Proof from Secular Writers

Proof from Secular Writers Christian Writers AN UNBROKEN Chain of secular writers who have quoted from the New Testament and attributed its books to their reputed authors reaches from the present back to the apostolic age. The integrity and genuineness of the New Testament does not depend upon these secular writers but if the entire New Testament were destroyed we would be abundantly able to reproduce every verse from the writings of these early writers commonly called "church fathers". The First Century

Ignatius

Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, was born about A.D. 37 and was martyred at Rome in 108: He served as Bishop of Antioch until 95. Of his works we have seven short epistles which are conceded to be genuine. These contain nine-teen quotations from the New Testament. When Ignatius was being taken to Rome to be put to death he was permitted to preach to Christians along the way. Just before his death he wrote to the church at Ephesus thanking them for their kindness to him. He mentions that Onesimus comforted him in prison as he had previously comforted Paul and others and quotes from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. His letters to Polycarp, to the church at Smyrna and to the church at Philadelphia also contain quotations from the New Testament.

Barnabas.

Barnabas, the travelling companion of the apostle Paul, wrote a famed work usually called "The Epistle of Barnabas". This work was completed about A.D. 98. The genuineness of this epistle was questioned until 1859 when Dr. Tischendorf found a complete copy of the Greek text in the Convent of St. Catherine. Since that time the critics have been silent. In this epistle Barnabas quotes John 3:14, John 6:58, John 8:58 and notably Matthew 22:14 which is introduced with the phrase "It is written". He refers to Matthew 9:13, Matthew 20:16, Acts 4:32 and at least ten or twelve other passages from the New Testament. He writes a passage which is strikingly similar to Romans 6:1-4. He refers to the Judaising tendency of the time, the worship of the Lord’s Day, the commandment of baptism, and many other facts of the New Testament.

Polycarp.

Polycarp was born prior to A.D. 70 and was martyred in A.D. 155. When called upon to recant his faith in the Lord Jesus or be put to death this venerable Christian said, "Eighty-six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury; how then can I blaspheme my King and Savior?" Polycarp was a student and convert of the Apostle John. He wrote a long letter to the church at Philippi which is genuine beyond all question. He refers by name to Paul’s letter to the same church and quotes forty times from eleven other New Testament books.

Clement of Rome.

Clement of Rome died about A.D. 120. He wrote several epistles of which the one to the Christians at Corinth, written about A.D. 80, shows him to have been familiar with the writings of Peter and Paul and John’s gospel. He alludes to many things found in the Hebrew epistle. He quotes thirty-one times from seventeen books of the New Testament.

Hermas. The "Shepherd of Hermas" is a very ancient document written about the close of the first century. It is sad to contain twenty-three quotations from fourteen books of the New Testament.

Second Century

Irenaeus.

Irenaeus was born at Smyrna and lived between 120 and 202. He was a pupil of Polycarp and became Bishop of Lyons in 178. He was martyred for his defense of the gospel and his five books "Against Heresies" remain to this day. He quotes from every book of the New Testament save one and these quotations in all number 767.

Justin Martyr.

Justin, the martyr, was born at Neapolis about the close of the first century and was put to death at Rome under Marcus Aurelius in 167. He was an outstanding student of Philosophy and Greek and was so well known that the manner of his death has become a part of his name. He was a copious writer and many of his works are preserved. The outstanding are two Apologies and a Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew. He quotes about 125 times from Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and other New Testament books. In giving an account of the last supper he says, "The Apostles, in the Memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus informed us." "On the day which is called Sunday we all, whether dwelling in cities or in the country, assemble together; when the Memoirs of the Apostles or the writings of the Prophets are read, as long as time permits." Justin gave the following as an outline of Christian worship: Scripture lesson from the New Testament, Sermon, Prayer with the congregation standing, the offering, Holy Communion celebrated every Sunday. "He being dead yet speaketh".

Tertullian.

