erials. Among these materials was certainly the
first gospel, several passages of which are adopted word for word by the
author of "Luke." Yet the narrative varies materially from that of the
first gospel in many essential points. The arrangement of events is
less natural, and, as in the "Acts of the Apostles," by the same author,
there is apparent throughout the design of suppressing the old
discord between Paul and the Judaizing disciples, and of representing
Christianity as essentially Pauline from the outset. How far Paul was
correct in his interpretation of the teachings of Jesus, it is difficult
to decide. It is, no doubt, possible that the first gospel may have lent
to the words of Jesus an Ebionite colouring in some instances, and that
now and then the third gospel may present us with a truer account.
To this supremely important point we shall by and by return. For the
present it must suffice to observe that the evidences of an overruling
dogmatic purpose are generally much more conspicuous in the third
synoptist than in the first; and that the very loose manner in which
this writer has handled his materials in the "Acts" is not calculated to
inspire us with confidence in the historical accuracy of his gospel.
The writer who, in spite of the direct testimony of Paul himself could
represent the apostle to the Gentiles as acting under the direction of
the disciples at Jerusalem, and who puts Pauline sentiments into the
mouth of Peter, would certainly have been capable of unwarrantably
giving a Pauline turn to the teachings of Jesus himself. We are
therefore, as a last resort, brought back to the first gospel, which we
find to possess, as a historical narrative, far stronger claims upon our
attention than the second and third. In all probability it had assumed
nearly its present shape before A. D. 100, its origin is unmistakably
Palestinian; it betrays comparatively few indications of dogmatic
purpose; and there are strong reasons for believing that the speeches of
Jesus recorded in it are in substance taken from the genuine "Logia" of
Matthew mentioned by Papias, which must have been written as early as A.
D. 60-70, before the destruction of Jerusalem. Indeed, we are inclined
to agree with our author that the gospel, even in its present shape
(save only a few interpolated passages), may have existed as early as
A. D. 80, since it places the time of Jesus' second coming immediately
after the destruction of Jerusalem;