could if He had pleased have created all the food required; but He saw fit rather to multiply the small supply available.

"Twas springtide when He blessed the bread:

'Twas harvest when He brake."

When the collectors for the Temple tax applied for the halfshekel, He might have produced it then and there, but instead of that He directs Peter to go to the sea and cast a hook and take up a fish, in whose mouth he will find a shekel which doubtless had been accidentally (humanly speaking) dropped into the lake and seized by the fish. It is the same with the Old Testament miracles. Tyndall complains of the enormous expenditure of energy required to cause the sun and moon to stand still at the prayer of Joshua (Josh. x. 12, 13). But by an increase in the refractive power of the atmosphere, and probably in many another way unknown to us, all that the history implies might be effected without any tremendous disturbance of physical forces. It is a general rule all through the Scriptures, that no miracle is related for which some good and sufficient reason is not apparent, or to accomplish any purpose which could be equally well accomplished by natural means. But this certainly could not be said of a miracle such as is necessary to existing theories concerning the origin of the Gospels; namely, that men should remember accurately after the lapse of a long space of time, the substance of numerous addresses spoken on various occasions during a period of three or four years. The miracle would be superfluous for the same result could be attained by the simpler process of suggesting to the minds of the witnesses to make written reports of the sayings at the time they were spoken. Moreover it is a class of miracle of which no other instance is recorded, and the magnitude of which may be measured by the consideration that, just in proportion as mind is superior to matter, so must any miraculous operation on men's mental faculties be more surprising than the like operation on merely material objects.

B

Chapter VI

FROUDE'S THEORY

EFORE leaving this part of the subject it may be well to notice a suggestion of Froude with reference to the Synoptic Problem, which, though far from being an adequate solution, has more appearance of probability than other current theories, and is, I think, deserving of more attention than it seems to have been accorded.

His words are as follows:

"One hypothesis, and so far as we can see one only, would make the mystery intelligible; that immediately on the close of our Lord's life some original sketch of it was drawn up by the congregation, which gradually grew and gathered round it, whatever His mother, His relatives, or His disciples afterwards individually might contribute. This primary history would thus not be the work of any one mind or man; it would be the joint work of the Church, and thus might well be called, 'Memoirs of the Apostles'; and would naturally be quoted without the name of either one of them being specially attached to it. As Christianity spread over the world, and separate Churches were founded by particular Apostles, copies would be multiplied, and copies of those copies; and, unchecked by the presence (before the invention of printing impossible) of any authoritative text, changes would creep in." (Short Studies on Great Subjects, Vol. 1, pp. 276, 277.)

Chapter VII

NO GENERAL BELIEF IN CONTEM

PORANEOUS RECORDS

is surprising that, in the course of the long discussion.

I that has taken place as to the origin of the Gospels, the

idea should not have gained currency that they may possibly be based upon written notes or memoranda made at the time of the events which they record, and that the longer speeches which they contain may be verbatim reports taken down at the time of delivery. The idea seems so obvious and natural that it is hardly possible that it should not have often suggested itself to New Testament students. But, be that as it may, such a notion has certainly not been widely entertained, nor has it, so far as I can learn, ever been seriously considered. To Bertholdt, it is true, the honour belongs of having advanced the opinion that the Apostle John took down at the time most of the discourses of Jesus (which he supposed were spoken in Aramaic) and made those notes the foundation of his Gospel. But although this suggestion received the partial approval of Tholuck and some few others, and is even mentioned not unfavourably by Strauss, it was not largely accepted, and Alexander alludes to it almost contemptuously in his article on John's Gospel in Kitto's Cyclopædia. With the exception just named, there are but few instances in which such an idea has been even alluded to, and in those it has been summarily dismissed as too improbable to demand serious discussion. Plumptre fairly expresses the general attitude of scholars on this subject. "It is scarcely probable," he says, "though we are not justified

in assuming it to be impossible, that any notes of our Lord's discourses or parables or shorter sayings were taken at the time, or that records of His miracles were there and then reduced to writing."

It is the design of this book to demonstrate, by what I do not hesitate to say is overwhelming evidence, that it is a matter of absolute certainty that the records of which the greater part of the Gospels were composed originated exactly in the manner in which Plumptre admits it to be possible, but asserts it to be scarcely probable, that they were written.

T

Chapter VIII

THE KEYS

O unlock the problems which have been described in the foregoing pages, four keys are necessary-one master key that applies to all the problems, and a special key for each one separately.

It thus appears that each of the problems is double-locked and to this doubtless must be attributed the difficulty that has hitherto been found in dealing with them.

The Master Key

The Master Key is :-That the narrative parts of the Gospels were written soon after and for the most part immediately after the events happened which they relate ; and that the reports of Christ's longer addresses were taken down as they were spoken.

The other keys are all dependent upon this one if any one of them is true this must be true; if this fails they all fail.

The First Special Key

The First Special Key; the key by which the Chief Problem must be unlocked, is: That our Lord was accustomed to speak in both the languages which were current in Palestine in His time, that is to say in Aramaic and Greek, and that His addresses in Aramaic are contained in the Synoptic Gospels; whilst His discourses in Greek are found only in John.

The Second Special Key

The Second Special Key; the key that unlocks the Synop