Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Religion
Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)
Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Baptists -- Doctrines; Theology, Doctrinal
To this testimony it is objected: (1) That Justin Martyr uses the
term “memoirs” instead of “gospels.” We reply that he elsewhere
uses the term “gospels” and identifies the “memoirs” with them:
Apol., 1:66—“The apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which
are called gospels,” _i. e._, not memoirs, but gospels, was the
proper title of his written records. In writing his Apology to the
heathen Emperors, Marcus Aurelius and Marcus Antoninus, he chooses
the term “memoirs”, or “memorabilia”, which Xenophon had used as
the title of his account of Socrates, simply in order that he may
avoid ecclesiastical expressions unfamiliar to his readers and may
commend his writing to lovers of classical literature. Notice that
Matthew must be added to John, to justify Justin’s repeated
statement that there were “memoirs” of our Lord “written by
apostles,” and that Mark and Luke must be added to justify his
further statement that these memoirs were compiled by “his
apostles and those who followed them.” Analogous to Justin’s use
of the word “memoirs” is his use of the term “Sunday”, instead of
Sabbath: Apol. 1:67—“On the day called Sunday, all who live in
cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the
memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read.”
Here is the use of our gospels in public worship, as of equal
authority with the O. T. Scriptures; in fact, Justin constantly
quotes the words and acts of Jesus’ life from a written source,
using the word γέγραπται. See Morison, Com. on Mat., ix; Hemphill,
Literature of Second Century, 234.
To Justin’s testimony it is objected: (2) That in quoting the
words spoken from heaven at the Savior’s baptism, he makes them to
be: “My son, this day have I begotten thee,” so quoting _Psalm
2:7_, and showing that he was ignorant of our present gospel,
_Mat. 3:17_. We reply that this was probably a slip of the memory,
quite natural in a day when the gospels existed only in the
cumbrous form of manuscript rolls. Justin also refers to the
Pentateuch for two facts which it does not contain; but we should
not argue from this that he did not possess our present
Pentateuch. The plays of Terence are quoted by Cicero and Horace,
and we require neither more nor earlier witnesses to their
genuineness,—yet Cicero and Horace wrote a hundred years after
Terence. It is unfair to refuse similar evidence to the gospels.
Justin had a way of combining into one the sayings of the
different evangelists—a hint which Tatian, his pupil, probably
followed out in composing his Diatessaron. On Justin Martyr’s
testimony, see Ezra Abbot, Genuineness of the Fourth Gospel, 49,
note. B. W. Bacon, Introd. to N. T., speaks of Justin as “writing
_circa_ 155 A. D.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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