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HENRY VAN ARSDALE
The Jews made three arbitrary divisions of their Scriptures: the written law, consisting of the five books of Moses; the prophets, the books containing the prophetic writings; and the hagiographa, or sacred writings, comprising all the other books of what we now call the Old Testament. Copies of the complete canonical books were not at all common, but there is every reason to believe that Joseph's household possessed one, or at any rate that Jesus had constant access to one. In making new copies of the Jewish Scriptures every care was taken to secure accuracy, and translators of the various original copies of the ancient versions of the Old Testament now available find comparatively few discrepancies; nothing like the number to be found in the versions of the New Testament. It is probable, too, that two or three of the twelve apostles also had complete copies of the Scriptures. As at this time the cost of such a book was considerable and almost out of the question for the poorer class, from which Joseph and the twelve came, it can be seen what must have been the earnestness back of the sacrifice which enabled these households to procure this well-nigh priceless treasure. To the orthodox, the temple Jew, the written law was the main thing; all else hinged upon it. Properly the sacrifices and ritualism it enjoined could only be carried on in Jerusalem, and so here it was that the rabbis held their schools and daily taught the oral law in explanation and amplification of the written. From the time the law had been given to Moses questions had arisen as to interpretation. The Sanhedrin and rabbis held that the law having been given to the Jewish nation in its completeness in written form, no other law was to be written; no interpretations, no customs, no explanations, no traditions, must be in writing — all must be oral, carried in the memory and so passed on and down. In the intervening centuries, however, so many accepted interpretations had been given, had received the Sanhedric and rabbinic endorsements, and then become incorporated in the traditional law, that in the first century the oral law was many times greater in volume than the written. It was said by the contemporaries of one great rabbi that so great was his power of interpretation that he could take of every stroke of every letter of every word in any one of the written laws and make a new law from each. Another rabbi, called "The Splendor of Wisdom," told an inquirer as to the extent of his knowledge, that he had been taught of the wise ones so much of the traditional law, that if all the sky were parchment, every reed a pen, all the water ink, and all the inhabitants of the world writers, these would not suffice to record all he knew of the law. So it may be seen how the Jewish student of the Scriptures was trained to carry in his memory what he was taught by the rabbi he looked to as a teacher; for it was forbidden to write it down. It may be added here that the Talmud itself was not compiled until the latter part of the second century, A.D., and many authorities hold that even then it was transmitted entire, from memory, for nearly four hundred years and not put into written form until the sixth century. The Talmud, or traditional law, has many times the matter contained in the Pentateuch, and consists of Mishnah, which may be said to be the law, and Gemara, which are explanations, questions and answers, and commentaries on the Mishnah. Of Jesus' writings the only mention we have in the New Testament is to be found in John 8: 6, 8, where it is said he wrote on the ground. Of the great Teacher's works John says in the last verse of his Gospel, that if they were all recorded he supposes that even the world itself could not contain the books with the record. Accompanying the doing of these works must have been many parables, precepts, and sayings. We constantly read in the Gospels of Jesus' teachings and talks. Now, in view of the trained memories of his auditors, and the custom of repeating to others who had not the advantage of hearing the teacher, his exact statements, and the fact that Jesus could probably speak in the native tongues of all who frequented Galilee and Jerusalem, it is surprising that what is accepted generally as the only authentic record of Jesus' sayings limits them to what is contained in the four Gospels, and comparatively little attention is paid to research in numerous other sources which some day will be rewarded with rich returns. It is generally admitted that the following dates are the very earliest which can be assigned to the appearance of the four Gospels; many authorities give much later dates. Practically it is now agreed that the first Gospel written, of the four, was Mark's. This was addressed by a Jew to the Gentiles, especially the Romans, and the earliest date which can be assigned to it is the year 56. At least three years before this had appeared Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, which is the earliest of his epistles, and more than twelve years before Mark's Gospel was written, James, the brother of Jesus, had written the epistle bearing his name, which is by many years the first of the New Testament writings. Thus it appears that this first Gospel, with its professed exact sayings of Jesus, did not reach the churches until at least twenty-six years after Jesus was crucified. The Gospel of Matthew was written from the Hebrew standpoint and mainly designed for the Christianized Jew; its date is not earlier than the year 60. Luke's Gospel was especially for the Pauline churches and was written by a Gentile for the converted Gentiles later than the year 61. These three Gospels comprise what are known