It is scarcely worth while to refer to the Epistle of Vienne and Lyons, a composition dating at the earliest a.d. 177-178, in which no direct reference is made to any writing of the New Testament.(1) Acquaintance with the fourth Gospel is argued from the following passage: [------] Now such a passage cannot prove the use of the fourth Gospel. No source is indicated in the Epistle from which the saying of Jesus, which of course apologists assert to be historical, was derived. It presents decided variations from the parallel in the fourth Gospel; and in the {380} Synoptics we find sufficient indications of similar discourses l to render it very probable that other Gospels may have contained the passage quoted in the Epistle. In no case could an anonymous reference like this be of any weight as evidence for the Apostolic origin of the fourth Gospel. We need not further discuss Ptolemoeus and Heracleon. We have shown(2) that the date at which these heretics flourished places them beyond the limits within which we propose to confine ourselves. In regard to Ptolemæus all that is affirmed is that, in the Epistle to Flora ascribed to him, expressions found in John i. 3 are used. The passage as it is given by Epiphanius is as follows: "Besides, that the world was created by the same, the Apostle states (saying all things have been made [------] by him and without him nothing was made)." [------].(3) Now the supposed quotation is introduced here in a parenthesis interrupting the sense, and there is every probability that it was added as an illustration by Epiphanius, and was not in the Epistle to Flora at all. Omitting the parenthesis, the sentence is a very palpable reference to the Apostle Paul, and Coloss. i. 16.(4) In regard to Heraclcon, it is asserted from the unsupported references of Origen(5) that he wrote a commentary on the fourth Gospel. Even if this be a fact, there is not a single word of it preserved by Origen which in the least degree bears upon the Apostolic origin {381} and trustworthiness of the Gospel. Neither of these heresiarchs, therefore, is of any value as a witness for the authenticity of the fourth Gospel.