THE CHURCH QUARTERLY REVIEW. NO XLIII. APRIL 1886. ART. I.-THE NEW TESTAMENT AND INTRODUCTION. An Historical Introduction to the Study of the Books of the New Testament; being an expansion of Lectures delivered in the Divinity School of the University of Dublin. By GEORGE SALMON, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity. (London, 1885.) IN the thirteenth lecture of this learned work the reader will find an interesting discussion of the literary question whether the Apocalypse in language and style gives evidence of identical authorship with the other Johannine books. A future critic might well illustrate this or a kindred point from the works of Dr. Salmon himself. Inhabitants of the sublime regions of mathematical science-which, alas, we contemplate from the lowest plains below-accept him as their peer. What manner of utterance should we have expected from such a man if he turned his attention to the precarious and disputable questions of ancient testimony and critical probability? Surely, something severe and oracular: a steady march from proposition to proposition, in which the more delicate shades of moral and literary evidence should meet with little regard, and, above all, no grace of writing but that of a stern simplicity of style should be allowed. The very thought of laughter should be repelled as far as when a university assembles in its church to hear a sermon on the most solemn of themes, from the most awful of its dons. The fact is so extremely different, that the German professor in a future time, who sets himself to prove that the work on Conic Sections and the Introduction to the New Testament are by two quite different authors, will have a task below VOL. XXII.-NO. XLIII. B his genius and ridiculously easy. Our contemporary, the Guardian, in its genial review of the present work, is able to promise readers of it the enjoyment of many a hearty laugh: a pledge which that long-established journal has, perhaps, never before been able to make for any work of theology or biblical criticism-except in the case of works which could be laughed at. But it seems to us that the humour of the book is more than an occasional decoration. It pervades the style, and in one form or another is present throughout. And, though to some persons this may seem a strange and doubtful recommendation of a book of the kind, we shall not hesitate to assert that those who think so know very little about literary form. Logic of the kind that is effective in life, holding up assumptions and errors to the common view, and presenting its own conclusions not merely to the intellect but to the imagination, has the closest alliance with humour. And it is not only consistent with the most reverential faith, but may be more so than that ceremonious solemnity which is not familiar because it is not sure enough of its footing. 'Perfect love casteth out fear' is a phrase which may have its application not only to God but to God's book. But, however this be, we can promise the student that he will find in Dr. Salmon as unfailing esprit as in Veuillot, though with no tinge of his abusiveness, or as in Renan, though historical truth be never sacrificed to literary interest. He will find that the whole learning of the subject both new and old is at the author's command. But the mind has mastered the learning-not, as too often happens, the learning the mind. Common sense and practical faculty still move freely under all the weight of books. And as some Puritan, who happens upon a choral service and a lively sermon, feels as if he had not been to church at all, because the familiar element of pain and grief was all awanting in his devotions: even so the laborious student, arriving at the end of Dr. Salmon's work, feels as if it must be wicked to imbibe so much Biblical learning so pleasantly. The Professor is like a skilful cook, who makes good food palatable without unwholesome sauces. But a specimen (which must not be too short) will be the best earnest of the truth of our judgment. What thinks the gentle reader, in whom the capacities of humour and faith are both alive, of the following?— 'It is a satisfaction to me to escape from the quaking sands of apocryphal legends, and step on the firm ground of the Pauline Epistles. Of these there are four which, as you know, Baur does not question; and later critics, who have no bigoted attachment to re ceived opinion, find themselves obliged to make further acknowledgments. Hilgenfeld and Davidson agree in owning Thessalonians, Philemon, and Philippians; Renan positively rejects none but the Pastoral Epistles, but has doubts besides concerning the Epistle to the Ephesians. But Baur is far from marking the lowest point of negative criticism. He found disciples who bettered his instruction until it became as hard for a young professor, anxious to gain a reputation for ingenuity, to make a new assault on a New Testament book, as it is now for an Alpine Club man to find in Switzerland a virgin peak to climb. The consequence has been that, in Holland, Scholten and others, who had been counted as leaders in the school of destructive criticism, have been obliged to come out in the character of Conservatives, striving