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Joseph Mazzini Wheeler
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Title: Frauds and Follies of the Fathers
A Review of the Worth of their Testimony to the Four Gospels
Author: Joseph Mazzini Wheeler
Release Date: August 28, 2011 [EBook #37230]
Last Updated: January 25, 2013
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRAUDS AND FOLLIES OF THE FATHERS ***
Produced by David Widger
* "The Apostolical Fathers," chap, i., p. 101, 1874.
We take first
* Pp. 12 and 13, vol i., "Ante-Nicene Christian Library."
All our citations, unless otherwise mentioned, will be taken
from this valuable series of volumes.
The apostle to the Gentiles, and thereby the real founder of modern
Christianity, disregarding a certain threat of its supposed founder (Matt,
v., 22), ventured, in arguing for the resurrection, the somewhat
questionable statement,﹃Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not
quickened except it die﹄(1 Cor. xv., 36). Clement altogether outdoes
this. He says (chap, xxv.):
﹃Let us consider that wonderful sign [of the resurrection] which takes
place in eastern lands, that is, in Arabia and the countries round about.
There is a certain bird which is called a phoenix. This is the only one of
its kind, and lives five hundred years. And when the time of its
dissolution draws near that it must die, it builds itself a nest of
frankincense and myrrh, and other spices, into which, when the time is
fulfilled, it enters and dies. But as the flesh decays a certain kind of
worm is produced, which, being nourished by the juices of the dead bird,
brings forth feathers. Then, when it has acquired strength, it takes up
that nest in which are the bones of its parents, and bearing these it
passes from the land of Arabia into Egypt, to the city called Heliopolis.
And, in open day, flying in the sight of all men, it places them on the
altar of the sun, and, having done this, hastens back to its former abode.
The priests then inspect the registers of the dates, and find that it has
returned exactly as the five hundredth year was completed.﹄This is the
way the Christian evidences were presented by the authoritative head of
the Church in the first century. Tertullian ("De Resurr. Cam.," sec. 10),
takes Psalm xcii., 12, as referring to this prodigy. St. Cyril of
Jerusalem, St. Ambrose, St. Gregory, St. Epiphanius, and other of the
Fathers, follow Clement in his fable. It is said that Clement in this only
followed Herodotus, Pliny, Ovid, and Tacitus, who mention the phoenix.
This is false. Herodotus (ii., 13) simply relates the report of others,
and does not intimate that he believed any part of it, but positively
declares that some of the statements were not credible. Pliny ("Nat.
Hist," x., 2) states expressly that the accounts may be fabulous. Ovid
("Metam.," xv., 392) uses the legend for poetical purposes. Tacitus
("Ann.," vi., 28) declares that the statements are uncertain. These, be it
remembered, were unenlightened heathen, but the apostolic saint founds the
distinguishing article of the Christian creed upon this mistake of an
Egyptian myth. May it not have been a phoenix, instead of a dove, which
descended on Jesus at Jordan? The cherubim described by Ezekiel were
curious fowl. There are some queer animals mentioned in the Apocalypse;
Isaiah and Job mention unicorns, and the former dragons. The Jews were
indeed great in the natural-history department. Rabbinical references to
the phoenix are numerous. The Talmud speaks of the zig, a bird of such
magnitude that when it spread out its wings the disc of the sun was
obscured; and the bar-juchne, one of whose eggs once fell down and broke
three hundred cedars and submerged sixty villages.*
* See B. H. Cowper's article on the Talmud, in『The Journal
of Sacred Literature,』Jan., 1868.
The second epistle, or rather homily, of Clement, though equally bound up
with the sacred records, and placed in the Apostolical Canon, is admitted
to be spurious, and is every way less notable. The concluding leaves of
the Alexandrian manuscript have been lost. It ends abruptly with this
interesting chapter:—
"Let us expect, therefore, hour by hour, the kingdom of God in love and
righteousness, since we know not the day of the appearing of God. For the
Lord himself, being asked by one when his kingdom would come, replied,
'When two shall be one, and that which is without as that which is within,
and the male with the female, neither male nor female.' Now, two are one
when we speak the truth one to another, and there is un-feignedly one soul
in two bodies. And 'that which is without as that which is within' meaneth
this: He calls the soul 'that which is within,' and the body 'that which
is without.' As, then, thy body is visible to sight, so also let thy soul
be manifest by good works. And 'the male with the female, neither male nor
female, this "....
Here is an interesting quotation by the earliest Christian Father of words
uttered by God Incarnate upon an important matter. Had they found their
way into the Canonical Gospels, what books would have been written upon
their beauty and sublimity! As it is, we gather from Clement of
Alexandria* that these words and other important sayings of Jesus were
found in the Gospel of the Egyptians. This gospel was certainly an ancient
one, and is supposed by Grabe, Erasmus, Du Pin, Father Simon, Grotius,
Mills, and others, to have been among those referred to by Luke in his
preamble:﹃Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in
order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among
us.﹄This Gospel of the Egyptians was received by the Ophites, the
Encratites, the Valentinians, and the Sabellians. It was evidently at one
with the doctrines of the Essenes in regard to women. For instance,
Clement of Alexandria quotes from it the following:﹃The Lord says to
Salome: 'Death shall prevail as long as women bring forth children.'﹄"I
am come to destroy the works of the woman, that is, the works of female
concupiscense, generation, and corruption. When you despise a covering for
your nakedness, and when two shall be one, and the male with the female
neither male nor female." Intimations that similar views regarding
marriage were found in the early Christian Church may be gathered from
Matt, xix., 12; Rev. xiv., 4; 1 Cor. vii., 8, etc. But the subject is too
delicate to be handled by other than a divinity student.
