apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

628 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
this is defined as 'the second day of the sixth month' (see above,
P- 556)'.
The day in the Roman Calendar corresponding to this Asiatic date
of Polycarp's martyrdom
is
given as vii Kal. Mart., i.e. February 23.
This is a correct statement, supposing that the solar months had already
been introduced into Smyrna. I shall hereafter discuss the theory that
this clause giving the Roman date was a later addition and formed no
part of the original paragraph. It is sufficient here to observe that
February 23 is Polycarp's day in the early Syriac Martyrology (see
above, p. 560). We are thus carried back to the age of Eusebius, or
even earlier (see
11.
p. 419). There is no indication of any other day
ever having been observed in the East.
The mention of the ' great sabbath ' accords with the statement in
the document itself (§ 8) ; and, so far as it
goes, is an indication of the
same authorship. I shall have to discuss the meaning of this expression
hereafter.
The hour of the day we have no means of testing*. 'The eighth
hour' might mean either 8 a.m. or 2 p.m., as we reckon from midnight
(according to the Roman civil computation)
or from 6 a.m.^ Either
is consistent with the narrative ;
but the former is the more probable,
as the catastrophe was hurried on in all its later stages after the
martyr had left his hiding-place ;
and moreover these spectacles were
usually held before mid-day (Philo c. Flacc. 10, 11. p. 529 m).
(2)
The nmne of the Captain of Police. Nothing
is here added to
the information given in the document itself, where also his name
Herodes is given.
(3) The iame of the Chief-priest, Philip
the Trallian. In two
respects this postscript supplements the information which we find in
the narrative itself respecting this person and on both
; points strong
confirmatory evidence has appeared in recently discovered monuments.
First ; whereas in the Letter itself he is styled Asiarch, here he is
described as Chief-priest. Independent reasons will be given elsewhere
for believing that these were two different names of the same
1
The corresponding Roman datewhich see in. p. 400. The reading of the Mosis
given in the Latin copies of the Acts cow MS, Sspa evdrri, is a striving after
of Pionius (iv Id. Mart.) presents diffi- conformity to the Gospel narrative (Matt,
culties which I shall have to discuss here- xxvii. 45 sq, Mark xv. 33 sq, Luke xxiii.
after.
44).
-
On Zahn's punctuation which makes ^ See the commentators on John xix.
(jap^aTuj AieTciXy, wpg. 6y86rj, the time of 14, especially M^Clellan and Westcott.
the apprehension, not of the martyrdom,