Before Jerusalem Fell - EntreWave

64 BEFORE JERUSALEM FELL
unto them: for he abode with them until the times of Trajan. And
some of them saw not only John, but others also of the Apostles, and
had this same account from them, and witness to the aforesaid relation.
Whom ought we rather to believe? These, being such as they
are, or Ptolemy, who never beheld the Apostles, nor ever in his dreams
attained to any vestige of an Apostle? 72
The careful detail he meticulously recounts in his argument, and
the reference to the eyewitness accounts, should be noted. Yet, no
respected New Testament scholar asserts that the biblical record
allows for a fifteen year or more ministry for Christ, or of His having
attained an age in excess of forty. We must vigorously assert that
Irenaeus was “strangely mistaken about the age of Jesus.”7 3 As
Selwyn notes in another connection regarding Irenaeus’s Against
Here~ies (3:11:8): “Meanwhile as to Irenaeus, it must be owned that
he is inevitably pursued by his own sayings. No man who has written
down the statement, that there must be four gasps because there are
four winds, can fairly hope to preserve the same reputation as a judge
of evidence after it as be fore.”74
Additional insights into obvious errors could be cited from Irenaeus.
But the one cited should demonstrate clearly that he could (he
did at least once!) err on matters of historical detail – even when he
claimed the authority of eyewitness accounts.
Irenaeus aJ the Fountain of Tradition
It is surely the case that the external evidence stands as t/w
strongest witness for the late dating of Revelation. But caution should
forestall our wholehearted endorsement of that witness. Several scholars
of note argue that the strong external witness to the late date of
Revelation most likely may be traced back to Irenaeus’s lone witness.
As Terry observes:
It seems to us that no impartial mind can fail to see that [the extermd
witness] preponderates in favor of the later date. But when we scrutinize
the character and extent of this evidence, it seems equally clear
that no very great stress can safely be laid upon it. For it all turns
72. Irenaeus, Against Here&s 2:22:5.
73. Scha~ Hirtoty 2:751.
74. Edward C. Selwyn, Clmktian Pro,bhzti and & Pro@rAc A@ca~pse (London: Macmillan,
1900), p. 125.