The Book of God : In the Light of the Higher Criticism: With Special Reference to Dean Farrar's New ApologyFoote, G. W. (George William)
Religion
The Book of God : In the Light of the Higher Criticism: With Special Reference to Dean Farrar's New Apology
Foote, G. W. (George William)
Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Farrar, F. W. (Frederic William), 1831-1903. New apology
No educated Christian in the present age believes the story of Lot's
wife being changed into a pillar of rock salt, although Josephus
pretended that he had seen it, and many travellers and pilgrims have
searched for it as a sacred relic. Jesus Christ, however, gave great
prominence to this salted lady. "Remember Lot's wife" is a verse by
itself in the Protestant Bible (Luke xvii. 32). Jesus also refers to the
rain of fire and brimstone by which Sodom was destroyed.
Here then, upon the face of it, we have Jesus Christ's testimony to
three documents as having been written by men who did not write them,
and to the historical character of three incidents which are purely
fabulous. Now the Higher Criticism must be wrong, or else Jesus Christ
was mistaken; in other words, he was not infallible, and therefore not
God. But the Higher Critics declare that they are not wrong; they also
declare that Jesus Christ was not mistaken. Let us see how they try to
save their own accuracy and his infallibility.
We must remark, in passing, that some of these critics hint, without
exactly asserting, that Jesus _may_ have been mistaken. Dr. Farrar bids
us remember that "by the very fact of taking our nature upon him Christ
voluntarily submitted himself to human limitations." There were some
things which, as a man, he did not know. Yes, but he was also God; and
the conjunction of "knowledge" and "ignorance" in one person, and with
respect to a single subject, would dissolve the unity of the God-man,
which is a dogma of Christian theology. Moreover, as Canon Liddon
argued, it is not so much a question of Christ's omniscience as a
question of his infallibility. Supposing there were some matters, such
as the date of the day of judgment, of which he was ignorant; he might
confess his ignorance or remain silent, and no harm would accrue to
anyone; but if he spoke upon any matter, and was mistaken through want
of knowledge, he would become a propagator of error; and this would not
only destroy the doctrine of his deity, but very seriously impair his
authority as a teacher, and cause everything he said to be open to
the gravest suspicion. No less dangerous is it to fall back upon the
explanation that "the discourses of Christ are not reproduced by the
Evangelists with verbal identity"--to use Dr. Farrar's own language. Dr.
Sanday seems a little attracted by this explanation. He reminds us that,
whatever views Jesus himself entertained as to the Scriptures of the Old
Testament, his views have come down to us through the medium of persons
who shared the erroneous ideas that were then current on the subject. We
must be prepared, he says, for the possibility that Christ's sayings in
regard to it "have not been reported with absolute accuracy." But
after all "not much allowance" should be made for this; which means, we
suspect, that the worthy Professor saw the dreadful peril of pursuing
this vein of observation, and desisted from it before he had said enough
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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