CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
AFTER these prolonged antiquarian researches, somewhat fatiguing to the reader no doubt, it is refreshing to come at last upon two living personalities.
We have returned once more to the times of Papias, and as it happens, to his own land of Asia Minor.
The first of the two is Justin, known to Christian history, because of his violent death, as Justin the Martyr.
He tells us that he was born in Neapolis in Samaria, the Shechem of the Old Testament, familiar to modern travelers as Nablous.!
Having philosophical tastes, he went about from school to school, and our first glimpse of him is at Ephesus in the colonnades of the gymnasium, where he is recognized by his professional garb, and accosted by a stranger with the words, '" Hail, O Philosopher." 2
The stranger proves to be the Jew Trypho, against whom Justin, who has just become a convert
1 Justin, Afol,, i. 1.
2 Dial. with Trypho, 1; Euseb. iv. 18, 6.
PAPIAS to Christianity, defends his new faith.
In due time his zeal for that faith made him its most famous champion before the pagan world, and led him even to address the emperors Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, urging them as lovers of the truth to investigate for themselves the claims of Christianity.
Whether his appeal ever actually reached the hands of the emperors, or was noticed by them, is more than doubtful; but fortunately it has reached our hands, and is one of our most precious legacies from the past.
It is from his two socalled "Apologies," and his "Dialogue with Trypho," that we get not only our knowledge of Justin himself, but also our best picture of the state of Christianity towards the middle of the second century.
As this is our first opportunity to observe the mental processes by which in those times educated pagans became converts to Christianity,
© we turn to Justin's words with great curiosity.
And not in vain: he meets us with the engaging frankness characteristic of earlier hours, and tells us all that we wish to know.
After turning from Stoic to Peripatetic, he says, from 1 Apol., i. 1-3.
2 These writings belong to about 150-160.
On this point, see Note Q.
ia :
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
Peripatetic to Pythagorean, and finally from Pythagorean to Platonist, he met unexpectedly an ancient man, meek and venerable in bearing, who proved to him, by a few Socratic questions, that his whole preceding search for the truth was vain.
"Long ago," said this stranger, "there existed a class of men more ancient than any of these who are regarded as philosophers, blessed men, righteous, and beloved of God, who spoke by the holy spirit, and predicted things to come, which are now happening.
These are called Prophets.
They alone discovered the truth and disclosed it to men, holding no man in reverence nor fearing any, nor desirous of glory, but speaking those things alone which they had heard and seen ; filled by the holy spirit."
. "And at once a fire was kindled in my soul," says Justin, 'and love of the Prophets seized me, and of those men who are friends of Christ.
And revolving in my mind his words, I found this philosophy alone to be safe and profitable." 1 These Prophets are of course the Old Testament Prophets, and it is their testimony which wins Justin to the new philosophy and the new faith.
"For with what reason," he adds in another place, "can we believe that a crucified man is the first-born
1 Trypho, 2, 3, 7, 8.
PAPIAS of the unbegotten God, and is himself to hold judgment upon the whole human race, unless before he came and became man, we find predictions of his coming, and see these prophecies actually fulfilled?" } This is not quite what we had expected.
We are so accustomed to find the evidence of Christianity in its own lofty precepts and the character of its founder, that it is hard to put
>< ourselves in the place of one who accepts it \wsolely because Moses or Isaiah, centuries before, had formally predicted it.
Not that \ \\Justin failed to feel the moral force of the we new faith.
He bears full witness to this, and "it may well be that it was this which first attracted his attention.
"I could wish," he says, "that all might be of the same mind with myself, and no longer depart from the words of the Saviour ; for they have in them something to inspire awe, and put to shame those who stray from the right path, and to those who practice them bring the sweetest peace." 2 But for the convincing proof of the claims of Christianity he has to look elsewhere.
He believes that the babe born of Mary was the Christ, because Isaiah said: 'Behold, a virgin shall
1 Apol., i. 53; also, ii. 12.
2 Trypho, 8.
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
conceive, and bear a son." ! When Micah said, " But thou, Bethlehem, though thou be little... yet out of thee shall he come that is to be ruler of Israel," he clearly prophesied the place of the Messiah's birth.2, When the Psalmist wrote, "They pierced my hands and my feet," he foretold the crucifixion.
'And that which was narrated by Moses, and prophesied by the Patriarch Jacob, 'He washed his garments in wine, and his vesture in the blood of grapes,' signified that he would wash with his own blood those that believed in him."* The words, "TI gave my back to the smiters,' announced
Christ's scourging.® 'They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, they part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture," predicted the scoffings of the Jews, and the parting of the garments at the cross.
The twelve Apostles were clearly foretold in the twelve bells on the robe of the high priest ; the Christian rite of baptism received its sanction from the words of Isaiah, "Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings."
1 Afol., i. 33.
Comp. Is. vii. 14.
2 Afol., i. 34.
Comp. Mic. v. 2.
8 Apol., i. 35.
Comp. Ps. xxii. 16.
4 Trypho, 54.
Comp. Gen. xlix. 11.
5 Apol., i. 38.
Comp. Is. 1. 6.
PAPIAS Even the Eucharist was sacred because foretold in the fine flour of the Jewish sacrifice, and in Malachi's denunciation of those who profane the Lord's table.
To us this torturing of ancient texts seems a weary and futile task.
It robs the old Scriptures of their freshness and grace, to force them into an unwilling service.
It spoils good history and good poetry, to make poor prophecy.
But the temper of those earlier days was not the temper of ours.
The New Testament itself has some startling illustrations of this same practice.2
There were other Christian Fathers beside Justin ready to declare that Christ could never have been known, not even in his mira- ; cles, but for a previous announcement by the SDWG UyfotamcaProphets.?
One convert from paganism makes tow 8) Fhtas far no mention of Jesus at all in commending his rod tees new faith; resting all upon Old Testament veTo sree —- Prophecy.* Justin is not alone, therefore, in Lays al OA h/nudiscovering the supreme test of Christianity in hay burs Sulnecs!t the Jewish Scriptures. ee Tor preter » For the rest, this first encounter between wel bhods bt h.
