Thus  already  in  Tatian,  Justin's  pupil,  a  phrase  of  the
Johatinine  prologue  (Gospel  i.  5)  is  introduced  quite  like  a
citation  from  the  Old  Testament  (Orat.  ad  Or,,  13:  TOVTO  eoriv
TO  elprjfjifvov) .  At  first  indeed  it  is  always  the  Lord  speaking
in  them  which  properly  constitutes  their  canonical  authority,
as  we  have  already  seen  in  Hegesippus  (§  5,  4).  The  words
of  the  Lord  are  the  Xoyot  ots  (vrp^o^Bo,  (Athenag.  leg.  11),
while  the  Epistle  to  the  Churches  at  Lyons  and  Vienne
(ap.  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  5,  2)  quotes  a  saying  of  the  Lord  quite  in
the  old  manner  (e-rrXrjpovTO  TO  VTTO  TOV  Kvpiov  rj/Jiuv  elprjp.evov ;
John  xvi.  2).  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  exclusively  the
Gospels  from  which  these  are  taken,  and  which,  because
they  contain  such  sayings  of  the  Lord,  are  placed  on  a  par
with  the  O.  T.  writings,  as  KvpiaKal  ypa<J>ai ;  which  appears
from  the  words  of  Dionysius  of  Corinth  (circ.  170)  preserved
in  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  4,  23.  After  Justin's  time  the  fourth
Gospel  was  more  and  more  definitely  placed  on  an  equality
with  the  three  older  ones.1  Even  Tatian,  in  whose  discourse
to  the  Greeks  no  distinct  reference  to  a  synoptic  passage

1  Of  Hegesippus,  who  in  the  legend  respecting  James  makes  use  of  the
saying  of  Luke  xxiii.  34  (Euseb.,  H.  E.,  2,  23),  Eusebius  tells  also  that  he
ix  TOV  Kaff1  'Eppalovs  etayyeXlov  (iced  TOV  Zvpiaicov  Kal  Idlws  tic  T??S  'EfipatSos
SiaXlicrov)  rivd  rldrjffiv  Kal  &\\a  d£  cJ>s  ^£  'louSat'/djj  aypd<f>ov  irapa86ffe<as
fjLvi]/j.oi>e>jfi  (H.  E.,  4,  23).  But  it  does  not  by  any  means  follow  that  he
looked  on  the  Gospel  to  the  Hebrews  as  the  specific  or  even  as  an  essen-
tial source  of  the  authoritative  word  of  the  Lord ;  nor  do  we  know  that
any  Gospels  besides  our  own  were  read  anywhere  throughout  the
Church.
