re is not a single notice in any of the four
Gospels inconsistent with the hypothesis that it extended over a much
longer period, and that He was some forty years old at all events at the
time of the Passion. The Synoptic narratives say absolutely nothing
about the interval which elapsed between the Baptism and the Passion. St
John mentions three passovers, but he nowhere intimates that he has
given an exhaustive list of these festivals. The account of Irenaeus
therefore is not so unreasonable after all; and we need not have
hesitated to accept it, if there had been any definite grounds for doing
so.

It will be seen however, that Irenaeus, while maintaining that our Lord
was forty years old, grounds his opinion mainly on a false inference
from John viii. 57. At the same time he adduces the testimony of the
Gospel and 'all the elders,' not for this particular view of our Lord's
age, but for the more general statement that He was past middle life;
and this vagueness of language suggests that, though their testimony was
distinctly on his side as against the Valentinians, it did not go beyond
this. It is very far from improbable indeed, that he borrowed this very
interpretation of John viii. 57 from one of these Asiatic elders, just
as we have seen him [247:2] elsewhere borrowing an interpretation of
another passage of this Gospel (xiv. 2) from the same source. But, as he
has here forced the testimony of the Fourth Gospel to say more than it
really does say, so also he may have strained the testimony of 'all the
elders' in the same direction. Yet the broad fact remains that he
confidently appeals to them in support of a chronology suggested by the
Fourth Gospel, but certainly not deducible from the Synoptic narratives.

And the extant remains of this school support the appeal so qualified.
We have seen that its two most famous authors, Melito and Apollinaris,
distinctly follow the chronology of the Fourth Evangelist, the one in
the duration of the Lord's ministry, the other in the events of the
Paschal week [248:1].

Of the special references to these fathers of the Asiatic Church, which
appear elsewhere in Irenaeus, it is sufficient to say that in one
instance an elder is represented as quoting a saying of our Lord
contained only in the Gospel of St John [248:2] while the words ascribed
to another are most probably suggested by the language of the same
Evangelist [248:3]. This latter elder, whose speculations are given