THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

HE New Testament consists of twenty-seven distinct documents, written by nine,

T perhaps ten, different authors. They were written without concert of action, at

different times, for different purposes, and addressed to different readers. They differ also in character and style; some of them are historic, some of them philosophic and didactic, one is poetic and prophetic. They were all composed during the first century after Christ, in the Greek language-unless Matthew's Gospel was first written in Hebrew— and the manuscript copies have long since perished. Thus our English New Testament is a translation from a Greek original, which is itself a copy of copies, the original being no longer in existence. I propose in this Introduction to trace the history of the New Testament from its origin to the present day; to point out the central principle which unites these documents in one harmonious book; to state the reasons which have led the Christian Church to regard them as in a peculiar sense inspired by God; to give briefly the evidences which satisfy the Church that these books were really written by the authors whose names they bear; to describe the difficulties which Christian scholars have encountered in ascertaining what was the text of the original manuscripts, and how they have overcome those difficulties; and to narrate the history of our present English translation, indicate some of its defects, and the principles adopted in this Commentary in the endeavor to afford the Christian student aid in its interpretation. I propose then further to describe the characteristics of the Gospels, and their relations to each other; to point out the seeming discrepancies and real harmony in their accounts; to indicate the principal features in the earthly life of Jesus Christ; and finally to furnish a table of the Evangelical narratives, arranged in parallel columns, so as to enable the student to fill out and complete this sketch in detail.

PART I. THE NEW TESTAMENT.

I. Its Nature.-The word Testament means covenant or agreement. It is generally so translated.' This meaning lingers in the phrase "last will and testament." The will of a deceased is his last testament because it is his last covenant, the last agreement which he can make, one which often has to be accepted and finally executed by his heirs. It appears very clearly in the institution of the Lord's Supper. In the hospitable East a meal was the customary method of at once celebrating and sealing a treaty or compact, as is smoking the pipe of peace among the North American Indians, or the payment of a sum to bind the bargain in our more commercial age and nation. Christ, therefore, immediately before his death, arranged for a supper with his disciples, as a method of both

As in Acts 3: 25; Gal. 3:15, 17; 4: 24; and in many places in Hebrews.

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sealing and celebrating his compact or covenant with his Church; and taking the cup of wine, he pledged his disciples in it with the words, "This cup is the new testament (i. e., the new covenant) in my blood, which is shed for you." Thus every recurring communion season emphasizes the meaning of this word Testament, and repeats the solemn ratification of the compact between Christ and his people.

The New Testament, then, is God's own covenant or agreement with man.' The opening chapter of Matthew intimates the character of this covenant. The angel, in announcing the advent of the Son of God, says to Joseph, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." The closing chapter of the Book of Revelation intimates the answer to the question, Who are his people? "Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.". The New Testament, then, is God's promise to save from the present and future punishment of sin all those who come to Him for such salvation. It is not a book of rules for the government of conduct; that is, it is not a new law. It is not a book of philosophy, respecting either human or divine nature; that is, it is not a new theology. It is simply what its name implies, a new covenant on God's part to save from sin those who come to him, in child-like trust, for such salvation. This is a very simple truth; but it is fundamental to a right interpretation of the book.

The New Testament may be regarded as consisting of three kinds of books, (1) historic, (2) philosophic and didactic, (3) prophetic; though each of these elements is to be found in all the books.

1. The four Gospels and the Book of Acts are mainly historic. The first afford us our only information concerning the life and teachings of Jesus Christ; the second gives an account of the results, in the early church, of the work of the Divine Spirit, whom Christ, at the time of his death, promised to send to the disciples after his ascension. These five books constitute the foundation on which the superstructure of the New Testament is built; the historical basis for the new covenant which Paul in his Epistles analyzes and interprets, and the fulfilment of which John, in the Book of Revelation, pictorially describes.

