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THEOLOGICAL STUDY AND

RETREAT CENTER + +

Theology Library

SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY

AT CLAREMONT

California

Pe PAPIAS

"AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

A STUDY OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT

IN THE SECOND

CENTURY BY

EDWARD H. HALL

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY

Che Viivergide Press, Cambridge

COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY EDWARD H. HALL

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

CONTENTS I. An Earty INVESTIGATOR.

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II. PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

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V. THEOLOGICAL SPECULATIONS

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VI. THE Mystic GosPpEL .

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VII. APPENDIX

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Lee PALES CHAPTER AL

AN EARLY INVESTIGATOR

THE reader of the Christian Scriptures finds many unsolved problems stil! remaining to perplex him.

Even the unpracticed eye detects in them tokens of varied sources and successive stages of growth.

Not only are they confessedly by different authors and written at different periods, but each book by itself often shows signs of a composite character.

Whence came these several layers ; when and how?

The easiest questions to ask are sometimes the hardest to answer, especially where religions are concerned, whose infancy is so sure to be obscure and unrecorded, and which conceal so carefully the secrets of their early growth,

—-not intentionally, of course, but of necessity.

Before the world has awoke)to their significance, or the actors themselves become aware of the réle they are filling, the incidents that attended their birth have already been lost, and

PAPIAS it is impossible to recover them.

In the case of Christianity, more than a century passed before it gained that consciousness of itself or sense of individuality which made its early hours sacred to its thought, or bade it treasure its primitive records, or even the story of its founders.

Then it was too late; too late, that is, to recall with any vividness such far-away occurrences, or the personalities engaged in them.

Even the twelve Apostles, with two or three exceptions, are mere names to us; still more the obscure chroniclers who so laboriously gathered for us, here and there, whatever had survived from distant and half-forgotten times.

To trace these several compilations back, one by one, to their original sources is an endless and dispiriting task, as the mass of scholarly commentaries, with their conflicting hypotheses, abundantly show.

But suppose we try a more modest experiment: place ourselves midway in the process, and see what story that single moment tells.

Let us take the first writer of distinction after the apostolic times, and learn from him what we can of the state of the Christian Scriptures, and the attitude of Christian thought, with which he and his contemporaries were familiar.

There are so few

AN EARLY INVESTIGATOR

living personalities emerging from those eventful hours that we are in duty bound to make the most of any who can be found.

Such a character was Papias, bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia; not indeed the very first of whom we hear, but the first after the death of the Apostle Paul to present any marked individuality. With our modern associations, we might not look for such a personage in Phrygia.

Christianity has so entirely lost its hold upon Asia Minor that it requires some mental effort to remember that it was in that direction that Paul first turned as the best field for his missionary effort; or that before the end of the | first century a more numerous circle of Christian | churches had appeared in the western section | j

of Asia Minor than in any other region of equal size!

In point of fact, for two centuries at | least Ephesus, with its neighboring communities, held its own with Jerusalem, Rome, and Alexandria, as an important Christian centre, with more individuality of its own than either.

1 Rev. i. 11; ii.; iii.

Hierapolis does not appear among the "seven churches," but it lay within a few miles of Colosse and Laodicea, and evidently stood in some personal relations with the Apostle Paul.

(Col.iv. 13.) For full accounts of this interesting region, see Lightfoot's Introduce. to St. Paul's Epis. to Col. and Philem., pp. 1-72; Renan's Hist. des Origines, iii.

126-130, 351-3600; Ramsay's Czties of Phrygia, i. ch. iii., xii.

PAPIAS Hardly one of the great movements which agitated the life and thought of Christendom during that period had not intimate relations with Asia Minor, even if it did not find its birth there To study the life of a Phrygian bishop of the second century, therefore, is to get an inner view, in so far as the annals of the time can be recovered at all, of whatever was most important or serious in the early growth of our faith.

Papias was born probably towards the end of the first century of our era, and lived far into the second.

If we think of him as in advancing years but full activity about the middle of the century, we shall come as near to chronological accuracy as the misty data of that epoch allow.?, We must not attempt to extort from the meagre records at our disposal too realistic details of the life of a bishop at a time when that title had assumed so little of its later dignity, but the few facts that are given have a peculiar interest for us.

He was almost the first church official, apparently, to occupy himself in studying or collecting the records of the 1 Euseb., Hist. Ecc., iv. 11, 2; iv. 14, 0 th ASH 1B aia Sp dlp v.14; v.16; v. 18.

Comp. Weizsacker, Apostolic Age of Chris. Church, ii. 169.

2 Appendix, Note A.

AN EARLY INVESTIGATOR

past.

He shows himself an indefatigable investigator, letting no chance go by which would acquaint him with the sacred hours when Jesus himself was still walking with his disciples, or the hours only less sacred when those disciples were yet living to repeat the sayings of the Master.

The result of these inquiries seems to have been a work in five volumes, entitled

"Interpretations of the Lord's Sayings." !

It is difficult to estimate the help we should have towards an understanding of our Gospels and the conditions of their composition, if this treatise still survived.

Unfortunately, it has been lost, but the few extracts from it which later writers and historians have preserved are of quite incomparable interest.

In his search for materials Papias seems to have found no written documents which covered the ground, or none at least that carried official weight ; and he turns accordingly to such living men as could still recall, even at second hand, any reminiscences of the Lord or his disciples.

How he went to work for this purpose he tells us with delightful simplicity.

He addresses his work to some unknown friend, and in his Preface, apparently after some account of the sources from which he has gath1 Note B.

PAPIAS ered his information, he adds: "Nor shall I hesitate to relate to you, in addition to my expositions, whatever I have at any time learned from the Presbyters, having intrusted it carefully to my memory, and vouching for its truth.

For I did not care, as many do, for those who have much to say, but rather for such as have actual facts to give us; nor yet for the retailers of strange doctrines, but for those precepts only which the Lord has committed to believers, and which emanate therefore from the truth itself.

So whenever any follower of the Presbyters came along, I got from him the very words of the Presbyters; what Andrew or Peter said, what Philip or Thomas said, or James or John or Matthew, or any other disciple of the Lord; or what Aristion and John the Presbyter, disciples of the Lord, have to say.

For I never felt that I got so much from the written page as from the living and unforgotten voice." } Now could there be a healthier breeze over the dry wastes of church history than reaches us through these old-time sentences?

They breathe of fresh woods and pastures, where the garnering has till now been slight, and the laborers are still but few.

We are in the 1 Euseb., Hist. Ecc., iii. 39, 3, 4.

See Note C.

AN EARLY INVESTIGATOR

creative epoch, it seems, within the echo of living voices; standing at the beginning of things, when the Christian Scriptures are not made but making.

The first generations have gone, it is true, but their followers are still lingering on the stage, and have many things to tell which no written document has yet reported.

Here is one reverent inquirer at least who knows their worth, and is determined that these precious memories shall not be lost.

He did not succeed as he would have wished.

The church in later times showed slight appreciation of his work, or at least took little pains to preserve it.

All the more gratitude is due, then, for these scanty fragments which have defied neglect and found their way into our hands.

They give a vivid idea of the perils through which all the memorials and records of those unlettered days must have passed.} 1 This naive delight in the spoken as distinct from the written word is an attractive characteristic of a primitive epoch.

Even to-day, no doubt, could we hear from some wide-awake narrator of good memory tales of the French

Revolution or the Napoleonic wars told him by his grandfather, we should listen more eagerly than to our Carlyles or our Taines; but Papias had smaller choice, and so was the more keen for oral reminiscences.

This reliance upon verbal tradition lasted long after Papias.

At the end of the century Clement of Alexandria gives us "memoranda of brilliant and vivid discourses which he had been privileged

PAPIAS It is not to be understood, of course, that Papias found no Christian literature of importance at his disposal.

A full century had passed since the death of Jesus ; a very marked century in Roman annals, which must certainly have left some trace in Christian annals as well!

Indeed, a familiar passage, written per- "haps about this time, assures us that " Many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word."2

As it to hear," from men who "had handed down the genuine tradition of the blessed doctrine straight from Peter and James, John and Paul, the son receiving it from the father."

(Strom., i.1, 11.) He declares that Paul wrote his Epistle to the Hebrews in Hebrew, and states the order of the four

Gospels, wholly on the authority of "the ancient Presbyters."

(Euseb. vi. 14, 2, 5.) In an extraordinary passage from Irenzeus we find that eminent church Father, who wrote about A. D. 180, with all the four Gospels before him, insisting that Jesus lived into old age, because certain elders who had known the Apostle John in Asia Minor had so assured him.

(Her., ii. 22, 5.) An interesting parallel to the Papias passage is found in Arrian's Dedication of the Dzscourses of Epictetus, who was also a native of Hierapolis not far from this time.

