Note 11 — Chapter XVII · THE JESUS-FIGURE OF M. LOISY

And while M. Loisy justly rejects, as opposed to the internal evidence, the claim that “Luke” is the intimate of Paul, and even denies that the third Gospel is really Pauline in tendency,11 he will hardly say that it is anti-Pauline, or likely on that or any other score to repel an important item of testimony to the appearances of the risen Jesus, supplied by such an authority as the Apostle to the Gentiles. He can give no reason whatever, then, why the “five hundred” item should appear neither in Gospels nor Acts. It is in point of fact to be taken as a very late interpolation indeed. And if M. Loisy, as in duty bound, would but note the sequence: “then to the twelve; then ... to above five hundred ... then to all the apostles,” he might, as simple critic, see that there have been successive tamperings.