ii THE ARREST OF ENQUIRY 43 



about 70 A.D. The fourth Gospel, which tradition 

 attributes to John, is generally believed to be half a 

 century later than Mark. It seems likely that the 

 importance of collecting the words of Jesus into any 

 permanent form did not occur to those who had 

 heard them, because the belief in his speedy return 

 was all-powerful among them, and their life and 

 attitude towards everything shaped accordingly. 



Without sacred books, priesthood or organisation, 

 these earliest disciples, whom the fate of their leader 

 had driven into hiding for a time, gathered them- 

 selves into groups for communion and worship. 'In 

 the church of Jerusalem,' says Selden in his Table 

 Talk (xiv.), 'the Christians were but another sect of 

 Jews that did believe the Messias was come/ From 

 that sacred city there went forth preachers of this 

 simple doctrine through the lands where Greek- 

 speaking Jews, known as those of the Dispersion, 

 had been long settled. These formed a very 

 important element in the Roman Empire, being 

 scattered from Asia Minor to Egypt, and thence in all 

 the lands washed by the Mediterranean. As their 

 racial isolation and national hopes made them the 

 least contented among the subject-peoples, a series of 

 tolerant measures securing them certain privileges, 

 subject to loyal behaviour, had been prudently 

 granted by their Roman masters. The new teaching 

 spread from Antioch to Alexandria and Rome. But 

 early in the onward career of the movement a division 

 broke out among the immediate disciples of Jesus 

 which ended in lasting rupture. A distinguished 

 convert had been won to the faith in the person of 

 the Apostle Paul. He is the real founder of Chris- 