Tertullian lived in Carthage between 160 and 220. He was a pagan and a Roman lawyer. Later he became a Christian and a defender of the faith. He recognizes the four gospels as written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. His greatest work is "Against Marcion". He gives 1,802 long quotations from twenty-four books of the New Testament. For himself and for Christians of all ages he gives strong evidence of the existence, genuineness and credibility of these books.

Clement of Alexandria.

Clement of Alexandria was born about 160 and died in 220. He was a man of great ability and much learning. He calls the scriptures divinely inspired and says that the existence of one God is proved by the Law, the Prophets and the "blessed Gospels". In his works he quotes so much from the Bible that he refers to every book in the Old Testament except Ruth and the Song of Solomon and all books in the New Testament save James, Philemon and Second Peter. He refers to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and names them in that order. In all nearly four hundred quotations from the New Testament are found in the writings of Clement of Alexandria.

Papias.

Papias was a contemporary of the disciples of the Apostles and was Bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia. He wrote a book on Christ’s teaching in which he tells how Mark wrote his gospel from information given him by Peter and how Matthew at first wrote in Hebrew and the people translated it as best they could.

Basilides.

Basilides lived about 130 and wrote a 24-volume commentary on the gospels. He quotes also Romans 8:22 and 2 Corinthians 12:4 and alludes to Romans, Ephesians, Colossians, I Timothy and I Peter.

Third Century Origen of Egypt.

Origen of Alexandria, Egypt, was a son of Christian parents and trained in the faith from childhood. He was born in 186 and died in 253. His father was martyred when Origen was sixteen years old and from that day forward Origen wrote a steady stream of books on the Christian religion. Ambrosius, a wealthy man, was converted through his teaching and put his entire fortune at the disposal of Origen. With about thirty clerks and shorthand writers, Origen wrote commentaries on every book of the New Testament and most books of the Old Testament. He arranged in six parallel columns the whole Bible consisting of the six outstanding texts and versions of his day. His books contain thousands of quotations from all parts of the Bible. When death stilled his pen in A.D. 253 he had completed, perhaps, the greatest amount of work ever done by one man in defense of the Christian religion against paganism.

Cyprian and others.

Cyprian was Bishop of Carthage and wrote from 230 to 256. He wrote a commentary on 2 Timothy and makes more than fifty quotations from various books of the New Testament. Hippolytus wrote many books near the beginning of the third century. He urged Christians to build on the entire New Testament and not on isolated texts. Athanasius, Basil the Great, Ammonius and others wrote many volumes in defense of the New Testament in the third century.

Fourth Century

Augustine and Eusebius together with a score of other writers wrote so much during the fourth century that the entire Bible might, if lost, be restored from their writings.

Eusebius was born in Palestine about 260. He was Bishop of Caesarea and wrote an Ecclesiastical History in ten volumes. When he wrote there were only four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. He says these gospels together with the other books of the New Testament were accepted by the churches everywhere as being genuine and authentic.

It is useless to cite authors who refer to the Bible since the fourth century. Since that time the whole Bible has taken such a part in both civil and religious affairs that its existence and wide distribution would not be questioned by any sane man.

Conclusion.

We conclude that the New Testament if lost could be restored from the writings of the "church fathers" in any century back to the first one; that the New Testament as we now have it has existed and been accepted as genuine and authentic in every century since the apostles lived. Many of us have heard some of our college professors parade before their classes and say, "The New Testament was not written until the third or fourth century". This study leads us to conclude that they were either woefully ignorant or willfully dishonest.

Non-Christian Writers By a plain and independent path--that of non-Christians we are able to trace our Bible back to the days of the Apostles and thus establish its genuineness. Indeed, if all the Bible were destroyed and all the writings of the believers should perish we would be able to restore the Bible from the quotations found in the writings of its enemies.

Josephus.

