e "was never
any doubt in the church" was not correct.

It must however be said in all fairness, according to our author, that
from about the close of the second or the beginning of the third
century, there was practical unanimity in the church as to the
authenticity of all the books in our present New Testament except these
seven: Hebrews, Jude, Second Peter, Second and Third John, James and
Revelation. Over these the controversy continued until the Roman
Hierarchy overshadowed the Church and suppressed all liberty of thought
or expression.

We now come to the detailed study of the origin, authorship, date and
character of the different books of the New Testament.

The first shock I got was learning that "The Gospel According to
Matthew," was not written in its present form by the Apostle of that
name. Nor is the author or date definitely known. The substance of a
long article on the subject is to the effect that Matthew the Apostle,
about A.D. 68, wrote an account of the doings and sayings of Jesus, in
the Syro-Chaldee language, the vernacular of Palestine at the time, for
the benefit of the Hebrew Christians. From this basis some later hand,
unknown, translated into Greek, and elaborated it into substantially
our present version. The earliest known Hebrew, or Syro-Chaldee
version was that used by the Ebionites, which materially differed from
our present Greek version; but which is the original and which the
recession has never been settled. The early Ebionite version did not
contain the first two chapters, giving the account of the miraculous
birth; but our author insists that these were cut off from the
original, rather than added on, tho nobody knows which.

Concerning the Gospel of Mark, he insists that it was also written as
was the original of Matthew, before the destruction of Jerusalem, but
after Matthew; that the material in it was learned from Peter, whose
companion Mark was (how does this comport with divine inspiration?) as
Mark was not an apostle and could not have known these facts at first
hand. He admits the last twelve verses to be spurious and added by a
later hand.

Concerning Luke he says that he derived his information from Paul
(another case of doubtful inspiration), admits the date and place he
wrote are unknown; admits the discrepancies between him and Matthew, in
regard to the circumstances of the miraculous birth and the genealogy
of Jesus--something I had never noticed before!--