek Old Testament ; and we must THE LANGUAGE 43 gather thence, as far as possible, the meaning and illustra- tions of its terms. 40. The Greek tongue is it?elf a mixture of dialects. The Hellenes, or Greeks, consisted originally of several tribes, of whom two, the Dorians and Ionian s, became chief. The Doric dialect w^as first in time and in influence: it is rough and broad -sounding. Among its chief writers are Pindar, Sappho, Theocritus, and Bion. The 'Ionic was second in time. It is soft and smooth, was spoken at first in Attica, and then, as the lonians migrated to Asia Minor, in that district. Among its authors are Herodotus and Anacreon. The Attic dialect was formed after the lonians left Attica, and occupies in quality a middle place between the Ionic and Doric. The chief Greek authors wrote in this dialect : Thucydides, Plato, Xenophon, Demosthenes, iEschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. After the freedom of Greece was destroyed by Philip of Macedon, these dialects became gradually blended, and the Hellenic or ' common dialect ' was formed, of which the base was Attic. The conquests of Alexander, and the resulting fusion of different peoples, led to further modifications in dialect. Macedonian and Alexandrian idioms became common in Greece, and especially in Egypt and the East. At Alexandria many Jews resided. There the Septuagint was written, and as the writers were Jews, the Alexandrian Greek which they spoke was modified so as to embody the thoughts and idioms of the Hebrew. And this is the language of the New Testament. It is Hellenistic, or more properly, Hebrew-Greek : the common dialect (77 Koivrj), with a mixture of others, and the whole modified by Jews of Alexandria and Palestme. Hence words and phrases from foreign sources, Aramaic, Latin, Persian, Egyptian: hence words peculiar in their orthography or form, in their 44 THE NEW TESTAMENT inflexion or gender : hence words common to the ancient dialects, but not usual in the Hellenic, and hence also words and phrases in senses peculiarly Jewish or Christian. Aramaic expressions may be seen, Mk 14" (abba), Ac i^' (field of blood), Mk 3^'' (sons of thunder), Mt ^^'^ (vain, foolish). Latin words, Mt 526 io29 1726 i828 26^3 27'^^65 ^^ j^ss ^^ jg2o j^ 2^5 Ac 19I2 ; and phrases, Mt 12^* Mk is^-*^ Lu 12'^ Ac 17^ ; Persian expressions, Mt a' ^41 2732 ]yik 1521 Lu 23*3 Ac 8" (paradise, a garden of beautiful trees) ; Egyptian expressions, Mt 27'' ' Lu 16^^. The lesson taught by these facts is that while we need a knowledge of Greek generally in order to read the New Testament, we need, in order to understand it, a knowledg-e of New Testament Greek, and of the Septuagint Version. So essential is this knowledge, that a merely English reader, with only his English Bible, especially in the Revised Version, may perhaps understand the New Testament better than the scholar who brings to the investigation of a particular passage only classical acquisitions. Among aids to the study of New Testament Q-reek special mention may be made of tho Grammars by Winer (ed. Moulton) and Blass ; the Lexicons of Grimm (ed. Thayer) and of Cremer; and of the Con- cordances, to the Septuagint by Hatch and Redpath, to the New Testament by Moulton and Geden. To these may be added Hatch's Essays in Biblical Greek ; while the less advanced student may use the Handbook to the Grammar of the Greek Testament by S. G. Green, the Language 0/ the New Testament and the Writers 0/ the New Testament by W. H. Simcox. Manuscripts 41. The earliest MSS. of the New Testament books were no doubt written on papyrus, a fragile material, soon ruined by handling, and preserved only under exceptional conditions in a dry climate, like that of Egypt. Recent excavations in Egypt have been extraordinarily fruitful in the discovery of papyrus fragments. Professor Weissmann, of Heidelberg, writes : 'The contents of these non-literary writings (i.e. leases, con- tracts, letters, school-exercises, &c.) are as manifold in their variety ns life itself. Those in Greek, numbering many thousands, cover a period of about a thousand years. The oldest go back to the early Ptolemies, and thus to the third century B.C. ; there are others that bring ub far down into Byzantiixe times. The whole shitting scene of MANUSCKIPTS 45 Greek and Roman history in Egypt during this long interval passes in these leaves before our eyes*.' Other MSS. on papyrus, belonging to the first century a.d., have been discovered in the com*se of Egyptian exploration. Among these Dr. Kenyon mentions a beautiful copy of the third book of the Odyssey, three orations of Hyperides, an oration of Isocrates, and the famous copy of Aristotle's Polity of tlit Athenians. These are all in the British Museum, and in their different styles of penmanship, varying from that of a professional scribe to that of common everyday writing, well illustrate what the lost autographs of the Evangelists and Apostles must have been. A few scraps from papj'^rus copies of the Gospels and Epistles have been found in the vast store of MSS. brought from Egypt. None of these fragments are earlier than the third century. A leaf from Matthew, ii-9.i2.i4--2o^ and a somewhat larger transcript from John, 123-31.33-41 2o^^~^'^- 19-25^ were found by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt at Oxyrhyn- chus, 120 miles south of Cairo. The former is now in the Library of the Pennsylvania University, the latter in the British Museum. To the same explorers we owe also the discoveries in 1897 and 1903 of the Logia, or Sayings of our Lord, written probably about a. d. 200 ^. Dr. Kenyon gives a list of five further extracts from the Gospels and four from the Epistles, among the papyri from Egypt, belonging to the fourth and fifth centuries. It is very probable that other fragments may yet be brought to light. Those already discovered confirm the New Testament text, especially that of the earliest MSS. In the fourth century the use of vellum instead of papyrus for important MSS. gave to them for the first time a permanent form ; while the conversion of Constantine led to the careful and even sumptuous production of the Christian writings. The codex ^ instead of the roll form * Encyclopcedia Biblica, vol. iii, art. Papyri. •' See transcript, facsimile and rendering of both, published for the Egypt Exploration Fund (Oxford University Press, 1897 and 1904). * Codex, originally caudex, a tablet of wood, generally covered with 46 THE NEW TESTAMENT was also now adopted, so that the Now Testament Scriptures could for the first time be conveniently united in a single volume. Eusebius states in his L\Je of Constantine that the Emperor ordered fifty copies of the Scriptures on vellum for the churches in his new capital. Two of these have perhaps survived in Codices B and N. When new vellum was too costly for the transcriber, the writing was often washed or scraped away so as to admit the substitution of another work, hence called a 'codex rescriptus ' or ' palimpsest ' (from the Greek 7ra\tfjn(/r)a-Tos, ' scraped again '). It sometimes happened that the erasure was incomplete, or the ink of the original proved un- expectedly durable, so that the old writing reappeared. See Codex C, below. The MSS. of the New Testament are divided into two classes, uncial, or written in capital {majuscule) letters, and cursive, or written in small running-hand [minuscule) letters. Generally speaking, the former are the earlier, although, as some uncials are as late as the tenth century, while some cursives are as early as the ninth, the two to some extent overlap in date. A question of much interest is how to ascertain the age of a MS. In reply, the following points may be especially noted. 42. In the earliest times the New Testament was divided into three parts : the Gospels (to evayyeXiov), the Epistles and Acts (to dTroo-ToAtKoV), and the Revelation (17 d7roKaA.vi/^ts). In the third century the Gospels were divided into two wax and written on with an iron needle called a stylus (hence the word style applied to literary composition). See Is 8^ 30' Hab 2'^ Lu i^'. The codices, strung together by a cord passed through holes in the upper left-hand corner, were in the form of a modern book, in contrast with the volumina or rolls. Hence the name was given to MSS. of any material in book form. As the tablets were much used for legal purposes, a system of laws was called a code. MANUSCRIPTS 47 kinds of chapters, the longer called titA.oi, or breves ; the shorter Kc^aAata, or capitula. The latter were originally introduced by Ammonius, and were thence called Ammonian sections. In the fourth century they were in common use in the Gospels, and to these sections Eusebius adapted his tables of references, called from him the Eusebian Canons (a. d. 315-340). Further notes of date. — In the year 459 Euthalius, a deacon of Alexandria, published an edition of tlie Epistles of Paul, divided into KecpdKata, with summaries of their contents. In 490 he similarly divided the Acts and the Catholic Epistles. He himself states also that he introduced accents into MSS. copied under his supervision — a custom, however, which did not become common till the eighth century. He also added to the Pauline Epistles the subscriptions (several of them erroneous) which are still found in the English version. To make MSS. more legible, Euthalius further divided them into lines, called arixoi, consisting in some instances of as many letters as could be placed in the width of a page, and in others of as many words as could be read uninteri-uptedly. This style of writing soon became common. In the eighth century, however, the lines ceased to be written separately, and were indicated only by dots. In the same century other marks of punctuation were introduced, and later still the stichometrical dots were omitted. About the same time the letters began to be compressed and slightly inclined. In the eighth century these changes were still more marked ; in the ninth the note of interrogation and the comma were introduced ; and in the tenth the uncial style of writing had been neai-ly superseded by the cursive. It may be added that our modern division into chapters is attributed to Stephen Langton (d. 1228), and that the verses are due to Robert Stephens, 1551. From these facts various rules are deduced : — A MS. in cursive character is not older than the tenth century, or in some rare instances, the ninth. A MS. with compressed or inclined uncials, or with notes of interro- gation or commas, is not older than the ninth century. A MS. systematically punctuated, or marking the arixoi, is not older than the eighth century. A MS. in uncial letters, divided into lines or accented, or with the Euthalian divisions or titles or subscriptions, is not older than the fifth century. A MS. with Eusebian canons is not older than the fourth century. These rules lead (it will be observed) to negative conclusiona only. 48 THE NEW TESTAMENT When th« facts are applied to ascertain positive results, much minute inquiry and criticism is necessary, demanding the trained skill of the palaeographist. Only results can now be given, but the dates assigned are accepted by the great body of scholars. 43. The more important MSS. of each class are the following, enumerated here because all readers of the New Testament ought to be familiar with at least the names, dates, and comparative value of the chief examples of the sacred text. Detailed lists will be found in Prebendary- Scrivener's Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament ; and, in a more succinct form, in the English translation of Dr. Eberhard Nestle's Introduction to the Textual Criticism of the Greek New Testament. Dr. Nestle writes : ' For no literary production of antiquity is there such a wealth of manuscripts as for the New Testament. Our classical scholars would rejoice were they as fortunate with Homer or Sophocles, Plato or Aristotle, Cicero or Tacitus, as Bible students are with their New Testament. The oldest com- plete manuscripts of Homer that we have date from the thirteenth century a. d., and only separate papyrus frag- ments go back to the Alexandrian age. All that is extant of Sophocles we owe to a single MS., dating from the eighth or ninth century, in the Laurentian Library at Florence. But of the New Testament 3,829 MSS. have been catalogued to the present time.' It will be noted, however, that only a very few of the MSS. as here enumerated contain the whole of the New Testament. Every fragment is counted as a MS. The Chief Uncial Manuscripts. Fourth to the Tenth Century. w Akph, SinaiticuB. — Discovered by Tischendorf in the Convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, 1859. Fourth century. Contains Old Testament (Greek) and th« whole New Testament ; also the JEpistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas (part). Now at St. Petersburg. MANUSCRIPTS 49 Published in i86a in four vols., fol., in facsimile type ; also at Leipsic, 1863, 4to, 1864, Bvo, in ordinary type. A, Alexandrinus. — Presented to King Charles I of England by Cyril- Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, 1627. Middle or end of the fifth century. Contains the New and Old Testament (Greek) from Mt 25' with omissions (Jn 6^0— 8^2 ^ q^^^ ^15 — jgS)^ ^Iso the First Epistle of Clement of Rome and a small portion of the Second (a homily). In the British Museum. Published by Woide, 1786 ; by the Trustees of the British Museum, photographic facsimile, 1879 ; and in ordinary type, i860 (Cowper), 1864 (Hansell). B, Vaticanus. — Placed in the Vatican Library, Rome, by Pope Nicolas V (1447-55). Fourth century. Contains the Old Testament in Greek (with omissions), and the New complete down to Heb 9^* : includes the General Epistles, but wants the Pastoral Epistles, Phile- mon, and the Apocalypse. Published by Cardinal Mai, in five folio vols., 1857 ; in facsimile type by order of Pius IX, 187a ; and photo- graphed in 1889. An edition was published in ordinary type by Tischendorf (1867) which follows the MS. line by line. C, Ephraemi. — A palimpsest, several works of Ephraem the Syrian having been copied in the twelfth century over the original text. Happily, the ink of the later scribe proved less durable than that of the earlier. Written in the fifth century, probably in Egypt. Con- tains fragments of the Old Testament, and all the books of the New Testament (with large omissions), excepting a Thessalonians and a John. In the National Library at Paris. Published, so far as decipherable, by Tischendorf, 1843. D, Bezce. — Greek and Latin, in parallel columns. Discovered in the Monastery of Irenseus at Lyons, and presented to the University of Cambridge, 1581, by Theodore Beza. Written, probably, near the beginning of the sixth century. Contains (with omissions) the Gospels and Acts. Remarkable for its deviations from the ordinary text, and for additions. In the Cambridge University Library. Published in facsimile type by Kipling, 1793, and in photographic facsimile in 1899 ; also by Dr. Scrivener, in ordinary type, 1864. Dj, Claromontanus. — Discovered at Clermont, near Beauvais, whence its name. Written in the sixth century. Like the Codex Bezae, it is in Greek and Latin, and supplements that MS. also by con- taining the Pauline Epistles (with omissions) and Epistle to Hebrews. It has no other New Testament books. The work of several later scribes is discernible in the MS. In the National Library at Paris. Published by Tischendorf, 1852. These six MSS. exhaust the list of first-class uncials. Some others, however, though partial and incomplete, are of great value, and afford 60 THE NEW TESTAMENT suggestive readings. To give a complete list would be beyond the scope of the present work. Mention should, however, be made of the Codex Basiliensis (E), seventh or eighth century, brought to Basel in 1431 by Cardinal J. B. Ragusio, probably from Constantinople. It contains nearly the whole of the Gospels. The Codex Regius (L), eighth century ; in the National Library at Paris. It also contains the Gospels, with omissions, and is valuable as containing the double conclusion of Mark's Gospel. Another MS. of the eighth century, Codex Zacynthius (B), is a palimpsest from Zante, presented by General Macaulay to the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1821 and now in the Society's Library in London. It contains the greater part of Luke's Gospel, and is remarkable as the earliest MS. with a Commentary. A MS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (r), of the year 844, containing the greater part of the Gospels, and one in the Vatican Library, Rome (S), of 949, are noteworthy as the earliest dated MSS. in existence. Finally, the Codex Augtensis in Trinity College, Cambridge (F), of the ninth century, from the Monastery of Augia Dives (now Reichenau) on Lake Constance, contains the greater part of the Pauline Epistles, accompanied by a Latin Version. It was published under the editorship of Dr. Scrivener at Cambridge, 1859. In all, the number of Uncial Manuscripts, of the whole or part of the Greek Testament now known, is given* as follows : — Gospels loi Acts and Catholic Epistles . 22 Pauline Epistles 27 Apocalypse 6 44. The Chief Cursive Manuscripts. — A later style of writing, 'smaller and more manageable,' was required as the demand for New Testament MSS. became more exacting. The need was met by the introduction into the scriptorium of the running or ' cursive ' handwriting already prevalent in commercial and other correspondence. In this, ' minuscule' forms of the letters were employed in contrast with the * Kenyon's Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament. Dr. Scrivener and Dr. Nestle give 127 as the total. 'The difference,' says Dr. Kenyon, * is due mainly to an increase in the smaller fragments. MANUSCRIPTS 51 'majuscule ' or capitals of the older manuscripts. Strictly speaking, the word ' minuscule ' applies to the smaller form of the letters, 'cursive' to their being joined together ; but, as the two generally concurred, the terms are often employed interchangeably. For about two centuries the uncial and the cursive styles were both used, but by degrees the latter prevailed ; and it is in this form that the great majority of New Testament MSS. have come down to modern times^ beginning with the ninth century and ending about the time of the invention of printing. Paper was employed as well as vellum, and these greatly vary in style and durability. The cursives are noted by Arabic numerals, in separate lists for the Gospels (Evv.), the Acts and General Epistles (Acts), the Pauline Epistles (Paul.), and the Reve- lation (Apoc). Manuscripts containing more than one division, after a certain point, have a separate number for each section (e. g. a MS. of the entire New Testament in the British Museum is ' Evan. 584, Acts 228, Paul. 269, Apoc. 97 '^'j, an inconvenient method of enumeration, which modern editors are striving as far as possible to simplify. In all, the latest list of known cursives gives : — Gospels 1420 Acts and Catholic Epistles 450 Pauline Epistles . . . 520 Apocalypse 194 2584 But, since many MSS. contain more than one section, the list of separate copies is reduced to 1,825. The first accurate list, that of Griesbach, gives 236. Scholtz enumerates 469 of the Gospels, 192 of the Acts and Catholic Epistles, 246 of the Pauline Epistles, and 88 of the Apocalypse, a grand total of 995. The difference between this and the foregoing number shows the progress in research which has been made during the past three-quarters of a century. * Kenyon, after Dr. Gregory. £ 2 52 THE NEW TESTAMENT For a detailed list of the cursives the student is referred to Dr. Scrivener's Introduction, Their testimony to the text is naturally- less valuable than that of the uncials ; and as in many cases they are but copies of the same examples, or of one another, they cannot always be regarded as independent authorities. But on the other hand it must be remembered that, in the words of Dr. Nestle, Hhe text of a late manuscript may be derived from a very early and good source through comparatively few intermediaries,' and that ' it is possible to recon- struct a lost original by means of a comparison of several witnesses.* This principle renders the collation of the minuscules an important part of the textual critic's labours, while adding not a little to the difficulty of the task. 45. Lectionaries. — Another source of evidence is in the Lectionaries, or collections of the Gospels and Epistles for reading in the Greek Church. These are naturally executed with special care, and in large clear characters. For the passages contained in them no more valuable testimony of a similar date exists. Of the Evangdistaria, or Lessons from the Gospels, more than a thousand copies are known to exist, and of the Fraxapostoli, or Lessons from the Acts and Epistles, about three hundred. Until after a further examination of these authorities, as well as of the hitherto uncollated minuscules, it can hardly be said that finality in determining the original text of the New Testa- ment has been reached \ Ancient Versions 46. The Peshitta Syriac version has already been de- scribed in connexion with the Old Testament^'. Of the New, it contains the whole, excepting 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and Apocalypse. Considerable addition has been made in recent years to our knowledge of the Syriac New Testament. In the year 1842, among the MSS. brought to * There is an interesting Table of these Lessons in Scrivener pp. 78-86. ^ Sew § 31. ANCIENT VERSIONS 53 the British Museum from the Syrian monastery in the Nitrian Desert, was an incomplete version of the Gospels in a MS. of the fifth century, subsequently edited and published by the Rev. Dr. W. Cureton, then Assistant Keeper of MSS. in the Museum. The ' Curetonian Syriac,' as it is called, differs in many respects from the Peshitta, and is believed by the most competent scholars to contain a yet earlier form of the text. Another Syriac MS. of the Gospels, also incomplete, a palimpsest, was discovered in 1892, at the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, by the sisters Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson, of Cambridge. In 1894 it was edited by the discoverers and Professor Rendel Harris. This 'Sinaitic' text closely resembles the Curetonian, and is believed to be prior in date. Both are of much interest and critical value. Together they form the ' Old Syriac ' text. Among Syriac versions may also be placed the Diates- saron** of Tatian, a pupil of Justin Martyr — a Harmony of the Gospels, with the texts interwoven into one narrative, dating from about a. d. 170, and ' the earliest Life of Christ ever compiled from the original narratives.' Tatian's own work is lost, but an Arabic translation has been preserved, two copies of which are in the Vatican Library. There is also a Commentary upon the Diatessaron by Ephraem the re- nowned Syrian Father, which has sui-vived in an Armenian translation, rendered into Latin and published by Moesinger at Venice, 1876. This Commentary contains large extracts from Tatian's compilation, quoted verhafmi, and, together with the Arabic, has rendered the work accessible to scholars. It is of unique value, not only in attesting the early origin and reception of the Four Gospels, but in throwing light upon the original text. Another translation of the New Testament into Syriac was made by Philoxenus of Hierapolis (Mabug) in Eastern • 5ia TcaadpojVf * by (means of) four,' i. e. tki« Four Evangelists. 54 THE NEW TESTAMENT Syria, 508 a. d,, a century after which date it was edited by Thomas of Harkel, a successor of Philoxenus in the see. This Philoxenian-Harclean version, as it is called, contains the whole of the New Testament excepting the Apocalypse. A MS. of this version, preserved in New College, Oxford, belonged to the martyr Ridley. The extreme literalness of the translation, often following the Greek to the violation of the Syriac idiom, renders it especially useful to textual critics. Yet another version, which has come down to us chiefly in the form of Lectionaries, or selected passages for public reading, is called the Palestinian or the ' Jerusalem ' copy. Fragments have been discovered in various places, one of the most important by Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson in the Sinaitic monastery. Its date is still under discussion. An Armenian version, closely connected with the older Syriac, and belonging probably to the end of the fourth century, contains some interesting features, but as yet has been imperfectly examined. A copy of the tenth century contains the last twelve verses of Mark's Gospel, with a heading to the eff"ect that they are by 'Ariston the elder.' In the Egyptian or Coptic family of dialects the versions in Mcmphitic, sometimes called Bohairic (Lower Egypt), and the Thebaic or Sahidic (Upper Egypt) are the principal. In Abyssinia, the Ethiopic translation was made when Chris- tianity became the national religion, about the end of the fifth century, and is still current. This version is included in Walton's Polyglot, but is too little known to have become as yet of critical service. 47. For the Old Latin and the Vnlgate versions, see § 30. The Passion of the ScilUtan Martyrs^, known (by the mention * Scilla, a place in that part of Numidia which belonged to Procon- sular Africa. The translation is by Dean Ai-mitage Robinson. See Ante-Nicene Fathers (Clark) : additional volume, 1897. EARLY QUOTATIONS 55 of Roman Consuls) to belong to the year a. d. i8o, is an evidence of the value already attached to the old Latin Scriptures. * What,' said the proconsul, ' are the things in your chest ? ' Speratus replied, * Books and Epistles of Paul, a just man.' Existing MSS. of this version go back to the fourth century a. d. Among these, the C. Bohiensis at Turin, formerly at the Irish monastery at Bobbio, founded by Columban, is especially interesting, as having, according to probable tradition, belonged to the founder himself. It contains about half of Mark's Gospel and fifteen chapters of Matthew's. Of the Vulgate New Testament, the whole or part, manuscripts are exceedingly numerous, dating from the sixth century to the invention of printing. One of the earliest and most important copies (0. Fuldensis, 541-6 A. D.) contains the Four Gospels in a continuous narrative, on Tatian's plan. It is noteworthy that the first printed book (by Gutenberg and Schoeffer, about 1452) was the superb folio edition of the Old and New Testaments in the Vulgate version, the first example of a complete book printed with movable types. Of the Gothic version by Ulphilas, noted § 32, the most celebrated MS. is the C. Argenteus of the Four Gospels, written in silver letters, but unfortunately imperfect. It is the choicest treasure in the library of Upsal, Sweden. The above list comprises all the important versions quoted in critical editions of the New Testament, and will enable the English reader to follow the references in such a work, e. g., as the Variorum Bible. Early Quotations 48. A third help to the student of the New Testament text is afforded by the quotations in early Christian writers, including also the 'heretical.' Reference has 56 THE NEW TESTAMENT already been made (§§ 34-36) to such citations as tes- timony to the Canon. They are of further signal im- portance in rectifying the text. From this importance, however, two circumstances somewhat detract. One is, that in quoting Scripture, then as now, the text is often given without verbal accuracy. Preachers, and even writers, in citing texts from memory, often fall into extraordinary mistakes. 