This wide sense of the word 'oracles' therefore in itself is fully substantiated by examples both before and after the time of Papias. But our author objects that it is not consistent with the usage of Papias himself elsewhere. The examples alleged however fail to prove this. If Papias entitled his work 'Exposition of Oracles of the Lord,' or rather 'of Dominical Oracles,' there is nothing to show that he did not include narrative portions of the Gospels, as well as discourses; though from the nature of the case the latter would occupy the chief place. On the contrary, it is certain from the extant notices that he dealt largely with incidents. And this he would naturally do. By false allegory and in other ways Gnostic teachers misinterpreted the facts, not less than the sayings, of the Gospels; and Papias would be anxious to supply the corrective in the one case as in the other. The second example of its use in Papias certainly does not favour our author's view. This father, as we have seen [175:3], describes St Mark as not writing down 'in order the things said or done by Christ' ([Greek: ou mentoi taxei ta hupo tou Christou ê lechthenta ê prachthenta]). This, he states, was not within the Evangelist's power, because he was not a personal disciple of our Lord, but obtained his information from the preaching of Peter, who consulted the immediate needs of his hearers and had 'no intention of giving a consecutive record of the Dominical oracles' ([Greek: ouch hôsper suntaxin tôn kuriakôn poioumenos logiôn]). Here the obvious inference is that [Greek: ta kuriaka logia] in the second clause is equivalent to [Greek: ta hupo tou Christou ê lechthenta ê prachthenta] the first, just as the [Greek: suntaxin] in the second clause corresponds to the [Greek: taxei] in the first. Our author however, following the lead of those who adopt the same interpretation of 'the oracles,' explains it differently [176:1].
There is an evident contrast made. Mark wrote [Greek: ê lechthenta ê prachthenta], because he had not the means of writing discourses, but Matthew composed the [Greek: logia]. Papias clearly distinguishes the work of Mark, who had written reminiscences of what Jesus had said and done, from that of Matthew, who had made a collection of his discourses [176:2].