Luke; and the
only real difference between Justin's quotation and St. Luke is that St.
Luke reads, "shall be called the Son of God;" whereas Justin has "is the
Son of God." Now in this Justin differs from the Protevangelium, which
reads, "Shall be called the Son of the Highest;" so the probability is
still more increased that in the quotation from the "Dialogue" he did
not quote the Protevangelium, and did quote St. Luke. However, we will
make the author a present of these words, because we want to assume for
a moment the truth of his conclusion, which he thus expresses:--
"Justin's divergencies from the Protevangelium prevent our supposing
that, in its present form, it could have been the actual source of
his quotations; but the wide differences which exist between the
extant MSS. of the Protevangelium show that even the most ancient
does not present it in its original form. It is much more probable
that Justin had before him a still older work, to which both the
Protevangelium and the third Gospel were indebted.
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