(Higginson's Works of Epictetus, p. 1.) 1 Pliny the Younger, Tacitus, and Suetonius were all writing during this period.

2 Lukei.1, 2.

AN EARLY INVESTIGATOR

happens, we have two or three faint but suggestive clues to the materials which Papias had at his command.

" Papias," so Eusebius tells us, "introduced evidence from the First Epistle of John, as well as from that of Peter.

He also relates a story found in the Gospel according to the Hebrews of a woman accused before the Lord of many sins."!

Here is a Gospel, then, and two Epistles.

Apparently he made use also of our Revelation or Apocalypse, borrowing from it its predictions of the coming kingdom of Christ.2_ Here also is an instance of the personal traditions which he gathered from apostolic circles, showing that in those uncritical hours credible reports and incredible passed

1 Fist. Ecc., iii. 39,17.

This story of the woman, which is probably the same which has come down to us as part of the Fourth Gospel (John viii. 3-11), Eusebius seems to have known as part of the ancient Gospel of the Hebrews.

In those days quotations were made with such singular looseness that it is impossible to' say in this case whether Papias himself quotes from the Gospel of Hebrews or Eusebius simply infers that he does; or whether in the case of 1 John and 1 Peter it is Papias or only Eusebius who mentions those

Epistles by name.

Eusebius, like many a more modern commentator, may have accepted the vaguest resemblance in an ancient writing toa New Testament passage as proof positive that the writer had the New Testament in full before him.

For Gospel according to Hebrews, see Note D.

2 See Note E.

One PAPIAS current together.

Our chronicler would have been inconceivably\in advance; of his age had he turned a deaf ear to the supernatural.

In those times, it seems, the Apostle Philip, or his surviving daughters, lived in Hierapolis, and Papias got from them many extraordinary tales of that Apostle's experiences, Eusebius records one or two of them.

"Papias tells us how, in Philip's time (evidently by Philip's miraculous power), a man was raised from the dead.

And another marvelous thing, too, that happened to Justus surnamed Barsabas: how, having drunk a poisonous drug, he experienced no harm from it, through the grace of the Lord." 4

The Gospel according to the Hebrews, Lane iar as it seems to have been to both Papias and Eusebius, has long ago disappeared; but two other early Gospels mentioned by Papias have fortunately survived, and any descriptions of them at this formative period are of the highest value.

No more instructive passage has come down to us than that in which Papias gives us his impressions of Mark and Matthew.

He 1 Hist. Ecc., iii. 39,9.

The inference of course is that these miracles were performed by the Apostle Philip, though this is not directly asserted.

A preceding chapter shows that there was some confusion at this time between the Apostle and the Evangelist Philip.

(Euseb., Azs¢. Zcc., iii. 31, 2, 5.) Comp. Renan, 7s¢., ii. 151 n.

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If speaks first of Mark, repeating what had been told him on this subject by the Presbyter John.

"This, too," writes Papias, " the Presbyter said :

Mark, acting as interpreter of Peter, wrote down carefully whatever he remembered-of the sayings or doings of Christ, yet not with any system.! For he had never heard the Lord himself, nor was he even his follower, but became later, as I have said, a follower of Peter; and as Peter was in the habit of discoursing as occasion arose with no view to orderly arrangement ? of the Lord's words, ;Mark cannot well be blamed for simply recording what things he remembered, however few.

For his one care was, not to omit anything he had heard, and to falsify nothing."

Once more we seem to stand on the very 1 ob rdter 2 obytatw 8 Euseb., Hist. Lcc., iii. 39, 15. We have here the source of the popular notion that Mark, in writing his Gospel, acted as Peter's "amanuensis."

Papias is the first to give the tradition, but it is repeated by various early writers, with many modifications.

According to one account Mark wrote during Peter's lifetime and at his dictation; according to another after Peter's death; according to one Peter was wholly indifferent in the matter; according to another he learned through supernatural means what Mark had done, and was well pleased, and gave the work his official sanction.

(Irenzeus, iii. 1, 1; Tertullian, Adv. Marc. iv. 5; Euseb., Ast.

Lcc., ii. 15; Vi. 14, 6, 7; Vi. 25, 5-)

PAPIAS threshold of Christian literature, watching its earliest stages of growth.

Papias is evidently defending Mark against certain charges.

The critics of the aed find his narrativell arranged <"

blamed for ee 'asks Papias ; Ae no methodical plan, why then should Mark, who,"

; was simply reporting from memory the occa491 sional discourses of the Apostle?

Mark was % (yA careful and honest; what more could be asked? 'wv ¥ But what is it that Papias is describing? we cannot help asking ourselves.

The Gospel of Mark, as we have it to-day, certainly does not read like a collection of discourses by Peter ; nor is it noticeably lacking in "orderly arrangement."

On the contrary, it gives all the method or system that we have in these early records, and, though shorter than the other narratives, is no less chronological or consecutive than they.

Indeed, it has become the fashion among the latest biblical critics to regard Mark as affording on the whole, in its very simplicity and clearness, the most intelligible account of the Lord's ministry that has come down to us.

No doubt if we were bound to prove, or chose to assume beforehand, that Papias had Mark's

1 It is not quite clear whether Papias is speaking for himself here, or quoting his Presbyter.

AN EARLY INVESTIGATOR

Gospel in its present form before him, it would be possible, by a little straining of language, to make this appear.

As we feel no such necessity, however, but are only trying to put ourselves in our author's place, let us pause and look a little farther into the matter.

Can it be that the document of which Papias speaks, though already bearing the name of Mark, is simply the ;first rude collection out of which

in due time the completed Gospel is to grow?

Nothing is said of a Gospel, it must be noticed.

It is not even an arrangement.

It is a memoriter report of fragmentary conversations or addresses of the Apostle Peter.

As an account of such a primitive document Papias's description would be perfect, and we should then have the supreme satisfaction of catching a furtive glimpse of the hidden processes of Scripture composition.

This would be one of the layers for which we are searching!

It is not worth 1 Compare Schleiermacher's Werke, ii. 361-393.

An early work called the Kfpuyya Mérpov, or Preaching of Peter, is quoted by second century writers as of equal authority with the canonical Scriptures, and is held by some critics to have been in Papias's hands. (Clem. Alex., Strom., i. 29; vi. 5, 6,15.)

Eusebius, in the fourth century, finds it still in use, but ranks it with the Second Epistle of Peter as of doubtful genuineness.

(Mist. Ecc. iii. 3, 2.) See Schwegler, Vachap. Zeit., i.

54, 4593 ii. 30; Weiffenbach, Die Papias-Fragmente, 46, 107.

PAPIAS our while to pass any hasty judgment on this point ; for the extract which Eusebius gives is short and enigmatic at best, and it is important for us to lose no early confirmation of our New

Testament Scriptures.

At the same time, it is more important still for us to get at the true spirit of these creative hours, and see things as they really were.

In any other case, where an ordinary historic question was at issue, we should certainly suspend our judgment on such evidence till further testimony was found.

Let us do so now.

As it happens, the testimony accumulates at once.

Papias, as I have said, has information to give also regarding the Gospel of Matthew, which, though much less detailed than his account of Mark, is none the less interesting.

We must remember that these are the earliest traditions known to history concerning the origin of our Gospels, and the first allusions to either

Matthew or Mark as a Gospel writer ; they are therefore of importance far beyond their actual length.

"Matthew," Says Papias, "transcribed the Sayings! in the Hebrew dialect, and each one interpreted2 them as best he could."

This is all; but how curious a Situation this brief passage suggests.

Again Papias says no1 See Note B.

? Or perhaps "translated." t { KAD AX

AN EARLY INVESTIGATOR

thing of a Gospel.

The Gospel of Matthew, as we know it, is by no means a mere collection of the Lord's Sayings, although possibly based on such collections ;1 but is a methodical composition, fashioned on a more artistic scheme than either Mark or Luke.

It is not written in Hebrew ; it is writtenin Greek.

It cannot even be considered a translation from a Hebrew original, as it shows none of the usual characteristics of a translation, and makes its Old Testament citations as a rule from the Greek rather than the Hebrew versions.2_ In a word, the description before us bears even less resemblance to our

Matthew than the previous description to our Mark.

No doubt if we were obliged to assume that the Gospel of Matthew existed in its present form in the time of Papias, we might explain his silence by saying that he did not think it worth while to mention' a fact so familiar.

As we are under no such obligation, however, it is far more to the purpose to take the words in their obvious meaning and let them tell their own story.

1 Matt. v. I—-vil. 29; xiii. 1-53; xviii. I-xix. 2; xxiv.; xxv.

2 This is a nice point to decide, and one on which the verdict of trained philologists is alone of value; but critics of all the schools seem to be singularly in accord in pronouncing our Greek Matthew, whenever written, an original work rather than a translation.

For the authorities on this point, see Holtzmann, Zin/ezt. in das VV. Test., 376-378.

