EVIDENCE FROM QUOTATIONS.

Quotations from a book, like copies of it, catalogues of its parts, and translations of it, are self-evident proofs of its previous existence, seeing that it is impossible to make quotations from a book not yet written.

Quotations are divided into three distinct classes:

I. Those in which the words quoted are credited by name to the book whence they are taken, or to its author. These are called express quotations.

II. Those in which the source of the quotation is not given. These are called anonymous quotations.

III. Those in which an idea, a figure of speech, or a form of expression, is borrowed from another writer without credit. These are variously styled coincidences, allusions, reminiscences; but they are really quotations from memory, and we think it better to treat them as such.

As we proceed, we shall refer to these classes of quotations by their numbers.

In the second and third classes, and especially in the third, the fact that a quotation is actually made is usually a matter of probability, not often one of certainty. It depends on the probability that two writers used the words, ideas, or figures of speech in question, independently of each other; and the degree of this probability depends upon the character of the matter used by them in common. Such ideas, figures and phrases as are commonplace, and such as have become common property, may be used in common by two writers unacquainted with each other's productions; but such as are strikingly characteristic of a certain author are known, when found in the works of another, to be borrowed property. The identification depends on the well known fact, that as every man has his own peculiar features, so every writer of any originality has his own peculiar mode of expression, and his peculiar thoughts. For example, if in the works of any writer since Shakespeare there should be found the words, "to be, or not to be, that is the question," there could be no reasonable doubt that he obtained them directly or indirectly from Shakespeare's Hamlet. On the other hand, if they should be found in the works of some author previous to Shakespeare, it would be morally certain that Shakespeare had borrowed them from him. In like manner the characteristic phraseology, figures of speech, or thoughts of any New Testament writer, when found uncredited in the work of another author, furnish proof that the latter borrowed directly or indirectly from the former, except when the New Testament writer can be regarded as the later of the two.

We now propose to draw upon this source of evidence, by presenting not all, but a few of the quotations made from the New Testament books by early authors, and we have selected those on which the force of the evidence from this source chiefly depends, and which for this reason should be familiar to every student of Evidences.

The writers whom we have already mentioned, such as Origen, Clement, Tertullian, and others of a later date, made many and copious quotations from the books of the New Testament, so many and so copious that the opinion has sometimes been expressed that the whole New Testament, if it were lost, could be reproduced out of the Christian writings of the first four centuries. But as we have already seen that these men mention the books by name, it would be but reiteration to cite their quotations. It is needful only that we begin at the point of time already reached by means of the latter evidence, and cite the quotations made by writers who lived at a still earlier period. If the period between the writers just named and the apostles can be spanned by a succession of writers making quotations from the books in question, the existence of these books will be traced to the age of the apostles by evidence absolutely conclusive.

We begin this line of evidence with Irenaeus, a writer who mentions so many of the New Testament books by name that he might almost be classed with those who have left catalogues. The exact date of his birth is not known, nor is that of his death; but both are fixed within very narrow limits, and we adopt as certainly quite close to the truth the date 135 as that of his birth, and 200 as that of his death.1 He speaks of having seen Polycarp in Smyrna in his early youth, and from this it is supposed that Smyrna, or some adjacent part of Asia Minor was his native place.2 Later in life his home was at Lyons, in Gaul, where he was made a Bishop in the year 177. Previous to his ordination he visited Rome as the bearer of a letter from certain members of the church at Lyons who were in prison and awaiting martyrdom, to the Bishop of the church at Rome.3 From all this it is apparent that he had means of knowing what books of the New Testament were in use within the period of his remembrance, in Asia Minor, in Gaul and in Rome. His memory reached back within the first half of the second century. His quotations and citations may be classified as follows:

1. He says that what the Apostles first preached they afterward "handed down to us in the Scriptures;" that they were filled with the Holy Spirit before they preached; that Matthew "issued a written gospel" while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome; that Mark, "the disciple and interpreter of Peter," wrote what had been preached by Peter; that Luke, "the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the gospel preached by him;" and that "John, the disciple who had leaned on the Lord's breast, published a gospel during his residence in Ephesus."4 He further claims that the ground on which these Gospels rest was so firm that even the heretics against whom he wrote and whose doctrines were condemned by them, were constrained to acknowledge them, some acknowledging one, and some another.5 He makes other remarks concerning the Gospels equally explicit, and his quotations from them are very numerous.

2. Irenaeus makes many quotations from Acts, and repeatedly speaks of it as a work of Luke. For instance, he quotes the account of Simon the sorcerer (Acts viii. 8-11) as the words of Luke;6 he credits in the same way the account of Paul's interview with Jesus on the way to Damascus;7 and he cites the passages in Acts where the author uses the first person, as proof that Luke was with Paul on the occasions referred to.8

3. Twelve of Paul's Epistles are quoted by this author, some of them many times, and the authorship9 of all is especially ascribed to Paul. The two not thus quoted are Philemon and Hebrews. The former he neither quotes nor mentions-- an omission readily accounted for by the brevity and personal character of this document. Of the latter there is no mention in his extant writings, but Eusebius gives a list of some of his works now lost, in one of which this Epistle was both named and quoted; 10 while Photius, a writer of the ninth century, quotes a still earlier writer as saying that Irenaeus denied the Pauline authorship of Hebrews.11 The sum of the evidence then is, that Irenteus made use of all of the Epistles12 commonly ascribed to Paul except Philemon.  

4. Irenaeus quotes by name the First Epistle of Peter,13 and the First and Second of John.14 The Third of John, and the Epistles of James and Jude he neither mentions nor quotes. In two places he makes a quotation of the third class from the Second Epistle of Peter. In trying to show that Adam died the same day that he ate the forbidden fruit, he states as the opinion of some, that he died within a thousand years, and he argues that since "a day of the Lord is as a thousand years," he died within the time stated in the sentence.15 In another place he assumes that the six days of creation are a prophecy of the earth's duration, and argues that as "the day of the Lord is as a thousand years," in six thousand years the world will come to an end.16 This bold and startling statement that "a day of the Lord is as a thousand years" is found in almost the identical words in II. Peter iii. 8, and it is there employed in connection with the very subject to which Irenaeus in the last instance applies it, the end of the world. The thought is strikingly original, and it could not have occurred independently to Irenaeus and the author of II. Peter. We conclude then that it was borrowed by the former, and that he not only knew this Epistle, but accepted it as an authority on this high subject, the mysterious relation which God sustains to time.17 In the use which he makes of the passage he follows Justin Martyr, a writer yet to be mentioned.18

5. Our author makes many quotations from the Apocalypse, and he ascribes it to the Apostle John. He also states approximately its date, saying that it was written "toward the end of Domitian's reign."19 Domitian died A. D. 96.

We now see that Irenaeus quoted, and was familiar with all the books of the New Testament except the three short Epistles, Philemon, Jude and 111. John, and the longer Epistle of dames. As his own personal remembrance reached back within the first half of the second century, this evidence traces all these books at least that far. But his opportunities for information were such that we must grant for his evidence even more than this. The Bishop of Lyons who preceded him, and under whom he held the office of presbyter, was Pothinus, who suffered martyrdom at ninety years of age in the year 177.20 He was consequently thirteen years of age when the Apostle John died in the year 100, and his memory spanned all the period between that event and the mature years of Irenaeus. He must have known whether any of the books represented as apostolic had come into existence in his own day; and his knowledge on this subject was imparted to Irenaeus, his pupil and subordinate. Furthermore, when Irenaeus was a boy in Smyrna he saw Polycarp, who was instructed by Apostles,21 and who had conversed with many persons who had seen Jesus. He had also conversed with another person whom he styles "a certain presbyter," who had been taught by men who had seen the Apostles.22 From his boyhood, then, he had known the New Testament books as they were known by men who had seen the Apostles, and this renders it in the highest degree improbable that any of them had originated since the apostolic age.

