apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

6lO EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
main historical'. But inasmuch as the professed testimony of the eyewitnesses
lies at the very core of the narrative— the martyrdom itself and
the disposal of the reliques
— and he rejects this profession,
it is difficult
to see what ground there is for the confidence that any appreciable residuum
of fact underlies the story. Lipsius (p. 202)
is more consistent
when he says that the only incident in the main body of the document
'warranted as historical' ('historisch versichert') is the death of the
bishop Polycarp by fire. Seeing then that the credibility of the narrative
stands or falls with the claim of the writers to be regarded as
eyewitnesses, it is necessary to consider the features in the document
which affect, or have been thought to affect, this claim.
I. One characteristic has attracted special attention from this point
of view. The writers betray an eagerness to find parallels between the
sufferings of their martyred bishop and the passion of Our Lord. 'Nearly
all the incidents', they say at the outset, 'which preceded (his death),
came to pass that the Lord might exhibit to us anew a martyrdom after
the pattern of the Gospel' (§ i). Accordingly the idea of literal conformity
to the sufferings and death of Christ runs like a thread through
the whole document. Some of the coincidences are fairly obvious ;
in
other cases the parallelism is highly
who apprehended him was Herod, and attention is especially directed
artificial. The name of the officer
to this fact (§ 6).
His pursuers seize two slave lads, and one of them,
put to torture, reveals his master's hiding-place. The poor boy
is
compared to the traitor Judas, and thus Polycarp, like Christ, was
betrayed by those of his own household — (§ 6). This triple paralleHsm
—
Herod, the traitor, the is
martyr brought into juxtaposition, so as to
enforce the idea that he became Xpiarov kou'wvo's. As Christ prophesies
His betrayal after two days (Matt. xxvi. 2), so Polycarp ' three
'
'
days before he was apprehended ' foretold the fate that awaited him
Like the Lord
(§ 5). also, he waited to be betrayed, when he might
have escaped (§ i; comp. § 7).
He was in the country 'not far from
the city',
when he was apprehended (§§ 5, 6).
The hour of his apprehension
was at night (§ 7).
His pursuers came to seek him with arms
'as against a robber' (§ 7; comp. Matt. xxvi. 55). While his apprehension
was planning, he declared his resignation in the words ' God's will
be done' (§ 7)
— words which are an echo of Christ's language at a
similar crisis (Matt. xxvi. 42, Luke xxii. 42). If a common interpretation
of the 'great sabbath' were correct (though this may well be
questioned), the martyrdom took place, like the Lord's passion, at the
1
pp.95, 97, III, 133. See especially bleibt grossentheils in seiner Glaubwiirp.
131 ' Der Inhalt des Schriftstiickes digkeit stehen.'