n to Justin
were different from those received by Irenaeus ought not to be
entertained without irrefragable proof. But no such proof
exists. "An accurate examination in detail of his citations,"
says Semisch, Life of Justin Martyr, 4. 1, "has led to the
result that this title"--the Memoirs of the
Apostles--"designates the canonical gospels--a result in no way
less certain because again called in question in modern days."

The agreement of his quotations with our present gospels is of
such a character and extent as can be explained only from his
use of them. The variations are mainly due to his habit of
quoting loosely from memory. "Many of these citations," says
Kirchhofer, "agree, word for word, with the gospels; others with
the substance, but with alterations and additions of words, with
transpositions and omissions; others give the thought only in a
general way; others still condense together the contents of
several passages and different sayings, in which case the
historic quotations are yet more free, and blend together, in
part, the accounts of Matthew and Luke. But some quotations are
not found at all in our canonical gospels," (see immediately
below;) "some, on the contrary, occur twice or thrice."
Quellensammlung, p. 89. note. Two or three more important
variations are, perhaps, due to the readings in the manuscripts
employed by Justin, since the later church fathers, who, as we
know, employed the canonical gospels, give the same variations.
Finally, Justin gives a few incidents and sayings not recorded
in our present gospels. As he lived so near the apostolic times
he may well have received these from tradition; but if in any
case he took them from written documents, there is no proof that
he ascribed to such documents apostolic authority. In one
passage, he accurately distinguishes between what he gives from
tradition or other written sources, and what from the apostolic
records. "When Jesus came," he says, "to the river Jordan, where
John was baptizing, as he descended to the water, both was a
fire kindled in the Jordan, and as he ascended from the water,
the apostles of this very Christ of ours have written that the
Holy Spirit as a dove lighted upon him." Dial., ch. 88.

It has been doubted whether certain references to the _gospel of
John_ can be found