28 G 
sense of the service it was likely to render to revealed religion. 
Under these circumstances, the calm assumption of the 
Maccabean origin of the Book of Daniel can hardly be 
regarded as characteristic of the earnest seeker after truth, 
but appears much more like an unfair attempt, of a kind 
unfortunately too common, to discredit Christianity in the 
eyes of those who are ignorant of its apologetic literature, by 
the insinuation that nothing has or can be said in its defence. 
18. The questionof the authenticity of the NewTestament has 
attracted a larger share of attention. A large portion of the 
work God and the Bible is given to an examination, and a 
good deal to a defence of the Fourth Gospel. But the con- 
clusion is, that our Gospels “were probably in existence 
and were current by the year 120 of our era at the very 
latest,” * and that they grew up by continual alterations and 
interpolations into their present shape. Now, this is simply 
a question of criticism. The narratives of the New Testament 
are as complete in their form, and have at least as early 
testimony in their favour, as any other books. They are con- 
sistent and coherent in their parts, proceed upon a definite 
plan, and the Gospel of St. Luke, as well as the Acts, is 
remarkable for its special claim to authentic information. If 
they be interpolated, it is impossible for any one to say where 
the interpolations occur. No break in the narrative, no inter- 
ruption of its continuity, no strange and incompatible sequence 
of thought, betrays the hand of the reviser. Nor have we more 
than two or three remarkable variations in our copies. The 
story of the woman taken in adultery, that of the angel trou- 
bling the pool of Bethesda, and another passage of extremely 
trifling importance, in Acts viii., are all that can be advanced. f 
This is not the history of interpolations, so far as we have any 
experience of them. A narrative which has gradually grown 
up in this way would present us with a text in inextricable 
confusion. We should have manusci’ipts with and manu- 
scripts without the added passages, longer and shorter repen- 
sions, J clumsy attempts at reconcilement and at a restoration 
of the true text, till the editor, bewildered by the confusion 
before him, would be compelled to abandon the effort to 
* God and the Bible, p. 373. 
f God and the Bible, p. 376. It is well known that there are several 
singular interpolations in the Codex Bezae, but they are confined to 
that MS., a remarkable confirmation of the argument above. 
X As in the case of the works of Cyprian and the Ignatian Epistles. The 
latter have come down to us in three forms. 
