Note 3 — Chapter III · PAPIAS AND JUSTIN MARTYR.

The editors call it “mere guess-work” (Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Vol. I., p. 444, note). Eusebius makes no mention of it, though his silence is not conclusive against it.

The question is of sufficient importance to warrant the giving of the entire passage from Irenæus in which the quotations appear. It is the last of five short chapters of his work on Heresies. Certain passages are printed in italics, which the reader is specially asked to consider: “As the presbyters say, then those who were deemed worthy of an abode in heaven shall go there, others shall enjoy the delights of Paradise, and others shall possess the splendor of the city, for everywhere the Saviour will be seen, according as they shall be worthy who see Him. But there is this distinction between the habitation of those who produce an hundred-fold, and those who produce sixty-fold, and who produce thirty-fold; for the first will be taken up into the heavens, the second class will dwell in Paradise, and the last will inhabit the city; and that on this account the Lord said, ‘In my Father’s house are many mansions;’ for all things belong to God, who supplies all with a suitable dwelling-place, even as His word says, that a share is given to all by the Father, according as each one is or shall be worthy. And this is the couch in which they shall recline who feast, being invited to the wedding. The Presbyters, the disciples of the Apostles, say that this is the gradation and arrangement of those who are saved, and that they advance through steps of this nature; and that, moreover, they ascend through the Spirit to the Son, and through the Son to the Father; and that in due time the Son will yield up His work to the Father, even as it is said by the apostle, ‘For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.’ For in the times of the kingdom the just man who is on the earth shall forget to die. But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted which did put all things under Him. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that the Son may be all in all.” There being no question of the genuineness of this passage from Irenæus, by whom were the quotations, found in it? Now while it is possible they were by Irenæus, to illustrate what ‘the Presbyters, the disciples of the Apostles,’ maintained, the more obvious and natural interpretation is, that they were cited by those Presbyters themselves. This being so, it is not of much consequence whether Irenæus had this information of these views and citations, from Papias (from whom he had obtained like information upon other subjects as to the sayings of the Presbyters), or whether Irenæus had this information of their sayings from other sources. In either event the quotations were made either by Papias, his contemporaries, or predecessors, “disciples of the Apostles.” And of this opinion are Charteris (Canonicity, c. 17, of the Introduction), and Routh, Tischendorf, Wescott, Dorner and Riggenback, as cited in “Supernatural Religion” p. 604.