apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

POLYCARP THE ELDER. 439
If Polycarp's words have been correctly interpreted, they point to
another important fact. He was not a convert to Christianity, but was
born of Christian parentage'. This supposition is at all events consistent
with the fact that he draws his quotations almost entirely, not
from the ancient Scriptures but from the writings of the Evangelists
and Apostles, thus presenting a direct contrast to Clement of Rome
and bearing testimony to his early Christian training. This view is not
contradicted by his own language, where he speaks of S. Paul as
praising the Philippians in all the Churches at a time when we ' had not
yet known Christ (§ ii)', for he writes in the name of the Smyrnsean
elders as well as of himself. Thus the first
person plural here, as the
context shows, denotes the Smyrnsean Church, as
contrasted with other
Christian communities, like the Philippian, founded at an earlier date.
But was Polycarp himself a Smyrnaean
If not a Smyrucean, was he a
native of proconsular Asia Or is there any truth in the Pionian story,
which represents him as a slave-lad brought from the farther East and
sold at Smyrna We must be content to ask this question, and leave it
without an answer. The story may contain possibly a true tradition in
this particular ;
but its surroundings are not such as to entitle it to any
credit.
In one respect however the Pionian legend seems to deserve
consideration. Polycarp is represented in it as a man of substance.
This agrees with notices in a more authentic document. In the Acts
of Martyrdom he is
spoken of as possessing two servant lads, apparently
slaves (§ 6); and as this fact is
only mentioned incidentally, it may
point to a larger household. Moreover the house and farm whither
he retires and on which he is
apprehended (§§ 6, 7)
would seem from
the narrative of the incidents to have been his own, though this is not
certain.
The Pionian story insists with great emphasis (§§ 9, 14, 15) on his
celibacy. On the other hand a passage in the letter of Ignatius {Polyc.
5) has been thought by some to point to the opposite conclusion.
Ignatius there bids any one who chooses a life of virginity
to beware of
arrogance, adding (as the words are commonly interpreted) that, ' if he is
better known', becomes more famous, than the bishop, he is defiled by
that very fact. If this were the right explanation, it would imply that
the bishop himself could not lay
claim to a celibate Ufe. But reasons
^
The expression in Irenseus (iii. 3. 4), ing disciples, and may denote any systev-Ko
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