The Wave of Scepticism and the Rock of TruthHabershon, M. H. (Matthew Henry)
Religion
The Wave of Scepticism and the Rock of Truth
Habershon, M. H. (Matthew Henry)
Bible. New Testament -- Evidences, authority, etc.; Cassels, Walter Richard, 1826-1907. Supernatural religion
The evidence from the work of Hippolytus, entitled, "The Refutation of
all Heresies," that Basilides quoted from the Fourth Gospel, our
author dismisses in one paragraph (p. 371), having fully referred to
the testimony from that writer in treating of the Synoptics. There
are, however, two very distinct passages which cannot be objected to
as quotations, and the attempt to get rid of them by the substitution
of the plural pronoun "they" for the singular one "he," in the text of
Hippolytus, is an utter failure. The first is from John i. 9, "The
true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world;" and
the words in "The Refutation," by Hippolytus, are, "And this, he says,
is that which has been stated in the Gospels, 'He was the true Light
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.'" The other is,
"Mine hour is not yet come," agreeing with John ii. 4. The discovery
of the work, "The Refutation of all Heresies," in the year 1841, at
Mount Athos, by the erudite Minoides Mynas, a Greek, in the employ of
the French Government, was important as bearing on this question, for
it proves that the Fourth Gospel was in existence thirty years earlier
than the Tübingen criticism asserted. Our author's want of
appreciation of the evidence found in Hippolytus is one of the weakest
points in his book.
Is the Fourth Gospel quoted by Justin Martyr? Our author says, No! I
say, Yes! to the question. In his Dialogue with Tryphon (p. 316) occur
the words, "I am not the Christ, but the voice of one crying," which
is evidently from that Gospel, for we know of no other which makes
John the Baptist say the same. He says "the evangelical work of which
Justin made use was obviously different from our Gospels, and the
evident conclusion to which any impartial mind must arrive is, that
there is not only not the slightest ground for affirming that Justin
quoted the passage (as above) from the Fourth Gospel, from which he so
fundamentally differs, but every reason on the contrary to believe
that he derived it from a particular Gospel, in all probability the
Gospel according to the Hebrews" (p. 302). I remark, that the words,
"I am not the Christ, but the voice of one crying," could not be
quoted from the Gospel according to the Hebrews if that supposed
independent book did not contain them, and there is no evidence that
it did. On the contrary, our Gospel of Matthew, compiled, as we
suppose, partly from it, would have in that case had the words; and as
it has not, and as only John's Gospel has them, the inference is clear
that Justin had seen the latter, as well as the other Gospel or
Gospels from which the earlier part of the sentence is taken. The
whole of Justin's sentence is as follows: "For John sat by the Jordan
and preached the baptism of repentance, wearing only a leathern girdle
and raiment of camel's hair, and eating nothing but locusts and wild
honey." Men supposed him to be the Christ, wherefore he cries to them,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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