t, as I said before, you have sent chosen and
ordained men throughout all the world to proclaim that a godless and
lawless heresy had sprung from one Jesus, a Galilean deceiver, whom
we crucified, but His disciples stole Him by night from the tomb,
where He was laid when unfastened from the cross." (Ch. cviii.)

The Apostles seeing the Ascension, and afterwards receiving power from
Him in person, and going to every race of men:--

"And when they had seen Him ascending into heaven, and had believed,
and had received power sent thence by Him upon them, and went to
every race of men, they taught these things, and were called
Apostles." (Apol. I. ch. l.)

From all this the reader will see at a glance that Justin's view of the
Crucifixion and the events attending it was exactly the same as ours. He
will notice that all the events related in Justin are the same as those
recorded in the Evangelists Matthew and Luke; and that the circumstances
related by Justin, and not to be found in the Synoptics, are of the most
trifling character, as, for instance, that the blaspheming bystanders at
the cross "screwed up their noses." I think this is the only additional
circumstance to which the writer of "Supernatural Religion" draws
attention. He will notice that Justin records some events only to be
found in St. Matthew and some only in St. Luke. He will notice also how
frequently Justin reproduces the narrative rather than quotes it.

The ordinary reader would account for all this by supposing that Justin
had our Synoptics (at least the first and third) before him, and
reproduced incidents first from one and then from the other as they
suited his purpose, and his purpose was not to give an account of the
Crucifixion, but to elucidate the prophecies respecting the Crucifixion.

The author of "Supernatural Religion," however, goes through those
citations, or supposed citations, seriatim, and attempts to show that
each one must have been taken from some lost Gospel, most probably the
Gospel of the Hebrews.

Be it so. Here, then, was a Gospel which contained all the separate
incidents recorded in SS. Matthew and Luke, and, of course, combined
them in one narrative. How is it that so inestimably valuable a
Christian document was irretrievably lost, and its place supplied by
three others, each far its inferior, each picking and choosing separate
parts from the original; and that, about 120 years after the