apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

POLYCARP THE ELDER.
4^3
at least from one of his immediate disciples and converts, it would
receive the first tidings of the Gospel during this period. The author
of the Life of Polycarp indeed supplies more explicit information with
regard to the early days of the Smyrn^an Church. He speaks of
Stratseas, a brother of Timothy, whom S. Paul had known in Pamphyha
as residing there. The Apostle, leaving Galatia, sought rest and
refreshment among the faithful in Smyrna, and took up his abode with
Strataeas. The visit to 'Asia' here intended is apparently the same which is
described in Acts xix. i sq, during the Apostle's third missionary journey,
commencing about a.d. 54'. After the Apostle's departure, Stratceas
*
succeeds to the instruction '
of the Church {^uSe$aTo...Trjv StSacr/caXiav),
apparently as its first bishop. The immediate predecessor of Polycarp
in the episcopate was Bucolusj but others had intervened between
Stratseas and him. The account in the Apostolic ConstitutioJis (vii. 46)
runs on the same lines, but is not consistent in its details with the
story of Polycarp's biographer. The writer of this work gives the first
bishop as Ariston, then Strataeas, then another Ariston^ It is noticeable
that Aristion is the name of one of those personal disciples of
Christ with whom Papias was acquainted', and from whom he derived
some traditions of the earliest days of the Gospel. We have no
means of extricating the historical kernel of which these legendary
stories are the husk; but the repetition of the same name might suggest
the inference that there was an alternation in the presidency of the
college of presbyters, before Smyrna had a bishop properly so called.
Anyhow it is far from improbable that Polycarp was not the first
bishop of Smyrna, even in the more restricted sense of the term.
As interpreted by some writers, the letter to the angel of the Church
of Smyrna in the Apocalypse (ii. 8 — 10) contains the earliest and most
interesting reference to Polycarp, of whose destiny
it thus becomes a
prophetic utterance ;
^
Acts xviii. 23, 24, xix. i, i^rjXOev elaeXdwv 6 IlavXos Kal avvavayayHiv to^s
[UauXos] dtepxanevos Tr/v TaXaTLKriv xcipai' foras TriaTovs k.t.X. The ' days of iin-
Kal . .
i>pvyLau .'lovdawi de tls 'AttoXXws... leavened bread' are mentioned to intro-
KaTritn-i]ff€v et's
'E(p€(7ov..'EyiveTo 8L.. duce the Apostle's subsequent discourse
IlavXov SteXOovTa TO, dfuiTepLKo, /xiprj iXOe^u on the proper time of observing Easter;
(v. 1. KareXdelv) els "E^etroi' Kal evpelv but the journey to Jerusalem must be a
TtJ'oiJ Hadryrd^. With this compare the slip, as no such journey took place till
language of ViL Polyc. 2 'E>' ras Tj/xipais more than three years later.
Tuv a'^vp.u3v 6 IlavXot (k Trjs VaXarias
" The names, Ariston and Aristion,
KOLTiijiv KaT7]VT7](Tev els Trit''A(Tlav,...fj.iXXuv occur on the coins of Smyrna; Mionnet
"
Xoi7r6i' airUvai et's
TepocroXu^a. ^Xdev odv ill. 193, Suppl. VI. 310.
iv ry "Ztwpvrj irpbs "Sit par alav... trap y
^ Euseb. H. E. iii. 39.