Fragments of Papias

Papias was a Bishop from the early period. Eusebius was under the impression that Papias had known Polycarp and even John. There is, however, some confusion as to whether he knew John the Apostle or John the Elder. I think it best to take Papias' own word for it that he did not know the Apostle John personally, but knew (and had spoken to) those who did. Papias valued the oral account of Jesus moreso than written accounts.

Eusebius, the early church historian, didn't think much of Papias. Here's an interesting quote from him about Papias: "Among other things he says that there will be a period of a thousand years after the resurrection of the dead when the kingdom of Christ will be set up in material form on this earth. These ideas, I suppose, he got through a misunderstanding of the apostolic accounts, not realizing that the things recorded in figurative language were spoken by them mystically. For he certainly appears to be a man of very little intelligence, as one may say judging from his own words. Yet he was the reason that so many ecclesiastical writers after him held the same opinion, on the grounds that he was a man of the early period - like Irenaeus, for example, and anyone else who has expressed similar ideas."

It is from Papias that we get the following bits of information (whether they be correct or not is another matter):

1) Gospel of Mark is based on Peter's memory
2) Gospel of Mark is not chronological
3) Matthew composed oracles in Hebrew language
4) The 1st fall of satan (pre-man) was spatial (to earth)
5) The 2nd fall of satan (cross) was judgment (to earth)