PRESENT DAY FACTORS IN NEW TESTAMENT STUDY. 5'^> 



God and Saviour." The word Saviour is used of Christ very few 

 times in the New Testament, scarcely at all in the Gospels and Acts. 

 But it is frequently used to represent God the Father ; indeed the 

 expression " Saviour-God " is practically an Old Testament term 

 and is embodied in the name J esus (the Lord the Saviour). 



The Dean of Canterbury said : We are deeply indebted to 

 Dr. Knowling for this excellent paper. I have had the pleasure of 

 knowing him for 30 years ; he possesses one highly important 

 qualification in his extremely wide acquaintance with current 

 literature on this subject. He not only knows German and reads 

 that literature, but studied Dutch also with a view to understanding 

 the views of Dutchmen on similar subjects. This review is very 

 comprehensive and thorough. He has phenomenal patience, and we 

 may rely on all he says in its more important features. 



When we contrast the gigantic importance of the Gospels with 

 the work of the critics, the latter appears but trifling. It is but 

 scraping the bark of a mighty tree and is too often a great waste of 

 time. Those who deny the actual existence of Christ or St. Paul, as 

 some seem to do, can only be treated as suffering from a mental 

 disease. Sound criticism is in danger of being misled on this ques- 

 tion of the sources of the Gospels. All seem to recognize that St. 

 Mark was the earliest; then comes Q, from which Luke and 

 Matthew are said to have quoted, and great stress is laid on 

 this. At a recent Diocesan Conference, more authority was attached 

 to Q than to the Gospels themselves ! But I would ask : supposing 

 there is a Q, what do we know of it 1 If we cannot trust Luke, 

 why trust Q 1 Because St. Luke quotes Johanna, wife of Chusa, do 

 we attempt to find out what she thought 1 Is it not enough to take 

 what St. Luke says about her 1 The authority of the four Gospels 

 we know. Luke, for example, was a full-grown man when Christ 

 was on earth. We must not rely upon the sources, but upon the 

 endorsement of the sources, if they exist, by the Evangelists. But 

 the one Source often ignored is the Holy Spirit, and I re-echo one of 

 the author's remarks : " This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvel- 

 lous in our eyes." Let us contrast these Gospels with current 

 biographies ; of the latter we have many nowadays, some 500 pages 

 in length, but here the story of the greatest Life is contained in four 

 short pamphlets, and the whole character has lived ever since. The 

 living Christ stands before the world, arising out of the Gospels.. 



