The importance of this passage, especially in regard to the Fourth Gospel, can scarcely be exaggerated. For is it conceivable that Irenæus would have ascribed it to St. John, unless his teacher Polycarp had done the same? Or is it conceivable that Polycarp, who personally knew St. John, could have been mistaken in the matter? The difficulties of either alternative are very great; yet there is no other, unless we admit that St. John was the author.
It should also be noticed that Irenæus, when discussing two readings of Rev. 13. 18, supports one of them by saying that it is found in all the most approved and ancient copies; and was also maintained by men who saw John face to face.[183] He had thus some idea as to the value of evidence; and he is not likely to have written as he did about the Four Gospels, unless he had seen of them equally approved and ancient copies.
[183] Irenæus, Bk. 5. 30.
(B.) The almost Undisputed Testimony.
We next come to the testimony of some earlier writers, which was formerly much disputed, but is now admitted by nearly all critics.
(1.) Justin Martyr.
By far the most important of these is Justin Martyr; whose works—two Apologies (or books written in defence of Christianity) and a Dialogue—date from about A.D. 145-50. He was no ordinary convert, but a philosopher, and says that before he became a Christian, he studied various philosophical systems and found them unsatisfactory; so we may be sure that he did not accept Christianity without making some inquiries as to the facts on which it rested.[184] And as his father and grandfather were natives of Palestine, where he was born, he had ample means of finding out the truth.
[184] Dial., 2.
Now Justin does not allude to any of the Evangelists by name, but he frequently quotes from the 'Memoirs of the Apostles,' which he says were sometimes called Gospels,[185] and were publicly read and explained in the churches, together with the Old Testament Prophets. And he gives no hint that this was a local or recent practice, but implies that it was the universal and well-established custom. These Memoirs, he tells us,[186] were written by the Apostles and their followers, which exactly suits our present Gospels, two of which are ascribed to Apostles (St. Matthew and St. John), and the other two to their immediate followers (St. Mark and St. Luke). And as Justin was writing for unbelievers, not Christians, there is nothing strange in his not mentioning the names of the individual writers.
[185] Apol. 1. 66; Dial., 100.