; PAPIAS We seem to be standing midway between la primitive collection of the Lord's Sayings, jin their original tongue, for use in Hebrew | churches, and the Greek Gospel of Matthew composed for Greek-speaking communities.

Whether Papias! had ever seen the Hebrew document of which he speaks does not appear.

Possibly he knew of it only by hearsay, or at best only in the form of various independent translations, such as he here seems to speak of, for the service of non-Jewish congregations.

Had there been an authorized translation, such varieties would certainly not have been in vogue; but our author's expression, 'each one interpreted as best he could," puts the primitive condition of things very naturally before us.

It opens the way for countless surmises.

Were there, then, a Hebrew and a Greek Matthew in use at the same time in different Christian churches, quite independent of each other, and both original documents?

And if so, what became of the Hebrew Gospel?

Or was the primitive Hebrew primer to be absorbed finally into an elaborated Gospel, losing its original identity, but leaving behind the tradition of its source ?

But this is sheer conjecture, as neither Papias, 1 Or John the Presbyter, as the case may be.

AN EARLY INVESTIGATOR

nor Eusebius his historian, gives us the information needed to connect these earlier records positively with the later Gospels with which we are familiar.

We must be content with what we have, not pretending to certainty where there is none.

All we can say with confidence is that at the time of which we are speaking, so far as Papias informs us, the only writings directly ascribed to Matthew are certain discourses of Jesus in the Hebrew tongue; the only ones ascribed to Mark are certain informal discourses of Peter concerning the life of Jesus ; while Luke and John are not mentioned at all.

I have no desire whatever to force these facts into undue prominence, or to base exaggerated conclusions upon them.

It must not be forgotten, in the case of Papias, that the description of him in Eusebius is brief at best, and that our knowledge of his writings from other sources is of the scantiest kind!

Three or four pages out of five books might not seem enough to warrant even the guarded inferences ventured upon above, as Papias may have made allusions elsewhere to Matthew or Mark which Eusebius overlooked or thought unimportant. Papias

1 See Routh's Religuie Sacre, i. 1-16. Compare Harnack, Altchristliche Literatur, i. 65.

PAPTAS does not mention Paul's Epistles, which he must have known something about ;! why then, it will be asked, deduce more from his silence about the Gospels than from his silence about Paul?

All this must be taken into account, and it would be foolish to disparage it.

At the same time it must be borne in mind that Eusebius, writing at a time when the Christian annals have assumed suddenly a world-wide importance, makes it a point to gather from earlier writers all the testimony he can on this very point of the composition and genuineness of the Christian Scriptures.

He devotes various chapters to this all-important question.2

He also says quite explicitly, as he takes up the 1 The fact that Papias makes no mention of the Epistles of Paul, which were written long before his time, has led to many curious conjectures.

Perhaps he found no material in such didactic writings available for his undidactic purposes.

Perhaps he shared in the suspicions of Paul so common in the early church, or thought the Epistles too anti-Jewish in their tone.

One critic imagines that the allusion to those who "have much to say" (p. 5) is a hit at the loquacious

Paulites. (Hilgenfeld, Z7zz/., 57.) Possibly the simple reason may be that Paul's Epistles, though of course existing at that time, had a limited circulation, were not collected, and were in vogue only in special communities.

Zahn, however, thinks there is evidence of a collection of the Epistles during the first century.

(Kazon-Gesch., i. 811, etc.) 2 Euseb., Hést. Ecc., ii. 15; iii. 24, 25; iv. 26; v. 8; vi. 25,

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apostolic writings : "As my history progresses, I shall take pains to show what disputed books have been used from time to time by ecclesiastical writers, and what opinions they have expressed either upon the canonical and genuine

Scriptures, or upon those not so regarded." !

It seems altogether unlikely, therefore, that if Papias had made any more specific statements about Matthew and Mark, or had mentioned the other two Evangelists at all, Eusebius would have overlooked such important testimony, or failed to emphasize it.

However this may be, there is no question that the language of Papias, on its face, applies far better to floating Gospel traditions in early process of formation, than to authenticated records, already sifted and edited.

This sifting process is the very work in which our bishop is engaged; and there is no good reason why we should deny ourselves this picturesque glimpse of himself which he gives us.

The value of an ancient story for Papias is not that it is contained in official records, but that it comes to him from the lips of venerable men.

Whatever documents he has before him, he takes the liberty to prefer his oral reminiscences to them all.

We may 1 Fist. Ecc., tii. 3, 3.

Compare Holtzmann, Zinlectung in das NV. Test., 468.

PAPIAS wish that he told us more, or had been quoted more fully ; but, meantime, it is certainly no loss to stand for a moment where this constructive process is going on, and to catch this passing view of the literary methods of the time.}

1 Note F.

CHARTER II

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

Ir our brief account of Papias seems too slight a basis for any serious theory of the formation of the Christian Scriptures, let us see how far this first impression is borne out by other writings of the same period.

Although Papias was the first to undertake anything like Scripture research, yet other authors there were who will help us in picturing to ourselves these early processes of growth.

In any case, an examination of their works is sure to throw some light upon our problem, and cannot be wholly out of place even in so unprofessional a treatise as the present volume.

Let us turn for a moment to the church at Rome.

One of the earliest leaders of that church was a certain Clement, who was for a long time considered the same as the Clement mentioned by Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians,! but of whom we really know nothing beside the writings he has left.

In later chron1 Phil. iv. 3; Iren., Her, iii. 3, 3.

PAPIAS icles, when ecclesiastical organizations became more complete, he figured as third or fourth in the list of bishops of Rome,! and was, in any case, a man of marked influence, whose name was honorably remembered, and whose personal authority seems to have been felt in the surrounding churches.

An anonymous Epistle from "the Church of God which is at Rome to the Church of God which is at Corinth" has come down to us, which was ascribed to Clement from very early times, and may with good reason be considered genuine.? If so, it must have been written about A. D. 95, and is, therefore, the first document that has survived from the times immediately following the apostolic age.®

Violent strife had arisen at Corinth, it seems, in the course of which certain priests had been forcibly ejected from office by an opposing faction in the church.4

Whether this was a later outbreak there of the same sort of jealousies 1 Tren. iii. 3, 3; Euseb., Ast. Zcc., iii. 4, 9; Harnack,

Chron., i. 191.

; 2 Note G.

8 Euseb., Hist. Lcc., iii.

15; ili. 34.

Harnack, who has subjected these dates to rigid inspection, places Clement's bishopric at 88-97, and the Epistle at 93-95 or possibly 97.

(Chron.,i. 201, 251.) Passages in the Epistle like vi. 1 point to a date as far as possible from the apostolic period.

# x Clement, i. 1; xliv. 3-6; iii. 3.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

which Paul had himself had occasion to reprimand so sharply,! or some uprising of the laity against the growing claims of the clergy,? or simply a revolt of the younger and more heady members of the community against their elders, we can only guess, but in any case it was a serious affair, which revealed plainly the loose organization of Christian communities at that formative epoch.

It should be noted that the Roman church addresses that at Corinth in this instance, not at all as a superior, but merely as a counselor, with such authority only as was given it by the personal dignity of its bishop.?

Clement insists, indeed, upon submission to the elders,* but not in the tone of the later church, rather in fatherly exhortation, giving the best of advice and recognizing frankly the ultimate authority of the community.

"It PS TNGOrxitys X1Ve

Clem. xl. 5. Comp. J. Réville, Orig. de P Episcopat, 404; Renan, A7zst., v. 317.

3 j.1.

It is not quite clear whether the questions here alluded to had been referred by the Corinthians to the Roman church, or merely discussed among themselves.

In any case Clement simply offers his advice.

(vii. 1.) £ lvii. 1.

5 xliv. 3. The Epistle shows a primitive condition of things in the Corinthian church, where bishops and deacons appear together as the highest functionaries

(xlii. 4), yet where there is evidently no single-headed episcopate (xliv.

PAPIAS is a shame, my beloved," he writes, "an exceeding shame, unworthy the Christian calling, this report that the most steadfast and ancient church of Corinth has been led, by two or three men, into revolt against its elders."

"Who is high-minded among you, who is compassionate, who abounding in love?

Let him say; if this sedition, this strife, these schisms be on my account, I will depart, I will do whatsoever is commanded me by the people: only let the flock of Christ, with the elders that are over it, be at peace." } Questioning this Epistle for its acquaintance with the New Testament, we find it abounding in Scripture quotations from beginning to end.

Its precepts, exhortations, examples, are all in the language of Holy Writ, and enforced as the teachings of the divine spirit.

To our surprise, however, they are from the Old Testament exclusively.

'Let us take Enoch for our example;" 'Noah, being proved to be faithful, did by his ministry preach regeneration to the world;"

" Abraham, called the friend, was found faith6), and where the Presbyters are an august body in highest authority (i. 3; xxi.6; liv. 2; lvii. 1), constituting apparently the circle from which the governing officials are drawn (xliv.

