Third in a series on the writings of the early Christians.
Today we look at Papias. The writings of Papias survive only as material quoted by two later Christian writers: Irenaeus of Lyons (125-202), who tells us that Papias wrote a five-volume work; and Eusebius of Caesarea (263-339). We call this lost work The Exposition of the Oracles of the Lord. It was in existence already by the year 130 and was lost except for the quoted fragments sometime after Eusebius wrote his Ecclesiastical History.
In today’s excerpt, Papias says he is one degree of separation removed from the Apostles. He preferred tales told of what the Apostles themselves said to things written in books:
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: which things Aristion and the presbyter John, the disciples of the Lord, say. For I imagined that what was to be got from books was not so profitable to me as what came from the living and abiding voice.
I love that phrase, "the living and abiding voice." It reminds me of something Paul wrote. It comes out beautifully in the King James Version:
"Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle" (2 Thess 2:15).
"Epistle:" books. "Word:" sayings, oral stories: the living and abiding voice. Though Paul does advise Christians to heed both word and epistle, the oral tradition is closest to Papias’s heart.
bearing blog 