



Produced by David Widger






SUPERNATURAL RELIGION:

AN INQUIRY INTO THE REALITY OF DIVINE REVELATION.

By Walter Richard Cassels


In Three Volumes: Vol. II.

Complete Edition.

Carefully Revised.

London:

Longmans, Greenland Co.,

1879.



PG EDITOR'S NOTE: This file has been provided with an image of the
original scan for each page which is linked to the page number in the
html file. Nearly every page in the text has many Greek passages which
have been indicated where they occur by [------] as have many complex
tables; these passages may be viewed in the page images. Some of the
pages have only a few lines of text and then the rest of the page is
taken up with complex footnotes in English, Greek and Hebrew. The reader
may click on the page numbers in the html file to see the entire page
with the footnotes. --DW




AN INQUIRY INTO THE REALITY OF DIVINE REVELATION




PART II.




CHAPTER V. THE CLEMENTINES--THE EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS

We must now as briefly as possible examine the evidence furnished by
the apocryphal religious romance generally known by the name of "The
Clementines," and assuming, falsely of course,(1) to be the composition
of the Roman Clement. The Clementines are composed of three principal
works, the Homilies, Recognitions, and a so-called Epitome. The
Homilies, again, are prefaced by a pretended epistle addressed by the
Apostle Peter to James, and another from Clement. These Homilies were
only known in an imperfect form till 1853, when Dressel(2) published
a complete Greek text. Of the Recognitions we only possess a Latin
translation by Rufinus (a.d. 402).

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Although there is much difference of opinion regarding the claims to
priority of the Homilies and Recognitions, many critics assigning that
place to the Homilies,(1) whilst others assert the earlier origin of the
Recognitions,(2) all are agreed that the one is merely a version of the
other, the former being embodied almost word for word in the latter,
whilst the Epitome is a blending of the other two, probably intended
to purge them from heretical doctrine. These works, however, which are
generally admitted to have emanated from the Ebionitic party of the
early Church,(3) are supposed to be based upon older Petrine writings,
such as the "Preaching of Peter" [------], and the "Travels of Peter"
[------].(4)

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It is not necessary for our purpose to go into any analysis of the
character of the Clementines. It will suffice to say that they almost
entirely consist of discussions between the Apostle Peter and Simon
the Magician regarding the identity of the true Mosaic and Christian
religions. Peter follows the Magician from city to city for the purpose
of exposing and refuting him, the one, in fact, representing Apostolic
doctrine and the other heresy, and in the course of these discussions
occur the very numerous quotations of sayings of Jesus and of Christian
history which we have to examine.

The Clementine Recognitions, as we have already remarked, are only known
to us through the Latin translation of Rufinus; and from a comparison of
the evangelical quotations occurring in that work with the same in the
Homilies, it is evident that Rufinus has assimilated them in the course
of translation to the parallel passages of our Gospels. It is admitted,
therefore, that no argument regarding the source of the quotations can
rightly be based upon the Recognitions, and that work may, consequently,
be entirely set aside,(1) and the Clementine Homilies alone need occupy
our attention.

We need scarcely remark that, unless the date at which these Homilies
were composed can be ascertained, their value as testimony for the
existence of our Synoptic Gospels is seriously affected. The difficulty
of arriving at a correct conclusion regarding this point, great under
almost any circumstances, is of course increased by the fact that the
work is altogether apocryphal, and most certainly not held by any one to
have

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been written by the person whose name it bears. There is in fact nothing
but internal evidence by which to fix the date, and that internal
evidence is of a character which admits of very wide extension down the
course of time, although a sharp limit is set beyond which it cannot
mount upwards. Of external evidence there is almost none, and what
little exists does not warrant an early date. Origen, it is true,
mentions [------],(1) which, it is conjectured, may either be the same
work as the [------], or Recognitions, translated by Rufinus, or
related to it, and Epiphanius and others refer to [------];(2) but
our Clementine Homilies are not mentioned by any writer before
pseudo-Athanasius.(3) The work, therefore, can at the best afford no
substantial testimony to the antiquity and apostolic origin of our
Gospels. Hilgenfeld, following in the steps of Baur, arrives at the
conclusion that the Homilies are directed against the Gnosticism of
Marcion (and also, as we shall hereafter see, against the Apostle Paul),
and he, therefore, necessarily assigns to them a date subsequent to a.d.
160. As Reuss, however, inquires: upon this ground, why should a still
later date not be named, since even Tertullian wrote vehemently against
the same Gnosis.(4) There can be little doubt that the author was a
representative of Ebionitic Gnosticism, which had once been the purest
form of primitive Christianity, but later, through its own development,
though still more through the rapid growth around it of Paulinian
doctrine, had

