Re: The Johannine epistles and the Johannine gospel.
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 1:57 pm
Ben wrote:
This is the way I look at it too. And my estimation of (and interest in) Papias has grown greatly in recent years.But Eusebius, who is intent upon quoting the earliest attestations for canonical books by the church fathers, says only that Papias knew the gospels of Matthew and Mark; nothing is said about those of Luke or John.
It makes sense, then, that Papias knew 1 John but did not know the gospel of John, implying (situated as Papias was in Asia Minor, very close to the probable point of origin for all the Johannine literature) that the epistles (1 John at least; the other two are too brief to expect much attention) had been written and published at the time, but the gospel had not.