works, from which might be extracted almost a complete life of
Christ, there are but two instances in which he refers to anything as
said or done by Christ, which is not related concerning him in our
present Gospels: which shows, that these Gospels, and these, we may say,
alone, were the authorities from which the Christians of that day drew
the information upon which they depended. One of these instances is of a
saying of Christ, not met with in any book now extant.+

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+ "Wherefore also our Lord Jesus Christ has said, In whatsoever I shall
find you, in the same I will also judge you." Possibly Justin designed
not to quote any text, but to represent the sense of many of our Lord's
sayings. Fabrieius has observed, that this saying has been quoted by
many writers, and that Justin is the only one who ascribes it to our
Lord, and that perhaps by a slip of his memory. Words resembling these
are read repeatedly in Ezekiel; "I will judge them according to their
ways;" (chap. vii. 3; xxxiii. 20.) It is remarkable that Justin had just
before expressly quoted Ezekiel. Mr. Jones upon this circumstance founded
a conjecture, that Justin wrote only "the Lord hath said," intending to
quote the words of God, or rather the sense of those words in Ezekiel;
and that some transcriber, imagining these to be the words of Christ,
inserted in his copy the addition "Jesus Christ." Vol. 1. p. 539.
_________

The other of a circumstance in Christ's baptism, namely, a fiery or
luminous appearance upon the water, which, according to Epiphanius, is
noticed in the Gospel of the Hebrews: and which might be true: but
which, whether true or false, is mentioned by Justin, with a plain mark
of diminution when compared with what he quotes as resting upon
Scripture authority. The reader will advert to this distinction: "and
then, when Jesus came to the river Jordan, where John was baptizing, as
Jesus descended into the water, a fire also was kindled in Jordan: and
when he came up out of the water, (the apostles of this our Christ have
written), that the Holy Ghost lighted upon him as a dove."

All the references in Justin are made without mentioning the author;
which proves that these books were perfectly notorious, and that there
were no other accounts of Christ then extant, or, at least, no other so
received and credited as to make it necessary to distinguish these from
the rest.

But although Justin mentions not the author's name, he cal