Constantin von Tischendorf · 5 of 10

Origin of the Four Gospels · Part 3

According to the views of many, Justin was the author of the Letter to Diognetus; but those who assign to this an earlier date, and consider it the work of an older cotemporary of Justin's, are more correct. Although this short apologetic epistle contains no definite quotation from any one of the Gospels, it contains many allusions to evangelical passages, and especially to John. The words of the sixth chapter, "Christians live in the world, but are not of the world;" those of the tenth, "for God has loved men, for whom he created the world; . . . . to whom he has sent his only-begotten Son," contain almost unmistakable references to John xvii. 11, "these are in the world;" 14, "the world hateth them, for they are not of the world; " 16, "they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world;" and to John iii. 16, "for God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son."

But before advancing further we must come back to the Gospel of the Hebrews, whose use in connection with our synoptic Gospels is rendered probable by the language of Justin, by the pseudo-Clementine, and even by Tatian's Diatessaron, or Harmony of the Gospels, and testified by Eusebius (iv. 22: 3) of Hegesippus. Does not this bring into great uncertainty the character of the earlier Gospel canon? It certainly appears to do so if the Gospel of the Hebrews is admitted to a place side by side with the synoptic Gospels, and be regarded as an independent production. Against such a view there are a variety of considerations to be urged. I have already mentioned that the authorship of this Gospel was ascribed to Matthew. We shall see, further on, that at a very early period, in its original Hebrew form, it was held to be the work of Matthew, and that Greek editions, with many changes in the text, were in use among the judaizing Christians. This has led to the result that the passages of the Gospel of the Hebrews which have been transmitted to us from antiquity, and more especially those which have recently been brought to light by the writer of these pages, manifest a striking parallelism with our Gospel of Matthew. All these circumstances lead to the conviction that at the beginning, and probably during the first half of. the second century, the Gospel of Matthew and that of the Hebrews were regarded not as essentially different productions, but as different editions of the same document, and that by degrees greater light was diffused regarding the variations in them. Thus Irenæus states of the Ebionites, in two passages (i. 26: 2; iii. 11: 7), that they made use of the Gospel of Matthew; while Eusebius (iii. 27), probably referring to the first of these passages, corrects Irenæus's statement, and puts the Gospel of the Hebrews in the place of that of Matthew. Yet it happened, near the end of the fourth century, that the most learned theologian and most experienced critic of his age, Jerome, while in possession of the Gospel of the Hebrews in the Syro-Chaldaic dialect of the country, and full of the recollections of an older tradition, believed that it was the original text of Matthew fallen into his hands. After becoming more fully acquainted with it, and after translating it into Latin and Greek, he acknowledged that many believed that it was the work of Matthew himself.

Thus far we have been concerned almost exclusively with the writings of men in whom the church, from the second century, in which they lived, onward, recognized venerated pillars of the faith. Yet at the same epoch there was a rich literature, which, in conjunction with what was ecclesiastical, put forth a rank growth, which elevated far above the simple Christian doctrine a system of speculations evolved from the schools of heathen and Jewish philosophy: I refer to the heretical views which became current, and which may be also known as the doctrines of the Errorists. Even from this literature we derive convincing proofs that by the middle, or even before the middle of the second century, our Gospels had attained the highest degree of consideration. This is interesting not more for the light which it throws upon the earlier history of heresy than for that which it sheds upon the age and the origin of our Gospels. In calling upon these errorists to give evidence respecting the Gospels, we have no less an authority than Irenæus, that Bishop of Lyons of whom I have elsewhere spoken in detail. Irenæus himself utters the expression, "So firmly are our Gospels grounded, that even the errorists are compelled to acknowledge their credibility, and each one of them must begin with them in order to lay the foundations of his own system." This is a judgment passed by the second half of the second century on the character of the first half. And this first half of the second century is just the period to which the opponents of the genuineness of our Gospels are accustomed to appeal. Now, are we to suppose that a man like Irenæus, who lived only a few decades after the period to which I am referring, was not better acquainted with the facts than the scholars and professors of the nineteenth century? The more the respect due to the true progress of science in our age, the less is owed to those scholars who employ their knowledge and acumen for the purpose of thrusting at truth. The accuracy of what Irenæus testified to can be substantiated even today with facts; and our tread is all the more secure if we do not withhold our belief. What the earliest Fathers have testified respecting the primitive errorists (and to the hints of the former we owe the larger share of our knowledge about the latter), shows us, in the most convincing manner, how radically separate they were from the Gospels, and from the books which were considered holy by the church. Irenæus himself is one of the chief preservers of these indications; after him comes a work (discovered only twenty years ago) of a disciple of Irenæus, Hippolytus by name, a man who lived so nearly contemporaneously with those errorists as to warrant being received as equally good authority as Irenæus regarding them.

