Chapter III · PAPIAS AND JUSTIN MARTYR.

The fact of the early reception, by the churches, of Memoirs of Christ deemed authentic, probable in itself without any proof, is conclusively proved by writings and to which reference has been made, particularly those of Papias and Justin Martyr.

Papias was bishop of Hierapolis, in Phrygia, in the first part of the second century of the Christian era. Though of moderate capacity, and entertaining extravagant ideas of the millennium, he was entirely honest, and there is no reason to question his testimony as to what he was told in respect to Matthew and Mark. He suffered martyrdom about A.D. 163. From fragments of his writings found in Eusebius and in the works of Irenæus, it appears that “John the Presbyter” gave him information in respect to the First and Second Gospels.

There is a difference of opinion as to whether this John was John the Apostle. Eusebius held that he was not, and says that in his day (264-340) there were two tombs at Ephesus, both of which were called John’s. The question of identity is not very material. Papias gives, in explanation, that he imagined that “what was to be got from books” concerning the Lord, was not as profitable to him “as what came from the living and abiding voice.” For this reason, he says, “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,[1] which things Aristion and the Presbyter John, the disciples of the Lord, say.”

From this, it is plain there were then accredited “books” concerning our Lord. And two of these books are identified by his statement of what he was told by John the Presbyter, that “Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately whatever he remembered of Peter’s instructions,” whom he accompanied (it was not, however, in exact order that he related the sayings or deeds of Christ), “and Matthew put together the oracles in the Hebrew language, and each one interpreted them as best he could.” These extracts prove that the First and Second Gospels were extant, not only when Papias wrote, and when the Presbyter gave him the information, but also some time before. His informant, if not John the Apostle, must have been one who had seen the Apostles or some of them, so that the testimony is very direct.

That Papias does not mention Luke’s Gospel, or John’s Gospel, proves nothing except that he had no occasion to say anything about them, in that connection. The Fourth Gospel may not have been written at the time of the interview with the Presbyter, for the Apostle John lived until about the year 100, and he wrote his Gospel very late in life. It is not quoted by Clement.

And as to the Third Gospel, the occasion for the writing of it is distinctly stated by the author himself, who was well known. And so of the Fourth Gospel; its authorship modestly but clearly appears upon its face. We have mere fragments from Papias not exceeding two or three hundred lines all told. In some of his five books (almost the whole of which have been lost) there may have been references to both Luke and John. Eusebius[2] states that Papias made use of testimonials from the First Epistle of John; but as he does not say that Papias ascribed that Epistle to John, his use of it only proves that it was extant when he wrote. There is, however, a quotation in one of these fragments (v), “In my Father’s house are many mansions,” which is literally as in John xiv. 2, and so, presumptively, was taken from it. It is an interesting fact that the only quotations other than this, by Papias (if those in this fragment are indeed by him), are as in verses 25 to 28 of the 15th of First Corinthians, a chapter which will be found to have great weight in another part of this discussion.

Papias, therefore, probably[3] quotes the Fourth Gospel. But, without such quotation, no inference could be drawn against Luke or John from mere silence. Papias would still prove the First and Second Gospels, leaving the Third and Fourth to stand upon the presumption in their favor stated in our last chapter, and upon positive evidence from other sources.