Did Papias apostolize the Christ just as "Mark" paulinized the Christ?

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Giuseppe
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Did Papias apostolize the Christ just as "Mark" paulinized the Christ?

Post by Giuseppe »

In past, I had written:
"Logiôn kuriakôn exègèseis" is translated generally as :

"explanations of the sayings of the Lord".

The French mythicist Alfaric translated it as:

"explanations of the oracles concerning the Lord".

If the latter was the original sense , then Papias reported only presumed prophecies and oracles concerning the Christ (who had therefore an entirely passive role as not the author of these sayings).
Apparently, the principal objection against this thesis was the explicit mention by Papias of “the things either said or done by the Lord”. The generic messianic prophecies and oracles could be co-opted by Papias in the form: “Jesus said X”. But the acts?


Really, there is a particular way by which also the acts of other people could be co-opted by Papias as acts “of Jesus”. An example of this co-optation is under the our same eyes, in the gospel of Mark:
what Paul did, "Mark" (author) said that Jesus did.

A similar operation was done by Papias:

what the single apostles did, Papias said that Jesus did.

A clue of this is the following info:
And the same writer uses testimonies from the first Epistle of John and from that of Peter likewise

https://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/201/2010108.htm


In 1 John 2 we read about the connection acts of apostles = acts of Christ:
3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

The same logic is applied by Papias: who works as Christ, then he is someone who has "known" Christ. Hence the his acts become virtually the acts of Christ.


An objection may be that the author of 1 John 2:2-6 didn't mean "know Christ" in a literal sense, but Eusebius secures us about the obtuse Papias's literalism:

12. To these belong his statement that there will be a period of some thousand years after the resurrection of the dead, and that the kingdom of Christ will be set up in material form on this very earth. 957 I suppose he got these ideas through a misunderstanding of the apostolic accounts, not perceiving that the things said by them were spoken mystically in figures.

Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
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