The purpose of this interpolation of two words is clear. The Samaritan Ebionites, like the Essenes, did not touch meat, regarding all animal food with the greatest repugnance.(233) By the addition of two words they were able to convert the saying of our Lord into a sanction of their superstition. But this saying of Jesus is now found only in St. Luke’s Gospel. It must have stood originally without the Μὴ and the κρέας in the Gospel of the Twelve. Another of their alterations of the Gospel was to the same intent. Instead of making St. John the Baptist eat locusts and wild honey, they gave him for his nourishment wild honey only, ἐγχρίδας, instead of ἀχρίδας and μελί ἄγριον. The passage in which this curious change was made is remarkable. It served as the introduction to the Gospel in use among the Gnostic Ebionites. “_A certain man, named Jesus, being about thirty years of age, hath chosen us; and having come to Capernaum, he entered into the house of Simon, whose surname was Peter, and he said unto him, As I passed by the Sea of Tiberias, I chose John and James, the sons of Zebedee, Simon and Andrew, Thaddaeus, Simon Zelotes and Judas Iscariot; and thee, Matthew, when thou wast sitting at thy tax‐gatherer’s table, then I called thee, and thou didst follow me. And you do I choose to be my twelve apostles to bear witness unto Israel._ “_John baptized; and the Pharisees came to him, and they were baptized of him, and all Jerusalem also. He had a garment of camels’ hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his meat was wild honey, and the taste thereof was as manna, and as a cake of oil._” Apparently after this announcement of his choice of the apostles there followed something analogous to the preface in St. Luke’s Gospel, to the effect that these apostles, having assembled together, had taken in hand to write down those things that they remembered concerning Christ and his teaching. And it was on this account that the Gospel obtained the name of the “Recollections of the Apostles,” or the “Gospel of the Twelve.” The special notice taken of St. Matthew, who is singled out from the others in this address, is significant of the relation supposed to exist between the Gospel and the converted publican. If we had the complete introduction, we should probably find that in it he was said to have been the scribe who wrote down the apostolic recollections. 2. Doubtful Fragments. There are a few fragments preserved by early ecclesiastical writers which we cannot say for certain belonged to the Gospel of the Hebrews, but which there is good reason to believe formed a part of it.