Gospels, with additions from some apocryphal work;
that along with our Gospels Justin used apocryphal
Gospels; that he made use of our Gospels, preferring,
however, to rely chiefly on an apocryphal one.
Results so diverse show how dubious must be the value
of the witness of Justin Martyr. Competent critics
almost universally admit that Justin had no idea of
ranking the “Memoirs of the Apostles” among
canonical writings. The word translated “Memoirs”
would be more correctly rendered “Recollections,”
or “Memorabilia,” and none of these three
terms is an appropriate title for works ranking as
canonical Gospels. Great numbers of spurious
writings, under the names of apostles, were current
in the early Church, and Justin names no authors for
the “Recollections” he quotes from, only
saying that they were composed “by his Apostles
and their followers,” clearly indicating that
he was using some collective recollections of the
Apostles and those who followed them. The word
“Gospels,” in the plural, is only once
applied to these “Recollections;” “For
the Apostles, in the ‘Memoirs’ composed
by them, which are called Gospels.” “The
last expression [Greek: kaleitai euaggelai], as
many scholars have declared, is a manifest interpolation.
It is, in all probability, a gloss on the margin of
some old MS. which some copyist afterwards inserted
in the text. If Justin really stated that the
‘Memoirs’ were called Gospels, it seems
incomprehensible that he should never call them so
himself. In no other place in his writings does
he apply the plural to them, but, on the contrary,
we find Trypho referring to the ‘so-called Gospel,’
which he states that he had carefully read, and which,
of course, can only be Justin’s ‘Memoirs,’
and again, in another part of the same dialogue, Justin
quotes passages which are written ‘in the Gospel.’
The term ‘Gospel’ is nowhere else used
by Justin in reference to a written record.”
The public reading of the Recollections, mentioned
by Justin, proves nothing, since many works, now acknowledged
as spurious, were thus read (see ante, pp. 248, 249).
Justin does not regard the Recollections as inspired,
attributing inspiration only to prophetic writings,
and he accepts them as authentic solely because the
events they narrate are prophesied of in the Old Testament.
The omission of any author’s name is remarkable,
since, in quoting from the Old Testament, he constantly
refers to the author by name, or to the book used;
but in the very numerous quotations, supposed to be
from the Gospels, he never does this, save in one single
instance, mentioned below, when he quotes Peter.
On the theory that he had our four Gospels before
him, this is the more singular, since he would naturally
have distinguished one from the other. The only
writing in the New Testament referred to by name is
the Apocalypse, by “a certain man whose name
was John, one of the apostles of Christ,” and
it is impossible that John should be thus mentioned,
if Justin had already been quoting from a Gospel bearing