1 Apol. i. 35, 61; Trypho, 41, 42.
Comp. Ps. xxii. 7, a fia maa Wands 18; Ex. xxviii, 33; Is. i 16; Mal. i. 10, 12; Lev. xiv.
| 10, 21.
Dp Ae 0 Sata. abe rf. L.A oft bad aur Cor. xv.19, 43) GaluailinnSn) 0) Conia b> oe ae : er Se; fia deeper'
8 Tertullian adv. Mare. iii. 3.
4 Theophilus ad Autolycum ; also, Minucius Felix. reC rw py f Neal
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
Christianity and the world's philosophy is a sufficiently friendly one.
Justin finds no reason for ruling out all other wisdom because he has found the highest.
Socrates, he claims, differed from Jesus in this: he had his share of the divine Word; Jesus was that Word.
"The teachings of Plato are not different from those of Christ, only they are not altogether the same ; and so with the others, Stoics, poets, and historians.
For each one, having a share of the pregnant divine word, caught what was peculiar to himself, and spoke it."
Thus Justin saved for his new faith all that he most prized in the old, and declared, with a generous rhetorical sweep, " Whatever has been said well by any one belongs to us Christians."2
Indeed, he quite convinced himself that Plato and his fellows borrowed all their doctrines from Moses.®
Meantime, however, with the best purpose in the world, he found it impossible to free himself from all his pagan notions at a stroke.
Like so many others of his time, he still breathed a polytheistic atmosphere, after he supposed himself converted to monotheism.
His devils, as evil spirits, play a formidable réle, and are quite 1 Apol., 1G) OB tie HE 2 ii, 13.
8 i, 44, 60.
PAPIAS as genuine gods as the Jupiters and Mercurys whom he renounced.!
We are prepared from the above account to find the Jewish Scriptures fully represented on Justin's pages.
In fact, few Old Testament writers of importance remain unmentioned, and the quotations, though given with the looseness characteristic of that period, show a greater familiarity with Hebrew literature than would be expected from a non-Jewish author.
They are his only "Scriptures."2
With the New Testament, on the contrary, he shows himself much less concerned; even though defending his faith against pagan and Jew.
Take out two chapters from the " First Apology" and eight from the " Dialogue with Trypho," and we should learn very little from Justin about the Christian
Scriptures.
Nor does he think it worth while to attach any names to his citations, and never speaks of them as Scripture.
At the same time his reverence for the teachings of Jesus is profound, as we have seen, and in defending the 1 Apol., i. 26; ii. 6, 8; 1 Cor. x. 20.
2 For a discussion of Justin's use of the Old Testament, and the text which he probably followed, see Hilgenfeld's
Lvangelien Justin's und Marcion's, 46-62; Renan, Hist, vi.
381.
8 The larger part of Justin's New Testament citations are found in Afol., i. 15, 16, and Trypho, 100-107.
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
Christian mode of life, he urges upon the attention of the emperors, as his best illustration, the words of Christ himself.
These extracts | de gy are quite worthy our attention.
He introduces them with these words: "Lest we should seem to you to be playing the sophist, we think it well, before entering upon our treatise, to cite a few of the teachings of Christ himself.
Brief and concise words were his; for he was no sophist, but his word was the power of God."
Then come these passages:
'" Now concerning chastity, he spoke thus: Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already in his heart before God.
And, If thy right eye offend thee, cut it out; for it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of heaven with one eye, than with two to be cast into eternal fire.
And, Whosoever marrieth her that is divorced from another man committeth adultery.
And, There are some who have been made eunuchs of men, and there are some who have been born eunuchs, and there are some who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake.
But not all receive this."
"And in regard to loving all, he taught as follows: If ye love them that love you, what new thing do ye? for even the fornicators do this.
But I say unto you, pray for your ene-
PAPIAS mies, and love those that hate you, and bless them that curse you, and pray for them that despitefully use you.
But as to sharing with the needy, and doing nothing for glory, he said these things: Give to every one that asketh, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thouaway.
For if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what new thing do ye? even the publicans do this.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and robbers break through; but lay up for yourselves treasures in the heavens, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt.
For what is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall he give in exchange for it?
Lay up treasures therefore in the heavens, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt.
And, Be ye kind and merciful, as your Father also is kind and merciful, and maketh his sun to rise upon sinners and just men and wicked.
Take no thought what ye eat or what ye shall put on; are ye not better than the birds and the beasts?
And God feedeth them.
Take no thought therefore what ye eat or what ye shall put on; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.
But seek ye the kingdom of heaven and al] these things shall be added unto
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
you.
For where the treasure is, there is also the mind of the man.
And, Do not these things to be seen of men, otherwise ye have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
And concerning our being forbearing and ready to serve, what he said was this: To him that smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak or coat, forbid not.
And whosoever is angry is in danger of the fire.
And every one that compelleth thee to go with him a mile, follow him two.
And let your good works shine before men, that they seeing them may reverence your Father which is in heaven."
. "Swear not at all; but let your yea be yea, and your nay nay ; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." ... "The greatest commandment is, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve with all thy heart and with all thy strength; the Lord God that made thee."
... "And many will say unto me, Lord, Lord, have we not eaten and drunk in thy name, and done mighty works?
And then will I say unto them, Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.
Then shall there be wailing and gnashing of teeth, when the righteous shall shine as the sun, and the wicked are sent into everlasting fire.
For many shall come in my name, clothed
Ch) am f s jj LB} th Alf Tole Cot Cle (nad belay 4-02 Beha) " Cary atoked the fom at Wwe i ad wen Wdrguad te Anu eee Salt Wee Py NM 74, Na EY + Linc ora te nae OA A , outwardly. 'in sheep? s skins, but inwardly be ravening wolves.
By their works ye shall know ARE. yna fe (wkd, be Tao rey a es an Wy awtuthem.
And every tree that bringeth not forth a v Js ~ AK "ig my ovteg le fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire." ?
- It will be seen from the above that we are 'not yet on familiar Gospel ground.
Though M*these passages sound more like our New Tes_ tament than anything previously cited, yet the collocations are still quite as unexpected, and single phrases, when compared with our four
Gospels, as inexact.2, Moreover, as in previ- ',0us cases, other writings wholly unknown today are used side by side with the rest as of equal authority.