I, 2, 5): Comp. J. Réville, Orig. de ?Episcopat, 413, 418; Weizsacker, il. 327.

1 x Clem. xlvii. 6; liv. 1, 2.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

ful in that he was obedient to the words of God ;" "Let us be followers of those who went about in goatskins and sheepskins, teaching the coming of Christ; we mean Elijah and Elisha and Ezekiel the prophets." 1

Indeed, as we read these pages we become aware that the Old Testament is the only book which our author accepts, or is accustomed to think of, as "Scripture."

Once or twice, indeed, Christ is introduced as speaking, but singularly enough it is always Old Testament language that he uses.

It is through the Psalms or Pentateuch that Christ is regarded as addressing his church.

"' All these things faith in Christ doth confirm ; for he himself, through the Holy Spirit, doth thus invite us:

Come, ye children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord."

"Again, he himself (Christ) saith: 'I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people.'" 2 Some of these passages are from Scriptures quite unknown to us,? sometimes the original text is plainly different from either our Hebrew or our Greek version of the Old Testament; but for the most part they are familiar passages quoted

Dat CleMaixel 35 Ase Xe kv VILL 2 xxii. 1; Psalms xxxiv. 11; xvi. 15; Psalms xxii. 6; Comp. Heb. xi. 26.

8 xlvi. 2.

DARTAS somewhat loosely, as was the fashion of the day.

It requires no little effort to adjust ourselves to this novel position.

I do not mean to imply that Clement shows no familiarity whatever with Christian writings, for there are several passages which suggest more or less vividly our

Gospels or Epistles.

But in no case are these introduced as "Scripture" passages.

That term, and the various designations associated with it, is reserved exclusively, as has been said, for the Jewish Scriptures.

These alone are the "Holy Scriptures."1

The phrases "" The Lord 'saith,?': "The Holy Spirit saith,"

"He saith," "It is written," "Wisdom saith,"

"The elect David saith," are constantly recurring, but always as referring to Prophets, Law, or Psalms.?

On two occasions we find the expression, 'Remember the words of the Lord Jesus," 8 showing that the Sayings of the Master were held in high authority among the churches, and were already in vogue side by side with the more ancient writings, but not yet admitted to their sacred company.

They are not " Scriptures," nor do they come so readily to the disciple's _t~ 1 i Clem. liii. 1, 2; xiii. 1.

2 iv. 1; xiii, 15 xxx. 4; xxiii, Sulina 2 rlvirags 8 xiii. 1; xlvi. 7.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

lips or the writer's pen.

Out of 120 possible Scripture citations, only 12 can by any ingenuity be referred to our New Testament.

Here is one passage, for instance, which suggests the Epistle to the Hebrews; not quoted as such, indeed, nor exactly in the language of our present text, yet unmistakably related to that writing: "Through him the Lord? would have us taste the immortal knowledge; who, being the brightness of his majesty, is so much greater than the angels as he hath inherited a more excellent name." ?

Indeed, there is more tinge of the Hebrews in this Epistle of Clement than of any other New Testament writing ; as though the writer were especially fond of that particular letter, or especially familiar with it ; or as though perhaps the two Epistles were written at about the same time, when this special phraseology was current.

As Clement introduces this passage in his own language, giving no credit to an outside source, and as neither writer betrays any knowledge of the other, it is not quite certain which of the two is the borrower, if either, and which the lender.*

1 I have followed here Lightfoot's references.

(AjZos.

Fathers, 1893.) 2 § deomdrns.

3 x Clem. xxxvi. 2.

4 xxxvi. 3-5; xliii. 1.

In most of these cases the only point of affinity between the two Epistles is that the two

PAPIAS Our author knows the Apostle Paul and his writings, and gives us pieces of information concerning him quite startling to those who know Paul only from the pages of the New Testament.

"So, having taught the whole world righteousness, and journeying to the utmost bounds of the west, when he had borne his testimony + before the rulers, he departed from the world and went unto the holy place." 2 But although Clement is addressing the Corinthians, he alludes to Paul's Epistles to that church but once by name,? leaving us in other cases to conjecture his acquaintance with that or other

Epistles only by vague resemblances.

Here is perhaps the most direct quotation, though even in this case not given as a quotation: "Let us take our body ; the head without the feet is nothing, so the feet without the head are nothing, but the smallest members of our body are necessary and useful to the whole body." 4 authors use the same passages from the Old Testament, and in the same way.

Comp. Euseb., Hist. Ecc., iii. 38; Renan, Hist., v. 334.

1 Or "having suffered martyrdom."

2 1 Clem. v. 7. See Holtzmann, LEinleitung in das N. Test., 280.

8 xlvii. 1-3.

Clement says here, "Take up the epistle of the blessed Paul the Apostle," as though there were but one Epistle to the Corinthians.

* xxxvii. 5. Comp. 1 Cor. xii.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

Still more striking are Clement's references to the words of Jesus himself, which might be supposed to afford as many practical precepts as those of Moses or David.

They are not given as "Scripture," yet are introduced as if | familiar to his readers, whether from oral repe- | tition, or from chance collections of the Master's precepts already current.

Here is the most definite and unmistakable: " Above all remembering the words of the Lord Jesus which he spake teaching clemency and long-suffering.

For thus he said: Be ye merciful, that ye may obtain mercy, forgive that it may be forgiven unto you, as ye do so shall it be done unto you, as ye give so shall it be given unto you, as ye judge so shall ye be judged, as ye are kind so shall kindness be shown unto you, with what measure ye mete with the same shall it be measured unto you."!

How strangely familiar yet unfamiliar this sounds.

One is quite bewildered by it; turning first to Matthew v. 7, then to vi. 12-15, but finding it necessary to piece out the extract with vii. 2, or Luke vi. 36-38, and even then leaving one precept quite unaccounted for, unless it be a faint reminiscence of 1 Cor. xiii. 4.

Quite the same is the effect of the only other reference to the words of Jesus which this Epis1 4 Clem. xiii. 1, 2.

PAPIAS tle contains : ' Remember the words of our Lord Jesus: Woe to that man; it were good for him that he had not been born, rather than to offend one of my elect ; it were better for him that a millstone be hanged about him and he be cast into the sea, than that he should pervert one of my elect." 1

Here again we must turn to Matthew xviii. 6, 7; xxvi. 24; Mark xiv. 21; ix. 42; Luke xvii. I, 2; xxii. 22, to find all the fragments here put together, and we ask ourselves where Clement could have discovered the pas- 'sage.

Is he quoting from memory, as would be natural enough, and as is apparently the case with some of his Old Testament citations ;2 or from oral traditions simply; or has he before him some collection of the Lord's Sayings which has been long ago forgotten?

One of these guesses is as good as the other; the only thing of which we are sure being that he is not quoting from either of our four Gospels.

Nor does it seem altogether natural that this leader of the churches should have had those Gospels

% . hn PS ~*)) ve wit R x * "

9 eR WE ey '

= ay I~ la 0

é <<"

'~~ s) 'in full form before him, without once appealing ~to them to reinforce his own authority.

Whatever our judgment on this point, it is worth our while to remember this attitude of the early

\le © | 1 1 Clem. xlvi. 7, 8.

? vill. 2, 3; xiii. 1; xv. 2-7; xxxiv. 3,

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

church towards its written Scriptures.

One Bible was enough for the church of this period, it would seem.

They had Moses and the Prophets; what need of more?

Those ancient books which had come down from earliest time, through which Christ himself had spoken to patriarchs and prophets, and which contained, for those who understood, the promise and prophecy of the Messiah's coming, possessed a sanctity to which nothing else at first could aspire.

Thus far, at least, the churches could find a place for no other Scripture.

Turning once more to the East ; in the ninth? year of the reign of Trajan, that emperor, so says an ancient chronicle, visited the city of Antioch on his way to Parthia, and while there tried to force the Christians to sacrifice to the Roman gods.

Their bishop, Ignatius by name, having scorned this summons, and urged others to do the same, was brought before the emperor and boldly declared: "Thou art in error when thou callest the evil spirits of the heathen, gods.

For there is but one God, who made heaven and earth, .

. and one Jesus Christ, his only begotten son; whose kingdom may I enjoy."

"Whereupon," so says our chronicle, "Trajan pronounced this sentence against him; Forasmuch as Ignatius has confessed that he carries

1 See Note H.

2 Or, nineteenth.

PAPIAS about within himself Him that was crucified, we command that he be carried bound with soldiers to great Rome, there to be thrown to the beasts for the entertainment of the people." 1

Ignatius was then carried to Rome, passing through Asia Minor on the way, and scattering letters as he went among the churches of the East.

About fifteen epistles, claiming to have come from this source, have survived, together with a detailed account of his martyrdom in Rome.