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assumed a position closely verging upon heresy. It is not necessary
for us, however, to enter upon any exhaustive discussion of the date at
which the Clementines were written; it is sufficient to show that there
is no certain ground upon which a decision can be based, and that even
an approximate conjecture can scarcely be reasonably advanced. Critics
variously date the composition of the original Recognitions from about
the middle of the second century to the end of the third, though the
majority are agreed in placing them at least in the latter century.(1)
They assign to the Homilies an origin at different dates within a period
commencing about the middle of the second century, and extending to a
century later.2

In the Homilies there are very numerous quotations

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of sayings of Jesus and of Gospel history, which are generally placed
in the mouth of Peter, or introduced with such formulae as: "The teacher
said," "Jesus said," "He said," "The prophet said," but in no case does
the author name the source from which these sayings and quotations are
derived. That he does, however, quote from a written source, and not
from tradition, is clear from the use of such expressions as "in another
place [------](1) he has said," which refer not to other localities or
circumstances, but another part of a written history.(2) There are in
the Clementine Homilies upwards of a hundred quotations of sayings of
Jesus or references to his history, too many by far for us to examine
in detail here; but, notwithstanding the number of these passages, so
systematically do they vary, more or less, from the parallels in our
canonical Gospels, that, as in the case of Justin, Apologists are
obliged to have recourse to the elastic explanation, already worn so
threadbare, of "free quotation from memory" and "blending of passages"
to account for the remarkable phenomena presented. It must, however,
be evident that the necessity for such an apology at all shows the
insufficiency of the evidence furnished by these quotations. De
Wette says: "The quotations of evangelical works and histories in the
pseudo-Clementine writings, from their nature free and inaccurate,
permit only an uncertain conclusion to be

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drawn as to their written source."(1) Critics have maintained very
different and conflicting views regarding that source. Apologists, of
course, assert that the quotations in the Homilies are taken from
our Gospels only.(2) Others ascribe them to our Gospels, with a
supplementary apocryphal work: the Gospel according to the Hebrews, or
the Gospel according to Peter.(3) Some, whilst admitting a subsidiary
use of some of our Gospels, assert that the author of the Homilies
employs, in preference, the Gospel according to Peter;(4) whilst others,
recognizing also the similarity of the phenomena presented by these
quotations with those of Justin's, conclude that the author does not
quote our Gospels at all, but makes use of the Gospel according to
Peter, or the Gospel according to the Hebrews.(5) Evidence permitting of
such divergent conclusions manifestly cannot be of a decided character.
We may affirm, however, that few of those who are

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willing to admit the use of our Synoptics by the author of the Homilies
along with other sources, make that concession on the strength of the
absolute isolated evidence of the Homilies themselves, but they are
generally moved by antecedent views on the point. In an inquiry like
that which we have undertaken, however, such easy and indifferent
judgment would obviously be out of place, and the point we have to
determine is not whether an author may have been acquainted with our
Gospels, but whether he furnishes testimony that he actually was in
possession of our present Gospels and regarded them as authoritative.

We have already mentioned that the author of the Clementine Homilies
never names the source from which his quotations are derived. Of these
very numerous quotations we must again distinctly state that only two or
three, of a very brief and fragmentary character, literally agree with
our Synoptics, whilst all the rest differ more or less widely from
the parallel passages in those Gospels. Some of these quotations are
repeated more than once with the same persistent and characteristic
variations, and in several cases, as we have already seen, they agree
more or less closely with quotations of Justin from the Memoirs of the
Apostles. Others, again, have no parallels at all in our Gospels, and
even Apologists are consequently compelled to admit the collateral
use of an apocryphal Gospel. As in the case of Justin, therefore, the
singular phenomenon is presented of a vast number of quotations of which
only one or two brief phrases, too fragmentary to avail as evidence,
perfectly agree with our Gospels; whilst of the rest, which all vary
more or less, some merely resemble combined passages of two Gospels,
others merely contain the sense, some

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present variations likewise found in other writers or in various parts
of the Homilies are repeatedly quoted with the same variations, and
others are not found in our Gospels at all. Such phenomena cannot
be fairly accounted for by any mere theory of imperfect memory or
negligence. The systematic variation from our Synoptics, variation
proved by repetition not to be accidental, coupled with quotations which
have no parallels at all in our Gospels, more naturally point to the
use of a different Gospel. In no case can the Homilies be accepted as
furnishing evidence even of the existence of our Gospels.

As it is impossible here to examine in detail all of the quotations in
the Clementine Homilies, we must content ourselves with this distinct
statement of their character, and merely illustrate briefly the
different classes of quotations, exhausting, however, those which
literally agree with passages in the Gospels. The most determined
of recent Apologists do not afford us an opportunity of testing
the passages upon which they base their assertion of the use of our
Synoptics, for they simply assume that the author used them without
producing instances.(1)

The first quotation agreeing with a passage in our Synoptics occurs
in Hom. iii. 52: