the cry which is cited to show that it refers to Christ, immediately follow each other. He apparently knows nothing whatever of the Chaldaic cry, "Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani" of the Gospels.(1) The first and second Gospels give the words of the cry from the Chaldaic differently from Justin, from the version of the LXX., and from each other. Matthew xxvii. 46, [——]—] the third Gospel makes no mention at all of this cry, but instead has one altogether foreign to the other Gospels: "And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and said: Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said this, he expired."(2) Justin has this cry also, and in the same form as the third Gospel. He says: "For when he (Jesus) was giving up his spirit on the cross, he said: 'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,' as I have also learned from the Memoirs."(3) Justin's Gospel, therefore, contained both cries, and as even the first two Synoptics mention a second cry of Jesus(4) without, however, giving the words, it is not surprising that other Gospels should have existed which included both. Even if we had no trace of this cry in any other ancient work, there would be no ground for asserting that Justin must have derived it from the third Gospel, for if there be any historical truth in the statement that these words were actually spoken by Jesus, it follows of course that they may have been, and probably were, reported in a dozen Christian writings now
no longer extent, and in all probability they existed in some of the many works referred to in the prologue to the third Gospel. Both cries, however, are given in the Gospel of Nieodemus, or Gesta Pilati, to which reference has already so frequently been made. In the Greek versions edited by Teschendorf we find only the form contained in Luke. In the Codex A, the passage reads: "And crying with a loud voice, Jesus said: Father, Baddach ephkid rouchi, that is, interpreted: 'into thy hands I commend my spirit;' and having said this he gave up the ghost."(l) In the Codex B, the text is: "Then Jesus having called out with a loud voice: 'Father, into thy hands will I commend my spirit,' expired."(2) In the ancient Latin version, however, both cries are given: "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Hely, Hely, lama zabacthani, which interpreted is: 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.' And after this, Jesus said: 'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit': and saying this, he gave up the ghost."(3)
One of the Codices of the same apocryphal work likewise gives the taunting speeches of the Jews in a form more nearly approaching that of Justin's Memoirs
than any found in our Gospels. "And the Jews that stood and looked ridiculed him, and said: If thou saidst truly that thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross, and at once, that we may believe in thee. Others ridiculing, said: He saved others, he healed others, and restored the sick, the paralytic, lepers, demoniacs, the blind, the lame, the dead, and himself he cannot heal."(1) The fact that Justin actually refers to certain Acta Pilati in connection with the Crucifixion renders this coincidence all the more important. Other texts of this Gospel read: "And the Chief Priests, and the rulers with them, derided him, saying: He saved others, let him save himself; if he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross."(2)
It is clear from the whole of Justin's treatment of the narrative, that he followed a Gospel adhering more closely than the Canonical to the Psalm xxii., but yet with peculiar variations from it. Our Gospels differ very much from each other; Justin's Memoirs of the Apostles in like manner differed from them. It had its characteristic features clearly and sharply defined. In this way his systematic variations are natural and perfectly intelligible, but they become totally inexplicable if it be supposed that, having our Gospels for his source, he thus
2 Ev. Niood., Pars. I. A. x.; Tischendorf Ev. Apocr., p.
232; cf. Thilo. Cod. Apocr. N. T., p. 584; Fabricius, Cod.
Apocr. N. T., i. p. 259; Tiachendorf ib., p. 340. There are
differences between all these texts—indeed there are
scarcely two MSS. which agree—clearly indicating that wo
have now nothing but corrupt versions of a more ancient
text.