One of these is mentioned by name: the " Acts of Pilate," a document which \y .,seems to have been of importance then, but of . which we now know nothing.?
But where are SAM Nw ie we to look for such Gospel passages as this? aur "Then when Jesus had gone to the river Jor_,dan, as he stepped into the river, a fire was
_ kindled in the Jordan; .
. so ees the Apos- "tles of this very Christ of ours."
Or as this?
"Again he said; I will give you power to 'trample under foot serpents and scorpions and ), 1 Afpol., i. 14-16.
2 See Note R.
8 Apol., i. 35, 48.
The Gospel of Nicodemus, called also wethe Acts of Pilate, belongs to a much later time.
Comp.
4, Harnack, Chron., 603-612.
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
scolopendras, and all the might of the enemy."
Or this?
"For when among men, Christ worked as a carpenter, making ploughs and yokes, thus teaching the symbols of righteousness and an active life.'"'
And what a primitive condition of things it must have been when Jesus could be represented in the same passage as speaking through the Gospels and speaking through the Psalms:
"' When on earth ... he answered one who called him Good Master, 'Why callest thou me good?'
But when he says, 'I am a worm and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people,' he was pro- | phesying things which are now coming to pass" and happening to him." ! la i Ne »WDAL, \
«eee ee Shall we not say, then, as we have been tempted to do in previous cases, that Justin must have been quoting from memory ; introducing passages from our four Gospels, together with many from other sources, and not always remembering exactly where they belonged?
It cannot be denied that this would be a very natural habit in days when written documents were so much rarer than now; indeed, his citations from the Old Testament seem often of this character, though the Jewish Scriptures unquestionably existed in written form, and 1 Trypho, 88, 76; 88, 101; Ps. xxii. 6.
PAPIAS are cited generally by name.1_ No doubt, therefore, many of these Gospel quotations are also from memory.
That they cannot all be so, however, appears from the fact that what at first seem quite arbitrary dislocations of familiar passages recur in the same order more than once, and are found also in other contemporary writers ; indicating the existence of some collection of Gospel incidents and sayings at present quite unknown."
A little light is thrown upon this puzzling problem by Justin's own language.
Although 1 That Justin often quotes the Old Testament memoriter seems to be generally conceded.
In many cases, however, where he departs from the established text, he is apparently following some special version then in vogue.
Hilgenfeld supposes such a text prepared for Christian uses.
(Zvazgelien Justin's und Marcion's, 46-62.) 2 Trypho, 49, in its account of John the Baptist by the Jordan, varies from Matthew, Mark, and Luke; but repeats the same variation in chaps. 51 and 88.
Compare, also, Afol,, i.
16, with Zrypho, 76 (the passage, "eaten and drunk in thy name").
Also Afol.,i. 16, and Zrypho, 35; Trypho, 17 and 112.
In AZol., i. 63, the passage, "No man knew the Father," etc., is given twice, both times varying from Matt. xi. 27 in the same way; and appears again with the same variation in Zyyfho,100.
This same variation is found also in Iren. i. 20, 3; iv. 6,1; Clem., Hom., xviii. 4; Recog., ii. 47.
In 4Zo/., i. 16, the passage, " Let your yea be yea, jetcs, differs from Matt. v. 37, but corresponds with Jas. v. iD, and also with Clem., Hom., iii.
55; xix. 2. (See Schwegler, Nachap. Zeitalter, i. 225, 255.)
7)? -
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
he never quotes from a New Testament writer by name, yet in a few cases he introduces his citation with the words: 'This is recorded in,
>) ~~ a * ~ sf IA ASA ef OU MAAL he says : "For the Apostles in the Memoirs\ 44. which have come from them, which are called(y RG ae
Gospels, have delivered unto us thus what wasp the;' Memoirs of the Apostles.'
In one osek } nr, ' tof enjoined upon them."
Another expression is, "°° Ye"!
"In the Gospel it is written." } Bhlabny Airs It is evident, therefore, that Justin has some %\° it es vi pou document or documents before him which he {|}
Ce f rd l 4 | AN q AAAs calls indiscriminately Memoirs, Gospels, Gospel,
\ i> Ji ) 9A 4 ~ | or Teachings ; as though these terms were of like import, or as if the title Gospel were just coming into use in Christian circles, as applied to the written word.2, Whether it is one writing or several, or simply a general collection of whatever bore upon the life and words of Jesus,
1 The terms Memoirs, Gospel, or Gospels, are found:
A pol., i. 66, 67; Trypho, 10, 100, 101, 103-107.
2 The term Gospel was used at first for the message of Christianity as preached (Matt. iv. 23; xxiv. 14); also, perhaps, for any general narrative of Christ's life and words.
(Mark i.1.) In the Zeaching of the Twelve Apostles it seems to refer to a written document of some kind (viil., xi., xv.) ; so, also, perhaps in Ignat. to Philadelphians (v. 1, 2; ix. 2), though it is not easy to tell whether this means the written or the spoken Gospel.
These cases, with Justin's, would indicate that the word is needed by this time for written records of the life of Jesus.
PAPIAS there is nothing in his language to show; but as he speaks later of its being read regularly at the Sunday gatherings, we may infer that it is some recognized collection, and that the Christian records are at last beginning to claim their place beside the older Scriptures!
It would solve many riddles, had Justin guessed what interest these citations would have for distant generations, and given us his documents in full.
This was far from his thought, however, and we are left to bald conjecture, based on the few hints he has affordedus.
That these documents can be our four Gospels in the form in which we have them seems altogether improbable ; not only because he rarely follows the text of the Gospels exactly, but because it is difficult to understand why, if he had such universally recognized works in his hands, he should never once have mentioned their names, nor claimed their authority.
If it be urged that in addressing pagan emperors it was little to the purpose to mention names unknown to them, it must be remembered that the Jewish Prophets were equally unknown and unhonored by pagan emperors ; yet while Justin brings forward with much circumstance Moses, Isaiah, Micah, and David," it never occurs to him to mention Mat1 Apol., i. 67.
7 i. 32, 33; 34) 35-
' TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
thew, Mark, Luke, or John.!_ Nor does it occur to him, when introducing quite foreign and extraordinary material, unknown to these Evangelists, to inform us that he is quoting from uncanonical authorities.2
If we were to judge from the character of the passages above given, which form the larger part of Justin's citations, we should surmise that Matthew's was more likely to be his Gospel than either of the others;® unless, indeed, he is using a primitive
|| collection of the precepts of Jesus which was afterwards fashioned into the Sermon on the Mount.4
These intermediate stages of literary growth are of the highest interest to the student of Christian history, and one feels little de1 He mentions the Apostle John, it is true, but only as the author of the Revelation.
As the passage contains the sole reference by Justin toa New Testament writer, it is worth giving in full: "There was with us a certain man whose name was John, one of the Apostles of Christ, who prophesied in a revelation granted to him, that those who believed in our Christ would live a thousand years in Jerusalem."
(Z7ypho, 81.) 2 Trypho, 76, 88, 101.
8 Out of forty-nine passages given by De Wette, thirtyeight bear a general resemblance to Matthew, seven to Luke, one possibly to Mark, and three to John.
(Lxtrod. to New Testament, § 66a.) 4 It will be noticed that the greater part of the extracts given in the text belong to Matthew v.—viii.
PAPIAS sire to minimize or belittle their evidence.
One case of this kind, showing how ideas or even phrases may be in the air, or on men's lips, before assuming their final historic form, is quite too curious to be omitted.
After describing to his imperial readers the rite of Christian baptism, he illustrates the meaning of that rite by words from Christ and the prophet Isaiah.
Those of Christ are given as follows: "Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated (born anew) in the same way in which we were regenerated.
. For Christ also said; Except ye be regenerated, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Now that it is impossible for those once born to enter the wombs of those that bore them, is plain to all."1
No one can read this without being reminded of the Nicodemus episode in the Fourth
Gospel.2.
The turn of expression, as well as the connection of ideas, is altogether too peculiar to suppose a mere coincidence.
At the same time, the variations of phrase are too marked to suppose one writer copying from the other.
Least of all is it supposable that Justin would quote such a passage from John, the beloved disciple of the Lord, without acknowledging his authority, and should even introduce as his own
1 Afol., i. 61.
2 John iii. 3, 4.
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
comment upon Christ's words what was really a portion of the language of the Apostle!
But such verbal resemblances, or apparent plagiarisms, are not. so uncommon in literature that we need be astonished at them here, or waste our ingenuity in useless conjecture.
The cases of Tennyson and Shelley, or of Shakespeare and Montaigne, or a hundred other historic instances, help us easily to understand how Justin; and John also might draw unconsciously from | each other's material, or both together employ a current phrase which had not yet been appropriated by any accepted Gospel.?,_
However understood, this passage, with the others already given, even if leaving us in some perplexity, throws welcome light upon the hidden processes by which the crude materials of Gospel and Epistle * were gradually shaping themselves into the Christian Scriptures.
1 Schwegler calls attention to the resemblance of this passage to Matt. xviii. 3, and also Clem., Homilies, xi. 26, all of which agree in their deviations from John iii. 3,4. As the Clementine Homilzes certainly draw from the ancient Gospel according to Hebrews, Schwegler concludes that this Gospel is the common source of the passages in Matthew, John,
Justin, and the Clementines.
(/Vachap. Zeitalter,i. 218.) 2 See Life of Tennyson (1897), li. 385; Letters and Remains of Edward Fitagerald, i. 311; J. M. Robertson, Montaigne and Shakspere, London, 1897.
3 Justin makes no mention of the Apostle Paul, and shows
PAPIAS Let me close this account of Justin by quoting the following pleasant description of the Sunday observances of that period, the first that has come down tous.
It shows that some apostolic writings were beginning at this time to share with the Jewish Prophets the honor of being publicly read in the churches, an honor granted also to letters of eminent pastors, sent from church to church.t "On the day called the day of the sun, there is a gathering in one place of all those who live in city or field, and the memoirs | of the Apostles or the writings of ' the Prophets aré read aloud so long as there is time.
Then when the reader ceases, the president speaks, calling attention to these excellent things and exhorting to an imitation of them.
Then we all rise together and offer' prayers ; and when the prayer is over, bread is brought and wine and water, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, to the no familiarity whatever with his writings.
Not a single passage can with any certainty be considered as even suggested by Paul's Epistles.
This may be intentional, as Paul was long the object of suspicion among Jewish Christians; or it may mean that his Epistles had as yet only a local circulation.
1 Euseb., Hist. Ecc., iv. 23,11.
According to this passage, letters from Clement and Soter, both bishops of Rome, were read on Sunday by the Corinthians at their public service.
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
best of his ability, and the people shout their assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution of the things for which thanks have been given, and each one participates in them ; and to those not present a portion is sent by the deacons." !
By far the most striking figure of this period is Marcion, an exact contemporary of both Justin and Papias, whom we find exciting great commotion in Rome about a. D. 150.2, He was a native of Pontus on the Black Sea, a region even more remote from our associations with Christianity than either Hierapolis or Ephesus.
As his opponents rally him as a "shipmaster," this may have been his first occupation, though if so, it was soon abandoned, and Marcion gave himself to more serious pursuits.2
Christian missionaries had been in those parts in the first century,t and Marcion's father is said to have
1 Justin, Afol., i. 67. For a review of Justin's Gospel, see Note S.
2 Justin, Afol., i. 26; Iren., Her., iii. 3, 3; ili. 3, 43, iil. 4, 3; Euseb., Mist. Ecc., iv. 10; iv. 11, 2; v.13, 3.
According to these references, Marcion must have been in full activity in Rome about 150-155.
8 Tertull., Pres., 30; Tertull. adv. Marc. v. 1; Euseb., Hist. Ecc., Vv. 13, 3. These designations of "mariner, " "shipmaster of Pontus," may be simply a playful way of referring to the habits of the seaboard of Pontus.
4 The well-known letter of Pliny the Younger to Trajan was written from Amisus in Pontus, in 112.
(Z#zs., x. 96, 97See Renan, Hist., v. 476.)
PAPIAS been himself bishop of a church there.
