TRUTH ALWAYS AND EVERYWHERE IS A SACRED TRUST FROM GOD FOR THE SERVICE OF MAN. From a Sermon preached by the late Rev. 03-6-39 J. A gt. Menley Lib 2-25-39 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. THIS little book is an attempt to set before the ordinary English reader some of the results of recent study of the First Three Gospels. A few years ago I endeavoured to draw up a brief account of the general social and religious conditions amid which Jesus lived and taught. It was my hope then that Life in Palestine might be speedily followed by a short and simple Commentary on the Gospel according to S. Luke. But the preparation of a series of Notes on that Gospel for the use of parents and teachers,1 convinced me that no commentary could be really useful or intelligible until the way had been made ready by a previous exposition of the modes of thought and feeling which helped to shape the Gospel narratives. The following pages are intended to set forth some of these ideas, and describe the growth of the documents in which they were finally embodied. As this book is written for those who may be unfamiliar with the history and the methods of critical enquiry, almost all references to sources which might be closed to them have been avoided; the notes which might have contained more ample acknowledgement of indebtedness for facts or for ideas, have been suppressed; and quotations from the Revised Version have been freely placed upon the page. In the enormous literature which surrounds the subject, the attention of English readers should be directed-on the traditional side-to the various Lives 1 Sunday School Helper, vols. i. and ii., 1885 and 1886. A 2 of Christ by Archdeacon Farrar, Dr. Geikie, the late Dr. Edersheim, and Dr. Bernard Weiss, with the Introduction to the Study of the Gospels by Dr. Westcott, to whom all students of the New Testament are under such deep obligations. Those who desire a fuller knowledge of different views in the modern critical schools, may turn to the Bible for Young People, vols. v. and vi., to the New Life of Jesus by Strauss, or the great treatise of Keim entitled Jesus of Nazara. Much has been written since these works were produced. In English I have profited most by the labours of Dr. Abbott,1 while the writings of Holtzmann, Weiss, and Weizsäcker have often guided me. Above all, Dr. Pfleiderer's most stimulating book, Das Urchristenthum, has been my constant companion. Had not the appropriate limits of size been already exceeded, this enquiry should have been opened by a sketch of the great critical movement of our time in its application to the Gospels, with the view of showing what service it has rendered in enabling us to disengage the abiding truths in Christianity from their local forms and national associations. We cannot always rightly estimate the true greatness of Jesus, because we cannot always translate his language into a moral and religious idiom more closely akin to our own hopes and efforts; we are perplexed by doubts as to how much, after all, is really his; and we are embarrassed by the seeming conflict between the received interpretation of words attributed to him, and the experience of history. In the seventh chapter of this book a new solution is suggested of one of the most obvious and pressing of these difficulties.2 Whether or not that particular explanation be conceived on the right lines of critical probability and spiritual 1 See his article on the Gospels' in the Encyclopædia Britannica, and the Common Tradition of the Synoptic Gospels (Abbott and Rushbrooke). References to Philochristus and The Kernel and the Husk will be found further on. 2 In the Commentary on Luke, which I hope may follow at no very distant date, the great problem of the interpretation of the teaching of Jesus will be treated in detail. For that ampler discussion, also, the consideration of the Resurrection must be reserved. harmony with the character of Jesus as it is elsewhere made known to us, is of small consequence, compared with the general results towards which modern investigation is tending. Do these diminish or heighten our reverence for the Teacher? Christianity, as it is presented to us in the great orthodox Churches and in the civilization of our own day, is the result of innumerable influences working through many ages and many minds. But it is no less true that Christianity, as it is presented to us in the New Testament, and even within the limits of the First Three Gospels, is the product of various and complex forces at work in the early Church. It is the object of this book to show some of these forces in actual operation. Can we pass behind them, and, if so, what do we find? To answer these questions fully, a more searching analysis is needed than is here attempted. It is only possible to observe now that the creation of a new moral and religious ideal such as the Church embodied, demands an adequate historic cause. Whatever uncertainty may attach to large portions of the tradition about Jesus, the attempt to penetrate into the mystery which still surrounds the origin of Christianity will not be fruitless, if it enables us to realise more clearly the force of personality, the boldness of view, the purity of insight, and the elevation of soul, which are winning even now fresh life and growing power for the ideas of the 'Prophet ' of Nazareth.' Oxford, February 15th, 1890. J. ESTLIN CArpenter. NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION. In this edition a few passages have been added, and others slightly expanded; but the unexpected demand for a re-print has left no time for incorporating any references to the discussions or results of the most recent works in the same field. Different views will be found in The Seat of Authority in Religion by Dr. |