Fragment 1 – Fragment 2 – Fragment 3 – Fragment 4 – Fragment 5 – Fragment 6 – Fragment 7
Presented here is a translation of what remains of a five-volume work by Papias of Hierapolis, who may have had access to eyewitness disciples and those who knew the Apostles of the Lord. It is thought that these volumes were composed sometime around AD 100. Irenaeus says of him: “Now testimony is borne to these things in writing by Papias, an ancient man, who was a hearer of John, and a friend of Polycarp, in the fourth of his books; for five books were composed by him.”
But I will not be unwilling to put down, along with my interpretations, whatever instructions I received with care at any time from the elders, and stored 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 commands, but in those who rehearsed the commands given by the Lord to faith, and proceeding from truth itself. If then, anyone 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 elder John, the disciples of the Lord, say. For I imagined that what was to be gotten from scrolls was not so profitable to me as what came from the living and abiding voice.
[The early Christians] called those who practiced a godly guilelessness, “children.”
Judas walked about in this world a sad example of impiety; for his body having swollen to such an extent that he could not pass where a chariot could pass easily, he was crushed by the chariot, so that his bowels gushed out.
[The Lord taught]: “The days will come in which vines will grow, having each ten thousand branches, and in each branch ten thousand twigs, and in each true twig ten thousand shoots, and in each of the shoots ten thousand clusters, and on each of the clusters ten thousand grapes, and every grape when pressed will give twenty-five metretes of wine. And when any one of the holy ones will lay hold of a cluster, another will cry out, I am a better cluster, take me; bless the Lord through me.” In like manner, [He said] that “a grain of wheat would produce ten thousand ears, and that every ear would have ten thousand grains, and every grain would yield ten pounds of clear, pure, fine flour; and that apples, and seeds, and grass would produce in similar proportions; and that all animals, feeding then only on the productions of the earth, would become peaceable and harmonious, and be in perfect subjection to man.” . . . “Now these things are credible to believers.” And Judas the traitor, not believing, and asking, “How will such growths be accomplished by the Lord?” The Lord said, “They will see who will come to them.”
As the elders say, then those who are deemed worthy of an abode in Heaven will go there, others will enjoy the delights of Paradise, and others will possess the splendor of the city; for everywhere the Savior will be seen, according as they will be worthy who see Him. But that there is this distinction between the habitation of those who produce a hundredfold, and that of those who produce sixty-fold, and that of those who produce thirty-fold; for the first will be taken up into the heavens, the second class will dwell in Paradise, and the last will inhabit the city; and that on this account the Lord said, “In My Father’s house are many rooms.” For all things belong to God, who supplies all with a suitable dwelling-place, even as His word says, that a share is given to all by the Father, according as each one is or will be worthy. And this is the couch in which they will recline who feast, being invited to the wedding. The elders, the disciples of the apostles, say that this is the gradation and arrangement of those who are saved, and that they advance through steps of this nature; and that, moreover, they ascend through the Spirit to the Son, and through the Son to the Father; and that in due time the Son will yield up His work to the Father, even as it is said by the apostle, “For He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.” For in the times of the kingdom the just man who is on the earth will forget to die. “But when He says all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted which did put all things under Him. And when all things will be subdued to Him, then will the Son also Himself be subject to Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.”
And the elder said this. Mark having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately whatever he remembered. It was not, however, in exact order that he related the sayings or deeds of Christ. For he neither heard the Lord nor accompanied Him. But afterward, as I said, he accompanied Peter, who accommodated his instructions to the necessities [of his hearers], but with no intention of giving a regular narrative of the Lord’s sayings. For what reason Mark made no mistake in thus writing some things as he remembered them. For of one thing he took special care, not to omit anything he had heard, and not to put anything fictitious into the statements. . . . Matthew put together the oracles [of the Lord] in the Hebrew language, and each one interpreted them as best he could.
To some of them [(messengers)] He gave dominion over the arrangement of the world, and He commissioned them to exercise their dominion well, but it happened that their arrangement came to nothing.