Papias of Hierapolis (60–130)

Early bishop whose fragments preserve traditions about the origins of the Gospels. Papias or Papias of Hierapolis was a Greek Apostolic Father, Bishop of Hierapolis, and author who lived c. AD 65 – c. 140. He is mainly known for gathering oral stories about Jesus and his disciples from John the Elder and the daughters of Philip. Papias compiled these in the Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord, of which brief excerpts appear in the works of Irenaeus of Lyons and Eusebius of Caesarea. A scholarly consensus dates his work to around 110 AD They are considered an important early source on Christian oral tradition and especially on the origins of the canonical Gospels.