Supplement to Introducing the New Testament, 2nd ed. © 2018 by Mark Allan Powell. All rights reserved.
“If anyone came who had followed the elders, I inquired into the
words of the elders, what Andrew or Peter or Philip or Thomas or
James or John or Matthew or any other of the Lord’s disciples
had said, and what Aristion and the Elder John, the Lord’s
disciples, were saying.” (Papias quoted by Eusebius in Church
History 3.39.4)
Then Gundry says,
Both times that the name John appears, it appears with both the
designations “elder” and “the Lord’s disciple.” By contrast,
Aristion—even though designated a “Lord’s disciple”—lacks the
title “elder” when mentioned alongside John. This contrast points
toward a single individual named John. Papias wanted to make
plain the single identity of John by repeating the designation
“elder,” just used for the apostles but omitted with Aristion; and
Papias mentioned John a second time because John was the
only one of the Lord’s disciples still living and speaking who was
also an apostle. Admittedly, Eusebius interpreted Papias as
referring to two different men named John and even claimed a
tradition of two men named John and having different memorials
in Ephesus. But one and the same person may have more than
one memorial and sometimes does.”
1
So contra Eusebius and centuries of tradition, John the apostle and
John the elder were the same person, namely the person who is
called “the beloved disciple” in the fourth Gospel.
No Need for a Distinct “John the Seer”