The Last Twelve Verses of the Gospel According to S. Mark Part 15

CHAPTER X.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE LECTIONARIES SHEWN TO BE ABSOLUTELY DECISIVE AS TO THE GENUINENESS OF THESE VERSES.

The Lectionary of the East shewn to be a work of extraordinary antiquity (p. 195).-Proved to be older than any extant MS. of the Gospels, by an appeal to the Fathers (p. 198).-In this Lectionary, (and also in the Lectionary of the West,) the last Twelve Verses of S. Mark's Gospel have, from the first, occupied a most conspicuous, as well as most honourable place, (p. 204.)-Now, this becomes the testimony of ante-Nicene Christendom in their favour (p. 209.)

I have reserved for the last the testimony of THE LECTIONARIES, which has been hitherto all but entirely overlooked;(326)-pa.s.sed by without so much as a word of comment, by those who have preceded me in this inquiry. Yet is it, when rightly understood, altogether decisive of the question at issue. And why? Because it is not the testimony rendered by a solitary father or by a solitary MS.; no, nor even the testimony yielded by a single Church, or by a single family of MSS. But it is _the united testimony of all the Churches_. It is therefore the evidence borne by a "goodly fellows.h.i.+p of Prophets," a "n.o.ble array of Martyrs" indeed; as well as by _MSS. innumerable which have long since perished_, but which must of necessity once have been. And so, it comes to us like the voice of many waters: dates, (as I shall shew by-and-by,) from a period of altogether immemorial antiquity: is endorsed by the sanction of all the succeeding ages: admits of neither doubt nor evasion. This subject, in order that it may be intelligibly handled, will be most conveniently approached by some remarks which shall rehea.r.s.e the matter from the beginning.

The Christian Church succeeded to the Jewish. The younger society inherited the traditions of the elder, not less as a measure of necessity than as a matter of right; and by a kind of sacred instinct conformed itself from the very beginning in countless particulars to its divinely-appointed model. The same general Order of Service went on unbroken,-conducted by a Priesthood whose spiritual succession was at least as jealously guarded as had been the natural descent from Aaron in the Church of the Circ.u.mcision.(327) It was found that "the Sacraments of the Jews are [but] types of ours."(328) Still were David's Psalms antiphonally recited, and the voices of "Moses and the Prophets" were heard in the sacred a.s.semblies of G.o.d's people "every Sabbath day."

Canticle succeeded to Canticle; while many a Versicle simply held its ground. The congenial utterances of the chosen race pa.s.sed readily into the service of the family of the redeemed. Unconsciously perhaps, the very method of the one became adopted by the other: as, for example, the method of beginning a festival from the "Eve" of the preceding Day. The Synagogue-wors.h.i.+p became transfigured; but it did not part with one of its characteristic features. Above all, the same three great Festivals were still retained which declare "the rock whence we are hewn and the hole of the pit whence we are digged:" only was it made a question, a controversy rather, whether Easter should or should not be celebrated _with the Jews_.(329)

