Facing as I do the great and difficult task of writing the second part of my History of Greek Religion, I should like beforehand to state some of the main problems and to bring out some dominant ideas. The subject is so vast that I can offer but a subjective selection; yet let me remark that my standpoint is not that of syncretism as a whole but that of Greek religion, which seems to me to be a factor of syncretism at times neglected.

There are comparatively few matters of any real importance in the confused story of the Christian beginnings concerning which responsible critics would care to say, “It is established beyond peradventure of a doubt.” Wilhelm Wrede, though dead, yet speaketh. And there is the wholesome apprehension that such a rash utterance may prove a boomerang: some disciple of the dead master who so hated those smug confidences is sure to step forward, indued with a double portion of his spirit, to challenge, if not to deflate, the incautious scholar.

Those present at the delivery of Melito's declamation can be supposed readily to have grasped the meaning of this artificial phrase; but for the modern reader, unacquainted with the accompanying circumstances, its studied preciousness becomes a source of bewilderment.

Dr. Zuntz's learned and acute paper must be taken into account by all future students of Melito's homily. He has carried the discussion of the opening sentence into a field where I am not competent to follow him, and I must therefore refrain from any estimate of his principal conclusions. Of the following points, some are intended to clarify my own position, others suggest additional questions which should be considered in any final summing up.