Before we leave the writings of Irenaeus it may be well to notice the reverence paid to the New Testament books by the disciples of his day, as it appears in the titles which he familiarly applies to them. He calls them "the Sacred Scriptures," "the Oracles of God."23 He speaks of the New Testament as containing "the writings of the Evangelists and the Apostles," as the Old Testament contains "the law and the prophets."24 He holds these Scriptures to be perfect, since they were spoken by the Word of God and his Spirit;25 and he declares that no light punishment awaits him who either adds to or subtracts anything from them.26 Is it possible that books thus esteemed in the middle of the second century and believed to have been in use in the church from the days of the Apostles could have been written but a few years previous?

We next go back to Justin, a native of the ancient city of Shechem in Palestine, which was called Flavia Neapolis by the Romans, and is now called Nablus by the Arabs.27 His nationality was uncertain. He calls the Samaritans his people,28 but this may be only because he was born among them. His name, and that of his father and his grandfather, are Roman, indicating the probability of a Roman lineage. His principal writings which have comedown to us are two Apologies, and a Dialogue with one Trypho, a Jew. One of the former was addressed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, and the other to the Roman Senate. The Dialogue, which is by far the most elaborate of his works, is an attempt to state and to answer the arguments of the Jews against the Christian faith; and the Apologies are remonstrances against the persecution of Christians by the Roman authorities. The exact date of his birth is not known, but it was not much later than the beginning of the second century.29 The date of his death is involved in equal uncertainty, but that of his first Apology is stated in the work itself as about one hundred and fifty years after the birth of Jesus, and it is agreed among scholars that it was written in 146 or 147.30 He suffered martyrdom at Rome,31 and from this circumstance he is usually called Justin Martyr. In regard to these dates it is sufficient for our present purpose to know that he lived through the first half of the second century.

In his dialogue he gives an interesting account of his own early inquiries on the subject of religion. Being desirous of obtaining a knowledge of God, he sought personal instruction from Greek philosophers. His first teacher was a Stoic. After spending much time with him and learning but little, he resorted to a Peripatetic, then to a Pythagorean, and finally to a Platonist. Under the latter he says that his mind was "furnished with wings," and that he was elated with the thought that he would soon look upon God; but at this juncture, while enjoying a solitary walk by the seashore he met an aged Christian through whose conversation he was brought to the true knowledge of God."32 He was the more easily converted on account of his previous knowledge of the patience with which Christians endured persecution.33 From this time he went about in the garb of a philosopher, contending earnestly for the gospel in various countries, especially in Ephesus and at Rome. According to Eusebius, "he was the most noted of those who flourished in those times."34

As Justin's argument in all three of his works pertains not to the doctrine or discipline of the church, but to the person and character of Jesus, and to the moral status of Christians, his quotations from the New Testament are necessarily confined almost entirely to the gospel narratives. From these he makes about one hundred and twenty quotations setting forth all the characteristic teachings of Jesus, and nearly all of the prominent events of his life. For a very obvious reason he nowhere mentions any of our gospels by the name of its author; for the author's name would amount to nothing with the heathen emperor or the unbelieving Jew; but he designates the books in such a way as to give them their full weight of authority. He refers to them constantly as the sources of his information and the authority for Christian ordinances; and he designates them by such titles as these: "The Gospel," "The Memoirs of the Apostles," "The Memoirs composed by the Apostles, which are called Gospels," "The Memoirs which were drawn up by His Apostles and those who followed them." There are sixteen instances of this kind, two in the First Apology, and fourteen in the Dialogue.35 By an examination of those passages, copied in the foot note below, it will be seen that while Justin names the title Gospels as being in common use he prefers the title Memoirs, and uses it more frequently than all others. In this he showed excellent judgment, and at the same time he makes it more certain to us that he refers to our four hooks; for they are in the strictest sense Memoirs, or personal reminiscences. This title describes them exactly, while the title Gospels does not. Furthermore, his description of them as Memoirs composed by the apostles and their followers, corresponds precisely to the authorship of our four, two of them having been composed by apostles, and the other two by their followers. Indeed it is when he is about to make a quotation from Luke that he designates the latter two in this way.36

These citations not only show that our gospels were in existence and in use in the days of Justin, but that they were in wide circulation among both Jews and Gentiles, and that they were used as authorities in the churches. His remark to the heathen emperor, "Among us the prince of the wicked spirits is called the serpent, and Satan, and the devil, as you can learn by looking into our writings," shows that they were well known among: the heathen. The remark of Trypho, "Your precepts in the so-called Gospel are so wonderful and so great, that I suspect no one can keep them; for I have carefully read them," shows that they were well known among unbelieving Jews His reference to them as authority for observing the Lord's Supper, and his statement that they were read, together with the writings of the prophets, in the weekly meetings of the churches, shows that they were held by Christians as authoritative writings.

Now, as all this testimony is given by a man who spoke in the middle of the second century, whose memory reached back to near the beginning of that century, and who spoke to men with memories reaching back as far as his own, it is quite certain that those Memoirs had come down to them from the age of the Apostles with the credit of apostolic authorship.

Of the other New Testament books Justin quotes by name only the Apocalypse. This he cites by the name of its author to show that the prophetic gifts which had existed among the ancient Jews had appeared among the Christians.37 He has quotations of the third class from five of Paul's epistles, viz., Romans, First Corinthians, Colossians, Second Thessalonians, and Hebrews.38 There is evidence, moreover, apart from quotations, that he was acquainted with the body of Paul's epistles and with Acts, in the fact that he wrote against Marcion's heresy,39 the most striking peculiarity of which was the acceptance of the writings of Paul and Luke, with the exception of Titus and I. and II. Timothy,40 while he rejected the writings of all the other apostles.

As to the Catholic Epistles, it is conceded by some of the most eminent writers on the Canon, that Justin quotes from none of them;41 but there are two passages which have every appearance of being quotations of the third class from the Second Epistle of Peter. Speaking of the decree that Adam should (lie in the day that he ate of the tree, he says: "We have perceived, moreover, that the expression, The day of the Lord is as a thousand years,' is connected with this subject."42 This remark shows that there was a well known expression, "The day of the Lord is as a thousand years," an expression which is found in almost the identical terms in II. Peter iii. 8, but nowhere else in the Bible.43 In the other passage, he gives as a reason why God had delayed to send Satan and those who follow him into their destined punishment, that it was because of his regard for the human race "For he knows that some are to be saved by repentance, some even, that are not yet born."44 Now this is the identical reason, expressed in different words, that is given for this delay in II. Peter iii. 9: "God is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." It is far more likely that Justin obtained this thought from Peter than that he originated it himself and propounded it on his own authority, as an interpretation of God's mind.

To sum up the evidence from the writings of .Justin, we may state, that it proves beyond question the general and public use within the first half of the second century, of the four Gospels, of all of Paul's Epistles except Titus and I. and 11. Timothy, of the Apocalypse, and almost certainly of the Second Epistle of Peter.