It is possible, therefore, that Marcion was born in the faith ; but whether so or not, he regarded the new doctrines in a very different light from that in which they appeared to Justin, and approached them from a far more individual standpoint.
According to one account, his father expelled him from the church for his discordant views.?
No doubt Marcion was inclined from the first to independent notions of his own, and whether driven from the church or not, sought larger opportunities than Pontus could afford, and naturally turned his steps to the great centre which was drawing to itself so many of the restless spirits of the age.
His first appearance in Rome, if we may trust a later historian, was sufficiently dramatic.
Entering for the first time an assembly of Roman presbyters, he asked them abruptly: "Tell me, what does this mean?
Neither do men put new wine into old bottles; else the bottles break, and the 1 Epiphanius, er., xlii.
These assaults upon the character and early life of Marcion are to be taken with much allowance.
It is even difficult, among the conflicting accounts, to tell whether he was born a Christian or not.
One speaks, as above, of his father as a bishop; another of his having "lost the God whom he had found," as though he had come from another faith.
(Tertull. adv. Marc. i. 1.)
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
wine runneth out, and the bottles perish; but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.'"'!
In those days many points which seem to us to have been settled from the beginning were still open; and this momentous question of the new wine in old bottles was evidently forcing itself on the church just now for an explicit answer.
The new wine was Christianity ; the old bottles were the Jewish Scriptures.
This was by no means the first time that the inconsistency of a young faith wearing still the livery of a past belief had dawned on the Christian mind.?
But the times had been unpropitious before, and the ancient Scriptures, as we have seen, had held their place, generation after generation, unchallenged.
Up to this hour, in many quarters the Christian Church was hardly aware that it was not still a synagogue.® This time-honored view Marcion takes the liberty to resent.
To him Paul, half forgotten as he was, was a truer teacher than the older Apostles whom the church had followed so slav1 Epiph., Her., xlii. 2; Matt. ix. 17.
2 Gal. ii, 16; ii. 13, 25; 2 Cor. iii. 6, 16; Heb. viii. 13; 8 Jas.i.1; li. 2.
("If there come into your syzagogue.") Rev. vii. 4-8; xxi. 12.
According to Eusebius, the church at Jerusalem had "bishops of the circumcision" down to the time of Hadrian.
(Hist. Zcc., iv. 5, 3; iv. 6, 4.)
PAPIAS ishly.
Paul, in fact, was the only true Apostle, setting himself at the outset once for all against Peter and his kind.t!| From him came the unadulterated Gospel, which all the old chronicles, claiming to be apostolic, had persistently corrupted.
Had not Paul carried the Gospel to the Gentiles, had he not denounced circumci-: sion and the Law as beggarly elements ?? Who so worthy an interpreter of Christianity as Paul?
That these views regarding Paul were not acceptable to all, we can readily conceive.
"Wherefore, O shipmaster of Pontus," says one of Marcion's best haters, "if you take no stolen or contraband goods into your craft, if you have never smuggled your cargo or used false invoices, will you not be even more conscientious and faithful in divine affairs?
Tell us then, under what head you took the Apostle Paul on board, who stamped or labeled him, who forwarded him to you, who embarked him; that you may boldly land him, and not find him claimed as property by the one who furnished him with all his apostolic apparatus." 8 This is sharp language.
But as the worthy Father who uses it has unwittingly preserved for us all that we have of the writings of Marcion, we must
1 Gal. ii. 3, 4, 11-14; Tertull. adv. Mare. v. 218 ily 2X0) 2 Gal. iv. 9.
3 Tertull. adv. Mare. v. 1.
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
forgive him his wrath.
It is good jesting after all, and no doubt Marcion, like most reformers, went farther in his zeal than was necessary.
And indeed Marcion was not a man to stop halfway.
Having once declared the Jewish Scriptures no genuine Scriptures, he pushed on and pronounced the Jewish Jehovah, with his sacrificial worship and cruel rites, no true God.
The old dispensation was at best but a preliminary and baser phase of religious development, which Christianity came to displace.
In these days the magic term "evolution" might have offered itself as a solution of the hard problem; but no such phrase was then at hand, and the pitfall of dualism lay on the edges of every such dispute.
Marcion did not wholly avoid it.!
To his thought, either Judaism was one with Christianity, or it was not.
Certainly, then, it was not.
It was a stern, unpitying code, which stood in sharpest contrast with the tender Gospel of Christ.
Christianity was not its fulfillment, it was its abrogation.
Judaism stood at best for justice simply, untempered by 1 Jren., Her., i. xxvii. 2; Tertull. adv. Marc. i-v.
We have to remember that Tertullian, whose five books against Marcion are our chief authority for the following account, and who wrote half a century later than Marcion himself, may be ascribing to the master some of the vagaries of his many followers.
PAPIAS mercy.
Jehovah was the incarnation of austerity.
Such deeds as the spoiling of the Egyptians, the slaughtering of the Amalekites, the human offerings on Jehovah's altar, were no tokens of a good and loving Deity.
Is not a good tree known by its fruits?
Nay, does not Jehovah of the Jews himself confess, "I am he that createth evil"?!
Then the God whom Jesus reveals is not the God of the Old Testament, but another and higher.
The one is at best the just God, the other the good. The one was the Creator of the finite universe, ruling over the world, and thinking himself the only
God, the other the Supreme Deity, unknown at first, but finally revealed in Christ.
The Law of Moses was for the people of this lower God, whose precepts had to be reversed when the true Messiah appeared.?
The thought of Jehovah as "greater than all gods," "a great king above all gods,''? had long been familiar to both Jewish and Christian minds.
Jehovah was a god in Marcion's heavens in the sense in which all celestial beings were often in those days conceived as gods;* as attendants upon ISIS hexdvan7 2 Tertull. adv. Marc. i. 2, 6, 19, 27, 28; ii. 20, 28; iv. 20,
16, 25.
8 Ps. xcvi. 4; CXxxv. 5; xcv. a:
+1 Cor. viii. 5; Eph. i. 21 3 iii. 10.
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
Deity, or emanations from the Supreme, to be superseded in due time bya more perfect incarnation.
To Marcion Jesus was this fuller embodiment of the divine.
To him Jesus was all in all!
