The Gospels in the Second Century

Chapter 2

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It is highly probable that all the examples given under this head are really quotations from memory.

[Greek: Delta symbol] _Paraphrase with Combination of Pa.s.sages._ This again is common; e.g. Luke iv. 19; John xv. 25, xix. 36; Acts xiii. 22; Rom. iii. 11-18, ix. 33, xi. 8; 1 Pet. ii. 24. The pa.s.sage Rom. iii. 11-18 is highly composite, and reminds us of long strings of quotations that are found in some of the Fathers; it is made up of Ps. xiv. 1, 2, v. 9, cxl. 3, x. 7, Is. lix. 7, 8, Ps. x.x.xvi. 1. A shorter example is--

_Rom._ ix. 33. [Greek: [Kathos gegraptai] Idou t.i.thaemi en Sion lithon proskommatos kai petran skandalou, kai o pisteuon ep auto ou kataischunthaesetai.]

_Is._ viii. 14. [Greek: kai ouch hos lithou proskammati sunantaesesthe, oude os petras ptomati.]

_Is._ xxviii. 16. [Greek: Idou ego emballo eis ta themelia Sion lithon..., kai o pisteuon ou mae kataischunthae.]

This fusion of pa.s.sages is generally an act of "unconscious celebration." If we were to apply the standard a.s.sumed in "Supernatural Religion," it would be p.r.o.nounced impossible that this and most of the pa.s.sages above could have the originals to which they are certainly to be referred.

[Greek: Epsilon symbol] _Addition._ A few cases of addition may be quoted, e.g. [Greek: mae aposteraesaes] inserted in Mark x. 19, [Greek: kai eis thaeran] in Rom. xi. 9.

[Greek: Zeta symbol] _Change of Sense and Context._ But little regard--or what according to our modern habits would be considered little regard--is paid to the sense and original context of the pa.s.sage quoted; e.g. in Matt. viii. 17 the idea of healing disease is subst.i.tuted for that of vicarious suffering, in Matt. xi. 10 the persons are altered ([Greek: sou] for [Greek: mou]), in Acts vii. 43 we find [Greek: Babylonos] for [Greek: Damaskos], in 2 Cor. vi. 17 "I will receive you" is put for "I will go before you," in Heb. i. 7 "He maketh His angels spirits" for "He maketh the winds His messengers." This constant neglect of the context is a point that should be borne in mind.

[Greek: Eta symbol] _Inversion._ Sometimes the sense of the original is so far departed from that a seemingly opposite sense is subst.i.tuted for it. Thus in Matt. ii. 6 [Greek: oudamos elachistae = oligostos] of Mic. v. 2, in Rom. xi. 26 [Greek: ek Sion = heneken Sion] LXX= "_to_ Sion" Heb. of Is. lix. 20, in Eph. iv. 8 [Greek: hedoken domata = helabes domata] of Ps. lxvii. 19.

[Greek: Theta symbol] _Different Form of Sentence._ The grammatical form of the sentence is altered in Matt. xxvi. 31 (from aorist to future), in Luke viii. 10 (from oratio recta to oratio obliqua), and in 1 Pet.

iii. 10-12 (from the second person to the third). This is a kind of variation that we should naturally look for.

[Greek: Iota symbol] _Mistaken Ascriptions or Nomenclature._ The following pa.s.sages are wrongly a.s.signed:--Mal. iii. 1 to Isaiah according to the correct reading of Mark i. 2, and Zech. xi. 13 to Jeremiah in Matt. xxvii. 9, 10; Abiathar is apparently put for Abimelech in Mark ii. 26; in Acts vii. 16 there seems to be a confusion between the purchase of Machpelah near Hebron by Abraham and Jacob"s purchase of land from Hamor the father of Shechem.

These are obviously lapses of memory.

[Greek: Kappa symbol] _Quotations of Doubtful Origin_. There are a certain number of quotations, introduced as such, which can be a.s.signed directly to no Old Testament original; Matt. ii. 23 ([Greek: Nazoraios klaethaesetai]), 1 Tim. v. 18 ("the labourer is worthy of his hire"), John vii. 38 ("out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water"), 42 (Christ should be born of Bethlehem where David was), Eph. v. 14 ("Awake thou that sleepest"). [Endnote 25:1]

It will be seen that, in spite of the reservations that we felt compelled to make at the outset, the greater number of the deviations noticed above can only be explained on a theory of free quotation, and remembering the extent to which the Jews relied upon memory and the mechanical difficulties of exact reference and verification, this is just what before the fact we should have expected.

