Division "SS 2.3^3 "TO \ ^U Section *^'^« « 1 Ic h;:p- THE INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC LIBRARY Edited by Rev. J. Wilhelm, D.D., Ph.D. VOL. I Nihil obstat JOSEPH WILHELM, S.T.D. Censor deputatus Imprinii potest f GULIELMUS Episcopus Arindelensis Vicarius Generalis Westmonasterii die 21 Julii 1906 I Keqait Paul .Tttmrh Jhlhici- .£ Co ltd. HISTORY OF THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT By E. JACQUIER AUTHORISED TRANSLATION FROM THE FRENCH BY REV. J. DUGGAN VOLUME I Preliminary Questions St Paul and his Epistles NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO BENZIGER BROTHERS Printers to the Holy Apostolic See 1907 CONTENTS Introduction to the International Catholic Library Translator's Preface .... Author's Preface . . . . , Bibliography ..... PAGE vii ix xi xiii PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS IPTER I. Chronology of the New Testament II. Language of the New Testament 1 21 ST PAUL AND HIS EPISTLES I. II. Epistles to the Thessalonians III. Epistles to the Corinthians IV. Epistle to the Galatians V. Epistle to the Romans VI. Epistles of the Captivity VII. The Pastoral Epistles VIII. Epistle to the Hebrews 29 67 91 129 165 200 248 288 INTRODUCTION TO THE INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC LIBRARY Between Faith and Science there is no real oppo- sition, but of apparent opposition there is much. And as people regulate their lives on appearances and follow the line of least resistance, Faith is often sacrificed on the altar of Science. Estrangement from religious practices, moral unrest, defection from the Church, aimless lives follow on the loss of Faith. The evil is patent to all observers, it is ever spreading under our eyes. The remedy consists in making clear to all the real harmony between Faith and Science, that is between knowledge founded on divine revelation and knowledge drawn from purely natural sources. A great number of Catholic scholars of every country are labouring at this task : the proxi- mate object of the International Catholic Library is to offer to English students and readers the best result of their labours. A further object of the I. C. L. is to facilitate, between workers in the various fields of ecclesiastical science, through the comparison of ideas and ideals, a better understanding, an entente vii viii INTRODUCTION cordiale making for peace and union, Accordingly- direct attacks, bitter controversies and all things not making for peace are excluded. On the other hand, no book is rejected which throws the light of science on any of the many aspects of catholic thought and life, past and present, or which is helpful in promoting the religious life of the cultured men and women of our generation. Cardinal Steinhuber, the Archbishop of West- minster, the Bishops of Southwark and Salford and others, have signified their approval of this Apostolate of the Press. Battle. Feast of the Assumption, 1906. J. WiLHELM, Editor. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE This first volume of the International Catholic Library is already well known to many English students of Holy Scripture, having been for some time in use as a text-book at the Southwark diocesan Seminary. The translation will be found shorter than the original, not on account of any real or substantial omission, but because the analyses of the Epistles have been reduced to more suitable pro- portions. J. D. AUTHOR'S PREFACE This book is an attempt to narrate the various cir- cumstances that contributed to the writing of the books of the New Testament, with the view of show- ing in what environment they stand historically and dogmatically. For this purpose we have had to state the events that gave rise to them, we have had to study the philosophical and religious ideas of the authors, and we have had to describe the intellectual and social condition of those for whom these books were originally intended. We have also had to deal with the question of authenticity, since with regard to most of these books it has for one reason or another been disputed ; this discussion will, we hope, be found of practical value in leading the reader towards a thorough knowledge of each book. We have also given an analysis of each book, explaining the leading ideas and showing how they are connected one with the other. We have not laid much stress on matters that properly belong to criticism, we have confined ourselves rather to history and dogma. We deal with the books in chronological order as far as it can be ascertained. We begin with the Epistles of St Paul, since their dates are fairly well xii AUTHOR'S PREFACE known to us. In the next place we take the books according to their probable dates: the Synoptic Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Catholic Epistles, and the Johannine writings. BIBLIOGRAPHY ^.