'Dr. Salmon produces a remarkable instance of this in Jeremy Taylor, who quotes the text "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God " nine times, yet only twice in the same form, and never once correctly •\' How much likelier such mistakes when the copies of Holy Scripture were far less accessible than at present ! Very strikingly do the quotations from the Old Testament in the New show that verbal precision was not regarded as essential. The other consideration is that copyists of patristic writings were prone to mistake, or to intentional alteration — substituting, for instance, a familiar for an unfamiliar reading. Hence this particular kind of testimony must be taken with certain limitations : it is nevertheless valuable, as often showing the state of the text at the time of the writer. Such quotations occur especially in Clement of Rome, Tatian (the Diatessaron), Justin Martyr, Irenseus, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen ; and as witnesses to the Latin text, in Tertullian and Cyprian of Carthage, Ambrose and Augustine. In another part of the present work, under the head of Evidence, a summary of this early witness to the New Testament is given b. The late Dean Burgon, with prodigious industry, collected and indexed the patristic quotations, Greek and Latin, his MS. being now in the British Museum. To take four names alone, the Dean discovered quotations as follows, besides many less certain references : — * F. G. Kenyon, Handbook, p. 207. *> Se« § 67. EARLY QUOTATIONS 67 Gospels Acts Cath. Epp. Paul's Epp. Apoc. Total. Justin Martyr 268 10 63 43 3 387 Irenaeus 1038 194 23 499 65 1819 Clement of Alex. 1017 44 207 1127 II 3406 Origen 9231 349 399 7778 165 17922 49. Ecclesiastical Witnesses. - -The following Table presents at one view the principal ecclesiastical and other writers of the first four centuries who show, directly or indirectly, that they themselves, and the churches which they represent, accept the existing New Testament Canon as a whole, or in its several parts. The date given is in most cases that of the writer's death (t) ; but sometimes it is impossible to do more than indicate the time about which he flourished (fl.). Sects are dated at the time of their greatest activity. A star (*) denotes the author of a Catalogue. (See list, § 38.) First Century. New Testament quoted as genuine and authentic^ and as a distinct collec- tion. Quoted as of peculiar authority, or as Divine ; expounded and com- mented upon. Appealed to by various sects, and by adver- saries. ' Barnabas,' Epistle, or second century (?) Hermas, Shepherd, or second century (?) Clement of Rome fioo ' Barnabas.' Hermas. Clement. Ignatius . . . 1 115 Polycarp. . . ti67 Ignatius. Polycarp. Second Century. Quadratus . . Jl.iso Basilides, Alex. . 122 Papias . . . t 163 Valentinus, Rome 140 Dionysius of Dionysius. Sethites, Egypt . 140 Corinth . . f 163 Carpocratians, Justin Martyr . f 167 Justin Martyr. Alex. . . . 145 Melito * . . . c. 180 Marcion . . . 150 Hegesippus . . + 175 Montanists . . 157 Athenagoras . fl. 176 Tatian . . . . 176 Eucratites . . . 165 Theophilus(Ant.)t 180 Theophilus. Celsus .... 178 *Muratorian . . c. 196 Theodotus ) Irenaeus . . . t302 Irenseus. Artemon ( '93 * Fragment. New. Books of < Old Testament ' enumerated ; implying a 58 THE NEW TESTAMENT Third Century. Ammonius, Hermogenes, Alex. . .fl. aoo-35 Carthage . . tao3 Cyprian . . . t258 Cyprian. ♦Origen . . . t253 Origen. *Clement, Alex. t2I7 Clement. Tertullian . . t 220 Tertullian. Minucius Felix fl. 220 Dionysius, Alex . t265 Dionysius. Hippolytus . . + 250 Novatian, Rome Sabellians,Egypt PaulofSamosata, Antioch . . t 251 258 265 Commodian . . fl. 270 Manichaeans, Persia . . . 274 Victorinus Pe- Victorinus. tavensis . . A 290 Porphyry, Rome Lucian . . f 305 c. 312 Lactantius . . t325 *Eu8ebius . . t340 Fourth Century. Eusebius, Nico. fl. 335 Apollinaris, Laodicea . . fl. 362 Laodicean Council 363 Damasus, Rome t366 Hilary,Poictiers f 3^7 Athanasius . . + 373 *Amphilochius, Iconium . . c. 380 * Cyril, Jerus. . + 386 *Philastrius .fc 387 ♦Gregory Nazi- anzen . . . + 391 Didymus, Alex, f 39^ Ambrose of Milan 1 397 *Synod of Carthage 397 ♦Epiphanius, Cyprus. . tc.403 ♦Chrysostom . 1 407 ♦Jerome . . . t42o ♦Augustine . . f 43° ♦Rufinus . . . c. 410 Arians Donatists 318 328 Julian, Emp. . f 365 Athanasius . . +373 Ephraem Syrus 1 378 Basil, Caesarea . f 379 Cyril, Jerus. Gregory Nazianzen. Ambrose. Epiphanius. Palladius . , fl. 407 Jerome. Priscillianists ApoUinarians 378 378 Pelagians 41C PRINTED EDITIONS OF THE TEXT 59 This evidence is sometimes called the historical. If its truth be acknowledged, it places an inquirer in the position of a contemporary of our Lord, leaving the claims of His religion to be established by other evidence. Printed Editions of the Text 50. These editions, for all practical j^urposes, date from the invention of printing. In preparing the Greek Testa- ment for the press it was necessary to consult all accessible MSS., as well as the other sources mentioned above. Hence a succession of editions down to the present time. The value of each obviously depends, first on the extent and accuracy of the editor's knowledge, and secondly on his ability and sagacity in deciding between various readings, as well as on other doubtful points. Great learning, in- dustiy, and critical acumen have been brought to the task by scholars who have undertaken it, and whose names and work are noted below. The result of their labours alone is given ; but in a succeeding chapter will be noted, as a sequel to the enumeration, the lines on which they proceed, with a selection of illustrative examples. It is remarkable that the Greek Testament did not appear in print until nearly seventy years after the invention of the art about 1450. The Hebrew Scriptures were printed by the Jews in 1488 (the Psalter in 1477), the Latin Vulgate by Gutenberg and Schoeffer about 1452, but the Greek Testament was first printed by Cardinal Ximenes in the Complutensian Polyglot in 1514 and published in 1521, and by Erasmus in 15 16. 51. The ' Received Text ' of the Greek Testament is founded on the texts of Erasmus and of the Complutensian editors, as re-edited by R. Stephens (1550) and printed by the Elzevirs at Leyden ^, 1624, 1633 These texts were printed from a very imperfect collation of MSS., most of * The phrase ' Received Text ' is probably due to the Elzevirs : Textum ergo habes nunc ab omnibus receptum.' Pr^ace to 1633 ed. 60 THE NEW TESTAMENT them modern ; and there remained for future editors the need of a much more extensive examination of authorities. 52. Critical Editions. — This important task has been the work of nearly two centuries and a half. It was initiated by Brian Walton, afterwards Bishop of Chester, who examined for his great Polyglot (1657) some sixteen MSS. in addition to those previously collated, including especially the Codex Alexandrinus and the Codex Bezcc, com- paring also the renderings of the ancient versions. John Fell, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, about twenty years afterwar(ls, prepared an edition with various readings from about a hundred MSS. ; but his labours M^ere valuable chiefly as assisting Dr. John Mill, also of Oxford, in pre- paring his edition of 1707, which had occupied him for thirty years, and was based not only upon MSS. and versions, but upon quotations from the early Fathers ; con- taining also JPrcHegomena, in which his method was fully described and vindicated. Mill's edition having been as- sailed, among others by Dr. Whitby, on account of its departure from the traditional text, the erudite Richard Bentley took up the challenge and vindicated the true principles of textual criticism ; at the same time employing competent scholars still further to collate the MSS. and versions in foreign libraries. Bentley never completed his proposed edition of the New Testament, but among his assis- tants was J. J. Wetstein of Basle, who published his great work in 1751, still valuable, not only for its marginal various readings and its Prolegomena, but for its collection of passages from classical Greek authors, illustrating the words and phrases of the New Testament. Meanwhile a critical edition had been published (1734) by J. A. Bengel, of Tubingen, based chiefly upon Mill, and remarkable chiefly for the attempt to discriminate between the 'African ' and * Asiatic ' authorities — a suggestion which bore much fruit in succeed- ing researches. PRINTED EDITIONS OF THE TEXT 61 The way was now prepared for an important advance, and in 1774 and following years J. J. Griesbach of Jena canied on the work of his predecessors, achieving new and larger results. His principal edition, with critical apparatus and Prolegomena, appeared in Halle and London, 1796, 1806. LikeBengel, Griesbach classified his authorities, but introduced a third division, designating them respectively as 'Alexandrian,' 'Constantinopolitan,' and 'Western'; and estimating the value of any particular reading not by the number of individual MSS., but by the 'families' which contained it. Griesbach also introduced, much more largely than before, the best attested variants into the text itself, placing others in the margin, with a system of marks by which he indicated his estimate of their comparative proba- bility. In the meantime other important additions to the knowledge of the subject had been made. In 1782-8 Ch.F.MATTHJii, of Moscow, published an edition, remarkable chiefly for containing the readings sanctioned by what was afterwards called the Constantinopolitan recension ; while Alter at Vienna (1786-7), Birch and Adler in Italy, Moldenhauer and Tychsen in Spain, and others elsewhere, were busy completing inquiries which were to supply Griesbach with materials for his critical apparatus. The results were embodied in the edition of the New Testament published by Andrew Birch, at Copenhagen, 1788-1801. The edition (1830-6) of John M. A. Scholz, Eoman Catholic Dean of Theology in the University of Bonn, is specially remarkable for its large number of MSS. col- lated and catalogued. He thus prepared the way for his successors, while his own conclusions are of little critical value. He adhered, for the most part, to the ' Constantino- politan ' readings. Dr. Carl Lachmann, of Berlin, on the other hand, mostly prefers the 'Constantinopolitan,' but the great characteristic of his epoch-making New Testament (1842-50) is the value which he attached to the earliest 62 THE NEW TESTAMENT authorities, disregarding in great measure the division into families. His great aim was as far as possible to restore the text of the fourth century, wholly ignoring the Textus Receptus as an authority ; and where his authorities differed he had recourse, more than any of his predecessors, to the old Latin versions. Dr. S. P. Tregelles, of Plymouth, to a great extent follows Lachmann, his critical edition of the Greek Testament being avowedly founded on the authority of * the oldest Greek manuscripts, the ancient versions down to the seventh century, and the citations of early ecclesi- astical writers, including Eusebius. No account is made of the Received Text, or of the great mass of cursive MSS.' His beautiful edition ajDpeared in parts from 1857 to 1872, and an appendix, containing Prolegomena, was published in 1879, four years after his death, under the editorship of Dr. Hort and A. W. Streane. But by far the most important name of the period is that of CoNSTANTiNE VON TisciiENDORF, wlioso Completed work (eighth edition^) was published at Leipsic 1869-72, followed after his death in 1874 by Dr. C. R. Gregory's Prolegomena. Dr. Tischendorfs great discovery (1859) of the MS., denomi- nated from the monastery where it was found the Codex Sinaiticus (n), constituted an era in New Testament criticism, and naturally affected his latest edition, the preceding seven being superseded. His critical apparatus is wonderfully com plete, and the full citation of authorities enables the student to form his own judgement as to the conclusions. The Textus Receptus is again ignored, the classification of authorities into families is disregarded, and the editor's judgement is held by many succeeding critics to be often at fault. Tischendorf was greater in the collection and arrangement of materials, where indeed he is unrivalled, than in the forming of conclusions. Not the least important part of * The date of the earlier editions were 1841, 1843, 1842, 1849, ^^50, 1854, 1859. FEINTED EDITIONS OF THE TEXT 63 his life's work was in the editing of ancient MSS. Besides the Sinaitic MS., the Vatican (B), and the Codex Ephraemi (D), many manuscripts containing valuable portions of the New Testament were edited by him, so that he accomj^lished more than any other scholar had done in making the uncial evidence for the text accessible to all readers. The work of Dr. Henry Alford, Dean of Canterbury, should here be noticed. His New Testament (1849-61, with a revised and enlarged edition 1868), besides an exegetical commentary, contains a revised text with a full critical apparatus. He generally follows Tischendorf, but by no means slavishly, and his work may often be usefully con- sulted by the New Testament student. The Greek Testament edited by B. F. Westcott, late Bishop of Durham, and Dr. F. J. A. Hoet appeared in 1881 — the outcome of thirty years' friendship and co-opera- tion between these two distinguished Cambridge scholars. An elaborate Introduction by Hort sets forth in detail the principles and method of the work. The classification of authorities into ' families ' is revived, but with much greater elaboration, and the probable history of growth and change in the text is traced with much skill. The work has been prepared in all respects with the greatest care ; and although the editors have not given a critical apparatus, which in fact could have added little or nothing to that of Tischendorf, there are special notes on controverted and difficult readings which greatly enhance the value of the book. 53. Fleas for the 'Traditional Text.' — Such a work was not likely, any more than the earlier critical editions, to pass without opposition, and the learned Dean of Chichester, Dr. J. B. Burgon, with his follower and sur- vivor. Prebendary Miller, very vigorously maintained the superior claims of the ' Traditional Text ' — in other words, of the Textus Receptus cleared from certain minor blemishes. Besides evidence adduced, largely from patristic quotations, 64 THE NEW TESTAMENT the ground taken was chiefly the assumption that the Church would not have been permitted by its Divine Head to accept through many generations a corrupted Scripture. In pur- suance of this theory, the design was formed of publishing this Traditional Text in its genuine form. The death, however, of the promoters of the scheme put a stop to the execution of the plan ; it is doubtful whether it could now be carried out, and in face of the accumulated mass of adverse evidence and the general concurrence of critics of every school, it could scarcely hope for much acceptance. Mention should be made of the latest critical edition that has been published up to the date of the present worfe, that by the venerable Bernhard Weiss, of Maulbronn in Wurtemburg (completed 1901). Its chief characteristic is a careful estimation of internal evidence. He balances conclusions as a practised exegete, and accordingly demurs to many readings which Westcott and Hort have accepted on the weight of external authority, difl'ering also from these scholars on the ' genealogical ' theory. But he agrees with them in assigning the supreme place to the Vatican MS. 54. For the general reader, many editions of the Greek Testament have appeared, which summarize the conclusions of editors, without detailing the documentary or other data. Dr. Scrivener's Greek New Testament has the Textus Eeceptus (or rather Stephens' 1550 edition) with the altered words and phrases printed in special type, referring to the readings of the Elzevirs (where differing from Stephens), Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, and the Revised English Version. Dr. Weymouth's Resultant Greek Testament (1886)^ constructed a text from the foregoing authorities, with Alford, the Basel edition, and, in certain books, Lightfoot, Ellicott, and Weiss. The verdict of the majority is generally taken, but the chief variants are given in the margin. * An English translation by Dr. Weymouth has been published (1903J since hit* death : The Naw Testament in Modern Speech. FEINTED EDITIONS OF THE TEXT 65 Dr. E. Nestle published through the Stuttgart Bible Society a similar work in convenient pocket form (second edition 1901), which had the advantage of Dr. Weiss's read- ings \ And lastly, one of the results of the New Testament Ke vision, 1881, was the publication of the text followed by the Eevisers, constructed by Archdeacon Palmer, not from an examination of original authorities, but from a com- parison of editions. In general, it followed the Keceived Text of Stephens, introducing only those alterations which affect the English version. It is thus convenient to the English student, but to others is of little value. The chief variations from the Eeceived Text are noted in the margin. Every student of the Greek Testament is thus provided with ample means for comparing, if not for testing, the latest results of Textual Criticism. • A new edition of this most useful work was issued, in a slightly- altered form, as one of the Centenary publications of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in 1904. CHAPTER IV ON THE TEXT OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS Textual Criticism : General Method 55. Biblical Criticism is twofold. — First, the exact Text of Scripture, as it existed in the original MSS., has, so far as possible, to be ascertained ; and then the Contents of Scripture have to be examined, with reference to their composition, authorship, date, and historical value, as judged from internal evidence. The former process is generally described as Textual Criticism ; the latter is frequently termed the Higher Criticism, a phrase first applied to Biblical studies by Eichhorn a century ago *. This word 'higher' is perhaps open to objection, as it may seem to suggest some superiorily. Since it really implies nothing more than that the consideration of the contents naturally follows the determination of the text, a better designation would be * the Further Criticism ' ; or, better still, ' Historical Criticism,' to indicate its chief aim and result^'. The Horce Paulines of Paley illustrates the * See Introduction to the Study of the Old Testament, Jena, 1787 ; second edition, Gottingen, 1803. English translation (in part) by G. T. Gollop, 1888. *• * Higher criticism concerns itself with questions as to the compo- sition, authorship, date, and historical value of an ancient document, as these may be judged from internal evidence. The term is used in contrast to lower (more frequently called textual) criticism, which is confmed simply to the state of the text, and seeks to ascertain its original form, freed from the errors which are incidental to the trans- TEXTUAL VARIATIONS ILLUSTRATED 67 method. That many who have employed such criticism have been led to conflicting and erroneous conclusions, is an argument against the critics, not against the process, which, if legitimately conducted, must enlarge our know- ledge of Scripture, and so be of lasting service to the cause of truth. 56. External Testimony to the original text. The main sources have been indicated in Chs. II and III. 1. Tlie Greek 3ISS. themselves: the object of their colla- tion is to discover with all attainable accuracy the precise words of the originals. 2. In this endeavour the most ancient Versions are of great service, since they give us access, though at second- hand, to a text of considerably earlier date than that of the oldest extant MSS. 3. Quotatio7is of the New Testament in early Christian and .other writers are useful, with all allowance for loose- ness in citation, in showing the text which they employed. 4. It may be added that in numberless cases Internal Evidence must be resorted to for decision between readings of equal or nearly- balanced external authority. Textual Variations Illustrated 67. The following illustrations will aid the reader in apprehending the principles and general results of textual criticism, and will confirm belief in the close conformity of the existing Scriptures, in letter as in spirit, with the inspired word. Mistakes in Copying, unintentional. The written words, having descended to us through a series of transcrip- mission of ancient manuscripts. Thus the adjective higher defines nothing more than the relation of this class of criticism to the other ; and the best descriptive antithesis to iexiucU is historical.'' C. F. Curuey, in Contentio Veritatis, p. 169. V 2 68 TEXT OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS tions, have been inevitably exjDosed to such errors as are found in the work of all copyists. Even printed books often contain numerous inaccuracies, in spite oi the most careful reading of proof-sheets ; and in writing the risk is much greater than in printing, revision and correction of each copy being necessaiy and laborious. The slowness of the process increases the probab-ility that letters, syllables, and words will be added, omitted, changed, or transposed. Sometimes the writer transcribes from a MS. before him, sometimes from dictation. In the latter case, his ear is liable to deceive him ; in the former, his eye. The same word or final syllable may recur at a short interval: and when the pen has written the former, the eye slips on to the latter, causing the intervening words to be dropped *. Long vowels are also put for short, and vice versa ^ Mis- understandings of the MS. from which the transcriber writes will sometimes lead to error. He may either mis- interpret its abbreviations, or inaccurately divide the words, where written, as in most ancient MSS., without pause- marks ; or the MS. may in places be wholly or partially effaced. Independently, therefore, of design, these causes of error would be always at work — similar to the mistakes produced in any English book by such errata as escape the eye of even a careful reader. Illustrations may be given from both Old and New Testaments ; the latter affording the wider field ; thus : — I. There are many cases in which, from the similarity of two words in sound, the transcriber has fallen into error. 1. Interchang'e of letters (Old Testament). — In Judg 8^^ the Hebrew text and English read *he taught the men of Succoth.' The change of one letter, tt to y, would make the meaning * he tore the men ' as in verse 7. So the LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, &c. See R. V., margin. * The technical name for this source of error is homceotelmton (similar ending). ^ This mistake is technically termed itacism, from the discussion as to the correct pronunciation of the Greek vowel ©ta, and others. TEXTUAL VARIATIONS ILLUSTRATED 69 In Num 22'^ 'the children of his people' would become, by the addition of one letter (the final j), ' the children of Ammon.' So the Vulgate. A remarkable series of passages will convey opposite meanings, according as we read the same sound Id, 'not ' or ' to him' (xb or SS)- 'Not* is written (kethibh), but to him, or its equivalents, are directed by the Massoretes to be read (qeri). Thus Ps loo' ^ not we ourselves' is variously read ' we (are) to or for Him ' = 'His we are ' (R. V.). Is 9^ 'and not increased the joy' reads 'Thou hast increased their joy. ^ Is 49-5 * though Israel be not gathered ' becomes ' that Israel may be gathered to Him.' On the other hand, in 2 Ki 8^° the right reading seems to be 'thou shalt not recover*.' Ps 59^ ' (Because of) His strength will I wait upon Thee ' by a very slight change in one letter (i to ') becomes, with the LXX and Vulgate, * 0 my Strength, I will wait upon Thee.' See Delitzsch's note. As the Divine Name Jehovah (prop. Yahveh) was not pronounced by the Jews, copyists were apt to substitute for it Adonai, ' Lord,' or Elohim, 'God.' Hence many variations. (New Testament.) — In Ac 13^^ instead of 'sufTered He their manners' many MSS. and editors read ' bare them as a nursing- father ' ; the difference only of one letter {ph for j? {krponocpoprjafv or tTpofpofpoprjfTev)). Ro 7^ for rec. 'that being dead' we should read * we being dead,' a difference of one letter (e for 0 (^dnoOayouTfs for dnoOavovTo^)). In a few cases, the insertion, omission, or change of a single letter greatly affects the meaning of a passage. Mk 6"^'-, Herod ' did many things ' or ' was much perplexed,' a differ- ence of two letters only. Lu 2^* ' good will among men' or 'among men of good will.' The difference depends on the omission or insertion of the letter s. Lu 21^^ ' In your patience ye shall win your souls ' or ' possess ye * ; again the difference of a single letter (e or a {KT-qaeadc or KT-qaaad^)). I Tim 3^^ 'God was manifested' or 'He Who was manifested,' dependent on a single stroke in the uncial MSS. (0C abbreviation for God, OC who). Rev 1^ ' washed us from our sins ' or ' loosed us from our sins,' the difference being in the insertion or omission of the vowel 0 {Xovaavn or \vaavTi). The above examples may suffice to illustrate the facility with which errors in copying may be made. The discrimination between the original and the mistaken form requires the careful application of critical principles, as hereafter stated. * Other instances are Ex 21^ i Sa 2^ Ezr 4^ Job 13^5 Is 63^ (all doubtful ; see R. V. margin) ; a^d Job 41I2 (^jj^jj^ 4^ j>g j^^ic j>j. j^7 2^2 (^' ftot ' obviously right). 7j0 text of old and NEW TESTAMENTS 2. Similarity of ending {Jiomoeoteleuton) of words or sentences sometimes occasioned mistakes. Thus, in i Jn 2-^ the A. V. prints in italics the clause * but he that ac- knowledgeth the Son, hath the Father ulso/ The words, however, are overwhelmingly attested (n A B C), and were doubtless dropped in some MSS. by confusion of the repeated phrase ' hath the Father ' (t6v Trarepa c^^t). So in Lu i8^^*^^ : both verses end with * have mercy on me ' [iXi-qa-ov /xc), with the result that some copies omit the whole of verse 39. 