Note 11 — Chapter XIV · ORTHODOXY AND THE “ORAL” HYPOTHESIS

Of course this is not the true critical solution; the immediate question is the consistency of Mr. Wright’s critical principles. To the eye of unbiassed criticism the “Come unto me” logion is not a possible oracle at all; it is an unintelligently inserted liturgical formula from the mysteries, misplaced and meaningless as a public teaching.11 As regards the fair historical inference from the wide difference between the synoptic Gospels and the fourth, it is not possible to accept any of Mr. Wright’s solutions, tried by his own tests. To suggest that John had not “heard” of the Virgin Birth story is for him impossible, unless he post-dates that as he does the birth-stories in Luke. If he follows that course, what can he make of the 13th chapter of John, a palpable interpolation or substitution between the 12th and the 14th, which form a sequence that the 13th absolutely breaks?12 If that interpolation be admitted, what exactly is left to fight for?