We may here suitably refer to the Ep. ad Diognetum, a work of similar aim, the birthplace and date of which cannot be fixed with certainty, but which may with most probability be assigned to about the same time. In ec. xi. the writer enumerates ‘ the fear of the Jaw,’ ‘the grace of the prophets,’ ‘the faith of the Gospels,’ ὁ the tradition of the Apostles.’
It is, however, when we pass to writings of a different class, designed for the refutation of heresy or the instruction of the faithful in the Christian life and creed, to Ireneus (adv. Her., composed
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before A.D. 190), and the works of Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria, and Hippolytus, composed near the end of the 2nd and beginning of the Srd cent., that for the first time, in place of the partial gleams afforded by the remains of former generations, we have a flood of light upon the thought and practice of the Church. We must review the evidence as to the position of the writings of the NT in the generation we have now reached, and consider what inferences may be drawn therefrom as to their reception.
(1) Writings whose place in the Canon was al- ready at and from this time fully secured.—The express statements of the eminent writers just named, and their ordinary assumptions, leave no doubt as to the inspired authority attributed to by far the larger part of our NT in the important Churches of which they were members, or with which they were well acquainted and maintained active relations. In common they recognize (a) our four Gospels, and none besides; (8) 18 Epp. of Paul, ie. all which bear his name in our NT, except that to Heb.; (γ) the Acts, 1 P, 1 Jn. These form also the class called afterwards by Eusebius ‘ acknowledged writings.’
(a) Remarks as to the area from which this evidence comes.—It may have been observed that hitherto we have been almost exclusively con- cerned with the faith and usage of Greek-speaking Christians, and that we are so mainly still. By the mention of Tertullian the fact is for the first time brought before us of the hold that Christianity had obtained, comparatively recently, at the epoch of which we are speaking, among a Latin-speak- ing people. In Rome itself, alike in the Ist cent. and throughout the 2nd, the Church was mainly Greek. It may be well here to point out the
special advantages belonging to the Greek-speaking
Christians of the first few generations, as witnesses in regard to the NT writings. Not only are we best acquainted with the expansion of the Church to the west, north, and north-west of Jerusalem, through Greek-speaking cities, but to all appear- ance that was by far the greatest expansion in apostolic times. Here lay the scenes of St. Paul’s labours, with which his Epistles and the Acts have rendered us familiar. More dimly we see the figures of several of the Twelve, including St. Peter and St. John, moving and working in these same regions, when they voluntarily left or were driven from their home. It was in consequence of the spread of the gospel among populations whose ordinary language was Greek, to meet the needs of converts made from them, that all the writings of the NT came into existence. This is true even of the First Gospel in the form in which we have it.
Here and there some other Christian writing may in early days have won a position similar to that of the books received as canonical. We may have an example of this in the Gospel accord- ing to the Egyptians. But special circumstances of language and locality so well account for this in an outlying district, that such an instance does not detract from the force of the testimony of other parts of the Church.
It seems strange, however, at first sight that the Christians of Palestine and of the Aramaic-speak- ing East should have received the NT writings from the West, with one probable exception—the Ep. of James. Yet such was the fact. The Hebrew Christian community at Jerusalem was virtually broken up by the siege and capture of the city, A.D. 69-70. After the suppression of Bar- cochba’s revolt (A.D. 135) a Greek Church arose there. In other parts of Palestine the Hebrew Christian Church had to contend, during the latter part of the Ist and earlier part of the 2nd cent., with a strong Jewish reaction. What progress
the gospel made beyond Jordan to the east and north-east, through the labours of any of the Twelve, or the preaching and example of more ordinary Christians who fled from Palestine when Jerusalem fell, and to what extent the Christians of those districts in the 2nd cent. may thus have traced their lineage to the Church of apostolic days, and have cherished its traditions, it may be impossible to discover. But this at least may be said: we hear of no work written in Hebrew or Aramaic by an apostle, or immediate companion and follower of the apostles, except the one attributed to St. Matthew. The Gospel according to the Hebrews may have embodied this work, and doubtless contained traditions that had been current among Hebrew Christians; but it would seem not to have been preserved long in an un- corrupted form, and it is noteworthy that it obtained no enduring authority even in the East.