With this conclusion the fragments of the work of Hegesippus that have come down to us agree.  The quotations made in them are explained most simply and naturally, on the assumption that our Gospels have been used.  The first to which we come is merely an allusion to the narrative of Matt. ii; ’For Domitian feared the coming of the Christ as much as Herod.’  Those therefore who take the statement of Eusebius to mean that Hegesippus used only the Gospel according to the Hebrews are compelled to seek for the account of the Massacre of the Innocents in that Gospel.  It appears however from Epiphanius that precisely this very portion of the first Gospel was wanting in the Gospel according to the Hebrews as used both by the Ebionites and by the Nazarenes.  ’But if it be doubtful whether some forms of that Gospel contained the two opening chapters of Matthew, it is certain that Jerome found them in the version which he translated’ [Endnote 141:1].  I am afraid that here, as in so many other cases, the words ‘doubtful’ and ‘certain’ are used with very little regard to their meanings.  In support of the inference from Jerome, the author refers to De Wette, Schwegler, and an article in a periodical publication by Ewald.  De Wette expressly says that the inference does not follow (’Aus Comm. ad Matt. ii. 6 ... laesst sich nicht schliessen dass er hierbei das Evang. der Hebr. verglichen habe....  Nicht viel besser beweisen die St. ad Jes. xi. 1; ad Abac. iii. 3’) [Endnote 141:2].  He thinks that the presence of these chapters in Jerome’s copy cannot be satisfactorily proved, but is probable just from this allusion in Hegesippus—­in regard to which De Wette simply follows the traditional, but, as we have seen, erroneous assumption that Hegesippus used only the Gospel according to the Hebrews.  Schwegler [Endnote 141:3] gives no reasons, but refers to the passages quoted from Jerome in Credner.  Credner, after examining these passages, comes to the conclusion that ’the Gospel of the Nazarenes did not contain the chapters’ [Endnote 141:4].  Ewald’s periodical I cannot refer to, but Hilgenfeld, after an elaborate review of the question, decides that the chapters were omitted [Endnote 141:5].  This is the only authority I can find for the ‘certainty that Jerome found them’ in his version.

On the whole, then, it seems decidedly more probable (certainties we cannot deal in) that the incident referred to by Hegesippus was missing from the Gospel according to the Hebrews.  That Gospel therefore was not quoted by him, but, on the contrary, there is a presumption that he is quoting from the Canonical Gospel.  The narrative of the parallel Gospel of St. Luke seems, if not to exclude the Massacre of the Innocents, yet to imply an ignorance of it.