mere existence of our Synoptics based upon their
supposed rejection by heretical leaders and sects has the inevitable
disadvantage, that the very testimony which would show their existence
would oppose their authenticity. There is no evidence of their use by
heretical leaders, however, and no direct reference to them by any
writer, heretical or orthodox, whom we have examined" (vol. ii., pp,
248, 249). Nor is the fact of this blank absence of evidence of identity
all that can be brought to bear in support of our proposition, for there
is another fact that tells very heavily against the identity of the now
accepted Gospels with those that were current in earlier days, namely,
the noteworthy charge brought against the Christians that they changed
and altered their sacred books; the orthodox accused the unorthodox of
varying the Scriptures, and the heretics retorted the charge with equal
pertinacity. The Ebionites maintained that the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew
was the only authentic Gospel, and regarded the four Greek Gospels as
unreliable. The Marcionites admitted only the Gospel resembling that of
Luke, and were accused by the orthodox of having altered that to suit
themselves. Celsus, writing against Christianity, formulates the charge:
"Some believers, like men driven by drunkenness to commit violence on
themselves, have altered the Gospel history, since its first
composition, three times, four times, and oftener, and have re-fashioned
it, so as to be able to deny the objections made against it" ("Origen
Cont. Celsus," bk. ii., chap. 27, as quoted by Norton, p. 63). Origen
admits "that there are those who have altered the Gospels," but pleads
that it has been done by heretics, and that this "is no reproach against
true Christianity" (Ibid). Only, most reverend Father of the Church, if
heretics accuse orthodox, and orthodox accuse heretics, of altering the
Gospels, how are we to be sure that they have come down unaltered to us?
Clement of Alexandria notes alterations that had been made. Dionysius,
of Corinth, complaining of the changes made in his own writings, bears
witness to this same fact: "It is not, therefore, matter of wonder if
some have also attempted to adulterate the sacred writings of the Lord,
since they have attempted the same in other works that are not to be
compared with these" ("Eusebius," bk. iv., ch. 23). Faustus, the
Manichaean, the great opponent of Augustine, writes: "For many things
have been insert