Papias — Fragments

Papias — Surviving Fragments

[Papias of Hierapolis wrote five books, the Expositions of the Sayings of the Lord, now lost; these fragments survive in later writers.]

Papias said: I will not hesitate to set down for you, along with my interpretations, whatever I once learned well from the elders and remember well, for I am sure of its truth. For I took no pleasure, as many do, in those who say much, but in those who teach the truth; nor in those who recall others’ commandments, but in those who recall the commandments given by the Lord to the faith and proceeding from the truth itself. And whenever anyone came who had followed the elders, I would inquire about the words of the elders—what Andrew or Peter had said, or Philip, or Thomas, or James, or John, or Matthew, or any other of the Lord’s disciples; and what Aristion and the elder John, the Lord’s disciples, were saying. For I did not think that what comes from books would profit me as much as what comes from a living and abiding voice.

[On Mark]

And the elder used to say this: Mark, having become Peter’s interpreter, wrote down accurately, though not in order, all that he remembered of the things said and done by the Lord. For he had neither heard the Lord nor followed him, but later, as I said, he followed Peter, who gave his teaching as need required, not making an ordered arrangement of the Lord’s sayings. So Mark did nothing wrong in writing down some things as he recalled them; for he took care to leave out nothing he had heard and to state nothing falsely.

[On Matthew]

Of Matthew he said this: Matthew arranged the sayings in the Hebrew tongue, and each one interpreted them as he was able.

[Other fragments]

He related a saying that in the kingdom to come the earth would bear with marvelous abundance, the vines and grains yielding beyond measure, and all the creatures living at peace and in subjection to mankind. [Meaning uncertain]

He told also of the daughters of Philip, who lived in Hierapolis, and of wonders he had learned from them; and he set down the dreadful end of Judas the betrayer.

[Fragment breaks here]