The very word [Greek: hupago] is not found at all in St.Paul, St.Peter, or the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Taken together with the special application to the Spirit, this must be regarded as a strong case.
Neither do the arguments of 'Supernatural Religion' succeed in proving that there is no connection with St.John in such sentences as, 'There is one God who manifested Himself through Jesus Christ His Son, who is His eternal Word' (Ad Magn.c.

viii), or who is Himself the door of the Father (Ad Philad.c.

ix).

In regard to the first of these especially, it is doubtless true that Philo also has 'the eternal Word,' which is even the 'Son' of God; but the idea is much more consciously metaphorical, and not only did the incarnation of the Logos in a historical person never enter into Philo's mind, but 'there is no room for it in his system' [Endnote 276:1].
It should be said that these latter passages are all found only in the Vossian recension of the Epistles, and therefore, as we saw above, are in any case evidence for the first half of the second century, while they _may_ be the genuine works of Ignatius.
* * * * * The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians, which goes very much with the Ignatian Epistles and the external evidence for which it is so hard to resist, testifies to the fourth Gospel through the so-called first Epistle.