606 NEW TESTAMENT 



so late as perhaps to fall outside the scope of the historian of the 

 origin of Christianity, are there outside the canon books which are 

 of so early date and of such character as to demand consideration as 

 possible sources for the history of the rise of Christianity, and so 

 inclusion in the scope of New Testament introduction in the sense 

 which we have given to it? To answer this question definitely and 

 specifically would carry us beyond the proper limits of this paper. 

 It must suffice to answer that, as the historians of the life of Jesus are 

 recognizing that they must consider the possible value for their science 

 of the gospel according to the Hebrews, the Oxyrynchus logia, and 

 any material of like character which may be discovered, so intro- 

 duction, if it be in fact the preliminary study of the literature which 

 is available for the history of the rise of Christianity, must in like 

 manner consider all literature having a prima facie claim to be 

 included among such sources, and include all that can substantiate 

 such claim. 



II. Literary Interpretation of New Testament Books 



The discovery of the meaning of the individual books of the New- 

 Testament, once the culmination of New Testament study and almost 

 its only clearly defined task, must now be looked upon as a means 

 to the still higher task of constructing the history of the origin of 

 Christianity. Yet it retains a place of eminence, and may properly 

 be designated as the central division of the whole field. For covering 

 the whole New Testament literature, all the subjects heretofore 

 discussed prepare the way for it, and, on the other hand, on the results 

 of the work of interpretation must be built all subsequent achieve- 

 ment in historical construction. It is, so to speak, the reservoir into 

 which all the preparatory studies pour their results and from which 

 must be drawn the material for the constructive historical work. 



The problems of this central division of the field are too numerous 

 even to catalogue. There is not a book of the New Testament collec- 

 tion that does not present questions of interpretation, which, despite 

 all the work of centuries, still call for further study. Progress in the 

 solution of these problems will come partly through the more perfect 

 performance of the preparatory tasks, partly through a clearer con- 

 ception of the nature of the interpretative process itself. A more 

 perfect exegesis demands a more perfect lexicography, a more perfect 

 grammar, and, most of all, perhaps, a more perfect knowledge of the 

 thought of New Testament times both in the Jewish and non-Jewish 

 world, and a setting of the books in the bright light of such knowledge. 

 The effect of achievement in this direction will be twofold: first, it 

 will enable us to see with greater clearness the thoughts which the 

 New Testament writers meant to express; and, second, it will help 



