and I will give you rest'? This
one passage, they assert, covers the characteristic teaching of the
Fourth Gospel, and hitherto they have not been answered. Again, our
author says very positively that the Synoptics clearly represent the
ministry of Jesus as having been limited to a single year, and his
preaching is confined to Galilee and Jerusalem, where his career
culminates at the fatal Passover;' thus contrasting with the Fourth
Gospel, which 'distributes the teaching of Jesus between Galilee,
Samaria, and Jerusalem, makes it extend at least over three years, and
refers to three Passovers spent by Jesus at Jerusalem.' [16:1] Why then
does he not add that 'apologetic' writers refer to such passages as
Matt. xxiii. 37 (comp. Luke xiii. 34), 'O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem,...
_how often_ would I have gathered thy children together'? Here the
expression 'how often,' it is contended, obliges us to postulate other
visits, probably several visits, to Jerusalem, which are not recorded in
the Synoptic Gospels themselves. And it may be suggested also that the
twice-repeated notice of time in the context of St Luke, 'I do cures
_to-day and to-morrow, and the third day_ I shall be perfected,' 'I must
walk _to-day and to-morrow and the day following_,' points to the very
duration of our Lord's ministry, as indicated by the Fourth Gospel
[16:2]. If so, the coincidence is the more remarkable, because it does
not appear that St Luke himself, while recording these prophetic words,
was aware of their full historical import. But whatever may be thought
of this last point, the contention of 'apologetic' writers is that here,
as elsewhere, the Fourth Gospel supplies the key to historical
difficulties in the Synoptic narratives, which are not unlocked in the
course of those narratives themselves, and this fact increases their
confidence in its value as an authentic record [16:3].
Again: he refers several times to the Paschal controversy of the second
century as bearing on the authorship of the Fourth Gospel. On one
occasion he devotes two whole pages to it. [17:1] Why then does he not
mention that 'apologetic' writers altogether deny what he states to be
absolutely certain; maintaining on the contrary that the Christian
Passover, celebrated by the Asiatic Churches on the 14th Nisan,
commemorated not the Institution of the Lord's Supper, but, as it
naturally would, the Sacrifice on the Cross, and asserting that the main
dispute between the As
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