Biblical commentary on the New Testament - The Christian ...

Xl THE NEW TESTAMENT GENERALLY.
the Apostles ; the Epistles of the Apostle Paul to the Romans, Corinthians,
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thes-
salonians, to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon ;
and lastly, two Epis-
tles of John and Peter, viz., only the first and largest of both
apostles. Among these writings, it is true, there appear two which
were not composed by apostles, i. e., by members of the first circle
of twelve men which our Lord Jesus gathered about him. [It is to
be observed that Paul ranked with these in authority, partly because
of his immediate call by the Lord (Acts ix.), and partly on account
of his extended and blessed labours in behalf of the church.] We
mean the Gospel of Mark and the work of Luke. We say the work
of Luke, for Luke's Gospel and his Acts of the Apostles do but
make two halves of the same work, as is plain from the commencement
of the Acts. There was no scruple on the part of the Catho-
lic church to class these two works of assistants of the apostles with
those really apostolic, because both wrote under the influence and
approval of apostles. According to the unanimous account of the
most ancient Christian Fathers, Mark wrote under the guidance of
Peter, and Luke under that of Paul, so that Mark's was regarded as
the Petriue, and Luke's as the Pauline Gospel.
These universally-received writings of the apostles were divided
into two collections. First, the four Gospels by themselves formed
a collection called the Gosi:)cl. For, although this collection con-
tained four narratives of our Lord's life, they were not regarded as
difi'erent writings, but only as different aspects, or, so to speak, sides
of one and the same work. Hence an ancient Father of the church,
Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons in France, terms the four Gospels, the
one four-formed or four-sided Gospel. The other writings consti-
tated a second collection, which was termed the ajjostle, or the
preaching of the apostle. Probably the name took its rise from the
fact, that at first the Epistles of Paul alone were collected together,
and he was called the apostle, by way of eminence, especially in
Europe, on account of his active labours. To this collection of
Pauline Epistles the Acts of the Apostles were added subsequently,
because it formed, as it were, an introduction to the Epistles, con-
taining an account of Paul's travels and labours in the vineyard of
our Lord. Later stQl were also added the two larger Epistles of
John and Peter.
Besides these generally admitted writings, there were others,
which were indeed regarded by many as apostolic, but as to which
some estimable persons entertained doubts, viz., the Second and
Third Epistles of John, the Second Epistle of Peter, the Epistles
of James and Jude, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and John's Apocalypse.
Hence these were termed disputed ivritings, in Greek,
Antilegomena. About the close of the second or the commence-