TryingToLearn
Puritan Board Freshman
Papias was known to be a hearer of John the apostle and much of our evidence for the apostolic authorship of the gospels comes from him. I, however, am pretty perplexed as to why many consider him to be a reliable source due to quotes like these:
"To some of them [angels] He gave dominion over the arrangement of the world, and He commissioned them to exercise their dominion well. And he says, immediately after this: but it happened that their arrangement came to nothing"
This is easily the most concerning quote of his I've read as he denies the Creator-Creature distinction in positing angels as creators. Isn't this blatant heresy?
Or take this quotation,
"As the presbyters say, then those who are deemed worthy of an abode in heaven shall go there, others shall enjoy the delights of Paradise, and others shall possess the splendour of the city; for everywhere the Saviour will be seen, according as they shall be worthy who see Him. But that there is this distinction between the habitation of those who produce an hundred-fold, 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 mansions:' 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 shall be worthy. And this is the couch in which they shall recline who feast, being invited to the wedding. The presbyters, 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"
He also has a very strange take on Judas' death that I won't bother quoting here, but my question is what are we to make of these statements? How could someone who was so close to the apostles say anything like these? Does it make sense to see Papias as a reliable source at all?
"To some of them [angels] He gave dominion over the arrangement of the world, and He commissioned them to exercise their dominion well. And he says, immediately after this: but it happened that their arrangement came to nothing"
This is easily the most concerning quote of his I've read as he denies the Creator-Creature distinction in positing angels as creators. Isn't this blatant heresy?
Or take this quotation,
"As the presbyters say, then those who are deemed worthy of an abode in heaven shall go there, others shall enjoy the delights of Paradise, and others shall possess the splendour of the city; for everywhere the Saviour will be seen, according as they shall be worthy who see Him. But that there is this distinction between the habitation of those who produce an hundred-fold, 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 mansions:' 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 shall be worthy. And this is the couch in which they shall recline who feast, being invited to the wedding. The presbyters, 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"
He also has a very strange take on Judas' death that I won't bother quoting here, but my question is what are we to make of these statements? How could someone who was so close to the apostles say anything like these? Does it make sense to see Papias as a reliable source at all?