xt7qjq0srg8d https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0srg8d/data/mets.xml Barton, William Eleazar, 1861-1930. 1920  books b92-184-30604952 English George H. Doran, : New York : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Jesus Christ Fiction. Four hitherto unpublished gospels  : a series of character studies cast in the form of personal memoirs of John the Baptist, Andrew the brother of Simon Peter, Judas Iscariot, James the brother of Jesus / by William E. Barton. text Four hitherto unpublished gospels  : a series of character studies cast in the form of personal memoirs of John the Baptist, Andrew the brother of Simon Peter, Judas Iscariot, James the brother of Jesus / by William E. Barton. 1920 2002 true xt7qjq0srg8d section xt7qjq0srg8d 



  FOUR HITHERTO
UNPUBLISHED GOSPELS



WILLIAM E. BARTON

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     FOUR HITHERTO

UNPUBLISHED GOSPELS
     A SERIES OF CHARACTER STUDIES CAST
     IN THE FORM OF PERSONAL MEMOIRS OF

  JOHN the Baptist, ANDREW the Brother
    of Simon Peter, JUDAS ISCARIOT,
       JAMES the Brother of Jesus


                  BY
        WILLIAM E. BARTON
      Author of "The Soul of Abraham Lincoln," "The
      Paternity of Abraham Lincoln," "Jesus of
         Nazareth; His Life and the Land He
           Lived In." "The Psalms and
              Their Story," etc.
















          NEW         YORK



GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

 




















     COPYRIGHT, 1920,

BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

 
















              TO

WILLIAM GOODELL FROST
    FOR MANY YEARS PRESIDENT
        OF BEREA COLLEGE
WHO BY A LIFE OF HEROIC DEVOTION
  TO A GREAT CAUSE HAS NOBLY
     SERVED HIS GENERATION

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PREFACE



T   HE impulse to write narrative accounts of
     the life and ministry of Jesus came rather
late into the history of New Testament com-
position. The first books written were letters,
called out by particular emergencies, and were
preserved by reason of the practical wisdom of
the advice given by the apostolic authors. Some
of the later letters assumed a more formal
character, and one or two of them, like Romans
and Hebrews, evolved into doctrinal treatises
in epistolary form. After a time there were
compiled little collections of detached "say-
ings" of Jesus, which later were followed by
attempts to tell the story of his life. By the
time the Gospel according to Luke was written,
many had "taken in hand" to give account of
the life of Jesus. Of these early narratives,
four have been preserved. We have good rea-
son to believe that these are much the best
of the attempts to tell the story of Jesus. Such
apocryphal gospels as have come down to us
either entire or in fragments give us little oc-
casion to regret the loss of the others.
                      vii

 PREFACE



   Nevertheless, it is undeniable that there were
 other men who knew Jesus, some of whom were
 members of the apostolic group, who, if they
 had written of the life and ministry of Jesus
 as they saw it, would have told us some things
 which the four Gospels have omitted, just as
 each of our four gos)els contains something
 which is omitted by all three of the others,
 and we have no reason to doubt that they would
 have done this truthfully and that, whether
 such books ever became a part of the New
 Testament or not, they would have had genuine
 value for us.
 In the following chapters no considerable
 attempt is made to reconstruct incidents which
 the Gospels do not record, or to imagine scenes
 which these men witnessed in which the others
 did not have a share. Such a literary method
 would involve more of modern imagination than
 seems 1)rofitable. But it is in order to recall
 the events in which we know these particular
 men participated and to endeavour to discover
 how they would have appeared in their eyes.
 Such a method cannot seem irreverent, and it
 may be pursued with profit. Our four Gospels
 might have been eight or twelve; each of the
 apostles might have written one; and so might
others who like Mark and Luke had never been
apostles.
                     Viii

