From: Defending
Biblical Inerrancy Return to Home
By Roland H. Worth, Jr. © 2016
Chapter Five:
The Practice and Ethics of
Pseudonymous Literature
In any discussion of Biblical authorships, pseudonymity inevitably enters the picture. This is the theory that the actual author has
attached someone else’s name to his own work. We will concisely study the question from the
standpoint of New Testament style documents since as Christians that is the
phase of the subject most germane to our faith and because a full
treatment of it would require a virtual book length analysis to do it full
justice.
If one considers more
than in passing the meaning of pseudonymity—attaching
someone else’s name to one’s own composition—one quickly grasps that it is a
polite label for pious fraud or religious lying. The proponents of the theory do not like such
terms to be used because of their obvious implication of moral censure.
Indeed, a person who
wrote an epistle claiming to be an apostle (and hence inspired by God) or who
directly asserted such a claim of inspiration falsely—was he or she, not by
definition, a false prophet? And who
doubts how severely both testaments come down against this arrogance of claiming
to be a communicator of information from God when one is only pretending to be
such?
Not to mention the emphasis upon
maintaining behavior that was honorable in the sight of others—both inside and
outside of the church (2 Corinthians 6:3,
So it’s extremely hard
to imagine genuinely faithful Christians yielding to any temptation to
“help the cause along” by writing a fake epistle or to knowingly embrace
such—at least in the apostles’ lifetime and for quite a bit later. What is our modern adage? Oh yes, “With friends like this who needs
enemies?” (The two ethical arguments
outlined above come with a very lengthy article on alleged pseudonymous
literature that tears into common defenses of it and is well worth
consideration in its entirety: 68).
To avoid the taint of such criticism, it is
urgent for advocates to prove that such false attributions represented acceptable
conduct among Christians in the first century—or at least in the first few
(hoping to gain indirect evidence from that for first century tolerance as well). If their rationale fails, then the theory
must be rejected as nothing short of a direct and explicit moral assault on
the honesty, truthfulness, and integrity of that goodly number of the writers of
the New Testament who allegedly did this very thing.
I. The First Century Situation
Attempted
fakery was certainly possible. We
don’t deny that there were some individuals in the Christian community of that
day who were not above such behavior. 2
Thessalonians 2:2 warned: “not to be
soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as
if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.” The “by word” as a source of the message
suggests he was concerned not only that they might see a pseudo-Pauline
epistle of this nature but that they might hear of the contents of one seen by
someone else and passed on verbally.
I’m just not going to
say it, Paul insists.
So the writing of
pseudo-apostolic literature clearly had no countenance within the apostolic
community. Furthermore, as John A. T.
Robinson rightly notes, Paul’s reaction shows that such false attribution “was not
a harmless literary convention” in their eyes (10-187).
It may well be of
significance that this, the only evidence of false attribution mentioned in the
New Testament, is in connection with false doctrine . . . with claiming to be
true what the written message had already
denied would be true. We find
here the test of consistency with apostolic teaching as a standard to
determine whether a religious claim is valid, one that is a ready made test for
a goodly number of the pseudo-apostolic writings that would come later.
An irony: A good number of semibelieving
scholars believe that 2 Thessalonians is a faked “Pauline” composition; it
didn’t really come from him. So we are
supposed to believe that a faked Pauline epistle rebuked the very
fakery the author himself was engaged in!
Ah, the foolishness we commit when we are determine to rationalize away
the apostolic message!
The defense of such fakery as being established
rhetorical practice in the ancient world.
Which still wouldn’t prove that it was
acceptable Christian practice, especially in light of Paul’s rebuke of
it!
Frank W. Hughes (69) argues
that such pseudonymous works would have been composed for the same reason as
students of ancient rhetoric would have produced imitations of the great
orators and poets: to show honor and
respect for a literary great while polishing their own rhetorical skills in the
process. (With the presumed implication,
I would think, of also benefiting anyone who happened to read it.) To him this is clearly done by the author of
2 Thessalonians, basing his work on the precedent of 1 Thessalonians . . . and
possibly of Colossians being based on Ephesians. To him, this clears the imitators of any
charge of “forgery” and the moral taint that would go with it. But not of the irony of using pseudonymity to condemn pseudonymity
(2 Thessalonians 2:2)! Not to mention
that the fake writer is adding gall to his hypocrisy.
Yet he has problems
more than just this. Those students of
rhetoric who shared their contemporarized version of
Socrates or whoever—would not their teacher and their fellow students have
recognized the true origin and authorship?
Obviously.
There would have been no intended misrepresentation, merely a display of
their skills. Those who heard it and
read it would applaud their skill or condemn their failure to carry out their
intent.
On the other hand, if
they had passed on their writings to their contemporaries without bothering
to tell anyone who really wrote it,
would it still have been regarded as a morally innocent endeavor?
Look at the question
from this standpoint: would not the
source of their imitation normally be long dead—a figure of the past, even if
the recent past of a generation or two before?
Yet the supposed pseudonymous literature of the New
Testament were written by the contemporaries or virtual
contemporaries of the original writers.
Hence, whatever insights this analysis may provide for the second and
third century fictions, it provides none for those that are supposedly part of
the New Testament.
A question to
ponder: Would even the students of Greek
rhetoric have felt comfortable doing imitations of religious oracles? (For such, in effect, the New Testament
writers claim to be—the revealers of the Divine will.) Indeed, did they have preserved samples to
even work from? Are we not transposing
the imitation of “secular” authors into the imitation of strictly “religious”
materials—and do we have historical precedent for them actually doing
such? The author we have been examining
doesn’t seem to provide any.
