04.01.2015 Views

apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

LETTER OF THE SMYRN^:ANS. 619<br />

such matters in the age of Polycarp, than in the middle of the next<br />

century, when they were much better known and many popular fallacies<br />

respecting them had been exploded.<br />

A still more shadowy argument, which Keim advances with great<br />

confidence, is the discouragement of martyrdom as set forth in this<br />

document. We have seen that an undue thirst for martyrdom was the<br />

objection raised against the genuineness of the Ignatian letters (see<br />

above, p. 407 sq). The very opposite spirit<br />

is now impugned in the<br />

Letter of the Smyrnjeans. It is<br />

objected by Keim that the disparagement<br />

of persons offering themselves voluntarily for martyrdom<br />

is alien<br />

to the temper and convictions of the earlier ages, and betokens a date at<br />

least as late as the end of the second century, if not much later.<br />

Polycarp,<br />

he urges, is praised, because he did not deliver himself voluntarily to<br />

martyrdom, but waited till he was betrayed'. Quintus the Phrygian is<br />

held up as a warning, because, having thrust himself forward as a volunteer<br />

martyr, he turned coward and denied his faith at the supreme<br />

moment of trial (§ 4). The first passage, as will appear from the note,<br />

has been wrongly interpreted, and (so far as it is<br />

goes) an incentive to<br />

rather than a discouragement of martyrdom. The second, relating to<br />

adoui so as to be hi '<br />

§ I irepL^nei/ev yap 'iva irapadody, (is Kal<br />

put off the fatal hour', but 'he lingered<br />

1<br />

the 7vay of his captors.'<br />

6 Kvpws, iva fUfiTjTal Kai ^^eis avrou yeuwfieda,<br />

The incident in the subsequent<br />

p-T] p.6vov crKOTrovvTes to Kad' eavrovs narrative to which it more especially<br />

dXXd Kal TO Kara tovs rreXas' dydirrjs ydp refers is not § 5 VTre^9\KBiv et's dypidiov,<br />

d\7]6ovs Kal )3e/3atas eurlu /lltj fxbvov eavTov but rather § 7 KdKeWev oe rjSuvaTo els<br />

diXfiv (Tib^ecrdai<br />

dXXd Kal TravTas tous eTepov x^pl-ov direXdeiv, dXX' ovk ri^ov\r}drj,<br />

dd€\

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!