The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 20

known thnt thls Ouspel di<l not contain passages which were unrlouhtedly in Justio'd nuthorities. There is, in fact, notl1ing in Justin's quotations from the "memoirs" which is not eubstantinlly conlaincd in the canonical Gospels, and the deviations are only s11ch as cnn bo purallele<l by the later writerd who <lid indubitably quote from the fuur Gospels as we nuw ho.ve them. It is beyond credibility that, seeing that Irenreus must have been in ·early mnnbood when Justin was making such abundant use of tho "memorabilia by the apostles and their fullowcrs," that these books could have perished, and in tho brief poriod that elapsed before Irenrous wrote his 'Refutation of lleresies,' the four Gospels could bavo been manipulated into existence, and should have entirely displaced the earlier documents. Already, Justin tells us, these memoirs were read in churches at their solemn festivals, and yet, according to our opponents, they must have been ousted between the date of Justin and that of Irenreus, and four other documents have gained universal acceptance from Lyons to Alexandria, from Antioch to Carthage. The author of' Supernatural Religion' thinks this possible, bec~use the first epistle of Clement, and the epistle of Barnabas, were also read at first 1n some churches, and that these "memoirs" of Justin may in like manner have ceased to retain the high position to which he refers. But there is no proof whatever of such or similar importance ever having been ceded to these books, and the mode in which they aro cited is profuundly different. 1 We are bound to inquire whether, in addition to our Gospels, Justin also used some document like them, which may have formed the basis of one or more of the canonical Gospels.. 1 Whether that were the case or not, the followipg incidents are .recorded by Justin, and we know of no other authority for them but Mattheu/s Gospel: (1) Joseph's suspicion' of Mnry; (2) the name of Jesus; (3) the visit of the :Magi; (4) the massacre at Bethlehem; (5) the descent into Egypt; (6) the order of the temptation~; (7) six passages fl:om the sermon on the mount, as given i~ Matthew only; (_8) eh. xxiii. i5, 24; (9) the sign of the Prophet Jonas; (10) the trmmpbant entry with the colt; (11) the calumnious report of the Jews (eh. x.xviii. 12-15); and (12) the bapli::nnal formula. ' Very few details are peculiar to Mark. Some of these, however, Justin refers to; e.g. (1) the name of "Boanerges;" (2) the near approach to a statement (Mark vi. 3) that Christ followed the trade of a carpenter; and (3) eh. ix. 21, that he healed thosr. who were diseased: from their birth (cf. also John ix.). The peculiarities of Dulce are also quoted by Justin; e.g. (1) the coming of Gabriel to Mary; (2) that John the Baptist's mother was Elisabeth; (3) the census under Cyrenius; (4) that Jesus was thirty years old when he begau his ministry; (5) that on his trial he was sent from Pilate to Herod; (6) special passages are quoted from the commission given to the seventy disciples; (7) references occur to the Lord's Supper, and the agony in the garden, and to the Resuinction and Ascension, in a form only fuund in Luke. •While these quotations do strongly sustain the thesis that Justin made use of tho synoptic Gospels, yet, on the other hand, he appears to have studied the genealogy of Mary rather than of Joseph. This may have nrisen from his better understanding of the. genealogies, and his knowledge of the high probability that they are both of them ge~ealogies of Mary as well as Joseph; 2 or it may have been his conjecture touching the genealogy in Luke. ··n is also clear, from another reference, that he knew that Joseph was of the tribe of Judah. He speaks of a cave near Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. But this cave was refen-ed to by Origen at a period when we know that the synoptic Gospels wete in universal estimation(' Con. Cels.,' i. 51). And ten times over he speaks of tbe Magi as having come from Arnbia rather than from the East. He says all the children of Ifothlehem were slain. Re declares that, at the baptism of Jesus, "a firn was kindled in the Jordan," and that a voice was heard from heaven, "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee." Now, it should be remembered that an atlditi,,u 1 ' l\.uthorsl1ip of the Fourth Goepel,' by Dr. Ezra Abbott, pp. 27, 23. • Lord A. Hervey on 'Genealogies of our Lord.'  :n:iv INTRODUOTION TO