The Old Testament quotations in the canonical books afford us a certain parallel to the object of our enquiry, but one still nearer will of course be presented by the Old Testament quotations in those books the New Testament quotations in which we are to investigate. I have thought it best to draw up tables of these in order to give an idea of the extent and character of the variation. In so tentative an enquiry as this, the standard throughout will hardly be so fixed and accurate as might be desirable; the tabular statement therefore must be taken to be approximate, but still I think it will be found sufficient for our purpose; certain points come out with considerable clearness, and there is always an advantage in drawing data from a wide enough area. The quotations are ranged under heads according to the degree of approximation to the text of the LXX. In cases where the cla.s.sification has seemed doubtful an indicatory mark (+) has been used, showing by the side of the column on which it occurs to which of the other two cla.s.ses the instance leans. All cases in which this sign is used to the left of the middle column may be considered as for practical purposes literal quotations. It may be a.s.sumed, where the contrary is not stated, that the quotations are direct and not of the nature of allusions; the marks of quotation are generally quite unmistakeable ([Greek: gegraptai, legei, eipen], &c). Brief notes are added in the margin to call attention to the more remarkable points, especially to the repet.i.tion of the same quotation in different writers and to the apparent bearing of the pa.s.sage upon the general habit of quotation.

Taking the Apostolic Fathers in order, we come first to--

_Clement of Rome (1 Ep. ad Cor._)

6. Gen. 2.23. | |8. Ezek. 33.11 |} | | Ezek. 18.30 |}from Apocryphal | | Ps. 103.10,11. |} or interpolated | | Jer. 3.19,22. |} Ezekiel?

| | Is. 1.18. |} |+8. Is. 1.16-20. | | |10. Gen. 12.1-3. | | | +Gen. 13.14-16. | | | Gen. 15.5,6. | | | |12. Josh. 2.3-19. |compression and | | | paraphrase.

| | | | |13. 1 Sam. 2,10. |}similarly | | Jer. 9.23,24. |} St. Paul, 1 Cor.

| | | 1.31, 2 Cor.

|13. Is. 46.2. | | 10.17.

| |14. Prov. 2.21, |from memory?

| | 22. v.l. (Ps. 37.| | | 39.) | |14. Ps. 37.35-38.| |Matt. 15.8, Mark | |15. Is. 29.13.* | 7.6, with par- 15.{Ps. 78.36,37.*|15. Ps. 62.4.* | | tial similarity, {Ps. 31.19.* | | | Clem. Alex., {Ps. 12.3-6.* | | | following Clem.

| | | Rom.

| | | similarly.

| | | | |18. Ps. 89.21,v.l.|}Clem. Alex. as | | 1 Sam. 13.14. |} LXX.

18. Ps. 51.1-17. | | | | |20. Job 38.11. | | |21. Prov. 15.27. |Clem. Alex.

| |23. [Greek: |from an Apo- | | palaiporoi eisin | cryphal book, | | oi dipsuchoi | _a.s.s. Mos._ or | | k.t.l.] | _Eld. and Mod._ | | | | |23. Is. 13.22. |}composition and | | Mal. 3.1. |} compression.

| | | | |26. Ps. 28.7. |}composition | | Ps. 3-5. |} from memory?

| |27. Wisd. 12.12. |}from memory?

| | Wisd. 11.22. |} cp. Eph. 1.19.

P27. Ps. 19.1-3. | | | | |28. Ps. 139.7-10. |from memory?

29. Deut. 32.8,9. | | | | |29. Deut. 4.34. |}from memory?

| | Deut. 14.2. |} or from an | | Num. 18.27. |} Apocryphal | | 2 Chron. 31. |} Book?

| | 14. |} | | Ezek. 48.12. |} |30. Prov. 3.34. | | 30. Job. 11.2,3. | | |LXX, not Heb.

| |32. Gen. 15.5 | | | (Gen. 22.17. | | | Gen. 26.4.) | |33. Gen. 1.26-28.|(omissions.) | | |34. Is. 40.10. |}composition | | Is. 62.11. |} from memory?

| | Prov. 24.12. |} Clem. Alex.

| | | after Clem.

| | | Rom.

|34. Dan. 7.10. |} |curiously | Is. 6.3+. |} | repeated | | | transposition; | | | see Lightfoot, | | | _ad. loc._ | |24. Is. 64.4. |so in 1 Cor. 2.9.

|35. Ps. 50.16-23.| | |36. Ps.104.4,v.l.| |Heb. 1.7.