Hughes attempts to
justify removing the moral censure from the allegedly pseudonymous literature
in the New Testament on the grounds that Matthew and Luke utilize “Mark and
other sources. If it is proper to use
the term ‘forger’ for the writer of the Pastoral Epistles or the writer of 2
Thessalonians, a similarly derogatory term must be used for Matthew and Luke,
as well as many other writings in the New Testament” (69).
Of course there is the
not exactly small difference that Matthew and Luke did not falsely claim to
be Mark or one of their other sources while the Pastorals all claim to be by
Paul “the apostle.” No false attribution
is claimed, while in regard to 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy,
and Titus it brazenly is—if the theory of non-Pauline authorship be true.
II. The “Acts of Paul and Thecla”
This is part of the “Acts of Paul,” a
generic label utilized to include this narrative and several other works,
including “Third Corinthians” and the “Martyrdom of Paul.” It is the story of the relation of Paul and
the young woman Thecla and how she became a Christian
and the varied miracles that protected her from death—in large part by what we
today would call “idle wonders” since they are far more visually impressive
than merely intended to stop in the tracks any threat of death. The melodramatic form of the miracles argues
of course, for a date well beyond the apostolic age and into the second century
. . . when a later generation found it desirable to make the wonder of an
unadorned miracle even more impressive by adding a sense of “spectacle” to it.
The Thecla story is believed to have first appeared c. 150 A.D.
and became very popular in the following centuries. There is, of course, a significant difference
between being regarded as an edificatory document and useful for reading and
even emulation and regarding it as on a par with Scripture. (Think of the fascination with Ben Hur in the post Civil-War era and the first half of the
twentieth century.)
It has been reasonably
speculated that due to it having a woman as pivotal center of the story, it
fulfilled a unique place in the non-Biblical writings and enjoyed a special
popularity among women. Indeed, that the
story might originally have been invented and shared among themselves by
women. (For a detailed summary of the
work see 70).
However enjoyable such
material could become as “popular literature for the pious,” this did not
guarantee its acceptance as a genuine apostolic age document. However much the credulous spirit was on the
rise, the “critical spirit” (in a good, positive sense) was still very much
alive and the writing of spurious gospels, epistles, and literature very much
condemned—at least when they were advocated as on the par with those that
actually came from the earlier age.
Unlike many such
works, we know something of the true author of the book and how he was punished
by removal from church office for his fraud. Tertullian
(typically dated as writing c. 196-210 A.D.) tells us in his On Baptism
(Chapter 17):
But
if the writings which wrongly go under Paul’s name, claim Thecla’s example as a licence for
women’s teaching and baptizing, let them know that, in Asia, the presbyter who
composed that writing, as if he were augmenting Paul’s fame from his own store,
after being convicted, and confessing that he had done it from love of Paul,
was removed from his office. (13-677)
Notice the realistic attitude of Tertullian and others who fully exposed the fakery: The mere fact that a volume claimed
apostolicity or an apostolic connection did not guarantee its acceptance on a
level with the earlier works that were genuinely such. They felt free to examine in detail the
contents of the purported Pauline material and its conformity with genuine,
known apostolic teaching. (No guarantee,
of course, that they necessarily interpreted that teaching correctly, of
course.)
In the same chapter Tertullian speaks of how this test was applied to this material:
For
how credible would it seem, that he who has not permitted a woman even to learn
with overboldness, should give a female the power of
teaching and of baptizing! “Let them be
silent,” he says, “and at home consult their own husbands.” (13-677)
Tertullian’s reasoning clearly implies the existence of
a generally accepted body of books against which other supposedly “apostolic”
and “inspired” writings could be compared and tested. In other words, they utilized what was known
to test the questioned.
Note also that the
“moral grounds” for the fake Pauline history was rejected in no uncertain
terms: The presbyter’s defense was that
he had written “from love of Paul,” which sounds amazingly like the rationale
we examined earlier in this chapter though not in the context of a
learning/student situation.
It certainly was a
fine, noble sounding motive wasn’t it? But not enough to remove the moral blot of pseudonymous writing
in the eyes of his religious compatriots. If we wish a second century judgment—to go
along with Paul’s first century one—on the “Christian morality” of such
literature being passed around by a believer we have it here in firm and
clear-cut language.
Some have attempted to
undermine the significance of Tertullian’s repudiation
by contending that he was repudiating a verbal tradition and not a (yet)
written version of the story (70). Even
if that were true, if he rejected what gives every indication of being a
version of the same story, would he have given it any greater credibility
just because it was placed in writing?
Furthermore, he speaks of the “writing” that contained the tale (see
above)—proof positive, it would seem, that it existed in written form in his
era. (That doesn’t exclude, of course, a
further “puffery” to the story by someone else at a later date.)
The importance to us is that (a) the
narrative is about that same person and appears to have the same story line
under consideration, (b) it was in writing, (c) it was admitted by the author
to have been a relatively recent composition, and (d) the author—good
intentions or not—was repudiated for having told a pious tale even out of
the best of intentions.
Much more than what Tertullian says could be mentioned to make the same point
that this book is internally indicted as of a non-apostolic age when a
significant body of new religious traditions had evolved and been
superimposed upon the simpler New Testament pattern. Hence, the
criterion of conformity with previous revelation argues that the book isn’t a
genuine one, regardless of how well intended and exactly when composed.
