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and opposing the comprehensive spirit of his own religion , to the narrow particularity of Judaism . Our four Gospels contain the specimens of the former method ; the lost ' ATro ^ yvj ^ oyavudra , of Marcion appear from hints and fragments to have exhibited the
more liberal system . Peter and the other apostles , who confined their labours to the Jews , formed their doctrines upon the model of the former ; Paul placed himself at the head of the party which endeavoured to detach
Christianity as much as possible from Judaism , ( the ardpZ Xpir » , ) and raise the spirit of it ( th / ev ^ o . yL pig-s ) to an universal religion . After the death of the apostles , these parties continued to divide the church , and to rival each
other ; the school of Paul degenerated into the Gnostic and allegorizing strain , endeavouring to strip Christianity completely of her Jewish garb ; and the epistle which bears the name of Barnabas gives an idea of their mode of teaching . The other party , to which the author of the Clementine Homilies
belonged , in order to justify their own gross and worldly expectations of a reign of the Messiah on earth , and his speedy appearance to assume it , forged gospels and other works under the names of James , Peter and Thomas .
Scandalized at this disunion , and alarmed at its probable consequences , the Christians of the second century devised a plan for removing it : in pursuance of which Peter was represented as having borne a part in the
conversion of the Heathens 5 the author of the Epistles of Ignatius makes Peter and Paul to have preached together at Home , and Clement , of Alexandria , mentions a discourse of Peter , in which he referred to the words of Paul . This
project was in great measure successful , and to complete it , the Catholic Church took upon itself to brand as heretics both those who approached too closely to Judaism , and those who pretended to a higher spiritual knowledge , ( yv&cru ; , ) while Tertullian A , in his zeal against this comenuiuan , lnhis zeal against this
compromise , accuses the Catholic Church of " corruptionem legis , prophetarum et evangelri , " &c . Eveu long after , the Monteuiists retained the ancient freedom of opinion , and separated themselves so much from the other Jewish Christians as to fix the place of the reiga of Christ on earth in Asia
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and Mysia , and bestow the name of the heayenly Jerusalem on the city of Ardaba . In the settlement of the canon of the New Testament , Semler supposed the four Gospels to have been designed more especially for those who leaned to Judaism ; the
Epistles of Paul for the opposite party —the Catholic epistles for their union . His speculations upon the origin of the three first Evangelists appear tp contain the germ of the system which . Eichhorn , Marsh and others have more fully developed in their dissertations upon this subject .
We have undertaken only to state , and not to examine , Semler * s opinions , and shall therefore only remark , that he has , to use an expression of Horsley ' s , * helped out the broken accounts" of the two first centuries with
an ample portion of hypothesis . But the history of this period can never be given from positive authority , for want of original materials , and a probable hypothesis is the nearest approach to historical truth that can be made . If , instead of supposing a direct hostility
of the two great apostles , a formal separation of their followers , a designed production of writings to favour one side or the other , and a solemn attempt to heal the schism , and unite both in a Catholic church , he had said , that the different education of Peter
and Paul led one to contract and the other to extend the scope of the gospel which they preached ; that until the destruction of Jerusalem , and for half a century afterwards , the Jewish party still continued strong in the Christian church , and that it was only gradually that men learnt to consider Christianity
as something grafted upon and not eradicating Judaism , and Judaism as superseded but not annulled by Christianity , he might , perhaps , equally have explained the phenomena for which he framed his hypothesis , and have avoided the difficulty of there being no trace in ecclesiastical history of the events which he assumes .
Gradual changes in modes of thinking are seldom noticed by historians . Semler ' s merits were more unequivocal , in respect to the criticism of the New Testament . His master , Baumgarten , had not even a glimpse of it $ true principles , an 4 Semler , we hav $ seen , began his career by defending th < $ integrity of the common reading v
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Biographical Sketch of J , S * Semler * 13 /
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VOL . XVI . T
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1821, page 137, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2498/page/9/
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