The next author whose testimony we employ is Papias. He was an overseer of the church at Hierapolis, a city which stood in the vicinity of Laodicea and Colosse, and whose well preserved ruins continue to attest its ancient magnificence. It was the last home and burial place of the Apostle Philip and two of his three daughters.45 The church is mentioned by Paul, Col. iv. 13.

All that we know of Papias personally is derived from the writings of Irenaeus and Eusebius. He was the author of a work in five books entitled An Exposition of Oracles of the Lord.46 The whole work has perished except a few quotations made from it by early writers, chiefly Eusebius; consequently we have but very limited means of knowing what use he made of the New Testament writings. The work was based, as its title indicates, on sayings of Jesus, and consequently we should expect its references to be confined to the four Gospels.

The period at which he lived is determined by the following statements: Eusebius says that he claimed to have conversed with the daughters of Philip;47 Irenaeus says that he was a companion of Polycarp;48 and he says of himself that he had conversed with various persons who had been followers of the Apostles; that he had inquired of them what the Apostles taught, and that he thought he derived more benefit in writing his Exposition from the living voice of these persons than from books.49 These statements show that he was separated from the Apostles by only a single generation, and that his knowledge of apostolic teaching derived from books was supplemented by the recitals of original hearers. Eusebius considers him a man of weak judgment,50 but this, if true, does not detract from his testimony concerning facts.

Of Matthew's Gospel he makes the following statement: "Matthew composed the Oracles (Τὰ Δόγια) in the Hebrew dialect, and every one translated it as he was able.'51 The manner in which the book is mentioned implies that it was then well known, while the declaration concerning the dialect in which it was written implies that it had not continued to circulate in that dialect: for if the Matthew still in use was written in Hebrew it would have been very idle to inform the public that it was composed in that dialect. Moreover, the statement that every one "translated it as he was able" implies that such translation was of the past and belonged to the earlier period of the book's existence.52 When Papias lived it was known only in the Greek.

Concerning our second Gospel, Papias states, on the authority of one of the elders above referred to whom he calls "John the Presbyter," that Mark was Peter's interpreter, that what he recorded was written with great accuracy though not in chronological order, and that Peter gave him such instruction as was necessary.53 His language implies, as in the case of Matthew, that this Gospel was well known in the days of Papias, and was believed to have come from the pen of Mark.

The Gospel of John is not mentioned in any of the extant fragments of Papias, but a manuscript of John in the Vatican library has a Latin "argument" prefixed to it which was written in the ninth century, when the works of Papias were still extant, and it states that Papias described this Gospel and related that it had been given to the churches by John.54

Besides these three Gospels, Eusebius says that Papias made use of testimonies from the First Epistle of John and also from that of Peter 55 and Andrew of Caesarea, a Greek writer of the fifth century, declares that he bore testimony to the inspiration of the book of Revelation.56

These are all the books mentioned or quoted by Papias, so far as our meager information extends. They include all the Gospels but Luke's, I. Peter, I. John, and the Apocalypse. It is probable, from the nature of his work, as before intimated, that if we had it all, the list would not be greatly extended. It is altogether certain that the books which he does use were not only recognized in his day as apostolic, but that they were so recognized by the elders who were his instructors and who had known the Apostles. This traces them to the Apostles and their companions by evidence that can not fairly be called in question.

Polycarp of Smyrna is one of the most conspicuous characters of the church in the second century. Irenaeus, who when a boy was personally acquainted with him, says of him that "he was instructed by Apostles;" that he had "conversed with many who had seen Christ;" that he was appointed an overseer of the Church in Smyrna by Apostles; that he lived to be a very old man; and that he suffered "a glorious martyrdom." "To these things," adds Irenaeus, "all the Asiatic churches testify, as do all those men who have succeeded Polycarp down to the present time."57

His martyrdom occurred Feb. 23, A. D. 155, or 156,58 and in an account of it written in the name of the church at Smyrna he is represented as claiming to have served the Lord Jesus eighty-six years.59 This dates his baptism as early as the year 70, the date of the destruction of Jerusalem. If we suppose that he was 100 years old at his death, a supposition quite in harmony with the statement of Irenaeus, he was baptized at fourteen, and he was twelve years old when Paul was beheaded, A. D. 68. He may have seen that Apostle when he was a child. After his baptism he lived thirty years cotemporary with the Apostle John, and as John spent the latter part 'of his life at Ephesus, only fifty miles from Smyrna,60 Polycarp may have seen him and heard him. Furthermore, as Philip's home in the latter part of his life, was at Hierapolis, only about 100 miles east of Smyrna,' Polycarp may have seen that Apostle, and he may, in the course of his life have met with others. It is not improbable that Irenaeus is correct in saying that he was instructed by Apostles, and by Apostles appointed to office in the church. His long life, reaching back into the very midst of the apostolic age, and extending down to the middle of the second century, enabled him to know what writings of the Apostles were in use almost from the beginning, and it made him familiar with the first appearance of all their later productions. The books which he recognized as apostolic must have been so, and what he taught concerning them was propagated in Gaul by his pupil Irenaeus, in Asia by other pupils, and in Rome by himself; for in the imperial city he in person defended the faith against heresy.61

Polycarp wrote a number of epistles to neighboring churches,62 of which that to the Philippians alone has been preserved. It is quite brief, occupying in print not much more than five ordinary octavo pages. It is written in the name of "Polycarp and the presbyters with him," and it is addressed to "the church of God sojourning at Philippi."63

As one would naturally suppose, the writer makes allusions to Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, and exhorts the brethren to observe its precepts.64 His citations of other books are made anonymously, and they are interwoven with one another and with his own words in such a way as to form continuous sentences. In the first of the fourteen very short chapters into which the epistle has been divided, he in this way quotes Philippians, Acts, First Peter and Ephesians.65 Several whole chapters, and large parts of others might be styled a patchwork of quotations, the quotations being taken from the first three Gospels, Acts, all of Paul's Epistles except Titus and Philemon, the First Epistle of John, and the First of Peter.66 The genuineness of all these books is therefore supported by this invaluable evidence.

Barnabas is the author of an Epistle giving mystical and fanciful interpretations of many facts and laws of the Old Testament. He was until recently thought to be the Barnabas mentioned in the New Testament, but this has been disproved beyond reasonable doubt by the contents of the epistle.67 The latter was known only in a Latin version, until a copy of the Greek original was found by Tischendorf attached to the Sinaitic manuscript.

The date of this document is not very definitely fixed. It was written after the destruction of Jerusalem, as appears from the fact that this event is mentioned in it;68 and it was written long enough before the days of Clement of Alexandria to have acquired the reputation of having been written by the New Testament Barnabas.69 The majority of competent critics agree in assigning it to the first, quarter of the second century.70 If this is correct, the writer's personal knowledge reached back into the first century.

Its subject matter being an interpretation of portions of the Old Testament, we could not expect to find in it many quotations from the New. Its chief value for our present purpose is found in its quotation of Matthew with the formula, "It is written:" "Let us beware lest we be found, as it is written, many are called, but few are chosen.71" As this is the formula with which Christian writers and speakers introduced quotations from the Scriptures, its use by Barnabas in quoting Matthew shows that he regarded this book with the same reverence as the older Scriptures. This is the earliest known instance of the use of this formula in citing a New Testament book.