3. A large class of various readings owe their origin to the use of synonymous expressions : as ' he spoke ' for * he said,' in 2 Ki i^^ ; * this very world ' for ' this present world,' Mt 12^^; Hhe messengers of John' for 'the disciples of John,' in Lu f* ; ' to follow after ' for 'follow,' Mk S^K 4. Many copyists were acquainted with other Oriental languages, and, in the case of the New Testament, with other dialects ; and thence arose great diversity in ortho- graphy even where the readings are substantially the same. 5. Ancient MSS. are often without stops, and without even the division of the words : hence occasional mistakes, though fewer than might be supposed. In Ps 48^*, for 'unto death ' some MSS. and t}ie LXX read, by con- necting; the two words, 'for ever.' And Ps 25^"^ may be read, through a similar mistake, ' Enlarge the troubles of my heart, and bring,' &c. ; compare also LXX, and Heb. of Ps 4'. In the New Testament examples of a similar kind occur in Col 2^* 2 Pet I^ 6. Sometimes abbreviations are wrongly interpreted. Thus, ^''' (J) is the Hebrew abbreviation for 'Jehovah'; and it means also my : hence an occasional mistake. In the LXX of Jer 6^\ ' the fury of J ' is translated ' My fury.' 7. In Old Testament MSS. the copyists never left any vacant space at the end of a line, nor did they divide words (by hyphen) ; and hence they often filled up the line with some favourite letter, or with the initial of the TEXTUAL VARIATIONS ILLUSTRATED 71 next word, which of course was repeated in the following line. '■ For them,' in Is 35^, is an example, see R. V. And, on the other hand, ignorant copyists have mistaken final letters for mere custodes linearum, as they are called, and have omitted them. 8. Sometimes marginal readings have been inserted in the body of the MSS., corrective or explanatory of the original text. The repetition ' Surely the people is grass * (Is 40'') may be due to this cause, and is not found in the LXX. The number 50,000, in I Sa 6^^, is supposed by Jahn to be another instance. Such additions are more frequent in New Testament MSS. In La 7^", 'God has visited His people for good' {ds dyaOSv), an addition in some MSS. and Versions in explanation of a phrase which seemed scarcely clear. Jn 5'-*. The account of the angel at Bethesda seems to have been originally a marginal explanation of the healing efficacy of the waters. Ro 8\ The words ' who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit ' are probably from th« margin, to define those who are * in Christ .Tesus.' Ro ii«. The latter half of the verse appears to have been added by a copyist from the margin to complete the antithesis. I Cor 6^". The words ' and in your spirit which are God's,' originally a marginal note, added to make the injunction more comprehensive. Gal 4^^". The word all is no doubt from the margin. Rev si"^*. For the true reading * the nations shall walk in the light of it,' indicating the universal influence of Christ's kingdom, some annotator has added to nations the explanation * of them that are saved,' so misapprehending and limiting the passage. In Lu 6^ , to the words ' And it came to pass on a Sabbath ' the Received Text (A. V. ' the second after the first') adds ' the second-first ' {dtvTfpo- iTfKurq}). The word occuis nowhere else, and has been a cnix interpretum. The best MSS. (n B L) omit the word, and their authority might be unhesitatingly accepted but for the suspicion that the word may have been dropped just because of its obscurity : the principle of Transcrip- tional Probahility (§ 62, 2) makes it necessary to account for its insertion if not genuine. An ingenious suggestion was made by Meyer, and adopted by WH and others, that the word is simply the fusion of two marginal notes. In distinction from the ' on another (ertpaj) Sabbath' of verse 6, some scribe has annotated verse i * on a first ' {■np'SjTO)). But the recollection of previous Sabbath incidents (4'^ ">*'•) has moved yet another scribe to insert a corrective * on a second ' (Scuxf/w) above the 72 TEXT OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS other margin. Hence the anomalous SevrfponpuTO), which finds its way from margin into text, to the bewilderment of expositors. Whether the conjecture be received or not, it at least illustrates a not unusual source of corruption. See further, Mt 20"^ Mk 8^® 9*^ (as from a marginal reference to Lev 2^^) Jn 8''^ Ac 15^* i8-° 20^^ (completing the narrative of the voyage) 28^6.20 Rq 146 i Cor ii^* ('broken') Gal 3I i Pet 4I* i Jn 4^ Rev 5I*. All the above instances are specimens of many readings in MSS. as well as in patristic and other quotations % but not included in the best texts. It will be seen that the removal of the clauses cited neither adds nor takes away anything material, in either history or doctrine. 58. Intentional Alterations. — The sources of various readings noticed thus far may be regarded as accidental. Other readings, however, were intentionally made, either from good motives or from bad. A Greek copyist, for example, would correct a Hebraism as a violation of gram- mar. He would sometimes substitute for the original Greek words which he deemed more clear and easy. Some- times he would correct one Evangelist by another, or fill up the shorter account from the longer one, or adapt the quotations from the Old Testament to the text of his own copy, whether it were Hebrew, or Greek, or Latin. Or again, some theological or sectarian bias may have influenced the copjast. 9. Thus, orthographic anomalies are sometimes per- petuated through a whole book or section. * The tendency to amplify Scripture texts in citing them is con- tinually exemplified. Who has not heard from the pulpit, or read in. popular literature, such quotations as 'whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might ' ; ' look upon vs in the face of Thine anointed' ; ' we roll sin as a sioeet morsel. under our tongue ' ; * Thou . . canst not look upon iniquity but with abhorrence ' ; * the light of Thy reconciled countenance'; ^diligent in business, fervent in spirit' ' where two or three are gathered in My nam,©; t^ejr.e ^Tpa. J. i^ tfc.a ^idst ojf them, aj^d tfput to plc^s them/ TEXTUAL VARIATIONS ILLUSTRATED 73 The Hebrew for boy is put 22 times in the Pentateuch for girl (na'ar for naarah). The explanation probably is that one form was originally used for both genders ; the feminine termination -cM being later intro- duced, but the word being unaltered in the Pentateuch owing to the peculiar reverence with which the Law of Moses was regarded. See Dr. Ginsburg's Massora, vol. iv, § 113, p. 294. Once only, the later orthography penetrated into the written text, Deut 22^^. The feminine form, however, is given in the qer'i. Some Hebraists, with less pro- bability, regard the case as one of a scribal error perpetuated. Thus in Eze 40, the ordinary sign of the plural ? {•> before suffix ^) is omitted in the text 34 times, but is restored in the g?ri. 10. Sometimes attempts were made to improve MSS., by making the language more clear and easy. Many passages of the Chronicles, when compared with Samuel, will be found to give more modern words, in place of the obsolete ones ot the earlier writer. These passages, when compared by copyists, gave rise to various readings. See Hebrew of i Sa 31^^ and i Ch 10": 2 Sa 72s and i Ch 1721 -. 2 Sa 6'^ and i Ch 1529. In Mt 6^ the word righteousness is thought to have been changed by a copyist to ' alms ' ; the fact being overlooked that the precept includes prayer and fasting as well as alms. In Mt 9^ a transcriber appears to have altered 'were afraid' to ' marvelled,' supposing the former expres- sion unsuitable. In Jn 3-^ the * Jew ' who argued with the disciples of the Baptist is multiplied into ' Jews.' In Mk lo^^ the vivid ' sprang up ' (describing the act of Bartimaeus) is altered to 'rose ' ; and in Jn 4^^ the transcriber's omission of 'all the way hither' obscures the sugges- tion of the long journey to the well. Many graphic touches of a similar kind are restored to the New Testament text by criticism. Difficulties, again, seem to have been felt by transcribers in regard to the negative. Thus in Mk 5^6 the correct text is ' not heeding ' (our Lord disregards the objection) ; and in Col 2^^ for ' which he hath not seen * read ' which he hath seen ' (the standpoint being faith, not sight). A singular class of alterations has either changed assertions to exhortations, or the reverse. The principal instance is Ro 5^ ' let us have peace with God.' But there are several others in MSS., as Ro 6' ' let us believe,' 6^^ ' let us obey ' ; i Cor 14.^^ ' let me pray,' 15^^ * let us bear ' ; a Tim 2^^-^^ ' let us live,' * let us reign.' But the weight or authority is decisively against the hortatory sense in all these passages, excepting Ro 5^ and perhaps i Cor 15*^ on which (especially on the former) critics are still divided. Several of these passages may be ipstances of itacism. (See p. 68, note *».) Sli^ht^l: am^udjpjeots h^y.e been pjade hj copyists i» the suppose4 74 TEXT OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS interest of accuracy. Mk i', original text, 'in the prophet Isaiah'; Eph 5» ' the fruit of the light ' ; Mk s^^ ' an eternal sin ' ; Jn 14* ' whither I go, ye know the way ' : the disciples did not know the end, but they did know the way to it. Sometimes it is difficult to tell which is the original, which the correction. Lu 4** ' Galilee ' or ' Judaea.' Should the latter reading be authenticated, it may be an intereeting reference to our Lord's ministry in southern Palestine. In the Pentateuch the word for God is plural (Elohim), and is sometimes joined with a singular verb and sometimes with a plural verb. In all the latter cases there is a variety of readings : most of them (as in the Sam.) in favour of a singular noun (as ' the Holy One '), retaining, however, the plural verb : the object being, probably, to prevent a supposition that the Scriptures favoured polytheism. See Gen 20'^ 35^. II. Sometimes alterations were made to suit a parallel passage, or to make the text agree with the passage from which it is quoted. This is frequently the case in New Testament quotations from the LXX. Lu 4''" ' to heal the broken-hearted ' is wanting in several MSS. It is probably taken from the LXX of Is 6i^ Mt 12^^ 'of the heart' is omitted in many MSS., and in the VuJg., Syr., Copt., Pers., Arab. It is probably from Lu 6*^. Mt zo'^-^s ' the baptism I am baptized with, can ye be baptized with ? ' is wanting in several MSS., and in the Vulg.j Ethiop., and Copt; probably from Mk io3»-39. Mt 27-^' 'That it might be fulfilled,' &c., is wanting in very many MSS., the Syr., Copt, Ethiop., and Arab. It is, probably, from Jn 19'^*. In Lu ii^~* the Lord's Prayer has been assimilated to the form in Mt 6. In Mt 9^' the words 'to repentance' have been added from Lu 5^^ In Mt 15* ' draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and ' is an insertion from Is 29" ; and in Ro 13^ ' thou shalt not bear false witness' is an addition to the commandments quoted. In Mt 19^'^ the remarkable reading (approved by most critics) * why askest thou Me concerning the good ? ' has been assimilated by copyists to Mk io^« Lu i8i9. In Mt 11^^ the true reading seems to be 'by her works,' altered to 'children* from Lu 7". In Lu 9'^ 'My Son, My chosen' has been changed to ' My beloved Son,' according to Mt 17' Mk 9'''. The repetition (WH doubtfully) of the 'prodigal's' words to his father, Lu 15'^ from verse 19, seems against the weight of evidence. The son was not permitted, in his father's eager welcome, to finish his appeaL TEXTUAL VAKIATIONS ILLUSTRATED 75 For further instances of the insertion by copyists of parallel passages 800 Mt 18^1 (Lu 19^^) 2o'« (22^*) Lu 1^8 (the salutation of Elisabeth, verse 42, also attributed to the angel). Quotations from the Old Testament, noted by transcribers, Mt 27" (Ps 22'") Mk is"^^ (Is 53^-). Ac 9, 22, 26. and Ac 10, 11 have been peculiarly liable to various readings, i Cor 15^ 'the twelve' being not strictly accurate (for Thomas was absent), some MSS. read ' the eleven.' So, in Mk 8^^, some MSS. read 'after three days,' and others * on the third day.' 12. Sometimes a passage has been altered wilfully, to serve the purposes of a party, or to favour what was deemed the cause of truth. In Dt 27^ the Heb. reads 'Ebal,' and the Sam. ' Gerizim,' which was in the Samaritan territory ; and the passage was used as a reason for erecting there a Samaritan temple. In Judg 18^° 'Manasseh' is written in many MSS. for Moses, to save the honour of his family. Is 64* has been altered, and is now unintelligible. It is quoted in I Cor 2^ Is 52^*, for 'at thee' some MSS., the Chald., Syr., and Vulg. read ' at him.' Such intentional alterations, however, are very rare in the Old Testament ; nor are there many in the Greek New Testament. In Mt i^* 'before they came together,' and the word ' first-born,' are omitted in some MSS. and versions, in favour of the perpetual vir- ginity. In Mk 13^2 i neither the Son ' is omitted in several MSS. and Fathers, as seeming to favour Arianism. Lu 2^^ the genuine reading * their' is changed in a few later MSS. to 'her* so as to exempt the Holy Child. Jn 7^ 'yet' is probably an addition, to avoid offence. Lu 22*'-** are omitted in A B and some other MSS., but the evidence for the genuineness of the passage apparently preponderates. Still less reason is there for omitting Lu 23'*, although the verse is absent from many MSS. Some passages seem to have been tampered with to favour ascetic practices. Thus the references to fasting, Mk 9'^^ Ac io^<^, have no place in the best critical texts. Ac 8^^ appears to have been added to connect baptism with the profession of faith. See Ro IO^ 13. There are also various readings, which can be ex- plained only on the supposition of carelessness on the part of transcribers, and which are not referable to any of the causes just enumerated. In I Ch 6^' there is an omission of the name Joel (see verse 33 : 1 Sa 8-). The verse really roads ' And the sons of Samuel, the first- born Joel, and tha second (Heb. vashni) Abiah.' A singular instance 76 TEXT OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS may be seen in 2 Sa 21" ; the words * the brother of being apparently omitted ; see i Ch 20^. But the Hebrew of the verse in 2 Samuel is evidently in some confusion. The name Jair i Ch 20^ becomes Jaare- oregim 2 Sa 21^', * oregim ' meaning ' weavers,' as if from the latter part of the verse. The 430 years mentioned in Ex 12*", as the time of the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt, is inconsistent with Gal 3^'^ Gen 12* i7^'"i 2526. The Samaritan and LXX insert after 'Egypt* 'and in Canaan.' Among phrases in the New Testament dropped in transcription, but now restored from the MSS., are ' in Hebrew ' (Jn 20^^) ; ' not being myself under the law ' (i Cor 9-°) ; ' even as ye do walk ' (i Th 4^) ; ' according unto God ' (i Pet 5-) ; ' and such we are' (i Jn 3^) ; "having Hie name and' (Eev 14^). Other accidental changes occur in Mt 17* ' I will make ' (Peter speaking) ; Mk 6'^'^ ; Ac 3^^° ' appointed for you' instead of 'preached unto you'; i Tim i* 'a dispensation of God' instead of 'godly edifying' ; Heb 10^* 'on them that were in bonds' instead of ' on me in my bonds.' 59. The readings which have originated in these and similar causes amount to many thousands ; but in nearly all the various readings may be adopted without materially affecting the sense. Bishop Westcott forcibly remarks, *It cannot be repeated too often that the text of the New Testament surpasses all other Greek texts in the antiquity, variety, and fullness of the evidence by which it is attested. About seven-eighths of the words are raised above all doubt by a unique combination of authorities ; and of the questions which affect the remaining one-eighth, a great part are simply questions of order and form, and such that serious doubt does not appear to touch more than one-sixtieth part of the whole text^' So, again, to quote an authority which will not be suspected of a conservative bias, the article on ' Text and Versions ' in the Encyclopcedia Bihlica remarks at the close : ' In concluding an article of any length on the textual criticism of the Bible it is always wholesome to remind oneself of the comparative soundness of the text \* * Some Lefsone of the Revised Version, pp. 209, 210. P Encyc. JJib. yol, ^, p. 50^1, firU by F. Q- X>ur^it.t, PKINCIPLES AND RULES OF CRITICISM 77 Principles and Rules of Criticism 60. It becomes then a question of much interest, how the comparative value of various readings is to be decided. The answers to this question constitute the Science of Textual Criticism. Its general principles demand for their application the knowledge and skill of experts ; while it is yet possible so to state them that every student of Scripture can apprehend their truth and value, with their bearing upon each individual case. From the preceding illustrations, it will have appeared that textual criticism of the Old Testament materially differs in many particulars from that of the New. The text of the former has been fixed by long tradition, all MSS. varying from the one standard being destroyed. Hence there is practically but one recension — the Massoretic ; variations being noted in the marginal qe}% and the limits of critical decision lying — apart from conjectural emendation, with or without the support of the versions — between this and the Mthibh (written text). In general the former is to be pre- ferred, but by no means always, as already illustrated (§ 57, i) in the passages that vary between not and to him. The original text of the New Testament, on the other hand, is without any authoritative revision. The collation of MSS., with the examination of collateral evidence of ancient versions, of quotations by early writers, and of the intrinsic character of different readings, has been the work of critics whose lives have been devoted to the anxious task. The following principles are recognized by all scholars : I. When MSS., versions, and quotations agree in a reading, the EXTERNAL evidence in its favour is complete ; and, when the reading thus fixed agrees with the nature of the lan- guage, the sense, the connexion of historical facts, and parallel passages, the internal evidence is complete. Where these concui*, the reading is undoubtedly genuine ; and this is the 78 TEXT OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS evidence found in the case of the great bulk of the Scriptures, as contained in the common editions. 2. When the documents present conflicting readings, the determination of the text is a matter of adjustment of External and Internal evidence. External Evidence. 61. If witnesses could be simply counted, the task would be simple. They must be weighed, a process of great in- tricacy and difficulty. Some of the more obvious conditions on which the value of a New Testament MS. depends may be noted. 1. Its age. There is at least a presumption that the older the document the older the text, and one less vitiated by successive copyings. But it is both a possibility and a fact that some late MSS. may preserve transcripts of very early ones which have since perished. 2. The age of the text it contains, ascertained by com- parison with early patristic citations and early versions. 3. The family to which it belongs. In their support of readings, the MSS. and versions are found to fall into groups ; the same set of documents are continually together on the one side or the other. This fact has been genea- logically interpreted. By careful comparison of Greek MSS. with the texts used by the Fathers of East and West, and with those underlying the Latin, Syriac, and Egyptian versions, three main types of text have been determined, each represented by certain MSS., versions, and Fathers. I. Syrian, Antiochian, Byzantine, or Constantinopolitan. This is the text of the great bulk of uncials and cursives, and is virtually identical with the 'Received Text' underlying the English A.V, a. Western, so called because represented by the Grse«o-Latin Codex Bezae (D) and the Old Latin version. It was, however, more or less current throughout Christendom, and often agrees with the Syriac versions. 3. AiEXANDRiAN, the text of the oldest codices and the ancient PKINCIPLES AND KULES OF CKITICISM 79 Egyptian version. It is on witnesses of this third type that modern critical editors mainly rely. WH distinguished among them a yet more select group, which had escaped the refining process of the critical school of Alexandria, and to which they gave the name Neutbal : for practical purposes the group consists of B M. More recent criticism, however, hardly endorses this distinction, and, especially, questions the wholesale rejection of Western authorities to which W H committed themselves. A further study of these in the Gospels and the Acts has already done much to vindicate their value, and to suggest that the textual criticism of the future must build on a broader foundation than that adopted by Dr. Hort in his invaluable Introduction. When we come to consider readings which are "but probable, being equally, or more or less nearly equally, supported by external evidence, the rules of criticism become more difficult, and the application of them must be made with less rigidity. Internal Evidence. 62. Internal evidence is directed to the answer of two questions: (i) What is the author likely to have written? (Intrinsic probability), (2) Which of the competing readings are more likely to be due to error, unconscious or conscious, of the copyists ? (Transcriptional probability.) The general principle is, tliat out of conflicting readings, the reading is to be preferred which best explains the origfin of the rest. The principle, however, needs mucli critical knowledge and sagacity in its application. The usual proclivities of the copyists, carefully observed and tabulated, form the basis of the so-called Canons of Ckiticism, rules which are serviceable if used as rough generalizations only, and always liable to exception. The following, which sometimes overlap, may be mentioned : — I. Of two readings, equally supported by external evi- dence, that is the most probable which best suits the sense ; or else w^hich could not, so easily as the other, have been written by mistake. These are the general principles of Intrinsic and Tran- scriptional Probability. In application, they often conflict, 80 TEXT OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS because the reading which is intrinsically preferable is, on that account, likely to have been substituted for one more difficult. See 2. Ao 11'*^. The reading of many MSS. is 'unto the Grecians'; but probably it ought to be, as many others read, * unto the Greeks.* The fact seems noticed because of its remarkableness, and justly so, if it was the second case of the success of the gospel among Gentiles ; see jq44.45 foj. Q^Q fix'st. ' Grecians* or ' Hellenists' were Jeits who resided out of Palestine, and many of whom had already received the gospel. The R. V. reads * Greeks,' but WH retain * Grecians.* Some editors have adopted the practical rule that, where the external testimony is equally balanced, readings not decidedly better than the Received Text should not be placed in it : but if as good, or nearly so, they may be placed in the margin. This rule must be specially borne in mind in the study of the R. V. Only, as the Revisers required a two-thirds majority before altering the Received Text, many readings were consigned to the margin which had received an actual plurality of votes, and which are distinctly prei'erable to those adopted in their text. This remark applies also to translations. 2. Of the readings, the one easy and the other dificnlt, the latter is generally to be preferred : a rule thus formulated by Bengel: 'Proclivi scriptioni praestat ardua.' Evidently, a copyist was more likely to smooth away a difficulty than to introduce one. Thus, ' the first-fruits of Asia,* Ro 16^, is preferred, as a more difficult reading, to * the first-fruits of Achaia,^ seeing that the Epistle was written from Corinth. In Rev 8^^ eagle is decidedly more difficult than angel. In the genealogy Mt i Asaph and Atnos are more difficult than Asa and Amon. But in some places the reading is not only difficult but impossible, as Mt 21^1 'the latter^ ; obviously inadmissible (unless the reference to the two servants be reversed in the parable); and Ro 8^ ' set thee free ' ; contrary to the whole scope of the passage. 3. Of two readings, equally supported, the shorter is probably the genuine one, as copyists were more likely from intention to add than to omit, although more likely from accident to omit than to add ; and the rule therefore must not be pressed in every case. For a lint of transcribers' omissions see § 53, and for their additions, PEINCIPLES AND RULES OF CRITICISM 81 § 57, 8. The comparison of the two lists well illustrates the applica- tion of the rule. 4. Of two readings, the one classical and tlie other Oriental, the latter is the more probable. There was a natural tendency to prune away provincialisms and solecisms in orthography, grammar, and syntax. See especially Dr. Hort's Introduction, pp. 148-80, 'Notes on Orthography.' On the other hand, allowance has to be made for the provincialisms of the scribes of individual documents. 5. Of two readings equally supported, that is to be pre- ferred which best agrees with the style of the writer, or with his design, or with the context. 6. Conjectural readings, supported by the sense, or by versions, may be probable ; but must not be received as indubitable, unless they are confirmed by evidence. In Gen 1' 'God saw that it was good ' is wanting at the end of the second day's creation, but is foixnd in verse 10, in the middle of the third day's work. There has, therefore, probably been a transposition of the clause, especially as tlie LXX reads the phrase in verse 8. In Gen 4^ the Hebrew means 'said unto Abel,' hardly 'talked with' (A.V.) or ' tOid' (R. v.). Probably the words preserved in the LXX, 'Let us go into the field,' have dropped out of the text. (See R. V. margin.) In the New Testament (as MSS. and other authorities are numerous and varied) conjectural emendation is less ad- missible. Some modern critics have carried the practice to an utterly unjustifiable extent. It is a sound maxim that ' the only test of a successful conjecture is that it shall approve itself as inevitable. Lacking inevitableness, it remains doubtful*.* If conjecture were ever to be admitted, it might be in Ac 20'*, where the readings ' God ' and ' Lord ' present almost equal diflficulty. The sentence would be in harmony with New Testament usage if read, as * Professor B, B. Warfield, Introduction to Textual Criticism of New Testament, p. 209. 82 TEXT OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS Westcott suggests, with the addition of one word : 'which He hath purchased, by the blood of His own Sou.' See also Lightfoot on Col 2I8. Application of Critical Canons 63. To aid the reader to apply these rules, we take as an instance i Jn 5"^, the * Three Heavenly Witnesses.* The passage is printed in the Clementine editions of the Vulgate, in the Complutensian of the Greek, in the third edition of Erasmus; and thence found its way into the common texts of Stephens, Boza, and Elzevir. Against its genuineness it may be said, I. That no Greek MS. of certainly earlier date than the fifteenth century contains it. It is omitted in many cursive MSS., and in nABGK. a. It is wanting in all the ancient versions, except the Latin, nor is it found in the most ancient MSS. of the Vulgate, the Codd. Amiatinus, Fuldensis, Harleian, or in any earlier than the ninth century. It is wanting, for example, in the two Syr., Arab., Copt., Ethiop., Aimen., Slavonic ; though some printed editions of the two latter and of the Peshitta insert it. 3, Ancient Greek Fathers have never quoted it in any of their arguments for the doctrine of the Trinity. Verses 6, 8, 9 are quoted more than once, but verse 7 never. In favour of its genuineness it may be said, I. That it is inserted in some Greek (cursive) MSS., in the Codex Ravianus at Berlin, the Codex Otiobianus in the Vatican, the C. Regius at Naples, and the C. Monifortianus at Dublin, concerning which, however, it is remarked, that the first is a copy from the Compluten- sian ; that the second is simply a translation from the Vulgate ; and that the third has the passage written, not in the text, but in the margin. The fourth belongs to the fifteenth century, or later, and is therefore modern, being evidently taken from the Latin*. a. It is found in a MS. of extracts from the Old Latin (* Speculum ') belonging to the sixth or seventh century ; also in most MSS. of the Latin Vulgate after the ninth century. * Erasmus, when reproached for omitting the text from his edition, rashly promised to insert it if a single Greek MS. containing it could be produced. In reply to his challenge a 'codex Britannicus' was brought to light : and accordingly in his next edition (the third) he included the passage. The MS. is identified us the Mont/ortianus. APPLICATION OF CRITICAL CANONS 83 3. It is cited by Yigilius of Thapsus towards the end of the fifth century, as well as (apparently) by Tertullian and Cyprian, whose citations, however, are really of other passages. A recently discovered treatise by Priscillian (near the end of the fourth century) also con- tains the passage. 4. It is quoted in a Confession of Faith, given in the history of the Vandalic persecution in Africa, and said to have been presented by a body of Christians in the year 484. This alleged fact, however, is not sufficient to weaken the positive evidence ; and is, moreover, itself doubtful. 