In the uncertain letters of "Theophilus to Autolycus" (173-90) there are two mentions of the "Gospel," in Book III, 13 and 14; the first is manifestly and the second very probably interpolated, as is also the phrase, "and in the Gospels," c. 12. But in any case, the text need not modify the foregoing.
Nearest to Irenwus stands Tatian (160 80), who seems to have known of four Gospel forms and sought to blend them into one in his (Diatessaron' (173?), in which scarcely any traces of the humamty of Jesus appear to hate been found. His
The Martyr.— Tatian's master, Justin Mar tyr, had considerable acquaintance with litera ture now found in the New Testament, but all of it seems ta be floating as an unorganized mass (or rather as a meteoric swarm) in his mind. He never cites any such passage by the author's name, but ascribes them in the main to "the Lord)) or to Jesus or Christ or 'the Saviour, naost frequently omitting.the subject "He." In Apology 1, 66, and especially toward the close of the Dialog (cc. 100-07), he speaks of the °Memoirs of (or composed by) His Apostles." The phrase "which are called Gospels," in Apology I, 66, has long been felt to be interpolated, and so indeed is the whole chapter, which breaks visibly the connection between cc. 65 and 67. Again, that these Memoirs or Commentaries (Apomnemoneu mato) should be mentioned 12 times in cc_ 100-07, only in treating of Psalm 22, and not at all elsewhere in the Dialog, is surely extremely suspicious, suggesting easy interpo lation, or a later date for these late chapters.* That Justin Martyr did not really refer to our Four Gospels seems clear for many reasons. Had he known of them under the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, it seems prac tically certain that in the course of 120 al lusions (50 in App., 70 in Di.), he would have named some one, for he is a sticicler for names and exactness, as he conceives it. In citing. the Old Testament he names the author 197 times, omitting the name only 117 times, for various, mainly literary, reasons. He names John the Baptist repeatedly. He ascribes to "a certain man among us, by name John, one of the Apostles of the Chnst, the Revelation that they who believed in our Christ should spend a thousand years in Jerusalem" (Di. 81) ;
had he ascribed the Gospels and Epistles to authors, as Irenmus (Books III-V) and Tertul Tian did, it seems inconceivable that he would not have adorned his pages with their names. Moreover, it is certain that he drew from apocryphal sources, as from the Gospel of for both he and this Gospel On the Alchmtm fragment discovered 1885) use the strange word lachmon for "lot* in the casting of lots over the garments of Jesus, a word known there only to these two and to Cyril. Again, he says, "And fire was kindled in the Jordan* at the baptism of Jesus, as "wrote the apostles of him, this Christ of ours* (Di. 88), an incident noted in the "Preaching of Paul,' the Ebionite Gospel, the Sibylline Oracles, and the Syrian Liturgy, but not in the New Testament.
Without going into further details, it ap pears manifest that Justin Martyr had before him, in writing or in memory, a considerable body of miscellaneous Christian literature, much of it perhaps under the name of Oracles (Logia) of the Lord or Jesus or the Saviour, some of it maybe professing apostolic origin or "gospel* character. Most of this has been taken up and organized in the New Testament, though some of it has failed of that honor; none of it did Justin certainly regard as in spired, canonic, authoritative; all of it he used or disused, and often misused, according to his own fancied needs in argumentation and his own sense of eternal fitness. The notion of a New Testament canon was unformed in the Martyr's mind.
If such was the case with this learned and zealous student between the years 140 and 166, perhaps about 147, it would seem almost needless to look unto lesser lights whether earlier or slightly later. However, a momentary glance at Athenagoras(176), the letter ascribed to Diognetus (200), Hegesippus (185?), and Dionysius of Corinth (170) covers the same usage and state of mind as with the Martyr. The latter says, ((there are many false teachers among us* "forging in His name* (Di. 82), and Dionysius makes similar plaint (Eus. Hist. Eccles., xxiii, 12) • "My epistles have the devil's apostles filled with tares, cutting out some things and adding others It is not strange then that some have es . . .