—GENERAL WORKS R. CoRNELY, Introd. insing. N. T. libros. Second edition. Paris, 1897. J. Belser. Einleitung in das N. T. Freiburg, 1901. B. Weiss, Lehrbuch der Einl. in das N. T. Third edition. Berlin, 1897. H. HoLTZMAN. Einl. in das N. T. Second edition. Freiburg, 1886. Th. Zahn. Einl. in das N. T. Second edition. Leipzig, 1897. A. JuLicHER. Einl. in das N. T. Third edition. Tubingen, 1901. F. S. Trenkle. Einl. in das N. T. Freiburg, 1897. U. Ubaldi. Introd. in S. Scripturam, N. T. Fourth edition. Rome, 1891. J. Bleek. Einl. in das N. T. Fourth edition. Berlin, 1886. A. Hilgenfeld. Hist.-Krit. Einl. in das N. T. Leipzig, 1875. S. Davidson. Intr. to the Study of the N. T. Third edition. London, 1894. G. Salmon. Hist. Intr. to Study of books of N. T. London, 1885. A. Schafer. Einl. in das N. T. Paderborn, 1898. L. Boccuez. Manuel Biblique, N. T. Eight edition. Paris, 1892. C. Trochon and H. Lesetre. Intr. a I'etude de I'Ecrit. s. Paris, 1890. F. Kaulen. Einl. in die heil. Schrift N. T. Fourth edition. Freiburg, 1899- Aberle-Schanz. Einl. in das N. T. Freiburg, 1877. J. Hug. Einl. in Schriften N. T. Stuttgart, 1847. F. GoDET. Intr. au Nouveau Testament. 1893-1901. J. Moffat. The Historical New Testament. Edinburgh, 1901. H. VoN SoDEN. Urchristliche Literaturgeschichte. Berlin, 1905. 5.— WORKS RELATING TO ST PAUL C. FouARD. Les Origines de I'Eglise. Paris, 1892-1897. P. Rambaud. Epitres de S. Paul. Paris, 1888. Renan. S. Paul. Paris, 1884. J. Conybeare and S. Howson. Life and Ep. of St Paul. 1891. W. Farrar. Life and Work of St Paul. 1892. xiv BIBLIOGKAPHY T. Lewin. Life and Ep. of St Paul. 1875. L. Bonnet. Epitres de S. Paul. Lausanne, 1892. W. Ramsay. St Paul, the Traveller, etc. London, 1895. Ch. Baur. Paulus. Stuttgart, 1845. A. Sabatier. L'Apotre Paul. Paris, 1896. O. Cone. Paul, the Man, etc. London, 1898. J. Knowling. The Witness of the Epistles. 1892. Th. Simar. Theologie des heil. Paulus. Freiburg, 1883. J. van Steenkiste. Comment, in Pauli ep. Bruges, 1899. D. Shaw. The Pauline Epistles. Edinburgh. C. Clemen. Paulus. Giessen, 1904. M. GoGUEL. L'Apotre Paul et Jesus Christ. 1904. B. W. Bacon. The Story of St Paul. 1905. PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS CHAPTER I CHRONOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT We must take it for granted at the outset that the reader has some knowledge of the religious, intel- lectual, and social conditions in which the Books of the New Testament were produced. We cannot give more than an outline of the history of the New Testament or of the times of Our Lord and of the Apostles. Dates are in most cases only approxi- mate, since the documents do not give numbers with the accuracy that modern history aims at. Moreover the Jewish year does not begin on the same day as the Roman year or as our year, hence it is often necessary to give two dates in one year. The relative dates can often be ascertained between any two events, when the real date — or the place in universal history to be ascribed to some New Testament fact — cannot be ascertained. 1. DATE OF THE BIRTH OF CHRIST Our Lord was born in the lifetime of King Herod. Consequently he was not born in the year 754 a.u.c., A 2 HISTORY OF THE BOOKS which is the first year of our era, because at that time King Herod had been some three years dead. Dionysius Exiguus, a monk of the sixth century, is responsible for our actual era ; and he made a mis- take in making it begin in 754 a.u.c. For an ex- amination of facts that are known to us shows that the date of the Birth of Christ is three to six years before our era. Testimony of St Matthew. — According to this Evangelist room must be found in the lifetime of King Herod, not only for the birth of Christ, but also for the coming of the Wise Men and for the Flight into Egypt. Unfortunately we know only approxi- mately the date of that king's death. No matter how we calculate — whether from the beginning of his reign de jure, or de facto, or from the accession of his sons — it is impossible to say for certain whether he died in the third or in the fourth year before Christ. But the fourth year is the more probable date. An astronomical fact helps us in coming to this conclusion. There was an eclipse of the moon a few months before Herod's death, and we know that he died a few days before the Passover. The eclipses that were visible in Palestine in those years took place on the 23rd March and the 5th September in the year 5, and on the 12th March in the year 4 ; we must ex- clude the first and the third because they would leave too much or too little time before the king's death ; therefore there remains the date of the 5th September in the year 5 before our era for the echpse, and the Passover of the year 4 for Herod's death. Conse- quently we may place the birth of Christ in the year 4, or rather in the year 6 or 7, so as to allow for the events that took place between His birth and Herod's death. OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 3 Testimony of St Luke. — Important works have been published on the census of Quirinius. We must confine ourselves to a statement of the difficulty to- gether with an indication of the most recent and most certain solutions. Some points may be taken as settled, others remain at present undecided. " In those days there went out a decree from Cesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled [inscribed on a register]. This enrolling was first made while Quirinius governed Syria" (Luke ii. 2). Many questions arise out of this text. Gardthausen, the most recent writer of the history of Augustus, asserts that the Emperor never decreed any enrolling of the whole Roman Empire. No con- temporary historian mentions anything of the kind, and we can hardly believe that no notice would have been taken of so important an event. The only writers who speak of it : Cassiodorus in the fifth cen- tury, Isidore of Seville in the seventh, and Suidas in the tenth, are too recent, and are too evidently based upon St Luke. We are bound to admit that contemporary historians such as Tacitus and Suetonius are silent on the point, but it cannot be denied that in the time of Augustus there were enrolments that may be called local. We have evidence of them in Gaul : the Claudian table, of which the original is preserved in the Palace of St Peter at Lyons, says that Drusus was making an enrolment when he was called away to the war — and that was in the twelfth year before Christ. Census lists made in Egypt in the first century after Christ have been discovered by Kenyon, Viereck, and Wilcken. Other evidence is forthcoming with regard to other provinces. Supposing that Augustus did not decree any universal enrolment, the fact that in his time there were enrolments of which we cannot 4 HISTORY OF THE BOOKS for want of documentary evidence tell the number, but of which several are known to us, this fact may have induced St Luke to generalise and to say that the Roman Emperor had decreed that the whole Roman world should be enrolled. Land registrations of the time of Augustus are known to us. These are sometimes stated to be the enrolling referred to by St Luke. But we doubt whether that can be true, because the one concerns persons and the other con- cerns property. The evangelist would have used the word eiririinav and not the word a-TroypdcfyecrOai if he had referred to property, and St Joseph would have been inscribed on the register of Nazareth where his property was situated, and not on that of Bethlehem. Supposing that a census of the empire had been decreed, it would not follow that there must have been one in Judea which was not a province of the empire ; it was a kingdom allied to the empire, and Herod seems to have been independent as regards taxation. Josephus knows of no census in Judea until the time of Archelaus the son of Herod ; this was held in the year 7 after Christ, and Josephus speaks of it as of something new and unprecedented among the Jews. Strictly speaking it may be true that allied kingdoms were not bound to make a census if one were decreed for the empire, it is equally true that the Romans did not always respect the strict rights of their allies ; at the same time the case of the Clita, which is often quoted to prove that the Romans did order enrolments in independent kingdoms, does not really prove anything of the kind, because Tacitus (Ann. 6, 41) merely says that Archelaus wanted to make a census among the Clitae after the Roman method, he does not say that the Romans made it or ordered it. OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 5 The silence of Josephus as to St I^uke's enrolling may be said not to be an absolute silence, for (Ant. 17, 2, 4,) he says : " The whole Jewish people bound itself by an oath to be of goodwill towards Cesar." These words may contain an allusion to some kind of a registering of individuals in the time of Herod. Besides Josephus does not say quite explicitly that the census of the year 7 was the first, what he says is that : " Though the Jews were at first unwilling to obey with regard to being registered, by degrees they withdrew their opposition to it." The census having been decreed by the emperor, Joseph and Mary should have been registered at Nazareth where they dwelt, since according to Roman law people were registered at their place of residence. But it is possible that Rome allowed Herod to take the census after the Jewish method, and this would explain why Joseph took Mary to Bethlehem. Our principal difficulty is in the mention made by St I^uke of Quirinius. For Christ was born before the death of Herod, and Quirinius was not governor of Syria in Herod's lifetime. He was governor in the year 6 after Christ for the second time. We learn this from an inscription that was discovered in 1764, which says that a personage whom our learned men agree to be Quirinius iterum Syriam et Phoenicen obtinuit ; but we do not know when he was governor for the first time. It can be only from the year 3 to 1 before Christ, since the governors of the other dates are known to us : Sentius Saturninus from 8 to 6 before Christ, Quinctilius Varus from 6 to 4, Caius Cesar as Prcepositus Orientis from 1 to 4 after Christ. In any case Quirinius was not governor of Syria in the 6 HISTORY OF THE BOOKS time of Herod, because Varus still held that position in the time of Archelaus the son and successor of Herod (Josephus Antiq. 