5. It is said to be required by the construction and connexion of the passage : an argument of which the English, reader can himself judge. The general judgement of Biblical scholars is expressed by Dr. Scrivener: *We need not hesitate to declare our conviction that the disputed words were not written by St. John ; that they were originally brought into Latin copies in Africa from the margin, where they had been placed as a pious and orthodox gloss on verse 8 ; that from the Latin they crept into two or three late Greek codices, and thence into the primitive Greek text, a place to which they had no rightful claim.' 64. For full discussion of other disputed passages it must suffice to refer the student to such treatises on Textual Criticism as those by Scrivener, Hort, Kenyon, and Nestle. A few of peculiar interest may be named, for which the conflicting evidence will be found presented in a manner accessible to the general reader, in the smaller manuals by Warfield and Hammond. I. Passages bearing on the Deity of our Lord. Jn I^^ The Eeceived Text has 'the only begotten Son* ; but the evidence is probably decisive for the striking reading of E. V. margin, ' God only-begotten ' {fiovoyevTjs Oeos). Ac so'^^ ' to feed the Church of God, which He purchased with His own blood ' (R. V.> Here the many variants resolve themselves into a doubt as between ' the Church of God ' (tou 0iov) and ' the Church of the Lord ' (jov Kvpiov). See § 62, 6. I Tim s^** ' God (0(6s) was manifested in the flesh ' must probably Q 2 84 TEXT OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS give way to * who (6s) ' or ' which (o) was manifested in the flesh.' If OS is the true reading the difference is simply between 0C and OC. Compare § 57, i. 2. Eetention or omission of continuous passages. Among the most important are the following : — Mk i6^~^°, surrendered by almost all critics. Jn 7°^-8^^, the section on the woman taken in adultery. These passages rest on authority of various weight. Even where they must be pronounced to be no part of the apostolic text, they may embody a true apostolic tradition, as in the first of these cases. Per- haps the most noteworthy example of a similar kind is one which has found its way into one MS. only : Codex Bezae (D), after Lu 6"*, < On the same day, beholding one working on the Sabbath, He said to him : Man, if indeed thou knowest what thou art doing, blessed art thou ; but if thou knowest not, thou art accursed, and a transgressor of the law *.' * Bishop Westcott, Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, Appendix C, gives an interesting list of ' traditional accounts of words or works of our Lord not noticed in the Gospels'; the chief, of course, being Ac 2o^^. With these may be compared the Logia discovered in the Oxyrhynchus collection of papyri in 1896 and 1903, by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt. See § 41. CHAPTER V THE CREDENTIALS AND CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE *Thi3 reverence have I learnt to give to those books of Scripture only wliich are called canonical. Others I so read that I think not anything to be true because they so thought it, but because they were able to persuade me either by those canonical authors, or by some probable reason that it did not swerve from truth.* — Augustine, Ep. 19. 'If those facts (on the origin, nature, and progress of the Christian religion) are not therefore established, nothing in the history of man- kind can be believed.' — Chief Justice Bushe. The Claims of the Scriptures themselves In proving the genuineness of the books of Scripture, nothing has been said of their Divine authority. Their supreme claims must now be gathered from the books themselves ; and the evidences in support of these claims must be next considered. 65. The Testimony in detail. —A little attention will easily satisfy the reader of the truth of the following state- ments : — I. The books of Scripture represent the mission of our Lord as Divine. He professes to be a Teacher sent from God, and from the first announces that He is to give His life for the salvation of the world. Jn 8*^2 ^i6 1^8 314-I8. In proof of His mission. He performed many miraculous works, and showed supernatural acquaintance with the human heart and with future events. Mt ii^-e Jn 5^6 6«4 152* i63o Mt 2oi"-i^ Lu 19*2-**. Those who knew Him best and were least favourably disposed towards Him were unable to account from natural causes for His power and wisdom. Mk 6^"^ Lu 4-^ Jn 7^^ His public life was self-denying and disinterested : His private life blameless and beneficent, i Pet a^^^s jyjt ^-j^.i ^q ^q^^ Jn 4°* 6^^ 7^*. 86 CREDENTIALS AND CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE lie was put to doatli (as He foretold) for making Himself 'equal with God' — a charge He did not deny ; and after His death He arose from the grave. Lu 22'^*^ Jn 20^^ Ac i^. On these grounds we conclude that His words are to be received as Divine. Jn 12*^-^0 14I011 Mt if. 2. They represent the commission of the Apostles as Divine. Out of the writers of the New Testament, three, John and Peter, with the reputed author of the first Gospel% were Apostles to whom Christ gave power to perform miracles and to publish His gospel to the world ; while James and Jude, ' the Lord's brethren ' if not themselves of the Twelve, were closely associated with them. Mt ioi-*-'^.« Lu 96. He promised to tliem in this character, on more tlian one occasion, the presence of a Divine Instructor, who should recall to their remembrance what He Himself had taught, and impart a more com- plete and permanent knowledge of His truth. Mt lo^^-^o Lu 12^^-^'^ Mk 13I1 Lu 2i^*-i5 Jn 14-T6: see also Mt 28^8-20 ^]vj]j. 1520^ ^^ ^i I Pet 1^2. The Apostles proved their commission by miracles, which they per- formed in the name and by the power of Christ, and they imparted supernatural gifts to others, Ac 3^^ Heb 2* Ac 5^^-^^ (Mk i6i^-'*') Ac 8^--'. Their mission was attested by holy self-denial and integrity of pur- pose, and by the rapid and (humanly speaking) the unaccountable success of their ministrations. Ac 2*'- 4-^ 5^^ 12-*. We therefore conclude that Divine authority is claimed for the teachings of Matthew, John, Peter, James, and Jude. Jn 14^^"^* 20^^ I Jn 4''. The Gospels of Mark and Luke were written by companions of the Apostles : Mark, the convert of Peter (i Pet 5^2),and Luke, the intimate friend of Paul (Ac 2o''-'',&c.). Papias (llourished no), Justin (died 164), Irenaeus (a. d. 180), and Ori'gen, all spe:ik of Mark's Gospel as commonly received, and as having been dictated or sanctioned by Peter. Iics. ^ The rationalist school, of whom Paulus was the type, endeavoured to explain the miracles as ordinary facts exaggerated or misconceived. Thus, the turning of the water into wine meant but a genial way of making a present to the newly-married couple ; the walking on the EXTERNAL EVIDENCE: MIRACLE 93 miracle have alike disappeared ; and so far at least the ground is clear ^ The question that remains is whether for these wonderful facts there is adequate testimony ; and this witness, it may be added, is to be considered in the light of an antecedent probability, of which the Christian thinker must not lose sight — that the greatness of the purpose to be accomplished in the redemption of man was such as to warrant the expectation of a special Divine interposition. For miracle, rightly considered, is not a violation of the laws of Nature, as sometimes thoughtlessly stated, but a Divine act, by which He Who governs Nature puts forth His power in an extraordinary way, for a worthy purpose. 70. The Evangelic Testimony. The ev-angelic history declares that such acts were wrought by Jesus Christ. Every argument therefore by which on general grounds the history is proved to be true, so far attests the miracles. In fact, the veracity of the record stands or falls with miracle. To His works our Lord repeatedly appealed, as works which none other man did, and as an evidence of His mission. sea was really walking on the shore, as seen by the spectators from the lake ; the coin in the fish's mouth was tlie price of fish caught by the disciples and sold in the market ! — and so on. Dean Mansel justly says of this theory that it ' breaks down under the sheer weight of its cumbrous and awkward explanations.' * The mythical theory of Strauss and his followers was that meta- phor and allegory were prosaically turned into fact. Thus the descrip- tion of Christ's disciples as fishers of men took shape in the stories of the miraculous draught of fishes ; the illumination by Christ of the darkened understanding gave rise to the narratives of the opening of blind men's eyes ; as though it were possible that a mythical system should grow up unchallenged and uncontradicted in that era of the world's history ! There seem some indications of the revival of the long-abandoned hypothesis. Thus, the healing of the man by the Pool of Bethesda is made out to be a transformed parable of the state of the Jewish people, crippled and restored — for had not the man been suffering for thirty-eight years, and were not the Israelites thirty- eight years in the wilderness before entering the Land of Promise? A wonderful coincidence ! 94 CKEDENTIALS AND CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE He raised the dead, He healed the sick, not once only, but in many cases not individually recorded ; for it is said frequently that they brought sick people unto Him, and that He healed them all. Mt 4^^ 12^5 14I4 j^so 1^2 ^g., Mk i^^ 3I0 Lu 6^7 9I1. He is declared to have given similar power to His disciples, first to the Twelve, and then to the seventy. After His departure His Apostles received the power of bestowing this miraculous gift on those upon whom they laid their hands ; so that many others were thus endowed. It is certain that the Apostles speak of it as a fact familiarly known, and reckon it among the signs of a Divinely appointed teacher. The Testimony sustained. — In truth this evidence can be set aside only by supposing a miracle greater than all. If Christ were not from God, we have a Jewish peasant changing the religion of the world, weaving into the story of his life the fulfilment of ancient predictions, and a morality of the purest order, as unlike the traditional teaching of his countrymen as it was superior to the precepts of Gentile philo- sophy ; enduring with composure the most intense sufi"ering, and inducing his followers to submit to similar privations, and many of them to a cruel death, in support not of opinions but of the alleged fact of his miraculous resurrection. We have then these followers, ' unlearned men,' going forth and discoursing on the sublimest themes, persuading the occupiers of Koman and Grecian cities to cast away their idols, to renounce the religion of their fathers, to reject the instructions of their philosophy, and to receive instead, as a teacher sent from heaven, a Jew of humble station who had been put to a shameful death. And all this mighty transforming influence based upon a series of delusions ! To receive this explanation of the acknowledged facts is to admit a greater miracle than any which the Bible contains. EXTERNAL EVIDENCE: MIRACLE 95 71. Meaning of Miracles. —What, then, do miracles prove? In a word, the presence and power of a Divine Agent. In the first ages of the Church it was common for adversaries to attribute the miraculous acts, the reality of which they could not question, to the power of evil spirits. The critics of our Lord set them the example, ' He casteth out demons by Beelzebub.' But such an allegation is no longer possible. The conclusion of the Jewish ruler is yet more cogent in the light of modern philosophy than when he gave it utterance, ' No man can do these signs that Thou doest, except God be with him.' A revelation of the Divine. — And this argument is fortified by the consistency of these wondrous works with the character of God, and the great design of the Gospel. They were not only ' marvels ' (xepaTa) and ' deeds of power * (8wayu,ets), but ' signs ' (a-q^ua) of deep moral and spiritual meaning. It has been well said that 'eveiy miraculous act of Christ must be conceived of as congruous to His Messianic vocation and serviceable to the interests of the Divine kingdom. None of the miracles, of whatever class, can be regarded as mere displays of power ; they must all be viewed as arising naturally out of their occasions, and serving a useful purpose in connexion with Christ's work as the Herald and Founder of the kingdom of Heaven".' They begin with a stupendous moral miracle, greater than any physical wonder, the existence on earth of a perfectly sinless, holy being, and they harmonize with the character and purposes of such a life. A symbol of spiritual power. — Miracles also symbolize, while they attest, the ' greater works,' the opening of the eyes of the spiritually blind, the unsealing of the ears which sin had deafened to the truth, the liberation of the paralyzed spirit to run in the way of God's commandments, and the • Dr. A. B. Bruce, TJie Miraculous Element in ^w Gospels, p. 207. 96 CREDENTIALS AND CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE quickening of those who were dead in trespasses and sins. The physical becomes spiritual in view of the preceding argument : * That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins ... I say unto thee, Arise and walk/ External Evidence. IL Prophecy 72. Prophecy as Evidence. — The nature and purport of Scripture prophecy in general will be shown in the sections on Interpretation ; and the Introductions to the several prophetic books in the Second Part of this volume will indicate their respective character and scope. Prophecy is in this place regarded simply as evidence ; and the follow- ing important facts must be borne in mind. 1. Prophecy more than prediction. — Prophecy is much more than the prediction of future events. The prophet was gifted with inspired insight as well as with inspired foresight ; or in a yet deeper view we may say the latter was a consequence of the former. He was commissioned both (in Old English phrase) to ' forth-tell ' and to foretell. To him it was granted to discern the truth and tendency of events around him, to look through the appearances and passions of the hour to the purposes of the Eternal Mind. 2. Relation to the present. — Hence, the standpoint of the prophet was in the present. So only could he be under- stood by those to whom his message came. He had to set forth the eternal law of righteousness, to denounce the sins of the age, declaring the just judgements of God, and calling the people to repentance. But the present was only a moment in the progrftss of the Divine plan. There was a purpose working steadily, though often silently and mysteriously, towards a destined end. That destination was the establishment of God's kingdom upon earth — the reign of righteousness — the achievement of redemption. EXTERNAL EVIDENCE: PKOPHECY 97 3. The prophetic fanction.— Hence the prophet was the teacher of Israel, the social reformer, the statesman, the herald of the coming time. His revelations of the future, as they came to pass from age to age, prove the Divine intent and authenticate his own mission. And at the same time, prophecy carried with it a self-attestation no less striking than that witness to its truth which the future alone, could disclose. 4. The Prophets' claim. — With one consent they regard themselves as spokesmen of God. Their formula is, ' Thus saith Jehovah,* 'The word of Jehovah came,' ' Hear ye the word of Jehovah.' They are constrained into their ministry, often against their will. Moses protests that he is ' slow of speech and of a slow tongue.' Isaiah trembles before the vision in which he heard his call, because he is a man of unclean lips, and dwells in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Jeremiah shrinks from the task entrusted to him : ' Ah, Lord Jehovah ! behold, I cannot speak ; for I am a child ' : Ezekiel is warned that his mission will be as though briers and thorns were with him and he dwelt among scorpions. * Yet the distinguishing characteristic of the propirets, first of their speech and actions and after- wards of their writings, was the firm and unwavering belief that they were instruments or organs of the Most High, and that the thoughts which arose in their minds about Him and His Will, and the commands and exhortations which they issued in His Name, really came at His prompt- ing, and were really invested with His authority. There is no alternative between accepting this belief as true and regarding it as a product of mental disease or delusion ^* 5. Intrinsic character. — Beyond the prophets' claim to inspiration and its acceptance by their hearers, there is the appeal their writings make to mind and heart and conscience. * Sanday, Inspiration, p. 394. U 98 CREDENTIALS AND CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE Each of them may fearlessly say to us, as Paul said to the Corinthians, ' Judge ye what I say/ Their word is its own sufficient witness to its Divine origin. Its conception of God, its interpretation of life, its promise of the Christ, all bear the stamp of revelation. It gives a view of redemption as the final goal of the world's history, which is no human invention, but attests itself as the word of the world's Redeemer. On the Hebrew prophets alone, of all religious teachers, we are compelled to pass the verdict, 'Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.' 73. Fulfilment. — So far, prophecy has been spoken of as its own witness. But there was a further testimony to its truth in its announcement of things to come— a testimony for the most part reserved for the interpretation of Time. Yet there was sufficient of speedy — even immediate — ful- filment to authenticate their Divine calling and to justify their challenge to false prophets to declare things to comv. The prophet, as preacher of righteousness, declared inevitable judgement upon the nation's sin ; a prediction fulfilled in the near future in one disaster after another, and in the crowning calamity of the Exile. See Is 42^ 43^ 44^*^ 4^^ Eze 12^^ Am 3"^ Hab 2^ This was no mere soothsaying, but the unveiling of a Divine ' increasing purpose.' And to understand aright the * evidence from prophecy ' we must survey the whole scheme ; while at the same time our sense of the presence and action of the Divine Mind is deepened by individual, isolated foreshadowings of things to come, in minute detail, and sometimes startling ac- cordance with the far-off event. The popular view fixes especially upon these last as evidence, but the main stress of the argument still rests upon the whole course of the prophetic revelation. The Messianic hope. — There was one element in the prophet's message in which prediction does look out far into EXTERNAL EVIDENCE: PROPHECY 99 the future, an element not of warning, but of promise. No apostasy could quench his belief in the ultimate redemption of Israel. To him the gifts and calling of God were without repentance, and with magnificent optimism he declares a future for the nation more glorious than was dreamt of in the very height of its prosperity and greatness. For God was not only the * Holy One of Israel ' : He was a God of grace, pardoning iniquity, delighting in mercy. To minds thus prepared was imparted the Messianic hope, that most characteristic and vital feature of prophecy, slowly develop- ing, taking on new aspects as it grew, becoming ever fuller and clearer. The time was not revealed, the details are not precisely given. As Peter put it, ' Concerning which salva- tion the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you : searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified before- hand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow them^.' This Messianic prediction was the expression of an inspired, invincible faith in the faithfulness of God, and was slowly brought into shape under successive phases of the nation's life and the nation's need. Its fulfilment lies, not only in the accord we may trace between this or that isolated utterance and certain details of the history of the birth and life and death of our Lord, but in Jesus Christ Himself as the one Saviour of men and the Founder of the kingdom of God. 'How are we to bring together those two parallel lines of prophecy which exist side by side in the Old Testament, but nowhere meet, the ideal King, the descendant of David, and the ideal Prophet, the suffering Servant of Jehovali ? What have two such different con- ceptions in common with each other ? They seem to move in different planes, with nothing even to suggest their coalescence. We turn the page which separates the New Testament from the Old. We look at the Figure which is delineated there, and we find in it a marvellous • I Pet iio-"-K.V. H 2 100 CREDENTIALS AND CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE meeting of traits derived from the most different and distant sources, from Nathan, from Amos, from First Isaiah, from Second Isaiah, from Zechariah, from Daniel, from the second Psalm, from the twenty- second, from the sixty-ninth, from the hundred and tenth. And these traits do not meet, as we might expect them to do, in some laboured and artificial compound, but in the sweet and gracious figure of Jesus of Nazareth — King, but not as men count kingship ; crowned, but with the crown of thorns ; suffering for our redemption, but suffering only that He may reign *.' Thus may we find what gives unity amid diversity, and stamps all prophecy as inspired of God, as we read with understanding Christ's own words, 'These are they that bear witness of Me.' Internal Evidence A larger branch of evidence remains — the moral, the lite- rary, and the spiritual, or (to apply one title to all) the internal. 74. Morality of the Bible.— The first peculiarity of Scripture morality is the importance which is everywhere attached to holiness. Judging from what we know of systems of human origin, a religion from man would either have spent its force on ritual observance, or have allowed active service on its behalf to make amends for the neglect of other duties. Mohammedanism gives the highest place to those who fight and fall in conflict. Hinduism rewards most the observance of ritual worship. Jewish tradition taught that all Jews were certainly saved. The Scriptures, on the contrary, bring all men into the presence of a Being of infinite holiness, before whom the most exalted human characters fall condemned ^ ; and they declare plainly, that nothing we can say or do in the cause of Christ can make up for the want of practical virtue. Those who have preached in the name of Christ are to be disowned if they be workers of iniquity ^, and the reception of the true faith • Sanday, Inspiration, p. 404. ^ Job 40* Is 6^ Dn 9-^ i Tim i'. c j^t 72223 Lu 6". INTERNAL EVIDENCE: BIBLE ETHICS 101 makes Christian holiness only the more incumbent because it is only thus possible ^ The kind of moral duty which the Scriptures teach is not such as man was likely to discover or to approve. When our Lord appeared, the Romans were proud of their military glory, and the Gi'eeks of their superior wisdom. Among the Jews a pharisaic spirit prevailed, and the whole nation was divided between opposing sects, all hating their conquerors, however, and the Gentile world at large. An enthusiast would certainly have become a partisan, and an impostor would have flattered each sect by exposing the faults of the rest, or the nation by condemning their conquerors. Our Lord came, on the contrary, as an independent teacher, rebuked all error, condemned all the sects, and yet did nothing to court the favour of the people. His precepts, bidding men to return good for evil, to love their enemies, to be humble and forgiving, to consider every race and every station as on a level before God, were acceptable to none, and were yet repeated and enforced with the utmost earnestness and consistency. It may indeed be replied that men are always ready to commend a greater degree of purity than they are prepared to practise, and that ancient philosophers wrote treatises describing a much nobler virtue than was found among their countrymen. This is true, and if the Jewish fishermen had studied philosophy, it would not have been wonderful if they had taught a higher morality than men generally practised. But they were ' ignorant men,' and their precepts go not only beyond what men practised, but beyond what men approved. The gospel is not only better than human conduct, it is often contrary to it. The endurance of suffering, the forgiveness of injury, and the exercise of a submissive spirit were not only not practised, they were not admired ; and while the gospel teaches these duties, it exhibits them in combination with a spiritual heroism of which the world knows nothing, and which has ever been supposed inconsistent with the patient virtues which the Scriptures enjoin. The regulation of motive. — Add to these facts another, namely, that Scripture seeks to regulate the thoughts and motives of men, and is content with nothing less than a state of heart which refers all our actions to God's will ; and it must be felt that the morality of the gospel is not of man. Bad men could not have taught such truths, and good men would not have deceived the people^. * I Cor 5^112. ^ See Paley, Evidences. 102 CKEDENTIALS AND CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE Sin in its relation to God. — But there is yet another peculiarity in the morality of Scripture, equally true in itself and striking. Sin is everywhere spoken of as an evil agaiyist God, and everywhere it is not the instrument or human agent who is exalted, but God alone. The first notion is inconsistent with all heathen philosophy, and the second with the natural tendency of the human heart. 'This,' says Cicero, 'is the common principle of all philo- sophers, that the Deity is never displeased, nor does He inflict injury on man' {Dc Officiis, iii. 28). In Scripture, on the contrary, sin is represented as an evil and bitter thing, because it is dishonouring io God. This distinctly appears in the Old Testament, and indeed forms one of its most marked peculiarities. Hence the destruction of the Amalekites "■, of Sennacherib ^, and Belshazzar c. Hence the abandonment of the Gentile world to a reprobate mind ^. Hence God's controversy with the Jews ® and with Moses f. Hence Eli's e punishment and David's^. Hence also the calamities of Solomon, the division of his kingdom into Israel and Judah, and the captivity and destruction of both \ God alone is honoured. The great object of all the writers seems to be to lead men's thoughts to Him. The false teacher gives out that he himself is some great one (Ac 8'^), but in the Bible it is God only Who is exalted. This rule is illustrated in Moses, Dt I'l a"" 3" 4''2-s» Ex i8«; Joslma, Jos 23''; David, i Ch 29^'-^* ; Daniel, Dn a-o-^'-so ; Ezra, Ezr 72" ; Nehemiah, Ne 2^2 . Peter and John, Ac 3'2-i« ; Paul, Ac 21" i Cor 3* 2 Cor 4^. Creation is represented, in the same way, as God in » Ex i7^«, marg. A.V. and R.V. ^ 2 Ki 19"-'^ •= Dn 5^'. ^ Ro i2i-28. • Ilebs'". ' Numao^^ K I Sa 229-30. h 2 ga i2» (Ps 51*). » I Ki 1 1*-" 2 Ki 1714-90 a Ch 36^«i7 Lu 19*2-" Ro ii'^". INTERNAL EVIDENCE: CANDOUR 103 nature ^ : the revolutions and progress of kingdoms, as God in history ^. Faith the principle of spiritual life. — It is in part with the view of strengthening the feelings which these peculi- arities produce, that faith is made the principle of obedience and success. In relation to God, faith is the confession of our weakness, and excludes all boasting; and yet in relation to success it is omnipotent ; a truth as profoundly philo- sophical as it is spiritually important. And yet it is a truth revealed only in the Bible. Ro 32- Eph a'-^ I Cor i^^-si Jn ii i Pet 4'. EVIDENCE FROM CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 107 ■when it is committed, we think it sinful to indulge a sinful thought. It is with your party that the prisons are crowded, but not a single Christian is there, except it be as a confessor or apostate.' TertuUian, the first Latin ecclesiastical writer whose works have come down to us (a.d. 200), makes a similar appeal, and speaks of great multitudes of the Roman empire as the subjects of this change. Origen, in his Reply to Celsus (a. d. 246), Lactantius, the preceptor of Constantine (a. d. 325), repeat these appeals : and even the Emperor Julian holds up Chris- tians to the imitation of Pagans, on account of their love to strangers and to enemies, and on account of the sanctity of their lives. The unknown author of the Letter to Diognetus (about a. d. 150) writes to th« same effect. 