Claudius Apollinaris, Eusebius says, was Bishop of Hierapolis, and there is the fragment of a letter of Serapion, Bishop of Antioch, which supports the statement, and in which Apollinaris is referred to as the "most blessed." The date of his writings, in consequence of an allusion to the Thundering Legion of the army of Marcus Aurelius, may be fixed at about A.D. 174. None of them are extant. We have only two brief fragments, in which the controversy respecting the observance of the Christian Passover is alluded to. The following passage is important: "There are some, however, who through ignorance raise contentions regarding these matters in a way which should be pardoned, for ignorance must not be pursued with accusation, but requires instruction. And they say that the Lord, together with His disciples, ate the lamb on the great day of unleavened bread, and they state that Matthew says precisely what they have understood; hence their understanding of it is at variance with the law, and according to them the Gospels seem to contradict each other." Tischendorf and Westcott naturally adduce this passage in support of the position of the four canonical Gospels. Our author demurs, arguing that "there is such exceedingly slight reason for attributing these fragments to Claudius Apollinaris, and so many strong grounds for believing that he cannot have written them, that they have no material value as evidence for the antiquity of the Gospels" (p. 191).
Athenagoras wrote an apology, entitled "The Embassy of Athenagoras the Athenian, a Philosopher and a Christian, concerning Christians, to the Emperors Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, Armeniaci Surmatici, and, above all, Philosophers;" and also a "Treatise on the Resurrection of the Body." A passage from the former occurs in the work of Methodius on the Resurrection, and is preserved by Epiphanius and by Photius.
"For we have learnt not only not to render a blow, nor to go to law with those who spoil and plunder us; but, to those who inflict a blow on one side, also to present the other side of the head in return for smiting; and to those who take away the coat, also to give besides the cloke."[51]
Of this our author says: "No echo of the words of Matthew has lingered in the ear of the writer, for he employs utterly different phraseology throughout; and nothing can be more certain than the fact that there is not a linguistic trace in it of acquaintance with our Synoptics" (p. 194).
The value of our author's conclusions may be measured by what he here asserts. It seems to me that the reverse may be asserted. (1) That words in Matthew did "linger in the ear of the writer;" (2) that he does not "employ utterly different phraseology throughout;" and (3) that many things "can be more certain than the fact that there is not a linguistic trace in it of acquaintance with our Synoptics."
The next passage which is referred to is as follows:—"What, then, are those precepts in which we are instructed? I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that persecute you; that ye may be sons of your Father which is in the heavens, who maketh his sun," &c.[52]
There is also the following:—"For if ye love, them which love you, and lend to them which lend to you, what reward shall ye have?"[53]
Of this passage, our author says it is evident that it does not agree with either of the Synoptics. "We have seen," says he, "the persistent variation in the quotations from the Sermon on the Mount which occur in Justin, and there is no part of the discourses of Jesus more certain to have been preserved by living Christian tradition, or to have been recorded in every form of Gospel. The differences in these passages from our Synoptics present the same features as mark the several versions of the same discourse in our First and Third Gospel, and indicate a distinct source" (p. 195). I remark, every step our author takes in this sort of criticism tends to the confirmation of our Christian faith, which is not the Christianity of a creed or a Church, but the belief in a Person. The more independent accounts of His life and discourses which can be traced, the greater the proof of His advent and mission. The Sermon on the Mount cannot be accounted for apart from the superhuman. "Never man spake like this man." The more it is quoted the more it is established as a sublime fact in literature, which neither the Jewish race, nor the Augustan era, nor indeed any other race or any other age, could have originated apart from Divine intervention.
The Epistle of Vienne and Lyons, written from the Churches in those towns to their brethren in Asia and Phrygia, about the year A.D. 177, giving an account of the terrible persecution which had broken out, is in part preserved by Eusebius. It contains words similar to those used in regard to Zacharias and Elisabeth, where they are said to have "walked in all the commandments and ordinances of God, blameless." And it has also the words, "And himself having the Spirit more abundantly than Zacharias," which compares with Luke i. 67: "And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied." In reference to these passages, our author's comment is as follows: "The state of the case is, we find a coincidence, in a few words in connection with Zacharias, between the Epistle and our Third Gospel; but so far from the Gospel being in any way indicated as their source, the words in question are, on the contrary, in association with a reference to events unknown to our Gospels, but which were indubitably chronicled elsewhere. It follows clearly, and few will venture to doubt the fact, that the allusion in the Epistle is to a Gospel different from ours, and not to our Third Synoptic at all" (p. 204). The event unknown to our Gospels is the martyrdom of Zacharias, which our Gospels make no mention of.
Ptolemæus and Heracleon, two Gnostic leaders, are next referred to. Of the former, Epiphanius has preserved "The Epistle to Flora," addressed to one of his disciples, which contains passages similar to sentences found in Matthew xii. 25, xix. 8, 6, xv. 4-8, v. 38, 39.; but our author objects that the Epistle "was in all probability written towards the end of the second century, and therefore it does not come within the scope of our inquiry;" and he goes into considerable detail to justify this statement.