There was no document from an uninspired pen so highly prized by the church of the early centuries, as the Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians. Only three manuscript copies of it are now known to exist. One of these, long supposed to be the only one, is attached to the Alexandrian MS. of the New Testament, as if it were a part of the sacred volume; one was discovered in Constantinople in the year 1875; and the third, in Syriac, was found in Paris in 1876, bound in a Syriac MS. of the New Testament immediately after the Catholic Epistles.72

The Epistle does not bear the name of Clement, but is written in the name of "The Church of God which sojourns at Rome, to the Church of God sojourning at Corinth." There is abundant evidence, however, from the statements of other writers, that Clement, who was then the principal bishop of the Church at Rome, was the writer.73

Clement is said by both Irenaeus and Eusebius to have been the third Bishop of the Church in Rome, and the date of his appointment as given by Eusebius is the twelfth year of Domitian's reign, which was A. D. 93. He died in the third year of Trajan, which was A. D. 101.74

The epistle was written, according to its opening statement, after some "sudden and calamitous events" had just happened to the Church of Rome, commonly supposed to have been a local persecution.75 Such persecutions frequently occurred under the reign of Domitian, and the most probable date assigned to the epistle is A. D. 90 or 97.76 But the date of the epistle is not so important for our purpose as the period in which the author lived. If he was old enough in the year 93 to be appointed Bishop of a large church like that in Rome, he had probably lived through all the period of the apostolic writings. The earliest of these, I. Thessalonians, was written A. D. 52, just 41 years before Clement's appointment to office. He had means, therefore, of knowing what writings had come from the pens of Apostles up to the date of his own Epistle, and all the books that he quotes belong unquestionably to the apostolic age, seeing that his epistle was written before the death of John.

He makes no express quotation except one from the First Epistle to the Corinthians. In rebuking the Corinthians for a sedition existing among them, he says: "Take up the Epistle of the blessed Apostle Paul. What did he write to you in the beginning of the gospel? Truly, under the inspiration of the Spirit he wrote to you concerning himself and Cephas and Apollos, because even then parties had been formed among you."77 Now Clement could not have written thus to these brethren unless he and they both knew that Paul had written to them such an Epistle.

Though Clement makes no other quotations of the first class from the New Testament, he makes many of the third class. In one passage he combines texts from Matthew and Luke.78 In another he combines peculiar expressions from Ephesians, Romans, Matthew, and Mark or Luke.79 Of Paul's other epistles he quotes Titus80 and Hebrews.81 He has undoubted quotations from I. Peter, and in two passages he seems to quote II. Peter.82 We may say, then, that he makes use in his epistle, of the first three Gospels, five of Paul's epistles, and the First and probably the Second Epistle of Peter. He has nothing from the writings of John, for none of these had gone into circulation, unless Revelation is an exception, and perhaps none of them had been written at the date of Clement's epistle.

We have now presented the evidence from quotations, omitting some writers because of the small number of quotations which they make, and others because the genuineness or the antiquity of their writings is in dispute.83

By this source of evidence we have traced every book of the New Testament back to the apostolic age, except Philemon, the Second and Third Epistles of John, Jude, James, and possibly II. Peter. From the last we have found three probable quotations (those by Irenaeus, Justin and Clement); from II. John one (that by Irenaeus); but from Philemon, Jude and III. John, no quotations at all. We have traced the first three Gospels all the way to Clement, and the fourth to Papias. We have traced Acts and all of Paul's epistles except Philemon back to Polycarp, and five of the latter back to Clement. We have traced Peter's first epistle to Clement, and his second by evidence not so conclusive to the same period. That of James is quoted by none as early as Irenaeus. Finally, we have traced John's first epistle back to Polycarp, and the Apocalypse to Papias. Thus all these books, with the exceptions named, are found to have been in actual use among the Disciples at a period too early for them to have originated and come into use after the close of the apostolic age.

The absence of quotations from the three short personal epistles, Philemon, Jude and III. John; and the absence of any earlier than the time of Irenaeus from James and II. John, can not be fairly construed as proof that they were not known to those early writers: for first, the extant writings of all these authors beyond Irenaeus are very brief, the whole of them covering less than four hundred octavo pages, and it is not surprising that the quotations which they had occasion to make failed to take the whole range of the New Testament books; second, these epistles, with the exception of James, are the very books of the New Testament which, from that clay to this, have been most rarely quoted by Christian writers. While the evidence from quotations, then, can not be arrayed in favor of these books in this early period, the want of it can not be held as evidence against them.

The force and value of the evidence from quotations can be more properly appreciated if we compare the evidence from the same source for some of the most noted classical writings of antiquity. The writings of Herodotus, the most famous of Greek historians, are quoted by only one author (Ctesias) in the first century after they were written, by only one (Aristotle) in the second, by none in the third, and by only two in the fourth. Thucydides, second among Greek historians, is not quoted at all during the first two centuries after he wrote; Livy, the early Roman historian, is quoted by only one writer in the first hundred years, and the first to quote Tacitus is Tertullian, who wrote about 100 years later.84 If, then, our task had been to trace back to their authors the works of these celebrated writers, works the genuineness of which is never called in question, the case which we could make for them would be weakness itself compared with that which we have made for the writings of the New Testament.

1 These are the figures adopted by Westcott (Canon of New Testament, 379) while Donaldson (Ante Nicene Library, Int. XVIII., XIX.), says that "the general date assigned to his birth is somewhere between A. n. 120 and A. D. 140," and that "he is supposed to have died about A. D. 202."

2 "But Polycarp was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also by apostles in Asia appointed bishop of the church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he tarried a very long time, and, when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom, departed this life, having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which the church has handed down, and which alone are true." Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 202, 203.

3 "But these same martyrs recommending also Irenaeus, who was then a presbyter of the church at Lyons, to the Bishop of Rome, before mentioned, bear abundant testimony in his favor, as the following extracts show: 'We pray and desire, father Eleutherus, that yon may rejoice in God in all things and always. We have requested our brother and companion, Irenaeus, to carry this epistle to you, and we exhort you to consider him as commended to you as a zealous follower of the testament of Christ.'" Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, v. 4.

4 "We have learned from none others the plan of our salvation, than from those through whom the gospel has come down to us, which they did at one time proclaim in public, and at a later period, by the will of God, handed down to us in the .Scriptures to be the ground and pillar of our faith. . . . For after our Lord rose from the dead the apostles were invested with power from on high when the Holy Spirit came down, were filled from all his gifts and had perfect knowledge. Matthew also issued a written gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome and laying the foundations of the church. After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter. Luke also, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the gospel preached by him. Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who had also leaned upon his breast, did himself publish a gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia." Against Heresies, iii. 1.

5 "So firm is the ground on which these gospels rest, that the very heretics themselves bear witness to them, and, starting from these each one of them endeavors to establish his own peculiar doctrine. For the Ebionites, who use Matthew's gospel only, are confuted out of this very same, making false suppositions in regard to the Lord. But Marcion, mutilating that according to Luke, is proved to be a blasphemer of the only existing God from those passages which he still retains. Those again who separate Jesus from Christ, alleging that Christ remained impassible, but it was Jesus who suffered, preferring the gospel by Mark, if they read it with the love of truth, may have their errors rectified. Those, moreover, who follow Valentinus, making copious use of that according to John to illustrate their conjunctions, shall be proved to be totally in error by means of this very gospel." Against Heresies, III. 7.

