" [21:2] Dr. Lightfoot,
however, does impugn it. It is apparently his habit to impugn
translations. He accuses the ancient Latin translator of freely handling
the tenses of a Greek text which the critic himself has never seen.
Here it is Dr. Lightfoot's argument which is "wrecked upon this rock
of grammar."
The next example of the "weightier facts and lines of reasoning" of
apologists which I have ignored is as follows:--
"Again, when he devotes more than forty pages to the discussion
of Papias, why does he not even mention the view maintained by
Dr. Westcott and others (and certainly suggested by a strict
interpretation of Papias' own words), that this father's object, in
his 'Exposition,' was not to construct a new evangelical narrative,
but to interpret and to illustrate by oral tradition one already
lying before him in written documents? This view, if correct,
entirely alters the relation of Papias to the written Gospels; and
its discussion was a matter of essential importance to the main
question at issue." [22:1]
I reply that the object of my work was not to discuss views advanced
without a shadow of evidence, contradicted by the words of Papias
himself, and absolutely incapable of proof. My object was the much
more practical and direct one of ascertaining whether Papias affords
any evidence with regard to our Gospels which could warrant our
believing in the occurrence of miraculous events for which they
are the principal testimony.
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