than those of the Old Testament, but, on the other hand, he does not mention that he possessed, and quoted from, the Gospel according to the Hebrews. There is no reason for supposing that Hegesippus found a New Testament Canon in any of the Christian communities which he visited, and such a rule of faith certainly did not yet exist in Rome in a.d. 160-170.(1) There is no evidence whatever to show that Hegesippus recognized any other evangelical work than the Gospel according to the Hebrews, as the written source of his knowledge of the words of the Lord.(2)
2.
The testimony of Papias is of great interest and importance in connection with our inquiry, inasmuch as he is the first ecclesiastical writer who mentions the tradition that Matthew and Mark composed written records of the life and teaching of Jesus; but no question has been more continuously contested than that of the identity of the works to which he refers with our actual Canonical Gospels. Papias was Bishop of Hierapolis, in Phrygia,(3) in the first half of the second century, and is said to have suffered martyrdom under Marcus Aurelius about a.d. 164-167.(4) About the middle of the second century(5)5 he wrote a work in five books, entitled
"Exposition of the Lord's Oracles "(l) [——]—], which, with the exception of a few fragments preserved to us chiefly by Eusebius and Irenæus, is unfortunately, no longer extant. In the preface to his book he stated: "But I shall not hesitate also to set beside my interpretations all that I rightly learnt from the Presbyters, and rightly remembered, earnestly testifying to their truth. For I was not, like the multitude, taking pleasure in those who speak much, but in those who teach the truth, nor in those who relate alien commandments, but in those who record those delivered by the Lord to the faith, and which come from the truth itself. If it happened that any one came who had followed the Presbyters, I inquired minutely after the words of the Presbyters, what Andrew or what Peter said, or what Philip or what Thomas or James, or what John or Matthew, or what any other of the disciples of the Lord, and what Aristion and the Presbyter John, the disciples of the Lord, say, for I held that what was to be derived from books did not so profit me as that from the living and abiding voice"(2). [——]—]
It is clear from this that Papias preferred tradition to any written works with which he was acquainted, that he attached little or
no value to any Gospels with which he had met,(1) and that he knew absolutely nothing of Canonical Scriptures of the New Testament.(2) His work was evidently intended to furnish a collection of the discourses of Jesus completed from oral tradition, with his own expositions, and this is plainly indicated both by his own words, and by the statements of Eusebius who, amongst other things, mentions that Papias sets forth strange parables of the Saviour and teachings of his from unwritten tradition [——]—].(3) It is not, however, necessary to discuss more closely the nature of the work, for there is no doubt that written collections of discourses of Jesus existed before it was composed of which it is probable he made use.
The most interesting part of the work of Papias which is preserved to us is that relating to Matthew and
1 With reference to the last sentence of Papias, Teschendorf
asks: "What books does he refer to here, perhaps our Gospels
? According to the expression this is not impossible, but
from the whole character of the book in the highest degree
improbable." (Wann wurden, u. s. w.t p. 109.) We know little
or nothing of the "whole character" of the book, and what we
do know is contradictory to our Gospels. The natural and
only reasonable course is to believe the express declaration
of Papias, more especially as it is made, in this instance,
as a prefatory statement of his belief.