_ (cf. Mark ix. 21), and
perhaps in the emphasis upon the oneness of God in the reply
respecting the greatest commandment.

In common with St. Luke, Justin has the mission of the angel
Gabriel to Mary, the statement that Elizabeth was the mother of
John, that the census was taken under Cyrenius, that Joseph went
up from Nazareth to Bethlehem [Greek: hothen aen], that no room
was found in the inn, that Jesus was thirty years old when He
began His ministry, that He was sent from Pilate to Herod, with
the account of His last words. There are also special affinities
in the phrase quoted from the charge to the Seventy (Luke x. 19),
in the verse Luke xi. 52, in the account of the answer to the rich
young man, of the institution of the Lord's Supper, of the Agony
in the Garden, and of the Resurrection and Ascension.

These coincidences are of various force. Some of the single verses
quoted, though possessing salient features in common, have also,
as we shall see, more or less marked differences. Too much stress
should not be laid on the allegation of the same prophecies,
because there may have been a certain understanding among the
Christians as to the prophecies to be quoted as well as the
versions in which they were to be quoted. But there are other
points of high importance. Just in proportion as an event is from
a historical point of view suspicious, it is significant as a
proof of the use of the Gospel in which it is contained; such
would be the adoration of the Magi, the slaughter of the
innocents, the flight into Egypt, the conjunction of the foal with
the ass in the entry into Jerusalem. All these are strong evidence
for the use of the first Gospel, which is confirmed in the highest
degree by the occurrence of a reflection peculiar to the
Evangelist, 'Then the disciples understood that He spake unto them
of John the Baptist' (Matt. xvii. 13, compare Dial. 49). Of the
same nature are the allusions to the census of Cyrenius (there is
no material discrepancy between Luke and Justin), and the
statement of the age at which the ministry of Jesus began. These
are almost certainly remarks by the third Evangelist himself, and
not found in any previously existing source. The remand to Herod
in all probability belonged to a source that was quite peculiar to
him. The same may be said with only a little less confidence of
the sections of the preliminary history.

Taking these salient points together with the mass of the
coinc