[2] Or, as Dr. Abbott translated it, as “those who have written Memoirs of all things concerning our Saviour Jesus Christ, whom we believe,” etc. Fourth Gospel, p. 21.
[3] As quoted (p. 43) in The Supernatural Origin of Christianity. By George P. Fisher, Professor of Church History in Yale College (A.D. 1870).
[A] Chap. 3.
[4] Judge Waite does not even refer to these quotations except to quote from Dr. Davidson in respect to Basilides in general, that “His supposed quotations from the New Testament in Hippolytus are too precarious to be trusted.” He does not seem to have known anything of Professors Arnold and Fisher, or Dr. Abbot, not to mention other very respectable writers within the last ten years, who have regarded the use of the Fourth Gospel by Basilides as sufficiently attested.
CHAPTER VI.
JUSTIN’S USE OF THE FOURTH GOSPEL.
Christ’s pre-existence, not declared in the other Gospels, is frequently referred to by Justin.[1] John alone calls Jesus the Word; Justin often refers to him as such. Justin regards the elevation of the brazen serpent in the wilderness as typical[2] of the crucifixion. He says it denoted salvation to those who flee for refuge to him who sent his crucified son into the world; the idea of God’s sending his Son into the world is peculiar to John. The descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, at the baptism of Jesus, is mentioned only in the First and Fourth Gospels. Justin (Dial. c. 88) says that when Jesus “came out of the water, the Holy Ghost lighted on him like a dove, as the Apostles of this very Christ of ours wrote.” Justin (Dial. c. 88) cites, as the words of John the Baptist, “I am not the Christ, but the voice of one crying.”
This declaration, “I am not the Christ,” and this application to himself of the language of Isaiah, are attributed to the Baptist only in John (John i. 20, 23, and iii. 28). Hilgenfeld, the latest representative of the Tübingen skeptical school, recognizes[3] here the use of the Fourth Gospel by Justin. And Dr. Ezra Abbot, following Professor Drummond, gives twenty[4] instances (including the express quotation) of the apparent or seeming use of this Gospel by Justin.
The express quotation as in John iii. 3, 5, is as follows: “For Christ also said, ‘Except ye be born again ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.’ Now, that it is impossible for those who have once been born to enter into their mothers’ womb is manifest to all.” (Ap. c. 61.) This is as translated in the Ante-Nicene Christian Library. Dr. Abbot (p. 29) translates it “Except ye be born again, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew Arnold, “Except ye be born again ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Our common version is, “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God;” and in verse 5, “Except a man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” The revised version, “Except a man be born anew,” or “from above” (margin), “he cannot see the kingdom of God.” There is a substantial agreement in the quotation with John’s Gospel, and unmistakable reference to the interview with Nicodemus, which is found only in John. The most rational inference is that it was from that source.