Out of these elements an elaborate historical theory is constructed, which Ewald and Fritzsche have taken the trouble to refute on historical grounds.

To us it is very much as if Ivanhoe were made out to be an allegory of incidents in the French Revolution; or as if the 'tale of Troy divine' were, not a nature-myth or Euemeristic legend of long past ages, but a symbolical representation of events under the Pisistratidae.
Examples such as this are apt to draw from the English reader a sweeping condemnation of German criticism, and yet they are really only the sports or freaks of an exuberant activity.

The long list given in 'Supernatural Religion' [Endnote 61:1] of those who maintain the middle date of Clement's Epistle (A.D.

95-100) includes apparently all the English writers, and among a number of Germans the weighty names of Bleek, Ewald, Gieseler, Hilgenfeld, Koestlin, Lipsius, Laurent, Reuss, and Ritschl.

From the point of view either of authority or of argument there can be little doubt which is the soundest and most judicious decision.
Now what is the bearing of the Epistle of Clement upon the question of the currency and authority of the Synoptic Gospels?
There are two passages of some length which are without doubt evangelical quotations, though whether they are derived from the Canonical Gospels or not may be doubted.
The first passage occurs in c.xiii.It will be necessary to give it in full with the Synoptic parallels, in order to appreciate the exact amount of difference and resemblance which it presents.
_Matt._ v.