One of the boldest and most gifted thinkers among those errorists was Valentinus, who came from Egypt to Rome about the year 140, and resided there for the twenty years succeeding. He undertook the task of writing a complete history of those "supernal transactions which took place in the realm of the divine primeval Powers and supernatural Being before the sending of the only-begotten of the Father," hoping to be able to determine the better from the character of these events the nature and mission of the Son of God. In carrying out this stupendous design, he did not overlook the bumble task of culling from John's Gospel a great number of conceptions and expressions, such as the Only-Begotten, the Word, Light, Life, Fullness, Truth, Grace, Saviour, Comforter, and of using them for his purpose. There is in this such an undeniable connection between the Gospel of John and the edifice of Valentine's construction that only two explanations of it are possible. Either Valentine made use of John or John of Valentine. The latter alternative, according to my previously stated views of the second century, must be regarded as pure nonsense, and closer investigation into the matter confirms this. If science, hostile to the church, is able to reconcile itself to this fact, it passes judgment on itself. Irenæus states explicitly that the sect of Valentine made the fullest use of the Gospel of John; and he gives the most explicit demonstration that the first chapter of John was drawn upon for one of the main features of the Valentinian system, the doctrine of the first Ogdoade. The statement of Irenæus confirms that of Hippolytus, for he cites expressions of John which Valentine had quoted. This is the most clearly the case with John x. 8; for Hippolytus writes, "Whereas the prophets and the law, according to Valentine's belief, were filled with a subordinate and foolish Spirit, Valentine says, 'The words of the Saviour are, "All who came before me are thieves and murderers."'" And as the Johannean, so were the other Gospels used by Valentine. According to the statement of Irenæus, he considered (i. 7: 4) the subordinate Spirit already mentioned, which he termed Demiurgos and Taskmaster, to be represented by the centurion of Capernaum (Matt. viii. 9; Luke vii. 8); in the dead and resuscitated twelve-year-old daughter of Jairus he recognized an image of his "sub-wisdom" (Achamoth), the mother of the Taskmaster (i. 8: 2); in like manner in the history of the woman who had suffered for twelve years from an issue of blood, and was healed by the Lord (Matt. ix. 20), he recognized the pains and restoration of his twelfth primeval spirit (Æon) i. 3: 3; and the expression of Jesus recorded in Matt. v. 18 he applied to the ten æons hinted at in the numerical value of the Iota, the smallest letter.

What do they who deny the high antiquity of John's Gospel say to this? They assert that all that pertains to John was not brought out by Valentine himself, but by his disciples. In fact, the expression is much more frequent in Irenæus "they say"—the followers of Valentine—than "he says," meaning Valentine himself. But who is wise enough to discriminate between what the master said and what the disciples added, without echoing their master in the least? We must here touch once more upon the passage of Irenæus (iii. 11: 7) where he expresses himself respecting the relation of the heretics to the Gospels. After the sentence, "So securely are our Gospels founded, that even the errorists give testimony for them, and every one of these begins at the Gospels when he wants to try the foundations of his own system," he goes on to say, "For the errorists make exclusive use of the Gospel of Matthew, and are convinced from his pages alone of their error respecting the Lord. Marcion, however, avails himself of the mutilated Gospel according to Luke, and the very part which he retains makes his blasphemy against the only God apparent. Those who separate Jesus from Christ, and insist that it was Christ alone, and not Jesus, who suffered, assign a preference to the Gospel according to Mark. If they read it with real love of truth, they can be cured of their error; but they who cleave to Valentine make the fullest use of John's Gospel for the confirmation of their doctrine of Æons; and from this it can be seen that they teach nothing correctly, as we have shown in our first book." Does this representation of Irenæus accord with the view that the use of the Gospel according to John began with the disciples of Valentine, and not with Valentine himself? Irenæus declares the use of the Johannean Gospel to have been a characteristic feature of Valentine's school; and those names and conceptions already alluded to, which pervaded the whole system, testify convincingly to this: yet was all this a mere affix to the system? So much respecting Irenæus. In Hippolytus the expression is even more definite regarding Valentine. If now it is indisputable that the author does not always discriminate closely between the sect and the founder of the sect, have we an example of this in the case now under consideration? In those instances. where, in the course of a consecutive delineation, we are called upon to consider now the founder and then the sect, is it not more logical to conclude that the founder and the sect are to be taken as inseparably connected?

