The Lost Gospel and Its Contents by Michael F. Sadler (most popular ebook readers TXT) 📖

words, gives the whole account, so far as it was a fulfilment of prophecy, made up from two narratives which have come down to us in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke, and in these only. It would have been absurd for him to have done otherwise, as he might have done if he had anticipated the carpings of nineteenth century critics, and assumed that Trypho, an unconverted Jew, had a New Testament in his hand with which he was so familiar that he could be referred to first one narrative and then the other, in order to test the correctness of Justin's quotations.

Against all this the author of "Supernatural Religion" brings forward a number of trifling disagreements as proofs that Justin need not have quoted one of the Evangelists--probably did not--indeed, may not have ever seen our synoptics, or heard of their existence. But the reader will observe that he has given the same history as we find in the two synoptics which have given an account of the Nativity, and he apparently knew of no other account of the matter.

We are reminded that there were numerous apocryphal Gospels then in use in the Church, and that Justin might have derived his matter from these; but, if so, how is it that he discards all the lying legends with which those Gospels team, and, with the solitary exception of the mention of the cave, confines himself to the circumstances of the synoptic narrative.

The next place respecting the Nativity shall be one from ch. c.:--

"But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy, when the angel Gabriel
announced the good tidings to her that the Spirit of the Lord would
come upon her, and the power of the Highest would overshadow her;
wherefore also the Holy Thing begotten of her is the Son of God: and
she replied, 'Be it unto me according to Thy word.'"

Here both the words of the angel and the answer of the virgin are almost identical with the words in St. Luke's Gospel; Justin, however, putting his account into the oblique narrative.

We will put the two side by side that the reader may compare them.

[GREEK TABLE]

Pistin de kai charan labousa | Maria hê parthenos euangelizomenou | autê Gabriêl angelou, hoti pneuma | Pneuma hagion epeleusetai epi kyriou ep' autên epeleusetai, | se, kai dynamis hypsistou kai dunamis hypsistou episkiasei | episkiasei soi, dio kai to gennômenon autên, dio kai to gennômenon | hagion klêthêsetai Hyios Theou. ex autês hagion estin Hyios Theou, | * * * * * apekrinato, Genoito moi kata to | Genoito moi kaia to rhêma sou. rhêma sou. |

Now of these words, as existing in St. Luke , the author of "Supernatural Religion" takes no notice. Was he, then, acquainted with the fact that Justin's words in this place so closely correspond with St. Luke's? We cannot say. We only know that he calls his readers' particular attention to a supposed citation of the previous words of the angel Gabriel, cited in another place:--

"Behold thou shalt conceive of the Holy Ghost, and shalt bear a Son,
and He shall be called the Son of the Highest, and thou shalt call
His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins."
(Apol. I. ch. xxxiii.)

The ordinary unprejudiced reader would say that Justin here reproduces St. Matthew and St. Luke, weaving into St. Luke's narrative the words of the angel to St. Joseph; but our author will not allow this for a moment. He insists that Justin knew nothing, or need have known nothing, of St. Luke. He shows that the words of the angel, "He shall save his people," &c., which seem to be introduced from St. Matthew, "are not accidentally inserted in this place, for we find that they are joined in the same manner to the address of the angel to Mary in the Protevangelium of St. James."

But how about those words which succeed them in answer to the question of the Virgin, "How shall these things be?" I mean those quoted in the "Dialogue" beginning "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee," &c. If ever one author quotes another, Justin in this place quotes St. Luke. They cannot be taken from the Protevangelium, because the corresponding words in the Protevangelium are very different from those in St. Luke; and the only real difference between Justin's quotation and St. Luke is that St. Luke reads, "shall be called the Son of God;" whereas Justin has "is the Son of God." Now in this Justin differs from the Protevangelium, which reads, "Shall be called the Son of the Highest;" so the probability is still more increased that in the quotation from the "Dialogue" he did not quote the Protevangelium, and did quote St. Luke. However, we will make the author a present of these words, because we want to assume for a moment the truth of his conclusion, which he thus expresses:--

"Justin's divergencies from the Protevangelium prevent our supposing
that, in its present form, it could have been the actual source of
his quotations; but the wide differences which exist between the
extant MSS. of the Protevangelium show that even the most ancient
does not present it in its original form. It is much more probable
that Justin had before him a still older work, to which both the
Protevangelium and the third Gospel were indebted." ("Supernatural
Religion," vol. i. p. 306.)