'Christians,' he says, 'find themselves in the flesh, yet they live not after the flesh. Their existence is on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. Tliey obey the established laws, and they surpass the laws in their own lives. They love all men, and they are persecuted by all. They are evil spoken of, and j^et they are vindicated. They are reviled, and they Ijless ; they are insulted, and they respect. Doing good, they are punished as evil- doers ; ^eing punished, they rejoice, as if they were thereby quickened by life* (Bishop Lightfoot's translation). The influence of the gospel was early seen among ancient nations. In Greece, the grossest impurities had been encouraged by Lycurgus and Solon, At Rome they were openly practised and approved. Among nearly all ancient nations self-murder was commended. Seneca and Plutarch, the elder Pliny and Quintilian, applaud it, and Gibbon admits that heathenism presented no reason against it. Human sacrifice and the exposure of children were allowed and even enforced. But wherever the gospel came, it condemned these prac- tices, discouraged, and finally destroyed them. That it was not civilization that suppressed them is certain, for they were kept up by nations far superior to the Christians in refinement, and the suppres- sion of them was always found to keep pace with the progress, not of human enlightenment, but of Divine truth. The relief of distress and the care of the poor are almost peculiar to Christian nations. In Constantinople there was not, before Chris- tianity was introduced, a single charitable building : nor was there ever such a building in ancient Rome. After the introduction of Christianity, however, the former city had more than thirty buildings for the reception of orphans, of the sick, of strangers, of the aged, and of the poor. In Rome, there were twenty-five large houses set apart for the same purpose. With equal certainty, it can be established that the gospel has abolished polygamy, mitigated the horrors of war, redeemed captives, freed slaves, checked the spirit of feudal oppres- sion, and improved the laws of barbarous nations. ' Truth and 108 CREDENTIALS AND CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE candour,' says Gibbon, ' must acknowledge that the conversion of these nations imparted many temporal benefits both to the Old and New World, prevented the total extinction of letters, mitigated the fierceness of the times, sheltered the poor and defenceless, and pre- served or reviA'ed the peace and order of civil society*.* As therefore the providence of God is seen in the preservation of the Bible, so also is His grace in its effects : and those effects bear strong testimony to its Divine origin, i Th i*~^° Gal 5*^^ 78. The Harmonies of Revelation. — On that part of the Scriptural evidence which is called the harmony of revealed truth, it is not possible to enlarge : and the subject has been fully discussed by various writers. On the agreement between the doctrines and peculiarities of Scripture and the facts of Nature, the Analogy of Bishop Butler is unrivalled. And since his time, * apologetic ' literature has abounded in the discussion of the coincidences between sacred and general history, with coincidences of a minute and statistical character, with the geography and natural history of Palestine, and on coincidences between various parts of the I'ecord itself ^. See also Ch. IX of the present work. These coincidences are literally innumerable, and are interwoven with the whole texture of Scripture. Some are apparently trifling, as when it is said that our Lord went down from Nazareth to Capernaum, and Dr. Clarke points out the graphic consistency of the phrase with the geography of that region. Others are deeply affecting, as when it is said that blood and water issued from the side of Jesus, and medical authorities affirm that if the heart is pierced or broken, blood and water flow from the wound. Some are critical, as when it is remarked that at no time after the destruction of Jerusalem could any known writers have written in the style of the books of the Bible : and that at no one time could these various books have been written. They are * Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ch. 55. For a large collection of similar facts see Tholuck's Essay, Nature and Influence of Heathenism, with the Apologies of early Christian writers, Dollinger's Jew and Gentile at the Gates of the Christian Church, and Brace's Gesta Christi. ** See, especially, the edition of Paley's Evidences, with Notes by Birks, also Paley's Horc8 Paulince, with HorcB Apostolicce by Birks, published by the Religious Tract Society. INTERNAL EVIDENCE 109 demonstrably the work of different authors and of different ages. Some are historical, as when it is noticed that, after the time of the Apostles, all writers applied the name Christian to designate the foUowei's of Christ, a name never applied in the New Testament by Christians to designate one another : the very terms which the Apostles employ indicating that the new religion was the completion of the old — * chosen ' and ' faithful.' Some are religious, founded, that is, on the peculiarities of the religious system revealed, as when it is stated that the religion of the New Testament is the only one in which is omitted the one ordinance which would have been natural and accept- able to both Jews and Pagans, namely, the offering of animals in sacrifice ; an instructive omission. The effect of the whole is highly impressive, and is of itself a sufficient proof of the substantial credibility of the narrative and of the honesty of the authors. Some idea of Paley's Horce Paulince may be gathered from an examination of the following passages, it being premised that the books quoted were written either by different authors, or at different times, and with altogether different purposes. Ro 15-5-26 compared with Ac 20^-^ 21^' 24^^"" i Cor i6i~* 2 Cor 8'-^ 92. Ro 1621-2* „ Ac 20*. Ro lis 1523-24 „ Ac 19-1. I Cor 4I7-" „ Ac 1921-22. I Cor 161011 „ Ac 1921 I Tim 4". I Cor 1^2 36 ^^ Ac 1822-28 ^gl I Cor 920 „ Ac 16^ 2123-26. I Cor ii*-i7 ,, Aci88 Ro i623 I Cor 16^'. A single instance may be added in detail. Barnabas (we are told) was a native of Cyprus, who sold his property and laid the money at the Apostles' feet (Ac ^^^■^'^). We are told also, quite incidentally, that Mark was his nephew (Col 4^°). Compare these facts with the following passages, where it is stated that John Mark went as far as Cyprus, his native country, and soon rejoined his mother at Jerusalem, greatly to the dissatisfaction of Paul ; and how remarkable the con- sistency of tl-ie whole : i Cor 9«'^ Ac ii20-22 132-4 1^37.39 and 13^3. t xhe harmony pervading everything connected with Barnabas,' says Mr. Blunt, ' is enough in itself to stamp the Acts of the Apostles as a history of perfect fidelity *.' See Birks' Horce Apostolicce. Compare, in the same way, the abrupt termination of the history in Ac 8*°, with Ac 21^-^. * Undesigned CoincidenceSj Part IV, § 35. no CREDENTIALS AND CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE Spiritual Evidence 79. Experimental Evidence. — In addition to the moral evidence of Scripture, evidence suggested by the morality of the New Testament, the character of our Lord, the candour and sincerity and self-denial of the first Christians, and the moral beauty of Christian principles, as illustrated in the lives of consistent believers, there is evidence directly spiritual. This evidence is partly appreciated by the in^ tellect, but still more by the heart and conscience. So far as it treats of man as the gospel finds him, it appeals equally to all ; so far as it treats of man as the gospel forms him, it appeals only to the believer. To the first part of this evidence the Apostle refers in i Cor 1423-25 . ^nd to the second, in Eo S^^ i Jn 520. Scripture and Conscience. — This evidence consists, in part, in the agreement between what the awakened sinner feels himself, and what the Bible declares him to be. The gospel proclaims the universal corruption of human nature. It speaks not only of acts of transgression, but of a deep and inveterate habit of ungodliness in the soul, and of the necessity of a complete renewal. If this description were felt to be untrue, if man were conscious of delight in submitting his will to God's will, and in obeying commands which rebuke his selfishness and pride, he might at once discredit the truth of the gospel. But when he finds that the description answers to his own state, and that every attempt at closer examination only discovers to him the completeness of this agreement, he has in himself an evidence that this message is true. Scripture and Human need. — The second stage of the evidence is reached when a man finds that the provisions of the gospel are adapted to his state. He is guilty, and needs pardon. He is corrupt, and needs holiness. He is SPIRITUAL EVIDENCE 111 surrounded by temptation, and needs strength. He is living in a world of vexation and change, and he needs some more satisfying portion than it can supply. He is dyings and he shrinks from death, and longs for a clear revelation of another life. And the gospel meets all these wants. It is a message of pardon to the guilty, of holiness to the aspiring, of peace to the tried, and of life to them that sit in the shadow of death. Scripture and Christian experience. — And whilst there is perfect adaptation to human want, no less striking is the agreement between the description given in the gospel of its results and the Christian's experience. The effects of the belief of the truth are repeatedly portrayed in Scripture. Each promise is a prediction, receiving daily fulfilment. Penitence and its fruits, the obedience of faith and the increasing light and peace which it supplies, the power of prayer, the influence of Christian truth on the intellect, on the heart and the character, the struggles, and victories, and defeats even of the new life, all are described and con- stitute an evidence in the highest degree experimental ; an evidence which grows with our growth, and multiplies with eveiy step of our progress in the knowledge and love of the truth. Such insight into our moral being, and such know- ledge of the changes which religious truth is adapted to produce, could never emanate from human wisdom, and they prove that God Himself is the Author of the book in which such qualities are disclosed. Value of this Evidence. — We repeat the caution, how- ever, that this evidence is chiefly of value for the confirmation of the faith of a Christian, because none else will appreciate or understand it. To such, however, this evidence is so strong as often to supersede every other. To the Christian, the old controversy between Christianity and infidelity has but little interest ; he already feels the truth which evidences 112 CKEDENTIALS AND CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE seek only to prove ; it seems needless to discuss the reality of what he already enjoj^s ; he has the 'witness in himself:' ' whether He be a sinner or no, I know not : one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.* The true method of Healing. — To the physician who is entrusted with the cure of some mortal disease, two courses are open. He may treat the symptoms, or he may treat the disease itself. If in fever he is anxious only to quench the thirst of his patient, or in apoplexy to excite the system, his treatment may be said to be adapted to the wants of the sufferer ; but it is not likely to restore him. A sounder system treats the disease, and that medicine is the true specific which is adapted ultimately to remove it. The evidence of the virtue of such a specific is, not its palatable- ness nor its power of exhilaration, but the steady continued improvement of the health of the patient ; an evidence founded on experience, and strongly confirming the proofs which had originally induced him to make the trial. And so of the gospel. It may exhilarate, and it may please the taste ; but the evidence of its truth and of its being truly received is its tendency to promote our holiness. Summary 80. The Evidence universally accessible. — 'What then is the reason of our hope?' is a question which every inquirer may ask and answer. All the answers of which the question admits no one can be expected to give, for a full investiga- tion of Christian evidences would occupy a lifetime ; but it is easy to give such an answer as s^iall justify our faith. Christianity and the Christian books exist, and have existed for the last eighteen hundred years. Christian and secular writers agree in this admission. The great Founder of our faith professedly wrought miracles in confirmation of His SUMMARY 113 message, and gave the same power to His Apostles. They all underwent severe suffering, and some of them died in testimony of their belief of the truths and facts th-ey de- livered. These facts, and the truths founded on them, the Apostles and first Christians embraced in spite of the oppos- ing influences of the religious systems in which they had been trained. The character and histoiy of the Founder of the faith were foretold many hundreds of years before in the Jewish Scriptures. He taught the purest morality. He Himself gave many predictions, and these predictions were fulfilled. His doctrines changed the character of those who received them, softened and civilized ancient nations, and have been everywhere among the mightiest influences in the history of the human race. They claim to be from God, they support their claim by innumerable evidences, and we must either admit them to be from God, or ascribe them to a spirit of most marvellous imposition. Add to all this, that he who receives them has in himself additional evidence of their origin and holiness, and can say from experience, ' We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life ' (i Jn 5-°). These facts are not abstruse, but accessible to all, and intelligible to the feeblest. For the candid inquirer, any one department of this evidence will often prove sufficient : no other religious system being founded on miracles and pro- phecy, or exhibiting such holiness and love. The whole evidence combined is overwhelmingly conclusive. 81. Hindrances to the reception of Evidence. — And yet there is, in relation to theee evidences, much unbelief both among inquirers and professed Christians. Among inquirers unbelief may be due to want of candour and teach- ableness : a fact which is itself an evidence of the truth of Scripture, and in harmony with the general dealings of God. I 114 CKEDENTIALS AND CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE In common life, levity, or prejudice, or carelessness will often lead men astray, and even make them incapable of ascertaining what is really wise and true. And Scripture has expressly declared that those who will not love truth, shall not understand it. So deeply did Grotius feel this consideration, that he regarded the power of Christianity to test men's character and hearts as itself an evidence of the Divine origin of the Gospel, being divinely adapted to test men's character and hearts \ Among professed Christians, too, there is want of confi- dence in the fullness of the Christian evidence, and conse- quent want of inquiry. Baxter acknowledged that while in his younger days he was exercised chiefly about his own sincerity, in later life he was tried with doubts about the truth of Scripture. Further inquiry, however, removed them. The evidence which he found most conclusive was the internal : such as sprang from the witness of the Spirit of God with his own. 'The spirit of prophecy,' says he, 'was the first witness : the spirit of miraculous power, the second ; and now,' he adds, ' we have the spirit of renova- tion and holiness.' ' Let Christians therefore,' he concludes, ' tell their doubts, and investigate the evidence of Divine truth, for there is ample provision for the removal of them all.' Most of the doubts which good men feel may be thus dispelled. Others, chiefly speculative, may in some cases remain, and are not to be dispelled by the best proofs. Even for these, however, there is a cure. Philosophy cannot solve them ; but prayer and healthy exercise in departments of Christian life to which doubting does not extend can ; or, failing to solve them, these remedies will teach us to think less of their importance, and to wait patiently for stronger light. Ours is a complex nature, and the morbid excitability * De Veritate Religionis Christiance, ii. § 19. See also Is 29"-^* Dn la'* Mt 6" ii26 1311.12 jn 3VJ I Cor a»* a Cor 4* a Tim 3^^ SUMMAKY 115 of one part of our frame may often be cured by the increased activity of another. An irritable faith is a symptom of deficient action elsewhere, and is best cured by a more constant attention to practical duty. Difficulties which no inquiry can remove will often melt away amidst the warmth and vigour produced by active love- la CHAPTER VI INSPIRATION AND REVELATION * Holy Scripture containeth- all things necessary to salvation : so that -whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the holy Scripture -vve do understand those canonical books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church.' — Article VI of the Ciiukch of Engi^nd. * Are you persuaded that the Holy Scriptures contain sufficiently all doctrine required of necessity for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ ? and are you determined, out of the said Scriptures to instruct the people committed to your charge, and to teach nothing, as required of necessity to eternal salvation, but that which you shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved by the Scripture?' — Form FOR THE Ordering of Priests in the Church of England. 'We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to a high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scripture : and the heaven- liness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrines, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the aspect of the Avhole (which is to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the word of God ; yet, notwithstanding, our full preservation and allowance of the infallible truth and Divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness bv and with the word in our hearts.' — Westminstkr Assembly : Con- fession OF Faith. The Bible as Inspired 82. The consideration of the particular evidences of the authenticity and claims of Scripture naturally leads to further and more general questions respecting the method THE BIBLE AS INSPIRED 117 of its communication, and its special characteristics as the word of God. To the former part of this inquiry belongs the subject of Inspiration, to the latter that of Revelation. The two terms indeed are often interchangeably employed. They express but different aspects of the same great truth. The Scriptures may be compendiously described as the record by inspired writers of a revelation, or rather of a series of revelations, from God to man. New Testament Statements. — The declaration that Scripture is inspired by God is made in various forms, all leading to the same result. In reference to the Prophets of the Old Testament in particular, the statements of the New Testament are explicit : ' Men spake from God, being moved (borne onwards) by the Holy Spirit;' 'The Spirit of Christ which was in them did testify ; ' ' God of old time spake unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions, and in divers manners.' In referring to the * holy writings ' in which Timothy had been instructed, the Apostle adds, 'Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness ' (2 Tim 3^^^^ R. V.)* Old Testament Statements. — Declarations to the same effect had been made, times without number, by the Old Testament writers. Thus the Psalmist (2 Sam 23^) — ' The Spirit of Jehovah spake by me, And His word was upon my tongue.' And throughout the Prophets : ' The word of Jehovah came to me,' 'Thus saith Jehovah,' are their constant affirmations. • The rendering of Jerome : ' Omnis Scriptura divinitus inspirata, utilis est,' &c., is naturally followed by Wyolif, as well as in versions influenced by the Vulgate. It is, however, also given by Tindale, Coverdale, and in the Great Bible. The first English version that contains the A. V. reading, 'All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable,' &c., is the Geneva translation, which also is that of Beza in his Latin version. Valid reasons may be assigned for returning, with the Revisers, to the older rendering. 118 INSPIKATION AND REVELATION In recognition of the same truth, the unknown author of the apocryphal Books of Esdras represents Ezra as offering the prayer, ' If I have found favour before Thee, send Thy Holy Spirit unto me, and I shall write all that hath been done in the world since the beginning'^/ 83. Method of Inspiration. — Prophetic inspiration has been variously conceived. In the Scriptures it is declared simply as a fact, without analysis or explanation. The heathen in general held that while inspired men were under the Divine impulse, all voluntary action was sus- pended. To be inspired was to be 'possessed.' A state of ecstasy was regarded as a condition of exercising the prophetic gift. But such is never the view given in Scripture. * In true prophecy self-consciousness and self-command are never lost — "the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets'** (I Cor 1432)1). Views of the Early Fathers. — Early Christian writers give various accounts of inspiration, but for the most part they treat the subject practically rather than speculatively, though generally maintaining that inspired persons still exercised their ordinary powers. Bishop Westcott has a detailed summary", with full quotations, on the subject — leading to the conclusion that : ' the unanimity of the early Fathers in their views on Holy Scripture is the more remarkable when it is taken in connexion with the great differences of character and training and circumstances by which they were distinguished. In the midst of errors of judgement and errors of detail, they main- tain firmly with one consent the great principles which invest the Bible with an interest most special and most universal, with the characteristics of the most vivid individuality and of the most varied application. They teach us that Inspiration is an operation of the Holy Spirit acting through men, according to the laws of their con- Ktitution, which is not neutralized by His influence, but adopted as a vehicle for the full expression of the Divine message. They teach ^ 2 Esd 14^^ * \V. Robertson Smith, The Prophets of Israel, Lect. 5. « Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, Appendix B, ' On the Primitive Doctrine of Inspiration,' pp. 417-455. THEORIES OF INSPIRATION 119 us that it is generally combined with the moral progress and purifica- tion of the Teacher, so that there is on the whole a moral fitness in the relation of the Prophet to the doctrine. They teach us that Christ — the Word of God — speaks from first to last; tliat all Scripture is permanently fitted for our instruction ; that a true spiritual meaning, eternal and absolute, lies beneath historical and ceremonial and moral details.' 84, Theory of the Reformers. — In such views, essen- tially practical, without metaphysical refinement or attempt at closer definition, the Church for many ages was content to rest, until at the Reformation the presumed necessity arose for a more precise theoiy. In the desire to honour Scripture above Church authority, the Swiss Reformers and their successors adopted the view that the sacred writings were dictated word for word — that is, in the original languages, and in a text still uncorrupted. In the Helvetic Confession of 1675 they declared that not only the matter but the very words of Scripture were divinely dictated — in- cluding consonants, vowels, and vowel-points (or at least their force). A similar view had been strongly maintained among English theologians by Dr. John Owen, to whom an effective reply was made by Brian Walton, editor of the Folyglot ; and the theory is still occasionally advocated, although under various modifications ^ According to this view the human writer is but an aman- uensis of the Divine Author. To employ figures that have been used to express his position, he is the pen rather than * 'The Bible is none other than the voice of Him that sitteth upon the throne. Every book of it, every chapter of it, every verse of it, every word of it, every syllable of it (where are we to stop?), every letter of it, is the direct utterance of the Most High. . . . The Bible is none other than the Word of God, not some part of it more, some part of it less, but all alike the utterance of Him Who sitteth upon the throne, faultless, unerring, supreme.* — Bui'gon, Inspiration and Interpre- tation,' 1861, p. 89. So Dr. Tregelles 'held the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament to be veritably the Word of God, as absolutely as were the Ten Commandments written by the finger of God on the two Tables of stone.' See also Gaussen's Theopneustia. 120 INSPIRATION AND EEVELATION the penman, the unconscious lyre from which the touch of the Divine musician awakens the melody. Difftculties in the Verbal Inspiration Theory. — The difficulties in the way of this theory are obvious, and seem conclusive. Among them are the diversities of style in Scripture, the varying quotations, and the very professions of the writers themselves. Divine dictation, supposing it to have existed, did not supersede the necessity, on the part of the writers, of diligent and faithful research ^, of the expression of the same thought in different words, of such differences in the accounts of the same occurrences as would be likely to arise from the different standpoints of the narrators, and of the distinctive personal note in the various writings. The freedom observable in the citations of Old Testament passages in the New clearly shows that little stress is laid upon mere verbal exactness ^\- while, as the vast majority of readers must still be dependent upon translations, the value of such precision would to a great extent be lost by them. It is a greater act of Divine omnipotence to produce a perfect work through imperfect agents, whose personality is at the same time fully preserved, than to do so by merely dictating it. On the other hand, inspiration is, in some cases at least, as in the * Ten Words ' on Sinai, hardly distinguishable from Divine dictation. Sometimes the inspired writers were led to express themselves in language which they themselves imperfectly understood c ; and there are intimations of their use of words which the Holy Spirit taught and approved ^. Such are among the facts of Scripture. And apart from preconceived notions, it is from facts that any theory of inspiration must be formed. The phenomena of inspiration • Lu ii-*. " Compare Mt aS^e-^T ^jth Lu 22^9-20 and i Cor ii'^*-'^^ also Mt 3^^ with Mk ill and Lu 322. c See i Pet i^o" Pn la^. d See Heb i^ i Cor a^^is. Compare Mk lo^'^^ DIVINE AND HUMAN ELEMENTS 121 are those which we find in the Bible ; not those which we may hold to be necessary to our belief in the doctrine *. 