GOODWIN, THOMAS : English independent minister; b. at Rollesby (14 m. e.n.e. of Norwich), Norfolk, Oct. 5, 1600; d. in London Feb. 23, 1680. He was educated at Christ's College and Catherine's Hall, Cambridge (B.A., 1616; M.A., and B.D., 1620), where he was appointed lecturer at Trinity Church in 1828, and vicar in 1832. After an interview with John Cotton (q.v.) in 1633 he became an independent, and the following year he resigned his preferments and removed to London. Here he preached till 1639, when, his position having become untenable through Laud's vigilance, he went to Holland and became pastor of the English church at Arnheim. Soon after the opening of the Long Parliament (Nov. 3, 1640) he returned to London, gathered an independent congregation at St. Dunstan's in the East, and became one of the most eminent of the independent ministers. He was a member of the Westminster Assembly, allied himself with the Congregational party called the "° dissenting brethren," became their leader, and edited The Reasons Presented by the Dissenting Brethren (London, 1648). He was made chaplain to the Council of State Nov. 2, 1649, and president of Magdalen College, Oxford, Jan. 8, 1'660. He became one of Cromwell's chief advisers, served on various important commissions, and attended the Protector on his death bed. In 1658, with others, he secured Cromwell's consent to hold a synod for the purpose of drawing up a new confession of faith (see Coxax>eoemloxlnlsTS IIL, 1). On being deprived of his position at Oxford at the Restoration he returned to London as an independent minister. Of his voluminous writings only his sermons were printed during his lifetime. His Works (5 vo1s., London, 1681 1704) have been edited, with a memoir, by Robert Hall (12 vole., Edinburgh, 18811868). There is also a condensed edition by J. Babb (4 vole., London, 1847 50).
BIHLIOaaAPHY: Besides the memoir prefixed to his works,
consult: Walter Wilson, Riot. and Antiquities of Diassnh inp Chwdbs in London, id. 214 21ti, iii. 420, 429 430, 448
Goose Bible THE NEW SCHAFF HERZOG $4
Gorton
447, 4 vols.. London, 1808 14; D. Neal, Hiat. of the Puritans, iv. 172 173, 4bb 456, ed. of 1822; A. F. Mitchell, The Westminster Aaaemblg, p. 214, New York, 1883; DNB, xxii. 148 150.
GOOSE BIBLE: See BIB,•t VER$IdNs, B, IV., § 9.
GORDON, ADONIRAM JUDSON: Baptist; b. at New Hampton, N. H., Apr. 19, 1836; d. at Boston Feb. 2, 1895. He was educated at Brown University (B.A., 1860) and Newton Theological Institution (1863). In 1863 he became pastor at Jamaica Plain, Maw., where he remained six years. From 1869 until his death he was pastor of the Clarendon Street Baptist Church, Boston, which became, under his leadership, a center of revivals and of philanthropic work. He also established a school for the training of missionaries and pastors' assistants. He described himself as " a prohibitionist in temperance reform; a supporter and colaborer with D. L. Moody in his evangelistic movement; Low church in ecclesiology, and premillennial in eschatology." He prepared New Vestry Hymn and Tune Book (Boston, 1872) and wrote In Christ: or, The Believer's Union. with his Lord (1872); Congregational Worship (1872); Grace and Glory (sermons, 1881); Ministry of Healing (1882); The Twofold Life (1884); Ecce Venit: Behold He Cometh' (New York, 1889); The Holy Spirit in Missions (1893); The Ministry of the Spirit (Philadelphia, 1894); and the posthumous Yet Speaking (New York, 1897).
GORDON, CHARLES WILLIAM: Presbtyerian Church of Canada; b. at Indian Lands, Ont., Sept. 13, 1860. He was educated at the University of Toronto (B.A., 1883), and Knox College, Toronto (1887), and pursued postgraduate studies at New College, Edinburgh. He was classical master in the high school at Chatham, Ont. (1883,84) and in Upper Canada College, Toronto (1886 87), and tutor in Knox College (1884 87). He was a missionary at Banff, Alberta (1890 93), and since 1894 has been minister of St. Stephen's Church, Winnipeg. In theology he accepts the modem interpretation of Evangelical doctrines. He has written, under the pseudonym of " Ralph Conner," Black Rock (Chicago, 1898); Beyond the Marshes (1899); The Sky Pilot (1899); Ovld Michael (1900); The Man from Glengarry (1901); Glengarry School Days (1902); The Prospector (1904); The Pilot at Swan Creek (London, 1905); Breaking the Record (Chicago, 1905); and The Doctor (1906).
