apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

7IO EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
TO 7] aafSPaTov TrXrjv tov ei'os fiovov, KaOaipeicrOu), where the is
day mentioned,
but not the name, its absence is surely significant. It is also
a noticeable fact that neither in the Apostolic Constitutions (v. 18, 19,
viii.
33) nor in Eusebius (e.g. Vit. Const, iv. 22) nor in the Festal Letters
of Athanasius nor in the spurious Ignatian Epistles {Philipp. 13), where
they have occasion to refer to the day, do we find this designation, which
would have been highly convenient if it had been known to the writers.
There is therefore no evidence of the use of this term till more than
two centuries after Polycarp's death. Nor indeed in Polycarp's age and
country would it be possible; for according to Quartodeciman usage
there could not be any 'great Saturday.'
The 'great sabbath' in Jewish nomenclature was different. Here
it signified the sabbath preceding the Passover. See on this subject
Buxtorf Synago;^. Jud. p. 285, Pearson Minor Works 11. p. 544, and
especially Jost in Steitz yahrh. f. Deutsch. Theol. 1861, p. 122. It
will be seen from these sources of information that, though this designation
of the Saturday preceding the Passover is conjectured to have
been much older than it is known to have been, yet the direct evidence
for its use is separated from the age of Polycarp by an interval as wide
as that which separates the England of Alfred from the England of
Victoria'. Under these circumstances no stress can be laid on the
Jewish use of the term, more especially as it creates new difificulties
when applied to the expression in the Letter of the Smyrnaeans.
But it is
important to observe that the words used in the Smyrnaean
Letter are not to ju-eya o-a//3aToi/,
but aajS/SaTov jLteya.
So far as I have
observed, in passages where according to the later Christian usage
Easter Eve is intended the definite article is
always present, to fxeya
o-d/SfiaTov, and sometimes is twice repeated, to o-ayS/SaTov to /^eya.
It is
quite conceivable indeed that, as urged by Keim (p. 104) and Hilgenfeld
{Zeitschr. f. Wiss. Tlicol. xxii. p. 157), the expression might
ultimately
assume the character of a proper name, and the definite article
be dispensed with. But no example
is produced; and even then I
should have expected the order ^eya o-df^^aTov. When the author of
the Paschal Clironicle (c. a.d. 630) desires to make it signify the
Saturday of Passion week, he deliberately substitutes to) /xeydXu} aafS-
(SdrtD (see above, pp. 569, 678) for cra/S/Sdrw fieydXio of the original
document. On the other hand the old Latin translators of the Letter
of the Sniyrnceans (§§ 8, 21) and of the Acts of rionins (see below,
^
The earliest example given by Jost made enquiry also of Dr Schiller-Szinessy,
belongs to the eleventh century. I have and he knows no earlier evidence.