In addition to the other linguistic differences Justin omits the
emphatic [--Greek--] which gives the whole point to Luke's account, and
which evidently could not have been in the text of the Memoirs. Semisch
argues that [--Greek--] alone, especially in medical phraseology, meant
{328}
"drops of blood," without the addition of [--Greek--];(l) but the author of
the third Gospel did not think so, and undeniably makes use of both, and
Justin does not. Moreover, Luke introduces the expression [--Greek--] to
show the intensity of the agony, whereas Justin evidently did not mean
to express "drops of blood" at all, his intention in referring to the
sweat being to show that the prophecy: "All my bones are poured out, &c,
like water," had been fulfilled, with which the reading in his Memoirs
more closely corresponded. The prayer also so directly quoted decidedly
varies from Luke xxii. 42, which reads: "Father, if thou be willing to
remove this cup from me ":
[--Greek--]
[--Greek--]
In Matthew xxvi. 39 this part of the prayer is more like the reading of
Justin: "Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me "--[--Greek--]
but that Gospel has nothing of the sweat of agony, which excludes it
from consideration. In another place Justin also quotes the prayer in
the Garden as follows: "He prayed, saying: 'Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me;' and besides this, praying, he said: 'Not as
I wish, but as thou willest.'"(2) The first phrase in this place, apart
from some transposition of words, agrees with Matthew; but even if this
reading be preferred of the two, the absence of the incident of the
sweat of agony from the first Gospel renders it impossible to regard it
as the source; and, further, the second part of the prayer which is here
{329}
given differs materially both from the first and third Gospels.
[--Greek--]
The two parts of this prayer, moreover, seem to have been separate in
the Memoirs, for not only does Justin not quote the latter portion
at all in Dial. 103, but here he markedly divides it from the former.
Justin knows nothing of the episode of the Angel who strengthens Jesus,
which is related in Luke xxii. 43. There is, however, a still more
important point to mention: that although verses 43, 44 with the
incidents of the angel and the bloody sweat are certainly in a great
number of MSS., they are omitted by some of the oldest Codices, as for
instance by the Alexandrian and Vatican MSS.(1) It is evident that in
this part Justin's Memoirs differed from our first and third Gospels
much in the same way that they do from each other.
In the same chapter Justin states that when the Jews went out to the
Mount of Olives to take Jesus, "there was not even a single man to run
to his help as a guiltless person."(2) This is in direct contradiction
to all the Gospels,(3) and Justin not only completely ignores the
episode of the ear of Malchus, but in this passage
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