The whole narrative has a somewhat mythical air, and as it accords poorly with the historical facts of Trajan's reign, and as, moreover, no mention of our chronicle can be found till two or three centuries later, we have every reason to question its authenticity.?

The letters themselves, however, have the value of ancient documents, by whomsoever written ; and seven of them ® have internal evidence in their favor, and belong certainly to the first half of the century.

1 Acts of Martyrdom of Lenatius, ch. ii.

? Eusebius, who gives a brief account of Ignatius's martyrdom, shows no knowledge of this document.

(Hist. Ecc., ili. 36.) See, also, Lightfoot, AZos. fathers, ii. 363-391, 448, 480.

8 To the Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, Romans, Philadelphians, Smyrnzans, Polycarp.

4 Note I.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

Looking at these seven Epistles, we find a writer who was evidently less familiar with the Scriptures, or cared less for their authority, than

Clement, as he makes slight allusion to either Old Testament or New, never citing either by name, and leaving us to guess his acquaintance with them by similarities of expression.

This in itself has no special significance, as quotations in the style of to-day are not to be looked for in the writings of that period, and if these letters were really written on his last journey to Rome, exact citations could not be expected in any case.

Nor does the writer fail to declare | again and again the authority of the doctrines | and teachings of Jesus Christ...

At the same | time, the absence of all New Testament coloring on the part of a bishop addressing neighbor communities is certainly noteworthy, and is now and then very pointed.

In speaking of his fellow Christians of Antioch, for instance, he applies to himself the very expression used by Paul, — "being the least among them, as one born out of due time;"? yet without the slightest allusion to Paul, but as though the language were his own.

Or again, take these passages which may be selected out of all the 1 Eph. vi. 2; xv. 2; Magnes. xiii. 1.

2 Comp. 1 Cor. xv. 8; Ignat. to Romans, ix. 2.

PAPIAS Epistles as the most exact references to the New Testament.

In neither case are they given as quotations, nor is any Gospel writer mentioned.!

In his Epistle to the Ephesians he says: "If the prayer of one and another hath such power, how much more that of the bishop and the whole church."

This shows pretty clearly that the writer has some familiar saying in mind, and if it be any passage from our Scriptures we might guess that it was "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." ? Again he says: "The tree is manifest by its fruit ; so they who profess to be Christ's shall be known by what they do." 8 This suggests of course Matthew xii.

33, but the dissimilarity in phrase is as marked as the similarity of thought.

Once more, in writing to the Philadelphians, he says: "The spirit being from God is not deceived; for it knows whence it comes and whither it goes, and it searches out all hidden things."*

Possi1 In all the seven Epistles there are perhaps nine cases where New Testament language is obviously used.

? Ignat. to Eph. v. 2.

Comp. Matt. xviii. 19.

8 Tgnat. to Eph. xiv. 2.

Comp. Matt. xii. 33- * Tgnat. to Phil. vii. 1.

Comp. John iii. 8.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

bly he has John iii. 8 in mind,! though, singularly enough, the point of the expression in the one case is that the ways of the spirit are not known, in the other that they are known.

Finally, let us turn to Ignatius's Epistle to Polycarp, where we cume at last upon a single clause, sufficiently brief to be sure, which but for its surprising juxtaposition might be taken directly from our Gospels: "Not every hurt is healed by the same plaster. Soothe paroxysms with embrocations.

Be thou wise as the serpent in all things, and harmless as the dove." 2

It is hardly worth while to give further extracts, where they all tell the same story; but from these alone we can see clearly that whatever familiarity with our Gospels or Epistles

Ignatius may have had, he finds little occasion to show it, and can hardly be thought of as having canonical documents in his hands.

This may seem very little light to gain from so renowned a source; yet it is worth our while to have gleaned at least so much from the most voluminous of all the earlier contributions to our Christian literature.® 1 The phraseology in the original, so far as it goes, is quite the same.

2 Ignat. to Polycarp, ii. 1, 2.

Comp. Matt. x. 16, 8 See Note J.

PAPIAS Among the places visited by Ignatius on his way to Rome was the seaport city of Smyrna, whose little church was presided over at that time by Polycarp, a man affectionately remembered a generation later as one who liked to tell of his "intimate personal familiarity with John, and with others too who had seen the Lord.''!

He was still better known in after times as one of the first of the long line of Christian martyrs.

A circular epistle from the church at Smyrna, written probably long afterwards,? gives touching details of the martyrdom; telling also how reverently the bones of the martyr were gathered up, and how the fire "making a kind of arch, like the sail of a ship filled with the wind, encompassed as in a circle the body of the holy martyr.

Who stood in the midst of it, not as if his flesh were burnt, but as bread that is baked, or as gold or silver glowing in the furnace.

Moreover, so sweet a smell came from it as if frankincense or some rich spices had been smoking there." ® The age of miracles had not yet passed.

Polycarp appears in the annals of the church as a stout advocate of sound doctrine and stern

1 Tren., Her., iii. 3, 4; Euseb., Hist. £566. Va 205.0.

2 See Note K.

8 Mart. of Polycarp, 15.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

foe to all dissenters ;1 but leaves behind him only a single epistle, written after the death of Ignatius to the church at Philippi There are the usual difficulties in the way of a hearty acceptance of this epistle; reminding us how few of the best-attested writings of the period can have reached us in quite their original form.

In one chapter Ignatius appears as still living, and Polycarp asks for further information about him ; in another he has already died, and has become a saint.?, But we learn not to be too exacting as to a period whose records, in the nature of the case, cannot have been solicitously watched over ; and are willing to accept such as give reasonable proof of their genuineness.?

In this epistle we find little of the ecclesiastic instinct which marked the writings of Ignatius.

Not a bishop is mentioned throughout, though presbyters and deacons hold a high place.* On the other hand the Holy Scriptures, and still more the teaching of the Lord, occupy his thoughts greatly,® as do also the letters of Paul, whom he is one of the first to honor, and much of whose phraseology is familiar to him.

In fact, there are more suggestions of the New Tes1 Tren. iii. 3, 4; Euseb., Ast. Hcc., v. 24, 16.

2 Polycarp to Phil. xiii. 2; ix. 1.

3 See Note L.

4 Polycarp, v. 3.

Seat 0s

PAPIAS tament in this one short epistle, though but dim and distant echoes at best, than in all the writings of Ignatius put together.

" Remember," he writes, "what things the Lord taught, saying:

Judge not that ye be not judged ; forgive, and it shall be forgiven to you; be ye merciful that ye may receive mercy ; with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to youagain.

Also, Blessed are the poor and they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God." 1

This unfamiliar collocation of familiar sayings reminds us at once of Clement,? and as in that case carries us from Matt. vii. 1, 2 to Luke vi. 36-38, and back to Matt. v. 3, 7, 10, before we discover all the fragments.

Another passage presents in new guise one of the practical maxims of the Epistle to Timothy : "The beginning of all troubles is the love of money.

Knowing therefore that we brought nothing into the world, yet have nothing to carry out, let us arm ourselves with the armor of righteousness."®

Here again is a verse which puts tentatively what in our version of the Lord's Prayer appears quite unequivocally ; adding a clause as if from Paul's Epistle to the Romans:

"If then we beseech the Lord to forgive us, we 1 Polycarp, ii. 3.

2 See p. 29.

8 iv. 1 and 1 Tim. vi. 10, 7.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

ought also to forgive ; for we are in the sight of our Lord and God, and must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, and each one give an account of himself." + In the following verse we recognize another passage from the Lord's

Prayer, though given in the writer's own language, and introducing an unconnected saying of the Lord Jesus: " Beseeching the all-seeing

God with entreaties not to lead us into temptation ; as the Lord said; The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak." ?

The above are the most obvious allusions in this Epistle to our Christian Scriptures ; much more valuable, it will be seen, as showing how the bishops of those days dealt with the records, and in what condition they found them, than as citations of any exact passages.

Here is a writer who draws reverently from such words of the Lord, or letters of Paul, as are already current, without associating them for a moment with the sacred Scriptures.

It does not occur to him, more than to the other writers mentioned above, to call either Gospel by name, or to quote definitely from any ; leaving us to conjecture whether this is owing simply to the habits of the time, or to the fact that the mate1 Polycarp, vi. 2, and Rom. xiv. 10, 12.

2 vii.2; Matt. vi. 13; xxvi. 41.

PAPIAS rials of those Gospels are still floating from church to church, as uncollected and unsystematized memoranda of a holy past.

There is a great charm in lingering over a period marked by this easy and unquestioning acceptance of the present, undisturbed by anxiety about records or texts.?

Another interesting relic from this period is the so-called Epistle of Barnabas.

That it was really written by Barnabas, the companion of Paul,? there is little internal or external evidence to prove; but as many writings of doubtful authorship and many claimants for apostolic authority were current in those days, this does not show that it was not a genuinely ancient document.

