The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 3

1Jc>C'nnd century, according t.o Theodoret, used the Gospels, especially ehat of St. J_,1,ke. in his system of theology.1 Basilidcs was one of the earliest Gnost.ics, wl10 taught at Alexandria about A.n. 120. Ile thus lived on the verge of the apostolic times. His testimony to the acknowledged books in the canon of the New Testament Soriptures is cle:1r and valuable. We have now but a few pages of his writings still r<>mnining with us, but in those few are certain references to several of St. raul's Epistles to the Gospel of St. Matthew, St. John, and St. Luke.• Tatian, a pupil of Justin Martyr, according to the testimony· of Epi- phanius, Theodoret, and Eusebius, shortly after the middle of the century, composed what may be called the first. harmony of the four Gospels-the • Diatessaron.' Although Tatian appears to have on some subjects adopted strange and heretical opinions, in general form his harmony or • Diates- saron' was so orthodox and helpful that it enjoyed e. wide ecolesiastica.l popularity. 8 It ~iil materially add to the strength of our argument that the Gospel of St. Luke was generally received by the Churches as authoritative, because divinely inspired, throughout the second century, if it can be shown that the Gospel was publicly acknowledged a.t the same early date by national Churches as well as by individual scholars and teachers. Two versions belong to this first period of the Church's history-the Peschito-Syriao and the Old Latin (used in North or Proconsular Africa). The first, the Peschito-Sytia.c, represents the vernacular dialeot of Palestine and the adjacent Syriac in the age of our Lord. Competent sc,holars consider' that the formation of this most ancient version is to be fixed within the first half of the first century. It contains the Gospel of St. Luke and all the books of the received canon of the New Testament save 2 and 3 John, 2 Peter, St. Jude, and the Apocalypse, and may be regarded a.s the first monument of Catholic Christianity.5 The second version. the Old La.tin, was made in the great and wealthy province of Proconsula.r Africa, of which Carthage was the chief city, at e. very early period_ Tertullian. writing in the latter part of the second century, desoribes the widespread influence of Christianity in bis time. His own important province, no doubt, was before his eyes, when he wrote how "Christians were filling the palaoe, the senate, the forum, and the camp, leaving their temples only to the heathen." 6 To persecute the Chriatians in North Africa. at the close of the second century would be to decimate Carthage.' Ter- tullian, in his voluminoUB writings, shows that he reoognized a current Latin version (the Old Latin). For the North African Churoh to have 1 Cf. Godet, • Bt. Luke,' Introd., 6; Pseudo-Tertullian, • De Prmsor. BlBr. ' 61. (We1tooU 1 doubts the indep;,ndent authority of this quotation). • St. Hyppolyti, 'Refutatio Omn. Hmr.,' bk. viL, § 20, 25, 26, eto. • E11B0biW1, • Hist Eecl.,' iv. 29; Weatoott on the Canon, oh. iv. ' Wi,Btcott on the Ctillou, oh. iii., " The Early VerdioDLn • Prof- WeiitooU. • • .A.pol.,' ii. 37, ' '.A.d Soe.p.,' o. 5.  THE GOSPEL Accorrnrno TO ST. LUKE. " 11.ttained the proportions described by Tertullian e.t the close of the second ccmtury, we must presuppose that Christianity was at a very early period planted in the.t province, e.nd that its growth was exceec1ingly rapid. This would necessarily indicate e.n early date in the second century for the formation of that version in the dialect used in tho province, and which Tortullian found evidently in common use. St. Luke and most of the other books of the canon are found in this Old Latin version quoted by Tertullian; the only omitted writings were the Epistle of St. Jamee and the Second Epistle of St. Peter. The Epistle to the Hebrews did not originally exist in this most ancient version; it was added subsequently, but before Tertullian's days, i.e. before A.D. 200. Professor Westcott, after an elaborate discussion, conclude~ positively that the Old Latin version must have been made before A.D. 170. How much more ancient it really is cannot yet be discovered. This great scholar conjectures that it was, however, coeval with the introductiou of Christianity into Africa, and that it was the result of the spontaneoua efforts of the African Christians. The absence of the few canonical books above mentioned in these most ancient versions indirectly are an evidence of their great antiquity. It was not that the first translators had examined the proofs of their authenticity and found them wanting, and in consequence had excluded them; but the truth, no doubt, was that these particular books had never reached the coun- tries in question at the early date when the versions were made. The omitted Epistles were, from thoir brevity, as in the case of the Epistle of St. Jude, 2 and 3 John, 2 Peter, or from the contents being more especially addressed to Jewish Christians rather than to the great Gentile world, as in the case of the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Epistle of St. James, leBB likely to be rapidly circulated. The Apocalypse, from its mystic nature, would naturally be less read, and consequently it would require a longer period to become generally known and accepted. As might have been expected, the Gospels of St. Luke and St. Matthew have left more ample traces in the scattered fragments of early Christian literature which have come down to us than any other of the writings included in the New Testament canon. We now come to the early years of the second century anti the closing years of the first century-roughly speaking, the twenty or twenty-five years which followed the death of St. John. Here, as might be expected froin the comparatively few remains of Christian writings of this very early period which we possess, the evidences of the existence and recognition of St. Luke and the other books of the New Testament are more rare. Yet even in the scanty fragments still remaining to us of this very early period, we find traces of the inspired writings of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth. In that ourious religious romance entitled the 'Testaments of the Twelve Patriarohs,' a writing whioh Bishop Lightfoot speab of as" cow:,.i,g LUKL b vl INTRODUCTION TO