 
PREFACE



   These four narratives make no pretence of
antiquity. They are a modern attempt to dis-
cover what kind of side-light would have been
cast upon the ministry of Jesus if four other
men, besides the four who have told us of Him,
had written brief stories of what thev sawv and
thought about Jesus. For most that these con-
tain, the Four Gospels themselves are our au-
thority; but the material is given a somewhat
different emphasis when we attempt to view it
successively through the eyes of John the Bap-
tist, James the brother of Jesus, Judas Iscariot,
sand Andrew the brother of Simon Peter.
  If anyone finds himself disposed to criticise
the application of the term "Gospel" to these
quasi autobiographical sketches, I shall be the
first to admit the justice of the criticism. If
a "gospel" be an attempt to tell the whole story
of the life of Jesus, these are not gospels, but
personal reminiscences. But we have come to
use the word "gospel" in a special sense which
may perhaps be sufficiently elastic to cover these
narratives. The use of the word "gospel" to
describe any narrative is an accommodation of
language. Gospel is "good news" and the term
is used in the New Testament strictly in this
sense. Paul rejoiced when Timothy arrived in
Corinth and "preached the gospel" that the
people of Thessalonica were steadfast in their
                     ix

 
PREFACE



faith and in their affection for him (I These.
:6). But we have come to use the term in the
technical sense of an account of the life of
Jesus, though the titles, as everyone knows, are
simply "According to Matthew," "According
to Mark,"' and so on. The term gospel is con-
venient for this purpose, and the present use
of it is no violent departure from established
usage.
   These four narratives differ only in form
and not in their essential method from ordinary
forms of Bible study. Their chief point of
difference is the use of the first person instead
of the third. All the inquiry as to motive and
mental attitude which these studies undertake
has to be undertaken in any intelligent attempt
to interpret the Gospel narratives. But the use
of the first person has this literary and practical
advantage, that it assists the process of psy-
chological analysis; it causes us to inquire not
so much how these four men appeared, as how
events which they witnessed appeared to them.
This is not only a legitimate but a useful method
of study. The Bible is rich in biographical
material; we use it too little and with unneces-
sary restrictions as to method and form. Any
method of study which reminds us that the
apostles were real men, and acted upon motives
                      x

 
PREFACE



such as are common to the experience of men,
is useful and to be desired.
   This series of studies was delivered during
the Lenten period of 1920 in the author's own
church., and met with favor there.
  The Scripture text used is that of the scholarly
and suggestive translation of Dr. Moffatt. I
acknowledge his courtesy and that of the pub-
lishers, George H. Doran Company, for its use.
                                  W. E. B.

First Church Study,
Oak Park, Illinois.
   Easter, 1920.

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CONTENTS



GENERAL INTRODUCTION . . . . . . .

                     I
The Gospel According to JOHN THE BAPTIST

                     II



The Gospel According to ANDREW..  .  .

                     III
The Gospel According to JUDAS ISCARIOT          .

                     IV
The Gospel According to JAMES THE BROTHER
   OF JESUS . . . . . . . . . . .



PAGE
17



'35



65



93



121



x311

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FOUR HITHERTO



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GOSPELS

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       FOUR HITHERTO
 UNPUBLISH ED GOSPELS


       GENERAL INTRODUCTION

I T will assist in the interpretation of the fol-
I lowing chapters if we remind ourselves of
the known facts and accepted or reasonably
probable traditions concerning the four men
whose reminiscences are imagined to be con-
tained in the four succeeding narratives.  It
will be remembered that, with the exception of
John the Baptist, we have no knowledge of any
of the associates of Jesus prior to their coming
to Him, except as the narratives of the four
Gospels give us intimations of residence, occu-
pation, name of father, and other incidental
information; and that for knowledge of them
after the close of the Gospels we have no cer-
tain information outside the Epistles and the
Book of Acts, which is devoted almost exclu-
sively to the work of Peter and Paul. The
traditions that have been preserved are of
variable reliability.  In some cases they ap-
                    17

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pear to carry a reasonable certainty, and in
others they are almost certainly incorrect. Each
of the four narratives has prefaced to it a
selection of Scripture selections, giving some
of the chief incidents in which these men re-
spectively had a share; these do not undertake
to give all the New Testament allusions, but the
additional ones can easily be found by any in-
terested student. For the ordinary reader they
are sufficient. I deem it wise in addition to
give these paragraphs of introduction to each
of the four documents, and to assemble them
in this general introduction in order to avoid
needless breaks in the continuity of the main
part of this little volume.