But it is the faithful handing on to the Christian community of _the Lectionary practice_ of the Synagogue to which the reader's attention is now exclusively invited. That the Christian Church inherited from the Jewish the practice of reading a first and a second Lesson in its public a.s.semblies, is demonstrable. What the Synagogue practice was in the time of the Apostles is known from Acts xiii. 15, 27. Justin Martyr, (A.D. 150) describes the Christian practice in his time as precisely similar:(330) only that for "the Law," there is found to have been at once subst.i.tuted "the Gospel." He speaks of the writings of "_the Apostles_" and of "the Prophets." Chrysostom has the same expression (for the two Lessons) in one of his Homilies.(331) Ca.s.sian (A.D. 400) says that in Egypt, after the Twelve Prayers at Vespers and at Matins, two Lessons were read, one out of the Old Testament and the other out of the New. But _on Sat.u.r.days_ and _Sundays_, and the fifty days of Pentecost, both Lessons were from the New Testament,-one from the Epistles or the Acts of the Apostles; the other, from the Gospels.(332) Our own actual practice seems to bear a striking resemblance to that of the Christian Church at the earliest period: for we hear of (1) "Moses and the Prophets," (which will have been the carrying on of the old synagogue-method, represented by our first and second Lesson,)-(2) a lesson out of the "Epistles or Acts," together with a lesson out of the "Gospels."(333) It is, in fact, universally received that the Eastern Church has, from a period of even Apostolic antiquity, enjoyed a Lectionary,-or established system of Scripture lessons,-of her own. In its conception, this Lectionary is discovered to have been fas.h.i.+oned (as was natural) upon the model of the Lectionary of G.o.d's ancient people, the Jews: for it commences, as theirs did, _in the autumn_, (in September(334)); and prescribes two immovable "Lections" for every _Sat.u.r.day_ (as well as for every Sunday) in the year: differing chiefly in this,-that the prominent place which had been hitherto a.s.signed to "the Law and the Prophets,"(335) was henceforth enjoyed by the Gospels and the Apostolic writings. "Sat.u.r.day-Sunday" lections-(saat?????a?a?, for so these Lections were called,)-retain their place in the "Synaxarium"

of the East to the present hour. It seems also a singular note of antiquity that the Sabbath and the Sunday succeeding it do as it were cohere, and bear one appellation; so that the week takes its name-_not_ from the Sunday with which it commences,(336) but-from the Sabbath-and-Sunday with which _it concludes_. To mention only one out of a hundred minute traits of ident.i.ty which the public Service of the sanctuary retained:-Easter Eve, which from the earliest period to this day has been called "??a s?at??,"(337) is discovered to have borne the self-same appellation in the Church of the Circ.u.mcision.(338)-If I do not enter more minutely into the structure of the Oriental Lectionary,-(some will perhaps think I have said too much, but the interest of the subject ought to be a sufficient apology,)-it is because further details would be irrelevant to my present purpose; which is only to call attention to the three following facts:

(I.) That the practice in the Christian Church of reading publicly before the congregation certain fixed portions of Holy Writ, according to an established and generally received rule, must have existed from a period long anterior to the date of any known Greek copy of the New Testament Scriptures.

(II.) That although there happens to be extant neither "Synaxarium," (i.e.

Table of Proper Lessons of the Greek Church), nor "Evangelistarium," (i.e.

Book containing the Ecclesiastical Lections _in extenso_), of higher antiquity than the viiith century,-yet that the scheme itself, as exhibited by those monuments,-certainly in every essential particular,-is older than any known Greek MS. which contains it, by _at least_ four, in fact by full _five_ hundred years.

(III.) Lastly,-That in the said Lectionaries of the Greek and of the Syrian Churches, the twelve concluding verses of S. Mark which are the subject of discussion throughout the present pages are observed _invariably_ to occupy the same singularly conspicuous, as well as most honourable place.

I. The first of the foregoing propositions is an established fact. It is at least quite certain that in the ivth century (if not long before) there existed a known Lectionary system, alike in the Church of the East and of the West. Cyril of Jerusalem (A.D. 348,) having to speak about our LORD's Ascension, remarks that by a providential coincidence, on the previous day, which was Sunday, the event had formed the subject of the appointed lessons;(339) and that he had availed himself of the occasion to discourse largely on the subject.-Chrysostom, preaching at Antioch, makes it plain that, in the latter part of the ivth century, the order of the lessons which were publicly read in the Church _on Sat.u.r.days and Sundays_(340) was familiarly known to the congregation: for he invites them to sit down, and study attentively beforehand, at home, the Sections (pe????p??) of the Gospel which they were about to hear in Church.(341)-Augustine is express in recording that in his time proper lessons were appointed for Festival days;(342) and that an innovation which he had attempted on Good Friday had given general offence.(343)-Now by these few notices, to look no further, it is rendered certain that a Lectionary system of _some_ sort must have been in existence at a period long anterior to the date of any copy of the New Testament Scriptures extant. I shall shew by-and-by that the fact is established by the Codices (B, ?, A, C, D) themselves.

