Christianity: Its Evidences, Its Origin, Its Morality, Its History Part 3

27. Gospel of Barnabas.

28. Gospel of Andrew.

29. Gospel of the Infancy (extant).

30. Gospel of Nicodemus, or Acts of Pilate and Descent of Christ to the Under World (extant).

31. Gospel of James, or Protevangelium (extant).

32. Gospel of the Nativity of Mary (extant).

33. Arabic Gospel of the Infancy (extant).

34. Syriac Gospel of the Boyhood of our Lord Jesus (extant).

MISCELLANEOUS.

35. Letter to Agbarus by Christ (extant).

36. Letter to Leopas by Christ (extant).

37. Epistle to Peter and Paul by Christ.

38. Epistle by Christ produced by Manichees.

39. Hymn by Christ (extant).

40. Magical Book by Christ.

41. Prayer by Christ (extant).

42. Preaching of Peter.

43. Revelation of Peter.

44. Doctrine of Peter.

45. Acts of Peter.

46. Book of Judgment by Peter.

47. Book, under the name of Peter, forged by Lentius.

48. Preaching of Peter and Paul at Rome.

49. The Vision, or Acts of Paul and Thecla.

50. Acts of Paul.

51. Preaching of Paul.

52. Piece under name of Paul, forged by an "anonymous writer in Cyprian's time."

53. Epistle to the Laodiceans under name of Paul (extant).

54. Six letters to Seneca under name of Paul (extant).

55. Anabaticon or Revelation of Paul.

56. The traditions of Matthias.

57. Book of James.

58. Book, under name of James, forged by Ebionites.

59. Acts of Andrew, John, and Thomas.

60. Acts of John.

61. Book, under name of John, forged by Ebionites.

62. Book under name of John.

63. Book, under name of John, forged by Lentius.

64. Acts of Andrew.

65. Book under name of Andrew.

66. Book, under name of Andrew, by Naxochristes and Leonides.

67. Book under name of Thomas.

68. Acts of Thomas.

69. Revelation of Thomas.

70. Writings of Bartholomew.

71. Book, under name of Matthew, forged by Ebionites.

72. Acts of the Apostles by Leuthon, or Seleucus.

73. Acts of the Apostles used by Ebionites.

74. Acts of the Apostles by Lenticius.

75. Acts of the Apostles used by Manichees.

76. History of the Twelve Apostles by Abdias (extant).

77. Creed of the Apostles (extant).

78. Const.i.tutions of the Apostles (extant).

79. Acts, under Apostles' names, by Leontius.

80. Acts, under Apostles' names, by Lenticius.

81. Catholic Epistle, in imitation of the Apostles of Themis, on the Montanists.

82. Revelation of Cerinthus, nominally apostolical.

83. Book of the Helkesaites which fell from Heaven.

84. Books of Lent.i.tius.

85. Revelation of Stephen.

86. Works of Dionysius the Areopagite (extant).

87. History of Joseph the carpenter (extant).

88. Letter of Agbarus to Jesus (extant).

89. Letter of Lentulus (extant).

90. Story of Veronica (extant).

91. Letter of Pilate to Tiberius (extant).

92. Letters of Pilate to Herod (extant).

93. Epistle of Pilate to Caesar (extant).

94. Report of Pilate the Governor (extant).

95. Trial and condemnation of Pilate (extant).

96. Death of Pilate (extant).

97. Story of Joseph of Arimathraea (extant).

98. Revenging of the Saviour (extant).

99. Epistle of Barnabas.

100. Epistle of Polycarp.

101-15. Fifteen epistles of Ignatius (see above, pages 217-220.) 116. Shepherd of Hermas.

117. First Epistle to the Corinthians of Clement (possibly partly authentic).

118. Second Epistle to the Corinthians of Clement.

119. Apostolic Canons of Clement.

120. Recognitions of Clement and Clementina.

121-122. Two Epistles of St. Clement of Rome (written in Syriac).

123-128. Six books of Justin Martyr.

129-132. Four books of Justin Martyr.

