Associate professor of church history princeton theological seminary baker book house



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Gospel cad Gospels

for a clear statement of the law of their life. The date of the Gospel can not be definitely fixed. It may fall anywhere between 70 and 85, probably nearer the later date than the earlier, and possibly at Antioch. If this is the case, it is another illus­tration of the truth that the Gospels were published to meet the pressure brought to bear upon the Christian consciousness at the great centers of mis­sionary opportunity and interest.

In Mark unity is gained through a deep impres­sion of the events. In Luke there is a certain loss of unity. But in Matthew unity of a high order is secured through conscious purpose. The ,first Gos­pel is intensely apologetic, and con­g. Matthew's troll its material in this interest which

Gospel. is its first main object. It steadily

employs the argument from prophecy

to prove that Jesus is the Messiah (" that it . might

be fulfilled " occurs in Matthew twelve times, in

Mark twice, and in Luke twice). The other main

purpose is a clear view of the teaching of Jesus,

and this is obtained by massing the Logia in im­

pressive groups (sermon on Mount, parables in

chap. xiii., and elsewhere). Through adherence to

purpose Matthew becomes in a sense a creative

writer, having more  initiative and a larger influ­

ence than Luke. The apologetic is Jewish Chris­

tian in type. The book springs from the heart of

Jewish Christianity straining to convert Israel to

Jesus, and is built into Jewish Christianity and its

needs. There are some evidences that the Logia,

having been constantly used in debate, have been

more or less adapted (Matt. v. 3, cf. Luke vi. 20;

Matthew adds " in spirit "; v. 32, xix. 9, divorce

on ground of fornication, Mark and Luke being si­

lent on divorce). The apocalypse of Jesus (chaps.

xxiv: xxv.) seems to be a literary unit which bad

passed through several editions before being in­

corporated in Matthew's text (contrast Mark

and Luke). In Matt. xvi. 18 the explanation of

Matthew's addition is found not, as Harnack and

others have urged, in a second century Roman

molding of the text, but in the history of Jewish

Christianity in the first century. Christ's criticism

of the Law (v. 21 47) along with his insistence on

its binding force (v. 17 aqq.) clearly indicates this.

The Gospel stands close to Judaism, while superior

to it. The capital relation of Jesus is not, as in

Mark, with the popular Messianism (the policy of

silence is not steadily presented), but with Phari­

seeism (xv. 1 sqq., xvi. 1 6, xxiii. 2 27). In close

opposition to Judaism as a teaching force the per­

son and mind of the Savior stand out as in no other

Gospel except the Fourth. Christ lays hands on

the Torah and corrects it (v. 21 17). His personal

consciousness stands out in spiritual sublimity (ser­

mon on Mount; xi. 28 aqq., absent from Luke).

Thus the first Gospel marks the way in which the

deeper Gospel, the Gospel of the self consciousness

of Christ, came to be written. It was probably

published between 75 and 90, when Jewish Chris­

tianity was under severe strain. Judaism, as the

result of the great war, was drawing in its lines and

becoming increasingly hostile to Christianity. The

author of our Matthew Published the Law for Jew­

ish Christianity under the form of a Scriptural apol 




Gospel and Gospels THE NEW SCHAFF 8o

Qosener


ogetic. That his arrangement of the Logia satis­

fied a deep need is proved by the fact that the

Matthean text of our Lord's words is the text gen­

erally followed in the Apostolic Fathers, beginning

with Clement. The likeliest place of publication is

North Syria, possibly Damascus.

The building and publishing of the Gospels was a

process inherent in the growth of the Apostolic

Church. It was wider than our canonical Gospels.

There is one Gospel, the Gospel ac­

ro. Gospel cording to the Hebrews, which prob­

According ably falls within the first century. The

to the scanty fragments of it remaining make

Hebrews. a constructive hypothesis of .any sort

extremely hazardous. In its account

of the conversion of James it places itself on solid

ground (cf. I Cor. xv. 7). The silence of the canonical

Gospels and of Acts forcibly recall their limitations

as histories. But it would seem that the story of

James had already become a Jewish Christian legend.