17, 9, 3 and 10, 1). Therefore St Luke's words : riye/jiovevovro^ Ttjg Sup/a? Kvprjvlov stand in need of interpretation, and more than one mean- ing can be put upon them. The translation of this passage in the Vulgate is : jacta est a prceside Syrice Cyrino. Facta est stands for eyevero which may really mean happened or took place instead of was made. Originally the Vulgate had — as we see in the best MSS.— viz. A E P F G Y M P N, and also in several ancient latin MSS. — viz. t 1 q Y^dcsc7iptio facta est, prceside ; some copyist inserted an a, and made away with the ablative absolute. It would be too long to enter into all the explana- tions that have been given ; we will take only two, and these are the most recent. They are given by Bour and Ramsay and they agree in several respects. We may however mention one ancient explanation which is not devoid of probability — viz. that the census begun under the predecessors of Quirinius was completed in the latter 's term of office and so was attributed to him and went by his name. TertuUian (adv. Marc. 4, 19) says practically that the census was made by Sentius Saturninus 8 to 6 before Christ, which would agree with the probable date of the birth of Christ. But why was so much time required for it ? The Bour- Ramsay theory is that in St Luke ^ye/mdov docs not ncccssarily mean governor. The same expression is used of Pilate ^yep-ovevovro^ HiXdrov T^9 'lovSaiag and Felix (Acts xxiii. 24) is called r'lye^wv, though both of them were simply procurators eiriTpoiro^. Therefore Quirinius may have been OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 7 called ^yeixdov without being a governor properly so called. Two explanations of this are offered. First, we have seen that periodical enrolments used to be made in the Roman empire, the first one took place in Syria under Sentius Saturninus 8 to 7 before Christ, and in Judea in the year 6. At that time Quirinius was in command of the Roman armies in Syria, he was ^jeniwv (Tacitus Ann. 3, 48 ; Strabo, 12, 6, 5). St Luke may have given him this title and dated this event from him instead of mentioning Varus who was not so well known. Something similar may be seen in iii. 2 and in Acts iv. 6. Then this enrolling may have been the first of the periodical enroUings, and not the first of the two made by Quirinius, the second one taking place in the year 6 after Christ. And Tertullian would thus be right in saying that the enrolling was held under Saturninus, because the official documents would contain his name. Secondly, there were in the provinces procuratores who were with the legates responsible for the administration of the finances, we find mention of them together with the governors of Syria : Sentius Saturninus and Varus. Quirinius may have been such a procurator, and may have taken part in the enrolling made by Herod under the direction of the Roman procurator. In that case irpwTtj would mean the first enrolling made by Quirinius. We do not pretend that these solutions are satisfactory in every sense, there are points that remain doubtful. However they throw some light on the question, and we can only hope that future discoveries may clear up what we now leave in doubt. Another and a more simple explanation is offered 8 HISTORY OF THE BOOKS by Godet (Intro, au N. Test.). He translates Luke ii. 2 as follows :— " The very first enrolling took place when Quirinius was governor of Syria," and he makes this enroUing not to be the same as the one that is mentioned in the preceding verse. There was in fact an enrolling that the Jews had every reason for remembering, because it marked the termination of their independence as a nation. Acts v. 37 speak of it as the enroUing without any qualification. As St Luke had just mentioned an enrolling anterior to the only one that had made any great impression on the imagination of the Jewish people, and he fixed the period of the one that was commonly called the first, by attaching to it the name of Quirinius. All the former enrolments had been statistical, whereas this one aimed at enumerating individuals and esti- mating properties for the purpose of settling the taxes, and that is the reason why it occasioned a sedition among the Jews. So that the enrolling mentioned in the first verse may have taken place as Tertullian says under Sentius Saturninus 8 to 6 before Christ, and Quirinius, even according to St Luke, would have had nothing to do with it. According to Luke iii. 23 Our Lord at His baptism was about thirty years of age. We shall see presently that this again is only an approxima- tion, and that it is in agreement with what we have settled so far. We take it now that Christ was born about the year 6 to 3 before our era. It is impossible to fix the day of the month. Clement of Alexandria in the third century did not know it. In the Stromata, 1, 21 he says that it was fixed from the 19th to 20th April to the 29th May. Down to the fourth century the Eastern Church kept the feast of the Birth on the 6th January, on which OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 9 day were also kept the Epiphany and the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan. Traces of this may be seen in the Divine Office to this day. St John Chrysostom (Horn. 33, in Matt.) assures us that in the Western Church the tradition has always been that Christ was born on the 25th December. St Augustin (Epist. 