Luthardt,
[6:1] in the new issue of his youthful work on the fourth Gospel, does
not attempt to associate the quotation with the book of Papias, but
merely argues that the presbyters to whom Irenaeus was indebted for it
formed a circle to which Polycarp and Papias belonged. Zahn [6:2] does
not go beyond him in this. Dr. Davidson, while arguing that "it is
impossible to show that the four (Gospels) were current as early as A.D.
150," refers to this passage, and says: "It is precarious to infer with
Tischendorf either that Irenaeus derived his account of the presbyters
from Papias's book, or that the authority of the elders carries us back
to the termination of the apostolic times;" and he concludes: "Is it not
evident that Irenaeus employed it (the word 'elders') loosely, without
an exact idea of the persons he meant?" [6:3] In another place Dr.
Davidson still more directly says: "The second proof is founded on a
passage in Irenaeus where the Father, professing to give an account of
the eschatological tradition of 'the presbyter, a disciple of the
Apostles,' introduces the words, 'and that therefore the Lord said, "In
my Father's house are many mansions."' Here it is equally uncertain
whether a work of Papias be meant as the source of the quotation, and
whether that Father did not insert something of his own, or something
borrowed elsewhere, and altered according to the text of the Gospel.
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