The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 18

<lie<l before the encl of the century), writing to B heathen, Autolycns, declares that in the prophets ancl in tho Gospels the same things were advanced, ancl that all alike was spoken under the inspiration of the one Spirit of God. Among these testimonies he quotes, from John's Gospel arnl under thn.t designation, eh. i. 1, also Matt. v. 38 and other passages of the New Testament. He is rnicl to have written commentaries on tho Gospels-a circumstance which proves the estimation in which they wern held. (3) CLEMENT OF ALEXANDnIA, the teacher of Origen and Hippolytus, the hea,l of the catechetical school from A.D. 189, was a presbyter whose knowledge of philosophy and literature, though somewhat superficial and discursive, was without question varied. He was a litteratewr rather than a theologian. He held in reverence other Christian writings as well as the New Testament, and thus his evidence as to the character and nature of the New Testament hooks is weakened; but his testimony as to the number of the evangelists is weighty, and the use he made of their narratives explicit. Ffo gives to the four Gospels the same authority that he attributed to the Law and prophets. He contrasts the teaching of the 'Gospel of the Egyptians' with that of "the four Gospels, which," he says," were handed down to us." Eusebius preserves (' Hist. Eccl.,' vi. 14) an important passage, in which Clement declares that Peter was the virtual author of St. Mark's Gospel, and that "John wrote a spiritual Gospel, divinely moved by the Holy Spirit, on observing that the things obvious to the senses had been clearly set forth in the earlier Gospels." There are between four and five hundred quotations made by him from the four Gospels. (4) To Irenreus in Gaul, Theophilus in Syria, Clement in Eastern Africa, must be added TERTULLIAN, who spent the greater part of his literary life in Carthage. Towards the close of the second century Tertullian revealed an intimate acquaintance with the/our Gospels. His testimony is important, because there is not a chapter in the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John from which he does not quote. In his work 'Adv. Marcionem' (iv. 2) he says, "Among the apostles, John and Matthew form the faith within us ; among the companions of the apostles, Luke and Mark renovate it." Evangelists and apostles are placed by him on the same platform with the prophets and apostles. The Gospels are said by him to be read in the assemblies (' Apol.,' 39). The testimony of Tertullian is indirectly of greater importance than that of Iren11ms or of Clement, in the following way. Tertullian contested the philosophical position of the great heresiarch Marcion. 'l'he assault against Marcion brought to light the fact that that writer had, as Tertullian thought, iniquitously mutilated the Third Gospel, with the view of making it confirm his views with respect to the Person of the Lord, the opposition between the new covenant and the Old Testament, and even between the God of Mo~es and of the prophets and of the Father who was manifested in Jesus Christ. Some writers, at one time Baur and Ritschl, took advantage of this representation to hazard the theory that Tertullian was in the wrong ; that Marcion had not mutilated the Third Gospel, but had edited the earliest form of an evangelical narrative; and that our 'l'hird Gospel is an enlargement and development of this primreval document. Volkmar, one of the most distinguished of the Tiibingen critics, took up the defence of the patristic writers in this respect, and convinced even Baur and Ritschl that their argument was false. The author of • Supernatural Religion,' in his first edition, returned to the subject, and reasserted the Tiibingen hypothesis, with the view of depreciating the autiquity and originality of the Gospel of Luke. Dr. Sanday, in his admirable work • The Gospels in the Second Century,' met this writer en his own ground. He showed that the Gospel of Luke contains three hundred and nine verses not found in Marcion's Gospel. If these three hundred and nine verses were the work of some later hand, they would reveal striking differences from the style of the remaining portion of the work which Marcion had preserved; but it is caFable of proof, according to Dr. Sanday, that these three hundred and nine verses contain no fewer than a hundred and eighty-five peculio.rities of the style which characterizes the residuary Gospel, and two hundred and twenty-four words or phrases specially familiar to the writer of these main portions of the work. Dr. Sanday discusses every one of the omissions, and shows that there was sufficient reason for Marcion t°',have been anxious to expunge them. He shows that it is possible that some of the alterations or deviations of Marcion's Gospel from that of the canonical Luke may have been due to l' diffenmce of text; for they have been confirmed by some of the oldest manuscripts.  nii TN'l'HODUCTION 'l'O