GORDON, GEORGE ANGIER: Congregationalist; b. at Oyne (18 ii. n.w. of Aberdeen), Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Jan. 2, 1853. He was educated at Bangor Theological Seminary and Harvard University (B.A., 1881). He was pastor at Greenwich, Conn., in 1881 84, and since 1884 has been pastor of the Old South Church, Boston. He was lecturer in the Lowell Institute course in 1900 and Lyman Beecher Lecturer at Yale in the following year, in addition to being university preacher at Harvard in 1886 90 and at Yale in 1888 1901. He has written The Witness to Immortality (Boston, 1893); The Christ of To Day (1895); Immortality and the new Theodicy (1897); The New Epoch for Faith (1901); and Through Man to God (1906).
GORDON, JOHN: Presbyterian; b. at Pittsburg, Pa., Mar. 10, 1850. He was educated at the Western University of Pennsylvania (B.A., 1866), Auburn Theological Seminary (1868 71), and union Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1871. He held successive pastorates at Rensselaerville, N. Y. (1871 79), the First Presbyterian Church, Lincoln, Neb. (1880 82), the Fourth Presbyterian Church, Pittsburg (1884 86), and Westminster Church, Omaha, Neb. (1887 97). He was also professor of ecclesiastical history in Omaha Theological Seminary (1891 99); president of Tabor College, Tabor, Ia. (1901 03), and president of Howard University, Washington (1903 06). He has written Three Children of Galilee (Boston, 1895).
GORE, CHARLES: Anglican bishop of Birmingham; b. at Wimbledon (8 m. s.w. of London), Surrey, Jan. 22, 1853. He was educated at Harrow and at Balliol College, Oxford (B.A., 1875), and was ordained priest in 1878. He was fellow of Trinity College, Oxford (1875 95), vice principal of Cuddesdon College (1880 83), and librarian of Pusey House, Oxford (1884 93). His advanced theological views led to his resignation, however, and after being vicar of Radley, Oxfordshire (18931894), he was appointed canon of Westminster in 1894. He retained this position until 1902, being also honorary chaplain to the queen in 1898 1900, and chaplain in ordinary to her in 1900 01 and to the king in the latter year. In 1902 he was consecrated bishop of Worcester, and two years later was translated to the see of Birmingham. He was the editor of the famous Lux Mundi (London, 1890), to which he also contributed the chapters on The Holy Spirit and Inspiration, and wrote Leo the Great (London, 1880); The Church tend the Ministry (1889); Roman Catholic Claims (1889); The Mission of the Church (1891); The Incarnation of the Son of ("rod (Bampton Lectures, 1891); Dissertations (1896); The Creed of the Christian (1896); The Sermon on the Mount (1897); The Athanasian Creed (1897); Prayer and the Lord's Prayer (1898); The Body of Christ (1901); The Spiritual Efficiency of the Church (1904); The Permanent Creed (1905); and The New Theology and the Old Religion (1907). He commented on Ephesians (London, 1898) and Romans (1899), and edited G. Romanes' Thoughts on Religion (London, 1894); and Essays in Aid of the Reform of the Church (1898).
