apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

590 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
he happened to have in his possession. Is this at all unnatural
Suppose
on the other hand that the letter of Polycarp had contained no
such reference to Ignatius and his epistles, would it not have been
regarded as a highly suspicious circumstance that, writing to the Philippians
so soon after Ignatius had visited both churches, Polycarp should
have said nothing about so remarkable a man When we see how the
argument from silence is worked in other cases, we cannot doubt that
it would have been plied here as a formidable objection either to the
truth of the Ignatian story or to
the genuineness of Polycarp's Epistle
or to both. The rational conclusion is that this notice proves nothing
either way, when it stands alone. If the other contents of the Polycarpian
letter are questionable, then it confirms our misgivings. If
not, then this interpretation of the notice is only another illustration of
the over-suspicious temperament of modern criticism, which must be as
fatal to calm and reasonable judgment in matters of early Christian
is in matters of common life.
history, as it manifestly
But I venture to go further than A this.
comparison of the references
to the Ignatian letters in Polycarp's Epistle with the contents of these
letters themselves brings out subtle relations between the two which
forbid the supposition of a forgery.
'
You wrote to me ', says Polycarp,
'both you yourselves and Ignatius, that if
any one goes to Syria, he
should convey your letter likeivise '. '
'
This I will do ',
he adds, if I
find a convenient season— either myself or the person whom I shall
send to act as delegate on your behalf liknvise\ Nothing could be more
natural than this language. If it be artifice at all, it is the most consummate
artifice— far transcending the sagacity of any forger in Christian
circles at this early age. What is the meaning of this journey to Syria
What is this delegate expected to do What is the reference in the
*
likewise ' A study of the Ignatian Epistles answers these questions.
But no forger would have been contented with, even if he were capable
of devising, the allusiveiiess of the references here. He would have
made the meaning quite clear. The incidental 'likewise' more especially
would have been quite beyond the range of his invention. Moreover
such a forger, bent on fitting in the notices of Polycarp's Epistle with
the notices in the Ignatian letters, would have made them fit exactly.
But they do not so fit. We have, as it were, a mosaic pavement,
with some of the pieces omitted. Polycarp here speaks of certain
directions given to him in letters from the Philippians and from Ignatius.
In the Ignatian letters there is no mention at all of PhiHppi. The
nearest approach is the incidental reference to his setting
sail for
Neapolis (Polyc. 8),
which we know to have lain on the road to Philippi.