Polycarp Sentence Examples

Philomelion was probably a Pergamenian foundation on the great Graeco-Roman highway from Ephesus to the east, and to its townsmen the Smyrniotes wrote the letter that describes the martyrdom of Polycarp. Cicero, on his way to Cilicia, dated some of his extant correspondence there; and the place played a considerable part in the frontier wars between the Byzantine emperors and the sultanate of Rum.

He continued to work at his editions of the Apostolic Fathers, and in 1885 published an edition of the Epistles of Ignatius and Polycarp, collecting also a large store of valuable materials for a second edition of Clement of Rome, which was published after his death (1st ed., 1869).

St Polycarp, the disciple of St John the Evangelist and bishop of Smyrna, visited Rome in 159 to confer with Anicetus, the bishop of that see, on the subject; and urged the tradition, which he had received from the apostle, of observing the fourteenth day.

Anicetus, however, declined to admit the Jewish custom in the churches under his jurisdiction, but readily communicated with Polycarp and those who followed it.

It was during his pontificate that St Polycarp visited the Roman Church.

The influence of its language is probably to be seen in Ignatius, Polycarp and Hermas, less certainly in the epistle of Barnabas.

Thus the work was composed before 190, and, since it most probably uses the martyrdom of Polycarp, after 155.

The first consists of seven letters addressed by Ignatius to the Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, Romans, Philadelphians, Smyrnaeans and to Polycarp. The second collection consists of the preceding extensively interpolated, and six others of Mary to Ignatius, of Ignatius to Mary, to the Tarsians, Antiochians, Philippians and Hero, a deacon of Antioch.

Polycarp may have known of more than one Pauline note to Philippi, no longer extant, or he may be referring loosely to 2 Thessalonians, which was addressed to a neighbouring Macedonian church.

Later he devoted himself to the revision of the Syriac version of the Bible, and with the help of his chorepiscopus Polycarp produced in 598 the so-called Philoxenian version, which was in some sense the received Bible of the Monophysites during the 6th century.

The Pauline doctrine of " grace " has been perverted to lasciviousness, as by the heretics whom Polycarp opposes Polyc. vii.), and this doctrine is taught for " hire " (vv.

The nature of the heresy, opposed, however, and the resort to the authority of Jude " the brother of James " against it, favour rather the period of Polycarp and Papias (117-150).

The relevant statements in the letter, moreover, are supported by the references to Polycarp which we find in the body of Irenaeus's great work.

The Epistle of Polycarp. - Though Irenaeus states that Polycarp wrote many "letters to the neighbouring churches or to certain of the brethren" 4 only one has been preserved, viz.

The testimony which it affords to the Ignatian Epistles is so striking that those scholars who regard these letters as spurious are bound to reject the Epistle of Polycarp altogether, or at any rate to look upon it as largely interpolated.

The rehabilitation of the Ignatian letters in modern times has, however, practically destroyed the attack on the Epistles of Polycarp. The external evidence in its favour is of considerable weight.

Lightfoot, however, has proved that Polycarp's statements may equally well be directed against Corinthianism or any other form of Docetism, while some of his arguments are absolutely inapplicable to Marcionism.

Some modern scholars (among whom Harnack was formerly numbered, though he has modified his views on the point) feel a difficulty about the peremptory tone which Ignatius adopts towards Polycarp. There was some force in this argument when the Ignatian Epistles were dated about 140, as in that case Polycarp would have been an old and venerable man at the time.

But now that the date is put back to about 112 the difficulty vanishes, since Polycarp was not much over forty when he received the letter.

The Letter of the Church at Smyrna to the Philomelians is a most important document, because we derive from it all our information with regard to Polycarp's martyrdom.

The epistle gives a minute description of the persecution in Smyrna, of the last days of Polycarp and of his trial and martyrdom; and as it contains many instructive details and professes to have been written not long after the events to which it refers, it has always been regarded as one of the most precious remains of the 2nd century.

Assuming the genuineness of the documents mentioned, we now proceed to collect the scanty information which they afford with regard to Polycarp's career.

I can even now point out the place where the blessed Polycarp used to sit when he discoursed, and describe his goings out and his comings in, his manner of life and his personal appearance and the discourses which he delivered to the people, how he used to speak of his intercourse with John and with the rest of those who had seen the Lord, and how he would relate their words.