To him the mission of Jesus was not the culmination of an old epoch, it was the opening and announcement of an epoch absolutely new.
The fancied predictions of his coming on which the other Fathers wholly relied, Marcion scorned.2,
The Christ needed no such help.
He was his own evidence.
Here was a distinct issue between Marcion and his opponents.
"If Christianity was to be believed," said they, "it needed to be built upon the foundation of prearrangement and _prophecy." "Not so," replied Marcion, "for Christ was to prove himself at once the Son, the Sent, the Christ of God, by his very deeds and the' evidence of his works." ® Christ was the perfect essence of the divine; God revealing himself ; the Son of God in highest sense.*
But if Christ was in any true sense God, so consistent was Marcion, then he could not have
1 Tertull. adv. Marc. i. 6, 8, 19.
2 Certain critics of those days seem already to have discovered that the Hebrew word translated " virgin " in Is. vii.
14 means simply "young woman."
Tertullian pronounces them " Jewish deceivers."
(ili. 13.) Pailin 2, 3:
44, 11, 144 i. 2, 8,05 4v. 7:
PAPIAS been man.
His human life could have been only apparently human; a phantom existence ; his flesh no real flesh, his sufferings no real sufferings, his death no actual death.
With no fulminations of future councils or subtilties of later creeds before his eyes, Marcion shrunk from none of these conclusions.
He was unpardonably logical.
It will be easily understood that to such a student of the Jewish and Christian revelations, the documents of the early church would be of great concern.
Others had treated them as of subordinate worth, holding firmly to Law and Prophets ;? to him the Christian Scriptures were of the utmost importance.
Whatever he finds he subjects to careful scrutiny,® claiming that the records were already corrupted, and that they needed restoration.4
He seems to have been the first to apply to the records of the early faith the tests of accuracy or genuineness.
His enemies, when weary of invective, banter him as "so very punctilious an investigator." 5
How searching his critical methods were does 1 Tertull. adv. Mare. iii. 8-11; iv. 10.
See p. 58.
2 This seems to have been true of many Christian writers quite late in the century.
(Melito, in Euseb. iv. 26, 12-14.
Melito wrote about 170-180.) 8 Tren. i. 27, 2; iii. 12, 12, Tertull. adv. Marc. v. 19; iv. 4.
4 i. 20.
Sivandizs
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
gl not appear; but it is clear that he accepted little on trust, and exercised a degree of discrimination which in later days, when such questions of the text had been officially passed upon, was considerec very reprehensible!
As Paul was Marcion's highest authority, and Paul's writings to his mind the most trustworthy record of the primitive faith, we are not surprised to come upon full references to this
Apostle's Epistles, from which we are able to judge for the first time of the number then generally accepted. Marcion mentions ten, calling the Ephesians the "Epistle to the Laodiceeans"
(quite correctly, perhaps), and wholly omitting Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews.2
The great apocalyptic vision, or Revelation, which delighted the souls of so many of his contemporaries, had no charm for Marcion, or is wholly
1 Marcion is constantly accused of mutilating the Scripture text to serve his scandalous doctrines.
As this charge was a common one in those days, however, it would seem to mean only that the Scripture text was not yet fixed, and was much at the mercy of each copyist.
His enemies appear to have indulged in a little interpolation of their own in case of need.
(iv. 25.) They confessed that if Marcion was really bent upon " expunging " what he did not like, he might have made much more thorough work of it.
(iv. 43.) 2 Tertull. adv. Marc. v. 2-21.
According to Epiphanius, Marcion made a collection of the Epistles under the title of "Apostolicon."
(Her., xlii. 10.)
PAPIAS unknown to him, as he passes it by unnoticed.
The Book of Acts he treats in the same manner!
Applying the same critical temper to such Gospel narratives as were then in circulation, he finds but one that he can accept ; or at least mentions no other.
This one, so far as we can judge from the description of it given by his opponents, -bore a close resemblance to our Gospel of Luke, and must have been very nearly the same.
Yet the unlikeness is quite as marked as the likeness, and introduces us to another of the perplexing problems of which these early annals are so full. It had no name;
Marcion seems quite unaware that it had any association with Luke.
It had none of the opening chapters of our Luke, relating to the birth and childhood of Jesus, or his temptation and connection with John the Baptist, and began abruptly with his entrance into Capernaum.?
It had nothing to say either of the agony at Gethsemane or the suffering on the 1 Tertull. adv. Mare. iv. 5; v. 2; Pres., 2, 23.
2 As Tertullian reviews the Gospel of Marcion passage by passage, in order to refute it, we are thus enabled to judge of its character.
For a complete reconstruction of it, see Zahn, Kanonsgesch., ii. 409-529; also, De Wette, Zxtrod. to Lew Test. § 71 b.
8 Tertull. adv. Marc. iv. 7.
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
cross.1
To his critics, writing a generation later, and assuming that Marcion had the four
Gospels to choose from, all this seemed very suspicious.
They charged him with mutilating the Gospel of Luke, expunging at will whatever conflicted with his peculiar notions of God and Christ.
Marcion has come down in Christian history as one who "strove to destroy the character of those Gospels which had appeared under the names of Apostles or companions of Apostles, in order to secure for his own Gospel the credit which he took from them." 2
It cannot be denied that some of the changes which he made, if changes they were, seemed to have a dogmatic purpose.
If Christ had really the celestial character which Marcion assigned to him, his human birth or temptation or his human agonies could have had but little meaning.
At the same time, it must be remembered that before the New Testament canon was established, many different texts must have been competing for acceptance, and must have been, as they certainly were, very freely handled.
How else, indeed, could the Gospel of Matthew, supposing that the author 1 Tertull. adv. Marc. iv. 40, 41.
For other changes or omissions, see De Wette's tables. his eh
PAPIAS had Mark before him, have sprung out of Mark; or Luke in turn out of its two predecessors?
Marcion was at worst a falsifier only in the sense in which Matthew and Luke can be called falsifiers.
Everything indicates that he was a conscientious and scrupulous student of the early records, convinced that they were much corrupted, and anxious to purify them.
Some later critics go so far as to assume that Marcion's Gospel was really older than Luke's, and may even have been the original from which Luke was drawn ; its name being given it at a later day.
