Inspiration; Eight Lectures on the Early History and Origin of the Doctrine of Biblical Inspiration (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: nothing in the Scriptures is indifferent, and finally allegorical exegesis, are the immediate result of canonization, the proof of which is present from the first1.' It is an advantage to have to deal with a writer who has so complete and thorough a knowledge of his subject. But he asks us to believe that all this is a sudden product, accomplished within the manhood of Irenaeus himself, and without his betraying the slightest consciousness of it! Such changes?and to this writer they are all changes? are not really wrought in a day. We have spoken so far only of the solid nucleus of accepted writings. Outside these there were the two other groups, on the one hand of writings which were working their way to eventual recognition, and on the other of those which, beginning with a certain measure of acceptance, finally lost it and were excluded from the Canon. It is remarkable that some of the books omitted in the Muratorian list were among those which enjoyed the earliest attestation as writings. The Epistle to the Hebrews is quoted in what is probably the earliest extra-canonical work still within the limits of the first century (i Clement). The Apocalypse is not only referred to very early, having been apparently commented on by Papias2, but is one of the first books to be quoted with the name of its author3. And the Epistle of St. James appears to have lefttraces of itself in Clement of Rome, the Didachd, and Hennas1. This proves that the books in question at least go back to the Apostolic age, if that age is measured by the lifetime of St. John. But after enjoying?two of them at least?a considerable amount of popularity at this early date, they seem to suffer a sort of eclipse: Hebrews apparently from the doubt as to its authorship; the Apocalypse from the opposition among the...