PAPIAS OF HIERAPOLIS
Papias was a Greek Apostolic Father, Bishop of Hierapolis (Turkey), and author who lived c. 60 – c.
130 AD. He wrote the Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord in five books. This work, which is lost
apart from brief excerpts in the works of Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 180) and Eusebius of Caesarea (c.
320), is an important early source on Christian oral tradition and especially on the origins of
the canonical Gospels.
Very little is known of Papias apart from what can be inferred from his own writings. He is described
as "an ancient man who was a hearer of John and a companion of Polycarp" by Polycarp's
disciple Irenaeus (c. 180).
Eusebius adds that Papias was Bishop of Hierapolis around the time of Ignatius of Antioch. In this
office Papias was presumably succeeded by Abercius of Hierapolis.
Date
The work of Papias is dated by a few modern scholars to about 95–110. Eusebius refers to Papias
only in his third book, and thus seems to date him before the opening of his fourth book in 109.
Papias himself knows several New Testament books, whose dates are themselves controversial,
and was informed by John the Evangelist, Aristion, the daughters of Philip and others who had
themselves heard the Twelve Apostles. He is also called a companion of the long-
lived Polycarp (69–155).
Papias describes his way of gathering information in his preface:
“I shall not hesitate also to put into ordered form for you, along with the interpretations,
everything I learned carefully in the past from the elders and noted down carefully, for the
truth of which I vouch. For unlike most people I took no pleasure in those who told many
different stories, but only in those who taught the truth. Nor did I take pleasure in those who
reported their memory of someone else’s commandments, but only in those who reported
their memory of the commandments given by the Lord to the faith and proceeding from the
Truth itself. And if by chance anyone who had been in attendance on the elders arrived, I
made enquiries about the words of the elders—what Andrew or Peter had said, or Philip or
Thomas or James or John or Matthew or any other of the Lord’s disciples, and whatever
Aristion and John the Elder, the Lord’s disciples, were saying. For I did not think that
information from the books would profit me as much as information from a living and
surviving voice.”
Papias, then, inquired of travelers passing through Hierapolis what the surviving disciples of Jesus
and the elders—those who had personally known the Twelve Apostles—were saying. One of these
disciples was Aristion, probably bishop of nearby Smyrna, and another was John the Elder, usually
identified (despite Eusebius' protest) with John the Evangelist, residing in nearby Ephesus, of whom
Papias was a hearer; Papias frequently cited both. From the daughters of Philip, who settled
in Hierapolis, Papias learned still other traditions.
Gospel origins
Pasqualotto, St. Mark writes his Gospel at the dictation of St. Peter.
Papias provides the earliest extant account of who wrote the Gospels. Eusebius preserves two
(possibly) verbatim excerpts from Papias on the origins of the Gospels, one concerning Mark and
then another concerning Matthew.
On Mark, Papias cites John the Elder:
The Elder used to say: Mark, in his capacity as Peter’s interpreter, wrote down accurately as many
things as he recalled from memory—though not in an ordered form—of the things either said or done
by the Lord. For he neither heard the Lord nor accompanied him, but later, as I said, Peter, who
used to give his teachings in the form of chreiai, but had no intention of providing an ordered
arrangement of the logia of the Lord. Consequently Mark did nothing wrong when he wrote down
some individual items just as he related them from memory. For he made it his one concern not to
omit anything he had heard or to falsify anything.
The excerpt regarding Matthew says only:
Therefore Matthew put the logia in an ordered arrangement in the Hebrew language, but each
person interpreted them as best he could.