GORHAM CASE: A well known ecclesiastical litigation which agitated the Church of England in the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1847 the Lord Chancellor presented the Rev. George Cornelius Gorham (b. 1787; d. 1857; B.A., Cambridge, 1808; M.A., 1812; B.D., 1820, fellow of Queen's College, 1810 27) to the living of Brampford Speke, near Exeter. The bishop of Exeter, Henry Phillpotts, a determined High churchman, having doubts of Gorham's orthodoxy, required him to submit to a searching examination, and, finding that his views concerning baptismal regeneration were highly Calvinistic and not in accord with those of the Church of England, refused to institute him. Gorham took the case into the Court of Arches (see ARCHFs, COURT OF), which sustained the bishop
25 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Goose Bible
Gorton
in a decision rendered Aug., 1849; he then appealed from the decision of the spiritual court to the judicial committee of the Privy Council, exercising the right of every clergyman of the Established Church in England to appeal from the judgment of an ecclesiastical court to a court of law. On this occasion the court, while essentially a lay tribunal deriving its authority solely from .the crown, had for assessors the archbishops of Canterbury (Sumner) and York (Musgrave) and the bishop of London (Blomfield). The decision here, Mar., 1850, was in Gorham's favor, and an order in council demanded its execution. The bishop of Exeter questioned the authority of the .judicial Committee in the courts of Queen's Bench, of Exchequer, and of Common Pleas, but without success. Gorham was instituted by the Court of Arches into the vicarage of Brampford Speke in Aug., 1851. The committee justified its decision by appealing to the fact that " many eminent prelates and divines had propounded and maintained " opinions practically the same as Gorham's " without ,censure or reproach," thus showing " the liberty which has been allowed of maintaining such doctrine." The judgment also declared that " devotional expressions, involving assertions, must not, as of course, be taken to bear an absolute and unconditional sense."
The case aroused intense interest and something like fifty works were published concerning it. Gorham's sympathizers reimbursed him for the heavy expenses of the litigation by public subscription. The decision was the first of several which have established the right of a clergyman of the Church of England to express opinions honestly held and have made heresy trials for deviation from traditional interpretations well nigh impossible in the Established Church. On the other hand, the High church party considered that the judgment had struck out what they believed to be an article of the creed, and had asserted afresh, as an inherent right, the supremacy of the crown in matters of faith. The decision was one of the causes leading to Manning's withdrawal from the Church of England.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: The principal documents in the case are: Examination before Admission to a Benefice, by H. Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, ed. G. C. Gorham, London, 1848; Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter; a Report of the Arguments before the Privy Council, ib. 1850; Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter; the Judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Mar. 8, 1860, reversing decision of Sir H. J. Fuat, ed. G. C. Gorham, ib. 1850; Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter; Arguments before the Privy Council, the Court of Queen's Bench the Court of Common Pleas, and the Court of Arches, ed. G. C. Gorham, ib. 1850; G. C. Gorham, The Great Gorham Case, a Hiat. in Five Books, ib. 1850; idem, A Letter on the Recent Judgment, Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter, ib. 1850. Consult also: DNB, xxiii. 243 245. A partial list of the literature evoked by the case is given in the British Museum Catalogue, under " Gorham, Geoige Cornelius."
GORTON, SAMUEL (SAMUELL): English sectary and founder of the Gortonites; b. at Gorton (3 m. e. of Manchester), Eng., c. 1592; d. at Warwick, R. I., Nov. or Dec., 1677. He received a good education from private tutors and learned to read the Bible in the original tongues. When about twentyfive he began business in London on his own account
as a " clothier," i.e., a finisher of cloth after weaving. Being very unconventional in his religious views, he emigrated to America " to enjoy libertie of conscience in respect to faith towards God, and for no other end." He arrived in Boston in Mar., 1636 or 1637. But he did not find what he sought there, and so soon removed to Plymouth, where he did better for a while until what he considered unjust treatment of a servant led him to criticize publicly the magistracy, and in consequence he was, in Dec. of 1638, banished on a charge of contumacy. He then went to Rhode Island. But here again his independent views on State and Church got him into trouble, and in 1641 he was imprisoned and banished, probably after a public whipping at Portsmouth. He then went to Providence. In Jan., 1643, he and his followers retired to Shawomet, where be bought land of Miantonomi, head sachem of the Narragansetts, and two undersachems. The latter two were induced by the enemies of Gorton to deny that he had ever bought the land. This involved Gorton with the commonwealth of Massachusetts, to which the alleged misused Indians appealed. Accordingly he was summoned to Boston, Sept. 12, 1643, and because he and his followers refused, they were compelled by force of arms to obey. The general court of Massachusetts condemned him and six of of his followers to imprisonment, Nov. 3, 1643, but on Mar. 7, 1644, they were released and banished. Gorton went to Portsmouth, and in 1646 to England, where he pleaded his cause so successfully that he returned with an order from the earl of Warwick to the Massachusetts magistrates that the Shawomet colony should be free from interference. He renamed his colony Warwick. He was held in the highest esteem by his fellow citizens, and was honored by positions of trust.