85. Divine and Hnman Elements in Scripture. — And however such facts may be interpreted, there is one conclusion to which they together point ; the coexistence of a Divine and of a human element in Scripture. There is an often- remarked analogy in this respect between the written word and the Word Incarnate. Perfect God and perfect man — two Natures (according to the language of theologians) in One Person — meet in mysterious ineffable union ^. It may not be for us in either case to form any definite theory as to the method of this union, or its limits. The fact we thankfully accept, and on that our faith depends. The endeavour has often been made to analyse it more closely. From the evident differences between difi'erent parts of Scripture in their contents and their tone, distinctions have been drawn between 'inspiration of direction* and 'in- spiration of suggestion,' between 'illumination' and 'dicta- tion ' as well as between ' dynamical ' and ' mechanical ' influence. Whatever truths these phrases may embody, they scarcely bring us into closer contact with the vital truth. The mystery of Being and of Thought, the action of the Divine mind upon the human spirit, and the response of the human spirit to the Divine, are still beyond our under- standing. Nor, indeed, do such theories interfere with our reception of the 'living Oracles.' 86. Dif5.ciilties. — Supposed inaccuracies in the details of * 'The student must not approach the inquiry with the assumption — sanctioned though it may have been by traditional use — that God must have taught His people, and us through His people, in one particular way. He must not presumptuously stake the inspiration and the Divine authority of the Old Testament on any foregone conclusion as to the method and shape in which the records have come down to us.' — Westcott, Hebrews, p. 493. *> See The Inspiration qf Holy Scripture, Eight Discourses by Archdeacon Jjee, 1864, Lect. i. 122 INSPIRATION AND REVELATION Scripture will be considered in the sections on Interpreta- tion, especially in that on Scripture Difficulties. Suffice it now to say that the Bible claims to be a certain and infallible revelation of Divine Truth, that in searching the Scriptures the inquirer must look beyond the letter to the spirit, and that no errors, such as are sometimes alleged, as in matters of science, chronology, and the like, invalidate the grounds of faith. With this assurance firmly fixed, we are free to investigate the record. The work has been done by many a competent expositor. The result is thus far to confirm the accuracy of the record, to clear away a host of difficulties, and to discover in the very variations of the Sacred Text new proofs of its authenticity. Scripture is a balanced whole, and even the apparent contradictions and variations may be but intentionally differing aspects of truth which, like the diverse views in the stereoscope, need only to be combined to produce the true image of solidity. And even where there still remains a hesitancy on our part as to the meaning, or an impossibility in our jDresent state of knowledge in harmonizing different accounts, the experience of the past affords good hope of a solution. But what if that solution cannot as yet be attained ? Still ^ the foundation of the Lord standeth sure.' The following quotations indicate some important infer- ences from the princij^les above stated ; — *In theories of inspiration, one factor lias too offcon been brought into exclusive prominence, and the other passed over. A purely mechanical theory has practically ignored any real activity on the part of the human instrument, or an entirely subjective theory has virtually denied the reality of the Divine communication of truth which could not otherwise have been known. The proposition that "Scripture is the Word of God " has been hardened into the dogma of the verbal inspiration and absolute inerrancy of every word of the Bible ; and the Jewish theory of the dictation of the Pentateuch to Moses has been extended to the rest of the Old Testament ; or, on the other liand, the proposition that " Scripture contains the Word of God " has been volatilized till all distinction between Scripture and other THE BIBLE AS KEVELATION 123 books is obliterated, and the inspiration of Moses or Isaiah is held to be not materially different from the inspiration of Solon or^sehylus.' — Prof. A. F. Kirkpatrick's Divine Library oj the Old Testament, p. 91. 'It is certain,' writes Dean Burgon, ' (i) That when various persons are giving true accounts of the same incident, their accounts will sometimes differ so consideiably that it will seem at first sight as if they could not possibly be reconciled, and yet (2) that a single word of explanation, the discovery of one minute circumbtance — perfectly natural when we hear it stated — will often suffice to remove the difficulty which before seemed insurmountable; and, further, that when this has been done, the entire consistency of the several accounts becomes apparent, while the harmony which is established is often of the most beautiful nature.' — Sermons on Inspiration and Interpretation, 186 r, p. 63. BishopEllicott writes : — 'Fully convinced as we are that the Scripture is the revelation througli human media of the infinite mind of God to the finite mind of man, and recognizing as we do both a liuman and a Divine element in the written Word, wo verily believe that the Holy Ghost was so breathed into the mind of the writer, so illumined his spirit and pervaded his thoughts, that while nothing that individual- ized him as man was taken away, everything that %v„j. necessary to enable him to declare Divine Truth in all its fullness was bestowed and superadded.' — Aids to Faith, p. 411. Dean Alford writes in the Profegomena to his Greek Testament : — 'The inspiration of the sacrei writers I believe to have consisted in the fullness of the influence of the Holy Spirit specially raising them to, and enabling them for, their work — in a manner which distinguishes them from all other writers in the world, and their work from all other works.' — Vol. i. p. ai. The Bible as Revelation 87. Christianity claims to be a revealed religion : the record of the revelation is contained in its sacred Scriptures. In these it possesses an authoritative declaration of the mind and will and purpose of God towards man, a self-disclosure of ' Him that is invisible ' which transcends all manifesta- tions of the Divine in nature or in history, and gives knowledge which the human mind could never otherwise have attained. What then, precisely, is Revelation, and what is the method of Pivine revelation disclosed in the Bible? 124 INSPIRATION AND REVELATION Natural and Revealed Religion. — Revealed religion is often set in contrast with natural religion. The distinction implied in these terms is, broadly, this. Natural religion is that in which man finds God ; Revealed, is that in which God finds man. In the one process we are separated from God by the world and our own human nature ; no truth is to be learned concerning Him but what we may slowly and painfully decipher there, and how perplexing the search and doubtful the issue the host of varying and even contradictory Theisms bear witness. See Job 38, 39. The possihility of natural religion is attested by the Scriptures them- selves in such passages as Ps 19^ 94^ 143^^ Is 40^^^ 42^ 45^^ Job 12^ 26^* 2524 »qq. Ac i72'«-28 j^q j19-22 . j^g insufficiency and failure find expression in Job 11^ I Cor i'^^ and elsewhere. In Revelation, on the other hand, the silence is broken *, the sign from heaven given ; the certainty and the authority craved for by man's religious needs are in the miracle, in the Prophet's ' Thus saith the Lord,' in the inspired Book, and, finally and completely, in Christ, the Incarnate Word. 88. Harmony between the two. — But though the dis- tinction between these two ways of apprehending God is valid, a little consideration will show that it is not, and cannot be, absolute. God's revelation of Himself is conveyed through human instruments and received through modes of human thought and feeling. In a written revelation the human element is necessarily prominent. On the other hand, it is true to say that Nature reveals God ; that He manifests Himself in the experience of individual and nation, and speaks through the intuitions of conscience. Man's search- ing after God is also, at every step, a self-revelation of God. To every upward aspiration of thought or emotion Paul's phrase might be applied, * Knowing Him, but rather being known of Him.' Pascal, in his perplexity, seeking after * This is precisely the meaning of the Greek verb * having spoken/ * hath spoken,' in Heb i^-^. MEANING OF EEVELATION 125 God, seemed to hear a Divine voice saying to him, 'Thou wouldst not seek Me, hadst thou not already found Me.' In this Divine quest, to seek is to find. The tendency of some modern religious thinking is to emphasize the likeness rather than the difference between natural and revealed religion. The gap is reduced from both sides : Revelation is naturalized, and the ordinary processes of thought towards God are shown to have in them elements which are supernatural. The con- viction that the Bible is revelation has largely given place to the con- ception that it contains a revelation, unique and authoritative, but gradually unfolded in the history and literature of which the Scriptures are the records. The authoritxj oi this revelation is regarded as inherent rather than extraneous. The stress on miracle has shifted from its function as attesting a revelation independent of it, to its nature as part of the revelation itself. The changed point of view may perhaps be illustrated by contrast of the immediate effect of Christ's teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum, * They were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as having authority * * — with the inference drawn by Nicodemus, * Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God : for no man can do these signs that Thou doest, except God be with him ^' In view of this trend of thought, whether justified or not, it becomes more important to examine and to vindicate the peculiar claim of the Bible to be or to contain a special and unique revelation of God to men. 89. Meaning of Revelation. — The word Revelation (lit. drawing hack the veil) is the Latin equivalent of the Greek a.TroKd\vK}/L^ (Apocalypse), aw uncovering. In the LXX the substantive does not occur in the metaphorical sense, and the verb (dTroKaAvTTTetv) very rarely. The idea, indeed, is characteristically Christian. In the New Testament God is said to reveal His truth to men, sometimes through the Holy Spirit: Mt ii^s l6^^ Lu lo^i i Cor 2^^ 14^0 ;• the method of disclosure and the truth disclosed are alike called revelation: Eph 3^ i Car 14^. The idea of supernatural communication is emphasized by the many passages which • Mk i2«. »• Jn 32 R. V. 126 INSPIRATION AND REVELATION speak of the mystery of God, hidden from the ages but now revealed or made known in Christ: Ro 16^' Eph 3^ Col i^^ Revelation, then, appears essentially as a special operation of God upon the human spirit, by which He manifests Himself, His will. His truth. As a manner of knowins:, it is separate from ordinary mental processes ; as that which is known, it is knowledge not otherwise attainable by men. By way of more precise definition the following may suffice. 'Revelation means God manifesting Himself in the history of the world in a supernatural manner and for a special purpose*,* i.e. the proper object of revelation is God ; its sphere is history, not nature ; its method is super- natural. Again, * Revelation can only concern what is so above nature as to be beyond the power of man to discover or of nature to disclose ; in other words, it must relate to God, proceed from Him, and be concerned with Him^.' 90. Moreover, although writing is not essential to revela- tion as thus defined, ' the idea of a written revelation may be said to be logically involved in the notion of a Living God. Speech is natural to spirit ; and if God is by nature Spirit, it will be to Him a matter of nature to reveal Himself c.' The relation of Bevelatlon to Inspiration (see § 82) is dealt with by Dr, Fairbairn in words which follow those just quoted : 'But if He speaks to man, it will be through men ; and those who hear best will be those most possessed of God. This possession is termed "inspira- tion." God inspires, man reveals : inspiration is the process by which God gives : revelation is the mode or form — word, character, or institu- tion— in which man embodies what he has received. The terms, though not equivalent, are co-extensive, the one denoting the process on its inner side, the other on its outer.' Dr. Sanday, in quoting this passage with approval, remarks; 'The context shows that it is as correct to say, " God reveals " ; but it is through man that the revela- tion takes concrete shape**.' A passage to the same effect may be • Dr. A. B. Bruce. *» Dr. A. M. Fairbairn, Christ in Modern Theology, p. 387. • Ibid.f p. 496. •* Dr. Sanday, Inspiration, p. 125 note. METHOD OF REVELATION 127 added from Bishop Westcott : * Inspiration may be regarded in one aspect as the correlative of Revelation. Both operations imply a super- natural extension of the field of man's spiritual vision, but in different ways. By Inspiration we conceive that his natural powers are quickened so that he contemplates with a Divine intuition the truth as it exists still among the ruins of the moral and physical worlds. By Revelation we see as it were the dark veil removed from the face of things, so that the true springs and issues of life stand disclosed in their eternal nature*.' In affirming then that Christianity is a Eevealed Religion, we affirm that God has so spoken to men : that we know it to be so, because we have a record of the revelation in the Scriptures. The Bible is a revelation because it contains the history of the Redeemer and of our Redemption. So much any believer in revelation must affirm : any further affirmations as to the nature and method of revelation must be based on a study of the Bible itself. Method of Eevelation in the BlUe. 91. The Bible is, first, a revelation of Religious Truth. This has already been stated in definition. The proper object of revelation is God, in the relations which do and may subsist between Him and His creatures. The Bible is the history of Redemption. It gives the history of the world as 'God's world,' and as destined to become the kingdom of His Son. It tells us of its origin, that we may know by what God has done, the reverence due to Him: what is His power Whose law this book has revealed: Whose creatures we are, that we may distinguish Him from the idols of the heathen, who are either imaginary beings, or parts of His creation. I. All the narrative of the Bible seems written on the same principle. It is an inspired history of religion, i. e. of man in relation to God : all else that it contains is in subordination to this main purpose. Idolatrous nations are introduced, *• Westcott, Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, p. 8. 128 INSPIRATION AND REVELATION not as independently important, but as influencing the Church, or as influenced by it : and thus narrative and prophecy continue from the first transgression, through the whole interval of man's misery and guilt, to a period, spoken of in a great diversity of expressions and under both econo- mies, when ' the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed.* These historical disclosures supply ample materials for inquiry; but it is the principle of selection and the clear scope of the whole which are now under notice. To convey religious truth is clearly the writers' chief design. What- ever is revealed must be studied with this fact in view, and whatever is withheld may be regarded as not essential to the accomplishment of this purpose. 2. In the prophetic Scriptures this peculiarity is equally obvious. They are all either intensely moral, or evangelical, or both. It might have been otherwise, without injury to prophecy as an outward evidence of Scripture. The gifts of prediction and of moral teaching might have been disjoined: but in fact they are not. What might have ministered to the gratification of natural curiosity only is enlisted on the side of practical holiness. The prophet is the teacher ; and the revelation of the future becomes, like the history of the past, the handmaid of evangelical truth and of spiritual progress. 3. So is it in all that is revealed in relation to Christ. We read of the dignity of His Person, but it is with a constant reference to * us men, and to our salvation.* If He is set forth as the Light of the world, it is to guide us into the way of peace: if as the Lamb of God, it is that He may redeem us by His blood : if as entering into heaven, it is as our Propitiation and Intercessor. We call Him justly the * Son of God ' : He loved to call Himself, as His Apostles never called Him, and with a peculiar reference to His sympathy and work— the 'Son of man.' METHOD OF REVELATION 129 Scripture, then, is the revelation of religious truth, and of truth adapted to our nature as fallen and guilty. We use it rightly, therefore, only as it ministers to our holiness and consolation. It might have revealed other truth, or the truth it does reveal may be regarded by us only as sublime and glorious. But this is not God's purpose. He has given it 'for teaching, reproof, correction, and for discipline in righteousness.' All knowledge may be useful : but this knowledge is necessary. An important principle follows from these remarks. We must not expect to find revelation in Scripture, except of what is, in a religious point of view, important for us to know. Some seek 'the dead among the living' (as Lord Bacon phrased it), and look into the Bible for natural philo- sophy and human science : others inquire in it for the ' secret things ' which ' belong only to God ' : and both are rebuked by the very character and design of the Bible. It is the record of necessary and saving truth ; or of truth in its religious aspects and bearings, and of nothing besides : its histories being brief or full, as brevity or fullness may best secure these ends. Not everything contained in Scripture is of the nature of revelation. God reveals the unknown, the spiritual, the secret purpose of His will. But more than this : He unveils hidden meanings in what is already known, His own mind as displayed in outward facts ; in a word, the religious interests of life. Professor Hannah has acutely remarked, with regard to many of the Bible records : — ' So far as these are simple facts, bearing a plain historical character, and holding definite external relations to dates, to geography, to the histories of surrounding nations, it is clear that no special revelation was required for their record. We can imagine that even uninspired historians might have nai-rated the whole con- temporary portion of the facts of Scripture, in histories of the common type and order. But such records would have differed widely from the existing Scriptures, because they could not have presented the K 130 INSPIRATION AND REVELATION facts under the aspect which a knowledge of their purpose and signi- ficance supplied. Revelation, properly so called, is the supernatural counterpart to this double series of facts, uniting them together under one religious explanation. Scripture consists, then, not of facts only, but of facts arranged with a view to one overruling purpose, and lighted up by a peculiar interpretation, which the unassisted mind ol man could nerer have projected or supplied.' — Relation between the Divim and Human Elements in Holy Scripture (Bampton Lectures, 1863, pp. 27, 28). In general, Scripture speaks in relation to physical facts in the language of common life and contemporary know- ledge ; and sometimes that language is popular rather than scientific, as in Job 9^ 38° Ps 104^. And the reason is plain. Supernatural intervention here would be quite outside the purpose of revelation. Indeed, if strictly philosophical lan- guage had been emf)loyed, Scripture must have been less intelligible : to have described natural facts 7iot as they appear, but as they really are, would have made all such facts matters of revelation. It must have excited doubts among the ignorant, and prejudice (from the necessary incompleteness of Scripture teaching on such questions) among the philosophic ; destroying, among all, the unity of impression which the Bible seeks to produce. The Bible would have become, in that case, a Divine, though incom- plete handbook of science ; an arrangement as little con- ducive to the cultivation of a truly philosophical spirit as to the interests of religion itself. '■ And yet, although the language is not that of modern science, it is curiously accurate, and its absolute concurrence with the latest discoveries is amazing to all except the believer''^.' The Scriptures, for example, speak of the earth as a globe, and as suspended upon nothing, Is 40-^ Job 26^-^^ Pr S''^^. In treating of its age, they distinguish between the creation of unorganized matter and that of the heavens and the earth. Gen i'-^. They give to man a very recent origin, and their accuracy in this respect is attested by the ascertained state of the earth's surface and by the monuments of antiquity. They describe the lieavens as boundless space, not as a solid * See Capron's ConJUct of Faith. METHOD OF REVELATION 131 sphere ; and light as an element independent of the sun, and as anterior to it, anticipating the generally received theory of modern inquirers. When they speak of air, they say that God gave it weight, as Galileo proved ; and of the seas, that He gave them their measure : a proportion of land and sea such as now exists being essential to the health and safety of both animal and vegetable life. The waters above * the expanse ' have an importance attached to them in Scrip- ture which modern science alone can appreciate ; many millions of tons being raised from the surface of England alone by evaporation every day. When they speak of the human race they give it one origin ; and of human language they indicate original identity and subsequent division, not into endless diversities of dialect such as now exist, but rather into two or three primeval tongues ; facts which, though long questioned, ethnography and philosophy have confirmed, Gen ii^ lo^^*. When they speak of the stars, instead of supposing a thousand, as ancient astronomers did (Hipparchus says 1022, Ptolemy 1026), they declare that they are innumerable ; a declaration which modern telescopes discover to be not even a figure of speech. ' God,' says Sir John Herschel, after surveying the groups of stars and nebulae in the heavens, ' has scattered them like dust through the immensity of space.' And when the Scriptures speak of their hosts, it is as dependent, material, obedient things. Is 4o26-27_ In the domain of religious truth the Bible is of absolute and final authority ; in that of scientific fact and conception it does not claim to be. There can be no conflict between science and religion. The dreary records of the warfare between science and systems of tlieology which have mistaken the nature and limits of the inspiration under which the authors of the Bible wrote its several books, will not fail of their lesson if they teach us to rest the authority of Scripture on its matchless and unassailable revelation ol religious truth. 92. A second peculiarity of Scripture is, that it is a gradual and progressive revelation. The truths and purpose of God are in themselves incapable of progress ; but not the revelation of those truths. In nature, the rising sun scatters the mists of the morning, and brings out into light first one prominence, and then K 2 132 INSPIRATION AND REVELATION another, till every hill and valley is clothed in splendour. The landscape was there before, but it was not seen. So in revelation, the progress is not in the truth, but in the clear- ness and impressiveness with which Scripture reveals it. In the beginning, for example, God taught the unity of His nature ; while the truth that there is a plurality in the Godhead was taught, but indistinctly. In the later Prophets, the truth comes out with greater distinctness ; and in the New Testament it is fully revealed. In the same way, the work of the Holy Spirit is recognized in the Old Testament, and with increasing clearness as we approach the times of the gospels It is in the New alone, however, that we have a distinct view of His personality and work. This gradual disclosure of the Divine will is yet more remarkable in the anticipations of the Christ. The first pro- mise (Gen 3^^) contained a prophetic declaration of mercy, and foretold His coming and work, though in mysterious terms. The first recorded act of acceptable worship (Gen 4"^ Heb 1 1*) was a type, expressing by an action the faith of the offerer in the fulfilment of the first prediction. There was to be triumph through suffering, and there was to be the substi- tution of the innocent for the guilty. These pramises and types were multiplied with the lapse of time. In the person or worsliip of Enoch ^, of Noah'', of Melchizedec*^, and of Job ", there was much that was typical and predictive ; still more in the history of Abraham' and his immediate descendants. Under the Mosaic dispensation, other typical acts or persons, and places, and things were instituted, and the design of the institution was most distinctly explained*. Prophecies, also, became more clear and frequent **. Between the days of Samuel and Malachi — a period of more than six » Gen i2 6» Ps si^^-^'^ Is 48^^ ^^i jze 3'^*'^''. Compare Num 62*-2g with the New Testament benediction 2 Cor 13^*. ^ Ju 14. «= I Pet 320 Gen S'^\ ^ Heb 5, 6. • Job 42^-^ ' Gen 12^ (compared with Gal 3^) 26* 49'*^, &c * Lev i^ 6'^~'^ 17^^ compared with Heb 9-'''. ^ Num 24'"^ Dt iSi^Ac 3^--'^\ 1 METHOD OF REVELATION 133 hundred years— a succession of pi-ophets appear, wlio gradually set forth the person and work of the Messiah ; they foretell, too, the out- pouring of the Spirit and the general prevalence of the truth * : points on which the earlier revelation is silent. In the extent of their predictions, the prophets have not gone beyond the first promise which was intended to give hope of complete redemption ; but in their clearness, in the detailed account they give of what redemption involved, and what it cost, the difference is most marked ; while in the same qualities, the Gospels have gone at least as far beyond the prophets as the prophets have gone beyond the Law. 93. It is noticeable, too, that the predictions of the old economy and its practical doctrines go hand in hand. The revelation spreads on each point. The light that illuminates the living spring, or the harvest-field of truth, shows with equal clearness the path that leads to them. The Law gives Divine precept with more fullness than previous dispensa- tions, and the Proj^hets go beyond the Law, occupying a middle place between it and the gospel. They insist more fully on the principles of personal holiness, as distinguished from rational and ceremonial purity, and their sanctions have less reference to temporal promises. The precepts of the Law are in the Law stern and brief: its penalties de- nounced with unmitigated severity. In the Prophets, the whole is presented in colours softer and more attractive ; hues from some distant glory, itself concealed, have fallen upon their gloomy features and illumined them into its own likeness. The Law had said, ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and w^ith all thy strength ' ; and the extent of this command nothing could exceed. The Prophets, however, expound and enforce, and animate it with a new spirit, and direct its application to greater holiness. The rule of life thus becomes in their hands increasingly luminous and practical. The Psalms, again, are a great instrument of piety, and are so far additions to the institutes of legal worship, which contain no specific provision for devotion. • I Pet ill ps 6818 Is 5213-15 53I1.X2 61I.2 Joel a^s Zee i^\ 134 INSPIRATION AND REVELATION Ethical Progress. — At the same time, there is an un- doubted ethical development. Statutes were given .'iiid actions permitted in the early stages of human history, which became obsolete in the progress of Divine revelation. Our Lord expressly declares that certain Mosaic institutes were given for the hardness of the people's heart ^ ; that is, because they were as yet unprepared for what was higher and purer. The essential principles of morality are im- mutable ; their application to human conduct was a pro- gressive force. 