From one disciple of Valentine's, Ptolemaus by name, we receive a learned epistle, directed to "Flora." In it, in conjunction with several quotations from Matthew, is one from the first chapter of John: "All things were made by him (the Word), and without him was not anything made that was made, says the apostle." The method employed to rob such quotations of their force is to make the errorists who use these words as modern as possible; if it be possible to trace them back only to the close of the second century, the proofs drawn from them do not accomplish anything more than to substantiate what is already known, that at that time, as the opponents of the church gladly concede, the church in its ignorance had fallen into the use of the canon of four Gospels. But how recent was Ptolemaus's time? In all the most ancient sources he appears as one of the most distinguished and most influential disciples of Valentine's. As the epoch of the latter was about the year 140, do we go too far in setting the time of Ptolemaus at about 160 at the latest? Irenæus (in the second book) and Hippolytus name him in connection with Herakleon; and, in like manner, Pseudo-Tertullian (in the affix to De prescripitionibus hærticorum) and Philastrius place him directly after Valentine. Irenæus in all probability wrote the first and second books of his great work before the year 180, and in both he concerns himself very much with Ptolemaus.

Here, however, we must bring in the testimony of Herakleon, the other very eminent disciple of Valentine. Herakleon wrote all entire commentary on the Gospel of John; his work is known to us through the many fragments which Origen has woven into his own commentary on the same Gospel. From these fragments it is plain that Herakleon's object was carried out with consummate skill, to base the assertions of his school on John: in this he took the course which we have already remarked in Valentine. Wholly absorbed in his own ideas, he found them reflected in a certain double sense of Scripture which he traced particularly in John. In the passage, for example, iii. 12, "after that, he withdrew to Capernaum," he held that there is an allusion to the domain of material and worldly things to which the Saviour condescended. The want of susceptibility in this domain of sense he thought to be indicated by the fact that John has given us no account of what Jesus said or did while in Capernaum. The Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob was to him the representative of all souls which feel themselves drawn to what is divine; the water of Jacob's well, which could not satisfy all spiritual necessities, was the transitory Judaic economy. The man whom the woman is required to summon is her spiritual complement, her pleroma, her angel tarrying in the higher world of spirits. The water which was offered to her indicates the divine life which was poured forth by the Saviour; the jar of the woman portrays her susceptibility for this divine life. Is not this commentary the most striking proof of the high authority which the Gospel of John must have had even then in the church, when the very errorists who had turned away from the church so willingly sought the confirmation of their own ideas in it? And does not this show at a glance the absurdity of the theory which derives John's Gospel from the school of Valentine? But the question recurs, How old is Herakleon? It is one which has been urged with consummate skill against our ancient sacred literature; and the answer has been given with incredible thoughtlessness, that he was the cotemporary of Origen and of Hippolytus. Unquestionably the oppressive weight of the matter under discussion has been experienced, and hence has arisen the blindness to the evidences of antiquity which are still in existence.

Irenæus mentions Herakleon in connection with Ptolemaus in a way which shows him to have been a well-known representative of the school of Valentine. This acceptation of his words is all the more fully justified by the fact that he makes no further allusion to Herakleon. Clemens reminds us in the fourth book of his Stromata, written soon after the death of Commodus (193), of an interpretation given by Herakleon to Luke xii. 8, and terms him at the same time the most distinguished member of Valentine's school. Origen states, at the commencement of his citations from Herakleon, that he was held to be a friend of Valentine's. Hippolytus alludes to him in vi. 29 in the following words: "Valentinus and Herakleon and Ptolemaus and the whole school of these disciples of Pythagoras and Plato." Epiphanius says (Hær. 41), "Cerdo (the same who, according to Irenæus, iii. 4: 3, was with Valentine in Rome) follows these (the Ophites, Kainites, Sethians) and Herakleon." According to this evidence, Herakleon can not be assigned to a date more modern than 150 or 160. The expression which Origen has used of his relations to Valentine must, according to the usages of speech, be understood as applicable to a personal relation. Epiphanius has certainly erred (an occurrence not often met in him) in letting Cerdo, whose epoch must be set at about 140, follow Herakleon; but we have not the slightest right to suppose that he has made a mistake equal to the entire length of a man's life, and even more. And on this account we may rejoice in the fact that a Gnostic partisan write a complete commentary on the Gospel of. John soon after the middle of the second century.

