Here is the account of the woman taken in adultery afterwards borrowed by John:—
"And they went each to his own house, and Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
"And at dawn he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him; and having sat down, he taught them.
"And the scribes and the Pharisees brought up a woman taken up for adultery.
"And having placed her in the midst, they said to him, Teacher, this woman hath been taken up in adultery, in the very act;
"And in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What therefore dost thou say?
"And this they said, trying him, that they might have whereby to accuse him.
"But Jesus having bent down, kept writing with his finger upon the ground.
"But as they continued asking him, he unbent and said to them, Let the sinless one of you first cast against her the stone. And having bent down again he kept writing on the ground.
"But they having heard, went out one by one, beginning from the elder ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman.
"And Jesus having unbent, said to her, Mistress, where are they? Hath none condemned thee?
"And she said, None, sir. And Jesus said, Neither will I condemn thee, go and from this time sin no more."
The evidence accumulates. Justin gives the voice from the sky exactly as it is given in the Gospel of the Apostles.
"Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee."
He then proceeds to argue against an heretical theory that these words meant that Jesus was the Son of God on receipt of the Holy Spirit at baptism, and not before. But that is plainly the meaning of the passage, for the Ebionites "assert," says Hippolytus, "that our Lord was a man in like sense with all." (L. vii. 2). This is so patent that our first gospel has changed the words to "in thee I am well pleased." Had Justin known the false Matthew's false version, he would have quoted it eagerly instead of taking the trouble to refute the heretics.
I come to a second piece of evidence. In the lives of Krishna, Râma, Buddha, etc., many incidents are plainly inserted as authority for rites. Thus Buddha has his hair cut off by the god Indra, and receives the Abhisheka (baptism) at the hands of the heavenly host; and true Buddhists are expected to imitate him in this. The baptism of the early church was called φωτισμός [Greek: phôtismos] (Illumination), Justin tells us; and in the Coptic Church, as in Buddhism, the lighting of a taper is still a part of the ceremony. Now Justin informs us that a light was kindled on the Jordan on the occasion of Christ's baptism. It is plain again here that he is quoting from the Gospel according to the Apostles, and not from our gospels, who have cut out this light altogether.
Here is another strong piece of evidence. The Gospel according to the Apostles had a passage about "false Christs, false prophets, false apostles." Justin also has a passage about "false Christs, false apostles" This is most important, as it refers to St. Paul. Renan shows that in the original Gospel according to the Hebrews, there must have been more than one attack on this "false apostle." He is "the enemy" who sowed tares amongst the gospel wheat. The "enemy" was his nickname with the Church of Jerusalem. Pseudo Matthew softens this to "the devil," and cuts out the "false apostle" altogether. It is plain that Justin is not quoting from him.
Renan refers to another attack on St. Paul from the Gospel according to the Hebrews.
"People have prophesied and cast out devils in the name of Jesus. Jesus openly repudiates them, because they have "practised illegality.""(Les Evangiles, chap. vi.)
Stronger still is this. Justin records that when the question was put to Christ, "Show us a sign!" he answered, "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and no sign shall be given them, save the sign of Jonah." Justin goes on to say that Jesus "spoke this obscurely" (Trypho, ch. vii.), and he explains the meaning of the sign. Had he possessed our Matthew, he could not possibly have done this, for in the 40th verse of the twelfth chapter, Jesus, instead of "speaking obscurely," explains that Jonah's three days' sojourn in the whale's belly typifies his own three days' sojourn in the tomb.