apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

THE GENUINENESS. 337
(Polyc. 8 Tov Tre/xTTovTos awTov YLokuKapTTov) ; whereas Polycarp himself
regards the possibiHty of his going in person {Phil. 13 etVe eyw
eiVc ov
irefji^oi Trpea-ftevaovTa koL -rrepl vfirn'). This shows the independence of
the two documents, and thus it
greatly enhances the value of the coincidences.
Again, Ignatius speaks of this messenger to Syria
as an
ambassador (Swjrn. 11 O^OTrpea-fSevTTJv, comp. Philad. 10 -rrpeaf^evaaL
eK(L ®€ov Trpea-fSeiav) ;
and accordingly Polycarp in the passage just
quoted uses the same language (TrpeafSevaovra) respecting him.
It is evident from these statements that Polycarp
is familiar with
these Ignatian letters. But, his mind being essentially receptive
rather than originative, he is
constantly citing indirectly and without
any marks of quotation expressions from previous Christian writings,
sometimes from the New Testament, sometimes from the Epistle of
Clement of Rome. We should therefore expect
his letter to contain
reminiscences of these Ignatian Epistles. In this expectation we are
not disappointed, as the passages quoted above (p. 136) abundantly
show.
But Polycarp
is not the only Christian writer of the second century
who bears direct testimony to the Ignatian letters. — Iren^us also,
writing from fifty to eighty years later (a.d. 175 190), quotes from
Pom. 4 (see above, pp. 143, 148) 'As one of our people said when
;
condemned (Karaxpt^ets) to wild beasts, I am the wheat of God, and I arn
ground by the teeth of wild beasts, that I may be found pure bread.'' The
quotation here is direct and obvious. Daille' however (p. 267, p. 434 sq)
contends that the allusion is not to the passage in the Roman Epistle
but to some traditional saying of Ignatius, urging
that Irenseus writes
not scripsit, but dixit (elire).
He appeals moreover to Jerome's ( Vir.
III. 16) statement', 'Cumque jam damnatus esset ad bestias, ardore
patiendi, cum rugientes audiret leones ait, Frumentum eic.^ as showing
that the words were uttered by Ignatius at the time of the martyrdom.
'
The right reading however is, Cumque jam damnatus esset ad bestias,
et ardore patiendi rugientes audiret leones, etc' ;
and this reading is
most naturally understood to mean that in the fervour of his desire for
martyrdom Ignatius already in imagination heard the lions roaring.
It is a matter of no consequence however what Jerome says, inasmuch
as he was unacquainted with the epistles themselves and in
^
The passage is discussed below, 11. sage, when correctly read, does not rep.
377; but the correct reading is there quire. Jerome's meaning is correctly
overlooked, and in consequence I have interpreted by Churton in a note to Pearmade
a concession to the views of Daille, son Vind. Ign. p. 189.
so far as regards Jerome, which the pas-
IGN. I. 22