I'm becoming a big Papias fan of late, mainly for what he says about Mark (the gospel and gospel writer) and Matthew (which I take to be a narrative gospel and not just a collection sayings). And now I'm becoming intrigued by the report that he knew the daughters of Philip, because if it's true then it would of course ultimately mean that there was an historical Christian Philip (who, by Matthews' reckoning, would be Philip the apostle of Jesus). So let's take another look at EH 3.39.8-9:There has been a propensity among modern scholars to date Papias' writing during the reign of Hadrian (117-138 GE) or later rather than earlier, although the reasoning behind such estimates is often not spelled out. Eusebius considers Papias in connection with his treatment of Polycarp, Ignatius, and Clement of Rome during the reign of Trajan (98~117 GE). As Vernon Bartlet has pointed out, in the third book of the Historia ecclesiastica, Eusebius nowhere goes beyond Trajan's time, and in fact still treats this period at the start of book four. "Eusebius . . . saw no reason . . . to infer from internal evidence that Papias wrote after rather than before A.D. 110, though he is at pains to refute Irenaeus's statement that Papias was actually 'a hearer and eye-witness of the sacred Apostles.' " Bartlet's view has recently been confirmed by Ulrich Kortner, whose interpretation of the Papias fragments substantiates the early date suggested by Eusebius' relative chronology. Kortner argues persuasively that the polemical function of Papias' work, the Tradentenkreis of the presbyters, and Papias' association with the daughters of Philip are all more suited to a time around 110 than the middle of the second century. Since there is no convincing reason to dispute Papias' contact with the daughters of Philip, a date before 110 CE for his writing is to be preferred, lest we find ourselves constantly rewarding early Christian figures with extraordinary life spans.
8. But it is fitting to subjoin to the words of Papias which have been quoted, other passages from his works in which he relates some other wonderful events which he claims to have received from tradition.
9. That Philip the apostle dwelt at Hierapolis with his daughters has been already stated. But it must be noted here that Papias, their contemporary, says that he heard a wonderful tale from the daughters of Philip. For he relates that in his time one rose from the dead. And he tells another wonderful story of Justus, surnamed Barsabbas: that he drank a deadly poison, and yet, by the grace of the Lord, suffered no harm.
I had originally taken the reference to "one rose from the dead" to mean that one of Philip's daughter's had risen from the dead, but now I see that it more likely refers to someone who was not one of Philips' daughters, and Matthews persuades me that it refers to someone from Philip's time (i.e, "for he [Papias] relates that in his [i.e., Philip's] time one rose from the dead"), not his daughters' (and Papias') time.
In other words, Papias heard a story from the daughters of Philip that someone in Philip's time had risen from the dead. Now, while this story (and the other one about Justus) would be (from my point of view) at best "pious fiction," I see no reason (yet) to discount the possibility that Papias really did know Philip's daughters (and that thus a Christian Philip actually existed).
I like to think that the kind of stories that Philip's daughters told Papias (which more or less all Judeo-Christian writings exhibit) are ancient "special effects." I mean, what else would people promoting a religion say about their founder(s)? "He was a normal guy and nothing out of the ordinary ever happened"? Of course not. So I expect to see (and reckon that ancients expected to see) some explosions and car chases. So I suppose the worst I can say is that the daughters are guilty of embellishment, but I see no reason to deny their existence. There are made up stories in more less all Judeo-Christian writings, but it of course doesn't follow that the people who created them didn't exist. So I'm willing to entertain the idea that Philip's daughters existed and actually talked to Papias (and sometime during Trajan's reign).