[392] Cf. Pfleiderer, "Entstehung des Christentums," 207, 213. All estimates as to the time at which the Gospels were produced rest entirely on suppositions, in which points of view quite different from that of purely historical interest generally predominate. Thus it has been the custom on the Catholic side to pronounce, not Mark or Luke, but Matthew, to be the oldest source. "Proofs" for this are also given--naturally, as it is indeed the "Church" Gospel: it contains the famous passage (xvi. 18, 19) about Peter's possession of the keys; how, then, should this not be the oldest? And lately Harnack ("Beiträge zur Einl. in das N.T.," iii., "Die Apostelgeschichte," 1908) has tried to prove that the Acts, with the Gospel of Luke, had been already produced in the early part of the year 60 A.D. But he does not dare to come to a real decision; and his reasons are opposed by just as weighty ones which are against that "possibility" suggested by him (op. cit., 219 sqq.). Such is, first, the fact that all the other early Christian writings which belong to the first century, as the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas, evidently know nothing of them. In the Epistle of Barnabas, written about 96 A.D., we read that Jesus chose as his own apostles, as men who were to proclaim his Gospel, "of all men the most evil, to show that he had come to call, not the righteous, but sinners, to repentance" (iv.). As to this Lützelberger very justly remarks, "That is more even than our Gospels say. For these are content to prove that Jesus did not come for the righteous by saying that he ate with publicans and was anointed by women of evil life; while in this Epistle even the Apostles must be most wicked sinners, so that grace may shine forth to them. This passage was quite certainly written neither by an Apostle nor by a pupil of an Apostle; and also it was not written after our Gospels, but at a time when the learned Masters of the Church had still a free hand to show their spirit and ingenuity in giving form to the evangelical story" ("Die hist. Tradition," 236 sq.). But also the so-called Epistle of Clement, which must have been written at about the same time, is completely silent as to the Gospels, while the "Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles," which perhaps also belongs to the end of the first century, cites Christ's words, such as stand in the Gospels, but not as sayings of Jesus. Moreover, according to Harnack, the "Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles" is the Christian elaboration of an early Jewish document; whence we may conclude that its Words of Christ have a similar origin in Jewish thought to that from which the Gospels obtained them. (Cf. Lützelberger, op. cit., 259-271.) [393] 81. [394] 71. [395] 81 sq. [396] Id. [397] The laity has, as is well known, but a slight suspicion of this. So S. E. Verus' "Vergleichende Übersicht der vier Evangelien" (1897), with the commentary, is to be recommended. [398] 83. [399] 83. [400] 85 sq.