"
(Apol. I. ch. xxxiii.)
The ordinary unprejudiced reader would say that Justin here reproduces
St. Matthew and St. Luke, weaving into St. Luke's narrative the words of
the angel to St. Joseph; but our author will not allow this for a
moment. He insists that Justin knew nothing, or need have known nothing,
of St. Luke. He shows that the words of the angel, "He shall save his
people," &c., which seem to be introduced from St. Matthew, "are not
accidentally inserted in this place, for we find that they are joined in
the same manner to the address of the angel to Mary in the
Protevangelium of St. James."
But how about those words which succeed them in answer to the question
of the Virgin, "How shall these things be?" I mean those quoted in the
"Dialogue" beginning "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee," &c. If ever
one author quotes another, Justin in this place quotes St. Luke. They
cannot be taken from the Protevangelium, because the corresponding words
in the Protevangelium are very different from those in St.
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