Here the middle clause in the quotation appears to be a reminiscence of St. Luke vi. 34 ([Greek:  ean danisaete par’ hon elpizete labein]).  Justin also, it should be noted, has [Greek:  agapate] (but [Greek:  ei agapate]) for [Greek:  agapaesaete].  If this passage had stood alone, taking into account the variations and the even run and balance of the language we might have thought perhaps that Athenagoras had had before him a different version.  Yet the [Greek:  tina misthon], compared with the [Greek:  poia charis] of St. Luke and [Greek:  ti kainon poieite] of Justin, would cause misgivings, and greater run and balance is precisely what would result from ‘unconscious cerebration.’

Two more references are pointed out to Matt. v. 28 and Matt. v. 32, one with slight, the other with medium, variation, which leave the question very much in the same position.

We ought not to omit to notice that Athenagoras quotes one uncanonical saying, introducing it with the phrase [Greek:  palin haemin legontos tou logou].  I am not at all clear that this is not merely one of the ‘precepts’ [Greek:  oi logoi] alluded to above.  At any rate it is exceedingly doubtful that the Logos is here personified.  It seems rather parallel to the [Greek:  ho logos edaelou] of Justin (Dial. c.  Tryph. 129).

Considering the date at which he wrote I have little doubt that Athenagoras is actually quoting from the Synoptics, but he cannot, on the whole, be regarded as a very powerful witness for them.

4.

After the cruel persecution from which the Churches of Vienne and Lyons had suffered in the year 177 A.D., a letter was 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.