'That God has not thought proper to raise mankind at once to its highest state of moral perfection, any more than individuals are born at once to their maturity, is a matter of actual experience. Why He has admitted it is a question which it is vain to ask, and because vain, presumptuous. The human species has gone through a state of less fullness of moral knowledge, of less enlightened conscience, as com- pared with its subsequent attainments, just as every individual has done. Now this less perfect state being a part of God's will, the training applied to it must have been suited to it ; that is, it must have taken it as imperfect, and dealt with it as such ; not anticipating the instructions of a more perfect state, but improving it in its imper- section ; not changing spring into summer, but making of spring the best that could be made of it. While, therefore, general principles of duty were given, all the conclusions which follow from them, with regard to our particular relations in life, were not at the same time developed, and men did not at once develop them for themselves. . . . But further, this imperfect moral knowledge on many pai'ticular points of practice being allowed, if an action on any one of these points was capable of strengthening their moral principle generally, or tended to serve any other useful end, it would properly be commended to them, however inconsistent it might be with more enlightened notions of particular duty. It might be commended to them, because it could do them no moral harm, but probably the contrary ; and because, being a command in a particular case, and not a statement of a general principle, it could not justly interfere with the acquisition of purer views by future generations when the dispensation of the fullness of time was come.' — Dr. T. Arnold, of Rugby, Essay on tlie right Interpreta- tion of Scripture, 1834. If the reader, for instance, will compare the statements • Mt i9». UNITY OF REVELATION 136 of the Pentateuch with those of the Prophets on the relation between the Jews, or of the world generally, and Him who came to enlighten the Gentiles as well as His people Israel % or w^ill mark the increasing spirituality and clearness ^ of the w^hole horizon of spiritual truth as the dawn of the gospel day drew on, he \^t[11 not fail to understand the con- sistency and progressive develojDment of revelation. In both he will see evidence of the presence of that God Who (as Butler expressed it) ' appears deliberate in all His operations,' and Who accomplishes His ends by slow and successive stages, w^hether they refer to the changes of the seasons, the movements of Providence, or the more formal disclosures of His will. This peculiarity of Scri^^ture makes it imiDortant that the various parts of the Bible should be read in the order in which they were written. A chronological arrangement of sacred Histoiy, the Psalms, and the Prophets, so far as attainable, is important for the explanation of the several parts : nor is it less so for a clear and consistent view" of the progressive unveiling of the Divine character and plans'^. This applies to the New Testament as well as to the Old. 94. A third feature of the revelation in the sacred volume is its unity. It has the first requisite of a great book — a single purpose, and that purpose kept in view" throughout every page. This unity is not owing (it will be observed) to the circumstance that the volume is the w^ork of one author, or of one age. As many as forty different waiters (including the authors of smaller portions) composed it. The style is now" history, now song, now arguments or dialogue, now • Cf. Ex 195-6 (of the Jewish people Is ei""') with Is 66^1 (of the con- verted Gentiles) ; i Pet 2^ Rev i^. *• See especially Jer 31^^"^*. *= For a chronological arrangemeiit of the whole of thi-. Bible ce^ Appendix; X. 136 INSPIRATION AND REVELATION biography, or prophecy, or letters. Deeper than these causes of diversity, and sufficiently strong to counteract their influence, must be the secret of this marvellous harmony. It is found, in fact, in the superhuman care of One Who is infinite in power and wisdom. The entire building, which was so many centuries in rearing, is symmetrical throughout, and must have had a Divine Founder, Who first planned and then superintended the whole. 1. One moral purpose. — Look again, for example, at the uniformly moral purpose of the volume. It is the story of human beings in relation to God: first of man, as man: then of families : then of a nation : then of the wider society of the Church. In all other professed revelations, the writers dwell at length on the origin of the universe (as in the Shastras of the Hindus), or on the physical theory of another life (as in the pretended revelations of Mohammed), or on topics which cannot even be imagined to be of any practical importance (as in the fables of the Talmud, and of apocryphal New Testament books). All that the Bible teaches, on the other hand, refers to God as connected with man, singly or socially, or to man as connected with God : and is moral and practical. It contains no cosmogony, no mythology, no metaphysics, no marvels which are not moral: no ideal which is not also a reality. In its histories, biographies, prophecies, and psalmody, it has but one aim, to knit together the broken relations between God and man, and between man and man : — to redeem and sanctify our race. 2. One System of Doctrine. — If we look at the doctrines which were believed and taught, we find a unity no less remarkable. Under every dispensation, the great principles of Christianity have been recognized by all holy men. Religion, 'subjectively' regarded, has ever been faith and obedience. And as a system of truth ('objective') it has never changed. From the earliest times, we find a belief UNITY OF REVELATION 137 in the unity of God ; in the creation and preservation of all things by Divine power ; in a general and particular Providence ; in a Divine law, fixing distinctions between right and wrong ; in the fall and corruption of man ; in the doctrine of atonement through vicarious suffering ; in the obligation and efficacy of prayer ; in direct Divine influence ; in human responsibility ; and in the necessity of practical holiness. Law and Gospel essentially One. — The Lmv, as given by Moses, abounds in ceremony, and was evidently adapted to the peculiar circumstances of one people. The Gospel has but few ceremonies, remarkable for their simplicity, and the whole is of universal application. But though at first sight so dissimilar, the two systems are essentially one. They present the same views of God and of man, suggest or plainly teach the same truths, and are adapted to excite the same feelings. This unity comprehends doctrines entirely beyond human knowledge. The Bible reveals everywhere the same God, holy, wise, and good : it speaks of His designs in governing the world, and of the final issue of the present struggle between good and evil. It treats of human nature and of true happiness ; analyses with matchless skill the secret motives of human action, and points out the grand source of human misery : subjects which have engaged the thoughts of the wisest men in all ages. 95. Unity amid Diversity. — One consideration of prime importance is suggested by this characteristic of the Bible. It is in the light of this unity in the whole that we must interpret the diversities amidst the parts. If not all in the Bible is revelation (§ 91), neither is the quality of the revelation always on the same level. It has been seen that in the Prophets, Old Testament inspiration finds clearest expression and reaches its height, culminating, perhaps, in 138 INSPIRATION AND REVELATION that wonderful utterance of Jeremiah concerning the New Covenant, on which the central revelation of the Epistle to the Hebrews is based ^. We do not look for revelation like this in the Books of Chronicles or Esther, yet can recognize that these too have their needful and honourable place as stones in the Divine fabric. 96. Essential things in Revelation. — So far from being a source of perplexity, the perception of unity amid diversity should bring gain every way. It throws the stress on what is essential in revelation, the vital truths and moving forces of religion. It brings into clearer light the design, nature, and method of revelation in exhibiting it as the history of God's redeeming activity. Above all it fixes attention on the goal of revelation. The Old Testament is seen as the gradual preparation for the Christ. The New Testament also receives its meaning from Christ : He created it : it is His Self-manifestation through His servants, their several message to the world centred in Him into a unity tran- scending all art, and combined into a living book which answers at all points to the living Christ. In discerning the process we become aware of the unity. We may wonder and revere as we fall under the spell of Prophet or Psalmist, of Evangelist or Apostle : it is when we see the whole in the parts that we feel we are in the presence of a stupendous miracle of revelation, and amid all that is human humbly acknowledge that ' a greater than man is here.' 97. A fourth peculiarity of Scripture is the absence of all systematic form in the truths revealed. There is no compend of Christian doctrine, nor are there specific rules on the duties of the Christian life: an omission the more marked, as in the books of most false religions (the Koran and Shastras, for example) the description of the ' faith ' ia • Jer 3i^i-3« Ileb 8-io : d l Cor ii^\ EXAMPLE BEFOEE SYSTEM 139 most precise, and the minutest directions are given concern- ing fasts, ablutions, and other points of religious service. This peculiarity is both natural and instructive. In the Old Testament, the earlier part (and much of the later) is his- torical in its method. Moral truth is conveyed exclusively through narrative, and the narrative is fragmentary and concise. God had been in communication with man long before He gave the Law. What He had revealed, or how He revealed it, cannot be fully gathered from the record. The very object, indeed, of a large portion of the Bible seems to be not so much the disclosure of truth, as the embodiment of truth already disclosed. The New Testament, again, was written for those who had received instruction in the Christian faith, and had embraced it. It does not, accordingly, contain regular elementary instruction, or an enumeration of articles of faith. When the Epistles were written, the churches had been formed under Divine teaching and on a Divine model ; while the Gospels are clearly historical, and rather imply, or suggest, religious truth, than systematically reveal it. Teaching by Example. — Keligion is both objective and subjective ; a system of holy doctrine, or of active holy principles. The first is truth, and the second is piety. In Scripture both are revealed, but it is rather in the form of examples, or of incidental illustrations, than of systematic teaching. Let us notice, for example, how the Bible speaks of the character of God as a Moral Governor, and of man, both as sinful and as holy. Everywhere, throughout the Bible, the perfections of God are revealed, but they are revealed in His works. They are never defined or mentioned even, without reference to some practical end. When Abraham, through Sarah's impatience or unbelief, had taken Hagar, hoping to see an early fulfilment of the Divine promise, Jehovah rebuked him, and for the first time spoke of Himself as the 'Almighty God,' Gen 17^ "When Israel exclaimed, 'My way is hid 140 INSPIRATION AND REVELATION from Jehovah,' the answer was given, * Hast thou not known . . . that the everlasting God . . . fainteth not, neither is weary ? there is no searching of His understanding,' Is 40-^ Considering His government, we find its principles embodied in facts, or in practical precepts, exclusively. His dispensations are unchangeable, like Himself. In every nation and age, he that worketh righteousness is approved. He judges according to every man's work*. He controls what seems most accidental ^. He brings about His ends by means apparently trifling or contradictory ^. He makes even the wicked the instruments of His will ^. He forgives, and is ready to forgive®. He hears and answers prayer ^ He marks the motives of men, as in the case of Lot's wife and of Joash^. He chastises those whom He most loves, as in the case of Moses, of David, and of Hezekinh'\ He prescrveth the righteous, and none that trusteth in Him shall be desolate '. Human sinfulness is traced through its manifold disguises and set in its true light in a series of vivia biographical touches — a wonderful gallery of portraits ! Every variety of character passes before us, not brought in for the sake of the moral lesson, but exhibited often without comment, leaving the lesson to follow of itself. So of human excel- lence, as implanted by the Spirit of God, the moving prin- ciples being faith in the Unseen. Thus, if we would analyse and describe our sinfulness, we maj'^ find scoffing infidelity in the antediluvians ■* ; envy in Cain and the brethren of Joseph ^ ; malice in Saul ^ ; slander in Doeg and Ziba™ contempt for Divine teaching in Korah and Ahab "* ; covetousness in Achan, Balaam, Gehazi, and Judas °; ambition in Abimelech and the sons of Zebedee p ; pride in Hezekiah and Nebuchadnezzar *>. To set forth the inconsistencies of human nature, it shows us, in Ahithophel, the friend and the traitor ""; in Joab, the bivive soldier and faithful servant", yet *a doer of evil,' and one who opposed • Dt loi^ 2 Ch 197 Ro 2I1 Gal 2'^ Eph 6^ Col s^s i Pet i^^, b Est 6^ Jer 387-13 Ac i6'^'\ •= I Sa g^-^^-ie ji„|g ^i3-ir>^ d ^^ 132 ^^ 323 « Dn 92^ 2 Ch 7I*. f 2 CJi sa^'-i-is Gen 2412. b Gen 19^6 2 Ki 13^^ h Num 2oi'-^ 2 Sa 24"-^-''' 2 Ch 32^^ ' i Sa if^ Phil 4^2.18, j j^ j^^ 15. " Gen 4'' 37I1. » i Sa iS'^s'-^'*. •» i Sa 22^ 2 Sa 16^-3. " Num 16^ I Ki 20*2. o Jos 7''=i a Ki s'^^-^'' Mt 26''i-»«. p Judg 9^-5 Mk iqS''. «> 2 Ki ao^s Dn 430. ' Ps ss'^'s a Sa 16^^ » 2 Sa la^s 24^. TEACHING BY EXAMPLE 141 God's appointment and sided with Adonijah * ; in Jelioiam, a destroyer of the images of Baal, who yet cleaved to the sin of Jeroboam ^ ; in Herod, reverence for John, and a spirit of hardened disobedioncs * ; in Agrippa, belief of the prophets, and a rejection of the Gospel "^ ; in many of the chief rulers, a belief in the claims of Christ, combined with a readiness to join in the sentence of the Sanhedrin, that He was 'guilty of death ^' We see the power of self-deceit in David and Balaam ' ; of prejudice in Naaman, in Nathanael, in Nicodemus, in the people of Athens and of Ephesus ^ ; of habit in Ahab, who humbled himself before Elijah, and yet returned to his idols'*, and in Felix, of whom we read that he trembled once, though we never read that he trembled again *. The danger of ungodly connexions is seen in the antediluvians and Esau, who married with those who were under the curse of God J ; in Solomon^ ; in Jehoshaphat's connexion with Ahab (through Athaliah) ' ; and in Ahab's connexion with Jezebel ™ ; of worldly prosperity, in Rehoboam ^ and Uzziah °. If we seek for exhibitions of moral excellence, again, we have it not defined, but illustrated: faith in Abraham P; patience in Job ^ ; meekness in Moses ' ; decision in Joshua ' ; patriotism in Nehemiah * ; friendship in Jonathan °. In Hannah we have a pattern to mothers'; in Samuel, and Josiah, and Timothy, to children''; in Joseph and Daniel, to young men*; in Barzillai, to the aged ^ ; in Eliezer, to servants ' ; in David, to those under authority ** ; in our Divine Lord, to all of every age and in every condition. To make the truth taught in these examples (except in the last) complete, we must trace the evidence of their weakness. They failed in the very parts of their character which were strongest — Abraham through fear^^. Job through impatience •=•', Moses through irritability and presumption ^^. If we attempt, again, to ascertain from Scripture what Paley has called the 'devotional virtues' of religion, veneration towards God, an habitual sense of His providence, faith in His wisdom and dealings, » I Ki 228. b 2 Ki 3I-'. • Mk 6^c-2o, a ^^ 262728. e j^ 1342 Mt 26''<5. ' 2 Sa 125-7 Num 23I0. e 2 Ki 5I112 Jn i*" 3^ Ac 17I8 19^«. »» I Ki 2i27 226. » Ac 2425. i Gen 6^-3 263*. ^ Ne is'^"^^. ' 2 Ki 818-26 m I xi 2i5-i\ " 2Ch i2\ « 2 Ch 26^^ p Gal 3'^"^ •» Jas 5". ' Num i2\ « Jos 24^^ * Ne i' 5I*. ° i Sa 19'^-*. V I Sa i27-28. w I Sa 3 2 Ch 34=^ 2 Tim 3^5. ' Gen 39^ Dn i^. y 2 Sa 193^-35. ^ Gen 24. ** i Sa 2^^-'^^, &c. ^^ Gen 20^. «« Job 3I. **'' Dt 3251. 142 INSPIRATION AND REVELATION a disposition to resort on all occasions to His mercy for help and pardon, we shall find them ratlier illustrated than defined — embodied, that is, in character and example, and not in propositions ^ ; the whole adapted to our wants with admirable skill, and by the very form tliey assume. It is this presence in Scripture of men like ourselves that brings it home to our heart and conscience. There is felt to be something human in it, as well as Divine. It meets us at every turn. We feel, as we look, that it has a power which, like the eye of a good portrait, is fixed upon us, turn where we will ^. Besides answering this moral purpose, it is worthy of remark that the style of Scripture, consisting of figures and specific examples, or 'singular terms,' is the kind of diction least impaired by translation. See Whately's Ehet., Part III, chap, ii. § 2. 98. Now this is a quality essential in a volume desigrned for all countries and for every age. If articles of faith or minute rules of practice had been given, they must have been retained for ever, and with them the heresies and errors which they were intended to con- demn. Either they must have been very general, and therefore useless for their avowed purpose, or they must have been so minute as not to be practicable in all countries, and comprehensible by all Christians. The Koran, for example, places the utmost importance on the offering of prayer at sunrise and sunset ; a rule which proves that the religion of the false prophet was never designed for Green- land or Labrador, where for several months the sun never sets. A sum- mary of doctrine, too, perfectly intelligible to a matured Christian, might be nearly all mysterious to the converted Hottentot. And even if such a summary could have been made generally intelligible, its effects upon the minds of Christians would have been disastrous. They would have stored their memory with the very words of the creed, without searching the rest of Scripture. There would have been no room for thought, no call for investigation, and no excitement of the feelings or improvement of the heart. The creed being, not that from which the faith is to be learned, but the faith itself, would be regarded with indolent and useless veneration. It is only when our energies are roused and our attention awake, when we are acquiring or correcting, or improving our knowledge, • Paley has some admirable remarks, applying these principles to the character (given in Scripture) of our Lord, Evidences, p. 231, Religious Tract Society's ed. '' See Miller's Bampton Lectures, p. 128. SYSTEM AKD LIFE 143 tliat knowledge makes the requisite impression upon us. God has not made Scripture like a garden, ' where the fruits are ripe and the flowers bloom, and all things are fully exposed to our view ; but like a field, where we have the ground and seeds of all precious things, but where nothing can be brought to maturity without our industry'; nor then, without the dews of heavenly grace. ' I find in the Bible,' says Cecil, ' a grand peculiarity, that seems to say to all who attempt to systematize it, I am not of your kind ... I stand alone. The great and the wise shall never exhaust my treasures : by figures and parables I will come down to the feelings and understandings of the ignorant. Leave me as I am, but study me incessantly.' Even good men, too, have undue preferences. If all truth of the same order were placed together in Scripture, men would read most what they most loved : to the neglect of what may be as important though less welcome. But as truth is scattered throughout the Bible, we learn to think of doctrine in connexion with duty, and of duty in connexion with the principles by which it is enforced. 99. Character above System. — Ttese facts suggest a lesson to those who regard the Bible as influential only when made a treasury of intellectual truth. Systematic Divinity, founded upon the Bible, is perhaps the last perfection of knowledge, but not necessarily of character. A man may be drawn to the sacred page by its pictures of Divine goodness, and may love it with a return of affection for all its mercy, or of hope for its promises, or may feed his soul with its provisions, or direct his life by its counsel, and yet do nothing to systematize its doctrines, or at all understand the technical phrases of theological truth. This life of devotion, with its acknowledgement of Providence and imitation of Christ, is the chief thing : combined with systematic thinking, it makes a man profoundly holy and pro- foundly wise ; but without the systematic thinking there may be both holiness and wisdom. The Divine Instrument of Man's Improvement. — They suggest another lesson. Systematic catechetical treatises on doctrine are of use, chiefly in defining or preserving unity of faith : but must not be regarded as the instruments of religious training, or as the store-houses of effective knowledge. They address the intellect only, and that too in logical forms, without narrative, or example, or feeling, or power. They contain no patterns of holiness : no touches of nature. Use them therefore in their right place ; but remember that the Divine instrument of man's improvement is that book which abounds in examples of tenderness, of pity, of remonstrance ; which gives forth tones, and looks, and words, at once human and Divine, ever the same, and yet ever new — the Bible. 144 INSPIRATION AND REVELATION 100. The Revelation in the Bible is authoritative. — A word may be added, finall}'', on the Aiitliority of Scripture. If there is revelation at all there is essentially and neces- sarily authority. The Prophets speak as men who believe they speak the Word of God : it is for those who hear to believe and to obey. Authority thus belongs to Scripture as the vehicle of revelation. The distinction, indeed, which is sometimes drawn between the Bible as an authoritative book and as authori- tative revelation is theoretical rather than practical. The authority is there, claiming us, and the vast majority who have yielded to its claim and lived by obedience to it have not been careful — perhaps not able — to distinguish. At the same time it may be acknowledged that the true authority of the Bible is immediate, spirit finding spirit. Unless God be heard in the soul, He will not be found in the Word. To forget this may lead to a mischievous bondage to the letter : it is possible with all zeal and sincerity to 'search the Scriptures,' teeming with their witness to Christ, and yet fall under the judgement, 'Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life.' If there may seem some loss of definiteness and fixity in ascribing authority, less to the Bible as a whole than to the revela- tion it contains, this danger should be remembered. The loss may well be compensated by gain in vitality and spiritual power, while the Scriptures still hold indisputable sway over mind and will as alone ' able to make wise unto salvation.' 101. The Ultimate Seat of Authority in Religion. — Authority has been denied to the Bible mainly on two grounds : (i) Revelation is defined as essentially immediate and personal; there cannot therefore be written revelation. God reveals Himself directly to the soul that seeks Him. (2) Criticism is alleged to have shaken the pretensions of Scripture to be in all its parts the infallible Word of AUTHORITY : ITS ULTIMATE SEAT 145 God *. With the latter we are not now concerned, though it may be unhesitatingly maintained that the authority of the Scripture revelation as expounded above stands fast in face of any critical results with regard to the books containing it. But the first and main reason assigned surely does not lead to the conclusion. Granted that revelation always involves direct intercourse between God and each recipient soul: yet the word which has come to one, and stands written, may cause multitudes to hear a Voice to which they would otherwise have remained deaf. * The man who has most clearly and certainly heard God, has done more than hear Him for himself ; he has heard Him for the world, and the world ought to be able to hear God in the man^\' He is become an authority in religion, and the record of his consciousness has value even of an authoritative kind for less inspired men. Nor need we depend simply on individual recognition of the written Word as having authority. Our own response is justified and reinforced by the experience of countless others and by the sway the Bible has exercised over human life. The position here contended for may be summed up in words of Principal Rainy in a review of Dr. Martineau's book '^ : — ' The Bible discloses a revealing process of which it is itself the effect. That process, entering into the history of the world, has made» proof of its nature and source. It claims to be nothing less than God making Himself objective in the religious liistory of men — approaching us not merely through the hidden avenues of our indi- vidual consciousness, but outwardly in the plane of facts and events. It is claimed that He broke the silence and spoke, put aside the veil and wrought, in an order of words and works, specifically His own, leading up to and crowned by the Incarnation. This history is for us embodied in a literature — no otherwise could it live for us and for the world. In this literature, the revealing process finds its voice and continues to be vocal ; and as it utters the mind of God in Christ, * Dr. James Martin eau. The Ultimate Seat of Authority in Religion, ^ Fairbairn, Christ in Modern Theology, p. 495. " In Th$ Critical Review. 146 INSPIRATION AND REVELATION it becomes for men the Word, the voice of which is gone out into all the world. 'The evidence of the reality of all this is exceedingly various. It would be a long story to set forth by how many avenues the persua- sion reaches us of the historicity of this process, of its moral continuity and progress, of its religious depth and vitality, of its mighty works and wonders, of its great personalities in fellowship with God, its prophecies, its psalms, above all its crowning and sealing Person, full of grace and truth. The inward witness only assures us that we are not mistaking the character of this great phenomenon, of which the various aspects touch us at a thousand points. But when we have come so far, then we know that God has spoken — we know that He has been holding fellowship with men as One Who stands over against them, not less than as One Who is within them. And it becomes our right to deal with the revelation with a sense of expectancy, and with a recognition of authority. 