PREFACE XV11 



certain occasion, mentioned in the first Gospel ; 

 altogether another, whether more or fewer of the 

 propositions contained in the "Sermon on the 

 Mount " were uttered on that occasion. One may 

 give an affirmative answer to one of each of these 

 pairs of questions and a negative to the other : one 

 may affirm all, or deny all. 



In considering the historical value of any four 

 documents, proof when they were written and 

 who wrote them is, no doubt, highly important. 

 For if proof exists, that A B C and D wrote them, 

 and that they were intelligent persons, writing 

 independently and without prejudice, about facts 

 within their own knowledge their statements 

 must need be worthy of the most attentive con- 

 sideration. 1 But, even ecclesiastical tradition does 

 not assert that either " Mark " or " Luke " wrote 

 from his own knowledge indeed " Luke " ex- 

 pressly asserts he did not. I cannot discover that 

 any competent authority now maintains that the 

 apostle Matthew wrote the Gospel which passes 

 under his name. And whether the apostle John 

 had, or had not, anything to do with the fourth 

 Gospel ; and if he had, what his share amounted 

 to ; are, as everybody who has attended to these 

 matters knows, questions still hotly disputed, and 

 with regard to which the extant evidence can 



1 Not necessarily of more than this. A few centuries ago the 

 twelve most intelligent and impartial men to be found in 

 England, would have independently testified that the sun 

 moves, from east to west, across the heavens every day. 



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