tay in Paradise, and
some shall dwell in the City. And for this reason, [they say that]
the Lord declared ([Greek: eipaekenai]) that _in my Father's_
[realm] _are many mansions;_ for all things [are] of God, who
gives to all the fitting habitation: even as His Word saith
(_ait_), that to all is allotted by the Father as each is or
shall be worthy. And this is (_est_) the couch upon which
they shall recline who are bidden to His marriage supper. That
this is (_esse_) the order and disposition of the saved, the
Presbyters, disciples of the Apostles, say,' etc.

That Irenaeus is here merely giving the 'exegesis of his own day,'
as the author of 'Supernatural Religion' suggests [Endnote 297:2],
is not for a moment tenable. Irenaeus does indeed interpose for
two sentences (Omnia enim... ad nuptias) to give his own comment
on the saying of the Presbyters; but these are sharply cut off
from the rest by the use of the present indicative instead of the
infinitive. There can be no question at all that the quotation 'in
My Father's realm are many mansions' [Greek: en tois ton Patros
mon monas einai pollas] belongs to the Presbyters, and there can
be but little doubt that these Presbyters are the same as those
spoken of as 'disciples of the Apostles.'

Whether they were also 'the Presbyters' referred to as his
authority by Papias is quite a secondary and subordinate question.
Considering the Chiliastic character of the passage, the
conjecture [Endnote 298:1] that they were does not seem to me
unreasonable. This however we cannot determine positively. It is
quite enough that Irenaeus evidently attributes to them an
antiquity considerably beyond his own; that, in fact, he looks
upon them as supplying the intermediate link between his age and
that of the Apostles.

* * * * *

Two quotations from the fourth Gospel are attributed to Basilides,
both of them quite indisputable as quotations. The first is found
in the twenty-second chapter of the seventh book of the
'Refutation,' 'That was the true light which lighteth every man
that cometh into the world [Endnote 298:2] ([Greek: aen to phos to
alaethinon, o photizei panta anthropon erchomenon eis ton kosmon]
= John i. 9), and the second in the twenty-seventh chapter, 'My
hour is not yet come' ([Greek: oupo aekei aeora mon] = John ii.
4). Both of these passages are instances of the exegesis by which
the Basilidian doctrines were defended.

The real q