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 COLOURS

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COLOURS

Davidson stated that out of 155 verses in the latter Epistle 78 were identical with Colossians. De Wette held that Ephesians was but a verbose amplification of Colossians. Baur thought Ephesians thesuperior let- ter, and Renan asked how can we suppose the Apostle spending his time in making a bald transcription of himself. But, as Dr. Salmon pointed out, an Apostle might write a circular letter, that is, he might send to different places letters couched in identical words. Many theories have been elaborated to explain these undoubted resemblances. Ewald maintained that the substance was St. Paul's, while the composition was left to Timothy. Weiss and Hitzig had recourse to a theory of interpolations. But the theory that has gained the greatest amount of notoriety is that of H. J. Holtzmann. In his " Ivritik der Epheser- und Kolosser-Briefe " (1872) he instituted a most elaborate and exhaustive comparison between the two Epistles. He took a number of passages which seemed to prove the priority of Ephesians and an equal number which were just as conclusive that Colossians was the earlier. The natural conclusion would be that all these simi- larities were due to the same author writing and dispatching these Epistles at one and the same time. But Holtzmann's explanation was quite different. He supposed that St. Paul wrote a short epistle to the Colossians. From the study of this epistle a later writer composed the Epistle to the Ephesians. Then taking St. Paul's short Epistle to the Colossians he made interpolations and additions to it from his own composition to the Ephesians, and thus built up our present Epistle to the Ephesians, and that with such success that the thing was never suspected until the nineteenth century. This intricate and complicated theory did not gain a single adherent, even amongst the most advanced critical school. Hilgenfeld re- jected it in 1873; but its best refutation is von So- den's detailed criticism of 1885. He held that only about eight verses could be regarded as interpolations. Sanday in Smith's "Diet, of the Bible" (I, 625) pointed out that von Soden's lines of demarcation were purely imaginary, and Pfleiderer showed the in- consistency involved in his rejection of these verses. The results of these criticisms and of further study convinced von Soden, in 1891, that the whole Epistle was genuine, with the exception of a single verse — a verse now generally held to be genuine. In 1894 Ju- licher stated that the best solution was to admit the authenticity of both Epistles, though he speaks more hesitatingly in "Encyc. Bibl.", 1889. J. Weiss made an abortive attempt to resuscitate Holtzmann's mori- bund theory in 1900.

Whilst Holtzmann's facts are incontestable, and only go to prove the community of authorship, his explana- tion (in which he seems to have lost faith) is rejected by scholars as artificial and unreal. It affords no ex- planation of many things connected with these Epis- tles. It does not explam how the early Christians allowed a genuine letter of St. Paul to become com- pletely lost, without trace or mention, for the sake of two forgeries of much later date. Each Epistle, taken by itself, shows such imity and connexion of argu- ment and language, that if the other were not in exists ence no one would have suspected the slightest degree of interpolation. The parts rejected as interpola- tions break the unity of argument and flow of ideas. Why should a forger, cajiable of writing the bulk of both E|.)istles, take the troul)le to interpolate verses and half of his own production from one Epistle into the other, and that in quite a different connexion? Besides, as Princijial Salmoiid observes, there is not a dull sameness of style in both Epistles. Ephesians is round, full, rhythmical; Colossians more pointed, logical, and concise. E{)liesians has several references to the . T. ; (Jolossians only one. There are different new words in each, and there are whole passages in the one and nothing like them found in the other.

The expressions supposed to have come from Colos- sians occur quite naturally in Ephesians, but by no means in the same context and cormexion, and vice versa. As Holtzmann's hypothesis has completely broken down, his study of the Epistles shows such close relationship between them that there can be only one other possible explanation: that both are the gen- uine writings of one man, and that man was St. Paul. Paley, who wrote his "Horse Paulinae" in 1790, set forth this side of the argument long before these ob- jections were thought of; and the fact that he can still be quoted, without qualification, in this connexion, is the best proof of the futility of all such objections. He says (Horie Paulina, London, 1790, 215): —

"Whoever writes two letters or discourses nearly upon the same subject and at no great distance of time, but without any express recollection of what he had written before will find himself repeating some sentences in the very order of the words in which he had already used them; but he will more frequently find himself employing some principal terms, with the order inadvertently changed, or with the order dis- turbed by the intermixture of other words and phrases expressive of ideas rising up at the time, or in many instances repeating not single words, nor yet whole sentences, but parts and fragments of sentences. Of all these varieties the examination of our two epis- tles will furnish plain examples, and I should rely on this class of instances more than on the last, because although an impostor might transcribe into a forgery entire sentences and phrases, yet the dislocation of words, the partial recollection of phrases and sen- tences, the intermixture of new terins and new ideas with terms and ideas before used, which will appear in the examples that follow, and which are the natural products of writing produced under the circumstances in which these epistles are represented to have been composed — would not, I think, have occurred to the invention of a forger, nor, if they had occurred would they have been so easily executed. This studied vari- ation was a refinement in forgery which I believe did not exist, or if we can suppose it to have been prac- tised in the instances adduced below, why, it may be asked, was not the same art exercised upon those which we have collected in the preceding class?" He then goes on to illustrate all these jjoints by numerous examples taken from all parts of these Epistles.

St. Jerome, Ep. cxxi. Ad Algas., q. x in Opera (Venice, 176G). I. Pt. I, 878: CoRNELY, Inlrod. (Paris, 1897), HI; Salmon, hitrod. to Sew Test. (London, 1S97); J.\cquier. His- loire dcs Livrcs du Nouveau Test. (Paris. 1906), I; EsTlos, Com- mfjitarius (Mainz, 1844) ; Bisping, Erkldrung der Briefe an die i Eph., Philip., Kol. (Miinster, 1855); McE\tlly, Exposition j (Dublin, 1860); Al,ronD, New Test. Critical and Exenrlical Com- mentary (London, 1856); Elucott, Critical and Grammatical Comm, (London, 1857); 'Llc,uTVy^^^^. < 'nta^.^ians and Philevum (London, 1879); Idem, Diss,'i-t.it,.te Briefe an dir Koln.^.^.r. etc. (Leipzig, 1893); i Salmond, Ephesians: Peake, Colossians in Exp. Greek Test. . (London, 1903). One of tlie best boolcs on the subject is .\bbott, Ephesians and Colossians. See also The International Critical Commentary, ed. Clark (Edinburgh, 1907); Hort. Judaic Christianity (London, 1898). C. AheRNE.

Colours, Liturgical. — By a law of her liturgy the Church directs that the vestments worn by her sacred ministers, and the drapery used in the decoration of the altar should correspond in colour to that which is prescribed for the Office of the day. The colours thus sanctioned by the Church in connexion with her pub- lic worship arc called the liturgical colours. Here it will be enough to examine (1) their number; (2) the drapery and \'estmcnts alTected by them; (3) their obligation; (4) their antiquity, and (5) their symbol- ism. 1

I. Number. — In the Roman Rite, since Pius V, col-j ours are five in number, viz. : white, red. green, violet," and black. Ro.se colour is employed only on Ijctare and (laudete Sundays. Blue is prescribed in somedio- ceses of Spain for the Mass of the Immaculate Concep-