otherwise with
the earliest Gentile Christian writings. The mode of thought here is so
thoroughly determined by the Hellenic spirit that we seem to have
entered a new world when we pass from the synoptists, Paul and John, to
Clement, Barnabas, Justin or Valentinus. We may therefore say,
especially in the frame-work of the history of dogma, that the Hellenic
element has exercised an influence on the Gospel first on Gentile
Christian soil, and by those who were Greek by birth, if only we reserve
the general spiritual atmosphere above referred to. Even Paul is no
exception; for in spite of the well-founded statements of Weizsaecker
(Apostolic Age, vol. I. Book 11) and Heinrici (Das 2 Sendschreiben an
die Korinthier, 1887, p. 578 ff), as to the Hellenism of Paul, it is
certain that the Apostle's mode of religious thought, in the strict
sense of the word, and therefore also the doctrinal formation peculiar
to him, are but little determined by the Greek spirit. But it is to be
specially noted that as a missionary and an Apologist he made use of
Greek ideas (Epistles to the Romans and Corinthians). He was not afraid
to put the Gospel into Greek modes of thought. To this extent we can
already observe in him the beginning of the development which we can
trace so clearly in the Gentile Church from Clement to Justin, and from
Justin to Irenaeus.]

[Footnote 49: The complete universalism of salvation is given in the
Pauline conception of Christianity. But this conception is singular.
Because: (1) the Pauline universalism is based on a criticism of the
Jewish religion as religion, including the Old Testament, which was not
understood and therefore not received by Christendom in general. (2)
Because Paul not only formulated no national anti-Judaism, but always
recognised the prerogative of the people of Israel as a people. (3)
Because his idea of the Gospel, with all his Greek culture, is
independent of Hellenism in its deepest grounds. This peculiarity of the
Pauline Gospel is the reason why little more could pass from it into the
common consciousness of Christendom than the universalism of salvation,
and why the later development of the Church cannot be explained from
Paulinism. Baur, therefore, was quite right when he recognised that we
must exhibit another and more powerful element in order to comprehend
the post-Pauline formations. In the selection of this element, however,
he has made a fundamental mistake, by introducing the