119) bears the same witness to the primitive tradi- tion. Duchesne (Orig. du culte) quotes from the philocalian calendar the most ancient testimony that we have for this date. That calendar was drawn up in Rome in the year 336 and contains the following : — ^'VIII Kal. ian. natus Christus m Betlecm JudceT 2. DATE OF THE BAPTISM AND OF THE BEGINNING OF THE PUBLIC LIFE OF OUR LORD St Luke, after giving an account of the Baptism, goes on to say : ko} ai'ro? ^v 6 Itja-ovg ap-^ofxevo^ wcrel ercov rpicLKovTa. There are some who refer wo-e/ ctwv TpiaKovTa to ap^oij.evo »o >o VO ^ vi VO o> VO CO VO »~~ Qs a\ N VO ON to to lauinx N ^ ^ '^ ''J- ^ ^ lO to to 4t- -^ o to VO VO H O 5 o O fO ■* IT) r^ t^ o ^ t-- '^ '^ JJDtJUiBJI T' ro ro •-t 't VO VO ^ ^ VO VO VO ON T^ ^ to to 8 < (J M XtJsiuBy o Tt t- VO r^ o o to t- O . t^ < CO ro CO IT) rt- o> "^ lo tn VO : v6 tf) Ti- •^ »o w H ^oojiqSiq o ^ «^ to 00 l-l l-l Tf CO l-l T^ t- < Q to ro fO '^ '^ to VO u-1 li-) VO VO VO ID CO N u-> lO On On tJ t^ o J3spa fO ro Tf 4j- '^ ■• • • • a 3 • • o a -i ffi Ifi 3 3 Ph rt .s • • . J3 0) • 1 — . o w5 <*- p-t ^ cJ5 rt ■ a o < H H o u o o ion of St Paul it of St Paul to ''• in a 3 a5 o 'tn > O >-. ID c ;-• 3 •2, en of Jerusalem Miss, journey o liss. journey of nment of St P PL, OO 4-. o c o «5 1 'H 3 O ■^ o a 13 o o > o .^ -i ^ tn • • ^ <*- o o o o o dT bo O ,bf) Cfl tj-j bjD rt 'a ^ .SP "S "S 'S '5 0) cj X «2 (u b (D fi^ P^ Pi P^ Q p^ W Ph Q CHAPTER II LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 1. ORIGIN AND NATURE OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there were interminable discussions on this subject. The purists on the one hand maintained that the Language of the New Testament had all the characteristics of classic Greek. On the other hand, others maintained that the numberless hebraisms to be found in it gave it a character of its own. At the present time we look at the question from a different point of view altogether : some look upon the language of the New Testament as a special language with its own rules and laws, others consider it to be a special form of the Koivr) SiaXeKTo? or coMJUon language which grew up in the Greek world after the conquests of Alex- ander the Great by a fusion of dialects in which fusion the Attic dialect predominated. The former of these views is supported by the following argu- ments : — certain words are employed in the New Testament earlier than they are to be found any- where else ; other words have in it a meaning that they never have in classic Greek, either because the meaning originates in the Hebrew, or because it originates from the first Christian writers ; thirdly, many forms of expression are found in it that are unknown in Greek, the whole method of phrasing is 21 22 HISTORY OF THE BOOKS so simple, so without subordinate sentences, as to remind one of the Hebrew rather than the Greek. Those who hold the second view remark that it is a mistake to speak of certain words as aVaf Xeyofieva hapaxlegomena as if the New Testament writers had coined them ; it would be more correct to call them aira^ euprj/meva bccausc they first occur in the New Testament, but in reality they are words belonging to ordinary speech, are to be found in ordinary con- versation, and examples of them may be seen in inscriptions and in papyri that have recently been discovered. Deisman (Bibelstudien, 80-168) quotes some of them, and now that the attention of learned men has been drawn to the subject, we may expect these quotations in greater numbers. Few docu- ments are accessible to us referring to the language that was in common use at the time of Christ, that is why so many words of that form of speech — about 350 — occur in the New Testament and nowhere else. It seems quite incredible that all the New Testament writers were coiners of words. It has often been noticed that St Paul coined words ; it has not been noticed that the other New Testament writers coin relatively quite as many ; for 155 new words that we find in St Paul, we find 90 in St Luke, 38 in St Matthew, 31 in St Mark, and 21 in St Peter. The simplest explanation seems to be that all these writers made use of the words that were in common use in their times. Much the same should be said of the hebraisms of the New Testament : many of them must be referred to classical Greek, many to the common language, and some to the conversational language. As for the words that are used in a Christian sense, many of them are found used in that sense in the papyri OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 23 of the time as Deisman shows (Neue Bibelstudien, pp. 20-51), And finally the simple and direct way of writing without subordinate sentences or parentheses is the conversational style and is found in the written documents of the Koivri or common