A GUIDE TO THE STUDY OF THE
• CHRISTIAN RELIGION
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
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SHANGHAI
KARL W. HIERSEMANN
LEIPZIG
A GUIDE
TO THE STUDY OF THE
CHRISTIAN RELIGION
B,
William Herbert Perry Faunce, Shailer Mathews, J. M. Powis
Smith, Ernest DeWitt Burton, Edgar Johnson Goodspeed,
Shirley Jackson Case, Francis Albert Christie, George Cross,
Errett Gates, Gerald Birney Smith, Theodore Gerald Soares,
Charles Richmond Henderson, and George Burman Foster
Edited by Gerald Birney Smith
THE UNIVERSITY O^ CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
THE ;■:... . '-K
PUBLIC LIBRARY
787 J 92
AS^C^ , LFMOX AND
TlLDtN FOU'^DAilONS
fct '9'7 ■ I
Copyright 1916 By
The University of Chicago
All Rights Reserved
Published November 1916
Composed and Printed By
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
PREFACE
That Christianity is today passing through one of the
most significant transformations in its history is a fact appar-
ent on every hand. The present generation has come into
full consciousness of the new world which has arisen as a
result of the discoveries and inyentions of the past century
or more. New social and industrial conditions, new acquaint-
ance with the non- Christian world of today, a more thorough-
going knowledge of the vast stretches of human history, and
a new science with its promise of a hitherto undreamed-of
mastery of the forces of the universe, ' have led to a new
appreciation of the task of the Christian church.
Thus the divinity school today is attempting to organize
the education of ministers of the gospel and of religious
teachers and missionaries with reference to many situations
and problems which formerly did not exist. The history of
Christianity can no longer be studied in isolation from the
total history of which it is a part. The study of the Bible
must be undertaken with a full understanding of all that is
involved in the processes of historical criticism. Systematic
theology must consider rehgious beliefs in relation to the
modern scientific and philosophical ideals which are regnant.
The department of practical theology must deal with the
bewildering needs occasioned by the shifting habits of people
in modern industrial and spiritual life. An entirely new
realm of theological training has been organized in order to
prepare men to understand the social problems which are so
intimately related to the religious life.
Aside from discussions of the ''higher criticism" there
has been almost no literature from which one could learn how
a modern divinity school is attempting to meet the demands
VI PREFACE
of our age. There has been no work in EngUsh on theological
encyclopedia for twenty years. Such treatises as Crooks
and Hunt, Theological Encyclopaedia and Methodology (New
York: Phillips and Hunt, 1884); Cave, Introduction to The-
ology and Its Literature (Edinburgh: Clark, 1886, 2d ed.,
1896); and Schaff, Theological Propaedeutic (New York:
Scribner, 1893), were all excellent works in their day. But
because some of the most important phases of modern theo-
logical education have been organized since these appeared
they cannot furnish the information needed here, nor can they
indicate the Hterature which has appeared during the past
twenty years. The warm welcome which was accorded to
Wernle's Einfiihrung in das theologische Studium (Tubingen:
Mohr, 1908, 2d ed., 191 1) suggested to the editor the desira-
bility of a volume in Enghsh which should deal with the
present situation in theological education.
It is much more difficult today to prepare an introduction
to the study of theology than it was a generation ago. For-
merly it was possible for one broadminded scholar to cover
the entire field with reasonable thoroughness. But today
specialization has advanced so far that no one man is compe-
tent to deal with all the branches of learning tributary to a
sound theological education. This is perhaps the main reason
why no one has recently attempted to prepare any such
survey.
Again, some phases of theological scholarship have lately
been passing through a transition period. During much of
the past quarter-century men have been conscious of the
fact that old methods and ideals must be modified, but they
have not always been sure just where the changes would lead.
It is only within the past decade that the full implications of
the historical method have begun to be reahzed with clearness.
Until scholars came to feel at home in the use of this method
they were not in a position to formulate constructive prin-
ciples of theological study based on it.
PREFACE vii
The present volume has been prepared in recognition of
the situation above indicated. In order to do justice to the
speciaHzed character of scholarship, a group of men has been
asked to co-operate, each contributing an exposition of the
problems and the methods of study in the field in which he
himself is competent to speak.
There has, of course, been no attempt to secure absolute
uniformity of views. The only common presuppositions of
the various portions are the acceptance of the historical
method and the behef that the interpretation of Christianity
must be in accord with the rightful tests of scientific truth-
fulness and actual vitaUty in the modern world. If certain
diversities of opinion appear, the volume will only reflect
the spirit of freedom which prevails in theological scholarship
today as well as in other fields of research. It is a hopeful
sign, however, that the historical method, with all its freedom,
yet induces a typical attitude and spirit, so that a course of
study dominated by this point of view will-attain a consistency
which may form the basis for positive convictions concerning
Christianity and for fruitful constructive work in the church
of Jesus Christ.
This volume is intended to be a guide to the study of the
Christian rehgion for Protestants. It does not attempt to
take the place of actual study or to furnish a brief compendium
of information. It is prepared primarily to aid students to
understand the meaning of the various aspects of education for
the Christian ministry. But it will be perhaps of even greater
value to pastors who wish to keep in sympathetic touch with
the latest scholarship, but who find it difficult to obtain in
convenient form the requisite information. Brief bibliog-
raphies are appended to each section, noting especially
valuable works as an aid to those who wish to undertake an
intelHgent study of any particular topic. They are not in-
tended to be exhaustive, but merely to start the student or
interested reader on his quest.
viii PREFACE
It is the hope of the editor and of the contributors that
the volume may help toward the understanding of the fruitful
and inspiring work which is being done in the realm of theo-
logical scholarship today, and may stimulate those who are
interested in the progress of theological education and in the
thorough preparation of ministers of the gospel to a cordial
co-operation in the great task before us.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER
I. Preparation in College for the Study of Theology i
By William Herbert Perry Faunce, President of Brown
University
II. The Historical Study of Religion 19
By Shailer Mathews, Professor of Historical and Comparative
Theology and Dean of the Divinity School, University of
Chicago
III. The Study of the Old Testament and the Religion of
Israel 81
By J. M. Powis Smith, Professor of Old Testament Language and
Literature, University of Chicago
IV. The Study of the New Testament 163
By Ernest DeWitt Burton, Professor and Head of the Depart-
ment of New Testament Literature and Interpretation,
University of Chicago, and Edgar Johnson Goodspeed,
Professor of Biblical and Patristic Greek, University of
Chicago
V. The Study of Early Christianity 239
By Shirley Jackson Case, Professor of New Testament Inter-
pretation, University of Chicago
VI. The Development and Meaning of the Catholic
Church 327
By Francis Albert Christie, Professor of Church History,
Meadville Theological Seminary
VII. The Protestant Reformation 357
By George Cross, Professor of Systematic Theology, Rochester
Theological Seminary
VIII. The Development of Modern Christianity . 429
By Errett Gates, Assistant Professor of Church History in the
Disciples' Divinity House, Unive rsity of Chicago
ix
X CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
IX. Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics . . . 483
By Gerald Birney Smith, Professor of Christian Theology,
University of Chicago
X. Practical Theology 579
By Theodore Gerald Soares, Professor of Homiletics and
Religious Education and Head of the Department of Practical
Theology, University of Chicago
XI. Christlanity and Social Problems 677
By the Late Charles Richmond Henderson, Professor of
Practical Sociology, University of Chicago
XII. The Contribution of Critical Scholarship to Minis-
terial Efficiency 729
By George Burman Foster, Professor of the Philosophy of
Religion, University of Chicago
I. PREPARATION IN COLLEGE FOR THE STUDY
OF THEOLOGY
By WILLIAM HERBERT PERRY FAUNCE
President of Brown University
ANALYSIS
PAGES
1. The Relation of the College to Theological Education. — ^What
should the intending minister study? — Languages. — Science. —
History. — Psychology. — Social sciences. — Philosophy. . 3-12
2. Unofficial Aspects of College Life. — The dangers of social
dissipation. — Acquaintance with religious leaders. — Giving religion an
opportunity to be seen at its best. — The practical expression of
religious activity. — The religious responsibility of college teachers 12-18
I. PREPARATION IN COLLEGE FOR THE STUDY
OF THEOLOGY
The value of any study depends chiefly, not on its intrinsic
content, but on the content of the student's mind. What we
find in a subject depends on what we bring to it. The horse
and his rider look on the same landscape, but they do not see
the same things.
Sevetal men may enter on a course of theological study
in the same institution at the same time. One brings a philo-
sophic mind, trained to the search for truth, alert to all
those subtle distinctions in thought that create far-reaching
differences in life. Another man brings only a desire to get
"sermon outlines" and secure a pulpit. A third brings a
sociological training, and finds — or rather seeks — in every
creedal formula primarily a means of social uplift. A fourth
man brings an intellect stiffened by disuse, and finds in
theology a tedious discussion of things that do not count.
The theological teacher faces an almost impossible task when
he is asked to deal with minds undeveloped, or closed by
prejudice, or unfired with any real passion for truth. A
prepared student will receive and assimilate more in a single
year than a crude mind can admit in many years.
The preparation for theological study may be either
indirect and unconscious or direct and intentional. Indirect
preparation includes all that we mean by the development of
personality, mental growth, spiritual experience. All that
goes to make a deeper, richer inner life inevitably makes a
more successful student of theology. This unconscious
preparation is of value in any calling, but especially in one
where all that a man achieves depends absolutely on what
he is. Augustine found inspiration and enlargement in the
3
4 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
writings of Cicero; Wesley was equipped for religious leader-
ship by the culture and the friendships of Oxford; Henry
Drummond's training came through the scientific laboratory.
Men fulfil themselves in many ways. Whatever brings to
the student increase of human sympathy, insight, mental
poise, fearlessness, power to examine candidly and to believe
whole-heartedly, whatever broadens and deepens personality,
is a true "preparatory school" for religious leadership.
Such preparation may come through cathedral or camp meet-
ing, through library or observatory, through the sick-room,
as witness Thomas Chalmers and Frederick Robertson, or
through residence on the frontiers of civilization, as witness
Jonathan Edwards in the Connecticut Valley and Moffat in
South Africa. A personality widened by habitual observa-
tion and deepened by poignant experience is no longer a "tin
dipper to be filled in a classroom," but is already in some
measure prepared for the great question: How shall we
think of God ?
THE RELATION OF THE COLLEGE TO THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION
But here we have to do with that direct and intentional
preparation which today is obtained through the college.
Once the American college was organized chiefly for the
training of ministers, and no theological seminary existed in
this country. Later a "theological course" was organized in
some colleges. Still later the theological seminaries were
often founded remote from any college or university and
marked by quite a different spirit. Theological education,
like medical education, suffered a real loss through this entire
segregation of its students and studies from the broader uni-
versity world. Now the seminary is becoming part of the
university, either by actual incorporation in it, as a "divinity
school" or "school of religion," or through close affiliation and
co-operation. But there must be a clear sequence of studies
as the student passes from his college into his professional
THE COLLEGE AND THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY 5
school. If the student in college tries to anticipate his
theological studies and take strictly professional courses, then
in the divinity school he will have to turn about and seek the
fundamental and hberal courses which he should have taken
in college. Thus he puts the cart before the horse. He
turns his college into a poor theological school and his theo-
logical school into a very superficial college.
The preparation offered in college is given in two ways:
through the curriculum of the college and through its atmos-
phere and ideals. Let us first consider the values to be
found in the college curriculum.
What should the intending minister study in college? —
What studies should the prospective theological student
pursue in college or in the university ? What may he expect
to derive from those four years ? Out of the vast and varied
menu offered by the modern university— from Egyptology
to calculus, from " chipping and filing " to the Divine Comedy —
what should he select as of most importance for his future
career ? Any attempt at a bare list of studies would plunge
us into difficulties. Some of the courses we might include are
not given in all colleges. Many are open to debate. Any
mere Hst would evoke instant dissent. But there are some
clear principles of choice. There are certain values which a
student must not miss if his college course is to be a real
success. What are they ? What should any student expect
to acquire in the modern college ?
Languages. — The student must acquire some of the
indispensable tools of knowledge. He must master his
own mother-tongue and secure a serviceable knowledge of
some other tongues as well. He must steep himself in the
work of the best English writers until he, too, learns to write.
He must study his own vernacular, its marvelous resources,
its wealth of expression, its flexibility and force, its power to
appeal and illuminate and persuade, until he makes the
language a part of himself. He must find out whether he is
6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
able to write an important telegram in ten words, or a com-
plete address in as few words as Lincoln used at Gettysburg.
One of the greatest joys that can come to any student is the
joy of self-expression in English that cannot be misunderstood.
It is like the joy of the hunter when his arrow or his bullet
finds the mark. Half the theological disputes of the world
come from inability to state what we mean, or to understand
what others have stated. Definition is the first essential in
debate, and definition means the precise expression of exact
thought. Ability to read, even in translation, an ancient
document, like the Apostles' Creed, or the prophecy of Amos,
and find out what it meant to the men who first read it, is one
of the first qualifications of a religious teacher. Slovenly,
hazy language constantly befogs the mind and hides the truth
or repels men from it. "Let your yea be yea and your nay,
nay," is the basis of all good writing. A good style is as
a pane of clear glass, itself invisible, revealing all things as
they are.
Latin and Greek are indispensable to the theological
student. Latin still constitutes the best-known means of
acquiring the linguistic sense, the power to analyze thought
and to discriminate and compare ideas, while Greek, as the
language of the New Testament, is a sine qua non. Com-
mentaries can give us the meaning of a passage, but not the
sense of reality and vitality that exhales from the original.
Most universities now offer courses in beginners' Greek for
those students who could not, or did not, begin that study in
the high school. It is quite possible in three or four years
of the study of Greek to get beyond habitual use of com-
mentaries on the New Testament and to be able to form an
independent judgment. Surely three hours a week for three
years is a small price to pay for such independence. But
these arguments apply with far less force to the study of
Hebrew, both because the Old Testament is a less primary
source of Christian ideals and because of the far greater
THE COLLEGE AND THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY 7
difficulty of reaching independent conclusions in Semitic
scholarship. If Hebrew is to be studied at all, it should not
be allowed to crowd out the fundamental liberal studies of the
four college years.
French and German are both of value to the man who
would be a workman that needs not to be ashamed. While
a working pastor may do without them, the theological
scholar must have a reading knowledge of both tongues —
with the emphasis upon the German. The pioneers of
theological thought are still European, and religious leaders
in America cannot wait for the possible translation of all
important books. Valuable articles in European periodicals
are often not translated at all. Latin and Greek, French and
German — a reasonable working knowledge of these four
tongues, in addition to the mastery of English, every theo-
logical student should carry away from his college. And
such knowledge means more than skill in grammatical forms;
it means literary appreciation, interpretation, insight.
Science. — A second gift of the college to the student
should be an understanding of what the modern world means
by scientific method. This is soinething quite different from
acquaintance with specific sciences. The student cannot
become at once astronomer, geologist, chemist, and botanist.
But a single thorough course in any one of those sciences may
furnish him the key to all the rest. The method by which
men of science approach all problems, the intellectual process
by which they discover truth, can and must be made thor-
oughly familiar to any man who would teach the modern
world. And the method cannot be learned from books; it
can be learned only in the laboratory, through actual experi-
ment and research in the world of material facts and laws.
The Yale professor of the last generation who before perform-
ing an experiment in physics would often say, ''Xow, gentle-
men, we are going to ask God a question," indicated the
only real way of asking about physical truth. If prayer is
8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
experiment, none the less is experiment prayer — the prayer of
the scientific man that avails much. Whether the student shall
study one science or several sciences depends on his time and
taste. Out of a single course he may acquire a method of in-
vestigation which will mold his entire life. He should, how-
ever, remember the distinction between the physical or exact
sciences, like physics and astronomy, largely mathematical,
and the natural sciences, like biology and botany, which deal
with the form and structure and growth of living organisms.
For the future preacher, whose message is to be "life more
abundantly," biology, the study of the forms and methods of
life, is supremely important.
History. — Another gain to be expected from a college
course is what we may call the historical approach. This is
vital in all modern thinking. Our fathers thought chiefly
in static terms. Their method was deductive and dogmatic.
In proving the existence of God they used the " cosmological
argument" or the "ontological argument," rather than the
argument from experience as found in the story of humanity.
They proved the inspiration of the Bible from the probability
that a good God would reveal himself, or from the necessity for
such a revelation, seldom asking whether the Bible had
actually been an inspiring power in the life of humanity.
But now we have come to see that we never understand
anything until we know how it came to be. The history of a
thing is the thing. A new sense of time has dawned upon
men since Darwin lived, as a new sense of space came to men
through Copernicus. To trace the growth of an institution
like the English Parliament, or a composite book like the Book
of Psalms, or an idea like the idea of sacrifice, is the only
possible way to get at its meaning. The concept of evolution
— now accepted by nearly every teacher in northern colleges
and denounced by nearly every evangelist — has come to mean,
not a theory or dogma, but a point of view, a mode of con-
ceiving the world. We see the world no longer as a fact
THE COLLEGE AND THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY 9
estabKshed by fiat, but as a process, an unfolding of the
indwelling spirit. We ask of the Bible, How was it put
together ? of the church, What have been its stages of develop-
ment ? of the most sacred ceremonies, What was their original
form and meaning? of the Book of Revelation, What did it
mean to men of its own time? This historical approach is
characteristic of all intellectual effort today. It traces effects
to their causes, and thus reconciles our divergences and
softens our asperities. Instead of fighting our opponent, we
are occupied in explaining how he came to be. The spirit of
tolerance and comprehension in the modern world is largely
the result of the historical approach to every vital problem.
Psychology. — A fourth gift of the college should be
what we might call the psychological approach. The study
of all human institutions and products leads us back to the
study of man himself. What is behind the eye is more
wonderful than anything in front of it. We cannot under-
stand science, art, literature, or religion except as we
understand the human mind — how it works, how it grows, how
it misleads us, how it finds and rests in the truth. "He
knew what was in man" — that was the foundation of all He
did for man. "A man that told me all things that ever I
did" — such was the naive description of Jesus by a stranger.
The study of psychology has transformed modern education.
Its theories regarding memory, imagination, attention, and
habit lie at the basis of our public-school methods. The
study of psychology has given new meaning to the "varieties
of religious experience" and has shown us that the "conver-
sions" which once were deemed fantastic or mythical are
actual and normal changes in the soul. Psychology helps
us to understand revivals, true and false, to explain recent
growths, like Christian Science, and the existence of all the
various denominations. It has important contributions yet
to be made to church services, missionary methods, and social
reform. No student can afford to spend four years in college
lO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
without some training in the methods of psychology. Through
those methods he will find most helpful approach to every
present problem of thought or action.
Social sciences. — Such study easily leads into an appre-
ciation of the "social consciousness." So far as theology is
still purely individualistic it is an alien in the world, for the
world has become — in the philosophical sense — socialistic.
''When ye pray, say, 'Our'," is ancient teaching, but the world
has only recently begun to say "our" in philanthropy, in
municipal government, in economic theory, in international
intercourse. A purely individualistic theology cannot cope
with the needs of a socialized world. "What shall I do
to be saved?" is a question now being asked, not only by
single persons, but by corporations threatened with dissolu-
tion, by villages drained of their young life, by cities con-
victed of anti-social sins, by nations that have lost their
idealism and so their moral leadership.
Yet it is extraordinary how many of the most famous books
of devotion lack the social consciousness. Often the acute
consciousness of God has absorbed all consciousness of any
relation to the struggling world. Bunyan's Pilgrim thrusts his
fingers into his ears, that even the cry of wife and children
may not hinder his passion to escape. Thomas a Kempis'
Imitation of Christ is wholly unconscious of any duty to change
human conditions anywhere. " Other- worldliness " marks
the older hymnology, majestic in its perception of the divine
sovereignty, but conceiving our chief human duty as "a never-
dying soul to save and fit it for the sky." But the modern
college thinks of religion in terms of action. The average
student makes feeble response to the prudential motive,
reserving his deepest enthusiasm for altruistic effort. He
thinks of the college, not as a means of separation from the
common herd, but as a means of service to his generation.
No man can be a competent religious teacher today unless
he is shot through by that corporate consciousness, that sense
THE COLLEGE AND THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY ii
of social responsibility, which marks our time. Hence the
studies listed under social and political science, economics,
sociology, international law, etc., are of much importance
for any man who aspires to be a religious guide.
Philosophy. — Not the least of the gifts of the college is
what we may call orientation in philosophy. No one can
hope to become a master of metaphysics while in college. But
he may, working under the guidance of an experienced
teacher, become acquainted with the chief theories regarding
the origin and mode and meaning of the universe and man's
place in it. He can at least acquire a "set of pigeonholes"
to which he can refer all the vagrant theories of our own time.
He can learn the difference between materialism and
idealism, between nominalist and realist, between Stoic
and Epicurean, between the Kantian and the Hegelian.
Then, confronted with some new theory or fad or heresy
sweeping over the land, he can say: "I know where that
idea emerged centuries ago, and I understand its implications
and sure results." Thus, unperplexed and unterrified, he
can deal with the new because he is famihar with the old. To
perceive the philosophic origin and outcome of current
religious theory is an enormous aid to a religious leader.
Are we asking too much when we expect these great gifts
from the college of our time ? Let us remember that these
are gifts of quality of spirit, not quantity of information.
The thing we really ask of the college is simply a point of
view and a standard of judgment. That standard is not to be
gained by absorbing quantities of fact; nor is it to be gained,
on the other hand, simply by fervid piety. It is sometimes
said that the primary object of the college is character.
But that is the object also of the family and the church and the
state. All human institutions, of course, aim at character.
The college differs from the other institutions in that it aims
at character through intellectual interests and disciplines, at
character achieved, not through rules, not through exhortation,
12 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
not through worship, but through studies. It nourishes
those "intellectual virtues" out of which the virtue of the
citizen, the teacher, the prophet, must inevitably grow. If
the college can give us interests and enthusiasm and a right
intellectual method, it has already furnished the foundations
of both character and scholarship.
UNOFFICIAL ASPECTS OF COLLEGE LIFE
But the chief values of the modern college often lie, unfor-
tunately, quite outside the curriculum. They lie in the
atmosphere that surrounds and pervades, in the ideals that
summon and inspire the student body. They are impalpable
and indescribable, yet, like the enveloping air, with its
pressure of fifteen pounds to the square inch, they exert a
constant control. The chief educative power of any institu-
tion comes through the constant association of the students
with one another and with the faculty. The college is
primarily a "society of scholars," an association for mutual
benefit. The daily give-and-take of many associated minds
creates a psychological climate. The student can say, with
Ulysses: "I am a part of all that I have met." When he is
first ushered into the new associations of the perilous Fresh-
man year, he is likely to be dazzled and distracted. What
should be his attitude toward all the complex social life of the
college ?
The dangers of social dissipation. — He should seek
simplicity — in mode of life, in daily program, in personal ambi-
tion. Our college life has no longer the dangers of a vacuum,
as it had fifty years ago, but the dangers of a plenum. Silly
pranks have largely disappeared, but dissipations of energy,
distractions of thought, side-shows of every kind, have multi-
pHed immensely. The student's room is a reception room;
his time is seldom his own; he is "out" for positions and
offices — athletic, musical, literary — and the college life allows
little time for self-recollection and self-acquaintance. Here
THE COLLEGE AND THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY 13
is a danger quite as real as the danger of vice and crime —
a temptation against which the future rehgious teacher must
resolutely set himself at the beginning. Paul's education was
partly at the feet of Gamaliel; but its most important part
was acquired when he ''went away into Arabia" to think out
the meaning of his own experience. The chief lack of the
college man today is time to think.
Acquaintance with religious leaders. — The student should
plan for contact during college years with great religious
leaders and movements. Such leaders ought to be found
among the members of the faculty, and the fact that they are
so seldom found there should occasion us much searching of
heart. The emphasis of the last quarter-century is on
research rather than on personality. The division of knowl-
edge into small sections called "departments," the reaction
from the old dogmatism to universal interrogation, the
absorption of teachers in the making of textbooks rather than
in the making of men — all these things have tended to repress
and cripple religious leadership on the part of our college
teachers. But the opportunity for such leadership is greater
than ever before. The fact that teachers are no longer
officers of discipline gives them a new advantage. The fra-
ternal in place of the old paternal relation is distinctly helpful
to religious conference. The college teacher may be far
closer to his students than any college president ever can be.
The fact that the average church sermon makes slender appeal
to the average student emphasizes the need of special effort
at religious guidance by the college faculty. What the stu-
dents need for their religious training is not so much formal
addresses as discussion under guidance. They need to hear
a religious address with a chance to "answer back," to express
their own difficulties, and to grapple with some older, wiser
mind in frank discussion. Many members of our faculties
are able and willing to do this, but they wait for invitation
from the students. The formation of voluntary classes for
14 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
biblical study, for ethical and religious conference, must
originate with the students themselves.
Giving religion an opportunity to be seen at its best. —
Students may also do much to bring college life into contact
with the dominating personalities of the religious world.
The college Christian Association can easily secure the help
of the administration in bringing into college halls present
leaders in civic reform, in foreign missions, in biblical inter-
pretation, in Christian education. A ten-minute address
at morning chapel by some man from the heart of Africa,
from the slums of Chicago, from the medical missions in
South India, may give more inspiration than an hour's ora-
tion. At one university recently each of the formal vesper
services of the winter was followed by an informal conference
of the preacher with the students in the evening. The
announced subject of the conference was in each case intro-
duced by the preacher in a five-minute address. Then the
students, sitting round him in large semicircle, turned upon
him a fusillade of sincere and searching questions that lasted
for an hour and a half. At the end of that time they knew
the preacher as no sermon could reveal him, and he knew the
students as few members of the faculty know them. One
conference on "Religious Journalism" gave the students an
inside view of an editor's office. One on "The College Man's
Idea of the Church" gave them the apologia pro vita sua of a
distinguished American bishop. One on "Opportunities
in the Farther East" gave an interpretation of China and
Japan from one who had spent his Hfe there. Another on the
"College Man's Idea of God" gave a noted Christian phi-
losopher a chance to insert a whole system of theology into
the students' minds without their knowing it. The service
rendered among our colleges by Henry Churchill King,
John R. Mott, Robert E. Speer, Lyman Abbott, Francis G.
Peabody, and a score of other leaders is unsurpassed in lasting
importance. It has meant the interpretation of the Kingdom
THE COLLEGE AND THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY 15
of God into the students' own vocabulary, into the terms
and concepts which they hear every day in the classroom.
Students and faculty should unite in bringing such men
into intimate and repeated contact with the entire student
body.
It is strange that alumni possessing deep religious con-
viction so seldom return to assist in the religious development
of their own colleges. Alumni of athletic prowess are con-
stantly called back to "coach the team." Alumni with
musical gifts are constantly returning to advise or train the
musical clubs. Why should not the alumni who have the
deepest religious life constantly be called back to inspire and
direct undergraduate religion ? Here is an almost unoccupied
field. Here is a work every prospective religious leader may
do while in college.
The practical expression of religious activity. — But con-
ference and discussion are not enough. There must be train-
ing in altruistic and idealistic effort. Four years of mere
reception, four years of self-centered culture, are a poor
preparation for a life of real ministration to the world. There
must be outgo as well as intake. Hence the Christian stu-
dents in every college should be harnessed for some form of
human uplift. Whether it is in church or social settlement,
in boys' club or children's playground, in reading-room or
gymnasium or evening school, matters little. Somewhere
and somehow the student must express his faith through
action or his faith will dwindle. Classroom lectures and dis-
cussions on poor-relief, on municipal reform, on the psychology
of the crowd, are made real and vital when the student
attempts to help and serve some needy neighborhood. A
day of prayer for colleges is trebled in value when followed by
the sincere endeavor of the students to uplift the community
around them. Paralyzing doubts are cleared away by
action, and of many a venerable enigma the student learns to
say Sohitur ambulando — "it is solved by going forward."
1 6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
The religious responsibility of college teachers. — A most
encouraging sign of the times is the increasing realization
of college teachers and officers that they are responsible,
not only for departments and courses of study, but also for
the temper and climate of their institution. It is vain
to offer knowledge in bewildering variety unless we can also
offer a contagious enthusiasm, a noble fellowship in things of
the spirit, a dominating idealism, a faith that the things which
are unseen are eternal. "What we need," says an oriental
proverb, "is not only a filled vase, but a kindled hearth." The
kindling of youth's imagination and desire is more than all
possible furnishing of tools and technique. Those who teach
and administer in college life have a constant obligation to
discover and inspire the potential leaders of the spiritual
life in the next generation. When the college finds within its
walls these embryo prophets, it should bestow on them the
priceless gifts of intellectual enthusiasm, sincere devotion to
truth, familiarity with the ruling ideas of the modern world,
and eagerness for the higher ranges of theological study which
are to follow.
Note. — ^The Religious Education Association a few years ago
appointed a committee to recommend a course of study for college
students intending to study for the ministry. The report of this com-
mittee is herewith given, printed by permission from Religious Education.
PRE-THEOLOGICAL STUDY IN COLLEGE
Report of the Committee appointed by the Religious Education
Association, Shailer Mathews, Chairman
1. Your Committee at first attempted to draw up a complete
curriculum for the four college years. Such a curriculum, however, was
seen to be impracticable on account of the different studies, number of
hours, and other conditions required by different colleges for their degrees.
It seemed best to the Committee, therefore, to draw up a list of courses
which are especially adapted to prepare men for work in theological
seminaries.
2. It has seemed advisable, further, to distinguish between two
classes of courses: those which seem absolutely essential in training
THE COLLEGE AND THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY 17
for practical efficiency in the ministry (List A), and those which are
highly important for the development of the more technically theological
efficiency of the ministry (List B).
It is the recommendation of the Committee that the studies in List A
be pursued by all students for the ministry, and that course B be pur-
sued by those who wish to prepare themselves in the fullest degree for the
philological and exegetical studies of the seminary curriculum. In so far
as the student's aptitude and opportunities permit, the Committee
would suggest that the studies in both lists be pursued.
3. As regards the amount of time to be given to each study, the
Committee has chosen as its unit a course running three hours a week
for an entire college year. In colleges where a given study fills a differ-
ent number of hours per week the adjustment will easily be made.
The Committee further assumes that the total number of hours per
week required in a college will not exceed 15 or 16.
The Committee has deemed it best to leave a certain number of
units free for electives, permitting more thorough study of such courses
of the suggested curriculum as particularly appeal to a student.
4. The student is advised to consider the instructor as well as
the course. In case a course is given by an inferior instructor, the Com-
mittee advises that the student substitute for it some other course in the
corresponding group in the other list, or, if more advisable, even in some
subject not suggested. It is the opinion of the Committee that the influ-
ence of the teacher is as important as the material of a course.
List A
Courses Recommended for the Practical Efficiency of the Ministry
I. PREPARATION IN LITERARY EXPRESSION
Unit of 3 Hours
per Week for Year
English Composition and Rhetoric i
Literature (principally English) i
Public Speaking (art of expression, vocal training, debating, etc.). . . i
The student should take as much as possible of such work even
when no academic credit is given for it.
n. LANGUAGES
At least one foreign language, preferably Greek 2
III. NATURAL SCIENCE
Biology I
Psychology i
1 8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
IV. SOCIAL SCIENCES
Unit of 3 hours
per Week or Year
History 2
Political Economy h
Study of Society (introduction to the study of Sociology, Depend-
ents, etc., Socialization, Social Science) 2
V. PHILOSOPHY
History of Philosophy i
List B
Additional courses suggested as important preparation for technical
theological study from which elections can be made
I. LANGUAGES
Latin - 2
German (if not taken in high school, otherwise i) 2
Hebrew (for those whose aptitude and desires would lead them to
pursue Hebrew in seminary courses) i
Hellenistic Greek i
II. NATURAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE
Geology i
Physics or Chemistry i
in. PHILOSOPHY
Ethics 2
Introduction to Philosophy h
Logic 2
II. THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION
By SHAILER MATHEWS
Professor of Historical and Comparative Theology, and Dean of the
Divinity School, University of Chicago
ANALYSIS
PAGES
A. The Hislorical Method in General. — The first step in the
historical method. — The materials for historical study. — ^The study
of literary material. — Textual or lower criticism. — Historico-literary
or higher criticism. — The discovery of genetic relations of facts. — The
study of the history of religion 21-30
B. The Evolution of Religion. — (i) What is meant by the evolu-
tion of religion ? — The nature of religion. — The common element in
differing religions. — Theories concerning the origin of religion. — The
nature of religious activity. — (2) The evolution of the personal
interpretation of environment. — Primitive religions. — Tribal religion.
— Monarchical religion, — ^The higher development of monarchical
religion 30-46
C. The Development of Religious Doctrines. — Mythology, philoso-
phy, and theology. — Mythology as a means of interpreting
religion. — The relation between theology and philosophy . 46-51
D. The Development of Christian Doctrine. — The creative social
mind. — ^The creative social minds which have made occidental his-
tory.— The contribution of the Semitic social mind to Christian
theology. — Some non-political elements in New Testament thought.
— The hellenistic social mind. — ^Latin orthodoxy as determined by
imperialism. — Feudalism and Christian theology. — The nationalistic
social mind and theology — The age of revolutions and theology. —
The modern social mind 51-71
E. Why Theology Has Not Developed Parallel with the Presup-
positions of Social Experience. — The influence of philosophy. — The
retarding influence of doctrinal orthodoxy. — The constructive task of
theology 71-79
II. THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION
A. THE HISTORICAL METHOD IN GENERAL
The study of history is much more than the reading of
books about history. The genuine historian seeks, by the
use of all the material at his disposal, so to reproduce the
past as to make it not only vivid, but also a means of inter-
preting the present. History, unlike biography, is essentially
a social study. It is concerned with social groups rather
than with individual men and women. It is by no means in-
different to individuals, but regards them as contributors to
the action of the group of which they are members. Biog-
raphy, on the other hand, is centrally interested in the indi-
vidual as related to social activities.
The fact that history is essentially a social study makes
possible a certain stability of method. Group action is by
no means so indeterminate as the actions of individuals. It
is possible, by statistics, for instance, to organize pretty clearly
the general tendencies of groups of men, although it is quite
impossible to determine just what the action of the com-
ponent individuals may be. While the historian must be
careful not to mistake philosophical generalizations for
history, it is none the less possible for him to reach certain
general conclusions as to the movement that constitutes the
evolution of civilization. These generalizations may be of
real advantage in the interpretation of that particular point
of the stream of human life to which he himself belongs.
I. THE FIRST STEP IN THE HISTORICAL METHOD
The first step in a historical method is the gathering of
materials. These materials may be of varied sorts and are
by no means limited to written sources. In fact, nothing
22 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
could be more misleading than to conceive of history as essen-
tially a matter of books. Since it deals with life, it must
shape up its estimates of any period of the past through a
scientific examination of all available products of that life.
The materials for historical study may be classified
(although the groups are not absolutely exclusive) as :
a) Survivals. — Here would belong the actual non-material
survivals, such as living practices, customs, social attitudes,
and institutions which have extended over to the present from
the past. Further, such matters as language, music, dances,
are often of the utmost importance as embodying in themselves
elements which were the germs of a more developed civi-
lization.
b) Monuments. — The second group of rriaterial may be
roughly called the monuments, although the word is some-
what unfortunate. Here belong the actual material sur-
vivals of the past, such as manuscripts, papyri, pottery, and
inscriptions (not their contents), buildings, coins, monuments,
statuary, and all the material products of a period. With
such materials the archaeologist and antiquarian are primarily
concerned. These material remains of the past are of im-
mense value, not only because they furnish the contents in
such sources as inscriptions and manuscripts, but because
in themselves they perpetuate information regarding the
artistic and mechanical and general cultural developments of
the past. No one, for example, could ever get a fair con-
ception of the civilization of Egypt without the pyramids, nor
could one accurately picture Greek life were it not for the
great wealth of its statuary. The historical value of muse-
ums is therefore great. In them the student of history finds
his imagination stimulated by the actual products of past
activities.
c) Unwritten sources. — The third source of history may be
said to be the unwritten sources not intended to be historical,
like traditions, sagas, anecdotes, songs, legends, myths, and
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 23
whatever else is carried along from tongue to tongue. In
the course of time this material may be reduced to writing,
but it is of distinctly different character from that of deliber-
ately intentional records. Here again the student of his-
tory is enabled to come directly to the life of the group he is
studying and to share, as it were, the creative impulses in a
way which no description makes possible. Folk-lore and
sagas, for instance, lose much of their charm and original
significance when reduced to the printed page.
d) Written sources. — The fourth type of material is
written. Such material is by no means limited to what
would be called intentionally historical writings, like annals,
chronicles, genealogies, biographies, and memoirs, but com-
prises also non-narrative sources, including acts of govern-
ments, and the contents of "monuments" already mentioned.
In the very nature of the case this written historical material
is of outstanding importance for the historian and furnishes
the largest mass of his sources. It is particularly in the
study of these written sources that the historical method has
made its most noteworthy advances in recent years.
Literature. — The best work on historical method is Bernheim,
Lehrhuch der historischen Methode, (Leipzig: Duncker, 1889, 2d ed.,
1894). In English such a work as J. M. Vincent, Historical Research:
An Outline of Theory and Practice (New York: Holt, 191 1), or Langlois
and Seignobos, Introduction to the Study of History (New York: Holt,
1898), is excellent.
2. THE STUDY OF LITERARY MATERIAL
The method of investigating this written material is
called criticism, and is of two sorts, in accordance with its
purpose and material.
a) Textual or lower criticism. — This is the determination
of the original, or, if that be impossible, the oldest obtainable
text of a document, whether narrative or record. Its method
is the systematic comparison of various texts. Textual
24 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
criticism has become a highly developed science in itself,
and the results of different critics tend to a consensus of
opinion. When we recall that there are several thousand
variant manuscripts in whole or in part of the New Testament,
the necessity of textual criticism is at once apparent.
Textual criticism, however, does not undertake to do more
than recover the oldest possible text. In the case of the
New Testament no pretense is made by the critics that they
can reconstruct any text of a date earher than the second
century. That this second-century text is doubtless close to
that of the documents then circulating may very well be
conjectured, but no hope is entertained of an absolute recovery
of the text of the autograph. Furthermore, textual criticism
leaves unanswered many questions concerning the trust-
worthiness of the record, the text of which may have been
approximately recovered. Thus a second step is demanded.
b) Historico-literary or higher criticism. — The methods of
this stage of criticism are very similar to those of the textual
criticism, but the problems are different. Granting that we
have the oldest obtainable text, the question is raised as to the
authorship of the document, the possibility of rewriting
or other modification of an original source having taken place,
the personal equation or "tendency" of an author or editor,
and the integrity or composite character of a source. In the
answer to such questions there is, of course, involved the
further and more important matter of the trustworthiness of
the record.
In all attempts to answer such questions, particularly in
the case of records so precious as the books of the Bible, the
historical critic should proceed with caution and by no means
give way to the temptation to make clever guesses. In the
estimate of the historical value of any given document we
must proceed by way of testing hypotheses, and such
hypotheses should be based upon painstaking study of the data
rather than upon suppositions and guesses. In testing any
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 2$
hypothesis the student employing the historical method
should be careful to use all monumental evidences at his
disposal. In fact, any hypothesis that is essentially un-
controlled by study of the actual materials of the life of a
period as far as they are preserved is to be adopted very
cautiously. One of the most serious difficulties in the present
study of the history of religion, and of Christianity in par-
ticular, is the dogmatic presentation of hypotheses which
are based upon a very narrow range of facts and are largely
colored by the critic's own personal opinions.
It is obvious that in both the lower or textual and the
higher or historical criticism the student must be constantly
on guard against his own prejudices and preconceptions.
Absolute impartiality in our attitudes is probably out of the
question, and critical scholarship makes its permanent advance
by the mutual testing of various scholars. Their personalities
serve to counteract one another, and in the course of time
results are reached which are as free from personal bias and as
trustworthy as the existing data and human nature permit.
It is much to be regretted that in so many cases the student
for the ministry comes to the historical study of the Scriptures
without any training in historical method. As a result he is
likely, at first, to feel that the foundations of what has been
to him helpful religious conviction, inherited or accepted
without reflection, are being shaken, Further acquaintance
with a genuinely scientific method, however, serves to liberate
him from this feeling, and in the study of doctrine, church and
Bible alike, he jGinds himself possessed of facts which are not
dependent for their validity upon inheritance or ecclesiastical
authority. None the less the transition from one type of
study in religion to another should be made in the atmosphere
of religion itself. Nothing is more fatal to the spirit of
genuine religion than the substitution of scientific method for
personal fellowship with God. "To pray well is to study
well" is as true of the historical critic as of the preacher.
26 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Literature. — The following are useful for a study of criticism: Zenos,
Elements of the Higher Criticism (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1895);
Dods, The Bible, Its Origin and Nature (New York: Scribner, 1905);
Bernheim, Lehrbuch der historischen Methode (Leipzig: Duncker &
Huniblot, 1889, 2nd ed., 1894); Briggs, Introduction to the Study of Holy
Scripture (New York: Scribner, 1899).
3. THE DISCOVERY OF GENETIC RELATIONS OF FACTS
The study of sources is only introductory to the more
definitely historical methods. Criticism gives material and
nothing more. When sources have been properly studied
and their worth as historical material has been determined,
there begins the work of the historian proper, namely, such an
organization of the material thus gained as to produce an
accurate description of the total situation under investigation.
The difference between the antiquarian and the historian
here becomes evident. The antiquarian, as such, is interested
in objects rather than in life-processes. The historian will
use the results of antiquarian study much as he uses those
of lower and higher criticism, but he himself must proceed to
show the relations in which these various facts stand. For, in
history, relations and particularly the processes of social
experience are of supreme importance. To know how a situa-
tion came into existence is indispensable to a knowledge of
the situation. Equally indispensable is the power of evaluat-
ing historical conditions from the point of view of their out-
comes in the genetic process of social evolution.
At this point it is very necessary to distinguish between
history and the philosophy of history. Probably no historian
is absolutely free from philosophical predilections, and he
must be constantly on his guard against the tyranny of pre-
conceived philosophy. Such theories should really come by
induction from the facts themselves. It is true, however,
that studies in certain fields, particularly in those of statistics,
politics, law, and sociology, furnish general conceptions by
which the inner relations of historical experience may be
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 27
tested; but these features are of less importance than those
almost subconscious habits of thought which are the expres-
sion of the general social mind under whose influences the
historian lives. At present this is particularly true because
of the conception of process and development which have come
into the social sciences from the biological and geological
fields.
It is necessary also to know the geographical conditions
and economic struggles which have conditioned human efforts.
History is more than its record, for it is the actual living
of men and women. It is concrete, a movement full of
changes as well as results. It extends far beyond the earliest
historical records. Indeed, the actually recorded history of
humanity covers an exceedingly small period compared with
the hundreds of thousands of years during which, we are
assured, man has been living upon the planet. Really to
understand our present life it is necessary to recall the long
struggles of our far-away ancestors. To this end the study
of the bones and implements found in various geological strata
is as truly of importance as is the study of newspapers. We
can best appreciate how far the race has actually developed
when we compare our modern world with human affairs as
they appear from a study of prehistoric man.
From this point of view we can appreciate the value of the
study of primitive peoples. They are, so to speak, the social
left-overs, human survivals of stages of civilization which once
were the highest known. These primitive peoples are not
lacking in ability, and when they come under the influence
of a higher civilization, particularly when this is mediated by
Christianity, they develop amazingly; but their customs, reli-
gions, and social structure enable us again to appreciate the
great progress which has been made in human life.
Literature. — On primitive life, Tylor, Primitive Culture, 3d ed. (New
York: Holt, 1889), may be well studied. Thomas, Source Book for
Social Origins (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909), is of
28 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
great value. Keane, Man, Past and Present (Cambridge: University
Press, 1899), is a good handbook but somewhat too certain at points.
Sumner, Folkways (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1907), is valuable for its dis-
cussion of primitive social control. Osborn, The Men of the Old Stone
Age (New York: Scribner, 1915) is a valuable compendium of our
knowledge of earliest races. On the general trend of history, see
Mathews, The Spiritual Interpretation of History (Harvard University
Press, 1 916).
4. THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF RELIGION
_ It is from this point of view that men are now^ learning
to study the history of reHgion. The same methods which are
applied to tracing the development of any other human inter-
est are now being appHed with very interesting results to the
development of religion. Such a study involves a knowledge
of anthropology and a careful investigation of the lives,
manners, and customs of primitive peoples; yet such a knowl-
edge is by no means all that the history of religion involves.
As Farnell, Evolution of Religion, well argues, we need to know
not only origins but processes of development.
Fortunately, we possess the records of a religion which has
thus developed from the very simplest type of social customs.
The Bible is a record of the religious experience of the Hebrews
from the dawn of their historical records to the very highest
ideal type of life to be found in Jesus. It is only recently,
however, that this wonderful collection of historical material
has been treated in a historical way. Theologians have used
the Bible to find proof- texts; preachers have allegorized it to
get religious inspiration and the truth which they wish to
preach; fanatics have found in it all sorts of ammunition for
attacking their opponents; but the sober and reverent study
of its passages by the use of literary and historical methods
which have proved themselves effective in other fields of
similar research was for centuries neglected.
The application of these methods to the study of the Bible
has served to enable us, first of all, to appreciate the worth and
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 29
the character of the documents of the Bible itself; but, more
important, it has enabled us, in the second place, to trace
the development of the Hebrew religion as the Hebrew people
progressed and made their way through the various strata of
social experience. In the start they had not even a tribal
organization. Gradually the tribes emerged, confederated,
fell apart, and out from a section of them emerged a nation.
This nation in turn suffered the experiences of little nations
situated between mighty military powers, and the Jewish
people ceased to be a nation, but spread over the world as
immigrants, bearing the hope of a glorious kingdom which
God would later establish for them.
Then came Christianity — a religion which emerged from
Judaism, but perpetuated no ethnic traits, retaining only the
religious and ethical ideals. These it presented as embodied
and completed in the life of Jesus Christ — a life which the
world has always regarded as supreme.
Fully to appreciate this development of our own religion
it is advisable for the student to become acquainted with the
development of other religions. Students of comparative
religion have in the past been less interested in the develop-
ment of religions than in contrasting various systems and
discovering their common elements and their differences.
The study of the history of religion is somewhat different from
this, and as yet has confined itself pretty largely to the study
of primitive peoples. There are indications, however, that on
the basis of such anthropological and scientific investigations
there will be built a more complete presentation of religion in
its more developed forms (see section B).
Literature. — Good introductions to the study of comparative religion
are those by Jevons, An Introduction to the History of Religion (London:
Methuen, 1896), and Menzies, History of Religion (New York: Scribner,
1895). Pfleiderer, Religion und Religionen (Munich: Lehmann, 1906;
English translation, Religion and Historic Faiths [New York: Huebsch,
1907])) gives a compact general study.
30 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Efforts have been made in this connection to show how
Christianity has emerged from earHer reHgious movements.
Particularly by the religionsgeschichtliche school has the
endeavor been made to trace the ideas of the New
Testament to earlier religions, especially those of Egypt,
Syria, Persia, and Assyria. Such procedure has brought
to light many interesting facts, but as yet it is marked by more
ingenuity than solid reasoning. An extreme development
is to be seen in authors like Drews {The Christ Myth), who
have denied the historicity of Jesus and have made him a
personification of religious ideals.
Literature. — For a study of the primitive religions as a phase of this
new movement students may be referred to King, The Development of
Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1910); Farnell, Evolution of Religion
(New York: Putnam, 1905) ; Durkheim, Les formes elementaires de la vie
religieuse (Paris: Alcan, 191 2; English translation, The Elementary
Forms of the Religious Life [New York: Macmillan, 191 5]); Ames, The
Psychology of Religious Experience (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 19 10).
The most elaborate work is Frazer, Golden Bough (London: Macmillan,
1911-15). The position of those who deny the historicity of Jesus can
be found well criticized in Case, The Historicity of Jesus (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 191 2).
B. THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION
I. WHAT IS MEANT BY THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION?^
The use of the term "evolution " in connection with religion
is subject to at least two objections. On the one side are those
who insist that religion is the gift of God, and therefore has no
historical development. And, on the other hand, the biologist
may object to the use of the term in any such general sense as
a student of social science must adopt.
To the first critic it may be replied that, when he asserts
or implies that religion has not developed like other elements
in human experience, the facts are against him. Whatever
' In the following discussion I have used freely, with the consent of the
editors, materials of papers published by myself in the American Journal of
Theology,- the American Journal of Sociology, and the Constructive Quarterly.
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 31
may have been its origin, religion exhibits phenomena akin
to those observable in social institutions to which the term
"evolution" may legitimately be applied. The old dis-
tinction of the Deists between natural and revealed religion
has been outgrown, not so much because it did not involve
large elements of truth, but because as a final answer to the
problems set by the history of Christianity it failed to take
into account those psychological and sociological factors with
which the modern student is particularly concerned. All
religions are phases of religion.
To the other class of critics it must be replied that if
biologists ever had a monopoly on the term "evolution" their
exclusive rights have long since expired. The conception
given to the word by the Origin of Species and general bio-
logical usage is a particular phase of a view of the world as
old as reflective thought. The service which biology has
rendered the social sciences at this point has largely been
confined to the region of method, vocabularies, and analogies.
If these analogies have too often been overemphasized and
made to do yeoman service in the name of some non-biological
science, they have none the less made it possible to realize
that whatever precise definition may be given to the term
"evolution" there is a large measure of similarity between
certain processes in social history and certain others in the
building up of cellular organisms. Outside of the strictly
biological sciences the word must be used in a large sense, but
it is not identical with mere change or growth. It is possible
to trace religion, as one of the functional expressions of life
itself, through increasingly complicated and more highly differ-
entiated activities and institutions, as that life, both of indi-
viduals and of societies, seeks to adjust itself more effectively
to its environment. The result of such vital activity is to
produce, as it were, species of religions, between which, as,
for example, between Brahmanism and Mohammedanism,
there is only a generic likeness.
32 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
2. THE NATURE OF RELIGION
a) Religion not an abstraction. — There have been times in
which men have endeavored to arrive at the conception of
rehgion by abstracting from Christianity its characteristic
elements. Other attempts have been made to extend this
process of abstraction to all religions, and thus to discover that
which is, so to speak, a generic concept. The difhculty with
such search after a bit of scholastic realism is evident. Generic
religion never existed apart from religions, and religions never
existed except as interests and institutions of real people.
There is imperative need that all students of the subject,
and especially theologians, should emancipate themselves from
scholastic abstractions and frankly recognize that religion is
not a thing in itself, possessed of independent, abstract, or
metaphysical existence, but is a name for one phase of con-
crete life. It is only from a strictly social point of view that
either religion or religions will in any measure be properly
understood. We know only people who worship in various
ways and with various conceptions of what or whom they
worship.
b) What is the common element in differing religions? —
Yet while men possess religions and not merely religion, reli-
gions of all sorts, from the simplest custom of the savage to the
profundity of Bralmianism and the redemptive gospels of
the Buddhist and the Christian, they have discovered within
themselves rcUgion as a common divisor, as it were. And
religion is a functioning of life itself as truh" and uni\-ersally
human as the impulse of sex or of self-preservation.
If we attempt to formulate this common element and
to describe this functional expression of life expressed in all
religions, we must compare both the highly developed religious
systems and the simplest t}-pe of religion as it exists among
primitive peoples. The more complex systems show the
direction taken by the religious expression of life, and the
simplest religious organisms help us to understand the more
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 33
complicated. To push the biological analogy farther, it
might be said that the "cell" of religion is man's conscious
attempt to place himself, as a member of a group possessed of
similar concepts and customs, in benefit-gaining relationship with
those superhuman forces in his world, his dependence upon
which he realizes, and which he treats as he would treat persons
by whom he wished to be aided. Or, more briefly, religion is a
social laying hold of God (or any object of worship) for the
sake of help or salvation.
It is obvious that the content of such a formal definition
will vary according to the conception of what constitutes this
superhuman environment, and that this variety of estimate
will affect the methods which a man adopts in his search for
superhuman aid. A study of even the most primitive religion
leads one to two convictions apparently paradoxical : religion
does not necessarily imply a belief in a supreme person, and
yet, in religion, environment is conceived of in the same way
that men conceive of persons. Therein the functioning of life
in religion differs from the functioning of life in the satisfaction
of the impulse of sex or of food-seeking. True religion does
not, as Monier- Williams would insist, postulate the existence
of one living and true God of infinite power, wisdom, and love.
That would exclude too many religious customs and rites.
Men have worshiped fetishes or animals or sacred stones.
Such objects are regarded as elements in the environment
which affect human interests, and therefore, without being
of necessity consciously personified, are treated as if they
were personal.
c) Theories concerning the origin of religion. — There are a
number of theories undertaking to show how this attitude
of mind was induced, but all are more or less unsatisfactory.
Some find the cause in fear, or dreams, or regard for ancestors,
or the appetencies of sex. Doubtless there is truth in all of
these hypotheses, but we are not absolutely sure as to just how
religion came into existence any more than we are sure as to
34 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
how human life itself arose. We can, however, see clearly that
the functional significance of religion is an elemental expression
of the second of the two elemental impulses of life itself,
namely, to propagate and to protect itself. Religion is life
functioning in the interest of self-protection. It differs from
similar functional expressions of life in that (i) it treats
certain elements of its environment personally (though not
necessarily as a person), and (2) it seeks to make these
friendly and so helpful. One or the other of these two ele-
ments has almost invariably been overlooked in studies of
religion, but both are indispensable to the concept. Religion
utilizes personal experience and uncompromisingly pre-
supposes personalism — not, let it be repeated, always in the
sense of any systematic world- view. Doubtless unconsciously
at the first, but with ever-increasing clearness of conception,
men have treated their environment as they would treat
human beings. Religion is uncompromisingly functional,
not only in adjusting the individual or the group to its environ-
ment, but also in the attempt to adjust environment to the
person or the community. Thus Schleiermacher's conception
of religion as a feeling of dependence is only part of the truth.
To it must be added the conscious effort toward reconciliation.
It is this twofold modification of the elemental functioning of
life in the interest of self-preservation that distinguishes
religion from so many activities with which it has been inti-
mately associated, like hunting, and grain-planting, marriage,
and burial.
Obviously the inception of this radically human attitude
toward its world is lost in the unrecorded struggles by which
humanity raised itself above the other forms of animal life
with which it is genetically united. But one's ignorance
here does not impugn the fact that such a use of experience
was actually made.
Some time, somewhere — just when and where it matters
not — there appeared a man who, first of all living creatures,
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 35
with the new impulses of a genuine person, attempted to adjust
himself consciously to the outer world upon which he saw
himself dependent by an attempt to make that outer world
favorable to himself. It makes little difference how he
conceived that outer world or which one of its particular
aspects first impressed him. Any one of the various theories
of the origin of religion might here suffice. The essential
thing is that, in his passion to protect his life and to insure his
continuous existence as a person, he attempted consciously to
enjoy or to win the favor of the extra-human environment
with which he found himself involved and on which his
happiness seemed to depend. And that, so far as we know,
no animal other than man ever attempted to accomplish.
But even this statement is too individualistic. Such
efforts have always appeared in history as the expressions of
group activity. Religions are fundamentally social, the pos-
session of some tribe, nation, or church.
It is not necessary to insist that all religions are genetically
related, in the sense that one has been derived from another.
That some such relations between certain religions in the way
of development or devolution exist is undeniable; but the
historico-religious method at the present time is in danger of
mistaking similarities between religions for genealogical rela-
tions. Thus in the comparative study, let us say, of Chris-
tianity there is strong temptation to insist that elements
of Babylonian myths go to constitute the very content of
Christianity. That a certain degree of genealogical relation-
ship in this particular case may exist may well be admitted,
buf a too rigorous application of the comparative genealogical
method in the study of religion is certain to distort the facts.
If there is anything undeniable in the study of society, it is
that human nature is essentially the same, and that when
facing the same social needs it functions in a generic sort of
way. Thus, in the case of inventions, men subject to the
stimulation of similar social needs, in absolute independence
36 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
of each other, produce instruments and processes practically
identical. An even more striking illustration of this general
tendency is to be seen in the fact that all civilizations pre-
cipitate practically the same moral codes when they arrive
at the same stage of complication of social life. So in the
case of religions; the striking similarities which occur between
religions belonging to the primitive groups and religions belong-
ing to the highly socialized groups are not necessarily to be
interpreted as involving imitative, or in fact any, historical
relationship. Such similarities, both in institution and in
process of evolution, can often be sufficiently well accounted
for by a generic religious impulse in humanity, which tends
to produce customs, rites, institutions, and creeds in answer
to individual and social needs.
d) The nature of religious activity. — At the risk of excessive
repetition one thing needs particularly to be emphasized;
namely, the worshiper not only seeks to appease that in his
environment which he regards as conditioning his welfare,
but he also undertakes to put himself into proper relationship
with that which he appeases. The essence of religion is not a
feeling of dependence, but the impulse toward reconciliation
with that which engenders such a feeling. The moment
a group thinks that the highest power in its environment is
unreconcilable its relations therewith become utterly passive,
i.e., impersonal; men cease to be religious and become simply
fatalists. And fatalism is not religion, for it lacks the
fundamental attitude of religion, which is the effort to establish
favorable relations with the super-environment. In other
words, the situation which religion would estabhsh is one of
personal harmony between the worshiper and that worshiped,
no matter how crude or superstitious that relationship may
be. The primitive savage who by mysterious rites seeks to
induce his corn-god to give him a good harvest differs no whit,
so far as his psychological attitude is concerned, from the
most philosophically rehgious person who seeks to enter into
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 37
healthful personal relations with a supreme and infinite God
through an intelligent faith that the universe may be conceived
of as involving a cosmic personality possessed of purpose and
love. How true this is, is apparent in the work of Christian
missionaries. They do not need to engender the religious
impulse — they need simply to give new content and intel-
lectual control to that impulse. A man could never make a
religious convert of a dog. The South Sea cannibal could
become a Christian because he was first of all religious.
Literature. — On religion in general there is developing a voluminous
literature. Farnell, The Evolution of Religion (New York: Putnam,
1905), is a good handbook on certain religious phenomena, particularly
sacrifice. Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites (London: Black,
1894) ; Bousset, Das Wesen der Religion (Tubingen: Mohr, 1906; English
translation, Wliat Is Religion? [New York: Putnam, 1907]); King,
The Development of Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1910); Moulton,
Religions and Religion (New York: Methodist Book Concern, 1914);
and Andrew Lang, Ritual and Religion (London: Longmans, 1899), are
also valuable general popular treatments. Toy, Introduction to the
History of Religion (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1913); Jastrow, Introduction
to the Study of Religion (New York: Scribner, 1901), are admirable
handbooks. See also important titles on p. 29.
3. THE EVOLUTION OF THE PERSONAL INTERPRETATION OF
ENVIRONMENT
It will be understood from what has already been said
that the term extra- or superhuman environment does not
always necessarily involve personality. What the term means
is simply some power other and (in its influence at least) more
than human which a group regards as having influence upon
its life and fortunes. The fact that such elements of the
environment are treated as if they were personal is only to say
that religion involves an extension of personal experience over
into environment as a means of interpreting that environment
in the interests of a helpful reconciliation. Personal life
seeks personal adjustment to an environment believed to
possess personal elements. Such an instinctive act is not
38 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
unlike that in which, to speak figuratively, a living organism
makes the assumption that its environment discovered by
experience is capable of forming a part of a dynamic situation.
Thus far Ward is correct in saying that religion is in man what
instinct is in animals. But only in so far; for did an animal
ever seek to placate nature ? The personal element is essential
in religion, because it is the functioning of the total life of a
personal being.
The essential matter in the evolution of religion, as in all
evolution, is the transformation of the original organism
through its relation with its environment and the nucleating
about itself — if the figure may be allowed — of other experiences
into species of the same genus. And this is accomplished by
the varying social experience with which a group adjusts itself
to its environment, to which it must submit, and from which
it must derive assistance.
a) Primitive religions.— These generally deal with
environment directly. The primitive gods in the earliest
survivals and literature in which we can trace religious con-
cepts were often natural forces. The heavens and earth,
fire, water, and wind, the sun, moon, and planets — these
natural objects were worshiped, but they were not personified.
Man found himself face to face with the awfulness of Nature.
He saw how dependent he was upon Nature, how the rising of
the river would flood and sweep away his hut, how the rain
would come from heaven to give him grass for his cattle, how
the sun would drive the animals he hunted into the deep
forests. He naturally wanted to make the river and the
heavens propitious. He therefore treated them as he treated
human beings whom he wished to make propitious.
Groups also were or became animistic and regarded
natural forces as the home or the visible expression of personal
beings, such as ghosts, spirits, gods. These, men treated
personally — as they treated members of their own or other
tribes. Customs thus preceded doctrines.
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 39
If we go even farther back than philology can carry us and
study religion as we discover it in the most primitive folk,
we find corroboration for this view, although with this differ-
ence: there seem to be some tribes that have not risen to the
conception of the great natural forces as those that are to be
appeased and who therefore concern themselves rather with
items in their natural environment. In fact, anything unusual
is likely to be regarded by primitive men as a good or a malign
influence. In either case it needs to be treated with respect
and, if possible, placated. A rock over which someone has
fallen, a cave in the darkness of which someone has been lost,
a curious root that was discovered when someone became ill,
a tree that has been struck by lightning — all have been
regarded as operative forces in man's situation which have
needed in some way to be placated.
Here, too, an early step was to regard these natural
objects as the residence of some spirit, good or evil. Thus
fetishism arose as a sort of limitation of the lesser nature-
worship. Not all natural objects were significant, and even
those which were might lose their meaning if the spirit aban-
doned them.
It is possible to draw a distinction between magic and reli-
gion as soon as religion begins to take on its more social form.
The witch is dififerent from the priest, in that her arts are
anti-social, or at least not those of the group. Despite the
weighty names to be quoted against such a view, it would
seem to me that non-injurious magic may often be treated
as the vestige of a rudimentary religion preserved and
observed by specially empowered persons rather than by
groups. For there is in such magic, e.g., rain-making, that
"will to conciliate" as well as to control, which, as a comple-
ment to the "will to power," is the very sign- manual of
religion. But this is not to say that religion developed from
magic. The fundamental difference between magic and reli-
gion lies not in the fact that magic was originally anti-social
40 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
or individualistic, but in the fact that in the course of social
evolution it is seen to be so. As religion develops, certain
rites are seen to apply only the impersonal principle that
like affects like through the agency of a specially empow-
ered person who has a personal monopoly of power. The
primitive religion thus outgrown becomes magic and, although
socially condemned, continues as a survival. And the reason
for its condemnation is in large measure the development of a
knowledge of natural processes. A growing science thus rele-
gates certain elements of a religion to superstition.
Similarly, too, in the case of the worship of dead ancestors,
a stage in religious development to be found all but universally
in simple civilizations. Whatever may have been the origin
of such a custom, it is sufficiently clear that the dead are
regarded as important factors in determining good and evil
fortune. For a group to propitiate them is therefore good
policy as well as tribal piety.
b) Tribal religion. — With the emergence of actual tribal
organization a new phase in this religious interest appeared.
A developing civilization does not always, it is true, immedi-
ately react to the conception of the god, but, in so far as the
religious concept develops, it invariably passes through a
stage in which these forces which have been treated like
persons are treated as persons. This is to say that, con-
temporaneously with the development of the clan, religion
entered into the stage of naive anthropomorphic or anthropo-
pathic religions. Such a development was inevitable for
people sufficiently constructive to become a part of the main
current of civilization. All others, like the Black Fellows
of Australia, preserve the religious ideas in forms as primitive
as their civilizations. Such personification, however, does
not seem to have proceeded uniformly. In some cases a tribe
would have as its own a god who is the personification of
some natural force, and would worship him by attributing to
him those quahties which, thanks to its social development,
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 41
the tribe as a whole beheved to be the most ideal. Without
exception these tribal gods are regarded as normally in a
state of reconciliation with the tribe. Generally they are
regarded as the fathers of their tribes. In other words, they
are believed to partake of the same elemental quality as
primitive civilization itself. They are, however, subject to
paroxysms of anger, evidenced by the defeat of the tribe in
battle, by the outbreak of disease, and by various other mis-
fortunes. In such cases they must be placated by gifts. In
this we see one of the various contributing influences that
made sacrifice a social institution, although there are other
influences quite as powerful. At other times a god appears to
be particularly favorable, in that he sends good weather and
good fortune. At such times his kindness needs to be appre-
ciated by gifts. Thus arises the sort of sacrifice which is
not intended to appease the tribal god, but to thank him for
his help. In this all members of a tribe partake.
But the most essential element in the tribal religion is the
conception of the god as the supreme chieftain of the tribe.
It is true that he is not believed to appear frequently, but
that at critical moments some member is likely to see him and
get some word of encouragement or warning. Further, there
have been few peoples who have attained to the tribal form
of society in which there has not been some particular person
or family regarded as in some way the god's particular repre-
sentative. Such persons instructed the tribe as to the will of
the god, served as priests, and, under the god's direction,
established great feasts of which the god partakes. Probably
at this point we find the most important contributing source
of sacrifice. The social group includes the god, and he shares
in the experiences of the tribe, be they sad or joyous. And
it should be noted that the rites of religions had their origin in
the enjoyment of life as truly as in its misery and fear. Men
thought of the gods as their companions as truly as their
judges.
42 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
This tribal god in some tribes may, so to speak, be assisted
by a number of secondary gods, but polytheism is not neces-
sarily an element of tribal religion, and even when a tribe
worships several gods it is likely to have one particularly
its own. In fact, as the tribal civiHzation developed it would
seem as if, in many cases, particularly among the Semites
and the Aryans, there were two classes of gods — those
which represent the material forces more or less personi-
fied and constitute a sort of super-divine body of deities to
whom worship is to be paid as the final sources of good for-
tune, and, along with these, so to speak, the working class
among the gods. Other tribes carry along with their single
tribal god a phase of magic which may be said to be the sur-
vival of some more primitive religious practice. Similarly,
customs, the meaning of which has long been forgotten , may be
carried along as essential elements of a developing religion. So
important may these customs become as to give almost its full
content to the religion.
c) Monarchical religion. — The fact that the tribal god
was regarded as, so to speak, the responsible party in tribal
history led to another phase of religion, the monarchical.
Such a term is at best unsatisfactory, but it serves to indicate
how the thought of God develops by the extension to him of
new political conceptions. The national god must be superior
to the tribal chieftain. As a chieftain developed in power by
conquest so as to extend the power of the tribe over other
tribes, it has been all but uniformly true that the tribal god
was regarded as victorious over the gods of the conquered
tribes. Thus, as the tribe itself through conquest became
the head of a quasi-nation, the god became a conquering
monarch. But it did not at all follow that the tribe which
had been absorbed or conquered would give up its god. It
might continue to worship him in the hope that ultimately
he would assert himself and give deliverance to his people.
Or, on the other hand, as the tribe was incorporated into a new
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 43
political entity, its god might become a member of the royal
court of the supreme God. There is many a nation whose
religious history shows the struggle between the worship of
the two sets of deities. Thus we find, in the history of Israel,
a long succession of struggles between the worship of Jehovah
and that of the Baalim and the Syrian gods of the high places
belonging to the conquered Canaanites. This struggle is
likely to be particularly violent when the two sets of gods are
brought together, not by war or conquest, but by the inter-
mingling of civilizations.
For conquest is not the only source of the development of
the king god. Political development as such leads to this
more developed conception. It may often be that a number
of tribes have the same god. These may federate, as in the
tribes of Israel, religion being the sole or at least the chief bond
of the political unity. But even such federation is not neces-
sary for the development of the idea of God. The trans-
formation of the tribe from nomadic to agricultural life has
been accompanied by a transformation of the conception of a
god and has given him new attributes, as in Zoroastrianism.
Sometimes this addition has been made through the religious
teachers or the priests; sometimes it has been unconsciously
due to the rise of new economic conceptions born of social
evolution. As the agricultural stage of social evolution has
passed into the commercial and urban, the new powers of the
chieftains have been used as media for shaping new preroga-
tives for the god. His relations have become less those of the
father of the family and more those of the king, increasingly po-
litical and forensic. It is not too much to say that, in the case
of all tribes whose development we can trace across the various
stages of social evolution, the idea of monarchy, which has
characterized some period of every developed society, however
different its social institutions may have been, has also colored
religions. The god is not subject to the will of the people; the
people and their material environment are to obey him.
44 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Obedience to his law becomes thus a condition of his rendering
his people aid.
d) The higher development of monarchical religion. — At
this point the really great religions have made two important
transitions :
1. The superhuman monarch of the tribe has come to be
regarded as the superhuman monarch of the world, the king
of creation. It has not followed that all the other gods have
been regarded as non-existent, for in many cases they have
been treated as devils or saints. But the passage to genuine
monotheism can, not infrequently, be traced through this
monarchical stage.
The divine monarch is supreme over human subjects. He
arranges nature. The thunder is his voice, the wind his
messenger, the earthquake the creature of his will. Men
begin to think of him philosophically, and so transcendental
may the thought of him become that the effort to realize
the now supreme and increasingly ethical conception of his
character gives rise to a genuine if naive theology.
2. The second transition has been the moral elevation
of the idea of God. This change has been the work of the
prophet. In primitive religion the prophet in any true sense
of the word is unknown. There are only medicine men,
necromancers, witches, and the like. But few peoples ever
come to the universal monarchy conception of their god
without seeing in him the standard of morality. If such a
transition is impossible, a new god is adopted as the new
conscience needs a more sensitively moral god. If, as in the
case of classical mythology, gods are past reformation, they
are pensioned off with conventional honors and allowed to
pass into innocuous desuetude on some mountain where
their example will not injure the morals of young people. In
the extent of this moral idealization of its idea of God the
Hebrew religion is unique. It seems to have passed through
the earlier stages of religious evolution; but this eventuated, as
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 45
in no other religion, in a monarch of absolute righteousness,
hating iniquity. That this is the case is due to the work of
the prophets who, from an exceptional religious experience,
taught an unwilling nation ideals that were to serve as the
basis of the non-monarchical ethical religion of Jesus.
This monarchical conception has given rise to the most
precise theologies. It is easy to see why. Political experi-
ence is so universal, political institutions are so subject to legal
adjustment, and legal analogies are so intelligible, that it
has been comparatively easy to systematize religious relations
under the general rubrics of statecraft. Thus righteousness
has been thought of as the observance of the laws of the god,
given through divinely inspired teachers, and punishment has
been attached to the violation of such laws in precisely the
same way as to the violation of laws of the king. The pardon-
ing of sins has been a royal prerogative, although sometimes
needing justification in the way of vicarious suffering by some
competent sacrificial animal or person, while the rewards of
the righteous have been pictured by figures drawn from the
triumphs of earthly kings, just as in primitive societies the
future has been regarded as the ''happy hunting-ground."
3. Only a few religions have as yet progressed beyond the
monarchical stage. In Brahmanism religion has been denied
content and direction by an impersonal cosmic philosophy,
and two of the three great religions of Semitic origin — Judaism
and Christianity— have moved over into a quasi-transcen-
dental personal sphere. But the theologies of even these
religions have been developed on the monarchical analogy.
This is particularly true of Christianity as the flowering of
Hebrew religion through the introduction of the personal
experiences of Jesus.
Literature. — See the references given above (p. 37). For more
philosophical treatment, see also Fiske, The Idea of God as Affected by
Modern Knowledge (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1885); Wester-
marck, The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, 2 vols. (London :
Macmillan, 1906 and 1908); Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human
46 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Experience (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1912); and Gwatkin,
The Knowledge of God and Its Historical Development (Edinburgh:
Clark, 1906).
C. THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS DOCTRINES
Theology deals primarily with experience, and experience
is far more extensive than rational processes. Theology
arises when men undertake to organize their inherited and
new religious experiences, beliefs, and customs in harmony
with other elements of experience, and thus to satisfy their
deepest spiritual need for unity between their faith and
their knowledge of the universe. The organizing principle
is all but invariably dramatic, a presupposition born of social
experience which the community producing the theology has
unconsciously accepted as a basis of social activity and the
standard of social values. Most frequently such an organiz-
ing principle is that already operative in the state. A second,
or apologetic, period begins when men undertake to defend
their right to hold religious beliefs by means of appropriating
current elements of culture. The creative and the apologetic
stages of theology are indispensable, but the former is primarily
social, the latter philosophical.
Mythology, philosophy, and theology. — Religion is per-
sonal, but it is also a phase of social experience. Although by
no means to be identified with social custom, its develop-
ment involves such custom, and particularly the preser-
vation of tribal sanctions for various social activities. Yet
to limit religion to merely social experience and to make God
a symbol of an authoritative totality of social experience is
to neglect outstanding elements of personaHty and its relations.
Religion is a word of experience, but it has a correlate in an
extra-experiential reality which is a dominating factor in the
situation out of which religion develops. To eliminate an
objective God from religion is as illogical as to eliminate the
soil and air from the life of a plant. A theology in the nature
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 47
of the case must therefore contain its meta-experiential ele-
ments. A pragmatic view of the world is highly fruitful for
the discussion of the psychological and social aspects of
religion, but it is not sufficient for a theology which shall
include the cosmic processes in which men find themselves.
But after this has been admitted it still remains true that
the first creative attempts to rationalize religious experience
into harmony with elements of culture have not found their
organizing principles in metaphysical processes. Meta-
physical treatment of religion has always been a second or
even third stage in the rationalizing process. Prior to it are
mythology and theology, each structurally dramatic.
a) Mythology as a means of interpreting religion. — Recent
discussions in the history of religion have made evident the
fact that mythology has played no inconsiderable part in
the early stages of religious development. Myths might be
described as a method of combining rationalized religious
aspiration with observed cosmic phenomena by the use of
elementary experience, generally of individuals rather than
of groups. In this, mythology differs from theology, which
organizes religious thought on more genuinely social concepts
than combats, love-making, and individual careers. In the
case of practically all religions, with the exception of the
Christian and other religions, like Mohammedanism, which
have been derived from the Bible, the philosophical stage
followed immediately upon the mythological and served to
destroy confidence in the myth, even when, as in Greece,
mythology continued as a form of popular religion long
after Plato and Aristotle had all but universalized the philo-
sophical attitude of mind.
In the case of the Hebrew religion, whatever may have
been its roots in early Semitic thought, it is all but impossible
to discover any period of myth within its biblical stage. Both
in it and in Christianity religious syncretism, it is true, did to
some extent show itself, as in the influence of Baal- worship
48 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
upon the Hebrews and in the appropriation of pagan customs
and institutions on the part of the Christians. But Hebraism
in its constructive principle was germinally monotheistic.
It never was characterized by the mass of mythological
details which most polytheistic religions have included.
Hebraism used for its structural religious ideas not the adven-
tures of individuals, as classical mythology did, but the
universalizing conception of monarchy. Zeus was never a
lawgiver, but Yahweh's relations with his people were always
those between a king and his subjects. That is to say, the
material of Hebrew religious thought, while like mythology in
being dramatic rather than philosophical, was organized
about an essentially political experience.