* "Stromata," book ill-, 9, 13. The English editors have
deemed it best to give the whole of this book in Latin.
Passing, then, Clement's two epistles to virgins with the remark that
although generally rejected as spurious by Protestants, they are
considered genuine by their editors, Wetstein, Bellet, and Cardinal
Villecourt, we come to "The Recognitions of Clement." Of these remarkable
documents Hilgenfeld says, "There is scarcely a single writing which is of
so great importance for the history of Christianity in its first stage."
The editors of the Anti-Nicene Christian Library call it﹃a theological
romance;﹄but it is a question whether that epithet would not equally fit
every other so-called historical composition of the first three centuries
of the Christian era. Cardinal Baronius ("Annal." tom, i., an. 51) call
sit﹃a gulf of filth and uncleanliness, full of prodigious lies and
frantic fooleries.﹄But Cardinal Beliarmine says it was written either by
Clement or by some other author as ancient and learned as he.
It begins, "I, Clement, who was born in the city of Rome," and proceeds to
narrate his thoughts on philosophy, his doubts and hopes of a future life.
To resolve these the worthy Father determined to go to Egypt, and bribe a
magician to bring him a soul from the infernal regions to consult whether
the soul be immortal. But he heard of the Son of God in Judea and was
ready to accredit the wonders ascribed to him. Having heard Barnabas,
Clement proceeds to Cæsarea and sees Peter, who instructs him concerning
the True Prophet. And now comes the curious part of the story. Peter is
engaged in continuous controversy on the true Mosaic and Christian
religion with a miracle worker, called Simon the magician, who it is said
confessed he wrought his wonders by the help of the soul of a healthy
young boy, who had been violently put to death for that purpose, and then
called up from the dead and compelled to be his assistant. Peter follows
this Simon about from place to place, exposing him. He especially follows
him to Rome. The astounding revelation in connexion with this story we
give in the words of the author of "Supernatural Religion" (vol. ii., p.
34): "There cannot be a doubt that the Apostle Paul is attacked in it, as
the great enemy of the true faith, under the hated name of Simon the
magician, who Peter followed everywhere for the purpose of unmasking and
confuting him. He is robbed of the title of 'Apostles of the Gentiles,'
which, together with the honor of founding the Churches of Antioch, of
Laodicea, and of Rome, is ascribed to Peter. All that opposition to Paul
which is implied in the Epistle to the Galatians and elsewhere (1 Cor. i.,
11, 12; 2 Cor. xi., 13—20; Philip i., 15, 16) is here realised and
exaggerated, and the personal difference with Peter to which Paul refers
is widened into the most bitter animosity."
The most able authorities, such as Davidson, B. Lightfoot, Mansel,
Hilgenfeld, Reuss, Baur, Scholten, and Schwegler agree in this view, which
is strongly confirmed by the epistle of Peter to James, which stands as a
preface to the Clementine Homilies, dealing with the same matter of Simon
Magus. Peter says:﹃For some among the Gentiles have rejected my lawful
preaching, and accepted certain lawless and foolish teaching of the
hostile man.﹄Canon Westcott, in his edition of 1866, said on this
passage:﹃There can be no doubt that St. Paul is referred to as 'the
enemy'﹄(on the Canon, p. 252). Since the quotation of this damaging
admission by the author of "Supernatural Religion," it has been removed.
But whether the fact that the Simon Magus who is reviled in the Clementine
Recognitions is intended to represent Paul has the authority of Canon
Westcott or not, there can be no doubt that this view better agrees with
Paul's epistles, and all we know of the early Christians, than the
reconciling but unhistoric "Acts of the Apostles," which took the place of
the Clementine "theological romance," because, in the struggle for
existence, the Christian Church which was built on Paul rather than that
which was built on Peter (Matt. xvi., 18), proved to be the fittest to
survive.
* Origen, bk. vii;, 53; p. 475:—The Sibyl was appealed to
by Theophilus and other early Christian apologists. The
author of "Questiones et Responsiones ad Orthodoxos," a work
falsely ascribed to Justin, says that Clement of Rome, in
his epistle to the Corinthians, appeals to the writings of
the Sibyl. In the present version there is no such allusion.
Justin confidently affirms that Plato and Aristophanes mention the ancient
Sibyl as a prophetess, and he gravely relates concerning her being the
daughter of Berosus, who wrote the Chaldean history.
