apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

638 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
(ii)
Commendatory Postscript.
The second postscript is omitted in the Moscow manuscript and in
the Latin version. So far therefore as documentary evidence goes, it
has less support than any other part of the letter, and we cannot with
confidence maintain its genuineness. Yet on the whole, it appears
more likely to be genuine than not. Its omission, if genuine, is easily
accounted for on the ground of superfluity. Not so its insertion, on the
supposition of its spuriousness. There is
nothing in the words themselves
which suggests a later date. The form of the doxology mentioning
the three Persons of the Holy Trinity is due, as the authorities show, to
a subsequent alteration. May not this postscript have been an appendix
added by the Philomelian Church, when they forwarded copies of the
letter, as they were charged to do (§ 20), to churches more distant from
Smyrna than themselves The tenour of the paragraph suggests such
an origin for it.
(iii) History of the Traismissioi.
After the paragraph containing (as I have ventured to suggest) the
Philomelian postscript, certain notes follow, professing to give the
history of the transmission of the document. We are first told that
Gains transcribed the letter from a copy belonging to Polycarp's disciple
Irenasus, and that Socrates (or Isocrates) again transcribed it in Corinth
from Gaius' copy. This note professes to come from Socrates (or Isocrates)
'
himself He concludes with a salutation, Grace unto all men '. After
this comes another note purporting to be written by Pionius. He tells
us that he copied
it from the transcript of the last-mentioned transcriber;
that Polycarp revealed its locality to him in a vision, of which he promises
to give an account in the sequel (Ka6w