* * * * *

A somewhat greater force, but not as yet complete cogency, attaches to the evidence of the Ignatian letters.  A parallel is alleged to a passage in the Epistle to the Romans which is found both in the Syriac and in the shorter Greek or Vossian version.  ’I take no relish in corruptible food or in the pleasures of this life.  I desire bread of God, heavenly bread, bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born in the latter days of the seed of David and Abraham; and I desire drink of God, His blood, which is love imperishable and ever-abiding life’ [Endnote 275:1] (Ep. ad Rom. c. vii).  This is compared with the discourse in the synagogue at Capernaum in the sixth chapter of St. John.  It should be said that there is a difference of reading, though not one that materially influences the question, in the Syriac.  If the parallel holds good, the peculiar diction of the author must be seen in the substitution of [Greek:  poma] for [Greek:  posis] of John vi. 55, and [Greek:  aennaos zoae] for [Greek zoae aionios], of John vi. 54. [The Ignatian phrase is perhaps more than doubtful, as it does not appear either in the Syriac, the Armenian, or the Latin version.] Still this need not stand in the way of referring the original of the passage ultimately to the Gospel.  The ideas are so remarkable that it seems difficult to suppose either are accidental coincidence or quotation from another writer.  I suspect that Ignatius or the author of the Epistle really had the fourth Gospel in his mind, though not quite vividly, and by a train of comparatively remote suggestions.

The next supposed allusion is from the Epistle to the Philadelphians:  ’The Spirit, coming from God, is not to be deceived; for it knoweth whence it cometh and whither it goeth, and it searcheth that which is hidden’ [Endnote 275:2].  This is obviously the converse of John iii. 5, where it is said that we do not know the way of the Spirit, which is like the wind, &c.  And yet the exact verbal similarity of the phrase [Greek:  oiden pothen erchetai kai pou hupagei], and its appearance in the same connection, spoken of the Spirit, leads us to think that there was—­as there may very well have been—­an association of ideas.  This particular phrase [Greek:  pothen erchetai kai pou hupagei] is very characteristically Johannean.  It occurs three times over in the fourth Gospel, and not at all in the rest of the New Testament.  The combination of [Greek:  erchesthai] and [Greek hupagein] also occurs twice, and [Greek:  pou [opou] hupago [-gei, -geis]] in all twelve times in the Gospel and once in the Epistle ([Greek:  ouk oide pou hupagei]); this too, it is striking to observe, not at all elsewhere.  The very word [Greek:  hupago] is not found at all in St. Paul, St. Peter, or the Epistle to the Hebrews.  Taken together with the special application to the Spirit, this must be regarded as a strong case.