to prove in opposition to Loman that there really did live such a person as Jesus of Nazareth, and that it is not true that every one of the Epistles ascribed to Paul is a forgery. And certainly it is not only to the orthodox that the doctrine that we have no genuine remains of Paul is inconvenient; it must also embarrass those who look for arguments to prove an Epistle to be non-Pauline : I leave these last to fight the battle with their more advanced brethren. I have constantly felt some hesitation in deciding what objections it was worth while to report to you. On the one hand, it is waste of energy to try to kill what if let alone will be sure to die of itself; on the other hand, there is the danger that you might afterwards find notions which I had passed by as too contemptible for refutation, circulating among half-learned people as the "latest results" which "eminent critics" had arrived at in Germany. But in the present case I think I am safe in deciding that it is prac tically unnecessary for me to trouble myself about the opinions of those who carry their scepticism to a further point than Baur. Let me say this, however, that I think young critics have been seduced into false tracks by the reputation which has been wrongly gained by the display of ingenuity in finding some new reason for doubting received opinions. A man is just as bad a critic who rejects what is genuine as who accepts what is spurious. "Be ye good money changers," is a maxim which I have already told you was early applied to this subject. But if a bank clerk would be unfit for his work who allowed himself easily to be imposed on by forged paper, he would be equally useless to his employers if he habitually pronounced every note which was tendered him to be a forgery, every sovereign to be base metal. I quite disbelieve that the early Christian Church was so taken possession of by forgers, that almost all its genuine remains were corrupted or lost, while the spurious formed the great bulk of what was thought worth preserving. The suspicions that have been expressed seem to me to pass the bounds of literary sanity. There are rogues in this world, and you do well to guard against them; but if you allow your mind to be poisoned by suspicion, and take every man for a rogue, why the rogues will conspire against you and lock you up in a lunatic asylum.' (P. 450.) It will be seen by this extract that Dr. Salmon treats with scant respect some of the witty inventions which pass for discoveries in Biblical criticism. It is to be confessed with sorrow that this is the general character of his book; he is actually guilty of taking a tone of assurance in support of the ancient traditions of the Church, almost as positive as that which any German professor assumes in revealing to the world his brand-new theory. And this characteristic of the book has drawn upon its author some very solemn reproof from those ultramontanes in Rationalism who believe in the infallibility of the latest criticism, even when it contradicts the previous infallible. For our part, we highly approve the tone in which Dr. Salmon writes. We do not see why readers of an orthodox book should be denied that help to persuasion which is found in the writer's assurance that he knows all about it, and that those who think differently from him are wrong. Unbelief, heaven knows, has worked this source of power over the common mind often enough and with sufficient effect. Many Rationalistic writers-notably the author of Supernatural Religion-have gained vast credit as Biblical critics upon very little stock-in-trade except their assurance alone. And we are not at all sorry that, after all the weakkneed antagonists whom the higher critics have encountered, they should come across a combatant—we suppose it is in the nature of things he should be an Irishman-who responds to There's for you,' with 'Why, there's for thee, and there, and there, and there.' There is the confidence which disdains. the fight, and there is the confidence which, like King Richard, levels its man: our author's is the latter. If anybody expects to find in this work a defence of the New Testament which cries 'hands off' to the Rationalists, he will be totally mistaken. The method of the book is itself Rationalistic, if Rationalism be taken, as surely it ought, to denote a free application of reason, and not any particular class of results to which the application leads. No one can accuse Dr. Salmon of ignoring any important argument of his opponents, or of meeting it otherwise than in fair fight. His hands off' is addressed not to Rationalist critics, but to religious persons who would withdraw the books which they regard as inspired from the ordeal which ordinary books, whose authorship is questioned, must pass, or who would interfere on the ground of Inspiration to stop the contest. There may well be persons who will find it painful to their faith to subject their Bible to such free handling, even for argumentative purposes. It is not among the teachers of the Church, who ought, above all things, to desire to be furnished with weapons fit for the contests of the time, that such timorous religion should be found. But, |