1. Paul counseled temporary abstention from
sexual relations in a marriage (1 Corinthians 7:3-5). The Acts of Paul and Thecla
glorifies it as central: “Blessed are
they who have wives, as though they had them not; for they shall be made angels
of God” (Acts of Paul and Thecla,
2. The concept of making the sign of the cross
and that doing so would have any spiritual value is totally alien to the New
Testament text. Yet here we read: “And when they had placed the wood in order,
the people commanded her to go upon it; which she did, first making the sign of
the cross” (Acts of Paul and Thecla,
3. The first miracle attributed in connection
with her occurs before she was baptized and became a Christian—a
seriously strange incongruity with what the New Testament would lead us to
believe could happen. If an unbeliever
could carry out miracles, why convert?
Why stop being “a good moral pagan”?
Didn’t the miracle working power prove that was adequate?
4. The New Testament always refers to people
baptizing someone else; Thecla is self-baptized.
5. In the New Testament one is instructed to
live in but not be part of the world (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:9-10, for
example). In contrast, the monastic
ideal is upheld in Thecla: “At length, certain gentlewomen hearing of
the virgin Thecla, went to her, and were instructed
by her in the oracles of God, and many of them abandoned this world, and led a
monastic life with her” (10:15).
6. At the same time, the book opposes
sexual relationships in general, it has a strange appeal to human
sensuality. “The theme of sexual
abstinence is a major theme in the Acts of Paul and Thecla. This plays at odds with the story because much
is made of Thecla's good looks and the two miracles
done to save her are done while she is naked. There are also two attempted rape
scenes in this short book.” (These five
points and the quotations are all from 71.)
In all fairness, it
should be noted that we can’t be certain how much of this can be traced back to
the earliest written form of the tale and the one Tertullian
had access to. Even so, it is in
the form that has survived and we have no particular reason to doubt that the
bulk of it faithfully reflects that first written version—which was noted by Tertullian as an exposed imitation even in his own
day.
That didn’t hinder it from being accepted by a goodly number as religiously encouraging, but it is hard to see how such evidence was consistent with it gaining much of an audience as Scripture rather than pious story-telling. Except, perhaps, among the scripturally most unlearned.
III. The “Gospel of Peter”
This narrative speaks of Jesus as remaining
quiet and acting as if he felt no pain while on the cross (which no one reading
the canonical gospels would think for one second but which docetic
theology embraced), and refers to His being “taken up” while carefully avoiding
the injection of the idea of actual death.
While in the traditional gospels Herod Antipas sends Jesus back to
Pilate and has nothing to do with the sentencing to death, in this narrative,
after Pilate washes his hands of responsibility, Herod takes over and orders
the punishment.
Especially oddly, it is the Jewish
authorities who carry out the scourging and the crucifixion and Roman soldiers
only become involved when they are requested to guard the tomb. In essence, Roman responsibility is
whitewashed and Jewish responsibility becomes, effectively, the sole cause of
Jesus’ death. (See the more detailed summary of F. F. Bruce, Jesus and
Christian Origins Outside the New Testament [pages
93-94] as quoted at the “Gospel of Peter” page at 72.)
Oddly enough the Jewish religious leaders,
including high priest, remain at the grave as well. The Jewish conviction of the impurity of
corpses and remaining around them longer than necessary is widely acknowledged
and makes this utterly improbable.
The actual resurrection itself is pictured,
with Jesus leaving the tomb as a giant who towered into the sky. “And they heard a voice from the heavens,
saying, Thou hast preached to them that sleep. And a response was heard from
the cross, Yea.” So we have a
talking cross. Interesting. Most interesting. (On these matters as undermining the
credibility of the work when contrasted with the far more restrained canonical
gospels, see 73.)
The canonical emphasis
on specific Old Testament texts being “fulfilled” in these events is lacking as
is the introductory formulas utilized to do so.
[See Ron Cameron, The Other Gospels [pages 77-78], as quoted at 72.)
Although those hostile
to the credibility of the canonical sources sometimes date the Gospel of Peter
as early or earlier than the New Testament gospels,
the introduction of the docetic tinge produces
immediate suspicion of a post-apostolic date.
Few if any who advocate that GP came first really believe that any
account carries a credible, historically accurate—or at least close to
it!—account of the events.
Hence it is very easy to dismiss their
scholarly efforts as designed to cripple Christian faith rather than arrive at
historic truth. This “rival text” happens
to be available—and even has an apostle’s name attached--so it is bent to their
purpose.
Be that suspicion however
you judge it, the exclusivity of responsibility in the hands of the Jews argues
for a considerable amount of time to have passed however. Dividing responsibility makes both historical
and narrative sense into the 70s, 80s, and 90s of the first century when the
events were too recent to pretend something different had happened . . . but by
the 140s or so, two massive Jewish revolts had happened in geographic
Palestine and a “blame the Jews” strategy would both distinguish Christianity from
Judaism and be more inherently appealing to the Roman/gentile temperament.
The Romans were surely realist enough to
recognize governor abuse and the idea of an irresponsible official endorsing
the unjust death of a religious figure would not have horrified them pre-70. But somewhere between then and the Second
Jewish Revolt they were hardly as likely to have been as generous in regard to any
religious figure undergoing Roman sponsored death in Judaea.
We only have a very
small part (only 60 verses!) of what is assumed to be the end of the narrative
and that segment is summarized above. There
are only four references to the work preserved from antiquity.
