The fact that this passage is found among the Synoptics only in St. Matthew must not count for nothing.  The very small number of additional facts and sayings that we are able to glean from the writers who, according to ‘Supernatural Religion,’ have used apocryphal Gospels so freely, seems to be proof that our present Gospels were (as we should expect) the fullest and most comprehensive of their kind.  If, then, a passage is found only in one of them, it is fair to conclude, not positively, but probably, that it is drawn from some special source of information that was not widely diffused.

The same remarks hold good respecting another quotation found in Epiphanius, which also comes under the general head of [Greek:  Basileidianoi], though it is introduced not only by the singular [Greek:  phaesin] but by the definite [Greek:  phaesin ho agurtaes].  Here the Basilidian quotation has a parallel also peculiar to St. Matthew, from the Sermon on the Mount.

Epiph.  Haer. 72 A.

[Greek:  Mae bagaete tous margaritas emprosthen ton choiron, maede dote to hagion tois kusi.]

Matt vii. 6.

[Greek:  Mae dote to hagion tois kusin, maede bagaete tous margaritas humon emprosthen ton choiron.] The excellent Alexandrine cursive I, with some others, has [Greek:  dote] for [Greek:  dote]

The transposition of clauses, such as we see here, is by no means an infrequent phenomenon.  There is a remarkable instance of it—­to go no further—­in the text of the benedictions with which the Sermon on the Mount begins.  In respect to the order of the two clauses, ‘Blessed are they that mourn’ and ‘Blessed are the meek,’ there is a broad division in the MSS. and other authorities.  For the received order we find [Hebrew:  aleph;], B, C, 1, the mass of uncials and cursives, b, f, Syrr.  Pst. and Hcl., Memph., Arm., Aeth.; for the reversed order, ‘Blessed are the meek’ and ’Blessed are they that mourn,’ are ranged D, 33, Vulg., a, c, f’1, g’1, h, k, l, Syr.  Crt., Clem., Orig., Eus., Bas. (?), Hil.  The balance is probably on the side of the received reading, as the opposing authorities are mostly Western, but they too make a formidable array.  The confusion in the text of St. Luke as to the early clauses of the Lord’s Prayer is well known.  But if such things are done in the green tree, if we find these variations in MSS. which profess to be exact transcripts of the same original copy, how much more may we expect to find them enter into mere quotations that are often evidently made from memory, and for the sake of the sense, not the words.  In this instance however the verbal resemblance is very close.  As I have frequently said, to speak of certainties in regard to any isolated passage that does not present exceptional phenomena is inadmissible, but I have little moral doubt that the quotation was really derived from St. Matthew, and there is quite a fair probability that it was made by Basilides himself.