persecutions, the writer continues: "which is a token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may he counted worthy [———] of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer [———];" and again, in the same chapter, v. 11, 12, "Wherefore we also pray always for you that our God may count you worthy [———] of the calling, and fulfil all good pleasure of goodness and work of faith with power; that the name of our Lord Jesus may he glorified in you [———]" &c. The passage we are examining cannot be traced to the "Acts of the Apostles."(1) It must be obvious to all that the Pastor of Hennas does not present any evidence even of the existence of the Acts at the time it was written.(2)
Only two passages in the Epistles of pseudo-Ignatius are pointed out as indicating acquaintance with the Acts, and even these are not advanced by many critics. We have already so fully discussed these Epistles that no more need now be said. We must pronounce them spurious in all their recensions and incapable of affording evidence upon any point earlier than towards the end of the second century. Those, however, who would still receive as genuine the testimony of the three Syriac Epistles must declare that they do not present any trace of the existence of the Acts, inasmuch as the two passages adduced to show the use of that work do not occur in those letters. They are found in the shorter recension of the Epistles to the Smyrnæans and Philadelphians. We might, therefore, altogether refuse to examine the
passages, but in order to show the exact nature of the case made out by apologists, we shall briefly refer to them. We at once compare the first with its supposed parallel.(1)
[———]
There is nothing in this passage which bears any peculiar analogy to the Acts, for the statement is a simple reference to a tradition which is also embodied both in the third Synoptic(2) and in the fourth Gospel;(3) and the mere use of the common words [———] and [———] could not prove anything. The passage occurs in the Epistle immediately after a quotation, said by Jerome to be taken from the Gospel according to the Hebrews, relating an appearance of Jesus to "those who were with Peter," in which Jesus is represented as making them handle him in order to convince them that he is not an incorporeal spirit.(4) The quotation bears considerable affinity to the narrative in the third Synoptic (xxiv. 39), at the close of which Jesus is represented as eating with the disciples. It is highly probable that the Gospel from which the writer of the Epistle quoted contained the same detail, to which this would naturally be a direct
descriptive reference. In any case it affords no evidence of the existence of the Acts of the Apostles.(1)
The second passage, which is still more rarely advanced,(2) is as follows:— [———]
The only point of coincidence between these two passages is the use of the word "wolves." In the Epistle the expression is [———], whilst in Acts it is [———]. Now the image is substantially found in the Sermon on the Mount, one form of which is given in the first Synoptic, vii. 15,16, and which undeniably must have formed part of many of the Gospels which are mentioned by the writer of the third Synoptic. We find Justin Martyr twice quoting another form of the saying: "For many [———] shall arrive in my name, outwardly indeed clothed in sheep's skins, but inwardly being ravening wolves [———]."(3) The use of the term as applied to men was certainly common in the early Church. The idea expressed in the Epistle is more closely found in 2 Timothy iii. 1 ff., in the description of those who are to come in the last days, and who will (v. 6) "creep into the houses and make captive [———] silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts."