40 



REY. CANON R. J. KNOWLING, D.D._, ON 



history of this, the greatest drama in the world's history, conies 

 to us from St. Mark, which thus becomes not only as it has 

 been called a new Gospel type, but also the transition between 

 Q and the two later Synoptists. 



With this transitional view of St. Mark before him, Mr. 

 Streeter asks, who does not feel that St. Mark, the oldest of the 

 Gospels we have, is the one we could best spare ? And yet as 

 we ask such a question, do not some of us feel that we could not 

 afford to lose a single word or incident in that fourfold account 

 of our Lord's closing hours which the Church has preserved for 

 us ? should we not miss that picture of " the Strong Son of 

 God, Immortal Love," which in tlie old symbolism of the Gospels 

 the Lion of St. Mark presents to us ? should we not miss the 

 Gospel which someone has even described as a " history of the 

 Passion expanded backwards," so long a portion of the Gospel 

 deals with that one last week ? And as we open the closing 

 pages of each of our Gospels we find ourselves face to face with 

 no mere mosaic of texts, but with a matchless picture trans- 

 cending the most consummate literary skill, and a true Christian 

 science would lead us to exclaim as we stand before that picture, 

 " This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." 



'No wonder Professor Eomanes could write, " True, or not 

 true, the entire story of the Cross from its commencement in 

 prophetic aspiration to its culmination in the Gospels is by far 

 the most magnificent presentation in literature " (TJwuf/hts on 

 Religion, p. 160). 



Before we pass to another class of literature closely connected 

 with the Gospels, let us look for a moment at that Johannine 

 passage in Q from another standpoint. It may be fairly alleged 

 that more than one recent discovery has enabled us to trace the 

 existence of Johannine phraseology at an early date in the Church. 



In support of this, we might refer to passages in the Didache 

 and possibly in the Odes of Solomon. With regard to the 

 former, if we may place it with Dr. Sanday in a.d. 80-100, 

 and with Mr. C. H. Turner at the same date, or even earlier 

 still, its evidence becomes of the highest value. We have seen 

 that Harnack places Matthew xi, 27, as early as a.d. 50, and it 

 is not too much to add that he would also carry with him the 

 verdict of many scholars when he maintains the likelihood that 

 such words were known to St. Paul.* 



But if it is rash to reject the early existence of Johannine 

 phraseology, we may go further and maintain that it is 



p. Peine, Jesus Christus iind Paulus, pp. 264, 265. 



