Crescens_ ...
him. | having hatched the plot against
| him, etc.

The sequence of events, and the correspondence of individual phrases,
alike show that the compiler of this Chronicle derived his information
from the History of Eusebius [148:2]. But either he or his transcriber
has substituted a well known name, _Papias_, for a more obscure name,
_Papylus_. If the last letters of the word were blurred or blotted in
his copy of Eusebius, nothing would be more natural than such a change.
It is only necessary to write the two names in uncials, [Greek: PAPIAS
PAPYLOS], to judge of its likelihood [149:1]. This explanation indeed is
so obvious, when the passages are placed side by side, that one can only
feel surprised at its not having been pointed out before. Thus the
martyrdom of Papias, with its chronological perplexities (such as they
are), disappears from history; and we may dismiss the argument of the
author of _Supernatural Religion_, that 'a writer who suffered martyrdom
under Marcus Aurelius (c. A.D. 165) can scarcely have been a hearer of
the Apostles' [149:2].

Thus we are left to infer the date of Papias entirely from the notices
of his friends and contemporaries; but these will assist us to a very
fair approximation. (1) He was a hearer of at least two personal
disciples of Christ, Aristion and the Presbyter John. If we suppose that
they were among the youngest disciples of our Lord, and lived to old
age, we shall be doing no violence to probability. Obviously there were
in their case exceptional circumstances which rendered intercourse with
them possible. If so, they may have been born about A.D. 10 or later,
and have died about A.D. 90 or later. In this case their intercourse
with Papias may be referred to the years A.D. 85-95, or thereabouts. (2)
He was acquainted with the daughters of Philip, who dwelt with their
father at Hierapolis, where they died in old age. Whether this Philip
was the Apostle, as the earliest writers affirm, or the Evangelist, as
others suppose [149:3], is a question of little moment for my immediate
purpose--the date of Papias. In the latter case these daughters would be
the same who are mentioned at the time of St Paul's last visit to
Jerusalem, A.D. 58, apparently as already grown up to womanhood [149:4].
On the former supposition they would belong to the same generation, and
probably would be about the same age.