In any case, it must not be forgotten that if it already bore the name of Luke, Marcion had every inducement to call it so. As Luke was a companion of Paul, Marcion would have been only too glad to claim such authority for the Gospel he was using.
These are points which we must leave to the biblical critics to determine.
Meantime, whatever their decision, the whole situation thus revealed is of singular interest.
Here is the first serious and competent critic of ancient 1 Baur, Die Kan. Evangelien, 397-427 ; Schwegler, Vachap.
Zeitalter, i. 260-284.
In certain passages many critics agree that Marcion has an older text than our Luke.
Holtzmann, Linl., 22, 23; Hilgenfeld, Evang. Marcion's, 469; Zeller, Acts of the Apostles, i. 100.
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
records whom we have met, and one whose polemic purpose, if he had such purpose, would have been distinctly served by citing apostolic authority for his doctrines, had he known them, who yet recognizes only one Gospel, and that without a special name.?
Our notice of this hardy innovator is not complete until we add that, although he was denounced as a blasphemer, and finally cast out of the special church which he had joined, yet his doctrines obtained wide currency, and his church organization proved strong and effective?
In due course of time his reformatory movement, often exaggerated and compromised by his followers, was ruthlessly crushed, and the Christian Church took quite a different direction; but we see it here while fresh and young, convinced that its renunciation of Judaism and literal fidelity to Christ's maxims
Sale will prevail, and that the future of Christianity (°{. "¢77"" will be its own. epee.
Glancing back now over the ground we have a Cha) traversed, we find ample reason, do we not, to abide by the first impression gained from Papias.2
Though our survey of the period, 1 Note T.
2 Justin, Afol., i. 26; Tertull. adv. Marc. i. 1, 2; iv. 5; Pr@s., 30.
Sy Ep: 12, 19.
PAPIAS from the scholar's point of view, has been but cursory and superficial, yet we have been able to take account of all writings 1 which appeared before the latter part of the second century, and can gain from them a trustworthy story, so far as it goes, of the condition of the Christian
Scriptures at this early date.
It would be a great mistake to suppose that, from this or any other retrospect possible to-day, we know all about the matter.
These very authorities, when most critically studied, are but tantalizing witnesses, as the Christian Fathers, unfortunately, had other interests upon their minds than the preservation of ancient records; and we must content ourselves with such dim traces of earlier processes as diligent scholars, at this long range, can detect.
The mere absence of mention of Gospels or Epistles cannot pass as positive proof that they did not at that time exist.
They might have been quoted loosely, they might have existed in certain localities long before they were known in others, they might have existed for years in inchoate form and under other names, or no names at all, before assuming their final shape.
The progress of investigation may be said to have shown less and less token of deliberate or fraudulent man1 See Note U.
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
ufacture of ancient records, more and more evidence. that the private or primitive documents out of which the New Testament sprang date back in some form or other close upon apostolic times.
The stamp of high antiquity is discernible through all their changes.
But those changes few now attempt to deny; nor in the nature of the case could they well be absent.
The value of such a sketch as is here attempted, if value it have, lies not at all in weakening the foundations of a structure which, after all is said, must have its foundations in the distant past, but only in giving some notion of the early stages of its formation.
The result may seem a vague one at best; yet let us take hold of whatever definite facts have revealed themselves.
Of three contemporary writers living half through the century, one in Asia Minor, two in Rome, one is acquainted with an elementary Mark, and a Hebrew collection of the Discourses of Jesus under Matthew's name; a second uses a Gospel closely resembling our
Luke, but anonymous; a third cites certain apostolic Memoirs, which bear no name with which we are familiar, but which recall passages from Matthew, intermingled with several from Luke.!
There is as yet no mention of either of 1 Pp. 12, 14, 77; 92.
PAPIAS the Gospels by name, nor any apparent familiarity with their contents; no use of them as official Scriptures, and no knowledge of any
Scriptures but the Old Testament, except as Marcion is endeavoring to supplant the Jewish
Bible by his mysterious Gospel.
At the same time we find several Gospels in vogue which no longer survive, and various writings classed as sacred which are now considered fabulous or apocryphal.t The name Gosfe/, hardly heard at first, is slowly coming into use, and certain works, including letters from living bishops, are publicly read on Sunday with the Old Testament Prophets.
Meantime the material of all our three earlier Gospels is already there, and has existed for some time, no doubt, in fluid and transient form, awaiting the necessity, we might almost say the motive, to single out the few from their many fellows, give them final shape, and attach to them official sanction.? Marcion's aggressive
1 See pp. 9, 13n, 43, 48,56. Comp. Harnack, Chron., 683; Zahn, Kanonsgesch., ii. 622.
2 For these early stages of growth through which our Gospels passed, beginning with simple collections of the Sayings of Jesus, see Weizsacker, Afos. Age, ii. 33-71.
Consult, also, for this whole subject, Harnack, Hist. of Dogma, ii. 38-66.
The recently discovered fragment entitled Sayings of
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
movement is enough in itself to show that this process must soon begin.
Such a challenge could not remain long unnoticed, — unless the earthly mission of Jesus, with all that gave it human reality, was to pass as an ancient myth.
But other agitations, hardly less significant than his, were disturbing the churches, and if there was any authoritative word to be spoken against them, some recognized Scripture must be at hand to appeal to. our Lord (Aéyia "Inood) may prove to throw some light upon this interesting point, as it seems to be a novel specimen of certain independent collections in circulation during the second century.
It is a single leaf from some early collection of brief sayings of Jesus, and was found two years ago among the excavations of the ancient Oxyrhynchus in Egypt.
The editors consider the papyrus itself as belonging probably to the third century, and the collection of sayings to about A.D. 140.
The manuscript contains eight Logia (see Note B in Appendix), one or two almost undecipherable; only one of which corresponds exactly with any passage preserved in our Gospels.
Among the experts who have already examined it, the original editors, Grenfell and Hunt, regard it as part of an independent collection of the Lord's sayings, originating early in the second century. Harnack, on the other hand, is quite positive that it is an excerpt from the Gospel to the Egyptians, a Gospel in use in Egypt before our Gospels were known there, and which Harnack assigns to the early part of the century.
