Peter. This became the nucleus of the Second Gospel, and also the foundation of the other two Synoptic biographies of Jesus. JOHN MARK also wrote the story of the Jerusalem Church, which now underlies the first twelve chapters of the Book of the Acts. He is sometimes credited with the authorship of certain Acts of Peter, of Stephen, and of Philip. He seems to have been one of the most active of the early Christian writers. Among this "epi-Christian literature," to use DeQuincey's phrase-were the Acts of John the Baptist, by some of his disciples, in which the Synoptic evangelists found useful material (Mark i.2-8; Matt. iii. 1-17; Luke i.5-25) and which, later on, moved the author of the Fourth Gospel to insist upon the inferiority of the great forerunner's work (John i.6-8, 13-27, etc). All these primitive writings were in the vernacular. Jesus had used the Aramaic dialect of the common people and had sternly rebuked those who, by adhering to the Scriptural Hebrew, took away 'the key of knowledge' from the multitude (Luke xi.52). Traces of Aramaic exist in the frequent use of the words "immediately" and "straightway" (Mark i.10, 12, 18, 20, 21, 28, etc.) and in the needless use of the word "began" (Mark v.17-20, etc.). Both the Book of the Sayings of the Lord, and the Book of Testimonies, were probably in Aramaic, but the Gospels were written in the ordinary Greek of the wider world into which Christianity quickly made its way. Thus far priceless material had been gathered. The literary impulse was not long delayed. The spirit of poetry touched the Christian faith, and the Church became “a nest of singing birds." PAUL found a baptismal hymn ready to his hand: Awake, thou that sleepest, And arise from the dead, And Christ shall shine upon thee. (Eph. v.14.) He could also use a funeral hymn: It is sown in corruption; It is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; It is raised a spiritual body. (1 Cor. xv.42-44.) Even the Creed could be sung: He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Received up into glory. (1 Timothy iii. 16.) The conversion of SAUL of Tarsus added to the makers of Christian literature a writer whose fresh and forceful genius produced some of the most valuable and honoured books in the Canon. Although his letters follow the customary type by beginning with a formal salutation and ending with a gracious benediction, they are marvellously varied in style, in contents and in character. His intense feeling controlled by his immediate purpose gave each letter an individual quality and colour. The Epistle to Philemon is a personal letter to an old friend. Romans xvi. 1-20, is a note of introduction carried by the deaconess Phoebe to the Church at Ephesus. Galatians attempted to save the Churches of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe, from surrendering their spiritual liberty; it bears obvious marks of the apostle's anger and anxiety. Romans is a most masterly piece of theological argument addressed to a Church that the writer had neither founded nor visited. Ephesians and Colossians are encyclicals. The Epistles to the Corinthians are luminous moral treatises, of which the present form is the result of com pressing into two, the four original letters written by PAUL to his converts in Corinth. These four letters (2 Cor. vi.14, vii.1; 1 Cor.; 2 Cor. x.1-xiii.10; 2 Cor. i.1-vi.1-13; with vii. 2-ix.) belong to one of the most critical periods of the apostle's career; they vividly reflect the problems as well as the passions that agitated the Church, and are invaluable records of the writer's moral and literary temper. Among other points of literary interest they contain examples of his practice of quoting from the letters to which his own were replies, e.g.: Now 'concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge.' Knowledge puffeth up but love buildeth up. If any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth not yet as he ought to know; but if any man loveth God, the same is known of Him. Concerning therefore 'the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no God but one.' For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth; as there are gods many, and lords many; yet to us There is one God, the Father, Of Whom are all things, And we unto Him; And one Lord, Jesus Christ, Through whom are all things, And we through him. Howbeit in all men there is not that knowledge:' (1 Cor. viii. 1-7.)3 These Epistles to Corinth also contain some of the finest and most familiar literary passages in the writings of the Apostle, such as "The Eulogy of Charity" (1 Cor. xiii), and 3 The extracts from the letter sent to Paul by the Corinthians are here put in italics. "The Assurance of Immortality" (1 Cor. xv. 50-58). Others of his Letters, like those To the Thessalonians and that To the Church at Philippi, are rich in revelations of a great personality, strong, gentle, affectionate, masterful, magnetic, always under the constraint of a majestic faith. CHAPTER II HEBREW CHRISTIANITY The burning of Rome in 64 led the Imperial authorities to make a ferocious attack upon the Church in the metropolis, an attack that prompted PETER to write an Epistle, 1 Peter, to warn and prepare the Hebrew-Christians of the Provinces. This is a beautiful and gracious letter, full of practical counsel, marked by an early and simple theology, and is a real treasure house of moral and spiritual teaching. But something even more terrible than persecution drew near. In 66 the signs of the times pointed to the overthrow of Jerusalem, and under the shadow of this impending doom many were ready to welcome the literature of apocalypse, as a shaded lantern for travellers in peril. A Small Apocalypse, Mark xiii.7-8, 18-20, 24-27, written by an unknown Jew, was used by the author of a little Christian broadsheet to add weight to his own warnings to the Church, Mark xiii.5 -6, 9-13, 21-23, 28-29. This Small Apocalypse, as enlarged by its Christian editor, should be compared with the so-called Greater Interpolation in the Third Gospel, Luke ix.51-xviii. 1-14, where the prophecies of the rejection of Israel are represented as part of the ordinary teaching of Jesus. During these anxious days, JOHN MARK gathered his various material together and wrote the Second Gospel, 68. The plan is quite simple; after a brief Introduction, i.1-13, there is a narrative of the work of Jesus in Galilee, i.14ix.50, then follows a record of His ministry in Judea, x-xiii, and finally comes the tragic story of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection, xiv-xvi. 1-8. |