And these things are borne witness to in the fourth book of the writings of Papias, the hearer of John, and a companion of Polycarp .” ( 5. 33. 3 ) Apparently Irenaeus also held to the sexta -/ septamillennial scheme writing that the end of human history will occur after the 6, 000th year.

In his work Redating Matthew, Mark and Luke Wenham wrote regarding the book of Matthew the following: " The fathers are almost unanimous in asserting that Matthew the tax-collector was the author, writing first, for Hebrews in the Hebrew language: Papias ( c. 60-130 ), Irenaeus ( c. 130-200 ), Pantaenus ( died c. 190 ), Origen ( c. 185-254 ), Eusebius ( c. 260-340 ), Epiphanius of Salamis ( c. 315-403 ), Cyril of Jerusalem ( c. 315-86 ) and others write in this vein.

Before the 18th century, the belief of many, including the Church Fathers Papias ( c. 60-130 ), Irenaeus ( c. 130-200 ), Origen ( c. 185-254 ), Eusebius ( c. 260-340 ) Jerome ( c. 340-420 ), and Augustine of Hippo ( c. 354-430 ), had been that Matthew was the first gospel to be written.

This hypothesis was based on an argument from authority: the claim by the 2nd century AD bishop Papias that he had heard that Matthew wrote first.

However, Michael W. Holmes has pointed out that it is not certain " that Papias knew the story in precisely this form, inasmuch as it now appears that at least two independent stories about Jesus and a sinful woman circulated among Christians in the first two centuries of the church, so that the traditional form found in many New Testament manuscripts may well represent a conflation of two independent shorter, earlier versions of the incident.

Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor during the first half of the 2nd century, writes that Matthew composed the logia in the Hebrew tongue and each one interpreted them as he was able.

He appears in fragments from the church father Papias of Hierapolis as one of the author's sources and is first unequivocally distinguished from the Apostle by Eusebius of Caesarea.

An early tradition within the Roman Catholic Church, first visible in the writings of Papias, identify her sons James and Joses / Joseph referred to in scripture as the " brothers of Jesus " as his biological cousins, Mary of Clopas being the sister ( or sister-in-law, or even cousin ) of Mary the Mother of Jesus.

The earliest surviving references to the gospel tradition are quoted by Eusebius ( lived c. 263 – 339 CE ), and different but related traditions appear in the works of Papias ( wrote during the first half of 2nd century CE ) and the works of Clement.

" The benefit of historical immediacy, as argued by D. H. Fischer is one of the key determinants of historicity, and the church father Papias is a very early source in regard to testimony that the Matthew wrote his gospel first.

A third ancient source, Irenaeus, also provides further information about the traditions, especially that of Papias, and possibly adds a third related tradition to the sources.

Papias does not identify his Matthew, but by the end of the 2nd century the tradition of Matthew the tax-collector had become widely accepted, and the line " The Gospel According to Matthew " began to be added to manuscripts.

Well into the 2nd century Christians held onto a strong preference for oral tradition as clearly demonstrated by writers of the time, such as Papias.

Clopas also appears in early Christian writings such as the 2nd century writers Papias and Hegesippus as a brother of Joseph, the husband of Mary, mother of Jesus, and as the father of Simeon, the second bishop of Jerusalem.

John the Presbyter appears in a fragment by Papias, a 2nd century bishop of Hierapolis, who published an " Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord " ( Greek — Kyriakôn logiôn exêgêsis ) in five volumes.

An alternative account of John's death, ascribed by later Christian writers to the early second century bishop Papias of Hierapolis, claims that he was slain by the Jews.

Two possible patristic sources that may refer to eye witness encounters with Jesus are the early references of Papias and Quadratus, reported by Eusebius of Caesarea in the 4th century.

The tradition that this was the disciple Matthew begins with the early Christian bishop Papias of Hierapolis ( about 100 – 140 AD ), who, in a passage with several ambiguous phrases, wrote: " Matthew collected the oracles ( logia — sayings of or about Jesus ) in the Hebrew language ( Hebraïdi dialektōi — perhaps alternatively " Hebrew style ") and each one interpreted ( hērmēneusen — or " translated ") them as best he could.

" Scholars have put forward several theories to explain Papias: perhaps Matthew wrote two gospels, one, now lost, in Hebrew, the other our Greek version ; or perhaps the logia was a collection of sayings rather than the gospel ; or by dialektōi Papias may have meant that Matthew wrote in the Jewish style rather than in the Hebrew language.