And everything that he had heard from them about the Lord, about His miracles and about His teaching, Polycarp used to tell us as one who had received it from those who had seen the Word of Life with their own eyes, and all this in perfect harmony with the Scriptures.

Polycarp thus becomes the living link between the Apostolic age and the great writers who flourished at the end of the 2nd century.

The fact too that he never shows any signs of having been influenced by Polycarp and never once quotes his writings is a further proof that the relation between them was slight.

Polycarp was the disciple of the latter, not the former.

It is true that Harnack has adduced arguments which cannot be discussed here to prove that Irenaeus was not born till about 140; 15 but against this we may quote the decision of Lipsius, who puts the date of his birth at 130, 16 while Lightfoot argues for 120.17 The fact that Irenaeus never quotes Polycarp does not count for much.

Polycarp wrote very little.

In spite therefore of much modern criticism there seems to be no solid reason for rejecting the statements of Irenaeus and regarding Polycarp as the link between the Apostolic age and the first of the Catholic fathers.

Though Polycarp must have been bishop of Smyrna for nearly half a century we know next to nothing about his career.

The letters of Ignatius illustrate the commanding position which Polycarp had already attained in Asia.

It was in the discharge of the task which had been laid upon him by Ignatius that Polycarp was brought into correspondence with the Philippians.

The Church at Philippi wrote to Polycarp asking him to forward their letters to Antioch.

Polycarp replied, promising to carry out their request and enclosing a number of the letters of Ignatius which he had in his possession.

Polycarp lived to see the rise of the Marcionite and Valentinian sects and vigorously opposed them.

But Polycarp displayed the same uncompromising attitude which his master John had shown towards Cerinthus and answered, "I recognize you as the first-born of Satan."

The steady progress of the heretical movement in spite of all opposition was a cause of deep sorrow to Polycarp, so that in the last years of his life the words were constantly on his lips, "Oh good God, to what times hast thou spared me, that I must suffer such things!"

We learn further that Anicetus as a mark of special honour allowed Polycarp to celebrate the Eucharist in the church, and that many Marcionites and Valentinians were converted by him during his stay in Rome.

Not many months apparently after Polycarp's return from Rome a persecution broke out.

Let search be made for Polycarp."

Polycarp took refuge in a country farm.

To this appeal Polycarp made the memorable answer, "Eighty and six years have I served Him and He bath done me no wrong.

In that year appeared Waddington's Mdmoire sur la chronologie de la vie du rheteur Aelius Aristide, in which it was shown from a most acute combination of circumstances that the Quadratus whose name is mentioned in the Martyrium was proconsul of Asia in 155-156, and that consequently Polycarp was martyred on the 23rd of February 155.

The balance of opinion seems to favour the latter alternative, because it leaves more room for Polycarp's visit to Anicetus, who only became bishop of Rome in 154.

The significance of Polycarp in the history of the Church is out of all proportion to our knowledge of the facts of his career.

Polycarp had no creative genius.

That the danger was so largely averted is to no small extent the result of the faithful witness of Polycarp. As Irenaeus.

It is this that constitutes Polycarp's service to the Church, and no greater service has been rendered by any of its leaders in any age.

Polycarp is dealt with in i.

In his work against the Heresies and in his letter to Florinus, about 185-191, he tells how he had himself known Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna, and how Polycarp " used to recount his familiar intercourse with John and the others who had seen the Lord "; and explicitly identifies this John with the Zebedean and the evangelist.

But Irenaeus was at most fifteen when thus frequenting Polycarp; writes thirty-five to fifty years later in Lyons, admitting that he noted down nothing at the time; and, since his mistaken description of Papias as " a hearer of John " the Zebedean was certainly reached by mistaking the presbyter for the apostle, his additional words " and a companion of Polycarp " point to this same mistaken identification having also operated in his mind with regard to Polycarp. In any case, the very real and important presbyter is completely unknown to Irenaeus, and his conclusion as to the book's authorship resulted apparently from a comparison of its contents with Polycarp's teaching.

Cotelier published at Paris the writings current under the names of Barnabas, Clement of Rome, Hermas, Ignatius and Polycarp. But the name itself is due to their next editor, Thomas Ittig (1643-1710), in his Bibliotheca Patrum Apostolicorum (1699), who, however, included under this title only Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp. Here already appears the doubt as to how many writers can claim the title, a doubt which has continued ever since, and makes the contents of the "Apostolic Fathers" differ so much from editor to editor.

