which these sayings and quotations are derived.... De Wette
says, 'The quotations of evangelical works and histories in the
pseudo-Clementine writings, from their free and unsatisfactory nature,
permit only uncertain conclusions as to their written source.' Critics
have maintained very free and conflicting views regarding that source.
Apologists, of course, assert that the quotations in the Homilies are
taken from our Gospels only. Others ascribe them to our Gospels, with a
supplementary apocryphal work, the Gospel according to the Hebrews, or
the Gospel according to Peter. Some, whilst admitting a subsidiary use
of some of our Gospels, assert that the author of the Homilies employs,
in preference, the Gospel according to Peter; whilst others, recognising
also the similarity of the phenomena presented by these quotations with
those of Justin's, conclude that the author does not quote our Gospels
at all, but makes use of the Gospel according to Peter, or the Gospel
according to the Hebrews. Evidence permitting of such divergent
conclusions manifestly cannot be of a decided character" ("Sup. Rel.,"
vol. ii., pp. 6, 7).

On Basilides (teaching c. A.D. 135) and Valentinus (A.D. 140), two of
the early Gnostic teachers, we need not delay, for there is scarcely
anything left of their writings, and all we know of them is drawn from
the writings of their antagonists; it is claimed that they knew and made
use of the canonical Gospels, and Canon Westcott urges this view of
Basilides, but the writer of "Supernatural Religion" characterises this
plea "as unworthy of a scholar, and only calculated to mislead readers
who must generally be ignorant of the actual facts of the case" (vol.
ii., p. 42). Basilides says that he received his doctrine from Glaucias,
the "interpreter of Peter," and "it is apparent, however, that
Basilides, in basing his doctrines on these apocryphal books as
inspired, and upon tradition, and in having a special Gospel called
after his own name, which, therefore, he clearly adopts as the exponent
of his ideas of Christian truth, absolutely ignores the canonical
Gospels altogether, and not only does not offer any evidence for their
existence, but proves that he did not recognise any such works as of
authority. Therefore, there is no ground whatever for Tischendorf's
assumption that the Commentary of Basilides 'On the Gospel' was written
upon our Gospels, but that idea is, on the contrary, negatived in the
stronge