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THE JEWISH
QUARTERLY REVIEW
THE DEMONOLOGYOF THE NEW TESTAMENT. I. OF late years the textual criticism of the New Testament has made much progress in this country, and Textual
critics of especially in Oxford and Cambridge innumerable
the N. T. manuscripts have been collected and classified; many, the which the tradition has lines
along great flowed are being ascertained, and even referred to the countries of their origin. The Diatessaron is restored to us, and little by little the external evidence of the Gospels is pushed back deep into the second century. That is one main result gained, and another equally notable is the recognition on all sides that however much inspired by God these writings may be, their transmission to us has at any rate been controlled by the same laws as govern the transmission of any other, and purely human, documents. But the criticism of the contents of the New Testament equal progress. Isolated thinkers m butccritics s has not made but of matterof indeed have made attempts to humanize the N. T. few.
life and personality of Jesus, to show that there is really nothing about the history of the early Church which justifies us in lifting it out of general history and claiming for its documents a right to be tested by other tests of probability than those which we apply to secular narratives. But in the bosom of orthodox Christian sects such efforts have met with little or no response. To be an authority on the history of the sacred text is held to excuse