First Christian Century by Sir William Ramsay

In this series of ad hoc articles Sir William Ramsay defends the historicity of the New Testament against the arguments put forward by Dr James Moffatt. Ramsay was not the first to respond to Moffatt’s attacks on historicity, see Daniel in the Critic’s Den, for another example. My thanks to Book Aid for making a copy of this public domain title available for digitisation.

William M. Ramsay [1851-1939], The First Christian Century. Notes on Dr. Moffatt’s Introduction to the Literature of the New Testament. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1911. Hbk. pp.195. [Click to visit the download page for this title]

Table of Contents

• Preface

1. General
2. Literary Illustrations in Dr. Moffatt’s Book
3. Literature and History: A Difference in Method
4. The First and Late Second Century
5. The Personality of Papias and Polycarp
6. Papias as Authority for the Early Deathg of John the Apostle
7. The Supposed Early Death of John
8. The Fascination of the Second Century
9. The Argument from Accuracy of Local Details
10. Exsamples of the “Imaginative Reconstruction” of the Past in Literature
11. The Lawfulness of False Attribution in Literature
12. The Growth of a Miracle
13. The “Growing Consciousness of the Church”
14. The Unity of the New Testament
15. Order and Unifying Principle in the New Testament
16. St. Paul as the Beginning of the New Testament
17. St. Paul and St. John
18. Incident and Teaching
19. The Fourth Gospel and Its Author
20. The “Semi-Pseudonymity” of First Peter
21. The Study of Opinions
22. Analogies from Classical Non-Christian Literature
23. The South Galatian Question
24. The Phygian Region of the Province of Galatia
25. The Phrygian Language at Iconium
26. Antioch a Galatian City
27. The Political and Religious Importance of Pisidian Antioch
28. A Greek Linguistic Argument
29. Conclusion