Note 12 — Chapter XVII · THE JESUS-FIGURE OF M. LOISY

As to the genuineness and the dating of the epistles, it may be well at this point to put the issue clearly. The general case of Van Manen is decidedly strong; and the entire absence from the Acts of any mention of any public epistle by Paul is all in Van Manen’s favour. The Epistle to the Romans is so far dissolved under criticism that it might be classed as neither Pauline nor an epistle.12 That there are late literary elements in the rest of the cardinal “four” I have myself argued,13 independently of the question of the interpolations of quasi-history. For a free historical student there can be no primary question of how the dating of the epistles will affect the problem of the historicity of Jesus: the problem is to be scientifically solved on its merits. But while the school of Van Manen fail to recognize interpolations in the epistles as they stand, and to revise their chronology in the light of that fact, they are postponing the critical settlement. That the rejection of all the Pauline epistles as pseudepigraphic is not at all a counter stroke to the myth theory is shown by Mr. Whittaker’s definite acceptance of both positions. Van Manen was premature on the historicity question.