Papias a highly intelligent
criticism of Eusebius, with which this father confronts a statement of
Irenaeus, and which our author himself adopts as conclusive [167:2].
They will recall also, in this same context, a reference to a passage in
Dionysius of Alexandria, where this 'great Bishop' anticipates by nearly
sixteen centuries the criticisms of our own age concerning the
differences of style between the Fourth Gospel and the Apocalypse
[167:3].

From St Mark we pass to St Matthew. Papias has something to tell us of
this Gospel also; but here again we are asked to believe that we have a
case of mistaken identity.

After the notice relating to St Mark, Eusebius continues:--

But concerning Matthew, the following statement is made [by
Papias]: 'So then Matthew ([Greek: Matthaios men oun]) composed the
Oracles in the Hebrew language, and each one interpreted them as he
could.'

The assumption that this statement, like the former, was made on the
authority of the Presbyter, depends solely on the close proximity in
which the two extracts stand in Eusebius. It must therefore be regarded
as highly precarious. In Papias' own work the two extracts may have been
wide apart. Indeed the opening particles in the second passage prove
conclusively that it cannot have followed immediately on the first. Just
as the [Greek: hos ephen] in the extract relating to St Mark showed that
it was a fragment torn from its context, so we have the similar evidence
of a violent severance here in the words [Greek: men oun]. The ragged
edge is apparent in both cases [168:1]. This fact must be borne in mind
in any criticisms which the passages suggest.

In this extract then Papias speaks of a state of things in which each
man interpreted the original Hebrew for himself. There can have been no
authoritative Greek Gospel of St Matthew at that time, if his account be
correct. So far his meaning is clear. But it is equally clear that the
time which he is here contemplating is not the time when he writes his
book, but some earlier epoch. He says not 'interprets,' but
'interpreted.' This past tense 'interpreted,' be it observed, is not the
tense of Eusebius reporting Papias, but of Papias himself. Everything
depends on this distinction; yet our author deliberately ignores it. He
does indeed state the grammatical argument correctly, as given by
others:--

Some consider that Papias or the Presbyter use the verb in the past