cautissime versandum est, tum quod, nisi omnia, certe pleraque ab
Irenaeo _memoriter_ repetuntur, tum quia hic illic incertissimum est,
utrum ipse loquatur Irenaeus an presbyterorum verba recitet." Meyer,
[5:3] who refers to the passage, remarks that it is doubtful whether
these presbyters, whom he does not connect with Papias, derived the
saying from the Gospel or from tradition. Riggenbach [5:4] alludes to it
merely to abandon the passage as evidence connected with Papias, and
only claims the quotation, in an arbitrary way, as emanating from the
first half of the second century. Professor Hofstede de Groot, [5:5] the
translator of Tischendorf's work into Dutch, and his warm admirer,
brings forward the quotation, after him, as either belonging to the
circle of Papias or to that Father himself. Hilgenfeld [5:6] distinctly
separates the presbyters of this passage from Papias, and asserts that
they may have lived in the second half of the second century. Luthardt,
[6:1] in the new issue of his youthful work on the fourth Gospel, does
not attempt to associate the quotation with the book of Papias, but
merely argues that the presbyters to whom Irenaeus was indebted for it
formed a circle to which Polycarp and Papias belonged. Zahn [6:2] does
not go beyond him in this. Dr. Davidson, while arguing that "it is
impossible to show that the four (Gospels) were current as early as A.D.
150," refers to this passage, and says: "It is precarious to infer with
Tischendorf either that Irenaeus derived his account of the presbyters
from Papias's book, or that the authority of the elders carries us back
to the termination of the apostolic times;" and he concludes: "Is it not
evident that Irenaeus employed it (the word 'elders') loosely, without
an exact idea of the persons he meant?" [6:3] In another place Dr.
Davidson still more directly says: "The second proof is founded on a
passage in Irenaeus where the Father, professing to give an account of
the eschatological tradition of 'the presbyter, a disciple of the
Apostles,' introduces the words, 'and that therefore the Lord said, "In