Theodoret in his Of Heretical Fables (ii. 2)
refers to a sect in his day that utilized it:
“The Nazaraeans are Jews who know Christ as a
righteous man, and use the Gospel called
‘according to Peter’ ” (as quoted by M. R. James, The Apocryphal New Testament
(Oxford: Clarendon Press 1924), part of 74.)
The wording suggests a Jewish (presumably Jewish-Christian) group that
revered Jesus but not in the supernatural terms the canonical gospels
present.
Theodoret does not suggest any widespread use
of the book; indeed, his wording reasonably implies that this was the only
group so using it. In
other words, it persevered in a factional group rather than being in widespread
church circulation. (Some have
questioned whether the factional identification he provides actually fits with the
beliefs of that group, however.)
The second citation comes from Origen in his On
Matthew, (x.
17): “(They of Nazareth thought that
Jesus) was the son of Joseph and Mary:
but the brothers of Jesus some (founding on a tradition of the Gospel
entitled according to Peter or of the Book of James) say were sons of Joseph by
a former wife who had lived with him before Mary.”
The “Book of James” here is assumed to be
the Protevangelium attributed to James. You will notice here that the entire Gospel
of Peter must have also included some discussion of Jesus’ ministry—for the
issue of the “true” nature of the “brothers” to become a controversy—and,
presumably, the birth as well. Hence the
conclusion that what has been preserved is but a short fragment of a far longer
composition.
Finally, there are two references in Eusebius’
Church History. The first one (Volume 3. 3. 2) lists it as one of those works
not handed down as authoritative within the mainstream church tradition.
What interests us, however, is the later
reference. For he
quotes at length from Serapion (probably writing somewhere
in the time frame of 190-210 A.D.), who was Bishop of
It is
probable that others have preserved other memorials of Serapion’s
literary industry, but there have reached us only those addressed to a certain Domninus, who, in the time of persecution, fell away from
faith in Christ to the Jewish will-worship; and those addressed to Pontius and Caricus, ecclesiastical men, and other letters to different
persons, and still another work composed by him on the so-called Gospel of
Peter.
He
wrote this last to refute the falsehoods which that Gospel contained, on
account of some in the parish of Rhossus who had been
led astray by it into heterodox notions.
It may be well to give some brief extracts from his work, showing his
opinion of the book. He writes as
follows:
“For we, brethren, receive both Peter and the other apostles as
Christ; but we reject intelligently the writings falsely ascribed to
them, knowing that such were not handed down to us. When I visited you I supposed that all of you
held the true faith, and as I had not read the Gospel which they put forward
under the name of Peter, I said, ‘If this is the only thing which occasions
dispute among you, let it be read.’
“But
now having learned from what has been told me, that their mind was involved in
some heresy, I will hasten to come to you again. Therefore, brethren, expect me shortly. But you will learn, brethren, from what has
been written to you, that we perceived the nature of the heresy of Marcianus, and that, not understanding what he was saying,
he contradicted himself.
“For
having obtained this Gospel from others who had studied it diligently, namely,
from the successors of those who first used it, whom we call Docetae (for most of their opinions are connected with the
teaching of that school) we have been able to read it through, and we find many
things in accordance with the true doctrine of the Saviour,
but some things added to that doctrine, which we have pointed out for you
farther on.”
This is a most fascinating case because it
is described in enough detail to provide us far more information than the
passing mentions that we are usually compelled to rely on. Serapion was
visiting the congregation/“parish” of Rhossus—presumably
in some oversight capacity since both the event and the aftermath imply that he
was in a position to decisively intervene—yet the volume was clearly one that
he had heard nothing ill about.
Nor that there was a local “market” for
erroneous teaching. So far as he knew “I supposed that all of you
held the true faith.” He had clearly
heard nothing in other places to alert him nor saw or
heard anything when he arrived.
Almost by definition
that meant that any controversies they were having were, to use the modern
phrase, “much ado about nothing.” Hence
he had no immediate reason to even examine the GP but simply to stifle the
dissension surrounding its use: “If this
is the only thing which occasions dispute among you, let it be read.” Love it; hate it. It would do no harm, so let it be read for
the sake of peace and unity.
If his assumptions
were valid, then so was the policy he embraced.
He soon learned that
it wasn’t.
First came the reports of “some heresy” surrounding the use of the
book. He did not rely upon rumor or even
the report of others “who had studied in diligently,” but obtained the text
itself to verify (or disprove if that turned out to be the case) what he was hearing: “We have been able to read it through.”
Now notice Serapion’s criteria (c. 200 A.D.) for whether to accept or
reject the GP:
(1) It wasn’t
ancient enough. The relative
newness of the pseudo-Gospel could be seen in the fact that he obtained it
“from others who had studied it diligently, namely, from the successors
of those who first used it.” That leads
us to the conclusion that c. 200, the GP was in its
second or, at most, third generation of usage and not more. Too late to have been of
genuine apostolic origin.
(2) It
contradicted the genuine gospel.
Through his personal study of the work he found the doctrinal
accusations against it confirmed: there
were “some things added to that doctrine” of the Savior. Consistency with pre-existing teaching about
Jesus that came from acknowledged apostolic sources was essential.
(One could attempt to
dodge this by saying that the doctrine of the GP was being compared with
generally accepted contemporary church doctrine that was regarded as
that of Jesus, but since he’s testing a written document that claims
to be of the apostolic age, a comparison with written material he accepted as from
the first century itself makes far better interpretive sense.)
