The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Books of the New Testament, by Leighton Pullan

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Title: The Books of the New Testament

Author: Leighton Pullan

Release Date: August 30, 2007 [eBook #22459] Last updated: January 19, 2009

Language: English

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT***

E-text prepared by Al Haines

Transcriber's note:

Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbers enclosed in curly braces, e.g. {99}. They have been located where page breaks occurred in the original book. For its Index, a page number has been placed only at the start of that section.

THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

by the

REV. LEIGHTON PULLAN

Fellow and Tutor of St. John Baptist's College, Oxford.

"If you choose to obey your Bibles, you will never care who attacks them."—RUSKIN.

Fourth Edition Revised

Rivingtons 34 King Street, Covent Garden London 1912

{v}

PREFACE

This book is intended to meet the widely prevalent need of an introduction to the New Testament which is neither a mere hand-book nor an elaborate treatise for specialists. It is written in a conservative spirit, and at the same time an ample use has been made of recent critical investigation.

It has been impossible to give an exhaustive proof of the position maintained, but no matter of great importance has been overlooked. The arguments will be intelligible to educated persons who are unacquainted with the Greek language.

The author has sometimes derived much help from the articles in Dr. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. The dates which have been adopted are in most cases those adopted in {vi} that Dictionary by Dr. Sanday and Mr. C. H. Turner.

His best thanks are due to the Rev. E. W. Pullan, Mr. J. F. Briscoe, and Mr. E. W. Corbett, for the kind help which they have given him in the preparation of the book.

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

TABLE OF APPROXIMATE DATES . . . . . . . . . . . . . x I. THE NEW TESTAMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 II. THE GOSPELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 III. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW . . . . . . . . 33 IV. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK . . . . . . . . . . 49 V. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE . . . . . . . . . . 64 VI. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN . . . . . . . . . . 80 VII. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 VIII. THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 IX. 1 AND 2 THESSALONIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 X. THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 XI. THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 XII. THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE GALATIANS . . 150 XIII. THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE ROMANS . . . 158 XIV. THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS—THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO PHILEMON . . . 170 XV. THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE EPHESIANS . . 180 XVI. THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 188 XVII. THE PASTORAL EPISTLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 XVIII. THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 XIX. THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 XX. THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JAMES . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 XXI. THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER . . . . . . . . . 235 XXII. THE SECOND EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER . . . . . . . . 246 XXIII. THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 XXIV. THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JUDE . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 XXV. THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE . . . . . . . 270

APPENDIX A.—RATIONALIST CRITICISM ON ST. JOHN'S WRITINGS 284 APPENDIX B.—PAPIAS AND JOHN THE PRESBYTER . . . . . . . . 285 APPENDIX C.—THE MURATORIAN FRAGMENT . . . . . . . . . . . 288 APPENDIX D.—SOME EARLY WITNESSES TO NEW TESTAMENT WRITINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 APPENDIX E.—BOOKS RECOMMENDED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

{x}

TABLE OF APPROXIMATE DATES

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW . . . . . A.D. 69 " " ST. MARK . . . . . . . A.D. 62 " " ST. LUKE . . . . . . . A.D. 70-75 " " ST. JOHN . . . . . . . A.D. 80-90 ACTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 75-80 ROMANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 56 1 CORINTHIANS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 55 2 CORINTHIANS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 55 GALATIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 56 EPHESIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 60 PHILIPPIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 61 COLOSSIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 60 1 THESSALONIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 51 2 THESSALONIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 51 1 TIMOTHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 63 2 TIMOTHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 64 TITUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 63 PHILEMON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 60 HEBREWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 66 JAMES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 50 1 PETER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 64 2 PETER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 65 1, 2, 3 JOHN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 80-90 JUDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 63 REVELATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 96

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CHAPTER I

THE NEW TESTAMENT

[Sidenote: Its Name.]

After the gift of the Holy Spirit Himself, we may justly reckon the New Testament as the most precious gift which our Lord Jesus Christ has given since His Ascension to those who believe on His Name. The word "testament," which is in Latin testamentum, corresponds with our word "covenant," and the phrase "New Testament" signifies the record of that new covenant in which God bound man to Himself by the death of His Son. The truth that this was a new covenant, distinct from the covenant which God made with Abraham, was taught by our Lord when He instituted the memorial of His death and said, "This cup is the new covenant in My Blood." We do not know precisely at what date the Christians began to call this record "the New Testament," but we do know that they used this name before A.D. 200.

[Sidenote: Its Language.]

In the time of our Lord the popular language of Palestine was Aramaic, a language which was akin to Hebrew and borrowed