Thus, the substance of the narrative is common to both accounts, with variation in unimportant details, and an amount of verbal agreement sufficient to show that the author of the later work had the earlier before him, or else that both used a common authority. But the account in Chronicles has additions which bring out the ecclesiastical purpose of its history: there is the explanation of Uzzah's death as owing to the neglect of the Levitical privileges, the appointments made in consequence of this, and the full detail of musical arrangements. Again, when the common narrative has been brought down to all but its last detail, it is, in Chronicles, interrupted by a lengthy account of a general ministry dating from this day of inauguration; then the final detail of the common narrative is added. On the other hand, the only section of the story of Samuel which has no counterpart in Chronicles is the domestic incident of Michal's remonstrance with the king, in which Ecclesiastical History would have no concern.

The Ecclesiastical History of the Jewish Church in the Old Testament has in the New Testament a counterThe Four Gospels part in the historical works connected with the foundation of Christianity. In a literary classification what is the position to be assigned to the Four Gospels? Though they are a part of Ecclesiastical History, yet they are not histories. How far they are from being biographies is seen by the difficulty which modern writers, with the Gospels before them, find in constructing a satisfactory biography of Jesus Christ. It might seem more plausible to associate them with the department of Prophecy, since we have seen that prophetic literature is concerned both with the discourses of the prophets and with their actions. But the difference between the Gospels and Prophecy is greater than the resemblance. The personal position of Jesus in the history of the Gospels is not that of a prophet. Though the function of prophets is to convey a Divine message, yet prophetic literature is made not so much by the message as by the discourse which enforces it Jesus Christ, on the contrary, speaks throughout the Gospels with the authority that commands and enacts, not with the appeal inviting to a doctrine other than his own. The conclusion we are led to is that the Gospels must be classified by themselves, as a specific literary form. The description of this form is that they are Authoritative Statements of the Acts and Words of Christ. As in the machinery of public life we have protocols reciting with authority facts or documents upon which political action is to be founded, so the authors of the Gospels drew up, and the early Church accepted, what were, not in themselves books of law, but the best authorities for the Acts and Words of their Founder, to which the Church looked for its supreme law. And this technical description is borne out by the language of the Preface to St. Luke.

Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to draw up a narrative concerning those matters which have been fulfilled among us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having traced

the course of all things accurately from the first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus; that thou mightest know the certainty concerning the things wherein thou wast instructed.

The Acts of the
Apostles

If this be a correct description from the literary standpoint of the Four Gospels, then it will be seen that the remaining book of Acts must be referred to the same classification. It is indeed announced as a continuation of St. Luke's Gospel; and in character it is an Authoritative Statement of the Proceedings of the Apostles, in the early stages of founding the Church, and opening it to the whole Gentile world. This characterisation of the book will appear in its title, if the wording of the title be translated out of technical into familiar language. The Apostles' are so called because they have received a certain 'commission' from their Master; the 'Acts of the Apostles' are the 'Proceedings of the Commissioners.' This description again exactly tallies with the plan and arrangement of the book. If Acts be regarded as ordinary history, it will seem strange that the personages and places which dominate the earlier part are in the latter part almost forgotten; moreover, the history seems to end abruptly just where it might be expected to become specially full. But the terms of the 'commission' are that the Apostles are to make disciples of all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. The book that is to narrate the execution of this commission deals in full detail with the start made at Jerusalem. The rest of it has for its purpose to bring out the successive enlargements of the area in which the Church is at work. The first grand enlargement is the admission of Gentiles; and this is voluminously treated in the account of St. Peter's Vision, of the Council settling difficulties between the Jews and the Gentile converts, above all, in the rise of the Apostle who is to devote himself specially to this work. It is natural that from this point the history should mainly concern itself with St. Paul. Another miraculous Vision marks a further enlargement, where the Gospel is carried from Asia to Europe. And a series of providential circumstances, not less wonderful

xvi. 9

than a vision, are narrated at length from their importance in bringing the Apostle of the Gentiles to Rome. xxi. 17-xxviii When the work of making disciples has thus been carried from Jerusalem to the city which is the metropolis of all nations, the terms of the commission have been fully executed : what remains may be left to the history which is not authoritative.

These are the various types of history represented in Scripture. In conclusion I would say that those who desire to appreciate these narrative books as literature, apart from the historical problems they raise, will do well to see that they read, not in 'chapters,' but in portions that are fixed by literary considerations; taking in a book at a sitting, or if not, something which makes a natural division of a book. It is the purpose of the tables in the Appendix to this work to assist such reading; and I suggest that a student should, by a little use of the pencil in the margin of his Revised Version, do that for Biblical History which in any other history would be done for him by the printer.