The term "
logia" , plural of "
logion" , is used variously in ancient writings and modern scholarship in reference to communications of divine origin. In pagan contexts, the principal meaning was
oracles, while Jewish and Christian writings used
logia in reference especially to
the divinely inspired Scriptures. A famous and much-debated occurrence of the term is in the account by
Papias of Hierapolis on the origins of the
canonical Gospels. Since the nineteenth century,
New Testament scholarship has tended to reserve the term
logion for a divine saying, especially one spoken by Jesus, in contrast to narrative, and to call a collection of such sayings, as exemplified by the
Gospel of Thomas,
logia.