The Historical Proofs of Christianity [pp. 51-84]

THE HISTORICAL PROOFS OF CHRISTIANITY.
jerusalem." 1 This passage establishes, on the authority of the
synoptists, beyond the reach of doubt or cavil, the longer
Judean ministry of Jesus, and thus confirms the testimony of
the Fourth Gospel in this essential particular. Luke (vi. I)
distinctly implies the intervention of at least one Passover between the beginning and the close of his public life. Who can
avoid seeing that the profound impression made by Jesus is
far better accounted for if we accept the chronology of the
Fourth Gospel than if we conceive his ministry limited to'about
a twelvemonth? The truth appears to be that in the early oral
narration of the life and teaching of Christ, perhaps for the
reason that his labors in Jerusalem and the neighborhood were
more familiar to the Christians there, the Galilean ministry was
chiefly described. The matter was massed under the three general heads of his baptism and intercourse with John the Baptist, his work in Galilee, and the visit to Jerusalem at the
Passover when he was crucified. If the author of the Fourth
Gospel was a non-apostolic writer of the second century, no
satisfactory reason can be conjectured for his deliberate departure from the apparent chronology of the received authorities.
He might easily have brought Jesus into conflict with Pharisees more frequently elsewhere than in Judea. He might have
invented visits intermediate between the two Passovers. If, as
is alleged, he was of an anti-Judaic spirit, why should he thus
cling to the Passovers? Why should he present a chronological
scheme which could only tend to provoke suspicion and expose
him to contradiction and detection? The writer, whoever he
was, was evidently acquainted with one, if not all, of the earlier
Gospels.2 Why did he not set his new portrait into the old
frame? The most reasonable hypothesis certainly is that he
was conversant with the facts, and was possessed of a conscious
and acknowledged authority which excluded from his mind all
fear of contradiction.
The alleged discrepancy between the Fourth Gospel and the
synoptists respecting the day of the month when Christ was
crucified has been urged as an argument both by those who
I For Strauss's abortive attempt to escape from the only rational interpretation
of the Saviour's lament, see "The Supernat. Origin of Christ.," p. Ioo100, seq.
g See John iii. 24.
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