language. Deis- man has defended this view with erudition, Dr Thumb and Dr Blass were at one time opposed to it, but seem now to have come round to it. And that is how the controversy stands at the present time. It is important to make a distinction between two kinds of writings in the New Testament : some are translations from the Aramaic, such as certain portions of the synoptic Gospels, and certain portions of the first chapters of the Acts ; others were both thought out and written in Greek, such as the epistles of St Paul and the narratives of the Acts. And there is a third category in which we must place the books that were written in Greek but thought out in Aramaic, such as the Johannine writings. This being the case, it is evident that we may expect to find many hebraisms and aramaisms in the first class of writings, fewer in the third class, and none or next to none in the second. 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT Let US place ourselves at the standpoint of classical Greek, and see how the New Testament language differs from it. New words. — Leaving out proper names and their derivatives, there are 4829 separate words in the New Testament, 3933 of these belong to classical Greek, 24 HISTORY OF THE BOOKS 350 belong to post-classical Greek, most of them occur for the first time in the New Testament, and are found later on in Plutarch and in all the Christian writers, 580 occur both in the Septuagint and in the New Testament, 36 are borrowed from the Hebrew, 24 from the Latin, and 6 from other languages. So that there is a total of 996 words — or about one fifth — that do not belong to classical Greek. We cannot tell for certain whether these words were in existence in the classical period and belonged to the language of ordinary conversation, but it seems very likely that they did. Four things are worthy of remark : first that certain words, such as acppl^co, ^pooa-i/nog, evapea-Tea), KoXvfx^dw, are common to the New Testament and to the comic poets. Kennedy (Sources of New Testament Greek, pp. 72-78) gives 204 ; secondly the New Testament writers make use of more than a hundred poetical words, such as, dXucriTeXijg, d^ «■«' aifxa, cnfKuy^va, Tropeveadat, TrepnraTeiVy ev yepvrjroig yvvaiKwv, aluiv, aimaTacri?^ yeueadai OavuTov, evayyeXiov, ^wr/, oi K\t]TOi, wictti?, to Trvev/na, kutu crapKa, SUatog, crcortjpia. And certain expressions or metaphors are quite new, such as irerpa a-KavSaXou^ diroOaveip ev afiapria, T^i/ too Oeui, ev ■^picrTU) Ijycroi', irepnraTeiu ev KaivoTtjTi Tft)^?, tou Qvpeov Trjq TricrTewg. Grammar. — We notice here only the more im- portant changes. For the others we refer the reader to grammars of New Testament Greek ; everything that regards the form is too technical for us, we confine ourselves to what regards syntax. The article is employed much in the same way as in classical Greek ; personal pronouns are more common in the New Testament and make the sentences more emphatic (Matt. iii. 4 and xiii. 4) ; the possessive adjective is replaced by the genitive of personal pronouns, or if it is used the article is used with it and the sense is emphatic (Mark viii. 38) except when it is the predicate (Mark x. 40). Some- times the pronoun is repeated needlessly (Matt. viii. 23 ; Mark xiii. 19) ; avros has a reflective sense (Matt, iii. 16 and v. 29) ; ov tto? not every 07ie is a hebraism for ov^ei^ no one. The use of the cases is fairly regular, nevertheless the genitive sometimes takes the place of an adjective o-wyua t^9 a/uaprlag (Romans vi. 6) viol ^/uLepag (1 Thess. V. 5). Degrees of comparison are used irregularly (Matt. xvii. 8 and viii. 28 ; Luke xvii. 2). The middle voice is used correctly but not as often as in classical Greek. In the use of the tenses Semitic influences may be felt ; the indicative is used in place of the future (Mark i. 7 ; Luke xii. 39) ; the distinction between the aorist and the perfect is not always observed (Rom. iii. 23-27 and 26 HISTORY OF THE BOOKS xi. 1, 47) ; the indicative future and the aorist of the subjunctive are used as equivalents ; the optative tends to disappear ; the infinitive sometimes serves as an imperative (Luke xxii. 42) ; it is often used with a preposition and an article (Rom. iv. 18 ; Matt. vi. 1) ; the periphrastic use of the present or past participle with the verb ei/xl (/ am) is very frequent (Luke vi. 43; 2 Cor. ix. 12; Matt. x. 30; Luke XX. 6) ; the periphrastic participle stands for some unusual tense or indicates the permanence or the habit of an action or a state. A participle or a noun is placed beside a verb belonging to the same root in order to emphasise the idea (Matt. xiii. 14). Parti- ciples that might find their place in the construction of the sentence are left to stand alone, and words are placed at the beginning of a sentence without being attached to it (Luke xx. 27; Phil. iii. 9). Cases required by verbs are often not employed, and are replaced by prepositions ; and eV or etV e.g. have a modified or extended meaning. Conjunctions are not varied nearly so much as in classical Greek, Km (and) is often used in ever