As noted earlier, what
has survived is only the ending of the document which has some seriously
strange peculiarities. Yet Serapion, who had the entire work, even had to concede that
there were “many things in accordance with the true doctrine of the Saviour in it,” so parts of it did impress him even
though it was not genuine scripture.
In those parts, perhaps it could be best
described as “a good Biblical imitation.” Whether that was because it essentially
repeated text from the canonical gospels or because it taught some of those
doctrines in a different wording, but with an accurate reflection of it, is
unknown to us. And barring an amazing
textual discovery will be so forever.
Both this incident and the one concerning the Acts of
Paul show that there was a potential market for second and later century
pseudonymous literature. However, there was also a clear determination
by church leaders to fight against the
acceptance of such works as authoritative and first century compositions. Even edification potential did not justify the
authorial deception of masquerading as an apostle or an apostolic contemporary.
In the case of the
Gospel of Peter, heresy was alleged as being contained in the questioned
volume; but even doctrinal purity was not enough to protect such
imitations. Tertullian
does not allege heterodoxy against the Asian presbyter who wrote the Acts of
Paul. The mere fact that it was
falsely attributed to the first century was sufficient to secure its firm
rejection. Hence the mind cast of second
century church leadership was hostile—not receptive—to the acceptance as scripture of pseudonymous literature.
(Use of such literature for edification
purposes—as acknowledged pious fiction rather than for establishing authority
and as truly apostolic may be something else--and is definitely beyond the
scope of our current study.)
IV. Anonymous Literature that
Became Pseudonymous?
We have seen that the moral guilt rightly
attached to pseudo-apostolic documents can not be removed on the grounds that
such false attributions were an acceptable literary custom within the Christian
community. A second means of removing
that moral stain is to claim that the questioned writings were originally
anonymous; only later was a name attached to the text itself and, in certain
cases, appropriate internal references added suitable to such an authorship. (At which point we surely cross the line
between anonymous turning pseudonymous into the realm of intentional fraud!)
What of the alleged secular literature precedent? Frank W. Hughes has written a fascinating
analysis defending this scenario on the basis that it was a typical Roman-Greek
writing technique (75). In such cases,
names were attached because they lacked knowledge of the genuine ones. The scenario has been suggested, in
particular, in regard to the Iliad and the Odyssey: First they circulated nameless and only later
was “Homer” attached to it.
If true, then it
argues that after a century or two or three an attribution was
made. Since full and partial canon lists
and citations of contested works as “Pauline” come far quicker than this, it is
hard to see how such examples would be relevant to the case of the New
Testament. There the false
identification has either been added to the text itself or is already
widely accepted. There simply is inadequate
time for that transition of the text from nameless to “named.”
Hughes then quietly
drifts from material that was transformed into pseudonymous literature
into writings that originated as such. (Since
we’ve already discussed this possibility at length, we’ll be brief.) By the first century, as he concedes, it
seems clear that authors who utilized such names did so with full knowledge
that they were attributing an identity to the documents that could not be
genuine.
However “innocent” that may have seemed to pagan
“secular” literature, would Christians have regarded with such moral
tranquility the act of assuming a faked identity and then widely circulating
the result as from that other person?
As an intellectual, non-religious exercise, perhaps—but even there one might
hesitate. But as a document falsely
claiming religious authority and the
right to demand adherence to it?—I think not.
Hughes argues that
“the majority of Graeco-Roman pseudepigraphy
remained undetected until modern times, even though resources for detection
existed in antiquity” and he might well be right (75). But here we are concerned not with such
materials in general or even ones attributed to post-apostolic authors,
but to pseudo-Biblical, especially pseudo-New Testament ones in
particular. Would they be so trusting (=
gullible?) of freshly minted, previous unknown epistles? (Remembering that these were written as if authoritative
and binding rather than merely “uplifting” in some vague sense.)
Hughes himself concedes that such works were
subject to challenge—if not by all (some would like the doctrinal
twists, after all), but by many. For
whatever querulous and unquestioning church leaders might have been willing to
embrace works they had not heard of previously, others were quite unwilling to
give such volumes an unthinking acceptance—showing that just because works claimed
a certain origin, it was not going to escape challenge if something seemed odd
about it. He writes:
[I]nvestigations into authenticity were reflected in works by
Clement of Alexandria, Sextus Julius Africanus, Origen, Tertullian, Leontius of
Byzantium, John of Skythopolis, Severus
of Antioch, Nikephoros I of Constantinople, and
others. At the end of the second century
CE, Clement appears to have followed local philological tradition in Alexandria
in examining the authenticity of pagan works in terms of style and language. .
. , [i.e., did it really match the contents and style one would anticipate from
that author?]
The
problem of books that never made the transition—the book of Hebrews in
particular. That a New Testament book could be
distributed without a name being specifically included is readily
admitted. The book of Hebrews is an
obvious example. Yet this book is also a
massive indictment of the anonymous to pseudonymous scenario.
Much lively debate
occurred in the second and following centuries over the true authorship. Why then wasn’t a false attribution added to
the text—especially in the early years?
After all, the book is
a lengthy one, of great use in defining the relationship of the Christian to
the Old Testament order. Its inherent
appeal would be increased even more if an apostolic name could successfully be
attached to it. Paul has been the
most commonly made attribution but where did the suspicion ever enter the
written manuscript tradition? (If it
did, it certainly wasn’t enough to engender any serious discussion as to
whether it was a valid part of the text or not!)
