THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
freely, particularly the Fourth. Apart from the
prologue to this last, the structure of the series of
eons of Valentinus are unintelligible.
2. The Heraclion commented on all four of the Bible of Gospels. In the different branches of
the Valen- this sect Eph., Col., and I Cor. were tinians. especially valued, but Rom., II Cor., Phil., and Gal. were also used. In their criticism of the Gospels they laid stress upon a secret tradition. They used also an Evangdium verilatis, a fifth Gospel, which probably contained the sum of apocryphal tradition, derived, according to Serapion, not from the Docetes but from their precursors. The Gospel of Peter may have arisen about 150 from the eastern branch at Antioch as did the Evangelium verilatis among the western school of Valentinians. To a branch of the Valentinian school of Asia Minor belonged Leucius, the author of the Acts of Peter and John. They probably used also the Gospel of the Infancy. Leucius wrote also a " Journeyings of John," suggested by the " Letters to the Seven Churches " of Revelation. In short, the foundation of the canon of the most important schools of Gnostics, 140-170, is that of the Church of 200, only that these " men of the spirit " used alongside of the canonical writings a mass of other traditions and poetical and subjective creations which were not employed among the orthodox.
In his short description of the Sunday service as
observed by Christians in city and country, Justin
names as taking the first place the reading of
the " Memorabilia of the Apostles,"
3. The " which are called Gospels " (I Apol-
Apostolic ogy, lxvi.-lxvii., ANF, i. 185-186),
Writings and the " collection of the Prophets."
in Justin " Gospel " in the singular is also used
Martyr, by the Jew Trypho and by Justin as a
collective. Out of deference for his readers who were not acquainted with the term " gospel," Justin commonly used the term Apomnemoneumata, ' Memorabilia." While generally such memorabilia took their name from the author, Justin named these from the subject, " The Memorabilia of our Savior." As under the term " prophets " the whole Old Testament is included, the term memorabilia in Justin may include the New Testament writings. The answer to the question what gospels are meant has long been, those commonly used about 150 in the places Justin visited or lived in, in Ephesus and Rome, in the public service and known as the product of the Apostles or their disciples. Trypho (Dialogue, x.) speaks of the " so-called gospel " as a totality, a unit. They can be no other than what Marcion criticized and Valentinians so fully employed. In one place Justin expressly discriminated between the Apostles and their disciples in a passage which goes back to Luke xxii. 44 (Dialogue, ciii.). He named the second Gospel " The Recollections of Peter," a designation which implies the old tradition of the connection of this Gospel with that apostle. What has partly or entirely produced the idea that Justin's " memorabilia " an; not the Gospels of the Church is first the looseness and inexactness of quotation, and second the material additions of
facts or reports grounds for which are not found in the Gospels. But in Justin's citations exactness is no more to be expected than in Clement's; and much that appears apocryphal to us may have been read in the Gospels of his time. Justin regarded Revelation as the work of the apostle John and as a true testimony of Christian prophecy. Investigation of his writings shows contact of Justin with Rom., I Cor., Gal., Eph., Col., II Thess., Heb., I Pet., Acts and the Didache: more questionably with Phil., Titus, I Tim., and James.
4. The Oldest Traces and the Origin of Collections of Apostolic Writing's : From the preceding array of facts it appears that by 140 in the entire circle of the catholic Church the collection comprising the four Gospels and thirteen Epistles of Paul were read alongside of the Old Testament writings, and that in one part or another of the Church other writings such as Acts, Rev., Heb., I Pet., James, and the Epistles of John were held in like honor.
The collection of Pauline letters seems to go
back to the first century, judging from I Clement,
the Ignatian Epistles, and Polycarp. The bishops
of Smyrna and Antioch had a knowledge of Paul
which involved acquaintance with
1. The his letters, and the way in which they
Collection employ them shows that the letters
of Pauline were before them. Polycarp advised Letters, the Philippians to read Paul's letters for edification; Ignatius knew Eph. under the title used later by Marcion as part of an ecclesiastical collection. Polycarp included Phil, and Thess. in a group directed to the Macedonians just as Tertullian knew them a century later. Clement seems to make the collection begin with I Cor., an order which the Muratorian Canon supports, closing with Rom. This aggregation, which contained also the order Phil. -Thess. and the title " to the Ephesians," has every claim to originality and to have circulated before 97 That there was an interchange of letters among the churches before this collection was made is clear from Col. iv. 16, but the circulation and use implied in II Pet. iii. 15 involve a collection in one manuscript, perhaps not official but private. The passage last cited implies a Pauline letter to Jewish Christians, and I Cor. v. 9 and Phil. iii. 1 imply other letters of Paul which have not survived. These facts suggest a deliberate selection from the available letters of Paul, made probably in some important center of Christianity, which came into general use and was seen to be available for public service. But the settlement of the order of arrangement implies that the collection was made very early, soon after the death of Paul. Where this was done can not be stated, though the placing of I and II Cor. at the head suggests Corinth. Rome is also to be thought of as explaining the closing of this collection with the Epistle to the Romans.
The word euaggelion, which, 150-200, designated the collection of four Gospels, is frequently found in the earlier literature so used that by it must be meant a written exposition of the words and deeds of Jesus in possession of the churches and generally known to the communities (Didache, viii. 2;