of Alexandria is the first who alludes to them. The early heretics were desirous of confirming their peculiar opinions by the writings current among Catholic Christians, so that the formation of a canon by them began soon after the commencement of the second century, and continued till the end of it; contemporaneously with the development of a Catholic Church and its necessary adjunct a Catholic canon. No New Testament canon, except a partial and unauthoritative one, existed till the latter half of the second century, that is, till the idea of a Catholic church began to be entertained. The living power of Christianity in its early stages had no need of books for its nurture. But in the development of a church organization the internal rule of consciousness was changed into an external one of faith. The Ebionites or Jewish Christians had their favorite Gospels and Acts. The gospel of Matthew was highly prized by them, existing as it did in various recensions, of which the gospel according to the Hebrews was one. Other documents, such as the Revelation of John; and the preaching of Peter, a Jewish-Christian history subsequently re-written and employed in the Clementine Recognitions and Homilies, were also in esteem. Even so late as 175-180 A.D., Hegesippus, a Jewish Christian, does not seem to have had a canon consisting of the four gospels and Paul’s Epistles, but appeals to “the law and the prophets and _the Lord_,” so that his leading principle was, the identity of Jesus’s words with the Old Testament; agreeably to the tenets of the party he belonged to. The source whence he drew the words of Jesus was probably the Gospel according to the Hebrews, a document which we know he used, on the authority of Eusebius. He does not refer to Paul except by implication in a passage given in Photius from Stephen Gobar,(146) where he says that such as used the words “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,” &c., falsified the Divine Scriptures and the Lord’s words, “Blessed are your eyes for they see,” &c. As Paul quoted the condemned language, he is blamed.(147) Though he knew Paul’s epistles, he does not look upon them as _authoritative_. He betrays no acquaintance with the fourth gospel; for the question, “What is the door to Jesus?” does not presuppose the knowledge of John x. 2, 7, 9. Nösgen has failed to prove Hegesippus’s Jewish descent; and Holtzmann’s mediating view of him is incorrect.(148)