Gorton stood politically for English law and citizenslup in the English colonies, and advocated that, while the latter should purchase their lands from the Indians, they yet should have charters from England. Religiously he stood for the right of private judgment, and maintained the following distinctive views: (1) He denied the doctrine of the Trinity, but declared that Christ was God and the only proper object of worship. (2) He declared against a " hireling ministry," and affirmed that there peas no fitness in a class of men paid for ministerial functions, as each man was his own priest. (3) He would do away with all outward ordinances. (4) He taught a conditional immortality wholly dependent on the character of the individual. With such views, which he boldly affirmed, it was no wonder that he had perpetual strife with the clerical and political powers in the colonies. It is claimed that for a hundred years after his death there were adherents of his views, but he did not organize any sect. To do so would have been contrary to his principles.
Gorton published several controversial tracts in advocacy of his political and religious views. The best known is his Simplicities Defence against SevenHeaded Policy (London, 1646, written while there to defend his cause, reprinted as vol. ii. in the Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence, 1835, also in Force's Historical Tracts,
Goshen
Gospel and Gospels
THE NEW SCHAFF HERZOG
vol. iv., Washington, 1846). But as yet unprinted is his commentary on the Lord's Prayer, preserved in the Rhode Island Historical Society library at Providence, in which, in final form and most fully, his theological views are presented.
BxnmoGRAPHY: An introduction to the Simplicities Dofence, ut sup., contains much material, in Collections, ut sup.. vol. ii. 9 20, cf. vol. iv. 89 92; J. Sparks. Library of American Biography, 2d ser., v. 315 411, 15 vole., Boston, 1847 55. Consult also: T. Hutchinson, Hist. of Massachusetts Bay, i. 117 124, 549, Boston, 1785; J. Winthrop, Hiat. of New England, ed. J. Savage, ii. 57, 295 299, ib. 1853; DNB, xxii. 251 253.
GOSHEN: A region in Egypt generally called the land of Goshen, which, according to J, was given by a king of Egypt at the request of Joseph to his father Jacob and his family as a dwellingplace, and held by his descendants till the Exodus (Gen. xlv. 10; Ex ix. 26). The priestly writer locates the Children of Israel in the " Land of Rameses " (Gen. xlvii. 11), and the Elohist places them " among " the Egyptians. The location of Goshen is not definitely given in J, but it appears that the region was in the eastern part of Egypt and was, in contradistinction to the land they had left, a fruitful region. By their occupation as shepherds the Hebrews were debarred from living directly among the Egyptians (Gen. xlvi. 34), and the stretch of country eastward from Bubastis known as the Arabian or Heroopolitan region is almost certainly the region which J had in mind, furnishing as it did all the requisite conditions. The translators of the Septuagint, possessing a more exact knowledge of the Nile delta than J had, have fixed more definitely the location. They identify Goshen with " Gesem of Arabia," and place the Hebrews there, and fix also the place where Joseph met his father, viz., at the city of Heroopolia in the land of Ramesea (Gen. xlvi. 28 29). This city was the capital of a district of lower Egypt which embraced the region of the modern Wadi Tumilat. By the excavations of E. Naville the site of Heroopolis is fixed at the modern Tell el Mashkutah in the Wadi Tumilat, not far from the Isthmus of Suez, on the site of an older city the religious name of which was
The Gospels a Single Literature (¢ 1). The Gospels a Prophetic Response (§ 2). Applied to Corporate Needs (§ 3). Causes of the Rise of the Gospels (¢ 4). Papias and the " Logia " (§ 5).
The Gospels are something more than individual
books and can not be treated adequately as inde
pendent literary units. The Synoptic problem is
the result of a unique literary situation. It straight
way suggests a set of conditions which must be
made the background for the study of the individ
ual Gospels. Even the Fourth Gos
r. The Gos gel, great as are its differences from
pels a Single the Syuoptists, has none the less cer
Literature. tain fundamental qualities in common
with them. It is necessary, then, to
treat the Gospels as a group of books organically
related, and this on two main grounds. First, from
Pitum, the Pithom (Coptic Petho»a) of Ex. i. 11, on
an arm or canal from the Nile to the Red Sea.
