VII 



AGNOSTICISM 223 



since the date of the oldest known manuscripts. 

 The oldest two copies of the second Gospel end 

 with the 8th verse of the 16th chapter; the 

 remaining twelve verses are spurious, and it is 

 noteworthy that the maker of the addition has not 

 hesitated to introduce a speech in which Jesus 

 promises his disciples that "in My name shall 

 they cast out devils." 



The other passage " rejected to the margin " is 

 still more instructive. It is that touching 

 apologue, with its profound ethical sense, of the 

 woman taken in adultery which, if internal 

 evidence were an infallible guide, might well be 

 affirmed to be a typical example of the teachings 

 of Jesus. Yet, say the revisers, pitilessly, " Most 

 of the ancient authorities emit John vii. 53-viii. 

 11." Now let any reasonable man ask himself 

 this question. If, after an approximate settle- 

 ment of the canon of the New Testament, and 

 even later than the fourth and fifth centuries, 

 literary fabricators had the skill and the audacity 

 to make such additions and interpolations as 

 these, what may they have done when no one 

 had thought of a canon ; when oral tradition, still 

 unfixed, was regarded as more valuable than such 

 written records as may have existed in the latter 

 portion of the first century ? Or, to take the 

 other alternative, if those who gradually settled 

 the canon did not know of the existence of the 

 oldest codices which have come down to us ; or if, 



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