6 "Simon, the Samaritan, was that magician of whom Luke, the disciple and follower of the apostles, says: ' But there was a certain man, Simon by name, who before time used magical arts in that city, and led away the people of Samaria, declaring that he himself was some great one, to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest,'" etc. Against Heresies, I. 23,1.

7 "But. again, we allege the same heresies against those who do not recognize Paul as an apostle; that they should either reject the other words of the gospel which we have come to know through Luke alone, and not make use of them; or else, if they do receive all of these they must necessarily admit also that testimony concerning Paul when he tells us that the Lord spoke at first to him from heaven: 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? I am Jesus whom thou persecutest;' and then to Ananias, regarding him: '(Jo thy way; for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name among the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel."' Against Heresies, III. 15, 1.

8 "But that this Luke was inseparable from Paul and his fellow laborer in the gospel, he himself clearly evinces, not as a matter of boasting, but as bound to do so by the truth itself. For he says that when Barnabas and John who was called Mark, had parted company from Paul and sailed to Cyprus, 'we came to Troas'; and when Paul had beheld in a dream a man of Macedonia, saying,' Come into Macedonia, Paul, and help us;' 'immediately,' he says, 'we endeavored to go into Macedonia, understanding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel unto them." In this manner he proceeds to cite all the passages in which the author of Acts uses the pronoun of the first person plural. Against Heresies, III. 14, 1.

9 The citations necessary to verify this statement are too numerous for our space, but they can be readily found by glancing through the foot notes of the English Version of the works of Irenaeus, and they are collected in a group in Lardner's Credibility, III. 163, 164.

10 In naming some of the minor works of Irenaeus, Eusebius says: "There is a book also of various disputes, in which he mentions the epistle to the Hebrews." Ecclesiastical History, v. 26.

11 "Moreover, by Photius we are informed that Stephen Gobar writes thus: 'Hippolytus and Irenaeus say, the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews is not his'; by which, perhaps, we need not understand that Irenaeus had expressly said so anywhere." Lardner, Credibility, II. 185.

12 By this expression is meant the epistles of James, Peter, John and Jude, called catholic, (general) because they were not addressed (except II. and III. John) to any particular person or congregation. The expression originated at an early period, and is very convenient as a brief designation of this group of epistles.

13 "Peter says in his epistles, 'Whom, not seeing, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, ye have believed, ye shall rejoice with joy unspeakable'" I. Peter i. 8. Against Heresies, IV. 9,2.

14 After quoting a statement of John in his gospel, Irenaeus adds: "For this reason also he has testified to us in his epistle: 'Little children, it is the last time; and as ye have heard that antichrist doth come, now have many antichrists appeared; whereby we know that it is the last time'" (I. John ii. 18.) Ib. iii. 5. "These are they against whom the Lord has cautioned us beforehand; and his disciple, in his epistle already mentioned, commands us to avoid them when he says: 'For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh'" (II. John vii. 8.) Ib. iii. 8.

15 "And there are some, again, who relegate the death of Adam to the thousandth year; for since a day of the Lord is as a thousand years, he did not overstep the thousand years, but died within them, thus bearing out the sentence of his sin." Ib. v. 23, 2.

16 "For in as many days as this world was made, in so many thousand years shall it be concluded. And for this reason the Scripture says: Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their adornment, and God brought to a conclusion upon the sixth day the works that he had made, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. This is an account of the things formerly created, as also it is a prophecy of what is to come. For the day of the Lord is as a thousand years; and in six days created things were completed: it is evident, therefore, that they will come to an end at the sixth thousand years." Ib. v. 28, 3.

17 The only ground for doubting, as many eminent authors do, that Irenaeus here quotes II. Peter, is based on the possibility of his having obtained the thought from Psalm xc. 4. But the thought of the Psalmist is quite different from that of Peter and Irenaeus. The latter speaks of God's absolute relation to time, and interprets his language accordingly; while the Psalmist is considering God's long existence in the past, and speaks of it as being so long that a thousand years dwindle in comparison to the length of a day or a watch in the night. Moreover, the words of Irenaeus are almost identical with those of Peter, and they vary materially from those of the Psalmist. "A day of the Lord is as a thousand years," Irenaeus. "One day with the Lord is us a thousand years," Peter. "A thousand years in thy sight is but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night," Psalmist.

18 See below, under quotations from Justin Martyr.

19 "We will not, however, incur the risk of pronouncing positively as to the names of antichrist; for if it were necessary that his name should be revealed at the present time, it would have been announced by him who beheld the apocalyptic vision. For that was seen no very long time since, but almost in our day, toward the end of Domitian's reign." Against Heresies, V. 30, 3.

20 "Pothinus, having died with the other martyrs of Gaul, in the ninetieth year of his age, was succeeded by Irenaeus in the episcopate of the church at Lyons," Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, v. 5. This occurred, as the same writer states, in the seventeenth year of the reign of Marcus Antoninus, which was A. D. 177. Ib. v., Preliminary.

21 "But Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also by apostles in Asia appointed bishop of the church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he tarried a very long time, and, when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom, departed this life, having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which alone are true." Against Heresies, iii. 3, 4.

22 "As I have heard from a certain presbyter, who had heard it from those who had seen the apostles, and from those who had been their disciples, the punishment in the Scripture was sufficient for the ancients in regard to what they did without the Spirit's guidance." Ib. iv. 27, 1.

23 "In like manner do these persons patch together old wives' fables, and then endeavor by violently drawing away from their proper connection, words, expressions and parables whenever found, to adapt the oracles of God to their baseless fictions" Ib. i.8,2. "These things are such as fall under our observation, and are clearly and unambiguously in express terms set forth in the sacred Scriptures. And therefore the parables ought not to be adapted to ambiguous expressions" Ib. ii. 27, 1.

24 "And it is not only from the writings of the evangelists and the apostles that they endeavor to derive proofs for their opinions by perverse interpretations and deceitful expositions: they deal in the same manner with the law and the prophets, which contain many parables and allegories that can frequently be drawn into various senses, according to the kind of exegesis to which they are subjected." Ib. i. 3, 6.

25 "We should leave those things of that nature [things we can not explain] to God who created us, being most properly assured that the Scriptures are indeed perfect, since they were spoken by the Word of God and his Spirit" Ib. ii. 28, 2.

26 Speaking of a change in the number 666 (Rev. xiii. 18) which had been made by some heretics, he says: "Now in the first place, it is loss to winder from truth, and to imagine that as being the case which is not; then again, as there shall be no light punishment on him who either adds to or subtract anything from Scripture, under that such a person must necessarily fall." Ib. v. 30, 1.

27 "To the emperor Titus Ælius Adrianus Antoninus Pius Augustus Caesar, and to his son, Verissimus, the philosopher, and to Lucius, the philosopher, the natural son of Caesar and the adopted son of Pius, a lover of learning, and to the sacred senate, with the whole people of the Romans, I, Justin, the son of Priscus and grandson of Bacchius, natives of Flavia Neapolis in Palestine, present this address and petition in behalf of those of all nations who are unjustly hated and wantonly abused, myself being one of them." First Apology. Address.

28 "For I gave no thought to any of my people, that is the Samaritans, when I had a communication with Caesar, but stated that they were wrong in trusting to the magician Simon of their own nation, who, they say, is God above all power and authority and might." Dialogue, c. 120.