If as important and prominent
a book as this one did not undergo the anonymous / pseudonymous transition, why
would we expect it to have happened to other New Testament books? Of course if one were as intellectually
“playful” in an unjustified cause as the hostile critics, one could argue that
Hebrews is a wonderful example of the opposite: a document that began as pseudonymous
literature but, under suspicion as to its genuine authorship, was stripped of
the identification and made anonymous.
Don’t we have exactly as much evidence for that scenario as for theirs?
Finally, for a
misattribution to be successfully added to the text, it virtually had to be at an
extremely early date so that there would be few if any later manuscripts
lacking it. The later the date it was
added, the greater probability that a significant sub-set of manuscripts would
exist lacking it.
Hence our insistence
on an extremely early date situation as an absolute essential for the scenario
of addition to be valid. Furthermore, let
us assume that someone actually attempted the anonymous / pseudonymous
shift. Could the effort have escaped
loud and severe censure from those who knew the facts?
And those wary of the warned against
textual mutilation of an inspired text—assuming (with great justice) that the
principle of Revelation
To utterly silence all
such outbursts would have required a conspiracy (nothing less) of church-wide
dimensions, backed up with psychological intimidation at the least. Physical intimidation at
the worst. But Christian
martyrdoms showed that, for whatever their faults, they were men and women of
conviction. Silencing wouldn’t have
worked.
Furthermore, such an
effort at suppression—however genteel--would have utterly destroyed any claim
that Christianity was to be regarded as morally superior to its religious
alternatives in Judaism and polytheism.
To risk such to add a name where there was none? Really?
Chapter Six:
Verbal Arguments and the
Ability of Language to Communicate
In the previous chapters we have examined
substantive scenarios, containing arguments for which hard evidence can be
introduced in one or both directions. In
this final chapter, our emphasis will be on analyzing what might well be called
“verbal arguments,” contentions that consist more of a play on words and/or
inflammatory language. At the end we
will deal with the more legitimate question of the ability of language to
communicate spiritual truth.
I. The Shotgun of Loaded Terminology
A.
Bibliolatry
There are times when you would think that
“verbal inspiration”—or its functional equivalent if you prefer a different
formulation of the same concept—is the worst thing to happen to the world since
sin first entered. Bibliolatry is
the venomous accusation hurled by some.
What they seem to overlook is that we regard the Bible not as an
idolatrous alternative to Jehovah, but as the totally accurate
revelation of His will. It is because
of our worship of and reverence toward God that we so insist upon treating
His word with utter respect.
Even one considered an
evangelical, J. P. Morgan, delivered a public lecture in 2007 before a body of
evangelicals to warn of the danger: “In
the actual practices of the Evangelical community in
There is a certain
oddity for proving that the Scriptures alone are insufficient by citing such
malign attitudes and practices that the Scriptures themselves condemn. If we may make a pun, such things are produced
by an under- veneration of Scripture rather than any overstated
Bibliolatry. (And I don’t deny for a
second that there are those who “kill the truth” in the process of allegedly
serving it. God will not be amused.)
Here he was dealing
with what we might call the “practical” case against “Bibliolatry,” which he
describes as being “over-committed to the Bible,” but he also makes a more
germane argument when he asserts that it produces an over-reliance on one type
of evidence and exclusion of other relevant data. He does this on the basis of belief in modern
supernatural gifts still being given by God, which should, he contends, be a
tool to better understand and use scripture.
In addition the alleged over-centeredness on the Biblical text causes a
neglect of things like “natural law” and “moral theology” to deepen our
insights.
Of course there’s nothing wrong with the
latter two as a supplement to scripture—as the caboose, if you will, and never
the engine. Along with the careful
use of such--lest they become the real reason for a major belief rather
than simply playing the supplemental role of providing additional insight
into already textually established truths from Scripture. If one believes that modern revelation
continues, then that supplemental source would be valid as well. (I fervently dissent on whether they actually
exist on the basis of 1 Corinthians 13:8-10.)
Likewise there is
nothing wrong with coming to a “new interpretation” of Scripture—which he
insists that the current approach is hindering being done. At 73, I’m still learning! But there’s a profound difference between it
being an interpretation of scripture—i.e., it comes naturally and
understandably out of the text—and imposing on the text a purely conjectural
approach on a matter of faith or morals for which there is nothing from the
text to work with.
The approach may even provide a theoretical
construct of why things are stated in certain ways in the Scriptures or the
most likely reason certain teachings are presented the way they are. But
there is a profound difference between such use of supplemental resources and
permitting them to take the place of Scriptural teaching itself.
(Having seen the
strange excesses of scriptural “interpretation” that unbelieving and semibelieving exegetes have imposed on the Bible--on the
basis of what they think they’ve learned from other sources--why should I have
any great confidence that religious “conservatives” will be any more successful
in coming to text-respectful conclusions?)
If the Devil can quote
Scripture—as during Jesus’ Forty Days of Temptation—it should come as no
surprise that the Scriptures can be twisted into an active defense of the
Bibliolatry accusation. Hence we hear
that Jesus is Judge, not Scripture. We
hear that we are giving to the Bible the place due to Jesus alone.
Yet Jesus is judge,
but what will He judge by? The Scriptures given to mankind to guide and teach us. Was it not Jesus who insisted that “Scripture
cannot be broken” (John
Was it not Jesus who
promised the apostles that they would be guided “into all truth” (John
So Jesus will judge according
to the Scriptures. The Scriptures
are not king. But they are the
King’s law. How do kings normally react
to having their law treated with contempt and disdain? Do they applaud and congratulate you on your
scholarly insight? Or do they bring down
their full wrath and indignation?