Literature. — See Fiske, Myths and Mythmakers, (Boston: Osgood,
1873; 3d ed., Houghton Mifflin Co., 1900).
b) The relation between theology and philosophy. — A dis-
tinction between theology and philosophy is hard to draw in
terms of definition, for both alike seek to give some sort of
unity to the highest thought of mankind. Furthermore,
philosophy, like theology, is largely conditioned by social
experience. Of the two, philosophy is by far the more fre-
quent framework for religious thought. Indeed, one might
even say that there never has been but one well-rounded
theology, namely, that which has been produced by the Chris-
tian thought of Western Europe. The other great religions
which have used biblical material have resembled Western
orthodoxy to some extent, but in the case of Mohammedanism
and Judaism no theological system in any way comparable
with that even of the arrested theology of the Eastern church
has been developed. Yet practically all religions have had
their philosophies, and in some cases, notably in Hinduism
and the religion of Egypt, there has often been developed
an esoteric system of teaching for the cultured classes along-
side of gross superstitions among the masses. Western
Christianity has, it is true, developed its secondary form in
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 49
the practices of the Roman church; but this secondary Chris-
tianity has always become at length organically embodied in a
real theology, the subject-matter of which is the relationship
of God and humanity, and which is only apologetically cos-
mological or metaphysical.
Further, while it is difficult to distinguish formally between
theology and philosophy, the content and tendency of the two
show marked differences. Philosophy as it has existed in the
Western world has been concerned primarily with the con-
struction of some world- view which finds its unity in a general
conception such as the ideas of Plato and the idea of Hegel.
Once having gained such an a priori principle, instead of
working toward experience; it has by a process of abstraction
worked away from experience. In the place of personal rela-
tions it has substituted those of logic. Pragmatism, it is true,
is an exception to this general tendency, but pragmatism
itself is more concerned with the problems of reality and knowl-
edge than with the systematic presentation of the relations of
man and God as theology conceives them. And there is a
further distinction between pragmatism and theology in that
theology cannot be content to find its subject-matter wholly
in the region of experience. Theology, since its subject-
matter is primarily religion, must always involve a meta-
physical reality, and above all emphasize relations between
God and men.
A comparison of philosophies with theology will show still
another difference. Whereas the organizing, unifying prin-
ciples of philosophy are, with the exception of those of prag-
matism, in the realm of the meta-experiential, in the case of
theology the unifying principle is some presupposition which
determines social experience as a whole. In giving form and
rational acceptability to its formulations the theology of the
schools has utilized dominant philosophies, but this process
belongs to the second rather than to the original and creative
stratum of the organizing process. A theological system,
50 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
as distinguished from its amplification, has sprung from the
same subconscious social mind as that from which has sprung
political theory. Interaction between politics and theology
is always to be noted, but neither is strictly the origin of the
other. The parallelism between the two is due to their com-
mon origin. It is this fact that in part explains the survival
in highly developed types of theology of those concepts which
are fully intelligible only when they are historically valued as
drawn from the experience of different economic and political
stages through which the people creating the theology have
passed in its development.
Such a fact is easily appreciated. Theology is essentially
concerned with relations or situations in which man and God
are both involved. But to describe relations men inevitably
make use of relations already in experience. In religion men
seek help; they justify that search by the use of those cate-
gories of social experience in which help has already been
found and its methods of operation organized. And, further-
more, a religion and its consequent theology has been the
possession of a total group like the church, and has conse-
quently relied upon customs, rites, and ceremonies as embody-
ing its truths.
Such control exercised by the non-religious presuppositions
of social experience over a theological system, whether it be
simple or highly developed, is inevitable, since such a system
is only one phase of a social mind. A philosophical treatment
of religion, and particularly a philosophy of religion, are always
likely to overlook this fact because of their tendency to deal
with concepts abstracted from experience. But speaking
strictly, there is no history of doctrine ; there is only the history
of men who hold doctrines. A "doctrinal man" is as impos-
sible as an "economic man." Theology has been even slower
than political economy to recognize this fact; but as soon as
the doctrine-making process is seen to be only one phase of an
evolving civilization, its social aspect at once appears clear,
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 51
and the approach to theology is seen to be through history
and group-life rather than through philosophy. Indeed, it
may be said that when philosophy becomes dominant in
theology the period of creative theology, like the period of
creative mythology, has closed.
D. THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
I. THE CREATIVE SOCIAL MIND
Occidental civilization has resulted from the genetic
succession of several creative social minds. These social
minds have been the outcome of social experience of various
sorts. Christianity, as a developing religion by which men
of different grades of culture have sought to gain help from
God in accord with the teaching and person of Jesus Christ,
has appropriated and built into itself these dominant social
minds, which in turn have been expressions of creative social
forces. As social experience varies new intellectual con-
cepts result. Doctrine-making, when analyzed, is the group-
formulation or modification of inherited religious beliefs in
accordance with these new concepts, for the purpose of vin-
dicating and directing religious self-expression. Generally
such formulation gives birth to but one doctrine in an epoch.
To put the matter more distinctly, theology is the out-
growth of the needs of religion for intellectual expression.
Wherever religion is practiced, it is forced to meet the needs set
by the social life of those to whom it ministers. In the nature
of the case, the satisfaction of these needs, as well as the
needs themselves, are determined by the habits and thought
and social activity of any given epoch. Religious doubts or
religious controversies, whixh have been the usual occasion
of doctrinal growth, have in general sprung from the tension of
soul resulting from the failure of inherited religious formulas
to meet needs set by the dominant and creative social minds.
The doctrines of Christianity have thus been religiously
52 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
functional rather than absolute, and the development of
Christianity has thus inevitably been a social process.
The fact that in the midst of these successive social minds
Christianity has proceeded in a definite direction, and has
bred true to itself, is an argument that a generic but not
absolutely and finally formulated Christianity is to be found
by a study of the successive periods of creative theological
thought. Such periods are epochs of that genetically related
creative activity which has expressed itself in the successive
social minds which have constituted the continuous stream of
Western history. A nation without social development natu-
rally has no developing theology.
The relation of doctrine to the creative social mind from
which both the new religious needs and their satisfaction
spring is not quite as simple, however, as what has been said
might imply. While a social mind has been formulating the
particular doctrine demanded by the same new creative social
impulse, it has usually accepted and defended other doctrines
which it has inherited from a long line of predecessors. Thus
new doctrines appear only at what might be called the tension-
points of intellectual and social progress. These, however,
are not, strictly speaking, inventions, but the organization of
truths already held implicitly in the Christian religion, much
as elements of a developing civilization are implicit in its
fundamental genius.
Quite as important is the further fact that just as some
persons have alternating personalities, so most epochs have
more than one social mind. In fact, much of the progress of
history is due to the conflict between these social minds, each
of which has tended to shape up some characteristic religious
expression.
These counter social minds express the social experience
of minorities unproductive of immediate historical develop-
ment. When expressing themselves in theology, they have
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 53
given rise to the opposition theologies which have been side-
tracked into the Umbo of heresy. The fact that the developing
system of Christian teaching which we call orthodoxy per-
sisted was not due to any superficial causes like persecution or
state support. These indeed were agents, but the funda-
mental explanation why one doctrine rather than another
triumphed during moments of creative struggle is that it
served better than the other the needs begotten by the con-
tinuously developing and dominant social experience. Could,
for example, true progress in social development, any more
than in theology, ever have resulted from social minds which
could have been satisfied with gnosticism or the essential
polytheism of Arius or the atomistic philosophy of Pelagius ?
Counter-theologies have been valuable because they each have
recognized something not included in the theology which
ministered directly to the dominant social mind; but, despite
common belief regarding heresies, they have never become
some future orthodoxy. These theologies failed to function
directly in the actual course of development of both society
and Christianity. At the best they were of influence only as
contributing causes of new social minds.
These counter-theologies or heresies failed to persist for
two reasons: they did not tend toward the increasing
knowledge of reality; and, however much influence they
may have had in affecting the course of the development
of orthodoxy, they have not satisfied the religious needs set
by the dominant social minds which determined the main
course of history.
Only those Christian conceptions for which the genetically
connected dominant social minds of successive periods have
shown affinity have given the real content to our growing
religion. In them, as by a sort of MendeHan formula, the
generic quality of Christianity is to be found. Dominant
traits alone have persisted in vigor.
54 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
2. THE CREATIVE SOCIAL MINDS WHICH HAVE MADE OCCI-
DENTAL HISTORY
The creative social minds which have made Occidental
history during this Christian era are the Semitic, which gave
us the New Testament and the messianic drama; the Hellen-
istic, which gave us ecumenical dogma; the imperialistic,
which gave us the doctrine of sin and the Roman church;
the feudal, which gave us the first real theory of atonement;
the national, which gave us Protestantism; the bourgeois,
which gave us modern evangelicalism; and the modern or
scientific-democratic mind, which must give us the theology
of tomorrow. It is not without importance that each of
these dominant social minds has had its particular place of
birth. Syria, the Hellenistic territory. Western Europe,
Germany, England, and America have each been the home
of one of these social minds which have resulted in doctrinal
development. And it is not improbable that the Western
movement of our civilization may yet add still another phase
of social as well as doctrinal development — the cosmopolitan-
fraternal, which, so far as the church is concerned, will find its
birthplace in Asia.
a) The contribution of the Semitic social mind to Christian
theology. — Christianity considered theologically perpetuates
the transcendental politics of the Hebrew. Sovereignty and
subjects, law and judgment, punishment and rehabilitation,
these great rubrics which express the presuppositions con-
trolling the highest social activity of the Hebrew, became
the skeleton of their religious thought. Christianity springs
genetically, however, not directly from the Hebraism of the
Old Testament, but from the Judaism of New Testament
times. Its principles are those of Hebraism re-expressed in
the messianic hope.
How far Christianity at its start was from being a phi-
losophy appears not only from the teaching of Jesus but also
from the expressed hostihty of Paul to what he called "the
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 55
wisdom of this world," a hostility which was vigorously urged
by such church Fathers as Tertullian. The latter's treatise,
The Prescription of Heretics, is a plea for the siipremacy of a
dramatic theology as over against a philosophy. But neither
Paul nor Tertullian was apart from other Christian writers.
The theology to which they held was the limit within which
philosophically minded Christians like Justin and Origen
debated. This theology epitomized in regulafidei was nothing
more nor less than a transcendentalized theory of that con-
ception of government which was an unconscious but deter-
minative presupposition of the entire social life of the ancient
world. And its schema was the messianism which had been
brought over from Judaism.
Messianism undoubtedly had deep roots which must be
traced back into the hopes and mythologies of ancient nations,
particularly those of Baylonia and Persia, whose civilizations
had affected Judaism. But there is no chief root that does
not finally end in social practice. However great or, as it
seems to me more probable, however slight may have been the
role of the Gilgamesh epic in Jewish messianism, it is colored
by the political habits of the age in which it arose. Similarly
in the case of the influence of the Persian religion. Whatever
may have been the relative importance of the reciprocal influ-
ence of Mazdaism and Hebraism, the outcome in either case
was a religious hope that involved transcendental politics.
The Jewish messianic hope passed through two stages, both
formally political. In the first the Jews believed that Yahweh
would re-establish through ordinary methods the Jewish
state as supreme over all its enemies; and in the second they
hoped that the same triumphant nation would be established,
not in the ordinary course of history, but by the miraculous
intervention of God through his Anointed. Messianism is as
truly political in its transcendental as in its politico-revolu-
tionary stage. A sovereign God who seeks to establish his
Kingdom by the conquest of the rival kingdom of Satan; a
56 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
vice-gerent through whom the divine sovereign works and who
is to conquer the hostile kingdom and establish the Kingdom
of God in which the law of God is to be established; a new
age in which God is to be the supreme sovereign and his people
supremely blessed while the arch-antagonist is bound and
punished with his followers; a day of judgment in which the
triumphant king metes out the fate of all mankind in accord-
ance with its loyalty or disloyalty — these are the fundamental
elements of the program of messianism. The resurrection
simply assured the disposition of all mankind in the final
world-order. It requires no argument to show that this
schema is fundamental to Christian theology, and that it is
indeed the organizing principle of theology as it subsequently
was developed in the Western world and less imperfectly
in the Greek church. Whatever else philosophy may have
accomplished in the development of doctrine, it has never
obscured these fundamental rubrics which were carried over
into religion from the social presuppositions on which the
ancient civilization was ultimately based. Indeed, Christian
theology as an organized system might be described as the
philosophical expansion of a political dramatic scenario in
which the future and present relations of men and God are
set forth in terms drawn from the political experience of the
Jewish people.
Literature. — On the messianic hope, see Schiirer, Jewish People
in the Time of Jesus Christ, III, § 29 (New York: Scribner, 1891);
Mathews, The Messianic Hope in the New Testament, Part I (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1905).
b) Some non-political elements in New Testament
thought. — At two points this schema is modified in the New
Testament and by later writers by the addition of non-political
elements, which are really the most essential in Christianity.
There is first the spiritual experience of the Christian. This is
in turn twofold. Those phenomena which are called in the
New Testament the gifts of the Holy Ghost have never been
THE HISTORIC.\L STUDY OF RELIGION 57
thoroughly worked into orthodoxy and have always been
emphasized among groups (e.g., the Montanists) who have
been to a considerable degree regarded as heretical. The
reason is very plain. The general schema of historical ortho-
doxy is transcendental politics redefined by the use of other
elements of social experience and rationalized in detail by
current philosophy. In such a schema there is no room for
mysticism. That must always be extra-orthodox.
Yet the second sort of spiritual experience, the actual
transfonnation of the believer by God, has always been empha-
sized by theology. In Greek Christianity this element played
a very large role. We see it in the '' recapitulation " by Jesus,
so attractive to Irenaeus, and even more in the conception of
salvation as the theizing of human nature into incorruption.
At one time it even bade fair to become the organizing prin-
ciple for an entire system. But the development of Greek
theology was arrested in its christological epoch, and Western
theology became so far committed to a forensic outline of
teaching that the saving transformation of the believer was
attached to the idea of the church and its sacraments instead
of being allowed to organize Christian teaching into a vital
system. Yet it has always persisted in Western theology
as a sort of parallel orthodoxy. If it instead of the messianic
drama had become really central in orthodoxy, doctrinal
development would have been far more vital and less authori-
tative. In modern theology this spiritual and vital element
is assuming a new importance and constitutes one of the great
constructive principles for a theology which shall be more in
accord with the presuppositions of modern social life so
radically different from those expressed in absolute monarchy.
Completely outside of the inherited messianic drama, it is
essential Christianity itself.
A second element, too little used by orthodoxy because
it also lies outside of the politico-religious drama of messian-
ism, is the experience of Jesus himself. All theologians, it is
58 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
true, have generalized this element of historical Christianity
in the same proportion as they have not been dominated by
the transcendental politics of messianism, but the really
personal life and significance of Jesus have lain outside of the
norm of doctrinal development. Indeed, Christology has
never been whole-heartedly interested in Jesus, even though
it has devoted itself to his natures and person. The reason is
simple: in the messianic schema the Christ is essentially
functional. He must perform the work of God's vice-gerent.
For such an ofiice his earthly life was of small significance.
Even his resurrection, which, if once accepted as historical,
has a meaning wholly independent of the messianic argument,
has been made contributory to the proof of his divine office.
The chief interest in the anti-Arian movement out of which
orthodoxy rose lay in the desire for assurance that the Savior
was divine. The ethical imphcations in the belief were all
but overlooked.
Yet in the actual experiences of the historical Jesus with
their wealth of religious and moral appeal there was over-
looked another organizing principle which modern theology
recognizes, but to which historical orthodoxy was blind,
because such experiences were not readily systematized in
the messianic-drama theology.
The reason that the messianic drama became the vertebral
column, so to speak, of Christian doctrine is not far to seek.
It is primitive Christianity itself, minus only these experi-
mental elements. The New Testament and other early Chris-
tian literature make it plain that the conquest of Christianity
was due primarily to an enthusiasm born of the belief that the
entire messianic program was to be immediately fulfilled and
that those who accepted Jesus in his messianic capacity would
participate in the joys of the literal kingdom which he was to
establish. The beliefs with which Christianity started on its
conquest of the Roman Empire were utterly foreign to phi-
losophy and were as dramatic as the social experience in which
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 59
the early Christians shared. Recall only the impassioned
hopes and arguments of Ignatius. To think of Christianity as
originally an ethical, sociological, or philosophical movement
is to misinterpret it completely. The elements of its hope
were concrete and their unity was the unity of a drama.
Therein was Christian theology in outline.
Literature. — ^Literature on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is vast,
but mostly dogmatic or mystical in character. For more scientific
treatment reference may be made to Wood, The Spirit of God in Biblical
Literature (New York: Armstrong, 1904); Swete, The Holy Spirit in the
Church (London: MacmUlan, 1915); Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion
(London: Macmillan, 1909); Fleming, Mysticism in Christianity
(London: Scott, 1913); Cohh, Mysticism in the Creeds {London: Mac-
millan, 1914).
c) The Hellenistic social mind.— When primitive Chris-
tianity entered into the Greco-Roman world in the eastern
part of the Empire, it entered a world untrained in the mes-
sianic hope. It was therefore forced to restate itself in such
forms as would satisfy certain very definite religious needs
on the part of perhaps the most complicated social mind which
the world has ever seen prior to that of modern days.
The social mind of the eastern or Hellenistic part of the
Roman Empire was excluded from political and social expres-
sions by the policy adopted by the Roman conquerors. While
there were incidental reforms instituted in various cities of the
Empire, the religious need of the Greco-Roman life was essen-
tially metaphysical and dramatically mystical. On the one
side there was a need of an absolute God as over against
idolatry; and on the other side there was the yearning for
salvation through union or at least fellowship with this God.
The former of these two needs appears everywhere in the
philosophical writings, but most characteristically in the Stoic
term "Logos." The second of these needs is apparent in the
rapid spread of the drama-mystery religions with their promise
of salvation from evil and death through the union by worship
with some god like Osiris or Mithra.
6o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
When the message of Christian salvation came to this
Greco-Roman world, it was immediately found capable
of satisfying these two dominant, needs of the social mind.
What the other religions promised, Christianity, through
the course of several hundred years of bitter struggle and
persecution, actually supplied to the satisfaction of both the
metaphysician and the mystic. The form taken by this
satisfaction was the Nicene formula of a God who is meta-
physically and substantially one and yet in terms of experi-
ence has manifested himself personally so as to come into
vital relationship with sinful man. The later discussions
of the nature and person of Christ were not superimposed
upon the original Christian religion, but were the growth of
the new exposition of the content of the new doctrine of God.
The old conceptions persisted, but were interpreted through
new carrying concepts. The Nicene theology, so far from
being an addition to Christianity, was vital Christianity
itself functioning in certain definite religious conditions and
under the control of the Hellenistic social mind. Arianism
failed not so much because it was finally outlawed as because
it did not so express the elemental Christian impulse and belief
as to satisfy the needs of the Greco-Roman social mind.
Literature. — On Roman and Greek religions in the time of the New
Testament, see Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius
(New York: Macmillan, 1904) ; Mahaffy, The Greek World mider Roman
Sway (New York: Macmillan, 1890); and especially Cumont, Les
religions orientales dans le paganisme romain (Paris: Leroux, 1906;
English translation, The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism [Chicago:
Open Court Co., 191 1]). For general discussion of the influence of
Greco-Roman religions in the development of Christianity, see Case,
The Evolution of Early Christianity (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 191 5); Kennedy, St. Paul atid the Mystery Religions (London:
Hodder & Stoughton, 1913).
The philosophizing of theologians- of the early church
never destroyed their Christian inheritance. By the middle
of the second century, however, the messianic expectation had
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 6i
ceased to be concrete and had become transcendental. True,
there were those like the Montanists who fought against this
transformation and sought to maintain the messianic drama-
theology in full literalism. But so strong had become the
tendency to revalue the messianic program as a philosophy
that this more primitive type of Christianity was repeatedly
relegated to the limbo of heresy. Notwithstanding the
contributions made by Tertullian to Christian doctrine and
vocabulary, the line of theological development runs not
through him, but through that remarkable group of Alex-
andrians who made regula fidei the basis of a theology by
synthesizing the messianic drama with Hellenistic culture.
This transition can be observed primarily in two par-
ticulars, (i) With the disappearance of the hope that the
heavenly Kingdom would be immediately established the^
Christian teachers passed from the heralding to the rationahz-
ing of their message of deliverance. At once they became
involved in disputes with representatives of contemporary
philosophies, all of them profoundly interested in cosmplogical
speculations.
We have so little first-hand knowledge of men like Marcion
that it is unsafe to speculate as to what Christianity might
have become had the church leaders not stood manfully by the
messianic outline, but it can hardly be doubted that the new
religion would have been lost in the swarming gnostic sects.
The line of defense as laid down by TertuUian was impHcity
itself. "Away with all attempts to produce a mottled Chris-
tianity of Stoic, Platonic, and dialectic composition! We
want no curious disputation after possessing Christ Jesus, no
inquisition after enjoying the gospel! With our faith we
desire no further belief. For this is our palmary faith, that
there is nothing which we ought to believe besides." Ter-
tullian's final appeal is to regula fidei, which is the very quintes-
sence of an unphilosophical, dramatic summary of Christian
messianism.
62 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
(2) But the Alexandrine teachers chose quite another
method. With them regula fidei was final, but it was also
defensible philosophically. Accordingly, for centuries the
defense proceeded in the way of giving the Messiah a cos-
mological value. Materials for such redefinition lay close
at hand in the New Testament terms "Son of God" and
"Logos."
In the New Testament usage the term "Son of God" was
simply a synonym for "Messiah," and the Pauline usage by
no means served to modify the politico-dramatic expectation
of messianism. In the hands of the Alexandrine theologians,
however, it passed from the social presuppositions of politics
to the even more universal presupposition of generation.
A study of Justin Martyr and Origen will enable one to trace
this clearly. Instead of the conquering king we have the
incarnate God foretold by the prophets; and this doctrine of
incarnation which played practically no role whatever in Paul-
inism becomes a central feature of the new interpretation of
regula fidei. But the transition from the political to the
parental-filial presupposition may be seen even before Justin
in the struggles of Docetism to reach a rational Christology.
Indeed, the dangers inherent in this heresy appear in the
Johannine epistles, where a test of genuine Christian belief is
to be seen in the assertion that the Christ has come in the
flesh. The question under discussion did not concern the
Godhead but the historical person Jesus. How could the Son
of God be genuinely human? The source of the difficulty
in accepting the Hebraic conception of unction is doubtless
to be found in the fact that Christianity had passed from the
Jewish people, where messianism in its full content was a
religious presupposition, to the Gentile world, in which the
possibility of incarnation through divine generation was a
universally accepted presupposition. But even here it will be
observed that the transition is from one social presupposition
to another— from politics to paternity.
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 63
Literature. — ^Hamack, History of Dogma (English translation [Boston :
Little, Brown & Co., 1896-1900]), is the great authority on the devel-
opment of early doctrine.
A more genuinely philosophical concept appears in the
Logos. The most significant transition in the history of
Christology occurred when the Logos of cosmological sig-
nificance was identified with the begotten Son of God and the
new conception was injected into the old messianic formula
of regula fidei. The Logos, then, with Justin became the
revealer of a new and sacred philosophy.
This tendency to elevate concrete dramatic expectation
into a transcendental, philosophical formula reached its cul-
mination when the contest over the sonship of the Logos
passed from the realm of history into the realm of the meta-
physics of the Godhead and the center of interest in the Son
became not Jesus but the second person of a trinity. Just as
the Kingdom of God ceased to become a definite social order
upon the earth and became a transcendental heaven did the
doctrine of divine sonship pass from the stage of history into
the stage of metaphysics. But again the mold in which the
new doctrine was shaped was not in itself metaphysical but
one of social experience. The great discussion of the century
that culminated in the Council of Nicea centered about two
terms, "eternal generation" and persona. We are accus-
tomed to overlook this fact because so much attention came
to be centered upon the metaphysical term " consubstantial " ;
but consubstantiability was only a marker for the genuine
content expressed by the sonship of the Logos through eternal
generation rather than creation. And as any fair study of
Athanasius will show, it is the expression "begotten, not
made" which is the real heart of the Nicene Creed. Con-
substantiability was a dangerous metaphysical concept
blurred by Latin philistinism, used as a shibboleth against
Arianism to protect the content of "eternal generation."
The organon, so to speak, by which "eternal generation"
64 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
was rationalized was the legal term suggested by the lawyer
Tertullian, persona. While it is true that in the entire trini-
tarian controversy the tendency was toward abstraction, it is
beyond question that the final decision of the Nicene Council
was regarded, not as a completely metaphysical, but rather
as a dramatic and symbolic expression. The opposition which
Athanasius felt to the word " consubstantial " was largely due
to his fear lest the word should involve Christian theology in
metaphysical heresies. What he and his party desired was
the maintenance of the actual relationship which the figure
"eternal generation" expressed. The appropriation of per-
sona, a term so essential to Roman law, was due to the fact
that it connoted something that gave the theological truth
a universalized social, i.e., forensic, connotation. However
metaphysical the language of the disputants in the Arian
controversy, the synthetic rather than the definitive force of
the term appears from the well-known expression of Augustine
to the effect that the word persona is used to express a fact
which really transcends formal definition.
Literature. — Paine, A Critical History of the Evolution of Trinitarian-
ism (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1900), is a readable account of a
difficult matter.
But while thus the messianic term Christ lost much of its
original content and became metaphysical, the entire schema
of the Christian hope remained unchanged. The philoso-
phizing of ecumenical Christianity never affected the dramatic
program contained in the old Roman symbol, and even its
metaphysical Trinitarianism was itself determined by the
analogies of social experience. The ecumenical creeds never
passed beyond the relation of the Son to the Father except as
regards the person of Jesus and, somewhat incidentally, in
the matter of the procession of the Holy Ghost, and never
attempted to reorganize the messianic program as a whole.
d) Latin orthodoxy as determined by imperalism.— When
one passes from ecumenical to Latin theology, the dominance
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 65
of the original messianic program is at once apparent. Whereas
the Greeks with their constitutional inability to organize
politically turned to the concept of salvation as a gaining of
immortality, the Latin world with its passion for administra-
tion and law undertook to develop the governmental pre-
suppositions which lay back of the primitive Christian hope.
Indeed, the history of doctrinal development in the Western
world might be described as the construction of a theology
on the basis of transcendental politics. Theology thus
advanced parallel with the development of the church as an
institution.
As the Christian religion spread westward it carried with
itself not only the original messianic conception but also these
new formulas so full of religious power. It was not merely
church authority which prevailed in their acceptance; it was
a new intellectual and religious harmony. Anything less than
a Christ possessed of the divine nature was repudiated by that
Western social mind of which Augustine is the epitome and
expression. The success of Arianism among certain German
tribes simply makes the real progress of generic Christianity
more obvious.
As all students of institutions would admit, it was really
in the West that the Roman genius best expressed itself.
It was in Italy, Gaul, and Spain that by an epoch-making series
of experiments the Roman world evolved the imperial idea.
To the East this idea was carried in terms of officialism, but
the ancient civilizations were too deeply bedded to be replaced
by Roman methods, and remained a force against which the
imperial idea struggled only to find itself transformed into
likeness to Oriental despotism. In the Western world the
imperial idea was really creative. It built up new civilizations
and worked itself into the very tissues of a growing new world.
Naturally it was in the Western world that the deep religious
need was felt of administrative efficiency in religion akin to the
political efficiency of the Empire. This was especially felt
66 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
when the Empire itself began to weaken, and the only con-
servative or preservative force in the Western civilization was
the church. It was natural, therefore, that Christianity
should have still further developed itself in terms of con-
temporary social efficiency. The Roman Catholic church
was not the invention of this or that man; it was rather the
outcome of the union of the vital impulses of Christianity, in
part already recognized, with the social mind of the Western
world. So thoroughly did it satisfy the need of the region in
which the institutions of Rome persisted that to this day
there is a well-marked social and political— not to mention
religious — distinction between the countries which had been
thoroughly Romanized and those countries of Northern
Europe where Roman influence had never triumphed, or
where Roman institutions were destroyed by un-Romanized
invaders.
But Christianity in Western Europe came in contact with
another widespread social attitude, the pessimism and distrust
of human nature so inevitable in a period when a civilization
literally disintegrates before peoples' eyes. Almost para-
doxically the great religious need which this terrible collapse
of civilization engendered was some teaching that could
raise men from trust in discredited hvunan nature to trust in
an eternal and supreme God. Augustine formulated and fixed
this new phase in the Christian religion. His doctrine of sin
is, of course, involved in the New Testament, but with him
it was systematized in our religion. Christianity was not only
organized in terms of liberation from the natural corruption of
human nature, but was made to serve the purposes of faith in
a God who was greater than his world and was not dependent
upon human virtue to bring about his ends. The doctrine of
original sin and of God's sovereignty were, therefore, by no
means accretions, but the expressions of the vital impulse of
Christianity as it brought power and courage to the mind of
Western Europe.
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 67
e) Feudalism and Christian theology. — The history of the
Middle Ages gains unity as one sees imperialism expressed in
the Holy Roman Empire; but so far as Christianity was con-
cerned, this attempt at a social order administered by Jesus
Christ through his two vice-gerents, emperor and pope,
expressed itself almost entirely within the development of the
church itself. There was, however, another creative social
mind which was to have powerful influence on the develop-
ment of Christian thought — feudalism.
Feudalism as a creative conception of social relationships
is not difficult to state, however much we may fail to under-
stand its origin. It is the expression of life subject to definite
economic conditions, temporary, it is true, but, wherever
found, pervading all the thinking of its social order. Chris-
tianity came to the world of feudalism with its well-developed
message of a triune sovereign God, of a Savior possessed of the
divine nature and of original sin. Anselm endeavored to
think these three together by systematizing the divine method
of salvation according to the principles of feudalism. The
significance of the death of Christ, though a part of the original
message, had never been systematized with other Christian
behef. It had been set forth dramatically as sacrifice or
ransom. Such dramatic presentations had been carried over
into the church services, as the mass; but minds dominated
by the social conceptions of feudalism and the passion for
system seen in scholasticism could not be content to leave
their rehgion with no connecting thought between salvation
from sin and the all-perfect God. Such systematizing was
accomplished by Anselm's extension of feudaj concepts into
the realm of theology. As a complement of the inherited
doctrines, the death of Christ was shown by him to be the
satisfaction of the honor of God, injured by man's sin. Thus
Christianity found itself for the first time possessed of com-
plete s}Tnmetry. While the Anselmic doctrine of the atone-
ment never became a part of official orthodoxy in any such
68 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
sense as did the philosophy of substance and the behef in
original sin, it did none the less give direction to the de-
velopment of Christian thought. From his time Chris-
tianity has always seen in the death of Christ something
which has made plain to the world the ethical unity of a
forgiving Sovereign.
Literature. — Taylor, The Mediaeval Mind (New York: Macmillan,
191 1), is a masterly treatment of this fascinating subject on Anselm,
See the English translation of the Cur Deus Homo (Chicago: Open
Court Co., 1903), and Foley, Anselm' s Doctrine of the Atonement (New
York: Longmans, 1909).
/) The nationalistic social mind and theology. — The period
which followed feudalism was essentially a struggle between
the imperialistic conception in Church and State and the new
spirit of monarchy and individualism. The Reformation was
far more than a mere theological or even church struggle. It
rooted itself in a changing order with new economic, political,
and cultural forces. On its religious side it was an extension
into theology of the same forces which were operative in the
shaping of our modern state, and, conversely, an extension
into the course of political development of those spiritual
conceptions which give worth to personality.
But at this point we notice the practical completion of
another religious development in terms of Roman Catholicism.
Just as the Greek church has never markedly advanced
beyond the theological development expressed in the ecu-
menical creeds, so the Latin church stopped its development
at the point reached by scholasticism, imperialism, and
feudalism. Individual dogmas, it is true, have been added by
the Latin church, but they have been little more than formal
ratifications of beliefs involved in ecclesiastical imperialism.
The Roman Curia in its present struggle with Modernism is
thoroughly consistent in its insistence that its theologians
shall revert to the study of Thomas Aquinas, and this fact
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 69
makes it plain that the Roman church as yet does not pro-
pose to be influenced constructively by the new social minds
which have created periods since the sixteenth century.
Speaking generally, and with due regard for the appar-
ently exceptional situation in France, in those nations which
embraced the new monarchical conception born of the new
conditions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the develop-
ment of Christianity has proceeded in terms of Protestantism.
Conversely, Protestant theology has been marked by an
extension into theology of the monarchical idea as opposed
to the imperialistic. This is less true in the case of Luther
than in that of Calvin, but the change is obvious in the new
interest shown by the sixteenth century in God's sovereignty
and in the substitution of the satisfaction of his punitive
(sovereign) justice for the satisfaction of his unsatisfied
(feudal) honor. But such a development has been genetic.
Protestantism, notwithstanding its laxity in some of its
organizing concepts, has held true to the formulas of ecumeni-
cal orthodoxy.
The effort of Deism to build up a sort of cosmic constitu-
tional monarchy similar to that which was being built up
contemporaneously in England is a striking illustration of
the impossibility for the social mind to shape up a permanent
religious concept that does not embody the fundamental
Christian concepts as to God. In its failure to perpetuate
the belief that God is in actual control of his world Deism
was also an illustration of the fact that the elements of generic
Christianity are to be recognized in their capacity so to unite
with the dominant social minds as to produce doctrines which
satisfy all succeeding social minds. A constitutionally limited
God is a religious impossibility for the scientific mind. He
must be absolute or he is not God.
g) The age of revolutions and theology. — The eighteenth
century might be described as the period in which the bourgeois
70 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
class became dominant in politics through revolution. It
followed naturally, therefore, that its influence should be felt
in all phases of social life. This can be seen in the rapid exten-
sion of commerce, the spread of a limited democracy, as well
as in the establishment of our present capitalistic system.
But quite as clearly it can be seen in the field of religion.
The bourgeois social mind had inherited the Protestant
theology with its emphasis upon metaphysical matters such
as those of free will and foreordination. Its needs, however,
were vastly more practical than those which the professional
theologians and the higher ecclesiastics could satisfy. There
resulted, therefore, from the interplay of Christianity with
this new spirit an emphasis on the atonement largely in com-
mercial terms which was to have much the same influence in
religion as the bourgeois movement had exercised in politics.
For it is to this union that we owe evangelicalism, that char-
acteristic type of religious interest which was so evident
among churchmen of all Christian bodies in the first half of the
nineteenth century. Centering as it did around the substi-
tutionary atonement, it brought home afresh to a commercial
age the vitalizing conception of a divine love that dared to
suffer in order to serve. A great and sacrificial conception of
God could not fail to find expression in the religious life of the
church. However selfish and commercial certain forms of
evangelicalism may appear, however much it has failed to
appreciate the inefficiency of aristocratic conceptions in
morality, to it are due the abolition of slavery, reforms in
prisons, and the care of the insane and of the poor, the estab-
lishment of Young Men's Christian Associations, Bible and
foreign mission societies, colleges, and theological seminaries.
Altogether evangelicaUsm is to be credited with profoundly
ethical sympathies.
This bourgeois attitude took two other very different
theological directions. On the one side was Unitarianism, in
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 71
which, like an insurgent bourgeoisie, a respectable humanity,
sensitive to its natural rights in the sight of a sovereign God,
rose up and repudiated belief in total depravity, and, in
consequence, the orthodox conceptions of God and Christ.
On the other side was Wesleyanism, which became a training
school of religious democracy, vital religious experience, and
aggressive but not excessively theological orthodox>^ The
subsequent history of these two movements shows clearly
which best represented generic Christianity in its relation with
the dominant social mind. Wesleyanism and its kindred
nonconformist groups live on, possessed of unchecked power
of spiritual parentage.
h) The modem social mind.— At this point we come to the
modern world in which tendencies are as yet hardly sufficiently
developed to be traced with precision. But the religious needs
of the dominant social mind are at once apparent. Trained
as we are in scientific thought and surrounded as we are by the
forces of an adolescent democracy, it is inevitable that we
should seek to satisfy rehgious needs in accordance with these
dominant forces. In the light of the past it is inevitable that
these satisfactions will be gained only on the condition that
first, they include the vital propagating elements of Chris-
tianity rather than some current philosophy; and, secondly,
that the dominant social mind, rather than some counter
or fractional or anachronistic social mind, be permitted to
shape up dramatically rather than metaphysically the
formulas of our religious thinking. The latter demand is
perhaps a little more clearly organized than the former. We
can appreciate the demand of a scientific method and we can
formulate with some precision the share which democracy
must have in our religious development; but the religious
thinkers of the day are not yet at one as to what elements of
our inherited religion are essential to the continued efficiency
of Christianity.
72 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
E. WHY THEOLOGY HAS NOT DEVELOPED PARALLEL
WITH THE PRESUPPOSITIONS OF SOCIAL
EXPERIENCE
While thus the influence of the presuppositions of social
experience is to be traced in the development of doctrinal
systems, it is also true that there has been no such complete
parallelism in the development of theology and social insti-
tutions as might be expected. Theologies have not always
been orthodox, but they have seldom reached wide acceptance
when diverging widely. Furthermore, periods of intellectual
and political progress have always been marked by distrust
as well as transformation of theological systems.
The reason for these discrepancies between the logical and
the actual relation of theology to the social mind are not far
to seek.
a) The influence of philosophy. — In the first place, theology
has always been checked in its response to the creative social
forces by a tendency to become a philosophy. The history
of theology on the one side may be described as a struggle
between these dramatic conceptions in which men have
endeavored to make real to themselves the significance of their
religious beliefs and philosophy. Such a conflict was inevi-
table from the fact, already noted, that philosophy is both
the product of the same social experience as theological
thought, and at the same time is a phase of that social mind
with which theology has to reckon. In its earlier stages
theology was forced into conflict with systems of thought
which undertook to organize Christianity in terms of some
cosmological or metaphysical principle. Especially was this
true in the case of the great contest lasting for centuries
between Catholicism and Gnosticism. The gnostic movement,
strictly speaking, was not theological. Combining the cos-
mological idea of emanation and the theosophical idea of
dualism, it undertook to embody in itself such elements of the
New Testament as it could. Its success was great, and there
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 73
resulted what might fairly be called a rival religion which was
Christian only in the sense that it embodied certain elements
of Christianity in a synthetic philosophical schema covering
all phases of human thought.
In their struggle with this rival the Christian thinkers,
as has already been pointed out, strove to do two things:
first, to maintain the supremacy of the messianic schema
which was involved in the baptismal symbol and regula fidei;
and, second, to show forth the philosophical significance of
such doctrines as were in process of formulation. That
Catholicism conquered was due to many causes, but doubtless
as much as any to the fact that, although cosmological sig-
nificance was given to Christ reconceived as Logos, the second
person of the Trinity, the Catholic scheme of doctrine was not
subjected to that world- view which was the basis of the gnostic
teaching. On one side Catholicism protected itself by the
criticism of the extravagant ideas of Gnosticism and on the
other side by the appeal to that which had been "always,
everywhere, and by all" believed. This latter appeal was of
course not an answer to the claim of Gnosticism to be the true
philosophy of religion, but it did succeed in making clear that
Gnosticism was not the Christianity which was contained in
the New Testament. Furthermore, in refusing to answer
philosophical objections to Christianity by philosophical
arguments and by concentrating attention upon its strictly
theological elements, Catholicism accomplished two things:
it preserved the theological elements which it had inherited,
and it repudiated a view of theology as of necessity adapting
itself to current modes of thought at the expense of its own
criteria.
It has been inevitable, therefore, that in the same propor-
tion as a philosophy has become identified with the strictly
theological elements of a church system the two should have
been, carried along together. A striking illustration of that
is Thomas Aquinas, whose Christianized Aristotelianism
74 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
thoroughly identified philosophical method and point of
view with theological positions. The current struggle of the
Roman Curia with Modernism is an illustration of how a
theology which has grown rigid through the dogmatizing
of philosophical concepts fails to respond to the new presup-
positions which condition the evolution of social experience
and philosophy itself. But similar illustrations could be
drawn from Lutheranism and Calvinism. Each of these
great systems has suffered a hardening of the arteries of
theology because of the introduction into it of philosophical
concepts transformed into orthodoxy by ecclesiastical and
political authority. In consequence neither system responds
readily to the modern mind.
b) The retarding influence of doctrinal orthodoxy. — Thus
we are brought to the second reason for the failure of theology
to develop pari passu with social evolution. The philosophiz-
ing of theology might have been to a considerable extent
rectified in the course of the development of Christianity had
it not been rendered static by being transformed into authori-
tative orthodoxy.
A student of church history does not need to be told how
this process proceeded. Generally speaking, it may be said
to have begun in an attempt at some adjustment of the in-
herited Christian faith to a philosophical mode of thinking;
this was followed by a period of controversy in which the
defenders of the inherited regula fidei were forced to justify
their position by the use of some philosophical concept; there-
upon there occurred the holding of a council which formulated
the doctrine in dispute in accordance with regula fidei or creed
and the philosophy of its defenders, and then made the accep-
tance of its formularies the test of right belief. As the
decisions of these councils were as a rule enforced by the state
as well as by the penalty of excommunication from the church,
theology steadily grew less responsive to the changing social
mind.
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 75
We see here the fundamental weakness of a doctrine which
depends solely or chiefly upon authority. It of necessity
perpetuates philosophical and social survivals. However
serviceable it may have been to the age in which it was formu-
lated; however it may have functioned helpfully because of its
participation in the dynamic presuppositions of the life of its
day, it grows incapable of service and helpfulness in ages of
different character. Indeed, we might almost say, in the
same proportion in which it did function well does its rigidity
render it incapable of vital service to those communities which
are dominated by different social minds. For this, if for no
other reason, there is imminent danger lest the essential
and permanent values which orthodoxy expresses shall be lost
to those who no longer accept the philosophy and no longer
share in the social experience which orthodoxy has embodied
in itself.
Literature. — A notable treatise on this aspect of Christianity is
Sabatier, Religions of Authority atid the Religion of the Spirit (New York:
McClure Phillips, 1905).
c) The constructive task of theology. — Yet this cannot
obscure the fact which the history of the doctrine-making
process discloses. Orthodoxy is the outcome of a process,
unhappily arrested by ecclesiasticism, by which fundamental
religious realities were mediated to religious needs of a given
period by the use of the presuppositions of that period's social
experience. Any theological reconstruction, therefore, that
would be thoroughgoing and do for our age what the original
creators of theology did for theirs must face two tasks : first,
it must distinguish between the theological schema which
came over from the messianic Christianity of the primitive
church and that philosophical construction which has built
up by it as defense an explanation ; and, second, it must evalu-
ate the schema itself in terms of religious efficiency. This
second is the primary task of today. As long as it is neglected
will theology be in distress. Christianity can never dominate
76 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
our modern world by merely changing its philosophical ele-
ment. That is, of course, demanded; but the fundamental
need is that of dramatic analogies drawn from our dominant
social mind by which religious thinking can satisfy their re-
ligious needs, that longing for divine help, which our intense
and complicated life originates.
Theology today as never before cannot be replaced by
either psychology or philosophy. The position which the
theologian will take in the present moment of unrest will be
very largely determined by his conception of the aim of the-
ology. If, as many hold, the purpose^ of theology is to give
final and unchangeable formulations for religioits experience
and so to express religious truth that it shall be as statically
absolute as metaphysical reality itself, there is no appeal
except that of orthodoxy itself to the authority of either
councils, the pope, or an a priori belief in an infallible Scrip-
ture. It goes without saying that such an appeal will com-
pletely break with our modern world. If, on the other hand,
the purpose of theology is held to be functional and if it is
an ever-growing approximation to ultimate reality through the
satisfaction it gives to the ever-developing and changing reli-
gious needs of different periods, then theological method
becomes to a considerable extent empirical and pragmatic.
Theological reconstruction will seek, first of all, not philo-
sophical means of adapting a theological schema to our modern
world, but will rather reproduce the actual procedure of
theology in its creative epochs. That is to say, as theology in
such epochs has utilized the dynamic presuppositions con-
ditioning all social activity in general will it today seek to
utilize such presuppositions as are now creative.
Nor is this a difficult task. The theologian who approaches
his problem from the point of view of social experience rather
than that of metaphysics will recognize two presuppositions
which are reconstituting our modern world: evolution and
creative democracy. Just how these two presuppositions
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 77
can be used for theological reconstruction must be left to
an honest and scientific methodology.
The historical study of a religion like our own is not
content to deal only with facts and their relations. It seeks
not only to discover the origins and to trace the course of
development of Christian truths; it must also evaluate them.
When one evaluates historically our heritage of doctrinal
formulas, he will discover in them both form and content.
The latter may have been recognized without reflection
throughout the history of the church, but the doctrine-
making process at last brought it into consciousness and sys-
tematic perspective. It is this fact that explains how it is
that Christianity has always attempted to reproduce biblical
materials. Such determination is not due merely to a belief
in the inspiration of the Scriptures; it is really due to the
essential nature of Christianity itself, for the teaching and
person of Jesus as seen through actual experience have always
been the ultimate criteria to which the church has reverted.
The normative elements of our religion, however stated, are
always traceable to the relations of the church to its Founder.
The successive developments of doctrine might be thus
described as our religion functioning in the new situations set
by dominant social minds for the purpose of making clear to
successive generations the reality of that salvation which Jesus
brings. Generic Christianity is, in fact, the gospel as it has
developed under new social influences.
It is thus not difficult to see, back of these successively
organized doctrines, the elements which go to make up
generic Christianity. Stated as far as possible without the
doctrinal forms given them by successive social minds, they
are as follows:
1. Men are sinful, and, if they are to avoid the outcome of
sin, in need of salvation by God.
2. The God of the universe is knowable as the God of love,
who in personal self-expression seeks reconciliation with men.
78 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
3. God has revealed himself as Savior in the historical
person, Jesus.
4. God comes into any human life that seeks him, both
directly through prayer and service, and indirectly through
social organizations like the church, transforming it and
making it in moral quality like himself.
5. The death of Christ is the revelation of the moral
unity of the love and law of God.
6. Those who accept Jesus as the divine Lord and Savior
constitute a community in special relationship with God.
7. Such persons may look forward to triumph over
death and entrance into the Kingdom of God.
These fundamentals of generic Christianity are not
dependent upon the particular type of philosophy in which
they have been adjusted to the needs of social minds. They
are as old as the New Testament. As a growing religious
inheritance they have been constantly recast and reappreci-
ated. Various social minds, in proportion as they have felt
the need of the help one or all of them can give, have used
their own vocabularies to express them, but even when the
vocabularies themselves have in some cases grown unin-
telligible, the reality itself has continued to function.
In the light of these facts it seems inevitable, therefore,
that, if Christianity is to go on developing, these same funda-
mentals must be brought into contact with the dominant
social mind of today. The Christianity of tomorrow will
not be a new religion, nor will it be a merely reiterated, un-
critically accepted orthodoxy. It will be a genetic develop-
ment of those beliefs which have constituted the permanent
elements in historical orthodoxy. The particular formulas in
which this generic theology has been expressed do not function
well with modern men, but that which they express — which
is generic Christianity — is possessed of religious value and
power.
THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 79
At one point we already see evidence of new doctrinal
development. The religion of our modern world is already
shaping up the social as well as the individual content of the
eschatology of the original gospel message, as yet so imper-
fectly evaluated, and therefore so often literally presented.
But this awaited doctrine of salvation, which our age, because
of its new social passion, is the first clearly to need, and,
because of its more scientific understanding of man's nature
and of its new social sympathies, is the first to grasp and
attempt to organize in terms of life and society, will be
genetically the outcome of the generic Christianity of the past.
It will mediate God to the individual in his personal sorrow
and temptation, and also to the complex of individual activi-
ties we call society. However much grander and richer it
may become, generic Christianity tomorrow, as yesterday, will
prove itself capable of satisfying the religious needs of a
dominant social mind in terms and concepts, both individual
and collective, which are furnished by that social mind.
Expressing itself in an enriched, genetically progressing, and
far-reaching way of life, it can have no other foundation than
that which is laid, Jesus Christ our Lord. Any form of Chris-
tianity that is not in attitude and fundamental sympathies
at one with the religious spirit of historical Christianity,
in whatever way it may reject the philosophies or the dramatic
pictures and analogies in which this spirit has been expressed,
will be spiritually weak.
III. THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AND
OF THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL
By J. M. POWIS SMITH
Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature, University of Chicago
ANALYSIS
PAGES
Introduction. — The aim and the process of the study of the Old
Testament 83-85
1. The Process of Translation. — The character of the Hebrew lan-
guage.— Methods and helps in the study of Hebrew. — Lexicography.
— Obscure passages 85-89
2. The Textual Criticism of the Old Testament. — The existing
manuscripts. — The state of the Massoretic text. — Emendation of the
text. — Duplicate passages. — Comparison of ancient versions. —
The Septuagint and daughter-versions. — Other Greek versions. —
The Samaritan Pentateuch. — The Targums. — ^The Peshitta. — The
Vulgate. — Conjectural emendations. — Should the Hebrew language
be required of all students of theology? — How best to study the
Old Testament in Enghsh 89-104
3. The Literary Criticism and Interpretation of the Old Testament.
— The function of criticism. — The criteria of poetry. — Varieties of
prose. — Composite authorship. — The problem of authorship. — The
problem of date. — The author's purpose. — Comparative study of
literature. — The art of interpretation 104-119
4. The History of the Hebrews. — Scope of history. — Dating of
sources. — Facts vs. interpretation of facts. — The interpretative bias.
— Geography as a historical source. — Archaeology and history. —
History of the Semitic world. — Problems in Hebrew history . . 1 19-135
5. The Religion of the Hebrews. — Religion and history. — Religion
and culture. — Hebrew religion and Semitic religion. — Problems in
the study of Hebrew religion 136-144
6. The Religious Value of the Old Testament. — The Canon. —
History of the interpretation of the Old Testament. — The value of
the Old Testament. — The Old Testament in relation to the New. —
The Old Testament and systematic theology. — The Old Testament
and vital religion 144-161
III. THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AND
OF THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL
INTRODUCTION
The primary purpose in the study of the writings of the
Hebrews is the discovery of the exact thoughts which the
writers themselves desired to express. The task of inter-
pretation is not a simple one, even when writer and inter-
preter belong to the same race, speak the same language, live
in the same age, and have the same background of history and
civilization. When none of these advantages are to the credit
of the interpreter, his work is rendered immeasurably more
difficult. In proportion as these racial, linguistic, and socio-
logical barriers can be removed or surmounted, the interpreter
may hope for success in his attempt to enter into the thought
of the author. But just as the only way to learn to swim is by
swimming, so the interpreter of the Old Testament must gain
his equipment for interpretation in the main from the very
literature that he is to interpret. Aside from the larger
Semitic literature, of which the Old Testament forms a part,
and to which it constitutes in itself the easiest and most natu-
ral approach, there, is no source whence the interpreter may
derive the point of view, the linguistic skill, the anthropological
approach, and the historical knowledge requisite to the suc-
cessful prosecution of the work of interpretation. This
larger Semitic sphere is similarly segregated and cannot be
understood or appreciated from the outside. Its interpreter,
too, must learn to interpret by interpreting. Under these
circumstances the practical method of procedure for one who
wishes to gain the best possible understanding of the Old
Testament is to start work at once upon the Old Testament
itself. Through the gate thus opened let him pass on into
other fields of Semitic thought and come back from these into
83
84 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
the Old Testament again, better able to understand and
appreciate it by reason of the breadth of vision and standards
for comparison obtained in the larger Semitic world.
The first step on the way to mastery of the contents of the
Old Testament is to take up the study of the Hebrew language,
in which all of it, except certain chapters in Ezra and Daniel,
is written. This work of translation will inevitably involve
comparison with the earlier translations into Greek, Syriac,
Latin, etc., and it will drive the zealous translator farther
afield into the cognate languages, Assyrian, Arabic, Ethiopic,
etc., that he may discover there the meanings of words and
phrases upon which the Old Testament itself throws insuffi-
cient light.
But, when all legitimate aids to translation have been
exhausted, there will remain many passages which still defy
interpretation or translation. Many of these will raise the
question of the validity of the textual tradition, and the
translator will find himself forced to enter upon the science of
textual criticism. He must endeavor to restore the original
text by elimination of its errors before he can with satisfaction
undertake the task of translation.
When the work of textual criticism and translation has
been completed, the task of literary criticism remains. The
function of this discipline is to enable u§ to evaluate aright
the document that lies before us. It enables us to place it in
its proper literary category, to determine whether it is the
work of one or of many hands, to fijc its approximate date, to
discover its historical and social background, and to learn its
author's purpose and point of view.
With these facts in our possession swe are ready to under-
take detailed interpretation of the document. We are able
to put ourselves in the author's place and see the people to
whom he addressed his message and the occasion which called
it forth. His words take on new meaning, and his message
becomes vital.
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 85
We pass from this consideration of documents as such to
the more comprehensive science of history. On the basis
of the documents properly analyzed, classified, dated, and
interpreted we proceed to reconstruct the historical experience
of Israel. We trace the course of her economic, social, and
political development. We relate her development to that
of the oriental world in general. In the same way the religious
development is traced from its earliest and most primitive
stage, as merely one of the minor Semitic religions, to its
highest goal as one of the great religions of the world.
Finally, the question of value remains. In the effort
to determine this we consult the judgment of past ages,
which has expressed itself in the process of canonization and
in the history of interpretation. We are then ready to con-
sider the worth of the Old Testament and its religion for
today. This leads to an investigation regarding its con-
tribution to the various co-ordinate subjects which go to
make up a theological curriculum, e.g., the study of the New
Testament, church history, systematic theology, religious
education, and the like. Especially important is the question
as to the degree to which the Old Testament contributes
toward the upbuilding of character through the implantation
of high ideals and the inspiration that comes from the con-
sideration of the lives of its great men.
In the following pages the preceding ' program will guide
our thought and enable us to bear in mind constantly the
relation of the special topic under consideration to the larger
subject as a whole.
I. THE PROCESS OF TRANSLATION
THE CHARACTER OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE
The first obstacle confronting him who desires to appreci-
ate the Old Testament to the full is the necessity of learning
the languages in which it is written. These are Hebrew and
Aramaic. The proportion of the Aramaic text to the whole is
86 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
very small, the former being limited to Jer. io:ii; Dan.
2:46 — 7:28; Ezra 4:8 — 6:18; 7:12-26; and two words in
Gen. 31:47.
The Hebrew language is, relatively speaking, not difficult
to learn. Its syntactical structure is simple; its inflectional
system is not cumbersome; and the vocabulary of the Old
Testament is quite limited. There are in all about seven
thousand words in the Old Testament, of which one thousand
appear twenty-five times or more each. Not only this,
but these words are formed from roots of which each yields
many different formations. A knowledge of the root and its
meaning, together with a familiarity with the significance of
the various methods of formation, gives control of the mean-
ing of a large number of words. There are only about three
hundred possible verbal forms, as compared with those of
Greek, for example, which has approximately twelve hundred
such forms. It is safe to say that as much facility in the use
of Hebrew can be gained in one year as would require three
years' time in the case of Latin or Greek.
METHODS OF STUDYING HEBREW
Grammars and dictionaries. — For the beginner in Hebrew the best
plan is to use the inductive method, as represented by W. R. Harper's
Introductory Hebrew Method and Manual, 23d ed. (New York: Scribner
19 1 2). This should be accompanied by W. R. Harper's Elements of
Hebrew, 25th ed. (New York: Scribner, 1912). Those preferring the
older, deductive methods may choose between A. B. Davidson's Intro-
ductory Hebrew Grammar, with Progressive Exercises in Reading and
Writing, 19th ed. revised throughout by J. E. McFadyen (Edinburgh:
T. & T. Clark, 1914), and C. P. Fagnani's Primer of Hebrew (New York:
Scribner, 1903).
For more advanced stages in the study of the language recourse
must be had to the standard grammars, viz., Wilhelm Gesenius' hebraische
Grammatik, vollig umgearheitet, von E. Kautzsch, 28th ed. (Leipzig:
Vogel, 1909; 2d English ed., translated by G. W. CoUins and revised
by A. E. Cowley [New York: Oxford University Press, 1910]); F. E.
Konig, Historisch-kritisches Lehrgebdude der hebraischen Sprache, 3 vols.
(Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1897); Stade, Lehrbuch der hebraischen Grammatik
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 87
(Leipzig: Vogel, 1879); W. R. Harper, Elements of Hebrew Syntax
(New York: Scribner, 1888); A. B. Davidson, Hebrew Syntax (New
York: Scribner, 1894); S. R. Driver, A Treatise on the Use of the Tenses
in Hebrew, 3d ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1892); Kennett, A Short
Account of the Hebrew Tenses (Cambridge: University Press, 1901);
W. H. Green, A Grammar of the Hebrew Language (New York: Wiley &
Sons, 1889).
The only dictionaries of Hebrew worthy of consideration are: Francis
Brown (with the co-operation of S. R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs), A
Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix
Containing the Biblical Aramaic, based on the Lexicon of W. Gesenius,
as translated by Edward Robinson (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.,
1906); Frants Buhl, Wilhelm Gesenius' hebrdisches und aramdisches
Handworterbuch ilber das Alte Testament, i6th ed. (Leipzig: Vogel, 191 5) ;
Siegfried-Stade, Hebrdisches Worterbuch zum Alten Testamente (Leipzig:
Veit, 1899; Eduard Konig, Hebrdisches und aramdisches Worterbuch zum
Alten Testament (Leipzig: Dieterich, 1910); Elieser ben Jehuda, Thesau-
rus totius Hebraitatis et veteris et recentioris (New York: International
News Co., 1909; not yet complete).
Biblical Aramaic. — Biblical Aramaic may easily be mastered with
the aid of Marti's Kurzgcfasste Grammatik der biblisch-aramdischen
Sprache, 2d ed. (New York: Lemcke und Buechner, 1911). The vocabu-
lary wiU be found listed in the foregoing Hebrew and Aramaic dictionaries.
Hebrew and Aramaic are not two wholly unrelated languages. They
are rather but two branches or dialects of the Semitic family of languages.
Consequently, a knowledge of Hebrew greatly facilitates the acqui-
sition of Aramaic. Much new light has been thrown upon the biblical
Aramaic by the discovery of a collection of Aramaic papyri at Elephan-
tine on the Nile in the years 1906-8 a.d.
Versions. — No translator of the Old Testament can ignore
the translations already in existence. Starting with the
many modern versions, he must push back to the ancient
versions, seeking to improve his own rendering by careful
comparison at every step. The most important ancient
version is the Septuagint, which was begun some time in the
third century B.C. Next comes the Syriac Version, known as
the Peshitta. Behind these must be placed the more familiar
Latin rendering, commonly called the Vulgate.'^
'Information and literature regarding these and other versions will be
found on pp. 94-100.
88 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Supplementary lexicographical and grammatical study .^
Better translations of the Old Testament than any thus
far made are now within our reach. Before the oldest known
translation was made classical Hebrew had become prac-
tically a dead language. It is safe to say that the scientific
scholarship of the present day yields a better mastery of that
language than has been possible at any earlier stage of its
study. Through the aid of exhaustive concordances we are
able to compare passage with passage and word with word, and
thus to determine the precise significance of many a word
and phrase which, standing alone, would be almost unintel-
ligible. By the study of a word in all of its various contexts
we obtain new conceptions of its flexibility and capacity
to take on more or less widely varying shades of meaning.
This word-study is further advanced by the contribution
obtainable from the languages cognate with Hebrew. The
vocabulary of each one of these contains much that is found
also in Hebrew. Oftentimes a word that occurs but once or
twice in Hebrew is found to be of constant occurrence in one
or more of the cognates, and its meaning is thus easily obtain-
able. In the light of this comparative language-study
a much better understanding of the laws of Hebrew syntax
obtains today than ever before.^ It is often of vital sig-
nificance that we should know definitely what possibilities
the nature and structure of a sentence afford to the translator
and interpreter. For example, in Isa. i : i8, it makes much
difference whether we render, "Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool"; or, "If your sins be like
scarlet, can they be as white as snow? If they be red
'The best comparative grammar of the Semitic languages at present
available is Carl Brockelmann, Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik der
semitischen Sprachen, 2 vols. (New York: Lemcke und Buechner, 1908-13).
A condensed edition of Vol. I, dealing with phonetics and morphology only,
is furnished in Brockelmann, Kurzgcjasste vergleichendc Grammatik der setnili-
schen Sprachen (New York: Lemcke und Buechner, 1908).
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 89
like crimson, can they be as wool?" The determination of
the true meaning here involves two things: a close study of
the prophet's line of argument here and a thorough knowl-
edge of Hebrew syntax.
Much work remains to be done. Our knowledge of
Hebrew vocabulary and Hebrew syntax, is even yet far
from exhaustive. The Hebrew dictionary is continually
being enriched by fresh materials brought in by the cognates.
Many problems of syntactical structure remain to be solved.
For example, what are the decisive signs of an interrogative
sentence which lacks the ordinary interrogative particles ? Is
the usage of the Hebrew tense-forms yet correctly analyzed ?
Have we as yet properly treated all classes of clauses intro-
duced by so-called waw-conjunctive and waw-consecutive ?
The history of Hebrew syntax, and, indeed, of the language as
a whole, remains to be written. But many preliminary and
detailed studies must be carried through before it can be
satisfactorily done.
Obscure passages. — ^When the Hebrew lexicographer and
grammarian shall have said their last word, there will still
remain many a passage which will defy successful translation —
and that, too, not because of the ignorance of the translator.
The fact is that, in many cases, the Hebrew text as it stands
presents phenomena in direct conflict with the best-known
facts of Hebrew grammar. This raises at once a suspicion
as to the correctness of the text as handed down and leads
the translator to take up the work of textual criticism.
II. THE TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
THE AGE OE THE EXISTING MANUSCRIPTS
In any attempt to get at a writer's thought one of the
first things to be done is to determine whether or not the
document under consideration is precisely as its author left
it. If we have before us the actual manuscript as originally
90 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
prepared, and if the manuscript is clearly written and well
preserved, the task of the textual critic is reduced to a mini-
mum. But when, as is the case with the Old Testament
writings, the original manuscripts lie by thousands of years
in the past and their contents are available only in copies,
then the labors and problems of the textual critic rapidly
multiply.
Modern editions of the Hebrew Bible all practically repro-
duce the text as edited by Jacob ben Hayyim in the second
edition of the Bomberg Bible (1524-25 a.d.). The best
of these modern Bibles are the following: (i) Biblia Hebraica
edited by R. Kittel, 2d ed. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1913.) This
gives a limited conspectus of variant reading from the versions
and of conjectural emendations at the foot of every page.
(2) The texts of the individual books edited by S. Baer and
Franz Deli tzsch (Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1869-95). These editions
offer a revised Massoretic text, collations of various manu-
scripts, and critical textual notes. The books from Exodus to
Deuteronomy inclusive were never published in this series.
(3) The very best editions of the Massoretic text are those by
David Ginsburg. He first published Four and Twenty Holy
Books Carefully Edited after the Massorah and after Earliest
Editions (London: Trinitarian Bible Society, 1894). This
was put out again in a cheap edition by the Trinitarian Bible
Society (London, 1906). From this edition were eliminated
all the variant readings from Massoretic manuscripts which
were incorporated in the first edition. The same text was
published again with a far more comprehensive array of
variant readings (London: British and Foreign Bible Society,
1908-11). This is the standard edition of the Massoretic
text as far as it goes; the "Writings," viz.. Psalms, Job, etc.,
remain to be published.
Texts like the foregoing are constructed upon the basis
of a careful and exhaustive comparison of all existing Hebrew
manuscripts and printed editions. No printed edition goes
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 91
farther back than 1477 a.d. The oldest of the manuscripts
now existing, of which there are approximately two thousand,
go back only as far as the latter part of the ninth century
A.D., with the exception of one fragment containing the
Decalogue and Deut. 6:4. This latter fragment belongs
apparently to the second century a.d. It exhibits a form of
the Decalogue, presenting many textual variations from the
recensions of Exod., chap. 20, and Deut., chap. 5, but accords
on the whole more nearly with the latter than with the former
passage. The remarkable fact regarding the rest of the
manuscripts is the slight amount of variation among them.
What variation there is, is of relatively slight importance, being
for the most part due to easily recognizable errors and pecu-
liarities of copyists. They all represent what is known as the
Massoretic text. This text was established some time in the
early Christian centuries and succeeded in displacing all other
texts. There developed different^ schools of Massoretic
scribes, representing somewhat different interpretations of
the textual tradition, but they all sought to perpetuate
essentially the same text and to guard it from error by most
scrupulous precautions.
Literature on the Massoretic text. — For the history of the Massoretic
text the following will be found invaluable: CD. Ginsburg, Introduction
to the Massoretico-Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible (London: Trini-
tarian Bible Society, 1897); A. S. Geden, Outlines of Introduction to the
Hebrew Bible (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1909); F. C. Burkitt, article
"Text and Versions," Encyclopaedia Biblica, IV (1903); H. L. Strack,
article "Text of the Old Testament," Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible,
IV (1902); P. Kahle, Der masoretische Texte des Alien Testaments
nach der Uberlieferung der babylonischen Juden (Leipzig: Hinrichs,
1902) ; P. Kahle, Masoreten des Ostens. Die dltesten punktierten Hand-
schriften des Alien Testaments und der Targume (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1913).
Collations of many Hebrew manuscripts will be found in Kennicott's
Vetus Testamentum Hebr. cum variis lectionibus, 2 folio vols. (Oxford,
1776-80); in De Rossi's Variae lectiones Veteris Testamenti (Parma,
1784-88) and Scholia critica in Veteris Testamenti libros (1798); and in
C. D. Ginsburg's edition of the Massoretic text, published in 1908 ff.
92 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
THE STATE OF THE MASSORETIC TEXT
The word Massora means "tradition," and the Massoretic
scribes were so called because they aimed at nothing more
than the reproduction of the text as it had been handed
down by tradition. Yet the Massoretes themselves recog-
nized the fact that the traditional text was not in perfect
condition. This is evidenced by the preservation of two sets
of readings, the Keththh and the Qeri. The former repre-
sents the traditional consonantal text, the authority of which
was so great that it could not be set aside; the latter is the
emended text proposed by the Massoretes as a substitute for
the traditional text. For example, in Isa. 46: ii, the Kethibh
has "man of his counsel"; the Qert has "man of my counsel."
In Ezek. 48:16, the Kethibh has "five" twice, the Qert only
once; and in Jer. 51:3 the same is true of the word "bend."
The Qeri is not always an improvement upon the Kethibh; but
it shows that the scribes did not regard the traditional text
as free from errors.
In addition to the corrections offered by the Qert, the
Massoretes compiled a list of passages which they recognized
as now presenting a different text from the original. These
are eighteen in number and are known as " the emendations of
the scribes" (tiqqune sopherim). The passages involved are
Gen. 18:22; Num. 11:15; 12:12; I Sam. 3:13; II Sam.
16:12; 20:1; I Kings 12:16; II Chron. 10:16; Jer. 2:11;
Ezek. 8:17; Hos. 4:7; Hab. 1:12; Zech. 2:8 (in Heb. 2: 12);
Mai. 1:13; Ps. 106:20; Job 7:20; 32:3; and Lam. 3:20. In
Hab. 1:12, for example, the present text offers, "we shall
not die " ; the Massoretic testimony is that the original reading
was, "thou diest not."
Though the Massoretes formulated a set of rules providing
for the copying of the Old Testament manuscripts in the
most painstaking and accurate manner, so that the text they
established has been perpetuated in the precise form in which
they left it, very many errors had crept into it before it
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 93
reached their hands. Most of these were of the kind com-
monly made by copyists; e.g., confusion of similar letters;
the wrong grouping of letters into words ;^ the repetition of
letters, words and phrases (known as dittography) ; the writing
of letters, words, or phrases only once, where they should have
been written twice (known as haplography) ; the confusion
of similar sounds, and the ehsion of words or phrases due
to their being between two occurrences of the same word,
so that the eye of the scribe after leaving the manuscript
where the word first occurred returned to the manuscript
where the word occurred the second time, thus omitting the
intervening material. Other errors were due to the damaged
or illegible condition of the manuscript serving as copy,
so that the scribe misread it. Some also were due to the delib-
erate "corrections" of copyists and editors who considered the
text in need of improvement of various kinds. Of the many
errors arising in these and other ways the Massortes have
indicated but a very small proportion. Much remains to
be done.
EMENDATION OF THE TEXT
There are three main sources of help in the discovery and
correction of errors, viz.: (i) the examination of duplicate
passages; (2) the comparison of the various versions; and
(3) scientifically controlled conjecture.
Examination of duplicate passages. — The first of these
methods is, of course, capable of application only in a limited
area. There are certain sections of the Old Testament which
are found repeated almost verbatim. For example, Ps. 18 =
II Sam. 22; Ps. i4 = Ps. 53; Isa. 36-39 = !! Kings 18:13 — '
20:19; Isa. 2:2-4 = Mic. 4:1-3; Exod. 20: i-i7=Deut.
5:6-21; Ezra 2:i-7o = Neh. 7:6-73; and large sections of
Samuel and Kings are incorporated in the Books of Chronicles.
' It must be borne in mind that in early Hebrew writing words were not
separated one from another, but that the letters were written continuously
without any break between words. This affords large room for error in reading.
94 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Comparison of passage with passage reveals many variations
between the two, and that which is wrong in the one may be
right in the other. For example, II Chron. 22:11 retains
"and put him," which has been lost from the Hebrew text of
II Kings 11:2. These duplicate passages are of great value,
particularly in revealing to us the kinds of errors into which
Hebrew copyists were liable to fall and the degree of depar-
ture from the original that was possible on the part of a copy-
ist or series of copyists. Between Isa. 2 : 2-4, for example,
and Mic. 4: 1-3, there are no less than twelve variations.
Comparison of ancient versions. — The second method for
the detection and correction of errors is a much more compli-
cated and indirect one. The great ancient versions of the Old
Testament were prepared at times all antedating the fixing
of the Massoretic text and in some cases certainly upon the
basis of texts belonging to recensions wholly different from
the Massoretic. Through these versions we are thus enabled
to get behind the Massoretic text and in very many cases to
improve upon it.
a) The Septuagint: The most important of these versions
is the Septuagint, the Greek translation made for the Jews of
Alexandria, which became the Bible of both the Jewish and the
early Christian communities. The oldest portion of this
Greek version, viz., the translation of the Pentateuch, goes
back probably to the days of Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-
246 B.C.). The entire Old Testament was probably put into
Greek by the close of the first century B.C.
The task of discovering the Hebrew text that lies behind
the Septuagint cannot be satisfactorily performed until we
have determined the text of the Septuagint itself. The his-
tory of the Septuagint shows that in the early Christian
centuries it was current in at least three recensions, viz.,
that of Origen, that of Lucian, and that of Hesychius. The
text of the Septuagint is now extant in a large number of manu-
scripts, both uncials and cursives. The more important of
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 95
these codices are the Vatican, the Alexandrine, Sinaiticus,
Marchalianus, Ephraem Syrus, Sarravianus, Petropolitanus,
CoisHnianus, Taurinensis, and Cryptoferratensis. The task
of careful and minute comparison and collation of these and
the many other codices and manuscripts for the purpose of
grouping them according to their common characteristics, and
of determining their relations to the three greajt recensions,
or the necessity of recognizing still other recensions, is now
occupying the time and energy of Septuagint scholars. When
it shall have been completed, we shall have before us the main
types of Septuagint text accepted in the early Christian
centuries. It will then be in order to determine whether these
recensions presuppose one common text from which they
are all derived, or rather point to the fact that there was prior
to the third century a.d. no single authoritative translation,
but two or more competing versions.
1. The Old Latin Version. — As further aids in fixing the
text of the Septuagint, we have certain translations made
from it into other languages. First may be mentioned the
Old Latin Version. This translation was made from a Greek
text which antedated all three of the known recensions of the
Septuagint mentioned above. "The Old Latin, in its purest
types, carries us behind all our existing MSS and is sometimes
nearer to the Septuagint, as the church received that version
from the Synagogue, than the oldest of our uncial MSS.
Readings which have disappeared from every known Greek
MS are here and there preserved by the daughter-version,
and in such cases the Old Latin becomes a primary authority
for the Greek text. "^
2 . The Syro- Hexaplar Version. — Another daughter- version
of the Septuagint is the so-called Syro-Hexaplar text. This is
a literal Syriac translation, by Paul of Telia, in 616-17 ^-^-^ of
the fifth column of Origen's Hexapla, which contained his recen-
sion of the Septuagint. The Syro-Hexaplar reproduces the
'Swete, Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, 2d ed. (1914), p. 493.
96 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
apparatus devised by Origan to indicate the relation of his
revised Greek text to the current Hebrew text of his day. The
testimony of the Syro-Hexaplar is therefore of the greatest
value for the history of the Septuagint text in general and for
the determination of Origen's recension in particular.
3. Other daughter-versions. — Other daughter- versions of
value are (;) the Coptic, in three recensions, the Bohairic, the
Sahidic, and the Middle Egyptian, which was probably made
at least as early as the third century a.d.; (2) the Armenian
version which is a very slavish rendering from the Greek, and
hence helpful as a witness to the recension of Origen, whose
text it seems to reflect; (3) the Slavonic Old Testament, which
on the other hand, in so far as it is a rendering from the
Septuagint, is generally recognized as reflecting the Lucianic
recension.
Literature on the Septuagint and daughter -versions. — The best handy
edition of the Septuagint is H. B. Swete's Old Testament in Greek accord-
ing to the Septuagint, 3 vols. (Cambridge: University Press, 1887-94);
and a special volume, Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek (1900),
2d ed., by R. R. Ottley (Cambridge: University Press, 1914). This
edition presents the text of the Vatican Codex, with a limited selection
of collateral readings from the more important parallel codices. The
standard edition of the Septuagint is now being published by the Uni-
versity of Cambridge, under the editorship of A. E. Brooke and Norman
McLean. This, too, presents the Vatican text, but it greatly extends
the citation of collateral readings. Three parts (1906-11), extending
from Genesis to Deuteronomy, have thus far appeared. The old col-
lection of readings in Holmes and Parsons, Vetus Testamentum Graecum
cum variis lectionibus, 4 vols. (1827), is meantime the student's best
friend. The publications of the Royal Academy of Gottingen, known
as Mitteilungen des Septuaginta-Untcrnehmens der Koniglichen Gesell-
schaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen, are valuable contributions to the
classification of the Septuagint manuscripts. Thus far there have
appeared: E. Hautsch, Der Lukian-text des Oktateuch (1910); P. Glaue
und A. Rahlfs, Fragmente einer griechischen tfbersetzung des samaritan-
ischen Pentateuchs (191 1); E. Grosse-Brauckmann, Der Psalter-Text bei
Theodoret (191 1). O. Procksch's Studien zur Geschichte der Septuaginta
(Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1910) is an important contribution to the same task.