But we may go back further yet; for not only Eusebius, but Origen and Clemens Alexandrinus, by their habitual use of the technical term for an Ecclesiastical Lection (pe????p?, ??????s??, ??????sa,) remind us that the Lectionary practice of the East was already established in their days.(344)

II. The Oriental Lectionary consists of "Synaxarion" and "Eclogadion," (or Tables of Proper Lessons from the Gospels and Apostolic writings daily throughout the year;) together with "Menologion," (or Calendar of immovable Festivals and Saints' Days.) That we are thoroughly acquainted with all of these, as exhibited in Codices of the viiith, ixth and xth centuries,-is a familiar fact; in ill.u.s.tration of which it is enough to refer the reader to the works cited at the foot of the page.(345) But it is no less certain that the scheme of Proper Lessons itself is of much higher antiquity.

1. The proof of this, if it could only be established by an induction of particular instances, would not only be very tedious, but also very difficult indeed. It will be perceived, on reflection, that even when the occasion of a Homily (suppose) is actually recorded, the Scripture references which it contains, apart from the Author's statement that what he quotes _had_ formed part of that day's Service, creates scarcely so much as a presumption of the fact: while the correspondence, however striking, between such references to Scripture and the Lectionary as we have it, is of course no proof whatever that we are so far in possession of the Lectionary of the Patristic age. Nay, on famous Festivals, the employment of certain pa.s.sages of Scripture is, in a manner, inevitable,(346) and may on no account be pressed.

2. Thus, when Chrysostom(347) and when Epiphanius,(348) preaching on Ascension Day, refer to Acts i. 10, 11,-we do not feel ourselves warranted to press the coincidence of such a quotation with the Liturgical section of the day.-So, again, when Chrysostom preaches on Christmas Day, and quotes from S. Matthew ii. 1, 2;(349) or on Whitsunday, and quotes from S.

John vii. 38 and Acts ii. 3 and 13;-though both places form part of the Liturgical sections for the day, no _proof_ results therefrom that either chapter was actually used.

3. But we are not reduced to this method. It is discovered that nearly three-fourths of Chrysostom's Homilies on S. Matthew either begin at the first verse of _a known Ecclesiastical Lection_; or else at the first ensuing verse after the close of one. Thirteen of those Homilies in succession (the 63rd to the 75th inclusive) begin with _the first words of as many known Lections_. "Let us attend to this delightful section (pe????p?) which we never cease turning to,"-are the opening words of Chrysostom's 79th Homily, of which "the text" is S. Matth. xxv. 31, i.e.

the beginning of the Gospel for s.e.xagesima Sunday.-Cyril of Alexandria's (so called) "Commentary on S. Luke" is nothing else but a series of short Sermons, for the most part delivered on _known Ecclesiastical Lections_; which does not seem to have been as yet observed.-Augustine (A.D. 416) says expressly that he had handled S. John's Gospel in precisely the same way.(350)-All this is significant in a high degree.

4. I proceed, however, to adduce a few distinct proofs that the existing Lectionary of the great Eastern Church,-as it is exhibited by Matthaei, by Scholz, and by Scrivener from MSS. of the viiith century,-and which is contained in Syriac MSS. of the vith and viith-must needs be in the main a work of extraordinary antiquity. And if I do not begin by insisting that at least one century more may be claimed for it by a mere appeal to the Hierosolymitan Version, it is only because I will never knowingly admit what may prove to be untrustworthy materials(351) into my foundations.

(_a_) "Every one is aware," (says Chrysostom in a sermon on our SAVIOUR'S Baptism, preached at Antioch, A.D. 387,) "that this is called the Festival of the Epiphany. Two manifestations are thereby intended: concerning both of which _you have heard this day S. Paul discourse in his Epistle to t.i.tus_."(352) Then follows a quotation from ch. ii. 11 to 13,-which proves to be the beginning of the lection for the day in the Greek Menology. In the time of Chrysostom, therefore, t.i.tus ii. 11, 12, 13 formed part of one of the Epiphany lessons,-as it does to this hour in the Eastern Church.