He says (1st Apol., chap. xxi., p. 25):﹃And when we say also that the
Word, who is the first birth of God, was produced without sexual union,
and that he, Jesus Christ, our teacher, was crucified and died, and rose
again and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from
what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter.﹄He
argues (chap, xxiii., p. 27) that devils inspired the heathen poets and
priests to relate beforehand the Christian narratives as having already
happened; and makes out (chap, liv.) that the devils, knowing the
prophetic words of Moses, invented the stories of Bacchus and Bellorophon;
﹃And when they heard it said by the other prophet Isaiah that he should be
born of a virgin, and by his own means ascend into heaven, they pretended
that Perseus was spoken of.﹄And so with Hercules and Æculapius. All of
which puts us in mind of the learned divine who argued that God put the
fossils into the earth less than 6000 years ago, in order to deceive the
geologists and exhibit the vanity of human knowledge.
Justin also informs us (Apol., lxvi.) that through the suggestions of
wicked demons, bread and wine were placed before the persons to be
initiated into the mysteries of Mithras in imitation of the Eucharist. He
could believe that Jesus, sitting at a table, actually offered his own
body and blood to eat and drink, but the idea that the Christian Sacrament
of the Lord's Supper was copied from the Mysteries never struck him.
Having plenty of devils he put them to a deal of use. He tells us how they
came into existence:﹃God committed the care of men and of all things
under heaven to angels whom he appointed over them. But the angels
transgressed this appointment, and were captivated by love of women, and
begat children who are those that are called demons﹄(2nd Apol. v., p.
75). These subdued the human race partly by magical writings and partly by
fears and punishments. Not content with inventing the heathen mythology
they raised up the Samaritans, Simon and Menander,﹃who did many mighty
works by magic.﹄This is what he says the Jews said of Jesus (Dial, chap.
Ixix). Justin twice has the audacity to assert that the Romans erected a
statue to the Samaritan Simon, as a god. He gives the inscription Simoni
Deo Sancto. To Simon the Holy God. This, if not a fraud, was a very gross
error. Apart from the unlikelihood of the story and its absence of
corroboration by any heathen writer, a fragment has been found with the
inscription "Semoni Sanco Deo," being probably the base of a statue
erected to the Sabine Deity, Semo Sancus. He further charges the Romans
with human sacrifices in celebrating the mysteries of Saturn; a charge
absolutely false and unsupported by any Pagan author, although repeated by
the Christian Fathers, Tatian, Cyprian, Tertullian, Lactantius,
Epiphanius, etc. Justin also says the devils put forward and aided Marcion
the follower of Paul, who accused the other apostles of having perverted
the Gospel doctrines. He frequently alleges that the Christians cast out
devils in the name of Jesus Christ, and that women and men among them
possessed prophetic gifts, but he gives no special instance of any miracle
wrought in his own time. He makes maniacs and demoniacs to be possessed by
the spirits of the dead, and appeals to﹃necromancy, divination by
immaculate children, dream-senders and assistant spirits﹄in proof of life
after death (immortality he seems to have considered the gift of God). All
the early Fathers believed in necromancy. Lactantius ("Divine Institutes,"
book iv., chap, xxvii.) calls it the most certain proof of Christianity,
because those who are skilled in calling forth the spirits of the dead
bring Jupiter and other gods from the lower regions, but not Christ, for
he was not more than two days there. Justin says we ought to pray that the
evil angel may not seize our soul when it departs from the body.
He makes the victory over Amalek a type of Christ's victory over demons,
and declares that Isaiah said evil angels inhabit the land of Tanis in
Egypt. He declares of the Jews in the wilderness: "The latchets of your
shoes did not break, and your shoes waxed not old, and your garments wore
not away, but even those of the children grew along with them"
("Dialogue with Trypho," 131, p. 266.) This is a very consistent addition
to the fable found in Deut xxix., 5.
He charges (Dial., chap, lxxii.) the Jews with having removed passages
from Ezra and Jeremiah, and in the following chapter with having taken
away the words "from the wood" in the passage from the ninety-sixth Psalm,
"Tell ye among the nations the Lord hath reigned 'from the wood.''"
To which the note appended in the "Ante-Nicene Christian Library" edition
(p. 189) is "These words were not taken away by the Jews, but added by
some Christian."—Otto. Tertullian follows Justin in regard to this
passage.
He complains of their rejecting the Septuagint version, and gravely tells
how Ptolemy, King of Egypt, had seventy different translators shut up in
seventy separate cots or cells for the purpose of translating the Hebrew
Scriptures. After the completion Ptolemy found the seventy men﹃had not
only given the same meaning but had employed the same words,﹄whereupon he
believed "the translation had been written by divine power." Byway of
proof that he narrates no fable, he says,﹃We ourselves, having been in
Alexandria, saw the remains of the little cots still preserved﹄("Address
to Greeks" chap. xiii., p. 300). Ptolemy, however, he makes contemporary
with Herod (Apol. xxxi., 33.) Christ, he says, suffered under Herod the
Ascalonite. He calls Moses the first Prophet, yet declares﹃He was
predicted before he appeared, first, 5000 years before, and again 3000,
then 2000, then 1000, and yet again 800; in the succession of generations,
prophets after prophets arose﹄(1st Apol., chap, xxxi., p. 38). David, he
makes to have lived 1500 B.C.