              JOHN TIHE BAPTIST
 JOHN THE BAPTIST was the eldest son
    and probably the only child of Zachariah,
a priest, and Elizabeth, his wife. Elizabeth
was a cousin of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
They were not only cousins but friends, and
Alary spent three months with Elizabeth dur-
ing the period that preceded the birth of their
respective children. John is supposed to have
been about six months older than Jesus and died
about a year and a half before the crucifixion
of Jesus, when John was in his thirty-second
year.
                     18

 GENERAL INTRODUCTION



  Our knowledge of the birth and childhood
of John is contained in a single narrative, that
of Luke, and belongs to that group of feminine
traditions which is peculiar to the third Gospel.
  This narrative tells us that John was a child
of promise and was born when his parents were
old. Their home was in a city of Judah, sup-
posed to have been in the general region of
Bethlehem and Hebron. It is not named and
its precise location is not given. John was a
Nazarite from his birth, not cutting his hair
or beard or eating flesh or drinking wine. He
was not, however, a vegetarian. His diet con-
sisted of locusts, insects that were gathered by
the natives of Judea, and parched, and served
with wild honey.   John has frequently been
spoken of as belonging to the sect of the Es-
senes. This is a mistake. Our knowledge of
this sect, the first form of monasticism organ-
ised in the Mediterranean world, is meagre, but
we are sure John did not belong to this organ-
isation, though it may have influenced him.
The Essenes lived in communities and abjured
private property and marriage.    They were
strict vegetarians.
  John was at home in Jerusalem, where the
family went regularly at the time of the exer-
cise of Zachariah's priestly functions, but he
turned his back on the luxury of the city and
                     19

 FOUR HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED GOSPELS



retired to the desert, where he brooded on the
evils of his time and his ardent desire for the
coming of the kingdom of God. Living in the
wilderness of Judea near the Jordan, he began
to preach, and as he won converts he baptised
them after the manner of the Jews, who bap-
tised their non-Jewish proselytes. The rite of
baptism as he exercised it was neither orthodox
Jewish baptism, for it was administered to
Jews, nor vet was it Christian baptism. Tt was
a kind of initiation into a new order of prose-
lytes of righteousness.
   Jesus caine to John for baptism, thus en-
rolling himself as one of Joln's disciples, and
John testified to Jesus as the Messiah, whonm
he had predicted.   They did not work long
together and their methods, which at the outset
appeared to be similar, developed wide diver-
gence as the ministry of Jesus proceeded.
  John came into conflict with Herod Antipas,
whom lie rebuked for his adultery withl Herod's
brother's wife (MAark 6:18). On this account
John was cast into prison.   The hatred of
Herodias, Herod's mistress, now found oppor-
tunity to display itself, and she and her daugh-
ter, whose traditional name was Salome, caused
him to be beheaded. Herod was troubled in his
conscience on account of this murder, and when
he heard of the preaching of Jesus lie said,
                     20

 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION



"John the Baptist is risen from "he dead"'
(Mark 6:14).
   While John was in prison he underwent a
period of great depression and doubt, and sent
two of his disciples to Jesus, asking, "Art thou
le that should come, or look we for another"
The answer of Jesus must have done something
to reassure him, but still it must have seemed to
John passing strange that he should have been
left to die in prison.
  There is no finer example of loyal friendship
or heroic self-renunciation in all human history
than that of John the Baptist.  The record
shows him to have been a man of unflinching
courage, of deep spirituality and of noble devo-
tion to duty. Jesus paid to him the highest trib-
ute that Ile ever paid to any man, and John de-
served everv word of it.
  The place where John suffered martyrdom is
traditionally identified with the castle of Ma-
chawrus, which overlooks the Dead Sea, and the
tradition is wholly probable. This narrative is
supposed to have been written in that prison
just before the execution of John.
  There are interesting and important elements
in the martyrdom of John which appear also
in the sacrifice of Jesus. There are also marked
differences, among which this is notable, that
in the crucifixion of Jesus there is no agency
                     21