This is confirmed by the Coptic version of Gen.
xlvi. 28. The Land of Rameses, in which Hero
opolia lay, is shown also to be the same as a dis
trict Tkw, identical with the Succoth of Ex. xii.
37 or a district of it. To the Greeks the Arabia in
which Gesem was located was the entire region be
tween the valley of the Nile and the desert, under
the protection of the god Silt, the chief city of
which is called in the cuneiform Piaaptu. This dis
trict has been identified with the Arabian nome
whose capital was Phakouesa, and again with Ge
sem, while the god name Sgt is preserved in the mod
ern Saft al Henneh. Of all this J knew nothing:
it is the result of the desire of the translators of
the Septuagint to identify more closely the Goshen
of Genesis and Exodus. The attempt of Ptolemy
to connect Phakouselt, the chief city of " Arabia "
and the later Fakus, with Gesem, is shown by
Naville's researches to be impossible; the only rec
onciliation is that in the course of time the name
was changed. Phakouasa was doubtless a later
capital northeast of Saft al Henneh. Undoubtedly
under the influence of the Septuagint, Arabic and
Christian tradition located Goshen in this region.
On the other hand, the Arabic author Makrizi 1o
caked Goshen north of Cairo, at the junction of the
caravan routes from the East to Egypt. Saadia
and Abu Said locate Goshen at Sadir, placed by De
Sacy between Belbeis and Salihieh, to the east of
the delta, while Quatremert; locates this at the en
trance of the Wadi Tumilat. But these later de
terminations present so little of worth that not
much more can be said than that Goshen was east
of the delta and westward from the Isthmus of
Suez. (G. STE1Nnoltirir.)
BMLIOG13APIFY: The two important works are: E. Neville, Goshen and the Shrine o/ 8aft ebHenneh, and The Store City of Pithom and the Route of the Exodus, the 5th and lot memoirs of the Egypt Exploration Fund, London, 1887, 1885. Consult further: A. Dillmsnn, in SBA, 1885, pp. 889 eqq.; idem, Genesis, vol. ii., Edinburgh, 1897; idem, Exodus urd Leviticus, ed. V. Ryeeel, Lcipaio, 1897. Also C. R. Gillett, in S. M. Jackson, Concise Dictionary, Appendix, New York, 1898, and see Earn.
GOSPEL AND GOSPELS.
The Missionary stimulus (§ s). Mark's Gospel (§ 7). Luke's Gospel (¢ 8). Matthew's Gospel (§ 9). Gospel According to the Hebrews
Background of Fourth Gospel (§ 11). Character of Fourth Gospel (§ 12). Authorship, Date, and Place of Fourth Gospel ($ 13). Conclusion (¢ 14).
the literary side. In the field of comparative literature the Synoptists are unique. They must be treated, not only as single books found within the canon of the Scriptures, but as together constituting a single book. There is no great literature where the common life behind the books is more necessary to their understanding. The second ground is from the aide of introduction. The very existence of the Synoptic problem indicates an extraordinary literary method underlying them. The closest parallel is the Pentateuchal problem. But even this parallel is not wholly sufficient. In the Pentateuch are found literary strata; the Synop
Goshen RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA and Gospels
tics are books that have distinct individualities while they are indissolubly connected. They are three, yet one. The more intimate our knowledge, the more compelling becomes the problem, and the less easy of solution certain elements in it. To make the outstanding facts more certain, to put the unsolved questions in the best light, the Gospels must be treated as a single literature.
