that our Lord's human body was thoroughly human and real. An
interesting modern parallel to Marcion's New Testament can be found in
England. At the beginning of the 19th century the English Unitarians
circulated large numbers of an English version of the New Testament in
which were altered all the passages in the English Authorised Version
which imply that Jesus is God. The translators of this Unitarian
version accepted the Gospels of the New Testament as genuine, although
they used unscrupulous methods to support their assertion that the New
Testament is Unitarian. In the same way Marcion, although he made
unscrupulous alterations in Luke in order to prove that it was really
Marcionite, obviously accepted it as a genuine work of the apostolic
age.
The Preface of the Gospel begins with a ceremonious dedication to a
person of high rank, named Theophilus. He is {67} called by the title
"most excellent," which ordinarily implies that the person so
designated is a member of the "equestrian order." The evangelist tells
Theophilus that many had taken in hand to draw up a narrative of those
things which are "most surely believed among us." The preface shows us
that many attempts to give an account in order of what our Lord did and
said had already been made. The literary activity of the earliest
Christians is thus demonstrated to us. The preface suggests to us that
substantial accuracy marked these early efforts, and, in a still higher
degree, St. Luke's own Gospel. He does not speak of the earlier works
as inaccurate, and he does distinctly give his reader to understand
that he possesses peculiar qualifications for his task. He asserts
that his information is derived from "eye-witnesses and ministers of
the Word," and that he has himself "traced the course of all things
accurately from the first." This preface certainly shows us that the
writer took real pains in writing, and that he had personally known men
who accompanied our Lord.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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