2. The Epistles, most of which were written by Paul, are philosophic and didactic. They explain the necessity for such a covenant as the New Testament, its nature, the conditions on which we can avail ourselves of it, the consequences of rejecting it, the results of accepting it, in spiritual life, in the individual and the community, in the present world and the hereafter; they contain wise counsels to Christians how best to promote the general acceptance of this covenant by Jew and Gentile; and with vehement rhetoric they urge its acceptance upon the reader. These Epistles, of which I shall write more fully in the introduction to the volume which contains them, differ in character, scope, and purpose. Some of them were written as circular letters to the church at large, some of them to individual churches, some of them to personal friends. They contain, therefore, some personal allusions and practical advice, which are only indirectly applicable to our own time, and some counsels in respect to church organization and church work, which are not, however, to be interpreted as ecclesiastical laws, but as illustrations of those principles of organic action which will render the church efficient in proclaiming the privileges of the new covenant to others.

3. The only purely prophetic book of the New Testament is the Book of Revelation, Its object is to disclose the final fulfillment of the new covenant or agreement of God in

1 Luke 22: 20.

This covenant is distinctly stated in Jer. 31: 31-34, quoted in Hebrews 8: 8-12. The difference between the old covenant and the new is indicated by comparing the language of the third commandment, "Showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments" (Exod. 20: 6), with that of Paul, “God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ." Ephes. 2: 4, 5.

the second coming of Jesus Christ, the complete and final overthrow of sin and suffering, and the manifest and perfect triumph of God and godliness throughout the universe.

Thus it will be seen that the New Testament is not a mere collection of independent and disconnected treatises, but a harmonious whole, in which the new agreement or promise of God is first set forth in the life and death of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit; second, explained and enforced by the arguments of Paul and his apostolic contemporaries; and finally disclosed in its fulfillment in the vision of John the prophetapostle.

II. Its Origin and Authority. If the New Testament is a new covenant, there must be a covenantor. If it is a promise that God will do for man what man cannot do for himself, it must in a peculiar sense come from God, or it is not what it pretends to be. For example, if we suppose the declaration, "He shall save his people from their sins," was directly authorized by God, it is a divine promise on which we can with assurance rely; if not, it only expresses the opinion which a Roman tax-gatherer of the first century entertained upon the subject, and is of no particular value. In other words, the divine origin and authority of the book is involved in its nature, and indeed in its very title. If it were a book of moral philosophy, i. e., if its object were to tell us how to conduct ourselves in this life, or if it were a book of theological philosophy, i. e., if its object were to teach, either by analogies drawn from nature, or by appeals to our own intuition, truths about God and our own souls, it might be uninspired and still valuable. But if it is an agreement on God's part to save his people from their sins, it must be inspired by God; otherwise it is not a divine covenant to do, but only a human opinion concerning what God is likely to do. If it is not inspired it is no New Testament.

Accordingly we find throughout the book the claim, or rather the quiet assumption, of that divine origin and authority which is implied in its very title.

Jesus Christ himself, at twelve years of age, declares to his mother that he has come to earth to do his Father's business;' he is repeatedly said by the Evangelists to be acting under the influence of the Divine Spirit; he declares to the Jews in Jerusalem that he speaks to the world those truths which he has received from his Father;' he declares to his disciples that the Father dwells in him, and that the words which he speaks he speaks not of himself, but from the Father which sent him and dwells in him; and in solemn prayer he reasserts that the words of truth which he has taught them the Father gave to him for that purpose. He promises to his disciples before his death that he will not leave them alone, but will come unto them and dwell in them; that the Holy Ghost shall be their teacher and shall quicken their remembrance of their Master's teaching;' and after his resurrection, when he gives them their final commission, he promises to be with them in all their work, even to the end of the world. The opening chapter of the Book of Acts records the beginning of the fulfillment of these promises in the visible manifestation of the presence of the Spirit of God. In the first apostolic sermon Peter refers to a prophetic promise of inspiration contained in the Old Testament, and declares that the day of its fulfillment has arrived; and the subsequent portions of the Book of Acts contain on almost every page accounts of its further fulfilment.10 Throughout the Epistles the writers assume to speak, not their own opinions, but the truths which they have been taught of God. They not only declare in general terms that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the