Had this Gospel then freshly appeared, and was it so flattering to the representatives of the Valentinian Gnosis that these gave it a cordial welcome? Assuredly it was no light task for them to draw out of the simple words of John their own profound system. And it is not a little remarkable that the church thoroughly shared in the fancies of the errorists who had wandered so far out of the way. In addition to this, there were those who knew that John had duly died at Ephesus without leaving behind any such legacy as a Gospel, and that such a work as it was could not have lain hid till that late day in a corner. If the reader was not able to come to an understanding with himself in this wondrous thought-structure, he only confirmed this fact, that the commentary of Herakleon is one of the strongest proofs that then, when. it was written, the Gospel of John had long been revered as one of the hallowed writings of the church, so that it seemed to Herakleon a thing of special importance to show that this apostolic document, if it should be rightly interpreted, must be used to confirm the system of Valentine.

While dealing with Valentine, or, according to the order of time, before reaching Valentine, we encounter Basilides, the period of whose activity occurs, according to Eusebius, at the epoch of Hadrian. With all his exhaustive speculations on the Primeval, and the secret, incomprehensible and lofty forces which spring from it with living impulse, with all his meditations on the principles of light and darkness, life and death, his method of grasping the subject of faith allied him by a close bond with the adherents of time church, who stood on a lower platform, so far as profession is concerned, than was the case with Valentine. One of his chief productions appears to be a commentary in twenty-four books on the Gospel. Eusebius (iv. 7) infers the existence of this work from the statements of a cotemporaneous opponent of Basilides, Agrippa Castor by name. Fragments from his book appear to have been preserved by Clemens, Origen, Epiphanius, and the so-called Archelaus Disputation. Has this work any relation to the subject now under review? It certainly appears to have. For the expression quoted by Eusebius from Agrippa Castor, that Basilides wrote twenty-four books "on the Gospel," almost compels us to turn our thoughts to those Gospels which, according to that earliest form of speech which comes to light even in Justin and Irenæus, were designated as "the Gospel," even although the Gospel of the Hebrews, passing under the name of Matthew, was the substitute for our Matthew. That this view of the work of Basilides, on the skeptical side, is simply ludicrous, may be seen at a glance. Still it is in harmony with what we gather from the letters of Ignatius, from Polycarp, and from Justin, respecting the place which the Gospels held in the first half of the second century. The fragments which have been alluded to do not invalidate this view, but rather confirm it. So, too, what Clemens cites (Strom. 3: 1) as from Basilides is closely connected with Matt. xix. 11, 12; the quotation from Basilides, found in Epiphanius (Hær. 24: 5), is in direct alliance with Matt. vii. 6; that found in Origen in the commentary (lib. v. cap. 5) to the Epistle to the Romans begins with the words from Romans vii. 9; his words are, "For the apostle has said, 'Once I lived without the law.'" From this we infer the general connection of Basilides with our New Testament.

To this must be added what we learn through the Philosophumena of Hippolytus concerning Basilides. This work contains a detailed account of him, having direct quotations from Paul and Luke, an allusion to Matthew, and two passages from John. In vii. 22, we read, "And that is what is said in the Gospels, 'he was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."' John i. 9. In this passage the expression "in the Gospels" is entitled to its due weight: it presupposes the existence of the evangelical canon hinted at in the other forms of quotation, such as "the Scripture says," and "it is written." Furthermore, in vii. 27, we find the expression "That everything has its time" is amply confirmed by the words of the Saviour, when he says, "My hour is not yet come." John ii. 4. Does not this bring into perplexity those who are so certain that at the time of Basilides not a word of John's Gospel was written? But no; there is a ready way out of this difficulty. That to which the words, "in the Gospel it is said," give a happy indication, is made to mean, (because, forsooth, no trace of a collection of Gospels can be traced back to that epoch,) that Hippolytus is not dealing with the genuine Basilides, but with a Basilidian document which was the product of his own time. Without entering upon an investigation of that discrimination which Hippolytus, who is so familiar with all that pertains to the ancient heretics, has made between his Basilides and the one yet more ancient, we must at least grant that he has made distinct and explicit reference to the older Basilides, and that he is not satisfied with his reader's accepting any other. Are we to suppose that it was a simple matter for the man who had been the disciple of Irenæus, and had died in the year 235, to err so singularly, while in the latest years of his life he was preparing a work drawn from first sources, as to ascribe to Basilides at the time of Hadrian what had been added during his own time by the followers of Basilides? Are we able to determine with certainty when the old system left off and the new began? And if we deny them both, and dare give credence to Hippolytus, we must admit that he has done us a great service in showing conclusively that Basilides and his school recognized the Gospels as books of ecclesiastical authority long before the middle of the second century, and expressly made use of the Gospel of John for his ends.

