presbyters
the disciples of the Apostles' referred to on the same subject (v.
36. Sec.Sec. 1, 2), whom we are discussing [199:1].

With this opinion I entirely agree. 'But,' he adds, 'there is nothing
whatever to connect them with Papias.' Here I am obliged to join issue.
It seems to me that there are several things. In the first place, there
is the description of the authorities, 'the elders, the disciples of the
Apostles,' which exactly accords with the statement in Papias' own
preface [199:2]. Next there is the subject and its treatment. This
latter point, if I mistake not, presents some considerations which
strongly confirm my view of the source of these references in Irenaeus.
The elders here quoted maintain that the paradise of Genesis is not a
terrestrial paradise; it is some region beyond the limits of this world,
to which Enoch and Elijah were translated; it is the abode, as Irenaeus
says, of the righteous and the spiritual ([Greek: pneumatikoi]), of whom
these two respectively are types; their translation preludes the
immortality of the faithful in Christ. In the second passage where
paradise is mentioned by these elders, it is declared to be one of the
'many mansions' in the Father's house. But it is clear from this latter
passage that the work from which these sayings of the elders are quoted
must have contained much more about paradise. The intermediate position
there assigned to it between the celestial and the terrestrial kingdom
does not explain itself, and must have required some previous
discussion. Is there any reason to think that Papias did directly occupy
himself with this subject?

The work of Papias was in the hands of Anastasius of Sinai, who (as we
have seen) set a very high value on it [200:1]. He tells us in his
'Hexaemeron' [200:2] that 'the more ancient interpreters ... contemplated
the sayings about paradise _spiritually_, and referred them to the
Church of Christ.' They 'said that there was a certain _spiritual_
paradise' [200:3]. Among these 'more ancient interpreters,' of whom he
gives a list, he names 'the great Papias of Hierapolis, the scholar of
John the Evangelist, and Irenaeus of Lyons.' Here the two are associated
together as dealing with this same subject in the same way. How much of
the exegesis which Anastasius gives in the context, and attributes to
these ancient interpreters, may be due to Papias in particular, it is
impossible to say. But it may be observed that