PREFACE APART from the translation, the main feature of originality within these pages consists of the leading idea which dominates the volume, and of the way in which this idea has been executed. The critical materials constitute what either are or ought to be more or less familiar positions upon the lines of modern NT research; but they are grouped under a scheme which, so far as I am aware, is quite unique. Briefly put, the design is to arrange that selection of early Christian literature which is known as the "New Testament" in the order of its literary growth, and at the same time to indicate the chief grounds upon which such an order may be determined or disputed. This aim, with its difficulties, utility, and limitations, I have discussed in the Prolegomena. The Historical Tables will explain themselves. Most of them represent an endeavour to further one of the subsidiary objects for which this edition has been prepared, namely, the need of seeing and setting the NT writings in vital connection with one another and with the main currents of contemporary thought and history. Occasionally this connection becomes obvious at a glance. Sometimes it is indirect. Often it may be a matter of interest rather than of relevance. But 1 When my work was almost completed, I came across the following sentence quoted by Dr. Walter Lock from a friend's letter (The Exegesis of the NT, 1896, p. 19): "You don't want to know about animals and plants and musical instruments; the real Bible is overlaid and smothered by all this . . . I should like to see an English NT with the contents in a different, i.e. a chronological order." |