as the Synoptic Gospels, because they contain the general events of Jesus' career and the more comprehensive view of his work. It is probable that the Gospel of John was not written until later than 80 A.D. at least fifty years after Jesus' ascension. About one half of this Gospel is devoted to the last week of the earthly life of Jesus. Fifty years is a long time to carry definite statements in memory, unless there was at hand exact written memoranda to refer to. Let us examine a little closer. Only Matthew and John were known as students and associates of Jesus. Mark was a student and friend of Peter; Luke of Paul. It cannot be stated definitely that either Mark, Luke, or Paul ever exchanged a word with Jesus. These facts: The elapsed time and the unfamiliarity of two of the writers with Jesus personally show this one thing very plainly, that if Jesus' words were not at the time the different Gospels were written existing in written form, they were at least cherished, memorized, and handed on and down orally, as were the words of all other great teachers. The very fact of the similarity and agreement of the Gospel reports of Jesus' sayings, written by different men at different places and years apart, shows how correctly these words of his were memorized. Literally thousands must have listened to his utterances and carried them away into every part of Palestine and contiguous territory. Following the year 30, the generally accepted date of the crucifixion, continued the great dispersion of the Jews; first because of increased commercial opportunity throughout the Roman empire, to which opportunity the Jewish nation was always alive, and second because the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Titus about the year 70 compelled them to leave Judaea in great numbers. The result of this dispersion is seen today in every quarter of the globe, but in the first century it did not reach very far from the borders of the Mediterranean and Red seas. The earliest Christian churches started and flourished in Syria and other anti-Jewish communities, and to these flocked many Christianized Jews. Many of them went to Arabia, to Persia, to every place where commerce made opportunity for gain, and to these countries and households were carried the sayings of Jesus just as surely as they remained with Matthew, John and Peter and were collected by Mark, Luke, and Paul. The church at Antioch was established many years before the first Gospel, Mark's, was written. Besides, at the different feasts in Jerusalem there were in attendance thousands from Babylon and other places far from the confines of Judaea, all of whom at some time had had opportunity to hear Jesus and to know of his works. While Jesus was still teaching they carried away his words to remote communities, to be repeated to the less fortunate who could not go up to Jerusalem and memorized by them for the benefit of future generations. None of the four Gospels seems to have been especially designed for use by the church at Jerusalem, at this time under the charge of James, the brother of Jesus, and Peter. Many suppose there was a primitive gospel in use by this and some other churches, perhaps written by, or under the immediate direction, of Jesus himself, to which all four later writers had access. Paul also makes some references as if he had written a Gospel, or more direct news about Jesus than appears in his letters. At any rate, while all the New Testament writers, with the exception of Luke, were Jews, it is seen that after they became Christians they paid but little attention to the inhibition against writing what they knew must prove to be words of religious instruction. And there were surely countless others, of Gentile origin, who cared nothing at all for this fine point of Jewish tradition, and who must have put down in writing at the time many things they had heard from Jesus, and not years afterwards as did the New Testament writers. Such writings, it can be surmised, were in circulation among believers and non-believers from Central Europe to India, and it must be that some day these logia, or sayings, of Jesus will come to light. While it is probable that some of these will not be genuine — our own day not being free from denominational and deliberate distortions of God's word — Christian Science will enable us to separate the true from the false, as it does in all else, by demonstration, — by the healing of disease and the overcoming of sin. We may be permitted to give three of the many such sayings which have been found; they seem to have been first translated from Arabic into Latin, then into German, from which they have come to us. 1. Jesus was asked, "When shall the dominion of death cease?" Jesus saith: As long as [material] birth continues, for I came to destroy the works of birth. 2. Jesus saith: "In my ministry I have treated all the lepers and all the blind who came to me, and cured them; but when I have treated the fool I have failed to cure him'' ( See Luke, 12 :13-21). 3. Jesus and his students were traveling, and on the road met certain Jews who spake evil to him, to which he returned good. His students asked, "Do you speak good of these who speak ill of thee?" Jesus said: "Each giveth out of his store" (Matthew, 12 : 34-37). Students of our textbook well know what is meant here, and many analogous passages in the Bible and Science and Health will occur to them. They should especially compare with (1) this from Science and Health, page 68, "Proportionately as human generation ceases, . . . man . . . coexistent with God, will appear." Also Matthew, 5:17, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."
The Christian Science Journal, November, 1907 |
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