John the Presbyter
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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John the Presbyter ("John the Elder"/"John the Priest") is an obscure figure of the early Church who is either distinguished from or identified with the Apostle John. He appears in fragments from the church father Papias of Hierapolis as one of the author's sources and is first unequivocally distinguished from the Apostle by Eusebius of Caesarea, the interpreter of both Papias and Polycarp. The shadowy figure of John the Presbyter formed a link in the chain of Early Christian oral tradition that Papias of Hierapolis recorded in the early 2nd century, in five volumes called "Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord" (Greek Template:Polytonic — Kyriakôn logiôn exêgêsis), which was quoted by Irenaeus in the late second century and by Eusebius of Caesarea later, but which have been lost. He is frequently proposed as an alternative author of some of the Johannine books in the New Testament.