B. “Paper
Pope”
Then there is the charge that “verbal
inspiration” creates “a paper Pope.”
But that assumes what it needs to prove—that the Scriptures actually don’t
have the authority the text itself repeatedly claims. Our objection to the papacy is that it is a
human invention that exists without sanction or authority of God.
On the other hand, if
the papacy were truly of Divine origin, we would be morally obligated to
submit to it just as we are morally obligated to submit ourselves to the
Scriptures—because it would be God’s will that we do so.
The terminology of despotism is freely used to
denounce “word inspiration:”
Having to submit to it would constitute a “tyranny of words” and
“make us mere slaves.” Strangely, when
we subject ourselves to the civil code of our respective states, we don’t often
consider ourselves slaves—do we? Why
then the strange paranoia if we submit ourselves to the written law of a
Legislator-King far wiser than the best and most impartial of mortals?
II. Verbal Distinctions
A.
Christ is the Word of God, not the Bible
At heart, this is verbal word
play—insisting that the “word” that judges can be used in only one sense, while
scripturally it is applied to both Jesus (John 1:1) and the written word
of Scripture. Furthermore the written
word contains the teaching of the supernatural Word/Jesus (John
One can not help but
wonder if most of those who play “Word” off against “word” really
believe He is the “Word” sent to earth by the Father to live and die for fallen
mankind. Deity incarnate in a human
body. In too many cases the denier of
one is quite happy to deny both.
(For another variant on the accusation—that Jesus is judge and not the Bible—see the section on Bibliolatry above.)
B.
The Scriptures are the “Record” of Revelation Rather than the Revelation
Itself
The reasoning goes: True revelation is found in what God did;
the Bible is merely the record of what He did. In evaluating this, we must remember that
without the written record we would have no certainty of where and when God had
acted. It would be pure guess work. Hence the action and the record are
intertwined; it is only through the latter that we are certain of the former.
And if the latter is
essential to firm knowledge of the former, doesn’t it follow that He would so
treat the preparation of the written record in a manner that would assure an
infallible record of what He had done?
Would it make much sense for Deity to go to the trouble of intervening
in human affairs and then leave the preservation of the memory of it to unaided
human endeavor?
Much is said by these
folks of the salvational acts of God, but we cannot
help but once again ask whether the emperor is naked: Can a person really believe, for example, in
the Exodus being a “salvational act” when claiming
that it actually took place in driblets over decades—if we can claim it ever
happened in any meaningful sense at all?
How can it be “salvational” if it, in essence,
never really occurred? Yet that kind of
denial is not uncommon among those who would make this kind of argument.
Let’s approach it from
a different angle: assume, for
argument’s sake, that (1) God can speak through prophets and (2) that in
a certain case He not only could, but actually did so. What could we possibly call that “speaking
forth” except Divine revelation? It does
seem more than a little strange that “revelation” is what God does, but never
what He says. Even though the latter
explains the former and asserts it is from the same source.
C.
The Scriptures “Become” the Word of God through Our “Encounter” with It
A subtle shift often occurs here, when
people prefer to speak in terms of the Bible “becoming” the word of God when we
rightly react to it rather than inherently being the word of God. If we take words to mean what they say, then
when this is argued, it logically should mean that we are vital to the
word of God existing and without us there would be no word of God. But what was it before that event if it came
from God? Does its stature hinge on us
or upon its inherent nature?
Of course, there is a
profound change when we turn from denying it is the word of God to embracing
it as such, but that change is solely within us. The word itself is the same as it was
previously, however—supremely authoritative.
What has changed is our willingness to obey it rather than defy
it.
The “encounter” line
of reasoning can easily be modified in an even more radical direction: Since the Scriptures are not inherently the
word of God, then we have a situation in which the Bible inspires us
rather than being inspired itself. To the extent that “inspiration” can be said
to exist at all, it does so when it has motivated us to act. “Inspiration” is what it has given to us—“inspiring”
our action.
If
we are to judge things on the basis of its inward effects on us, “How can we be
sure that God has not spoken to us from the record of the Koran (which is
demonstrably full of errors and anachronisms), or from the Egyptian Book of the
Dead, or from the Hindu Vedas?
Why only from the Bible?”
(15-30).
Consistency would
require that all “religious experience” be accepted as equally
valid. This may subjectively work well
for “respectable” religions, but when one enters exotic cults such as Iranian
devil worship one can’t help but suspect that even the most dedicated ecumenicalist will cringe.
Scripture becomes
true in this subjective approach because of its impact on me. To make how I
react to something the test of religious truth is the height of conceited
egotism of the worst kind. I with all my sin, corruption, and self
deception become the final arbiter of truth and error. I
with all my limitations, failings, and animosities determine truth by what I like and embrace.
Such an approach
skirts dangerously close to self-deification for we give faith in our own
judgment a place of honor that should be given only to God and the Word He
speaks through.
D.
If All “Verbally Inspired,” All of Equal Value
Hence, it is argued, the most technical
ritual detail of Leviticus is as important as the Golden Rule; similarly Paul’s
desire for his books (2 Timothy
This line of reasoning
can, of course, be used to impeach any strong, meaningful doctrine of
inspiration, not just one that encompasses the very word choices that we are
contending for.
The argument also confuses
utilitarian usefulness with inspiration.