Josephus, the celebrated historian, was born at Jerusalem four years after the ascension of Jesus. He was present at the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and wrote his history of that destruction shortly afterward. He finished his history of the Jews near the close of the first century Josephus refers to the Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians and makes several references to John the Baptist. His account of the death of Herod is similar to that given in Luke 12 and his reference to Felix, Drusilla and Bernice confirm the account. From his "Jewish Antiquities." 28, chapter 3, section 3, we quote, "Now there was, about this time, Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him man; for he performed many wonderful works. He was a teacher of such men as received the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him many of the Jews and also of the Gentiles. This was the Christ. And when Pilate, at the instigation of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him from the first did not cease to adhere to him. For he appeared to them alive the third day, the divine prophets having foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named for him subsists to this time." Modern critics have constantly argued that this passage is an interpolation, but it is found in all the Josephus manuscripts and is written in the style of the Jewish historian.

Tacitus.

Tacitus, the masterly Roman historian, was born in A. D. 59, twenty-five years after the crucifixion, he wrote that Nero charged Christians with his own crime of burning Rome. He also says that Christ was put to death by Pilate as a malefactor, that Christianity arose in Judea, took its name from Christ and spread from there to Rome. He says that there was a great multitude of Christians in Rome and that they were made to endure horrible sufferings; that they were torn to pieces by animals, crucified and burned to death. This account is confirmed by many other writers and even Gibbon admits that it is the truth.

Suetonius. This historian was born about A.D. 70 and in his work on the life of Claudius, who reigned from A.D. 41 to 54, he says that Claudius "banished the Jews from Rome who were making disturbances, Christus (a heathen name Christ) being their leader." This fact is referred to in Acts 18:2, the emperor not making the proper distinction between Jews and Christians.

Pliny.

Pliny was governor of Pontus and Bithynia and a contemporary of Tacitus. From his letter to the emperor we learn that Christ was a real person, that He was worshipped as divine, that His followers were accustomed to meet on a stated day for worship, that there were many Christians and they were terribly persecuted by the Roman authorities.

Hegesippus.

Hegesippus in writing of Domitian who reigned between 81 and 96 says, "There were at that time yet remaining of the kindred of Christ the grandsons of Jude, who was called his brother according to the flesh. These some accused as being of the race of David, and Evocatus brought them before Domitianus Caesar; for he, too, was afraid of the coming of Christ, as well as Herod." Gibbon accepts this and puts it into his history.

Lucian.

Lucian, the Grecian "Mark Twain" who was born in A.D. 124, pictured the unwavering faith and calmness of Christians when being tried for their faith.

Edicts of Roman Emperors. The edicts of the Roman emperors from Nero to Constantine commanding the persecution of Christians are governmental recognition of Christianity as existing and causing commotion. They bear testimony to its rapid spread, the purity of its morals and the heroic endurance of its followers.

Porphyry.

Porphyry wrote about A.D. 270. He was a severe critic of Christianity and made many plain references to Matthew, Mark, Acts and Galatians. He did not question the genuineness of any New Testament book though he did attack the genuineness of Daniel in the Old Testament.

Celsus.

Celsus wrote about 75 years after the death of John the apostle. He gives more than eighty quotations from the New Testament.

Hierocles.

Hierocles was President of Bithynia, a cruel persecutor and a sarcastic writer. He wrote in A.D. 303 in criticism of the "internal flaws" of the New Testament and mentioned six of the eight authors of the Book.

Julian. In 361 the Emperor Julian composed his work against Christianity. He united learning, power and zeal in attacking the New Testament. He bore witness to the genuineness of the gospels and Acts of Apostles. He concedes their early date and accepts them as being written by their reputed authors. He quotes from Romans, Corinthians and Galatians.

Conclusion.

These bitter enemies are made to bear unwilling but decisive testimony to the existence of the Bible in all ages since the first century and to the authorship of the very books they criticized. Someone has well said, "The more the truth is rubbed, the brighter it will shine."