Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/465

 LUKl 424 LUSX

Origen. ascribing the books to St. Luke, are important from all four. Westcott shows that there is no trace not only as testifying to the belief of their own, but in Justin of the use of any written dociunent on the life also of earlier times. St. Jerome and Origen were of Christ except our Gospels. '^He [Justin] tells us great travellers, and all three were omniverous that Christ was descended from Abraham through readers. They had access to practically the whole Jacob, Judah, Phares, Jesse, David — ^that the Angel Christian literature of preceding centuries; but they Gabriel was sent to announce His birth to the Virgin nowhere hint that the authorship of the Gospel (and Maiy-*-that it was in fulfilment of the prophecy of Acts) was ever called in question. This, taken by Isaiah •. . that His parents went thither [to Bethle- itself, would be a stronger argument than can be hem] in consequence of an enrolment under Cyrinius — adduced for the majority of classical works. But we that as they could not find a lodging in the village they have much earlier testimony. Clement of Alexan- lodged in a cave dose by it, where Christ was bom, dria was probably bom at Athens about a. d. 150. andlaid by Mary in a manger'', etc. (Westcott, "Can- He travelled much, and had for instructors in on", 104). There is a constant intermixture in Jus- the Faith an Ionian, an Italian, a Syrian, an Egyp- tin's quotations of the narratives of St. Matthew and tian, an Assyrian, and a Hebrew in Palestine. St. Luike. As usual in apologetical works, such as the " And these men, preserving the true tradition of the apologies of Tatian, Athena^ras, Theophilus, Tcr- blessed teaching airectly from Peter and James, John tullian, Clement of Alexandria, Cyprian, and Euse- and Paul, the holy Apostles, son receiving it from bins, he does not name his sources because he was father, came by God's providence even unto us, to addressing outsiders. He states, however, that the dei>osit among us those seeds [of tmth] which were memoirs which were called Gospels were read in the derived from their ancestors and the Apostles", churches on Sunday along with the writings of the (Strom., I, i, ll;cf. Euseb., "Hist. EccL*, V, xi). Prophets; in other words, they were placed on an He holds that St. Luke's Gospel was written before equal rank with the Old Testament, in the ''Dia- that of St. Mark, and he uses the four Gospels just loffue", cv, we have a' passage peculiar to St. Luke. as any moflem Catholic writer. Tertullian was bom ''Jesus as He cave up His Spirit uoon the Cross said, at Carthage, lived some time in Rome, and then re- 'Father, into tny hands I commena my Spirit' [Luke, turned to Carthage. His quotations from the Gofr- xxiii, 46], even as I learned from the Memoirs of this pels, when brought together by Ronsch, cover two fact also." These Gospels which were read ever>' Hundred pages. He attacks Marcion for mutilating Sunday must be the same as our four, which soon St. Luke's Gospel, and writes: " I say then that among after, in the time of Irenaeus, were in such lone estab- them, and not only among the Apostolic Churches, lished honour, and regarded by him as inspired by the but amons all the Churches whicn are united with Holy Ghost. We never hear, says Salmon, of any them in Christian fellowship, the Gospel of Luke, revolution dethroning one set of Gospels and replacing which we earnestly defend, has been maintained them by another; so we may be sure that the Gospels from its firot publication" (Adv. Marc., IV, v). honoured by the Church in Justin's day were the same

The testimony of St. Irenaeus is of special impor- as those to which the same respect was paid in the days tanoe. He was bom in Asia Minor, where he heard of Irenseus, not many years after. This conclusion is St. Polycarp jgive his reminiscences of St. John the strengthenednotonhrby the nature of Justin's quota- Apostle, and in his numerous writings he frequently tions, but by the evidence afforded by his pupil Tatian, mentions other disciples of the Apostles. He was the Assyrian, who hved a long time with him in Rome, priest in Lyons during the persecution in 177, and was and afterwards compiled his narmony of the Gospels, the bearer of the letter m the confessors to Rome, his famous " Diatessaron", in Syriac, from our four His bishop, Pothinus, whom he succeeded, was Gospels. He had travelled a great deal, and the fact ninety years of age when he gained the crown of mar- that he uses only those shows that they alone were tyrdom in 177, and must have been bom while some recognised by SWJustin and the Catholic Church be- or the Apostles and very many of their hearers were tween 130''HWr This takes us back to the time when still living. St. Irenseus. who was bom about a. d. n^Miy^lhe hearers of the Apostles and Evangelists 130 (some say much earlier), is, therefore, a witness weTciicill alive ,^^^ it is held by many scholars that St. for the early traditicm of Asia Minor, Rome, and Gaul. Luke lived till tomrds the end of the first centuiy. He quotes the Gospels just as any modern bishop Ireiueus, Clemei^, Tatian, Justin, etc., were in as would do; he calls them Scripture; bene ves even in their good a position for forming a j udgment on the aut hen- verbal inspiration* shows now congruous it is that ticity of the Gospels as we are of knowing who were there are four and only four Gospels; and says that the authors of Scott's novels, Macaulay's essays, Lvike, who begins with the priesthood and sacrifice Dickens's early novels, Longfellow's poems, no. xc of of Zachaiy. is the calf. When we compare his quo- '^Tracts for the Times" etc. But the argument does tations with those of Clement of Alexandria, variant not end here. Many of the heretics who flourished readings of text present themselves. There was al- from the beginning of the second century till a. d. 150 readv established an Alexandrian type of text diffei^ admitted St. Luke's Gospel as authontative. This ent from that used in the West. The Gospels had proves that it had ac<|uired an unassailable position been copied and recopied so often, that, through long before these heretics broke away from the Church, erron oi copying, etc., distinct families of text had The Apocryphal Gospel of Peter, about a. p. 150, time to establish themselves. The Gospels were so makes use of our Gospels. About the same time the widespread that they became known to pagans. Cel- Gospels, together with their titles, were translated into BUS in his attack on the Christian religion was ac- Latm; and here, again, we meet the phenomena of quainted with the genealogy in St. Luke's Gospel, and variant readings, to oe found in Clement, Irenseus, Old his quotations show the same phenomena of variant Syriac, Justin, and Celsus, pointing to a long period of readings. previous copying. Finally, we may ask, if the author

The next witness, St. Justin Biartyr, shows the posi- of the two books were not St. Luke, who was he? tion of honour the Gospels held in the Church, in the Hamack (Luke the Physician, 2) holds that as the early portion of the century. Justin was bom in Ciospel begins with a prologue addressed to an indivi- Palestme about a. d. 105, and converted in 132-135. dual (Theophilus) it must, of necessity, have contained In his "Apology" he speaks of the memoirs ot the in its title the name of its author. How can we ex- Lord which are called Gospels, and which were writtcai plain, if St. Luke were not the author, that the name by Apostles (Matthew, John) and disciples of the of the real, and truly great, writer came to be com- Apostles (Mark. Luke). In connexion with the disci- pletely buried in oblivion, to make room for the name pies of the Apostles he cites the verses of St. Luke on of such a comparatively obscure disciple as St. Luke? tho Sweat of Bloody and he baa numerous quotations Apart from his connexioni as supposed author, with