The above are collected from Jones' On the Canon, Supernatural Religion, Eusebius, Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, Cowper's Apocryphal Gospels, Dr. Giles' Christian Records, and the Apostolic Fathers.

After reading this list, the student will be able to appreciate the value of Paley's argument, that, "if it had been an easy thing in the early times of the inst.i.tution to have forged Christian writings, and to have obtained currency and reception to the forgeries, we should have had many appearing in the name of Christ himself" ("Evidences," p. 106).

Paley acknowledges "one attempt of this sort, deserving of the smallest notice;" and, in a note, adds three more of those mentioned above. Let us see what the evidence is of the genuineness of the letter to Agbarus, the "one attempt" in question, as given by Eusebius. Agbarus, the prince of Edessa, reigning "over the nations beyond the Euphrates with great glory," was afflicted with an incurable disease, and, hearing of Jesus, sent to him to entreat deliverance. The letter of Agbarus is carried to Jesus, "at Jerusalem, by Ananias, the courier," and the answer of Jesus, also written, is returned by the same hands. The letter of Jesus runs as follows, and is written in Syriac: "Blessed art thou, O Agbarus, who, without seeing me, hast believed in me! For it is written concerning me, that they who have seen me will not believe, that they who have not seen me may believe and live. But in regard to what thou hast written, that I should come to thee, it is necessary that I should fulfil all things here, for which I have been sent. And, after this fulfilment, thus to be received again by Him that sent me. And after I have been received up, I will send to thee a certain one of my disciples, that he may heal thy affliction, and give life to thee, and to those who are with thee."

After the ascension of Jesus, Thaddaeus, one of the seventy, is sent to Edessa, and lodges in the house of Tobias, the son of Tobias, and heals Agbarus and many others. "These things were done in the 340th year"

(Eusebius does not state what he reckons from). The proof given by Eusebius for the truth of the account is as follows: "Of this also we have the evidence, in a written answer, taken from the public records of the city of Edessa, then under the government of the king. For, in the public registers there, which embrace the ancient history and the transactions of Agbarus, these circ.u.mstances respecting him are found still preserved down to the present day. There is nothing, however, like hearing the epistles themselves, taken by us from the archives, and the style of it, as it has been literally translated by us, from the Syriac language" ("Eccles. Hist.," bk. i., chap. xiii.). And Paley calls this an attempt at forgery, "deserving of the smallest notice," and dismisses it in a few lines. It would be interesting to know for what other "Scripture," canonical or uncanonical, there is evidence of authenticity so strong as for this; exactness of detail in names; absence of any exaggeration more than is implied in recounting any miracle; the transaction recorded in the public archives; seen there by Eusebius himself; copied down and translated by him; such evidence for any one of the Gospels would make belief far easier than it is at present. The a.s.sertion of Eusebius was easily verifiable at the time (to use the favourite argument of Christians for the truth of any account); and if Eusebius here wrote falsely, of what value is his evidence on any other point? A Freethinker may fairly urge that Eusebius is _not_ trustworthy, and that this a.s.sertion of his about the archives is as likely to be false as true; but the Christian can scarcely admit this, when so much depends, for him, on the reliability of the great Church historian, all whose evidence would become worthless if he be once allowed to have deliberately fabricated that which did not exist.

We have already noticed the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, and pointed out the numerous forgeries circulated under their names, and the consequent haze hanging over all the early Christian writers, until we reach the time of Justin Martyr. Thus we entirely destroy the whole basis of Paley's argument, that "the historical books of the New Testament ... are quoted, or alluded to, by a series of Christian writers, beginning with those who were contemporary with the Apostles, or who immediately followed them" ("Evidences," page 111;) for we have no certain writings of any such contemporaries. In dealing with the positions _f_. and _h_., we shall seek to prove that in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers--taking them as genuine--as well as in Justin Martyr, and in other Christian works up to about A.D. 180, the quotations said to be from the canonical Gospels conclusively show that other Gospels were used, and not our present ones; but no further evidence than the long list of apocryphal writings, given on pp. 240-243 is needed in order to prove our first proposition, that _forgeries, bearing the name of Christ, of the apostles, and of the early fathers, were very common in the primitive Church_.

