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REDEMPTION.
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gained its place with much hesitation, and rather through slackness of opposition than any conclusiveness of proof......Even in the case of the two more important epistles, 1 Peter and James, we have to add the qualification • if genuine'."
We may also refer to Dr. Raimond Van Marle who sums up the result of a hundred years' scientific criticism, in 'The Theosophist,' Vol. xxxv. p. 396, as follows:
“ The Gospels constantly contradict each other, and S. John's is so different from the other three that a division has been made by all scholars between it and what are called the three synoptic Gospels. Nevertheless,' at the end of the second century 8. John was pronounced to be authentic at the same time as the three others. Apart from the fact that S. John's way of speaking of the Christ is very different from that we find in the synoptics, he does not mention the Lord's Supper, he gives a different day for the Lord's death, speaks of three feasts of the Passover where the others speak but of one, and relates almost all the incidents of the life of Christ as taking place at Jerusalem, whereas, according to the synoptics, only the end of His life was spent there. In S. John's version the character of John the Baptist loses almost all its importance; the miracles are quite different, becoming more astonishing and, at the same time, more symbolical ; the whole character of Jesus is much more divine and more like an aspect of the LOGOS than in the synoptics; but at the same time he speaks of Jesus as the son of Joseph, and doe not mention the birth from a Virgin. There are two passages in 8. John which clearly show that the author was not a personal witness of the life of Christ, namely xix. 35, where he says: 'And he that saw it bare witness,' etc., and xxi. 24 : This is the disciple which testifieth of these things....... and we know that his testimony is true.' To several scholars it has appeared probable that the author of the Gospel according to S. John was a Jew of the school of Philo of Alexandria, who knew the Gospels, but introduced the Alexandrian philosophy into the story told by them.
“But neither do the so-called synoptics agree together. To begin with, the date of the birth of Jesus is fixed by Matthew as occurring four years before our era at the very latest (under Berod). Luke makes it ten yoars later (during the enrolment), or in the year 6 A.D., yet
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