It may safely be accepted as from an unknown author of the early part of the century.® This Epistle introduces us into a new religious atmosphere.

The burning question of the relation of Christianity to Judaism was in the air, and the author is at pains to vindicate the right of Christianity to stand alone.

But singularly enough he draws his proof of the supremacy of the new faith not from the Christian Scriptures, but from the Jewish; not from the life or 1 See Note M.

2 Acts xiii. 2; Gal. ii. 13.

8 See Note N.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, but from Abraham, Moses, and the Prophets.

The Jews had the Old Testament indeed, and supposed that it was their own, but they were mistaken.

They had found in it only its external historical sense, which was false and a deception of the devil!

The true sense of the Scriptures is the spiritual sense, intended from the first by Moses, but obscure to the Jews and meant to be so."

Thus they are ours alone, for we first see their meaning.

'The Prophets, having received from him [Jesus] their gift of [prophecy] prophesied of him."*

When Moses said, " Enter into the good land which the Lord sware unto Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and inherit it, a land flowing with milk and honey," this had only a figurative meaning.

" For what says Gnosis ?® Learn.

Put your hope, it says, in him who is to be manifested to you in the flesh, even Jesus." ®

The high priest is ordered to take two goats, one for a burnt offering, the other to be accursed.

It is a type of Jesus "spit upon and pricked and cast forth into the wilderness." 7

What was the meaning of circumcision?

It 1 Barnabas, viii. 7; ix. 4.

2) Be PFs 8 iv. 6.

4 v. 6.

5 7. ¢., What is the hidden sense?

6 yi. 8, 10.

Comp. Clem. Alex., Stvom., v. 10.

7 vii. 6, 7. Comp. Lev. xvi. 7, 8

PARTAS was not of the flesh.

In it lay a profound mystery, known only to Abraham.

"Understand these things perfectly, children of love; how Abraham, who was the first to circumcise, was looking forward in spirit unto Jesus when he circumcised, having received the ordinances! of three letters."

These letters were the 318 men whom Abraham had circumcised, and under 318 were hidden Jesus and the Cross.?

Beneath these successive symbols, we are to understand, lie all the doctrines of Christianity.

In such a writing we shall look of course for little of the New Testament.

I can find but two or three passages which can with any probability be considered as drawn from Gospel or Epistle.?

But one of these is curious enough to be quoted, as showing the various and unexpected connections in which the same words may appear in days when literature is forming.

It gives also an entirely original tradition about the Apostles.

"When he chose his own apostles, who were to preach his gospel, he took men who were sinful beyond all account ; that he might show that he did not come to call the 1 Sdypyara.

2 Barnabas, ix. 4, 7, 8.

Comp. Gen. xiv. 14; xvii. 23.

8 iv. 14, comp. Mt. xxii. 14; v. 9, comp. Mt. ix. 13; vi. 5, comp. I Cor. iv. 13 (the one word zepiynua); xii. 7, comp.

Rom. xi. 36.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

righteous but sinners.

So he manifested himself to be the son of God." 1

This sounds familiar in a way; but if we ask ourselves where the author could have found it, the last place we should guess, I think, considering the connection, would be Matthew ix. 13.

Among the writings of this period, the " Shepherd of Hermas"' must not be forgotten.?

It is little known to-day, yet at the time of which we are speaking it was in great vogue, and held by many as divinely inspired, Its history was unique, and shows how loosely the canonical lines were drawn at that period.

Inthe Roman church it was refused a place among holy books on the ground that the ranks of the prophets and apostles were already closed, and also that its author was perfectly well known,® while in other quarters it was freely quoted as an in1 Barnabas, v. 9.

2 The Shepherd of Hermas was probably written about 140, as the Muratori Canon assigns it quite definitely to the time of Pius, Bishop of Rome (about 140-155), and claims that Hermas was the brother of the bishop.

This is the best evidence we have, though Schwegler and others think it only an attempt to degrade an earlier document, and place the Shepherd at the beginning of the century.

(Wachapos.

Zeitalter, i. 328-342; Neander, fist. i. 660; Kriiger, Zarly Chris. Literature, p. 44.)

8 Muratori Canon, 4.

PAPIAS spired work, and classed as Scripture!

While one eminent father declared it out and out an immoral writing, another of still ampler learning cited it with profound respect, as if on a level with apostolic writings?

A century later it was still " publicly read in the churches," and still under dispute as a canonical book.2

In the end, it seems to have passed wholly out of ecclesiastical use, and would certainly be regarded as of slight religious worth to-day, however serviceable as revealing the tastes as well as the religious conditions of the times.

It was one of the allegorical treatises of the hour, and enforced practical precepts through an endless series of Visions, Mandates, and Similitudes.

These revelations were made to Hermas by a mysterious personage in the costume of a shepherd, and were aimed at the evils from which the infant church was then suffering, —love of the world, blasphemy, be1 "Divinely, therefore, did the Power which spoke by revelation to Hermas say: These visions and revelations are for those who are double-minded and pondering in their souls, whether, after all, such things are or are not."

Clem.

Alex., Strom., i. 29; ii. 9; Tren. iv. 20, 2.

2 Tertull., Pudic., 10, 20; Origen, De Prin.,iv. 1,115 i. BN 3:

8 Euseb., Hist. Ecc., iii. 3, 6; iii. 25, 4; Jerome, Vir. Til. to.

For other ancient references to this book, see Renan, Ast, vi. 422.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

trayal of the Lord's servants, denial of Christ, false prophecy.!

In a treatise of this prophetic stamp, claiming itself to be the direct mouthpiece of the Holy

Spirit, we cannot lock for many scriptural passages; hardly more, indeed, than in the Acts or the Epistle to the Hebrews.

There are two or three, however, which are worth quoting as showing at least some familiarity with our New

Testament phraseology.

"I, the angel of repentance, esteem you happy, whosoever are innocent as little children, since your portion is good and honorable before God."

'Now the rich find it hard to consort with the servants of God, fearing lest these should ask something of them.

Such then shall hardly enter into the kingdom of God.'

On the other hand, this precept, however fine in itself, would hardly imply an acquaintance with the Sermon on the Mount: 'The day on which thou fastest thou shalt taste nothing but bread and water; and having reckoned the amount thou wouldst have spent upon the food thou wouldst have eaten on that day, thou shalt give it to the widow, the orphan, the one in want." ® The spiritual needs of generations differ, 1 Sim., viii. 6; ix. 19, 20, 26; Man., x. xi.

2) S772. 1X. 31, 3; 1X. 20, 2.

3 Sum. V. 3; 7-

PAPIAS This strange composition which won the hearts of the best and highest of their time, which was read in their churches with Gospels and Prophets, and almost secured for itself a place in Holy Writ, has been long ago forgotten, and we try in vain to revive the religious needs or longings which could once have given it worth.

Less important than the preceding, yet quite worthy of our notice, is the little fragment which, for some unknown reason, has always borne the name of the Second Epistle of Clement.

The first ecclesiastical writer to mention it himself questions its authenticity,! and the closing paragraphs, very recently discovered, indicate plainly that it was no letter at all, but rather a specimen of the exhortations or homilies used at the Sunday gatherings of the young churches.?

Judging from internal evidence the 1 Euseb., Azst. Ecc., iii. 38, 4.

2 Chaps. xii. to xx. formed part of the Codex containing the Zeaching of the Twelve Apostles.

This was given to the world in 1875.

In another (Syriac) manuscript this writing appears, together with 1 Clement, in a place of honor among the canonical Epistles.

The homiletic character of the writing is indicated in chaps. xvii., xix., xx.

One of these paragraphs opens: "Let us not think to give heed and believe now only, while we are admonished by the Presbyters, but likewise when we have departed home, let us remember the commandments of the Lord."

Again: "Let us then have faith, brothers and sisters."

"Therefore, brothers

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

writing seems to belong to about A. D. 140 or 150; in which case it is the earliest example that we possess of the ancient Christian sermon.

The Gospel quotations given by this writer are peculiar.

They are taken from what he calls "the Gospel," and are cited with the same respect as though found in the Jewish Scriptures.?

In distinguishing the two, however, he does not seem familiar with the terms Old and New, but speaks of the "Books" and the " Apostles." 8 Nor do the extracts themselves correspond altogether with any in our Gospels, , but are obviously taken from some primitive | collection of Christ's Sayings no longer extant. and sisters, after the God of truth, I deliver to you an exhortation to pay heed to what is written, so that ye may save both yourselves and him that readeth among you."

In this last passage, the expression "God of truth" seems to refer to the Scriptures; showing that the homily or sermon followed immediately the Scripture reading.

1 jiilicher places it at 145; Renan at 151; Lightfoot at 120-140.

