ssage to an unknown source such as the Gospel
according to the Hebrews--all we know of which shows its
affinities to have been rather on the side of the Synoptics--when
we have a known source in the fourth Gospel ready to hand, is
quite unreasonable [Endnote 280:1].

No great weight, though perhaps some fractional quantity, can be
ascribed to the statement that Jesus healed those who were maimed
from their birth ([Greek: tous ek genetaes paerous] [Endnote
280:2]). The word [Greek: paeros] is used specially for the blind,
and the fourth Evangelist is the only one who mentions the healing
of congenital infirmity, which he does under this same phrase
[Greek: ek genetaes], and that of a case of blindness (John ix.
1). The possibility urged in 'Supernatural Religion,' that Justin
may be merely drawing from tradition, may detract from the force
of this but cannot altogether remove it, especially as we have no
other trace of a tradition containing this particular.

Tischendorf [Endnote 280:3] lays stress on a somewhat remarkable
phenomenon in connection with the quotation of Zech. xvi. 10,
'They shall look on him whom they pierced.' Justin gives the text
of this in precisely the same form as St. John, and with the same
variation from the Septuagint, [Greek: opsontai eis hon
exekentaesan] for [Greek: epiblepsontai pros me anth hon
katorchaesanto]--a variation which is also found in Rev. i. 7.
Those who believe that the Apocalypse had the same author as the
Gospel, naturally see in this a confirmation of their view, and it
would seem to follow that Justin had had either one or both
writings before him. But the assumption of an identity of
authorship between the Apocalypse and the Gospel, though I believe
less unreasonable than is generally supposed, still is too much
disputed to build anything upon in argument. We must not ignore
the other theory, that all three writers had before them and may
have used independently a divergent text of the Septuagint. Some
countenance is given to this by the fact that ten MSS. of the
Septuagint present the same reading [Endnote 281:1]. There can be
little doubt however that it was in its origin a Christian
correction, which had the double advantage of at once bringing the
Greek into closer conformity to the Hebrew, and of also furnishing
support to the Christian application of the prophecy. Whether this
correction was made before either the Apocalypse or the Gospel
were written, or whether