'Such a revealing process by no means supersedes the inner fellow- ship with God and the longing for His presence. Indeed no other influence in this world has so stimulated and sustained that faith and longing. It remains true, that every disclosure which comes to tis through the Scripture only reveals its full Divine significance, only opens its final and conclusive evidence when God meets us in it. John Bunyan tells us how in his early religious life his pastor used to admonish him that God must set him down and root him in the truths which he seemed to find in the Word, otherwise he should not have stability and abiding profit. All is not done as soon as we have read our Bibles. Yet we may be persuaded that here we are in the region where God is emphatically teaching, both in things which have been made sure to us by an inward witness, and also in things which we are only in progress to understand, to discern in their true meaning, and to feel in their Divine intiuence." CHAPTER VII THE BIBLE AS TRANSLATED *No book is so translatable as the Bible. It runs with the least difficulty into all languages, East and West. When it fails to meet with idioms that are perfect equivalents, it will always be found that its own may be successfully transplanted, and that they will grow with surprising freshness and vigour in their new soil. Hence no so ready a way to enrich a language, even an old and copious language. as to translate the Bible into it. We are not generally aware how many of our own most life-like idioms are in fact orientalisms thus introduced into our remote Western world. The reason is that it is the Living Word — '' the Word of God, quick and powerful," yet clothed in humanity ; and hence it is so intensely human because it is the Divine in the human. In other words, it could not have been so human had it not also been Divine.' — Pkof. Tayler Lewis, The Divine Human in the Scriptures. I. Modern Versions in Different Languages. 102. Latin Versions. — Of modern versions the merits are very various. Here Erasmus claims the first mention. In 1505 he published a Latin translation of the New Testament, and in 15 16 accompanied his edition of the Greek Testament by a Latin version. He was followed by others, who undertook the translation of the whole Bible. The versions made by Komanists are generally extremely literal, and often obscure : such are the versions of Pagninus (Lyons, 1528), Arias Montanus (Antwerp Polyglot, 1584), and Cardinal Cajetan (Venice, 1530, and Lyons repub., 1639). Some, as the version of Clarius (Venice, 1542)% are mere • Clarius claimed to have corrected the Vulgate in 8,000 places j but his work was for a time placed in the Index Expurgaiorius. L 2 148 THE BIBLE AS TRANSLATED corrections of the Vulgate. Houbigant (1753) gives an elegant Latin version of the Old Testament, to accompany his emended Hebrew text. Among Protestants, Sebastian Miinster (Heidelberg, 1534) gives an intelligible version from the Hebrew, preferable to the versions of Pagninus and Montanus. He follows, how- ever, the same text, and does not widely diifer in principles of translation from those authors. Leo Juda at Ziirich began another version of the Hebrew and LXX, which was completed and published after his death in 1542 by Bibliander, the New Testament being added by others. This version is both free and faithful. Sebastian Castellio (Basel, 1557-1573), gives a version from the original, in which he studied to give the sense in elegant classical Latin. It is wanting, however, in simplicity and force. The version of Tremellius, a Jewish Christian, assisted by his son-in-law F. Junius (Leipzig, 1579), is deemed among the best. They expressed the Greek article by the demonstrative pronoun. The version of Sebastian Schmidt (Strassburg, 1696) is extremely literal, and that of J. A. Dathe (Old Testament, Leipzig, 1 781-1789) is remarkable for fidelity and elegance. The New Testament of Beza (Geneva, 1556) is valuable, not only for its faithfulness as a translation, but for its employment of all the then acces- sible sources for textual criticism. It was frequently reprinted, in some editions with the Greek original and the Vulgate, and exerted a marked influence on the English Revisers of 161 1. • 2. Versions in European Vernacular Languages. 103. The German Bible. — A translation of the Bible into German, from the Vulgate, was in existence before the fifteenth century ; and after the invention of printing it was issued from the presses of Mainz, Strassburg, Augsburg, and EUROPEAN VERNACULAR VERSIONS 149 Basel. It was literal and unscholarly, and had but a small circulation. Before 1521 Martin Luther had translated, 'not,' as he says, 'for scholars but for the people,' certain parts of Scripture ; and during his seclusion in the Wartburg he began the translation of the whole Bible from the original languages. The New Testament appeared in 1522, but at first without the name either of translator or printer. The Old Testament was issued in successive portions, and the whole was completed in 1532, the Apocrypha being added two years afterwards. Luther frequently revised his work, forming a committee to assist him {Collegium Bihlicum), of which Melanchthon and Bugenhagen weie the most distinguished members. The final touches were added to the version in 1544. The effect of its publication was marvellous and lasting. It not only greatly aided the Reformation, but gave form and fixedness to the German language. It also was of material help to Protestant Bible translators in other countries. Revisions have been fre- quently attempted. In 1883, after much discussion among German scholars and divines, a tentative edition was published, and, after being subjected to general criticism for two years, was thoroughly re-examined and submitted to a theological Conference at Halle in 1890. The Con- ference entrusted the publication to the Cannstein Bible Institute, by which it was issued in 1892. In 1897 an edition of the revised text was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society. It is no doubt in some such form that Luther's Bible will in future be best known. 104. Translations founded on Luther's. — Luther's Bible has been the basis of translation into the languages of North- Western Europe — the Swedish (1541) ; the Danish (1550) ; the Icelandic (1584) ; an early Dutch version (1560) ; and the Finnish, with its cognate dialects (1642, &c.). The followers of Zwingli also revised the version for the use of the German-Swiss Church in 1679, superseding an old 150 THE BIBLE AS TRANSLATED translation which had been made for the same church by Leo Juda and others between 1524 and 1529. Of other German versions, that of De Wette, JDie Heilige Schrift, must be especially mentioned. It was a work of his earlier years at Heidelberg (1809-1814); and the final, standard edition was published in 1839. It is the work of a man of genius : and for scholarship, brilliancy, and exegetical tact, is perhaps unsurpassed. 105. French translations. — In France, many versions of parts of Scripture, made from the Vulgate, especially of the Psalter and Gospels, existed from a very early period. The evidence respecting them is scanty ; but there can be no doubt that Peter Valdo of Lyons gave an impulse to the translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular (the Romance dialect), which made the Waldenses a Bible-reading people, and called forth the prohibitions of synods and councils. The first printed French Bible was, however, the work of Guiars des Moulins, an ecclesiastic of Picardy, with others. It was printed in Paris, 1487. Another version, by J. Lefevre d'^fitaples, was printed, anonymously, at Paris and Antwerp (1523-1528), and is a scholarly work, the renderings from the Vulgate being in several places corrected from the Greek. It was placed in the Index, 1546, but was republished in 1550 without the renderings deemed 'heretical.' The first Protestant version was issued by P. R. Olivetan (1535), a relative of Calvin, with a considerable number of references from the LXX placed in the margin. This version followed in the Old Testament the Latin of Pagninus, in the New that of Erasmus. It was corrected, chiefly as to the language, by Calvin (1540) ; again, by Beza and others, under the editorship of Cornelius Bertram (Geneva, 1588). It has since, from time to time, undergone other alterations: the revisions by Martin (1707) and Ostervald (1721) are best known. A French version by Beausobre and L'Enfant (17 18) was published at Amsterdam, and is highly esteemed EUEOPEAN VERNACULAR VERSIONS 151 for its accuracy. But all these editions, more or less founded upon Ostervald's work, will probably be superseded by the translation of Dr. Louis Segond (Geneva, Old Testament, 1874 ; New Testament, Oxford, 1880). Among translations by Romanist scholars from the Vulgate, several appeared in the seventeenth century, chiefly of the New Testament. Distinguished above the rest was the version by the Jansenists Antoine Lemaitre, Louis Lemaitre de Sacy, and Antoine Arnauld (1667), variously known as the Port Royal Bible, the Mons Bible (from the places of its first publication), and the Bible of De Sacy. Of this many editions have appeared. A translation of the Gospels by Lamennais (1846), and especially one by Henri Lasserre (1886), must be mentioned. The latter, of all recent versions, is the most essentially modern, of fine literary quality, and with true insight into the meaning of the sacred text. 106. Other Languages of Europe. — By order of the Synod of Dort (16 18), a version was made into the Dutch language by a committee of able scholars, in place of the version made from Luther's Bible, which had been used till then. This version was printed in 1637, and is highly valued for its fidelity. A revised edition of the New Testament appeared in 1867, but has failed to command general approval. An early Italian version was made by Antonio Brac- cioli of Florence (1530-1532). Although a Romanist, he translated from the original texts. The work was con- demned by the ecclesiastical authorities, and is now very rare. The great Protestant version is that of Giovanni Diodati, Professor of Hebrew at Geneva (1607). It was made directly from the original texts, and is free, accurate, and clear. A version from the Vulgate, by Antonio Martini, Archbishop of Florence, was published at Turin in 1776, and has had considerable currency, even among Protestants. 152 THE BIBLE AS TRANSLATED There are two versions of the Bible in Spanish ; the one made by a Romanist, Cassiodoro Reyna, Basel (Old Testament, 1569; New Testament, 1625), and the other by a Protestant, Cyprian de Vaiera (Amsterdam, 1602). They are founded chiefly on the Latin version of Pagninus, the second also partly on the Genevan-French Bibles. There are also three Spanish versions made from the Vulgate (1478, 1793-4, 1824) a. In Portuguese, the version chiefly circulated is that by J. Ferreira d'Almeida, a convert from Rome (New Testa- ment, 1 7 12; Old Testament, 17 19). Another version, by Anton Pereira de Figuerido, was printed in 1784, but has never obtained much currency. 107. Versions by Missionaries. — The various transla- tions made by Missionaries in countries beyond Europe cannot here be enumerated. Among the great Bible trans- lators the names of Dr. William Carey in India (i 761-1834), and of Dr. Robert Morrison in China (1782- 1834), will ever hold a distinguished place. 108. The English Bible. * Who will say that the uncommon beauty and marvellous English of the Protestant Bible is not one of the great strongholds of heresy ^ in this country ? It lives on the ear like a music that can never be forgotten, like the sound of church bells, which the convert hardly knows how he can forego. Its felicities often seem to be almost things rather than mere words. It is part of the national mind, and the anchor of national seriousness. The memory of the dead passes into it. The potent traditions of childhood are stereotyped in its verses. The power of all the griefs and trials of a man is hidden beneath its words. It is the representative of his best moments, and all that there has been about him of soft, and gentle, and pui'e, and penitent, * See Sorrow's Bible in Spain. ^ It must be remembered that Dr. Faber writes as a Romanist. His testimony is all the more valuable, as he speaks of the power of the Englif^h Scriptures as ' unhallowed,' and of the veneration paid to them as ' idolatry.' THE ENGLISH BIBLE 153 and good, speaks to him for ever out of his English Bible. It is his sacred thing, which doubt has never dimmed, and controversy never soiled. It has been to him all along as the silent, but oh ! how intelligible voice of his guardian angel ; and in the length and breadth of the land there is not a Protestant, with one spark of religiousness about him, whose spiritual biography is not in his Saxon Bible.' — Dr. Frederick William Faber. ' The English Bible is consecrated by the blood of martyrs. Wyclif was not murdered, but in revenge for his exemption his bones were exhumed and burned ; Tindale was strangled and consumed to ashes ; Coverdale escaped almost by miracle; Eogera and Cranmer "loved not their lives unto the death " ; the Genevan scholars were exiles while many of their brethren at home were perishing at Smithfield ; the Elizabethan bishops had been in imminent peril during a season when the "hour" was ruled by the "power of darkness." The Divine presence was frequently and palpably apparent in moulding circum- stances, in paralysing the arm of opposition, and in cheering and supporting those wlio were walking in the furnace.' — Dr. John Eadie, History of the English Bible, vol. ii. p. 333. 109. Early English Versions. — The various Anglo- Saxon translations of parts of Scripture, like the older European versions, were made from the Vulgate. About the year 700, Aldhelm, the first Bishop of Sherborne, trans- lated the Psalms into Saxon ; and Egbert, Bishop of Holy Island, the four Gospels. A little later, the 'Venerable' Bede translated parts of the Bible, including the Gospel by John (a.d. 735). King Alfred prefixed to his Laws a version of the Ten Commandments ; he also undertook to translate the Psalms, but died (900) when his work was about half finished. JEUric Hhe Grammarian,' an abbot in Wessex ^ about the end of the tenth century, translated the Pentateuch and some of the historical books. From the seventh century onwards there had been metrical summaries and paraphrases of Scripture, among which the chief was that of Caedmon, lay-brother and monk of Whitby, a true, although unlettered poet, who versified the * Probably a different person from the Archbishop of Canterbury of the same name (994-1006). 154 THE BIBLE AS TRANSLATED translations dictated to him by his more learned brethren ^ In the Norman period a monk of the northern part of the kingdom, named Orme, produced a similar metrical transla- tion of the Gospels, entitled Ornmhim after his name (about ii8o)^ Several 'glosses/ as they were termed, were pre- pared in monasteries, the Latin text, chiefly of the Psalter, but often of the Gospels, being accompanied by an inter- linear version in literal, often rude. Old English. Of these there are MSS. in many public libraries c. 110. The Wyclif Bible.— The first complete translation of the Bible into English was made also from the Vulgate, by John Wyclif, about a. d. 1380, and was revised after his death by his devoted fellow-labourer .John Purvey. It existed ,only in MS. for many years, but the whole is now in print (New Testament, 1831 ; Old Testament, 1848, and both in the splendid edition of Forshall and Madden, 1850). The work was regarded with grave suspicion ; and a bill was introduced into the House of Lords for suppress- ing it ; but through the influence of John of Gaunt this was rejected. In 1408, however, the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury at Oxford resolved that no one should translate any text of Scripture into English, as a book or tract, and that no book of the kind should be read, publicly or privately, until approved by ecclesiastical au- • * He sang of the creation of the world, of the origin of man, and of all the history of Isi-acl ; of their departure from Egypt and entering into the Promised Land ; of the incarnation, passion, and resurrection of Christ, and of His ascension ; of the terror of future judgement, the horror of hell-pangs, and the joys of heaven.' — Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the Anglo- Saxoyis. ** He says in his dedication to his brother : — * Ice hafe wennd inntill Ennglissh Goddspelless haliglie lore.' *I have wend (turned) into English Gospel's holy lore.' The time is that of Henry II (died 1189). " The Bodleian Library has a remarkable MS. entitled Salus Animi, or Sowle-hele, containing a paraphrastic version of Scripture. THE ENGLISH BIBLE 155 thority, on pain of the greater excommunication. This edict led to great persecution, though there is reason to believe that, notwithstanding, many MSS. of Scripture were in extensive circulation throughout England. 111. Tindale's Version and others. — The first printed edition of the New Testament in English, translated from the Greek, with help from the Latin Vulgate and Luther's German version, was published by William Tindale in 1525, and the Pentateuch from the original Hebrew, in 1530. Tunstall, Bishop of London, and Sir Thomas More took great pains to buy up and burn the impression of the New Testament, but with the effect thereby of enabling the translator to publish a larger and improved edition ". Just prior to the death of Tindale, martyred at Vilvorde in 1536, Miles Coverdale translated the Bible from ' the Douche and Latyn,' using also Tindale's translations, and published the edition with a dedication to King Henry VIII, A.D. 1535. This was the first complete version of the English printed Bible. In 1537 John Kogers, who had assisted Tindale, and was then residing at Antwerp, reprinted an edition, taken mainly from Tindale and Coverdale, but also bearing traces of careful revision. This was a great improvement on the edition of 1535, and may be regarded as the true editio princeps of the English Bible. It was published under the assumed name of Thomas MattJmv. The Great Bible appeared a. d. 1539. It was Coverdale's, revised by the translator, under the sanction and with the aid of Thomas Cromwell. It was printed in large folio. For the edition of 1540 Cranmer wrote a preface, and hence this and the subsequent folio editions are often incorrectly * On the history of the English Bible, both external and internal, see The English Bible, by Dr. John Eadie ; Westcott's General View of the English Bible (second edition) ; Demaus' William Tindale ; and a com- pendious little volume published by the Religious Tract Society, 27tc Printed English Bible, 1525-1885, by Richard Lovett, M.A. 156 THE BIBLE AS TKANSLATED called Cranmer's Bible, It was published 'by authority.* From this volume the Prayer-book Version of the Psalter is taken, with some slight variations. During the seven years of King Edward VI, eleven editions of the Scriptures were printed : but no new version or revision was attempted. The Geneva New Testament was published during the reign of Mary in 1557 ; the complete Bible, with an entirely new version of the New Testament, in 1560. Coverdale and others who had taken refuge in Geneva edited it, and added marginal annotations, expository, doctrinal, practical, and sometimes highly controversial. This was the first Bible printed in a handy size, in Roman type, and unhappily with verse divisions. Archbishop Parker obtained authority from Queen Eliza- beth to revise the existing translations, and, with the help of various bishops and others, published in 1568 what was called the Bishops' Bible. This also contains short annota- tions, and the text is divided, like the Genevan, into verses. An edition in quarto was printed in 1569, and a second folio edition in 1572. This Bible continued in common use in the churches for forty years, though the Geneva Bible was almost universally read in private, and frequently found in the churches also. It was not finally superseded until the middle of the seventeenth century. The English Bible of the Eomanists was produced by the divines of the English College at Douay in Flanders, removed for a few years to Kheims. Among the chief translators was William Allen, designated as Archbishop of Canterbury had the Spanish Armada succeeded in its enterprise. The New Testament appeared at Rheims, 1582 ; the Old Testament at Douay, 1609-10. Both are affirmed on their respective title-pages to be translated ' out of the authentical Latin, diligently compared with the [Hebrew,] Greeke, and other editions in divers languages.' This version is THE ENGLISH BIBLE 167 remarkable for its Latinisms *. A ' Table of References ' is appended, in which the texts are classified that are thought to support Romanist doctrine. The annotations all through bear in the same direction, and this edition is disfigured by the most aggressive and violently con- troversial notes found in any edition of the Bible. 112. The 'Authorized Version.* — In 1603 King James resolved on a revision of the translation, and for this purpose appointed fifty-four men of learning and piety. Forty-seven only undertook the work, and in four years (1607-11) it was completed. The text, as thus prepared and printed in 161 1, is generally known as the Authorized Version, although no direct evidence is to be found of its appointment by authority, whether civil or ecclesiastical. The Preface of the Translators To the Eeacler, retained in the earlier editions, deserves to be carefully studied. For a long time, the Great Bible, the Geneva Bible, the Bishops' Bible, and King James's Version were used concur- rently ; the last at length prevaiHng by general consent, and so becoming The Bible of all English-speaking peoples. 113. Proposals for Revision. — Suggestions for revising this translation have, almost from the first, been made. A Committee appointed in the days of the Commonwealth to inquire into the possibility of improving it reported, that while it contained some mistakes, it was in their judgement ' the best of any translation in the world.' Nor is it only as a translation that this verdict holds good. The genius of the first translators, Wyclif, Coverdale, Tindale, with the reverent care and literary skill of the revisers in 161 1, * e. g. Ps 23^ 'My inebriating chalice, how goodly is it ! ' In the Lord's Prayer 'Give us this day our siipersubstantial bread.' On the other hand, our Bible has been enriched by the Rheims translators with some felicitous renderings. Thus Phil i^i 'To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' Previous translations had ' Christ is to me life, and death is to me advantage.' 158 THE BIBLE AS TRANSLATED combined to imiDress upon it the character of a great English classic : and it is no mean advantage that a book which contains the revelation of God should also by the perfection of its style v^in its way to the minds and hearts of men. 114. The Revised English Bible. — Still, unquestionable errors and defects remained ; and the question of revision was much discussed after the middle of the nineteenth century, eminent scholars taking part in the debate, and many attempts at improvement being made, both in Great Britain and America. At length, the work was under- taken by the Convocation of the Canterbury Province of the English Church, and two Companies of Revisers were appointed for the Old and New Testaments respectively (thirty -seven for the former and twenty-seven for the latter), representing different Christian communions, while similar companies were afterwards formed for the United States (fifteen for the Old Testament, nineteen for the New). The result of their labours, the Revised New Testament, was published in 1881, the complete Revised Bible in 1885. The work is throughout based upon the Authorized Version. It is a Revision, not a Neiv Translation; while it was associated with a new and careful examination of the original texts, in the light of modern discovery and criticism. Great attention was paid to every minute detail, including orthography and punctuation. To secure as general a consent as possible in so large a body of scholars, it was agreed at the outset of their work that no change should be introduced without the consent of at least two -thirds of the respective companies ; other proposed alterations, some of which commanded an actual plurality of votes, being relegated to the margin. This margin is therefore of high importance, and will be increas- ingly valued as the use of the Revision extends. What will be the future of the work, it is for another generation to decide. The following paragraphs illustrate ENGLISH BIBLE: EMENDATIONS 159 in various ways its indispensableness to students of the English Bible \ 115. English Translations compared with the Original. — It remains to be asked, Are the English versions of the Bible accurate ; and may the reader regard them as, on the whole, expressive of the mind of the Spirit of God ? The question relates to the two versions now in the hands of all readers ; and to a great extent the same remarks will apply to both ; while the alterations made by the Revisers will deepen rather than destroy our confidence in our old and familiar Bible. The nature of the emendations introduced must be con- sidered under different heads ; a few only of the more important, out of a multitude available, being quoted by way of illustration. The textual changes have been discussed in a previous chapter ; the following instances are from trandation only ; and the Authorized Version is quoted where no further reference is given. In six distinct cases, alteration, generally slight, brings out the sense more clearly. I. In some instances the English version gave a wrong meaning to the words or expressions of the original. In Gen 36^^ one Anah is said to have < found the mules in the wilderness ' ; he really found ' hot springs ' there (R. V.). In Ex 12^^ the Israelites are said to have ' borrowed' of the Egyptians things which they never intended to return. The original says simply, that they asked for them. In a Sa 12^^ it would appear that David cruelly tortured his captives. He put them to ignominioics employments, is the mean- ing proposed by Eosenmiiller (see K. V. margin). So in the clause following : ' made them pass through,' with a very slight change in the original becomes ' made them labour at.' * The references given are mostly from the former editions of this Handbook. A few have been omitted, and several have been added. The Handbook in numberless instances anticipated the changes that have been made ; the author, as is well known, having been among the most intiuential of the Eevisera. 160 THE BIBLE AS TEANSLATED It may be observed, generally, that the use of prepositions and particles is often indeterminate in our version. For sometimes means because, 2 Cor 5^ ; it is often a preposition denoting relation : instead of, on account of, with a view to. So, of means from, as in Jn 8*° (R. V.) ; and by, as in i Cor 156. These ambiguities are not in the original. The vp-ord translated * children ' in the narrative of Elisha, 2 Ki 223, ^g translated elsewhere ' young men ' ; and is applied to Isaac when he was twenty-eight years old, and to Joseph when he was thirty. In 2 Ki 626 the article sold for five shekels of silver was a kind of pulse, or vetch, as Bochart has shown ; the fourth part of a kab being about a pint. Gen 4^", for 'set a mark upon,' read (R. V.) ' appointed a sign for.' Lev 7^0, for ' mingled with oil and dry,' read (R.V.) 'or dry' (i.e. whichever it be). Dt 3325, for 'shoes,' iron and brass, read (R, V.) ' bars,' describing the chain of mountains which protected Asher from the inroads of the Gentiles. Judg i5»-", for 'top,' read 'cleft.' Jos. 2414-16, for 'the flood,' read 'the River' (i. e. Euphrates). i Ki 18*2, for ' he cast himself down upon,' read 'he bowed down to.' 2 Ch 82, for 'restored,' read (R. V.) 'given.' 2 Ch 21I1, for 'compelled thereto,' read 'led astray,' as in Dt 4!^ 301^. Ne 6", for ' to save his life,' read 'and live ' (see R. V. margin). Not being a priest, Nehemiah was not allowed to enter the holy place. Ps 862, fQj.