In the state code of my native
That same code also
covers matters from obscure licensing commissions that not one percent of
Virginians have ever heard of to the financial formula for the division of
sales tax and lottery ticket sales money for public education. Obviously the latter has far “greater value”
than the former, yet the legal authority for both is identical.
In short, the
practical value may differ but the ultimate source and authority is the
same. Why then would we expect differing
practical impacts of Biblical texts to affect their identical source,
authority, and inspiration?
And even texts like
Paul’s desire for his books are not without use—just not as important use as
other passages. They show the propriety
for personal possessions, it shows the rightness of making sure they don’t
simply “get lost” or “disappear,” and it shows that first century Christians
were more book orientated than often believed. The latter, of course, is important in that
it shows their early concern with preserving what had happened not only via
verbal communication, but written communication as well.
Earth shattering, no. But still of considerably more use that one might cavalierly dismiss it.
III. The “Inability” of Language to Fully
Communicate Truth
That there is some truth to this, we
readily admit. Sometimes we mortals have
a terribly difficult time fully communicating what we wish to say. It does not take a philosopher to comprehend
this point; any person who has stood in a pulpit more than once and has felt
the audience missing some important point or another—has felt that terrible
frustration that comes from being unable to get one’s point across.
However that may well be
because we have done a bad job of presentation. Or the audience has “closed their ears:” they “can’t” hear
because they don’t want to hear what is being argued. It happens both ways.
However the situation
radically alters when we move from human communication to Divine. (Or doesn’t God actually have the power and
ability of God?) For inspiration deals
with what God has utilized His capacities and power to accomplish. As Creator and omniscient and all powerful,
He is surely able to communicate above the limited ability of His human
creation; He is able to imbue His words with a depth and fullness that we
mortals could not hope to achieve unassisted.
So failure on the part
of the Speaker is not an option. Of
course the recipient of the message may still “close their ears,” and refuse to
hear. That is not a failure in
communicating ability by God; it is a failure in “listening ability” by
hard-headed humans who “know what I believe and have no intention of changing
it.”
Furthermore, the real
question is not so much whether a “full” knowledge can be communicated by
words, but whether an “adequate” knowledge can be so communicated. Our everyday experience teaches the latter can
be done and if we mere mortals can usually accomplish at least that
much, how much more our Creator!
James Montgomery Boice has provided an amusing anecdote of the danger
inherent in detaching words from their ability to be truth- and
knowledge-bearing tools (16-156):
What
happens when the function of language as a vehicle for truth is denied may be
illustrated by this story. In one of the
classes of one of our prominent theological seminaries a professor had been
denying that words have a one-to-one relationship to meaning and had concluded
that all truth is subjective.
One
of the conservative students challenged his professor. He argued that while it is true that we often
misunderstand what is meant by a word or words, nevertheless words do have
meaning and do convey literal content.
The word “airplane” makes all who speak English think of a certain kind
of object flying through the sky, he argued.
If you say, “Look, an airplane!” people will look up.
He
gave other illustrations. Finally, the
student said to his professor, “If language is what you say it is, then
conversation is meaningless. In fact
this class is meaningless. There is no
point in our being here.”
There
was a moment of silence as the truth of the words sunk in. Then someone said, “If this is meaningless,
what shall we do for the rest of the hour?”
“Let’s
play squash,” someone suggested. So the
class got up and walked out, leaving the professor alone in his classroom.
This
is what happens when the function of language as a vehicle for truth is
denied. The result is chaos.
Rather than words having communicable
meanings, the approach we are studying often insists that they are mere
“symbols.” But this also produces a dead
end. As Gordon H.
Let a
person say that the cross symbolizes the love of God. However, if all language or all religious
language is symbolical, the statement that the cross symbolizes the love of God
is itself a symbol.
A
symbol of what? When
this last question is answered, we shall find that this answer is again
a symbol.
Then another
symbol will be needed, and another.
And the
whole process will be meaningless.
The scenario that annihilates the ability
of words to communicate adequate and accurate knowledge ties in with the
accommodation theory we have examined:
In at least some cases God had to “accommodate” to human limitations
not only because what was being said had to be in accord with what was thought
to be true . . . but also because of the limited ability of words to adequately
express truth.
If either claim be true, it wrecks havoc
with God’s power—junking omniscience and omnipotence—not to mention His moral
integrity. Therefore
providing every excuse for Christians to play games with the truth as well. Rhetorical exaggeration? Precious little. Probably none. As Tim Chaffey and
Roger Patterson write (64):
To
accept accommodationism means that God is not able to
use language in a way that perfectly communicates the meaning without embracing
falsehoods. Wayne Grudem states succinctly that to
embrace accommodation “essentially denies God’s effective lordship over human
language.”
Secondly,
. . . to say that God has communicated using a falsehood denies His moral
character as described in Numbers 23:19, Titus 1:2, and Hebrews 6:18. Further, since we are to be imitators of God
and His moral character (cf. Leviticus
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73 = Ryan
Turner. “Does the Gospel of Peter Belong
in the New Testament?” Part of the
website CARM: Christian Apologetics
& Research Ministry. At:
http://carm.org/does-the-gospel-of-peter-belong-in-the-new-testament. [June 2012.]
74 = The
Early Christian Writings website.
At: http://www.earlychristian writings.com/peter-references.html. [June 2012.]
75 = Frank
W. Hughes. “Pseudonymity
as Rhetoric: A Prolegomenon to the Study
of Pauline Pseudepigrapha.” At:
http://www.ibiblio.org/corpus-paul/afr/rhetoric.htm. [June 2012.]