Elders' may probably be taken as a specimen of his style of
interpretation;" [4:2] and then follows the passage in which the
indirect construction receives a specific direction by the insertion of
"they taught." [4:3] Neither Dr. Westcott nor Dr. Lightfoot makes the
slightest allusion to the fact that they are almost alone in advancing
this testimony, which Dr. Lightfoot describes as having "a vital
bearing on the main question at issue, the date of the fourth Gospel."
The reader who had not the work of Irenaeus before him to estimate the
justness of the ascription of this passage to Papias, and who was not
acquainted with all the circumstances, and with the state of critical
opinion on the point, could scarcely, on reading such statements,
understand the real position of the case.

Now the facts are as follows: Routh [4:4] conjectured that the whole
passage in Irenaeus was derived from the work of Papias, and in this he
was followed by Dorner, [4:5] who practically introduced the suggestion
to the critics of Germany, with whom it found no favour, and no one whom
I remember, except Tischendorf and perhaps Professor Hofstede de Groot,
now seriously supports this view. Zeller, [5:1] in his celebrated
treatise on the external testimony for the fourth Gospel, argued against
Dorner that, in spite of the indirect construction of the passage, there
is not the slightest certainty that Irenaeus did not himself interpolate
the words from the fourth Gospel, and he affirmed the fact that there is
no evidence whatever that Papias knew that work. Anger, [5:2] discussing
the evidence of the presbyters quoted by Irenaeus in our Gospels, refers
to this passage in a note with marked doubt, saying, that _fortasse_ (in
italics), on account the chiliastic tone of the passage, it may, as
Routh conjectures, be from the work of Papias; but in the text he points
out the great caution with which these quotations from "the presbyters"
should be used. He says, "Sed in usu horum testimoniorum faciendo