Bethune-Baker: An Introduction to the Early History of Christian Doctrine

Chapter II

The Chief Docteines in the New Testament Writers

The Beginnings of Doctrines in the New Testament

Christian theology (using the word in the widest sense) is, as we have seen, the attempt to explain the mystery of the existence of the world and of man by the actual existence of Jesus. It is in him, in his experiences — in what he was, what he felt, what he thought, what he did — that Christian theology finds the solution of the problem. In the true interpretation of him and of his experiences we have, accordingly, the true interpretation of human life as a whole. In tracing the history of Christian doctrines, we have therefore to begin with the earliest attempts at such interpfetation. These, at least the earliest which are accessible to us at all, are undoubtedly to be found in the collection of writings which form the New Testament. We are not here concerned with apologetic argument or history of the canon, with questions of exact date of writing or of reception of particular books. We are only concerned with the fact that, be the interpretation true or untrue, apostolic or sub-apostolic, or later still, the interpretations of the person of Jesus which are contained in these books are the earliest which are extant. In different books he is regarded from different points of view: even the writers who purpose to give a simple record of the facts of his life and teaching approach their task with different conceptions of its nature; in their selection of facts — the special prominence they give to some — they are unconsciously essaying the work of interpretation as well as that of mere narration. " The historian cannot but interpret the facts which he records." The student of the history of Christian doctrines is content that they should be accepted as interpreters: to shew that they are also trustworthy historians is no part of his business. From the pages of the New Testament there is to be drawn, beyond all question, the record of

the actual experiences of the Cliristians nearest to the time of JesuB of whom we have any record at all. Their record of their own experiences, and their interiiretations of them and of him who was the source of all, are the starting-point from which the developenient of Christian doctrines proct'iMld. In this sense the authors of the Goapels and Epistles are the first writers on Christian theology.^ No less certainly than later…