Frauds and Follies of the Fathers: A Review of the Worth of Their Testimony to the Four GospelsWheeler, J. M. (Joseph Mazzini)
Religion
Frauds and Follies of the Fathers: A Review of the Worth of Their Testimony to the Four Gospels
Wheeler, J. M. (Joseph Mazzini)
Christianity -- Controversial literature; Fathers of the church
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).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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