an original of Matthew"
(Davidson's "Introduction to the New Testament," p. 12). To these
arguments may be added the significant fact that the quotations in
Matthew from the Old Testament are taken from the Septuagint, and not
from the Hebrew version. The original Hebrew Gospel of Matthew would
surely not have contained quotations from the Greek translation, rather
than from the Hebrew original, of the Jewish Scriptures. If our present
Gospel is an accurate translation of the original Matthew, we must
believe that the Jewish Matthew, writing for Jews, did not use the
Hebrew Scriptures, with which his readers would be familiar, but went
out of his way to find the hated Septuagint, and re-translated it into
Hebrew. Thus we find that the boasted testimony said to be recorded by
Papias to the effect that Matthew and Mark wrote our two first
synoptical Gospels breaks down completely under examination, and that
instead of proving the authenticity of the present Gospels, it proves
directly the reverse, since the description there given of the writings
ascribed to Matthew and Mark is not applicable to the writings that now
bear their names, so that we find that in Papias _there is evidence that
two of the Gospels were not the same_.

H. _That there is evidence that the earlier records were not the Gospels
now esteemed Canonical._ This position is based on the undisputed fact
that the "Evangelical quotations" in early Christian writings differ
very widely from sentences of somewhat similar character in the
Canonical Gospels, and also from the circumstance that quotations not to
be found in the Canonical Gospels are found in the writings referred to.
Various theories are put forward, as we have already seen, to account
for the differences of expression and arrangement: the Fathers are said
to have quoted loosely, to have quoted from memory, to have combined,
expanded, condensed, at pleasure. To prove this general laxity of
quotation, Christian apologists rely much on what they assert is a
similar laxity shown in quoting from the Old Testament; and Mr. Sanday
has used this argument with considerable skill. But it does not follow
that variations in quotations from the Old Testament spring from laxity
and carelessness; they are generally quite as likely to spring from
multiplicity of versions, for we find Mr. Sanday himself saying that
"most of the quotations that we meet with are taken from the LXX.
Version; and the text of that ve