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PAPIAS

Bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor in the early 2nd century. Papias (ca. 60-130) wrote a work in five books (chapters) titled An Exposition of the Dominical Oracles, which is now lost. At least 13 fragments have been preserved in writings of various church fathers, primarily Irenaeus and Eusebius, and as late as the 9th-century Chronicon of George the Sinner.

The most important of the Papias traditions is his writing on the Gospel of Mark. Papias says that he heard from John the Elder that Mark was a translator for Peter, writing “all that [Peter] remembered accurately but not in order as to what was either said or done by the Lord” (Eusebius HE 3.39.15). Papias’ work is an apology for the disorderliness of Mark and a defense of Mark’s accuracy, and is the sole source of the idea that Mark got his information from Peter. Many scholars have disputed this tradition, contending that it is an effort of the early Church to link Mark, who was not an eyewitness to the life of Jesus, to a source who was the preeminent eyewitness. Yet this critique presupposes that Papias seeks to establish the canonicity of Mark on the criterion of apostolicity. Such presupposition is anachronistic; Papias has no idea of a NT canon, and he prefers the oral traditions of the elders over books (HE 3.39.4).

Papias also wrote that Matthew “made an ordered arrangement of the oracles in the Hebrew language,” which others then translated (HE 3.39.16). Although most scholars doubt Papias on this, some do support the idea of a Semitic origin of Matthew. A number of the church fathers express disdain for Papias because of his chiliasm, belief in the coming thousand-year reign of Christ. This belief indicates likelihood that Papias knew the book of Revelation.

Bibliography. J. A. Kleist, Rereading the Papias Fragment on St. Mark (St. Louis, 1945); W. R. Schoedel, Polycarp, Martyrdom of Polycarp, Fragments of Papias. The Apostolic Fathers 5, ed. R. M. Grant (New York, 1967).

J. Christian Wilson

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

PAPIAS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)