apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

LETTER OF THE SMYRN^ANS.
THE document which gives an account of Polycarp's martyrdom
is not one and continuous. It consists of two parts, the main
body of the letter ending with the twentieth chapter, and a number of
supplementary paragraphs comprising the twenty-first and twenty-second
chapters. In point of form these supplementary paragraphs are
separable from the rest of the letter. As a question of external evidence
again, they do not stand on the same ground. Eusebius, our chief
witness to the genuineness of the document, ends his quotations and
paraphrases before he reaches the close of the main body of the letter ;
and we are therefore unable to say confidently whether he had or had
not the supplementary paragraphs. In discussing the genuineness
therefore, the two parts must be considered separately.
I. THE MAIN DOCUMENT.
The genuineness of this letter has been universally acknowledged
till the most recent times. The illustrious Scaliger expressed himself
so moved by the simplicity and pathos of the narrative that '
he seemed
to be no longer master of himself ('ut non amplius mens esse videar').
Its transparent sincerity has also commended it to successive generations
of critics and historians down to our own time. It has been
reserved for the feverish and restless criticism of our day to impugn its
genuineness. It has been attacked by Schiirer {Zeitschr. f. Hist. Theol.
1870, p. 203 sq), by Lipsius {Zeitschr. f. Wiss. Theol. xvii. p. 200 sq,
1874), and by Keim {Aus detn Urchristenthujii 1878, p. 90 sq ;