 
FOUR HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED GOSPELS



of woman. The novelists and dramatists of the
world whose tendency it is to relate all tragedies
to sex come squarely against this fact, that men
and only men had share in the greatest tragedy
ever enacted on earth.   Of woman in those
terrible days it has been well said,-

"Not she with traitorous kiss her Saviour stung;
Not she denied Him with unholy tongue:
She, when apostles shrank, could danger brave-
Last at the cross, and earliest at the grave."

  The motives that drove Jesus to the cross
are to be found in the sphere of man's ambi-
tion and achievement, in political action, in
institutionalised and apostate religion, in mas-
culine greed and male cowardice.
  In the tragedy of John another motive en-
ters. Two wicked women had their important
share in his death. The motives of Herodias are
apparent. The question has often been raised,
and cannot certainly be answered, whether her
daughter, called Salome, had any other motive
than the desire to please her mother. A popular
drama has assumed such a motive and has
worked it out ingeniously, but in the judgment
of the present author, unworthily.  It is not
at all impossible, however, that the daughter of
Herodias may have had her own reasons for
her action, and that suggestion is referred to,
                      22

 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION



but not enlarged upon, in the narrative here
presented.
                   ANDREW

r IHE name Andrew is from the Greek, and
I means 'manly." He was a brother of
Simon Peter, and the one through whom Simon
himself came to Jesus. The Synoptic Gospels
give us little except his name, grouped in its
relation to that of Simon Peter in the lists of
the twelve apostles. The Fourth Gospel gives
to us a distinct impression of his character and
service.
  Andrew was a native of Bethsaida, and his
father's name was John. Andrew was a fisher-
man, and lived at Capernaum in the same house
with his brotier Simnion. His first appearance
in the Gospel narrative is at the river Jordan,
where lhe was a disciple of John the Baptist,
and one of the first two who followed Jesus.
He went out immediately and found his brother
Simon and brought him to Jesus.
  The actual call to permanent association with
Jesus followed some months later, and the two
brothers, together with the other members of
the apostolic group, became the constant com-
panions of Jesus and remained with Him to the
end of his ministry.
  Andrew's name appears in the apostolic lists

 
FOUR HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED GOSPELS



in the first group of four, Simon and Andrew,
James and John; but in the innermost circle
of three his name is omitted; Peter and the two
sons of Zebedee are the three who are nearest
to Jesus on the great occasions.
   On two occasions, the feeding of the multi-
tude, and the coming of the Greeks to see Jesus
at the feast at Jerusalem, Andrew has a promi-
nent part, and is associated with Philip, the
only other apostle who had a Greek name. (John
6:5, seq., and 12:20 seq.) After this Andrew is
not mentioned in the New Testament, except
as one of those who came to Jesus for an ex-
planation of His prediction of tie destruction
of Jerusalem (Mark 13:30), and as one of those
present with the apostolic group after the resur-
rection of Jesus (Acts 1:13).
  There is a tradition that Andrew later be-
came a missionary to Achaia, and that he was
martyred at Patre, being bound to a "decus-
sate" cross, that is, a cross shaped like the letter
X. About 740 he became the patron saint of
Scotland through the belief that his arm bad
been brought to the town on the east coast of
Scotland which in his honour is named St. An-
drews.
  The Muratorian Fragment preserves a tradi-
tion that John and Andrew were together in
their old age, in which association John, in
                     24

