apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

582 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
tions are important as preserving passages of which the Greek is lost
and which are extant only in the Latin translation, thus testifying to
the fact that the original Greek in the missing portion corresponded
to the extant Latin version.
To the concurrent testimony of antiquity there is no dissentient
voice. Nicephorus indeed places Polycarp, as well as Ignatius and
Clement, among his '
apocrypha ' but it ;
has been shown already
(p. 349 sq) that he did not intend to throw any doubt on the genuineness
or authenticity of the writings so described. By so designating
them, he wished merely to distinguish them from such books as had
claims to be regarded as canonical Scripture.
(ii)
Internal Evidence.
The external testimony in favour of the genuineness has been shown
to be exceptionally good. We thus approach the study of the epistle
with a strong guarantee of its
authenticity, which can only be invalidated
by solid and convincing proofs and against which mere
hypothetical combinations and ingenious surmises are powerless. It
remains now to enquire whether the internal evidence is such as to
demand a reversal of the judgment to which in all ordinary cases the
external testimony would irresistibly impel us.
Those objections must be first considered which have been raised
on the ground of the character and contents of the letter. Here however
we may pass over all arguments based on the incredibility
of the
Ignatian story in itself, as these have been considered already and set
aside (p. 354 sq). The objections which remain are as follows'.
(i)
It is
urged that in this letter Polycarp assumes a position of
influence, which can hardly be reconciled with the facts and which
would only be intelligible at a later period of his life". This objection
could not have been regarded as formidable, even when Polycarp's
martyrdom was dated according to the received chronology as late as
A.D. 167. But recent investigation has placed
it twelve years earher,
and accordingly the date of his birth must be moved backward through
the same number of years. If the eighty-six years, of which he speaks
1
The authenticity of this document required. It has recently been the subject
was investigated by me at length some of an investigation by Funk {Die Echtheit
years ago in the Contemporary Review der Ignatianischen Briefe'^. 1459, 1883),
May 1875, p. 838 sq; and I have ven- who employs many of the same argutured
to transfer to the present vv'ork so ments.
much of my former paper as -
my purpose Supernaturat Religion, i. p. 277 sq.