Before Jerusalem Fell - EntreWave

102 BEFORE JERUSALEM FELL
execution to the works of the great classical historians.”s8 Consequently,
“it is needless to quote later writers who say the same, for it
is probable that most if not all of them derived their belief from this
passage of Irenaeus.”sg Torrey adamantly states of the post-lrenaean,
late date traditions: “the ultimate source in every case [are]
the statements of Irenaeus. “7° In fact, regarding Eusebius we must
realize that he patently declares his dependency upon Irenaeus in
this matter.71 Whatever difficulties there may be with Irenaeus (see
previous discussion), such must necessarily apply to Eusebius, who
clearly echoes his utterance.
Yet, there are some perplexing difficulties in the accounts in the
Eusebian corpus, even apart from his Irenaean foundation. Let us
briefly survey these problems.
In the first place, despite Eusebius’s express dependence upon
Irenaeus in this area, we should remember that Eusebius disagrees
with Irenaeus on an extremely important and intimately related
question. And this disagreement is despite Irenaeus’s claim to have
conversed with someone who knew John. Eusebius doubts Irenaeus’s
position that John the Apostle wrote Revelation:
Thus the recognized writing of Clement is well known and the works
of Ignatius and Polycaip have been spoken o~ and of Papias five
treatises are extant. . . . These are also mentioned by Irenaeus as
though his only writing, for he says in one place, “To these things also
Papias, the hearer of John, who was a companion of Polycarp and
one of the ancients, bears witness in writing in the fourth of his books,
for five books were composed by him.” So says Irenaeus. Yet Papias
himsel$ according to the preface of his treatises, makes plain that he
had in no way been a hearer and eyewitness of the sacred Apostles.
. . .
It is here worth noting that [Papias] twice counts the name of John,
and reckons the first John with Peter and James and Matthew and
the other Apostles, clearly meaning the evangelist, but by changing
his statement places the second with the others outside the number
of the Apostles, putting Aristion before him and clearly calling him a
68. SchaK, Htitoy 1:28.
69. William Henry Simcox, The Revelatwn of St. John Divim. Cambridge Bible for
Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1898), p. xiii.
70. Charles Cutler Torrey, ?% Apoca@e ofJohn (New Haven: Yale, 1958), p. 78.
71. See Ecdesiastiad Htitory 3:18 and 5:8.