With regard to Heracleon, it is said that he wrote Commentaries on the third and fourth Gospels. The authority for this statement is very insufficient. The assertion with reference to the third Gospel is based solely upon a passage in the Stromata of the Alexandrian Clement. Clement quotes a passage found in Luke xii. 8, 11, 12, and says: "Expounding this passage, Heracleon, the most distinguished of the School of Valentinus, says as follows," &c.(5) This is immediately interpreted into a quotation from a Commentary on Luke.(6) We merely point out that from Clement's remark it by no means follows that Heracleon wrote a Commentary at all, and further there is no evidence that the passage commented upon was actually from our third Gospel.(7) The Stromata of Clement were not written until after a.d. 193, and in them we find the first and only reference to this supposed Commentary. "We need not here refer to the Commentary on the fourth Gospel, which is merely {225} inferred from references in Origen (c. a.d. 225), but of which we have neither earlier nor fuller information.(1) We must, however, before leaving this subject, mention that Origen informs us that Heracleon quotes from the Preaching of Peter [------], Pesedicatio Petri), a work which, as we have already several times mentioned, was cited by Clement of Alexandria as authentic and inspired Holy Scripture.(2) The epoch at which Ptolemæus and Heracleon flourished would in any case render testimony regarding our Gospels of little value. The actual evidence which they furnish, however, is not of a character to prove even the existence of our Synoptics, and much less does it in any way bear upon their character or authenticity. 2. A similar question of date arises regarding Celsus, who wrote a work, entitled [------], True Doctrine, which is no longer extant, of which Origen composed an elaborate refutation. The Christian writer takes the arguments of Celsus in detail, presenting to us, therefore, its general features, and giving many extracts; and as Celsus professes to base much of his accusation upon the writings in use amongst Christians, although he does not name a single one of them, it becomes desirable to ascertain what those works were, and the date at which {226} Celsus wrote. As usual, we shall state the case by giving the reasons assigned for an early date.