Justin, in this quotation, was as definite as when (Ap. c. 32) he wrote: “Moses then, who was the first of the prophets, spake in these very words, ‘The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until he come for whom it is reserved; and he shall be the desire of the nations, binding his foal to the vine, washing his robe in the blood of the grape.’” (Com. Gen. xlix. 10, 11.) He does not state where the passage is to be found, and its divergence from Genesis is greater than the difference in the language of Jesus, as quoted by Justin and recorded by John.
Justin, in quoting from the Old Testament, usually gives the name of the prophet, but nothing more; just as he gives this quotation as the language of Christ. He writes Moses said, or Isaiah said, and he also writes Christ said.
The other Apostolic Fathers, in their quotations from the Old Testament, do not usually give the name of the prophet, but only, “It is written,” “God said,” “The Spirit saith,” “The Scripture saith,” and often only “saith,” “The Scripture” in such cases being implied. And, as a rule, they do not quote with literal accuracy or a near approximation to it.
It has been objected, that if this quotation was actually from the Fourth Gospel, more than a single quotation from it should be expected. Let this be tested by the four epistles confessed to be genuine. There is not a single quotation by Justin from either of these acknowledged epistles, and it is doubtful if there is a single reference to them, certainly not in his Apology.
Nor is this all. The epistle to the Galatians (and Renan says, “Thanks to the Epistle to the Galatians!”) is not referred to in any way by Clement, or in Barnabas, or Hermas; nor First Corinthians in Barnabas or Hermas (and but once in Diognetus); nor Romans in Hermas; nor Revelation in Barnabas, or Diognetus, or Polycarp, and but once by Clement.
To account for Justin’s silence, it has been imagined, without the slightest evidence, that Justin was “anti-Pauline.” But how are the omissions by other writers to be accounted for? How did it happen that Clement made no reference to Galatians? It was not from hostility, certainly, for he speaks of “The blessed Apostle Paul.” Yet writing this epistle from the church at Rome, to the church at Corinth, he has but a single quotation from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, and but a single quotation from Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, and no reference to Galatians.
The well-known distinction of everyday application in courts of law and elsewhere, between positive and negative evidence, is to be kept in mind. Whether John’s Gospel would be quoted by any writer acquainted with it, might depend entirely upon his object in writing; and so of Galatians, or any of the books of the New Testament. While a single undoubted quotation proves the existence of that which is quoted from, non-quotation may prove nothing at all.
Justin apparently has one quotation from the Fourth Gospel, with many implied references to it. But if there were neither the one nor the other, to infer his ignorance of that Gospel from his silence would be just as sensible as to infer that a lawyer had never heard of Blackstone, or Kent, or Story, because he has not quoted from them.
If Justin in his Apology quoted once from Mark, and once from John, and not at all from Acts, or Revelations, or Paul’s Epistles, it was because his subject did not call for any use of those writings, beyond the use which he made of Mark and John. And if (as was apparently the fact) he quoted Luke six times and Matthew eighteen times in his Apology, it was doubtless because Matthew better served his purpose, or was more firmly fixed in his memory, from his having been born in Palestine, where Matthew’s Gospel was published.
A like explanation accounts for the fact that the Fourth Gospel is not quoted by Polycarp in his Epistle to the Philippians. Neither does he quote or cite from Revelations.