Scholarly Reflections
Massaux, Éduard. "Chapter Two: Saint Justin." The Influence of the Gospel of Saint Matthew on Christian Literature before Saint Irenaeus: Book 3: The Apologists and the Didache. (Translated by Norman J. Belval and Suzanne Hecht. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1993, 10-109.
Justin Martyr, active about the middle of the second century, wrote two Apologies and a dialogue with Trypho the Jew, which survive. Massaux walks through these works in detail, identifying influence from Matthew's Gospel (Massaux 1993, 10). Because Justin's use of sources is different when addressing a pagan emperor in the Apologies than when addressing a Jewish audience, Massaux considers the Apologies first, then the Dialog.
In Apology #1, Justin condenses the teachings of Christ in chapters 15, 16, and 17. This material consists of brief maxims of Jeus, excerpted from the Sermon on the Mount (Massaux 1993, 11), though as Massaux walks through the chapter he finds brief maxims from elsewhere in the Synoptic traditions, as well. Massaux presents the statements from Justin in parallel columns with the materials he considers as likely sources. In various instances, Massaux compares the readings of a variety of New Testament manuscripts, but is normally not able to identify a articular tradition which Justin definitely used, e.g., pp. 15-16. Massaux eventually concedes that there is literary contact between Justin and Matthew, as well as, probably, other New Testament writings. However, the contact does not normally take the form of extended word for word quotations (Massaux 1993, 22).
Justin makes contact with Matthew in other parts of the First Apology as well. Massaux evaluates these contacts in turn (Massaux 1993, 34ff). Again, Massaux finds that Justin shows familiarity with the New Testament, but does not make extended word for word quotations.
Massaux reports a number of passages in Justin's 1 Apology which refer to biblical ideas but for which dependence on Matthew is doubtful (Massaux 1993, 41ff). The passages clearly refer to biblical accounts of events, but there is no evidence for actual literary dependence. Justin occasionally makes direct quotations in all his writing, but he more often retells the passage with a rather free adaptation of the original text (Massaux 1993, 44). He continues with a number of passages in Justin where reference or allusion seems to be to Luke, then to other New Testament writings, but where he can't discern a reference to Matthew (Massaux 1993, 45ff). On the whole, Justin is influenced far more by Matthew than by other New Testament authors (Massaux 1993, 48).
Massaux follows the same procedure as he goes on to consider Justin's Dialogue with Trypho (Massaux 1993, 49ff). He first reviews passages in which he discerns a clear contact with Matthew. As before, Massaux finds Justin uses sources freely, asserting Matthew as Scripture, using and adapting texts freely for his own purposes (Massaux 1993, 82).
Massaux goes on to texts from the Dialogue where the influence of Matthew is doubtfun or should be rejected (Massaux 1993, 82ff). Again, the pattern Massau observes is that Justin uses the ideas from the Gospels but his specific wording is a compositve of the words of the different evangelists and Justin's own words.
In the next portion of the chapter, Massaux follows the same procedure, comparing statements from the Dialogue with passages in non-Matthean parts of the NewTestament (Massaux 1993, 90ff).