Orello Cone

Gospel-criticism and Historical Christianity Orello Cone

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1891. Excerpt: ... 12.--THE 'GOSPELS IN THE ALEXANDRIAN CHURCH. The Alexandrians treated the conception of canonicity with greater freedom and in a more spiritualizing way than did the Western Church. Clement (170-211) not only took into account the external, apostolic origin of writings, but their spiritual derivation from the apostles, or the question of their contents as worthy or unworthy of their authorship. So purely subjective a point of view as this latter undoubtedly has its perils. But it was controlled by a regard for testimony, and also, it appears, modified somewhat by philological criticism. In a work which is lost, "Hypotyposes," Clement gave, according to Eusebius, an abridged account of all the canonical scriptures, not even omitting those that were disputed, such as the Epistle of Barnabas and the Revelation of Peter. In the "Stromata" he quotes Clement of Rome and Barnabas as apostles, f and the Shepherd of Hermas as a divine revelation.: Besides, he quotes the Gospels according to the Hebrews and the Egyptians, and although he distinguishes these from the four Gospels, § his distinction between canonical and uncanonical books does not appear to be drawn with a very firm hand. In the writing previously mentioned, the " Hypotyposes," he gives the tradition respecting the order of the Gospels, as derived from the oldest presbyters, as follows: "Those which contain the genealogies were written first; but the Gospel of Mark was occasioned in the following manner: When Peter had proclaimed the word publicly in Rome, and declared the The Epistle to the Hebrews, attributed in the Western Church to Barnabas, was regarded by Clement as the work of Paul, because worthy of an apostle. It was thought to have been written in Hebrew, and the translation was attri...