B. "_That there is nothing to distinguish the canonical from the apocryphal writings_." "Their pretences are specious and plausible, for the most part going under the name of our Saviour himself, his apostles, their companions, or immediate successors. They are generally thought to be cited by the first Christian writers with the same authority (at least, many of them) as the sacred books we receive. This Mr. Toland labours hard to persuade us; but, what is more to be regarded, men of greater merit and probity have unwarily dropped expressions of the like nature. _Everybody knows_ (says the learned Casaubon against Cardinal Baronius) _that Justin Martyr, Clemens Alexandrinus, Tertullian, and the rest of the primitive writers, were wont to approve and cite books which now all men know to be apocryphal. Clemens Alexandrinus_ (says his learned annotator, Sylburgius) _was too much pleased with apocryphal writings_. Mr. Dodwell (in his learned dissertation on Irenaeus) tells us that, _till Trajan, or, perhaps, Adrian's time, no canon was fixed; the supposit.i.tious pieces of the heretics were received by the faithful, the apostles' writings bound up with theirs, and indifferently used in the churches._ To mention no more, the learned Mr. Spanheim observes, _that Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen very often cite apocryphal books under the express name of Scripture_.... How much Mr. Whiston has enlarged the Canon of the New Testament, is sufficiently known to the learned among us. For the sake of those who have not perused his truly valuable books I would observe, that he imagines the 'Const.i.tutions of the Apostles' to be inspired, and of greater authority than the occasional writings of single Apostles and Evangelists. That the two Epistles of Clemens, the Doctrine of the Apostles, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Shepherd of Hermas, the second book of Esdras, the Epistles of Ignatius, and the Epistle of Polycarp, are to be reckoned among the sacred authentic books of the New Testament; as also that the Acts of Paul, the Revelation, Preaching, Gospel and Acts of Peter, were sacred books, and, if they were extant, should be of the same authority as any of the rest" (J.

Jones, on the "Canon," p. 4-6). This same learned writer further says: "That many, or most of the books of the New Testament, have been rejected by heretics in the first ages, is also certain. Faustus Manichaeus and his followers are said to have rejected all the New Testament, as not written by the Apostles. Marcion rejected all, except St. Luke's Gospel. The Manichees disputed much against the authority of St. Matthew's Gospel. The Alogians rejected the Gospel of St. John as not his, but made by Cerinthus. The Acts of the Apostles were rejected by Severus, and the sect of his name. The same rejected all Paul's Epistles, as also did the Ebionites, and the Helkesaites. Others, who did not reject all, rejected some particular epistles.... Several of the books of the New Testament were not universally received, even among them who were not heretics, in the first ages.... Several of them have had their authority disputed by learned men in later times" (Ibid, pp.

8, 9).

If recognition by the early writers be taken as a proof of the authenticity of the works quoted, many apocryphal doc.u.ments must stand high. Eusebius, who ranks together the Acts of Paul, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Revelation of Peter, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Inst.i.tutions of the Apostles, and the Revelation of John (now accounted canonical) says that these were not embodied in the Canon (in his time) "notwithstanding that they are recognised by most ecclesiastical writers" ("Eccles. Hist.," bk. iii., chap. xxv.). The Canon, in his time, was almost the same as at present, but the canonicity of the epistles of James and Jude, the 2nd of Peter, the 2nd and 3rd of John, and the Revelation, was disputed even as late as when he wrote. Irenaeus ranks the Pastor of Hermas as Scripture; "he not only knew, but also admitted the book called Pastor" (Ibid, bk. v., chap. viii.). "The Pastor of Hermas is another work which very nearly secured permanent canonical rank with the writings of the New Testament. It was quoted as Holy Scripture by the Fathers, and held to be divinely inspired, and it was publicly read in the churches. It has place with the Epistle of Barnabas in the Sinaitic Codex, after the canonical books"