Papias

preserved by Eusebius

“For I did not think that I could get so much profit from the contents of books as from the utterances of a living and abiding voice.”

Papias, the Bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia (modern Pamukkale, Turkey), and author who lived c. 60 – c. 130 AD ) during much of the first half of the second century, had two main goals. First, he wanted to assert the authority of certain books that weren’t fully accepted by all the churches. Second, he aimed to share stories and traditions about the origins of other books that were widely trusted. Papias was a close friend of Polycarp and, according to Irenaeus, a follower of the apostle John. Regardless, he had a deep interest in speaking with people who had firsthand knowledge of the apostles.

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Eusebius:

FIVE books of Papias are extant, which bear the title Expositions of Oracles of the Lord. Of these Irenaeus io also makes mention as the only works written by him, in the following words :

‘These things Papias, who was a hearer of John and a companion of Polycarp, an ancient worthy, witnesseth in writing in the fourth of his books. For there are five books composed by him.’ So far Irenaeus.

Yet Papias himself, in the preface to his discourses, cer-tainly does not declare that he himself was a hearer and eye-witness of the holy Apostles, but he shows, by the language which he uses, that he received the matters of the faith from those who were their friends.

ButI will not scruple also to give for thee a place along with my interpretations to whatsoever at any time I well learned from the elders and well stored up in memory, guaranteeing its truth. For I did not, like the generality, take pleasure in those who have much to say, but in those who teach the truth; nor in those who relate their strange commandments, but in those who record such as were given from the Lord to the Faith and come from the Truth itself. And if ever any one came who had been a follower of the elders, I would inquire as to the discourses of the elders, what was said by Andrew, or what by Peter, or what by Philip, or what by Thomas or James, or what by John or Matthew or any other of the disciples of the Lord; and the things which Aristion and the elder John, the disciples of the Lord, say. For I did not think that I could get so much profit from the contents of books as from the utterances of a living and abiding voice.”