Saturninus[492] (A.D.

120) and his followers taught that marriage was a production of Hell.
We are not surprised after this to find that those places in the Gospel which bear on the relation between man and wife exhibit traces of perturbation.

I am not asserting that the heretics themselves depraved the text.

I do but state two plain facts: viz.

(1) That whereas in the second century certain heretical tenets on the subject of Marriage prevailed largely, and those who advocated as well as those who opposed such teaching relied chiefly on the Gospel for their proofs: (2) It is accordingly found that not only does the phenomenon of 'various readings' prevail in those places of the Gospel which bear most nearly on the disputed points, but the 'readings' are exactly of that suspicious kind which would naturally result from a tampering with the text by men who had to maintain, or else to combat, opinions of a certain class.