We are told that “James and John, the sons of Zebedee, had a command ... not to enter into their cities (i.e. the cities of the Samaritans), nor to bring the word of preaching to them.”[313] “And when our Master sent us forth to preach, he commanded us, But into whatsoever city or house we should enter, we should say, Peace be to this house. And if, said he, a son of peace be there, your peace shall come upon him; but if there be not, your peace shall return unto you. Also, that going from house to city, we should shake off upon them the very dust which adhered to our feet. But it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for that city or house.”[314] The Gospel of the Clementines, it is plain, contained an account of the sending forth of the apostles almost identical with that in St. Matthew, x.
“And ... Jesus himself declared that John was [pg 204] greater than all men and all the prophets.”[315] The corresponding passage is in St. Matthew.[316]
The Beatitudes, or some of them, were in it. “He said, Blessed are the poor; and promised earthly rewards; and promised that those who maintain righteousness shall be satisfied with meat and drink.”[317] “Our Master, inviting his disciples to patience, impressed on them the blessing of peace, which was to be preserved with the labour of patience.... He charges (the believers) to have peace among themselves, and says to them, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the very sons of God.”[318] “The Father, whom only those can see who are pure in heart.”[319] Again strong similarity with slight difference. “He said, I am not come to send peace on earth, but a sword; and henceforth you shall see father separated from son, son from father, husband from wife, and wife from husband, mother from daughter, and daughter from mother, brother from brother, father-in-law from daughter-in-law, friend from friend.”[320] This is fuller than the corresponding passage in St. Matthew.[321]
“It is enough for the disciple to be as his master.”[322] “He mourned over those who lived in riches and luxury, and bestowed nothing upon the poor; showing that they must render an account, because they did not pity their neighbours, even when they were in poverty, whom they ought to love as themselves.”[323] “In like manner he charged the Scribes and Pharisees during the last period of his teaching ... with hiding the key of knowledge which they had handed down to them from Moses, by which the gate of the heavenly kingdom might be [pg 205] opened.”[324] The key of knowledge occurs only in St. Luke's Gospel. Had the author of the Clementines any knowledge of that Gospel? I do not think so, or we should find other quotations from St. Luke. St. Matthew says, “Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up (κλείετε) the kingdom of heaven.”[325] St. Luke says, “Ye have taken away the key (τὴν κλεῖδα) of knowledge.”[326] The author of the Clementines says, “Ye have hidden the key,” not “taken away.” I do not think, when the expression in St. Matthew suggests the “key,” that we need suppose that the author of the Recognitions quoted from St. Luke; rather, I presume, from his own Gospel, which in this passage resembled the words in St. Luke rather than those in St. Matthew, without, however, being exactly the same.[327]
“Every kingdom divided against itself shall not stand.”[328] “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”[329] The writer knew, in the same terms as St. Matthew, our Lord's sayings: “Give not that which is holy to dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine.”[330] “Whosoever shall look upon a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her in his heart.... If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members perish, rather than thy whole body be cast into hell-fire.”[331]
The woes denounced on the Scribes and Pharisees,[332] and the saying that the Queen of the South should “rise in judgment against this generation,”[333] are given in the Recognitions as in St. Matthew, as also that “the harvest is plenteous,”[334] “that no man can serve two masters,”[335] and the saying on the power of faith to move mountains.[336]
We have the parables of the goodly pearl,[337] of the marriage supper,[338] and of the tares,[339] but also that of the sower,[340] which does not occur in St. Matthew, but in St. Luke. This therefore was found in the Gospel used by the author of the Recognitions. There are two other apparent quotations from St. Luke: “I have come to send fire on the earth, and how I wish that it were kindled”;[341] and the story of the rich fool.[342] The first, however, is differently expressed from St. Luke. There are just two more equally questionable quotations: “Be ye merciful, as also your heavenly Father is merciful, who makes his sun to rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust.”[343] We have the Greek in one of the Homilies.[344] In St. Luke it runs, “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.”[345] In St. Matthew, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and [pg 207] sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”[346] Is it not clear that either the pseudo-Clement condensed the direction, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you,” into the brief maxim, “Be ye good and merciful,”—or that, and this is more probable, there were concurrent traditional accounts of our Lord's saying, and that St. Matthew, St. Luke, and the writer of the Gospel used by the pseudo-Clement, made use of independent texts in their compilations?
The next passage is a saying of our Lord on the cross, which is given in the Recognitions: “Father, forgive them their sin, for they know not what they do.”[347] In the Homilies we have the original Greek: “Father, forgive them their sins, for they know not what they do.”[348] Rufinus has unconsciously altered the text in translating it by making “sins” singular instead of plural.
It is not necessary to note the insignificant difference of the word ἅ in the Homily and the word τί in the Gospel. But who cannot see that the addition of the words, “their sins,” completely changes the thought of the Saviour? Jesus prays God to forgive the Jews the crime they commit in crucifying him, and not to pardon all the sins of their lives that they have committed. The addition of these two words not merely modify the thought; they represent another of an inferior order. They would not have been introduced into the text if the author of the Gospel used by the pseudo-Clement had had the Gospel of St. Luke before him. These words were certainly not derived from St. Luke; they are due [pg 208] to a separate recollection or tradition of the sayings of the Saviour on the cross. Those sayings we may well believe were cherished in the memory of the early disciples. Tradition always modifies, weakens, renders commonplace the noblest thoughts and most striking sayings, and colours the most original with a tint of triviality.[349]
We find in both the Recollections and Homilies a passage which has been thought to be a quotation from St. John: “Verily I say unto you, That unless a man is born again of water, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”[350] Here, again, the hand of Rufinus is to be traced. The same quotation is made in the Homilies, and it stands there thus: “Verily I say unto you, Unless ye be born again of the water of life (or the living water) in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.”[351]