And possibly the Gospel according to the Hebrews

at this point indicates the beginning of the Clemen­

tine legend. There are other elements (account of

the temptation, " My Mother the Holy Spirit took

me by one of the hairs of my head and carried me

off to the great mountain, Thabor ") that suggest

a movement toward extravagant mysticism. This

may have been a growing tendency in the depressed

and disheartened congregation of Jerusalem, which

in the last years of the first century had lost its

hold on great affairs. The possible relations of

this Gospel to the canonical Matthew or tb the

Logia are questions upon which no opinion may

safely be ventured. The hazy and heterogeneous

opinions of the Fathers yield no solid data.

The foregoing discussion shows that the Gospels

were not written as scientific histories were writ­

ten, but that they constitute a religious literature

springing from corporate religious need. The

choice and presentation of the saving words of

Jesus was determined by practical,

i i. Back  not by systematic or historical, mo­

ground of tives (John xx. 30 31). In Matthew

Fourth there are clear indications that inter­

Gospel. pretation has to some extent fused

with the Logia held in the living mem­

ory and applied to imperious practical needs. The

habit of quotation has a long history. Nothing

like the modern standard of quotation was reached

in antiquity, not even in Greek learning, and most

certainly not in first century Christianity, where

the corporate need of law gave the main motive for

gospel building. Christians did not dream that

they were guilty of irreverence when they adapted

the words of Jesus even as they adapted the sa­

ving words of the Old Testament (cf. Paul in Rom.

x. 8 sqq.). This study of the Gospels illumines the

problem of the Fourth Gospel. To place the book

fairly, the history of Christian prophetism must be

remembered. The Apostolic, or more concretely

the prophetic, age of Christianity was the creative

and constructive period of our religion. It founded

a new type of community and, as a part of that

work, created a new literary type, the Gospels. By

the year 100 Christian prophetism was in rapid de­

cline. The Pastoral Epistles, II Peter, I Clement,



and the Didache are convincing evidence. The period of decline lasted till near the middle of the second century. The labored apocalypse of Hermes indicates its close. The publication of the Diates­saron (see HARMONY op xam GosrWB, I., § § 2 4) pro­claims its close. Then follows quickly the attempted revival of Christian prophetism in Montanism, and the period of the Catholic Church. Much hasty work has been done in the field of the Fourth Gos­pel through a disregard of certain fundamental facts involved in this history of Christian proph­etism.

The quality of thought in the Fourth Gospel is not metaphysical but prophetic. The absence of the pictured parousia has been given excessive weight. The quality of the thought is the real criterion. The Gospel is inseparable from I John,

where there is a lively expectation of 12. Charac  the " last times." There is no emo­ter of tional gulf between the eschatologies.

Fourth. The " last day " plays a not inconsid 

Gospel. erable part in the Gospel (vi. 39, 40,

44, xi. 23, xii. 48). The monotheism is intense. The conception of the " world " (kos­mos) has been cast in the apocalyptic mold. It is true that the presence of the word Logos (i. 1, 14) carries great weight. But i. 1 5, by its brevity, indicates the author's eagerness to get into history, his indisposition for metaphysics. The funda­mental quality of thought is intensely prophetic and of itself places the core of the book well within the first century. The parallel with Matthew may be pressed. Here as there the opposition of Christ to Judaism is the determining element (the dis­placing of the purification of the Temple from the end of the ministry to the beginning to indicate the irrepressible conflict between Jesus and Juda­ism; the dialogue with Nicodemus, iii. 1 10; the important part taken by the Sabbath questions; the constant phrase " your law "; the title " the Jews " constantly used to describe the dark figures in the picture). Here as there, though far more deci­sively, the self consciousness of Christ stands out in opposition to Judaism. The self consciousness of the Savior is the Gospel (the " kingdom of God " is absorbed into the person of the king, the phrase occurs only in iii. 3, 5; the parabolic form of teach­ing disappears with the " kingdom of God "; the style of Jesus in the Synoptics is in striking contrast). It is evident that the mold of the Gospel was shaped in the mind of a first century Jewish Christian.

