And indeed it is very questionable whether this John the Pres- byter ever existed. He was discovered by Eusebius in the preface to Papias’ work Expositions of Dominical Oracles, but “it is well,” remarks Barth, “to distinguish between what Papias really says and what Eusebius has made of his words”. Here are the words of Papias: “I shall not hesitate to incorporate for you with my inter- pretations as many things as I once learned well from the elders (τῶν πρεσβυτέρων) and remembered well, guaranteeing their truth. Por I did not, like so many, take pleasure in those that have so much to say but in those that teach the truth, nor in those that remember alien commandments but in those that remember the commandments that have been given by the Lord to the Faith and come from the Truth itself. Now if anywhere one came in my way who had been a follower of the elders (τοῖς πρεσβυτέροις), I would search® the words of the elders—what Andrew or Peter had said (εἶπεν), or what Thomas or James, or what John or Matthew, or any other of the Lord’s disciples; and (I would search) the things which Aristion and the elder John (6 πρεσβύτερος Ἰωάννης), the Lord’s dis- ciples, say (λέγουσιν) ”’.6
ρε ρ τος
* Cf. Barth, Die Hauptprobl., S. 26: “In der That nun ist diese ‘ patriarchalisch- monarchische’ Autoritaét unerklarlich bei einem einfachen Presbyter einer Local-
gemeinde; sie erklart sich aber vollkommen, wenn der πρεσβύτερος wie Paulus ein Apostel gewesen ist.”
Bus. Ἡ. Β. iti. 39. 4V. xxxvi. et passim. Similarly in Heb. xi. 2.
ὃ ἀνέκρινον, not “enquire about”. Jerome (Script. Eccles. under Ραβίας) rightly tenders considervabam.
SEs. Ἡ. (2. i. 5ο.