There has been much controversy as to the date of the two Apologies, and much difference of opinion still exists on the point. Many critics assign the larger to about a.d. 138--140, and the shorter to a.d. 160--161.(2) A passage, however, occurs in the longer Apology, which {284} indicates that it must have been written about a century and a half after the commencement of the Christian era, or, according to accurate reckoning, about a.d. 147. Justin speaks, in one part of it, of perverted deductions being drawn from his teaching "that Christ was born 150 years ago under Cyrenius."(l) Those who contend for the earlier date have no stronger argument against this statement than the unsupported assertion, that in this passage Justin merely speaks "in round numbers," but many important circumstances confirm the date which Justin thus gives us. In the superscription of the Apology, Antoninus is called "Pius," a title which was first bestowed upon him in the year 139. Moreover, Justin directly refers to Marcion, as a man "now living and teaching his disciples.... and who has by the aid of demons caused many of all nations to utter blasphemies," &c.(2) Now the fact has been established that Marcion did not come to Rome, where Justin himself was, until a.d. 139--142,(3) when his prominent public career commenced, and it is apparent that the words of Justin indicate a period when his doctrines had already {285} become widely diffused. For these and many other strong reasons, which need not here be detailed, the majority of competent critics agree in more correctly assigning the first Apology to about a.d. 147.(1) The Dialogue with Trypho, as internal evidence shows,(2) was written after the longer Apology, and it is therefore generally dated some time within the first decade of the second half of the second century.(3) In these writings Justin quotes very copiously from the Old Testament, and he also very frequently refers to facts of Christian history and to sayings of Jesus. Of these references, for instance, some fifty occur in the first Apology, and upwards of seventy in the Dialogue with Trypho, a goodly number, it will be admitted, by means of which to identify the source from which he quotes. Justin himself frequently and distinctly says that his information and quotations are derived from the "Memoirs of the Apostles" [--Greek--], but except upon one occasion, which we shall hereafter consider, when he indicates Peter, he never mentions an author's name. Upon examination it is found that, with only one or two brief exceptions, the {286}