Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 487

Chap.

THE NEW TESTAMENT

II]

tion to the idea itself, that a

new

New

Scripture should be added

may have

Hyperspiritualism

to the Old.

463

reacted against

Old; but that cannot claim we speak simply of those, who, while our attention here loyally subject to the authority of the Old Testament, faced the question whether or no a second Scripture, clothed with equal authority, should be added to the accepted canon. Psychologically one would have expected a negative answer Imagine what it to this question from more than one side. would mean to you if to your Bible, as it now consists of Old and New Testaments, a third volume was to be added, clothed with equal authority and of later origin, and you all

Scripture,

as well as

:

perceive at once that

reaction

against

this

effort,

yea,

And yet opposition almost, could not be wanting. such was the case faced by the church at large at that Both what was to be added to the Old Testament, time. fierce

and

that anything should be added,

was entirely new

to

opposition of any essential

That, nevertheless, character and significant influence against this idea as such remained wanting, shows indeed that the minds and hearts

them.

all

must have been predisposed Scripture

;

to the reception of a second

that the enlightening,

when

this Scripture arose,

and that the appearance of the New Testament, so far from sowing unrest in the mind, rather produced that natural rest which is enjoyed when what was incomplete in itself obtains its natural complement. And this sense was so general that not only the

bound the minds and hearts

to

it

;

orthodox but also the heterodox tendency, as far as it moved in the bed of the Christian Church, supported the rise of this

new

Scripture.

Even though many

efforts

went out

from the side of the heterodox to exclude this or that writing, to modify or replace it by another, yet in this very effort the general consciousness voiced itself, that an authoritative Scripture of the New Testament was a necessity. Even though the authority was questioned of certain books, or of a part of it, the heretic and the orthodox confessor were unanimous in the conviction that the Old Scripture called for a

New.

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