29 See Westcott on the Canon, p. 95, 98, n. 1, and the authorities quoted by Lardner, Credibility II.112, 116.

30 "But lest some should, without reason and for the perversion of what we teach, maintain that we say that Christ was born one hundred and fifty years ago under Cyrenius, and subsequently, in the time of Pontius Pilate, taught what we say he taught; and should cry out against us as though all men who were born before him were irresponsible, let us anticipate and solve the difficulty." First Apol. c. 46. Westcott, following Dr. Hort, gives the exact date as 146 (Canon of N. T. 98, n. 1), and the author of the infidel work called Supernatural Religion, makes it no later than 147. Vol. i. 284.

31 An interesting account of his martyrdom by an unknown writer has come down to us, and an English version of it may be found in the Ante-Nicene Christian Library, vol. II. 367.

32  Dialogue c. ii.-viii.

33 "For I myself, too, when I was delighting in the doctrines of Plato, and heard the Christians slandered, and saw them fearless of death and of all other things which are counted fearful, perceived that it was impossible that they could be living in wickedness and pleasure." Second Apology, c. 12.

34 "But Justin was the most noted of those who flourished in those times, who, in the guise of a philosopher, preached the truth of God, and contended for the faith also in his writings." Eccles. Hist. IV. 11.

35 "Among us the prince of the wicked spirits is called the serpent, and Satan, and the devil, as you can learn by looking into our writings." First Apol. c. 28. "For the Apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered to us what was enjoined on them; that Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, said: 'This do ye in remembrance of me; this is my body;' and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, he said: ' This is my blood;' and gave it to them alone." Ib. c. 66. In describing the regular order of service in the meetings of the Christians, "on the day called Sunday," he says, "The memoirs of the apostles, or the writings of the prophets, are read so long as time permits." Ib. c. (57. He represents Trypho the Jew as saying to him: "I am aware that your precepts in the so-called Gospel are so wonderful and so great, that I suspect no one can keep them; for I have carefully read them." Dialogue, c. 10. "But also in the gospel it is written that He said: 'All things are delivered unto me by my Father' . . . we rind it recorded in the memoirs of His apostles that He is the Son of God." Ib. c. 100. "For they that saw Him crucified shook their heads each one of them, and distorted their lips, and twisting their noses to each other, they spoke in mockery the words which are recorded in the memoirs of His apostles: He said he was the Son of God: let him come down; let God save him." Ib. c 101. "He kept silence and chose to return no answer to any one in the presence of Pilate, as has been declared in the memoirs of His apostles." Ib. c. 102. "For this devil, when Jesus went up from the river Jordan at the time when the voice spoke to him, 'Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee,' is recorded in the memoirs of the apostles to have come to Him and tempted Him." . . ."For in the memoirs which I say were drawn up by the apostles and those who followed them, it is recorded that his sweat fell down like drops of blood while he was praying and saying, 'If it be possible, let this cup pass.'" Ib. c. 103. "And this is recorded to have happened in the memoirs of His apostles." Ib. c. 104. "For I have already proved that he was the only-begotten of the Father of all things, being begotten in a peculiar manner, word of power by Him, and having afterward become man through the virgin, as we have learned from the memoirs." "For when Christ was giving up his spirit on the cross, he said, 'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.' as I have learned also from the memoirs." "And these words are recorded in the memoirs: "unless your righteousness shall exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.'" Ib. c. 105. He stood in the midst of his brethren, the apostles, and when living with them sang praises to God, as is made evident in the memoirs of the apostles." "And when it is said that he changed the name of one of the apostles to Peter; and when it is written in the memoirs of Him that this so happened, as well as that he changed the names of other two brothers, the sons of Zebedee, to Boanerges." Ib. c. 106. "And that He would rise again on the third day after the crucifixion, it is written in the memoirs that some of your nation, questioning him, said, show us a sign." Ib. c. 107.

36 Dialogue, c. 103.

37 "There was a certain man with us whose name was John, one of the prophesied by a revelation that was made to him, that those who believed in our Christ would dwell a thousand years in Jerusalem and that thereafter the general, and in short the eternal revelation and judgment of all men, would likewise take place." Ib. c. 61.

38 "For when Abraham himself was in uncircumcision, he was justified and blessed by reason of the faith which he reposed in God, as the Scripture tells. Moreover, the Scriptures and the facts themselves compel us to admit that he received circumcision for a sign, and not for righteousness." Ib. c. 22, comp. Rom. iv. 10-12. "For the passover was Christ . . . and as the blood of the passover saved those who were in Egypt, so also the blood of Christ will deliver from death those who have believed." Ib. c. 111 comp. I. Cor. v. 7. "For every demon, when exorcised in the name of this very Son of God, who is the first-horn of every creature." Ib. c. 85, comp. Col. i. 15. "He shall come from heaven with glory, when the man of apostasy, who speaks strange things against the Most, High, shall venture to do unlawful deeds on the earth against us the Christians." Ib. c. 110, comp. 11. Thes. ii. 1-10. "That all these things should come to pass, I say our Teacher foretold, He who is both. Son and Apostle of God, the Father of all and the Ruler, Jesus Christ; from whom also we have the name Christians." First Apol. c. 12, comp. Heb. iii. 1. the title Apostle given to Jesus.

39 " And there is Marcion, a man of Pontus, who is even at this day alive and teaching his disciples to believe in some other God greater than the Creator. . . . But I have a treatise against all the heresies that have existed, already composed, which, if you wish to read it, I will give you." First Apol. c. 26.

40 This is made very clear in Tertullian's work against Marcion. His fifth book is an attempt to refute Marcion out of the very epistles of Paul, which he acknowledged as genuine, and in other books, especially the fourth, he refutes him out of Luke's, which alone he accepted in a corrupted form. He says: "The same authority of the apostolic churches will afford evidence to the other gospels also, which we possess equally through their means, and according to their usage--I mean the gospels of John and Matthew --whilst that which Mark published may be affirmed to be Peter's, whose interpreter Mark was. . . . When, then, Marcion ought to be called to a strict account concerning these also, for having omitted them, and insisted in preference on Luke, as if they had not had free course in the churches, as well as in Luke's gospel, from the beginning. iv. 5.

41 "It will be found that the Catholic Epistles, and the Epistles to Titus and Philemon, alone of the writings of the New Testament, have left no impression on the genuine or doubtful works of Justin Martyr." Westcott On the Canon, 170.  

42 Dialogue with Trypho, c. 81.  

43 Compare what I have said of the use made of the same passage by Irenaeus, page 88.  

44 " For among us the prince of the wicked spirits is called the serpent, and Satan, and the devil, as you can learn by looking into our writings. And that he would be sent into the fire with his host, and the men who follow him, and would be punished for an endless duration, Christ foretold. For the reason why God has delayed to do this, is his regard for the human race. For he foreknows that some are to be saved by repentance, some even that are, perhaps, not yet born." First Apology, c. 28.

45 Eusebius quotes from Polycrates, a bishop of the church at Ephesus, the following statement made in a letter to Victor, a bishop of Rome: "For in Asia also, mighty luminaries have fallen asleep, which shall rise again at the last day, at the appearance of the Lord, when he shall come with glory from heaven, and shall gather again all the saints. Philip, one of the twelve apostles , who sleeps in Hierapolis, and his two aged virgin daughters. Another of his daughters who lived in the Holy Spirit, rests at Ephesus." Eccles. Hist. III. c. 31; v. 24. Some have supposed that in this quotation Philip the apostle is substituted for Philip the evangelist, but its correctness is successfully argued by Lightfoot, Com. on. Colossians, 45-47.