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 97
P. de Lagarde outlined a program for the reconstruction of the text of
LXX in his Ankiindigung einer neuen Ausgabe der griechischen Uberselzung
des Alien Teslamcnts (1882) and pubHshed the iirst half of his edition of
the Lucianic recension in Librorum Veleris Testamenti canonicorum pars
prior (1883). Rahlfs, a pupil of Lagarde, carried on his work in Septua-
ginta-Studien, I, Books of Kings (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Rup-
recht, 1904); II, Psalter (1907); III, Lucian's recension of Kings (1911).
The vocabulary of LXX is rendered accessible by Hatch and Redpath's
Concordance to the Septuagint, in three parts (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1892-1906). The grammar of LXX is treated by H. St. J. Thackeray
in his Grammar of the Old Testament in Greek (Cambridge: University
Press, 1909) ; by R. Helbing, in Grammatik des Septuaginta, Laut- und
Wort-Lehre (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1907); and by
Jean Psichari, in Essai sur le Grec de la Septante (1908).
The Old Latin text is preserved only in fragments, and these are
scattered over many manuscripts and editions. The text of the Minor
Prophets has been edited by W. O. E. Oesterley, and published in the
Journal of Theological Studies, Vols. V and VI. The same kind of work
is waiting to be done for the entire Old Testament.
The Syro-Hexaplar text has been edited and published piecemeal by
a succession of scholars. The titles will be found in Swete's Introduction
to the Old Testament in Greek (1914), p. 113. To the list there given
we should add J. Gwynn, Remnants of the Later Syriac Versions of the
Bible (London: Williams & Norgate, 1909). The editions of the Coptic
versions will also be found listed by Swete and Ottley on pp. 107 and
503 f-
h) Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. — Three other
Greek versions are of exceptional value. The translation by
Aquila was made about 130 a.d., directly from the Hebrew of
his time. Its purpose was to provide a version more service-
able to the Jews than the Septuagint, which was held by the
Jews to have suffered perversion at the hands of Christian
apologetes. The virtue of Aquila's rendering, from the point
of view of textual criticism, is its painfully literal character.
Thus the Hebrew upon which it was based is easily discerned
through it. The translation by Theodotion is less valuable.
It was made with the Hebrew text in view, but was rather a
free revision of the Septuagint than an independent rendering.
98 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
It dates from about i8o a.d. The translation by Symmachus
is a free rendering, made about 200 B.C., with the aid of the
Septuagint and Theodotion's version, on the basis of the
Hebrew. The Hebrew text used by all three of these versions
was one almost identical with the Massoretic text. These
versions were all incorporated in Origen's Hexapla. The
fragments that survive will be found chiefly in Field's great
work, Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt, 2 vols. (1875).
See also F. C. Burkitt, Fragments of the Book of Kings ac-
cording to the Translation of Aquila (London: Clay, 1897);
and Taylor's Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, 2d ed. (Cam-
bridge: University Press, 1897).
c) The Samaritan Pentateuch. — The Samaritan Penta-
teuch is really not a version, but the edition of the Hebrew
text used by the Samaritan community. It exhibits about
six thousand variations from the Massoretic text, most of
them merely orthographic. Aside from some deliberate
changes and additions clearly made to subserve the Samaritan
claims, the text is essentially the same as that of the Mas-
soretes. This carries the Massoretic text of the Pentateuch
back at least to the latter part of the fourth century B.C.
The Samaritan makes but little contribution to the correction
of the Massoretic text. It will be found in both the Paris and
the London Polyglots. A critical edition is under way under
the editorship of Freiherr von Gall; parts 1-3 extending
through Leviticus have thus far appeared (Giessen: Topel-
mann, 1914-).
d) The Targums. — -The targums are Aramaic versions and
paraphrases of the Hebrew text. The main ones are the
targum of Onkelos, 'which covers the Pentateuch, and that of
Jonathan, which deals with the Prophets. The oldest of
them dates from no earlier than the fourth or fifth century
A.D., and in their present form they belong to a much later
date. The targum of Onkelos is a fairly close rendering
of the Hebrew; the targum of Jonathan is much more free
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 99
and in the prophetic books is often very periphrastic. Very
little textual aid is to be derived from any of the targums.
The targums are contained in the Paris and London Polyglots,
and the prophetic portions are given in Lagarde's Prophetae
Chaldaice (1872).
e) The Peshittd. — The Syriac version, known as the
Peshitta, was made directly from the Hebrew, though it
reflects a good deal of influence from the Septuagint, espe-
cially in the case of the prophets and Psalms. The name
Peshitta, which means "simple," probably contrasts this
version made from the Hebrew with other Syriac versions,
like the Syro-Hexaplar, which came through the Greek.
The Hebrew text used seems to have been practically identical
with our present Massoretic text. The cases of departure
from it are relatively very few, and the translation therefore
is correspondingly weak as an aid to textual criticism. Only
occasionally does it afford genuine help. The date of the
translation is unknown. The oldest known Syriac manuscript
bears the date 464 a.d., and is the oldest dated manuscript of
either Old or New Testament now known in any language. A
critical edition of the Syriac text is an urgent need.
Note. — The version is now accessible in the Paris and London
Polyglots; in Lee's edition, published by the British and Foreign
Bible Society (1823), which reproduces the text of the Polyglots; in
the edition by the American Mission Press at Urumiah (1852), which
reprinted Lee's edition; in the edition published at Mosul in 1887-92;
and in M. Altschueler, Die Syrische Bibel-Version Peschita im Urtext
(Leipzig: Verlag "Lumen," 1908), which has progressed thus far only
through the Pentateuch, and is a mere reprint of Lee's text.
The kind of work needed on the Peshitta is illustrated by W. E.
Barnes's Apparatus Criticus to Chronicles in the Peshitta Version (Cam-
bridge: University Press, 1897), and by his Peshitta Psalter according to
the West Syrian Text, with an Apparatus Criticus (Cambridge : University
Press, 1904), and by G. Diettrich's Ein Apparatus Criticus zur Pesitto
zum Propheten Jesaja (Giessen: Topelmann, 1905). Cf. Ch. Heller,
Untersuchungen iiber die Peschittd zur gesamniten hebrdischen Bibel
(Berlin: Itzkowski, 191 1).
78^
7i9Q
lOO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
/) The Vulgate. — The Latin Vulgate was begun by Jerome
in 390 A.D. and completed in 405 a.d., and by the beginning of
the seventh century was in common use among the Latin
churches. This version, too, was made directly from the
Hebrew; but its Hebrew was essentially the Massoretic text.
The Vulgate has suffered the penalty of being a popular version
in that it has departed frequently from its original form.
Many manuscripts are extant.
Note. — A good edition of the oiEcial text has been produced by
Michael Hetzenauer, Bihlia Sacra Vulgatae Editionis (Venice, 1906).
The revision of this, printed at Rome (1914), is the most practical student's
edition. The official edition of the Roman Catholic church is that made
by Pope Sixtus V (1585-90) and revised by authority of Pope Clement
VIII in 1592, which was issued in a third edition in 1598. The present
Biblical Commission, appointed by Pope Leo XIII and confirmed by
Pope Pius X, has been authorized to prepare a new and revised edition
of this Clementine text.
Conjectural emendations. — When everything possible has
been done in the way of the comparison of passage with passage
and version with version, there will still remain many a
passage which defies successful translation or interpretation
by reason of its having become corrupted in transmission at
a very early stage. It is beyond question that in many cases
the text was already corrupt when the translators of LXX
knew it. Under these circumstances the only recourse for
the textual student is to scientific conjecture. Emphasis
should be laid upon "scientific." The kind of conjecture
required is that controlled by full knowledge of the factors
entering into the textual situation and by sound judgment.
This involves familiarity with the kinds of errors commonly
made by copyists; knowledge of the Hebrew alphabet in all
of its changing forms, rendering it possible to trace con-
fusion of similar letters; a thorough knowledge of Hebrew
grammar and lexicography; a tireless industry, which will
not shrink from a thoroughgoing comparison of all the render-
ings of the versions and of the textual readings they pre-
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL loi
suppose; and a clear understanding of the course of thought in
the passage involved, that the reading proposed may har-
monize with the context. This conjectural procedure can
never yield certainty, but it will produce varying degrees of
probability, according to the difficulty of the problem and the
learning and judgment of the critic. In some cases the
only choice for the scientific translator is between the adoption
of such conjectural readings and a frank confession that the
passage in question is' hopelessly corrupt and unintelligible.
A satisfactory translation of the Old Testament upon the
basis of a critically restored text must wait until much pre-
liminary investigation has been done by the textual critic.
Additional literature on textual criticism. — In addition to works
already mentioned, we must call attention to the following: F. C. Burkitt,
article "Text and Versions," Encyclopaedia Biblica (1903) ; H. L. Strack,
article "Text of the Old Testament," Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
(1902); G. B. Gray, article "Text, Versions, and Languages of the Old
Testament," Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (in i vol., 1909); F. Buhl,
Canon and Text of the Old Testament (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1892);
T. H. Weir, A Short History of the Hebrew Text of the Old Testament
(London: Williams & Norgate, 1899) ; S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew
Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, with an Introduction on
Hebrew Palaeography and the Ancient Versions, 2d ed. (Oxford: Claren-
don Press, 1913); Bleek-WelLhausen, Einleitung in das Alte Testament,
4th ed. (Berlin: Reimer, 1878), pp. 563-643; C. Steuernagel, Lehrbuch
der Einleitung in das Alte Testament (Tubingen: Mohr, 1912), pp. 19-85;
C. H. Cornill, Das Buch des Propheten Ezechiel (Leipzig: Hinrichs,
1886); A. Geiger, Urschrift und Uebersetzungen der Bibel (1857).
It is, of course, clear that the task of the thoroughgoing
textual critic is so complex and laborious that only a very few
students have the requisite tools for it or can give the time
necessary to secure the proper equipment for it. The majority
must be content with but a relatively slight degree of tech-
nique. With a working knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and
Latin a very clear conception of the nature of the work to be
done can be attained and considerable progress achieved in its
actual accomplishment. As a beginning no better step can
I02 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
be taken than that of comparing a large number of parallel
passages in the Hebrew Old Testament and registering the
variations there found and the nature of the error involved.
Then to get well on the way the student should take up
Driver's Notes on the Text of the Books of Samuel (1913) and
work through it thoroughly. This will give familiarity with
the methods of criticism and the sources of information. After
that the textual criticism of any book, to the extent that the
student's linguistic and technical equipment makes possible,
may be entered upon.
THE OMISSION OF HEBREW FROM THE PRESCRIBED COURSE
FOR THE DEGREE OF D.B.
All the work thus far outlined involves a willingness on
the part of the student to undertake a course of hard study in
at least Hebrew and Greek. From this labor many students
are precluded either by mental ineptitude for this kind of
study or by a desire to turn their energies in other directions.
Indeed, on December 21, 1898, the Divinity Faculty of the
University of Chicago, upon the initiation of the late President
Harper, Head of the Department of Old Testament Language
and Literature, voted to discontinue the requirement of
Hebrew of its candidates for the degree of D.B., placing it
on the list of electives. For the previously required courses
in Hebrew, there were substituted certain courses in the inter-
pretation of the Enghsh Old Testament, which called for an
equal, if not greater, amount of work. It is scarcely necessary
to say that the students in an overwhelming proportion
have chosen the English courses and passed by the Hebrew
electives. The policy has since commended itself to many
of the leading theological schools of the United States
in which it has been adopted, e.g., the Yale School of
Religion, the General Theological Seminary (Episcopal,
New York), the Rochester Theological Seminary, the Newton
Theological Institution, the Oberlin Theological Seminary.
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 103
the Garrett Biblical Institute, the Crozer Theological Semi-
nary, and the Chicago Theological Seminary.
Students who forego the delight of studying Hebrew will,
of course, always be dependent upon the scholarship of others
in every question involving the translation of a Hebrew
passage, the meaning of a Hebrew word, the linguistic testi-
mony as to the date of a document, the poetic forms and
characteristics of Hebrew rhythmical passages, or the validity
of the Hebrew text. One consolation is that such a student
can never fully know how much he has lost. Furthermore,
if the student goes out from the divinity school only to drop
his study of Hebrew at that point, it is fairly certain that as
a rule it is better for him to have spent his time In the class-
room and library in securing an intelligent and comprehensive
view of the Old Testament literature. It is better for him to
know how this literature arose and to appreciate its true sig-
nificance through the use of the English version than to have
gained simply a smattering of Hebrew of which he expects
to make no further use, while he has learned very little of
the real meaning of the Old Testament as a whole because
his time has been spent in a futile study of the language.
HOW BEST TO STUDY THE OLD TESTAMENT IN ENGLISH
The student who knows no Hebrew should provide him-
self with several good translations and be very careful in
choosing his commentaries. By reference to the pages of
standard biblical journals he should discover for himself
those commentaries whose translations and grammatical inter-
pretations are most trustworthy, and should avoid unscholarly
works as he would the plague.
The student of the English text may console himself, in
part, with the reflection that the historico-critical interpreta-
tion of the Old Testament places relatively little stress upon
minute verbal exegesis. That has its place, to be sure; but
the main matter is the recovery of the great drift of Hebrew
I04 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
religious thought and the full realization of the conditions
under which it was wrought out. It is a far more vital matter
to know the situation that confronted Amos, for example,
and the main outlines of his teaching and attitude toward
the problems of his day, than it is to know precisely what was
the meaning of Amos 5:25 or of any other isolated passage.
Into most of the tasks outlined in the following pages the stu-
dent without a knowledge of Hebrew can enter enthusiasti-
cally, with the confidence that he can obtain most satisfactory
results despite his handicap at the start.
III. LITERARY CRITICISM AND THE INTERPRETATION
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
THE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM
The function of criticism is appreciation, not depreciation,
as is too commonly supposed. It seeks to present each object
that it studies in its true light. It seeks to know it precisely
as it is. It divests it of all error and prejudice that do but
befog vision and allows it to stand out in the clear light of
truth. Only thus is it possible for true appreciation to be
enkindled in the soul. The thing studied must be looked at
from every side, and the conditions amid which it was pro-
duced must be clearly understood, if its value is to be rightly
estimated and if the producer's ability is to be properly
evaluated. The capacity for critical appreciation needs
careful cultivation. " The ability to see a thing just as it is
seems within easy reach of all; but as a matter of fact it is
possessed by relatively few. This is particularly true in
the field of Hterary appreciation; and when the literature in
question is bibhcal, obstructions in the field of vision rapidly
multiply. We come to the study of our sacred literature
with our minds already closed to much that it has to say
to us, because of the theories and prejudices that we
entertain regarding this whole group of Hterature in general
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 105
and the special section under consideration in particular.
The truly critical interpreter comes to the literature to be
interpreted with his mind free from all restraining and obstruc-
tive influences. He seeks only to hear what the literature
itself has to say. He insists that it be allowed to tell its own
tale and to make its own impressions. Intelligent apprecia-
tion springs only from full and exact knowledge of things as
they are.
Still another difficulty that all too easily besets the inter-
preter is the more or less unconscious feeling that the Old
Testament, being a part of the Bible, must always be of value
primarily for practical purposes of edification. Its purpose
must be that of stimulating the devotional life. Hence, if a
passage, when read in its natural and normal meaning, does
not seem to yield material for spiritual enrichment, it must be
re-examined and probed until sonie hidden, richer significance
is discovered. As a matter of fact, however, there are whole
pages of the Old Testament that can in and of themselves by no
legitimate methods be made to minister to the soul's welfare
and evidently were not written for that purpose. Take, for
example, the genealogical lists that occur so often. The Old
Testament is "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for cor-
rection, for instruction which is in righteousness"; but it
does not yield its richest treasures to those who seek to force
it to say what they expect from it. A facile, superficial,
homiletical exposition of the Old Testament misses most of
its highest values. Before using it for practical purposes we
must make the honest effort to let it tell its message in its
own way.
THE CRITERIA OF POETRY
The critic, therefore, is in part a searcher for information.
He approaches each piece of literature with a series of ques-
tions. One of his first concerns is the determination of the
class and character of this literature with which he is dealing.
io6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Is it poetry or is it prose ? This question is not so simple as
it seems at first thought. Hebrew manuscripts do not
distinguish between the two by writing poetry in a special
poetic form. A casual look at a page of Hebrew as printed
even in our older Bibles does not at once reveal the classi-
fication to which it belongs, for there is no distinction in the
arrangement of poetic and prose lines. It becomes necessary,
therefore, for the student to learn to recognize poetry by
such characteristics of form and content as are independent
of copyist and printer. This recognition of poetry as such is,
of course, of the greatest importance for interpretation. No
one dreams of taking poetic statements in the same literal
and matter-of-fact way in which prose utterances are inter-
preted. It is of the essence of poetry to be imaginative, figur-
ative, and ideahstic. We do violence to the spirit of poetry
when we treat it as a mere sober statement of fact. To do so
is utterly to misunderstand the point of view and purpose of
the writer. For example, we should hardly treat as a literal
statement of fact these poetic lines:
The mountains skipped like rams,
The little hills like lambs [Ps. 114:41.
Yet it is by no means always easy to discriminate between
poetry and prose in the Old Testament. At the present
time there is not unanimity of judgment in this matter. Of
course, such books as the Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs,
and Job commend themselves to all as poetical. There is, too,
an increasing willingness to recognize much of the prophetic
writings as poetry. But some enthusiastic students of Hebrew
poetry are not content unless we declare such books as Genesis
and Samuel to be poetic also. The careful study of the
nature and form of Hebrew poetry is, consequently, a duty
incumbent upon every interpreter of the Old Testament.
Even the prophetic books take on a different atmosphere
when we clearly understand the significance of the fact that
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 107
they are poetic in form and spirit. How much greater a
change in our attitude would result were we to conclude that
the historical books too are poetry and not prose!
Parallelism. — The outstanding formal characteristic of
most Hebrew poetry is its parallelismus membrorum. This
parallelism is represented in such verses as:
In Judah is God known:
His name is great in Israel.
In Salem also is his tabernacle,
And his dweUing-place in Zion [Ps. 76: i, 2]
The statement of the first line is repeated in slightly different
form in the second, and that of the third in the fourth. This
is the simplest and most easily recognizable form, and is
usually designated "synonymous parallelism."
Another closely similar variety is called ''antithetic."
It is represented largely in the Book of Proverbs, e.g. :
The full soul loatheth a honeycomb;
But to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet [27:7!.
A third kind is known as "synthetic," since two or more
parallel clauses are necessary to the complete thought. For
example :
Yea, though I walk through the valley of deep darkness,
I will fear no evil; for thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
The fact of such departure as this from the norm of strict
parallelism is one of the elements that enters into the task of
deciding between poetry and prose. If the parallel form is
not clearly marked, as it is in the synonymous and antithetic
varieties, and if in addition the poetic quality of the literature
is not very high, it is not an altogether simple matter to
classify it correctly.
Meter. — The problem of meter in Hebrew poetry is one
still far from solution. How are the parallel lines organized ?
Can they be measured by poetic feet? Are the units of
io8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
which the lines are composed of equal length? How is
length determined — by the number of syllables or by the
number of words ? Does the nature of the syllable play any
part in the calculation, viz., whether it is long or short? Is
the same meter requisite throughout a poem or may there
be more or less variation? These and other related ques-
tions still call for decisive answer. Uncertainty on these
matters also tends to increase the difficulty of distinguishing
poetry from prose. The one thing in this sphere that seems
fairly certain is that the basis of the poetic line is accentual.
We count the number of word-accents as the measure of the
line. In general, also, the length of the lines thus deter-
mined is the same throughout a given poem. But the
usage controlling the number and nature of the unaccented
syllables that accompany each accented syllable has not yet
been discovered.
Literature on Hebrew poetry. — General treatments of the character-
istics of Hebrew poetry are furnished by the following works: A. R.
Gordon, The Poets of the Old Testament (New York: Hodder & Stoughton,
1912); N. Schmidt, The Messages of the Poets (New York: Scribner,
191 1), pp. 1-72; B. Duhm, article "Poetical Literature," Encyclopaedia
Biblica, III (1902); K. Budde, article "Poetry," Hastings' Dictionary of
the Bible, IV (1902) ; Isaac Taylor, The Spirit of the Hebrew Poetry (1861) ;
R. Lowth, De sacra poesi Hebraeorum (181 5); J. G. Herder, Vom Geist
der hebrdischen Poesie (1787); E. Konig, Stilistik, Rhetorik mid Poetik
(Leipzig: Dieterich, 1900); C. A. Briggs, General Introduction to the
Study of Holy Scripture (New York: Scribner, 1899), pp. 355-426; G. A.
Smith, The Early Poetry of Israel in Its Physical and Social Origins
(London: Oxford University Press, 19 12).
The more important schemes for the organization of Hebrew meter
are presented and discussed in the following: W. H. Cobb, A Criticism
of Systems of Hebrew Meter (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905); J: Ley,
Grundziige des Rhythmus u.s.w. in der hebrdischen Poesie (1875);
G. Bickell, Carmina Veteris Testamenti metrice (1882); J. Ley, Leitfaden
der Metrik der hebrdischen Poesie (1887); H. Grimme, Grundziige der
hebrdischen A kzent- und Vocallehre (1896) ; J. Doller, Rhythmus, Metrik und
Strophik in der biblisch-hebrdischen Poesie (Paderborn: Schoningh, 1899) ;
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 109
E. Sievers, Metrische Studien, I: Studien zur hehrdischen Metrik (Leipzig:
Teubner, 1901); II: Die hebr. Genesis (1904-5); III: Samuel nietrisch
herausgegehen (1907); J. W. Rothstein, GrundzUge des hehrdischen
Rhylhtnus und seiner Formenbildung (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909); C. L.
Souvay, Essai sur la metrique des Psaumes (St. Louis: Seminaire Kenrick,
1911).
On the organization of strophes in Hebrew poetry, cf., in addition,
D. H. Miiller, Die Propheten in ihrer urspriinglichen Form (Vienna:
Holder, 1896); J; K. Zenner, Die Chorgesdnge im Buche der Psalmen
(Freiburg im B. : Herder, 1896) ; D. H. Miiller, Strophenhau und Respon-
sion (Vienna: Holder, 1898); C. A. Briggs, A Critical and Exegetical
Commentary on the Book of Psalms, I (New York: Scribner, 1906),
pp. xxxiv-xlviii.
VARIETIES OF PROSE
If the literary product under consideration turns out to be
prose, the critical student seeks farther to know to what class
of writings it belongs. Is it historical narrative, concerned
with no other end than that of recording events exactly as they
occurred ? Is it sermonic or didactic in character, setting
consciously before itself the end of instruction and edification ?
If the latter, to what extent is its treatment of history con-
trolled by its aim ? If ostensibly historical, is it really so ?
Careful discrirnination must be made between the mythical or
legendary and the historical. Allowance must be made also
for the possible presence of parabolic or allegorical matter
under the guise of historical narrative. The failure to
recognize this has played havoc with the interpretation of
such literature as the Book of Jonah. Again, are the visions
in Ezekiel, Daniel, Isaiah, Zechariah the records of veritable
prophetic experiences, or are they but a literary or homiletic
dress chosen for the more effective presentation of the pro-
phetic thought ? The search for answers to these and other
such questions yields a knowledge of the literary methods
and characteristics of the Hebrews which is of the greatest
value to the interpreter.
no GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
COMPOSITE AUTHORSHIP
Another matter for investigation by the Hterary student
is the problem whether or not the writing before him is a
unit. As a matter of fact, most of the Old Testament books
are today regarded as of composite origin. The analysis of the
Hexateuch into several documents and the partition of the
Book of Isaiah among several writers are but illustrations of
the situation as a whole. The tests of the unity of a biblical
book are in general precisely the same as those applied to any
other book. Are the language and style throughout the
work one and the same, or are there marked variations ?
Judgments regarding style will always differ somewhat.
De gustihus nil disputandum. But certain objective, out-
standing differences can be recognized by all. Browning and
Longfellow, for instance, could hardly be confused. Stylistic
differences of pronounced character are thus generally recog-
nizable, and they, at least, reinforce other considerations
indicating diversity of authorship. Similarly, the language
of Chaucer and that of Tennyson could not possibly be
regarded as belonging to the same man or the same age. In
the same way the language of the Old Testament represents
approximately the history of a thousand . years. Unfor-
tunately the history of the Hebrew language is not as well
known as the history of English. Furthermore, the language
of the Old Testament has undergone considerable revision
from time to time, being kept up to date by reason of the
fact that the books were so widely read and in such steady
demand. Yet there are certain clearly marked differences
between early and late Hebrew, and the presence of both in
one book gives rise to legitimate suspicion regarding its unity.
Another criterion of unity is harmony throughout the
writing. Are the statements it makes and the presuppositions
it reflects mutually compatible ? Are the likes and dislikes in
general the same throughout? Are the interests and ideals
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL iii
sufficiently alike to belong to one mind, or do they presuppose
more than one ? Is the theological standpoint the same from
beginning to end ? Or are there differences of religious and
theological character too great to be reconciled on the
hypothesis of unity? For example, could David have held
the two conceptions of God reflected in I Sam. 26: 17-20 and
Ps. 139:7-12? The same inspection must be made of the
historical background. Is it the same throughout? The
historical situation is revealed sometimes indirectly and inci-
dentally even when we are not directly informed as to the
period to which a writing belongs. If a discussion of some
religious doctrine were, for example, to use an illustration
based upon wireless telegraphy, later ages would be enabled
to determine the terminus a quo, at least, of the writing by
that incidental allusion, even if no other information were
available.
THE AUTHOR
The next question asked of a book by the interpreter is.
Who wrote it or its several constituent elements? The
mere possession of an author's name is of little value in itself.
We seek rather to know the man as he was. To what stratum
of the social whole did he belong ? It is of great help, for
example, in the understanding and appreciation of the
sympathy felt by Amos and Micah for the poor and the
oppressed to know that they both came from the peasant
class and knew whereof they spoke by personal experience.
What was the inheritance of the author in the way of family
traditions and prejudices ? What kind of training or educa-
tion had been his? What were his personal history and
experience ? We come to the prophecy of Hosea, for example,
with somewhat different attitudes, according as we regard
him as a young man who had bestowed all the wealth of his
love upon a maiden who, after she had become his wife, devel-
oped lustful proclivities and finally deserted him, or as a
112 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
man who believed himself called of God to marry an out-and-
out harlot that he might thereby furnish a striking object-
lesson to Israel. The fuller and the more exact our knowledge
of the author, his antecedents, and his temperament the
better qualified are we to appreciate his point of view and
his utterance.
THE DATE
It is of primary importance to fix the date of a writing as
nearly as possible. The value of this information lies in the
fact that it enables us to know the historical situation out of
which the writing came and to which it was addressed.
This knowledge is necessary to a full understanding of any
writing. To know, in the fullest measure possible, the
environment of the writer and the situation of those to whom
he wrote throws a flood of light upon the meaning and sig-
nificance of his words. Words uttered in the ninth century
■would not convey the same significance as the same words
coming from the third century B.C. Prophecies from the
days of Jeroboam II cannot be understood aright if read with
the supposition that they come from the Exile. The cir-
cumstances of the age are woven into the very texture of the
thought, and they must be known if that thought is to be
made wholly intelligible.
The date of a piece of literature is determined in various
ways. The superscription attached to it not infrequently
states a date. But the superscriptions were evidently added
by later editors, in many cases at least, for they frequently
do not accord with the contents of the document to which
they are prefixed. Hence, in every case, whether there is
superscription or not, the final test of the date of a document
is the document itself. If it alludes to known historical
events and circumstances, these, of course, fix the date at
least within limits. For example, since the 137th Psalm
opens with —
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down,
Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion,
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 113
it is perfectly clear that the period of the Exile lay behind the
writer. The last verses of the same psalm, on the same prin-
ciple, show that the city of Babylon had not yet, when the poet
wrote, been punished as he thought it deserved, viz., totally
destroyed. When Isa. 44:26-28 and 45: iff. speak of the
wasted state of Jerusalem and of the triumphs of Cyrus, it is
clear that the writer of these chapters lived during the latter
part of the Exile, after Cyrus had begun his glorious career
and before Babylon had fallen or a return from exile had taken
place.
Specific historical allusions are not always, however, avail-
able. Then recourse must be had to other kinds of testimony.
The vocabulary and syntax of the language give some aid
in the determination of date. The appearance of certain
words and of certain idioms can be dated with approximate
definiteness. Their presence or absence from a document is
therefore a slight indication of the time when it originated.
Persian or Greek words, for example, at once betray the age
to which a writing belongs. But, on the whole, less aid is
derived from the linguistic argument than from any other
(cf. p. no).
Much help in dating a book or document is often derived
from a study of the social, political, and ecclesiastical insti-
tutions, customs, and ideas it reflects. If the writer refers to
the monarchy, for example, as an existing institution, he
reveals the general period to which he belongs. In like
manner, if he laments the lack of temple services, we at
once place him in the Exile. If the whole background of
his thought is commercial or urban, rather than rural and
agricultural, we put him in the later sections of the history.
This kind of testimony is furnished particularly by the
religious and theological thought of the writer. For instance,
when II Sam. 24:1 tells us that Yahweh^ moved David
- ' This is apparently the way in which the Hebrews pronounced the name
of their God. The pronunciation "Jehovah" is a mongrel form arising some-
where in the fourteenth century after Christ. It is due to a mixture of the
114 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
against Israel, saying, "Go number Israel and Judah," and
I Chron. 21:1, in describing the same situation, informs us
that "Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to
number Israel," we know that a long history of religious and
theological development lies between the two interpretations.
The difference in standpoint illustrated by these two judg-
ments runs through the entire thought of the two stages of
religion represented by these two passages. Writings whose
theological and religious standpoint approximate that of the
passage in I Samuel belong near the beginning of the process
of growth, those that approximate the standpoint of the
Chronicler belong near the end of the Hebrew period. And
the steps along the way from the first to the second are fairly
well recognizable, so that the religion and theology of a
writer do much to place him chronologically for us.
THE author's purpose
Another contribution to the understanding of a document
is made when we discover its author's purpose in writing it.
If we read the Books of Chronicles, for example, as a sober
record of history, made by one whose chief aim was to find
out what the facts were and what the causes were that con-
trolled the course of events, we are confronted by vexatious
questions. How can we account for the many discrepancies
between Chronicles and Kings (cf., e.g., II Chron. 14:5;
17:6; and I Kings 15: 14; 22:43), the latter being much the
older record ? Why does the Chronicler, if a historian
vowels of the Hebrew word for "Lord" with the consonants of the name
"Yahweh." The later Hebrews regarded the latter as too sacred to be pro-
nounced, and therefore substituted the word "Lord" whenever "Yahweh"
occurred. In their manuscripts they wrote the consonants of the word Yahweh ,
leaving out the vowels and putting in their place the vowels of the Hebrew word
for "Lord," thus reminding themselves not to pronounce "Yahweh," but the
word for "Lord." Christian interpreters, in the 14th or 15th century, not
knowing the significance of this method of spelling, misunderstood it and pro-
nounced the combination as " Jehovah "^ — an error that has persisted until the
present.
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 115
primarily, pass over so many facts without mention of them
(e.g., the story of Bathsheba, the discords in David's family,
and the Elijah and Elisha stories) ? How does it happen that
the David of the Chronicler is a saint, chiefly interested in
preparations for the proposed temple and its ritual, while the
David of Samuel and Kings is a man of flesh and blood,
busied in war and intrigue and the practical affairs of a
monarch's daily life ? When we discover that the Chronicler
was not at all concerned with history as such, but was solicitous
to vindicate the legitimacy and glory of God, the temple,
the priesthood, and the ritual as he knew them and loved
them, many of these questions are at once answered. He
was interested in the facts of history only to the' extent to
which he could make them subserve his purpose. He there-
fore selected such materials as he could use to teach the lessons
he desired to inculcate and passed by the rest. He also inter-
preted past history from the standpoint of his own time and
from the viewpoint of his great purpose, and thus presented
conclusions widely at variance with those of an earlier inter-
preter writing from a different standpoint and with a differ-
ent purpose. If we take prophetic literature, the importance
of knowing the prophetic purpose is equally great. If we
decide that the prophets were merely human automatons
who spoke and moved as the Spirit of God directed them, there
will be practically no limits, except such as inhere in our con-
ception of God, to our conceptions of what they might do and
say. If, however, we regard the prophets as men who were
profoundly moved by the events and conditions of their times
and sought to bring to bear upon their contemporaries such
considerations as would turn them from sin unto righteousness,
our whole interpretation of the prophetic activity will be con-
trolled by our conception of the prophets' purpose. For
example, if we think of the prophet Isaiah as seeking to stimu-
late Israel's faith in God at the time of the Syro-Ephraimite
invasion of Judah, we shall seek to show how the Immanuel
ii6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
prophecy (Isa., chap. 7) contributed to the achievement of
his purpose, and we shall have great difficulty in understanding
how it could do so, if it was primarily a prediction of the
coming of Jesus Christ, as older interpreters used to say.
Again, if we regard the writer of Isa., chaps. 40-55, as engaged
in the great purpose of inspiring and strengthening discour-
aged Israel in captivity that it might be ready to seize the
opportunity for return when it should present itself, we shall
read those chapters with a new appreciation. We shall at
once understand why he enlarges upon the power and the love
of Yahweh and the futility and absurdity of idolatry. We
shall also see why so much attention is given by him to the
problem of suffering; he must explain satisfactorily the
misfortunes of the past if he would inspire confidence in
Yahweh for the future.
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LITERATURE
The necessity of still another way of approach to the
Hebrew literature is now beginning to be recognized. It
was long thought that the Old Testament literature was
absolutely unique, that it was quite without parallel in any
way. But within recent years certain facts have come to
light which challenge that point of view. The Babylonians
had a creation story and a deluge story which present such
striking points of similarity to the biblical stories that we
are forced to raise the question of the use of the Babylonian
stories by the biblical writers. The Code of Hammurabi,
king of Babylon, antedated the Mosaic legislation by hundreds
of years. Some of the Mosaic laws are much like those of
Hammurabi. Was Hebrew law, therefore, dependent to some
extent upon older Babylonian law? The Egyptian tale of
two brothers offers elements that vividly recall the story
of Joseph and Potiphar's wife. Prophetic and messianic
literature has been found in Egyi3t at dates far preceding
the earliest appearance of prophecy or messianism in Israel.
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 117
Was this old Egyptian prophetic material familiar to the
Hebrew prophets, and did it furnish models for the expression
of Hebrew prophetic thought ? In the recently discovered
Aramaic papyri from Elephantine there was found an Aramaic
version of the story of Ahikar. This Aramaic version arose
about 500 B.C. It is a legend of a wise man who served as
chief adviser of Sennacherib, king of Assyria. In its Aramaic
form it spread throughout the hither Orient, and was finally
translated into Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, Armenian, Greek,
and Slavonic. It is indisputable evidence of the freedom
with which literary influences passed from one part of the
oriental world to another, and it lends new impetus to the
study of oriental literature as a whole from the comparative
point of view. To what extent, we are compelled to ask, were
the Hebrews dependent upon the literary life of the Orient as
a whole for the form and content of their own literature ?
The Ahikar story contains a large amount of proverbial
material which is no whit inferior in either form or content
to much that is in the Book of Proverbs. We can no longer,
therefore, view the Old Testament entirely as a thing apart.
We must reckon with the probability of interrelations between
it and surrounding literatures and be prepared for the possi-
bility of surprising discoveries in this field.
THE ART OF INTERPRETATION
In view of the fact that everything which has preceded
is preparation for the work of interpretation, it will be recog-
nized at once that the office of interpreter is no sine-
cure. His work calls for the most careful preparation and
the most complete self-surrender. We must divest ourselves
of every preconceived opinion or prejudice that may stand as
an obstruction between us and our author. We cannot dic-
tate to him what he shall say, but must be ready to receive
what he has said. We try to put ourselves in his place, in
the ways pointed out in the foregoing pages, to look through
ii8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
his eyes, to hear with his ears, and to feel as he felt. We
may add nothing to his message, nor may we subtract any-
thing from it. Our obligation as interpreters is to be abso-
lutely loyal to our sources and transparently honest in our
endeavor to understand their full significance. As inter-
preters we have no concern with the truth or the error of the
views presented by our sources. We may agree or disagree
with the doctrines of our author, but it is our first and only
duty, in our capacity as interpreters, to understand his views
completely and to report them accurately.
When the student of the Old Testament has finally
equipped himself thoroughly for the work of interpretation, so
that he is able to read the mind of his author clearly, he is
still confronted by the problem of method in his presentation
of his results to the public in general. He cannot expect the
average person to go through the long and painful process by
which he himself has arrived at his understanding of the Old
Testament. He must devise some easier way for the great
majority of men. They may, perhaps, reasonably be expected
to read their Old Testament in more than one English trans-
lation, a procedure which will be found helpful in so far as
it presents familiar ideas in a new dress and so arouses new
thoughts about them. In so far as the translations read
differ from one another, they will contribute also to bring
about freedom from bondage to any one translation and a
recognition of the fact that no translation can quite take the
place of the original language. Further, the main features of
the historical and social situation can be set before the popular
mind briefly and vividly and the right background thus
suggested for the understanding of the Old Testament book or
document. But, in addition to this, it is of great value to be
able to translate the ancient situations, institutions, and ideas
into terms of modern life and thought. Being unable to
carry our public back to the days of the Hebrew people, we
must at least, so far as possible, bring the ancient life down
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 119
to our modern days and interpret it in terms of our own
age. One of the best examples of this method of exposition
is furnished us in George Adam Smith's commentaries on
Isaiah and the minor prophets.
Literature on criticism and interpretation. — Some of the more impor-
tant works treating of matters of literary criticism and interpretation as
they concern the Old Testament are here given: S. R. Driver, An Introduc-
tion to the Literature of the Old Testament, revised ed. (New York: Scrib-
ner, 1914); C. H. Cornill, Introduction to the Canonical Books of the Old
Testament (New York: Putnam, 1907); H. T. Fowler, A History of the
Literature of Ancient Israel (New York: Macmillan, 1912); G. B. Gray,
A Critical Introduction to the Old Testament (New York: Scribner, 1913) ;
C. A. Briggs, General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture (New
York: Scribner, 1899); W. Robertson Smith, The Old Testament in the
Jewish Church, 2d ed. (London: A. & C. Black, 1892); K. Budde, Ge-
schichte der alt-hebrdischen Litter atur; mit Apokryphen und Pseudepi-
graphen von A. Bertholet (Leipzig: Amelang, 1906); B. Duhm, Die
Entstehung des Alien Testaments, 2d. ed. (Leipzig: Mohr, 1909) ; E. Sellin,
Einleitung in das Alte Testament (Leipzig: Quelle und Meyer, 1910);
C. Steuernagel,- Lehrhuch der Einleitung in das Alte Testament (Tubin-
gen: Mohr, 191 2); L. Gautier, Introduction a VAncien Testament,
2 vols., 2d ed. (Lausanne: Bridel & Cie., 1914); Hermann Gunkel,
"Die israelitische Literatur," in Paul Hinneberg, Die Kultur der Gegen-
wart, TeU I, Abt. VII, pp. 51-102 (Berlin: Teubner, 1906). The Ency-
clopaedia Biblica, edited by T. K. Cheyne and J. S. Black (New York:
Macmillan, 1899-1903), and Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (New
York: Scribner, 1899-1904) contain articles of introduction to each of
the Old Testament books; in addition, the general articles in the
former on "Historical Literature" (G. F. Moore), "Law Literature"
(G. B. Gray), "Poetical Literature" (B. Duhm), and "Wisdom
Literature" (C. H. Toy) are excellent presentations of the main facts
in each case. Similar articles in the nth edition of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica are well worth study.
IV. THE HISTORY OF THE HEBREWS
Important and valuable as the work of interpretation is, it
is only as its results are gathered up and given larger sig-
nificance by the historian that it comes to full fruition.
I20 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Interpretation of documents is fundamental in the recon-
struction of history, while history is the crown and glory of
interpretation.
Scope of history. — The historian seeks to cover the record
of the whole life of a given people. There is no phase of its
thought or activity that is not of interest to him. A full
understanding of the development of any people requires a
full knowledge of the various influences that have co-operated
in the production of the result. The political history of a
people cannot be understood as a thing apart from its intel-
lectual, social, economic, ethical, and religious life. Nat'onal
life is a unitary thing; all its parts are bound together in one
structure and exercise mutual and reciprocal influence one
upon another. Every fragment of information, of what-
soever kind, is therefore of significance to the historian. He
seeks for facts wheresoever they may be found, and, given
equal powers of interpretation and exposition for all, the
truest reconstruction of a people's history will be. presented by
that historian who is in possession of the widest and most
accurate knowledge of facts.
Dating of sources. — Naturally, the most valuable source of
information for Hebrew history is the Old Testament. The
first step in the use of this source for historical purposes is to
accept the results of literary criticism regarding the time of
origin for each of the literary units composing the Old Testa-
ment. Its thirty-nine books must be arranged in chrono-
logical order, that each one may make its contribution at
the proper point in the course of the history. Having gone
thus far, we must go farther and discriminate among the
various literary strata of which the Old Testament books are
composed. The Hexateiich, for example, as a complete work
belongs to the fourth century B.C.; but it contains within
itself elements of much greater age, some of which go back
even as literary documents to the eighth or ninth century
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 121
B.C., and perhaps farther.^ Before the Hexateuch can be
properly used as a historical source it must be analyzed into
its primitive constituent elements, and these must in turn
be arranged in chronological order. In like manner the
Books of Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and
Nehemiah have been found to be composite and must submit
to an analysis and a chronological assignment of the com-
ponent parts. Similar processes are applied to the writings of
the prophets and the poets.
It is at this point that a large measure of uncertainty must
attach to any effort toward a reconstruction of Hebrew history.
The dating of many of the literary strata within the Old Testa-
ment is of necessity a somewhat subjective piece of work.
Few tangible and definite chronological indices are at hand,
and in their absence more reliance than is desirable has to be
placed upon considerations of taste and judgment. The
farther the historian moves from firmly fixed objective facts
into the regions of thought and feeling the more speculative
are his results. But no truly historical mind can rest content
with a bare list of chronologically attested facts. Chronology
is not history, but merely its framework. The historian must
fill in the picture as best he can, seeking for the full historical
setting, of which the definitely known and placed facts form
but a small part. It is inevitable, therefore, that there will
always be many variant representations of the progress of
Hebrew history; for conjecture and imagination, even when
controlled by sound historical principles and methods, afford
wide scope for variations in judgment.
Facts versus interpretation of facts. — When a literary
source has finally been definitely placed in time, a new prob-
lem presents itself to the historian. He is seeking for facts;
his literary record offers him an interpretation of facts.
' See my article, "Some Problems in the Early History of Hebrew Religion,"
American Journal of Semitic Languages aiui Literatures, XXXII (1916), 81-97.
122 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
The record is the product of some person's observation of an
event, or study of a tradition, or thought upon an experience.
Consequently it partakes of the Hmitations and reflects the
characteristics of the writer. A single individual, with the
best will in the world, will almost inevitably give a partial or
incomplete interpretation, or one in which certain aspects of
the fact or truth are given undue prominence. The historian,
therefore, must discriminate between a fact and its inter-
pretation. Is the interpretation historically valid ? Does
it do full justice to the facts, or is it but a partial or prejudiced
view ? Was the writer in possession of all the facts or of a
sufficiently large proportion of them to make it possible for
him to arrive at a just estimate of the situation? Was his
ability as an interpreter vitiated by the purpose for which he
was writing? Did he desire primarily to find out exactly
what the facts were and to make them known, or were facts
only secondary or incidental matters with him, his mind being
set upon some great political, social, or religious end ?
A literary document that purports to narrate some past
event is not infrequently a source of information regarding at
least two periods, viz., the age in which the event occurred
and the age in which the narrator lived. To the extent to
which a faithful record is given of the situation or circumstance
described the document is of value as a witness to the actual
facts; but even when, for various reasons, a document is any-
thing but a faithful record of actual facts, it may be of
exceedingly great value for the age from which it itself
originates. That is to say, a writer always reveals some-
thing of the milieu out of which he writes. Whatever he
may or may not tell us directly of the more or less remote
period whose history he is recording, he will certainly tell
us, more or less indirectly, much regarding the times in
which he himself lives. He will write in the language of his
own day; he will drop occasional allusions to recent or con-
temporary occurrences and personalities; he will reflect the
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 123
opinions — political, social, ethical, or religious — of his genera-
tion, and he will employ the literary and historical methods and
point of view of the world in which he is living. No twentieth-
century document could ever be mistaken for a sixteenth-
century document, even if it were a history of the reign of
Queen Elizabeth.
It is of the greatest importance that the historian of the
Hebrew people should make this differentiation between
fact and interpretation of fact. The Old Testament records,
even those that profess to be written as histories, were all
written by men who knew nothing of the modern scientific
historiographical spirit and method. They were wholly
lacking in all that goes to make up critical scholarship in the
field of history. They accepted as true practically all that
tradition had to offer them. They never dreamed of sub-
mitting traditions to cold-blooded, scientific investigation.
They wrote, not for the purpose of recording facts for fact's
sake, but for the edification and inspiration of their people.
They selected their materials and modified them as seemed
necessary from this point of view. The result is, not in-
frequently, a disproportionate emphasis upon some phase of
the national life and a complete ignoring of others equally
important. Furthermore, Hebrew writers, like all other
ancient historians, were almost totally lacking in the sense
of perspective. They were unable to make the necessary
allowance for the lapse of time. They looked at events and
situations from the standpoint of their own age. They did
not think of the necessity of divesting themselves of all that
the progress of time had brought to them and of putting
themselves in the place of those whose sayings and doings
they were recording. They judged evecything and every-
body by their own standards and conceived of people of
former generations as actuated by the same ideals and pur-
poses as they themselves were. They read back into ancient
times the ideas and institutions of their own times without
124 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
a thought of the incongruity that must often result from such
a procedure.
The interpretative bias illustrated by the Books of Chron-
icles.— Plentiful illustration of the characteristics here enumer-
ated is furnished by the Books of Chronicles. In them the
spirit and method of much of the Hebrew writing is most
clearly seen. A comparison of these books with the corre-
sponding portions of the Books of Samuel and Kings is most
instructive and illuminating. These two sections of the Old
Testament cover largely the same ground. But the interests,
point of view, and aims of the writers are widely different.
These differences control their selection and use of materials
and result in interpretations which vary radically. The
Chronicler, living after the fall of the Northern Kingdom and
regarding that kingdom as having been contrary to the will of
Yahweh throughout its history, almost wholly ignores it in his
narrative, giving it mention only where the history of Judah
was so inextricably interwoven with that of Israel as to compel
recognition of the latter by the recorder. The Chronicler,
being concerned chiefly in an effort to validate the temple
at Jerusalem and its ritual as he knew them, traces the
institutions of his own day back to the days of David, to
whom he assigns the whole organization of the temple cultus.
The Chronicler's David is an ecclesiastic first of all; out of
the nineteen chapters devoted to David's life and work in
Chronicles eleven are devoted to accounts of his activities
in connection with temple, ritual, and the like. The same
desire to represent the great King David as fulfilling the
Chronicler's ideal of a king leads him to omit almost all
reference to the sins of David, which bulk so large in the
Samuel record. The only sin noticed by him is that of taking
the census; and a striking difference appears in his narrative
regarding it. In II Sam. 24:1 we are told that Yahweh
moved David to number Israel and Judah and then punished
him and his people for so doing. This was not ethically
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 125
justifiable in the Chronicler's eyes; hence in I Chron. 21:1
we read: "Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David
to number Israel." Similar liberty in modifying and even
contradicting the earlier record is often taken by the Chronicler
when the purpose he has in mind seems to him to require it;
cf., for example, II Chron. 14:5 and 17:6 with I Kings 15: 14
and 22:43; II Chron. 24:26 and II Kings 12:21 (where the
Chronicler's attitude toward mixed marriages leads him
to attach the terms "Ammonitess" and "Moabitess"); II
Chron. 24:4-14 with II Kings 12:5-17; II Chron. 36:9
with II Kings 24:8.
We have the advantage of being able to check the Chron-
icler's accounts by the earlier records of Samuel and Kings;
they reveal to us the great freedom with which the Chronicler
has handled his sources and his facts. More or less of the
same attitude is discoverable in other Old Testament writings,
and the historical student must therefore always be on the
lookout and ready to make allowance for the bias of his
sources of information. The historian must endeavor to
find out how things actually happened ; he cannot rest content
with the opinions and interpretations of uncritical writers, even
if they were eyewitnesses of that which they record. He must
compare testimony with testimony, witness with witness, and
seek to get behind all records to the facts themselves.
Geography as a historical source. — A second source of
information that must be utilized to the full by the historian
is the geography of Palestine and the neighboring lands.
The land of Palestine, in relation to its illumination of the
life-story of Jesus, has been well named "the Fifth Gospel."
The same kind of value is to be obtained from it for the
understanding of the Old Testament. The geographical
data contained in the Old Testament are abundant; scarcely
a page but makes one or more topographical, climatic, geo-
logical, political, or ethnological reference, for the under-
standing of which a knowledge of the geography of Palestine
126 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
and the neighboring lands is almost indispensable. Travel
and residence in Palestine and the study of good maps and
handbooks have made the general topography of Palestine
familiar to most students. The lay of the land, the lakes and
rivers, the hills and greater valleys, and many of the more
important towns are well known. On the other hand, many
places still await exact localization and sure identification,
e.g., Gibeah of Saul, Lo-debar, Beth-rehob, Salem, Topheth,
Gath, Bethcar, and Aphek.
The political significance of the geographical location of
Palestine. — Geography has much to do with the making
of history. Location largely determines vocation; climate
and soil vitally affect character and function. The situation
of Palestine was strategic. It was, as a glance at any map of
Western Asia and Egypt will show, the only path of com-
munication between Asia and Africa. It lay between the
great powers of these two regions as a connecting link. All
the commerce and culture of the ancient oriental world
must, perforce, pass through Syria and Palestine. Palestine
received the impress of the civilizations of Crete and the
Aegean, of Egypt, of the Hittites, of Assyrian, Babylonian,
Persian, Greek, and Roman, each in turn. It was the
battlefield of contending tribes and the prize of the great
world-powers. The control of this bridge was indispensable
to the aspirant for world-dominion. Its inhabitants could
not live the hfe of seclusion; they were inevitably involved
in all the great military and political movements of each
age. Their statesmen were continually confronted by great
problems in the field of foreign affairs. The policy to be
adopted in any great crisis became a subject of tremendous
import and called forth opinion and discussion throughout
the land. These people were continually in the forefront
of the world's history and could not escape the effect of con-
tinual concern with great issues in the realms of politics and
morality.
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 127
The economic resources of Palestine. — The surface of
Palestine is very broken. Hills of varying elevation are
intersected by valleys of greater or less extent penetrating into
the hills and ascending to various degrees of elevation. The
Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea run like a deep gash through
the land from north to south. With such great variety of
elevation and of exposure there goes a corresponding variety
of products; consequently the land is to an unusual degree
self-sustaining, providing for practically all the needs of its
inhabitants. In contrast with the sandy deserts to the east
and south it is a garden of fertility. This has always made it
the envy and the prey of marauding bands of Bedouins and
attracted to it the hungry hordes of the desert. The Hebrews
themselves approached it thus and looked longingly toward
the ''land flowing with milk and honey." But large areas of
its surface are limestone rock, coated with an inch or two of
soil, which raises nothing but a little grass for a few weeks in
the springtime. Consequently, famines were no uncommon
occurrence, the area of productive land being so small, and a
full allotment of rain being necessary to a full yield. A study
of the records of Judges and Joshua shows that the conquering
Hebrews were for long confined almost wholly to the hillsides,
and that the fertile plains were held firmly by the Canaanites.
Economic motives played no small part in the relations
between the incomers and the older inhabitants. In like
manner, reference to a raised map of Palestine and Syria will
show that Damascus was cut o& from Phoenicia and the
coast by the Lebanon ranges. Her only way out was across
the northern end of Palestine. The need for an outlet for
her commerce may have had much to do with the long wars
between Damascus and Israel. The economic resources of
Palestine were so slight, in comparison with those of the fertile
valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates, as to constitute a
heavy and hopeless handicap to the Hebrews in any endeavor
to rival the political and economic power of Egypt and
128 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Baby Ionia- Assyria. The Hebrews were never far removed
from starvation. It may well be that this lack of things
material contributed much toward the development of spir-
itual riches.
In these and other ways the influence of geography upon
Hebrew history is easily discernible, and it well deserves the
careful consideration of students.
Literature upon the geography of Palestine. — The following books are
of value on this subject : George Adam Smith, The Historical Geography
of the Holy Land (New York: Armstrong, 1894), and Jerusalem: The
Topography, Economics, and History from the Earliest Times to 70 A.D.,
2 vols. (New York: Armstrong, 1905); Selah Merrill, Ancient Jerusalem
(with illustrations, charts, and plans; Chicago: Revell, 1908); L. B.
Paton, Jerusalem in Bible Times (Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press, 1908); E. Huntington, Palestine and Its Transformation (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1911); R. L. Stewart, The Land of Israel: A
Textbook on the Physical and Historical Geography of the Holy Land
(Chicago: Revell, 1899); A. Socin and I. Benzinger, Palestine and
Syria (Baedeker's Guide-Book Series), 4th ed. (New York: Scribner,
1906); F. Buhl, Geographic des alten Palastina (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1896);
H. Guthe, Palastina (Land und Leute: Monographien zur Erdkunde;
mit 142 Abbildungen nach photograph. Aufnahme und einer farbigen
Karte; Bielefeld: Velhagen u. Klasing, 1908).
Maps. — George Adam Smith and J. G. Bartholomew, Atlas of the
Historical Geography of the Holy Land (London: Hodder & Stoughton,
1915) ; Topographical and Physical Map of Palestine, compiled by J. G.
Bartholomew and edited by G. Adam Smith (scale, 4 miles to the inch;
New York: Armstrong, 1904); H. Guthe, Bibel- Atlas (in 20 Haupt-
und 28 Nebenkarten. Mit einem Verzeichnis der alten und neuen
Ortsnamen; Leipzig: Wagner und Debes, 191 1); H. Kiepert, Wand-
karte zur Erlduterung der biblischen Erdkunde Alten und Neuen Testaments
(Berlin: Reimer).
The most exhaustive maps of Palestine are those compiled under
the direction of the Palestine Exploration Fund, from whose agents they
may be obtained. Special attention may be called to the value of their
relief maps.
Archaeology and history. — A third source of information
regarding Hebrew history is at hand in Hebrew archaeology.
This science concerns itself with the material remains of
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 129
Hebrew civilization. These are fragments of ancient build-
ings, city walls, and fortifications; wells, cisterns, tombs,
and graves; altars, shrines, and sacred pillars; various prod-
ucts of artistic skill, e.g., idols, figurines, coins, statues; tools
of various kinds and weapons; utensils for household use,
such as jars, bowls, and lamps. In short, any product of
human labor and skill is serviceable to the archaeologist.
Through such things he may trace a people's progress in the
arts and sciences and be enabled to give them their right
place in the scale of culture. Of especial interest, however,
are the few inscriptions that have been recovered thus far from
the soil of Palestine.
Whence have materials of this sort been obtained? In
part from the representations, in inscriptions and reliefs, of
the spoil carried away from Israel by invaders, like the Assyr-
ians and Babylonians; in part also from the surface of the soil,
where may still be found such things as ancient high places,
wells, walls, and building materials from ancient structures
which had been torn down and utilized by the natives in the
erection of modern houses, etc. But the most fertile source
of such materials has been and will continue to be the work of
the excavator. Thus far excavations of any extent have been
conducted only at Jerusalem, Jericho, Gezer, Samaria,
Beth-shemesh, Taanach, Megiddo, Lachish, Tell-es-Safi
(Gath[?]), Tell-Zakariya (Azekah[?]), Tell-ej-judeideh, and
Mareshah. The work of excavation in Palestine has little
more than begun. There is yet much soil to be overturned.
In the words of Dr. F. J. Bliss, himself a competent and suc-
cessful excavator:
Excavation has all the possibilities of an infant art. The debris of
ages has only just begun to reveal its treasures. Scattered under the
soil are countless "documents" — documents in stone, in metal, in
earthenware — documents inscribed and uninscribed, but each waiting
to tell its tale of the past. Of the hundreds of buried sites in Syria and
Palestine, those in which excavation has been attempted on any large
scale do not reach the number of twenty.
I30 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Relatively few inscriptions have as yet been recovered
from the soil of Palestine. This is in part due to the many
political and military vicissitudes of the land, and in part to the
destructive effects of climate and soil. The more important
written documents found are the Moabite stone, the Siloam
inscription, the Gezer calendar, the Lachish tablet, the
ostraca from Samaria, the Assyrian tablets from Gezer and
from Taanach, the lion seal from Megiddo, and the stamped
jar-handles from Tell-es-Safi and neighboring sites.
The finds of the excavators have thrown much light on
certain phases or sections of Hebrew history. For example,
it is pretty generally conceded now that the Palestine excava-
tions support the contention that there was no sudden in-
cursion into Palestine of an overwhelming horde of Hebrews
sweeping everything before them, but that the process of
Hebraizing Canaan was a slow and gradual one. Again, the
excavations show that the civilization of Palestine, into which
the Hebrews came and with which they identified themselves,
was not a pure, unmixed product, but rather a complex and
composite culture into which had entered most varying ele-
ments from widely separated homes. It was a cosmopolitan
life in large measure. Many more interesting revelations
doubtless await the spade of the excavator.
Literature on Hebrew archaeology. — The following are of value:
George A. Barton, Archaeology and the Bible (Philadelphia: American
Sunday School Union, 1916); P. S. P. Handcock, The Latest Light on
Bible Lands (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,
1913); and The Archaeology of the Holy Land (New York: Macmillan,
1 916; F. J. Bliss, The Development of Palestine Exploration (New York:
Scribner, 1906); H. Vincent, Canaan d'apres Vexploration recente (Paris:
Gabalda, 1907); S. R. Driver, Modern Research as Illustrating the
Bible (London: Henry Frowde, 1909); W. M. Thomson, The Land
and the Book (New York: Harper, 1882);- F. J. Bliss, A Mound of
Many Cities, or Tell-el-Hesy Excavated (London: Palestine Exploration
Fund, 1894); F. J. Bliss, Excavations at Jerusalem, i8g4-i8g7 (London:
Palestine Exploration Fund, 1898); F. J. Bliss and R. A. S. Macalis-
ter, Excavations in Palestine, i8g8-igoo (London: Palestine Explora-
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 131
tion Fund, 1902); E. Sellin, Tell-Ta'^anek (Vienna: Holder, 1904);
G. Schumacher, Tell-el-Mutesellim (Leipzig: Haupt, 1908); R. A. S.
Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer (London: Palestine Exploration
Fund, 1912); Sellin und Watzinger, Jericho (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1913);
W. Nowack, Lehrbuch der hebrdischen Archdologie (Leipzig: Mohr,
1894); I. Benzinger, Hebrdische Archdologie, 2d ed. (Leipzig: Mohr,
1907); R. Kittel, Studien zur hebrdischen Archdologie und Religions-
geschichte (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1908).
History of the Semitic world. — A very important contribu-
tion to the understanding of Hebrew history is obtained
through the study of the history of the neighboring natiohs.
First of all, the inscriptions of Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria,
Persia, Moab, and Syria contain many references to Israel
and Judah which substantiate, modify, correct, or help in the
interpretation of the statements of the Old Testament itself.
Literature. — The more important of these inscriptions will be found
translated or interpreted in their bearing upon the Old Testament in
the following books: George A. Barton, op. cit., pp. 235-443; R. W.
Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testamettt (New York: Eaton
& Mains, 19 12); S. A. B. Mercer, Extra-Biblical Sources for Hebrew and
Jewish History (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1913); H.
Gressmann, Altorientalische Texte und Bilder zum Alien Testamente
(Tiibingen: Mohr, 1909); J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1906); C. H. W. Johns,
The Oldest Code^ of Laws in the World (Edinburgh: Clark, 1903),
and The Relations between the Laws of Babylonia and the Laws of
the Hebrew Peoples (London: Oxford University Press, 1914); S. A.
Cook, The Laws of Moses and the Code of Hammurabi (London: Black,
1903), R. F. Harper, The Code of Hammurabi (Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press, 1904); H. V. Hilprecht, Explorations in Bible Lands
during the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia: Holman, 1903); E.
Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 3d ed., by H.
Zimmern und H. Winckler (Berlin: Reuther und Reichard, 1902);
L. W. King and H. R. Hall, Egypt and Western Asia in the Light of
Recent Discoveries (London: Society for Promotion of Christian Knowl-
edge, 1907); A. Jeremias, The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient
East (New York: Putnam, 191 1); W. H. Bennett, The Moabite Stone
(Edinburgh: Clark, 191 1); A. H. Sayce, Aramaic Papyri Discovered at
Assuan (London: A. Noring, 1908); E. Sachau, Aramdische Papyrus
132 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
und Ostraka aus einer jiidischen M iiitdrkolonie zu Elephantine (Leipzig:
Hinrichs, 191 1); A. Ungnad. Aramdische Papyrus aus Elephantine
(Leipzig: Hinrichs, 191 1); Ed. Meyer, Der Papyrus/ und von Elephantine
(Leipzig: Hinrichs, 191 2).
In addition to the concrete statements regarding Israel
and Judah to be obtained from the inscriptions of neighboring
peoples, the entire progress of their history must be con-
sidered in its bearing upon Hebrew history. By geographical
location the inhabitants of Palestine were the connecting
link between the two great centers of civilization in the
oriental world, viz., the valley of the Nile and that of the
Euphrates. It was impossible for them to live an isolated life.
They were of necessity involved in all the movements of the
life of the Orient. Across their border marched and counter-
marched the armies of the East, and their own fate lay in the
hands of the great contenders for world-supremacy. The
foreign policies of Egypt, of Syria, of Urartu, of Babylonia, of
Assyria, and of Persia each in turn affected more or less pro-
foundly the course of Hebrew history. We cannot under-
stand the reign of King Hezekiah, for example, apart from an
insight into the larger political field of Egypt and Western
Asia. We get valuable light upon the series of events cul-
minating in the Maccabean revolt and the full significance
of that struggle as we view it in relation to the tangled politics
of Egypt, of Syria, and of Rome. No important political
or economic movement anywhere in the world of Egypt and
Western Asia was without great significance for the Hebrew
kingdoms.
Not only in such external ways was Israel affected by the
world about her. She was herself part and parcel of that
world. The historian must fully recognize and give due
weight to this fact. The Hebrews were Semites living among
Semites. There is thus a very real sense in which the hfe of
the entire Semitic world was one life. Its underlying currents,
its dominating motives, its psychological reactions to the
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 133
phenomena of experience were throughout the length and
breadth of that world fundamentally the same. To write
the history of any one part of the Semitic world without con-
stant reference to the life of the other parts would be as
radically wrong as to attempt to obtain an intelligent under-
standing of the history of the state of Massachusetts apart
from a thorough knowledge of the history of the United States
and of England. Yet the importance of this method of ap-
proach to Hebrew history and its full significance are only just
beginning to dawn upon Old Testament scholars.
Literature on the history of the related peoples. — ^J. H. Breasted, A
History of Egypt from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest, 2d. ed.
(New York : Scribner , 1 909) , and A History of the A ncient Egyptians (New
York: Scribner, 1908) ; G. S. Goodspeed, A History of the Babylonians and
Assyrians (New York: Scribner, 1902); R. W. Rogers, A History of
Babylonia and Assyria, 6th ed. (New York: Abingdon Press, 1915);
J. Garstang, The Land of the Hittites (New York: Dutton & Co., 1910);
P. S. P. Handcock, Mesopotamian Archaeology (New York: Macmillan,
191 2); L. W. King, A History of Babylonia and Assyria, 2 vols, so far
issued (New York: Stokes & Co., 1915) ; Morris Jastrow, Jr., The Civili-
zation of Babylonia and Assyria (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1915); Ed.
Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, 2d ed. (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1909 ff.) ; H. R.
Hall, The Ancient History of the Near East from the Earliest Times to the
Battle of Salamis (London: Methuen, 1913); C. F. Lehmann-Haupt,
Israel. Seine Entwicklung im Rahmen der Weltgeschichte (Tubingen:
Mohr, 1911).
Problems in Hebrew history. — The kind of problems that
interest historians of the Hebrews at the present time may be
indicated by a few examples. The Hebrew settlement in
Canaan invites investigation. Conflicting views in the Old
Testament raise questions regarding the manner and duration
of the Hebrew entry. The likelihood of the Uabiri of the
Tell-el-Amarna letters having been Hebrews, in a wider
application of the name, involves the probability of their
having been marauders in or invaders of Canaan in the fif-
teenth century B.C. The stele of Merneptah places "Israel"
134 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
in Palestine about 1200 B.C. What relation did the Habiri
and "Israel" of Palestine bear to the Jacob tribes in Egypt?
Were they the same people or different branches of one and
the same people ? When did they first enter Canaan — at
the time of the Hyksos invasion, or in the Amarna period, or
at some other time ? The results of excavation show no
break in the culture of Canaan at any point in the early days.
Was Israel's settlement there a peaceful one, not disturbing
existing conditions ? Did the Israelites bring with them a
culture so akin to that of Canaan as to make amalgamation
easy and natural? Or did they come with everything to
learn from the Canaanites, but in such relatively slight
numbers and so gradually as to produce no appreciable effect
upon the life of the times ?
Another group of problems besets the return of Judah
from exile in Babylon and the restoration of the Jewish
community. Is the Chronicler's account in Ezra and Nehe-
miah a wholly trustworthy one ? Was there the return of a
large body of exiles about 536 B.C. ? To what extent did
the Chronicler use "sources" in his record of these events, and
to what extent did he write in independence of "sources"?
Which was the pioneer in the work of restoration, Ezra or
Nehemiah ? Was the hostility of the Samaritans toward the
Jews fundamentally on account of religious or political con-
siderations? Did the old breach between the North and
South reassert itself here ?
To what degree is the chronology of the Old Testament
trustworthy? Checking it up where we have the data for
testing it we seem forced to doubt its validity at many
points. For example, the period from the Exodus to the
laying of the foundation stone of Solomon's temple was,
according to I Kings 6:1, 480 years. But the sum of the
figures given in the Hexateuch, Judges, Samuel, and Kings
for the same period is 550 years; and these figures do not
include the days of Joshua, the elders who outlived Joshua,
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 135
Samuel, and Saul, which, if added, would bring the total up
toward 650 years. The total of the reigns of the kings of
Judah, from Athaliah to the sixth year of Hezekiah as given in
Kings, is 165 years; the figures for the corresponding period in
Israel are 144 years. The chronology of Hezekiah is in great
confusion; according to II Kings 18:2, compared with 16:2,
Ahaz was about nine years old when his son Hezekiah was
born. Samaria fell in 721 B.C., the sixth year of Hezekiah,
according to II Kings 18:9, 10, thus placing Hezekiah's
accession in 727 or 726 B.C. Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem
in 701 B.C. was in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, according
to II Kings 18: 13; this places his accession in 715 or 714 B.C.
Such problems call for the most careful and thoroughgoing
application of historical method to the reconstruction of the
history of the Hebrews. Intelligence of a high order and
patience unlimited are requisite for the treatment of this great
subject. There is opportunity here for almost unlimited
work, and the reward, from the point of view of the genuine
student, will certainly be commensurate with the labor
involved.
Books on Hebrew history. — J. Wellhausen, Prolegomena zur Geschichte
Israels, 6th ed. (Berlin: Reimer, 1905; the English edition of this famous
work is out of print)'; R. Kittel, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, 2d ed.
(Gotha: Perthes, 191 2; the English translation of the first edition,
History of the Hebrews, was published by Williams & Norgate, of Lon-
don, in 1895-96}; H. P. Smith, Old Testament History (New York:
Scribner, 1903) ; G. W. Wade, Old Testament History, 2d ed. (New
York: Dutton, 1903); C. F. Kent, History of the Hebrew People and
History of the Jewish People (New York: Scribner, 1896-99); B. Stade,
Geschichte des Volkes Israel (Berlin: Grote, 1887) ; H. Guthe, Geschichte
des Volkes Israel, 2d ed. (Leipzig: Mohr, 1904); Ed. Meyer, Die Isra-
eliten und ihre Nachbarstdmme (Halle: Niemeyer, 1906) ; W. H. Kosters,
Die W iederherstellung Israels in der persischen Periode (Heidelberg: Hor-
ning, 1895); Ed. Meyer, Die Entstehung des Jiidenthums (Halle:
Niemeyer, 1896); C. C. Torrey, Ezra Studies (Chicago: The Univer-
sity of Chicago Press, 1910); C. F. Lehmann-Haupt, Israel. Seine Ent-
wicklung im Rahmen der W eltgeschichte (Tiibingen: Mohr, 191 1).
136 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
V. THE RELIGION OF THE HEBREWS
Religion and history. — The modern approach to the study
of Hebrew rehgion has shown that that rehgion was just as
truly a historical product as is the religion of any other people.
The history is one of growth or development from a primitive
type of thought and conduct to a relatively advanced and
lofty type. Progress in religion went hand in hand with
progress in culture. Jephthah in a primitive age sacrificed
his daughter to please his God. A writer in the post-exilic
age says:
Wherewith shall I come before Yahweh and bow myself before the most
high God?
Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old ?
Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands
of rivers of oil ?
Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body
for the sin of my soul ?
It has been told thee, O man, what is good.
Yea, what does Yahweh require of thee,
But to do justice and to love kindness.
And to walk humbly with thy God? [Mic. 6:6-8].
David dreads expulsion from Israel as involving banishment
from Yahweh (I Sam. 26:19, 20). A later "David," living
at the other end of the Hebrew career, says:
Whither can I go from thy spirit ?
And whither can I flee from thy presence ?
If I ascend into heaven, thou art there.
If I make Sheol my bed, lo — thou art there.
If I take the wings of the morning.
And dwell in the uttermost part of the sea;
There also would thy hand lead me,
And thy right hand hold me [Ps. 139:7-10].
The Second Commandment says that Yahweh is " a jealous
God, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children, upon
the third and the fourth generation of them that hate" him.
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 137
Ezekiel at the time of the Exile says, "The soul that sinneth,
it shall die: the son shall not bear the guilt of his father,
neither shall the father bear the guilt of his son; the righteous-
ness of the righteous shall be for himself, and the wickedness
of the wicked shall be upon himself" (Ezek. 18:20).
Such being the case, the study of Hebrew religion is in
reahty a part of the study of Hebrew history as a whole.
It calls for the same preliminary processes in the treatment of
the sources of information that any other historical investi-
gation calls for (see pp. i2off.). The same sort of allowance
must be made for the point of view and purpose of the writers,
for their limitations, prejudices, and enthusiasms. It is
also to be continually borne in mind that religion is one of
the most conservative elements in civilization — that it tends
to conserve and enshrine the old even long after the new has
taken a place alongside it. Many a primitive religious idea
or institution has persisted into modern times, sometimes with
a change of function or significance that keeps it alive and
effective, sometimes having lost all significance and become a
mere matter of habit, sustained by the momentum of its long
history. This will explain many an apparent inconsistency in
the religious consciousness of later times. It also makes it
possible to recover something of the more primitive religious
mind from the religious practices of later generations.
Religion and culture. — The effect of the political and eco-
nomic history upon the content and development of the
religious history must be carefully studied. If religion is one
of the functions of culture, it must be studied in relation to all
the other functions, if it is to be properly appreciated. Take
the effect of the settlement in Canaan upon Hebrew religion as
a case in point. The God-idea of the nomadic Israelites was
wholly unfitted for the needs of a settled people. The God of
the desert had been thought of as supplying all the needs of his
people there. But a new kind of life confronted them in
Canaan. Here they must become farmers and city-dwellers.
138 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Whole areas of new experience were opened out before them.
They must learn new ways of living and they must learn to
associate their God with these new ways. The Canaanites
were farmers and must be depended upon to teach their art
to Israel. But the Canaanites were worshipers of the Baalim
and organized all their agricultural life in connection with
Baalistic rites. The Baalim were for them the lords of the
soil and the givers of its fruits. Yahweh must displace the
Baalim in these functions if he is to retain the loyalty of his
people. He must become a farmer's God. This change of
function on the part of Israel and Yahweh required much
time. It was a life-and-death struggle for the religion of
Israel, which ended in complete victory over the Baalim
only after centuries of conflict; cf. Hos. 2: 2-13.
Another illustration of the dependence of religion upon
history is at hand in the Hebrew teaching regarding the per-
sonal responsibility of the individual to God for his own deeds.
This teaching never received full recognition and distinct
emphasis till the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Prior to
that period the whole thought of the teachers of religion
had concerned itself with the problems and duties of the
nation as such. The future of the Kingdom of Yahweh
was indissolubly bound up with the future of Israel. But at
last it became clear to the religious guides of Israel that the
nation as such was doomed. Was Yahweh therefore to be
eliminated from history ? This led to a transfer of attention
from the nation to the individuals of which it was composed,
and to a recognition that the Kingdom of God must be set
up in the hearts of the pious. Hence, Ezekiel takes upon
himself the " cure of souls " and wrestles with the problems and
doubts that disturb the faith of the men of his day. Through
the experiences of those trying times he is brought to see
that no man is condemned by Yahweh for sins committed by
other men, and that no man's righteousness can be counted
to the credit of another than himself.
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 139
Isaiah and Micah interpret the invasion of Sennacherib as
chastisement from Yahweh for Judah's sin and lack of faith.
A later "Isaiah" kindles faith in the hearts of his despairing
people by exalting Yahweh in his omnipotence and sole god-
head, when his people are buried in exile, apparently having
"no God, and without hope in the world." Habakkuk
preaches the necessity of faith in God when all men's hearts
are failing them for fear. The prophets as a whole make
Yahweh the God of the world just when it seems inevitable
that his own land will be overrun by the heathen. The rela-
tion between religion and the larger life of the day was vital
and must always be taken into account.
Hebrew religion and Semitic religion. — Another aspect of
the study of Hebrew religion is the relationship of the Hebrew
to the oriental religions in general. We can no longer think
of the religion of Israel as existing in a vacuum. The civili-
zation of the Hebr&ws owed much to the Semitic world in
which it was developed ; we can safely say that there was little
that was distinctively Hebraic in it. It was largely composed
of the Semitic and non-Semitic cultures that surrounded Israel
and were rooted in the very soil upon which she lived. If this
be true, it is scarcely possible that the religion of Israel could
have escaped some influence from the religions that were vital
elements in these neighboring civilizations. The possibility
becomes even more vague when we consider that not a single
one of the great fundamental institutions of the Hebrew
religion was exclusively Hebraic. Sacrifice, prayer. Sabbath,
circumcision, clean and unclean, prophet, priest, temple,
feasts, iasts — all these institutions were existent among
other Semitic peoples and that, too, loijg before the Hebrew
nation and people came into being. The latter did not create
their religious institutions; they inherited them. This inher-
itance carried with it a tremendous body of Semitic religion
which became the substratum of Hebrew religion. In order
to get a right historical view of the religion of the Old
I40 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Testament, it is incumbent upon the student to obtain some
idea of the elements in it that were held in common with
their Semitic ancestors and brethren, to trace their resem-
blances, and to note their differences.