What is scarcely less interesting, it is also found to have been part of the Epistle for the Epiphany in the old Gallican Liturgy,(353) the affinities of which with the East are well known.

(_b_) Epiphanius (speaking of the Feasts of the Church) says, that at the Nativity, a Star shewed that the WORD had become incarnate: at the "Theophania" (_our_ "Epiphany") John cried, "Behold the Lamb of G.o.d," &c., and a Voice from Heaven proclaimed Him at His Baptism. Accordingly, S.

Matth. ii. 1-12 is found to be the ancient lection for Christmas Day: S.

Mark i. 9-11 and S. Matth. iii. 13-17 the lections for Epiphany. On the morrow, was read S. John i. 29-34.

(_c_) In another of his Homilies, Chrysostom explains with considerable emphasis the reason why the Book of the Acts was read publicly in Church during the interval between Easter and Pentecost; remarking, that it had been the liturgical arrangement of a yet earlier age.(354)-After such an announcement, it becomes a very striking circ.u.mstance that Augustine also (A.D. 412) should be found to bear witness to the prevalence of the same liturgical arrangement in the African Church.(355) In the old Gallican Lectionary, as might have been expected, the same rule is recognisable. It ought to be needless to add that the same arrangement is observed universally to prevail in the Lectionaries both of the East and of the West to the present hour; although the fact must have been lost sight of by the individuals who recently, under pretence of "_making some advantageous alterations_" in our Lectionary, have constructed an entirely new one,-vicious in principle and liable to the gravest objections throughout,-whereby _this_ link also which bound the Church of England to the practice of Primitive Christendom, has been unhappily broken; _this_ note of Catholicity also has been effaced.(356)

(_d_) The purely arbitrary arrangement, (as Mr. Scrivener phrases it), by which the Book of Genesis, instead of the Gospel, is appointed to be read(357) on the _week_ days of Lent, is discovered to have been fully recognised in the time of Chrysostom. Accordingly, the two series of Homilies on the Book of Genesis which that Father preached, he preached in Lent.(358)

(_e_) It will be seen in the next chapter that it was from a very remote period the practice of the Eastern Church to introduce into the lesson for Thursday in Holy-week, S. Luke's account (ch. xxii. 43, 44) of our LORD'S "Agony and b.l.o.o.d.y Sweat," _immediately after S. Matth._ xxvi. 39. _That_ is, no doubt, the reason why Chrysostom,-who has been suspected, (I think unreasonably,) of employing an Evangelistarium instead of a copy of the Gospels in the preparation of his Homilies, is observed to quote those same two verses in that very place in his Homily on S. Matthew;(359) which shews that the Lectionary system of the Eastern Church in this respect is at least as old as the ivth century.

(_f_) The same two verses used to be _left out_ on the Tuesday after s.e.xagesima (t? ?? t?? t???f????) for which day S. Luke xxii. 39-xxiii. 1, is the appointed lection. And _this_ explains why Cyril (A.D. 425) in his Homilies on S. Luke, pa.s.ses them by in silence.(360)

But we can carry back the witness to the Lectionary practice of omitting these verses, at least a hundred years; for Cod. B, (evidently for that same reason,) _also_ omits them, as was stated above, in p. 79. They are wanting also in the Thebaic version, which is of the iiird century.

(_g_) It will be found suggested in the next chapter (page 218) that the piercing of our LORD'S side, (S. John xix. 34),-thrust into Codd. B and ?

immediately after S. Matth. xxvii. 49,-is probably indebted for its place in those two MSS. to the Eastern Lectionary practice. If this suggestion be well founded, a fresh proof is obtained that the Lectionary of the East was fully established in the beginning of the ivth century. But see Appendix (H).

