All biblical scholars of any standing, even the
most conservative, have come to admit that all three took their
rise in the same original sources, growing by the accretions sure
to come as time went on--accretions sometimes useful and often
beautiful, but in no inconsiderable degree ideas and even
narratives inherited from older religions: it is also fully
acknowledged that to this growth process are due certain
contradictions which can not otherwise be explained. As to the
fourth Gospel, exquisitely beautiful as large portions of it are,
there has been growing steadily and irresistibly the conviction,
even among the most devout scholars, that it has no right to the
name, and does not really give the ideas of St. John, but that it
represents a mixture of Greek philosophy with Jewish theology, and
that its final form, which one of the most eminent among recent
Christian scholars has characterized as "an unhistorical product of
abstract reflection," is mainly due to some gifted representative
or representatives of the Alexandrian school.
Pages:
1364
1365
1366
1367
1368
1369
1370
1371
1372
1373
1374
1375
1376
1377
1378
1379
1380
1381
1382
1383
1384
1385
1386
1387
1388