CNT-12 GENUINE AND SPURIOUS BOOKS

GENUINE AND SPURIOUS BOOKS which existed in the early ages, and were well known to the primitive Christians.

Let it be remembered that to a certain extent the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament are independent of each other; and should half of them be proved to be spurious, that would by no means invalidate the author­ity of the rest. Should three of the Gospels be cast aside, the fourth, whichever it might be, would furnish a firm foundation for a saving faith. So if two or three of the Epistles were found to be destitute of apostolic authority, this fact would no more invalidate the others than the rejection of an incompetent witness from a courtroom would invalidate the testimony of a score of competent witnesses who were ready to testify concerning every point in dispute.

Let us then devote a little attention to this subject. We find that Christians in very early ages made a sharp and definite distinction between different classes of relig­ious writings which were current among them. (1) There were those which were undisputed, being universally received without question among all Christians as genu­ine writings, having apostolic authority. (2) There were books which were disputed, and which, while acknowledged and received by many, were questioned by others, either because their authorship was unknown to them, or else because, though they were known to the productions of good men, they were not of apostolic origin. (3) There were books which all agreed in rejecting as spurious; they being either forgeries, in the names of the apostles, or the productions of persons who were destitute of apos­tolic authority.

These three classes of books we find described at a very early period. Of course the fact that a book was dis­puted by some was not evidence that it deserved to be rejected; but rather that those who disputed its authority had not yet received sufficient evidence of its authorship to warrant them in accepting it. Such evidence might be within the reach of others, and might subsequently be brought to their notice. But in the absence of such evi­dence they were warranted in suspending judgment, and declining to receive books for which they had not the fullest warrant and authority. To examine the various authorities, and exhaust this subject, would require volumes. But a few facts can be given, which have a definite bearing upon the question before us, and we will commence with a quotation from the Ecclesiastical History of the learned Eusibius.