ertain that a verse
of Scripture was actually read by the Father who unmistakedly refers to
it, as if we had read it with him; even though the gravest doubts may be
entertained as to the "ipsissima verba" which were found in his own
particular copy. He may have trusted to his memory: or copyists may have
taken liberties with his writings: or editors may have misrepresented what
they found in the written copies. The _form_ of the quoted verse, I
repeat, may have suffered almost to any extent. The _substance_, on the
contrary, inasmuch as it lay wholly beyond their province, may be looked
upon as an indisputable _fact_.

7. Some such preliminary remarks, (never out of place when quotations from
the Fathers are to be considered,) cannot well be withheld when the most
venerable Ecclesiastical writings are appealed to. The earliest of the
Fathers are observed to quote with singular licence,--to _allude_ rather
than to quote. Strange to relate, those ancient men seem scarcely to have
been aware of the grave responsibility they incurred when they substituted
expressions of their own for the utterances of the SPIRIT. It is evidently
not so much that their _memory_ is in fault, as their _judgment_,--in that
they evidently hold themselves at liberty to paraphrase, to recast, to
reconstruct.(31)

I. Thus, it is impossible to resist the inference that PAPIAS refers to S.
Mark xvi. 18 when he records a marvellous tradition concerning "Justus
surnamed Barsabas," "how that after drinking noxious poison, through the
LORD's grace he experienced no evil consequence."(32) He does not give
_the words_ of the Evangelist. It is even surprising how completely he
passes them by; and yet the allusion to the place just cited is manifest.
Now, Papias is a writer who lived so near the time of the Apostles that he
made it his delight to collect their traditional sayings. His date
(according to Clinton) is A.D. 100.

II. JUSTIN MARTYR, the date of whose first Apology is A.D. 151, is
observed to say concerning the Apostles that, after our LORD's
Ascension,--{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER XI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LET