The very extent of the divergence in St. Mark throws out into striking relief the close agreement of Justin’s quotation with St. Matthew.  Here we have three verses word for word the same, even to the finest shades of expression.  To the single exception [Greek:  eleusetai] for [Greek:  erchetai] I cannot, as Credner does [Endnote 120:4], attach any importance.  The present tense in the Gospel has undoubtedly a future signification [Endnote 120:5], and Justin was very naturally led to give it also a future form by [Greek:  apokatastaesei] which follows.  For the rest, the order, particles, tenses are so absolutely identical, where the text of St. Mark shows how inevitably they must have differed in another Gospel or even in the original, that I can see no alternative but to refer the quotation directly to our present St. Matthew.

If this passage had stood alone, taken in connection with the coincidence of matter between Justin and the first Gospel, great weight must have attached to it.  But it does not by any means stand alone.  There is an exact verbal agreement in the verses Matt. v. 20 (’Except your righteousness’ &c.) and Matt. vii. 21 (’Not every one that saith unto me,’ &c.) which are peculiar to the first Gospel.  There is a close agreement, if not always with the best, yet with some very old, text of St. Matthew in v. 22 (note especially the striking phrase and construction [Greek:  enochos eis]), v. 28 (note [Greek:  blep. pros to epithum].), v. 41 (note the remarkable word [Greek:  angareusei]), xxv. 41, and not too great a divergence in v. 16, vi. 1 ([Greek:  pros to theathaenai, ei de mae ge misthon ouk echete]), and xix. 12, all of which passages are without parallel in any extant Gospel.  There are also marked resemblances to the Matthaean text in synoptic passages such as Matt. iii. 11, 12 ([Greek:  eis metanoian, ta hupodaemata bastasai]), Matt. vi. 19, 20 ([Greek:  hopou saes kai brosis aphanizei], where Luke has simply [Greek:  saes diaphtheirei], and [Greek:  diorussousi] where Luke has [Greek:  engizei]), Matt. vii. 22, 23 ([Greek:  ekeinae tae haemera Kurie, Kurie, k.t.l.]), Matt. xvi. 26 ([Greek:  dosei] Matt. only, [Greek:  antallagma] Matt., Mark), Matt. xvi. 1, 4 (the last verse exactly).  As these passages are all from the discourses I do not wish to say that they may not be taken from other Gospels than the canonical, but we have absolutely no evidence that they were so taken, and every additional instance increases the probability that they were taken directly from St. Matthew, which by this time, I think, has reached a very high degree of presumption.