Harnack ventures the hypothesis that this is the missive which Dionysius acknowledges in his letter to Soter,

Bishop of Rome: "To-day we have spent the Lord's holy day in which we have read your epistle."

(Euseb., "sz. Zcc., iv. 23, 11.) If this were so, the date would be about 170.

(Harnack, Chron., 440, etc.) 2 2 Clem. ii. 4; viii. 5.

8 xiv. 2.

Comp. Harnack, Chron., 446 n.

PAPIAS One of them sounds like a distant echo of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, though with the same chaotic arrangement which we have found so often before : " Saith the Lord; no servant can serve two masters; if we wish to serve both God and Mammon, it is of no advantage to us; for what profit is there if one gain the whole world and lose his soul?"?

The following extracts are still more bizarre: "For the Lord saith; Ye shall be as lambs in the midst of wolves.

But Peter answered and said to him; What then if the wolves shall tear the lambs in pieces?

Jesus said unto Peter ; Let not the lambs fear the wolves after they have died ; and ye too, fear not them that kill you and can do nothing to you; but fear ye Him that after ye have died hath power over soul and body to cast them into the gehenna of fire."

And this:

"For the Lord himself, when asked by a certain person when his kingdom would come, said ;

When two shall be one, and that without as that within, and the male with the female, neither male nor female. " 4

As this last passage is known to have belonged to the Gospel of the Egyptians, the natural inference is that all the writer's citations are from that apocryphal source.

This is 1 2 Clem. vi. 1; v. 2-4; xii. 2.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

what he calls "the Gospel," and is apparently the only Gospel he knows.!

Our knowledge of this period has been unexpectedly added to in our own time by the discovery of one of the manuals of practical instruction which were known to have been current in the early church, but of which no specimen so complete had been found before.?

This is called the "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,' and was found in the Library of the Holy Sepulchre in Constantinople in 1873, and published in 1883.2

It is hardly time as yet to assign it its exact place in Christian literature, but there seems little doubt that it belongs to the first half of the second century, and in any case it gives a picture of a very primitive condition of the Christian church.

It was a time 1 Clem. Alex., Stvom., iii. 13.

These citations are singular enough in any case; but if Harnack's ingenious hypothesis should be accepted, we should have the remarkable situation of Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, gratefully receiving from Soter, Bishop of Rome, for church uses a Homily which draws its Words of the Lord chiefly, if not wholly, from the Gospel of the Egyptians.

2 The Lpistle of Barnabas and the Constitutions of the Holy Apostles contain similar precepts, often in the same language and sequence.

3 See Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, Hitchcock and Brown, New York, 1884; also, Lehre der swolf Apostel, nebst Untersuchungen, etc., A. Harnack, 1883.

PAPIAS when there was as yet no established episcopate, when itinerant preachers, under the name of apostles, prophets, or teachers, were to be received and honored as the Lord, unless they showed themselves too exorbitant or self-seeking,! when the Eucharist was still in the form of an actual meal,? and when the ultimate power rested in the hands of the congregation.?

Bishops and Deacons, equal in rank, were to be appointed by the people for administrative functions, and were not to be despised, but were quite subordinate to the divinely instructed Prophet, the High Priest, who is taught by God, and who is to receive the firstfruits of " winepress and threshing-floor, of oxen and sheep." 4

These "Teachings of the Lord," claiming to emanate from his Apostles, were drawn in large part, we may suppose, from the same oral sources to which Papias looked for his best traditions, partly also from written records unknown to us,® but in part from a document evi- / dently familiar to both writer and readers called

"the Gospel.'"'® As this is the second time that 1 Chaps. iv., Xi., Xii., xiii.

PATRON.

8 xv.

"Appoint for yourselves," etc.

For the church organization at this time, see J. Réville, Orig. de LP Episcopat,

Pp234-261; Harnack, Gesch. d. Altch. Lit., ii. 88-158; Weizsacker, Apos. Age, ii. 302, 326-3374 xiii.

5 End of ch. i.

6 viii., xi., xv,

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'51 we have come upon this title, we are interested of course in knowing what this Gospel may have been.

The only direct quotation taken from it is the Lord's Prayer, given almost exactly as we find it in Matthew, and prescribed to be repeated three times in the day.! Did he, then, call Matthew "the Gospel," thinking it more authoritative than the others, or possibly not knowing any other; or does he apply the term to all Gospel writings in general, not troubling himself to discriminate between one

Evangelist and another?

We can judge only from other passages of the manual, where, though there is no reference to the Gospels, yet the language of the New Testament, or lan- - guage closely corresponding with it, is freely used.

At the very opening of the "Teaching," for instance, occurs this clause: "The way of life is this: First, thou shalt love the God that made thee; secondly, thy neighbor as thyself ; and all things whatsoever thou wouldst not have happen unto thee neither do thou unto another.

Now of these words the doctrine is this: Bless them that curse you, and pray for your enemies, but fast for them that persecute you.

For what thank have ye if ye love them that love you? do not even the Gentiles the 1 Ch. viii.

PAPIAS same?

But love them that hate you, and ye shall have no enemy.

Abstain from fleshly and worldly lusts.

If any one give thee a blow on thy right cheek turn to him the other also, and thou shalt be perfect; if any one compel thee to goa mile go with him twain; if any one take away thy cloke let him have thy coat also; if any one take from thee what is thine, ask it not back again; for indeed thou canst not." ?

Again, somewhat later, at the close of a chapter upon the Eucharist, occurs this startling passage, which might well have startled Matthew

\ himself: "Let no one eat nor drink of your | Eucharist but those that are baptized into the name of the Lord; for of this very thing the Lord hath said, Give not that which is holy unto the dogs."?

Finally, in the closing chapter, describing the Lord's coming to judgment, are the words: "Watch for your life's sake; let not your lamps go out nor your loins be loosed, but be ye ready; for ye know not the hour in which your Lord cometh." 8

In listening to these surprising passages, it seems impossible to imagine that the writer had any of our four Gospels in their present form before him.

If we must assume that it is either, a careful examination of the text shows rather

1 Ch. i.

2 ix.; Matt. vii. 6.

8 xvi.; Luke xii. 35.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

more reminiscences of Matthew than of the others ;1 yet if that Gospel is in his hands, he is certainly treating Matthew with greater nonchalance than would be allowable in these later and less reverent days.

If it be memory-work,/)¢.

» then the memory was less to be trusted in those'. » days than now; nor is it easy to suppose that in preparing a manual for so serious a service, a writer would draw upon memory alone, if the sacred books were close at hand.

But why create for ourselves difficulties which do not 1 A careful examination of the Zzaching shows that out of twenty-three possible reminiscences of the New Testament / seventeen resemble Matthew, four are dim suggestions of Luke.

See Hitchcock and Brown, 30; Harnack, 65.

Allowing these resemblances, however, it by no means follows that the writer has either of our present Gospels before him.

"Far from being later than the final revision of our Matthew," says Réville, "the Zzaching must have been ear- | lier than Matthew."

(Orig. de L Episcopat, 240.) "So far | as our material allows of any judgment," says Harnack, " the author certainly used some Gospel based upon Matthew, and enlarged from Luke."

As Harnack finds signs of an Egyptian origin in the Zeaching, he suggests that the ancient

Gospel evidently in the hands of the author may have been the " Gospel according to the Egyptians;" a Gospel quoted by Clem. Alex. (Strom., iii. 9; ili. 13), and known also to the author of 2 Clement to Cor. (xii.).

It is less important, of course, to guess which writing is earlier and which later, than to recognize that all these writings belong to the same \ category of unclassified Gospel material.

(See Harnack, Lehre, etc., 159, 167.)

PAPIAS exist, or forbid these ancient records to tell their own simple story?

Our author is familiar with a writing which he as well as his readers knows as "the Gospel."

More than once he refers to it, in terms as obvious to them, we must suppose, as perplexing tous.

"Reprove one another," he says, "not in anger but in peace, as ye have it in the Gospel.

. But your prayers and your alms and all your deeds do ye as ye have it in the Gospel of our Lord.''4

It is a Gospel differing from any now known to us.

But if only four Gospels survived out of the many writings then in circulation,?, many must have perished, or have been absorbed into the few that were destined to live.

Why should we be surprised to come upon the traces of such provisional forms?

'The early annals of our own modern communities pass through various unconscious shapes before assuming their final historic character; why expect the process to have been less gradual seventeen or eighteen centuries ago?

If the "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" helps the Christian world to a more intelligent understanding of its early records, it will serve a far higher purpose than the study of its doctrines is likely to accomplish.® 1 Ch. xv.

2 Luke i. 1.

3 Note O.

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A still more startling discovery of these later years was made upon the Nile in 1886.

However little light Egyptian archzological explorations have thrown upon the Old Testament, they have succeeded, in this instance at least, in giving most unexpected additions to our slender materials concerning the New.

