the meantime I think it
may be asserted with confidence that two alternatives only are
possible. Either Marcion's Gospel is an abridgment of our present
St. Luke, or else our present St. Luke is an expansion by
interpolation of Marcion's Gospel, or of a document co-extensive
with it. No third hypothesis is tenable.

It remains, then, to enquire which of these two Gospels had the
priority--Marcion's or Luke's; which is to stand first, both in
order of time and of authenticity. This, too, is a point that
there are ample data for determining.

(1.) And, first, let us consider what presumption is raised by any
other part of Marcion's procedure. Is it likely that he would have
cut down a document previously existing? or, have we reason for
thinking that he would be scrupulous in keeping such a document
intact?

The author of 'Supernatural Religion' himself makes use of this
very argument; but I cannot help suspecting that his application
of it has slipped in through an oversight or misapprehension. When
first I came across the argument as employed by him, I was struck
by it at once as important if only it was sound. But, upon
examination, not only does it vanish into thin air as an argument
in support of the thesis he is maintaining, but there remains in
its place a positive argument that tells directly and strongly
against that thesis. A passage is quoted from Canon Westcott, in
which it is stated that while Tertullian and Epiphanius accuse
Marcion of altering the text of the books which he received, so
far as his treatment of the Epistles is concerned this is not
borne out by the facts, out of seven readings noticed by
Epiphanius two only being unsupported by other authority. It is
argued from this that Marcion 'equally preserved without
alteration the text which he found in his manuscript of the
Gospel.' 'We have no reason to believe the accusation of the
Fathers in regard to the Gospel--which we cannot fully test--
better founded than that in regard to the Epistles, which we can
test, and find unfounded' [Endnote 217:1]. No doubt the premisses
of this argument are true, and so also is the conclusion, strictly
as it stands. It is true that the Fathers accuse Marcion of
tampering with the text in various places, both in the Epistles
and in the Gospels where the allegation can be tested, and where
it is found that the supposed perversion is simply a difference of
reading, proved to be such by its presence in other aut