PAPIAS, bishop of Hierapolis in Phyrgia. was a Christian writer, who flourished in the 2d century. According to Irenmus, he was a disciple of the apostle John; but Euso Pius, who quotes (II:Storia Ecelesiast'ica, chap. 39) the words of Irenmus, immediately subjoins a passage from Paphis himself, in which the latter distinctly states that he did not receive his doctrines front any of the apostles, but from the "living voice" of such followers of theirs as "are still surviving." He was, however, an "associate" of Poly carp, a bishop in the same province of proconsular Asia; and as the latter was a disciple of the apostle John, it is probable that Irenmus—a somewhat hasty writer—inferred that his companion must have been the same. The Paschal or Alexandrian Chronicle states that he suffered martyrdom at A.D. Eusebius describes Papias as " well skilled in all manner of learning, and well acquainted with the Scriptures;" but a little further on he speaks of him as a man "of limited understanding" smikr(3s un (On noun), and a very credulous chronicler of "unwritten tradition," who had collected "certain strange parables of our Lord and of his doctrine, and some other matters rather too fabu lous." The work in which these were contained was entitled LogiOn Kuriakim, Eregesetis Biblia E'. (Five books of commentaries on the sayings of our Lord). It is now lost, but certain fragments of it have been preserved by Irenmus, Ensebins, Maximus Confessor, and other writers. These fragments are extremely interesting, because of the light which
they throw on the origin of the New Testament Scriptures, and their importance may be estimated from the fact, that they contain the earliest information which we possess on the subject. It is Papias who is our authority for the statement, that the evangelist drew up a collection of our Lord's sayings and doings (ta logia) in the Hebrew (probably Syro-Chaldaic or Aramaic) dialect, and that every one translated it as he was able. There can be no doubt that this is a perplexing statement, suggesting as it does the delicate question: " If Papias is correct, who wrote our present. Matthew, which is in Greek, and not in Hebrew?" (For a consideration of -this point, see MATTnEw.) Papias also tells us, either on the authority of John the presbyter, or more probably ou that of one of his followers, that the evangelist Mark was the interpreter (Hermeneutes) of Peter, and wrote "whatsoever hp [Peter] recorded with great accuracy." But the passage is far from implying that Mark was a mere amanuensis of Peter, as some have asserted, but only, as Valesius has shown, that Mark listened attentively to Peter's preaching, culled from it such things as most strictly concerned Christ, and so drew up his gospel. Papias, it remains to be said, was an extreme millenarian. See MILLEN