eligion_ to this document, written nearly a century and
a half after the death of Jesus, but it is instructive to show how
exceedingly slight is the information we possess regarding those
documents. I may at once say that no writing of the New Testament is
directly referred to by name in this epistle, and consequently any
supposed quotations are merely inferred to be such by their similarity
to passages found in these writings. With the complete unconsciousness
which I have pointed out that Dr. Lightfoot affects regarding the
object and requirements of my argument, Dr. Lightfoot is, of course,
indignant that I will not accept as conclusive evidence the imperfect
coincidences which alone he is able to bring forward. I have elsewhere
fully discussed these, [140:1] and I need only refer to some portions
of his essay here.

"Of Vettius Epagathus, one of the sufferers, we are told that,
though young; he 'rivalled the testimony borne to the elder
Zacharias ([Greek: sunexisousthai te tou presbuterou Zacharious
marturia]), for verily ([Greek: goun]) he had _walked in all the
commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless_.' Here we have
the same words, and in the same order, which are used of Zacharias
and Elizabeth in St. Luke (i. 6): 'and Zacharias, his father, was
filled with the Holy Ghost.'" [140:2]

Dr. Lightfoot very properly dwells on the meaning of the expression
"the testimony of Zacharias" ([Greek: te Zachariou marturia]), which he
points out "might signify either 'the testimony borne to Zacharias,'
_i.e._ his recorded character, or 'the testimony borne by Zacharias,'
_i.e._ his martyrdom." By a vexatious mistake in reprinting, "to" was
accidentally substituted for "by" in my translation of this passage in
a very few of the earlier copies of my sixth edition, but the error was
almost immediately observed and corrected in the rest of the edition.
Dr. Lightfoot seizes upon the "to" in the early copy which I had sent
to him, and argues upon it as a deliberate adoption of the
interpretation, whilst he takes me to task for actually arguing upon
the rendering "by" in my text. Very naturally a printer's error could
not extend to my argument. The following is what I say regarding the
passage in my complete edition:

"The epistle is an account of the persecution of the Christian
community of Vienne and Lyons, and Vettius Epagathus is the first
of the martyrs who is named in it