When we discover, e.g., that in many cases precisely
that which was "unclean" for the Hebrew was "taboo" for
other peoples, we are on the way to a new understanding of
"clean and unclean." When we note that circumcision was
not an exclusively Hebraic rite, nor even confined to the
Semites, but a practice in vogue among the most widely
scattered peoples, from the North American Indian to the
aborigines of Australasia, we approach the study of it in
Israel with a wholly different mental attitude. When we
learn that the root-word for "holy" is the same throughout
the Semitic group of languages, and that in Assyrian, for
example, it is used in one form to designate a "prostitute"
or " harlot,"' we get a new point of view for the interpretation
of the Hebrew word. Even prophecy, the crown and glory
of Hebrew religion, was at home also in Syria, Assyria, and
Egypt. It is gradually appearing that messianic prophecy
had very close parallels in Assyria and Egypt, and it is by no
means unlikely that the messianism of Israel received some
of its coloring and content from one or the other of these
sources.
Facts like these force upon the student the obligation to
study the religion of the Old Testament from the comparative
standpoint. It was not a thing apart; it was a religion
among religions; it was one of a great family of religions.
It exhibits strong family resemblances; but it also is marked
by distinctly individual characteristics. Both alike must
' This is accounted for by the fact that the religion of Assyria found place
for the practice of prostitution as a sacrificial honor to the gods, the givers of
life. Being thus incorporated in the worship and attached to the shrines, the
harlot was a "holy" person. There was evidently no thought of moral purity
in the word at this stage.
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 141
be investigated. The differences will appear all the more
wonderful when they are seen against the background of so
many and such great resemblances.
Problems in the study of Hebrew religion. — The modern
student finds the study of the religion of the Hebrews bristling
with problems which invite attention. For example, when
did monotheism succeed in establishing itself firmly in Israel,
and when was it first formulated ? Was it arrived at through
a process of speculative thought, as in Egypt in the days of
Amenophis IV, or was it attained as the result of 'ethical
necessity ? That is to say, did the Hebrews formulate mono-
theism in response to the demand for an ethical interpretation
of the world to which such a doctrine seemed indispensable ?
Was any impetus toward monotheism received from Baby-
lonia, Assyria, or Egypt, or was it a purely native product ?
Again, how is the marvelous ethical superiority of Israel's
religion to be accounted for? Was it a gift from above,
unmediated by human instrumentalities ? If not, what ele-
ments in the environment and history of Israel contributed to
this development? Were these elements present or absent
from the experiences of the related peoples ? Are we content
to say that the Hebrews had a special and innate affinity for
ethics even as, according to some historians, the Greeks had
for aesthetics? Cannot practically every Hebrew ethical
ideal and precept be paralleled in the ethical teachings of the
neighboring peoples ? If so, wherein precisely does the
ethical superiority of Israel consist ?
Yet again, the tendency of critical scholarship has been
to place practically all the eschatological writings of the Old
Testament in the exilic or post-exilic age. Is this procedure
valid? Or is it better, with some recent scholars, to make
eschatology antedate the whole prophetic movement and to
see in the prophetic promises and threats merely an ethicizing
of older eschatological ideas belonging to a more or less general
Semitic world-view ? That is, did Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and
142 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
their successors simply take over already existing non-
ethical conceptions regarding national disaster or deliverance
and world-catastrophe and read into them great ethical
lessons, making effective homiletical use of them for the
religious education of Israel?
The development of Hebrew law is likewise a subject that
calls for fresh examination. The historical school of inter-
pretation has arranged the codes in this order: (i) Covenant
Code, (2) Deuteronomy, (3) Holiness Code, (4) Priestly Code.
With this arrangement has gone the tacit assumption that
the last two codes at least were composed almost entirely of
new laws, formulated in the days of the Exile and the following
centuries. But we are now asking whether it is not more
probable that very much of the content of these later codes was
in existence and in use at the various shrines quite early in
Hebrew history. Some of the laws in these two codes are
obviously late; but are they all necessarily equally late ? Is
it not probable that much of the law and custom of Israel
escaped formal literary revision until a relatively late period,
when the aggressive priestly scribes laid hands upon the
whole religious life of Israel and set their seal indelibly
thereon ?
Finally, the influences and elements that entered into the
composition of Judaism need closer definition. How much
was the later legislation influenced by Babylonian law and
ritual, either in the way of direct imitation and emulation
or by way of reaction and protest ? What did Persian views
contribute toward Jewish religious thought, especially in the
realms of demonology, angelology, and eschatology ? Did
Greek philosophy either directly or indirectly, positively
or negatively, shape the thought of the Hebrew sages ?
Literature on Hebrew religion. — -'General: H. Preserved Smith, The
Religion of Israel: An Historical Study (New York: Scribner 1914);
J. P. Peters, The Religion of the Hebrews (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1914);
K. Marti, The Religion of the Old Testament: Its Place among the Religions
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 143
of the nearer East (New York: Putnam, 1907); K. Budde, The Religion
of Israel to the Exile (New York: Putnam, 1899); T. K. Cheyne, Jewish
Religious Life after the Exile (New York: Putnam, 1898); B. Stade
und A. Bertholet, BiUische Theologie des Alien Testaments, 2 vols.
(Tubingen: Mohr, 1905-11); K. Smend, Lehrbiich der alttestamentlichen
Religions geschichte, 2d. ed. (Leipzig: Mohr, 1899); E. Kautzsch,
Biblische Theologie des Alien Testaments^ (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 1);
B. Baentsch, AltorientaUscher und israelitischer M onotheismus (Tubingen:
Mohr, 1905); E. Sellin, Die alttestamentliche Religion im Rahmen der
andern altorientalischen (Leipzig: Deichert, 1908); E. Konig, Geschichte
der alttestamentlichen Religion {Gutersloh: Bertelsmann, 191 2); J. Hehn,
Biblische und babylonische Gottesidee (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1913); H. G.
Mitchell, The Ethics of the Old Testament (Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press, 191 2); W. F. Bade, The Old Testament in the Light of
To-Day (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1915); A. C. Welch, The
Religion of Israel under the Kingdom (Edinburgh: Clark, 1912); W. H.
Bennett, The Religion of the Post-exilic Prophets (Edinburgh: Clark,
1907); H. Wheeler Robinson, The Religious Ideas of the Old Testament
(New York: Scribner, 19 13).
Prophetic: C. H. Cornill, The Prophets of Israel (Chicago: Open
Court Pub. Co., 1901); J. M. Powis Smith, The Prophet and His Prob-
lems (New York: Scribner, 1914); L. W. Batten, The Hebrew Prophet
(New York: Macmillan, 1905); W. R. Smith, The Prophets of Israel,
2d ed. (London: Black, 1896); E. Sellin, Der alttestamentliche Prophetis-
mus (Leipzig: Deichert, 1912); H. Gressmann, Der Ursprung der
israelitisch-jiidischen Eschatologie (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Rup-
recht, 1905); M. Friedlander, Griechische Philosophie im Allen Testa-
ment (Berlin: Reimer, 1904); J. Koberle, Siinde und Gnade im religiosen
Leben des Volkes Israel bis auf Christum (Munich: Beck, 1905); H.
Gressmann, Mose tmd seine Zeit (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht
1913)-
Semitic: W. Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites, 2d ed.
(London: Black, 1894); J. Wellhausen, Reste des arabischen Hcidcn-
thums, 2d ed. (BerHn: Reimer, 1897); J. H. Breasted, The Development
of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt (New York: Scribner, 191 2);
M. Jastrow, Jr., Die Religion Babyloniens undAssyriens (Giessen: Ricker,
1905-13; greatly expanded from the English edition published by
Ginn & Co., Boston, 1898); R. W. Rogers, The Religion of Babylonia
and Assyria (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1908); M. Jastrow, Jr.,
'A translation and revision of the article "Religion of Israel," in Has-
tings' Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. V.
144 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Aspects of the Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (New York: Putnam,
191 1), and Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions (New York: Scribner,
1914); A. Erman, Handbook of Egyptian Religion (London: Constable,
1907).
VI. THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
THE CANON
The extraordinary value of the writings composing the
Old Testament was very early recognized. A process of
official recognition and standardization of the literature was
begun when the priests in Josiah's day secured the royal
approval and public indorsement of the Deuteronomic Code
of law (II Kings, chaps. 22, 23). Another long step and in
the same direction was taken in the days of Ezra and Nehe-
miah, when a new edition of the law received the stamp of
pubhc acceptance (Neh., chap. 8). The end toward which
it all aimed was the erection of a Canon of Scripture. Canoni-
zation itself was not a single act but a long-drawn-out process.
The precise time of its beginning has not been determined;
but the prologue to the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach ( = Ecclesi-
asticus) furnishes clear evidence that the Law and the Prophets
were regarded as canonical before 200 B.C., and that the
formation of the third division of the Canon, viz., the Writings,
had already begun at that time. Like uncertainty obtains
regarding the date of the completion of the process of canoniza-
tion. It seems safe to infer from the existing evidence
that the entire Canon of the Old Testament was completed
before the "Christian era. In any case, the question of the
Canon was taken up for discussion and settled by the Jewish
Synod of Jamnia, which convened about 90 a.d., and decided
in favor of the retention in the Canon of all books that had
thus far been included.
Problems in the history of canonization. — Many questions
regarding canonization still remain unanswered. At what
time did the Canon of the Law close ? Just when did the
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 145
Canon of the Prophets close ? How much longer did the
Canon of the Writings remain open ? What considerations led
to the inclusion or exclusion of a book from the Canon ?
What did canonization- involve? Were canonized books
immune to all further editorial modification? What were
the contents of the so-called Alexandrine Canon? How
did the theory of the Hellenistic Jews regarding the Canon
differ from that of the Palestinian Jews ? Why does the
Protestant Canon not include the apocryphal books recognized
by the Roman Catholic Canon? Must the decision of
past generations of the Christian church regarding the
relative values of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha be
binding upon the conscience and judgment of the present
day? Does the canonization of a writing make it of any
more intrinsic value to the mind and heart of the individual
reader ? Are not some of the Apocrypha more conducive to
edification than some of the canonical books of the Old
Testament ?
Literature on the Canon. — F. Buhl, Canon and Text of the Old Testa-
ment (Edinburgh: Clark, 1892); W. R. Smith, The Old Testament in
the Jewish Church, 2d ed. (London: Black, 1895); H. E. Ryle, The
Canon oj the Old Testament (New York: Macmillan, 1892); K. Budde,
Der Kanon des Alien Testaments (Giessen: J. Ricker, 1900); G. Wilde-
boer, The Origin of the Canon of the Old Testament (London: Luzac,
1895); W. H. Green, General Introduction to the Old Testament Canon
(New York: Scribner, 1899); A. F. Kirkpatrick, The Divine Library of
the Old Testament (New York: Macmillan, 1891).
HISTORY OF THE INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
The fact of canonization carried with it a heavy increment
of sanctity and authority to the writings thus exalted. These
passed on to later generations with credentials that could
not be lightly regarded, much less ignored. Bringing such
weighty indorsement, they had to be utilized in the religious
education of the church. The record of the way in which
they were used by the successive generations of believers
146 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
is one full of interest and significance. One system of inter-
pretation after another has come to the fore, held the center
of the stage for a while, and finally retired, yielding its place
to its successor. The New Testam-ent interpretation of the
Old Testament is of especial interest, contrasting as it does
the rabbinical exegesis of most of the writers of the New
Testament with the saner and sounder methods of Jesus,
though the latter, if his attitude is correctly represented in the
gospels, is not wholly free from rabbinical influence himself.
Among the more prominent schools of exegetical method
have been the literalistic, the allegorical and spiritual, the
typological and mystical, the dogmatic, and, in later times
particularly, the grammatical and historical. The bane of
practically all the older exegesis was that it read into the
text of the Old Testament the ideas and ideals of the inter-
preters themselves. Whatever the method of interpretation
adhered to, the interpreter felt himself under obligation to
obtain from the words of the Old Testament, of whatever
character the passage treated might be, some message "for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in right-
eousness." He always took it for granted that the Old Testa-
ment was written throughout from the point of view of the
needs of men in all times. Consequently that method of inter-
pretation was the most successful which secured the most
moral and religious stimulus and instruction from any given
passage.
For a brief sketch of the history of interpretation, see G. H. Gilbert,
Interpretation of the Bible (New York: Macmillan, 1908). For earlier
points of view, compare F. W. Farrar, The History of Interpretation (New
York: Dutton, 1886), and C. A. Briggs, General Introduction to the
Study oj Holy Scripture (New York: Scribner, 1899), chap, xviii.
THE VALUE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
In the light of the modern historical method of interpreta-
tion the question of the value of the Old Testament calls for a
fresh examination of the evidence. The kind of answers
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 147
that satisfied former generations of Bible students may not be
acceptable to modern students. We approach the Old Testa-
ment with different presuppositions and with different
expectations; or, rather, we try to bring to its interpretation
no presuppositions nor expectations. We merely seek to
discover what the writers of the Old Testament had to say.
Having learned that, we weigh their utterances in the scales
of critical judgment, for the purpose of estimating their value.
The contribution of the Old Testament to religious education,
aside from its value as a source of philological, historical,
archaeological, sociological, and ethnological information, is
chiefly in three directions, viz., (i) to the interpretation of the
New Testament, (2) to the content and method of systematic
theology, and (3) to the instruction and edification of the reli-
gious life.
The Old Testament in relation to the New. — Every
properly trained student of the New Testament at the present
time recognizes that the methodology of study worked out by
Old Testament scholarship and the point of view there ob-
tained must be made operative also in the New Testament.
For a certain time after the historico-critical method had estab-
lished itself as legitimate and indispensable in the interpre-
tation of the Old Testament many scholars failed to realize
the necessity of carrying it over into the New. The full
application of the method in the study of the New Testa-
ment has as yet been made by but few. But that the New
Testament may not exempt itself from the same kind of
thoroughgoing treatment that has been applied to the Old is
now generally recognized. From the point of view of the
need of acquiring a right standpoint and methodology for
his New Testament work a student makes no mistake in
securing a preliminary training in the interpretation of the
Old Testament.
In addition to its value for training in method the study
of the Old Testament is an indispensable element in any
148 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
preparation for the interpretation of the New, because of the
genetic relationship between the two. The reHgion of the New
Testament is but the finest product and ultimate realization
of the ideals of the Old Testament. The New cannot be
understood apart from a sympathetic and appreciative
acquaintance with the contents and character of the Old.
Old Testament phrases and thoughts abound in its pages.
Such books as Hebrews and Revelation simply, overflow with
Old Testament terminology, archaeology, theology, and escha-
tology. The Old Testament was the only Bible of Jesus and
of the writers of the New Testament. Their minds were
saturated with it and their thinking shaped by it. The New
Testament is the continuation of the Old, and those scholars
who insist that the two must be studied together, that there
is no legitimate line of demarkation between the Old Testa-
ment and the New, but that the New is the completion of the
Old, are not to be lightly set aside. In the words of a recent
writer :
The Old Testament .... affords the presuppositions that are
indispensable to apprehend the character of Christ. It is the Old Testa-
ment religion that Christ came to fulfil. It is as necessary to understand
what the material was which Christ completed as the method of his
completion It is as impossible, therefore, to understand the
purpose and spirit of Jesus, without something of his reverence for the
Old Testament and something of his intimacy with it, as it would be to
understand a proposed amendment to a constitution without a knowl-
edge of the original constitution, or to comprehend an advanced course
in physics without studying the elementary laws of heat and light.
The most fatal misapprehensions of Jesus are those that fail to see the
spirit of the Old Testament in all his ideas and deeds. ^
The Old Testament and systematic theology. — It will
probably have become quite evident, to those who have read
the foregoing pages, that we need not expect the Old Tes-
tament to furnish the systematic theologian ready-made
doctrines with which he may build up his system. We have
' A. W. Vernon, Religious Value of the Old Testament, pp. 66 f .
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 149
outgrown the period when the content of systematic theology
was supposed to be furnished by bibHcal theology. The fact
is that the historical study of the Old Testament does not
deliver to us any product which we can properly label Old
Testament theology.
The Old Testament is the fragmentary record of a growing
religious life. Changing environment, growing experience,
the coming and going of towering personalities, kept Israel's
life from becoming fixed and rigid. No two centuries pre-
sented the same type of religious thought and experience.
But theology and religious experience are, or at least ought
to be, inseparably related. So the ever-changing experience
involved an ever- changing theology. The seeker after
an Old Testament theology is therefore embarrassed by a
superfluity of riches. He finds not one, but many theologies.
He may, e.g., speak of the theology of Amos, or of Isaiah, or
of Ezekiel, or he may group certain personalities and formu-
late a theology of the eighth century B.C., or of the Exile.
But he may not group them all into one Old Testament
theology, for the differences, yea, contradictions, render
such a step impossible. Nor may he select the best features
from the various periods and weave them into a harmonious
whole. The result would be an eclectic theology derived from
the Old Testament, but not an Old Testament theology; it
would be an abstract, imaginary thing that never had any
historic existence or value. Nor may he even take the
theology of the last days of the Old Testament period and
say, "This is the typical Old Testament theology; this
is the ripe fruitage of the whole process of growth; it is the
end, the purpose, of the whole theological development of the
Hebrews, and so may be taken as fitly representing the Old
Testament point of view and contribution to theological
science." Such a method would give only a partial presenta-
tion of the theological teachings of the Old Testament. For
the theology of the last days did not, as a matter of fact, take
150 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
up into itself all the good of the preceding ages, no matter how
generous we may be in our attitude toward the literary and
religious activities of the post-exilic age.
It appears then that Old Testament science is not now,
nor ever will be, in a position to present to the systematic
theologian a scheme of Old Testament theology which he may
accept or reject in whole or in part according as it meets or
fails to meet his systematic needs. Old Testament science,
with all of its departments, belongs in the category of his-
torical disciplines. Old Testament theology must give way
to Religionsgeschichte. It is from this point of view only that
we may consider its relation to systematic theology. The
adoption of this conception of the Old Testament as the
register of a series of historical permutations of life and thought
carries with it a total abandoment of the conception of an
external, mechanical authority to be exercised arbitrarily over
the thoughts of men. Such authority as inheres in the Old
Testament will now be seen to be conditioned solely upon the
existence in the Old Testament of great truths which appeal
with compelling force to the mind and conscience of man. It
is as the repository of such self-authenticating truth as needs
no factitious support of any kind that the Old Testament
must appeal alike to the religious man and to the systematic
theologian.
The Old Testament is thus a sourcebook for the theologian.
Theology may ignore no phase of human experience from the
beginning of human history. It must take into account all
known facts of both past and present. The Old Testament's
value for theology lies in the fact that it is the record of an
especially illuminating section of the religious history of our
race. In that period were wrought out the foundations of
much of the religious thought of our day. We understand the
nature and value of the ideas and institutions of our own
religious life the better for being able to trace their origin and
growth. A satisfactory theology must root itself deeply in
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 151
the experience of former generations as well as in that of
contemporaries. Here the Old Testament aids the theologian.
It does not in any sense stand as dictator over his utterances,
but, like other tributary disciplines, it offers him free use of
all its stores.
The Old Testament and vital religion. — It is unnecessary
here to emphasize the great contribution of the Old Testa-
ment to moral and religious character-building, a contribution
much of which lies upon the surface and is thus within the
reach of every reader. The great sermons of the prophets,
the spiritual longings and ideals of the Psalter, the sound
maxims of the sages — ^these have always wrought mightily in
the experience of men for good, no matter what method of
interpretation was for the time being in control. But it may
be well here to call attention to a phase or two of the religious
value of the Old Testament that are not so commonly recog-
nized.
Its attitude toward truth. — One of the most significant
things in the Old Testament is the attitude toward truth
therein reflected. The Old Testament worthies respected
the past; yea, reverenced it. They never tired of reference
to it. They gloried in their history; it was to them a never-
failing fount of information and inspiration. They never
dreamed of such a thing as ignoring their traditions. They
could not and would not make an absolute break with the
accumulated experience of preceding centuries. But, on the
other hand, they did not blindly worship the past. They
did not allow it to take such complete possession of them as to
render them incapable of appreciating the present or of mak-
ing progress toward the future. They valued the past for
what it had to teach them about God and about life; but
they never regarded it as being the repository of all knowledge
or the full and complete guidebook for all time to come. Their
attitude, indeed, was quite the reverse; it was one of expecta-
tion, anticipation, hope. They were ever looking eagerly,
152 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
longingly, confidently, for new light to flash forth from above.
They were decidedly receptive toward new ideas. They did
not attempt to open "the future's golden portals with the
past's blood-rusted key."
The history of Hebrew literature clearly demonstrates this.
It is a history of revisions. New editions of the old truths
were constantly in demand. We have only to call to mind
the three great editions of the Hebrew law, each of them prac-
tically a rewriting of the old lawbook. Between these great
editions there was constantly going on a process of correction
and expansion in preparation for a new code. All this was in
response to the growth of knowledge and to the ever-changing
needs of the time. The law of Israel was not the cold, dead
thing that it is so commonly conceived to have been ; it was a
vital organism, in closest touch with the growing life of the
nation. It was not too sacred and holy for the touch of
human hands. Its promoters never conceived of it as having
reached the stage of finality. It grew under their hands up to
the very last. There were not wanting men who even dared
to look forward to the time when the written law would be
outgrown, a thing of the past, having fully accomplished its
mission — and all this notwithstanding the fact that they held
it to be a revelation from God. They knew better than to
think that the revelation of one age could satisfy the needs of
every age. Each age must have its own revelation from God.
Jesus did but reincarnate the old spirit of Israel's best thinkers
when he dared to set aside certain phases of the law of Moses
and to substitute for them great, far-reaching principles of
truth and right.
The same spirit of independence and progress is manifested
in the prophets, and even to a greater degree than in the law.
The very foundation of prophecy lay in the conviction that
God was ever ready to speak to his children, that he had not
yet exhausted his message to Israel. Consequently, with
every fresh crisis in the history of Israel there appeared great
OLD TESTAMENT AND l^ELIGION OF ISRAEL 153
prophets with the necessary message from God. They con-
ceived it to be their task to interpret the world as they found
it, and not as their fathers or grandfathers had known it.
They utiHzed the experience of the past for the interpretation
of the present; but ear and eye were ever open and alert for
the divine message in the new, in the experiences of today.
In ethical and theological ideas growth was manifested and
progress was made; so that, at the end, the religion of Israel
was immeasurably richer and more spiritual than it was at
the beginning. The religion of Israel was not a static thing,
but a dynamic spirit. It was not a gift from above, bestowed
upon Israel at the beginning of her career to be carefully
treasured in earthen vessels. Nor was it a series of gifts,
imparted from time to time in some way wholly unrelated to
the natural and normal life of the people. It was an achieve-
ment, wrought out with heroic faith and courage and mar-
velous persistence.
Israel was girded for this task in no way that was not
available to her fellow-workers in that age or to her successors
in the present age. The story of her religious progress is not
one of unbroken success and steady advance. She labored
under the same limitations that beset religious men today.
She encountered the same opposition and was subjected to the
same sorts of temptation and trial. The whole record is
intensely human and, for that reason, intensely interesting.
Her good men did not always think alike or feel alike. Radical
differences of opinion at times separated her prophets and
saints in hostile camps. There was no royal road to truth and
power in Israel. The men of Israel had to struggle toward
the truth and to agonize for it even as men must now. There
is no discharge from that war. It is man's heritage.
The task of faith. — Nor was the task of faith any easier
then than now. The Hebrew faith insisted that godliness ought
to be profitable for all things. Prosperity and piety were
almost interchangeable terms. But the actual facts of
154 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
experience seemed to contradict such doctrine at every turn.
The national history is one of successive disasters. The
greater nations of the Orient, one after another, conquered
and exploited Israel. The people of Yahweh were almost con-
tinuously trodden under the foot of the Gentiles. The more
zealously Israel strove to please her God the less did he seem
to do for her. No severer test of faith than this could have
been devised. But Israel held fast to her God. Forced to
abandon hope of relief in the present dispensation she took
refuge in the thought of a neW dispensation. The nation's
goal of faith became the establishment of a messianic kingdom
upon earth. This expectation involved the coming of a golden
age comparable to that once represented by the Garden of
Eden. All the wrongs of the present were to be righted in the
new world; and Israel, the chosen people, was to be exalted
to the place of honor and power, as the representative of God
upon earth. It was almost tantamount to saying that, in the
messianic age, all conditions would be exactly the reverse of
what they were in the historical Israel. But the time of the
fulfilment of this dream was continually deferred. Out
of what looked like the national grave Ezekiel saw clearly
the coming of the longed-for kingdom and went so far as to
prepare an outline of the regulations that should control its
work and worship. The Isaiah of the Exile saw the dawn of
the messianic age upon the horizon when Cyrus started his
career of conquest. When the Persian Empire was shaken
to its foundations upon the death of Cambyses, the prophets
Haggai and Zechariah were certain that Yahweh was about
to intervene and to introduce the messianic kingdom.
They were so sure of this that they confidently identi-
fied Zerubbabel as the expected Messiah. This hope was
again aroused by the personality and work of Nehemiah,
whom some declared to be the Messiah. So Israel went
on from age to age believing in God, surviving shock
after shock of disappvointment and disillusionment, and,
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 155
through this severe process of training, coming ever into a
clearer and better conception of God. Theological dogmas
were modified or abandoned in order to make place for new
ones; but through it all faith endured. The trial and
triumph of faith as it affects the life and religion of the indi-
vidual are depicted with marvelous skill in the Book of Job.
This affords us a view of the kind of problem that was of vital
importance in the Hebrew religious experience and of the
unflinching courage and of the loyalty to truth, to facts, and
to God of which the Hebrews were capable. Their religion
was not a gift; it was a prize. They fought for it; they
suffered for it; they died. But through their struggle,
endurance, and death they have incalculably enriched the
religious life of all ages.
The record of this great religious experience was written
for our learning. That experience was wrought out under
ordinary conditions, such as are common to men. The
Hebrews were given no extraordinary or abnormal aids or
advantages not within the reach of other men, then as now.
God did not show favor toward them in any such way as to
render them exempt from the temptations, weaknesses, fail-
ures, and sins that beset us all. Nor were they endued with
power or grace that was not accessible to other men. Having
the same opportunities and being possessed of the same facul-
ties as other men, no more and no less, the Hebrew prophets
and saints threw themselves heart and soul into the task of
interpreting the world about them in terms of God. The
Old Testament is the record of their success.
Vitality of Hebrew religion. — This means that the Old
Testament has become for us, as compared with our ancestors,
a more human document, and consequently a more helpful one.
It has become, that is to say, more definitely applicable to the
conditions of modern life. We learn from its pages how the
Hebrews wrought out their own salvation. In this record of
their religious experience we have the story of the making
156 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
of a religion. The thousand-year-long process is portrayed
before our eyes. It reveals much of inestimable value to
the historical student of religion. The Hebrew religion was
always "in the making"; it was never a finished product.
Each generation exercised the right to make its religion for
itself. Not that they started out afresh each time by casting
overboard all the accumulations of preceding generations,
but they did not hesitate to "prove all things" in order that
they might "hold fast that which was good." They changed
their theology from time to time; they reorganized their
religious institutions as changing circumstances and changing
views required ; they accepted materials from every hand and
used them for the enrichment of their religious faith and hope.
They were never satisfied with present attainments. They
were constantly striving toward something better. In spite
of reaction and relapse they persisted in pushing forward.
They were by no means making a religion to order for later
generations; they were rather making one for themselves,
something to live by as they went along. What they had to
do every age has to do for itself. They made their religion in
the full light of history. They made it out of their daily
experiences in the great currents of the world's life. A vital
religion is always in the making; it is never made. Satis-
faction with present achievement spells death here as else-
where. Religion is under the same law as every other product
of the human spirit. We too must interpret our own world
religiously; we must be making our own religion. We may
learn from the successes of the Hebrews and profit by their
failures.
The words of Matthew Arnold on the relation of modern
poetry to that of the ancients apply with special force here:
"The present has to make its own poetry, and not even
Sophocles and his compeers, any more than Dante and
Shakespere, are enough for it. That I will not dispute. But
no other poets so well show to the poetry of the present the
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 157
way it must take.'" No matter how much we may learn
from Israel, we cannot rest content with that. We cannot
shirk the task of making a religion for ourselves. Ready-made
religion, from whatever age it may come to us, will not fit
our spiritual needs, however well it may have fitted the age in
which it originated. The twentieth-century world needs a
twentieth-century religion, and it is part of its task to make
that religion for itself.
The Hebrews, with far less of inherited privilege and edu-
cational and social opportunity than we, carried the torch of
truth and piety far up the heights. Material civilization
and culture have moved far since their day and are still advanc-
ing with giant strides. Religion and morality too, upon the
basis of the achievements of the Hebrews, have added greatly
to their attainments. But progress cannot cease at any point
if religion is to remain a vital force in the lives of men. As
long as progress is characteristic of other phases of human
activity, religion too must grow. It cannot remain static
while all else is dynamic. "An unchangeable Christianity
would mean the end of Christianity itself. There has never
been such an unchangeable Christianity and never can be so
long as it belongs genuinely to history."^ It is the task of the
leaders of the religious life of today to see to it that the religion
they teach and embody shall be one suited to the needs of the
modern world. If they can meet the demands of the present
age, the future may be trusted to look out for itself. If they
serve their day and generation faithfully according to the
will of God, they will hand on the heritage to their successors
with some increment of truth and power.
An inspiration to the modern minister. — The modern atti-
tude toward the Old Testament brings to the true preacher a
sense of freedom and the realization of a creative opportunity.
' From the closing paragraph of the essay on The Pagan and the Christian
Sentiment.
^ Ernst Troeltsch in American Journal of Theology, XVII (January,
1913), 21.
158 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
He discovers himself to be in the line of the prophetic suc-
cession, at least, even if he dare not lay claim to "apostolic
succession." He is released from the necessity of merely
repeating, in parrot fashion, the messages of men long since
dead. His work is at once seen to be of the same kind as that
of his great prophetic predecessors. They had no Bible from
which they must preach or from which they might learn.
Equipped with a knowledge of a few traditions regarding
their people's history, they studied closely the social and
political conditions of their times and poured forth words
of scathing denunciation of wrong, or glowing assurances of
Yahweh's purpose to deliver, as the situation might deraand.
They preached to the people of their own day and about the
things in which the nation was most deeply concerned. They
applied their highest ideals of religion and ethics to every
phase of contemporary life. When Jerusalem was split into
contending political parties, one pro-Assyrian and another
pro-Egyptian, Isaiah preached on politics. When the rich
were grinding the face of the poor and swallowing up widows'
houses, men like Amos and Micah became the champions of
the poor and preached social justice. Such men did not frit-
ter away their time upon the exposition of abstract and dead
issues nor upon the contemplation of iridescent dreams.
They used the raw materials of contemporary life in the
structure of their religion. They were not content with
pointing out the dealings of God with past generations nor
with dwelhng upon his purpose for the future; but they took
the events and movements of their own day and gave them
religious significance. Hence their words have great and im-
perishable value for all time, not because they set out to
write great books, but because, being great men, they grappled
fearlessly and effectively with the real problems of their own
day. The history of Greece and Rome furnishes us a familiar
analogy here. A well-known classical scholar, speaking of
the new education, has said:
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 159
I have tarried a moment with the ancients, instead of beginning
much later in the history of Europe, expressly to suggest that the best
things in ancient literature were not written solely from the artistic, but
often from the social motive as well. Letters, and originally men of
letters, were not sundered from pubHc life, but actively contributed to it.
If the classics have molded later history, it is not merely because of their
great qualities as literature, but because they are involved in the history
of their own times."
It is such wrestling with the social, political, and religious
problems of one's age that makes intellectual, moral, and
religious fiber strong. No greatness ever came as the result
of a mere slavish doing over again of the things that have
already been done, or of a thinking over again of the thoughts
that have already been thought.^ It is always in some degree
the application of the old idea to a new situation in a vital
way that makes the old idea into something new and great.
The prophets sought all the light the past had to shed upon
their task. But they gave themselves primarily and with
open minds to the study of their own times. The evils and
errors of their contemporaries they undertook to detect and
correct. It was their unselfish and untrammeled devotion to
,the tasks of their own day that made them great and resulted
in a literature that is an object of admiration and a fountain
of inspiration to all thoughtful men.
The Old Testament prophets are a worthy example and
inspiration for the modern preacher. They call him to the
exercise of his highest function. They would not justify
him, indeed, in ignoring the wisdom and experience of the
past; but they urge upon him the duty and privilege of
utilizing the past for the illumination of the present. They
indicate to him that his task is to study the conditions of his
' Professor E. K. Rand, of Harvard, in Latin and Greek in American Educa-
tion, edited hyF. Kelsey (New York: Macmillan, 191 1), p. 262.
^ Cf . the words of E. A. Ross, in The Changing Chinese (1911), p. 54,
regarding the intellectual sterility of the Chinese: "As well expect an apple
tree to blossom in October as expect genius to blossom among people convinced
that the perfection of wisdom had been granted to the sages of antiquity."
i6o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
own day and to address himself to the betterment of those
conditions in the fear of God and of none other. The proph-
ets, Hving in a small world, made a great religion. We live
in a world immeasurably greater than that of the prophets'
thought. Our God is the God of a boundless universe. Is
our religion proportionately greater ? Have we made a place
in our religion for every remotest corner and every hidden
force and inexplicable power of this universe ? Have we
succeeded in adjusting our thought of God to our expanding
world, as the Hebrews were able to enlarge their thought,
which carried Yahweh along from the most restricted begin-
nings until he became the God of the whole known world ?
What was it that made the prophets so strong and fearless
in the execution of their commission ? Their reliance upon
God. They were ever conscious of his presence in his world.
They saw proof of his activity on every hand, in the phe-
nomena of nature and in the course of hist(h"y. They con-
ceived of him as seeking to make known his will to man.
They thought of themselves as his mouthpiece. As the
spokesmen of God they could not keep silent when his will
clamored for utterance. "The Lord hath spoken; who can
but prophesy?" Some such consciousness of God and of
working together with God is indispensable to the true
preacher in whatever age he may appear. A preacher not
conscious of fellowship with the God of the universe has no
message for this age; the age cries out for God. The man
who can make God seem real and can acquit himself as a
man of God will never lack a hearing, though his way may be
a via dolorosa.
The church needs leaders. The record of Israel's leaders
is a splendid challenge to the men of today. It appeals to all
that is highest and holiest in the one ambitious to ''do great
things for God." Israel's saints expected great things from God,
but received greater things than those for which they hoped.
Coveting position and power for their nation among the
OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL i6i
nations of the world, they received instead exalted purity of
thought, magnificent ethical passion, and a depth of spiritual
insight that have made the whole world their debtors. If the
men of this and succeeding generations, following the example
of their Hebrew predecessors, will become the fearless spokes-
men and champions of a virile and spiritually progressive
Christianity, it is, perhaps, not too much to hope that the
religion of the not-far-distant future will be as much greater
than, and different from, that of today as present religion
differs from, and is greater than, the Judaism of post-exilic
Israel.
Literature on the religious value of the Old Testament. — A. W. Ver-
non, The Religious Value of the Old Testament in the Light of Modern
Scholarship (New York: Crowell & Co., 1907); M. Dods, The Bible — •
Its Origin and Nature (New York: Scribner, 1905); W. G. Jordan,
Biblical Criticism and Modern Thought. Or the Place of the Old Testament
Documents in the Life of Today (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1909);
G. A. Smith, Modern Criticism and the Preaching of the Old Testament
(New York: Armstrong & Son, 1901); J. E. McFadyen, The Old Testa-
ment and the Christian Church (New York: Scribner, 1903); W. N.
Clarke, Sixty Years with the Bible (New York: Scribner, 1909); A. S.
Peake, The Bible, Its Origin, Its Significance and Its Abiding Worth
(New York: George H. Doran Co., 1913); W. C. Selleck, The New
Appreciation of the Bible (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
1907) ; C. F. Kent, The Origin and Perma7ient Value of the Old Testament
(New York: Scribner, 1906); L. W. Batten, The Old Testament from the
Modern Point of View (New York: E. S. Gorham, 1901); W. R. Smith,
The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, 2d ed. (London: A. & C. Black,
1895).
IV. THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
By ERNEST DeWITT BURTON
Professor and Head of the Department of New Testament Literature and
Interpretation, The University of Chicago
AND
EDGAR JOHNSON GOODSPEED
Professor of Biblical and Patristic Greek, The University of Chicago.
ANALYSIS
PAGES
Introduction 165-174
I. The Books of the New Testament and Their Interpretation. —
I. The general nature of the interpretative process. — 2. The environ-
ment of early Christianity. — 3. The occasion and purpose of the
several books. — 4. The acquisition of the language of the New
Testament. — 5. The criticism of the text. — 6. The interpretation
of the books 1 74-2 20
II. The History of the New Testament in the Christian Church. —
I. The history of interpretation and criticism. — 2. The history of the
Canon 220-228
III. The Use of the New Testament at the Present Day. — i. For
purposes of history. — 2. For systematic theology and ethics. — 3. For
the cultivation of personal character. — 4. For religious teaching and
preaching 228-238
Note. — Of the foregoing the Introduction, I, i, 2, 4, 6, and III
are by Professor Burton. 1, 3, 5, and II are by Professor Goodspeed.
IV. THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
introduction: general purpose and scope of new
testament study
I. The purpose and general character of New Testament
Study. — The purposes for which the New Testament is
legitimately studied are many, but they may be compre-
hensively stated as two — -the intellectual and the religious.
Men come to it to get knowledge or to get help for the better
living of their lives as religious men. But these two purposes
again blend into one another. One may conceivably acquire
knowledge — geographical, archaeological, historical, or doc-
trinal— without any rehgious benefit. But normally at least
one can gain no religious benefit except through the medium of
an intellectual process. It is through the ideas that come to
us from the New Testament that we gain spiritual benefit, and
it is with these ideas that New Testament study has directly
to do.
But we may seek ideas from the New Testament along
several different lines and by several different methods. We
may conceivably treat the New Testament as a book of magic
and seek to discover in it sentences which, regardless of their
original connection or meaning, shall give guidance in the per-
plexities of life. We may think of it as furnishing a program
of the future and seek from it to write history before the
fact. We may come to it as to a source-book of ethics, culling
from it its moral maxims and constructing them into a code,
or of theology, and endeavor from its utterances to construct
a system of Christian thought.
The tendency of recent years, however, is to emphasize
the historical aspect of New Testament study. And this
seems to be right. For, in the first place, interpretation, by
i6s
1 66 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
which alone we obtain the ideas of the New Testament, is
itself a historical process. Its comprehensive question is,
What thought did the writer of the book have in his mind
and by his book endeavor to express ? The answer to this
question is that he thought thus and so, and this fact that
he so thought is a fact of history, as much so as the date of a
battle or the name of a king. Secondly, all the processes that
are contributory to interpretation are themselves in the field of
historical study. If one ask the meaning of an ancient word,
or the force of a Greek tense, or which of two readings of a
passage of the New Testament is the original one, he is asking
for facts of history. And, in the third place, if from the
facts ascertained by the interpretation of ancient records one
seeks to construct the story of the life of Jesus, or an account
of his teaching, he is obviously engaged in historical study.
It is facts of history in their historic relations with which he
is dealing.
This is not, however, to say that the results of the inter-
pretative process have no value except for purposes of history.
The New Testament books are rich in profound and stimulat-
ing religious thought, and because of this fact have a value
as religious literature quite apart from their value to the
historian.
At two points, therefore, the historical study of the New
Testament may make its contribution to religious thought and
life: first, at the end of the process of interpretation, when it
turns over to the theologian or the religious man needing
inspiration and stimulus the rich treasure of religious thought
which exegetical study has discovered, and, secondly, at the
end of the process of historical construction, when it has
written the history of the early church.
From both points of view, whether we think of the New
Testament books as sources from which we may learn the
history of early Christianity, or as religious literature valuable
as such independent of its contribution to history, they are
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 167
of the highest value for the rehgious Hfe and to the rehgious
teacher.' For history is the great teacher of mankind, and
our richest inheritance* from the past is found in the great
thoughts preserved in Hterature.
Nor must the distinction between these two points of
view be overemphasized. The historian must recognize
the rehgious value of the books in order to be a good his-
torian. The student of the hterature for its rehgious value
must read it in the light of the history of the movement out
of which it sprang if he would gain from it its highest religious
value. The thirteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the
Corinthians is magnificent, read as a panegyric of love, even
when detached from its connection and historic background.
But it becomes doubly significant and expressive when it is
read as addressed to the Corinthians, who were ambitious to
possess the showy, charismatic gifts of the Spirit, and were
forgetting and depreciating the far more valuable fruit of
the Spirit, love. The historian must be appreciative of the
material with which he is dealing; the student of religion
must have the historical spirit.
2. Interpretation the central task. — With the task of his-
torical construction, though it falls properly within the field
of New Testament study, we are not at this point immediately
concerned. For reasons of practical convenience this subject is
dealt with in Chapter V, "The Early History of Christianity."
That which claims our immediate attention is that which is
prerequisite to constructive history, viz., interpretation and
the processes contributory thereto. To understand the nature
and methods of the interpretative process and its central place
in New Testament study is of first importance to the New
Testament student.
3. Studies preliminary to interpretation. — But to the
interpretation of these books certain other studies are for us
of today necessary prehminaries. The books were written
' See more fully under section III, pp. 232 ff.
1 68 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
in Greek; they have been preserved in manuscripts of the
original text and of ancient translations which do not, however,
perfectly agree among themselves as to how the books origi-
nally read. Hence arises the necessity for a process of textual
criticism by which the original text may be as nearly as possible
recovered (cf. section I, 5, pp. 204 £f.).
Furthermore, since the Greek of the New Testament is for
us a foreign tongue, and even for modern Greeks an antiquated
form of their mother-tongue, we need, in order to ascertain
with accuracy the thought of the writers of these books, a
knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary of that ancient
language (cf. section I, 4, pp. 200 ff.).
But not only so; for the interpretation of the books from
which we learn the history of this religious movement out
of which Christianity came to be we need to know something of
the story of their own origin (cf. section I, 3, pp. 180 ff.). And
to an understanding of the origin of the New Testament books
there is needed in turn a knowledge of the hfe in the midst of
which they arose — that of the Jewish people of the first century
and of the Graeco-Roman world and of the Christian move-
ment itself, of which they were the products (cf. section I, 2,
pp. 1 77 ff .) • III other words, a general knowledge of the origin of
Christianity, of the environment in which it arose, and of the
way in which it came to express itself in literature, is a needful
preparation for the interpretation of the books from which we
are in turn to gain a fuller knowledge of the rise of Chris-
tianity. Thus we move in a circle, or rather in a spiral: from
the books by a simple and incomplete interpretation we gain
a general knowledge of the movement; with the aid of this
we read the books with fresh understanding, and this in turn
leads to a larger knowledge of the movement, and so on
indefinitely.
4. Studies that must follow interpretation. — But if these
things, textual criticism, grammar, lexicography, and a
general knowledge of the times in which and of the move-
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 169
ment out of which the books arose, are necessary preHminaries
to the interpretation of the books and of any other sources of
the history of the beginnings of Christianity, there must be
added to the work of interpretation certain other processes if
New Testament study is to achieve its goal. These processes
subsequent to interpretation may be described as the critical
and the constructive. For the results of interpretation are
the thoughts of the ancient writers, and the interpretative
process does not, of itself, determine their value for the pur-
poses of history or for the promotion of the moral and spiritual
life. The student of the New Testament who would gain from
his study the largest value must on the one hand carefully
avoid diverting the interpretative process from its proper
goal by premature estimations of value, and on the other hand
must add to the work of interpretation both a critical and a
constructive process.
The critical process as it deals with narrative material has
for its purpose to add to the fact that the writer believed
certain events to have happened in a certain way, a well-
founded judgment as to what actually happened. Luke says
that John began to preach in the fifteenth year of Tiberius.
Is his chronology correct? As pertains to material of a
didactic character, the critical process seeks to add to the
historic fact that a given writer held this or that view of reli-
gion or morals — itself a valuable fact immediately available
for the history of thought — a judgment called for, not by the
historian, but by the theologian or the moralist, concerning the
value of the doctrine held by this ancient writer. Paul
held that marriage was desirable only under certain conditions
and for certain reasons. Was this judgment a sound one ?
When we engage in the critical task in the field of event,
i.e., when we seek to ascertain what happened in the New
Testament times, whether the question pertain to external
event or internal thought, though we are no longer inter-
preters, we are still in the field of New Testament study,
170 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
for we are still dealing with the history of the New Testa-
ment period. So, also, when we proceed from the historical
data furnished by interpretation and criticism to construct
the history of the rise of early Christianity, we are still within
the New Testament field, whether dealing with events or ideas,
since both events and ideas are facts of the history of the New
Testament period. But when, having discovered by our
interpretative process that a given early Christian writer
or teacher, or group of writers, held certain opinions and
doctrines we proceed to subject these to a process of critical
judgment to determine how much of this thought can justifiably
be taken up into modern thought, we are certainly on the outer
edge of New Testament study and approaching that of
theology and ethics. We are dealing, not with the facts of the
past, but with present values. The New Testament student
may certainly ask these questions, but he has perhaps in that
fact become something else than a New Testament student.
5. Closer definition of the field of New Testament study. —
The study of the New Testament as thus understood is accord-
ingly wholly a historical task. The studies preliminary to
interpretation deal wholly with historical questions. Inter-
pretation itself is a process of historic inquiry. The results of
interpretation have a double value and use. The student may
use them as data for the construction of the history of early
Christianity or for their intrinsic value in the field of religious
thought and life. In the former case he is still the historian
of the New Testament period of the Christian movement;
in the latter he is passing into the field of the theologian and
the preacher.
6. The use of other books than those of the New Testa-
ment canon. — But the recognition of New Testament study
as historical and as including within its task the construction
of the history of the rise of Christianity compels the inclusion
of other books than those of the New Testament within its
field of work. There are two reasons for this broadening of the
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 171
field: first, because from these other books we discover the
environment in which Christianity arose, and, secondly,
because from them we gain supplementary data for its early
history.
The sources of the history of any period or people consist of
those historical documents and monuments which furnish
valuable testimony of what took place in that period among
that people. These sources may be classified as direct and
indirect, the former including those that testify directly con-
cerning the matter in hand, and the latter consisting of those
which by their evidence concerning the antecedents and
surroundings of the movement under consideration furnish
a basis for the understanding of the direct sources and of the
historic movement as a whole.
Under such a definition we cannot either in principle or in
fact strictly identify the books of the New Testament with
the sources of the history of early Christianity. Yet we shall
not be far wrong if we think of these as constituting the direct
sources of our study. When the church of the second century
collected from the existing literary products of the new reli-
gious movement the books that gradually came to be accepted,
along with the books of the Old Testament, as the sacred
literature of the Christian church, the test by which they
were selected was not indeed their value for historical purposes,
but their value for doctrine and edification. Yet, in fact, the
church chose none which are not valuable for the history of
the origin and early development of Christianity, and but few
that do not belong to the first century; and on the other hand
it did not fail to include the most important of the sources,
at least of those which are still extant. When, therefore,
modern biblical scholarship came gradually to assume the
historical point of view and to esteem the books of ancient
times not only for their devotional and inspirational value,
but also as sources of history, it not only followed a natural
course, but was substantially right from a historical point
172 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
of view in continuing to use as the principal subjects of its
historical study, and the principal sources of the history it was
endeavoring to construct, the books of the New Testament.
It would indeed be of immense value to us to possess today
some of the books which our study of the New Testament
books and of early tradition has shown to have existed in the
first or second century, such, e.g., as the Logia of Matthew
or the works of Papias. Yet if we are speaking of direct
sources still extant for the history of the Christian movement
down to, let us say, the production of the Fourth Gospel,
we shall have to add to the books of the New Testament per-
haps only the First Epistle of Clement, and we shall omit,
not as having no value, but as faUing outside the period, at
most only two or three of the general epistles, say II Peter
and Jude and possibly James.
Of the indirect sources, those from which we are able to
recover the environment of early Christianity, on the other
hand, the number is legion. To this class belong all the
books that were produced by the Jewish people in the last
two centuries before Christ and the first century after (in
a sense, indeed, the earher literature, including the whole Old
Testament), and all those numerous works by non- Jewish
authors which reflect for us the currents of thought in the
Roman Empire in the period in which Christianity was finding
its way out from Jerusalem to all the lands of the Empire.
7. Subsidiary lines of studies. — In still another direction
also we may legitimately extend the boundaries of New
Testament study in order to include two subsidiary sub-
jects which are necessary in order to give to New Testament
scholarship due breadth and balance, and to insure a proper
measure of contact with the practical interests of the rehgious
life. On the one hand, in accordance with the general prin-
ciple that any process of investigation is illuminated by a
knowledge of the experience of previous study in the same
field, students of the New Testament have found it expedient
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 173
to examine into the history of the use of the New Testament
in the Christian church. On the other hand, the study of the
New Testament does not find its end in itself, but in the con-
tribution which it can make to Hfe. For this reason, and
because a perception of the end to be achieved illuminates the
whole process, it is expedient that a general survey of the
field of New Testament study should include a consideration
of the relation of New Testament study to such other interests
as those of systematic theology and the rehgious life of the
modern man.
8. The divisions of the field. — The whole field of the New
Testament study may then be subdivided as follows:
I. The Books of the New Testament and Their Interpretation.
1. The general nature of the interpretative process.
2. The environment of early Christianity.
3. The discovery of the occasion and purpose of the several books —
Introduction to New Testament literature.
4. The acquisition of the language of the New Testament.
5. The recovery of the text: Textual criticism.
6. The interpretation of the books of the New Testament.
II. The History of the New Testament in the Christian Church.
1. History of interpretation and criticism.
2. History of the Canon.
III. The Use of the New Testament at the Present Day.
1. For purposes of history.
2. For systematic theology and ethics.
3. For the cultivation of personal character.
4. For religious teaching and preaching.
But while all these studies fall within the range of New
Testament study, and must be pursued with thoroughness
and accuracy by someone, if we of this generation are to
understand the New Testament and know how our religion
came to be, it does not follow either that every student of the
New Testament must pursue these studies in the order
indicated or that every one shall pursue all these hnes of
study. Thus a given student may carry on his study of the
New Testament on the basis of a modern critical text of its
174 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
books without knowing anything about the evidence on which
this text is based or the principles according to which such
evidence must be used in order to arrive at the true text.
In this particular part of the field he may simply accept the
results of the studies made by other men. Again, he may^
most students do and must — use the lexicons and grammars
written by other men without investigating the evidence on
which they are based. He may even do his work of inter-
pretation on the basis of a translation instead of a Greek
text, in which case, instead of taking the word of the lexicog-
rapher as to what individual Greek words mean, he accepts
the word of a translator as to what whole sentences mean, so
far as that meaning can be indicated by a more or less literal
translation. No scholar, however thorough, is wholly inde-
pendent of others; every man must build on another man's
foundation; but some begin much farther back than others.
Again as to order of studies, we must, as indicated above,
move in a spiral rather than in a straight line. For centuries
the books of the New Testament were interpreted without any
systematic development of the preparatory lines of study, and
each such study still depends upon the others and upon inter-
pretation. The order of studies above indicated is therefore
a logical rather than a hard-and-fast chronological or peda-
gogical one. In practice, the systematic pursuit of the differ-
ent lines of study may well be in the order indicated, but the
thorough student will necessarily go back and forward from
one line of work to another, using the results of all the studies
he has at any time made to deepen his knowledge of each line of
study to which he returns.
I. THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THEIR
INTERPRETATION
I. The general nature of the interpretative process. —
a) The meaning of the word. — The word "interpretation"
(Latin inter prelatio , cognate with inter pres, derived from inter
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 175
partes) primarily denotes the act of one who stands between
two others to communicate the thought of one to the other.
In usage it denotes most commonly the process of discovering
the thought of another from its expression, with or without
communication of the thought thus discovered to a third
person. Interpretation, in this sense, is the exact correlate
of expression, and the two processes enter into every com-
munication of thought from mind to mind. The thinker con-
verts his thought by expression, so to speak, into a visible
or audible symbol, and the receiving mind converts the symbol
into thought again by the process of interpretation. More
exactly stated, the thinker creates or utters a visible or audible
symbol of what he has in his mind, and the interpreter,
hearing or seeing the symbol and knowing its conventional
value, thinks the thought for which the symbol stands.
The field of interpretation in this sense of the word is a
very wide one. The lawyer, the student of literature, the
historian, indeed every reader of what is written or printed,
and every listener to the speech of his fellow-men, is an inter-
preter. Not only so, but all who look at pictures or listen
to music do so with the intent of repeating in their own experi-
ence that which the painter or composer thought or felt. The
fundamental principles of interpretation are, moreover, for all
of these interpreters the same. In all of them, also, the term
"interpretation" is used either of the process by which one
recovers for himself that which has been expressed in symbol or
of the communication of what he has thus obtained to another.
h) A definition of literary interpretation. — If we limit our
thought for the moment to the interpretation of literature,
language written or spoken, we may define interpretation as
the process of re-presenting to one's own mind (or to the minds
of others) the whole of that state of mind of the author of which
the language to be interpreted was the expression
c) Some untenable methods of interpretation. — The accept-
ance of this definition, which, it must be remembered, is based
176 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
upon the premise that interpretation is the correlate and com-
plement of expression, leads to the rejection of certain methods
of interpretation which have often been employed, not by
biblical interpreters only, but especially by them.
(i) It excludes the allegorical method, which conceives
that the meaning of what is written is to be found, not in the
thought which the writer had in mind, but in that which is
suggested by treating statements of facts as allegories. What
is written allegorically is, of course, according to the principles
above enunciated, to be interpreted as allegory. But what
is here described as the allegorical method consists in treating
unallegorical language as allegorical, in defiance of the prin-
ciple that interpretation is the reproduction of the thought of
the author.
(2) It excludes the mystical method, which, assuming that
one is able by some inner light to discover meanings inde-
pendently of all rules and principles, really abandons the
search for the writer's thought and sets up the interpreter's
thought in its place. The element of truth in this theory, of
which it is important not to lose sight, is that interpretation
demands sympathy with the mind of the writer to be inter-
preted, and that in particular the interpreter of rehgious
writings must himself have a sympathetic understanding of
the possibilities of religious experience.
(3) It excludes the dogmatic method, which assumes that
the results of the interpretation of a certain body of literature
must conform to the dogmas of an accepted body of doctrine
or system of thought. This method takes on two forms,
the traditionalistic and the rationalistic. In the former the
interpreter finds in some traditional and accepted system of
doctrine the standard and criterion of the results of inter-
pretation. In the latter he sets up such a standard in a system
of thought arrived at by supposedly rational processes. The
impulse which gives rise to the use of this method in either
of its forms is one that commands respect, arising, as it does,
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 177
out of the desire to co-ordinate all the results of one's thought
into a consistent unity. But it falls into the obvious but
serious error of assuming that one's favorite author must
have held the same views of truth as that at which the inter-
preter himself has arrived or which are laid down in his
inherited and accepted creed.
d) The grammatico-historical method. — -The only method
which is consistent with a proper conception of interpretation
is the so-called grammatico-historical method, which endeavors,
by the use of historical data and the methods of historical
investigation, to ascertain the thought which the writer or
speaker had in mind when he wrote or spoke. This method,
though demanding the diligent use of grammar and lexicon,
does not reduce interpretation to a mere matter of the use of
these instruments, but calls for the restoration of the whole
thought- world in which the writer or speaker to be interpreted
lived and the most complete and systematic devotion of one's
energy to the task of rediscovering his thought.
The question which it asks is, "What did the writer think
when he wrote these words?" It entirely separates the
criticism of the results of interpretation from the interpretative
process itself. It asks not what is true philosophically or
theologically, but what was that experience in the mind of the
writer of which the language is the outward expression. By
its very nature it demands of the interpreter a knowledge of
the thought-environment in which the book to be interpreted
was produced and of the usages of the language in which it is
written, and therefore calls for those studies preliminary to
interpretation which are discussed in the paragraphs next
following.
2. The environment of early Christianity. — No historic
movement takes place as an isolated phenomenon, but always
has its antecedents and surroundings which condition its
character and direction, and no such movement can be under-
stood without some knowledge of its historic setting. Every
1 78 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
piece or body of literature is the product and expression of the
life of a people or the experience of an individual, and no
literature can be interpreted adequately without some knowl-
edge of the life in the midst of which it was produced.
A study of the actual processes of expression and interpre-
tation in everyday life and the more intensive prosecution of
the task of interpreting ancient literature have made it
increasingly clear that no literature can be adequately inter-
preted with lexicon and grammar only. To read the First
Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians as an undated piece of
literature or as a document written by a man of today to men
of today is to touch only on the high spots of its meaning.
To read it as a part of an actual correspondence between
people of the first century with the benefit of a knowledge
of the life of that period is to look through an open window
into an intensely interesting human situation. To read the
Gospel of Matthew ignorant of the questions which in the
latter part of the first century were at issue between Jews
and Christians and between Jewish and gentile Christians
is not necessarily to fail to grasp the great central elements
of the teaching of Jesus, but it is inevitably to miss the exact
thought and purpose of the book and seriously to misinterpret
the writer's state of mind and his central contention.
But to reproduce the life, especially the intellectual and
religious life, of that far-away period is obviously a difficult
task. It is to this task that some of the ablest scholars of the
last and of the present generation have devoted themselves
most diligently. Such writers as Schiirer and Bousset have
by their patient and thorough investigations put us in fuller
possession of the thought and religious life of the Jewish people
in the New Testament period than the men of the Christian
church have ever been in any preceding age. And the investi-
gations, which have long been in progress and are still far from
complete, into the life and thinking of the people among whom
Paul did his work are gradually giving us a truer and deeper
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 179
insight than we have ever before had, not only into the apostle's
thought, but into the whole life of the early church and the real
character and significance of the early Christian movement.
Eventually these studies promise to enable us to read the
literature of that period with some measure, at least, of that
sympathetic understanding and quick intelligence with which
it was read by most educated and many uneducated men of
the first century.
The full discussion of the subject belongs to another part
of this volume (see chap. V). But to omit all mention of it
at this point would be to set the interpretative process itself in
a false light.
Literature. — On the Jewish literature, thought, and environment see
E. Schiirer, Geschichte desjiidischen Volks im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, 4th ed.
(Leipzig :Hinrichs, igoi-9), and English translation of the second edition;
History of the Jewish People in New Testament Times, 5 vols. (New York:
Scribner, 1891) ; Oskar Holtzmann, N eutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte
(Tubingen: Mohr, 1906); S. Mathews, History of New Testafnent Times
in Palestine, 2d ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1910); E. Kautzsch
(editor). Die Apocryphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alien Testaments,
2 vols. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1900); R. H. Charles, The Apocrypha
and Pseitdepigrapha of the Old Testament, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1913J ; Josephus,. Works, edited in the original by Niese, 7 vols.
(Berlin: Weidmann, 1895; English translation by Whiston, various
editions; revised by Shilleto, 5 vols. [London: Bdl, 1889-90]). Philo,
Works edited in the original by Cohn and Wendland, Vols. I-VI,
ready (Berlin: Reimer, 1896-; English translation by Yonge, 4 vols.
[London: Bohn, 1854-55]).
On the non-Jewish literature, thought, and environment see
F. Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism (Chicago: Open
Court Publishing Co., 191 1); T. R. Glover, The Conflict of Religions
within the Roman Empire (London: Methuen, 1909); Zeller, Stoics,
Epicurearis and Sceptics; English translation by O. J. Reichel, revised
ed. (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1892); E. V. Arnold, Roman
Stoicism (Cambridge: University Press, 1911); R. D. Hicks, Stoic and
Epicurean (New York: Scribner, 19 10); S. J. Case, Evolution of Early
Christianity (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1914) (see
especially the bibliographical notes on chaps, vii-ix).
i8o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
3. The discovery of the occasion and purpose of the
several books. — The reproduction of the general situation in
the midst of which the New Testament books were produced
is, as we have seen, invaluable and indispensable to the student
of those books. But it falls short of preparing him for the
full understanding of them. For the intelligent reading of
these books, that is, for their interpretation, it is requisite
that one restore, as fully as possible, the precise occasion and
set of circumstances out of which the book arose.
A letter, picked up on the street, may easily be an absolute
enigma when first read, but by the identification of its writer
and the discovery of its occasion and purpose may become so
full of meaning as to be the basis of a life-and-death decision
by a court. So a letter of Paul's, written to a group of
Christians in the first century, read without knowledge of
the circumstances under which it was written, may seem like
a dull essay on eschatology or a dry treatise on election and
justification. But if it is possible for us to reproduce the
situation which gave rise to it, out of which it sprung, and in
which it played a part, it may become to us an intensely
interesting and luminous reflection of the life of the church
in the days of the apostles.
Early Christian writings. — The religious movement which
began with the preaching of Jesus in Galilee very soon
found expression in writing. This was more true of Chris-
tianity than of any contemporary religious movement of
which we know. The literature, if we may call it by that
name, at first consisted of personal letters called forth by a
special situation and designed to meet an immediate need,
and nothing more. More conscious literary works presently
arose — gospels, prophecies, histories, sermons — and books
were written and put in circulation. These books soon fell
into groups, and some of these groups were at length gathered
up into the collection known to us as the New Testament.
But in order to understand them we must take them up
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT i8i
individually and inquire what called them forth, who wrote
them, why and for whom they were written. This is the
first step toward the real understanding of the contents of
every such ancient work.
Possible groupings of them. — The books of the New
Testament may be conveniently grouped about four impor-
tant historical points: the gentile mission, which gave rise
to the letters of Paul and afterward formed the subject of
the Acts of the Apostles; the fall of Jerusalem, about
which the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke gather;
the persecution by Domitian, which called forth the Reve-
lation, First Peter, and the Epistle to the Hebrews; and
finally the rise of the docetic and gnostic sects, which con-
stitutes the background of the Gospel of John and the minor
epistles.
From another point of view the New Testament books
may be divided according to the literary types to which they
belong. Some are personal letters, some are epistles — that is,
more formal discussions of a general theme, put in epistolary
form and published for a wide circle. Some are gospels, a
type of literature very near biography but closer still to the
Elijah and Elisha cycles in the Books of Kings. One, the
Acts, is a historical book; one, James, is a sermon; and one,
the Revelation, is the prophecy of a Christian prophet. The
type of literature to which each book belongs is a matter of
much importance in the study and understanding of it.
There is, however, a more practical division of the New
Testament writings. It is suggested in part by literary and
in part by historical considerations. The letters of Paul
constitute one natural group, and the early gospels and Acts
a second. The writings relating to Domitian's persecution
make a third, and the Gospel and Epistles of John a
fourth. There remain the other general epistles, James,
Jude, and II Peter. We may approach these groups in this
order.
i82 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
The letters of Paul. — ^The ancients who compiled our
New Testament ascribed fourteen letters to Paul. The his-
torical student of the New Testament has to satisfy himself as
to whether all or any of these are indeed from his hand, for
in the interpretation of them much depends upon a sound view
of their authorship. In the elTort to arrive at the facts in
such a study we have two kinds of materials to build upon,
the testimony of each letter as to itself and the statements of
ancient writers about it. Neither of these may be neglected.
It is indispensable that every scrap of ancient testimony be
taken account of, and each letter must be minutely examined
for every ray of light it can throw upon its writer and his
purpose. The testimony the letter bears to its own author-
ship and purpose is called internal evidence, the testimony
borne by ancient writers is called external evidence, or tra-
dition.
Hebrews not by Paul. — -If we examine the fourteen letters
which have borne the name of Paul from these two points of
view, it is at once clear that Hebrews is much less entitled
to be called a letter of his than are the other thirteen. It is
anonymous, and so the internal evidence is wanting at the
most important point. Moreover, when closely exammed
Hebrews shows dififerences from the remaining letters so
marked in language, style, and ideas that most scholars hold
that it cannot have been the work of Paul. Nor is the voice
of tradition by any means unanimous. Tertullian thought
it was the work of Barnabas and did not regard it as Scrip-
ture, and although Hebrews is first reflected in Roman
writings, the Christian writers of Rome and the West did not
accept it as Paul's until the middle of the fourth century. In
fact, the assignment of Hebrews to Paul can be definitely
traced back to one man, for the first writer to state it is
Clement of Alexandria, and he says that he learned it from
the Blessed Presbyter, which is his way of referring to his
teacher Pantaenus.
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 183
The Pastoral Letters. — If we apply these same instru-
ments of inquiry to the other letters bearing the name of Paul,
the letters to Timothy and Titus at once stand out as a dis-
tinct group, from the point of view of both internal testimony
and tradition. These Pastoral Epistles, as they are called,
definitely claim Paul as their author, and to this extent
satisfy the requirement of internal evidence. But when
examined more narrowly they disclose a style and interest and
a type of thought very different from that of Paul as we know
him through his leading letters, and the historical situations
that gleam through them are clearly later than the life of
Paul. This suspicion of the Pastoral Letters, suggested
by their own indirect internal testimony, is confirmed by a
study of tradition about them. The earliest list of Paul's
letters of which we know definitely, that of Marcion of
Pontus, made about 140-50 a.d., does not include them.
But they were accepted by Irenaeus about 180-85 ^^ written
by Paul and as parts of Christian Scripture.
But we may not immediately conclude that these three
letters have no connection with Paul but were wholly com-
posed under his name at a later time. We must consider the
possibility that short genuine letters of his to Timothy and
Titus were expanded into these letters as we know them, in
order to claim the authority of Paul for much-needed regula-
tions as to church organization and management. This
possibility cannot be denied, but as a matter of fact all
attempts to determine what genuinely Pauline parts are pre-
served in these letters have proved unconvincing. More-
over, the letters, which fit so poorly into what we know of
Paul's life and work and thought, are readily understood if set
in the early years of the second century when just the questions
with which they deal were, as other documents show, deeply
concerning the churches. In that age, too, men did not
scruple to wTite letters, revelations, even gospels, in the name
of other apostles, for example, Peter; and while it would have
1 84 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
been difficult to put into circulation a letter purporting to be
from Paul to a well-known and still active church, it would
have been easy to put forth such letters addressed to indi-
viduals long dead.
Colossians and Ephesians. — The remaining ten letters
stood in the earliest list of Paul's writings of which we have
definite knowledge, the canon of Marcion. The evidence
of tradition for these ten is therefore much stronger than
for the three just discussed. But considerations of internal
evidence, i.e., the testimony of the letters themselves, make it
necessary to scrutinize the authenticity of some of these
letters very closely. Colossians and Ephesians when com-
pared prove to resemble each other in so many details of
expression, and to present a phase of thought so different
from anything in Paul's major letters, as to throw serious
doubt upon their authenticity. Some scholars explain this
as due to the fact that when Paul wrote Colossians the prac-
tical and doctrinal errors that had appeared at Colossae had
given his mind a new direction, and that he wrote at the same
time a general letter (Ephesians) to the neighboring churches
in which he dealt with the same general situation in much the
same terms. Others have held that Colossians is indeed a
work of Paul but that Ephesians is from the hand of a later
follower of his who made Colossians the basis for his work.
Others seek to solve the problem by the theory that an original
letter to the Colossians, now lost, was expanded into the two
epistles that we have. The relation of Ephesians and Colos-
sians and the genuineness of these letters form one of the
present problems of the Pauline literature.
Ephesians presents a further problem in the matter of its
original destination. To whom was it written ? Paul can
hardly have sent it to the Ephesians, for it is wholly without
personal touches, and some things in it suggest that it was
addressed to people who did not know Paul personally, but
only by reputation (3:2). In Marcion's list it went by
I
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 185
the name of Laodiceans and the oldest manuscripts, while
they give its title as "To Ephesians," omit the words "in
Ephesus" from the first verse. The historical student has
to inquire whether Ephesians is a circular letter sent to
Ephesus among other places, or is the "letter from Laodicea".
mentioned in Colossians (4:16), and in this latter case how
it came to be called "To Ephesians." The writer of the
Revelation (3:16), Marcion, and Basil of Caesarea throw
some light upon this question.
// Thessalonians. — -One other letter which has come
down to us under the name of Paul calls for careful investiga-
tion in the matter of its authenticity. II Thessalonians
resembles I Thessalonians very much as Ephesians does
Colossians. In general outline and in many details of expres-
sion the two letters to Thessalonica agree. How did a
writer so original and fertile-minded as Paul come to repeat
himself in this way ? Did he have a letter book, and before
writing II Thessalonians refer to a copy of I Thessalonians
which he had retained ? Or did he write the two letters at
the same time, sending one to the Greek and the other to the
Jewish-Christian body at Thessalonica? To these psycho-
logical doubts about II Thessalonians is added an eschato-
logical one. The Lord's Day, it is alleged, is described in
the first letter as coming without warning, as a thief in the
night, but in the second a series of premonitory events is
predicted. These difficulties must be fairly dealt with
before II Thessalonians can be confidently accepted as a letter
of Paul's.
The seven undisputed letters. — Of the fourteen letters
assigned by tradition to Paul, there remain seven with refer-
ence to which internal evidence and tradition may fairly be
said to agree. These are I Thessalonians, Galatians, I and II
Corinthians, Romans, Philippians, and Philemon. They were
probably all written between 50 and 63 a.d., and in the
order named above. Their date and order must of course
1 86 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
be determined if their place in Paul's work and life is to be
understood, and in this and other matters each presents its
own special problems.
Galalians: — In respect to Galatians, its destination is a
.problem of some interest, both for its own sake and in con-
nection with the time of its writing. For if the Galatia of
which Paul spoke was the Phrygian and Lycaonian region of
the province of Galatia and not ethnographical Galatia in
north-central Asia Minor, Paul's visit to it and the subse-
quent composition of the letter fall earlier in his career than
most students of the letter have supposed.
Composite letters: Romans, II Corinthians, and Philip-
pians. — ^A different type of problem is presented by Romans,
II Corinthians, and Philippians. It is that of integrity:
are these letters units, or is each of them made up of two
or even three letters combined? At the end of Romans
stands a chapter of salutations in which Paul shows a wide
acquaintance, not only with the personnel of the house congre-
gations at Rome, which he had never visited, but even with
the domestic groupings of these individuals. This and other
considerations make it probable that the sixteenth chapter
of Romans was originally a letter to Ephesus which was
appended to Romans when the first considerable collection
of Paul's letters was made, very likely at Ephesus before the
end of the first century.
The striking contrast between the two parts of II Corinthi-
ans raises a similar problem. The opening chapters say much
of comfort and reconciliation. The closing chapters, 10-13,
are a vehement invective against Paul's critics at Corinth. It
is difficult to explain this except on the theory that the closing
chapters are from the painful letter of rebuke and correction
mentioned in II Cor. 2:4 and 7:8, which has usually been
regarded as lost. If this be true, we possess three of the four
letters Paul is known to have written to Corinth — the second,
fourth, and third. The case for the analysis of II Corinthians
'II IK STUDY OF THE NI':W TESTAMENT 187
is stronger than that for the analysis of Romans in this respect,
that the new letter disclosed by the analysis is one of which we
have long known from statements in II Corinthians itself.
The letter to the Fhilippians is another exception to the
usual orderliness of Paul's letters. Its course of thought is
unsystematic and irregular. The violent break at 3:2 pre-
sents great difficulty to all students of the letter. Now, Paul
must have written to Philii)pi at least five times; for we
know from his own statements that the Philippians had sent
him money or supplies on four occasions, and the return of
Epaphroditus to Philippi evidently called forth a letter from
Paul. Is our Philippians this last letter only, or are two
or even three of Paul's five letters to the Philipj)ians united
in our letter ? The probability that the latter is the case may
be easily tested by reading Phil. 3:2—4:20 as a letter writ-
ten to acknowledge the Philippians' present sent through
Epaphroditus (Paul's fourth letter to Philippi), and 1:1 —
3:1; 4:21 23 as Paul's fifth letter to the Philippians, sent
by Epaphroditus when he returned to Philippi after his illness
at Rome. Those who find three letters in our Philippians
divide 3:2 — 4:9 from 4:10-20, making this last the final
letter and placing 3 : 2 — 4 : 9 earlier in the correspondence.
While the analysis of Philippians is less convincing than is that
of Romans and II Corinthians, it deserves serious considera-
tion, especially in view of the fact that Polycarj) early in the
second century .speaks of Paul's "letters" to the Philippians
and advises the Philippians to consult them.
The editing of the Pauline letters.- — The question of the
editorial work in the Pauline letters is involved with that of
the earliest collection of them, and that properly belongs to
the history of the canon. It is enough here to say that many
things point to Ephesus as the place of the making of that
collection, and the time was probably well williin the first
century. The combining of two or three letters into a single
one was very probably a part of the editorial work incident
1 88 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
to this larger task of putting in circulation a collection of
Paul's letters for Christian use.
The specific occasion of the Pauline letters. — But it ought
not to be inferred from the foregoing list of doubts and
questions concerning the Pauline authorship or the integrity
of the several letters ascribed to Paul in the New Testament
that these are the only questions or the most important ones
with which we have to deal in this part of our subject. In fact,
they are all preliminary to discovering under what circum-
stances and to meet what situation each of these letters, or
their several component letters, were produced. It is the
answer to this question, largely to be discovered from the
internal evidence of the letter itself, or from this, combined
with the evidence of other letters and the Book of Acts, that
will enable us to set each writing in its proper place in the his-
tory, and so help us to understand its purpose and its course
of thought. To decide that a letter ascribed to Paul is made
up of two or more letters of his, or is not his at all, is not to
deprive it of interest or value for us, but only requires that we
date it and place it where it really belongs. To do this may
increase both its interest and its value.
To decide, or even to discuss at length, the date, place,
and occasion of each of the letters named above would require
more space than can be given in this book. But it is a very
important part of the task of the student of the New Testa-
ment. In undertaking it he must make the fullest possible
use of the evidence afforded by the books themselves, of
ancient external evidence, and of the results of modern study.
To the more thorough study of the books of the New Testa-
ment from this point of view we owe no small part of the
progress of the last century in the understanding of their
thought and of the origin of Christianity.
The earliest gospels. — ^The letters of Paul were written
to serve special immediate needs of individuals, churches,
or groups of churches. They were not intended as permanent
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 189
contributions to literature. The earliest Christians had
no thought of producing a religious literature; they were
wholly concerned with an inward spiritual experience and the
expectation of the early return of Jesus to the earth to usher
in the messianic era. They were loyal to what the spirit of
Jesus said to their hearts and to what Jesus in his earthly
ministry had taught. This last along with some brief account
of Jesus' ministry and doings Christians learned from the oral
instruction of the missionaries through whom they had been
converted. This was the way in which the Corinthians,
for example, learned of the Lord's Supper and the Resur-
rection. Paul and every successful missionary taught his
converts the "traditions," as Paul calls them, I Cor. 11:2, 23;
15:3. In this way some short compend of the words and
deeds of Jesus was known among the churches, and there was
at first no thought of writing an account of his teaching or
ministry, much less his life.