The occasioning cause of publication is found in Gnosticism in its first period of development. There is a truth in the legend that connects the author of the Gospel with Cerinthus. The sub 

stance of the Fourth Gospel was shaped 13. Author  by the same causes that shaped the ship, Date, Synoptists, the corporate need of the and Place of Christian community, fighting at close

Fourth quarters with the world. The per 

GospeL spective and emphasis and main terms

of the Fourth Gospel are found also in the First Epistle. The person of Christ becomes the outstanding and all controlling principle. The conception of the Logos is used to lay in conscious­ness the final foundation for the fact and mystery




RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA

=and Gospels el.

of Christian fellowship. These conclusions are the secure results of exegesis. They prepare for the patient study of the Johannean Problem. The Jo­hannean literature as a whole decisively demon­strates the existence of a " John " in Asia Minor. The Johannean organism of literature together with the exegesis of the Fourth Gospel places its author deep within the Jewish Christianity of the first cen­tury. Confusion begins when Papias is brought into court. Does he attest the existence of two "Johns," one of them the apostle, and both of them the disciples, the personal followers of Jesus? Prolonged study of Papias has possibly thrown our minds slightly out of bearing. Papias being in court with the results of exegesis, the controversy over the two Johns loses much of its importance. The mind of the Fourth Gospel requires a personal disciple of Jesus for its author. The Gospel or its first text (possibly worked over by the Johannean " School ") was published in Ephesus in the last decade of the first century. The law that applies to the other Gospels, namely, that they were shaped under pressure at the strategic points of a militant Christianity, applies in full force here. Ephesus and its region were the critical point in the religious movements of the Empire during the first century. It is not an accident that the Logos doctrine of the Fourth Gospel became the speculative platform of the Church Catholic.

The Gospels taken together furnish a life of Christ as the subjective and corporate needs of the apos­tolic or prophetic age shaped it. It is not a life of Christ in the scientific sense. Beyond question the vital interpretation of the Chris 

14. Conclu  tian consciousness has fused itself, in

sion. varying degrees, with the facts and

words reported. But the modern

critic is in serious danger of confounding the sub­

jectivity of academic individualism with the pro­

phetic subjectivity of an age controlled by corpo­

rate consciousness and corporate aims. The fact

that the Gospels were so largely shaped and pub­

lished as law, and the fact that the publication of

the canonical Gospels falls within a period of thirty

years (66 96?), a period, moreover, distant but a

single generation from the original words and events

in the life of the Savior, are sufficient security to

Christians for the conviction that the first cause

and the primary reality of the Gospels is the per­

son and mind of Jesus. See the articles on the



separate Gospels. HENRY S. NAss.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: The reader should consult the literature under the separate articles on the individual Gospels, also the works on N. T. Introduction, those on the life of Christ and on the Apostolic Age. Not to be overlooked are the introduction and prefaces to works named in and under HARMONY OP THE GoePSLs, e.g., A. Wright, Sy­opsis, London, 1903. Consult further; C. Weissaeker, Untersuchunpen fiber die evanpelixhe Gewhiehts, Tabing­en, 1901; P. Ewald, Das Hauptproblem den Evanpelien­from, Leipsie, 1890; A. Wright, Composition of the Four Gospels, London, 1890; idem, Some N. T. Problems, ib. 1898; F. P. Badham, The Formation o/ the Gospels, ib. 1892; A. J. Jolley The Synoptic Problem, ib. 1893; B. F. Westeott, Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, ib. 1895; E.Roebrich,LaCompositiondesevanpiles,Paris,1897; J. C. Hawkins, Horse synopticie, London, 1899; P. Wernle, Die synoptische Frage, Freiburg, 1899; W. Wrede, Das Mes­siasgeheimnis in den Evanpelien, Gottingen, 1901; J. Well 

