AND

THEIR SOLUTION

Being an Inquiry into the Origin
of the Four Gospels

BY

JOSEPH PALMER

"I do not call to mind any problem of natural science which has come
under my notice, which is more difficult, or more curiously interesting as
a mere problem, than that of the origin of the Synoptic Gospels, and that
of the historical values of the narratives which they contain. The Chris-
tianity of the Churches stands or falls by the results of the purely scien-
tific investigation of these questions.'

I

Preface

WAS in the first instance led to write on the subject dealt

with in this book by a sentence or two in an article by Professor J. T. Marshall in the Critical Review for July, 1892. Ever since I was a boy I had had, in common with all who have devoted much attention to the critical study of the Bible, a keen desire to know in what manner the four Gospels had come into existence. I had long felt that all current theories were inadequate; and I had, moreover, a vague impression that at least some portions of the Gospel narratives were written contemporaneously with the events they record. Several years ago this impression was strengthened by a statement which I read somewhere that the art of writing shorthand was practised in the times of the New Testament. But the impression took no definite shape, and I continued to be puzzled by those features of the Gospels which throughout this century have been a leading subject of discussion in the learned world. It was not until I read, soon after its appearance, the article above referred to, that I found the first clue to the solution of the Problems.

The article was a review on a book by Dr. Paul Ewald on The Chief Problem of the Gospel Question, in which Professor Marshall, after describing the author's views and arguments, and showing their insufficiency, concludes as follows:

I

Preface

WAS in the first instance led to write on the subject dealt

with in this book by a sentence or two in an article by Professor J. T. Marshall in the Critical Review for July, 1892. Ever since I was a boy I had had, in common with all who have devoted much attention to the critical study of the Bible, a keen desire to know in what manner the four Gospels had come into existence. I had long felt that all current theories were inadequate; and I had, moreover, a vague impression that at least some portions of the Gospel narratives were written contemporaneously with the events they record. Several years ago this impression was strengthened by a statement which I read somewhere that the art of writing shorthand was practised in the times of the New Testament. But the impression took no definite shape, and I continued to be puzzled by those features of the Gospels which throughout this century have been a leading subject of discussion in the learned world. It was not until I read, soon after its appearance, the article above referred to, that I found the first clue to the solution of the Problems.

The article was a review on a book by Dr. Paul Ewald on The Chief Problem of the Gospel Question, in which Professor Marshall, after describing the author's views and arguments, and showing their insufficiency, concludes as follows: