Mark. After stating that Papias had inserted in his book accounts of Jesus given by Aristion, of whom nothing is known, and by the Presbyter John, Eusebius proceeds to extract a tradition regarding Mark communicated by the latter. There has been much controversy as to the identity of the Presbyter John, some affirming him to have been the Apostle,(1) but the great majority of critics deciding that he was a totally different person.(2) Irenseus, who, sharing the Chiliastic opinions of Papias, held him in high respect, boldly calls him "the hearer of John" (meaning the Apostle) "and a companion of Polycarp" [——]—](3) but this is expressly contradicted by Eusebius, who points out that, in the preface to his book, Papias by no means asserts that he was himself a hearer of the Apostles, but merely that he received their doctrines from those who had personally known them;(3) and after making the quotation from Papias which we have given
above, he goes on to point out that the name of John is twice mentioned, once together with Peter, James, and Matthew, and the other Apostles, "evidently the Evangelist," and the other John he mentions separately, ranking him amongst those who are not Apostles, and placing Aristion before him, distinguishing him clearly by the name of Presbyter.(1) He further refers to the statement of the great Bishop of Alexandria, Dionysius,(2) that at Ephesus there were two tombs, each bearing the name of John, thereby leading to the inference that there were two men of the name.(3) There can be no doubt that Papias himself in the passage quoted mentions two persons of the name of John, distinguishing the one from the other, and classing the one amongst the Apostles and the other after Aristion, an unknown "disciple of the Lord," and, but for the phrase of Irenæus, so characteristically uncritical and assumptive, there probably never would have been any doubt raised as to the meaning of the passage. The question is not of importance to us, and we may leave it, with the remark that a writer who suffered martyrdom under Marcus Aurelius, c. a.d. 165, can scarcely have been a hearer of the Apostles.(4)
The account which the Presbyter John is said to have
given of Mark's Gospel is as follows: "'This also the Presbyter said: Mark having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote accurately whatever he remembered, though he did not arrange in order the things which were either said or done by Christ. For he neither heard the Lord, nor followed him; but afterwards, as I said,(1) accompanied Peter, who adapted his teaching to the occasion, and not as making a consecutive record of the Lord's oracles. Mark, therefore, committed no error in thus writing down some things as he remembered them. For of one point he was careful, to omit none of the things which he heard, and not to narrate any of them falsely.' These facts Papias relates concerning Mark."(2) The question to decide is, whether the work here described is our Canonical Gospel or not.
The first point in this account is the statement that Mark was the interpreter of Peter [——]—]. Was he merely the secretary of the Apostle writing in a manner from his dictation, or does the passage mean that he translated the Aramaic narrative of Peter into
1 Dr. Lightfoot (Contemp. Bev., 1875, p. 842), in the course
of a highly fanciful argument says, in reference to this "as
I said": "It is quite clear that Papias had already said
something of the relations existing between St. Peter and St
Mark previously to the extract which gives an account of the
Second Gospel, for he there refers back to a preceding
notice." It is quite clear that he refers back, but only to
the preceding sentence in which he "had already said
something of the relations" in stating the fact that: "Mark,
having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote, &c."
