This quotation is clearly not from our Gospels, but must be assigned to a different written source. The writer would scarcely refer the Corinthians to such words of Jesus if they were merely traditional. It is neither a combination of texts, nor a quotation from memory. The language throughout is markedly different from any passage in the Synoptics, and to present even a superficial parallel, it is necessary to take a fragment of the discourse of Jesus at the Last Supper regarding the traitor who should deliver him up (Matth. xxvi. 24), and join it to a fragment of his remarks in connection with the little child whom he set in the midst (xviii. 6). The parallel passage in Luke has not
the opening words of the passage in the Epistle at all, and the portion which it contains (xvii. 2), is separated from the context in which it stands in the first Gospel, and which explains its meaning. If we contrast the parallel passages in the three Synoptics, their differences of context are very suggestive, and without referring to their numerous and important variations in detail, the confusion amongst them is evidence of very varying tradition.(1) This alone would make the existence of another form like that quoted in the Epistle before us more than probable.
Tischendorf, in a note to his statement that Clement nowhere refers to the Gospels, quotes the passage we are now considering, the only one to which he alludes, and says: "These words are expressly cited as 'words of Jesus our Lord;' but they denote much more oral apostolic tradition than a use of the parallel passages in Matthew (xxvi. 24, xviii. 6) and Luke (xvii. 2)."(2) It is now, of course, impossible to determine finally whether the passage was actually derived from tradition or from a written source different from our Gospels, but in either case the fact is, that the Epistle not only does not afford the slightest evidence for the existence of any of our Gospels, but from only making use of tradition or an apocryphal work as the source of information regarding words of Jesus, it is decidedly opposed to the pretensions made on behalf of the Synoptics.
Before passing on, we may, in the briefest way possible, refer to one or two other passages, with the view of further illustrating the character of the quotations in this Epistle. There are many passages cited which are not found in the Old Testament, and others which have no parallels in the New. At the beginning of the very chapter in which the words which we have just been considering occur, there is the following quotation: "It-is written: Cleave to the holy, for they who cleave to them shall be made holy,"(1) the source of which is unknown. In a previous chapter the writer says: "And our Apostles knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there will be contention regarding the name, [——]—], office, dignity?) of the episcopate."(2) What was the writers authority for this statement? We find Justin Martyr quoting, as an express prediction of Jesus: "There shall be schisms and heresies,"(3) which is not contained in our gospels, but evidently derived from an uncanonical source,(4) a fact rendered more apparent by the occurrence of a similar passage in the Clementine Homilies, still more closely bearing upon our Epistle: "For there shall be, as the Lord said, false apostles, false prophets, heresies, desires for supremacy."(5) Hegesippus also speaks in a similar way: "From these came the
false Christs, false prophets, false apostles who divided the unity of the Church."(l) As Hegesippus, and in all probability Justin Martyr, and the author of the Clementines made use of the Gospel according to the Hebrews, or to Peter, it is most probable that these Gospels contained passages to which the words of the Epistle may refer.(2) It may be well to point out that the author also cites a passage from the Fourth Book of Ezra, ii. 16:(3) "And I shall remember the good day, and I shall raise you from your tombs."(4) Ezra reads: "Et resuscitabo mor-tuos de locis suis et de monumentis educam illos," &c. The first part of the quotation in the Epistle, of which we have only given the latter clause above, is taken from Isaiah xxvi. 20, but there can be no doubt that the above is from this apocryphal book,(5) which, as we shall see, was much used in the early Church.
2.
We now turn to the so-called "Epistle of Barnabas," another interesting relic of the early Church, many points in whose history have considerable analogy with that of the Epistle of pseudo-Clement. The letter itself bears no author's name, is not dated from any place, and is not addressed to any special community. Towards the