l is interesting in this
connection. (P. 8) "Professor Harnack stands on the border between the
nineteenth and twentieth century. His book shows that he is to a certain
degree sensitive of and obedient to the new spirit; but he is only
partially so. The nineteenth century critical method was false, and is
already antiquated....

"The first century could find nothing real and true that was not
accompanied by the marvellous and the 'supernatural.' The nineteenth
century could find nothing real and true that was. Which view was right
and which was wrong? Was either complete? Of these two questions, the
second alone is profitable at the present. Both views were right--in a
certain way of contemplating; both views were wrong--in a certain way.
Neither was complete. At present, as we are struggling to throw off the
fetters which impeded thought in the nineteenth century, it is most
important to free ourselves from its prejudices and narrowness."

He adds (pp. 26 and 27): "There are clear signs of the unfinished state
in which this chapter was left by Luke; but some of the German scholar's
criticisms show that he has not a right idea of the simplicity of life
and equipment that evidently characterized the jailer's house and the
prison. The details which he blames as inexact and inconsistent are
sometimes most instructive about the circumstances of this provincial
town and Roman colonia.

"But it is never safe to lay much stress on small points of inexactness
or inconsistency in any author. One finds such faults even in the works
of modern scholarship if one examines them in the microscopic fashion in
which Luke is studied here. I think I can find them in the author
[Harnack] himself. His point of view sometimes varies in a puzzling
way."

As a matter of fact, Harnack, as pointed out by Ramsay, was evidently
working himself more and more out of the old conclusion as to the lack
of authenticity of the Lucan writings into an opinion ever more and more
favorable to Luke. For instance, in a notice of his own book, published
in the _Theologische Literaturzeitung_, "he speaks far more favorably
about the trustworthiness and credibility of Luke, as being generally in
a position to acquire and transmit reliable information, and as having
proved himself able to take advantage of his position. Harnack was
gradually working his way to a new plane of thought. His later opinion
is more favorable."

Ramsay also points out that Professo