or on repeated quotation always present the same peculiarities, whilst
others, professed to be direct quotations of sayings of Jesus, have no
parallels in our Gospels at all. Upon the hypothesis that the author
made use of our Gospels, such systematic divergence would be perfectly
unintelligible and astounding. On the other hand, it must be remembered
that the agreement of a few passages with parallels in our Gospels
cannot prove anything. The only extraordinary circumstance is that, even
using a totally different source, there should not have been a greater
agreement with our Synoptics. But for the universal inaccuracy of the
human mind, every important historical saying, having obviously only
one distinct original form, would in all truthful histories have been
reported in that one unvarying form. The nature of the quotations in the
Clementine Homilies leads to the inevitable conclusion that their author
derived them from a Gospel different from ours; at least, since the
source of these quotations is never named throughout the work, and there
is not the faintest direct indication of our Gospels, the Clementine
Homilies cannot be considered witnesses of any value as to the origin
and authenticity of the canonical Gospels. That this can be said of
a work written a century and a half after the establishment of
Christianity, and abounding with quotations of the discourses of Jesus,
is in itself singularly suggestive.
It is scarcely necessary to add that the author of the Homilies has no
idea whatever of any canonical writings but those of the Old Testament,
though even with regard to these some of our quotations have shown
that he held peculiar views, and believed that they contained spurious
elements. There is no reference in the
{34}
Homilies to any of the Epistles of the New Testament.(1)
One of the most striking points in this work, on the other hand, is
its determined animosity against the Apostle Paul. We have seen that a
strong anti-Pauline tendency was exhibited by many of the Fathers, who,
like the author of the Homilies, made use of Judeo-Christian Gospels
different from ours. In this work, however, the antagonism against the
"Apostle of the Gentiles" assumes a tone of peculiar virulence. 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,(2)
whom Peter follows everywhere for the purpose of unmasking and confuting
him. He is robbed of his title of "Apostle of the Gentiles," which,
together with the honour of founding the Church of Antioch, of Laodicaæ,
and of Rome, is ascribed to Peter. All that opposition to Paul which
is implied in the Epistle to the Galatians and elsewhere(3) is here
realized and exaggerated, and
{35}
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