Assuming, then, the correctness of this, Justin had a still older Gospel than that of St. Luke; and we shall hereafter show that St. Luke's Gospel was used in all parts of the world in Justin's day, and long before it. Now Justin himself lived only 100 years after the Resurrection; and this is no very great age for the copy of a book, still less for the book itself, of which any one may convince himself by a glance around his library. We may depend upon it that Justin would have used the oldest sources of information. A book so old in Justin's days may have been published at the outset of Christianity. The author himself surmises that it may have been the work of one of St. Luke's [Greek: polloi]. Anyhow it is an older and therefore, according to the writer's own line of argument all through his book, a more reliable witness to the things of Christ, and its witness is to the supernatural in His Birth. Are we, then, able to form any conjecture as to the name of this most ancient Gospel? Yes. The author of "Supernatural Religion" identifies it with the lost Gospel to the Hebrews, in the words:--

"Much more probably, however, Justin quotes from the more ancient
source from which the Protevangelium and perhaps St. Luke drew their
narrative. There can be little doubt that the Gospel according to
the Hebrews contained an account of the birth in Bethelehem, and as
it is, at least, certain that Justin quotes other particulars from
it, there is fair reason to believe that he likewise found this fact
[28:1] in that work." (Vol. ii. p. 313.)

If, then, this be the Gospel from which Justin derived his account of the Nativity, it seems to have contained all the facts for which we have now to look into St. Matthew and St. Luke. It combined the testimonies of both Evangelists to the supernatural Birth of Jesus.


SECTION V.

THE PRINCIPAL WITNESS.--HIS TESTIMONY RESPECTING THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST.


The next extract from Justin which I shall give is one describing our Lord's Baptism. This account, like almost every other given in the dialogue with Trypho, is mentioned by him, not so much for its own sake, but because it gave him opportunity to show the fulfilment, or supposed fulfilment, of a prophecy--in this case the prophecy of Isaiah that the "Spirit of the Lord should rest upon Him."

"Even at His birth He was in possession of His power; and as He grew
up like all other men, by using the fitting means, He assigned its
own [requirements] to each development, and was sustained by all
kinds of nourishment, and waited for thirty years, more or less,
until John appeared before Him as the herald of His approach, and
preceded Him in the way of baptism, as I have already shown. And
then, when Jesus had gone to the river Jordan, where John was
baptizing, and when He had stepped into the water, a fire was
kindled in the Jordan; and when He came out of the water, the Holy
Ghost lighted on Him like a dove [as] the Apostles of this very
Christ of ours wrote.... For when John remained (literally sat)
[29:1] by the Jordan, and preached the baptism of repentance,
wearing only a leathern girdle and a vesture made of camel's hair,
eating nothing but locusts and wild honey, men supposed him to be
Christ; but he cried to them--'I am not the Christ, but the voice of
one crying; for He that is stronger than I shall come, whose shoes I
am not worthy to bear....' The Holy Ghost, and for man's sake, as I
formerly stated, lighted on Him in the form of a dove, and there
came at the same instant from the heavens a voice, which was uttered
also by David when he spoke, personating Christ, what the Father
would say to Him, 'Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee;'
[the Father] saying that His generation would take place for men, at
the time when they would become acquainted with Him. 'Thou art my
Son; this day have I begotten Thee.'" (Ch. lxxxviii.)

The author of "Supernatural Religion" lays very great stress upon this passage, as indicating throughout sources of information different from our Gospels. He makes the most of the fact that John is said to have "sat" by the Jordan, not apparently remembering that sitting was the normal posture for preaching and teaching (Matthew v. 1; Luke iv. 20).