Shanks evades this by claiming that Papias only mentioned one John whom he listed twice, and never spoke of two Johns, but this view requires that Papias poorly expressed himself
Not necessarily. Several people interpret Papias that way: as mentioning John twice, first in a list of apostles ("what Andrew or Peter said, or what was said by Philip, or by Thomas, or by James, or by John, or by Matthew, or by any other of the Lord's disciples"), and then in a list of witnesses who are still alive ("which things Aristion and the presbyter John, the disciples of the Lord, say. For I imagined that what was to be got from books was not so profitable to me as what came from the living and abiding voice").
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