full generation. The original Matthew was even then (_c._ 100), and in Palestine itself, a superseded book. It had three successors, if not more, two Greek and one Aramaic, all still retaining their claim to the name and authority of Matthew[17]; but all had been re-cast in a narrative frame, which at least in the case of our canonical first Gospel was borrowed from the Roman work of Mark. So far as the remaining fragments of its rivals enable us to judge, the same is true in their case also, though to a less extent. It is quite unmistakably true of Luke, the gospel of Antioch, that its narrative represents the same "memorabilia of Peter"; for so Mark's gospel came to be called. Thus the Petrine story appears almost from the start to have gained undisputed supremacy. But side by side with this remarkable fact as to gospel _narrative_ is the equally notable confirmation of the other statements of 'the Elders' regarding the Precepts. For all modern criticism admits, that besides the material of Mark, which both Matthew and Luke freely incorporate, omitting very little, our first and third evangelists have embodied, in (usually) the same Greek translation but in greatly varied order, large sections from one or more early compilations of the Sayings of Jesus. Footnote 16: Some authorities of the first rank think there is evidence of literary dependence in 1st Cor. i. 18-21 on the Saying (Matt. xi. 25-27 = Lk. x. 21 f.). Footnote 17: The orthodox Aramaic _Gospel of the Nazarenes_ borrows from Luke as well as Matthew, but speaks in the name of "Matthew." This apostle was also regarded as author of the _Gospel according to the Hebrews_, a heretical product of _c._ 120, current in Greek among the Jewish Christians of Palestine (Ebionites). It is indispensable to a historical appreciation of the environment out of which any gospel has arisen that we realize that no community ever produced and permanently adopted as its "gospel" a _partial_ presentation of the message of salvation. To its mind the writing must have embodied, for the time at least, the message, the whole message, and nothing but the message. Change of mind as to the essential contents of the message would involve supplementation or alteration of the written gospel employed. No writing of the kind would be produced with tacit reference to some other for another aspect of the truth.