Speaking of the Polygamy of the patriarchs (Dial., chap, cxxxiv., p. 269)
he tells us﹃certain dispensations of weighty mysteries were accomplished
in each act of this sort.﹄"The marriages of Jacob were types of that
which Christ was about to accomplish." The bloodthirsty General Joshua was
a type of Christ, and the sun standing still by his order shows﹃how great
the power was of the name of Jesus in the Old Testament﹄He tells us the
two advents were prefigured by the two goats, and continually finds clear
prophecies of Christianity in passages which have not the remotest
allusion to it. To give one instance, he says: 'And that it was foreknown
that these infamous things should be uttered against those who confessed
Christ, and that those who slandered him, and said it was well to preserve
the ancient customs, should be miserable, hear what was briefly said by
Isaiah, it is this: 'Woe unto them that call sweet bitter, and bitter
sweet.' Such interpretations are innumerable in Justin.
In his 1st Apology, chap, lv., "On Symbols of the Cross," he says the seas
cannot be sailed without cross-shaped masts, nor the earth tilled save
with cross-shaped instruments. "And the human form differs from animals in
nothing else than in its being erect and having the hands extended, and
having on the face, extending from the forehead, what is called the nose,
through which there is respiration for the living creature, and this shows
no other form than that of the cross. And so it was said by the prophet,
'The breath before our face is the Lord Christ,' which is a perversion of
Lam. iv., 20: 'The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord.'"
He put into the mouth of his antagonist Trypho, the following words which
possibly represent the usual position taken up by the Jews:﹃But Christ—if
he has indeed been born and exists anywhere—is unknown, and does not
even know himself, and has no power until Elias come to anoint him, and
make him manifest to all. And you having accepted a groundless report,
invent a Christ for yourselves, and for his sake are inconsiderately
perishing﹄(chap, viii., p. 97). In answer to this home thrust, Justin
promises﹃I shall prove to you as you stand here that we have not believed
empty fables.﹄Justin was acquainted with the works of Josephus, and if
the passage had been then in existence concerning Jesus being the Christ,
who was punished on the Cross, and who appeared again the third day, the
divine prophets having spoken these and many other wonders about him; here
was the opportunity to bring it forward. Instead of doing so, or stating
who testified to the existence of Christ and his wonderful works, he
rambles off to his favorite argument from prophecy and piles up a heap of
interminable nonsense, which if put forward as a serious defence of
Christianity at the present time, would either excite suspicion of covert
infidelity or be greeted with derision.
In his Apology he twice calls in evidence the Acts of Pilate, but as with
the books of the Sibyl, it is again a Christian forgery and not a heathen
document he refers to. This is clear from one of the passages he refers to
being found in the extant Acts of Pilate or Gospel of Nicodemus. If any
official report had been sent by Pilate, it is not likely to have related
the miracles of the person put to death. Nor is it probable that Justin
would have known the contents of such a document.
Justin, in the beginning of the second half of the second century, being
the very first Father who tells us of Jesus being God, born of the Virgin
Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, dead and rising again and ascending
into heaven (for the spurious epistles attributed to Ignatius must be
dated after Justin's time) it is important to know where he got his
startling information from. He never once mentions Gospels by either
Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. He refers indeed at least thirteen times to
"Memoirs" or "Memoirs of the Apostles," but without the least indication
of their nature, number or extent. In one place (Dial., 106) he seems to
identify them with the Gospel of Peter, referred to by Serapion,
Tertullian and Origen. Canon Westcott, who argues that it refers to the
Gospel of Mark, commonly placed under the authority of Peter, thus
translates the passage:﹃The mention of the fact that Christ changed the
name of Peter, one of the Apostles, and that the event has been written in
his (Peter's) Memoirs.﹄The best authorities agree that upon strictly
critical grounds the passage refers to Peter. The﹃Ante-Nicene Christian
Library﹄(p. 233) however reads:﹃And when it is said that he changed the
name of one of the Apostles to Peter; and when it is written in the
memoirs of him that this so happened.﹄Making the work referred to to be
the memoirs of Jesus.
The only direct mention Justin makes of any writer in the New Testament is
the following:﹃And further, there was a certain man with us, whose name
was John, one of the Apostles of Christ, who prophesied, by a revelation
that was made to him that those who believed in our Christ would dwell a
thousand years in Jerusalem; and that thereafter the general, and, in
short, the eternal resurrection and judgment of all men would likewise
take place﹄(Dial., chap, lxxxi., p. 201). The author of﹃Supernatural
Religion﹄says:﹃The manner in which John is here mentioned after the
memoirs had been so constantly referred to, clearly shows that Justin did
not possess any Gospel also attributed to John﹄(vol. i., p. 298; 1879).
This conclusion is corroborated by many circumstances also adduced by Dr.
Davidson. For instance, his doctrine of the Logos is different from that
in the Gospel ascribed to John. He does not mention any of the miracles
found in that Gospel, and instead of knowing the long discourses given
therein, declares﹃Brief and concise utterances fell from him, for he was
no sophist﹄(Apol. i., chap, xiv., p. 18).