bausen, Einleitunp in die drei ersten Evanpelien, Berlin, 1905; T. C. Burkitt, The Gospel Hist. and its Tran8mis­sion, Edinburgh, 1906; J. E. Carpenter, The First Three Gospels, their Origin and Relations, London, 1908; G. Salmon, The Human Element in the Gospels, eel. N. J. D. White, ib. 1908; A. JGlieher, New Linien in den Brink den evanpeliac*en Ueberlie%rung, Giessen, 1908 (a criti­cism of the late works of Wrede, Wellhausen, and Har­nack, giving the present situation of the problem); F. Blass, Die Entstehunp and den Charaktsr uneerer Evan. pelien, Leipsie, 1907; A. Harnack, Sprarhe and Roden Jesu, ib. 1907; Eng. trawl., The Sayings 4f Jesus, London, 1908 ; H. Lorisua, L'AutorW des hanpiles, Paris, 1907; C. T. Ward, Gospel Development, Brooklyn, 1907; P. Wernle, The Sources of our Knowledge of the Life of Jesus, London, 1907; A. Loiey, Lee Evanpaes sy­noptiques, vols. i. ii., Paris, 1907 08; T. Nicol, The Four Gospels in the Earliest Church History, Edinburgh, 1908; B. Weiss, Die Quellen den synoptischen Ueberlieferunp, Leipeie, 1908; DB, ii. 234 249, supplementary vol., pp. 338 343; EB, ii. 1781 1898 (elaborate, important, with a classified literature).
GOSS, CHARLES FREDERIC: Presbyterian; b. at Meridian, N. Y., June 14, 1852. He was ed­ucated at Hamilton College (B.A., 1873) and Au­burn Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1876. After several years as a home missionary, he was called in 1885 to the pastorate of the Moody Church, Chicago, but was forced by ill health to resign five years later. He then re­sided for two years at Kettle Falls, Wash., after which he was assistant pastor of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City, for a year. Since 1894 he has been pastor of Avondale Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati. Theologically he is in general sympathy with the methods and re­sults of the historico critical study of the Scrip­tures, and accepts the " Brief Statement " of the Westminster Creed. Besides several novels, he has written Life of D. L. Moody (Hartford, Conn., 1900); Just a Minute (Philadelphia, 1904); and

Husband, Wife, and Home (1905).
GOSSNER, JOHANNES EVANGELISTA: German minister; b. at Hausen bei Ober Waletatt (near Augsburg) Dec. 14, 1773; d. at Berlin Mar. 20, 1858. He studied at the University of Dillingen and at the seminary of Ingolatadt, and was or­dained priest in 1796. After officiating at Dillin­gen, Seeg, and Augsburg from 1797 to 1804, he was appointed parish priest at Dirlewang, where he re­mained for seven years. He had long entertained pronounced Evangelical convictions which at length made him consider the advisability of leaving the Roman Church. Despite the advice of his mystical Lutheran friend, Sch6ner of Nuremberg, he re­signed his pastorate at Dirlewang, and engaged in literary pursuits, also accepting a small benefice at Munich. The Roman Catholic party unfrocked Gossner for his views in 1817, and two years later he was appointed religious instructor at the gym­nasium at Dilsseldorf. From 1820 to 1824 he of­ficiated as pastor of a German congregation at St. Petersburg, but his attacks on the celibacy of the clergy forced him to resign, and in 1826 he openly joined the Evangelical Church. In 1829 he was appointed pastor at the Bethlehem Church at Ber­lin, where he officiated for seventeen years. Dur­ing his stay in Berlin he developed a great and beneficial activity, founding schools and asylums,




Goths

6lotteskasten

THE NEW SCHAFF HERZOG

and establishing a missionary society which dur­ing his lifetime sent out more than 140 mission­aries, especially among the Khols of East India. After his resignation from his pastorate in 1846; he devoted himself for the remainder of his life to ministerial work in the hospital which he had founded while still at the Bethlehem Church.

Gossner made a highly popular and very faithful

translation of the New Testament; and published

numerous tracts and pamphlets. Among his more

important works may be mentioned his Schatzzkd8t­

lein (Leipsie, 1825), M. Boos, der Prediger der

Gerecktigkeit (1826), and Goldkorner (Berlin, 1859).

In 1834 he founded a missionary journal, Die Biene



auf dem Missionsfelde, which he edited for several

years. (W. HALLENBERGt.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. A. Von Bethmann Hollweg, Johannes Goasner Berlin, 1858; J. D. Prochnow Johannes Evan 



gelista Gosener, ib. 1859; H. Dalton, Johannes Gossner,

ib. 1878.


GOTHS.

Origin and History (§ 1). First Contact with Christianity. Ulfilae (§ 2). Alaric. Settlement in the Roman Empire (§ 3). Relations to the Romans and the Church (§ 4). The Gothic Kings (§ 5). The Visigoths (§ 6).