To the student reasonably acquainted with literature as a whole, the Synoptics suggest a kind of authorship deeply differing from that now prevailing. They possess a remarkable impersonality;
the author hardly appears. Even a. The the Fourth Gospel, though it is ex
Gospels a tremely self conscious, is nevertheless
Prophetic anonymous and the individual author
Response. seems to count for very little. The
Gospels require for their explanation an authorship which is in some sense corporate. The deepest element for the understanding of their peculiar genius is found in the fact that they are the literary products of a prophetic community. St. Peter preaching on Joel (Acts ii.) introduces the situation. Our Lord has founded a society in which prophetic power inheres as an intrinsic quality. The new prophetism differs from that of the old dispensation in that prophetic inspiration no longer belongs to certain gifted individuals, but to the entire community (cf. Paul in I Cor. xii. and xiv.). The literary history of a community is, therefore, the object of study. To use a distinction drawn by literary critics, the literary study of the Gospels is not the history of a literature, but a literary history of a great community which uses certain individuals as its instrumenta. The closest literary parallel is the Periclean age. Greater than the individual Athenians who wrote the classic books is the great Athenian community, the podia or Church State, whose extraordinary civic and corporate qualities made the individual genius possible. But the parallel is imperfect; the individual author is full grown in Athens, he hardly exists in the field of the Gospels. Corporate consciousness and the corporate mood are all controlling. An indication of this state of things is found in the title of the Gospels. They are entitled the Gospel according to Mark, etc. The meaning of kata is in part identical with the same prepositions in the editions of Homer put forth by famous editors. But there is more at stake. The kata carries the mind back from the second century into the prophetic age, when the Gospel was a corporate mood and a corporate message and the book gospel of the second century was not thought of.
Here is found the explanation of the style of the Gospels, their noble and sustained simplicity, and their extraordinary adaptability for translation. While their style is molded by the Old Testament and by the Aramaic language and mind, the soul
of it is the genius of a supreme commu3. Applied nity. The Gospels are, like Homer, the to Corporate creations of an age, and of conditions
Needs. where the bookish habits of our time
were wholly lacking. The Homeric singer was one with his audience, and the poem was lived before it was written. So with the Gospels.
The individual author was one with his audience, and the Gospel was lived before it was written. Hence, also, the relations between the Gospels. One of the solid results of criticism is the conclusion that the text of the Gospels took fixed form slowly and that, while it was fixing itself, it was played upon by the unwritten Gospel. This is the truth within the abandoned theory of an oral Gospel. In its original form this theory has become impossible, for the reason that a text formed by the natural memory, without the help of books, resists change far more successfully than a written text. The text of the Gospels, while forming, was for a long time plastic, and the living memories of a prophetic age which was far larger than its literature played upon the text and molded it. A corporate mood controlled the Gospels; consequently, in one sense they have a corporate author. Put in another way, this means that the Gospels constitute a literature which in its origins and in the forces and motives leading to publication closely resembles law. Law, in its deeper moments, is free from academic processes and motives. The literary individual plays an exceedingly small part. Law is the expression of the community's needs, hence it travels no faster than it is driven. But the literary individual is more or less detached from corporate needs. He writes for the pleasure of expression, and seeks a systematic, theory for his own mental satisfaction. But law is forced into expression and publication by the needs of the corporate life. Similarly the Gospels, in a very real sense, were published as law is published. They were built up with and shaped within the Apostolic Church.
There are two main conditions for the rise of the Gospels. First, the Christian Church from the first day had a Bible under its hand it inherited the Hebrew Scriptures. Second, it was a prophetic community, inspired with creative hope and moral passion, and, consequently, the process of gospelbuilding was entirely free. The need of new Scriptures was not consciously felt. The 4. Causes of law of the new community was the the Rise of Old Testament plus the Savior's words, the Gospels. the Logia of Jesus the Messias (Acts vii. 38, logia zonta). As late as I. Clement (90 95 A.D.?) this situation continues. The eschatologic passion which dominated the Apostolic Age the intense and vivid belief in the speedy return of the Savior (see MmL&NARIANIBm, MI7•IzIsmuM), and in the triumph of his community hindered the growth of the Gospels. But this passion was chastened by the knowledge of the Christ of history and sobered by the growing governmental responsibilities of the Church. It may be supposed that small and imperfect collections of the saving words appeared at a fairly early date. The Jewish Christian community, as it began to come under strain, had to prove its right to exist. It was inevitable that it should do this by the argument from Prophecy, by searching the Scriptures (John v. 39; Acts xvii. 2 3, 11), by proving that the life of Jesus tallied with the Messianic oracles of the Old Testament. It was equally inevitable that, in order to know its own mind so far as that
Gospel and Gospels
THE NEW SCHAFF HERZOG
mind contained anything that transcended Judaism, the Jewish Christian community must study the mind of Jesus: Hence the tendency to assemble the saving words was instinctive.
