The application of such a formula to a supposed quotation from one of our Gospels, in so isolated an instance, led to the belief that, even if the passage were taken from our first Synoptic, the author of the Epistle in quoting it laboured under the impression that it was derived from some prophetical book.(1) We daily see how difficult it is to trace the source even of the most familiar quotations. Instances of such confusion of memory are frequent in the writings of the Fathers, and many can be pointed out in the New Testament itself. For instance, in Matt, xxvii. 9 f. the passage from Zechariah xi. 12-13 is attributed to Jeremiah; in Mark i. 2, a quotation from Malachi iii. 1 is ascribed to Isaiah. In 1 Corinthians ii. 9, a passage is quoted as Holy Scripture which is not found in the Old Testament at all, but which is taken, as Origen and Jerome state, from an apocryphal work, "The Revelation of Elias,"(2) and the passage is similarly quoted by the so-called Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians (xxxiv). Then in what prophet did the author of the first Gospel find the words (xiil 35): "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet,(3) saying: I will open my mouth in parables; I
will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world "?
Orelli,(1) afterwards followed by many others,(2) suggested that the quotation was probably intended for one in IV Ezra viii. 3: "Nam multi creati sunt, pauci autem salvabuntur."(3) "For many are created, but few shall be saved." Bretsclineider proposed as an emendation of the passage in Ezra the substitution of "vocati" for "creati" but, however plausible, his argument did not meet with much favour.(4) Along with this passage was also suggested a similar expression in IV Ezra ix. 15: "Plures sunt qui pereunt, quam qui salvabuntur." "There are more who perish than who shall be saved."(5) The Greek of the three passages may read as follows:—
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There can be no doubt that the sense of the reading in IV Ezra is exactly that of the Epistle, but the language is somewhat different. We must not forget, however, that the original Greek of IV Ezra(6) is lost, and that we are wholly dependent on the versions and MSS. extant, regarding whose numerous variations and great
corruption there are no differences of opinion. Orelli's theory, moreover, is supported by the fact that the Epistle, elsewhere, (c. xii) quotes from IV Ezra (iv. 33, v. 5).