Papias (
pā'pēəs), fl. A.D. 130, early Christian theologian said to have been bishop of Hieropolis and a friend of St.
Polycarp. Papias' five-volume work,
Oracles; or, Explanations of the Sayings of the Lord, survives only in fragments quoted by Eusebius of Caesarea and St. Irenaeus. These are valuable sources for the history of the church.