This is the situation that explains the first published Gospel. Up to a short tune ago this Gospel was confidently called the Logia, the name being taken from Papias' account of Matthew's work. So many difficulties have besieged this fragment
and the utterances pf Papias are so 5. Papias confused that in the last few years an
and, the increasing number of scholars have
"Logic." either put it to one side or cashiered
it. In place of the " Logic " they would put "Q" (¢uelle, "source "). They assume, what must be conceded, that the Agrapha or extracanonical sayings of Jesus can not materially help and that the only other Gospel which might have helped (the Gospel according to the Hebrews) has practically perished. So, the interpreter of the origin and relations of the Gospels is shut up to the Gospels as they are. Hence as a measurable quantity the investigator must seek the literary source (Q) of that text of the saving words which underlies our Synoptists. But Papias can not yet be wholly abandoned: the beat possible must be made of his statement. It may be supposed that Matthew assembled and published a collection of the saving words. This edition of the Logia may have had a slight thread of narrative in it, but the narrative could not have been primary. The motive was to state the law of the new life and hope as Jewish Christians sought to live it. This could be done only by making clear to Christians the mind of Jesus. The cause of publication is utterly unlike that given by the Fathers, namely that St. Matthew was about to leave the Holy Land (Rusebius, Hist. eccl., III., xxiv.6). The true explanation has already been given. The new community Publishes its law, the ground and obligation of its corporate existence and aim. The place of publication, if any credit is due to Papias, must have been Jerusalem. The causes , And motives of gospelbuilding were necessarily strongest and clearest at the center of Christian life. The congregation of Jerusalem was the mother church of the new religion. Matthew, by assembling and publishing the Logia, gave to that great congregation a deeper understanding of itself and a clearer conception of its calling. The date of publication can not be determined. But it may well have been between the death of James (627) and the flight of the church of Jerusalem to Pella (677).
But the strongest motives for gospel building were found not inside, but outside Palestine. The converts from Judaism were, in terms of religion, rich before they came to Christ (Ram. ix. .4 5). The converts from heathendom, on the contrary, being polytheists, were paupers (I Cor. xii. 2; Eph.
ii. 11). Jewish Christians inheriting 6. The Mis a complete equipment of religion and sionary discipline, came slowly into the conStimulus. scious recognition of governmental
needs. Gentile Christians were outposts of Christ, besieged by a vast heathen world. As a result, Gentile Christianity very soon felt a
28
compelling need for clear knowledge of the Savior
(Luke i. 4). The period when the Gospels, appeared
is a distinct epoch in the history of the Church
(68P 95?). The Christian communities were rap
idly becoming self conscious; Judaism pressed
upon them from the one aide, from the other the
Roman empire. The persecutions under Nero and
under Domitian forced them into close coherence.
The Christian community, under pressure, needed
to know the reason for its being. A clear and con
tinuous view of Christ became a necessity. The
publication of the Gospels corresponds in part to
that need in the life of nations which leads to the
writing of histories and still more , closely to those
arises in the existence of great communities which
bring about the publication and codification of law.
Mark begins the series. The priority of Mark is
a strong probability. The evidence is not merely
the lively coloring which is said to indicate the eye
witness. That might be otherwise explained, e.g.,
as due to the temperament and ability of the re
porter. Nor is the primary evidence found in
Mark's possession of inside knowledge, which might
in fact be secondary. The primary evidence is
found, first in the literary relationship
7. Mark's between the Synoptics. Practically
Gospel. the entire text of Mark is found in
Matthew and Luke. The theory
broached long ago by Augustine that Mark is an
epitomator becomes, in the light of the mental and
literary conditions of the Apostolic Age, a sheer im
possibility. The only alternative seems to be the
use of Mark by Luke and Matthew. Secondly, the
primary evidence is found in the way the story fife
into the times and in its contrast at this point with
Matthew and Luke. Mark gives the picture of
Christ in his time and place. Jesus' primary
question is his relation to the popular Measianiam
of Galilee. He is the Messiah, yet he avoids Mes
sianic titles. At a very early day he adopts a pol
icy of silence regarding his claims (Mark i. 34), and
consistently pursues it to its end. His primary re
lations are with the crowd. He walks across Pales
tine a man of his time in the fullest sense of the
word, whereas in Matthew and Luke other and later
motives come into the portrait. The literary and
historical arguments together give a very strong
probability of priority. The story of Mark is char
acterized by fine narrative qualities. The story
is not delayed by the massing of Logia as in Mat
thew, nor is its continuity ever threatened as in
Luke by detailed accounts of Jesus' relations with
all sorts and conditions of people. The story goes
steadily forward and is a narrative of noble simplic
ity and movement befitting its supreme object.