That he does name John, however, as the author of the Apocalypse, and
refers by name to the Old Testament writers no less than 197 times, while
in about as many passages from the "Memoirs" he never identifies their
writer, unless in that concerning Peter, is surely incompatible with the
idea that they were the Canonical Gospels.
The whole question of the identity of these "Memoirs" with our Gospels is
ably and lengthily dealt with in English on the orthodox side, by Lardner,
Bishop Kaye, Professor Norton, and Canons Westcott and Sanday. These
arguments the inquiring reader should compare with those of Bishop Marsh,
Dr. Giles, Dr. Davidson, and the author of "Supernatural Religion."
It is evident that the account of the sayings and doings of Jesus in the
"Memoirs" are, in the main, very similar to the Synoptics, especially
Matthew, and it is likely they were the principal materials from which our
canon was formed. But it is not certain if Justin had one document, two,
three, four, or a dozen. In his first Apology (chap, lxvi.) there is
certainly found this expression: "For the apostles in the memoirs composed
by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us,"
etc. (p. 69). But Dr. Donaldson says of the words in italics
﹃Schliermacher, Marsh, and others, regarded these words as an
interpolation, and they certainly look like one﹄(Critical History of
Christian Literature, vol. ii., p. 329; 1866).
Except in one or two instances, parallels with our Gospels are only made
by patching together passages from different Gospels. By this process the
connexion is broken, while the quotations in Justin have for the most part
a consecutive order, and, as is shown by the context, had such an order in
the "Memoirs" from which they were taken. While quoting them nearly 200
times he makes hardly a single allusion to those circumstances of time and
place which are found in our Gospels. He also gives particulars not to be
found in the Canonical books. Thus he says (Dial., chap, lxxviii,) that
Jesus was born in a cave, and cites Isaiah xxxiii., 16, as prophecying
this. This contradicts Luke but is found in the Gospel of James, the
Gospel of the Infancy, and the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Matthew
and Luke give discrepant accounts of the genealogy of Jesus. Justin
differs from both. He traces the Davidian descent of the Christ through
Mary, which again agrees with James. He nine times mentions the Magi
coming from Arabia, not from the East. His quotation of the angel's
message to Mary (Apol. i., 33) agrees better with the Gospel of James than
with Luke or Matthew. Speaking of the journey of Joseph and Mary to
Bethlelem, Justin says:﹃On the occasion of the first census which was
taken in Judaea, under Cyrenius, he (Joseph) went up from Nazareth, where
he lived, to Bethlehem, to which he belonged, to be enrolled.﹄The
differences between the account of Justin and that in Luke are manifest.
He states that Jesus made ploughs and yokes as a carpenter, which is found
in the Gospel of the Infancy. Thrice he speaks of John as﹃sitting by
Jordan﹄(Dial. 49, 51, and 88), and he even narrates that when Jesus
stepped into the water a fire was kindled in the Jordan. This also was
from the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Epiphanius gives it from a
version found among the Ebionites. It was also mentioned in another early
Christian publication the "Preaching of Paul." Justin has the Holy Ghost
say to Jesus at his baptism:﹃This is my beloved son; to-day have I
begotten thee.﹄The same form of expression was used in the Gospel of the
Hebrews, and was so quoted by others of the Fathers.
He says (Dial., ciii.) that when the Jews went out to the Mount of Olives
to take Jesus there was not a single man to help him. This is in
contradiction to all our Gospels. He says that when Herod succeeded
Archelaus, Pilate, by way of compliment, sent to him Jesus bound (chap,
ciii). He tells how they sat Jesus on the judgment seat, and said﹃Judge
us﹄(Apol., chap, xxxv.) He also relates that Jesus said:﹃In whatsoever
things I apprehend you, in those also will I judge you.﹄Grotius and
others think this taken from the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Upon two
occasions Justin says that the Jews sent persons about the world to spread
calumnies.
So manifestly has Justin gone to other sources than our four Gospels that
Canon Sanday admits:﹃Either Justin has used a lost gospel or gospels,
besides those that are still extant, or else he has used a recension of
these gospels with some slight changes of language and some apocryphal
additions﹄("The Gospels in the Second Century," p. 129; 1876). We
conjecture that the "Memoirs" of Justin were the materials from which our
Gospels were compiled, and that they were similar to or used in
conjunction with the Gospel according to the Hebrews.
Credner argues that he used the Gospel of Peter. It is noticeable that the
Diatessaron of Justin's pupil, Tatian, was called by Epiphanius the Gospel
according to the Hebrews. Theodoret tells us that the Nazarenes made use
of the Gospel of Peter, and we know by the testimony of the Fathers
generally that the Nazarene Gospel was that commonly called the Gospel
according to the Hebrews. That Justin used this once celebrated Gospel
seems all the more probable since we have the express testimony of
Eusebius ("Ec. History, iv.," 22) that it was used by Hegesipus, his
contemporary and compatriot.
*『Irenæus: A Leaf of Primitive Church History Corrected
and Re-Written,』1876.