so many senses, ^e often means now, Iva has an extended meaning and governs without any definite rule sometimes one mood sometimes another; « {if) is used in oaths like the Hebrew im. The influence of Latin may be perceived in many ways, for instance in the use of on and W in place of the accusative and infinitive, in the tendency to ignore the difference between the aorist and the perfect, in the use of airo before the genitive after verbs that express fear, and in certain expressions, such as <5o9 epyacriav. Si i}v amav, to Ikuvov iroielv, crv oy^u, which are latinisms. Style. — Every New Testament writer has his own OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 27 way of writing, and we shall speak of each in due time. At present we are concerned only with characteristics that are common to all the writers. As a rule the New Testament sentences are simple, they contain no subordinate sentences, the proposi- tions are more commonly connected by Kal [and) than by any of the numerous conjunctions that are so frequently used in classical Greek. The matter is often not divided at all, or if it is, it is often clumsily divided. Bad figures of speech are frequent: such as the anacolouthon or the oratio pendens ; sometimes a sentence is left unfinished ; the construction is confused and irregular, it begins in one way and ends in another. Redundancy and false emphasis occur. The authors write as they think, and make no attempt to write with polish. As Viteau says in Vigouroux's Diet, de la Bible : " They do not as a rule show any signs of labour or fatigue in writing. On the contrary their impressions are marked with vivacity, their memory is prompt, their imagination is mobile, and what they seem to aim at is to repre- sent ideas — even when they are abstract — as concrete or to narrate events with such circumstances and details as to make a vivid picture." All these qualities and defects taken together have formed a style that is picturesque, full of ideas, well suited for reading in public, in fact quite an original style without any model in former ages and without any copies in later times. ST PAUL AND HIS EPISTLES CHAPTER I The epistles of St Paul fill up so naturally the frame- work of his missionary career, and are so essentially the expression of his inmost thoughts and of his religious experience, that in order to understand their origin or to watch their development, we must study what the facts and the texts tell us of the nationality of St Paul, of his personal qualities, his mind, his external appearance, his education, and the various influences that were brought to bear upon his spirit. 1. NATIONALITY OF ST PAUL " I am a Jew," says St Paul, " born in Tarsus of Cilicia, citizen of no mean city, educated in this city [Jerusalem], I sat at the feet of Gamaliel and diligently learned the law of our fathers, full of the zeal of God [Acts xxi. 39 and xxii. 3], whom I serve like my ancestors before me with a pure conscience [2 Tim. i. 3], I was circumcised on the eighth day, I belong to the race of Israel, to the tribe of Benjamin, I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee, for the law, a zealot, a persecutor of the Church, for the justice of the law, irreproachable (Phil. iii. 2-6 ; 2 Cor. xi. 22 ; Acts ii. 3, 6). I made progress in Judaism beyond many of my age and nation, was filled to excess with 29 30 HISTORY OF THE BOOKS zeal for the traditions of our fathers (Gal. i. 14), I have lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest rule of our religion (Acts xxvi. 5). I am by birth a Roman citizen " (Acts xxii. 28). This is what St Paul tells us with regard to his nationality and his youth. St Jerome says that St Paul was born at Giscala in Galilee, and that his parents emigrated to Tarsus in Cilicia ; but this must be a mistake, though perhaps his parents did at one time live in Giscala. We cannot tell when they went to Tarsus, probably it was before the birth of St Paul, since they were Roman citizens at the time of his birth. They must have obtained this dignity at Tarsus as a reward for services rendered or by purchase. Being citizens of Tarsus, they were no doubt in a position of respectability ; their being Pharisees and Roman citizens points to the same conclusion, because the Pharisees belonged ex- clusively to the superior classes among the Jews, and at that time the Romans did not grant the privilege of citizenship to uneducated persons ; moreover the education that they provided for their son shows that destined him for no humble career. It is true that they made him learn the manual trade of a tent-maker, but then it was the custom for every rabbi to know some trade by which he could if necessary earn his daily bread. As a matter of fact St Paul did provide for himself by working at tent-making, and was able to do without any help from his disciples (1 Thess. ii. 9 ; 2 Thess. iii. 8). Perhaps the reason why he had to work was that his family fell into poverty, or perhaps his relations abandoned him because of his change of religion. In any case, the worldly position of the apostle