We come to the same result if we trace the relations of other Gnostic sects, the Naasenians and the Perates for example. The first derive their name from the Hebrew word naas, a snake, corresponding to the Greek Ophites. While the last name was long used by Irenæus and others, that of Naasenians began to be made current (aside from reference of Theodoret) through the Philosophumena of Hippolytus. That the Naasenians were nothing but a fraction of the Ophites is not at all substantiated by the efforts made to support this hypothesis, and is wholly disproved by the statement of Hippolytus, who put the Naasenians and the Perates at the head of the Gnostics, giving them precedence before Simon Magus, the Valentinians, and Basilides, but, as he states expressly (v. 6), assigning them priority over all the other Gnostics. But while we place the opinion of Hippolytus above the doubts which negative criticism has raised, we yet reckon among the most valuable comments on the Gospels the following excerpts made by Hippolytus from the writings of the Naasenians living in the first half of the second century. In v. 8 he has this: "For all things, he asserts, (the writer of the Naasenian document) have been made by the same hand, and without that hand is nothing made. And what is made in him is Life." In another passage: "That it is which we have learned of the Saviour, 'Except ye drink my blood and eat my flesh, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven (John vi. 53); Except ye drink the cup which I drink (Mark x. 38; Matt. xx. 22); Whither I go ye can not come.'" John viii. 21. Soon after he says, "His voice we have heard indeed, but his form have we not seen." John iii. 8; v. 37. In the same connection we find, "Touching this our Saviour says, 'No man can come to me except my heavenly Father draw him.'" John vi. 44. Again, v. 9, "For, says he, God is a Spirit, and those who worship him must worship him neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, but in spirit." Cf. John iv. 21, 24. Soon after we meet the words, "But if thou knewest who it is that asks thee, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." Connected with these passages, so evidently from John, there are others from Matthew (vii. 6, 13,14; iii. 10; xiii. 3, et sq.), and from Paul's Epistles (1 Cor. ii. 13, 14; 2 Cor. xii. 2, et sq.)

We ought not to refrain from adding to these Naasenian citations from John and found in Hippolytus, what is given to us in the writings of the Ophites, in that pseudo-Tertullianic document (Append. to Text de præscr. hæret.) which those who lean to the Philosophumena believe to be drawn from a writing still more ancient. The quotation from John stands in the closest relation to that glorification of the serpent from which the sect of Naasenians derives its name; and all the more forcibly are we compelled to assign to the founder of the sect, and not to some later effort from it, the application of the passage from John. In the pseudo-Tertullian (chap. 47 of the document de præscr. hær.) it is expressly stated, "To these must be added those heresiarchs who are called Ophites, i. e., Serpent-men. These pay such honors to the serpent that they place it even before Christ. For to the serpent, they say, we owe the beginning of our knowledge of good and evil. When Moses comprehended the greatness and power of the serpent, he elevated one of brass, and all who looked upon it were made whole. Besides this, they assert that even Christ hints at the sacredness of the serpent, when he says, 'And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.'" John iii. 14. We meet the same passage, as I shall presently show, in the literature of the Perates. For just as from the writings of the Naasenians many passages were selected by Hippolytus, so were many also taken from those of the Perates, especially such as were originally derived from the Gospel of John. I need cite but two of these, Art. v. 12. "For the Son of man is not come into the world to condemn the world, but that through him the world might be saved." John iii. 17; v. 16. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man also be lifted up." John iii. 14.

I have as yet made no mention of Marcion, a man whose nature and activities were strangely divided between the faith of the church and the Gnostic heresy. It is the more necessary for me to allude to him because use has been made of his writings in a way entirely at variance with my own convictions. He was born at Sinope, on the Black Sea, the celebrated Pontine capital of that time, in the early part of the second century. Subsequently to the year 128 he appears to have inculcated his peculiar doctrines at Rome; and, making it his special purpose to sever Judaism from Christianity, he undertook to eliminate from the apostolic writings everything which favored the former. In consequence of a statement which has come down to us from antiquity, that this writer made a collection of sacred writings (which may have taken place before the middle of the second century, between 130 and 140), and that he admitted into this collection only the Gospel of Luke and ten of Paul's Epistles, making such changes, moreover, in the text of them all as compelled them to suit his ideas, many scholars have supposed that this was the very first collection of sacred writings made by the church, and that the Gospel which he admitted into his collection was not Luke's, but was the as model which was followed when the one which we possess and call Luke's Gospel was written, and that he had no acquaintance with our other Gospels, including that ascribed to John.