Dodwell makes him to have been born in the year 97, but Dupin and the best
modern authorities place his birth about 140; a number, however, strike a
medium at about 120. The importance of his date is evident since the work
against heresies is the first writing which makes any mention of the four
Gospels, and Irenæus claims to have been a disciple of Polycarp, who was a
hearer of John. This claim can only be made at all plausible by giving
each of these holy martyrs an exceedingly long life, for we have the word
of Eusebius, that the book against heresies was composed in the time of
Eleutherius, the twelfth Pope, between 177 and 192, and Irenæus lived
until the third century. He is said to have been made bishop of Lyons in
178, but how he managed to get transplanted from Asia Minor to Gaul, is
one of those things which are left to our faith and wonder.
The fact is, it is extremely doubtful if the author of the book against
heresies ever saw Polycarp, and still more doubtful if Polycarp ever saw
John. He says John leaped out of the bath when he saw Cerinthus. Now
Cerinthus was a heretic, who lived about the middle of the second century.
He described John as wearing the petalon, the bishops insignia of
office. Fancy the retired fisherman, the beloved disciple, who was told by
his master to carry neither purse nor scrip, wearing the priestly robes of
office! George Reber, in his curious book, "The Christ of Paul," (New
York, 1876), says (p. 178): "The studied dishonesty of Irenæus in
attempting to palm off the Presbyter John for the Apostle, is as dark a
piece of knavery as is to be found in the history of a church, which has
encouraged such practices from the time it claimed to be the depositary of
all the divine wealth left by the apostles."
Irenæus is alleged to have suffered martyrdon about 202, but there is no
evidence of this prior to the ninth century, when Gregory of Tours first
circulated a story to that effect. Even such orthodox writers as Cave,
Basnage, Dodwell, and others, doubt the martyrdon, since neither
Tertullian, Eusebius, Theodoret, nor other early writers refer to it. Two
churches in Lyons dispupted for centuries about the possession of his
relics, which the Catholics allege were afterwards sacriligeously
despoiled by the Calvinists: a story often refuted. His sacred head is
said to have been kicked about in the gutters, but of course it was
miraculously restored to its place, and the skull, we believe, may be seen
for a consideration at the present day. The original Greek text of the
book against heresies is lost, and it exists only in a barbarous Latin
version. At whatever time it was written, and it may probably be dated
between 182 and 188, it testifies to the existence of numerous heresies in
the Church. It contains many statements respecting the Gnostics,
particularly the Valentinian heresy. There we may read of their peculiar
theories concerning God and Christ. Some thought the Hebrew Jahveh a
malignant deity whom Christ had come to destroy. Others were foolish and
wicked enough to ask whence God got the matter for his creation. Cerinthus
and his followers denied the virgin birth. Carpocrates and his school held
that Jesus was the son of Joseph, and just like other men with the
exception that inasmuch as his soul was stedfast and pure a power
descended on him from the Father that by means of it he might escape from
the creators of the world. Basilides taught that Jesus did not suffer
death, but Simon of Cyrene, being compelled, bore the cross and was
crucified in his stead. Irenæus does not forget to denounce these heretics
as blasphemers and shameless sophists who speak not a word of sense. He
calls them slippery serpents and other choice epithets such as the
orthodox usually have in store for heretics, so that the reader is tempted
to wish that the wretches could show cause why they should not summarily
be damned. It is a notable fact that none of the heretical books or
heretical gospels have been preserved; they come to us only through the
medium of such representations as their opponents chose to make of them.
George Reber says:﹃The Fourth Gospel was written with no other purpose
than to prove the incarnation, and that purpose is so persistently kept up
in every line and verse, from the beginning to the end, that if we strike
out this, and the miracles which are mere supports of the main idea, there
is nothing left, and so with the third book against Heresies—it has
but one theme. The writer sets out with the Logos idea of this
gospel, which is never lost sight of. He finds proof in the traditions of
the Church—in every page of the Old Testament—in the Synoptics
as well as in the fourth Gospel; and as we read his misapplication of
words and sentences, we should conclude that he was a lunatic if we did
not know he was something else﹄(p. 188).﹃As we read whole pages in
Irenæus, charging his adversaries with forgeries and false interpolations,
we smile at the impudence and audacity of the man, who has done more to
pollute the pages of history than any other, and whose footprints we can
follow through the whole century, like the slime of a serpent﹄(p. 216).
Reber, it will be seen, can be as abusive as Irenæus himself. He calls him
"one of the most dishonest historians of any age" and﹃the great criminal
of the second century;﹄and endeavors to make out, on quite insufficient
grounds, that he was the forger of the Gospel according to John.
Dr. Samuel Davidson, in his able work on "The Canon" (p. 155; 1880), says
﹃Irenæus was credulous and blundering,﹄and our case against him will be
sufficient if we prove these charges.
The orthodox Dr. Donaldson observes:﹃What he says about the apostle John
has the appearance of being, to say the least, highly colored﹄("History
of Christian Literature," vol. i., p. 157; 1864). The whole purport of his
account concerning John was to refute heretics by the allegation of an
apostolical succession which rests on his unsupported testimony alone. The
author of the work against Heresies was essentially a priest, dwelling
much on the authority of the priesthood and priestly traditions. He did
more perhaps than any other to lay the foundations of the Romish
hierarchy. In his third book, chapter four, he gives the opinion that
every Church should agree with the Church of Rome on account of its
pre-eminent authority.
