apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

DATE OF THE MARTYRDOM.
69 T
It starts from an arbitrary rejection of evidence, and it lands us in conclusions
which are full of difficulty.
Yet Keim (Aus dem U^xhristenthuin
p. 163) expresses himself in fovour of this same solution.
(iii)
March 23.
This date for the martyrdom has been recently proposed by
Dr Salmon in the Academy, July 21, 1883, p. 46 sq. Of all the theories
which depart from the traditional day, this is the most attractive and
deserves the greatest respect. It is as follows.
Pionius, the martyr in the Decian persecution (a.d. 250), revived
the commemoration of Polycarp's passion.
He discovered a much worn
manuscript of the Letter of the Smyrnceans ; and he added a postscript
describing how he had found it. This is the note which we find appended
in our manuscripts (in. p. 401). At the same time he inserted the
Roman date vii
Kal. Mart., corresponding to the Macedonian Xanthicus
2nd (/AT^vo aavOiKov Bivrepa icrra/AeVoi;)
which he found in the MS. In
doing this however, he inadvertently changed the day. The Smyrnsean
calendar in the time of Polycarp was lunar but before the
; age of
Pionius the solar calendar had been substituted. Pionius, not being
aware of the change, interpreted Xanthicus 2nd according to the solar
calendar as Feb. 23. But in the lunar calendar Xanthicus corresponds
to the Jewish month Nisan', so that the true day of the martyrdom
was the 2nd Nisan. Now the 2nd Nisan during the years a.d. 154— 161
only fell on a Saturday on two occasions; in a.d. 155 when it was
Saturday March 23, and in a.d. 159 when it was Saturday April
have thus a confirmation of Waddington's date for the martyrdom,
A.D. 155. Moreover this solution offers an adequate account of the
'great sabbath',
2nd Nisan being the first sabbath in the year^
8. We
It has been made evident above (p. 638 sq), if I mistake not, that
we can no longer identify the Pionius of the postscript to the Smyrnaean
Letter with the Pionius the martyr in the Decian persecution. In the
writer of the postscript we have
detected the same hand which penned
the fictitious biography of Polycarp. Salmon's theory therefore loses
the support of this identification, and its attractiveness is somewhat
impaired in consequence. Still it would be quite possible to maintain
that the Roman date was inserted in the middle of the third century
by the genuine Pionius, who certainly took a great interest in Polycarp's
^
Josephus uses Xanthicus as an exact the corresponding Jewish huiar months ;
equivalent to Nisan [Ant. i. 3. 3,
5, B. y. V. 3. i) it being
iii. 10. see Ideler i.
his common see below, p. 704.
p. 400 sq.
On this point
practice to give the Macedonian names to ^ See also Wieseler p. 91, note 35.
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