These internal proofs, coinciding as they do with a mass of external evidences so great and varied, place the genuineness of the four canonical gospels on a foundation that cannot be shaken.

CHAPTER III.

UNCORRUPT PRESERVATION OF THE GOSPEL NARRATIVES.

1.  It is necessary, first of all, to define what is meant in the present connection by the uncorrupt preservation of the gospel narratives.  When a man, whose business it is to examine and compare manuscripts or editions of a work, speaks of a given text as corrupt, he means one thing; in a question concerning the truth of the Christian system as given in the writings of the New Testament, a corrupt text means something very different.  The collator of manuscripts understands by a corrupt text one that has been marred by the carelessness or bad judgment of transcribers, whence have arisen so many “various readings,” though these do not change, or essentially obscure the facts and doctrines of Christianity, as has been most conclusively shown by the results of modern textual criticism; but in an inquiry whether we have in our canonical gospels the account of our Lord’s life and teachings as it was originally written by the evangelists in all essential particulars, we have to do with the question, not of various readings, such as are incident to all manuscripts, but of essential additions, alterations, or mutilations—­like those, for example, which Marcion attempted—­by which the facts and doctrines themselves are changed or obscured.  It is against the charge of such essential corruptions that we maintain the integrity of the text in the gospels, as in the other books of the New Testament.

2.  The most important materials for writing in ancient times were the paper made of the Egyptian papyrus plant—­whence the word paper—­and parchment, prepared from the skins of animals, the finer kinds of which are called vellum.  Both are of high antiquity.  The use of the above-mentioned paper was very common in the apostolic age; and from an incidental notice in the New Testament, (2 John 12 compared with 3 John 13,) it appears to have been the material employed by the apostles themselves.  But the use of parchment became more common in the following centuries, while that of papyrus-paper gradually ceased.  To this circumstance we owe, in a great measure, the preservation of our oldest manuscripts; for the papyrus-paper was of a very perishable nature, and the manuscripts written upon it that have come down to us from high antiquity have been kept in specially favorable circumstances, as, for example, in the ancient Egyptian tombs.  With the disuse of papyrus-paper ceased also the ancient form of the roll.  All manuscripts written on parchment are in the form of books with leaves.  From about the eleventh century, paper made from cotton or linen came into common use.