He considers oral traditions of no less importance than Scripture, and
cites Clement, Polycarp, and those who were alleged to have heard the
apostles as decisive authorities. Hermes he calls divine Scripture. To be
outside the Church is to be outside truth. Holy Scripture is only safely
interpreted under control of the bishops.
Our Father cites the authority of John, and all the elders in Asia, for
the assertion that the ministry of Jesus lasted twenty years, and that he
was over fifty years of age when he was crucified. In the twenty-second
chapter of his second book, he discusses the question at considerable
length, and quotes John viii., 56-57, as establishing his opinion. For he
argues the Jews would not have said to Jesus﹃Thou art not yet fifty years
old,﹄if he had only been thirty. Their object being to remind him of the
short period he had been on earth, they certainly would not extend it
eighteen or twenty years. If Irenæus was right in this important matter,
the evidence of the Gospel history is falsified; if wrong, what is the
worth of his testimony as to the origin of the four Gospels?
In regard to these he tells us there are mystic reasons why there could
only be four Gospels.﹃It is not possible that the Gospels can be either
more or fewer in number than they are. For since there are four zones of
the world in which we live, and four principal winds [or four Catholic
Spirits] while the Church is scattered throughout all the world, and the
pillar and ground of the Church is the gospel and the spirit of life; it
is fitting that she should have four pillars, breathing out immortality on
every side, and vivifying men afresh﹄(Book iii., chap, xi, sect 8., p.
293). Dr. Giles in his "Christian Records" (p. 137), points out that as
this work was written many years after the apologies of Justin Martyr,
there was ample time in the interval for the compilation of our Gospels,
out of the authentic "Memoirs of the Apostles" and "Sayings of our Lord."
In his third book, chapter xxi., Irenæus follows Justin in his foolish
tale about the seventy Jewish elders, who made separate translations of
the Bible into Greek in the very same words from beginning to end. He
further tells us there was nothing astonishing in this since God inspired
Ezra to re-write all the words of the former prophets and to re-establish
the Mosaic law, destroyed during the captivity in Babylon. The object of
making the Septuagint version of Divine authority, was because the
quotations in the Christians' Scriptures were taken from it, strangely
enough, had the writers of those Scriptures been Jews. But despite their
boasted accuracy, Irenæus (book iii., chap, xx., sec. 4) quotes Isaiah as
saying,﹃And the holy Lord remembered his dead Israel, who had slept in
the land of sepulture; and he came down to preach his salvation to them
that he might save them.﹄In another place he quotes this same passage as
from Jeremiah, but it is in neither prophet Justin in his dialogue with
Trypho had brought it forward as an argument against him, and accused the
Jews of having fraudulently removed it from the sacred text. The passage
is, however, found in no ancient version or Jewish Targum, which fact may
be regarded as a decisive proof of its spuriousness.
He follows Justin also in his tales of miracles asserting﹃some do
certainly and truly drive out devils. Others have foreknowledge of things
to come, they see visions, and utter prophetic expressions. Others still,
heal the sick by laying their hands upon them, and they are made whole.
Yea, moreover, the dead even have been raised up, and remained among us
for many years.﹄As with the other Fathers, he gives only general
statements not particular instances. He allows that the heretics Simon and
Carpoerates and their followers also perform miracles,﹃but not through
the power of God but for the sake of destroying and misleading mankind, by
means of magical deceptions.﹄None of these Christian miracles were known
to the heathen, and, as Dr. Conyers Middle ton pointed out, in his﹃Free
Enquiry into the Miraculous Powers in the Christian Church,﹄at this very
same time when one Autolycus, an eminent heathen, challenged his friend
Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, a convert and champion of the Gospels, to
show him but one person who had﹃been raised from the dead, on the
condition of him turning Christian himself,﹄Theophilus made plain by his
answer that he was not able to give him that satisfaction.
Irenæus follows Justin in making the angels mix with the daughters of men,
and also in his absurd typology. He even makes Balaam's ass a type of the
Savior. The cohabitation of Lot with his two daughters was providential
and typical of the two sister synagogues, the Jewish and the Christian.
In common with all the early Fathers he asserts the doctrine of the
millenium, and this in the grossest sense. We have already seen the
quotation which he gives from Papias as the actual words of Jesus upon
this matter. He believed it would be a purely earthly glory and felicity
after the sort depicted in the Jewish apocalypses. This portion of his
writings, having been utterly discredited, is very often omitted. He
believed the end of all things was near at hand. The world would last six
thousand years because made in six days. Antichrist would come from the
tribe of Dan and reign three years and five days in Jerusalem, when he
would be vanquished. The fall of Antichrist and the end of the world would
coincide with the fall of the Roman Empire, for the mysterious name of the
beast is Latinus. Then the Lord was to come, and there would be no
more labor "but unlimited wine swilling."
Irenæus affirms also on the same authority of tradition delivered to him
by those who had received it from the apostles, that Enoch and Elias were
translated into that very Paradise from which Adam was expelled, and that
this was the place into which St. Paul was caught up. This is affirmed
also by all the later Fathers, both Greek and Latin.
