If we reduce these roughly to a common standard of comparison the proportion of variation may be represented thus:-- | Exact.

| Slightly | Variant.
| | variant.

| | | | Quotations from the Old Testament | 10 | 7 | 9 Quotations from the Synoptic Gospels | 10 | 25 | 32 It will be seen from this at once how largely the proportion of variation rises; it is indeed more than three times as high for the quotations from the Gospels as for those from the Old Testament.
The amount of combination too is decidedly in excess of that which is found in the Old Testament quotations.
There is, it is true, something to be said on the other side.
Justin quotes the Old Testament rather as Scripture, the New Testament rather as history.

I think it will be felt that he has permitted his own style a freer play in regard to the latter than the former.

The New Testament record had not yet acquired the same degree of fixity as the Old.