The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-06-29
The Tendency-Theory of
Baur
AND ITS MODIFICATION BY HIS
SUCCESSORS.
BY JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE.
III.

According to the hypothesis OF
Baur and his followers, most of the
books of the New Testament, with the
exception of Paul's four chief epistles,
belong to the class of tendency
writings" They, therefore, were
written in period far later than the
time of the Apostles,-a period when
wholesale Justification seemed natur-
al and proper. There may not have
been any deliberate intention to de
ceive; these pseudonymous writings
were possible innocent fictions, pro-
duced for purposes of edifcation.
An immense amount of ingenious
study has been expended on this by
pothesis; and by such labor and
learning it has been made plausible,
at least to those who already accept
the theory. So that, at last, some
writer's, Qike the Dutch authors of
"The Bible for Learners') assume
that the proposition is proved, and
teach it dogmatically as universally
admitted fact.
But before any such critical as
sumptions can be regarded as es-
tablished, we must not only look at
the arguments in its favor, but also
at the objections to it. We may sum
up the doctrine of Baur and his fol-
lowers thus: The books of the New
Testament, with the exception of the
four chief Pauline epistles and the
Apocalypse, are fictitious productions
belonging to some period in the Sec
ond century, having for their object
to reconcile the Petrine and Pauline
Christians. They we're written, not by
the authors whose names they bear,
but by some unknown persons. The
facts which they narrate and to which
they refer, are not historic, though
they may rest on some historic
foundation.
What this foundation is we can
never ascertain with certainty. All
the miraculous part must, of course,
be set aside as pure invention. The
resurrection of Jesus was based on
mere imagination, and the belief in it
came from the depressed and nervous
condition of the disciples after the
crucifixion of their master. The wish
was father to the thought; the
thought grew into belief; the belief
became certainty; and this was the
rock on which the church was built.
The difficulties to be encountered
by those who maintain this view, are
such as these:-
The whole Christian church at the
end of the second century had ac-
cepted the books now contained in
our canon, as coming from the au-
thors whose names they bear. This
happened by the law of selection,
and the survival of the fittest. The
New Testament was not put togeth-
er byt he authority of any church
synod, but by the conviction of the
whole church that these books were
authentic and genuine. Nor did this
take place because of the absence of
a critical sense, or from unreasoning
acquiescence. The books of the New
Testament remained in the belief of
the Christians as authentic, out of
great mass of apochryphal gospels
and epistles, many of which are still
extant. They were divided into two
classes, those generally accepted by
the church and those doubtful; while
the books not in our canon were reck-
oned, says Eusebius, as spurious.
There were great critics and schol-
ars in the second and third centuries,
perfectly able to examine and test the
quality of alleged sacred writing, who
yet accepted our present Scriptures.
Again, the questions which in
tensely interested all Christians at
the end of the second century, such
as Christ's Mission to the under
world, and the sharp conflicts of
Christianity with Gnosticism, scarcely
come to light in the books of the New
Testament.
The numerous condolences, which
were evidently undersigned, because
unapparent, and the contradictions
which are apparent and on the sur
face, both show that the writers were
not framing fictitious gospels and
epistles. If artless, how could they SO
skillfully Intervene many hundreds
of historic facts and illusions7 And if
artful, why did they leave SO many
discrepancies and contradictionsi
0. B. rockingham tells us that it
is "as plain as any point of literary
criticism can be that the Acts of the
Apostles is not to be relied on for
information concerninO the life and