 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION



obedience to a revelation made to Andrew, wrote
the Fourth Gospel, and Andrew reviewed and
approved it.  (See Wescott, GGspel of John,
p. xxxv.)
  Fragments of an apocryphal work known as
"The Acts of Andrew" are given in the volume
of "Apocryphal Acts" edited by Bernard Pick
(Open Court Publishing Company). This docu-
ment manifests the ascetic tendency of a later
time, and affords no insight into the real char-
acter of Andrew.
  The legend of his preaching in Achaia is
held by some scholars to be an error arising
from a confusion of names, the real scene of his
labours being, as they hold, and as I am dis-
posed to think, on the east shore of the Black
Sea. This agrees with the statement of Euse-
bius, the eminent church historian, that Andrew
laboured in the region of the Black Sea; and
he is on that account accepted as the patron saint
of Russia.
  His character, as the Gospel narrative dis-
closes it, was that of an earnest, straightfor-
ward and business-like man, who did his part
in a way that was generally inconspicuous but
which manifested fidelity and good sense.
  As he lived in the home of Simon, whose wife
is mentioned, and there is no mention of the
wife of Aindrew, we may infer that he was
                     25

 FOUR HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED GOSPELS



unmarried or a widower, but this, of course,
is not certain. He was a devoted and useful,
though not brilliant, follower of Jesus.
  The following narrative assumes the truth
of the tradition that he laboured in the region
of the Black Sea and that the legend of his
labour in Achaia is a mistake. It is supposed
to have been written near the end of his long
life, in prison near the Black Sea.

               JUDAS ISCARIOT

 TUDAS was the son of one Simon and was
 si born in Kerioth, a city or village of Judah.
 This town has not been identified and some
 scholars incline to the opinion that the name
 is a corruption of Jericho.
 The name Judas was a common one, being
 the Greek form of the Hebrew name Judah.
 There are six persons known to us before the
 time of Christ who bear this name, and six
 others in the New Testament. Most illustrious
 of all these was Judas MIaccabeus, one of the
 noblest and most highly honoured of all the
 heroes of Jewish history. His popularity ac-
 counts in part for the frequency of the name.
 The life of Judas, previous to his call to be
 a disciple, is unknown to us. We are not told
when or under what circumstances he came to
                     26

 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION



Jesus. The name of Judas invariably occurs
last in all the lists of the apostles, but this is
because of his character and indicates nothing
of the time of his coming to Jesus. That time,
however, was certainly after the call of the
first six, Simon and Andrew, James and John,
Philip and Nathanicl, and probably also after
that of Matthew and some of the others. It is
to be assumed that Judas shared in the privi-
leges and prerogatives of the apostolic group,
and it is quite certain that up to the time of
the Last Supper he had not manifested any
such depravity as might have enabled the dis-
ciples instantly to recognise the one among them
all who was most likely to betray the Lord.
W\hatever jealousy and suspicions existed prior
to the actual act of betrayal, his associates had
not marked him in their mind as wholly base, or
deprived him of his office as treasurer. After
that event it was easy for the disciples to re-
member suspicious acts on the part of Judas
to which they had given little attention at the
time.
  The motive of Judas in the betrayal of Jesus-
has been the subj ect of no little conj ecture.
The Fourth Gospel speaks of him as a thief,
and states that his visit to the priests with the
offer of the betrayal of Jesus followed his dis-
appointment that Mary's alabaster box of oint-
                     27

 FOUR HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED GOSPELS



ment was not sold and the money put into the
treasury, which he controlled. This we accept
as a true statement. It would not be safe to
presumue, however, that the sole motive of Judas
was resentment on account of the Bethany in-
cident, or disappoin'rnent that le was not per-
mitted an opportunity for pilfering from this
larger sum. Nor are we justified in assuming
that the thirty pieces of silver constituted his
chief inducement. Had lie been only a thief,
lie could have found some more fruitful field
for the employment of his proclivities than
was offered by the scanty treasury of the apos-
tolic company.
  Attempts have been made to condone his act,
and even to exalt: it into one of sincere, though
misguided  patriotism.  The uncompromising
words of Jesus as recorded ia, the Gospels con-
cerning Judas do not permit us to deceive our-
selves with alny theory which would make his
betrayal of his Lord a meritorious act. It must
have been, however, something more than ex-
pression of covetousness, although covetousness
had its part in the shameful deed.
  Some years ago the writer was in Oberam-
mergau, the guest of Anton Lang and his wife
and talked with them concerning the promi-
nence of Judas in the Passion Play, in which
next to the Christus he is the leading male
                     23

