Ante-Nicene Fathers – Fragments of Papias – Creating and Confounding Traditions

It’s a shame that, though Papias – Bishop of Hierapolis – wrote a five volume work of collected sayings of Jesus and the apostles, all that remains to us is a few isolated fragments scattered in the works of Eusebius and Irenæus.  We know of Papias only by hearsay. And he himself knew Jesus only through the stories and recollections of those he interviewed. 

“But I shall not be unwilling to put down along with my interpretations, whatsoever instructions I received with care at any time from the elders, and store up with care in my memory, assuring you at the same time of their truth.   For I did not, like the multitude, take pleasure in those who spoke much, but in those who taught the truth; nor in those who related strange commandments, but in those who rehearsed the commandments given by the Lord to faith, and proceeding from truth itself.  If, then, any one who had attended on the elders came, I asked minutely after their sayings, - 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…” [i]

These collected sayings he recorded in a five volume work – what New Testament scholars call a logia.  But apart from the few fragments quoted by Eusebius and Irenæus we have no idea what sayings of Jesus may have been recorded in these works. 

It has been suggested (but not universally accepted) that this now-lost five volume work might have been the hypothetical Q document that provided a common source of material for the authors of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. 

Though we have little of Papias’ work, what does remain is interesting.  It’s from Papias that we get the tradition that Mark was Peter’s secretary and that he “wrote down accurately whatever he remembered.  It was not, however, in exact order that he related the sayings or deeds of Christ.” [ii]  Papias identifies Matthew as the author of the Gospel according to Matthew – “Matthew put together the oracles [of the Lord] in the Hebrew language, and each one interpreted them as best he could.”[iii]  The earliest copies of Matthew’s gospel that we have are in Greek, but some scholars believe that they were translated from Hebrew or Aramaic (but, again, this is not universally accepted…)

We have, in the New Testament, two different accounts of Judas’s death (in Matthew and in Acts).  Various attempts have been made to harmonize the difference between these two stories into one narrative – some with more plausibility than others…  But Papias further confounds the issue by relating a third tradition of Judas’ death – one that is difficult to reconcile with either of the canonical accounts.

“Judas walked about in this world as a sad example of impiety; for his body having swollen to such an extent that he could not pass where a chariot could pass, he was crushed by the chariot, so that his bowels gushed out.” [iv]

When I finish the time machine I’m building in my garage, I think I’ll go back and find a copy of Papias’ five volumes. 

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[i] Fragments of Papias Chap. I

[ii] Chap. VI

[iii] Chap. VI

[iv] Chap. III