ed. But obviously no great stress can be laid on this fact. It
must indeed seem highly improbable that Papias should have been
unacquainted with a Gospel which Marcion, a contemporary and a native of
Asia Minor, thought fit to adapt to his heretical teaching, and which at
this time is shown by the state of the text to have been no recent
document [186:2]. But this is a consideration external to the evidence
derivable from Papias himself.

The case with the Fourth Gospel however is quite different. Here we have
a combination of circumstantial evidence, which is greater than we had
any right to expect beforehand, and which amounts in the aggregate to a
very high degree of probability.

1. In the first place, Eusebius informs us that Papias 'has employed
testimonies from the first (former) Epistle of John, and likewise from
that of Peter.' The knowledge of the First Epistle almost necessarily
carries with it the knowledge of the Gospel. The identity of authorship
in the two books, though not undisputed, is accepted with such a degree
of unanimity that it may be placed in the category of acknowledged
facts.

But, if I mistake not, their relation is much closer than this. There is
not only an identity of authorship, but also an organic connection
between the two. The first Epistle has sometimes been regarded as a
preface to the Gospel. It should rather be described, I think, as a
commendatory postscript. This connection will make itself felt, if the
two books are read continuously. The Gospel seems to have been written
or (more properly speaking) dictated for an immediate circle of
disciples. This fact appears from special notices of time and
circumstance, inserted here and there, evidently for the purpose of
correcting the misapprehensions and solving the difficulties of the
Evangelist's hearers. It is made still more clear by the sudden
transition to the second person, when the narrator breaks off, and
looking up (as it were), addresses his hearers--'He that saw, it hath
borne record ... that _ye_ might believe.' 'These things are written that
_ye_ might believe' [187:1]. There were gathered about the Apostle, we
may suppose, certain older members of the Church, like Aristion and the
Presbyter John, who, as eye-witnesses of Christ's earthly life, could
guarantee the correctness of the narrative. The twenty-fourth verse of
the last chapter is, as it were, the endorsement of these elders--'This
is the disciple which testi