Before Jerusalem Fell

Additional External Witnesses 93
With this testimony before us it is not easy to doubt that Papias made
some such statement, for the suggestion of a lacuna, offered by Bishop
Lightfoot in 1875, is now scarcely tenable, though it has been lately
revived by Harnack. But if Papias made it, the question remains
whether he made it under some misapprehension, or merely by way
of expressing his conviction that the prophecy of Mic. x.39 had found
a literal fulfillment. Neither explanation is very probable in view of
the early date of Papias. He does not, however, affh-m that the
brothers suffered at the same time: the martyrdom of John at the
hand of the Jews might have taken place at any date before the last
days ofJerusalem.32
If these two pieces of data are in fact from Papias (as Swete,
Lightfoot, 33
and other competent scholars are inclined to believe),
they provide for those who hold to the Apostolic authorship of
Revelation strong external evidence for a pre-A.D. 70 composition
of Revelation. In that the excerpts, however, are not indisputably
genuine, they cannot be reckoned conclusive. They serve merely as
probable indicators – indicators that fit well with the mass of evidence
to come.
The Muratorian Canon
In 1740 L. A. Muratori made his celebrated discovery and publication
of a manuscript fragment that subsequently came to be
known as “Canon Muratorianus.”3 4
The portion of this important manuscript dealing with the canon
of Scripture claims to have been written by someone who was a
contemporary of Pius, bishop of Rome, sometime between A.D. 127
and 157. R. L. Harris notes (by reference to Westcott) that “the date
of the Canon is admitted to be close to 170 A.D. “3 5
This date was
held earlier by Schaff, as well.36 Lightfoot and Harmer argue that it
32. Swete, Revelation, pp. clxxix-clxxx
33. Lightfoot and Harmer, &ostolic Fathas, pp. 519, 531.
34. F. F. Bruce, The Booh and the Parchrmmts, 3rd ed. (Westwood, NJ: Revell, 1963),
p. 109. According to James J. L. Ratton, the relevant portion of this fragment was
published by Muratori in Antiq. Ital., 3:854. See Ratton, The Apoca~pse of St. John
(London: R. & T. Washboume, 1912), p. 28. It is presently housed in the Ambrosian
Library of Milan. It is an eighth century palimpsest and is designated: Cod. Ambros. J
101 sup.
35. R. Laird Harris, Ttu Inspiration and Canonicip of t)u Bible, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 1969), p. 214.
36. Scha& Histo~ 1:776.