Our space will not permit us to further enlarge on the vast appeals to
faith made by Irenæus. Nor can we pause to deal with Tertullian, who, with
more impetuosity and no less acerbity, championed the same orthodoxy,
shrinking not from the "credo quia absurdum est," and who ended by turning
heretic. Nor with the learned Clement of Alexandria, whose high
speculations led also into contempt of the world and its ways of science,
art, and civilisation. Nor with the ascetic and self-emasculated Origen,
at once profound and prolific, who, in his attempt to reconcile
Christianity with reason, fell into such errors as believing in the
pre-existence and pretemporal fall of souls, and the redemption of the
inhabitants of the stars and even of Satan himself.
We must reserve a brief space for the great ecclesiastical historian.
* Dean Milman, in his Notes to Gibbon, vol. ii., p. 285;
1854, speaks of "the loose and, it must be admitted, by no
means scrupulous authority of Eusebius."
Constantine said of him that he ought not only to be bishop of Cæsarea,
but bishop of the whole world. In his life of that emperor he amply repays
the flattery. That work is not an history but an extravagant rhetorical
panegyric upon the man who murdered his son Crispus, his nephew Licinius,
suffocated his wife Fausta, and who, to revenge a pasquinade, was with
difficulty restrained from the massacre of Rome, and who used the altar of
the Church, which promised absolution and offered atonement for all sins,
as a convenient footstool to the throne of the empire. In regard to
Constantine's murders, Gibbon says (chap, xxviii.): "The courtly bishop
who has celebrated in an elaborate work the virtues and piety of his hero,
observes a prudent silence on the subject of these tragic events."
He makes Constantine to have been converted by the miraculous appearance
of a cross in the sky. It is a great question if his account of his
baptism is correct or if he was baptised in Rome by Pope Sylvester.
Indeed, it is a question if Constantine was anything but a Pagan at heart
until the end of his days.
The title of the thirty-first chapter of Eusebius's twelfth book of
"Evangelical Preparation," is a caution. It reads﹃That falsehood, may be
employed by way of medicine for those who need it.﹄He ascribes to
Porphyry (a learned Pagan who had written against Christianity, but whose
works were destroyed by order of Theodosius) a forgery of his own time,
called "The Philosophy of Oracles," and then cites it as evidence for
Christianity. He gives a forged passage ascribed to Phlegon, where that
Pagan is made to speak of the darkness which happened at the death of
Jesus. If such a passage had been in existence it would have been
mentioned by Origen, who refers to Phlegon, but who in his comment on
Matthew xxvii., 45, concludes we must not be too positive that he spoke of
this darkness in Matthew. He also makes Thallus, another heathen, bear
testimony to the eclipse of the sun—another forgery.
At the very outset of his "Ecclesiastical History," he knocks us over with
a pretended correspondence which passed between Jesus, who, Jerome says,
knew not how to write, and Abgarus, king of Edessa.
This correspondence, wherein Jesus is made to cite the words of the Gospel
of John, written probably a hundred years after, long did duty among
Christian evidences, but is now given up by every critic of note as a
forgery. Addison was one of the last to quote it as genuine.
As it would occupy too much space to follow this Father through all his
misstatements, we shall confine our attention to his misrepresentations of
Josephus. One of the most notorious of these is the account of the death
of Herod Agrippa, grandson of the monster who is supposed to have ordered
the slaughter of all the male children in the inland town﹃Bethlehem, and
the coasts thereof,﹄on account of an obscure prophecy. In the 12th
chapter of Acts it is stated that Herod, as the people were calling him a
god, was smitten by an angel and was eaten by worms. Josephus says:
﹃Agrippa, casting his eyes upward, saw an owl, sitting upon a rope,
overhead.﹄Eusebius, in order to make Josephus agree with the Acts of the
Apostles, in transcribing the text of Josephus, struck out about the owl
and substituted an angel. Lardner says:﹃I know not what good apology can
be made for this.﹄Nor do we, unless that one-winged fowl is just as good
as any other.
He makes Josephus' account of Theudas confirmatory of Acts v., 36; while,
in fact, it disagrees with that account so much as to give commentators
the utmost perplexity. He also, tries to reconcile Josephus with Luke by
confounding the taxing in the time of Herod with that after the banishment
of Arche-laus, who reigned for nine years after Herod's death. Dr.
Lardner's works (vol. i, p. 344) says: "I must confess I ascribe that not
to ignorance but to somewhat a great deal worse. It is impossible that a
man of Eusebius's acuteness, who had the New Testament and Josephus before
him, should think a census made after Archelaus was the same with that
before Herod died; but Eusebius was resolved to have St. Luke's history
confirmed by the express testimony of the Jewish historian, right or
wrong."
Such instances make us suspect Eusebius in regard to the celebrated
interpolation in which Josephus is made to give evidence to Jesus as the
Christ (Antiq. xviii., hi., 3). He at any rate first cited the forgery,
which was unknown to Origen, and distinctly asserts that Josephus did not
acknowledge Christ. Dr. Lardner tells us the style of the paragraph is
very Christian, if it be not the composition of Eusebius himself, as
Tanaquil Faber suspected.
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