[54:4] He
states that John, the beloved disciple, apostle and evangelist,
governed the Churches of Asia after the death of Domitian and his
return from Patmos, and that he was still living when Trajan
succeeded Nerva, and for the truth of this he quotes passages from
Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria. [54:5] He then gives an account
of the writings of John, and whilst asserting that the Gospel must
be universally acknowledged as genuine, he says that it is rightly
put last in order amongst the four, of the composition of which he
gives an elaborate description. It is not necessary to quote his
account of the fourth Gospel and of the occasion of its composition,
which he states to have been John's receiving the other three
Gospels, and, whilst admitting their truth, perceiving that they did
not contain a narrative of the earlier history of Christ. For this
reason, being entreated to do so, he wrote an account of the doings
of Jesus before the Baptist was cast into prison. After some very
extraordinary reasoning, Eusebius says that no one who carefully
considers the points he mentions can think that the Gospels are at
variance with each other, and he conjectures that John probably
omitted the genealogies because Matthew and Luke had given them.
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