apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

THE GENUINENESS. 335
I.
Extenjal Evidence.
Under the head of external evidence the Epistle of Polycarp
holds the first place.
It purports to have been written after Ignatius
had left Philippi on his way to Italy (§ 9), but before the news of
his martyrdom had reached that it
city (§ 13), though
is assumed
that he is
already dead. If this claim is allowed, it dates within a
few months, possibly within a few weeks, of the time when the
Ignatian letters profess to have been written. Thus it is contemporary
evidence in the strictest sense— being immediate and direct. The
only questions which we have to ask are, first, Whether the Epistle
of Polycarp is genuine, and secondly, Whether it refers to the same
Ignatian letters which we possess
The first
question will be answered at greater length, when I come
to discuss the Epistle of Polycarp itself. For the present I need only
say that, being vouched for by Irenseus the scholar of it
Polycarp, has
the highest authentication ;
that no anachronisms or incongruities have
been proved against
it ;
that the one great argument against its
genuineness is the reference to the Ignatian letters and that
; probably
it would not have been seriously questioned
if it had not contained
this reference. Though the plea of the objectors may be
garnished with other arguments, this is the real gravamen, as any one
conversant with the Ignatian controversy will see. It should be added
also, that no satisfactory explanation has been offered of the Epistle
of Polycarp on the supposition that it is not genuine. The only plausible
theory is that it was a forgery by the same hand which wrote
the Ignatian letters. But an examination of the two writings is a
complete refutation of this hypothesis. No two documents of early
Christianity differ more widely in all the main characteristics by which
identity or difference of authorship is tested.
Others however, who are not prepared to condemn the Epistle
of Polycarp as a whole, have recourse to a theory of interpolation.
The portion containing the notices of the Ignatian Epistles is
supposed
to be a later insertion. When the time comes, this theory will
be fully discussed. At present it is sufficient to say that no part of the
Epistle of Polycarp is so well authenticated as this conclusion, and
that the references to Ignatius, compared with the Ignatian letters themselves,
are such as to preclude this hypothesis.