The Goths were a people of Germanic stock who erected powerful Christian kingdoms upon the ruins of the Roman Empire in the West. Their original home seems to have been in

r. Origin Scandinavia and in the lands south of and the Baltic Sea corresponding to the

History. modern Prussia and Posen. About

the year 150 the Scandinavian Goths

migrated southward into Silesia, whence they

pressed on to the north shore of the Black Sea.

There they came into conflict with the decaying

strength of the Roman Empire and in a series of

devastating campaigns overran Thrace, Greece,

and parts of Asia Minor. The Emperor Aurelian

(270 275) relinquished to them the region north of

the Danube, where for a century they remained in

peaceful possession.

The Goths met with Christianity as a result of

their frequent marauding expeditions into the

Empire. In 276 they carried off a number of

Christian captives from Cappadocia

z. First and soon after we hear of a Syrian

Contact priest Audius who founded a number

with Chris  of small churches among them. The tianity. new faith made appreciable progress Ulfllas. owing to the tolerant character of the people but, while the numbers of con­verts grew rapidly, Christian teachings exercised but little influence on the spirit of the warlike nation till the advent of Ulfilas (q.v.). The latter, a descendant of the captive Cappadocian Christians of 276, was consecrated bishop of the Goths by Eusebius, the Arian bishop of Nicomedia at Antioch in 341, and so the heretical form of Christianity was introduced. In the same year, however, the storms of persecution broke on the Christian converts. In 348 Ulfilas re­moved his followers across the Danube into Moesia where they followed a peaceful pastoral life. Ulfilas did not abandon, however, his missionary labors



among the Goths north of the Danube, in the course of which he reduced the Gothic language to writing, as embodied in his translation of the Bible (see BIBLE VERSIONS, A, X.). The complete conversion of the Goths to Christianity was effected when the pres­sure of the Hun invasion induced them to cross the Danube and seek a settlement within the  borders of the empire. This the majority of the nation, under the leadership of Fritigern, accomplished in 376 with the approval of the Roman authorities. A portion of the nation under Athanaric remained north of the Danube. The Ostrogoths had been conquered and to a certain degree incorporated by the Huns.

The perfidy of the Roman officials drove the Goths to turn their arms against the empire and in

the battle of Adrianople (Aug. 9, 378)

3. Alaric. they overwhelmed an army com­Settlement manded by Valens, Emperor of the in the Ro  East, who lost his life in the slaughter. man Empire. It was under Alaric, who first appeared

e. 395, that the Goths became thor­oughly Christianized and united; their creed was the Arian, a circumstance of the utmost importance in its influence on the fortunes of the future Gothic kingdoms. Alaric's ambition was to obtain for his people a legally assured home within the confines of the empire and it was with such views in mind that, after ravaging the Peloponnesus, he turned, in 400, against Italy. Repulsed by Stilicho at Pollentia and Verona, he made a second attempt in 408 to overrun the provinces of Noricum, Illyria, and Pannonia, and failed again. In 410 he invaded Italy and spread abroad the terror of the Gothic name by plundering Rome, revealing at the same time a spirit of moderation which may be taken as proof of the sincerity of his Christian faith (see INNOCENT 1.). Alaric died before the end of the year. Under his successor, Athaulf, the Goths left Italy for Gaul, but it was only under the next ruler, Wallia, that the object for which Alaric had strug­gled was obtained. Aquitania Secunda, the land between the Loire and the Garonne, was granted to the Goths and as fcederati of the Empire they ruled it, in nominal subjection to Rome till the fall of Augustulus (476), in complete independence after that. The Ostrogoths, meanwhile, had thrown off the yoke of the Huns after the death of Attila; united under Theodoric, they entered Italy in 489, overthrew Odoacer, captured Ravenna in 493 and erected a barbarian kingdom in the peninsula.

Both among the Visigoths of France and the Ostrogoths of Italy, a sharp line of division ran between the conquerors and their Roman subjects.

The Goths retained their military or­q. Relations ganization, and as an armed estate

to the Ro  dwelt almost entirely in the open mans and country, leaving the cities to the Ro­the Church. mans. In the cities a new aristocracy

arose at the head of which stood the Catholic bishop to whom with time an increasing measure of authority fell. The Church succeeded to the prestige of the empire and assumed the role of protector of the Romans against their alien mas­ters, while at the same time the preeminence of Rome as the capital of Catholic Christianity was




88 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Goths


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