That the variation in the Homily is deliberate and derived from the Gospel used by the author is clear from the continuation: "Hear them [———], he said, as entrusted with the key of the kingdom, which is knowledge, which alone is able to open the gate of life, through which alone is the entrance to eternal life. But verily, he says: They possess the key indeed, but to those who wish to enter in they do not grant it."(1) The [———] is here emphatically repeated, and the further quotation and reference to the denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees continues to differ distinctly from the account both in our first and third Gospels. The passage in Matt, xxiii. 13, reads: "But woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye go not in yourselves neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in."(2) The parallel in Luke xi. 52 is not closer. There the passage regarding Moses' seat is altogether wanting, and in ver. 52, where the greatest similarity exists, the "lawyers" instead of the "Scribes and Pharisees" are addressed. The verse reads: "Woe unto you, Lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered."(3) The first Gospel has not the direct image of the key at all: the Scribes and Pharisees "shut the kingdom of
heaven;" the third has "the key of knowledge" [———] taken away by the lawyers, and not by the Scribes and Pharisees, whilst the Gospel of the Homilies has the key of the kingdom [———], and explains that this key is knowledge [———]. It is apparent that the first Gospel uses an expression more direct than the others, whilst the third Gospel explains it, but the Gospel of the Homilies has in all probability the simpler original words: the "key of the kingdom," which both of the others have altered for the purpose of more immediate clearness. In any case it is certain that the passage does not agree with our Gospel.(1)
The next quotation referred to by De Wette is in Hom. iii. 51: "And also that he said: 'I am not come to destroy the law.... the heaven and the earth will pass away, but one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law.'" This is compared with Matt. v. 17, 18:(2) "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfil, (v. 18) For verily I say unto you: Till heaven and earth pass away one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." The Greek of both passages reads as follows:—
That the omissions and variations in this passage are not accidental is proved by the fact that the same quotation occurs again literally in the Epistle from Peter(1) which is prefixed to the Homilies in which the [———] is
repeated, and the sentence closes at the same point The author in that place adds: "This he said that all might be fulfilled" [———]. Hilgenfeld
considers this Epistle of much more early date than the Homilies, and that this agreement bespeaks a particular text.(2) The quotation does not agree with our Gospels, and must be assigned to another source.
The next passage pointed out by De Wette is the erroneous quotation from Isaiah which we have already examined.(3) That which follows is found in Hom. viii. 7: "For on this account our Jesus himself said to one who frequently called him Lord, yet did nothing which he commanded: Why dost thou say to me Lord, Lord, and doest not the things which I say?" This is compared with Luke vi. 46:(4) "But why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"