to believe, that the Sermon on the Mount would be one of the most
familiar parts of Christian teaching, that it would be largely
committed to memory and quoted from memory. There would be no
difficulty in employing that hypothesis here if the passage stood
alone. The breaking up of the order too would not surprise us when we
compare the way in which the same discourse appears in St. Luke and in
St. Matthew. But then comes in the strange coincidence in the single
clause with Clement; and there is also another curious phenomenon, the
phrase [Greek: aphiete kai aphethaesetai humin] compared with Luke's
[Greek: apoluete kai apoluthaesesthe] has very much the appearance of
a parallel translation from the same Aramaic original, which may
perhaps be the famous 'Spruch-sammlung.' This might however be
explained as the substitution of synonymous terms by the memory. There
is I believe nothing in the shape of direct evidence to show the
presence of a different version of the Sermon on the Mount in any of
the lost Gospels, and, on the other hand, there are considerable
traces of disturbance in the Canonical text (compare e.g. the various
readings on Matt. v. 44). It seems on the whole difficult to construct
a theory that shall meet all the facts. Perhaps a mixed hypothesis
would be best. It is probable that memory has been to some extent at
work (the form of the quotation naturally suggests this) and is to
account for some of Polycarp's variations; at the same time I cannot
but think that there has been somewhere a written version different
from our Gospels to which he and Clement have had access.

There are several other sayings which seem to belong to the Sermon
on the Mount; thus in c. vi, 'If we pray the Lord to forgive us we
also ought to forgive' (cf. Matt. vi. 14 sq.); in c. viii, 'And if
we suffer for His name let us glorify Him' (cf. Matt. v. 11 sq.);
in c. xii, 'Pray for them that persecute you and hate you, and for
the enemies of the cross; that your fruit may be manifest in all
things, that ye may be therein perfect' (cf. Matt. v. 44, 48). All
these passages give the sense, but only the sense, of the first
(and partly also of the third) Gospel. There is however one
quotation which coincides verbally with two of the Synoptics
[Praying the all-seeing God not to lead us into temptation, as the
Lord said], The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak
([Greek: to men pneuma prothumon, hae de sarx asthenaes], Matt.,
M