must have improved, for when he was arrested in Jerusalem he seems to have had command of money ; the behaviour to him of the Roman pro- OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 31 curators, his appeal to Cesar, his voyage to Rome, ajid the way in which he hved there, show that he was in a position to bear heavy expenses ; though it is possible that Christian communities helped him. As a Jew he bore the name of Saul (Desired), perhaps on account of King Saul the best known personage in the history of the tribe of Benjamin ; as a Roman citizen he bore the cognomen of Paul ; we do not know what was his nomen or prsenomen, and perhaps he had none. This name of Paul may have been adopted because in some way or other the apostle attached himself to the Roman family of the iEmilii whose cognomen was Paul, or merely on account of its similiarity to his Hebrew name: Saul = Paul. Other names are known to have been changed in that way : Jesus = Jason, Joseph = Hege- sippus. Some have supposed that the apostle took the name of Paul from Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of Cyprus, whom he made a convert of. But the texts of the Acts does not favour this supposition, because before the conversion of Sergius Paulus we read : *' Saul who was also called Paul " (xiii. 9). From that time forth he is always called Paul be- cause of his connection with the pagan world, whereas while he was with the Jews he went by his Jewish name ; the writer of the Acts clearly intended to call attention to this distinction. 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF ST PAUL Contemporary testimony to the personal appear- ance of the apostle is scanty, what testimony we have is of later date and does not appear to deserve much attention. He cannot have been strong-looking : 32 HISTORY OF THE BOOKS "the bodily presence is feeble" said his adversaries among the Corinthians (2 Cor. x. 10). The likeness painted for us by later tradition was not intended to flatter him : " He was short, bald, bow-legged, well knit, his eyebrows met, his nose was large, he was gracious, sometimes he was like a man, sometimes like an angel " (Acts of Paul and Thecla, 3). From this and from the descriptions by John of Antioch, Nicephorus, and the Philopatris of Pseudo-Lucian, we may conclude that St Paul had an aquiline nose, dark hair turning grey, that he was slightly humpbacked, that his face was pale, very expressive, very winning, that his manner was full of dignity, and that his ap- pearance inspired respect and affection. He does complain of bodily infirmities (2 Cor. xii. 5-10), yet his constitution must have been vigorous. How else could he have travelled so much, often on foot, with few if any comforts ; or how could he have laboured so incessantly by day to earn his bread and by night to preach the Gospel ; how could he have stood his many anxieties, his trials, his shipwrecks, his sufferings by scourging and stoning? (2 Cor. xi. 23). " Labour, painfulness, watchings, hunger and thirst, fastings often, cold and nakedness, besides my daily instance the solicitude for all the churches." Yet he mentions also a sting of the flesh, o■K6\o^fr r^ a-apKi, an angel of Satan to buffet him in order that he might not be made proud by the revelations that had been vouchsafed to him. Was that sting of the flesh the bodily infirmity mentioned ? (Gal. xiv. 13). Some critics think it was. But we do not think so, for that infirmity must have been of a temporary character. How could it be permanent ? For any infirmity that exposed the apostle to contempt, or rendered him repulsive, or OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 33 was a great trial to his auditors, would have entailed failure in his work as a missionary. Probably that thorn in his flesh was not, as some have thought, a temptation to sins of the flesh, because (1 Cor. vii. 6-8) he speaks in a veiled way of having the gift of continency. That thorn, for it is a thorn and not a sting, a-KoXoylr not Kevrpov, was some illness. He speaks a little higher up of his infirmities, and then (2 Cor. xii. 9) he glories in infirmities, which must be those to which he refers in verse 7. What was that illness ? Was it cephalalgia, or ophthalmia, gout, sciatica, epilepsy, orator's cramp ? We can only con- jecture. But it was bodily, painful, humiliating, and it was frequent or even constant, as we may judge by the Greek verbs which he makes use of in describing it and which indicate a permanent state. Was St Paul married ? Primitive tradition does not say, and what we find in his epistles is not very conclusive. TertuUian, St Jerome, St Epiphanius, and St John Chrysostom hold that he was not married ; Clement of Alexandria holds that he was, for he says : " Paul in one of his epistles sends a salutation to his own wife." That is a false inter- pretation of Philip, iv. 3. "I pray thee also a-vv^uye ypija-ie [worthy companion or yoke-fellow] to help them." Is a-uv^uye to be translated companion or wife, or is it a proper name ? Whatever the right trans- lation may be, it cannot be wife because