(_h_) It is a remarkable note of the antiquity of that Oriental Lectionary system with which we are acquainted, that S. Matthew's account of the Pa.s.sion (ch. xxvii. 1-61,) should be there appointed to be read _alone_ on the evening of Good Friday. Chrysostom clearly alludes to this practice;(361) which Augustine expressly states was also the practice in his own day.(362) Traces of the same method are discoverable in the old Gallican Lectionary.(363)

(_i_) Epiphanius, (or the namesake of his who was the author of a well-known Homily on Palm Sunday,) remarks that "yesterday" had been read the history of the rising of Lazarus.(364) Now S. John xi. 1-45 is the lection for the antecedent Sabbath, in all the Lectionaries.

(_k_) In conclusion, I may be allowed so far to antic.i.p.ate what will be found fully established in the next chapter, as to point out here that since in countless places the text of our oldest Evangelia as well as the readings of the primitive Fathers exhibit unmistakable traces of the corrupting influence of the Lectionary practice, _that_ very fact becomes irrefragable evidence of the antiquity of the Lectionary which is the occasion of it. Not only must it be more ancient than Cod. B or Cod. ?, (which are referred to the beginning of the ivth century), but it must be older than Origen in the iiird century, or the Vetus Itala and the Syriac in the iind. And thus it is demonstrated, (1st) That fixed Lessons were read in the Churches of the East in the immediately post-Apostolic age; and (2ndly) That, wherever we are able to test it, the Lectionary of that remote period corresponded with the Lectionary which has come down to us in doc.u.ments of the vith and viith century, and was in fact constructed in precisely the same way.

I am content in fact to dismiss the preceding instances with this general remark:-that a System which is found to have been fully recognised throughout the East and throughout the West in the beginning of the fourth century, _must of necessity have been established very long before_. It is as when we read of three British Bishops attending the Council at Arles, A.D. 314. The Church (we say) which could send out those three Bishops must have been _fully organized_ at a greatly antecedent period.

4. Let us attend, however, to the great Festivals of the Church. These are declared by Chrysostom (in a Homily delivered at Antioch 20 Dec. A.D. 386) to be the five following:-(1) Nativity: (2) the Theophania: (3) Pascha: (4) Ascension: (5) Pentecost.(365) Epiphanius, his contemporary, (Bishop of Constantia in the island of Cyprus,) makes the same enumeration,(366) in a Homily on the Ascension.(367) In the Apostolical Const.i.tutions, the same five Festivals are enumerated.(368) Let me state a few Liturgical facts in connexion with each of these.

It is plain that the preceding enumeration could not have been made at any earlier period: for the Epiphany of our SAVIOUR and His Nativity were originally but one Festival.(369) Moreover, the circ.u.mstances are well known under which Chrysostom (A.D. 386) announced to his Eastern auditory that in conformity with what had been correctly ascertained at Rome, the ancient Festival was henceforth to be disintegrated.(370) But this is not material to the present inquiry. We know that, as a matter of fact, "the Epiphanies" (for t? ?p?fa??a is the name of the Festival) became in consequence distributed over Dec. 25 and Jan. 5: our LORD'S _Baptism_ being the event chiefly commemorated on the latter anniversary,(371)-which used to be chiefly observed in honour of His _Birth_(372)-Concerning the Lessons for Pa.s.sion-tide and Easter, as well as concerning those for the Nativity and Epiphany, something has been offered already; to which may be added that Hesychius, in the opening sentences of that "Homily" which has already engaged so much of our attention,(373) testifies that the conclusion of S. Mark's Gospel was in his days, as it has been ever since, one of the lections for Easter. He begins by saying that the Evangelical narratives of the Resurrection were read on the Sunday night; and proceeds to reconcile _S. Mark's_ with the rest.-Chrysostom once and again adverts to the practice of discontinuing the reading of the Acts after Pentecost,(374)-which is observed to be also the method of the Lectionaries.

