History of the Christian Church, Volume I: Apostolic Christianity. A.D. 1-100.

as in other respects, so in this, rise almost entirely above the circumstances of the time,

but the Epistles are, humanly speaking, the result of the very conflict between the good

and the evil elements which existed together in the bosom of the early Christian society.

As they exhibit the principles afterward to be unfolded into all truth and goodness, so the

heresies which they attack exhibit the principles which were afterward to grow up into all

the various forms of error, falsehood and wickedness. The energy, the freshness, nay, even

the preternatural power which belonged to the one belonged also to the other. Neither the

truths in the writings of the Apostles, nor the errors in the opinions of their opponents,

can be said to exhibit the dogmatical form of any subsequent age. It is a higher and more

universal good which is aimed at in the former; it is a deeper and more universal principle

of evil which is attacked in the latter. Christ Himself, and no subordinate truths or

speculations concerning Him, is reflected in the one; Antichrist, and not any of the particular

outward manifestations of error which have since appeared, was justly regarded by the

Apostles as foreshadowed in the other." — Dean Stanley (Apostolic Age, p. 182).

Literature.—The heresies of the Apostolic Age have been thoroughly investigated by

Neander and Baur in connection with the history of Ebionism and Gnosticism (see next vol.), and

separately in the introductions to critical commentaries on the Colossians and Pastoral Epistles;

also by Thiersch, Lipsius, Hilgenfeld. Among English writers we mention Burton: Inquiry into the

Heresies of the Apostolic Age, in eight Sermons (Bampton Lectures). Oxford, 1829. Dean Stanley:

Sermons and Essays on the Apostolic Age, pp. 182–233, 3d ed. Oxford, 1874. Bishop Lightfoot:

Com. on St. Paul’s Ep. to the Colossians and to Philemon, pp. 73–113 (on the Colossian heresy

and its connection with Essenism). London, 1875. Comp. also Hilgenfeld: Die Ketzergeschichte

des Urchristenthums. Leipzig, 1884 (642 pages).

CHAPTER XII.

THE NEW TESTAMENT.

§ 74. Literature.

Comp. the Lit. on the Life of Christ, § 14, and on the Apostolic Age, § 20.

I. The Critical Editions of the Greek Testament by Lachmann (1842–50, 2 vols.); Tischendorf (ed.

octava critics major, 1869–72, 2 vols., with Prolegomena by C. R. Gregory, Part I., Leipz.,

1884); Tregelles (1857–79); Westcott and Hort (1881, with a vol. of Introd. and Appendix.

Cambridge and New York, revised ed. 1888).

Lachmann laid the foundation; Tischendorf and Tregelles greatly enlarged and carefully sifted the

critical apparatus; Westcott and Hort restored the cleanest text from the oldest attainable sources;

all substantially agree in principle and result, and give us the ancient uncial instead of the

mediaeval cursive text.

Two bilingual editions also deserve special mention in connection with the recent revision of

Luther’s and King James’s versions. Oskar von Gebhardt, Novum Testamentum Graece et

Germanice, Lips., 1881, gives the last text of Tischendorf (with the readings of Tregelles, and

Westcott and Hort below) and the revised translation of Luther. His Greek text is also separately

issued with an "Adnotatio critica," not contained in the diglott edition. The Greek-English New

A.D. 1-100.