Note 63 — CONCILIAR DECREES ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

We wish M. de Pressensé would be kind enough to inform us what Fathers of the IId and IIId centuries have questioned the origin of the Gospel according to S. Matthew. We are well aware that French rationalists have borrowed the German idea of a primitive Gospel, which, perhaps, served as a basis for the other abridgments. The promoters of this system are Eichorn, Eckermann, Gieseler, Credner, and Ewald, in Germany; in France, Messrs. Réville and Renan have lent to it the support of their names. They have endeavored to support it by one or two words of Papias, which by no means prove so strange an assertion. Where are the Fathers of the IId and IIId centuries who had any doubt as to the authenticity of the first Gospel? As to the Epistle to the Hebrews, we wish M. de Pressensé would read a few pages on this question by the Rev. Père Franzelin, in his able treatise, De Traditione et Scriptura. He would see how little doubt the Fathers of the first ages had respecting this epistle. Some, on account of the absence of S. Paul’s name, and the difference of style, have doubted it was by the doctor of nations, but all the Fathers, unless we except two or three of the least known, invariably asserted its canonicity. For it is one thing to doubt whether S. Paul was the author of this epistle and another that it is of the number of inspired books.