The Synoptic Gospels. — Of the score of gospels which
were written by 200 a.d. the four gospels which are included
in the New Testament contain probably the most valuable
and trustworthy material. Three of these four resemble
one another so strikingly in chronology, order of events, and
details of expression that students have long been accustomed
to group them together under the name Synoptic Gospels.
Their resemblances are so close as to prove that these gospels
are dependent on one another or on some common documentary
source. Along with these resemblances they exhibit certain
striking differences which greatly complicate the problem
of their relationship. It is this combination of agreement
and difference that gives rise to what is called the synoptic
problem.
The minute comparison of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark,
and Luke, section by section and even phrase by phrase,
clearly shows that the writers of Matthew and Luke had the
Gospel of Mark and made large use of it in producing their
I go GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
gospels. This is especially true of Matthew, into which fifteen-
sixteenths of the verses of Mark have been taken over.
The question arises whether Mark was known to these evangel-
ists in the form in which we haVe it or in some more primitive
form, the so-called original Mark. It is reasonably clear
that when the writer of Matthew used Mark it had not lost
its original conclusion, but that in other respects it was known
to him in substantially the form in which it is known to us.
Origin of Mark. — Tradition explains the origin of the
Gospel of Mark as due to the effort of Mark to preserve for
the Roman church and other churches Peter's recollections
of the ministry and words of Jesus as Mark had learned them
in his capacity of interpreter to Peter in Peter's latter days.
The idea that Peter was the authority for a gospel record was
familiar in the first half of the second century, as Papias,
Justin, and the II Peter (1:15) indicate. It seems probable,
therefore, that Mark was written soon after the death of
Peter, which occurred in 64 a.d. If we examine the Gospel of
Mark with reference to the probabihty of such an origin, it
proves to exhibit such an emphasis upon the fall of Jerusalem
as we should expect in the years of the Jewish War, 66-70 a.d.,
and its generally primitive character and freedom from edi-
torial retouching make it very likely that it was composed
during the Jewish War much in the way Papias describes.
There is little question that Mark's collection of Peter's
recollections is embodied in our Mark. The chief critical
question is whether the two documents are identical or
the recollections only served as one source toward the com-
position of our Mark. But the fact that our Mark is so
completely taken over into Matthew is opposed to this latter
alternative, and certain obscurities and ambiguities in Mark's
narrative confirm the impression that it is not the work of an
editorial reviser.
There is indeed little to set against the testimony of
tradition that Mark wrote this earhest of gospels. The tra-
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 191
ditional account of its purpose, too, fits very well with the
character of the work. While the writer believes Jesus to be
the Messiah, he does not put that statement into the mouth
of Jesus, but reports him as designating himself the Son of
Man. The writer seems more concerned to reproduce faith-
fully the materials at his disposal than to estabHsh a theo-
logical interpretation of Jesus. His narrative, while it makes
high claims for Jesus, includes many homely touches which
later evangelists preferred to leave out. It is, in short, an
informal and unambitious narrative, with no strongly defined
apologetic purpose such as the Gospels of Matthew and John
so clearly show.
Two-document theory. — Synoptic study has shown that
Matthew and Luke are based upon Mark. But the more
difficult part of the synoptic problem remains. How shall
we explain the occurrence in Matthew and Luke of common
material not derivable from Mark? The obvious answer is,
both derived it from a second source possessed by both. This
second common source was for a long time identified with the
Logia or Sayings of Jesus composed, according to the testimony
of Papias, by the apostle Matthew in the Aramaic language.
But the fact that that document is described as existing in
Aramaic while the resemblances it would have to explain are
often in the details of Greek expression, and the further fact
that it is said to have consisted of sayings while the resem-
blances which the theory requires it to explain are often in
narrative, have led most synoptic scholars in recent years to
give up the effort to identify the second source of Matthew
and Luke with the Logia of Matthew.
The two-document theory, as it is called, suffers decidedly
when its second document ceases to be identified with the
Logia, and becomes a mere critical conjecture, and the
question arises, Why is it necessary to explain the non-
Markan resemblances of Matthew and Luke by one con-
jectural docimient instead of more ? The answer is at once
192 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
made, because it is reasonable to postulate no more con-
jectural documents than are required to account for the facts.
But the theory necessitates assigning to one document ma-
terial of widely different types and interests, and it is a some-
what striking fact that the non-Markan material shared by
Matthew and Luke, while scattered all through Matthew,
is in Luke for the most part confined to two considerable
sections. These sections are further remarkable for the
almost total absence from them of any Markan material, and
they have long been spoken of by students of Luke as the
Small and the Great Interpolations, because they may be
viewed as bodies of material interpolated by Luke in the
text of Mark, which he was clearly making the basis of his
gospel. These sections, Luke 6:20 — 8:3 and 9:51 — 18:14,
may very probably have been documents which Luke char-
acteristically inserted en bloc while Matthew, with his ana-
lytical and topical way of working, took from them what he
wished to use and placed it where he saw fit. To the former
of these source-sections should probably be assigned also
Luke 3:7-15, 17, 18; 4:26-30; 5:1-11; and to the latter
19: 1-28.
Three-document theory.- — This would explain the resem-
blances of Matthew and Luke by a three-document theory,
that is, by the use by both of three documents — Mark, and
the two just outlined. The writers of Matthew and Luke
had each of them, in addition to these, special sources, per-
haps documentary. Each had his own peculiar source for
his account of the infancy of Jesus, and it is not improbable
that the writer of Matthew may have had the Sayings of
Matthew, and so the name of that apostle came to be con-
nected with that gospel.
Authorship of Matthew and Luke. — This introduces the
question of the authorship of these gospels. Of the author
of the Gospel of Matthew nothing is definitely known.
The statements of ancient writers are probably due to the
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 193
incorporation into our Matthew of the Sayings of Matthew
above referred to. The gospel itself is anonymous and gives
no definite evidence as to its writer. If it were the work of an
apostle or any other eyewitness, it is very difficult to under-
stand its dependence upon Mark. Its earliest name seems
to have been simply "The Gospel," and it is possible that it
was the first work of Christian literature to go by this
name. The Gospel of Luke, on the other hand, while it no-
where mentions its author by name, is not quite anonymous
since the individual to whom it was addressed or dedicated
would naturally have known who was addressing him in the
preface. Nor is there in this case any reason to doubt that
such an author as Paul's friend Luke might very naturally
have used written sources and oral tradition in making up his
narrative. There is, in short, much more to be said for the
Lukan authorship of the Gospel of Luke than for the assign-
ment of apostolic authorship to Matthew. The difficulties
with it will be pointed out. in connection with its sequel, the
Acts.
We have seen that the Gospel of Mark was written in the
effort to preserve the recollections of Peter for the edification
and instruction of the churches. What occasioned the writing
of Matthew ? A close examination of it suggests that
a variety of motives actuated the writer. He was in part
anxious to explain to his Christian brethren the continuity of
the Christian movement with Judaism, upon which the recent
fall of Jerusalem had thrown what he considered new and
important light. He wished also to harmonize and unify
the various writings on the ministry and teaching of Jesus
which were so likely to confuse the ordinary man. Probably
Mark had shown how helpful in the life of the churches even
so moderate and limited a gospel -could be. Some light is
thrown upon the place of origin of Matthew by the fact that
it is first clearly reflected in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch,
early in the second century, and that the kind of circle, mainly
194 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Jewish Christian, for which it was evidently intended would
be most likely to be found there, in the years just following
the fall of Jerusalem. To that place and period it is probable
the Gospel of Matthew is to be referred.
The Acts. — Closely related to the Gospel of Luke, and so
to the synoptic problem, is the Book of Acts, written by the
same author and presumably upon principles and methods
similar to those which governed the writing of Luke's Gospel.
The problem of Acts relates to its authorship and trust-
worthiness. All agree that Luke and Acts are from the same
hand, and, further, that the writer of the we-sections (Acts
16:10-18; 20:5-16; 21:1-18; 27:1 — 28:16) was a com-
panion of Paul and an eyewitness of what he reports in the
first person. But was the we-diarist Luke? Much more
important, was he the author of the whole Book of Acts ?
Furthermore, how near was he in writing to the events which
he records? Had he read the Antiquities of Josephus, pub-
lished in the thirteenth year of Domitian, 93-94 a.d. ? And
what was the character and worth of the sources used by the
Christian historian in the earlier part of his work? All
these matters are of essential importance to the interpretation
of Acts and the reconstruction of early Christian history.
On the whole, there is not sufficient evidence to make it
probable that the writer of Luke-Acts used Josephus' work,
and it seems reasonable to conclude that the we-diarist
is identical with the author who speaks in the first person in
Acts I : I and in Luke 1:3.
The reign of Domitian introduced the Christian movement
to a new situation. The increased emphasis upon emperor-
worship which marked that reign involved Christians in
different parts of the Empire in suspicion, condemnation, and
persecution. This situation is the background of three books
of the New Testament.
Revelation. — The Revelation is the work of John, a
Christian prophet of Asia, who was imprisoned for his Chris-
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 195
tian profession, and while in prison wrote a series of letters
and visions to fortify his brethren in the Asian churches against
the temptation to apostatize. As early as the time of Justin
{ca. 150 A.D.) this John was identified with the apostle John,
but there is nothing in the Revelation to suggest this. Yet
it was probably this idea that afterward kept the Revelation
of John in the New Testament of the Western church, when
the other apocalypses were dropped from Christian Scripture.
A more serious problem in the study of the Revelation
is that of its dependence upon earher apocalyptic writings.
That its general form was suggested by Jewish apocalyptic
works such as Daniel and Enoch goes without saying. But
there are certain parts of it which seem to reflect an earlier
time than Domitian's, and it is at least possible that the book
as we know it is based upon an earlier apocalypse, perhaps of
the period of the Jewish War.
Hebrews. — ^Another work of Domitian's time is the so-
called Epistle to the Hebrews. The anonymity of this letter
has occasioned much futile conjecture as to the identity of its
author, beginning with the unfortunate guess of Pantaenus
that it was from the hand of Paul. It is more important
to ascertain to whom it was written and for what purpose.
Its strongly Jewish color and the name by which it has so
long been known have led many scholars to the view that
it was written for Jewish Christians in Palestine and designed
to deter them from lapsing into Judaism. Over against this
stands the fact that such a body could hardly be addressed in
Greek, and that the description the writer gives of the church
to which he is writing is quite inappropriate to the Jerusalem
church or any Palestinian church of which we know, while the
Judaism of which the writer speaks is always that of the wilder-
ness and the tabernacle, never that of Jerusalem and the
temple. On the other hand, the picture given of the church
addressed, with its virtues and faults and its pecuhar history,
fits remarkably well upon the Roman church in the time of
196 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Domitian, and the salutations of "those from Italy" (13:24)
point in the same direction. The problem is a difficult one,
but it is decidedly probable that the letter was addressed
to Roman Christians whom the persecution of Domitian
exposed to the danger of discouragement and apostasy.
/ Peter.- — A third document from Domitian's persecution
may serve to bind these two together. I Peter in its opening
words claims to be the work of the apostle Peter, but the situa-
tion it reflects can hardly be earlier than the time of Domitian,
for the followers of Christ are being persecuted for the name
of Christ and as Christians (4:14, 16). The letter is written
from Rome, which is spoken of as Babylon, as in the Revela-
tion, and is addressed to the Christians of the provinces of
Asia Minor who are undergoing persecution. But why was
it given the name of Peter ? It may have been the work of a
Roman presbyter of that name (5:1) who was afterward
identified with the apostle Peter, as the John of the Revelation
was later identified with the apostle. Or the explanation may
lie in the fact that a variety of works were put forth early in
the second century under the name of Peter and were widely
accepted as genuine.
The Gospel of John. — The Johannine problem in its
larger aspects includes the authorship of all the five writings
ascribed by Christian tradition to the apostle John. The
main interest of it centers about the Gospel of John which,
while anonymous, in a later epilogue, chap. 21, distinctly
claims the apostle John as its voucher. When compared with
the synoptic representation, however, the Johannine is found
to differ in certain vital respects. The Jesus of the Synoptists,
reticent about himself and his office, gives way to a divine
Christ promptly and boldly asserting his pre-existence and
messiahship. The synoptic order of narrative, disrupted at
many points, is sometimes even inverted. The boldly apoca-
lyptic eschatological teaching of Jesus reported by the Synop-
tists gives way to a spiritualized eschatology, and the Jewish
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 197
forms of thought in which the Synoptists cast their message
are replaced by more Hellenized and universal ones.
It is evidently true that if the author of this gospel was a
personal follower of Jesus, still more if he was his confidential
disciple, the Fourth Gospel has substantial claims to be con-
sidered the authoritative formulation of Jesus' thought and
teaching. But apostohc authorship is not the most vital point
of the Johannine problen. The point is rather the historical
truth of the picture of Jesus and his teaching which it contains.
Is this or is the synoptic representation the true one ? Are
both true, the s}Tioptic presenting the public external aspect
of Jesus' life and teaching, the Johannine the intimate esoteric
explanation of himself which he made to his disciples? Or
is the Fourth Gospel the end-of-the-century reinterpretation
of Jesus in the more universal terms of Greek thinking, in
accord with the wider horizons and new streams of thought
which the success of the gentile mission had brought with it,
and colored with the Hellenic thought of its time, somewhat
as the Synoptic Gospels are colored with the Jewish ideas of
theirs ?
But if this be the solution of the Johannine problem, it
leaves some elements still to be explained. What is the his-
torical value of the specific narratives it preserves ? What
genuine elements of Jesus' teaching, wanting in the Synoptists,
has it preserved ? How far does its chronology of Jesus'
ministry soundly correct that of the Synoptists ? Is its
spiritualization of s^-noptic eschatology a bold effort to
assimilate apocalyptic crudities to Greek thinking on the
part of a writer who had undertaken to transplant Christianity
from Jewish soil to Greek, or a real sounding of the profound
thought of Jesus ?
/, //, /// John. — Of the three Johannine letters, the
first is so like the Gospel of John in tone and ideas that it
might almost be a stray leaf from it, and seems clearly to have
come from the same hand with it. The second and third are
198 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
more evidently letters, one to a church, the other to a certain
Gaius, from one who calls himself " the Elder," and deals with a
dispute over views and authority which has the ring of the
early second century. They may well be from the hand which
wrote the Gospel and I John, and suggest that ''the Elder"
may be that Elder John of whom Papias speaks. This has
led some to the conclusion that the Gospel of John embodies
traditional materials from the apostle John recast and inter-
preted by John the Elder. In both Gospel and letters is
reflected the docetic controversy of the beginning of the second
century.
Later epistles: James. — There remain three so-called epistles
bearing the names of James, Peter, and Jude. The first of these
is quite clearly a Christian sermon later published among the
churches under the name of James, who afterward came to be
identified with James of Jerusalem, the brother of Jesus. It
is an interesting example of early Christian preaching, but it
is not possible to determine who the James whose name it
bears was.
Jude and II Peter. — The Epistle of Jude is directed
against the docetic thinkers who made of Jesus so fantastic
and unreal a figure. Its author is represented to have been a
brother of James and so of Jesus. The letter is a vehement
denunciation of the Docetists and shows a canonical regard
for Jewish works like the Assumption of Moses and the
Book of Enoch. The substance of this little document is
closely paralleled in II Peter, and the question arises how this
is to be explained. Is Jude a condensation of II Peter, or is
II Peter an expansion of Jude, or are both based upon some
other document ? II Peter is directed against certain persons
who were denying the second coming of Christ, and it seems
most probable that the writer simply appropriated to this
purpose the denunciation which in Jude is directed at the
Docetists. II Peter is remarkable in the number of New
Testament books known to its writer ; he speaks of a collection
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 199
of Paul's letters, alludes to I Peter and the Gospel of Mark,
quotes the Gospels of Matthew and of John, and reproduces
most of the contents of Jude. II Peter is therefore in all proba-
bility the latest of the New Testament books. But its writer
fully intends it to be understood as the work of Peter and seeks
to identify himself in a variety of ways with the apostle. That
such a course was not unusual in the Christian literature of
the second century has already been pointed out, and intel-
ligent Christian opinion in antiquity came very slowly and
reluctantly to the acceptance of II Peter as apostolic.
Literature. — i. Brief works in English on all the books of the New
Testament: B. W. Bacon, An Introduction to the New Testament (New
York: Macmillan, 1900); Hermann v. Soden, The History of Early Chris-
tian Literature (New York: Putnam, 1906); A. S. Peake, Critical
Introduction to the New Testament (New York: Scribner, 19 10); E. J.
Goodspeed, The Story of the New Testament (Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press, 1916), a brief presentation for the general reader of the
situations out of which the several New Testament books arose and the
way in which they met these situations.
2. Fuller works covering all the books of the New Testament:
B. Weiss, Lehrbuch der Einleitung in das Neuc Testament, 3d ed. (Berlin:
Hertz, 1897) ; A Manual of Introduction to the New Testament, 2 vols.
(New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1889), a translation of a previous edi-
tion of the above; H. Holtzmann, Lehrbuch der historisch-kritischen
Einleitung in das Neue Testament, 3d ed. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1892);
A. Jiilicher, Einleitung in das Neue Testament, 6th ed. (Tubingen:
Mohr, 1913); Introduction to the New Testament (New York: Putnam,
1904) , a translation of an earlier edition of the above, a valuable intro-
duction, representing liberal but not extreme views, with fewer technical
details than Moffatt furnishes; T. Zahn, Introduction to the New Testa-
ment, 3 vols. (New York: Scribner, 1909); C. R. Gregory, Einleitung in
das Neue Testament (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909); James Moffatt, Intro-
duction to the Literature of the New Testament (New York : Scribner, 191 1) ,
the most complete volume for the well-equipped student.
3. Introductions to particular books or groups of books: V. H.
Stanton, The Gospels as Historical Documents, 2 vols. (New York:
Putnam, 1904); E. D. Burton, A Short Introduction to the Gospels
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1904); Principles of Liter-
ary Criticism and the Synoptic Problem (Chicago: The University of
200 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Chicago Press, 1904); J. Wellhausen, Einleitung in die drei ersten
Evangelien (Berlin: Reimer, 1905); A. Harnack, The Sayings of Jesus
(New York: Putnam, 1908); Willian; Sanday (editor) ; Studies in the
Synoptic Problem (Oxford, 191 1); The Criticism of the Fourth Gospel
(New York: Scribner, 1905); James Drummond, The Character and
Authorship of the Fourth Gospel (London: Williams & Norgate, 1903);
E. F. Scott, The Fourth Gospel: Its Purpose and Theology (Edinburgh:
Clark, 1906); H. H. Wendt, The Gospel according to St. John (New
York: Scribner, 1902); Robert Scott, The Pauline Epistles (New York:
Scribner, 1909); F. Godet, Introduction to the New Testament. The
Pauline Epistles (Edinburgh: Clark, 1899); Lake, The Earlier Epistles
of St. Paul, 2ded. (London: Rivington, 19 14).
4. The acquisition of the language of the New Testa-
ment.— What has already been said respecting the nature of the
interpretative process makes it at once evident that the inter-
preter must be acquainted with the language in which the litera-
ture which he is interpreting is written. Any language is a
system of arbitrary symbols for ideas. There is no necessary,
in the majority of cases there is not even a natural, relation be-
tween the subject described or the idea expressed by a word and
that word itself. This, which is obviously true, is made more
evident by the fact that there are literally thousands of human
languages. In other words, men have created thousands
of systems, each of which, differing from every other one,
is used for the symbolizing of human thoughts. Not only so,
but there are as many systems of expressing those differentia-
tions of thought which are indicated by the inflections and
syntactical relations of words as there are for the differences
of thought expressed by different words. These facts make
it necessary that the interpreter of any writer or speaker shall
be acquainted with that particular system of symbols—
that is, that particular language — in which the author whom
he is interpreting writes or speaks. The man of but one
language may be scarcely aware of this fact, but the German
who desires to understand a Greek or the Frenchman who
wishes to understand a Chinese quickly discovers it.
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 201
But it is not only the man who desires to interpret a
different language from his own who is compelled to make a
study of the language. There are 60,000 characters in the
Chinese language, each of which represents a different idea.
A fairly well-educated man knows but 2,000 of these. To
acquire a knowledge of the other 58,000 is no small task.
It is less obvious but equally true that no user of the EngUsh
language knows all the meanings of all the words of that
language, and the English student of the English Bible does
not therefore escape the necessity of being a diligent student
of the language of the Bible. To learn Greek may be more
difficult for him than to learn English. But when Greek has
been once acquired, he may learn the ideas represented by the
New Testament words more easily, and certainly more
exactly, through the medium of the Greek than through that
of the English.
But not all the meaning of the word is conveyed by
its stem or body. The terminations show whether it refers
to one object or many, whether it denotes the person or thing
of which the sentence affinns something, or one who is affected
by the action spoken of in the predicate. These and many
other varieties of relations between things spoken of are
expressed by the inflections of words.
Out of this double fact that ideas are expressed by words
and that words themselves take on different forms to express
certain variations of the idea for which they stand arises
the necessity for lexicography and grammar.
a) Lexicography. — This is the process by which one dis-
covers and formulates the meanings of words, i.e., the idea
or ideas for the expression of which a given word may be
employed. Had each word but one meaning and were there
for each idea a separate word, this process would be relatively
simple and might be compared to a mere table of equivalents
of Roman and Arabic figures. In fact, however, in every
language most words have various meanings and many ideas
202 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
can be expressed by different words. Furthermore, behind
this variety of usage there Hes in all cases a historical process,
in some cases of centuries of extent. Words which have in one
period a certain meaning have in a later period come to have a
very different meaning; sometimes the latter is almost the
exact opposite of the former. The task of the lexicographer is
therefore a strictly historical one. His task is to determine
what meaning, or what various meanings, the writers of a
given period were accustomed to express by the use of a given
word. To discover this, it is often necessary not only to
examine the extant literature which has come down to us from
the period in question, but to trace the development of the
usage through the previous periods in the history of the lan-
guage. One can, for example, scarcely decide what the word
"lord" means in the New Testament without an extended
investigation of its usage both by Hebrew and by Greek
writers; and the same is true of many other words, such as
"soul," "spirit," "holiness," "repentance."
Literature. — Though they give some attention to New Testament
usage, the standard lexicons of the Greek language exhibit this usage
so inadequately as to make them insufficient for the purpose of the New
Testament student. Yet because it shows the New Testament usage
in relation to the general use of words in Greek literature at large, the
student will often have occasion to consult Liddell and Scott, A Greek
Lexicon, 8th ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891). But of far more
use for the student of New Testament Greek is J. H. Thayer, A Greek-
English Lexicon of the New Testament: being Grimm's edition of
Wilke's Clavis Novi Testamenti, translated, revised, and enlarged, cor-
rected edition (New York: Harper, 1889); Erwin Preuschen, Vollstdndiges
griechisch-deutsches Handworterbuch zu den Schriften des Neiien Testa-
ments und der iibrigen Urchristlichen Litter atur (Giessen: Topelmann,
igio). The testimony of the Greek papyri is taken account of in later
lexical works: F. Zorell, Novi Testamenti Lexicon Graecum (Paris,
Lethielleux, 191 1); H. Eberling, Griechisch-deutsches Wortcrhuch zum
Neuen Testamente (Leipzig, Hahn, 1913); Moulton and Milligan, The
Vocabulary of the Greek Testament Illustrated from the Papyri and Other
Non-Literary Sources (London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1914) (in progress:
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 203
Parts I, II, a-S) . A later work than Thayer, but on the whole a less useful
one, is Hermann Cremer, Biblisch-theologisches Worterbuch zum Neuen
Testament, gth ed. (Gotha: Perthes, 1902); Biblico-Theological Lexicon
of New Testament Greek (Edinburgh and New York, 1880-86), trans-
lation of the second edition of above work, with supplement based
on the fifth edition. It consists of historical-lexicographical studies of
the most important New Testament words, and is a valuable supplement
to Thayer, useful for extended study rather than ready reference.
For purposes of independent study of New Testament words one
needs concordances, the best being Moulton and Geden, Concordance of
New Testament Words (New York: Scribner, 1897); C. H. Bruder,
Concordantiae Novi Testamenti, 7th ed. (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und
Ruprecht, 1913); Hatch and Redpath, Concordance to the Septuagint and
Other Greek Versions of the Old Testament, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1897).
For a fuller discussion of the nature of lexicographical study as
applied to New Testament words see E. D. Burton, "The Study of New
Testament Words," Old and New Testament Student, XII (189 1), 135-47.
For examples of special studies see, besides Cremer, mentioned above,
A. Deissmann, Bible Studies, 2d ed. (Edinburgh: Clark, 1903); G. Dal-
man, The Words of Jesus (Edinburgh: Clark, 1902); E. F. Thompson,
The Words Meravoeo) and MeTa/xiXei (Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press, 1908); E. D. Burton, "Spirit, Soul and Flesh," a series
of articles in the American Journal of Theology, XVII (October, 1913),
563-98; XVIII (January, i9i4),59-So; (July, 1914), 395-414; (October,
1914), 571-99; XX (July, 1916), 390-413-
b) Grammar. — What the lexicographer does in relation
to the body or stem of a word, the grammarian does in rela-
tion to the variations of meaning conveyed by the inflection
of the word, and in general in respect to the relations of words
in sentences. It is his task to arrange the various word-forms
in an orderly scheme and to determine what various shades
of ideas are expressed by these variations. What the nomina-
tive case signifies, or the dative, what variation of idea is
conveyed by the use of the present tense or the past, by the
subjunctive mood or the optative, how sentences are built
and what ideas are expressed by the structure of sentences —
with all these and like questions the grammarian deals.
It is obvious on the one hand that all these are, Kke those of
204 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
the lexicographer, purely questions of history, pertaining to
the habits of men in respect to the use of words in a given
period, and, on the other, that the answers to them are indis-
pensable to the processes of interpretation.
Literature. — In the field of grammar, even more than in that of
lexicography, the New Testament student will have occasion to consult
the standard grammars of the Greek language: W. W. Goodwin, A Greek
Gratnmar (Boston: Ginn, 1895); Hadley -Allen, A Greek Grammar for
Schools and Colleges (New York: Appleton, 1889); W. W. Goodwin,
Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb (Boston: Ginn, 1890);
Carl Brugmann, Griechische Grammatik, 4th ed. (Miinchen: Beck, 1913).
For the Greek of the New Testament in particular, which, however,
it is even more clear than formerly, used in general the forms and followed
the syntax of the common Greek of the period, see A. Buttmann, A
Grammar of the New Testament Greek, translated by J. H. Thayer
(Andover: Draper, 1891); G. B. Winer, A Treatise on the Grammar of
New Testament Greek, translated by W. F. Moulton, 3d ed. (Edinburgh,
1882); F. Blass, Grammar of New Testament Greek, 2d ed. (New York,
1905); Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch, 4th ed., edited
by Albert Delbrunner (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1913),
being a revised edition of the original of the preceding; E. D. Burton,
Syntax of thefMoods and Tenses in New Testament Greek, 6th ed. (Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press, 1913) (unchanged from 3d ed., 1898);
J. H. Moulton, A Grammar of New Testament Greek, Vol. I, Prolegomena,
3d ed. (Edinburgh: Clark, 1908); A. T. Robertson, A Short Grammar
of the Greek New Testament (New York: Armstrong, 1909); L. Rader-
macher, Handbuch %um Neuen Testament, Bd. I, Neutestamentliche
Grammatik (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 1); A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of
the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research (New York:
Hodder & Stoughton, 1914), an exhaustive work making much use of the
results of comparative philology and quoting extensively from recent
writers.
5. The recovery of the text. — a) What is textual criti-
cism?— To understand what a man has said, it is essential
to know what he said. If a precise understanding of the
meaning is wanted or if he has dealt with matters of impor-
tance, it is desirable to know exactly what he said. If he
wrote his words instead of merely speaking them, we can
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 205
reach certainty as to what he wrote by consulting his auto-
graph manuscript, as in the case of Lincoln's Gettysburg
address. In the case of ancient writers whose original manu-
scripts, autograph or dictated, have been lost, we must
depend upon copies made from them or secondary copies made
from these in turn or from copies even further removed from
the originals.
But it is very difficult to copy even a few pages with
absolute accuracy, and different copies of ancient works
naturally differ from one another in many particulars. Which
is right ? Probably no one of them is entirely so. One may
preserve some particulars correctly, another others. Com-
parison and scrutiny are necessary to decide which copy is
probably closer to the original at the points in which the copies
disagree. This is textual criticism.
In some cases an ancient work has come down to us in a
single copy made long after the original work was written.
It is evident that it matters very little how many years have
passed between the writing of the original work and the
making of this particular copy, but very much how many
copies have intervened, for with every copying of the text
a new opportunity is given for errors to creep in. When an
ancient work has been preserved in but a single copy, the
effort to recover the precise text of the lost original must
take the form of conjecture; that is, wherever the text is not
smooth or consistent, or does not yield an intelHgible sense, the
scholar who is trying to recover the original text must try
to guess what the writer actually wrote from what his copyists
have represented him as writing. More can often be done
in this direction than might seem probable, but at best this
method is dangerous even in the ablest hands and should
always be used sparingly and with caution.
b) The problem of the New Testament text. — But the New
Testament is preserved not in one manuscript only or a
_ few, but in hundreds and even thousands, in a greater number
2o6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
indeed than any other work of Kterature. Few of these
contain all the New Testament. It was usual to copy the
Gospels together, the epistles of Paul together, and so on.
But not only are there hundreds of such manuscripts of the
original Greek text, but in the early centuries the New
Testament was translated into Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Arabic,
Armenian, Ethiopic, Persian, Gothic, and other languages, and
the manuscripts of some of these versions are very numerous.
The textual materials for New Testament study are in fact
so abundant as to be really overwhelming.
Anyone who undertakes to study the New Testament
seriously in English finds it presented to him in different
textual forms. The Authorized Version differs materially
from the Revised Version of 1881, and that in turn often
reads differently from the American Revision. There are
besides numerous lesser translations. Which is right?
The Authorized Version of 161 1, like the series of English
versions that had preceded it, beginning with 1525, was
based on the early printed editions. In 15 14 the Greek New
Testament was first printed at Alcala in Spain, but before it
was published Erasmus in 15 16 issued his edition, and many
editions followed these. For all of these the text was drawn
from late manuscripts of the tenth to the fifteenth centuries,
which differed relatively little from one another.
But in the^ years that followed, manuscripts of much
greater age and of very different textual quality came one
by one to light. In 1581 Theodore de Beze gave to the
University of Cambridge his famous manuscript, called after
him the Codex Bezae. In 1628 the patriarch of Constanti-
nople gave to the king of England the Codex Alexandrinus.
New studies revealed the worth of the ancient Codex Vati-
canus, the Paris Codex of Ephrem was deciphered, and Tisch-
endorf discovered at Mount Sinai the Codex Sinaiticus. Both
Vaticanus and Sinaiticus date from the fourth century,
and they are generally considered our best New Testament
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 207
manuscripts. The more ancient versions, first printed in
the sixteenth and the seven teeth centuries, in the nine-
teenth began to be critically examined and the materials
for the study of the New Testament text were thus greatly
increased.
c) Better textual materials. — This growing mass of materials
led to improved methods of investigation. Scholars had at
first been content to reprint the prevailing sixteenth-century
text, the Received Text, as it was called, and to put any
valuable variants from it which the study of freshly discov-
ered manuscripts yielded, into footnotes. But the really
superior readings at length became so numerous that the true
text was often to be found in the margin instead of in the
column above. The editors of the Greek text had therefore
to revise the Received Text. They did this at first modestly
and sparingly, but at length grew bolder and broke away
from it altogether, basing their text no longer on the Received
Text, but wholly upon the ancient manuscripts, from the
fourth to the tenth centuries, which had come to fight. It
was the development of this critical ancient text, differing
widely from that on which the Authorized Version had been
based, that necessitated the Revision of 1881.
d) Types of New Testament text. — Yet these ancient
manuscripts do not agree among themselves. Some of
them exhibit the same kind of text that we find in the sermons
of John Chrysostom, at the end of the fourth century.
Quotations such as he and other Christian Fathers make from
the New Testament are in fact among the most important aids
to the study of the history of the text, because we can fix
their dates and places of abode as we cannot those of most
manuscripts. It was this text of Chrysostom's, which he had
probably learned at Antioch, which prevailed in the Middle
Ages and came down to modern times as the Received Text.
Other early manuscripts, Hke the Codex Bezae and parts of
the Freer and Koridethi Gospels, show a very different text,
2o8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
with additions, omissions, and occasional substitutions, some-
times of a very striking character. This erratic text has
often the support of very early Christian writers, who seem
to quote the New Testament in this form. Other manuscripts
again preserve a text less picturesque than this and at many
points less full and smooth than that of Chrysostom. Some
would distinguish a fourth type of text differing from this last
only in its greater smoothness and finish. How did these text-
ual types come into existence ? What are their relations to one
another ? Which of them is nearest to the original text ?
And how can the original text be reached through them ?
These are the questions which textual study seeks to answer.
e) Method of textual criticism. — In doing this it is helpful
to remember that changes made in copying are not all invol-
untary; they are often intentional. We do not understand
what lies before us to be copied, and so we naturally alter
it to make sense. This alteration may possibly restore the
original text where an earlier scribe had corrupted it, but
it is quite as likely to corrupt the text or to make a previous
corruption worse. With all three forms of such a passage
before us it would not be difficult to discover which was the
original and which the secondary reading. By this compari-
son of rival readings we can in fact often determine which is
the parent reading. Some manuscripts prove upon examina-
tion to contain a large proportion of such readings, and we
conclude that they represent a comparatively pure text.
We infer that in other readings less demonstrably original
they are probably right. When such a manuscript is found
to agree in numerous particulars with another manuscript
which has on similar grounds established its claims to accu-
racy, the group thus formed carries great weight. If others
can be added to the group, their testimony is further strength-
ened. In such ways, by the comparison of series of rival
readings, by the discovery of superior readings throughout a
manuscript, by the study of groups of kindred manuscripts, and
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 209
by distinguishing parent manuscripts from their descendents,
something hke certainty in textual study can be attained.
Literature. — -Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in Greek, 2 vols.
(London: Macmillan, 1881, Vol. II, revised ed. 1896). Vol. I presents
the best Greek text of the New Testament that criticism has yet pro-
duced; Vol. II, the best estimate of textual materials and the best
statement as to the theory of textual history and the method of textual
study. F. G. Kenyon, Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the New
Testament, ^d ed. (London: Macmillan, 19 12), is an excellent compre-
hensive manual for the use of students. C. R. Gregory, Textkritik des
Neiien Testamcntcs, 3 vols. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1900-1909), is especially
valuable for its full descriptions of manuscripts and other textual ma-
terials. C. R. Gregory, The Canon and Text of the New Testament (New
York: Scribner, 1907), furnishes a popular treatment dealing especially
with the materials of textual criticism, manuscripts, versions, and
editions. C. R. Gregor>', Die griechischcn Handschriften des Nciien
Testaments (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1908), embodies an improved system of
manuscript designations. A. Souter, The Text and Canon of the New
Testament (New York: Scribner, 1913), is a concise and intelligent intro-
duction to the subject, intended for students. M. R. Vincent, A His-
tory of Textual Criticism (New York: Scribner, 1899), is especially useful
as a sketch of the various editions and the critical principles underlying
them. H. v. Soden, Die Schriftcn des Neuen Testaments, 2 vols. (Berlin:
Duncker and Glaue, 1902-13), furnishes a new approach to the textual
problem, resulting in a partial return to the Received Text. While C.
Tischendorf, Novum Testament um Graece, ed. octava crit. maior, 2 vols.
(Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1869-72), has been excelled by the text of Westcott
and Hort, Tischendorf 's apparatus of readings, though far from infallible
or complete, is still unsurpassed. K. Lake, The Text of the New Testament
(London: Rivington, 1902; 4th ed., New York: Gorham, 1908), is the
best short sketch for the general reader. F. H. A. Scrivener, A Plain
Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, 2 vols., 4th ed. (London:
Bell, 1894), is an elaborate work, advocating the superiority of the tra-
ditional text.
6. The interpretation of the books of the New Testa-
ment.— With the book in a corrected text before him, with a
knowledge of the language in which it is written, with an intel-
Hgent understanding of the life of the period in which it was
written and a specific knowledge of the occasion which called
2IO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
forth the book and the purpose which it was intended to
achieve, the student is prepared to undertake the detailed inter-
pretation of the book itself. This involves, as already pointed
out, the discovery with the utmost possible accuracy of the
precise state of mind of the author of which the book is a
reflection (cf. p. 177).
The interpretative process may be divided into two parts,
grammatical interpretation and logical interpretation. The
term "grammatical," as here used, does not mean pertaining
to grammar, but has a meaning derived directly from the Greek
word gramma, pertaining to that which is written. Similarly,
the term "logical," as here used, has no direct reference to
logic, but derives its meaning from the Greek word logos
in the sense of discourse.
Grammatical interpretation deals with the separate
expressed elements that compose the complex discourse, and
aims at the reproduction of the author's thought in so far as
that thought was embodied in the separate terms as such and
in their grammatical relations.
Logical interpretation deals with the thought of the
writer in its continuity as discourse.
a) Grammatical interpretation. — -This part of the inter-
pretative process falls into two parts, according as it has to
do with the meaning of words or with their relation in the
sentence; with questions of lexicography or of grammar.
On its lexicographical side again it falls into two parts,
according as it seeks to ascertain the general usages of a word
or its particular meaning in the passage in hand. Inasmuch
as the meaning possible to a term in any given passage must
be one of the meanings which were current for that word in
that period in which the passage was written, it is evident on
the one hand that the discovery of possible, that is, of current,
meanings, must precede the assignment of a meaning to a
given instance of the term, and on the other hand that the
possible meanings must be determined by a historical investi-
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 211
gation. The latter is the process which we have already
described as the task of the lexicographer. Its results are
embodied in lexicons and dictionaries. The task of discover-
ing which of the several meanings of a word historically
established to be current the word bears in a given passage
belongs to the interpreter as such. Only in the case that a
word had but one meaning in the period in which the passage
under consideration was written do the two processes merge
in one.
It is obvious that the same principles hold in the realm of
grammatical relations — grammatical interpretation in the
narrower sense of the term — as in that of meanings of words.
The grammarian must first determine the possible usages of a
given form, and then the interpreter as such must decide
which of the relationships listed in the grammar corresponds
to the writer's thought in the passage under consideration.
Thus, for example, before one can decide in which of the
various forces of an aorist indicative a particular aorist
indicative is used, he must know in what various ways verbs
in the aorist indicative were used in the period in which the
New Testament books were written.
One ordinarily turns for information of this kind as concerns
meanings of words to a lexicon, and as pertains to meanings
of forms and syntactical relations to a grammar. This is
not because of any divine right of lexicons and grammars.
Any student who has the abihty, time, and patience may be
his own lexicographer and grammarian. But unless he is
prepared to give himself to the laborious historical study on
which lexicons and grammars are based, he must rely upon
the scholars who have done this work for him. But he must
also be on his guard to take into account those meanings of
words and those usages of forms which were current in the
period from which the Hterature that he is studying came, and
only those. Because Liddell and Scott assign to a word a given
meaning, citing for it an example in Homer, it does not follow
212 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
that it could have been so used by Paul; nor does the non-
occurrence in Plato or his contemporaries of a certain usage
of the subjunctive exclude the possibility of its occurrence in
the New Testament.
But if in the first part of the process of grammatical inter-
pretation, viz., the enumeration of possible meanings and
possible relations, the student is naturally dependent on the
lexicon and the grammar, in the second part, the selection
of the actual meaning and the actual relation, he must, if he
will be a real interpreter, assume a more independent position.
The lexicons, for example, and of course the commentaries,
frequently express an opinion as to the meaning of a word in a
given passage. But such opinion is only incidental to the
proper task of the lexicon and is of necessity subject to more
doubt than the verdict of the lexicon as to possible meanings.
The lexicographer's opinion in his own proper field, the
possible meanings of a word, is, or should be, based upon a
broad induction and the study of many instances, and the
probabihty that it is correct is much greater than that he is
right in his interpretation of each individual passage. Appeal
on the latter point may therefore properly be taken by the
interpreter to the evidence itself. This evidence is to be
found in the context — either the immediate context, which
is often decisive by excluding all meanings but one, or the
broader context, which, by disclosing the general trend of the
writer's thought, guides one to the meaning which he has in
mind for the term under examination. Further help may
be obtained from parallel passages, this term being taken in
its broader sense as referring to other passages in which the
same writer has dealt with the same or similar subjects.
To the meaning of a word it is often necessary to add,
for purposes of interpretation, its reference. Many nouns
and even verbs are to this extent like pronouns. They have
reference to persons, things, or acts which are identified,
not by the meaning of the term, but by the context. Such
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 213
identification is as necessary to the recovery of the writer's
thought as is the discovery of his meaning. Thus, in Rom.
5:12, "for that all sinned," the problem of interpretation is
not only to define the word ''sinned" and the force of its
tense, but, even more important, to determine what event or
series of events is referred to.
It is also necessary in many cases to discover what associ-
ated ideas were conveyed by words in addition to what may be
strictly called their meaning. Thus the words "publican,"
"Pharisee," Sadducee" in the New Testament had each their
own associated ideas, and these ideas were as much a part of
the writer's thought in the use of words as the lexicographical
definition.
Altogether analogous to the process by which one ascer-
tains the meaning of a word in a given passage is that by which
the grammatical relations of terms are determined. The
grammarian lists the possible usages. The interpreter must
discover, by the study of the context and other like methods,
which of the particular usages is in the writer's mind in the
particular passage. Often the grammarian will incidentally,
by citing a given passage as an illustration of a given usage,
express an opinion as to the use of the form in that passage.
But such opinions are, like the similar verdicts of the lexicog-
rapher, only opinions, not authoritative assertions, and to the
interpreter as such belongs the decision.
h) Logical interpretation. — It might seem as if with these
tasks accomplished, viz., from the possible meanings of the
various terms the actual ones selected and from among their
possible relationships their actual relations determined, the
interpreter's task would be fully accomplished. But such is
far from being the case. To content one's self with these re-
sults, important, essential, and difficult of achievement as they
often are, would often be to fall far short of grasping the writer's
thought, of "representing to one's own mind the whole of
that state of mind of the author of which the language to be
214 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
interpreted was the expression." A story, an essay, a
poem, a parable, a sermon, is a unity, not a collection of
disjecta membra, nor can all the relations of part to part be
reduced to grammatical statement. It represents a continuous
current of thought, imperfectly represented by the words
that suggest it and therefore imperfectly interpreted by
definitions of words and naming of grammatical relationships.
By means of language souls come into communion. The
ultimate purpose of interpretation, it has well been said,
is the communion of souls. But the communion of souls
requires both expression and interpretation, and the thought
which by means of language, expressed and interpreted,
passes from soul to soul is often conveyed far more by what
it suggests than by what it definitely expresses. Hence arises
the necessity that to the process of grammatical interpretation,
which deals with what is expressed in words, there should be
added a process of logical interpretation which shall seek to
reproduce the current of thought in its continuity, the body of
thought in its unity.
More specifically stated, the necessity for logical inter-
pretation arises from two facts respecting the character of
human language: first, no language, save possibly that of
mathematical formulae and logical definitions, expresses in
words all the thought which it is intended to produce, and
actually does produce, in the hearer's mind; the language leaves
gaps to be filled by suggestion ; secondly, one train of thought
is frequently employed to suggest another, the latter in itself
wholly different from the former but so related to it that the
utterance of the former begets the latter also. In other
words, all men talk more or less in figures of speech.
Corresponding to these two facts are two great divisions of
logical interpretation: the interpretation of literal language
and the interpretation of figurative language, the two having
this in common, that they both deal with the reproduction
of thought not actually expressed in the written or spoken
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 215
word, and differing in this, that the former has to do with
fining the gaps between words, the latter with discovering in
one Hne of thought conveyed by the words in their Hteral and
usual sense a parallel line which it is the writer's intention
to suggest.
The methods of logical interpretation applied to literal
language are by the very nature of the process itself sus-
ceptible of much less exact definition than those of gram-
matical interpretation. It must suffice here to lay down a
few general principles.
(i) Logical interpretation must presuppose and be pre-
ceded by grammatical interpretation; links of connection
between expressed elements of thought can be supplied
intelligently only when the expressed elements are them-
selves correctly apprehended.
(2) The omitted elements of thought which logical inter-
pretation must supply in order to recover the continuous cur-
rent of thought may vary all the way from a more exact
definition of relationship between terms than can be deter-
mined grammatically, to a whole sentence, expressing a fact
taken for granted in discussion, and necessary to continuity
of thought, but left unstated because already present to the
mind of speaker and hearer.
(3) The element of thought to be supphed must always
be something contained in the mental possessions of the
speaker or writer and believed by him to be in possession
of those to whom he speaks or writes. The writer can leave
to be supplied only what he knows, and assumes that his
reader knows. The process of logical interpretation demands,
therefore, an acquaintance as full as possible with the ideas
common to the writer and originally intended reader. These
are of course largely the ideas current in their age and environ-
ment. It is just at this point that New Testament interpre-
tation is making greatest progress today, in the recovery of the
thought and life of the age in which Christianity was born.
2i6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
(4) The element to be supplied must be so connected with
what is expressed that the latter may be expected to suggest
the former. The writer cannot assume that his reader will
think of things in no way associated with what he puts into
words.
(5) From material reasonably believed to be the common
property of the writer and the originally intended reader,
and germane to the subject in hand, the exegetical imagination
must construct hypothetical bridges to cover the gaps left
between the expressed elements.
(6) Such hypothetical bridges must be rigidly tested to see
whether the suggestion gives continuity and logical consistency
to the discourse, and whether the resulting course of thought
is of such character that it can reasonably be attributed to the
writer. That connection which best stands these tests may
then be accepted as most probably representing the thought
as it lay in the mind of the writer.'
But if the formulation of rules or principles appUcable to
the interpretation of literal language is difficult and necessarily
inadequate, much more is this the case in respect to figurative
language. No attempt can be made here to classify the
various types and forms of figurative language or to formulate
the specific principles of interpretation that apply to meta-
phors, parables, and allegories. It must suffice to reiterate
two general principles: first, interpretation aims to reproduce
the writer's thought, not some other meaning which may be
supposed in some more or less arbitrary way to belong to the
words; secondly, it is a characteristic of human language
generally that, habitually conveying more thought than it
actually expresses, it often does this through the medium of a
course of thought wholly distinct from that which is directly
expressed though parallel to it; through an induced current,
so to speak.
The task of the interpreter, therefore, is by no means
limited to finding out the meanings of words, however neces-
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 217
sary this may be as a part of his task, but requires him to
reproduce the state of mind of his author and to pass through
— or, more exactly, to perceive — the mental experience
which the words of the author were intended to generate.
In other words, the interpreter must neither include in his
result things which the author's language suggests to his mind,
but which the author did not have in mind, nor, by limiting
himself to merely lexicographical and grammatical processes,
exclude any thought which the author intended to generate.
The whole process of interpretation is therefore reproduc-
tive. Only when the interpreter as he reads lives through
the mental experience which it was the purpose of the poem,
the sermon, or the story to produce, only when he perceives in
its entirety what the author saw before his vision as he wrote
and intended his reader to see as he heard or read, has he
achieved his purpose as interpreter. Successful interpretation,
always reproductive, is as applied to ancient writings a process
of resurrection and recreation.
c) Application of the process of interpretation to the New
Testament hooks. — It is to such a process as this that it is the
task of the New Testament interpreter to subject all the
literature from which he can derive material for the recon-
struction of the early history of Christianity. Pre-eminent
among this literature for his purpose are the books of the
New Testament. Each of these represented a certain mental
process and possession in the writer's mind which it was his
purpose to reproduce in his hearer's mind. By its every word
and construction it conveys some elements of that mental
process. But its total thought is more than the meanings of
words and the significance of construction. In its onward
movement it is comparable to a stream, which one sees through
a series of windows, not all of it visible to the eyes, but repro-
ducible in its continuity by the mind, which, from that which
is visible, reproduces the whole. In its totality it is com-
parable to a building, of which one gains knowledge by
2i8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
observation of its several parts and constituents, but whose
beauty and whose meaning as a representation of the archi-
tect's idea are something far more than the added-up result
of one's observation of its parts.
The task of the interpreter calls for careful study of words
and constructions, phrase by phrase, sentence by sentence,
paragraph by paragraph, for careful tracing out of the course
of thought in its continuity, and for the reproduction of that
mental picture which lay before the writer's mind when he
had finished his book, if not also in a measure before he
began it.
d) Use of the original or of translation in interpretation. — As
already indicated, the work of interpretation is obviously best
performed on the basis of the original text of the books, since
only on this basis can the interpreter study the actual words
and constructions by which the author expressed his thought.
Yet much can be done on the basis of a good translation, it
being as a rule only the finer shades of meaning that are missed
by the student of an English translation. The greatest lack
of such a student is an English dictionary of the words of the
New Testament. With this supplied, as it is to be hoped it
will be some day, his handicap as compared with the Greek
student would be greatly reduced. Such as it is, it should be
overcome as far as possible by a diligent effort to reproduce
the atmosphere in which the book was produced and by
repeated attentive readings of the book in the consciousness
of that atmosphere. By these means the student of the
EngHsh translation may arrive at a good understanding of
the great ideas of his author and the total significance of his
book, which will be of greater value than that which the stu-
dent of the Greek achieves by minute study if he neglect the
larger matters of contemporary thought, general purpose,
and sweep of thought.
Literature. — Of thoroughly satisfactory treatises on interpretation
there are very few. The following are among the best available: J. A.
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 219
Ernesti, Principles of Biblical Interpretation, English translation of the
Institutio Interpretis by Charles H. Terrot (Edinburgh: Clark, 1843;
by Moses Stuart, Andover: Draper, 1842); A. Immer, Hernieneutics
of the New Testament, translated by A. H. Newman (Andover: Draper,
1877) ; M. S. Terry, Biblical Hernieneutics, 2d ed. (New York: Phillips &
Hunt, 1883) ; F. W. Farrar, History of Interpretation (New York: Dutton,
1886); G. H. Gilbert, Interpretation of the Bible (New York: Macmillan,
1908) ; H. S. Nash, History of the Higher Criticism of the New Testament
(New York: Macmillan, 1903).
Of modern commentaries on the New Testament the best in general
for the student who knows Greek, but does not use German easily, are:
International Critical Commentary, edited by C. A. Briggs, S. R. Driver,
and Alfred Plmnmer (New York: Scribner, 1895-); The Expositor's
Greek Testament, edited by W. R. Nicoll, 4 vols. (New York: Dodd,
Mead & Co., 1897-).
To these are to be added many volumes on single books or groups of
books, among which the following are important: C. G. Montefiore, The
Synoptic Gospels, 2 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1909); Plummer, An
Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to St. Matthew (New
York: Scribner, 1909); H. B. Swete, The Gospel according to St. Mark
(London: Macmillan, 1902); Allan Menzies, The Earliest Gospel
[Mark] (New York: Macmillan, 1901); F. Godet, Commentary on the
Gospel of St. Luke, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: Clark); Commentary on the
Gospel of St. John, 3 vols. (Edinburgh: Clark, 1883); B. F. Westcott,
"St. John's Gospel," Bible Commentary (New York: Scribner, 1891);
J. B. Lightfoot, St. PauVs Epistle to the Galatians, nth ed. (New York:
Macmillan, 1905); St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, 9th ed. (New
York: Macmillan, 1891) ; St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians and to Phile-
mon (New York: Macmillan, 1904); T. C. Edwards, Commentary on the
First Epistle to the Corinthians {~^e.v^ York: Doran, 1897); J. A. Robinson,
St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians (New York: Macmillan, 1903) ; George
Milligan, St. Paul's Epistles to the Thessalonians (New York: Macmillan,
1908); B. F. Westcott, Epistle to the Hebrews (New York: Macmillan,
1906); J. B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. James (New York: Mac-
millan, 1910); B. F. Westcott, The Epistles of St. John (New York:
Macmillan, 1892); H. B. Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John (New
York: Macmillan, 1907).
For the student who reads German the following are specially to be
commended: H. A. W. Meyer, Kritisch-exegetischer Kommentar uber das
Neue Testament, revised by Bernhard Weiss and others, 18 vols. (Got-
tingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1910-); Johannes Weiss (editor).
2 20 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments, 2 vols. (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck
und Ruprecht, 1907); H. Lietzmann (editor), Handbuch zum Neuen
Testament, 5 vols. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1907-11); T. Zahn, Kommentar
zum Neuen Testament (Leipzig: Deichert, 1905-).
For the student who reads neither Greek nor German the following
series are specially commended: Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
(Cambridge: University Press, 1877-96); New Century Bible (New
York: Frowde, 1899-1904); Bible for Home and School, edited by
Shailer Mathews (New York : Macmillan, 1908-).
For fuller lists of commentaries and other modern literature on the
New Testament see C. W. Votaw, "Books for New Testament Study,"
Biblical World, XXXVII (May, 19 11).
II. THE HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN THE
CHRISTIAN CHURCH
I. History of interpretation and criticism. — a) Ancient
interpretation generally allegorical. — The Pharisees had believed
the Law of Moses to be verbally inspired and the Hellenistic
Jews had extended this predicate to the whole of their scrip-
tures, which included all the Hebrew Bible and much more
beside. As thus inspired the divine word must, it was
thought, be in all its parts capable of religious edification.
This idea is very clearly put in II Timothy: "Every scrip-
ture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness."
This was precisely the view of the Jews of the Graeco-Roman
world about the Jewish scriptures.
But many passages of these writings did not, when taken
literally, yield any such moral instruction, and pious Jews
were carried along by their own principle to an allegorical
treatment of them, by which the most unpromising narra-
tive or ordinance could be made to serve the purposes of
religion. It did not matter that the allegorical interpreter
extracted from his text only what he had previously put into
it. The dogma was satisfied. This way of using the Old
Testament is familiarly exemplified in the writings of Philo
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 221
of Alexandria. Paul occasionally falls back into it, and the
writer to the Hebrews habitually employs it.
Growing up under the shadow of the Old Testament and
coming at length to share its position of scriptural authority,
the New Testament shared also in the allegorical treatment
it received. From the time the New Testament books began
to be regarded as Scripture we find Irenaeus and Origen
treating them allegorically, and finding in them types and
figures of spiritual need and remedy.
The scholars of Antioch, it is true, kept themselves free
from this fallacious and illusory method of using Scripture
and practiced the literal interpretation of the New Testament,
which John Chrysostom, their greatest preacher, conspicu-
ously exemplified. But except for an occasional figure like
Theodore of Mopsuestia, the allegorical method, under the
influence of the scholars and teachers of Alexandria, pre-
vailed in the early church.
b) Eclipse of ancient criticism. — The collection of the New
Testament writings into a sacred and authoritative canon
incidentally removed them from the reach of criticism, that is,
critical inquiry into their authenticity and historical char-
aracter. But ancient Christianity was not altogether un-
conscious of critical doubts and critical method. Julius
Africanus, the friend of Origen, wrote him a very acute letter
as to the History of Susanna, pointing out certain very cogent
critical difficulties about supposing Daniel to have made in
Hebrew the plays upon Greek words with which that book
credits him. Susanna was part of the Greek Old Testament,
and Africanus was engaged in biblical criticism. Origen's
reply failed to meet his argument, and shows how far the
greatest Alexandrians were from the historical method. But
a little later another Alexandrian, Dionysius, showed critical
interest and acumen when he pointed out that the Revela-
tion differed markedly from the Fourth Gospel in both
literary style and general tenor. But the general beHef in the
222 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
inspiration of the Scriptures brought with it the idea of the
infallibihty of Scripture, and the sporadic critical impulses
of antiquity went down before this formidable combination.
When the Catholic church added to these the authoritative
interpretation of Scripture, criticism was completely halted,
and so continued for a thousand years.
c) Modern revival of criticism.- — ^It was just this authorita-
tive interpretation, however, that in the end opened the
way for the revival of criticism. For over against Christian
Scripture there grew up the Catholic tradition, and at length
the disparity between the two became too great. The
Protestant Reformation resulted. Two centuries later the
critical movement stirring since the Renaissance reached a
climax, and criticism began to be definitely applied to the
New Testament.
It was the text that first felt the touch of criticism.
Richard Simon (ti7i2) began the critical study of the New
Testament text, and Semler (born 1725) carried it on. But
Semler went beyond the Catholic scholar in this, that under
the influence of his classical and historical studies he applied
his criticism not simply to the New Testament text but as
well to the New Testament canon, the origin of which he
sought freely to investigate. Semler saw that in order to
interpret the New Testament it must be historically under-
stood, each document in it being interpreted in the hght of
the circumstances which called it forth and which it was in-
tended to meet. In Semler we see the transition from the
lower (textual) to the higher (literary and historical) criticism.
One of the first problems to emerge in this new study was
the synoptic problem — that is, the question of the literary
relationships of the first three gospels. Investigation of the
authorship of the Fourth Gospel and of the Pastoral Epistles
soon followed. But with 1835 a new unity begins to per-
vade these detached and generally negative studies. It was
no longer enough to show that Paul did not write the Pastorals
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 223
or John the Fourth Gospel. It was seen that, whoever did
or did not write these books, they had possessed great influ-
ence and worth and had functioned importantly in the world
for which they were written, and that even a non-apostolic
writing might have great human significance and worth.
With Baur and Strauss criticism became a constructive
method. In this rather than in their extreme results lay their
contribution to critical study. Their work has been modified
and corrected by the influence of the followers of Schleier-
macher (11834), Ritschl (1822-89), and others.
d) Historical interpretation. — -It will be seen that it is
criticism that has opened the way for the historical inter-
pretation of the New Testament. The New Testament is
no longer interpreted as a book apart, but as having arisen
in the closest possible human relationships. While the
authoritative Catholic interpretation assumed the agreement
of the various writers with one another, the historical method
is prepared to recognize disagreements where they exist. In
other words, each New Testament author is guaranteed the
right to speak as he sees fit, not warped into a rigid and minute
conformity to the other authors of the New Testament.
Moreover, the sources of the documents and the Hterary
methods which some of the writers employed are to be
studied with the same dihgence and freedom as are applied
to any other historical documents, in order that our knowledge
of the New Testament may be as sound and trustworthy as
earnest and intelHgent inquiry can make it.
Literature. — F. H. Farrar, History of Interpretation (London: Mac-
millan, 1886). G. H. Gilbert, A Short History of the Interpretation of the
Bible (New York: Macmillan,i9o8), is a compact and useful sketch for
the general reader. H. S. Nash, A History of the Higher Criticism of the
New Testament (New York: Macmillan, 1903), explains to the general
reader how criticism became necessary and possible and how it came
to be actually applied to the New Testament writings. C. A. Briggs,
A General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture (New York:
Scribner 1899), is a large work, well informed and readable, by one who
did much to advance the critical understanding of the Old Testament,
224 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
2. History of the Canon. — a) Problems presented by the
appearance of the New Testament. — The best and earhest
Christian writings were composed at various times and places
to meet the specific demands of definite historical situations.
Their writers with one exception claimed for them no such
authority as Old Testament Scripture possessed. How did it
come about that they were afterward collected into a sacred
canon? The primitive church acknowledged the inward
authority of the spirit in the heart. They esteemed this above
any written word. "The letter killeth, the spirit giveth life."
Why did they so soon appeal to a new Scripture ?
What was the purpose of the collection ? Was it to
supply historical material on Christian origins, or devotional
works for church use, or manuals of church life and manage-
ment, or Uterature for missionary propaganda ? Was it to
complete the Old Testament as a companion volume or
to compete with it as a modern substitute ?
How did these books come to be collected ? Their
writers did not intend them for such a purpose. Was it an
unconscious automatic movement, by which without human
contrivance these books and no others found each other amid
the Christian writings of the first two centuries and clung
together? Who invented the New Testament? Did Mar-
cion, the first man to put out any considerable collection of
Paul's letters ? Or Justin, the first one to show acquaintance
with four gospels ? Was it the church at Antioch, or Ephesus,
or Alexandria, or Rome ? Or did each of these have a share
in the process ?
Not only the concept but the content of this New Testa-
ment provokes inquiry. Upon what principle was it made
up ? Was it supposed to include apostolic writings only and
all the apostoUc writings ? Was the test authorship, or age,
or edification ?
The presence of four gospels raises a question. Why four
instead of one, or five ? There were other gospels and among
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 225
these four the early church had its favorite gospel, the one
known to us as Matthew's. How comes it that the New
Testament includes and co-ordinates four such narratives,
although on some matters they very definitely disagree?
' b) Variety among ancient New Testaments. — ^Even after
the early churches had become accustomed to the idea of a
Christian Scripture, there was evidently much uncertainty
as to what particular books belonged in the collection which
they named the New Testament. In Alexandria the Epistle
of Clement, the Epistle of Barnabas, and the Teaching of the
Twelve Apostles were regarded as Scripture by some very
intelligent men. In Rome the Revelation of Peter seems to
have been so esteemed. But in Syria not even the Revela-
tion of John was accepted as part of the New Testament.
The Syrian church indeed long admitted only twenty-two
books to its New Testament, omitting II Peter, Jude, and
II and III John. On the other hand, the Syrian church,
at one stage in its history, accepted III Corinthians as canon-
ical. The Roman church long excluded the Epistle to the
Hebrews from the New Testament. As late as the fourth
century individual Christian leaders in Asia Minor excepted
from their New Testament various minor epistles which we
find in our New Testament, and even the Revelation of
John. Some of our earhest Greek manuscripts of the Bible
(Smaiticus, Alexandrinus) include as part of the New Testa-
ment such books as I and II Clement, Hermas, and Barnabas.
Out of this ancient confusion when did our New Testament
emerge in clear and definite form ? What conditions and
considerations determined its final form, and who was respon-
sible for it ? How far are those considerations valid today ?
These questions have a definite bearing upon our con-
ception of the New Testament and upon its proper place in
modem rehgious life. How shall they be answered ?
c) Historical approach to the problem. — The New Testament
is evidently in some sense the companion of the Old. Whether
2 26 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
it arose as supplement or as substitute, the Old Testament is
its parent and its explanation. We must inquire what was
thought of the Jewish Scriptures by the Jewish people of the
first century and how Jesus and his first followers regarded
them. To what extent did they regard the Old Testament as
authoritative ? We must ask further what other authorities
the first Christians recognized and what the earliest Chris-
tian writers thought about their own authority. We must
trace these ideas of inward and of outward authorities through
the meager remains of early Christian literature into the
fuller stream which develops in the time of Irenaeus and
TertuUian. We must observe how the phrase New Covenant
or New Testament, first used by Jeremiah, and quoted more
than once in the New Testament, came to assume a literary
sense and to be used of the collection of books in which that
New Covenant was set forth. We must find out what
Christian writings were first esteemed equal in authority to
the Old Testament Scriptures and to what they owed this
preferment. We must see what part prophets and apostles
played in this development and try to appreciate the situation
of the primitive churches, scattered, unrelated, and not
highly intelligent, when the gifted and enthusiastic party
leaders of the second century began to move among them with
energy, eloquence, and fervor.
d) The rise of the New Testament. — ^We must study the
rise of the Catholic church, which sought to unify and relate
these scattered religious units and recall them to what it
deemed the primitive type of Christian teaching. We shall
observe the different ways in which the several leading centers
of Christianity, Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, contributed to
this movement, and the different lists of Christian writings,
which the different districts saw fit to canonize by reading
from them publicly in Christian worship. While Syria lags
behind in canon-building and Alexandria, with its encyclopedic
writers, forges ahead, Rome occupies a middle ground. We
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 227
shall find Eusebius, perhaps the most intelligent Christian
of his time, uncertain as to precisely what books ought to be
included in the New Testament and content to reproduce
Origen's classification of them into accepted, rejected, and
disputed books. Not until the festal letter of Athanasius in
the year 367 shall we find the list of books which we have
in our New Testament anywhere set forth without addition
or omission. Councils later indorsed this list, but centuries
more elapsed before the Greek and Latin churches unani-
mously concurred in it. Meantime the Syrian church clung to
its limited canon of twenty- two books and the Armenian church
shared its opposition to the Book of Revelation and the lesser
Cathohc epistles (II Peter, II, III John, Jude), while the
Ethiopic or Abyssinian church on the other hand developed
a fuller canon than Western Christianity had done, including
eight or nine writings unknown to the Western canon.
The New Testament in modern times. — An occasional
Latin manuscript^ it is true, included the spurious little
Epistle to the Laodiceans in the Vulgate New Testament,
but there was general unanimity in the West as to the con-
tents of the New Testament when the invention of printing
made possible the general circulation of the whole collection
in a single volume. But this had hardly taken place when
the critical views of certain reformers began to threaten the
position of minor documents such as James. Other reformers
like Calvin set forth a very rigorous doctrine of Scripture, and
on the whole the Reformation tended to confirm and enhance
the authority of the canonized New Testament. The spirit
of criticism, however, awakened in the Renaissance, at length
took up the canon's claim to unique authority. The effects
of that inquiry constitute the latest chapter in the history
of the New Testament. Under its influence we are today
perhaps nearer to the primitive Christian conception of the
basis of authority in religion than the church has been for
many centuries.
228 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
On the whole, no discipline connected with New Testament
study is more illuminating and emancipating than the study of
the history of the New Testament canon.
Literature. — B. F. Westcott, A General Survey of the History of the
Canon of the New Testament, 7th ed. (London: Macmillan, 1896); C. R.
Gregory, The Canon and Text of the New Testament (New York: Scribner,
1907), both standard descriptive treatments, not always alive to the
great problems of the canon's history; A. Souter, The Text and Canon of
the New Testament (New York: Scribner, 19 13), a condensed presenta-
tion of the main facts, for the general reader; E. C. Moore, The New
Testament in the Christian Church (New York: Macmillan, 1904), a
comprehensive and scholarly presentation of the history of the New
Testament, for the general reader; T. Zahn, Geschichte des neutesta-
mentlichen Kanons, 2 vols. (Leipzig: Deichert, 1888-92), valuable for its
collection and investigation of materials rather than for its deductions;
Grundriss der Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons (Leipzig: Deichert,
1901), a concise summary of the conclusions of Zahn's larger work;
J. Leipoldt, Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons, 2 vols. (Leipzig:
Hinrichs, 1907-8), an excellent modern treatment, only deficient in
clearness of arrangement; A. Harnack, Die Entstehung des Neuen Testa-
ments (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 19 14), a timely and incisive sketch of the
causes and effects of the making of the New Testament; E. Jacquier, Le
nouveau Testament dans I'Eglise Chretienne, Vol. I (Paris: Lecoffre, 1911),
clear, fair, and intelligent in its presentation of evidence and opinion,
but dogmatically controlled in its conclusions.
III. THE USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT TODAY
It was suggested in the introduction to this chapter
(p. 165) that the ultimate aim of all New Testament study is
the enrichment of human life, and of course specifically in
those aspects of Hie which we commonly include under the
terms "moral" and ''religious." This discussion ought not
to close, therefore, without a few words concerning the uses
of the New Testament by modern men. We may distinguish
four such uses.
I. For the purposes of history. — On this point little need
be added to what was said in the introduction, pp. 165 £f.
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 229
As pointed out there, the employment of the results of the
interpretative and critical processes in constructive historical
work is within the field of New Testament study, but in this
volume is dealt with mainly in chapter v. It calls, therefore,
for no extended discussion at this point. All history must be
written on the basis of records of the past of one sort or
another. All such records must be interpreted, i.e., their
meaning must be discovered, in order that they may be avail-
able for the purposes of the historian. If these records con-
sist of written statements — ^literature in the most inclusive
use of the term — the immediate product of the process of
interpretation is, as already pointed out, the thought of the
writer. This thought is itself a historic fact of prime impor-
tance for the historian. From such data the history of
thought is constructed, and of all history none is more impor-
tant than the history of thought. It was the recognition of
the importance of the history of thought that led in the last
century to the development of biblical theology as a distinct
division of the field of biblical study. For biblical theology,
as it is understood in modern times, is simply the history of
religious thinking in Israel and the early Christian church in so
far as that history can be traced in the books of the Bible. If
eventually this discipline shall disappear again from the field
of theological study, it will be because it is recognized on the
one hand that the history of thought cannot profitably be
separated from that of the other aspects of life, and on the
other that the thought of which the books of the Bible bear
witness cannot be separated from the life of the period of which
we have evidence in extra-biblical literature.
Meantime it is beyond all question clear that the biblical
historian, whether dealing with thought or external event,
must do his work genetically. In other words, he must not
only set forth facts, but must set these facts in relation, associ-
ating them with their antecedent types of thought and showing
their relation to later developments.
230 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
But whether we are deahng with the history of thought or
of event, in order that the data yielded by interpretation may
take their proper place in the completed history, the authors
must be dated and located as exactly as possible, and, if
possible, identified. That certain opinions were once held
is a fact of Httle value to the historian unless he can with some
measure of approximation' determine when, where, and by
whom they were held. Hence the necessity of hterary criti-
cism to determine authorship, date, and location, not only as a
preliminary and aid to interpretation, but also as an indis-
pensable condition of the use of its results by the historian.
Whether to this process by which the history of opinions
is discovered it is necessary to add a work of criticism in order
to determine the correctness of the opinions, depends, from the
historian's point of view, on the character of the opinions.
With the correctness of Paul's opinions on matters of theology
and morals the historian as such is not concerned. That
Paul held them, itself makes them data for the history of
opinion, i.e., for biblical theology. But when the matters
on which statements are made are themselves matters of
history, as, for example, when Luke affirms that Jesus was
born when Quirinus was governor of Syria, or that Paul
preached in the synagogue of Thessalonica for three Sabbaths,
to the work of interpretation there must be added a further
process in order to ascertain not only that Luke thought thus
and so, but also what the historic fact was. For this purpose
all the available evidence, whether found in the New Testa-
ment, or on ancient monuments, or in the writings of Greek or
Roman historians, must be brought to bear, testimony com-
pared with testimony, and that finally accepted as fact which,
so accepted, best accounts for all the evidence.
Nor can the student altogether escape the necessity for
far-reaching investigations and the use of general conclusions
based on extensive study in the realm of biology, history, or
philosophy. It must always be remembered that the record
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 231
is that which requires to be accounted for. This is the
fixed fact — that the record affirms, for example, that Jesus
was born without human paternity, that Stephen when
accused before the Sanhedrin made a certain speech, that
Peter when imprisoned in Jerusalem was released by an
angel and guided out of the prison, the gates opening of them-
selves. It is not the historian's task, or within his province,
simply to deny the assertion or expunge the record, but to
discover what is the most probable genesis of the record.
Is it a correct interpretation of veritable experiences, or a
misinterpretation, or a modification of an account which was
originally one or the other of these, or a poetic expression of
more prosaic facts which we ourselves are liable to misread
through misinterpretation of its character ?
In the consideration of these and other possible explana-
tions of the fact of the record, account must be taken of such
matters as the way in which the New Testament books — -
especially the narrative books — ^arose, as this is disclosed, for
example, by extensive and minute study of the relation of the
Synoptic Gospels to one another; the way in which the men
of the first Christian century thought and reasoned in refer-
ence to what may be called the natural and the supernatural ;
the total evidence of biology as to the possibiHty of partheno-
genesis, and the total evidence of history as to the probabiHty
of the occurrence of unique exceptions to otherwise universal
laws. The eventual verdict of the historian will be the accept-
ance of that as fact which, being so accepted, best accounts for
the existence of the record as it stands. Thus the New
Testament scholar in his character as historian becomes far
more than an interpreter and cannot escape those large
responsibilities which fall to the historian in general.
Literature. — Weiss, Biblical Theology of the New Testament, 2 vols.
(Edinburgh: Clark, 1879), Introduction; Beyschlag, New Testament
Theology, 2 vols., Introduction (Edinburgh: Clark, 1896); Burton, "The
Relation of Biblical Theology to Systematic Theology," Biblical World,
Vol. XXX (December, 1907), pp. 418-28.
232 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
2. For the purposes of theology and ethics. — In the realm
of theological and ethical thought the student of the New
Testament not only finds certain opinions expressed, but dis-
covers the historic fact that these opinions were held and ad-
vocated by those great historic persons whose hfe and works
gave birth to Christianity. It also falls within his task as a
historian to discover how these teachers and writers influenced
one another and how they were severally influenced by the
thought of their predecessors and contemporaries, whether
Jewish, Greek, Roman, or oriental. In other words, the New
Testament historian deals with genetic relations, not smiply
with unrelated facts. It is within his scope to discover not
only how far the author of the Fourth Gospel, for example,
was influenced by Paul and what use he made of the Synoptists,
but also how far he was affected by the Stoic philosophy, the
Judaeo-Greek type of thought exemplified in Philo, or the
Orientalism which was sweeping over the Graeco-Roman
world in his day.
But all this falls strictly within the sphere of history. It
may indeed throw important light upon questions of value.
To discover, if such be the case, that a certain opinion of
Paul was absorbed by him from an oriental religion which as
a whole has little claim to be of exceptionally high religious
value may properly aft'ect one's judgment of the weight which
is to be given to such an opinion as compared with one which is
found to be the product of a personal and profoundly ethical
experience of the apostle himself. Yet origins do not of them-
selves determine values. To label a doctrine oriental is not
to prove it false, nor to mark it Hebrew to prove it true.
Questions of boundary are usually difficult to settle. It
is more important to make clear distinctions in one's mind
between questions of fact and origin and those of value and
truth than to determine just where the boundary line hes
between New Testament study and systematic theology. The
former are clearly within the sphere of the New Testament
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 233
student, and in dealing with the latter one is certainly ap-
proaching, if not entering, the domain of the theologian and
ethicist. Perhaps it is best to say that New Testament
scholarship has discharged its duty when it has answered the
questions of history, including those of origin, and delivered
its historic results to the theologian. It may then be left
to the latter to say how these results shall be used to contribute
to the ends of his science.
Literature. — E. D. Burton, "The Relation of Biblical to Systematic
Theology," Biblical World, XXX (December, 1907), 418-28; Gerald B.
Smith, "What Shall the Systematic Theologian Expect from the New
Testament Scholar?" American Journal of Theology, XIX (July, 1915),
383-401.
3. For the development of personal character. — The New
Testament presents to us certain great and admirable char-
acters, Peter, John, Paul, Jesus, and a few examples to be
shunned, Judas, Ananias, and Sapphira. It also abounds in
ethical and religious teachings, some in the form of specific
injunctions, others in that of broad, inclusive principles. That
the character of the noble men of the early Christian church,
above all and far above them all that of Jesus, presents an
ideal of character, both in its attitude toward God and in its
relation to men, which makes a powerful appeal to the human
mind and conscience and effectively incites to efforts to achieve
that ideal, the history of the Christian church gives abundant
evidence. The noblest men of the Christian centuries have
drawn their inspiration from Jesus, and the noblest achieve-
ments have found their suggestion and their impetus in him.
