viii.
p. 201.) This testimony was given about the year 300; how long before
that date these translations were made does not appear.
Damasus, bishop of Rome, corresponded with Saint Jerome upon the
exposition of difficult texts of Scripture; and, in a letter still
remaining, desires Jerome to give him a clear explanation of the word
Hosanna, found in the New Testament; "He (Damasus) having met with very
different interpretations of it in the Greek and Latin commentaries of
Catholic writers which he had read." (Lardner, Cred. vol. ix. P. 108)
This last clause shows the number and variety of commentaries then
extant.
Gregory of Nyssen, at one time, appeals to the most exact copies of
Saint Mark's Gospel; at another time, compares together, and proposes to
reconcile, the several accounts of the Resurrection given by the four
Evangelists; which limitation proves that there were no other histories
of Christ deemed authentic beside these, or included in the same
character with these. This writer observes, acutely enough, that "the
disposition of the clothes in the sepulchre, the napkin that was about
our Saviour's head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped
together in a place by itself, did not bespeak the terror and hurry of
thieves, and therefore refutes the story of the body being
stolen.
Pages:
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216