Luke 2: 49..... Matt. 3: 16; Luke 2: 40; 4: 14, 18; John 3: 34; Acts 1: 2; 10: 38; Romans 1: 4.. John 8: 28...... 6 . John 14: 10, 24.... John 17: 8...... John 14: 17-19......' John 14: 26; 16: 7, 13-15. Compare Matt. 10: 19, 20; Luke 12: 12...... Matt. 28: 20. Compare Acts 1: 4. 5, 8...... "Acts 2: 4, 16-18, 33...... 10 Acts 4: 8, 31; 6: 10; 7: 55; 8:29; 10: 19, 20; 13: 2, 4, 9-11, 52; 15: 28; 16:6; 19: 6; 20: 22, 23, 28.

Holy Ghost'-these declarations apply primarily only to the Old Testament-but they also declare of their own ministry and of the Gospel of the New Testament, that it is the "power of God," the "word of God," the "word of the Lord," "the glorious Gospel of the blessed God," "the commandments of the Lord," the "word of Christ," a แ more sure word of prophecy" even than the Old Testament, spoken "in demonstration of the Spirit," in "words which the Holy Spirit teacheth," and preached "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." ." If this claim be not true, the book not only ceases to be trustworthy as a promise or covenant of God, it also ceases to be trustworthy as a moral or spiritual guide. For, if the writers of the New Testament were not thus guided and impelled by the Spirit of God, if they were not the authorized bearers of a Divine promise to man, then they were either impostors or visionaries, the perpetrators of a fraud or the victims of a delusion. And neither impostors nor visionaries are safe and trustworthy spiritual guides.

III. Evidences of its Inspiration.—The claim of the New Testament writers that they speak by the authority of God, and under the impulse and inspiration of the Spirit of God, has been generally regarded as well founded by the great majority of those who have studied their writings and the history of the effects which they have produced upon the human race. It is impossible to do more here than summarize very briefly some of the principal considerations which have led to this conclusion.

1. It is the fundamental doctrine of Christianity, confirmed by the history and experience of the Christian Church, that God dwells in the hearts of his children, that he guides, comforts, and strengthens them, that the soul was not made to live alone, but in constant communication with God, and that the influence of the Spirit of God, thus vouchsafed to the spirit of man, is always adapted to his needs. Thus the doctrine of the special inspiration of the sacred penmen is only part of the more general doctrine of the inspiration of all who will accept the divine guidance.

2. The history of the human race shows that there is a need of some more definite and explicit instruction concerning moral and spiritual truth and life than is afforded by the analogies of nature or the intuitions of uninstructed conscience. Without it no people have attained a high state of intellectual, political, or social civilization, still less a high state of moral and spiritual culture. Without an inspired book the human race is without any adequate knowledge of God or the future life, without any reliable assurance of pardon for past sin or provision of escape from future sin, and without any trustworthy and immutable standard of human duty or ideal of human character.

3. This need, interpreted by the universal craving for inspired oracles, writings, or priests, is supplied by the Bible. This book or series of books reveals a paternal God, whose love satisfies the filial yearning of the soul for a heavenly Father; it reveals a future life, which satisfies both the requirements of justice and the aspirations after immortality; it not only promises divine pardon on the condition of repentance and faith, but upon such an historical basis that its assurances do actually afford peace of mind to the believer, as no other religion does; it promises, on like conditions, divine help in change of life and character, and the help afforded in innumerable instances, in moral and

12 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1: 21. .1 Cor. 1:18; 2:4, 12, 13; 14: 37; Col. 3:16; 1Thess. 2; 13; 1 Tim. 1:11; 1 Peter 1: 12, 25; 2 Peter 1: 19. Compare, also, Acts 10: 36; 20: 24; Rom. 15: 29; 16: 25, 26; 2 Cor. 4:4; 6:4; Gal. 1: 11, 12, 16; Ephes. 3:9; 6: 17; Col. 1: 26; Heb. 2:4; 1 Tim. 6:3; 1 John 4: 6. It can hardly be necessary to refer the reader to passages in the Book of Revelation, since that is an unmeaning dream except it be regarded as an inspired vision.

