A Reply to Dr. Lightfoot's Essays eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 206 pages of information about A Reply to Dr. Lightfoot's Essays.

A Reply to Dr. Lightfoot's Essays eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 206 pages of information about A Reply to Dr. Lightfoot's Essays.
Gospel no longer extant, we might find the following quotation in a work of the Fathers:  ’Take heed to yourselves ([Greek:  eautois]) of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy ([Greek:  hetis estin hupocrisis]).  For there is nothing covered up ([Greek:  sunkekalummenon]) which shall not be revealed, and hid, which shall not be known.’  It would, of course, be affirmed that this was evidently a combination of two verses of our first Gospel quoted almost literally, with merely a few very immaterial slips of memory in the parts we note, and the explanatory words, ‘which is hypocrisy,’ introduced by the Father, and not a part of the quotation at all.  The two verses are Matt. xvi. 6, ’Beware and take heed ([Greek:  hopate kai]) of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees ([Greek:  kai Saddoukaion]), and Matt. x. 26, ’... for ([Greek:  gar]) there is nothing covered ([Greek:  kekalummenon]) that shall not be revealed, and hid, that shall not be known.’  The sentence would, in fact, be divided as in the case of Justin, and each part would have its parallel pointed out in separate portions of the Gospel.  How wrong such a system is—­and it is precisely that which is adopted with regard to Justin—­is clearly established by the fact that the quotation, instead of being such a combination, is simply taken as it stands from the ’Gospel according to Luke,’ xii. 1-2.” [133:1]
“If we examine further, however, in the same way, quotations which differ merely in language, we arrive at the very same conclusion.  Supposing the third Gospel to be lost, what would be the source assigned to the following quotation from an unnamed Gospel in the work of one of the Fathers?  ’No servant ([Greek:  oudeis oiketes]) can serve two lords, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.  Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.’  Of course the passage would be claimed as a quotation from memory of Matt. vi. 24, with which it perfectly corresponds, with the exception of the addition of the second word, [Greek:  oiketes], which, it would no doubt be argued, is an evident and very natural amplification of the simple [Greek:  oudeis] of the first Gospel.  Yet this passage, only differing by the single word from Matthew, is a literal quotation from the Gospel according to Luke xvi. 13.  Or, to take another instance, supposing the third Gospel to be lost, and the following passage quoted, from an unnamed source, by one of the Fathers:  ’Beware ([Greek:  prosechete]) of the Scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love ([Greek:  philounton]) greetings in the markets, and chief seats in the synagogues, and chief places at feasts; which devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers:  these shall receive greater damnation.’  This would, without hesitation, be declared a quotation from memory of Mark xii. 38-40, from which it only differs in a couple of words.  It is, however, a literal quotation
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