written in
their name, containing an account of what had happened, which
Lardner describes as 'the finest thing of the kind in all
antiquity' [Endnote 251:1]. This letter, which was addressed to
the Churches of Asia and Phrygia, contained several quotations
from the New Testament, and among them one that is evidently from
St. Luke's Gospel.

It is said of one of the martyrs, Vettius Epagathus, that his
manner of life was so strict that, young as he was, he could claim
a share in the testimony borne to the more aged Zacharias. Indeed
he had _walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the
Lord blameless_, and in the service of his neighbour untiring,
&c. [Endnote 252:1] The italicised words are a verbatim
reproduction of Luke i. 6.

There is an ambiguity in the words [Greek: sunexisousthai tae tou
presbuterou Zachariou marturia]. The genitive after [Greek: marturia]
may be either subjective or objective--'the testimony borne _by_'
or 'the testimony borne _to_ or _of_' the aged Zacharias. I have
little doubt that the translation given above is the right one.
It has the authority of Lardner ('equalled the character of') and
Routh ('Zachariae senioris elogio aequaretur'), and seems to be
imperatively required by the context. The eulogy passed upon
Vettius Epagathus is justified by the uniform strictness of his
daily life (he has walked in _all_ the commandments &c.), not by
the single act of his constancy in death.

The author of 'Supernatural Religion,' apparently following
Hilgenfeld [Endnote 252:2], adopts the other translation, and
bases on it an argument that the allusion is to the _martyrdom_
of Zacharias, and therefore not to our third Gospel in which no
mention of that martyrdom is contained. On the other hand, we are
reminded that the narrative of the martyrdom of Zacharias enters
into the Protevangelium of James. That apocryphal Gospel however
contains nothing approaching to the words which coincide exactly
with the text of St. Luke.

Even if there had been a greater doubt than there is as to the
application of [Greek: marturia], it would be difficult to resist
the conclusion that the Synoptic Gospel is being quoted. The words
occur in the most peculiar and distinctive portion of the Gospel;
and the correspondence is so exact and the phrase itself so
striking as not to admit of any other source. The order, the
choice of words, the construction, even to the use of the nominative
[Greek: amemptos] wher