This "tendency" of "Luke" must be borne in mind. It is very plain in the earlier chapters of the Acts. The gospels announce that at Christ's death consternation and cowardice were amongst his followers. The "lambs" had fled in all directions from the "wolves." St. Paul also speaks of the fierce persecutions that followed the event,--Stephen stoned, and the "havoc" and the "slaughter." And yet in the opening chapters of the Acts we find the "wolves" more gentle than the "lambs." They are "pricked in their heart." They at once allow Peter to proclaim in the temple, and also before the Sanhedrim, that there is no salvation in any name other than that of the malefactor they have just executed (by inference not even in Yahve); and that all who will not hear this malefactor shall be destroyed. And the Sanhedrim, in solemn conclave, let him go, "finding nothing how they might punish him." (Acts iv. 21.) And Gamaliel, a solemn doctor, advises his colleagues to let the hated "lambs" alone, "lest haply they be found to fight against God." Had a "wolf" talked like that, his brother "wolves" would have made short work of him. The "tendency" here is very plain. "Luke" wants it to be understood that from the first the chief doctors saw no harm in Christianity, and allowed it to be preached in the temple. I shall not waste time over the controversy, whether "Luke" is an enlargement of Marcion's or some other shorter gospel. As we know that the earliest and only authentic gospel came from the Essene Ebionites, it is plain that all anti-Essenism is an accretion. We now come to the opening chapters of Luke's gospel. Let us see if it is possible at this distance of time to trace how they were built up. In the Jerusalem Talmud, and also in the Babylonish, is a somewhat fanciful account of the slaughter of a priest named Zacharias. who was killed in the court of the priests, _near the altar_. A great miracle now occurred: his blood began to bubble, that it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance! Soon Nebuzaradan (this fixes the date of the story to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar) arrived at the temple. He asked the meaning of the bubbling. He was told that the blood was the blood of calves, and rams, and lambs. He caused some calves, and rams, and lambs to be slaughtered; still the blood bubbled. He slaughtered a number of rabbins; still the blood bubbled. Ninety-four thousand priests were slaughtered before the blood of the dead Zacharias was appeased. (Talmud Hierosol. in Taannith, fol. 69, Lightfoot the Hebraist.)