either of the three” (pp. 83, 84).  “I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”  “In this only instance is there a perfect agreement between the words of Justin and the canonical Gospels, three of which, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, give the same saying of Christ in the same words.  A variety of thoughts here rush upon the mind.  Are these three Gospels based upon a common document?  If so, is not Justin Martyr’s citation drawn from the same anonymous document, rather than from the three Gospels, seeing he does not name them?  If, on the other hand, Justin has cited them accurately in this instance, why has he failed to do so in the others?  For no other reason than that traditionary sayings are generally thus irregularly exact or inexact, and Justin, citing from them, has been as irregularly exact as they were” (Ibid, p. 85).  “The result to which a perusal of his works will lead is of the gravest character.  He will be found to quote nearly two hundred sentiments or sayings of Christ; but makes hardly a single clear allusion to all those circumstances of time or place which give so much interest to Christ’s teaching, as recorded in the four Gospels.  The inference is that he quotes Christ’s sayings as delivered by tradition or taken down in writing before the four Gospels were compiled” (Ibid, pp. 89, 90).  Paley and Lardner both deal with Justin somewhat briefly, calling every passage in his works resembling slightly any passage in the Gospels a “quotation;” in both cases only ignorance of Justin’s writings can lead any reader to assent to the inferences they draw.

HEGESIPPUS was a Jewish Christian, who, according to Eusebius, flourished about A.D. 166.  Soter is said to have succeeded Anicetus in the bishopric of Rome in that year, and Hegesippus appears to have been in Rome during the episcopacy of both.  He travelled about from place to place, and his testimony to the Gospels is that “in every city the doctrine prevails according to what is declared by the law, and the prophets, and the Lord” ("Eccles.  Hist,” bk. iv., ch. 22).  Further, Eusebius quotes the story of the death of James, the Apostle, written by Hegesippus, and in this James is reported to have said to the Jews:  “Why do ye now ask me respecting Jesus, the Son of Man?  He is now sitting in the heavens, on the right hand of great power, and is about to come on the clouds of heaven.”  And when he is being murdered, he prays, “O Lord God and Father forgive them, for they know not what they do” (see “Eccles.  Hist.,” bk. ii., ch. 23).  The full absurdity of regarding this as a testimony to the Gospels will be seen when it is remembered that it is implied thereby that James, the brother and apostle of Christ, knew nothing of his words until he read them in the Gospels, and that he was murdered before the Gospel of Luke, from which alone he could quote the prayer of Jesus, is thought, by most Christians, to have been written.  One other fragment of Hegesippus is preserved by Stephanus