* Let him who doubts this statement, and cites the Greeks and Romans as exceptions, study Pressensé's The Religions before Christ, or even Gibbon's or Lecky's descriptions of Roman and Grecian civilization. Or let the reader compare Paul's description of Roman morals, in Romans, chapters I and II, with any of the ancient historians, for they fully justify it.

spiritual changes, not only in individuals but in entire communities, is the best evidence of the origin and trustworthiness of these promises; it affords in the law of love a perfect and an inflexible standard of character, applicable to all ages, classes, and conditions of men; and it affords in the life of Jesus Christ a perfect ideal of human life and character, which all can follow and which none have ever surpassed.

4. The supreme excellence of the precepts and principles of the Bible negative the hypothesis that they were the uninspired productions of the men who transcribed them. It is easier to believe that the Ten Commandments were inspired by God than to believe that they were wrought out by a man whose sole training was derived from a Hebrew slave mother, an Egyptian court, and the life of a Midianitish shepherd; easier to believe that the Sermon on the Mount, and the 14th, 15th, and 16th chapters of John, were inspired by God, than to believe that they were the intellectual production of a Galilean carpenter. The lives which then, and ever since, those have lived who have received the Bible as the Word of God, when compared with the lives of the heathen who have not received its influences, afford also a perpetual evidence that those precepts and principles are of superhuman origin, and possess a superhuman inspiring power.

5. The unity of the Bible indicates that one Supreme intellect directed the various writers by whom its books were composed. It consists of sixty-six separate treatises, written by between forty and fifty different writers, living centuries apart, speaking different languages, subjects of different governments, brought up under different civilizations. Over fifteen hundred years elapsed between the writings of Moses and those of John. All forms of literature-law, history, biography, poetry, oratory, and philosophyare contained in the Bible. Yet the same substantial truths are taught by all these various writers, and the moral and spiritual unity of the Bible is such that probably few of its readers ever realize that it is, humanly speaking, the product of so many individual minds. Unity of design in the Scriptures proves that there was one designer, as the unity in the architectural design of the cathedral, which is the construction of many different hands, proves the supervising skill of the architect who planned and directed its construction.

6. The fulfilment in the New Testament of prophecies recorded in the Old Testament, and the fulfilment in later times of prophecies recorded in the New Testament, prove that at least those portions which are prophetic were the work of Him who sees the end from the beginning, and afford a sign and seal of the inspiration of the other portions of the sacred writings.

7. The miracles authenticate the divine authority of those who wrought them. Christianity as a system of truth and duty does not, indeed, depend upon the miracles. But to those who accept the New Testament as an authentic narration of actual events, the miracles demonstrate that Christianity possesses the divine sanction, since they could have been wrought only by divine power. To this authentication of their authority frequent reference is made by the writers of the New Testament.'

8. The testimony of those writers is in itself not a demonstration of their inspiration, but it is an evidence thereof. That they claim to be inspired, and that Christ promised them such inspiration, we have already seen. If this claim is unfounded we must believe either that they were impostors, pretending to an inspiration which they knew they did not possess, or visionaries, believing themselves to possess an inspiration which they did not in fact possess. The heroism and self-sacrifice of their lives prove that they were not impostors; the excellence of their doctrine proves that they were not visionaries. In brief, to the great body of thoughtful men it will always seem more natural to believe that the writers of the Bible wrote and spoke under the special influence of the Spirit of

' Mark 16:20; John 10: 25; Rom. 15: 18, 19; Heb. 2: 4.