46 Irenaeus, Heresies, v. 33, 4; Eusebius, Eccles. Hist. III. 39. The above is Westcott'" translation of the title (Canon, 70) followed by Lightfoot, Com. on Colossians, 47. Donaldson (Hist. Chris. Lit. and Doc. I. 314) renders it, An Exposition of the Lord's Sayings. The original words are Δογίων Κυρὶακῶν ᾽Εξήγησις.

47 "That the apostle Philip continued at Hierapolis with his daughters has been already stated above. But we must now show how Papias, coming to them, received a wonderful account from the daughters of Philip." Eccles. Hist. III. 39.

48 "These things are borne witness to in writing by Papias, the hearer of John, and a companion of Polycarp, in his fourth book, for there were five books compiled by him.'" Heresies, v. 33.

49 Eusebius quotes him as follows: "But I shall not regret, to subjoin to my interpretations also for your benefit, whatsoever I have at any time accurately ascertained and treasured up in my memory as I have received it from the elders, I have received it in order to give additional confirmation to the truth of my testimony. For I have never, like many, delighted to hear those that tell many things, but those that teach the truth; neither those that record foreign precepts, but those that are given from the Lord to our faith, and that come from the truth itself. But if I meet with one who had been a follower of the elders anywhere, I made it a point to inquire what were the declarations of the elders. What was said by Andrew, Peter, or Philip. What by Thomas, James, John, Matthew, or any other of the disciples of the Lord; for I do not think I derive so much benefit from books as from the living voice of those that are still surviving." Eccles. Hist. III. 39.

50 " He says there would be a certain millennium after the resurrection, and that there would be a corporeal reign of Christ on this very earth, which things he appears to have imagined, as if they were authorized by the apostolic narrations, not understanding correctly those matters which they propounded mystically in their representations. For he was very limited in his comprehension, as is evident from his discourses; yet he was the cause why most of the ecclesiastical writers, urging the antiquity of the man, were carried away by a similar opinion; as, for instance, Irenaeus, or any other that adopted such sentiments." Eccles. Hist. III. 39. Perhaps this low estimate of the man's comprehension was suggested by the poor opinion which Eusebius entertained concerning the doctrine of the millennium; yet in the very expression of this opinion he shows that Papias exerted a very decided influence over the views of later writers.

51 Ib.

52 "When 'every one interpreted' the Hebrew Matthew' as he could,' he means and implies in his lan-guage, that the necessity of rendering the Hebrew into Greek had once existed, to be sure, but existed no longer." Prof. Geo. P. Fisher, Supernatural Origin of Christianity, 162.. Meyer, speaking on this subject says: "The original Hebrew writing, however, from which our present Matthew proceeded through being translated into Greek, must, apart from the language, have been in contents and in form, in whole and in part, substantially the same as our Greek Matthew. The general evidence in favor of this view is, that throughout the ancient church our Greek Matthew was already used as if it had been the authentic text itself." Com. on Matthew, Int. § ii-(3).

53 "And John the presbyter also said this: Mark being the interpreter of Peter, whatsoever he recorded he wrote with accuracy, but not, however, in the order in which it was spoken or done by our Lord; he was in company with Peter, who gave him such instruction as was necessary, but not to give a history of our Lord's discourses. Wherefore Mark has not erred in anything by writing some things as he has recorded them; for he was carefully attentive to one thing, not to pass by anything that he heard, or to state anything falsely in these accounts." Quoted by Eusebius, Eccles. Hist. III. 39.

54 The passage as given by Westcott (Canon of N. T. 76, n. 1) is thus translated: "The Gospel of John was published and given to the churches by John while yet in the body. So relates Papias, a man of Hierapolis, in the last of his five books. He has rightly described the gospel as being composed by John."

55 Eccles. Hist. III. 39.

56 Westcott, Canon of N. T. 443. The words of Andrew are as follows: "With regard to the inspiration of the book (Revelation) we deem it superfluous to add another word; for the blessed Gregory Theologus, and Cyril, and even some of still older date, Papias, Irenaeus, Methodius and Hippolytus, bore entirely satisfactory testimony to it." Fragments of Papias, VIII., Ante-Nicene Library, vol. I.

57 Against Heresies, 262, 263.

58 "His death is variously placed from 147-17(5. The recent investigations of M. Waddington as to the date of the Proconsulship of L. Statius Quadratus, under whom Polycarp suffered, fix the true date [Feb. 23], 155-6 A. D." Westcott, Canon of N. T. 39, n. 5.

59 "Then the proconsul urging him and saying: ' Swear and I will set thee at liberty, reproach Christ Polycarp declared, 'Eighty and six years have I served him, and he never did me an injury, how then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?" Martyrdom of Polycrap, c. IX., Ante-Nicene Library, vol. I. There has been much discussion as to the authenticity of the document called the Martyrdom of Polycarp. Donaldson, after pointing out many unauthentic details in it, reaches this conclusion: "The hypothesis by which we can give the most probable account of this production is that it really was, as it professes to be, a letter from the church in Smyrna , that it was a short summary of the principal circumstances of the martyrdom; and that as this letter went down to posterity it gathered length and absurdities." Hist. of Christian Lit. and Doc. I. 160-169. Westcott says of it: "The authenticity of this narrative has been called in question, but there seems to be no sufficient reason for doubting its general truthfulness." Canon of N. T. 40 n. 3.

60 see page 98.  

61 "He it was who, coming to Rome in the time of Anicetus, caused many to turn away from the aforesaid heretic. The church of God, proclaiming that he had received this one and sole truth from the apostles that, namely, which is handed down by the church." Irenaeus, Against Heresies, III. 3, 4.  

62 " From his [Polycarp's] epistles also which he wrote to the neighboring churches in order to confirm them, or to some of the brethren in order to admonish and to exhort them, the same thing may be clearly shown." Irenaeus quoted by Eusebius, Eccles. Hist. v. 20.  

63 " Polycarp and the presbyters with him, to the church of God sojourning at Philippi: Mercy to you, and peace from God Almighty and from the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour, be multiplied." Salutation of the Epistle. Ante-Nic. Lib. vol. I.

64 "Neither I nor any other such one, can come up to the wisdom of the blessed and glorified Paul. He, when among you, accurately and steadfastly taught the word of truth in the presence of those who were then alive. And when absent from you he wrote you a letter, which, if you carefully read, you will find to be the means of building yon up in that faith which has been given you, and which, being followed by hope, and preceded by love toward God and Christ and our neighbor, is the mother of us all." c. iii. "But I have neither seen nor heard of any such thing [covetousness] among you, in the midst of whom the blessed Paul labored, and who are commended in the beginning of his Epistle. For he boasts of you in all those churches which then knew the Lord; but we [of Smyrna] had not yet known Him." c. xi.

65 "And because the strong root of your faith spoken of in days long gone by, endureth until now [Phil. i. 5] and bringeth forth fruit to our Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sins suffered even unto death, whom God raised from the dead, having loosed the bands of hades. [Acts ii. 24]. In whom, though now you see Him not, ye believe, and believing, rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory [I. Pet. i.8]; into which joy many desire to enter, knowing that by grace ye are paved, not of works, [Eph. ii. 8,9] but by the will of God through Jesus Christ."

66 See appendix "A" for three of these chapters and the scripture references. Only by examining these can the student see the full force of the remarks made above.

