with his brother James, fulfilled the
prediction of Christ.... 'Ye shall drink my cup,' etc. [211:3]

Here we have an obvious error. The fate which really befell James is
attributed to John. Georgius Hamartolos therefore cannot be quoting
directly from Papias, for Papias cannot have reported the _martyrdom_ of
John. But, on the other hand, Papias seems plainly to have been the
ultimate source of his information. The work is precisely and correctly
quoted. The general tenor accords with the main object of Papias'
book--the exposition of a saying of Christ, and the illustration of it
by a story derived from tradition. This being so, the error is most
easily explained by a lacuna. In the intermediate authority from whom
Georgius got the reference, some words must have dropped out; a line or
two may have been omitted in his copy; and the sentence may have run in
the original somewhat in this way; [Greek: Papias ... phaskei hoti
Ioannes [men hupo tou Rhomaion basileos katedikasthe marturon eis
Patmon, Iakobos de] hupo Ioudaion anerethe], 'Papias says that John [was
condemned by the Roman emperor (and sent) to Patmos for bearing witness
(to the truth) while James] was slain by the Jews' [212:1].

The hypothesis of a spurious Papias therefore is wholly unsupported; and
we must seek some other explanation of the statement in the Vatican MS.
This passage seems to be made up of notices gathered from different
sources. The account of Marcion, with which it closes, involves an
anachronism (to say nothing else), and seems to have arisen from a
confusion of the interview between St John and Cerinthus and that
between Polycarp and Marcion, which are related by Irenaeus in the same
context [213:1]. The earlier part, referring to Papias, is best
explained in another way--by clerical errors and mistranslation rather
than by historical confusion. The word 'exotericis' ought plainly to be
read 'exegeticis' [213:2]. In some handwritings of the seventh or eighth
century, where the letters have a round form, the substitution of OT for
EG would be far from difficult [213:3]. In this case _extremis_, which
should perhaps be read _externis_, is the Latin interpretation of the
false reading _exotericis_. Thus purged of errors, the reference to
Papias presents no difficulties. We may suppose that Papias, having
reported some saying of St John on the authority of the elders, went on
somewhat as follows: 'And this accords with what we find in h