In unearthing old Coptic graves at Akhmim ! on the east bank of the Nile, not far from Girgeh, the French came upon an eighth or ninth century manuscript containing, among other Christian writings, a fragmentary narrative of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

It was apparently a piece of a larger document, and has properly neither beginning nor end, but closes in this abrupt way: "But I Simon Peter, and Andrew my brother, taking our nets departed to the Sea, and with us was Levi the son of Alphzus whom the Lord"?...

It claims, then, to have been written by the Apostle Peter; an interesting promise in itself, but still more so as there are ancient allusions to a Gospel of Peter which have hitherto excited

1 Or Ekhmim.

2 See Akhmim Fragment of Apocryphal Gospel of St. Peter, H. B. Swete, 1893; Bruchstiicke des Evan. und der Apocalypse des Petrus, A. Uarnack, 1893.

The manuscript contained fragments of the Gospel and Apocalypse of Peter, and also two fragments of the Book of Enoch.

THE DIOCESAN LIB RARY

DIOCESE oF LOS ANGELES

PAPIAS great curiosity without affording any definite clue to the writing itself.

It is hardly time as yet for the New Testament scholars, who alone are competent to pass judgment here, to have reached very confident conclusions on all the points started by this discovery ; but they agree apparently in regarding our fragment as the closing passages of the lost 'Gospel according to Peter," and ascribe it pretty unanimously to the early part of the second century.

It seems a strange freak of fortune which enabled an obscure Coptic monk of the eighth century to hand down to usa gospel record of which every trace had been lost to the learned world since the earliest times.?

At last, then, we have a Gospel; and one which, though superseded in the end, was at one time unhesitatingly used in Christian churches of the East.

About a. pD. 200, for instance, Serapion, the Bishop of Antioch, in visiting a Cilician church of his diocese, found the Gospel of Peter in use there.

At first he 1 Origen on Matthew x. 17; Euseb., Hist. Ece., iii. Bes iii. 25,6; vi. 12.

Comp. Harnack, 3.

Origen quotes from this Gospel the tradition that the brothers of Jesus were from another wife of Joseph, before Mary.

2 "Between Eusebius and the date of this manuscript there is no independent notice of the existence of the Gospel of Peter."

(Harnack, 5.)

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

gave himself no trouble about it, but afterwards, on finding that it was creating some agitation in the community, satisfied himself that it contained a few doubtful doctrines, and forbade its further circulation!

I will give full citations from this Gospel to show its character as compared with those more familiar to us.

It is a short fragment at best, and begins apparently in the midst of some such scene as is depicted in Matthew xxvii. 24.

Pilate has probably just washed his hands as our narrative begins.

"But of the Jews not one washed his hands, neither did Herod, nor one of his judges.

And as they refused to wash their hands, Pilate arose; and at once Herod the king commands them to seize the Lord, saying to them, what I have ordered you to do to him, that do.

Now there was present there Joseph the friend of Pilate and of the Lord, and as he saw that they were about to crucify him, he came to Pilate and besought the body of the Lord for burial.®

1 Euseb., Hist. Ecc., vi. 12.

This happened at Rhosse.

2 Herod's prominence shows quite a different tradition from that of our Gospels, though suggesting Luke xxiii. 7.

3 Joseph is evidently the same as Joseph of Arimathza, though he comes forward in this narrative at a much earlier moment than in the other Gospels (Matt. xxvii. 57), and figures here in the unfamiliar réle of a friend of Pilate.

PAPIAS And Pilate sent to Herod and begged for the body, and Herod said: Even if no one had asked for it, we should have buried him before the first day of Unleavened Bread, their feast (for the Sabbath was already dawning, and it is written in the Law, that the sun shall not go down upon one that is slain).1_ Then they seizing the Lord dragged him off upon the run, saying; Let us hale the Son of God now we have him in our power."?

. "And they brought two malefactors, and crucified the Lord between them, and he remained silent, as one who suffered no pain."®... "But one of the malefactors rebuked them (the soldiers) saying ;

We are suffering for the evil we have done, but this, the Saviour of men, what wrong has he done you?* And they were wroth with the malefactor, and ordered that his bones be not broken,

1 According to this account the crucifixion must have taken place before the Passover began; while in Matthew,

Mark, and Luke the Passover began the night before the crucifixion.

Our Gospel agrees in this respect with the Gospel of John.

(John xiii. 1; xviii. 28.) 2 vv. 1-6.

8 y.10.

This idea that Jesus did not suffer on the cross is not found in either of our Gospels, but became current very naturally as the belief in his super-terrestrial nature established itself.

In later days this was called Docetism.

4 More like Luke xxiii. 40, 41, than Matt. xxvii. 44, or Mark xv. 32.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

that he might die in torture!

Now it was noonday and darkness covered the whole of Judzea, and they were troubled and distressed lest the sun had gone down while he still lived." 2

"And many went about with torches thinking it was night and fell down.

And the Lord cried aloud saying ; My Power, my Power, thou hast forsaken me; and as he said this he was taken up."? ..

. "Then the Jews and the elders and the priests saw what evil they had brought upon themselves, and began to beat their breasts and say ; Woe upon us for our sins, the judgment is drawing near and the end of Jerusalem.

But I and my companions, troubled and sick at heart, hid ourselves, for they pursued us as malefactors, thinking we would burn the temple.

And after all these things we fasted and sat night and day groaning and lamenting until the Sabbath." *. .

. " And Pilate 1 A singular reminiscence of the same tradition is found in John xix. 32, 33, though in a very different form.

AVNET 3-15.

8 yv.18, 19. % ddvayuts wov. "Power" may perhaps be used here in a mystic sense, to designate the celestial spirit which had dwelt in Christ during his human career, but had now left him; or possibly it is the author's understanding of Psalms xxii.

1 (as quoted Matt. xxvii. 46).

Comp. Harnack, 65, 66.

The phrase "taken up" refers to the final "ascension" of the Lord.

(Acts i. 2.) 4 yy, 25-27. An altogether independent tradition.

PAPIAS gave them Petronius the centurion with soldiers to guard the grave, and with them came elders and scribes to the sepulchre; and when they had all, soldiers and centurion together, rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, they set it there and placed upon it seven seals, and pitching there their tent they kept watch.

And as the Sabbath dawned a great multitude came from Jerusalem and round about to see the sepulchre that was sealed.

And in the night as the Lord's day broke, as the soldiers kept watch by two and two, came aloud voice from heaven, and they saw the heavens open and two men descend in dazzling light and draw near the sepulchre.

Then that stone which had been set at the door rolled aside and gave way of itself, and the grave opened and the two young men entered.

But when the soldiers saw this they aroused the centurion and elders who had been watching with them, and as they told them what they had seen, again they behold three men coming out from the grave two of them supporting one, and following them a cross ; and the heads of the two reached up to the heavens, and the head of him whom they supported towered above the heavens ; and they heard a voice from heaven saying, Hast thou preached unto them that sleep? and from the

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

cross came the answer, Yes.1 And they debated with each other whether they should go unto

Pilate and announce these things, and even as they meditate, again the heavens are opened and a man descends and enters into the sepulchre." 4

It will hardly be claimed that this curious fragment lends much pathos or impressiveness to these tragic hours; but it shows as nothing else could the fantastic handling to which the historic facts were subjected, and the varied streams of tradition through which they have come down to us.

However mythical and extravagant this Gospel may appear to us, it found a ready hearing, it seems, in those uncritical days.

Its exact relation to our four Gospels we must leave to professional scholars in due time to determine, supposing it to bea deter1 This dramatic passage shows how differently the traditions of the resurrection took shape in different localities.

The allusion to "them that sleep" is probably a reference to the descent of Christ into hell; an incident unknown to our four Gospels, but the belief in which soon sprang up to account for the interval during which the spirit of Jesus had left the body, yet had not risen from the grave.

(1 Pet. iii. 19; Gospel of Nicodemus, xiii—xx.) Still later it was believed that the Apostles also had preached to those in Hades.

(Clem. Alex. vi. 6.) Matt. xxvii. 52, 53, may be another form of the same legend.

2 vv. 31-44.

PAPIAS minable question!

If the author writes with our Gospels before him, he shows singular disregard of their authority, and readiness to follow independent traditions.

Yet after all he can hardly differ more from them than they differ from each other ; and we may well content ourselves with taking the Gospel upon its merits, as one more token of the character of the Christian literature of the century, and the kind of apostolic narratives which were then contending for acceptance as authentic records of Jesus' ministry.?

1 It is a little odd to find some biblical critics asserting with full assurance that "the use of our four Gospels " by the Gospel before us "is now established beyond all reasonable doubt."

(Mew World, December, 1894, pp. 703, 704.) They forget that a similar problem, the relation of Justin to our four Gospels, after existing for seventeen centuries, and after full critical discussion for three generations, is to-day as hotly contested by scholars as ever.

2 Note P.

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