Supposing that this were the text of St.Luke's Gospel which Clement had before him, it would surely be so much easier to regard his quotation as directly taken from the Gospel; but the truer view perhaps would be that we have here an instance (and the number of such instances in the older MSS.

is legion) of the tendency to interpolate by the insertion of parallel passages from the same or from the other Synoptic Gospels.

Clement and Marcion (with the Old Latin) will then confirm each other, as showing that even at this early date the two passages, Matt.xxvi.24 and Matt.xviii.6 (Luke xvii.

2), had already begun to be combined.
There is one point more to be noticed before we leave the Epistle of Clement.

There is a quotation from Isaiah in this Epistle which is common to it with the first two Synoptics.