Only less effective have been the teachings of the teachers
and writers of the New Testament. If the influence of these
has been less uniformly good, the explanation probably lies
largely in two facts. First, the teachings of the New Testa-
ment as they stand — and the church generally has not been
at pains to distinguish sharply between the teachings of Jesus
and those of his followers, whether expressed as their own or
234 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
ascribed to him — are on a somewhat lower level and some-
what more easily open to misapprehension than is the char-
acter of Jesus or even that of Paul. Thus the literalist, who
has resorted to the book as his authority, has gained a smaller
advantage than he who has turned to its great personalities
for inspiration. The second reason, which is closely connected
with the first, is that many interpreters of the New Testament,
failing to penetrate deeply enough into its meaning, have taken
its teachings in a legalistic spirit, thus reversing the real
intention and missing the deeper thought of both Jesus and
Paul. Legalism, to be sure, if its individual precepts be suffi-
ciently lofty, tends to produce a type of character having a
certain nobility, as is illustrated in ancient Phariseeism and the
Puritanism of the seventeenth century. But, as illustrated
by these same examples, it fails to produce the highest type
of character.
Ahke, therefore, from the point of view of sound principles
of interpretation and from that of the pragmatic test of actual
effects, it appears that the highest benefit in personal charac-
ter is achieved, not by treating the New Testament as a
body of rules of conduct, but on the one hand as a book of
history, presenting to us in biographical narratives of sur-
passing interest the highest ideals of character, not to be copied
in detail, but to be emulated in spirit and motive, and on the
other hand as a transcendent example of the "hterature of
power," setting forth in many forms with many specific illus-
trations the central principles of the religion of faith in God
and universal love for all members of the community of sen-
tient beings. This was both the religion and the moraUty of
Jesus and of his great apostle.
If it be asked whether the teachings of the New Testament
and the example of Jesus are not to be accepted as authorita-
tive, the answer must be (and this is largely the point of view
of the New Testament itself) that in the reahn of behef that
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 235
only can claim authority which can establish itself as true,
and in the realm of conduct that only which can establish-
itself as good, not for the individual apart from the com-
munity, but for the community and for the individual as a
member of the community. The New Testament as a whole
is the greatest aid to the production of good character of any
piece of literature in existence; but it is most effective in the
production of character when its authority is grounded in the
truth and excellence of its teachings, pragmatically tested,
not the truth in its authority; when emphasis is laid on its
great central principles rather than on specific injunctions,
and when the latter are severally put to the test of their
conformity to the central principle and their fruitage in life.
4. For religious teaching and preaching. — Closely associ-
ated with the use of the books for the development of personal
character is their employment in rehgious teaching and preach-
ing. For centuries Christian preaching has been based very
largely on the New Testament, and Christian teachers have
found in it not only a storehouse of texts, but a wealth of inspi-
rational and instructional material. The discriminative judg-
ment that has led men who were endeavoring to Hft their
fellow-men to higher moral and religious planes to seek their
material in this collection of ancient books has a sound basis.
Nor is there any reason to anticipate that this judgment
will be reversed or seriously modified by the results of scholarly
research. The problems with which Jesus and Paul dealt are,
in part, problems of perennial and deep interest to serious-
minded men of all ages, in part problems that are again to the
front in our own day. Not only the specific answer which
they gave to these questions, but even more the way in which
they dealt with them, the profound and far-reaching principles
at which they arrived in their consideration of their tasks,
above all the ideals of character which their lives exemplify,
have always exerted and today still exert a powerful and
236 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
healthful influence in stimulating men to noble effort and guid-
ing them in ways of wisdom and righteousness. The preacher
who turns away from these deep wells of thought and hfe
to shallower streams, and staler, though more modern cisterns,
makes a serious mistake. The preacher must, indeed, be a
man of his own day — a prophet to his own time. But to
speak effectively to his contemporaries he needs to know the
great epochs and the great teachers of the past, and he cannot
afford to neglect the books of the Bible in which preachers of
all the Christian centuries have found unsurpassed instruc-
tion and unequaled inspiration.
For the value of these books for the purposes of the teacher
and preacher is in no way diminished, but rather increased by
the recognition of the facts respecting their origin and author-
ity, and a use of them in accordance with the facts. The
student and preacher who discovers that our New Testament
books were in no small measure the product of controversies
and differences of opinion, of struggle within the souls of men
and between men, learns indeed not to estimate all parts of
the New Testament as of equal value for all purposes or from
the religious point of view. But this discovery makes him a
better not a worse preacher.
The facts of history have shown that Paul was in error
in his teaching in I Thessalonians about the coming of the
Lord in the clouds of heaven. It is a palpable infidelity to
truth to affirm that this teaching was true; it is a double error
to transfer it to the present time and reaffirm it for our own
day. Some portions of his teachings about marriage and
spiritual gifts, however adapted to meet the needs of the
Corinthians, are impossible of reaffirmation today. Whether
the preacher in the pulpit passes these things over in silence
and limits himself to the things that have attested themselves
as true by the test of human experience, as may often be his
wisest course, or the teacher finds it necessary to deal with
THE STUDY OP^ THE NEW TESTAMENT 237
them explicitly, honestly, and frankly, as he must if they come
up for consideration at all, both the preaching and the teach-
ing will be made more effective religiously and morally than
when it is assumed that all the views of the New Testament
writers are equally valuable.
Nor are these superseded teachings thereby simply
remanded to the historical museum. By dealing with them
honestly and frankly the religious teacher of today may find
them of great value. They were vital elements of the experi-
ence of the early church. They illustrate how inevitable it is
that religious experience shall find expression in terms of the
thought of the time, and the development of religious think-
ing march abreast with the general intellectual progress of
the race. The study of them will on the one hand heighten
our estimate of Jesus, as we discover how keenly his vision
penetrated to the fundamental facts of religion and escaped
being warped by the thought of his day, and on the other
hand make us watchful of our own bias and prejudices and
tolerant of what seems to us the one-sidedness and provin-
cialism of other thinkers.
But above all it is important that the recognition of those
elements of the New Testament which no longer serve the
moral and rehgious needs of modern men should never be
allowed to obscure from our vision or exclude from our preach-
ing those far more central elements which are of perpetual
value and which are capable of being used today with almost
limitless power for the transformation of character and the
elevation of the lives of men. All human experience has in
it moral value for teaching and preaching, and all may there-
fore be legitimately used for these purposes. But it would
be a great mistake to overlook the exceptional value of the
books of the Bible for these purposes, or give them anything
lower than the place of first importance. The Bible, espe-'
dally the New Testament, is still the preacher's most valuable
238 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
source of inspiration and thought. To neglect it is to enfeeble
his ministry and diminish his power. To study it diligently
and intelligently, while also keeping himself awake to the
problems of the modem world, is to fit himself to be a
messenger of power, a prophet of God, to his own day and
generation.
V. THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY
By SHIRLEY JACKSON CASE
Professor of New Testament Interpretation, University of Chicago
ANALYSIS
PAGES
I. Task and Method. — The point of departure. — The ulterior
limit. — The scope of study. — The developmental character of
Christianity 241-244
II. The Contemporary Graeco-Roman World. — Political condi-
tions.— The status of society. — The religious situation . . . 244-248
III. Contemporary Judaism. — The Jewish dispersion. — Jewish
life outside Palestine. — The political history of Palestine. — The
status of the people. — Religious conditions. — Jewish literature . . 248-253
IV. The Work of Jesus. — Jesus' relation to Judaism.^ — Jesus'
relation to John the Baptist. — The task of the biographer. — The char-
acter of the sources. — Tests for determining the historicityof tradition.
— Chronological and geographical data. — Jesus' messianic con-
sciousness.— The miracles of Jesus. — The personal religion of Jesus. —
Jesus' place in early Christianity 253-270
V. Palestinian Jeiuish Christianity. — Relative importance of
the period. — Sources of information. — Connections with Judaism. —
The attainment of the new messianic faith. — The beginnings of a
new community. — The break with Judaism. — -Growth of missionary
enterprise. — Life in the Palestinian community. — Later history of
Palestinian Christianity 270-279
VI. Gentile Christianity in the Apostolic Age. — Characteristics of
the period. — Sources of information. — The conversion of Paul. —
Paul's career as a missionary. — Missionary methods of Paul. — Life in
the Pauline communities. — The Christianity of Paul .... 280-288
VII. Gentile Christianity in Post-Apostolic Times. — General
characteristics. — Sources of information. — Evidences of growth. —
Relation to Judaism. — Relation to the Roman state. — Organization
and worship. — The content of Christian teaching. — ^The Christian
life 289-300
VIII. The Work of the Early Apologists. — New tendencies. —
The individual Apologists. — The specific problem of the Apologists. —
The Logos Christology. — The philosophical vs. the mythical
motive 300-305
IX. Gnosticism. — General characteristics. — The antecedents of
Gnosticism. — Relation to Paul. — Earliest contact with Christianity. —
The chief Gnostic leaders. — The Gnostic system. — The historical
significance of Gnosticism 305-315
X. The Establishment of the Catholic Church. — The emergence
of the Catholic idea. — Outstanding leaders of the period. — Internal
conflicts. — Contemporary relationships. — Triumph of the monarch-
ical ideal 315-326
V. THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY
I. TASK AND METHOD
The point of departure. — The first problem confronting
the student of early Christianity is the choice of a starting-
point. Where ought he to begin his study in order to obtain
a correct and full understanding of that historical phenomenon
called '' early Christianity " ? A moment's reflection will show
that this question cannot be answered so easily as one might
on first thought imagine. While the name Christianity is
said to have been coined at Antioch in Syria early in the forties
(Acts 11:23), the religious movement itself had already been
in existence for some time. If by "Christianity" we mean
an independent movement differentiated from Judaism by
the estabHshment of a new organization, ritual, and doctrine,
we may properly look for its beginnings in the period following
close upon the death of Jesus. But this period, while it may
mark the formal beginning of the new rehgion, does not supply
an adequate starting-point for a thoroughly genetic study.
Although Jesus did not formally break with Judaism, and so
did not found any new organization, his work was so significant
for the establishment of the new enterprise that the latter
cannot be properly understood without taking account of his
career and the career of his followers prior to his death.
Again, he and they were part of a specific phase of human
experience which gave them their problems and supplied them
with a substantial religious heritage from the past. John
the Baptist preceded them, and all stood within the great
stream of later Jewish history. Moreover, Palestine had
been ruled in turn by several different powers, finally coming
under the domination of Rome. Consequently conditions
within Judaism cannot be properly interpreted without some
241
242 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
reference to the Graeco-Roman world of which Judaism was
now a part. The student of early Christianity must take
account of these historical antecedents if he would make a
thoroughly genetic study of the new religion.
The ulterior limit. — A second problem is the choice of a
a stopping-place. At what date did the Christian movement
become so well established as an independent rehgion and win
for itself so substantial a place in the Mediterranean world
that it may fairly be said to have reached maturity ? While
recognizing that all history is one great stream of life and not a
series of unrelated segments, we still may detect stages in the
growth of a movement when certain phases of its life become
so fully crystallized as to mark a definite period in its growth.
Although Christianity did not receive legal recognition in the
Roman world until the issuance of the edict of Milan (3 13 a.d.) ,
its distinctive character and form as a future world-religion
were practically established by the middle of the third cen-
tury. By this time the movement may be said to have passed
from youth to maturity. Before this date a distinctively
Christian literature had been assembled and canonized;
apologists had come forward to defend the new faith before
the political authorities and to commend it to the learned;
Christian communities had becorne established all about the
Mediterranean, especially in the chief centers of population;
and problems of organization, ritual, and doctrine had been
worked out along lines which remained fairly stable for some
time. It is a purely arbitrary, and on the whole erroneous,
custom to make early Christianity end approximately with the
year 100, at the close of the so-called New Testament period.
The student must extend the range of his vision well into the
third century if he would follow at all fully the course of
Christianity's initial history.
The scope of study. — Within this general period how com-
prehensive should the scope of the student's inquiry be ? If he
desires to become acquainted only with certain externals in
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 243
the history of the new rehgion, such as its territorial expansion,
its ecclesiastical organization, its hterary products, or its
doctrinal tenets, he may confine himself within relatively
narrow limits. But if in addition to these items he also
desires insight into the vital experiences and activities of
actual Christian people, who faced various problems and
''worked out their own salvation with fear and trembling,"
the scope of inquiry must be greatly enlarged. These vital
matters cannot be understood unless one becomes intimately
acquainted with the actual world in which the early Christians
lived. And since the new religion drew its membership from
many sources, a variety of surroundings contributed toward
the making of life within the new communities. Converts
from Palestinian Judaism were equipped with a set of expe-
riences determined more immediately by political, social,
cultural, and religious conditions within Palestine, but more
remotely by conditions within the contemporary Graeco-
Roman world to which Palestine politically belonged. Con-
verts from among the Jews of the Dispersion had still another
set of experiences, in which contact with Graeco-Roman
Hfe formed a more important item. Those who came over
to Christianity from paganism — -and these constituted by
far the greater number of its adherents long before the close
of our period — -had still a different heritage, the reality and
importance of which are too often minimized. The scope of
the student's inquiry must be sufficiently comprehensive
to include the whole range of different Christians' experience
in contact with their varied environment during the first two
centuries of our era.
The developmental character of Christianity. — One more
item must be noted in order to insure correct procedure.
What conception of Christianity's nature is implied in the
foregoing definition of the historian's task? This type of
study will necessarily view Christianity in terms of life — -
the vital religious experience of actual people. This means
244 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
that wide variations are to be recognized, since varying types
of personality set in different environments and drawing upon
different historical heritages must produce much complexity
in real hfe. While the historian will note items of uniformity
among Christians he will not neglect items of diversity,
which are quite as essential to a correct understanding of the
actual reHgious life of behevers. Nor will he attempt to
define Christianity simply in terms of static 'quantities of
behef, ritual, or practice. The beliefs which dift'erent Chris-
tians held, the forms they employed in worship, and the
decrees they enacted for the conduct of the ideal hfe must
all receive due attention, but the true historian will ever
remember that his work is not completed when he has merely
catalogued and evaluated these products of early Christian
Hving. His ultimate task is to interpret the great complex
of actual life out of which these things came and of which
they formed an integral part. Thus Christianity must be
conceived as thoroughly vital and developmental in its nature.
Literature. — G. W. Knox, article "Christianity" in the Encyclo-
paedia Britannica, nth ed. (Cambridge: University Press, igio), VI,
280-91; S. J. Case, The Evolution of Early Christianity (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1914), pp. 1-47; G. B. Smith, "Christianity
and History," Biblical World, XLIV (1914), 409-16.
II. THE CONTEMPORARY GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD
The early Christians' world, taken in the large, was Graeco-
Roman. At the outset their relations with this larger world
were at second hand through the medium of Judaism. But
since Judaism itself was really a part of Graeco-Roman hfe as
a whole, and more especially since Christians in the second
and successive generations were not only brought into intimate
touch with gentile hfe but were actually a part of it by birth
and training, the first duty of the student of early Christianity
is to acquaint himself with conditions in the Graeco-Roman
world.
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 245
Political conditions. — In order to obtain a proper per-
spective for viewing the political history contemporary with
early Christianity, one should begin with the rule of Alexander
the Great (336-323 B.C.)- The course of history under his
successors (the "Diadochi") and their descendants (the
"Epigoni"), and particularly the rule of the Seleucids in
Syria and the Ptolemies in Egypt, ought to be followed with
some care. Otherwise it will be impossible to understand some
of the most important phases in the experience of the Jewish
people as well as the gentile conditions of life which became
fixed at this time and remained substantially unchanged in
many respects even after the Romans conquered the East.
But attention must center particularly upon the Roman
period, especially from the time of Augustus on, when the
poHtical history of the Roman Empire had a very important
bearing upon the life of both Jews and Christians. A knowl-
edge of this background is essential to an understanding of
such significant events as the death of John the Baptist and of
Jesus, the fall of Jerusalem in 70 a.d. and its destruction in
135 A.D., the long imprisonments of Paul and ultimately his
death as well as that of many other Christian leaders, the
persecutions which the Christian movement suffered from time
to time, and its ultimate recognition as a state-rehgion.
The status of society. — The social situation is a more
difficult subject to study, but one of equal importance for the
student of Christian origins. In the first place the economic
conditions of that age were largely responsible for the dis-
persion of the Jews throughout the Mediterranean lands
as well as for that free movement of the masses which con-
tributed so significantly to the spread of early Christianity.
The economic situation also had much to do with the dissemi-
nation of many pagan faiths over the territory where Christian-
ity later came to be established, and these cults accordingly
constituted an important factor in the history of Christian
expansion. The social distinctions of the time must also be
246 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
studied, not merely for the light they shed upon the ante-
cedents of the Christian movement, but because the expanding
life of the new movement was so closely linked with the
general social status. The new cosmopolitanism which had
resulted from the establishment of world-empire; the rapid
development of individualism called forth by the breaking
down of the narrow nationahsm of earlier times; the mingling
of many different nationalities at the great centers of popu-
lation; the social gradations distinguishing slave from master,
rich from poor, ignorant from learned — ^these are topics about
which the student of early Christianity should possess accurate
and fairly full information. The general cultural status of
Graeco-Roman civilization ought also to be studied for the
light it sheds upon the personnel of the gentile churches and
the conditions under which the missionary propaganda was
carried on. A knowledge of the ways in which the youth
were educated, the intellectual standards of the time, the
popular modes of entertainment such as the sophist provided,
and the types of literature which found favor with the people
of that age will aid very materially in our study of the early
Christian movement.
The religious situation. — The religious side of Graeco-
Roman hfe, while inseparably bound up with political, social,
and cultural conditions, is so important for the study of Chris-
tian origins that it deserves special attention. The outstand-
ing rehgious characteristic of the period was its syncretism.
This was exceedingly complex, but for convenience of treat-
ment some attempt must be made to single out in a general
way the chief factors in this complicated hfe. The student
may select the following topics for investigation:
I. A study of survivals from the ethnic faiths of an earlier
age is of v^lue. Since Graeco-Roman civilization occupied
territory that had nourished older cultures such as those of
Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine,
pre-Hellenistic rehgious survivals naturally played an impor-
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 247
tant role in later times. To these oriental heritages must be
added the popular polytheism of Greece and Rome. To be
sure, the ancient cults were often considerably affected by the
new conditions of the later age, but these changes frequently in-
creased rather than lessened the significance of the ancient faith.
2. The so-called mystery-rehgions form a sufficiently dis-
tinct phenomenon to receive independent treatment. In
the main they were, indeed, survivals from an earher age, but
they attained unique prominence and importance in Graeco-
Roman times. In Greece the Eleusinian mysteries are most
deserving of attention, though other cults of similar type, such
as the mysteries of Dionysus, ought not to be ignored. A
study of the oriental mysteries which in this period spread far
and wide over the Mediterranean lands will also prove very
instructive. The more important of these, to which study
should be directed, are the cults of Cybele and Attis in Phrygia,
Ishtar and Tammuz in Babylonia, Ashtart and Eshmun in
Phoenicia, Atargatis and Hadad in Cilicia and Syria, Aphro-
dite and Adonis in Syria and Cyprus, and Isis and Osiris-
Serapis in Egypt.
3. A third type of Graeco-Roman religion, which had con-
siderable influence, was the worship of the ruler. The attempt
of the Seleucids to impose this worship upon the Jews had
much to do with the Jewish uprising of Maccabean times, and
emperor-worship under the Romans affected considerably the
life of both Jews and Christians. Some of the most character-
istic experiences and doctrines of early Christianity were the
result of contact with this pervasive phenomenon against
which Christians uniformly protested.
4. The popular philosophy of that age was so closely
linked with rehgion as to furnish a distinct item in the actual
reHgious situation. The Epicurean and Stoic schools are of
greatest importance for the student of first- and second-
century Christianity, before neo-Platonism gained pre-emi-
nence. Stoicism in particular had permeated the Hfe of the
248 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
masses and was being vigorously preached by missionaries
who styled themselves apostles of Zeus sent to proclaim a
message of dehverance to the common man. Acquaintance
with both the content and the form of their preaching will often
prove helpful as shedding light upon the early Christian
missionary's task and methods.
5. Certain types of religious speculation, mostly oriental
in origin, were also common in this age. A knowledge of these
may be obtained by studying such subjects as astrology,
pre-Christian Gnosticism, Hermeticism, and ancient mysticism
in general.
Literature. — Greek and Roman authors of the period wrote volumi-
nously. Many of their writings are still extant, for which see the standard
works on Greek and Roman Hterature. H. N. Fowler, A History of
Ancient Greek Literature (New York: Appleton, 1902), and J. W.
Mackail, Latin Literature (New York: Scribner, 191 2), are good brief
treatments. For comprehensive treatments one may consult W. von
Christ, Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur, 3 vols., 5. Aufl. (Miinchen:
Beck, 1911-13), and M. Schanz, Geschichte der romischen Litteratur,
6 vols., 2.-3. Aufl. (Miinchen: Beck, 1905-14). To these literary sources
we must add large quantities of non-Uterary documents, such as papyri
and inscriptions, of great importance for our study.
As for modern study of the Graeco-Roman world, the main outlines
of the subject are given in S. J. Case, The Evolution of Early Christianity,
chaps, iii, vii-ix, where literature is also cited in full. The following will
be found especially useful: E. Hatch, The Influence of Greek Ideas and
Usages upon the Christian Church (London: Williams & Norgate, 1890);
P. Wendland, Die hellenistisch-rdmische Kultur in ihren Bezichungen zu
Judentum und Christentum, 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1912); A.
Deissmann, Licht vom Osten, 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1909; English
translation, Light from the Ancient East [New York : Hodder & Stoughton,
1910]); S. Angus, The Environment of Early Christianity (New York:
Scribner, 191 5).
III. CONTEMPORARY JUDAISM
The Jewish Dispersion. — The territorial distribution of
the Jewish people in Graeco-Roman times was extensive.
Those Jews who hved outside Palestine were greatly in the
( THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 249
majority, and from the time of the Exile on they were scattered
widely over the whole territory. Large numbers of them hved
in the Tigris-Euphrates valley as well as in Egypt, where they
became very numerous under the Ptolemies. In Syria and
Asia Minor they constituted a large percentage of the popula-
tion in early Christian times, and throughout other parts
of the Mediterranean world they were everywhere in evi-
dence. Josephus {Ant.^ XIV, vii, 2) reports Strabo as saying,
"One cannot readily find any place in the world which has not
received this tribe and been taken possession of by it." Thus
the significance of the Jewish Dispersion for the history of
early Christianity was very great, not simply because Chris-
tianity in gentile lands naturally built upon the foundation
which Judaism had laid, but also because the Judaism out
of which Christianity in Palestine grew had already been
impressed by forces from without.
Jewish life outside Palestine. — In studying the status of
the Jews in the Diaspora several items should be noted. They
occupied a distinct position within the civic hfe of an ancient
city and enjoyed many special favors. They sometimes
stood high socially, even holding important official positions;
yet as a whole they carefully preserved their distinctiveness.
Since they maintained a separate community organization,
their reHgious life was in so far as possible modeled after that
of their kinsmen in Palestine and they retained a very lively
interest in the Holy Land. But the stimulus of their gentile
environment was not without effect upon their religion, nor
were they by any means impervious to the influences of
foreign culture. A Philo or a Josephus, though an aggressive
defender of the Jewish faith, was quite different from a
Palestinian rabbi. The fact that Judaism retained its integ-
rity, notwithstanding these widely varying conditions, and
even carried on a proselytizing propaganda, shows that we
must not regard it as merely an isolated Palestinian phe-
nomenon without any significant vitality. Inquiry into the
250 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
vigorous religious life of the Jews of the Diaspora, and a recog-
nition of the close connection they maintained with Palestine,
should do much to prevent the student from falling into this
not uncommon error of depreciating the vitality of Judaism.
The political history of Palestine. — A brief sketch of the
political history of the Palestinian Jews is essential to an
understanding of their religion. This study may begin
with Alexander the Great, but its importance increases with
the time of the Seleucids and Ptolemies. The most significant
point in the history of this general period is the revolt of the
Maccabees. From this time on the political activities of the
Jews must be followed with some care since their religious life
is very closely connected with national activities. Not only
during the rule of the Maccabean princes, but after the sub-
jugation of Palestine by the Romans, politics and religion went
hand in hand. It was this situation which produced the
different Jewish parties and raised many of the perplexing
problems which were discussed by both Jews and Christians.
Thus familiarity with the political experiences of the Jewish
people during the period from the outbreak of the Maccabean
revolt in 167 B.C. to the destruction of Jerusalem in 135 a.d.
is absolutely essential to an understanding of the rise and
early history of Christianity.
The status of the people. — Similar consideration should
be given to the social, economic, and cultural status of the
people. The daily occupation of many persons consisted in
tilling the soil and raising cattle; others were fishermen,
artisans, or merchants; others followed a professional career,
being priests, scribes, or physicians; many others were
ordinary day laborers and some were slaves, although most
persons of. the latter class were probably of foreign birth.
These different occupations yielded an abundance to some,
while others lived in poverty. As a rule the priestly class
was well-to-do, but the common people were less prosperous
and the payment of tribute to Rome, together with the col-
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTrANITY 251
lections for the temple at Jerusalem, often proved exceedingly
burdensome. In matters of education and general culture,
interest centered chiefly in the Scriptures. But these writings
were in a language which the common people no longer under-
stood, and apparently few of the Aramaic-speaking populace
ever became proficient in the use of Hebrew. The education
of the upper classes was more extensive. Those who could
afford leisure for study attended the school of some noted
rabbi, devoting themselves to the study and interpretation
of the Scriptures. Other Jewish youths with a broader
outlook, such as Josephus, for example, added to their strictly
Jewish training a smattering of Hellenistic education. These
various conditions must be understood by the student who
wishes to know the actual situation in which Jesus, his imme-
diate followers, and many of the early missionaries of the new
religion had lived in their youth.
Religious conditions. — The more distinctly religious side of
Hfe among the Jews is a subject of especial importance.
I. Religion was fostered and came to expression in differ-
ent ways, but it centered about three chief institutions, viz.,
the Temple, the Synagogue, and the Law. Associated with
the Temple were the elaborate priestly organization, the
national tribunal known as the Sanhedrin, the sacrificial
system, and the great national festivals of Passover, Pentecost,
and Tabernacles. The Synagogue was also a very important
local factor in the life of the people. It served as town-
house, school, and church — a community center for the dis-
trict in which it stood. In the third place the Law, together
with the persons and means employed in its interpretation,
occupied a large place in the life of the people. To them the
Law embodied God's will for every phase of thought and
action, hence the especial significance attaching to the pro-
fession of the scribe and to the oral tradition by means of
which the ancient teaching was elaborated and made appli-
cable to the conditons of life in later times.
252 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
2. The various parties, though in reality their significance
was often quite as great poHtically as religiously, not only
represent special phases in the development of Jewish religion
but constitute the setting for much early Christian activity
and thinking. The Pharisees and Sadducees are the parties
most frequently mentioned, but the Zealots ought not to be
ignored. In fact, their place in the history and life of the
period is probably greater than we have been accustomed
to imagine on the basis of the infrequency with which they
are mentioned in the New Testament. Still other parties,
such as the Zadokites and the Essenes, represent important
tendencies within Judaism at the beginning of the Chris-
tian era.
3. Furthermore, the religious thinking of that day had
crystalKzed into several distinct doctrines which supplied a
point of departure, and often largely the content, for early
Christian speculations. The different notions which the Jews
entertained regarding the Kingdom of God, the relation in
which they set the Messiah to the Kingdom, and the plans
which they outlined for the consummation of their hopes are
all items of fundamental significance for the rise and early
development of Christianity.
Jewish literature. — -Finally, it should be noted that
the vital experience of the Jewish people found partial expres-
sion in a distinctly religious literature, a portion of which has
come down to us. Sometimes students of early Christianity,
in pursuing the literary side of their investigation, have
passed directly from the Old Testament to the earliest
Christian writings. But in the intei^im, and contemporary
with the rise of a Christian literature, important Jewish
documents were produced, a knowledge of which is now
recognized as absolutely essential to the proper equipment of
one who is to study early Christianity. This survey of
literature should include not only those books commonly
referred to as Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, but all other
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 253
Jewish documents, especially such extensive works as the
writings of Philo and Josephus arid the earlier portions of the
Talmud.
Literature. — The two standard collections of extra-biblical Jewish
documents are E. Kautzsch, Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des
Alten Testaments, 2 vols. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1900), and R. H. Charles,
The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, 2 vols. (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1913). These, it should be remembered, do not con-
tain Philo, Josephus, or the Talmud. The best critical edition of Philo
is that of L. Cohn and P. Wendland, Philonis Alexandrini opera (Berlin:
Reimer, 1896-), of which six volumes have already appeared. A German
translation under the editorship of L. Cohn, Die Werke Philos von
Alexandria (Breslau: Marcus, 1909), is in course of preparation, and
two volumes have already been published. There is an English trans-
lation (out of print) by C. D. Yonge in four volumes (London: Bohn,
1854-55). The works of Josephus are available in the critical edition
of B. Niese, Flavii losephi opera, 6 vols. (Berlin: Weidmann, 1888-95).
A convenient English version is that of W. Whiston newly edited by
D. S. Margoliouth, The Works of Flavius Josephus (New York: Dutton
[n.d.]). For literature on the Talmud see M. Mielziner, Introduction
to the Talmud, 2d ed. (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1902), or H. L.
Strack, Einleitung in den Talmud, 4. Aufl. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1908).
The most comprehensive modern work on Judaism in the period
under discussion is E. Schiirer, Geschichle des jUdischen Volkes im Zeit-
alter Jesu Christi, 3 vols., 4. Aufl. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1901-9; English
translation, History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, 7 vols.
[New York: Scribner, 1891]). There are also many briefer but valuable
works, e.g., W. Fairweather, The Background of the Gospels (New York:
Scribner, 1908); S. Mathews, The History of New Testament Times in
Palestine, 2d ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1910); O. Holtzmann, Neu-
testameniliche Zeitgeschichte, 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1906); W.
Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums in neutestamentlichen Zeitalter, 2.
Aufl. (Berlin: Reuther und Reichard, 1906) ; A. BtrthoXet, Die jiidische
Religion von der Zeit Ezras bis zum Zeitalter Christi (Tubingen: Mohr,
191 1); J . Juster, Les Juifs dans Tempire romain, 2 vols. (Paris: Geuthner,
1914).
IV. THE WORK OF JESUS
Jesus' relation to Judaism. — John the Baptist, Jesus, and
the disciples immediately associated with him were all Jews,
254 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
and their activity constituted an integral part of the Judaism
of their day. In a history of Judaism they would take their
place beside the Zealots, the Zadokites, the Essenes, the
hermit Banus, and other reformers and preachers whose
activity was called forth by the conditions of unrest peculiar
to that particular period in the history of the Jewish people.
But the reform movement begun by John the Baptist, con-
tinued and transformed by Jesus, perpetuated and expanded
by his followers, ultimately became differentiated from
Judaism and was called Christianity. Hence the student of
early Christianity quite properly emphasizes the work of
Jesus as especially important for the history of the new
religion's beginnings.
Jesus' relation to John the Baptist. — At first Jesus himself
was a disciple of John, and the earliest stages in his activity
cannot be understood without first noting the character of
John's work. Full knowledge of John's career and message is
difficult to obtain. He appears to have been a vigorous
moral reformer, a stormy preacher of the desert, who called
upon men to repent and be baptized in preparation for the
coming judgment. His activity brought to expression a
prominent phase of Jewish faith, viz., the b'elief that ulti-
mately God would interfere on Israel's behalf and estabhsh
a new order of things. John proclaimed the necessity of
repentance and purification among Jews themselves as
a preliminary to the consummation of their hope. His
invectives were hurled against high and low alike, but with
disastrous results for the prophet himself. Herod Antipas
became offended at his preaching, cast him into prison, and
ultimately put him to death. Josephus (Ant., XVIII, v, 2)
says that Herod feared lest John might instigate a revolt,
a statement which may imply that John was disposed to
dabble in poHtics. But of this we cannot be certain. We
do know that the burden of his message was religious, and in
this lay its significance for our present study.
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 255
It is clear that Jesus received baptism at the hands of
John, but in almost all other respects the relation between
the two remains a perplexing problem. Among the early
Christians who preserved our gospel tradition there was
variation of opinion on many points. Some statements imply
that John stood to Jesus in the relation of the promised
Ehjah to the Messiah (Mark 1:2-5; Q^n^iS; cf. Matt.
17:9-13), while other parts of the tradition make John dis-
tinctly deny that he is Elijah (John 1:21). Similarly, in
some sections of the narrative he positively affirms his behef
in Jesus' messiahship and makes the announcement of this
fact his chief mission (John 1:6-8, 19-34), yet in other con-
nections his behef in the messiahship of Jesus is quite doubt-
ful (Matt. 11:2-6; Luke 7:18-23). But apart from these
attempts to define the official relationship of these two indi-
viduals to one another, the question of more fundamental
interest is what Jesus' personal reaction toward John's
movement actually was and how far Jesus received from John
vital stimulus for 'his own future work. This is the point of
special interest for the historical student. The continuation
of the Johannine movement side by side with the movement
inaugurated by Jesus, though only incidentally mentioned in
the New Testament (Mark 2:18; John 3:22; 4:1 ff.; Acts
18:25; 19 ; 35 f.), is also an important item for the early history
of Christianity.
The task of the biographer. — In examining Jesus' own
career the student is confronted at the outset by the fact
that Jesus occupies a twofold position in the history of early
Christianity. In the first place he gathered about him a
group of hearers to whom he imparted instruction reflecting
his own personal religious experience and living. Secondly,
after his death he came to hold in the thinking of believers a
new position at God's right hand in heaven. He now pos-
sessed truly official dignity and was expected to return at an
early date to set up the messianic kingdom upon earth. The
256 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
consciousness of this distinction between the earthly Jesus of
past history and the heavenly Christ of present faith is
reflected in such a statement as Acts 2:36 to the effect that
through the resurrection God had made the crucified Jesus to
be both Lord and Christ (Messiah).
Although the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith were
thus originally distinguished, the meaning of this distinction
was soon lost as behevers reflected upon the earthly career
of Jesus in the Kght of their new-found faith in his heavenly
exaltation. They were now able to see in many of his words
and deeds a much more elevated significance than they had
observed while he was with them. This failure to appreciate
his full dignity while upon earth was not credited to
any lack in him, but was quite their own fault. Either they
had been unduly stupid, or else for some good reason their
eyes for the moment had been blinded. By this course of
reasoning tTiey were able in the course of time to discover
in the earthly Hfe of Jesus practically the same official
dignity and glory which they now attached to his person in
heaven.
The task of the modern student of the hfe of Jesus is
made especially difficult by this situation. All the direct
sources of information at present available date from a time
when this process of reinterpreting the life of Jesus had been
going on for twenty years or more. The problem could be
easily solved if it were simply a question of reproducing this
or that picture of Jesus as set forth by one or another of his
early interpreters. But today the task of the historian is
much more difficult since he must endeavor to determine what
features in the sources represent the early Christians' interest
in the heavenly Christ and what data relate to the earthly
Jesus as he actually appeared to the people who assoc^'ated
with him during his pubhc ministry. To be sure, the behevers'
new appreciation of Jesus after his death is as much — or
more — a part of the history of early Christianity as is the
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 257
story of his earthly career. But the former belongs in the
history of the early community subsequent to his death, and
not in a strictly historical biography of Jesus.
The character of the sources. — In view of this peculiar
problem the student ought first to note the general character of
the sources of information and the varied portraits of Jesus
there presented.
Paul's epistles are the oldest extant Christian documents,
but Paul is interested almost exclusively in Christ spiritually
present in the behever and soon to come upon the clouds in
glory. Yet it is worthy of note that Paul shows Httle or no
disposition to superimpose the official dignity of the heavenly
Christ upon the earthly Jesus. While, in Paul's thinking,
Jesus was a pre-existent divine personahty, his career upon
earth was one of almost abnormal humihty and lowHness.
In fact, this point is especially stressed by Paul (e.g., Phil.
2:5 ff.). But, unfortunately for our present needs, Paul has
mentioned only incidentally a few items in connection with
the teaching and activity of Jesus. At an early date Paul
had several points of intimate contact with Christians, and
a careful reading of his epistles, with a view to discovering
incidental information about Jesus' earthly career, may be
expected to yield some valuable results (e.g.. Gal. 3:13;
4:4; I Cor. 11:23 ff.; 15:5; II Cor. 8:9; 10:1; Rom. 7:1;
15:3; Phil. 2:5).
The Gospel of Mark shows much advance over Paul's
letters in assigning official dignity to the earthly Jesus. The
author of this Gospel is sufficiently well informed regarding the
actual history to observe that this heightened significance
of Jesus was not generally appreciated prior to his death by
even his most intimate associates (e.g., 1:22; 4:41; 5:31;
6:51 f.; 8:17-21,32; 9:10,32; 10:32). But Mark himself
labors under no such limitations. The disciples had been
unable to understand certain words and deeds of the earthly
Jesus previous to his resurrection (cf. 9:9 f.), but now he has
258 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
arisen, and in the light of this new behef Mark is able to under-
stand everything. On the strength of. this assurance he col-
lects, arranges, and interprets the gospel story to meet the
needs of the particular readers he has in mind, at the same
time endeavoring to do justice to the person of Jesus as the
official founder of the Kingdom of God on earth. Before this
oldest extant gospel can be properly employed as a source of
biographical information about Jesus, the pragmatic interests
of the author 'must be taken carefully into account.
The same demand must be met in the case of Matthew and
Luke. While they use Mark as one of their chief sources, and
so carry over into the career of Jesus Mark's interest in the
heavenly Christ, they also attempt interpretations on their
own account. In fact, they excel Mark in this art. The
latter begins with the baptism as the moment when Jesus
became distinctive through a special anointing by the Holy
Spirit, but both Matthew and Luke point out that Jesus at
the very first was begotten by the Holy Spirit. The author
of John carries the thought still farther, making the whole
earthly career of Jesus virtually the activity of an incarnate
Deity. A similar interest dominates the fragmentary remains
of other ancient gospels, as well as the remainder of the New
Testament books, in so far as they take any account at all of
Jesus' earthly life.
Since our sources of information are all interpretative in
character, and strongly influenced by the Christians' later
confidence in Jesus' official position as Messiah, the student
must use rigid critical processes in treating these sources if he
would recover even an approximately correct portrait of the
historical individual Jesus as distinct from the heavenly
Christ of primitive Christian faith.
Tests for determining the historicity of tradition. — How
can the historicity of tradition be fixed ? In the first place
there is the test of literary analysis by means of which the
older elements in the gospel story are recovered. Since a
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 259
comparison of Matthew with Luke shows at a glance that
they both used not only Mark but other common source
materials not contained in Mark, it is possible to reconstruct
in a fragmentary way a body of non-Markan tradition ante-
dating both Matthew and Luke. This earlier document, or
these earlier documents (Luke 1:1-4), are probably older
than Mark, although they have not been directly used by
him. In the case of Mark also it is possible to discover certain
strata of tradition, such, for example, as the parables of
chap. 4, which he probably took over from earHer documents.
A thoroughgoing literary criticism will endeavor to fix as far as
possible the relative age of all the different constituent ele-
ments which have gone into the making of gospel tradition as
it exists at present.
But literary criticism cannot be regarded as a final test
of historicity. Even the oldest recoverable source was com-
posed from ten to twenty years after Jesus' death, and the
motives prompting composition were supplied by conditions
within the expanding life of Christianity. While it is true
that in these early days memory of the earthly Jesus was
still fresher than in subsequent times, yet it is also true that
Christianity in the earHer period had its pecuhar problems
and ways of thinking, in the light of which the earliest recover-
able document was composed. Its author must have selected,
arranged, interpreted, and supplemented his materials if he
sought to minister to the needs of his immediate environment
— and he could hardly have had any other motive for com-
position. Nor is a portion of tradition which first comes to
Hght in a later document — say in Luke only or in John only — •
unhistorical simply in virtue of its late emergence. There were
many persons who remembered Jesus and who talked much
about him after his death, and it is not at all probable that all
the reliable things said by them were taken up into the written
sources used in common by Matthew, Luke, and John. It is
quite possible that some perfectly reliable information may
26o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
have come into the possession of one or another of these
writers independently.
Ultimately one must apply what may be called the prag-
matic test for determining the historicity of tradition. If
anything is ascribed to Jesus which is out of harmony with
the age and environment in which he Hved, but is more closely
akin to the problems arising during the expansion of the new
movement in the years following his death, that feature in the
tradition cannot be safely connected with the historical Jesus.
Even if one should assume that Jesus may have anticipated
the future situation, one must still reckon with the fact that
certainly the disciples did not share this forward look, and
consequently were unprepared for the reception of any such
teaching. On the other hand, the work of Jesus, as deter-
mined by his own particular situation, did influence extensively
the subsequent career of his followers; hence many features
in the life of the early Christian movement may reasonably be
traced back to his words or deeds. Here the pragmatic test
yields constructive results by pointing to items of later tra-
dition which show logical continuity with the situation of
earlier times.
Chronological and geographical data. — The constructive
task of the student of the hfe of Jesus revolves about certain
main problems, one of which is the recovery of the chrono-
logical and geographical outHne of Jesus' career. Mark, it
may be observed, presents one schema, while John follows a
very different outline. Matthew and Luke reproduce Mark
in the main, although each makes a few unimportant changes.
Neither Uterary criticism nor pragmatic considerations yield
any very certain results in this field. The student may have
to content himself with following the outHne of Mark, incom-
plete and unsatisfactory as it is. Certainly no historian would
attempt an uncritical fusion of the outUnes of John and
Mark as a means of restoring the actual course of Jesus'
career.
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 261
Jesus' messianic consciousness.^The question of Jesus'
self-consciousness has been much discussed in modern times.
Did Jesus regard himself as the Jewish Messiah, and if so in
what sense did he understand messiahship ? In order to
answer these questions historically, the student must take his
stand strictly within the Jewish world where Jesus himself
lived. The national history of the Jewish people had been
one long story of disappointed hopes. They had enjoyed a
period of national independence under David and Solomon,
but their subsequent history had been one series of successive
subjugations by Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Macedonia, and
Rome. During all this time their faith in their God Yahweh
remained unshaken. They were his chosen^eople and some
day he would surely come to their aid, restoring their inde-
pendence and elevating them to a position of supremacy
among the nations.
In Jesus' day this hope was current in two principal forms
commonly termed by moderns (i) the national and (2) the
apocalyptic. The former rested upon the expectation that a
lineal descendant of David would arise when the time for
Israel's deHverance arrived. This Davidic prince would be
anointed — i.e., made Messiah (Anointed) — by God and
would miraculously free the chosen people from all oppressors.
It was this hope which prompted the numerous messianic
uprisings in Palestine between the years 6 and 135 a.d.
There were other Jews who had lost all faith in earthly princes,
and so had abandoned the messianic hope in its Davidic
form. Nevertheless they retained their faith in God and
redefined their hope in terms of a purely heavenly Messiah, an
angehc being without any earthly connections whatsoever.
He was of purely divine origin but would assume the likeness
of a man (cf . Dan. 7 : 13) when he came upon the clouds to
set up the new kingdom. With his appearing the present
order of existence would come to an end and the Jewish
nation would be re-estabHshed in purity and peace upon a
262 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
miraculously renovated earth. Since the Messiah of this
new kingdom was to be "revealed" from heaven, this t>^e of
hope has been termed the ''apocalyptic."
What were Jesus' views regarding the Jewish messianic
hope? The difficulty of answering this question has been
greatly enhanced by the confusion of opinion which prevails
in the Gospels. At one time he is given Davidic credentials,
and so is made the fulfiller of the national hope (cf. Luke 2:11).
At other times he is represented as denying the Davidic
ancestry of the Messiah (Mark 12:35-37), ^.nd he even afhrms
that after death he himself will come upon the clouds and thus
fulfil the apocalyptic rather than the Davidic hope (Mark
8:39; 9:1; 14:^ f.). In still other connections, notably in
the Gospel of John, he abandons Jewish imagery almost
entirely and defines his messiahship in terms of Hellenistic
speculation regarding the incarnate Logos. Another favorite
interpretation of Jesus' messianic consciousness, popular in
later times, bases his claim to official dignity upon his sense of
special ethical and spiritual kinship with God the Father.
No doubt the situation in Jesus' own day was far simpler
than that depicted in the Gospels, or in later Christian think-
ing when different interpreters combined different types of
messianic terminology in an endeavor to estabhsh by every
possible means the superior official dignity of the heavenly
Christ of Christian faith. The modern student is confronted
by the difficult task of threading his way back through the
almost inextricable tangle of later opinion to the more primi-
tive situation of Jesus. The following possibihties in Jesus'
thinking have to be considered:
I. Did he adopt the national hope, expecting a deliverance
to be accomphshed by means of a revolution against Rome,
whether this was to be led by himself or by another ? There
certainly is very scanty evidence for supposing that he enter-
tained any such notion, although it has sometimes been
assumed that his thinking moved in this realm.
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 263
2. Did he expect redemption through the coming of an
angelic dehverer ? This was the natural alternative for a Jew
of his day who rejected the revolutionary program. But this
apocalyptic hope in its purely Jewish form allowed no place
for a present earthly Messiah. The apocalyptic Messiah
was to be a purely heavenly being.
3. Did Jesus so transform the apocalyptic hope as to give
the divine heavenly Messiah a preliminary human career upon
earth ? He is thought by many modern interpreters to have
done so, notwithstanding the difficulty of finding in his
environment an adequate incentive for so radical a change in
Jewish thinking. Moreover, it is very easy to see how the
disciples, disappointed in their first hope that the earthly
Jesus would lead a messianic revolution when the fitting
moment arrived (cf. Mark 8:32 f.; Luke 24:21; Acts 1:6),
might apply the apocalyptic imagery to him after his death.
In their new faith, attained through the resurrection appear-
ances, he was now a heavenly angelic being capable of func-
tioning as apocalyptic Messiah.
4. Did he anticipate Hellenistic speculation regarding his
personality, considering himself the Messiah on metaphysical
grounds ? This view is not commonly held by critical scholars
today, although the importance of this item in the history of
Christology is generally recognized.
5. Did Jesus claim official messianic dignity on the ground
of close personal rehgious fellowship with God ? There is
much to prove that his life was one of rich spiritual attain-
ments, but many students now recognize that there are very
slight grounds for supposing that any person of that day, how-
ever rich his spiritual experience might be, would find in this
fact a basis for beHef in official messiahship.
The miracles of Jesus — Among early Christians interest
in the miraculous character of both the person and work of
Jesus kept pace with the growing desire to emphasize the
official dignity of his earthly career. Paul, for example,
264 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
gives no intimation that the earthly Jesus performed miracles,
although Paul makes ability to work miracles in the name of
the exalted Christ a distinctive credential of the new religion
(cf. Gal. 3:5; II Cor. 12:12; I Cor. 12:28). In the earher
elements of gospel tradition there is also very little said
about any miracles of Jesus. Here his distinctiveness is
shown more strikingly by his religious message than by his
marvelous deeds. But in Mark he is first of all the miracle-
worker. The wild beasts are rendered harmless by his pres-
ence in the wilderness, and the people in the synagogue of
Capernaum are astonished at his power over the demons. It
is not his religious message which strikes them with awe, but
the miraculous power of his commands — "with authority he
commandeth even the unclean spirits and they obey him"
(Mark 1:22, 27). Matthew and Luke follow Mark in stress-
ing the miraculous. And in John Jesus' whole career, is one
glorious display of supernatural wisdom and power.
This growth of interest in the miraculous as a means of
heightening the dignity of the earthly Jesus was especially
appropriate to a Hellenistic environment. Gentiles were
particularly susceptible to the marvelous as attesting heroes
and divinities. Heroes like Hercules and deified emperors
like Augustus had, according to popular belief, been born of a
divine father and a human mother. Such stories were widely
current and highly esteemed. Heroes and rulers also worked
miracles, as happened in the case of Vespasian, for instance.
He once healed a man with a withered hand, also a blind man,
in Alexandria where "many miracles occurred, by which the
favor of heaven and a sort of bias in the powers toward Ves-
pasian were manifested" (Tacitus Hist. iv. 81). As Chris-
tians themselves performed miracles in the name of Jesus,
competing with the ever-present magician and with vigorous
heaUng cults like those of Asklepios, the value of a miraculously
begotten and miracle-working Jesus was increasingly appre-
ciated.
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 265
But in Jesus' Jewish environment the situation was some-
what different. There probably were some Jewish magicians
and exorcists in Palestine at that time, and they doubtless
enjoyed a measure of popularity, especially among the lower
classes. Yet their practices were prohibited in the Law, and
persons suspected of cultivating these arts were frowned
upon by the authorities (Deut. 18:9-14; Acts 4:7). Further-
more, miracles were not employed extensively to attest
Jewish worthies. They did, to be sure, work wonders on
occasion, but their chief significance lay in their teaching, by
which they communicated a message from God to his chosen
people. In spite of the miracles Moses wrought, he was
revered chiefly as the giver of the Law; while great prophets
Hke Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel were almost
exclusively God's spokesmen with no credentials other than
the words they uttered. Hence it was very natural that
the earhest element of gospel tradition, taking shape in
Palestine among Jewish Christians and for use in the Jewish
mission, should have given almost no place to the miracle-
element in the career of the earthly Jesus, but should set in the
foreground his remarkable teaching.
These are the main facts which the student has to take into
account in discussing the question of Jesus' miraculous person
and work. Two chief questions to be decided are: (i) Did
miracles figure as prominently in Jesus' own career as they do
in Mark's portrait of him ? (2) How far are the stories of
Jesus' miraculous birth prompted by a conviction on the part
of early interpreters that Jesus must have been thus divinely
begotten since he surely excelled all other heroes who were
similarly authenticated ?
The personal religion of Jesus. — The task of recovering
information about Jesus' personal rehgious Hving is less
difl&cult than that of determining the truth either about his
messianic consciousness or about his miracles. In the
nature of the case the personal religion of Jesus did not lend
266 GUIDE TO STUDY OF" CHRISTIAN RELIGION
itself so readily to the purposes of apologetic on behalf of the
heavenly Christ. There was, to be sure, a tendency to
eliminate from his life all genuine personal religious experience
and activity, as well as a disposition to make him the ideal
Christian of later times. But these tendencies may be dis-
covered with comparative ease, and our abundant information
about Jewish life in Jesus' day, together with the information
recoverable from the Gospels, enables one to reconstruct a
fairly distinct picture of Jesus' own religious career. In
attempting to restore this portrait the student should have in
mind such topics as the following:
1. Jesus received a rich heritage from his Jewish home and
family connections. He was not a trained rabbi but a village
carpenter, yet he was devoutly religious. Under such cir-
cumstances his religion could hardly be of the scholastic type,
but would contain more emotional and mystical features.
2. Jesus employed with particular vividness the figures of
fatherhood and sonship to portray the ideal relationship
between God and man. In this connection we are reminded
that Jesus had listened to John the Baptist preach about an
angry God for whose coming in judgment men must prepare
themselves. When Jesus began independent work he seems
to have done so under a conviction that God would help men
prepare because he really loved men.
3. The method of Jesus is also striking. This perhaps
reveals more clearly than anything else the real genius of his
religion. John preached in the wilderness where men came
to him, and the professional rabbi often established a school
to which pupils resorted, but Jesus went to the people. He
traveled about among the synagogues, he talked to crowds in
the city street or beside the sea, and apparently sought espe-
cially to reach the masses. This method was well suited to
produce trouble for the teacher in case his message proved to
be unwelcome to the authorities, but it accorded well with
Jesus' notion of God's desire to help all men.
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 267
4. Jesus seems to have worked under the pressure of oppo-
sition during almost his entire career. His aggressive method
tended to arouse hostility, and the mystical strain in his reli-
gion, together with his apparent bias toward nonconformity,
made it difficult for him to understand the Jewish leaders of the
day and impossible for them to understand him. Conse-
quently his was the religious experience of one who suffered
persecution even unto martyrdom.
5. One of the most significant items in the history of early
Christianity is the fact that Jesus' religious personality
impressed itself so strongly upon an inner group of his dis-
ciples. His Jewish heritages, his mystical leanings, his
aggressiveness, and his persistence even under persecution
were all reproduced more or less perfectly in the careers of his
followers. The power of his influence upon them was remark-
able, and this fact serves to reveal his own character as a
religious individual.
Jesus' place in early Christianity. — ^Although Jesus was
put to death before any formal organization of the Christian
movement had taken place, still he is commonly regarded as
the founder of this organization. To be sure, as the details
of organization were worked out to meet Jater necessities there
was a natural disposition to seek the authority of Jesus for the
course of the development. He was now thought to have
accepted baptism by John in order to establish the Christian
rite — ^"thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness" (Matt.
3:15). It was also believed that Jesus had installed Peter as
head of the new organization (Matt. 16:18 f.). The last
meal which Jesus had eaten informally with the disciples now
came to be viewed as the dehberate estabHshment of a Chris-
tian rite which he had designed to be perpetuated in his
memory (Luke 22:19; I Cor. 11:25-27). Similarly, after
the leaders of the new movement rather tardily arrived at
the conviction of a world-wide mission they felt assured
that Jesus himself had intended this result and had in fact
268 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
commissioned them to make disciples of all nations (Matt.
28 : 19) . These matters all belong in the history of the expand-
ing movement subsequent to Jesus' death, and Jesus cannot
be regarded as the immediate founder of the new ecclesiastical
organization which gradually evolved in the Apostolic Age.
But is he not the author of the Christian doctrine, and so
the founder of Christianity in the sense that he authenticated
its theology? On this point also historical investigation
casts some doubts. Early Christian dogma centered about
the ofhcial heavenly Christ and only gradually did behevers
come to think of the earthly Jesus as authenticating the spe-
cifically new doctrines of Christianity. In fact, the new
movement "Christianity" took its name, not from Jesus,
but from the exalted Christ.
Nevertheless Jesus' actual contribution to the rise of
Christianity is really more significant than might at first sight
appear. But the historian must look for this significance in
the sphere of personal daily contact between Jesus and his
associates rather than in the realm of formality and officialism.
It was in daily life that the disciples received their most endur-
ing impressions of him, as well as those ideals of piety and
devotion exemphfied in the propagation of their new faith.
Literature. — On John the Baptist see W. Baldensperger, Der Prolog
des viertcn Evangeliums (Freiburg: Mohr, 1898); H. Oort, "Mattheiis X
en de Johannes-Gemeenten," Theologisch Tijdschrift, XLVII (1908), 299-
^^^; M. Dibelius, Die urchristliche tfberlieferung von Johannes dem
Tdujer (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 191 1). Of less value
is A. Blakiston, John the Baptist and His Relation to Jesus (London: Ben-
nett, 1912).
Books on the life of Jesus are legion. Most of them are critically
summarized in A. Schweitzer, Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung,
2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1913; English translation. The Quest of the
Historical Jesus [London: Black, 1910I). A less detailed but more
readable summary is given by H. Weinel, Jesus im neunzehnten Jahr-
hundert, 8. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1907; English translation with
additions, H. Weinel and A. G. Widgery, Jesus in the Nineteenth Century
and After [New York: Scribner, 1914]). The literature on the recently
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 269
debated question of Jesus' existence is listed and appraised in S. J. Case,
The Historicity of Jesus (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1912) .
One group of Hves of Jesus may be termed harmonistic, since they
combine the gospel data without attempting to estimate the relative
historical reliability of the different elements in the tradition. Typical
of this class is A. Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah,
2 vols., 8th ed. (New York': Longmans, 1896).
Representatives of more critical views differ somewhat widely
among themselves. The earlier stages of critical work may be seen in
D. F. Strauss, The Life of Jesus Critically Examined, translated from the
fourth German edition (New York: Macmillan, 1898); T. Keim, The
History of Jesus of Nazara, 6 vols., translated from the German (London:
Williams & Norgate, 1876-83); W. Beyschlag, Das Leben Jesu, 2 Bde.,
3. Aufl. (Halle a. S.: Strien, 1893); B. Weiss, Das Leben Jesu, 4. Aufl.
(Stuttgart: Gotta, 1902; English translation. The Life of Jesus, 3 vols.
[New York: Scribner, 1883-89]).
Among more recent writers some rely chiefly upon Mark, with its
apocalyptic emphasis, to furnish the most accurate historical picture
of Jesus; e.g., O. Holtzmann, Das Leben Jesu (Tubingen: Mohr, 1901;
English translation, The Life of Jesus [New York: Macmillan, 1904]); W.
Sanday, The Life of Christ in Recent Research (New York: Oxford Uni-
sity Press, 1907); A. Loisy, Jesus et la tradition evan'gelique (Paris:
Nourry, 19 10).
Other biographers make the non-Markan materials common to
Matthew and Luke (i.e., the "Logia," or "Q") more normative; e.g.,
W. Bousset, /e5i<.y, 3. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1907; English translation,
Jesus [New York: Putnam, 1906]); A. Reville, Jesus de Nazareth (Paris:
Fischbacher, 1897); C. Piepenbring, Jesus historique (Paris: Nourry,
1909); G. H. Gilbert, Jesus (New York: Macmillan, 1912); F. L.
Anderson, The Man of Nazareth (New York: Macmillan, 1914).
Special studies on Jesus' messianic consciousness, stressing the
apocalyptic side of his thinking, are J. Weiss, Die Predigt Jesu vom Reiche
Gottes, 2. Aufl. (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1900); W.
Baldensperger, Das Selbstbewusstsein Jesu im Lichte der messianischen
Hofnungen seiner Zeit, 2. Aufl. (Strassburg: Heitz, 1892); H. J. Holtz-
mann, Z)a5 we5«a;M"5c/!e5e7e'7i5.y/5ew/e5M (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1907); E. F.
Scott, The Kingdom and the Messiah (New York: Scribner, 191 1); S.
Mathews, The Messianic Hope in the New Testament (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1905). Works which subordinate apoca-
lypticism in Jesus' consciousness are, for example, E. von Dobschiitz,
The Eschatology of the Gospels (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1910);
2 70 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
H. L. Jackson, The Eschatology .of Jesus (London: Macmillan, 1913).
All messianic consciousness is denied to Jesus in N. Schmidt, The Prophet
of Nazareth (New York: Macmillan, 1905); W. Wrede, Das Messiasge-
heimniss in den Evangelien (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht,
1901); F. Goblet d'Alviella, U Evolution du dogme catholique, I, Les
Origines (Paris: Nourry, 19 12). Cf. also H. B. Sharman, The Teaching
of Jesus about the Future (Chicago: The Uhiversity of Chicago Press,
1909).
On the miraculous features in the Gospels see J. M. Thompson,
Miracles in the New Testament (London: Arnold, 19 12); W. Soltau, Hat
Jesus Wunder getan? (Leipzig: Dieterich, 1903); P. Lobstein, Die Lehre
von der Uhernatiirlichen Geburt Christi, 2. Aufl. (Freiburg: Mohr, 1896;
English translation, The Virgin Birth of Christ [New York: Putnam,
1903]) ; W. Soltau, Die Geburtsgeschichte Jesu Christi (Leipzig: Dieterich,
1902; English translation, The Birth of Jesus Christ [London: Black,
1903]); A. Meyer, Die Auferstehung Christi (Tubingen: Mohr, 1905);
K. Lake, The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (New
York: Putnam, 1907).
For the teaching of Jesus the following books are most worthy of
note: H. H. Wendt, Die Lehre Jesu, 2 Bde., 2. Aufi. (Gottingen: Vanden-
hoeck und Ruprecht, 1901; English translation of second volume, The
Teaching of Jesus, 2 vols. [New York: Scribner, 1892]); A. Jiilicher,
Die Gleichnisreden Jesu, 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 19 10); P. Wernle,
Die Anfdnge unserer Religion, 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1904, pp. 1-82;
English translation. The Beginnings of Christianity, 2 vols. [New York:
Putnam, 1903-4], I, 1-116); H. J. Holtzmann, Lehrbuch der neutesta-
mentlichen Theologie, 2 Bde., 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 1), I, 159-
420; H. Weinel, Biblische Theologie des Neuen Testaments, 2. Aufl.
(Tubingen: Mohr, 1913), pp. 43-230.
V. PALESTINIAN JEWISH CHRISTIANITY
Relative importance of tlie period. — The Christian move-
ment began in Palestine, but only a minor portion of its early
history is confined ^to this territory. In fact, Palestinians
exerted comparatively little influence upon the movement
outside Palestine after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 a.d. After
135 A.D. even the church at Jerusalem was composed exclu-
sively of Gentiles, and Jewish Christians very soon came to
be regarded as heretics (e.g., the Ebionites). Consequently
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 271
it will be sufficient, in a general survey of the history of early
Christianity, to follow the career of the Palestinian Jewish
communities through only the first hundred years of their
existence, at the same time noting more especially the earlier
events in this period.
Sources of information. — The first difficulty confronting
the student is lack of direct sources of information. All
the early Christian writings now extant were composed in
Greek, while the mother-tongue of Palestinian Christians was
Aramaic. But fortunately Paul, writing between the years
50 and 65 A. D., refers occasionally to his own relations with the
Palestinians. Also the author of Acts records a few incidents
in the history previous to the year 45 a.d. and touches the
Palestinian community again in connection with Paul's last
visit to Jerusalem. While the writer of Acts was not hke Paul
in being a contemporary of the events described, yet it is not
improbable that he availed himself of some early sources of
information both written and oral. Of course he selected,
supplemented, and explained these sources with a view to
convincing Theophilus that a particular interpretation of
Christian history was the valid one (Acts 1:1; cf. Luke 1:4).
Nevertheless some reliable information is probably preserved
in the early chapters of Acts. From the Gospels also, and
particularly from the Synoptists, something may be learned
regarding the early situation in Palestinian communities.
While the Gospels as they now stand are all products of the
gentile mission, some of the sources employed in their composi-
tion undoubtedly arose in a Palestinian environment, and they
often reflect the special problems of Jewish Christians in the
first generation. If one were to attempt a complete restora-
tion of the history of early Palestinian Christianity, all this
hterature would have to be searched for such items as might
disclose in themselves a Palestinian interest and provenance,
as distinct both from the situation in which Jesus himself Hved
and from the situation in gentile fields.
272 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Connections with Judaism. — One fact stands out very
clearly in the history of the Palestinian Christians. They
were all Jews and at first they had no thought of breaking
with their ancestral faith. Indeed they regarded themselves
as the true Jews and apparently conceived their chief, if not
their sole, mission to be that of estabhshing within Judaism a
reform movement which would lead up to the fulfilment of the
Jewish messianic hope when Jesus returned upon the clouds.
They loyally observed Jewish customs and adhered strictly to
the Law. In fact, many of their number were sure that
Gentiles could not be saved unless they received circumcision
as a sign of their right to the Hebrew salvation, which was to
be God's special gift to the Jews. Other Christians were
less rigid in their demands, and conceded that Gentiles who
accepted the Jewish messianic faith as reinterpreted in terms
of faith in the heavenly Christ might obtain salvation. Yet
no Jewish Christian was at liberty to neglect any of the reli-
gious rites peculiar to his own people (cf . Gal. 2:1-11). These
two attitudes were represented in Palestinian Christianity
throughout its entire history, although the more conserva-
tive disposition seems always to have predominated. It is
very necessary to keep in mind this phase of primitive Chris-
tianity in order to understand the Palestinians themselves, as
well as the circumstances under which the notion of gentile
missions arose.
The attainment of the new messianic faith. — If the first
Christians were so emphatically Jewish in their leanings, what
constituted their distinctiveness ? This lay chiefly in their
belief that the apocalyptic Jewish Messiah who was soon to
come upon the clouds was none other than the earthly Jesus
who had died on the cross. This, it should be noted, consti-
tuted a distinct transformation of their former hope that
Jesus while on earth might dehver the nation. Even as late as
the seventh decade of the first century, when the Gospel of
Mark was written, it was still remembered that the disciples'
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 273
hopes previous to Jesus' death centered upon the earthly Jesus,
and so upon some form of national Davidic deliverance which
he as their leader might effect. But his death shattered their
hopes. They concluded that God had forsaken Jesus, and
they returned to their former occupations thoroughly dis-
appointed. Then came the visions of the angehc Jesus, which
led them to beheve that he had escaped from Sheol and
ascended to heaven. Now they were able to renew their
messianic hopes, recasting them in apocalyptic form. Since
Jesus was in heaven was he not really the individual whom
God would send forth to estabhsh the Kingdom of Heaven
upon earth ? This possibility quickly became a conviction
with several of Jesus' former associates, and this faith consti-
tuted the most distinctive mark of the new movement.
There is ample evidence to show that this new faith was
the direct result of visions of the risen Jesus experienced by cer-
tain leading members of the community (e.g., I Cor. 15:5-8),
but a study of the factors involved in this experience
carries one over into the realm of primitive religious psy-
chology. The main historical considerations to- be kept in
mind when investigating the subject are:
1. Popular thinking in that day moved freely in the
realm of what moderns would call supernaturahsm. BeHef in
the possibility and reahty of apparitions was firmly established,
especially among the populace.
2. There was also a current conviction that in the past
God had not permitted certain righteous Israehtes whom he
especially favored to take up permanent residence in Sheol,
but had miraculously transported them to heaven (e.g.,
Moses, Enoch, Elijah).
3. In the case of the disciples there was also the memory of
Jesus' attractive personahty which had led them while with
him to believe that he stood in especial favor with God and
so was worthy to be the Jews' national deliverer from Roman
oppression.
2 74 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
4. Furthermore, the apocal>'ptic messianic imagery was
ready at hand the moment the disciples began to reflect upon
the possible status of their beloved master in the world beyond
the grave.
5. It is less certain that any specific words of Jesus pre-
dicting his resurrection and exaltation constituted for the
disciples a real factor in the situation. Even if he did try to
prepare them for this belief — ^as they later thought he must
have done — they candidly admitted that his attempts proved
utterly futile. Their hearts were hardened and their eyes
were holden — until after the events had happened.
6. The gospel accounts which emphasize the reality of
Jesus' risen body reflect a later discussion in the history of
Christology when the reality of Jesus' physical body even
prior to his crucifixion was being called in question (Docetism).
Similarly, the story of the guard at the tomb (Matt. 27 : 27-66 ;
28 : 1 1-15) answers the needs of later apologetic. The original
disciples are hardly likely to have demanded any such props
for faith. They would be quite convinced merely on the
strength of the appearances, and would naturally conclude
that, as in the case of Enoch and Elijah, Jesus' body had been
miraculously transformed into its heavenly counterpart.
7. Marvelous awakenings from the dead, especially in the
case of heroes and divinities worshiped in many contemporary
pagan cults, were familiar items in the thinking of that ancient
world and may have constituted an important factor in deter-
mining the early Christians' use of similar credentials for
Jesus — even if these current ideas may not have really been
one of the genetic forces in bringing about the disciples' own
faith.
The beginnings of a new community. — Very soon after
certain friends of Jesus became convinced of his rise from
Sheol and ascent into heaven, groups began to assemble in
certain places, and individuals preached this new belief prob-
ably in the synagogues at the time of pubHc worship. Exact
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 275
information regarding all the events of these earliest days is
no longer attainable. In fact, there is uncertainty as to where
the first visions of Jesus were experienced. According to one
tradition the disciples saw him first in GaUlee (Matt. 28:10,
16-20; cf. Mark 16:7); another tradition locates all the
appearances in or near Jerusalem (Luke 24:13-31, 34, 36-51;
Acts 1 : 1-9 ; while the Gospel of John combines the two tra-
ditions, giving first place to Jerusalem (21:19-23, 26-29;
2i:4ff.)-
After Christianity had become a formally organized move-
ment standing over against Judaism, there was a strong
tendency among Christian interpreters to ignore the obscure
beginnings in Galilee or elsewhere throughout the country and
to emphasize the importance of the new assembly which
ultimately came together at Jerusalem. This is the situation
in Acts, whose author apparently knows nothing and cares
nothing about earher and smaller assembHes. The apologetic
interest is especially noticeable in tjie account of the first
Christian Pentecost. Since this was the festival at which the
giving of the Jewish Law, and thus the birth of the nation,
were celebrated, it was appropriately made the natal day of
the new rival rehgion. Likely enough former friends of
Jesus came up to the feast from various parts of the country,
and those who had attained the new messianic faith would
spread the news of Jesus' appearances. Hence it may well be
that this first Pentecost marked a distinct stage in the growth
of the movement, but the historian must take account of
earlier stages in the development, recognizing the pragmatic
necessities under which the later interpreters labored.
The break with Judaism. — The early Christian preachers,
whenever the opportunity offered, tried to convince their
Jewish kinsmen that the end of the world was near at hand and
that Jesus had been elevated to messianic dignity in heaven
whence he would soon return to set up the apocalyptic king-
dom upon earth. All Jews were urged to accept this teaching
276 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
and thus guarantee for themselves a place in the new kingdom.
A few of them accepted, but the vast majority did not.
Again, the early Christians were enthusiasts. Jesus was
now in the messianic office in heaven, his return was near, and
the disciples felt themselves moved by the power of the divine
Spirit which had always been so important a factor in the his-
tory of Israel, especially at times of great crises in the life of a
prophet or leader. Now they were new prophets of the final
age and so believed themselves moved on occasion by the
power of the Spirit. The very foundation of their new faith
was an ecstatic vision of the heavenly Jesus, and they doubt-
less frequently experienced exceptional outbursts of new
enthusiasm. They even ventured to use the powerful name
of the heaven-exalted Jesus in working miraculous cures,
notwithstanding the Deuteronomic prohibition against all
forms of magical practice (Deut. 18:9-14).
At an early date the new faith was adopted by Hellenists,
that is, by Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora who had
returned to Jerusalem to reside either temporarily or perma-
nently. Among these converts, whose wider experience
tended to liberalize their views on some matters, the Christian
cause found new champions. Acts alludes very briefly to this
Hellenistic community in Jerusalem (chaps. 6 f.), but appar-
ently it was this leadership that especially incensed Saul
(Paul) and called forth his activity as a persecutor.
This whole course of development tended to differentiate
believers in Jesus' messiahship from other Jews, and the Chris-
tian community must soon have become a distinct group,
although its members still regarded themselves as thoroughly
good Jews.
Growth of missionary enterprise. — The rise of interest in
missions is one of the most puzzling problems in the history of
early Christianity. The earliest Christian preachers talking
in a Jewish synagogue at the regular Sabbath service were
propagandists from the start, but their confidence in the immi-
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 277
nence of the judgment day prevented them from planning
any extended missionary enterprise even to the Jewish people
scattered over the Graeco-Roman world. Much less would
they contemplate a mission to the Gentiles. But the Lord
delayed his coming and the Jews of Palestine in the main
rejected the new reformers' teaching. The pressure of this
situation must soon have produced the notion of a mission
to Jews of the Diaspora. This process of expansion had
doubtless begun before Paul appeared upon the scene, and
probably it went on in many quarters of the Graeco-Roman
world contemporaneously with Paul's missionary labors. It
would be a grave mistake to suppose that he and his
associates were the only persons doing missionary work
outside Palestine.
But who first conceived the idea of assembling believers
from among the Gentiles without first requiring them to
become proselytes to Judaism ? In the present status of our
information the question can hardly be answered with cer-
tainty. The practice of receiving gentile converts was in
vogue with Barnabas and Paul upon their so-called first
missionary journey to Asia Minor, and presumably it was
already a custom among Christians of Antioch who were
responsible for the mission of Barnabas and Paul. The
custom evidently was of spontaneous origin, and when later it
was made a matter of discussion it was approved even by the
Jerusalem church.
A more difficult but closely related question pertained to
table-fellowship between gentile and Jewish converts. Prob-
ably at first no questions were raised as to the propriety of
such fellowship among individuals of whatever nationality who
had believed in a common Lord and received the cleansing
rite of baptism in his name. But when the question came up
for theoretical consideration, the Jerusalem Christians were
unwilling to have Jewish converts violate the laws of cere-
monial purity by sitting down to table with Gentiles. It was
278 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
conceded that Gentiles might constitute Christian communi-
ties by themselves, but there must be no mixed communities.
This was the ruling against which Paul protested so vigorously
in the second chapter of Galatians. In the light of these
events, Peter can scarcely have decided to abandon the law of
clean and unclean meats at so early a date as Acts, chaps. 10 f.,
would imply. But after further reflection upon his experience
at Antioch (Gal. 2 : 1 1 f .) he may have taken this step, nor
would this be the first time that the author of Luke-Acts
had misplaced an incident. Peter continued his missionary
activities outside Palestine, and it would not be strange if he
also worked among non-Jews.
Although early missionaries went out from Palestine, the
native church still remained very conservative in its attitude
toward the gentile propaganda. Many Palestinians depre-
cated it entirely and opposed the work of Paul. Leaders like
James, however, approved the enterprise, but were offended
at the thought of free intercourse between Jewish and gentile
Christians in the same community. These are some of the
more important items which require study in reconstructing
this part of the history of early Christianity.
Life in the Palestinian communities. — Relatively little is
known of actual conditions within the Palestinian churches.
We may infer that many of the members were in straightened
circumstances, else Paul would not have been so diligent in
gathering his collection for their benefit. They undoubtedly
cultivated the Jewish type of religious life, attending regularly
upon the services of the synagogue and the temple. They
also met together to eat and pray, thereby cultivating their
own special interests, and among their number were certain
persons who naturally assumed a position of leadership. The
"Twelve" and relatives of Jesus were naturally given first
place. But in this whole region where exact information is
so scanty the historian must be particularly careful to test
statements from a later date when the notion of formal
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 279
organization had come to be a matter of primal importance, as
was the case with the author of Acts.
Later history of Palestinian Christianity. — At a com-
paratively early date the original leaders of the Christian
movement began to scatter. Barnabas, who had once been
prominent in Jerusalem, removed to Antioch where he and
Paul worked together. James the son of Zebedee was put to
death in 44 A.D., and Peter barely escaped a similar fate.
Henceforth Peter resided elsewhere and James the brother of
Jesus became leader of the Jerusalem church. Except for the
account of the Jerusalem council, and the story of Paul's
experiences on the occasion of his final visit to the city, the
career of the Palestinian Christians is scarcely mentioned in
any extant literature from the first century. Josephus refers
to the death of James in 62 a.d., and Eusebius gathered up a
few scattered notices regarding relatives of Jesus who con-
tinued to reside in Palestine. These fragmentary items of
information are indicative of the relatively minor position
which Palestinian Jewish Christians later occupied in the
main stream of the new religion's development.