See Sayings of Our Lord, Grenfell and Hunt, London, 1897; Die Fingst Endeckten Spriiche, etc., A. Harnack, 1897; also, Theol. Literatur-Zeitung, August 21, 1897; Henrici.
PAPIAS Whatever may have been the cause or causes, certain church leaders begin at this time to interest themselves in theological controversies, the question of relative worth among Gospels and Epistles begins to be discussed, and the tests of age or apostolic authorship or general use begin to be applied to all documents.
No Council meets as yet to decide these knotty points, nor does any assembly of, prelates claim power to settle them.
The process is a secret one, to be detected by almost invisible traces.
The first vague hint of what is happening comes from a half-forgotten writing of about 180, which is found to have spoken of the "Old
Testament."
But Old suggests New.
Is the author using the word only in a general sense, we ask, or have we come at last upon the first token of Christian Scriptures, —- of a veritable
New Testament ?? About the same time appears the first list of accepted books, as if the regulation of a Christian canon had actually been taken in hand, apparently in Rome.
It is fragmentary, and speaks in anything but an authoritative voice; but it evidently embraced
1 Euseb., Hist. Ecc., v. 24; Tertull. adv. Mare. iv. 4, 5; Iren., Her., iii. 4, 13 Vv. 20, I.
2 Melito, Bishop of Sardis.
See Euseb., Hist. Lcc., iv. 26, 13.
Comp. Harnack, Ast. Dog., ii. 43.
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
1oI our four Gospels, explaining how it was that a fourth happened to be written at all, and insisting that the four really agree in their doctrines notwithstanding their incongruities.
It included also the Acts of all the Apostles ; Paul's Epistles, except Hebrews; Jude; two
Epistles of John, and the Revelation of John.
Several books were evidently still under discussion and appear as if on the margin of the canon, half within and half without.
The " Revelation of Peter," for instance, while admitted into this list, is not allowed to be read in certain churches; while the "Shepherd of Hermas" is set down as quite worthy to be read in the churches, but of too recent origin to be placed among inspired books.!
Plainly, the ideas of what constitutes a Christian canon, or should determine admission to one, are still confused ; but a beginning has fairly been made.
Another enterprise at this time is of interest, though of little positive result, —that of Tatian, who tried to reduce to a single form the various
Gospel records which had survived.
Whether 1 The so-called Muratori Fragment; a manuscript found by Muratori in the Ambrosian Library at Milan two centuries ago.
The manuscript belongs to the seventh or ninth century; the original document probably to the end of the second, as it speaks of Pius (about 140-155) as having been
"recently " Bishop of Rome.
PAPIAS this was for practical convenience simply, or was a serious effort to bring order out of confusion, we cannot tell, as the work exists only in late and doubtful reconstructions ; but there is reason to think that he made special use of our four Gospels for his purpose, with perhaps others beside!
Fortunately, the several Gospels retained their individuality, and resisted all such endeavors to fuse them into one.
By the last quarter of the century the conflicting practices among the churches led to serious attempts to close the door against further accessions to the Gospel narratives, and establish uniformity in the use of the Christian Scriptures.
There were various parties, it seems, under various names, — Montanist, Marcionite, Valentinian, and others, — some using
Luke alone, some Matthew only, some claiming that John was heretical, some "boasting to possess more Gospels than there really are." ?
1 This was the Diatessaron' of Tatian, written probably about 175.
See Note V.
For a learned and concise account of this and all the other writings mentioned in these chapters, see the English translation of Dr. Gustav Kriiger's Ast. of Early Christian Literature, 1897; also, Supernatural Religion, vols. i. and ii., where this entire literature is given in great fullness and detail.
2 Tren. iii. 11, 7, 9.
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
Against these Irenzus lays down a new and inviolable law, that four, and four only, is the sacred limit never to be overstepped.
His reasons for this are peculiar ; and though they cannot be called critical, they are certainly characteristic of the age.
'It is not possible that the Gospels should be either more in number than they are, nor again fewer.
For, since there are four zones of the world in which we live, and four prevailing winds,! so it is fitting that the church, which is scattered over the earth, the Gospel being its pillar and support and the very spirit of its life, should have four pillars, breathing out incorruption on every side and rekindling the life of men.
Therefore it is clear why the Logos, the artificer of all things, sitting upon the cherubim and including all things, having manifested himself to men, has given us the Gospel fourfold, but included in one spirit."
. "These things being so, they are vain and unlearned, and daring, too, who disregard the true form of the Gospel, and introduce either more than have been indicated or fewer." 2
By the end of the century, all the writings included in the present New Testament seem
1 Literally, "catholic winds," " réccapa kaforiKd mvevuara."
2 Tren., Her., iii. 11, 8; ili. 11, 9.
PAPIAS to have been known by name, though by no means all accepted as equally valuable or trustworthy.
The name New Testament, though occasionally in use, was nowhere in full vogue before A. D. 300; nor were the two Scriptures brought into one Bible till long after that.1 As late as 325 the historian Eusebius attempts, with serious purpose, to define the genuine and accepted Scriptures, but betrays, in the very attempt, the variable and uncritical grounds still relied upon to determine these disputed points."
So at last the Christian Church is provided with its Scriptures.
It is not strange that the process was so slow, if slow it can fairly be called.
With unformed literary habits to start' with, and no motive whatever for gathering or preserving records of events so soon to culminate in the final destruction of the universe, the young church might well demand four or five generations to complete its message to the world.
Nor can it be denied that our earlier Gospels, in their artless and fragmentary character, answer singularly to the above theory of their origin.?
To inveigh against these fea1 See Jiilicher, Zinleit. in das N. Test., 291-332.
2) Huseb., Azst. Hec., iil. 33 iil. 25; vil. Aly 8 See Note W.
TWO LEARNED DOCTORS
tures, or feign not to see them, or try to better or erase them, is little to the purpose.
Far wiser is it, as we have seen, to accept them exactly as they are, and avail ourselves of the help which these ancient Fathers offer.
It is an interesting story, which can hardly be improved upon ; a story which, if read in the right spirit, discloses plainly the peculiar religious problems they had in hand, and the entirely natural and unpremeditated methods which they followed in meeting them.