The solution of the various difficulties
in the gospels is, that the tradition on which the first three are based
was preserved orally, and, having been slowly put together, was written
in three forms. The writers of the first three gospels were, therefore,
not independent witnesses of the history itself. To interpret the Bible
properly it must be treated as any other book, "in the same careful and
impartial way that we ascertain the meaning of Sophocles or Plato....
Scripture, like other books, has one meaning, which is to be gathered
from itself, without reference to the adaptations of fathers or divines,
and without regard to _a priori_ notions about its nature and origin. It
is to be interpreted also with attention to the character of its
authors, and the prevailing state of civilization and knowledge, with
allowance for peculiarities of style and language, and modes of thought
and figures of speech; yet not without a sense, that, as we read, there
grows upon us the witness of God in the word, anticipating in a rude and
primitive age the truth that was to be, shining more and more unto the
perfect day in the life of Christ, which again is reflected from
different points of view in the teachings of his apostles.
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