There is no reason for doubting the tradition that
it was published in Rome. Mark satisfied the Gen
tile Christians' craving for an enkindling story of
the Savior's life. It was probably published in the
years immediately following the Neronian persecu
tion (66 68?). As with the Logic, so with Mark,
its publication was in close connection with the in
tense life of a great congregation. To the Roman
Church, as to the Church of Jerusalem, pressure and
persecution had given superior coherence and deep
ened its conscious needs. In the Gospel of Mark it
RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
found a reason for its existence and a ground for its motives and aims.
Luke opens with a prologue of large interest and value. The dedication to Theophilus clearly indicates that the writer is an educated Gentile; the
style of it is thoroughly Greek, the
8. Luke's sentence being highly articulated and
Gospel. rhetorically developed (contrast the
Aramaic type of sentence in the other
Gospels). The writer knows of other attempts to
write the life of Christ and they do not content him.
He tells his readers that he has gone to first sources
and consulted the eye witnesses. In every way he
bears himself as an educated Gentile, consciously
devoting himself in a literary way to the historian's
task. Yet he is not an apologete (contrast Mat
thew). He betrays no dogmatic motive. Hence
he exercises far less control than Matthew over the
materials. Coming from the Greek world into Pal
estine, he cares little for local coloring. While he
is careful to make connections with the chronology
of the Empire (iii. 1), he is careless of the connec
tions in the Savior's life, following Mark less care
fully than does Matthew. Like Mark, his Gospel
is, in the best sense, unconstrained, neglecting what
it does not need. Thus Jesus' relations to popular
Messianism are neglected or casually treated. The
" Herodians," more than once in evidence in Mark
(Mark iii. 6, xii. 13), are not in evidence. The Sa
vior's policy of silence is not consistently developed.
Luke's Gospel was for a long time called Pauline, a
term which does not do justice to its breadth. His
mind is controlled by forces deeper than a conscious
Paulinism. He represents the emotional needs of
the Gentile churches recruited for the most part
among the lower classes and the socially disin
herited. The Savior, in Luke's story, is in saving
touch with women and with the folk outside the
pale of rigorous Judaism. Luke's sources seem to
be Mark, the Logia, and springs of tradition still flow
ing among the Jewish Christians of Palestine. There
are distinct veinings in his Gospel (Jesus' dealings
with women, vii. 37 sqq., viii. 2 3,19 sqq., 43 sqq.,
x. 38 aqq., xi. 27, xxiii. 49 55, xxiv. 22 sqq.; a lean
ing toward Ebionism, vi. 20, xiv.13 21, xvi. 20sqq.,
xxi. sqq.). Some of his sources are thoroughly
localized (the " Perean Gospel," containing much
material found elsewhere in mark and Matthew,
but some original and local matter: the Jerusalem
itic Gospel of the Resurrection; contrast the Gali
lean Gospel in Mark and Matthew). Evidently he
kept the promise made in his prologue; original
sources deeply color his report of the Savior's life
and words and are reflected much more clearly than
in Matthew. The person of Christ stands out more
distinctly than in Mark. Forgiveness of sins is
based upon love of his person (vii. 47). Luke
shares with Matthew the great Logion " No man
knoweth the Father " (Luke x. 22; Matthew xi.
27). Though it be true that he takes this froft the
Logia (or Q), yet his choice of it is significant. None
of our Gospels is shaped by a process of mechan
ical incorporation; all keep close to vital motives
and corporate needs. The outstanding person of
Christ (cf the persistent use of Kurios as a title for
Jesus) answers the demand of Gentile Christians
Dostları ilə paylaş: |