Primary source · Koine Greek
Expositions of the Oracles of the Lord (fragments)
Papias of Hierapolis · c. AD 110–130
What this text is
Five lost books on the Lord's sayings, surviving only in quotations — including the earliest statements on how Mark wrote Peter's memoirs and Matthew compiled the oracles in Hebrew.
Profile of Papias of Hierapolis →
Interlinear passages
Word-for-word glosses of the original; the complete public-domain translation is linked below.
Fragment on Mark (via Eusebius, EH III.39)
ΜάρκοςMarkμὲνindeedἑρμηνευτὴςinterpreterΠέτρουof Peterγενόμενος,having becomeὅσαwhateverἐμνημόνευσεν,he rememberedἀκριβῶςaccuratelyἔγραψεν.he wrote
Public-domain translations
Roberts–Donaldson (ANF, 1885)
Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately whatsoever he remembered of the things said or done by Christ — not, indeed, in order… Matthew put together the oracles in the Hebrew language, and each one interpreted them as best he could.
J. B. Lightfoot (1891)
For I did not think that I could get so much profit from the contents of books as from the utterances of a living and abiding voice.
Manuscript witnesses
Irenaeus, Against Heresies & Eusebius, Church History III.39
c. 180 / c. 325 (medieval copies)No manuscript of Papias exists: the Exposition survives as excerpts in later authors — chiefly Eusebius's skeptical chapter.
Patrologia Graeca, vol. 5 (Migne)
1857Standard pre-critical text of the corpus.
Provenance
Hierapolis, c. AD 110–130; the five books survive only as quotations
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- The Apostolic Fathers (fragments section)Michael W. Holmes, 3rd ed. 2007Collected fragments with translation.
- Papias and the New TestamentMonte A. Shanks, 2013Full study and catalogue of the fragments.