Now this passage differs materially in every way from the second
Synoptic. The reference to "one man" and "one woman" is used in a
totally different sense, and enforces the previous assertion that a man
may only marry one wife. Such an argument directly derived from the Old
Testament is perfectly natural to one who, like Athenagoras, derived
all his authority from it alone. It is not permissible to claim it as
evidence of the use of Mark.
Now we must repeat that Athenagoras does not name any source from which
he derives his knowledge of the sayings of Jesus. These sayings are
all from the Sermon on the Mount, and are introduced by the indefinite
phrase [------], and it is remarkable that all differ distinctly from
the parallels in our Gospels. The whole must be taken together as coming
from one source, and while the decided variation excludes the inference
that they must have been taken from our Gospels, there is reasonable
ground for assigning them to a different
{196}
source. Dr. Donaldson states the case with great fairness: "Athenagoras
makes no allusion to the inspiration of any of the New Testament
writers. He does not mention one of them by name, and one cannot be sure
that he quotes from any except Paul. All the passages taken from the
Gospels are parts of our Lord's discourses, and may have come down to
Athenagoras by tradition."(1) He might have added that they might also
have been derived from the gospel according to the Hebrews or many
another collection now unhappily lost. One circumstance strongly
confirming this conclusion is the fact already mentioned, that
Athenagoras, in the same chapter in which one of these quotations
occurs, introduces an apocryphal saying of the Logos, and connects it
with previous sayings by the expression "The Logos again [------] saying
to us." This can only refer to the sayings previously introduced by
the indefinite [------]. The sentence, which is in reference to the
Christian salutation of peace, is as follows: "The Logos again saying
to us: 'If any one for this reason kiss a second time because it pleased
him (he sins);' and adding: 'Thus the kiss or rather the salutation must
be used with caution, as, if it be defiled even a little by thought, it
excludes us from the life eternal.'"(2) This saying, which is directly
attributed to the Logos, is not found in our Gospels. The only natural
deduction is that it comes from the same source as the other sayings,
and that source was not our synoptic Gospels.
{197}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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