Literature. — See appropriate sections in A. C. McGiffert, A History
of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, 2d ed. (New York: Scribner, 1899) ;
C. Weizsiicker, Das apostolische Zeitalter der christlichen Kirche, 3. Aufl.
(Tubingen: Mohr, 1901; English translation, The Apostolic Age of the
Christian Church, 2 vols., 2d ed. [New York: Putnam, 1899]); E. von
Dobschiitz, Die ur christlichen Gemeinden (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1902
English translation, Christian Life in the Primitive Church [New York
Putnam, 1904]) ; V. Bartlet, The Apostolic Age (New York: Scribner, 1899)
J. H. Ropes, The Apostolic Age in the Light of Higher Criticism (New
York: Scribner, 1906); E. F. Scott, The Beginnings of the Church (New
York: Scribner, 1915). See also brief sections in the books of P. Wernle,
H. J. Holtzmann, and H. Weinel, cited above, p. 270, and "General
References," below, p. 324. Special works of minor importance are
F. J. A. Hort, Judaistic Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1898);
G. Hoennicke, Das Judenchristentum im ersten und zweiten Jahrhundert
(Berlin: Towitzsch, 1908); A. Schmidtke, Neue Fragmente und Unter-
suchungen zu den judenchristlichen Evangelien: Ein Beitrag zur Literatur
und Geschichte der Judenchristen (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 191 1).
28o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
VI. GENTILE CHRISTIANITY IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE
Characteristics of the period. — From earliest times to
about 70 A.D. the new religion in gentile lands was hardly
distinguished from Judaism by outsiders. Its chief advocates,
such as Paul, Barnabas, Apollos, Peter, Silas, John Mark, were
all Jews by birth and training. Moreover, the Christian
preachers used the Jewish Scripture as their own sacred
literature, they did their work when possible in connection with
the Jewish synagogues, and they presented the new movement
as a continuation of ancient Hebrew religion.
On the other hand, between Jews and Christians them-
selves bitter enmity had developed. Not only were the
Christian missionaries unacceptable to the majority of the
Jews, but the Christian movement had by this time evolved
an independent organization which drew away from the
synagogue the support of all individuals who accepted Chris-
tianity. Hostility was further aggravated by the inroads
which Christianity made among the circle of "God-fearers."
These were Gentiles who attended the synagogue services,
admiring the ethical and spiritual heritage of Judaism, but
who were backward about identifying themselves completely
with the Jewish race. To them Christianity must have
made an especially strong appeal since it offered a means of
inheriting the spiritual values of Judaism without accepting
circumcision as a condition of participation in the full blessings
of salvation. Still another cause of discord in those circles
where liberal preachers of Paul's type labored was violation
of the rules of ceremonial purity by Christian Jews who freely
associated with gentile converts in the same community.
The gentile churches contained converts from many faiths.
The Jewish element predominated in some communities, while
in other places Gentiles were greatly in the majority. The
latter had been reared in one or more of the contemporary
pagan religions in which that ancient world abounded; conse-
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 281
quently a Christian community was likely to be varied in its
tastes, interests, and heritages. But as yet it was not fully
conscious of its own real permanence as an institution in the
world. Even gentile converts accepted the notion that the
world was to come to an end soon and in the manner described
by adherents to Jewish eschatological views.
Such are the general conditions to be kept in mind when
sketching the history of Christianity in gentile lands down to,
say, 70 A.D. The new movement is practically ignored by the
Graeco-Roman world at large; it is confined chiefly to the
lower strata of society where it encounters severe opposition
from the Jews; it draws its membership from the various
contemporary faiths; it has almost no real consciousness of
its own permanence as an institution, and it is still guided
in the main by leaders of the first generation who, roughly
speaking, are "apostles" or friends of apostles.
Sources of information. — Paul's epistles are the chief
direct sources of information for the period. But they are
merely occasional documents written at different times be-
tween the years 50 and 65 a.d., and are not at all designed
to furnish a comprehensive history of Christianity during its
early spread to gentile lands. Moreover, in dealing with
this period the author of Acts has been interested almost
exclusively in the activities of Paul. In consequence of this
one-sidedness of the sources a study of Christianity during
this period becomes almost exclusively a history of the
work of Paul. But we must not suppose that he and his
immediate associates were the only gentile missionaries
carrying on work during these years. For example, there was
an important church at Rome to which he wrote one of
his longest letters but with whose establishment he had had
nothing to do. Furthermore, Barnabas, Peter, Apollos, and
John Mark, as well as many other unknown persons, were at
the same time carrying on missionary activities, and a portion
at least of their labors fell in gentile territory.
282 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
The conversion of Paul. — Paul's conversion seemed to the
author of Acts to mark a distinct epoch in the history of the
new religion, and its epochal significance for Paul's own life
is attested in his letters (Gal. 1:15 f.; I Cor. 15:8; 9:1;
II Cor. 4:6). He says that the event marked the halting of
his vigorous activity as a persecutor and the revelation to him
of the heavenly Christ.
The exact content of Paul's experience at this time has
been much debated. From the historian's standpoint the
primary problem is to ascertain Paul's own view of the
matter and the factors in his environment which helped
him toward the attainment of this particular experience.
Following are the chief considerations involved in this
study:
1. Belief in the reality of apparitions was a common
possession in Paul's world.
2. Christian preaching regarding Jesus' elevation to a
position of angelic dignity in heaven, and his appearance to
certain of his followers, had been brought forcibly to Paul's
attention when persecuting the Christians.
3. Paul's own sensitive temperament is evidenced in the
vigor of his persecution as well as in his liability to ecstatic
experience after becoming a Christian.
4. His life in the Diaspora must also have brought him into
contact with a widely popular type of thinking in which mys-
tical experience was regarded as the summum honum in religion.
Even Jews were influenced by this notion, in spite of the fact
that it ran counter to the spirit of legalism. In the case
of Philo, for example, satisfaction for the mystical impulse was
found in the emotional discovery of hidden meanings in the
law — a result reached by freely applying the allegorical
method of interpretation. Paul as a Jew had evidently
been seeking mystical satisfactions under the law, though his
search may have been directed more along ascetic lines (cf.
Rom., chap. 7).
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 283
5. There were also many contemporary cults which by
their rites and teachings provided concrete means for realizing
mystical religious satisfaction through belief in a dying and
rising hero divinity hailed as Lord of the community. The
worship of "Lord'' Serapis, "Lord" Osiris, "Lady" Isis, and
several other similar divinities, had been flourishing in the
eastern Mediterranean lands a century and more before Paul's
conversion (see above, p. 247). These cults supplied to the
populace the mystical satisfactions which the more educated
classes sought in the realm of philosophical meditation.
The way in which familiarity with these cults may have
helped to prepare Paul for the acceptance of Christianity is
suggested in his statement that salvation is to be obtained by
following the simple recipe: "If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt beHeve in thy heart that God
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9).
The notion of a "Lord" in whose resurrection believers
exercised faith was doubtless well known to Paul from contact
with the Hellenistic world, but the pagan cults were too far
removed from Judaism to permit Paul as a Jew to make any
practical use of their imagery in his personal religious life. In
Christianity he first found it possible to bridge the chasm sepa-
rating Jewish legalism and Hellenistic mysticism.
6, Doubtless Paul was also familiar with the apocalyptic
beliefs of contemporary Judaism; hence the idea of the
heavenly Christ as preached by the Christians would all the
more readily find lodgment in Paul's mind.
These are some of the factors which were peculiar to Paul's
environment prior to his conversion and constituted the
setting for his experience. Modern psychological analysis
of religion had no place in Paul's world; hence the question
so often raised today as to the ultimate ground of the experi-
ence was never asked by him. He was convinced that he
had witnessed an actual vision of the living Lord, and in
this he was but repeating the conviction not only of other
284 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Christians who had seen visions of Jesus, but also of devotees
of the mystery-religions in which the initiate sometimes
believed himself favored by a vision of the god. Paul can
be understood historically only as we accustom ourselves to
the ways of thinking peculiar to Paul's own world.
Paul's career as a missionary. — In so far as the Christian
career of Paul is recoverable at all, it may easily be recon-
structed from his letters and from Acts. The special occasion
and purpose of each of his epistles will also appear as the
student follows the course of Paul's activity. Still there will
remain several questions not easy to answer. The extent
and character of his work for a dozen years previous to his
first missionary tour described in Acts, chaps. 13 f., are very
obscure. There is also a question whether the council in
Jerusalem reported in Acts, chap. 15, is identical with that
mentioned in Gal. 2:1-10. In view of Gal. 2:iif. it is also
doubtful whether Paul would have accepted the ''decrees,"
passing them on to the churches so obediently as Acts repre-
sents (15:22-29; 16:4). Again, it is not known positively
whether Paul addressed his Galatian letter to Christians in
Southern Galatia (Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and
Derbe) or to churches in the north of the province (e.g., at
Ancyra or Pessinus). Finally, was Paul released at the end of
the two years of Roman imprisonment mentioned in Acts ? If
so, did he ever carry out his intention of going to Spain (Rom.
15:24, 28), and what were the circumstances which brought
about his death ? These are some of the problems still open to
discussion in a study of the life of Paul; nevertheless his place
in the history of early Christianity is better known than that
of any of his contemporaries.
Missionary methods of Paul. — The methods employed by
him in his missionary work are particularly interesting. When
he and Barnabas went on their first tour, the church at Antioch
in Syria may have financed the enterprise (Acts 13 : 2 f .) ; but
later Paul worked strictly on his own account, and so his
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 285
activity was restricted mainly to industrial and commercial
centers where he and his companions could more easily earn
their livelihood as they preached. When troubles arose in
distant communities which had been established by himself,
or by some other Christian in his travels, Paul would write a
letter of instruction and exhortation, sending it by some
friend who might be passing that way. In cases of serious
trouble he endeavored to make a personal visit to the church,
but this was not always possible, and letter-writing was used
as a substitute.
The manner of propaganda was simple. When possible,
Paul embraced the opportunity which the Jewish synagogue
service offered for preaching, following the reading of the
Scripture. But this privilege usually was short-lived, since
Paul's message proved unacceptable to the Jewish authorities.
Probably much effective missionary work was done through
personal conversation with men and women engaged in the
same activities in the ordinary walks of life. Street preach-
ing was another means which was doubtless frequently
employed. One of the most characteristic phenomena of
that age was the traveling moral philosopher, the Cynic-
Stoic preacher, who went about exhorting men to live the
nobler life which these practical philosophers held up as the
ideal. The form of their discourse, known as the diatribe, is
reproduced in many portions of Paul's letters. As he dic-
tated these letters to an amanuensis he easily fell into the
style which he, like his fellow Stoic preachers, employed in
public discourse. The sophist was also a familiar figure in
that world. He was more of a public entertainer than the
Cynic-Stoic preacher, and followed the profession for its
lucrative possibilities. He often had a building or hall where
he instructed pupils in the art of oratory and where he gave
public exhibitions of his own oratorical skill. Paul speaks
rather disparagingly of the sophist's art (I Cor, 1:20), but it
was probably from one of these pedagogues in Ephesus that
286 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Paul rented a room for a certain time each day when he
pubKcly expounded the new rehgion in a manner not wholly
different from the method used by the sophist for propagating
his interests (Acts 19:9).
' Life in the Pauline communities. — How are we to think of
the new assemblies so often referred to as "churches"? It
must not be supposed that Christians at this time owned
buildings or that they supported elaborate organizations.
They assembled at the home of some member of the group^or
at some hall temporarily procured for the purpose when
they were able to pay the rental. The time of meeting was
either early in the morning before going to work or at night
after the labors of the day were over. A special service was
held on the first day of the week (Sunday)., but as yet there
was no such thing as a Sunday holiday. There were two kinds
of meeting, one private and the other public. The religious
meal was eaten at the former, while Scripture reading, singing,
and preaching took place in the latter (cf. I Cor. 14:26-33).
New members were admitted into full fellowship in the com-
munity through the rite of baptism.
There were no stated officials, but certain individuals
stood out more prominently than others because of their
ability to discharge particular functions. At first these
activities were wholly spontaneous and were credited to the
guidance of the Spirit. Prophesying, teaching, working
miracles, healing the sick, helping the needy, giving counsel,
speaking with tongues, and interpretation of tongues were
all effected through the agency of the Spirit (I Cor. 12 : 28-30).
Nevertheless conditions within this new society were not
always ideal. Its membership was varied, some being slaves
while others were fairly prosperous individuals. Different
tastes and opinions were represented, and occasionally there
were factions and even cases of moral laxity (e.g., I Cor.,
chaps. 1-6). Sometimes families were divided, one member
having adopted Christianity while the others remained ad-
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 287
herents of some pagan cult. And to add to the difficulty,
some of the communities were visited by Judaizers who
asserted that the Gentiles could not be saved unless they
accepted circumcision.
The Christianity of Paul. — What, in its main outlines,
was the type of Christianity represented by Paul ?
1. He strongly advocated a mystical, as opposed to a
legalistic, interpretation of religion. But he was a practical
rather than a philosophical mystic, that is, he attained to
union with Deity, not by means of meditation and intellectual
emotion, but through the medium of worship. To be "in
Christ," or to be "spiritual" — ^to use his characteristic modes
of expression — was a state which could be attained only in
connection with the new worshiping community. Hence the
great significance of its unique rites such as baptism and the
Lord's Supper.
2. The Christianity of Paul is also dominated by a vivid
eschatological hope phrased in the apocalyptic imagery of
Jewish messianism. If Paul's mysticism shows a distinct
Hellenistic coloring, his eschatology is emphatically Jewish in
type. The heavenly Christ with whom he enjoyed a perma-
nent mystical union, as realistic as that of the devotee in any
of the mystery-cults, was the Jewish Messiah soon to come
on the clouds in glory, and one of the chief incentives for
missionary enterprise was the thought of this impending
event.
3. The ethical note in Paul's exposition of Christianity is
also very prominent. He not only conserved those fine
ethical heritages which came to him from Judaism and from
the teaching of Jesus, but occasionally he also availed himself
of Stoic ideals widely current in his day.
Thus Paul so appreciated the needs of his environment,
and was himself so thoroughly an integral part of his world,
that he was able to deliver a religious message which made
a strong appeal to the men of his time. He himself had
288 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
encompassed so wide a range of experience that he was espe-
cially suited to the task of ministering to the needs of that
syncretistic age. He did not, to be sure, reach the higher
philosophical circles of the time, but this failure was in a
measure fortunate. The mission of Christianity still lay
for some years with the masses, and in fact, as we shall later
observe, it ultimately triumphed as an organized cult rather
than as a philosophy of religion.
Literature. — For the general period see the works of McGiffert,
Weizsacker, von Dobschiitz, Bartlet, Ropes, Wernle, Holtzmann, and
Weinel, cited above, p. 279; see also "General References" on p. 324.
Representative books on Paul are K. Lake, The Earlier Epistles of
St. Paul: Their Motive and Origin (London: Rivingtons, 191 1); H.
Weinel, Paulus der Mensch und sein Werk (Tubingen: Mohr, 1904; Eng-
lish translation, St. Paul the Man and His Work [New York: Putnam,
1906]); C. Clemen, Paulus sein Leben und Wirken, 2 Bde. (Giessen:
Topelmann, 1904); A. Deissmann, Paulus: Eine kiiltur- und religions-
geschichlichte Skizze (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 1; English translation, 5/. Pa«/,
a Study in Social and Religious History [New York : Hodder & Stoughton,
1912]); P. Gardner, The Religious Experience of St. Paul (New York:
Putnam, 191 1); W. Wrede, Paulus (Tubingen: Mohr, 1904; English
translation, Paul [Boston: American Unitarian Association, 1908]);
A. Schweitzer, Geschichte der paulinischen Forschung von der Reformation
bis auf die Gegenwart (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 1 ; English translation, Paul
and His Interpreters: A Critical History [London: Black, 191 2]).
Some important special discussions are H. Gunkel, Die Wirkungen des
heiligen Geistes nach der popular en Anschauung der apostolischen Zeit und
der Lehre des Apostels Paulus, 3. Aufl. (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und
Ruprecht, 1909); M. Dibelius, Die Geisterwelt ini Glauhen des Paulus
(Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1909); H. A. A. Kennedy,
St. Paul and the Mystery-Religions (New York: Hodder Sz: Stoughton,
1913); J.Weiss, Beitrdge zur paulinischen Rhetorik (Gottingen: Vanden-
hoeck und Ruprecht, 1897); R. Bultmann, Der Stil der paulinischen
Predigt und die kynisch-stoische Diatribe (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und
Ruprecht, 1910) ; H. Bohlig, Die Geisteskultur von Tarsos im augusteischen
Zeitalter mit Beriicksichtigung der paulinischen Schriften (Gottingen:
Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1913); K. Benz, Die Ethik des Apos-
tels Paulus (Freiburg: Mohr, 191 2); A. Jiilicher, Paulus und Jesus
(Tubingen: Mohr, 1907); W. HeitmiiUer, Taufe und Abendmahl bei
Paulus (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1903).
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 289
VII. GENTILE CHRISTIANITY IN POST-APOSTOLIC TIMES
General characteristics. — This period extends from about
70 to 140 A.D. As compared with the previous period in the
history of gentile Christianity, it shows several distinctive
characteristics. By the year 70 the original apostolic leaders
had quite generally given place to men of the second genera-
tion, and indifference on the part of the Roman authorities had
changed into a growing hostility which occasionally broke out
in more or less vigorous persecutions. Within the com-
munities themselves the spontaneous ecstatic life of former
days was less in evidence, and a more formal leadership and
organization came to be the rule. But still believers con-
tinued to look longingly toward a future world-catastrophe
for the full realization of Christianity's mission. While
Jewish apocalyptic expectations were not always pictured
so vividly as they were in Paul's thinking, still the advocates of
the new religion in this period never came to regard their
chief mission as that of establishing Christianity in a present
enduring world-order. The new movement was gaining
rapidly in the strength by which it was later able to take
possession of the Graeco-Roman world, but as yet it was quite
unconscious of its power and made almost no deliberate
attempts either to defend itself against persecution or to
appropriate for itself the political, economic, religious, and
intellectual forces of the day.
Sources of information. — For the first time in the history
of early Christianity the direct sources of information now
become fairly numerous. They are, in the first place, several
extant letters written, as in the case of Paul's epistles, to meet
some immediate demand. Hence they reflect very clearly
certain local situations. Important examples of this class
of literature are the epistle of Clement of Rome to the Corin-
thians, the seven letters of Ignatius written while on his way
to Rome to be martyred, Polycarp's letter to the Philippians,
and still other letters of doubtful authorship but of similarly
290 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
valuable content, such as I and II Peter, I-III John, Jude,
and the letters of Revelation to the seven churches of Asia.
Other documents commonly classed as letters are less specific
in character but are valuable for the light they shed on general
conditions. In some cases they were designed as circular
letters, while in other instances they may originally have been
Christian homilies or sermons. Among these documents
I and II Timothy and Titus were apparently intended as
handbooks" for the use of young pastors, while Hebrews,
James, and Barnabas have more of the character of homilies.
Another type of literature characteristic of this age is
the so-called "gospel." This form of writing was designed for
the instruction and edification of individuals or of communi-
ties, and as tastes and needs varied in different parts of the
widening mission field several different written gospels took
shape. Those called by the names of Mark, Matthew, Luke,
and John have been preserved in the New Testament, while
others once highly prized in certain circles are now known only
in fragments. Such are the Gospel according to the Hebrews
and the Gospel of Peter. The Gospels, as well as the Book of
Acts, all purport to deal with the history of the earlier age,
yet their point of view and method of treatment often dis-
close something of the specific conditions amid which the
authors themselves lived. In addition to these indirect
sources, other writings similarly designed for purposes of
instruction deal directly with problems of post-apostolic times.
The Didache belongs here, and also II Clement and Diognetus
— if the two last-named documents are not really of later
date. Lastly, the Apocalypse of John (Revelation), a frag-
ment of the Apocalypse of Peter, and perhaps also the older
elements of the Shepherd of Hernias belong in this period.
Evidences of growth. — The course of Christianity's spread
during these years cannot be traced in detail. There is no
ancient document which reconstructs the career of a single
missionary in the way that the author of Acts follows Paul's
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 291
activity. Nor did any Christian leader of post-apostolic
times stand out so pre-eminently as did Paul in his generation.
But significant leaders were not lacking, as the names of
Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp show.
Although comparatively little is known of individual
leaders, the student of the period will be struck by some
notable evidences of the new religion's expansion. About the
year 112 a.d. Pliny the Younger wrote to the Emperor Trajan
describing the situation in the province of Bithynia-Pontus
over which Pliny had recently been appointed governor. He
said that the new religion had spread not only among the
cities, but even in the villages and country districts, until the
worship of the old gods had been seriously impaired. There
was no longer any demand for sacrificial victims or for the
fodder which formerly had been regularly purchased by their
keepers. This economic decline, due to the wide spread of
Christianity, caused Pliny real alarm.
There is also evidence of Christianity's increased impor-
tance in territory where it had already been in existence
during apostohc times. This is particularly true of the
Province of Asia. Ephesus is still the chief seat of the new
religion, but important Christian communities are now found
in various cities (e.g., Smyrna, Pergamum, Philadelphia,
Sardis, Tralles, Hierapolis, Laodicea, Colossae, Magnesia,
Thyatira). In Syria and Palestine, in Macedonia, in Greece,
in Italy, and in Egypt there are also signs of growth. Even
North Africa, Gaul, and Spain were probably reached by
Christian preachers during this period.
Relation to Judaism. — The breach between Christians and
Jews of the Diaspora was already wide at the end of the
Apostolic Age, and hostility between the two religions con-
tinued to increase during the subsequent years. The fall of
Jerusalem in 70 a.d. was regarded by the Christians as a
direct punishment of the Jews for their rejection of the Chris-
tian message. Paul's expectation that his own countrymen
292 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
would accept the Gospel when they saw the Gentiles coming
into the kingdom (e.g., Rom. ii : 25 £f.) was abandoned, and a
belief that the Jewish people were to be utterly rejected
appears clearly in such writings as Matthew, Luke-Acts,
and John. Christians now claimed that they, as gentile
converts to the new faith, were the true people of God with
exclusive rights to the Old Testament revelation and all its
promises. The old covenant had been merely anticipatory,
hence it was now the proper possession of the new religion in
which it had come to fulfilment. Christians accordingly used
the ancient Scripture to substantiate their new teaching,
allegorizing or ignoring those features which could not be
appropriated directly. Various interpreters tried their skill
at this task and the varying results are observable in docu-
ments like I Clement, Hebrews, and Barnabas.
The Jews, as would be expected, resented the Christians'
mode of procedure. Those Jews who had adopted Chris-
tianity were regarded as apostates, and the use of the Old
Testament in gentile Christian communities was viewed as a
defilement of the Scripture. Hostility was all the more
bitter because in many places Jewish and Christian com-
munities existed side by side as competitors in appealing for a
following among the heathen. Under these circumstances
bitter enmity was inevitable, and it is not surprising that the
Jews embraced every opportunity to persuade the authorities
that Christianity was politically dangerous. It is this situa-
tion which causes the author of Revelation to exclaim that the
Jews of Asia are veritably a synagogue of Satan (2:9; 3:9).
It is noticeable also that the writers of Luke-Acts and John
take pains to show that the Roman authorities of earlier
days found Christianity politically harmless in spite of Jewish
allegations to the contrary. These are indications of the real
difficulties under which Christians were laboring as a result of
the new religion's continued Jewish connections in post-
apostolic times.
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 293
Relation to the Roman state. — The new movement con-
fronted a still graver difficulty when Roman officials began to
realize that it no longer stood within Judaism. The Jewish
religion enjoyed a large measure of tolerance within the Roman
Empire, and Christianity at first shared in this privilege. But
in the post-apostolic age its independence came to be more and
more appreciated by the state authorities, who occasionally
sought to suppress the new" ''superstition," as they called it.
The exact charge upon which Christians were condemned is
not always clear, but the causes of official interference are
easily discovered. In the first place Rome was on principle
intolerant of new cults, at whose secret meetings disturbers
might hatch up political sedition. Sometimes the Jews took
advantage of this situation and accused Christians before
the suspicious Roman magistrates. Moreover, pagans also
were often ill-disposed toward these new religionists who
held aloof from the common life of the community, and so
won for themselves the epithet of " haters of the human race."
Christianity also disturbed economic conditions, as Pliny's
letter attests. And, finally, when Christians were haled
before the magistrates they would neither acknowledge
Caesar's lordship nor offer incense before his image, thus
virtually refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the
state.
The specific occasions when Christians suffered persecu-
tion during this period are not altogether clear. In the
closing years of apostolic times (64 a.d.) Nero had infficted
tortures on Christians at Rome, but probably his action did
not extend beyond the city. There were persecutions again
under Domitian (81-96 a.d.) which may have reached Asia
and given occasion for the writing of Revelation and I Peter.
Similar events recurred under Trajan (98-117), Hadrian (117-
38), and Antoninus Pius (138-61). But probably the extent
and severity of these early persecutions have been somewhat
exaggerated in later tradition.
294 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Organization and worship. — In post-apostolic times the
earlier spontaneous life as seen in the Pauline communities was
supplanted by a somewhat more orderly and formal practice.
Yet the primitive spontaneity was not entirely lost. There
were still the public and the private meetings, though the
latter were tending to disappear. Small groups met at private
homes for prayer, reading and interpretation of Scripture, and
exhortation. But greater importance attached to the general
meetings, especially to those held on Sunday. The members
came together at the home of some Christian who could
furnish the necessary room, or else they assembled in some
place rented for the purpose. There was one gathering
early in the morning where the time was taken up with
Scripture reading, prayer, and preaching. There was another
assembly in the evening after the day's work was over when
the love feast (Agape) was eaten and the Eucharist was cele-
brated. But the Agape gradually disappeared from formal
worship, becoming a private social function, while the Euchar-
ist was taken over into the other service where its ritualistic
character was still further emphasized. For example,
Did. 10:3 calls it ''spiritual food and drink and eternal life";
in John 6 : 5 1-59 it is said that they alone have eternal life
who eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man; and
for Ignatius the Eucharist is the very "medicine of immor-
tality," the ''bread of God" (Eph. 20:2; Rom. 7:3; see
also Justin Apol. i. 66. 2).
The rite of baptism is also further formalized in this period.
Apparently it may still be administered by any Christian, as
in Paul's day (I Cor. 1:14-17), but several specific prescrip-
tions for its observance are laid down (e.g., Did., chap. 7).
The candidates undergo a preliminary training ending in
a season of fasting immediately preceding the administra-
tion of the rite marking the individual's entrance into
full membership in the church. Baptism freed him from
the dominion of, evil demons and supplied him with the
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 295
Holy Spirit, all of which meant a new birth and a divine
enlightenment.
In post-apostolic times the new society also became more
formally officered than it had been in the preceding genera-
tion. This phase in the historical development is often
obscure, but its main outlines are recoverable. It is very clear
that the authority of the persons who directed the affairs of
the Pauline community at Corinth rested in their functional
capacity rather than in official appointment. Yet Paul
himself recognized the special authority of the leaders at
Jerusalem, although unwilling to admit that their authority
was superior to his own. The author of Acts, however, has
gone so far in his desire for formal official leadership as to make
the Jerusalem apostles virtually a college of overseers in-
trusted with the task of supervising affairs not only in the
local community, but also in all the adjacent missionary fields.
This is the general direction taken by the developing ecclesi-
astical organization of the post-apostolic age. As yet there is
no central authority for all Christendom, but local leadership
tends to center in a monarchical bishop with presbyters and
deacons as his subordinates. The duties of various officials
become more exactly defined, and the activities of the pneu-
matic traveling prophet are less highly esteemed.
The content of Christian teaching. — The teaching heard
within the Christian communities of post-apostolic times was
still very largely Jewish in content. As yet the only recog-
nized canonical books were those of the Old Testament,
although many distinctly Christian writings were in circula-
tion and were read for edification. The memory of the blessed
apostles was everywhere cherished, but their writings had
not yet been made canonical. Yet a tendency in this direc-
tion had begun to show itself, especially in the new conception
of Christianity as a specific body of teaching authoritatively
defined and once for all delivered unto the saints (e.g., II Tim.
1:14; Jude, vs. 31).
296 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
This growing deposit of faith was composed of many differ-
ent elements. As in earlier times, Jewish ideas about God,
angels, Satan, and demons were prominent. The end of the
world and the coming of the apocalyptic Messiah were still
preached (e.g., Mark 9:1; I Clem, 23:3-5; Ignatjus Eph.
11: i; Barn. 4:3, 9), and different explanations were offered
to account for the delay in the Messiah's coming (e.g., Mark
13:10; II Peter 3:4 ff.). In the meantime Christians called
themselves the true people of God on earth, and the whole
course of the world's history was believed to head up in the
church. The significance of Jesus' work occupied the center
of distinctively Christian teaching, but christological specula-
tion moved along several new lines. For example, the Gospel
of Mark pictured Jesus' uniqueness in terms of spiritual
endowment at baptism; the authors of Matthew and Luke
added the notion of miraculous birth; in John the idea of the
incarnate Logos was adopted to explain Jesus' person. Igna-
tius also insisted emphatically upon the idea of a literal
incarnation of Deity in Jesus, while other thinkers like
Clement of Rome and the authors of Hebrews, Barnabas, and
the Gospel according to the Hebrews made their respective
contributions to Christology. While Jesus was elevated to a
position approaching more nearly that of the heavenly Christ
revered in the worshiping community, Christianity cannot
be said to have evolved as yet any one self-consistent form of
christological speculation.
In several quarters the Christian teaching of this period
is framed to offset the work of "false teachers." These
disturbers were not unknown in apostolic times (e.g., the
Judaizers), but later they became more prevalent and more
dangerous. The author of Revelation warns his readers
against these individuals in Ephesus, in Pergamum, and in
Thyatira. The letters of John and Jude, and by implication
also the Gospels of Luke and John, show a similar anxiety for
the preservation of the true faith as understood by the
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 297
orthodox. The Pastoral Epistles several times caution
readers against being caught in the snare of vain disputations,
and both Ignatius and Polycarp denounce the heretics.
Numerous incidental references in other documents show
how general these disturbances already had become (e.g.,
Matt. 7:15-23; 24:iif.; Acts8:2of.; 2o:2gi.] Heb. 13:9;
I Pet. 2:16; James 3:13 ff.; Did., chap. 11; I Clem., chaps.
23 ff.; Barn., chap 4). These errors are occasional, varied,
and for the most part still within the church. Their general
tendency, however, is in the direction of Gnosticism, which
later, as we shall see, developed into an independent Chris-
tian movement.
Attention must be called to one other phase of Christian
teaching characteristic of this period. Although the advocates
of Christianity were quite unconscious of the process, the new
movement was gradually becoming an integral part of the
religious life of the Graeco-Roman world. A few indications
of this fact may be observed in passing. While Christians
believed that they were perpetuating Hebrew monotheism
in its purity, in the prayers, hymns, confessions, and other
ritualistic acts of the worshiping community, the heavenly
Christ was treated as himself a deity, just as was done in the
case of the special divinities worshiped in the contemporary
Hellenistic cults. The titles "Lord" and "Savior," current
in the cult of the emperor and in the mystery-religions, were
freely applied to the risen Jesus. His "Name" had the same
magical significance as that of other divinities, and in fact the
new movement sometimes was called simply the religion of the
"Name." While Ignatius was the first to call Jesus God
outright, the place which Jesus occupied in the reverence of
the community from the very beginning of post-apostolic times
was virtually that of Deity. Nor was Christian thinking any
longer content as Paul had been to locate Jesus' career as
Deity in heaven only; he was also God while on earth. The
earlier apostolic problem of the man- God now became the
298 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
problem of the God-man. In their efforts to solve this prob-
lem the post-apostolic Christians freely availed themselves of
contemporary Hellenistic thinking, in which the God-man was
a familiar figure.
Various subsidiary phases of Christian thinking during
this period also show the influence of the Graeco-Roman
environment. Jewish views regarding the fate of the soul
after death were not entirely abandoned, but they were to a
considerable extent fused with a more distinctly Greek
imagery. Less importance was now attached to the resusci-
tation of the body and the notion of final judgment, and more
stress was placed upon the soul's entrance into final blessed-
ness immediately after death (e.g., Luke 16:22; 23:43; John
14:2 f.). The complementary idea of a place of punishment to
which the wicked went immediately upon leaving the earth was
also a popular Hellenistic notion (cf. Luke 16:23, ^^d espe-
cially the Apocalypse of Peter). The conception of religion as
the attainment of "Knowledge" and "Life" — ideas occurring
in the Didache, John, I Clement, and Ignatius — have striking
parallels in contemporary Hellenicism. The peculiarly Stoic
notion of divine immanence also finds expression in such
Christian statements as "in him we live and move and have
our being" (Acts 17:28).
The Christian life. — In post-apostolic times Christian
living also had its characteristic features. The personnel of
the communities was greatly diversified. Most of the mem-
bership was still composed of adult converts — some from
Judaism, but a rapidly increasing majority from paganism.
Various nationalities were represented, as well as many differ-
ent tastes and interests. The new movement was located
mainly in the cities, although in some places it had penetrated
into the country districts. The majority of its adherents
still belonged to the lower classes, but the number of
prosperous and more influential converts was gradually
increasing.
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 299
Christians were exhorted by their teachers to hold them-
selves scrupulously aloof from the contaminating influences
of heathen society. Not only heathen worship, but pagan
life in general, was adjudged a work of Satan and his evil
demons. Over against this Satanic society stood the assembly
of the saints on earth. To be sure, many Christians proved
themselves to be mere babes in sainthood, as the leaders of the
new religion often sadly admitted. But the ideal was high,
and much attention was given to the means by which it
might be attained. Of course the rites of the cult were
indispensable, but the daily life of the individual needed
constant attention if the highest attainments in piety were to
be reached.
Among these special means of grace the Spirit still held an
important place. Spiritual manifestations were more care-
fully controlled than in Paul's day, and the Spirit was no longer
so completely regulative for all Christian activities. Yet it
was thought to be the common possession of all believers
(e.g., Heb. 6:4; Barn. 1:2; I Clem. 2:2; I John 2:20). It
expressed itself in various ways, but especial emphasis now
fell upon the activity of the Spirit in communicating to men
the Old Testament revelation. The prophetic Spirit speak-
ing through the Scriptures now took precedence over those
more spontaneous forms of charismatic activity characteristic
of apostolic times.
Some new instruments for the attainment of special grades
of piety were discovered, or newly applied, in post-apostolic
times. One very serious question concerned the treatment
of members who sinned after becoming Christians. Certain
heinous sins seem generally to have been regarded as unpardon-
able (Mark 3 : 29 f. ; Heb. 6:4 £f.; Did. 11:7; I John 5: 16 f.),
but a large opportunity for repentance was usually allowed
(Rev. 2:21 f.; John 7:53 — 8:11). Much stress was placed
upon the act of confession, especially public confession, as a
condition of forgiveness. Those of stronger moral character
300 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
sought to transcend the ordinary requirements of righteous-
ness and win special merit through the performance of
''good works" — almsgiving, fasting, special prayer, and
asceticism. The greatest rewards, however, could be attained
only through martyrdom.
Thus two main grades of piety came to be generally recog-
nized. The lower was that of the ordinary man who, from lack
of opportunity or through native inability, was unable to attain
to the higher level. On the other hand, a chosen few, diligent
in almsgiving, prayer, fasting, ascetic observances, and wit-
nessing, attained to a position of especial reverence in the
community and were believed to inherit the richest rewards of
heaven.
Literature. — The best book on this specific period is R. Knopf, Das
nachapostolische Zeitalter (Tubingen: Mohr, 1905). See also books on
the Apostohc Age (above, p. 279), which sometimes treat the period only
in so far as the New Testament writings are connected with the history.
See also "General References" (below, p. 324).
VIII. THE WORK OF THE EARLY APOLOGISTS
New tendencies. — When a student has followed with some
care the course of Christianity's development in post-apostolic
times, he has become familiar with the main features char-
acterizing the new religion during the next two generations.
The age of the apologists did not produce any very radically
new features in Christianity. Yet, although the leading
apologists themselves stood definitely within the Christian
communities as already established, they do represent certain
new tendencies in the growth of the new religion. In general,
they aim to show that Christianity is really deserving of a
recognized place in the world. The patient unaggressive
attitude of earlier times is gradually superseded by a growing
disposition toward self-defense and aggression. The apologists
address themselves to the emperors; they contend for the
superiority of Christianity over the culture and religion of
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 301
the contemporary world; they vigorously attack Jewish
opponents, and occasionally they also refute the heretics
who have now become independent of the church.
The individual apologists. — ^Apart from writings like
Luke-Acts and John, which are essentially apologetic in spirit
if not in form, the earliest apologist known is Quadratus. But
only a very small fragment of his work, which was addressed
to Hadrian about 124 a.d., is now extant. About the year
150 Aristides, a Christian philosopher of Athens, addressed
to Antoninus Pius a defense of Christianity, the main con-
tention being that true knowledge of God is found only in the
new religion. While the Jews profess to believe in one god
they are accused of really worshiping angels; the gods of the
Greeks are merely gross anthropomorphic creatures, and the
deities of the barbarians are simply the forces of nature.
Only by the fourth division of humanity, the Christians, is
God truly known and worshiped.
Justin was a Hellenistic philosopher converted to Chris-
tianity in Asia about 130 a.d., but his chief work was done
at Rome, where he conducted a Christian school until over-
taken by a martyr's death about the year 165. Among his
genuine extant writings are a longer and a shorter apology in
which he contends for the innocence of Christians and affirms
that Christianity is worthy of recognition as the true rehgion
and the true philosophy. Similarly, in another work, the Dia-
logue with Trypho, Christianity's superiority over Judaism is
affirmed on the ground that Christians alone are the true Israel.
Tatian, a pupil of Justin, also addressed a defense of
Christianity to the Greeks. He describes Greek culture as a
body of error, while Christianity is the true wisdom running
back through all antiquity. Moses is said to have antedated
Homer by four hundred years, and since the Old Testament is
claimed as the pecuHar property of Christianity, the new
rehgion possesses both the prestige of antiquity and the deposit
of real revelation.
302 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Several fragments are preserved from Melito of Sardis, who
addressed an apology to Marcus AureKus. To the same
emperor Athenagoras, possibly of Athens, directed an appeal
on behalf of the Christians about 177 a.d. The argument
proceeded along usual lines, defending Christians against
calumnies and dwelling upon the nobihty of the Christian con-
ception of God. In still another work Athenagoras attempted
to furnish a philosophical basis for behef in the resurrection.
Theophilus, bishop of Antioch in Syria, some time after
the death of Marcus Aurelius (180 a.d.) also composed three
apologetic books addressed to a heathen called Autolycus.
About the same date a Roman Christian, Minucius Felix,
wrote a defensive treatise modeled after Cicero's De natura
deorum.
All these early apologists were interested in demanding
tolerance frorn the state and in defending the new reHgion's
superiority over pagan religions and philosophies. To a less
extent they refuted Jewish critics, and incidentally they now
and then condemned heretics. Thus representative leaders
in different parts of Christendom were beginning to widen
their range of vision and claim for the new rehgion a recog-
nized place in that ancient world.
The specific problem of the apologists. — All the apologists
were engaged in the general task of proving to the heathen
the absolute rationality and universahty of the Christian
religion, the true philosophy. But their more specific prob-
lem was a christological one. During the Apostolic Age, and
especially in post-apostolic times, the process of pushing back
upon the earthly Jesus the glory of the heavenly Christ was
gradually completed. No distinction Vas any longer made
between the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith to whom
Christians directed their prayers and confessions, in whose
name they were baptized, of whose immortal substance they
partook in the Eucharist, and whose divine glory they cele-
brated in their hymns. The fulness of Deity thus popularly
, THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 303
ascribed to the heavenly Christ was freely posited of the man
Jesus. He was now definitely called a Second God (Seurepos
debs). The apologists shared in full this item of popular
faith, and the necessity of defending it against the charge of
polytheism gave them their special problem. Polytheism
had long ago been discarded, not only by Jews, but by the
better educated classes of the Graeco-Roman world, and
strong monotheistic tendencies had appeared within those
circles where either Platonic idealism or Stoic pantheism
exerted a dominating influence. Christians were now
accused of being polytheists both by Jewish and by pagan
critics. Jewish criticism was taken less seriously, since hope
of winning any large Jewish following had been abandoned.
But the desirability of meeting gentile objections was felt
more keenly, and the apologists set themselves to the specific
task of proving that Christians were really monotheists in spite
of the fact that they worshiped Jesus as God.
The Logos Christology. — The chief instrument employed
by the apologists in defense of Christian monotheism was the
notion of the Logos. This word, which was already doing
service in various connections among their pagan contempo-
raries, was appropriated by the apologists without any
thoroughgoing attempt to define its exact meaning. Their
primary interest was in -Christianity as a new cult, and
philosophical terminology was employed only as an expedient
to serve the apologetic needs of the religionist. In other words ,
we have here to do with the religionist turned philosopher and
not with the philosopher interpreting religion in terms of a
carefully devised system of philosophical speculation.
This opportunist character of the apologists' work is
apparent in their Christology. While they called Jesus God,
they endeavored to unite him with the supreme Deity by
means of the Logos as a divine emanation or hypostasis. In
this way they hoped not only to meet the demands of philo-
sophical monotheism but to estabhsh the rationality and
304 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
universality of Christianity. Since the Logos was commonly
supposed to be the source of all intelligence within the universe
everywhere and at all times, all the enhghtenment of the past
could be called essentially Christian in content and all present
and future wisdom must be sought within Christian circles
where the Logos had finally been perfectly revealed.
The philosophical versus the mythical motive. — ^Happy
as this Christian apologetic may on first sight seem, it con-
tained features which made it impossible of acceptance for
the real philosopher of that day. It was of the nature of all
genuine Hellenistic Logos-doctrine that man by creation had
the Logos-enlightenment in virtue of which he could by
searching find out God. This was emphatically denied by the
apologists, whose ultimate criterion of religious knowledge was
not reason at all, but supernatural, special revelation. The-
oretically they allowed that the Logos had been present in the
gentile world before the coming of Christ, yet they affirmed
that this manifestation was of a very inferior sort and that
the Greek philosophers had in the main produced only a
mass of errors. Nor could a contemporary philosopher attain
true wisdom outside the Christian community. Ultimately
true philosophy, i.e., true religion, was a divine donation
rather than a human attainment, and could be acquired only
through acquaintance with revelation contained in the Old
Testament and finally brought to completion in the Logos
Christ.
When the apologists took this stand they really sided, not
with the philosophers, but with the mythologists of their day.
The Christian Logos was not a normal quantum of divine
rational energy possessed in common by mankind, but a
heroic figure descended to earth under one special set of cir-
cumstances in order to redeem a hopelessly lost humanity.
By interpreting Christianity in this way the apologists
probably did more to secure its place in that world than they
could have done by adopting outright the more rational
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTL\NITY 305
methods of philosophy. Although the mythical deities of
Greece and Rome were no longer generally revered, the mythi-
cal motive was still strong even among the educated. The
force of this motive outside of Christianity is amply attested,
for example, in the abundant allegory of the Stoics. By
employing this device they recognized, in spite of their insist-
ence upon the rational (XoyLKos) character of the whole uni-
verse, that in the realm of religion the functioning significance
of myth was far stronger than that of reason.
In mythicizing the Logos by identifying it with an indi-
vidual the apologists were not doing absolutely original work.
Their notable predecessor within Christianity was the author
of the Fourth Gospel, but both he and they had Hellenistic
predecessors. The outstanding Hellenistic figure who was
supposed to have functioned as the creative, revealing, redeem-
ing Logos was Hermes, though various other divine heroes,
such as Osiris and Thot among the Egyptians, played a similar
role. When Christians pictured Jesus as the incarnation of the
enlightening, saving Logos they were but giving further evi-
dence of their skill and wisdom in reinterpreting his career
in such way as to make him minister to the needs of that larger
world to which expanding Christianity was now making its
appeal.
Literature. — In addition to appropriate sections of books mentioned
among "General References" (p. 324), see J. Geffcken, Zwei griechische
Apologeten (Leipzig: Teubner, 1907); J. Riviere, Saint Justin et les
apologistes du second siecle (Paris: Bloud, 1907); A. Peuch, Les Apolo-
gistes grecs du IP siecle de notre ere (Paris: Hachette, 191 2).
IX. GNOSTICISM
General characteristics. — ^Another effort to connect early
Christianity with contemporary Hellenicism was made in the
movement commonly termed Gnosticism. This attempt was
much more thoroughgoing than that of the apologists, it pro-
ceeded along quite different lines, and it met with strong
3o6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
opposition from Christians themselves. The apologists
subordinated speculation to the faith of the worshiping com-
munity, they dealt mainly with the christological problem,
and they kept Christianity bound up closely with the Jewish
Scriptures. The Gnostics, on the other hand, made specula-
tion paramount, they freely deviated from the traditional
opinions of the community, their main problem was soteriology
rather than Christology, and they generally sought to sever
Christianity from its Jewish connections.
There was still another fundamental difference between the
Gnostics and the apologists. In so far as the latter were con-
trolled by speculative interests they inclined toward the
monistic world-view of the Stoics and endeavored by a shifty
use of the Logos-idea to fit into this philosophical schema the
essentially contradictory notion of a special supernatural
revelation mediated through the Jewish Scripture and the
Christian cult. On the contrary, the Gnostics were out-and-
out dualists. The good and the evil worlds were sharply con-
trasted, and were not united by any natural bond. Man
belonged to the evil world, his soul only having any original
connection with the good, and in his present state he was
utterly helpless until aid came to him from the supernatural
realm. And since this help came for the express purpose of
delivering the soul from the world of evil matter, the divine
deliverer could have no essential and natural bond of unity
with matter. Hence the Gnostics' fundamental interest in
soteriology and their comparative lack of interest in the his-
torical man Jesus whom the apologists sought to define in
terms of the Logos incarnation.
The antecedents of Gnosticism. — In order to understand
the genius of Christian Gnosticism one must glance briefly at
its antecedents. It used to be said that Gnosticism resulted
from a fusion of Greek philosophy and Christianity in the
second century, but the investigations of recent years have
shown the inadequacy of this hypothesis. Scholars now
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 307
recognize a pre-Christian as well as a Christian Gnosticism,
its philosophical basis in each case being far more oriental
than Hellenic. It is Hellenistic to be sure, in that it com-
bines Hellenic and oriental elements, but the latter largely
predominate. For instance, Gnostic dualism is not of the
Platonic type which distinguishes between an ideal and
invisible world on the one hand and a real and visible one on
the other, the latter being modeled after the former. In con-
trast with Plato, Gnostic dualism posited two opposing
dominions within the visible world, one presided over by the
powers of darkness and the other belonging to the kingdom
of light. Matter was wholly evil, and only through a divine
redemption could the human soul be delivered from its
bondage in matter. Hence salvation meant deliverance from
the dominion of evil — a deliverance to be realized by the
individual through a knowledge of the good Deity as revealed
in the teaching and sacraments of the cult. Therefore knowl-
edge {yvcoaLS, gnosis) in the Gnostic sense has nothing to do
with philosophical knowledge in the Greek sense of the word,
but is an affair of supernatural revelation. These, and a
host of other distinctive Gnostic notions which might be
mentioned, prove beyond question the genuinely oriental
character of the movement — whether we trace it ultimately
to Persia, Babylonia, or Egypt.
Relation to Paul. — At the outset it must be apparent
that Paul was to some extent influenced by this same type
of oriental thinking. His duahstic world-view, like that of
other Jews of his day, was essentially oriental. For him
"flesh" was a serious hindrance to spiritual life, even if he
did not assign a wholly evil origin to matter. The prac-
tically hopeless condition of the human soul in its natural
state, and the absolute necessity of supernatural redemption,
were also characteristic Pauline ideas. The notion of an
indwelling heavenly possession within the believer — which he
usually called Spirit rather than gnosis — his deprecatory
3o8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
estimate of marriage, and his pessimistic view of the present
world generally are all of a piece with the pre-Christian
Gnostic way of thinking.
But Paul was quite un-Gnostic in supposing that the
world of matter could have been created by the good Deity,
and in holding that supernatural revelation came through spe-
cific historical events, such as the giving of the Law to Moses
or the advent of Jesus. These and other differences separated
Paul from the pre-Christian Gnostics, yet the similarity be-
tween him and them was so close that Gnosticism and Chris-
tianity fused most readily in the realm of PauHnism. As a
consequence of this fact the main stream of Christianity,
which ran counter to the gnosticizing of the new religion,
also practically rejected Paul during the period when the
Gnostic movement was most aggressive. This situation
prevailed all through post-apostolic times as well as during the
age of the early apologists.
Earliest contact with Christianity. — Previous to the rise
of definite Christian Gnostic leaders who estabhshed inde-
pendent Gnostic movements, traces of Gnostic influence upon
Christianity appear in several quarters even outside of the
PauHne epistles. The false teachers of early post-apostohc
days (see above, p. 296) usually represent some form of
this speculation, although they sometimes differed widely
from one another, since Gnosticism was not really a uniform
system but a family of kindred tendencies in thinking. For
example, within the churches addressed by the author of
Revelation there were members who claimed to be so thor-
oughly enhghtened and free from this world that they could
visit the heathen feasts, or even break the rules of chastity,
with impunity. They seem to have thought that since
Gnostic salvation was an affair of the spirit only it was of httle
or no consequence what the mortal body did when once the
spirit had become thoroughly enhghtened. In the epistles
of John and of Ignatius we meet with Christians who apply
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 309
the Gnostic notion of matter to Christ and afhrm that he,
being a truly divine deUverer, cannot have been really
united to a body of sinful flesh — and all flesh was evil. His
residence in the body of the man -Jesus was said to be only
temporary, extending merely from baptism to the crucifixion
(Adoptionism) ; or else he never had a real body at all, but
was only an apparition (Docetism). Again, in the Pastoral
Epistles, as in Colossians, certain Christian teachers boast of
their pneumatic equipment and show a fondness for Gnos'tic
speculation regarding angels and aeons. Polycarp refers to
other errorists who, true to the Gnostic doctrine of matter's
evil character, deny that there will ever be any resurrection
of the body.
The chief Gnostic leaders. — The full significance of
Gnosticism for the history of early Christianity does not
appear until a definite and influential Gnostic leadership arises.
Many of its champions were evidently persons of force and
character, but unfortunately our knowledge of them is con-
fined almost wholly to information derived from their oppo-
nents. There are a few original documents extant in Coptic
translations and some lengthy quotations are preserved in the
writings of the Fathers (e.g., Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus,
Clement of Alexandria, Origen). But often Uttle more than
the name of a teacher, or the name of some school, is known.
The Christian Gnostic movement arose early and in differ-
ent parts of the Mediterranean world. The Ophites and the
Naassenes are names commonly appHed to a very early
type of this speculation, in which the pre-Christian features
are especially in evidence. Among specific teachers, at the
close of the first century Cerinthus appears in Asia, and at
about the same time Satornilus (Saturninus), whose prede-
cessors were Simon Magus and Menander, taught in Syria.
But Alexandria is especially noted as the home of the move-
ment. Here Basilides estabhshed a school about the year
130 A.D., either selecting or composing a special gospel, and
3IO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
writing a commentary upon it in twenty-four books. More
famous still was Valentinus {ca. 150 a.d.), who worked first
in Alexandria and then in Rome. His pupil Theodotus estab-
lished a school in the East and another pupil, Ptolemaeus,
established one in the West. From about 145 to 165 a.d.
Marcion was an influential Gnostic teacher at Rome, and
communities representing his particular views soon sprang
up in different parts of the Mediterranean world. He is
especially noted for his efforts to persuade the church that
the Jewish sacred Scriptures should be displaced by a specifi-
cally Christian canon composed of the Gospel of Luke and the
Epistles of Paul. In the latter part of the second and early
in the third century Eastern Gnosticism had a powerful
champion in Bardesanes of Edessa.
The Gnostic system. — The Gnostic movement was so com-
plex, and individual Gnostics exercised so large a measure of
personal liberty in thinking, that no specific Gnostic system
of Christian theology can be exactly defined. But its main
characteristics are ascertainable, and a brief sketch of these
will serve to show the skilful way in which the movement
met some of the most perplexing problems of that age.
1 . The chief feature of Gnosticism was its sharp separation
between the god of light and the god of darkness, with their
respective divine associates. These two groups of divinities
were supposed to be constantly carrying on a fierce conflict
with one another for the possession of the human soul. The
scene of conflict was the earth where man now dwelt, and also
the upper air through which the soul must pass on its way
to the highest heavens.
2. This material world, and the material body containing
the soul, were believed to be wholly evil. Matter was evil
because it had been created by the evil powers. The creator
of the present world cannot have been a good god, else the
world would have been wholly good, but man knew by
experience that it was not good. Therefore its creator must
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 311
be bad. Thus the Gnostics offered — if we grant their premises
— a very simple solution of the ever-present problem of evil.
3. The soul of man did not originally belong to this world
of created matter. It was a fragment from the realm of light
which by some mishap had sunk down and become entangled
in evil matter. Here it abode in ignorance and agony,
utterly unable of itself to fight its way back to the realrn of
light whence it had fallen.
4. But a way of salvation had been provided. Another
and more powerful emissary from the realm of light had
descended into this realm of darkness in order to bring aid
to the helpless soul. Originally this deliverer seems to have
been conceived of as a principle of salvation, or a hypostasis,
rather than a person. But it was portrayed in mythical form
under the image of the Primal Man (cf. the Son of Man of
Jewish and Christian apocalyptic), the Heavenly Mother,
and — in Christian Gnosticism — the pre-existent Christ.
5. This aid was mediated to specific souls by means of the
cultus. Through the rites of initiation and worship the
individual received a new increment from the world of light
by which he learned the secrets of divine wisdom enabling
his soul to pass safely all the gateways on the road to heaven.
6. Different individuals might attain different degrees of
enhghtenment, but every believer received a new guiding
power in his life which freed him from the bondage of the
flesh. The logic of this beUef often led to asceticism. Since
matter was evil, the appetites of the body were to be sup-
pressed, and since the begetting of children meant the per-
petuation of evil matter, marriage ought also to be avoided.
In some cases, however, the exaltation of the enhghtened
mind over matter was made to justify Kbertinism. One
might let the body have its way, since the enlightened spirit
only counted for things eternal.
7. This depreciation of the physical body determined the
Gnostics' notion of the earthly Jesus. The man Jesus of
312 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Nazareth could have no central place in their system; they
needed only the pre-existent angelic Christ. Though they
adopted the myth of the God-man as a means of portraying
concretely the scheme of redemption, they were loath to allow
that he had any natural "connection with an actual human
being. Some said that he was only an apparition while on
earth (Cerinthus) , others thought that he resided temporarily
in the man Jesus (BasiKdes), while others employed the
notion of a virgin birth as a means of obtaining a unique body
worthy to enshrine this heavenly spirit (so the later Valen-
tinians) .
8. The Gnostics' view of matter was logically accompanied
by an inferior estimate of the worth of human history. They
rejected Judaism, along with the popular Christian notion
that the Old Testament was a divine revelation. Most
Gnostics said that the creation of evil matter must have been
the work of an inferior evil deity, hence the Jews had been
worshiping a demon rather than the god of hght. Inci-
dentally, Christianity was thereby relieved of the embarrass-
ment of explaining its connections with the unpopular Jewish
race.
9. Since revelation was not to be found in Judaism it was
located in Christianity alone. So the leading Gnostics
proceeded to canonize distinctively Christian writings and to
elaborate them by extended works of interpretation. Thus
it was in the Gnostic movement that Christianity first found
fluent literary expression as well as the stimulus for assembling
a New Testament canon of Scripture.
The historical significance of Gnosticism. — Notwithstand-
ing the fact that the Gnostics were condemned as heretics,
the movement they represented cannot have failed to satisfy
numerous popular needs pecuhar to the situation of that age.
Indeed, orthodox Christianity actually enriched itself both
by absorbing certain features of Gnosticism and by developing
new phases within its own Hfe to offset similar items in the
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 313
heretical movements. A few illustrations of these lines of
development should be particularly observed.
1. The growth of Christian asceticism within the orthodox
communities, finally resulting in monasticism, was doubtless
greatly stimulated by the Gnostic notion of matter. And it
is possible that the Gnostic idea of divine knowledge as a per-
sonal attainment of the individual soul may also have con-
tributed to the development of mysticism within the church.
2. The importance which Gnostics attached to the rites of
the cult as a means of insuring divine wisdom necessary to
salvation is reflected in orthodox circles, where there was an
increasing disposition all through the second and third cen-
turies to emphasize the sacramental significance of rites.
Gnostic influence may have tended to enrich the Kturgy,
especially in the realm of hymnology, for the Gnostics were
pre-eminently the hymn-writers of their day.
3. In resisting Gnostic Christology the Christians of post-
apostoHc times were led to give much more attention than
their predecessors in the Apostolic Age had done to collecting
and reporting tradition regarding the actual earthly Jesus.
Thanks to this incentive a considerable body of gospel tra-
dition was put into circulation and four representative docu-
ments of this class were finally given first place in the new
official collection of Christian writings. While the orthodox
thus sought to dismiss Gnostic views, it was nevertheless true
that the Gnostics bequeathed to Christendom a set of christo-
logical problems which have long continued to trouble theo-
logians.
4. Another very significant effect of the Gnostics' work
was the development of an interest in apostolic authority.
Here they set the example by discarding the authority of the
Old Testament which all through the first century had con-
stituted the Christians' main source of appeal. On the other
hand. Gnostic writers appealed to apostolic heroes and the
writings which had come from them, and not infrequently
314 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
the Gnostics showed themselves past-masters at the art of
pseudonymous hterary production. This situation stimu-
lated orthodoxy to discover and set up what it held to be a
genuine apostolic authority over against the pseudo-authority
of the heretics. The ultimate outcome of this process was
the production of a New Testament to which the Old was
subordinated. Incidentally this also meant the rescu'ng of
Paul from the Gnostics. Orthodox writers like Justin had
avoided reference to Paul, who was the mainstay of the
heretics, but once the New Testament canon was established
Paul was reinstated — at least in form if not in spirit.
5. One of the earliest and most notable effects of incipient
Gnosticism is seen in the tendency to establish within orthodox
circles a stated leadership to displace the older functional ideal
of trusting to the guidance of pneumatic individuals. Even as
early as the time of Ignatius this point was especially stressed.
The false teachers claimed for themselves full pneumatic
powers, and doubtless in the eyes of the populace they often
successfully justified their claim. Hence the need of regularly
appointed officers with supreme authority to dispose of false
prophets. The result was a claim of apostolic authority for
officials as well as for canonical books.
6. In a word, the whole trend of the church's development
in reaction against the numerous and powerful Gnostic move-
ments of the second century was toward Catholicism with its
stated officials, its fixed New Testament canon, its uniform
rule of faith, and its universal control. Gnosticism, on the
other hand, was so individualistic in its emphasis and so
diversified that it failed to develop the unity of interest and
organization necessary to withstand successfully the resistance
of a more formally united orthodoxy.
Literature. — For introductory purposes see the excellent articles
on "Gnosticism" by E. F. Scott in Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion
and Ethics and by W. Bousset in the Encyclopaedia Brilannica, nth ed.
More detailed treatment will be found in W. Bousset, Hauplproblenie der
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 315
Gnosis (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1907); E. de Faye,
Giiostiques et gnosticisme (Paris: Leroux, 1913); and C. W. King, The
Gnostics and Their Retnains, 2d ed. (London: Nutt, 1887). For collec-
tions of source materials see G. R. S. Mead, Fragfncnts of a Faith
Forgotten (London and Benares: Theosophical Pub. Soc, 1900); A. Hil-
genfeld, Ketzergeschichte des Urchristentums (Leipzig: Fues, 1884); W.
Schultz, Dokumente der Gnosis (Jena: Dieterichs, 1910); C. Schmidt,
Kpptisch-gnostische Schriften, I, Die Pistis Sophia (Leipzig: Hinrichs,
1905). Also consult "General References," below, pp. 324.
X. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
The emergence of the Catholic idea. — The impetus toward
universality, which was brought prominently into the fore-
ground, and in no small measure engendered, by the Gnostic
controversy, finally issued in the complete catholicizing of
orthodox Christianity. This process was well under way
before the end of the second century, and it continued to gain
momentum during the succeeding years. By the close of the
third century it was complete in all essentials. In every quar-
ter of the Roman Empire communities of Christian behevers
existed under an estabhshed form of organization; from time
to time synods met to settle new issues; and the notion of a
universal Christendom, at least ideally self-consistent in all its
parts, had come to full consciousness.
Outstanding leaders of the period. — During these days
of crystalhzation Christianity in various parts of the Empire
enjoyed the leadership of a number of notable individuals. In
many instances their writings have been preserved and con-
stitute important sources of information for the student.
A brief notice of the more significant leaders will be a con-
venient way of approach to the history of the period.
The most prominent figure in the West is that of Irenaeus,
bishop of Lyons, in Gaul during the closing decades of the
second century. His only extant work deals with the heretics,
whom he vigorously opposes. He appeals especially to the
authority of apostolic tradition, handed down through
3i6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
properly appointed successors of the apostles and guarded by
the true church. This authority is twofold. In the first place
the written Gospels contain the pure apostolic teaching. But
in addition to this each church continues to be under leaders
standing in direct Hne of succession from the apostles who
everywhere appointed bishops in the churches. And to make
the matter more sure Irenaeus cites the church at Rome as
the supreme authority. With this church all others must
agree, since apostolic tradition is necessarily always self-
consistent. Hence all those who hold ''perverse opinions"
or assemble in ''unauthorized meetings" are to be put to
confusion by appeaHng to "the very great, the very ancient
and universally known church founded and organized at
Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul;
. . . . for it is a matter of necessity that every church should
agree with this church on account of its pre-eminent authority"
(III,iii, 2).
The regular bishops at Rome during this general period
were not men of great Kterary activity. The most prolific
Roman writer was Hippolytus, who flourished in the first
quarter of the third century. He was a prominent presbyter
and later became a rival leader beside the regular bishop,
whom Hippolytus accused of laxity in deaHng with heretics
and sinners. In variety and extent his literary activities
rivaled those of his younger Eastern contemporary, Origen,
but only a relatively small part of Hippolytus' writings has
been preserved. Among these is a Refutation of All Heresies.
This gives ample evidence that he was a champion of the
cathohcizing principle, notwithstanding his break with the
contemporary Roman bishop.
In the province of Africa Tertulhan and Cyprian were
the most noted leaders. The proHfic hterary work of the
former was done in the early years of the third century. He
covered the whole range of Christian apologetic, defending
the new rehgion against persecution, attacking heretics, and
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 317
refuting both heathen and Jewish critics. He also produced
a number of treatises of a practical sort, and was really the
creator of an ecclesiastical literature in the Latin tongue.
Although he joined the heretical movement known as Montan-
ism, he was in essential agreement with Irenaeus in upholding
the authority of apostoKc tradition preserved within the
ecclesiastical organism. Moreover, he was the first Westerner
to make any substantial contribution toward the elaboration
of a Christian theology. His guiding principle, however, was
not Hellenistic philosophical speculation, but juristic notions
which he inherited from his training as a Roman advocate.
Cyprian was converted to Christianity shortly before the
middle of the third century, and within a few years became
bishop of the Carthaginian church, which he continued to guide
until his martyrdom in 258 a.d. He had more of the instincts
of a pastor than of a theologian, and wrote large numbers of
letters deahng with various contemporary problems. Yet
he also was the author of apologetic and doctrinal treatises, as
well as works deahng with questions of conduct and church
poHty. Especially important in the present connection is
his De Mfiitate ecclesiae. Against the heretics he maintained
that there was no possibihty of salvation outside the estab-
Hshed ecclesiastical organization — ^"he who has not the church
for a mother cannot have God for a father" (chap. 6). And
the church is one, since Christ founded it on Peter. Augustine
has very fittingly termed Cyprian catholicum episcopum, catholi-
cum martyr em {De bapt., Ill, iii, 5).
While the leaders in the West were incorporating into
Christianity the Roman genius for organized government,
the leaders in the East were working out a system of Chris-
tian doctrine in conformity with the philosophical genius of
the Greeks. The misnamed " catechical school " of Alexandria
— a kind of Christian university— had arisen during the second
century. Here Christian teachers were famiharizing them-
selves with the whole range of Greek science and seeking to
3i8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
employ this knowledge in the service of their religion. The
school existed beside others of a similar character — some
Gnostic, some pagan — for which Alexandria was noted, but
of its beginnings absolutely nothing is known. It first comes
to light about i8o a.d. with Pantaenus at its head. Toward
the close of the century he was succeeded by Clement, whose
writings are the earhest extant literary products of the school.
In expounding Christianity as a world-rehgion Clement em-
ploys the notion of the Logos, but in the use of this conception
he is not hampered as the earlier apologists were by slavish
attachment to the cultus. He is thoroughly ecclesiastical, in
that he adheres to the notion of a prescribed rule of faith, but
he would universahze Christianity by an individuahstic
rather than an organic process. The Logos-experience is
available for every member of the human race, which has been
created, educated, and redeemed by the Logos. Moreover,
knowledge (gnosis) is the key to salvation and the true
Christian is the true "Gnostic." But Clement's gnosis is of
the Greek type, in contrast with the oriental sacramental
conception current among the Gnostics. Notwithstanding
Clement's interest in the field of Greek science, he did not
really work out any systematic scheme of Christian doctrine.
This was done first by Origen. He was Clement's suc-
cessor as head of the school of Alexandria, but the latter part
of his life was spent at Caesarea, where he conducted an
independent school. He produced a vast number of works,
several of which are still extant. These include hortatory,
apologetic, textual, exegetical, and doctrinal treatises. To
this last class belongs his De principiis in which he works out
the first, real system of Christian doctrine ever written.
Though Origen was an ecclesiastic, in that he believed that the
church supplies to men the correct rule of faith, yet in his
own thinking it was neither the authority of the cultus nor
the authority of a canon of Scripture which constituted his
ultimate norm. To be sure, he made the Logos revelation
THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 319
the ground of the Christian's knowledge, but it was by means
of philosophy — that is, by the use of the speculative rational
faculty — that Origen really sought to discover the true revela-
tion of the Logos, in the light of which he interpreted the his-
tory and content of Christianity.
Internal conflicts. — The main trend of Christianity during
the closing years of the second, and throughout the third,
century was toward universahty and uniformity. Yet there
were still within the movement many differences of opinion
and practice. The consequence was a series of internal
conflicts which marked the growth of the church in this
period.
1. At the very beginning of the period the Easter con-
troversy arose. It concerned a difference of practice between
the Roman church and the churches of Asia. The latter,
tracing their authority to the apostle John, celebrated Easter
on the fourteenth of the month Nisan regardless of the day
of the week. On the other hand, the Roman church insisted
that the celebration ought always to take place on a Sunday.
This difference of opinion brought on a sharp debate which for
a time threatened to rend the East from the West.
2. A second question concerned the treatment of those
who had committed some unusual sin, especially those who
denied the faith in times of persecution. From an early
date murder, adultery, and lapsing had generally been regarded
as unpardonable sins. But in the course of time a more,
generous attitude was assumed, especially toward the lapsed
and some bishops reinstated these persons after a proper form
of repentance had been secured. But the matter caused
much sharp controversy, men like Hippolytus in one genera-
tion and Cyprian in the next holding opposite views on the
question.
3. Chris tological disputes also broke out anew. The main
line of orthodox speculation employed the Logos-idea as a
means of preserving monotheism while still regarding Jesus
320 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
as God. A different explanation was offered by the so-called
Monarchians, who did not make use of the Logos. The
"dynamic" Monarchians affirmed that Jesus was possessed
by an impersonal power (dvvafxLs) from God. But the
"modalistic" Monarchians personahzed the divine insert,
and found the difference between the Father and the Son in
the mode of manifestation rather than in the character of
the personality.
4. Two new and influential heresies came into prominence
during the third century. These were Montanism and
Manicheism. The former had arisen in Phrygia in the sixth
decade of the second century, and fifty years later it was
powerful enough to draw to itself Tertullian in North Africa.
The Montanists believed in the continued activity of the
Holy Spirit among believers, they retained vivid eschatological
expectations, and they insisted upon rigid ethical require-
ments, not alone for the clergy, but for all Christians. On the
other hand, the church in general had come to look askance at
pneumatic enthusiasm to which false teachers so readily laid
claim; the realistic eschatological hope was growing dim with
the passing of the years and with the betterment of the Chris-
tians' lot in the present world; and there had arisen a double
standard of morality, a select class of persons being expected
to attain to a high degree of perfection while the masses lived
on a lower level. The Montanists' efforts to restore the
simplicity of earlier days met with a measure of success, but
the movement was essentially anachronistic and so destined
to failure.
Manicheism, in some respects closely akin to Gnosticism,
was largely a composite of Persian and Babylonian ideas. In
"eality it was a revival of oriental speculation thinly overlaid
aw.— Here the influence of Lutheranism on the
religious views of Emperor Charles V (King Charles I of Spain)
and on the Spaniards whom he brought into Germany is of
some significance. Chief interest centers in the evangehcals
and martyrs of Seville and Valladolid and in the overbearing
effect on the Spanish character of the long struggle with
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 377
Mohammedanism, which gave to Spain the poHtical and
military leadership of Europe.
Literature. — Of the somewhat extensive literature on the subject
the following may be named: Lea, Chapters from the Religious History
of Spain (Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1890); Prescott, History of the
Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and History of the Reign of the Emperor
Charles V (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1872 and 1873); Betts, translations
of various works of Spanish reformers (London: Triibner, 1869-83).
In Italy. — Here the Lutheran influence did not go very far
on its religious side, but it strengthened the spirit of the
Renaissance and the rationalistic trend in Italian spiritual
revolt. One may note the revival of interest in the works
of Augustine, the translations of the Bible and of the works of
Lutheran theologians, the friendship of the Duchess Renata
of Ferrara, and the abortive conference at Regensburg.
Literature. — McCrie, History of the Progress and Suppression of the
Reformation in Italy (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1827), is an old book but
valuable for a general survey.
In Poland, Bohemia, and Moravia. — In these countries
Lutheranism was temporarily powerful, and less so in Hungary
and several provinces of Austria, as the Tyrol, Salzburg,
Styria, and Carinthia. Emphasis is to be placed on the rela-
tion to mediaeval dissenting bodies, as Hussites and Bohemian
Brethren, and to the preparatory relation to later Reforma-
tion movements, as anti-Trinitarianism, Anabaptism, and
Calvinism.
C. THE LUTHERAN THEOLOGY
The best index to the character of the Lutheran Refoma-
tion on its religious and intellectual side is found in its theology.
This is to be studied, as to its method genetically, and as to
its content or form.
I. Augustinian sources. — Genetically: First, the Lutheran
theology is to be traced to the Augustinian interpretation of
Christianity by which Luther, being an Augustinian monk, was
deeply influenced. This can be seen especially in his doctrines
378 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
of sin, grace, bondage of the will, election. Secondly, the
monastic life, and the works of the mediaeval mystics with
which Luther was familiar, produced the mystical view of
salvation as an experience overriding the claims of reason
and introduced a realistic view of the human relation to the
Redeemer and that immediacy of assurance of the truth of the
revelation that had come to him which enabled him to set his
personal convictions over against all authority. Thirdly,
his training in Catholic modes of thought produced, some-
what in opposition to the other tendencies above men-
tioned, that habit of resting on the letter of the Scriptures
and that dependence on sacraments which was never shaken
off. Fourthly, the distinctive personality of the man Luther,
so original and so powerful, gave to all his views a peculiar
stamp and impressed his convictions on multitudes.
2. Method. — The method of Luther's theology was varied
and irregular. His churchly training and his literalism com-
bined with a natural self-assertion to establish the dogmatical
method. With this was combined a spirit of free criticism,
especially as to religious values, which enabled him to use
the Bible as a work of devotion and inspiration rather han
as an external authority, and to set a-going a powerful
impulse toward a truly religious view of revelation and life.
But he never attained to the historical method of investiga-
tion and interpretation and often fell into mere allegorizing
after the long-established method of the Catholic theologians.
3. Content. — -The content of Lutheran Theology, especially
after Melanchthon gave it form and moderated its tone, was
mainly Catholic in form and somewhat so in spirit, the doc-
trines of grace and faith and the reduction of the sacramental
view of salvation to narrower limits being most in evidence.
For the specific doctrines of Lutheranism consult the authori-
ties named below.
Literature. — For documentary sources of Luther's theology the stu-
dent may consult the Erlangen edition of his collected works (1826-27);
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 379
his Briefe, ed. DeWette (Berlin: Reimer, 1825-28); Melanchthon's Loci
Communes, ed. Kolde (Leipzig: Deichert, 1890), and the Lutheran stan-
dards in Schaff, Creeds of Christeiidom, Vol. Ill (New York: Harper,
1877, 4th ed., 1905).
Brief expositions of Lutheran doctrine are given in Fisher, Hislory
of Christian Doctrine (New York: Scribner, 1901); Harnack, Dogmen-
geschichte, III, 725-814 (Freiburg: Mohr, 1897; English translation,
VII, 180 ff. [Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1900]). The best exposition
in extenso is Kdstlin, The Theology of Luther, translated by Hay (Phila-
delphia: Lutheran Pub. Soc, 1897).
D. ESTIMATE OF LUTHERANISM
This may proceed on several lines, e.g. : first, its religious
value, especially its effect on the higher reHgious life of Ger-
many; secondly, its influence on morals, especially the
effect at that time of removing external restraints on those
accustomed to them, and the later effects; thirdly, the intel-
lectual power of the movement, especially the extent to which
it carried forward the impulse of the Renaissance and devel-
oped a deeper interest in education and general intelligence;
fourthly, its destructive and constructive work in the field of
religious doctrine; fifthly, its relation to religious liberty,
particularly in reference to the Anabaptists and to the creation
or toleration of free dissent; sixthly, its part in the develop-
ment of the national spirit of Germany in particular and of
Europe in general, and the type of civil government to which it
is most nearly akin.
Literature. — For instances of contrary estimate see Lindsay, History
of the Reformation, Book II, chap, vii (New York: Scribner, 1905), and
'Newman, Manual of Church History, II, 115 £[. (Philadelphia: American
Baptist Pub. Soc, 1900-1903).
IV. THE ORIGIN AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REFORMED
CHURCHES
The name Reformed churches, or churches of the Re-
formed, pertains to a number of the new religious organiza-
tions of the Reformation that were Protestant but differed
380 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
from Lutheranism in important features and continued
separate from both Lutherans and Catholics. In spirit, in
order, in worship, in doctrine, in government, and in relation
to the civil power they were distinct. They were also more
cosmopolitan than the Lutheran church and found a home
early in Switzerland, Holland, Scotland, in many parts of the
Empire, for a time in France, to a degree in England, and at
last in the United States of America. A knowledge of this
movement demands a prolonged and involved study of con-
ditions in many lands.
A twofold origin of the Reformed church can be traced,
though the two streams coalesced, namely, in the work of
Huldreich Zwingli and in that of John Calvin, both first
established in Switzerland, the former contemporary with
Luther and the latter a generation later. The study will
proceed best by countries.