 
GENERAL INTRODUCTTION



character.  The writer said to these friends,
"I should think that any man would be reluc-
tant to assume the character of Judas in the
Passion Play, but I find it is eagerly sought
for."  Frau Lang could not understand my
point of view. She said, "Oh, but consider how
high an honor it is to be able to show the re-
pentance of so great a sinner."
  The reader of this little volume will not need
to be told that of the four brief interpretations
here given that of Judas presents far more
difficulties than any of the other three. The
viewpoint of the writer is that of the New
Testament narratives.  He assumes their re-
liability, so far as they go; but they do not at-
tempt anything like an analysis of the motives
of Judas.  These almost certainly were more
complex than the New Testament writers had
any occasion to explore. The first three Gospels
deal with these motives hardlv at all and John
is concerned only with the relation of the be-
trayal to the anointing at Bethany. It is legiti-
mate, therefore, to inquire what were the deeper,
underlying motives of Judas.   In the j udg-
ment of the writer there is sufficient material
for a reasonable hypothesis, which makes the
crime of Judas comprehensible, while still leav-
ing it almost shameful and despicable act.
  This narrative is presumed to have been writ-
                     29

 FOUR HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED GOSPELS



ten on Saturday, the day following the cruci-
fixion.

       JAMES THE BROTHER OF JESUS
 J ESUS was the first born son of Mary (Luke
    2:7).  Subsequently she bore to Joseph
four sons, whose names were James, Joseph,
Judas and Simon, and several daughters (Mat-
thew  13:55, 56; Mlark 6:3). The family in
which Jesus was reared therefore consisted of
five sons and not less than two daughters. The
theory that these other children were older than
Jesus and children of Joseph by a previous
marriage, has no proof whatever and is a pure
invention intended to support the theory of
Mary's perpetual virginity.
  It is notable that the five sons of this family
all had Old Testament names,-Joshua or
Jesus, Jacob or James, Joseph, Judas or Judah,
and Simeon or Simon. The attitude of James
himself as being very zealous for the law would
appear to have been characteristic of the family
in which he and Jesus were reared.
  The preeminence of James among the
"brothers of the Lord" would appear to indicate
that he next after Jesus was the eldest son.
He was in youth, therefore, the constant asso-
ciate, schoolmate, playmate and fellow-appren-
tice of Jesus.
                    s0

 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION



   During the ministry of Jesus his brethren
did not believe in Him. At times they thought
Him mad and went to Capernaum to arrest Him
(Mark 3:21, 31). At least once they sneered
at Him (John 7:3-5). Their unbelief must have
been a part of the cruel disappointment which
Jesus suffered on his first return to his home
town, Nazareth.
  That Jesus did not fully trust his relatives
is indicated in the fact that Hie commended his
mother to the care of John.
  After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to His
brother James (I Corinthians 15:7). It would
appear that the conversion of James was the
direct result of this appearance. Of the sub-
sequent history of James we gather from the
Acts of the Apostles and from the Epistles of
Paul that, after the Ascension, he, with his
brothers, remained at Jerusalem in company
with the eleven apostles and Mary and the other
women, and that they were there together on
the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:14).
  One of the strangest facts in New Testament
history is this, that within ten years from that
time, James had become the recognised head
of the church at Jerusalem, and "the brethren
of the Lord" had come to a recognition that
placed them above the twelve apostles. We
have no information which enables us to account
                     31

