ugh His power and
counsel,' being designated 'Wisdom and Day and Orient and Sword and
Stone and Staff and Jacob and Israel, now in one way, and now in
another, in the sayings of the prophets,' and that 'He became man
through the Virgin' [235:3]. Nor do these passages stand alone. This
same conception pervades the whole of Justin's _Dialogue_, and through
it all the phenomena of the Old Testament are explained.

Only on one point has our author thought fit to make a definite
statement. 'It is worthy of remark,' he writes, 'that the Virgin is
introduced into all these fragments [the five Syriac fragments which he
has mentioned just before] in a manner quite foreign to the period at
which Melito lived.' What can this mean? In the passage before us the
only allusion to the subject is in the words 'incarnate in the Virgin'
(or 'a virgin'); and the references in the other fragments are of the
same kind. It is difficult to see how any one, recognizing the
statements of the Synoptic Gospels, could pass over the mention of the
Virgin more lightly. Here again, if he will turn to Justin Martyr, he
will find a far fuller and more emphatic reference [236:1].

3. But our author states also:

In the Mechitarist Library at Venice there is a shorter version of
the same passage in a Syriac MS, and an Armenian version of the
extract as given above, in both of which the passage is distinctly
ascribed to Irenaeus.

This is a fact of some importance, to which he has rightly directed
attention. It would have been well if he had been a little more accurate
in his statement. The extract in the Armenian version (of which the
shorter Syriac form is obviously an abridgment), though mainly the same
as our passage, begins in quite a different way. While Melito commences,
'We have made collections from the Law and the Prophets relating to
those things which are declared concerning our Lord Jesus Christ,' etc.,
as quoted above, the Armenian extract, ascribed to Irenaeus, runs thus:
'The Law and the Prophets and the Evangelists have declared that Christ
was born of a virgin and suffered on the cross, and that he was raised
from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and was glorified and reigneth
for ever. The same is called the perfect Reason, the Word of God,' etc.
[236:2]. Now it is obvious from a comparison of these two openings, that
in the former, ascribed to Melito, we have the passage in its original
setting, whereas in the