discourses whioh they had listened to by the lake, in the eynagogue11 of Capernaum, in the temple courts; some spoken to t,hem alone in oompara- tive solitude, some addressed to curious and even hostile crowds in the days of the public ministry. At first, for many months, poeeibly for years, there was little, or even nothing, written. The apostles and their first disciples were Jews, we must remember-men trained more or less in the rabbinical schools, whose great rule was, oommit nothing to t11riting. The training, we must be oareful to remember, in the Jewish schools of Palestine in the time of our Lord was almost exclusi'l'ely oral. Now, the great teachers of the firat days had all, perhaps, with rare exceptions, been with Christ. Out of their abundant memories of their loved Master's sayings, aided, we may reverently assume, by the Holy Ghost, they reproduced, after taking mutual counsel, just those words, sayings, discourses, which they oonsidered would best pain_t the picture of the life. He wisl:-ed "hie own" to live. The aots which were done, the miracles which he worked, the incidents which happened, were gradually added in their proper places to complete the picture of" the life to be led," which they painted. Special doctrinal teaching at first was very simple-a. few groat truths, apparently, and no more, were taught. Together the first great teachers " remained in Jerusalem, in close com- munion, long enough to shape a common narrative, and to fix it with requisite coneistency. The place of instruction was the synagogue and market-pla.oe, not the student's chamber." 1 Provision for the student's cl1amber was made later by one of them, still acting under the Holy Spirit's influenoe, when John the beloved put forth his Gospel, which dealt rather with doctrine than with life. But in the first days-possibly for many years-the gospel preached by the great teachers was the gospel much as we find it in Mark, or Luke, or Matthew. An original oral gospel, generally arranged by the apostles in the days immediately succeeding the first Pentecost, with one great general outline repeated over and over a.gain, was, doubtless, the foundation of the three synoptical Gospels. This accounts for the identity of so many of the details, and also for the similarity in the language. It is highly probable that, in the first years, this oral gospel existed in Aramaic, as well as in Greek, to suit the various classes of hearers to whom it was presented. St. Mark's, on the whole, was probably the first form in which the oral gospel was committed to writing. It is the shortest and the simplest reoension of the preaching of the first days reduced to a consecutive history. ,, The Gospel of St. Mark, conspicuous for its vivid simplicity, seems to be the most direct representation of the first evangelic tradition, the common foundation on which the others were reared. In essence, if not in com- position, it is the oldest, and the absence of the history of the infancy brings its oontenti within the limit.a laid down by St. Peter for the extent 1 ProfeBsor Weatcott, • Introduotion to GosP,els,' oh. iii. TII.E GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. Ix
of the e.postolio testimony." 1 After the writing of St. Mark, it is prohable tbe.t a oonsideroble period elapsed before St. Matthew and St.. Luke wero composed. These two longer and more detailed memoirs of the Lord's earthly life represent "the two great types of reoension to whioh it may be supposed that the simple narrative we.s llllbjeoted. St. Luko presenta the Hellenio, and St. Matthew (Greek) the later Hebre.ic form of the tradition." 1 'l'he three first Gospels, in their present form, were, we believe, put out somewhere between the years A.D. 55 and A.D. 70, the year of the fall of Jerusalem. Some would, however, place the date of St. Luke shortly after than before the great catastrophe to the city and temple. Ancient tradition and modern criticism, however, generally accept this date-A.D. 55 to A.D. 70. The hypotheeie which places the publication of any one of the three after the fall of Jerusalem would only give a very few yea.re later ae the date. Of any writings or memoirs upon whioh the Gospels were founded we have only vague and uncertain traces. Papias, who lived very near the time of the apostles, and whom henams calls" a hearer of John and a companion of Polycarp "-Papiae, in a work termed Arry{wv KvptaKwv 'E~au, " An Exposition of the Oracles of the Lord," of which a few fragments are preserved by Iremeus and others, writes as follows: "Matthew wrote the oracles in Hebrew, and every one interpreted them as he was able."• The word in the original for "the oracles" is Tei. Myia. It is now impossible to be certain what exactly Ta. Myia includes. Westcott paraphrases Tei. Aoyta. by" the gospel"-" the sum of the words and works of the Lord." Schleiermacher and others explain Ta Myta as" discourses" only. It is likely enough that this was not the same as the Gospel of St. Matthew as we now possess it, but simply a body of the Lord's discourses' committed to writing by St. Matthew at a very early period in the Hebrew or .A.ramaio dialect. 'l'he one other reference to writings ou the subject of the Lord's life put out anterior to the synoptical Gospels, is that statement of St. Luke himself in the prologue to his Gospel: "Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to draw up a narrative concerning those matters which have been fulfilled [ or, 'fully established '] among us " ( oh. i. 1). Here St. Luke, vnthout diaapproval, simply mentions others who had already written portions of the gospel story. The statement of the evangelist is studiedly brief, and seems to assume that, in his judgment, none of the "many" who had taken the "story" in hand had been completely suocessful. He by no means co)ldemns these as inaccurate, and does not imply that he will not make use of them; indeed, by his words, "it seemed good to me also," he 1 Aota i. 21. 22. 1 W.istoott, • Introduction to Gospels,' oh. iii 1 ll.outh, • Roliq. Sac.,' i. 'ri. p. H:; Eusebius, • Hist. Eool.,' iii. 39. ' It is notioellble that the bases or the • Teaching or the Apoetloa,' reoenUy brought ~ light, uo tho Lord's diacouraes and words rather than his act,. ll INTRODUCTION TO