Between Lk 6* and ^ the following occurs :
' On the same day he beheld a certain man working on the Sabbath, and said to him, " Man, if indeed thou knowest what thou art doing, thou art blessed ; but if thou knowest not, thou art accursed and a transgressor of the law." '
These paragraphs are not supjiorted by sufficient evidence to warrant their inclusion in the text of the Gospels : whether they are worthy to be con- sidered part of those traditions of Christ's teach- ings which preceded, and for a time accompanied, the written word, the English reader can judge for himself. Textual criticism has no place outside the region of documents.
The following Sayings, hoAvever, are in a different category. The evidence for them is so weighty that all are received into the text by some critics ; but to others the evidence is insufficient ; yet it Avill hardly be denied by any that the presence of the words in so many ancient documents stamps them with distinct authority, and demands their recognition as traditions of the Master's teachings. We refer here to the Doxology (Mt 6^^) ; the verse Mt 17^^ ; the words, ' and every sacrifice shall be
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salted with salt' (Mk 9^9); 'Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them ' (Lk 9''^- ^'^) ; ' Father, forgive them : for they know not what they do' (Lk 2'S'^-*). Ail these passages except the last are rejected as parts of the text by the Kevisers, and those of the same school of criticism ; nor do they accept as undoubtedly genuine the story of the Adulteress in Jn 8, and the concluding verses of Mk. ; yet the words attrib- uted to Christ in these two sections, and in the texts cited above, must certainly commend them- selves to unprejudiced ears as authentic reminis- cences of the JVIaster's sayings, even if we refuse them a place in the canonical records.
The Sayings of Christ which have been pre- served outside the NT by ecclesiastical writers, tiiough not actually numerous, are too many for quotation in this article. The following are speci- mens ; and, in different ways, of interest and im- portance.
Clement of Alexandria (Strom, vi. 5. 43) quotes Peter thus :
'The Lord said to the Apostles, "If, then, any one of Israel wishes to repent and believe through my name on God, his sins shall be forgiven him. After twelve years go forth into the world, lest any one say. We did not hear." '
Origen {in Joan. ii. 6) has :
' If any one goes to the Gospel according to the Hebrews, there the Saviour himself saith : "Just now my mother the Holy Spirit took me by one of my hairs and carried me oflE to the great mountain Tabor.'"
Jerome quotes from the same Gospel as follows :
(a) 'After the resurrection or the Saviour, it records: "But when the Lord had given the linen cloth to the priest's servant, he went to James and appeared to him. For James had taken an oath that he would not eat bread from that hour in which he had drunk the cup of the Lord, until he should see him rising from them that sleep." And again, a little farther on, "Bring me, saith the Lord, a table and bread." And there follows im- mediately : "He took the bread, and blessed, and brake, and gave to James the Just, and said to him, ' My brother, eat thy bread, inasmuch as the Son of Man hath risen from them that sleep ""(de Vir. illust. ii.).
(b) 'There is the following story : "Behold, the Lord's mother and his lirethren were saying to him : ' John the Baptist bap- tizes unto remission of sins ; let us go and be baptized by him.' But he said unto them : 'What sin have I done, that I should go and be baptized by him ? unless perchance this very thing, which I have said, is an ignorance"" (adv. Pelag. iii. 2).
(c) ' We read, too, of the Lord saying to the disciples : "And ne\er rejoice, except when you have looked upon your brother in love " ' (in Eph. 5''f).
The ' Sayings ' contained in a fragmentary papy- rus of the 3rd cent., discovered at Oxyrhynchus, are in part equivalent to texts in the Gospels, but the following have no parallels :
(ft) ' Except ye fast to the world, ye shall in nowise find the kijigdom of God ; and except ye make the Sabbath a real Sabbath, ye shall not see the Father.'
(Ii) ' I stood in the midst of the world, and in the flesh was I seen of them, and I found all men drunken, and none found I athirst among them ; and my soul grieveth over the sons of men, V)ecause they are blind in their heart, and see not.'
(c) ' Wherever there are two, they are not without God ; and wherever there is one alone, I say, I am with him. Raise the stone and there shalt thou find me ; cleave the wood and there am I.'*