 
FOUR HITHERTO UTNPUBLISHED GOSPELS



for this remarkable experiment in church gov-
ernment, which for a timde promised or threat-
eued to lodge something like hereditary sacer-
dotal authority in a succession of the blood re-
lations of Jesus. Fortunately this did not last,
but it lasted for a number of years. This we
must attribute in some degree to the high charac-
ter of James.
  Paul informs us that three vyears after his
conversion, that is to say about 38 A.D., he
went up to Jerusalem and remained with Peter
fifteen days, seeing no other apostle but only
James, the Lord's brother (Galatians 1:18-19).
When Peter escaped from prison, about six
years after this (A.D. 41), he went to the
house of -Mary, the mother of MIark, and de-
sired that news of his escape might be sent to
James and the brethren (Acts 12:17). Most
striking of all these references is that recorded
in Acts 15 and in Galatians 2 :9, in which about
the year A.D. 51 James presided at the Council
in Jerusalem., which passed definitely upon the
question whether Gentile Christians were to be
required to keep the Jewish law. Seven years
later James was still in the same position of
authority, when, about 58 A.I)., Paul returned
from his third missionary journey (Acts 21:18).
  It would appear from I Corinthians 9:5 that
James was married, but we know nothing of his
                     9C)

 GENERAL INTRODUCTION



family life. Paul's reference might be applied
to a sister instead of to a wife.
  James came to be known as the Just. He
was very zealous for the Jewish law. Early
tradition speaks of him as a man of constant
prayer, whose knees became calloused like the
knees of a camel bv his incessant devotions.
  We have no account in the New Testament
of the death of James. There is a tradition
that he was killed by a blow from a fuller's
club, but this tradition carries no great weight.
He is generally believed to have been the author
of the epistle of James.
  The narrative here presented is presumed
to have been written shortly after the Council
at Jerusalem, described in Acts 15, when James
was at the height of his honour as head of
the Jerusalem  church.  It undertakes to tell
something of what James might have told of
his boyhood memories of Jesus and of the ex-
periences which preceded his own conversion.

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The Gospel According to JOHN



THE BAPTIST

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MARK 1:1-11.
T  HE beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ [the
     Son of God].
  As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
  EIhre I send my messenger before your face
    to prepare the way for you:
  the voice of one who crics in the desert,
    'Make the way ready for the Lord,
    level the paths for him'-
John appeared baptising in the desert and preaching
a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins;
and the whole of Judaea and all the people of Jeru-
salem weent out to him and got baptised by him in the
Jordan river, confessing their sins. John was dressed
in camel's hair, with a leather girdle round his loins,
and he ate locusts and wild honey. He announced,
  "After me one who is mightier will come,
    and I am not fit to stoop and untie the string of
      his sandals:
  I have baptised you with water,
    but he will baptise you with the holy Spirit."
  Now it was in those days that Jesus arrived from
Nazareth in Galilee and got baptised in the Jordan
by John. And the moment he rose from the water
h-" saw the heavens cleft and the Spirit coming down
upon him like a dove; then said a voice from heaven,
  "Thou art my Son, the Beloved,
    in thee is my delight."
                        '37

 
FOUR HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED GOSPELS



MARK 6:14-29.
  Now the preaching of Jesus came to the hearing of
king Herod, for the name of Jesus had become well
known; people said, "John the Baptiser has risen
from the dead, that is why miraculous powers are
working through him ;" others said, "It is Elij ah,"
others again, "It is a prophet, like one of the old
prophets."  But when Herod heard of it he saiM,
"John has risen, the John I beheaded." For this
Herod had sent and arrested John and bound him
in prison on account of his marriage to Herodias,
the wife of his brother Philip; John had told Herod,
"You have no right to your brother's wife." Herodlias
had a grudge against him; she wanted him killed but
she could not manage it, for Herod stood in awe of
John, knowing he was a just and holy man; so he
protected John-he was greatly exercised when he
listened to him, still he was glad to listen to him.
Then came a holiday, when Herod held a feast on his
birthday for his chief officials and generals and the
notables of Galilee. The daughter of Herodias went
in and danced to them, and Herod and his guests
were so delighted that the king said to the girl, "Ask
anything you like and I will give you it." He swore
to her, "I will give you whatever you want, were it
the half of my realm." So she went out and said to
her mother, "What am I to ask" "John the Bap-
tiser's head," she answered. Then she hurried in at
once and asked the king, saving, "I want you to give
me this very moment John the Baptist's head on a
dish." The king was very vexed, but for the sake
of his oaths and his guests he did not like to disap-
point her; so the king at once sent one of the guard
with orders to bring his head. The man went and
beheaded him