According to Irenaeus, Polycarp was a companion of Papias, another " hearer of John " as Irenaeus interprets Papias ' testimony, and a correspondent of Ignatius of Antioch.

* Another account was preserved by the early Christian leader, Papias: " 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.

This man, said in one document to be the author of two of the Epistles of John, was supposed to have been the teacher of the martyr bishop Papias, who had in turn taught Eusebius ' own teacher Irenaeus.

This is what was related by Papias about Mark.

Eusebius also had low regard for the chiliast, Papias, and he let it be known that in his opinion Papias was " a man of small mental capacity " because he had taken the Apocalypse literally.

Richard Bauckham states that while Papias was collecting his information ( c. 90 ), Aristion and the elder John ( who were Jesus ’ disciples ) were still alive and teaching in Asia minor, and Papias gathered information from people who had known them.

Although in line with many stories in the Gospels and probably primitive ( Didascalia Apostolorum refers to it, possibly Papias also ), critics argue that it was " certainly not part of the original text of St John's Gospel.

3. 39 ), he argued that this section originally was part of Papias ' Interpretations of the Sayings of the Lord, and included it in his collection of Papias ' fragments.

For this and other reasons, the Gospel of Matthew was composed in Greek and not Hebrew as suggested by Papias.

Philip may be the last writer to quote Papias, and is best known for his statement that in the second book of the latter's five book treatise, Papias reported that the Apostle John was " killed by the Jews ".

Advocates of an Aramaic original also refer to the patristic writings ( Papias, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius, Jerome ) that indicate Aramaic was the original written language of parts of the New Testament.

The demonstration, mainly by English scholars, of the impossibility of the late dates ascribed to the New Testament documents ( four Epistles of St. Paul and the Apocalypse were the only documents generally admitted as being of early date ), and the proofs of the authenticity of the Apostolic Fathers and of the use of St. John's Gospel by Justin, Papias, and Ignatius gradually brought Baur's theories into discredit.

On the question of the relationship of the Synoptic Gospels, Holtzmann in his early work, Die synoptischen Evangelien, ihr Ursprung und geschichtlicher Charakter ( The Synoptic Gospels: Their Origin and Historical Character ; Leipzig, 1863 ), presents a view which has been widely accepted, maintaining the priority of Mark, deriving Matthew in its present form from Mark and from Matthew's earlier " collection of Sayings ," the Logia of Papias, and Luke from Matthew and Mark in the form in which we have them.

Other early premillennialists included Pseudo-Barnabas, Papias, Methodius, Lactantius, Commodianus Theophilus, Tertullian, Melito, Hippolytus of Rome, Victorinus of Pettau and various Gnostics groups and the Montanists.

Bauckham states that by “ our times ” he may refer to his early life, rather than when he wrote ( 117 – 124 ), which would be a reference contemporary with Papias.

This association is mentioned by a number of early Christian writers, including Papias, Origen, and Eusebius.

The demonstration, mainly by English scholars, of the impossibility of the late dates ascribed to the New Testament documents ( four Epistles of St. Paul and the Apocalypse were the only documents generally admitted as being of early date ), and the proofs of the authenticity of the Apostolic Fathers and of the use of St. John's Gospel by Justin, Papias, and Ignatius gradually brought Baur's theories into discredit.

Papias provides a very early source for the idea that the canonical Gospels were either based on some non-Greek written sources, or ( in the case of Matthew ) possibly " composed " in a non-Greek language.

This means that early writers, like Papias, Clement, Ireneas, and Justin Martyr would have quoted them, and the message of the Agrapha must not conflict with the teachings of Jesus contained in the Canonical Gospels.

The Talmudic evidence for early Christian gospels, combined with Papias ' reference to the Hebrew " logia " ( Eusebius, Church History III.

Apart from Papias ' comment, we do not hear about the author of the Gospel until Irenaeus around 185 who remarks that Matthew issued a written Gospel of the Hebrews ( Against Heresies 3. 1. 1 ) Pantaenus, Origen and other Church Fathers also believed Matthew wrote the Gospel of the Hebrews ( Church History 5. 10. 3, 6. 25. 4 ) None of these Church Fathers asserted that Matthew wrote his Gospel in Greek.

* Fragment about Papias -- from the remains of the Church History preserved in the Bodleian Codex Barrocianus 142.