It should perhaps be added that Lardner and Dr. Westcott both refer to a quotation of Zech. xiii. 7 which appears in the common text of the Epistle in a form closely resembling that in which the quotation is given in Matt. xxvi. 31 and diverging from the LXX, but here again the Sinaitic Codex varies, and the text is too uncertain to lay stress upon, though perhaps the addition [Greek:  taes poimnaes] may incline the balance to the view that the text of the Gospel has influenced the form of the quotation [Endnote 76:1].

The general result of our examination of the Epistle of Barnabas may perhaps be stated thus, that while not supplying by itself certain and conclusive proof of the use of our Gospels, still the phenomena accord better with the hypothesis of such a use.  This Epistle stands in the second line of the evidence, and as a witness is rather confirmatory than principal.

3.

After Dr. Lightfoot’s masterly exposition there is probably nothing more to be said about the genuineness, date, and origin of the Ignatian Epistles.  Dr. Lightfoot has done in the most lucid and admirable manner just that which is so difficult to do, and which ‘Supernatural Religion’ has so signally failed in doing; he has succeeded in conveying to the reader a true and just sense of the exact weight and proportion of the different parts of the evidence.  He has avoided such phrases as ‘absurd,’ ‘impossible,’ ‘preposterous,’ that his opponent has dealt in so freely, but he has weighed and balanced the evidence piece by piece; he has carefully guarded his language so as never to let the positiveness of his conclusion exceed what the premises will warrant; he has dealt with the subject judicially and with a full consciousness of the responsibility of his position [Endnote 77:1].

We cannot therefore, I think, do better than adopt Dr. Lightfoot’s conclusion as the basis of our investigation, and treat the Curetonian (i.e. the three short Syriac) letters as (probably) ’the work of the genuine Ignatius, while the Vossian letters (i.e. the shorter Greek recension of seven Epistles) are accepted as valid testimony at all events for the middle of the second century—­the question of the genuineness of the letters being waived.’

The Curetonian Epistles will then be dated either in 107 or in 115 A.D., the two alternative years assigned to the martyrdom of Ignatius.  In the Epistle to Polycarp which is given in this version there is a parallel to Matt. x. 16, ’Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.’  The two passages may be compared thus:—­

     Ign. ad Pol. ii.

[Greek:  Psronimos ginou hos ophis en apasin kai akeaios osei perisetera.]

     Matt. x. 16.

[Greek:  Ginesthe oun psronimoi hos oi opheis kai akeaioi hos ai peristerai.]