THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
and post-apostolic history and literature, from
the four Pauline epistles (Galatians, I and II
Corinthians, anil Romans) which
5. Baur. alone he considered genuine. Starting with the idea that the difference between Paul and the rest of the apostles was fundamental, he declared that those New Testament writings which either put the relations of the apostles in a more favorable light or seemed to ignore their differences altogether were either forgeries or the products of a later time. But his historical considerations were derived from Hegel's philosophy, and his criticism rested upon dogmatic convictions. New discoveries of vital importance in the field of church history and patristics and the recovery of the Codex Sinaiticus and of parts of Tatian's Diatessaron from Ephraem's commentary have given a new basis for a historical discussion of the Xew Testament and its origin and contents. It is the irony of history upon Baur's methods that the modern Dutch school have used Baur's methods to discredit the four " genuine " epistles. These four points may be made against Baur: (1) He reasoned in a circle; for he examined critically, first the sources of the history, and then the history of the sources. The reasoning which reduced the genuine Pauline epistles to four reduces the four to none; so that Paul is robbed of his title to have produced any writing which lasted. (2) Baur certainly was extraordinarily familiar with the old Christian literature; but he read it with prejudice, and not with a desire to learn anything different from his preconceptions. (3) He was lacking in tiie sense of the concrete and the value of the individual, and therefore could not grasp complicated relations and their results. (4) If it is self-evident that one must understand what he criticizes, and that his criticism must rest upon thorough exegesis, then Baur surely was unfitted for his labor; for he was weak as an exegete and his school has done little in exegesis.
It may, however, be added that the deficiencies in Baur's method of work were supplied by others. B. F "Westcott's General Survey of the History of the Canon (London, 1855 and often), E. Reuss's Histoire du canon (Strasburg, 1863), A. Hilgenfeld's Kanon und die Kritik des Neuen Testaments (Halle, 1863), T. Zahn's Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons (2 vols., W^rk^ LeiPsic> 1888-92), and A. Loisy's Histoire du canon du Nouveau Testament (Paris, 1891) are productions of this character. Such works as W M. Ramsay's Church in the Roman Empire (London, 1893) have served also as correctives of much of the work which has been accomplished in Germany. The studies of F. Bleek (Oth ed., 1893; Eng. transl. of 2d Germ, ed., 1869), Hilgenfeld (1875), Holtzmann (1892), Salmon (1894), S. Davidson (1894), Godet (1893-99; Eng. transl. LS-J4-99), Zahn (1900), and Jiilicher (1901; Eng. transl, 1904), and of the Roman Catholics Trenkle (1S97) and Scliafer (1898) in Introduction are important contributions to the science.
2. The Conception and the Task: In order to obtain an adequate comprehension of the books which together make up the New Testament as
witnesses for a historical movement and to secure for them safe utilization as historic sources, there is required a scientific investigation of their origin. That is, there must be inquiry into the time in which, the circumstances under which, the purpose for which, and the personal relations of the persons by whom they were produced. In other words, the method of research is literary-historical. Whether this can be called a science is debatable, since criticism is the art of distinguishing the genuine from the spurious. But if it be granted that an examination from a historical standpoint of the writings of the New Testament and an adequate exposition of the history of their origin is really 1. His- scientific, it is none the less a fact that tory of the process has a theological character. New For the fact that this literature is Testa- Greek and sprang up in the Roman ment world does not do away with the other Scrip- fact tnat it originated in certain tures. communities which had in certain vital respects their existence apart from the world about them. The religious element marks it off from the other productions of the time, and the history of this literature is one side of the history of the Church. If Christianity depends upon the historic reality of a revelation mediated by Christ and authoritatively expounded by the apostles, it is no unimportant result that it can reach historical foundations for the early productions. And those foundations are found in the writings brought together in the New Testament. The supereminent value in this respect of these writings is sufficient justification for considering them apart. But the investigation must not start from a dogmatic conception of what the canon is. The ground fact is that even from the second century this collection has existed in the Church and has been accepted as the one legitimate source for the history of the revelation made through Christ. But if it should appear that there are in the New Testament writings which in general character and in origin separate themselves widely from the rest of the New Testament Scriptures, or if there were outside that collection writings which affiliate themselves with the New Testament Scriptures, Introduction can not content itself with disregarding those facts. It is hardly likely, however, that such discoveries will be made as will compel a radical departure from the accepted procedure, that there will come to light such writings as are referred to in Luke i, 1 sqq., or the correspondence of Paul with the Corinthians implied in I (or. v, 9, vii, 1. Even such discoveries as those last mentioned would not be likely materially to change accepted results, and the business of the discipline would still be with the New Testament Scriptures. Along with the history of the separate writings which make up the New Testament goes as a second part the history of the combination of these into the canon in °*T which they have been transmitted Canon *° *ne Present time. It is of importance to examine and exhibit the historical antecedents and developments which compassed the formation of this collection, the
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