67 It contains many gross blunders in regard to the Levitical law, of which Barnabas, the Levite, can not have been guilty, many silly interpretations which a man of his sense can not have accepted, and many misstatements about matters of fact which can not have been made by a man of his information. These are pointed out abundantly by Donaldson (Hist. Christ. Lit. and Doct. I. 201-210), and they may be seen by the most casual reading of the epistle itself.

68 "Moreover, I will tell you concerning the temple, how the wretched Jews, wandering in error, trusted not in God himself, but in the temple an being the house of God. * * * Moreover, He again says: Behold, they who have cast down this temple, even they shall build it again. It has so happened. For through their going to war it was destroyed by their enemies; and now they, as the servants of their enemies, shall rebuild it." Epistle of Barnabas, c. xvi.

69 Clement quotes it several times as the work of "the apostle Barnabas," and he says that Barnabas was "one of the seventy and a fellow worker of Paul" Stromata ii. 6, p. 19; 7, p. 22; 15, p. 41; 20. p. 60, v. 8, p. 252; 10, p. 258.

70 "We therefore come to the conclusion that it must have been written after the destruction of Jerusalem, that it could not have been written after the close of the second century, but that there is no certain way of fixing on any intervening date as the period of its composition. Most have been inclined to place it not later than the first quarter of the second century. The whole cast of the letter seems to me to require a later date, but this is a matter of personal feeling." Donaldson, Hist. Chris. Lit and Doc. I . 220. "The letter contains not only an allusion to the destruction of the Jewish Temple, but also affirms the abrogation of the Sabbath and the general observance of the Lord's day, which seems to show that it can not have been written before the beginning of the second century." Westcott, Canon of N. T., 41.

71 Epistle of Barnabas c. iv. camp. Matt. xxii. 16.

72 "In 1875 critics and students were startled by the appearance of a careful and complete edition published in Constantinople from a MS. discovered in the "library of the Holy Sepulcher" in that city. Its editor is Philotheos Bryennios. Metropolitan of Serrae. Six new chapters, containing among other interesting matter a prayer of singular beauty are added by this new MS. to the text of Codex A." "Scarcely was this discovery realized when a Syriac MS. of the "Two Epistles" was also found (1876) in Paris." Charteris, Canonicity, Int. viii., ix.

73 "Of this Clement there is one epistle extant, acknowledged as genuine, of considerable length and of great merit, which he wrote in the name of the church at Koine to that at Corinth, at the time when there was a dissension in the latter. This we know to have been publicly read for the common benefit in most of the churches, both in former times and in our own; and that at the time mentioned a sedition did take place at Corinth, is abundantly attested by Hegesippus." Eusebius, Eccles. Hist. III. 16.

74 "The blessed apostles, then, having founded and built up the church [at Rome] committed into the bands of Linus the office of the episcopate. * * * To him succeeded Anacletus; and after him, in the third place from the a pestles, Clement was allotted the bishopric This man. as he had seen the blessed apostles, and had been conversant with them, might be said to have the preaching of the apostles still echoing in his ears, and their traditions before his eyes." Irenaeus, Heresies, III, 3, 3. "In the twelfth year of the same reign [that of Domitian] after Anacletus had been bishop of Rome twelve years, he was succeeded by Clement, who, the apostle in his epistle to the Philippians shows, had been his fellow laborer, in these words: 'With Clement and the rest of my fellow laborers, whose names are in the book of life.'" Eusebius, Eccles. Hist. III. 15. Modern scholars very generally doubt this identification of the Clement in question with the one here mentioned by Paul. It is immaterial to our purpose whether he is the same or not.

75 "Owing, dear brethren, to the sudden and calamitous events which have happened to ourselves, we feel that we have been somewhat tardy in turning our attention to the points respecting which you consulted us; and especially to that shameful and detestable sedition which a few rash and self-confident person" have kindled to such a pitch of frenzy, that your venerable and illustrious name, worthy to be universally loved, has suffered grievous injury." Epistle of Clement, c. I.

76 Charteris. Canonicity, Int. x., xi.; but see Donaldson, Hist. Chris. Lit. and Doc. L. 105-110; Westcott, Canon of N. T., 22, 23.

77 Epistle, e. xlvii. He proceeds: "But that inclination for one above another entailed less guilt upon you, inasmuch as your partialities were then showed toward apostles already of high reputation, and towards a man whom they had approved. But now reflect who those are that have perverted you, and lessened the renown of your far-famed brotherly love. It is disgraceful, beloved, yea, highly disgraceful, and unworthy of your Christian profession, that such a thing should be heard of, as that the most steadfast and ancient church of the Corinthians should, on account of one or two persons, engage in sedition against its presbyters. And this rumor has reached not only us, but those also who are unconnected with us; so that, through your infatuation the name of the Lord is blasphemed while danger is also brought upon yourselves."

78 "Being specially mindful of the words of the Lord Jesus which he spoke, teaching us meekness and long suffering. For thus he spoke: Be ye merciful that ye may obtain mercy (Matt. v. 7); forgive that it may be forgiven you (Luke vi. 37); as ye do, so shall it be done to you, as ye judge, so shall ye be judged (Matt. vii. 2); as ye are kind, so shall kindness be shown to you; with what measure ye mete, with the same it shall be measured to you. (Luke vi. 38.) Epistle, c. xiii.

79 "Have we not all one God and one Christ? Is there not one spirit of grace poured out upon us? And have we not one calling in Christ? (Eph. iv. 4-0). Why do we divide and tear in pieces the members of Christ, and raise up strife against our own body, and have reached such a height of madness as to forget that we are members one of another?. (Rom. xii. 5). Remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, how he said: 'We to that man by whom offenses come.' (Matt. xviii,7). It were better for him that he had never been born (Matt. xxvi. 24) than that he should cast a stumblingblock before one of my elect. Yea, it were better for him that a millstone should be hung about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depths of the sea, than that he should cast a stumblingblock before one of my little ones" (Mark ix. 42, or Luke xvii. 2). Epistle, c. xlvi.

80 "Ye never grudged any act of kindness, being ready to every good work." Epistle, c. ii., comp. Titus iii. 1.

81 By Him the Lord has willed that we should taste of immortal knowledge, who, being the brightness of His majesty, is by so much greater than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." Epistle, c. xxxvi., comp. Heb. i. 3, 4.

82 "Let us look steadfastly to the blood of Christ, and see how precious that blood is to God (I. Pet. i. 19) which, having been shed for our salvation, has set the grace of repentance before the; whole world. Let us turn to every age that has passed, and learn that, from generation to generation, the Lord has granted a place of repentance (Heb. xii. 17) to all such as would be converted unto Him. Noah preached repentance (II. Pet. ii. 5) and as many as listened to him were saved (I. Pet. iii. 20)." Epistle, c. vii. "Noah being found faithful, preached regeneration (II. Pet. ii. 8) to the world through his ministry." Epistle, c. ix. It should be observed, that nowhere in the Bible is Noah represented as a preacher, except in If. Pet. ii. 5, the passage from which Clement is supposed to have derived this idea.

83 We have especial reference here to the writings of Ignatius and the letter to Diognetus. The early date of the latter is too uncertain to give it very great value in this discussion, and the genuineness of the former is yet a warmly contested question among Christian scholars.

84 The facts have been collected by the learned and painstaking (George Rawlinson, one of the greatest masters of ancient history, in his work entitled Historical Evidences of Christianity. Lecture vi. n. 9.