Thus briefly may these Apostolic Fathers be dismissed, since their testimony fades away as soon as it is examined, as a mist evaporates before the rays of the rising sun.  We will call up Paley’s other witnesses.

PAPIAS.—­In the fragment preserved by Eusebius there is no quotation of any kind; the testimony of Papias is to the names of the authors of two of the Gospels, and will be considered under g.

JUSTIN MARTYR.—­We now come to the most important of the supposed witnesses, and, although students must study the details of the controversy in larger works, we will endeavour to put briefly before them the main reasons why Freethinkers reject Justin Martyr as bearing evidence to the authenticity of the present Gospels, and in this resume we begin by condensing chapter iii. of “Supernatural Religion”, vol. i., pp. 288-433, so far as it bears on our present position.  Justin Martyr is supposed to have died about A.D. 166, having been put to death in the reign of Marcus Aurelius; he was by descent a Greek, but became a convert to Christianity, strongly tinged with Judaism.  The longer Apology, and the Dialogue with Trypho, are the works chiefly relied upon to prove the authenticity.  The date of the first Apology is probably about A.D. 147; the Dialogue was written later, perhaps between A.D. 150 and 160.  In these writings Justin quotes very copiously from the Old Testament, and he also very frequently refers to facts of Christian history, and to sayings of Jesus.  Of these references, for instance, some fifty occur in the first Apology, and upwards of seventy in the Dialogue with Trypho; a goodly number, it will be admitted, by means of which to identify the source from which he quotes.  Justin himself frequently and distinctly says that his information and quotations are derived from the “Memoirs of the Apostles,” but, except upon one occasion, which we shall hereafter consider, when he indicates Peter, he never mentions an author’s name.  Upon examination it is found that, with only one or two brief exceptions, the numerous quotations from these “Memoirs” differ more or less widely from parallel passages in our Synoptic Gospels, and in many cases differ in the same respects as similar quotations found in other writings of the second century, the writers of which are known to have made use of uncanonical Gospels; and further, that these passages are quoted several times, at intervals, by Justin, with the same variations.  Moreover, sayings of Jesus are quoted from the “Memoirs” which are not found in our Gospels at all, and facts in the life of Jesus, and circumstances of Christian history, derived from the same source, not only are not found in our Gospels, but are in contradiction with them.  Various theories have been put forward by Christian apologists to lessen the force of these objections.  It has been suggested that Justin quoted from memory, condensed or combined to suit his immediate purpose; that the “Memoirs” were a harmony of the