Justin Martyr’s witness to the four Gospels.

Justin Martyr was active as a Christian writer and philosopher from at least the 130s AD to around 165, when he received the martyr’s crown. Justin preferred way of referring to the Gospels were as the “memoirs” (apomnēmoneumata) of the Apostles.  He uses the term 15 times in his writings (1st Apology 66:3; 67:3; Dialogue with Trypho 100:4; 101:3; 102:5; 103:6,8; 104:1; 105:1,5,6; 106:1,3,4; 107:1)

When he uses the term we know that Justin has in mind multiple written texts called Gospels. This is clear from 1st Apology 66:3 where he reveals that the "memoirs," the apomnēmoneumata,  “are called Gospels.” That there were at least four of these Gospels is implied in Dialogue with Trypho 103:8 where Justin refers to them as having been “drawn up by His apostles and those who followed them.”

The implication of the last point was stressed by New Testament scholar Graham M. Stanton in his article, “The Fourfold Gospel,” New Testament Studies 43 (1997): 330. But it is by no means a new observation, since, as Stanton himself points out (footnote 46 on the same page), “It was noted already by S[amuel]. Tregelles in 1867 (n. 16, 71): ‘no smaller number (than four) could be implied by the two groups.’” The work referred to in footnote 16 (which appears on page 323 of Stanton’s article) is S. P. Tregelles, Canon Muratorianus (Oxford: Clarendon, 1867).

Justin quotes from all four Gospels and from unique material from each (see Matthew 5:20 = Dialogue 105.6 / Luke 22:24 = Dialogue 103.8/ Mark 3:17 = Dialogue 106:3 / John 3:3 = 1st Apology 61:4).

Two of the four passages deserve special comment.

In Mark 3:17 = Dialogue 106:3,  reference is made to Jesus’ nicknaming the Zebedee brothers, “Boanerges.” As was said, this is only found in Mark. But Justin actually attributes it to the apomnēmoneumata of Peter, suggesting perhaps his support of the early tradition which said that the Gospel of Mark was really Peter’s account taken down by Mark.

In the second place relating to John 3:3 = 1st Apology 61:4. Justin gives us an immediately recognizable rendition of John’s passage when he writes: “Except ye be born again ye shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” And yet Bart Ehrman and Zlatko Pleše insist that “there is no certainty that he [Justin] used the Fourth Gospel,”[1] and also that, “Justin from the mid-second century... never quotes John explicitly.”[2] But why would they say this? One reason is that the actual wording Justin uses is somewhat different than the words used in John’s Gospel.  But what does this mean? Was Justin paraphrasing? Did he have  a somewhat different text of John?  Was he quoting from a source used by John that wasn't John? My own view inclines toward the first two options. I am not convinced that it is so easy to distinguish between John and his sources as it is in the Synoptic Gospels. In addition, there is the fact that compared with Justin’s extensive use of the other three Gospels, John's Gospel plays very little part.

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[1] Bart D. Ehrman and Zlatko Pleše, The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 231.
[2] Ibid., 211.