apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

LETTER OF THE SMYRN^ANS. 605
comp. Cclsus' Wahres Wort 1873, p. 1845, Rom. u. d. Chrisfenthum
p. 586 sq) as either very largely interpolated or written at a much
later date and therefore unauthentic'. Lipsius (p. 201) would assign it
to the time of the Decian persecution (c. a.d. 250), and in this he is
followed by Gebhardt {Zeitschr. f. Hist. Theol. 1875, P- 3^6) and Holtzmann
{Zeitschr. f. JViss. Theol. xx. p. 214, 1877). Keim (p. 130) would
place it still later, under Gallienus (a.d. 260— 268), or even under
Claudius, Aurelian, or Probus (a.d. 268—282). These views however
have not found much favour, even among
critics of the extreme school.
Renan accepts
it without hesitation as genuine {L'Aglise Chretiemie, pp.
vi, 452 sq). 'This beautiful piece', he writes {ib. p. 462 sq), 'constitutes
the most ancient example known of Acts of Martyrdom.
It was
the model which was imitated and which furnished the procedure and
the essential parts of this species of composition.' He is
apparently
so satisfied with its manifestly genuine character, that he does not think
it
necessary to allude to the attacks of objectors. The arguments of
assailants have been met among others by Hilgenfeld {Zeitschr. f.
Wiss.
Theol. XXII. p. 145 sq, 1879; comp. also xvii. p. 303 sq, 1874),
who however himself condemns c. 6 ^v yap koX ahvvaTov . .c. 7 ws iin
.
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