a native of Palestine (103–166), and a bold and noble-minded defender of the faith in the reigns of
Hadrian and the Antonines. In his two Apologies and his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, he often
quotes freely from the four Gospels under the name of Apostolic "Memoirs" or "Memorabilia of
the Apostles," which were read at his time in public, worship.^1063 He made most use of Matthew,
but once at least he quotes a passage on regeneration^1064 from Christ’s dialogue with Nicodemus
which is recorded only by John. Several other allusions of Justin to John are unmistakable, and his
whole doctrine of the pre-existent Logos who sowed precious seeds of truth among Jews and
Gentiles before his incarnation, is unquestionably derived from John. To reverse the case is to
derive the sunlight from the moon, or the fountain from one of its streams.
But we can go still farther back. The scanty writings of the Apostolic Fathers, so called,
have very few allusions to the New Testament, and breathe the atmosphere of the primitive oral
tradition. The author of the "Didache" was well acquainted with Matthew. The first Epistle of
Clement has strong affinity with Paul. The shorter Epistles of Ignatius show the influence of John’s
Christology.^1065 Polycarp (d. a.d. 155 in extreme old age), a personal pupil of John, used the First
Epistle of John, and thus furnishes an indirect testimony to the Gospel, since both these ’books
must stand or fall together.^1066 The same is true of Papias (died about 150), who studied with
Polycarp, and probably was likewise a bearer of John. He "used testimonies from the former Epistle
of John."^1067 In enumerating the apostles whose living words he collected in his youth, he places
John out of his regular order of precedence, along with Matthew, his fellow-Evangelist, and "Andrew,
Peter, and Philip" in the same order as John 1:40–43; from which it has also been inferred that he(^1063) The use of the Gospel of John by Justin Martyr was doubted by Baur and most of his followers, but is admitted by Hilgenfeld
and Keim. It was again denied by the anonymous author of "Supernatural Religion," and by Edwin A. Abbott (in the art. Gospels,
"Enc. Brit.," vol. X 821), and again conclusively proven by Sanday in England, and Ezra Abbot in America.
(^1064) The quotation is not literal but from memory, like most of his quotations:
Justin, Apol., I. 61: "For Christ also said, Except ye beborn again [ἀναγεννηθῆτε, comp. 1 Pet. 3:23], ye shall
in no wise enter [εἰσέλθῆτε, but comp. the same word In John 8:5 and 7] into the kingdom of heaven (the phrase of
Matthew]. Now that it is impossible for those who have once been born to re-enter the wombs of those that bare them
is manifest to all."
John 3:3, 4: "Jesus answered and said to him [Nicodemus], Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born
anew [or from above,γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν], he cannot see [ἰδεῖν 3: 5, enter into] the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith
unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?"
Much account has been made by the Tübingen critics of the slight differences in the quotation (ἀναγεννηθῆτε for γεννηθῇ
ἄνωθεν, εἰσελθεῖν for ἰδεῖν and βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν for βας. τοῦ θεοῦ) to disprove the connection, or, as this is impossible,
to prove the dependence of John on Justin! But Dr. Abbot, a most accurate and conscientious scholar, who moreover as a Unitarian
cannot be charged with an orthodox bias, has produced many parallel cases of free quotations of the same passage not only from
patristic writers, but even from modem divines, including no less than nine quotations of the passage by Jeremy Taylor, only
two of which are alike. I think he has conclusively proven his case for every reasonable mind. See his invaluable monograph on
The Authorship of the Fourth Gospel, pp. 28 sqq. and 91 sqq. Comp. also Weiss, Leben Jesu, I. 83, who sees in Justin Martyr
not only "an unquestionable allusion to the Nicodemus story of the fourth Gospel," but other isolated reminiscences
(^1065) Comp. such expressions as "I desire bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ ... and I desire as drink His blood,
which is love imperishable," Ad Rom., ch. 7, with John 6:47 sqq.; "living water," Ad Rom. 7, with John 4:10, 11; "being Himself
the Door of the Father," Ad Philad., 9, with John 10:9; [the Spirit] "knows whence it cometh and whither it goeth," Ad Philad.,
7, with John 3:8. I quoted from the text of Zahn. See the able art. of Lightfoot in "Contemp. Rev." for February, 1875, and his
S. Ignatius, 1885.
(^1066) Polyc., Ad Phil., ch. 7: "Every one that doth not confess that Jesus Christ hath come in the flesh is Antichrist; and whosoever
doth not confess the mystery of the cross is of the devil." Comp. 1 John 4:3. On the testimony of Polycarp see Lightfoot in the
"Contemp. Rev." for May, 1875. Westcott, p. xxx, says: "A testimony to one" (the Gospel or the first Ep.) "is necessarily by
inference a testimony to the other."
(^1067) According to Eusebius, III. 39. See Lightfoot in the "Contemp. Rev." for August and October, 1875.
A.D. 1-100.