Papias (Greek: Παπίας) or Papias of Hierapolis was a Greek Apostolic Father, Bishop of Hierapolis (modern Pamukkale, Turkey), and author who lived c. AD 60 – c. 130. He is mainly known for gathering oral stories about Jesus and his disciples from John the Elder and the daughters of Philip. Papias compiled these in the Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord (Greek: Λογίων Κυριακῶν Ἐξήγησις), of which brief excerpts appear in the works of Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 180) and Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 320). A scholarly consensus dates his work to around 110 AD They are considered an important early source on Christian oral tradition and especially on the origins of the canonical Gospels.
Although Papias's precise dates are unknown, he is traditionally born around 60–70 AD. He lived in Hierapolis, Phrygia, in Asia Minor, and flourished in the early 2nd century. The name Papias was common in the region, suggesting that he may have been a native of the area.
Much of what is known about Papias comes from later testimony and from inferences drawn from his own writings. Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp of Smyrna, describes him as "an ancient man", "a hearer of John [of Ephesus]", and "a companion of Polycarp". Eusebius places Papias in the same period as Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp, and portrays him as a learned collector of early Christian tradition but a poor interpreter, especially in his millennialism.
The claim that Papias died around 164 AD is based on a late and probably erroneous tradition, commonly explained as a confusion with the martyr Papylus/Papylas. Dale B. Martin places his death around 130.
A scholarly consensus dates Papias's five-volume work titled Expositions of the Oracles of the Lord to around 110 AD. Many scholars giving a range of 100–120, though a date of 125 or 130 remains commonly cited. William Davies and Dale Allison allows for the possibility that it was written in 100 AD or prior, and Anna M. Sitz favours an earlier date between 90–120.
Eusebius refers to Papias only in his third book, and 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 stated to be informed by John the Elder, 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), Agapius of Hierapolis dates one of his histories to the 12th year of Trajan's rule (110 AD). For all these reasons, Papias is thought to have written around the turn of the 2nd century.
Reconstruction of the five books
There are indications that the work of Papias was still extant in the late Middle Ages, but the full text is now lost. Extracts, however, appear in a number of other writings, some of which cite a book number. MacDonald proposes the following tentative reconstruction of the five books, following a presumed Matthaean order.
In the preface of his book, he describes his way of gathering information:
But I shall not hesitate also to put down for you along with my interpretations whatsoever things I have at any time learned carefully from the elders and carefully remembered, guaranteeing their truth. For I did not, like the multitude, take pleasure in those that speak much, but in those that teach the truth; not in those that relate strange commandments, but in those that deliver the commandments given by the Lord to faith, and springing from the truth itself. If, then, any one came, who had been a follower of the elders, I questioned him in regard to the words of the elders,—what Andrew or what 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 disciples of the Lord, and what things Aristion and the presbyter John, the disciples of the Lord, say. For I did not think that what was to be gotten from the books would profit me as much as what came from the living and abiding voice.
According to this passage, Papias questioned travelers passing through Hierapolis, especially surviving disciples of Jesus and the elders, who had personally known the Twelve Apostles. 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, who lived in nearby Ephesus and from whom Papias heard directly; Papias frequently cited both. Papias was also learned other traditions from the daughters of Philip, who had settled in Hierapolis.
There is debate over Papias' final statement in the quotation above about the "living and abiding voice." One view, common in 20th-century scholarship, holds that written sources in Papias' time were valued less than oral ones. The other argues that "living voice" was a topos, a set phrase for personal teaching and training, so that Papias was preferring direct instruction to learning from books alone.
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, as well as the First Epistle of John and the First Epistle of Peter.
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.
Immediately thereafter, Eusebius states that Papias "employed testimonies from the first epistle of John and from that of Peter likewise"; the exact meaning of this statement is ambiguous.