But the convenience of the category "Apostolic Fathers" to express not only those who might possibly have had some sort of direct contact with apostles - such as "Barnabas," Clement, Ignatius, Papias, Polycarp - but also those who seemed specially to preserve the pure tradition of apostolic doctrine during the sub-apostolic age, has led to its general use in a wide and vague sense.

Or to put it more exactly, the "Apostolic Fathers" represent, chronologically in the main and still more from the religious and theological standpoint, the momentous process of 1 Cotelier included the Acts of Martyrdom of Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp; and those of Ignatius and Polycarp are still often printed by editors.

If the presbyter wrote Revelation and was Polycarp's master, such a mistake could easily arise.

Of the rest, whose personalities are less known to us, Papias shares Polycarp's qualities and their limitations, the anonymous homilist and Hermas are marked by intense moral earnestness, while the writer to Diognetus joins to this a profound religious insight.

The latter is the case in Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp; perhaps also in "Barnabas."

Hence a new sort of legalism, known to recent writers as Moralism, underlies much of the piety of the Apostolic Fathers, though Ignatius is quite free from it, while Polycarp and "Barnabas" are less under its influence than are the Didache, Clement, the Homilist and Hermas.

Most nearly on the lines of the New Testament are the so-called Apostolic (really Sub-Apostolic) Fathers (Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, Didache, Barnabas, the letters of Ignatius and the single letter of Polycarp, the Shepherd of Hermas, the homily commonly known as the Second Epistle of Clement).

The occasional coincidences between the pastorals and Barnabas or Clemens Romanus do not prove anything more than a common milieu of thought, but the epistles were plainly familiar to Polycarp, who alludes to i Tim.

At his baptism a dove descended upon Jesus, and one quitted Polycarp's body at the moment of his death.

The account given by the church at Smyrna of the death of their bishop Polycarp (155) gives us an insight into these feelings.

The great reception given to Polycarp on his visit to Rome in A.D.

Further, the traces of it in Polycarp 1 and Ignatius, 2 when taken together, are highly probable; and it is even widely admitted that the resemblance of Acts xiii.

Most of the literature of the sub-apostolic age is epistolary, and we have a particularly interesting form of epistle in the communications between churches (as distinct from individuals) known as the First Epistle of Clement (Rome to Corinth), the Martyrdom of Polycarp (Smyrna to Philomelium), and the Letters of the Churches of Vienne andLyons (to the congregations of Asia Minor and Phrygia) describing the Gallican martyrdoms of A.D.

The proof of this is found, partly in the fact that he tried to establish relations with Polycarp of Smyrna, from whom he got a sharp rebuff, partly in a legend to the effect that towards the end of his life he sought readmission to the Church.

Pauline particles like apa, Sc6, Sam, E7recra, Iise and Moo 1 When the literary integrity of the epistle is maintained this allusion naturally drops to the ground, since the use of the epistle by Polycarp rules the earlier conjectures of Baur and others (who made the pastorals anti-Marcionite) out of court; besides, passages like i.

But the fact that Irenaeus thought of him as Polycarp's contemporary and "a man of the old time" (apXaaos avilp), together with the affinity between the religious tendencies described in Papias's Preface (as quoted by Eusebius) and those reflected in the Epistles of Polycarp and Ignatius, all point to his having flourished in the first quarter of the 2nd century.

Polycarp was bishop of Smyrna and was martyred there A.D.

So did Polycarp's martyrdom really follow the detailed story of Jesus so closely?

Over and above the general criticism, which may now be said to have been completely answered by the investigations of Zahn, Lightfoot and Harnack, one or two special arguments have been brought against the Epistle to Polycarp. Ussher, for instance, while accepting the other six epistles, rejected this on the ground that Jerome says that Ignatius only sent one letter to Smyrna - a mistake due to his misinterpretation of Eusebius.

The short Epistle of Polycarp contains references or allusions to no less than nine out of the thirteen epistles, including 2 Thess., Eph., r and 2 Tim.

Polycarp, for instance, speaks of " those who pervert the oracles of the Lord " (Philipp. 7), and Papias, as Eusebius tells us, wrote a work with the title " Expositions of the Oracles 6f the Lord."