interesting regarding these books from early writers. Dr. Lightfoot
says that Eusebius "restricts himself to the narrowest limits which
justice to his subject will allow," and he illustrates this by the
case of Irenaeus. He says: "Though he (Eusebius) gives the principal
passage in this author relating to the Four Gospels (Irenaeus,
_Adv. Haer._ iii. 1, 1) he omits to mention others which contain
interesting statements directly or indirectly affecting the
question, _e.g._ that St. John wrote his Gospel to counteract the
errors of Cerinthus and the Nicolaitans (Irenaeus, _Adv. Haer._ iii.
11, 1)." [51:1] I must explain, however, that the "interesting
statement" omitted, which is not in the context of the part quoted,
is not advanced as information derived from any authority, but only
in the course of argument, and there is nothing to distinguish it
from mere personal opinion, so that on this ground Eusebius may well
have passed it over. Dr. Lightfoot further says: "Thus too when he
quotes a few lines alluding to the unanimous tradition of the
Asiatic Elders who were acquainted with St. John, [51:2] he omits
the context, from which we find that this tradition had an important
bearing on the authenticity of the fourth Gospel, for it declared
that Christ's ministry extended much beyond a single year, thus
confirming the obvious chronology of the Fourth Gospel against the
apparent chronology of the Synoptists." [51:3] Nothing, however,
could be further from the desire or intention of Eusebius than to
represent any discordance between the Gospels, or to support the one
at the expense of the others. On the contrary, he enters into an
elaborate explanation in order to show that there is no discrepancy
between them, affirming, and supporting his view by singular
quotations, that it was evidently the intention of the three
Synoptists only to write the doings of the Lord for one year after
the imprisonment of John the Baptist, and that John, having the
other Gospels before him, wrote an account of the period not
embraced by the other evangelists. [51:4] Moreover, the
extraordinary assertions of Irenaeus not only contradict the
Synoptics, but also the Fourth Gospel, and Eusebius certainly could
not have felt much inclination to quote such opinions, even although
Irenaeus seemed to base them up