Papias of Hierapolis

About Papias of Hierapolis

Papias was bishop of Hierapolis during the first half of the second century. The Lexham Bible Dictionary places his surviving fragments among the witnesses to early Gospel composition, rather than among books accepted into a scriptural canon.

His preface describes questioning visitors about the elders' teaching and valuing a living voice. He reports that Mark recorded Peter's teaching and that Matthew collected oracles in Hebrew.

Irenaeus calls him a companion of Polycarp and identifies five books. He cites Papias while describing a future abundance of vines and grain, presenting this expectation as a tradition received from earlier teachers.

The modern CDAMM entry places these expectations within early Christian millenarianism: hope for an earthly reign after resurrection. It also explains that the dismissive assessment preserved by Eusebius reflects opposition to that outlook, rather than a neutral appraisal of Papias.

Jerome later catalogued Papias's five volumes and repeated the distinction between two men named John. His entry illustrates how later Christian writers transmitted both Papias's reputation and arguments about which earlier teacher he had known.

The Catholic Encyclopedia discusses the difficulty of interpreting Papias's statement about Matthew's oracles. Its discussion distinguishes questions about language, translation and the form of that collection; the fragment is not a surviving manuscript of Matthew's Gospel.

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