III. I speak separately of the Festival of the Ascension, for an obvious reason. It ranked, as we have seen, in the estimation of Primitive Christendom, with the greatest Festivals of the Church. Augustine, in a well-known pa.s.sage, hints that it may have been of Apostolical origin;(375) so exceedingly remote was its inst.i.tution accounted in the days of the great African Father, as well as so entirely forgotten by that time was its first beginning. I have to shew that in the Great Oriental Lectionary (whether of the Greek or of the Syrian Church) the last Twelve Verses of S. Mark's Gospel occupy a conspicuous as well as a most honourable place. And this is easily done: for,

(_a_) The Lesson for Matins _on Ascension-Day_ in the East, in the oldest doc.u.ments to which we have access, consisted (as now it does) of _the last Twelve Verses_,-neither more nor less,-of S. Mark's Gospel. At the Liturgy on Ascension was read S. Luke xxiv. 36-53: but at Matins, S. Mark xvi.

9-20. The witness of the "Synaxaria" is constant to this effect.

(_b_) The same lection precisely was adopted among the Syrians by the Melchite Churches,(376)-(the party, viz. which maintained the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon): and it is found appointed also in the "Evangeliarium Hierosolymitanum."(377) In the Evangelistarium used in the Jacobite, (i.e. the Monophysite) Churches of Syria, a striking difference of arrangement is discoverable. While S. Luke xxiv. 36-53 was read at Vespers and at Matins on Ascension Day, _the last seven_ verses of S.

Mark's Gospel (ch. xvi. 14-20) were read _at the Liturgy_.(378) Strange, that the self-same Gospel should have been adopted at a remote age by some of the Churches of the West,(379) and should survive in our own Book of Common Prayer to this hour!

(_c_) But S. Mark xvi. 9-20 was not only appointed by the Greek Church to be read upon Ascension Day. Those same twelve verses const.i.tute the third of the xi "_Matin Gospels of the Resurrection_" which were universally held in high esteem by the Eastern Churches (Greek and Syrian(380)), and were read successively on Sundays at Matins throughout the year; as well as daily throughout Easter week.

(_d_) A rubricated copy of S. Mark's Gospel in Syriac,(381) _certainly older than _A.D. 583, attests that S. Mark xvi. 9-20 was the "Lection for the great First Day of the week," (e???? ????a??, i.e. Easter Day). Other copies almost as ancient(382) add that it was used "at the end of the Service at the dawn."

(_e_) Further, these same "Twelve Verses" const.i.tuted the Lesson at Matins for _the 2nd Sunday after Easter_,-a Sunday which by the Greeks is called ????a?? t?? ???f????, but with the Syrians bore the names of "Joseph and Nicodemus."(383) So also in the "Evangeliarium Hierosolymitanum."

(_f_) Next, in the Monophysite Churches of Syria, S. Mark xvi. 9-18 (or 9-20(384)) was also read at Matins on _Easter-Tuesday_.(385) In the Gallican Church, the third lection for _Easter-Monday_ extended from S.

Mark xv. 47 to xvi. 11: for _Easter-Tuesday_, from xvi. 12 to the end of the Gospel.(386) Augustine says that in Africa also these concluding verses of S. Mark's Gospel used to be publicly read _at Easter tide_.(387) The same verses (beginning with ver. 9) are indicated in the oldest extant Lectionary of the Roman Church.(388)

(_g_) Lastly, it may be stated that S. Mark xvi. 9-20 was with the Greeks the Gospel for the Festival of S. Mary Magdalene (? ???f????), July 22.(389)

_He_ knows wondrous little about this department of Sacred Science who can require to be informed that such a weight of _public_ testimony as this to the last Twelve Verses of a Gospel is simply overwhelming. The single discovery that in the age of Augustine [385-430] this portion of S. Mark's Gospel was unquestionably read at Easter in the Churches of Africa, added to the express testimony of the Author of the 2nd Homily on the Resurrection, and of the oldest Syriac MSS., that they were also read by the Orientals at Easter in the public services of the Church, must be held to be in a manner decisive of the question.

Let the evidence, then, which is borne by Ecclesiastical usage to the genuineness of S. Mark xvi. 9-20, be summed up, and the entire case caused again to pa.s.s under review.