Our first study must be the history of the Swiss people
to the time under consideration, their characteristics, and
their method of government. Their geographical situation,
the physical features of their country, their racial diversities,
their relations with other people, their achievement of political
independence by warfare, the degree to which they came under
the influence of the Renaissance and of such mediaeval
dissenters as the Waldenses, the industry, simphcity, and
thrift for which they were noted, are all important factors in
the reformation of religion. Domestic political conditions, the
local democracies (cantonal self-government), the loose con-
federacy in which thirteen urban cantons and four "forest"
cantons were united, the inner differences among these, espe-
cially in intelligence, are to be recognized as determining the
final form in which the Reformation was set up or the rejection
of it. They also partly explain the early success and the
final overthrow of the Anabaptist propaganda there.
Literature. — Seebohm and Johnson, as above (p. 363), and the
general church histories. For a more elaborate knowledge use Joseph
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 381
Planta, History of the Helvetic Confederacy, 3 vols. (London: Stockdale,
1800-1807).
The Reformation in Switzerland arose mainly in two
centers, Zurich and Geneva — the movement in the former
under the leadership principally of Huldreich Zwingli and in
the latter under the leadership principally of John Calvin.
The account of each is inseparable from the personal career of
the leaders.
THE ZWINGLIAN REFORMATION
The character and career of Zwingli. — His family, his
education at Bern, Basel, and Vienna, the influence of the
New Learning on him through such men as Erasmus and
Thomas Wyttenbach and his strong intellectual revulsion
against popular Catholic superstitions, his close attention to
biblical and classic studies during his priesthood at Glarus and
Einsiedeln, his chaplaincy of a mercenary Swiss regiment
campaigning in Italy, and his resolute patriotic stand against
the mercenary practice are the features of importance in his
pre-reforming career.
His great pastorate at Zurich and his public controversies,
by the appointment of the civil authorities, with the upholders
of indulgence-selling, ecclesiastical tithing, celibacy, fasts,
image- worship, papal primacy, the mass, saint-worship, purga-
tory, and such practices gave him the leadership of the new
movement. The resulting civil establishment of the Re-
formed faith as set forth in Zwingli's Sixty-seven Articles
and the rejection of the radical program of the Anabaptists,
followed by the public prosecution and cruel punishment of
these people, complete the movement In Zurich.
Thence the interest widens to the whole extent of the
Swiss confederacy and brings the Zwinglian Reformation
directly into contact with general European politics and the
Lutheran Reformation. The progress of Zwinglianism,
modified somewhat in other places by its contact with reform-
ing efforts already at work elsewhere in Switzerland, brings to
382 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
our attention the names of Leo Judaeus, Conrad Grebel, and
Balthazar Hubmaier (the two latter to be known later as
Anabaptists) at Zurich; the city of Bern, and the work of
John and Berthold Haller and Sebastian Meyer; Basel, where
the work of Erasmus and Wyttenbach is carried farther
by Capito and Hedio, later by William Reublin, and finally by
Oecolampadius ; St. Gall and Appenzell, and the work of
Vadianus; Schaffhausen, which adopted the Reformation
under the influence of Sebastian Hofmeister and Sebastian
Meyer; the Graubiinden, where John Comander persuaded
the mixed population to accept an established church which
tolerated both Zwinglians and CathoHcs, but not Anabaptists;
and at length many cities of Southwestern Germany, such as
Augsburg, Strassburg, and Frankfurt, which accepted the
Reformed faith and became centers of great power for the
spread of the whole Protestant Reformation.
The relations of similarity and contrast with Lutheranism
can be brought out by a study of the invitation given to the
leaders to meet in conference, looking to a union in a com-
mon religious and poHtical effort at Marburg, the colloquy
between Luther and Zwingli, and the failure to unite. The
outcome as regards the standing of the Reformed church and
the Catholic church in Switzerland at large appears in the
two wars of Cappel and in the Peace of Cappel, so disappoint-
ing to Zwinglians.
Literature. — There is much material to examine. A general view
of the Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and its
influence on the Swiss reformers can be obtained from the Cambridge
Modern History, Vol. I, or Paul Van Dyke, Age of the Renaissance (New
York: Scribner, 1897). Zwingli's life and doctrines are pretty fully'
exhibited in the histories of the Reformation. S. M. Jackson's Huldreich
Zwingli, the Reformer of Switzerland (New York: Putnam, 1901) and The
Latin Works and Correspondence of Huldreich Zwingli (New York:
Longmans, Green, & Co., 191 2) are valuable. A. Baur, in Zwinglis
Theologie (Halle: Niemeyer, 1885-89), sets forth the Reformer's doctrine
at length. Zwinglii Opera are edited in German and published in eight
THE PROTESTANT REEORMATION 383
volumes (Schultess: Zurich, 1828-42). Strickler, Adensammlung zur
schweizerischen Reformations geschichte in den Jahren 1521-1532, 5 vols.
(Zurich: Meyer & Zeller, 1878-84), gives the most complete historical
material.
The student should seek to apprehend the peculiar signifi-
cance of Zwinglianism by a comparison with Lutheranism on
such points as the following: the comparative influence of
mysticism and rationalism on Luther and Zwingli; their
respective attitudes as regards the relation of the religious
reformation to the authority of the civil power; the breadth
of human sympathy and of doctrine in each; their attitude
toward sacraments; their influence on the growth of a broad
intelligence and of a courageous view of the world and the
future of men.
Literature. — Schaff gives some interesting suggestions in his history
of the Swiss Reformation, History of the Christian Church, Vol. VII
(New York: Scribner, 1884-1907).
THE CALVINIST REFORMATION
There are certain preliminary considerations necessary
to the study of the Calvinist Reformation. First, it began
about a generation later than the Lutheran and Zwinglian
movements and profited by them as well as by the earlier
work of such men as William Farel; it became naturally
better organized than these and represented a higher stage
of the Protestant consciousness and also a more advanced
organization of the new religious forces. Calvinism is
Protestantism clearly self-conscious and organized for aggres-
sion. Secondly, it bears the stamp of the man by whose name
it is known — of Calvin's French thoroughness and intellectu-
ality, his moral sternness, legal training, intolerance of opposi-
tion, leaning to aristocracy or despotism, vast learning,
biblicism, and acquaintance with and interest in the political
life of Western Europe. To understand Calvinism it is
emphatically necessary to know the man in his relation to
384 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
earlier and contemporary European politics and to the
earlier anti- Catholic movements.
Literature. — ^Lives of Calvin are numerous. The student should
know Beza's Life of Calvin, translation by Gibson (Philadelphia: Whet-
ham, 1836); Henry's famous life of Calvin, Das Leben Johann Calvins
(Hamburg: Perthes, 1835-38; English translation [documents omitted]
by Stebbing [New York: Carter, 1859]). Among the later lives, H. Y.
Reyburn, John Calvin, His Life, Letters and Work (New York: Hodder
& Stoughton, 1914), and L. Penning, Life and Times of Calvin (London:
Kegan Paul, 1912), are valuable, the former being especially discriminat-
ing and the latter a tribute of high regard. Nevertheless, in contrast with
the case of Luther, it is not so much the man as the theologian and states-
man that interests us in Calvin. His Institutes of the Christian Religion
(Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Soc, 1845-46) is the classic of Reforma-
tion theology and his church-state at Geneva the model of contemporary
and of later Protestant ecclesiastical organization. See Doumergue,
Jean Calvin, les hommes et les choses de son temps (Lausanne: B ridel,
1899-1908). We follow his work by countries.
A. CALVINISM IN GENEVA — FOUNDING OF THE FIRST PROTESTANT
THEOCRACY
As introductory to the study there should be a knowledge
of the situation and general relations of the three French-
speaking Swiss cantons, Geneva, Vaud, and Neuchatel.
The limited territory of Geneva, its relations with the house of
Savoy, the rise of a popular patriotic party (Eidgenots,
Huguenots, Eidgenossen) , the supremacy of the idea of liberty
rather than of morality, the constitution of the three councils
that governed the little state, and the asserted overlordship
of Bern constitute the main elements of the situation prior
to the Reformation.
Literature. — Consult Roget, Histoire dii peuple de Geneve, 7 vols.
(Geneva: JuUien, 1870-83).
Preparatory to Calvin's religious and theological reform
came the work of William Farel of Provence, Antoine Froment,
his fellow-countryman, and Peter Viret, of Vaud, with its
stern religiousness and violent iconoclasm.
Literature. — See Herminjard, Correspondence des reformateurs dans
les pays de la langue franqaise, etc. (Paris: Fischbacher, 1866-97).
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 385
Calvin's arrival in the city and his first abortive attempts to
establish a uniform confession of faith and stern moral dis-
cipline, with severe civil penalties for the heretical and the
immoral, compulsory attendance on public worship, educa-
tion and religious catechizing of children, and obedience in
religion to the ministers brought out the inner antagonism
between the Reformers and the Libertines ; and the despotism
of the former issued in their expulsion. This episode serves
to bring out the underlying intolerance in Calvinism and might
serve as a starting-point for a study of the struggle within
Calvinism between the Judaistic elements and the Christian
elements in it.
Calvin's sojourn in Strassburg from 1538 to 1542, by
bringing him into intimate relations with Protestant refugees
from France and other lands, and by giving him leisure for
friendly correspondence with Luther and his great colleague,
the theologian Melanchthon, and for the enlargement of
his Institutes, the writing of a commentary on Romans, the
preparation of an elaborate scheme of church order, and the
carrying on of controversies with Catholic leaders is to be
viewed as the beginning of his remolding influence on Luther-
anism and of the extension of his personal view throughout
Western Europe. The study of the ''Crypto-Calvinist"
controversy among the Lutherans, relating especially to the
Lord's Supper, indicates the character of the Calvinist influ-
ence on Lutheran doctrine.
Literature. — Such documents as the Augsburg Variata, the Apology
for the Augsburg Confession, and other documents published in the
Corpus Doctrinae Philip pum after the death of Melanchthon, indicate the
extent of the controversy. The Formula of Concord (see Schaff, Creeds
of Christendom, Vol. Ill), by which the Lutheran theologians tried to
settle these and other disputes, should be examined in this connection.
See also Schaff, "The Friendship of Calvin and Melanchthon," Papers
of the American Society of Church History (1889).
Calvin's recall to Geneva and the work of the twenty-two
remaining years of his life there brought into being the cast-
iron system of religious and civil control for which Geneva
386 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
became famous, and supplied to Europe the needed demonstra-
tion of the abihty of Protestantism to estabHsh an order of
faith and of moral and political life which became a standing
proof that it was not simply a disintegrating force but truly
constructive in a wide sense. The details of the labors that
effected this must be sought in the histories of the Reformation
on its religious side and on its political side also. The follow-
ing features of the Genevan theocracy merit special attention:
Calvin's nominal limitation to the life of a minister and teacher
but practical ecclesiastico-political dictatorship; his funda-
mental conviction that the whole life of the people in their
domestic, social, industrial, and political relations must be
put under the strict authority of religion whether by con-
sent or by outer compulsion (compare the Roman Catholic
view); the use of the teachings of the Old Testament, espe-
cially the two Tables of Moses, as divinely given instructions
on this matter; the relentless enforcement of the laws by a
system of espionage and of penalties ranging from beheading
to fines, and covering the minutest details of public and
private life, both religious and secular; the founding of the
Consistory, a mixed body of ministers and laymen in the ratio
of one to two, for the enforcement of ecclesiastical rules;
the impulse thereby given to republicanism. Observe that
Calvin founded a church-state rather than a state-church,
perfecting Zwingli's idea and reversing Luther's.
Literature. — Eugene Choisy, L'Etat chretien cahiniste a Geneve
(Paris : Fischbacher, 1902) ; Auguste Lang, Zwingli und Calvin (Bielefeld :
Velhagen & Klasing, 1913).
In addition to this local activity one must notice Calvin's
intimate acquaintance and co-operation with the work of the
Reformed church in other countries. Theodore Beza in
France, John Knox in Scotland (now a Calvinist rather than
a Lutheran), English Protestant statesmen, and the Dutch
Reformers received inspiration and counsel from him. He
became the outstanding figure of Protestantism in his closing
years-
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 387
Literature.— For a broad survey of his relations to Protestantism
read Williston Walker, John Calvin, the Organizer of Reformed Protestant-
ism (Jo dot^'Yoxe's Book of Martyrs. Gee and Hardy,
Documents Illustrative of English Church History (London: Macmillan,
1896), is valuable, and so is Burnet's History of the Reformation, critical ed.
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1865). Froude's History of England (Lon-
don: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1870) contains an flaborate account of
the Reformation. Geikie's and Clark's histories of the Anglican Refor-
mation are more summary. Gairdner, The English Church of the Six-
teenth Century (London: Macmillan, 1902), is more recent. F. A.
Gasquet, in The Eve of the Reformation (London: Bell, 1905) and
Henry VIII and the English Monasteries, 6th ed. (London: Hodges,
1902), gives the Roman Catholic view of the movement. Most of the
works referred to concern also the later period of the Reformation, to
be treated below.
VI. THE ANABAPTIST REFORMATION
The significance of the name Anabaptist or Rebaptiser
is of essential importance, for it creates the impression that
the people referred to laid special stress on baptism, while
the reverse is nearer the truth. The clue to the derogatory
sense in which the word was commonly used and to the bitter
attitude assumed toward these people is found in the Roman
Catholic view of baptism and in the sympathy with that view
on the part of the orthodox Protestant churches. The name
Anabaptist is indicative of a thoroughly radical form of
Protestantism, if it can be called Protestantism, and of an
apparently anarchical tendency. Hence there is no move-
ment of Reformation times that is better suited to give the
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 401
Student help at the beginning toward an insight into the
character of the forces at work then.
Literature. — -In the earlier histories little justice was done to the
Anabaptists, but recent historians have made ample, though late,
amends. The interest in the movement has become deep and wide-
spread, especially in Germany and among the more radical Christian
thinkers of the present. For the best one-volume account the student
is advised to read A History of Anti-Paedobaptism by A. H. Newman
(Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1907), and to consult the
extensive bibliography it gives. The short chapter on Anabaptism
in Lindsay, History of the Reformation, Vol. II (New York: Scribner,
1907), is typical of the appreciative view of many today.
The following suggestions are offered as to the lines of
investigation to be followed:
1. The affiliations of the Anabaptist movement. — Among
these are the evangelical or dissenting parties of mediaeval
times, such as the Petrobruscians, the Henricians, the Poor
Men, the Waldenses, the Lollards; there are the mediaeval
and later struggles for economic and social reform or revolu-
tion following upon the Crusades and issuing in peasants'
wars, especially in Central Europe, of which the one that broke
out shortly after Luther's breach with Rome was very closely
related to the rapid spread of Anabaptism that came quickly
afterward; there are the affiliations with the spirit of intel-
lectual liberty in the Renaissance which produced a left wing
of Anabaptists; there are, finally, the affiliations with the
great reforming movements whose course has been indicated.
The student may ask himself whether it was not the con-
sciousness on the part of the "Reformers" that the Ana-
baptists were carrying their own principles to a natural but
unwelcome conclusion that led them to denounce Anabaptism
and to repress it as dangerous to the state-church systems
that sought to combat Catholicism with secular support.
2. The different directions in which Anabaptism tended
to develop. — Note especially the thoroughgoing individualism
that was so strongly marked in them all: {a) mysticism,
402 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
growing into pantheism on the one side after the manner of
the later Franciscans and the Brethren of the Free Spirit,
with such prominent instances as David Joris and Heinrich
Nicolaes; or (b) mysticism flaming up into ''prophetism," as
in the case of the Zwickau prophets that gave Luther so much
trouble; or, again, (c) millenarianism under leaders like Nich-
olas Storch, Melchior Hoffmann, or Bernhard Rothmann, cul-
minating in the Miinster tragedy; or, again, (d) the prevailing
type of the Swiss Anabaptists, with their insistence on religious
liberty, free churches, spirituality even beyond biblicism, and
a sane and healthy view of the state as necessary but distinct
from the church, represented by such men as Balthasar Hub-
maier, George Blaurock, Conrad Grebel, and John Denck;
or, once more, (e) the Anabaptists of the left wing, who
developed a rationalism that was but slightly perm.eated with
the deep religious spirit that characterized the last mentioned
and whose great representatives are the Italians Camillo
Renato, George Biandrata, the Socini, and, perhaps, the
Spaniard Servetus.
3. The principal tenets of the Anabaptists. — The follow-
ing points are significant: (a) the immediacy of the indi-
vidual's relations with God, carrying with it the rejection
of all ecclesiastical authority and legalism in religion, all
priestly mediation or sacramental efficacy; (b) the pure
spirituality of the Christian religion, carrying with it the
renunciation of any external form of organizatioif, ritual, or
confession of faith as essential to salvation; (c) the freedom
and spontaneity of the Christian spirit, carrying with it
the subordination of the "outer word" of God to the
"inner word" of religious liberty, and supremacy over enact-
ments of moral law; {d) voluntarism in religion, carrying with
it the rejection of the Augustinian doctrine of original sin
and the associated doctrines and ecclesiastical practices and,
on the other hand, emphasis on the saving quality of truly
good works; (c) the necessity of reproducing primitive
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 403
Christianity in order to obtain a religion pure from the cor-
ruptions that had accumulated in the intervening period —
hence their depreciatory view of the history of the church and
their democracy; (/) the essence of Christianity found in the
life of likeness to Jesus Christ — hence their interest in the
New Testament and comparative disregard for the Old Testa-
ment and their substitution of the Gospels for the Pauline
writings as the chief source of Christian truth; (g) little
emphasis on ecclesiastical organization, with democracy or
in places a tendency toward Presbyterian organization, and
with a consistent rejection of all alliance with the civil power.
In the study of the working of their views in Reformation times
the student will be able to orient himself with regard to
important religious and theological movements of later times.
4. The propagation and outcome of the Anabaptist Refor-
mation in the times of the Protestant revolution. — Notice in
this connection the spread of Anabaptism throughout West-
ern Europe from Poland to Scandinavia and the British
Isles; the treatment the Anabaptists received in each of the
countries included in this territory, and the attitude of
Lutherans, Zwinglians, Calvinists, and Anglicans, not omitting
to notice the instances of broader views on the part of some
rulers ; their behavior under persecution and the nevertheless
terrible effects of this persecution on the whole character of
Protestantism, the tragedy of the uprising at Miinster, the
sweeping condemnation of them on account of it, and the
rescue of the remnant of and perpetuation of quiet Anabap-
tism through the statesmanship of Menno Simons.
5. The relation of Anabaptism to the Baptist, Arminian,
and Quaker movements of the later Protestant period. —
This will bring the student into an intimate knowledge of the
struggle between state-churchism and Free-churchism in
England, Holland, and America.
Literature. — For a knowledge of the relation of the Anabaptists to
the social and economic influences of the time one would do well to read
404 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
the popularly written works of E. Belfort Bax on "The Social Side of the
Reformation in Germany," mainly his German Society at the Close of the
Middle Ages (London: Sonnenschein, 1894); The Peasants' War in Ger-
many (New York: Macmillan, 1899) ; and the Rise and Fall of the Ana-
baptists (New York: Macmillan, 1903). R. Wolkan, in Die Lieder der
Wiedertdufer (Berlin: Behr, 1903), gives an inside view of the piety of
the Anabaptists. The recent work of J. Horsch entitled Menwo Simons:
His Life, Labours, and Teaching (Mennonite Publishing House, Scott-
dale, Pa., 1916), has valuable data for the European Mennonites.
The life of Balthasar Hubmaier, the highest type of the Anabaptists,
is written by H. C. Vedder (New York, 1903). See Carl Sachsse,
Balthasar Hubmaier als Theolog (Berlin: Trowitzsch, 1914). The
Mennonitish literature is extensive, but apart from the translation
into English in 187 1 (New York: Mennonite Pub. Soc.) from the original
Dutch of the complete works of Menno the works in English give but
brief sketches of early Mennonitism and devote their attention mainly
to the Mennonites of America. In the histories of the Baptists by
Crosby, History of the English Baptists (London, 1738); Joseph Ivimey,
A History of the English Baptists (London, 181 1); and John Evans, A
Brief Sketch of the Several Denominations into Which the World Is Divided
(London, 1795), and in the publications of the Hanserd KnoUys Library,
there is considerable original material reflecting Anabaptist influence.
See also Strype, Annals of the Reformation (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1824), and Ecclesiastical Memorials (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1822).
VII. THE BEGINNING OF THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE
PROTESTANT SYSTEMS
If the student were to seek an approximate date for the
estabhshment of Protestant state-church systems in general,
he would find the year 1560 suitable. Let him note the dates
for the Treaty of Augsburg; for the recognized supremacy
of Calvin in Geneva; for the first French national synod
of the Reformed church and the Galhcan Confession; for the
restoration of the royal supremacy in England, the Act of
Uniformity, the revision of the Prayer Book, and the adoption
of the Thirty-nine Articles; for the adoption of the Scotch
Confession, the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism,
and of that most popular of all the Protestant confessions,
the Second Helvetic. We may say, therefore, that about
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 405
1560, with Anabaptism destroyed, Protestantism was organ-
ized and fully armed to realize its hope of supremacy in
Christendom. The story of the failure of this hope reads
almost like a tragedy.
Some pertinent questions. — It is fitting that at this point
such questions as the following should be raised: Were the
state churches or church-states truly organic to the Protestant
spirit? Was the basis of membership in the Protestant
churches a compromise between the new spirit and the founda-
tion principles of the Roman church ? Were the demands for
acceptance of the confessions in harmony with the spirit of
free inquiry that awoke in the Renaissance and prepared
the way for the Reformation? Were the very methods of
Protestant theology, and especially the methods of interpret-
ing the Scriptures, consistent with the spirit of religious faith,
or did they represent an inharmonious combination of Catholi-
cism and religious individualism ? Our present study con-
cerns itself with the beginning of the movements that supply
an answer to these questions.
The controversies between Dissenters and Churchmen in
England, partly preserved in such collections as the Hanserd Knollys
Library; Strype's Annals of the Reformation (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1824), and Ecclesiastical Memorials (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1822);
'i^eo.Vs History of the Puritans (London: Tegg, 1837), or Gardiner's Co??-
stitutional Documents III ustr alive of the Puritan Revolution or the contro-
versies that gathered about the Arminian movement and the Synod
of Dort in Holland, indicate how quickly it was perceived that the
Establishment in these countries failed to meet the conscience of large
numbers of Protestants. Harnack, in his History of Dogma, Vol. VII,
under the title "The Issue of Dogma in Protestantism," gives a valu-
able estimate of the doctrinal decisions from the Ritschlian point of view.
The grafting of the Protestant ecclesiastico-political
systems on the Protestant estimate of the worth of the indi-
vidual man and its conviction of the immediacy of his relations
with God seemed to necessitate either a return toward
Catholicism or a development of a radical Free-churchism
4o6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
and democracy in religion, science, church, and state. These
two tendencies soon appeared in great force. They indicate
the two main contrary movements in the history of post-
Reformation Christendom. The first of these tendencies
is seen in what is known as the Counter-Reformation in the
Catholic church. It merits attention here because of its
influence on Protestantism.
A. THE EFFECT OF THE COUNTER -REFORMATION ON THE
COURSE OF PROTESTANTISM
The reason for the Counter-Reformation. — ^The first step
in this study is to discover how there came to be a Counter-
Reformation. The answer is partly indicated in the life and
work of such men as Erasmus of Rotterdam, the most eminent
European scholar of the times; of John Colet, the scholar and
churchman who wrought so zealously for the application of
the methods of the New Learning to the interpretation of the
New Testament, and of Thomas More, the scholar-statesman,
both of Oxford, and both zealous for reform in religion, educa-
tion, and morals, but both, like Erasmus, hoping that the
change would come from within the church and not by the
disruption of it; of Gaspero Contarini, the moderate and
broad-minded Italian cardinal, and the religious association
known as the Oratory of Divine Love in Italy; of Cardinal
Ximines and his co-religionists in Spain. These men are
representatives of a large number of men of high character
found in many parts of Europe who strongly demanded a
reformation in the inner life and government of the church,
but whose reverence for the idea of the unity of the church and
for its embodiment in the Catholic church and whose dread of
revolution and the violent uprising of democracy prevented
them from joining the Reformers in making an outward breach
in the Catholic church. When the breach actually came it
tended, for a time at least, to accentuate their demands and to
lead to an actual moral reform within the church. The move
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 407
for a doctrinal reform met with much less response from within
the church.
Literature bearing on the Counter-Reformation is partly to be found
in the extensive works on the Renaissance. Paul Van Dyke, Age of the
Renaissance (New York: Scribner, 1897), gives a summary statement;
Jacob Burckhart, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, English
translation (London, Sonnenschein, 1890); Symonds, The Renaissance in
Italy, volume entitled The Catholic Reaction (New York: Henry Holt &
Co., 1887), are more elaborate. The shorter works bearing directly
on the Counter-Reformation worthy of special attention are: Seebohm,
The Oxford Reformers (London: Longmans, Green, & Co.,- 1887), in
which the work of Colet, Erasmus, and More is extolled. A. Ward,
The Counter-Reformation (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1889),
gives a summary account of the whole movement. Lindsay, History of the
Reformation, II, 501 ff. (New York: Scribner, 1907), furnishes an admi-
rable sketch. Special attention may be given to the reforms attempted
by Popes Hadrian VI and Paul III. The following may also be consulted:
Ranke, Z)ie romischen Papste, ihre Kirche und ihr Staat in den i6ten und
lyten Jahrhunderten (Berlin: Duncker, 1854-57; English translation.
History of the Popes [London: Bell, 1866]); Dupin, Histoire deVeglise du
16^ Steele (Paris, 1701-13); English translation, New Ecclesiastical His-
tory of the Sixteenth Century [London, 1703]); Philippson, La Contre-
Reforniation religieuse du 16^ siecle (Brussels: Muquardt, Paris: Alcan,
1884).
It should be noted that these Catholic reformers had more
confidence in the secular government as an instrument for
improvement than in the papacy. The student will trace
the division in the Catholic ranks on this point, the conflict
between Emperor Charles V and the papacy, the temporary
ascendency of the party that sought to conciliate the Protes-
tants by attempting a doctrinal compromise, the abortive
effort at the conference at Regensburg (Ratisbon) in 1541, with
Contarini leading the Catholics and Melanchthon the Protes-
tants, the inevitable split on the question of transubstan-
tiation, the disappointment of the emperor and his belated
attempt to take action on a doctrinal question in the publica-
tion of the famous "Interim" without consulting the pope.
4o8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
The reaction after Ratisbon put the militant Catholicism of
the Spanish type, with Cardinal Caraffa, later Pope Paul IV, as
their leader, in control. Before long there appeared a mili-
tant Calvinism leading the Protestants and a militant Jesu-
itism leading the Catholic reactionaries. The immediate
outcome is best seen in the calling of the so-called Ecumenical
Council of Trent and the formation of the Society of Jesus.
The effect of these Catholic movements on the succeeding his-
tory of Protestantism has been so great as to entitle them to
special consideration.
I. The Society of Jesus and its influence in the early
history of Protestantism: The inner nature of Jesuitism.—
The first step toward an understanding of the Jesuit order and
its doings is a s>Tnpathetic knowledge of the career and spirit-
ual experiences otits founder, the Spanish knight Ifiigo de
Recalde de Loyola, better known, through his renunciation of
knightly dignity and his assumption of the name of St.
Ignatius, as Ignatius Loyola.- The following events are note-
worthy: his early military crusading career; its termination
by a crippling wound; his retirement, wholly in accordance
with the Catholic monastic ideal, to meditation; his striking
religious experiences, so much like Luther's and yet so differ-
ent in their ultimate direction; his devotion to a vain effort
to evangelize the Turks ; his studies at Paris; his organization
of the new monastic order in 1534; and his success, in 1540,
after earlier disappointments, in obtaining the papal recog-
nition. Note the names of the other nine constituent members
(nearly all of them Spaniards or Portuguese), especially Francis
Xavier, the most famous next to Loyola, and trace the story
of their personal achievements.
Such questions as the following are hereby suggested:
the relation of Jesuitism to the mediaeval crusading spirit;
its embodiment of Spanish militant Catholicism; its likeness
to and contrast with earlier monastic orders; its value to
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 409
the student as an interpretation of the true character of
Roman Cathohcism.
The next step is an analysis and interpretation of the inner
nature of the Jesuit movement. For this a thorough examina-
tion of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises is indispensable. Note
the intensity of the psychic processes resorted to, the keen
insight into the relation between physical and psychical
conditions, the attempt to control the will through the
imagination, the lurid character of many of the forms of the
latter, the emphasis on training rather than culture, the su-
preme place of the obligation of unquestioning obedience,
the aim to develop ultimately a perfectly effective mechanism.
Growing out of this is a view of the system of organization
of the Jesuits and its relation to the existent ecclesiastical
order, of the conflicts within Catholicism growing out of its
pretensions and its aim to control the entire policy of the
Catholic church, of its conscientious subordination of moral
standards to this one end of making Catholicism, according
to the Jesuit interpretation of it, absolute in the world.
Note the strict limitation of the privileges of membership to
the truly competent, the slow advancement through the
successive degrees, the small number of Jesuits at any time,
the methods of operation, many of them unscrupulous and
clandestine, their absolute intolerance and pitilessness toward
Protestants. A Jesuitized Catholic church would seem to be
an irresistible military power.
Propaganda. — A further step is the tracing of the course
of the Jesuit propaganda. The disintegration of Protestant-
ism at the hands of Jesuitism is remarkable. Note how the
basic principle of the Peace of Augsburg, Cujus regio, ejus
religio, exposed the Lutheran state churches in particular
to their attack. Hence the attempts to convert princes,
the special interest in the growing boy-princes, the attempt
to control the schools, the institution of Jesuit colleges
4IO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
in many lands, and the mastery of colleges already in exist-
ence. Finally, note the successive revolutions, the religious
wars, and their outcome. The student will note the Jesuit
influence in the colleges and universities at Ingoldstadt,
Cologne, Vienna, Prague, Douay, Rome, Lyons, Briinn.
He will trace their success in Hungary, Poland, Moravia,
Siebenburgen, Upper Austria, Southern Germany, Belgium,
where Protestants had had a powerful hold, and in Spain,
Italy, Portugal, and France, where there had been hope of a
reformation, and particularly in the terrible struggle in
Holland. He will observe how Protestantism had to fight for
its very existence, eyen where it had been strongly estabhshed.
The story of the desolating Thirty Years' War reflects the
culmination of the early work of the Jesuits.
It will be well to notice in this connection the contrast
between the Lutheran countries and the countries under
the influence of Calvinism with its more vigorous moral fiber.
It would seem that but for the latter Protestantism might
have been extingu'shed. The Peace of Westphalia, syn-
chronous with the beheading of Charles I of England, marks
the failure of the Protestant ecclesiastico-political settlement
as well as of the Jesuit policy to dominate Europe.
Literature on this subject is extremely extensive. Much of it is con-
troversial, and not a little of uncertain value, because of the secrecy of
the Jesuit order and its habit of denying the authenticity of what is
affirmed concerning its inner character and methods. Collections of
materials for a general study of the Counter-Reformation are of value
in the study of Jesuitism as sources, such as those made by Laemmer,
Monumenta Vaticana historiam ecclesiasticam saec. xvi illustrantia
(Freiburg: Herder, 1861); and Weiss, Papiers d'etat du cardinal de
Granville, etc. (Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1841-52). The Exercitia
Spiritualia composed b> Loyola, partly based on Thomas a Kempis'
Imitatio Christi, are indispensable. They may be found in an English
translation by Charles Seager (London : Dolman, 1849) • Regulae Soc. Jesu
(London, 1604) and Sccreta Monita Soc. Jesu (Latin and English, Balti-
more, 1835) may be used, with hesitancy, owing to questions of genuine-
ness. Dollingcr und Reusch, Geschichte dcr Moralstreitigkciten, etc.
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 411
(Miinchen: Beck, 1889); Beusch, Der Index der verbotenen Bucher
(Bonn: Cohen, 1883); Cardinal Bellarmine, Opera Omnia (1620), give
full material for an acquaintance with the controversies of early Jesuit-
ism. A compendium of the last mentioned, by J. de La Serviere, under
the title La Theologie de Bellarmine (Paris, 1909), is invaluable for the
average student who knows French. Histories of Jesuitism by Chem-
nitz, Theologiae Jesuitarum b rev is ac nervosa descriptio ei delineatio,
2d ed. (Frankfurt and Wittenberg, 1690), London, 1848; and by
Taunton, History of the Jesuits in England (London: Methuen, 1901);
examinations of their educational methods by Cartwright, The Jesuits,
Their Constitution and Teaching (London: Murray, 1876), and by
Thomas Hughes, Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits (New
York: Scribner, 1899), and the terrible arraignment of their principles
by Pascal in his Provincial Letters, should be read.
2. The Council of Trent: the effect of its canons and
decrees. — The calling of the so-called Ecumenical Council
of Trent was the natural sequel to the failure at Ratisbon and
marked the reaction toward a stern and intolerant antagonism
against Protestantism. There are three outstanding facts
to be noted at the outset: first, the place of assembly, a city in
Austrian territory, a Catholic city, but under imperial author-
ity, indicating the continuance of the strife between emperor
and pope, with the failure of the repeated attempts of the
pope to change the place of meeting; secondly, the time, lasting
from 1548 to 1563, the most critical time in the history of
early Protestantism, with both Protestants and Catholics
laying down fixed policies; thirdly, the dominance, as above
described, of the reactionary party in the sessions of the
Council, and the disappearance presently of the Protestants
from the Council. This issued in making the aim of the
Council to be the vindication of mediaevalism and the con-
demnation of Protestantism.
The student will observe that the question of the primacy
of the two principal demands to be met, namely, whether the
interest of the church as an institution, or the moral and reli-
gious longings of the time, should receive first attention, and
the decision in favor of the former, were fateful. He will be
412 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
able to estimate the value of the doctrinal canons and decrees
in that light, the aim being to condemn the enemy rather than
to enlighten the world. The polemical purpose is clear.
Note, next, the immediate achievements of the Council:
First, it gained the credit of stating the Catholic doctrine fully
and of vindicating its claim to be the sole Christian expression
of faith. To understand these canons and decrees the student
must master the political and intellectual situation. Secondly,
it gained credit for moral reform by pronouncements against
some evils then current in the church. The Cathohc church
appeared as the custodian of morals. Thirdly, the Council
distinctly shaped the policy of the church in the direction of
Curialism and Vaticanism. Note the following facts: the
presence of Jesuit theologians in the Council as the special
representatives of the papacy; the decision that the initiative
in all reforms lies with the pope and cardinals and not with
secular authorities; the leaving of final interpretation of the
canons and decrees with the pope.
The revival of Roman Catholicism that followed the action
of the Council may be traced in the attempts of Charles V to
enforce rigorously the earlier decisions of the Council in the
Netherlands and in the still more ruthless work of his son
Philip II in the Netherlands and Spain ; in the fearful wars of
religion in the Low Countries, in France, and on the seas
between England and Spain, with their tremendous results
religiously and politically; in the reconquest (referred to in the
study of Jesuitism) of vast regions from Protestantism, in the
continuation of the mediaeval mind in Roman Catholicism,
and in the culmination of Catholic ecclesiasticism in the papal
decree of infallibility in 1870.
The effect on the inner life and thought of Protestant-
ism is not to be overlooked in this connection — the accen-
tuation of the controversial spirit, the hardening of Protestant
faith into fixed dogma, and the fresh impetus given by reaction
to the radical tendencies already operative in the Protestant
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 413
communities (to be treated in what follows). The organiza-
tion and papal recognition of the Jesuit order and the meeting
of the Council of Trent may be regarded as the two acts that
went to create an unbridgeable chasm between Romanism and
Protestantism and permanently divided Western Christendom
into two warring camps by bringing into clear consciousness
the irreconcilable antagonism in fundamental principle.
Literature. — There is an enormous amount of material for a study
of the Council of Trent. For an extended study the following sources
should be consulted: Mansi, Collectio amplissima Conciliorum, Vol.
XXXIII (Paris: Welter), Vol. X (Paris: Harduin, 1715). On the
Council of Trent consult Le Plat, Amplissima Collectio, etc., Vols. I-
VII (Paris, 1781-87); Sarpi, Istoria del concilia Tridentino; English
translation from Italian, History of the Council of Trent (London, 1676) ;
also Historia dell' Inquisizione, translated into English by Gentilis, The
History of the Inquisition (London, 1639). On creeds and confessions see
Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. II (New York: Harper, 1877);
W. H. Curtis, A History of Creeds and Confessions of Faith in Christen-
dom and Beyond (Edinburgh: Clark, 191 1); Winer, Comparative Dar-
stellung der Lehrhegrife der verschiedenen christlichen Kirchenparteien
(Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1882; English translation, A View of Doctrines and
Confessions of Christendom [London: Simpkin, 1887]); Waterworth,
Canons and Decrees of the Sacred Ecumenical Council of Trent (London:
Dolman, 1848); also accounts by DoUinger, Beitrdge zur politischen,
kirchlichen und Kulturgeschichte der sechs letzten Jahrhunderte, Vol.
VIII (Regensburg: Mainz, 1862-82); DuBose, The Ecumenical Councils
(New York: Christian Literature Co., 1896); Hamsick, History of Doc-
trine, Vol. VII; Froude, Lectures on the Council of Trent (London:
Longmans, Green, & Co., 1898); and Littledale, A Short History of the
Council of Trent (New York: Gorham, 1888). A succinct summary of
the reforms of the Council is given by Newman, Manual of Church
History, II, 360 fif. (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1903).
For an adequate view of the papal Inquisition the student should
become familiar with the great work of Henry C. Lea on the Inquisition of
the Middle Ages (New York: MacmUlan, 1906), which has been followed
by his History of the Inquisition in Spain (New York: Macmillan, 1907).
See also histories of the Inquisition by Rule, History of the Inquisition,
(London: Hamilton, 1874); Lavalee, Histoire des Inquisitions, etc.
(Paris, 1809) ; Shafer, Beitrdge zur Geschichte des spanischen Proteitantis-
mus, etc. (Giitersloh: Bertelsmann, 1906). For the history of the
414 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Roman church's Indexes read Putnam, The Censorship of the Church of
Rome and Its Influence upon the Production and Distribution of Literature
(New York: Putnam, 1906). Among the various collections of Indexes
that have appeared that of Reusch, Der Index der verbotenen Bilchcr
(Bonn: Cohen, 1885), is considered of extreme value.
The story of the religious wars that issued from these ecclesiastical
conflicts pertains largely to political and economic history, but merits
the close attention of the student of church history. In this connection
the following are important: Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic
(New York: Harper, 1867) ; Baird, History of the Rise of the Huguenots of
France (New York: Scribner, 1879), and The Huguenots and Henry of Na-
varre (New York: Scribner, 1886); Thompson, The Wars of Religion in
France (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909) ; and Gardiner,
The Thirty Years' War (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1875).
B. UNDERMINING OF PROTESTANT ORTHODOXY BY INTELLECTUALISM
The Reformation released intellectual forces that had
been held in leash more or less successfully by Catholicism
but were increasing in power and contributed, as we have
seen, to the Protestant movement. It was to be expected
that the free spirits that shared in the joy of the New Learn-
ing should resent the restraint upon free thought which issued
from the establishment of state churches. The struggle for a
larger freedom may be regarded as twofold, according as
the interests of intellectual liberty or the interests of religious
liberty were mainly cherished. Though the two phases are
closely alhed, it will be profitable for the student to examine
them, as far as possible, separately.
The first of these stands in relation with the speculations
of John Duns Scotus, with the Renaissance and its love for
unlimited inquiry, and with the prevailing individualism of the
early stages of the Reformation itself. It will be profitable to
distinguish three different lines along which opposition of
an intellectual character arose from within Protestantism
against the established forms of belief: first, the direct
attack of rationalistic criticism; secondly, the reaction against
the doctrinal controversies among Protestant theologians;
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 415
thirdly, the discrediting of orthodoxy through the progress
of scientific knowledge. Each of these is worthy of prolonged
study.
I. The direct attack of rationalistic criticism. — The
student will note the countries in which it was most active —
especially Italy, Poland, and, in a lesser degree, France and
Spain — ^and judge how far they had participated in the deeper
religious spirit of the Reformation. He will note also the
connection of some of the leaders with Calvinism and judge
how far this rationalism was a natural outcome of Calvinism.
He will examine particularly the economic, political, and
spiritual situation in Poland, the movement of Italian reform-
ers to Poland, and the connection between Polish -Anti-
paedobaptists and the Antipaedobaptists of Holland and
England.
The following names attract special attention: Camillo
Renato, Tiziano, and Pietro Manelfi in Italy. The disclosures
to the Papal Inquisition by the last, supply the basis of our
knowledge of the Italian churches of this type. A summary
is given by Newman, History of Antipaedobaptism, pp. 327 f.
This takes us only to the middle of the sixteenth century.
Among the Italians who migrated to Poland, Peter Gonesius,
George Biandrata, Laelius Socinus, and Faustus Socinus are
the most important.
The most valuable statement of the views that were held by
the churches of Poland that followed the teachings of the
Socini is found in the Racovian Catechism. This work
exhibits the views of the Unitarian churches which the
younger Socinus united in one body. It sets forth their
methods of doctrinal formulation, and their views in detail,
with great ability. It deserves minute study as the principal
rationalistic polemic of the earlier days against Protestant
orthodoxy. The influence of this polemic is to be traced all
through later Protestantism. An indication of its early
impression is found in the reply which the great Dutch jurist.
41 6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Hugo Grotius, made to the Socinian objections to the ortho-
dox doctrine of atonement. It is very significant that in
order to confute them he had to meet them halfway and to
reject the substitutionary view on the very ground urged
by them — that it was neither according to reason nor taught
in the Scriptures.
This carries us to the attempt to rationalize Calvinism in
Holland, known as Arminianism, from the name of its chief
representative, James Arminius, the Calvinist theologian of
Leyden. The study of Arminianism pertains more particu-
larly to the next-following topic.
Literature. — For the theological views of the Socinians the Racovian
Catechism (originally written in 1590 and first published in 1609,
with a historical introduction by Rees [London: Longmans, Green, &
Co., 1818]), is the most valuable work. The Bibliotheca Fratrum
Polonorum (Amsterdam, 1656) preserves other documents. Foch,
Der Socinianismus (Kiel: Schroder, 1847), is a standard history.
The polemical literature is plentiful and extends into the nineteenth
century. The work of Grotius is available in an English translation by
F. H. Foster (Andover, 1889), Defence of the Catholic Faith concerning the
Satisfaction of Jesus Christ against Faustus Socinus. J. Owen's works,
Sceptics of the Italian Renaissance and Sceptics of the French Renaissance
(London: Sonnenschein, 1893), may be read as introductory to a study
of the whole rationalist movement. The interest in Servetus is indicated
in the following: Punjer, De Michaeli Serveti Doctrina (Jena: Dufft,
1876); E. Tollin, Das Lehrsystem Michael Servets (Gutersloh: Bertels-
mann, 1876); Willis, Servetus and Calvin (London: King, 1877).
2. Skeptical reaction caused by doctrinal controversies
among the orthodox.— The doctrinal precipitations which
appear in the confessions of the Protestant state churches
were attempts to consolidate Protestantism before its religious
spirit had thoroughly permeated the minds of the leaders.
An outcome of this is to be seen in the rise of a Protestant
scholasticism that viewed doctrinal statements as declaring
saving truth in itself apart from the religious faith that
grounds the truth. The efforts to systematize these doctrines
provoked opposition and exasperating controversies. Space
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 417
forbids reference to these in detail. For convenience the
principal disputes may be arranged under the following heads :
(a) controversies among Lutherans; (b) controversies between
Lutherans and Calvinists; (c) controversies of Calvinism in
the Netherlands; (d) controversies of Calvinism in England.
Literature. — The standard works on church history give a general
account, the best being that of Newman, Manual of Church History,
II, 307-35, 4th ed. (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1903).
Pertinent articles in rehgious encyclopedias may be consulted. Among
the histories of doctrine see Fisher, History of Christian Doctrine, Part III,
chaps, vii and viii (New York: Scribner, 1896), but more particularly
Dorner, Geschichte der protestantischen Theologie, pp. 330-420 (MUnchen:
Oldenburg, 1867).
a) Controversies among Lutherans. — The ' following pro-
visional classification may serve as a guide: First, contro-
versies concerning faith, (i) in relation to law and good works,
(ii) in relation to justification, sanctification, and the mystical
participation in the divine nature of Christ. The following
disputants merit especial attention: Philip Melanchthon,
John Agricola, Georg Major, Nicholas Armsdorf, Andrias
Osiander, Francis Stancarus, Martin Chemnitz, and Flacius.
Secondly, controversies respecting the person of Christ, or,
more especially, respecting the Lutheran idea of the commu-
nication of idioms, or the mutual real participation of the hu-
man and divine nature in Christ. Here again the name of
Chemnitz figures, and also the names of James Andreas and
Brenz, Balthazar Munzer, et al. The Formula of Concord,
1576 and 1584, which attempted to mediate and settle the
disputes by prescribing articles on original sin, free will, the
righteousness of faith before God, good works, law and gospel,
the Lord's Supper, the person of Christ, etc., should be care-
fully studied. See Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, III, 93 ff.
b) Controversies between Lutherans and Calvinists. — These
include, besides the earlier disputes between Lutherans and
reformed theologians referred to in the first division of our
4i8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
study, the later controversies which arose from the influence
of Calvinism on certain Lutheran theologians. They stand
closely related to the controversies among Lutherans noted
above. The most notable of these is known as the Crypto-
Calvinist controversy, which concerns the question of the
real or spiritual presence of Christ in the elements of the
Supper. Of special importance here is the growing Cal-
vinistic tendency of Melanchthon. The question of pre-
destination also figured in the controversies. For a temporary
doctrinal outcome read the Saxon Visitation Articles, 1592, in
Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, III, 181 ff. The disputes in
the nature of the case were interminable.
c) Controversies among Calvinists in the Netherlands. —
These are of special importance because, first, in the ultimate
adjudication of them the entire Reformed church was invited
to participate; secondly, because the Arminian theology out
of which they partly sprang has continued in powerful influence
to the present.
The Arminian controversy, like most theological con-
troversies of the time, must b6 studied in relation to the
political situation in the countries where the Reformed church
was estabhshed, and particularly in Holland. Note, first, the
traditional love and enjoyment of freedom among the Dutch;
secondly, the influence of the Renaissance (Erasmus) there;
thirdly, the vindication of Protestant liberty in the long war
with Austria and Spain; fourthly, the presence of rehgious
dissenters there; fifthly, the determination of Maurice of
Nassau to turn the Dutch Republic into a monarchy, and
the powerful opposition led by John of Barneveld. The
strict Calvinists came into line with the monarchists, and the
Arminians with the republicans. Each of these features of
the situation demands close attention.
Literature. — For an intimate knowledge of the situation in the
Netherlands, especially on the political side, the great works of Motley
should be studied: The Rise of the Dutch Republic (as above); History of
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 419
the United Netherlands (New York: Harper, 1879); Life and Death of
John of Barneveld (New York: Harper, 1870).
The names and works of the leading theologians and of '
the great parties to the controversy should be familiar: for
the Amiinians, James Arminius, Hugo Grotius, Episcopius,
Limborch; for the extreme Calvinists, Theodore Beza, John
Piscator (who later became Arminian), and Gomarus. The
"Remonstrants" and " Contra-Remonstrants " and the "five
points" of Calvinism about which the controversy gathered
reveal the two parties.
Note the calling of the Synod of Dort (Dordrecht), the divi-
sion of the Calvinists that comprised it into Supra-Lapsarians
and Infra-Lapsarians, the canons adopted at the synod, and
the persecution of the Arminians. Note finally the survival
of Arminianism and its powerful influence in England during
the time of the early Stuart kings.
Literature. — The proceedings of the synod have been preserved in
Latin. Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. Ill, gives the canons in full.
The works of the Remonstrant theologians are accessible in Latin edi-
tions, but those of Arminius are given in English translation by Nichols
(London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1825). Grotius' Defence of the
Catholic Faith has been translated by Foster (Andover, 1889). For a
brief history of Arminianism read G. L. Curtiss, Arminianism in
History (Cincinnati: Methodist Book Concern, 1894).
d) Calvinist controversies in England. — -The principal
interest these have for us lies in their relation to the formation
of separated bodies in England (for which see below). At
this point we are concerned with the theological struggle
between hyper-Calvinism and Arminianism (used, in a wide
sense, of the moderate Protestant soteriology) . Its beginnings
can be seen, perhaps, in the less severe Protestantism of the
Thirty-nine Articles as compared with that of the Forty-two
Articles. The actual controversy with historical Arminianism
is to be seen in the Lambeth Articles composed by Whitaker.
They may be read in Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. III.
420 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
The later controversies with Arminianism can be traced
in the pohtico-ecclesiastical struggle between the Puritan
Parliament of England and the first two Stuart kings. The
Commons believed that the growing Arminianism was at the
bottom a subtle reaction toward a revived Catholicism.
Literature. — See Gardiner, Constitutional Documents of the Puritan
Revolution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889). Note, e.g., "The Resolu-
tions on Religion," pp. 77 ff. ("the subtle and pernicious spreading of the
Arminian faction," p. 79), "The Grand "Remonstrance," pp. 202 ff.,
especially p. 207. The Westminster Confession of faith (Schaff, Creeds
of Christendom, Vol. Ill) should be examined in this connection.
In addition to the standard church histories the following are valu-
able: Masson, Life of John Milton (London: Macmillan, 1875-80);
W. H. Frere, The English Church in the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I
(London: Macmillan, 1904) ; W. H. Hutton, The English Church from the
Accession of Charles I to the Death of Anne (London: Macmillan, 1903).
3. The discrediting of orthodoxy through the progress of
scientific knowledge. — Protestantism owes its origin in part
to the growth of the spirit of free discovery and enterprise.
Yet it is plain to a student of the Protestant creeds that the
claims there made to a knowledge of the higher realities, and
the view of the world running through the creeds, disclose an
inner opposition to the principles and methods as well as to
the results already recognized by science. An open conflict
was inevitable.
The story of the conflict pertains to the history of science
rather than to the history of the church, since it is generally at
bottom a conflict between a newer and an antiquated science.
The outstanding fact is the movement of science toward the
postulating of the government of the universe by immanent
"natural" law rather than by external control or arbitrary
interference with the common order of fixed validity. The
result was the creation of a distrust of those affirmations of
the creeds which embodied unscientific views, and therewith
the rise of a spirit qf skepticism toward all claims of pos-
session of any supernatural revelation whatsoever. Such a
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 421
position undermined the church estabhshments that made
these doctrines their basis of truth.
Literature. — The whole subject has been treated at great length by
A. D. White in A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in
Christendom (New York: Appleton, 1896). A smaller work, in the
"International Science Series," by J. W. Draper, History of the Conflict
between Religion and Science (New York: Appleton, 1875), unhappily
identifies religion and theology. The student may become acquainted
with the growing consciousness of a purely scientific method by a knowl-
edge of Francis Bacon's Novum Organum.
The study of the skeptical reaction that followed in the
wake of the Reformation carries us rather beyond the limits
of our period. It embraces the rise of modern philosophy in
its efforts to lay a new foundation for certainty by proceeding
through doubt to empirical investigation and rational specula-
tion, and more particularly the history of empiricism and
deism in England, of the enlightenment in Germany, and of
infidehty in France.
Literature. — ^Lecky, History of Rationalism in Europe (London:
Longmans, Green, & Co., 1867), and Hurst, History of Rationalism
(Cincinnati: Methodist Book Concern, 1901), are good. One should
consult the standard histories of philosophy, especially the portions of
Windelband and Hoffding dealing with this subject. The old work of
Leland, On the Deistical Writers (London, 1754-56), and Oman, The
Problem of Faith and Freedom (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1906),
are valuable, but a first-hand acquaintance with the writers of the period
is indispensable to an appreciation of the movement.
C. THREATENED DISSOLUTION OF THE PROTESTANT STATE CHURCHES
THROUGH THE RISE OF THE FREE CHURCHES
The struggle precipitated by the rise of the Free churches
is to be contrasted in its inner character with the two forms of
opposition to the Protestant establishments above discussed,
in that, while the first (A) appeared to be mainly between rival
forms of ecclesiasticism and concerned directly the lawyers and
statesmen of the churches, and the second (B) appeared mainly
as a protest from within Protestantism against the unnatural
422 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
bonds placed by the Reformation church creeds upon the
action of human intelligence and concerned principally the
intellectuals among the people, that now to be discussed
related to a specifically religious interest and had its roots
in the free spontaneous faith of the common people and, con-
sequently, was more radical and comprehensive in its scope.-
The limitation of our study to the period of the Reformation
confines our attention to the beginnings of the movement,
which is still progressing.
The first step in this study is to review the record of the
origin and progress of those voluntaristic, individuahstic,
democratic religious groups or orders or communions that
underlay much of the Reformation and persisted through
its course, despite severe measures of repression taken by
both Catholics and Protestants (see division I of this outline).
The tendency native to Protestantism, to create free churches,
is to be noted; e.g., its insistence on using the Bible in the
vernacular, its profession of the right of private judgment in
religious matters, its nurture of a warm personal faith, its
elevation of the laity to equality with the clergy in religious
and ecclesiastical affairs. Note further how the spirit of
individual enterprise in the maritime Protestant countries
co-operated in the same direction and prepared asylums for
the spirit of religious liberty.
Interest centers mainly in the English and Dutch people.
Observe how the struggle with Spain had strengthened their
mutual sympathy and developed intimate commercial, social,
and political intercourse. It will be noticed how the religious
radical when persecuted in one of these countries fled to the
other or even to colonies across the sea — e.g., the Pilgrim
Fathers of New England.
Literature. — A very extensive literature has accumulated. The
state papers of the countries concerned exhibit the steps taken by their
governments and indicate to some extent the character of the dissenting
movements. Foxe's Acts and Monuments (London, 1570-), Strype's An-
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 423
nals of the Reformation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1824) and Ecclesiastical
Memorials (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1822), works of the Reformers
collected and edited by the Parker Society, and of the early Baptists
collected and edited by the Hanserd KnoUys Society, are fundamental to
a first-hand knowledge. To these may be added, among earlier works,
Thomas Fuller, The Church History of Great Britain from the Birth of
Jesus Christ until the Year 1648 (London: Hopton, 1662) ; Jeremy Collier,
An Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, etc., recent edition (London:
1852); Crosby, History of the English Baptists (London, 1738); John
Evans, A Brief Sketch of the Several Denominations into Which the World
Is Divided (London, 1795); Joseph Ivimey, A History of the English
Baptists (London, 181 1); Neal's great History of the Puritans (London:
Tegg, 1837). Recent works are numerous, but among them Dexter,
Congregationalism as Seen in Its Literature (New York: Harper,
1880); Walker, Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism (New York:
Scribner, 1893); and McGlothlin, Baptist Confessions of Faith (Phila-
delphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 191 1), are of much value.
Newman, History of Antipaedobaptism (Philadelphia: American Bap-
tist Pub. Soc, 1897), particularly the last three chapters, traces the
rise of the Baptists in England.
I . Growth of the Free-church ideal in England. — The most
noteworthy growth of Free-churchism is in England, and its
relation to the Protestant establishments is seen to best advan-
tage there. Beginning with the authorization of the Book of
Common Prayer as the only legal compendium of public
worship, the drafting of the Thirty-nine Articles, and, for
the suppression of opposition, the Act of Uniformity, the
student will trace four stages in the progress of dissent, accord-
ing to the degree of its radicalism. The first includes those
who were willing to accept episcopacy as the form of church
government but sought to purify the doctrine and ritual of
the Church of England and bring it into harmony with the
Reformed churches — the Puritans. Here we see the influence
of Geneva and Scotland. The names of the archbishops of
Canterbury from Parker to Bancroft figure in these con-
troversies. The Apology of Bishop Jewel and The Ecclesi-
astical Polity of Richard Hooker set forth the views of the
moderate EpiscopaKans. The works of Thomas Cartwright,
424 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
the Lambeth Articles (see Schaff, Creeds of Christendom,
Vol. Ill), and the Millenary Petition presented to James I
present the Puritan view. The controversy came to a
head through the ecclesiastical administration of Laud and
culminated in the great civil war. For this the standard
political histories are available. The student will note the
rise of a persistent division within the established church — ■
the High Church and the Broad Church parties. Recon-
ciliation has proved impossible.
2. Presbyterianism. — -The second stage of dissent is held
by those who sought to bring the Church of England into full
conformity with the Reformed conception in both doctrine
and order — the Presbyterians. The work of Walter Travis,
in Latin, on church discipline opened the Presybterian con-
tention. The bitter attacks on the bishc^s made by the
author of the Martin Marprelate tracts (perhaps Henry
Barrowe) are the most noteworthy features of the early steps
taken by Presbyterians. The names of the three martyrs,
John Greenwood, Henry Barrowe, and John Penry, are
notable in this connection, as are also those of Francis John-
son and Henry Ainsworth, exiles in Holland. The full
impact of the Presbyterian polemic is seen in the attempt to
bring the whole of England under Presbyterianism through
the alliance of the Enghsh Parliament with the Scots. The
Longer and Shorter Catechisms and the Westminster Con-
fession are monuments of the struggle, which was brought to
an abrupt close by Cromwell and the army.
Literature. — Gardiner, Constitutional Documents of the Puritan
Revolution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), gives material illustrative
of the true character of the struggle in the civil war.
3 . The Independents. — In the third stage we find tnose
who, in addition to practicing the "godly discipline" and
plain worship of the Presbyterians, claimed the right of all
churches of the regenerate to independent, democratic self-
government as laid down in the New Testament — the Inde-
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 425
pendents, later called Congregationalists. These, however,
still held to the propriety of enforcing the doctrines and
practices of the Christian faith upon all inhabitants of the
country. The first noteworthy advocate of these views was
Robert Browne — hence the early name, "Brownists."
Literature. — The most exhaustive study of Browne has been made
by ChampHn Burrage in The True Story of Robert Browne: The Church
Covenant Idea (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1904); The
Early English Dissenters in the Light of Recent Research (Cambridge:
University Press, 1912); The Retractation (Oxford: Hart, 1907); and
other studies.
The founding of a Separatist church at Norwich, the flight
to Middleburg in Zeeland, the change in Johnson and Ains-
worth's congregation at Amsterdam, the coming of John Smith
and his congregation from Gainsborough, the migration of the
congregation at Scrooby with the well-known Brewster,
Bradford, and Robinson, of Pilgrim fame, as leaders, and the
emigration to Plymouth, Massachusetts, are recounted in
numerous works noted in all the histories of Congregationalism
and of the founding of the New England colonies. The
strenuous part played by the Independents in the civil war
under Cromwell's leadership is recognized in the histories of
that fight.
Literature. — The following works may be specially noted: Dale,
History of Congregationalism, especially Bks. I and H (London: Hod-
der & Stoughton, 1907); Dexter, Story of the Pilgrims (Boston: Con-
gregational Publication Soc, 1894) ; Fletcher, History of Independency
(London: Snow, 1847-49).
4. The Baptists. — We reach a fourth stage of opposition
to the state church when we find many Independents becom-
ing Baptists, as they preferred to be called, rather than
Anabaptists. The story of John Smith, called by Dexter the
Se-Baptist, his relations with the Mennonites, the separation
from him, when he sought baptismal succession, by many
426 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
who followed Thomas Helwys and John Murton back to
England in 1611, and the growth of the General Baptists
there, is related by the Baptist histories above named. The
student will note the rise of another Baptist body, Particular
Baptists, so called from the view of atonement held by them,
springing from a church under the leadership of Henry
Jacob. It is important to study the Tracts on Liberty of Con-
science collected by the Hanserd Knollys Society, especially
Leonard Busher's Religion's Peace and Roger WilHams'
Bloody Tenent of Persecution. At this point we reach the limit
of our study.
The student should not leave the subject without raising
the question: Which of these four movements offers the best
interpretation of the inner spirit of Protestantism ?
C. SUMMARY ESTIMATE OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION
The Protestant Reformation appears, as one surveys it
from the distance of four centuries, to have been one of those
great convulsions of human society which occur when multi-
tudes of people inhabiting vast contiguous territories come
under the influence of a common impulse to seek the ful-
filment of the meaning of Hfe in new directions. Such an
impulse is sure to appear as mainly iconoclastic in the early
stages of its action, because existing customs, institutions, and
theories stand as barriers to its free execution. In later
stages of its progress its creative power is disclosed in the
appearing of new customs, institutions, and doctrines which
displace those that have now become antiquated to some
minds; but alongside of them the old may survive and even
regain new vigor by contact with the new.
Thus it was with the Reformation. In respect both to the
destructive and to the constructive force that was released
it was less effective in the sixteenth century than its most
enthusiastic representatives expected, for after the first
shock of surprise the conservative influence asserted itself
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 427
with much success and forced the postponement of the radical
outworking of the Protestant principle to later times.
The preceding study has shown that the factors at work
were many and diverse in their empirical origin. The ques-
tion arises: How is it that the Reformation has been tra-
ditionally regarded as a religious movement? The answer
must be: Because it really was such — not, of course, in the
narrow sense of a distinctively supernatural impulse separate
from the motives that direct men in common affairs, but in
the sense that a man's rehgion is constituted by the unification
of all his many-sided activities in a single aim, the worship
of the unseen ideal. The true genius of the Reformation
found its best expression in the religious leaders because
they most truly divined its secret heart.
Religiously viewed, then, the Reformation was an attempt
to consecrate the supreme worth of personality. It was an
effort of the human spirit in the individual to affirm the
supremacy of the personal in the spiritual and material realms.
In the former realm it took the form of a conflict between the
aggressive spirit of the self-conscious man and the structures
of thought and will by which a precedent social order sought
to maintain its ancient possessions in their entirety and there-
by to hold the man in leash. In the material realm it was
an affirmation of the essential friendship between man and
"nature" and the right and capacity of the human spirit to
make "nature " instrumental to the achievement of the destiny
of personahty. In this regard it may be described as an
attempt to take possession of the material world as a means
of fulfilling the life of fellowship with God. Its God was
distinctly personal and in no need of intermediaries in his
approach to men. He wrought in them immediately. The
immense enterprises that awakened in Protestantism were
the fruit of the unconquerable courage that the new religious
spirit created.
VIII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN
CHRISTIANITY
By ERRETT gates
Instructor in History and Assistant Professor of Church History in the
Disciples' Di\dnity House, University of Chicago
ANALYSIS
Inlroduction: The Nature and Meaning of Modern Christianity. —
Definition. — Religion and culture indissolubly related. — Distinctive
elements of modern Christianity. — i. The element of liberty. —
2. The element of scientific veracity. — 3. The element of rationality. —
4. The element of humanity. — 5. The element of spirituality — 6. The
element of secularity. — 7. The element of social responsibihty. —
8. The element of democracy. — 9. The element of catholicity. —
10. The relation of modern Christianity to Protestantism and to
Catholicism 431-440
I. The Politico-Ecclesiastical Movement. — Liberty of conscience in
religion. — The ancient conception of religion as an affair of the state.
— Christianity a religion of individual conviction. — The develop-
ment of the idea of religious liberty. — The influence of the
Protestant Reformation. — The movement of religious dissent.
— The guaranty of religious liberty by the state. — Development of
religious liberty in Protestantism 441-446
II. The Scientific Movement, — Scientific method welcomed by
modern Christianity. — The development of modern science. —
The conflict between religion and science. — Attempt at harmoniza-
tion.— The present relationship between science and religion. — Some
unsolved problems ' 446-452
III. The Philosophical Movement. — The problems of modern
philosophy. — The problem of knowledge. — The rationalistic move-
ment.— Influence of rationalism on religious thinking. — The philo-
sophical criticism of rationalism. — Kant. — Schleiermacher. — Ritschl 452-458
IV. The Historical Movement. — The genetic treatment of his-
tory.— Development of historical method.— The principle of historical
correlation.^The principle of historical development. — The prin-
ciple of historical uniformity. — The historical study of the Bible. —
History of biblical criticism. — The critical study of church history 458-466
V. The Social Movement. — The sense of social responsibility. —
Elements of the social consciousness. — Sources of the social move-
ment.— The socializing of modern Christianity. — The development
of Christianity from a dogmatic to an ethical interest. — The practical
testing of Christianity. — The transition from an ethical to a social
interest. — The literary prophets of the social ideal .... 466-475
VI. The Missionary Movement. — The influence of missionary
ideals on modern Christianity. — The modification of missionary
activities due to modern thought. — Factors in the broader view of
missions. — Some problems which missionaries must face. — The
study of comparative religions and missionary ideals. — A new
apologetic for Christianity. — The need of social salvation. — The
movement toward Christian union 475-482
VIII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN
CHRISTIANITY
INTRODUCTION
THE NATURE AND MEANING OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY
Definition. — The term "modern Christianity" is used in
this treatment in a special sense, and refers to the principles,
tendencies, or movements which have sometimes been called
"progressive Christianity," "the new theology," or "modern-
ism." It has not taken institutional form in any organized
denomination nor received authoritative expression in any
system oi doctrine. It is rather a religious attitude, a mode
of thought, or a principle of action manifesting itself in all
denominations and Christian movements.
Briefly defined, modern Christianity is the Christianity
which has steadily progressed with the progress of modern
civilization, both influencing it and being influenced by it.
The history of Western Europe since the introduction of
Christianity shows a continuous balance between the church
and society, religion and civilization. Neither at any time
shows any great difference from the other. Sometimes one,
sometimes the other, may be leading, but. they are never com-
pletely separated from each other in character.
Religion and culture indissolubly related. — It is impossible
for religion or the church to move on apart from the rest of
society. The religion of an age is a part of the civilization of
an age. The individuals who make up the state and formulate
the politics of an age, or compose society and create its
social consciousness, make up the church and formulate its
religious thought. The same individuals are at the same time
citizens, merchants, scholars, soldiers, and worshipers, and
what they are in one sphere they tend to be in all other
431
432 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
spheres. Society is a solidarity, and religion is an integral
part of it.
This will be found to be notably true of modern Chris-
tianity. It is a reflex in religious thought and action of the
modern social consciousness. It has grown out of a deUberate
acceptance of the results of modern progress and out of a
conscious effort to incorporate all of the assured values of
modern civilization into religion.
DISTINCTIVE ELEMENTS OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY
Since modern Christianity is not an organic movement
nor a formulated system of doctrine, it can be summarized
only in terms of certain peculiar principles or tendencies, and
these cannot be stated definitely or exhaustively, but only
suggestively.
No definite date can be assigned for the beginnings of
modern Christianity. Faint intimations of it he far back
in the mediaeval period. Its more rapid course of develop-
ment was coincident with the emancipation of the human
mind and society from the control of the mediaeval church
and theology in the sixteenth century; but it did not become
conscious of itself until the eighteenth century. The nine-
teenth century witnessed the acceptance of all of its essential
principles in enlightened religious circles.
Literature. — Troeltsch has attempted a formulation of the tendencies
of the modern rehgious movement in several treatises, especially in his
Protestantism and Progress (New York: Putnam, 1912), which should be
studied with painstaking care. On p. 39 the author refers to several
different formulations of the principles of modern thought which he has
attempted, thus showing how differently the same principles may be
stated.
In this connection three books by President Henry Churchill King
of Oberlin College are of primary importance : his Reconstruction in
Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1901); Theology and the Social Con-
sciousness (New York: Macmillan, 1902); and The Moral and Religious
Challenge of Our Times (New York: Macmillan, 191 1).
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 433
Professor George A. Coe, in The Religion of a Mature Mind (Chicago:
Revell, 1902), has given careful and discriminating expression to several
elements of modern Christianity.
Professor Gerald B. Smith has studied the transforming influence of
democratic and scientific ideas upon ethics and theology in his book on
Social Idealism and the Changing Theology (New York : Macmillan, 1913) .
1. The element of liberty. — Liberty in modern Chris-
tianity has a wide range of manifestations.
In its general theological phase it is the right claimed by
the modem reHgious thinker to be free from the control of
authority, or the disposition to subject all authorities, whether
the Bible, the church, tradition, or a priori "reason," to the
test of rationality and experience.
In its politico-religious phase it is the right claimed by the
individual to be free from the control of the civil authority in
his belief and worship, and constitutes "freedom of con-
science."
In its historico-biblical phase it is the right claimed by the
scholar to study the Bible as any other literature, and con-
stitutes "freedom of scholarship."
In its ethical form it is the right to be inwardly self-
governed in the choice of moral aims and in moral conduct, and
constitutes "freedom of will" or "moral autonomy."
Literature.- — For a study of the principle of liberty in its general
historic relation to religious authority the student should turn to Auguste
Sabatier, Religions oj Authority and the Religion of the Spirit (New York:
McClure, Phillips & Co., 1904). Read in this connection chap, iii of
Professor Coe's book on The Religion of a Mature Mind (Chicago: Revell,
1902); and Professor W. N. Clarke's An Outline of Christian Theology,
pp. 10-53 (New York: Scribner, 1898).
2. The element of scientific veracity. — Veracity enters
intimately, along with liberty, into every phase of modern
Christianity. It really forms the moral ground for the
justification of hberty. The right to be free is grounded in
the duty to be true to what really is; that is, to be truthful.
It is the scientific spirit.
434 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
We shall see this element of veracity especially at work
in the field of biblical study. The quest for what is really
true concerning the origin and history of the books of the
Bible constitutes its aim and spirit, and the discovery of
what is true constitutes the reason for freedom to state
what is discovered. This is freedom of scholarship as under-
stood by all modern biblical scholars.
It is the spirit of veracity in religious belief and in moral
conduct which has compelled the appeal to experience as a
source of authority. The use of experience in ethics and
religion corresponds to the use of fact in science and of event
in history. Nothing but experience will yield the sense of
truth and reality, and nothing but reahty and worth can
compel veracity. Hence both theology and ethics have
become experimental in method.
Literature.— 'R. C. King has called attention to the moral basis for
the scientific method in The Moral and Religious Challenge of Our Times,
chap, iv (New York: Macmillan, 1911).
3. The element of rationality. — The development of
modern Christianity has been characterized by an increasing
tendency to appeal to reason as a criterion of the truth.
While it has found its chief sphere of application in the field of
religious thought, no element of religious faith or practice
has escaped its influence. The beliefs, the ceremonies, the
customs, the institutions, and the life of religion have all been
subjected to its testing. The tendency of the modern Chris-
tian mind is to accept only that which commends itself as true,
just, and good in the light of experience and reflection. It
is not enough that a belief, ceremony, or institution have
the sanction of authority or custom; it must secure the
sanction of reason by proving its truth or its worth.
The rise of Deism in the seventeenth century was the
beginning of that inexorable demand upon religion, in modern
times, that it make itself entirely rational.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 435
4. The element of humanity. The element of humanity,
kindness, or sympathy has steadily grown in importance
as a criterion of good morality and of true religion. It has
grown out of the increasing sense, in modern times, of the
dignity and sacredness of human life. The growth of human-
ity has revolutionized human conduct in both its personal and
its political aspects. It has at the same time revolutionized
Christian theology and activity. It lies at the root of all
modern philanthropy and social service, whether carried on by
the church, by the state, or by society at large.
5. The element of spirituality. — Religion has tended to
grow more spiritual, more inward, in modern times. The
essence of spirituality consists in a direct, personal, and
inner relation to God as opposed to a magical, ceremonial,
or hierarchical relation; in ethical conduct rather than
in ecstatic feeling or doctrinal inerrancy. As to form,
spirituality is a psychological rather than a physical con-
dition or relation. As to content, it is grounded in a good
will and cannot be distinguished from a truly moral life.
Literature. — The student will find this modern conception of spiritu-
ality set forth by Professor George A. Coe in his book on The Spiritual
Life (Chicago: Revell, 1900), and in chap, v of The Religion of a
Mature Mind (Chicago: Revell, 1902).
6. The element of secularity. — A greater appreciation of
the worth and sanctity of the present natural order enters
pre-eminently into the attitude of the modern Christian.
The secular spirit has grown as the ascetic spirit has declined in
the modern world. It has broken down the sharp antithesis
between sacred and secular, the present and the future, the
heavenly and the earthly, the inspired and the uninspired,
the human and the divine. Several ideas have wrought in
this direction: the spiritual conception of religion has made
all times and places sacred ; the concept of the sovereignty of
the individual and the equality of all men have made all
persons sacred, while the conception of the divine immanence
436 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
has made both ethical and metaphysical dualism incongruous.
The result has been a twofold process — a, secularization of
the religious and a sanctification of the secular.
Professor Gerald B. Smith characterizes this process as an
"ethical transformation" under the influence of the demo-
cratic and scientific ideals, and says:
Now the total effect of those movements of thought and of social
activity which make up what we call the modern world is to turn atten-
tion to the resources of this world and to discover moral values in the
immanent processes of human evolution [Social Idealism and the
Changing Theology, p. 211].
In contrasting the points of difference between the medi-
aeval and the modern world Professor Troeltsch says:
A valuation of the present world for the sake of the riches and beauty
of the world, an estimation of the goods attained iriT the progress of
civilization because of an independent ethical value attaching to them,
is consequently impossible. But precisely such a valuation of these
things is the characteristic feature of the modern feeling towards the
world and civilization {Protestantism and Progress, p. 77).
Literature. — For a further treatment of the modern trend toward
an ethical secularism in opposition to asceticism the student is referred
to Gladden, Ruling Ideas of the Present Age (Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Co., 1895); Freemantle, The Gospel of the Secular Life (London: Cassell,
1882); Bowne, The Divine Immanence (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.,
1906); and G. B. Smith, Social Idealism and the Changing Theology,
chap, ii (New York: Macmillan, 1913).
7. The element of social responsibility. — One of the
most significant discoveries of the modern world has been
the fact that a man's life — ^his moral, intellectual, economic,
and physical life — is socially conditioned. It has been dis-
covered that it is not enough to regenerate the individual;
his environment must also be regenerated — ^the society in
which he lives, with all of its customs and institutions — if the
regeneration of the individual is to be permanent and com-
plete. And it has been further discovered that a man is a
unity; he is not merely soul, but soul and body. As the
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 437
individual is one with his society, so the soul is one with
the body; and Christianity has therefore a social as well as
an individual, a physical as well as a spiritual, task in the
salvation of the soul (see King, Rational Living).
Literature. — The student will find the libraries filled with books on
this theme, and a growing stream of them issuing from the press. Among
the most notable of the earlier books read Freemantle, The World as the
Subject of Redemption (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1895);
and among the more recent, Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the
Social Crisis (New York: Macmillan, 1907), and Christianizing the
Social Order (New York: Macmillan, 19 14).
8. The element of democracy. — The principle of democ-
racy affirms the sovereignty and competency of the individual
in all affairs relating to his own well-being. It arose first of
all in the poHtical sphere, but it was found to be equally
applicable in the religious sphere. No phase of modern life
or thought has escaped its influence, but it has been especially
influential in all modern religious development — in doctrine,
life, and organization.
It has been largely responsible for the overthrow of the
Calvinistic theology,