apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

6i6 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
'something like prophetic strain.' It is sufficient to say here again
that it would be difficult to point to a single authentic biography of
any Christian hero— certainly of any Christian hero of the early centuries—
of whom some incident at least as remarkable as this prophecy,
if
prophecy it can be called, is not recorded. Pontius the disciple and
biographer of Cyprian relates
a similar intimation which preceded the
martyrdom of his master and adds, ' Quid hac revelatione manifestius
quid hac dignatione felicius } ante illi praedicta sunt omnia quaecunque
postmodum subsecuta sunt' {Vit. et Pass. Cypr. 12, 13, in Ruinart
Act. Mart. Sine. p. 258).
4. Again, Keim has laid great stress on what he calls the ^postmark''
of the letter. By this he means certain indications which unintentionally
betray a later date, notwithstanding the ostensible profession
of the author that he is writing while the occurrences are still
recent.
But what are these He points to the passage in which the
occurrence of the arching fire is related (§ 15); 'We saw a wonder — we
to whom it was given to see; and we were preserved that we might
relate the occurrences to the rest (ot Ka\ iTrjprjBrjfxev eh to dvayyelXai rots-
XotTTot TO, yevofieuay. This, he urges, implies a long period of time,
during which their life had been spared. But why so If this had been
the meaning, would they not rather have written, 'we have been preserved'
{TeTr]p7]ixe6a), than 'we were preserved' (iTrjpTJd-qfxev)
The aorist
shows that the providence does not lie, as Keim supposes, in a continuous
guardianship, but in a momentary deliverance. Persecution
was raging, and they were at the time in the very focus of it. At any
moment the popular cry might have been directed against any or all
them— of
the inner circle, it
may be presumed, of Polycarp's disciples.
Hence they inferred their rescue to be providential. So far therefore as
this expression is concerned, the letter might have been written the following
month or the following week after the event. But Keim again sees a
similar indication of a late date in the language used of Polycarp's fame,
where he is described as being 'celebrated by
all more than the others"
1
Lipsius (p. 201) interprets the words local commemoration would not be out
fiovoiinroTravTuv fxaXKov ij.i'riixoi'ev€Tai.{%ig) of ]>lace, a festival generally celebrated
as meaning that he alone, of the martyrs throughout the Church would be as much
who suffered at this time, was commemo- an anachronism in the middle of the
rated by a church festival ('dass sein Ge- third century,
as in the middle of the
dachtniss allein unter alien damaligen second; (2) By Aca^^oc, which implies dif-
Martyrern kirchlich gefeiert wurde ferent '). degrees of remembrance, and there-
This seems to me to be rendered iiniios- fore cannot refer to any one definite act
sible: (i) By vno ira-vTidv; for though a of commemoration. Though Lipsius si-