36. Ps. 2.7,8. | | |Heb. 1.5. Acts Ps. 110.1 | | | 13.33.

|39. Job 4.16-5.5 | | | (Job 15.15) | | | |42. Is. 60.17. |from memory?

| | agiois hoti oi | vi. 34? Clem.

| | kollomenoi | Alex.

48. Ps. 118,19,20.| | |Clem. Alex.

| | | loosely.

| |50. Is. 26.20. |} | | Ezek. 37.12. |}from memory?

50. Ps. 32. 1,2. | | | | |52. Ps. 69.31,32. | 52. Ps. 50.14,15.+|} | | Ps. 51.17. |} | | |53. Deut.9.12-14.|} |Barnabas | Ex. 32.7,8. |} | similarly.

| 11,31,32. |} | Compression.

54. Ps. 241. | | | 56. Ps. 118.18. | | | Prov. 3.12. | | | Ps. 141.5. | | | |+56. Job 5.17-26,| | | v.l. | | |+57. Prov. 1.23- | | | 31. | |

[*Footnote: The quotations in this chapter are continuous, and are also found in Clement of Alexandria.]

It will be observed that the longest pa.s.sages are among those that are quoted with the greatest accuracy (e.g. Gen. xiii. 14-16; Job v. 17-26; Ps. xix. 1-3, xxii. 6-8, x.x.xiv. 11-17, li. 1-17; Prov. i. 23-31; Is. i. 16-20, liii. 1-12). Others, such as Gen.

xii. 1-3, Deut. ix. 12-14, Job iv. 16-v. 5, Ps. x.x.xvii. 35-38, l.

16-23, have only slight variations. There are only two pa.s.sages of more than three consecutive verses in length that present wide divergences. These are, Ps. cx.x.xix. 7-10, which is introduced by a vague reference [Greek: legei gar pou] and is evidently quoted from memory, and the historical narration Josh. ii. 3-19. This is perhaps what we should expect: in longer quotations it would be better worth the writer"s while to refer to his c.u.mbrous ma.n.u.script. These purely mechanical conditions are too much lost sight of. We must remember that the ancient writer had not a small compact reference Bible at his side, but, when he wished to verify a reference, would have to take an unwieldy roll out of its case, and then would not find it divided into chapter and verse like our modern books but would have only the columns, and those perhaps not numbered, to guide him. We must remember too that the memory was much more practised and relied upon in ancient times, especially among the Jews.

The composition of two or more pa.s.sages is frequent, and the fusion remarkably complete. Of all the cases in which two pa.s.sages are compounded, always from different chapters and most commonly from different books, there is not, I believe, one in which there is any mark of division or an indication of any kind that a different source is being quoted from. The same would hold good (with only a slight and apparent exception) of the longer strings of quotations in cc. viii, xxix, and (from [Greek: aegapaesan] to [Greek: en auto]) in c. xv. But here the question is complicated by the possibility, and in the first place at least perhaps probability, that the writer is quoting from some apocryphal work no longer extant. It may be interesting to give one or two short examples of the completeness with which the process of welding has been carried out. Thus in c. xvii, the following reply is put into the mouth of Moses when he receives his commission at the burning bush, [Greek: tis eimi ego hoti me pempeis; ego de eimi ischnophonos kai braduglossos.] The text of Exod. iii. 11 is [Greek: tis eimi ego, oti poreusomai;] the rest of the quotation is taken from Exod. iv. 10. In c. x.x.xiv Clement introduces "the Scripture" as saying, [Greek: Muriai muriades pareistaekeisan auto kai chiliai chiliades eleitourgoun auto kai ekekragon agios, agios, agios, Kurios Sabaoth, plaeraes pasa hae ktisis taes doxaes autou.] The first part of this quotation comes from Dan. vii. 10; the second, from [Greek: kai ekekragon], which is part of the quotation, from Is. vi. 3. These examples have been taken almost at random; the others are blended quite as thoroughly.

Some of the cases of combination and some of the divergences of text may be accounted for by the a.s.sumption of lost apocryphal books or texts; but it would be wholly impossible, and in fact no one would think of so attempting to account for all. There can be little doubt that Clement quotes from memory, and none that he quotes at times very freely.

We come next to the so-called Epistle of Barnabas, the quotations in which I proceed to tabulate in the same way:--

_Barnabas._

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