The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians

In a previous article on the development of the New Testament we considered several church fathers and what they said concerning the Apostles' writings, yet we neglected to include Polycarp. Below we will right that wrong while exploring the extraordinary gift that is Polycarp.

Polycarp of Smyrna, A.D. 69 – 155

Polycarp is famous for being the first Christian martyr. At age 86 he was condemned to death by the Romans unless he recanted his faith and cursed Jesus Christ. As the Roman proconsul tied him to a stake demanding that he comply, Polycarp replied, "Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?"¹ Eye witnesses stated that the proconsul pressed him to swear by Cæsar. "Polycarp answered, 'Since you are vainly urgent that, as you say, I should swear by the fortune of Cæsar, and pretend not to know who and what I am, hear me declare with boldness, I am a Christian. And if you wish to learn what the doctrines of Christianity are, appoint me a day, and you shall hear them.'"

Pressed by the Roman proconsul to persuade the blood-hungry crowd, Polycarp objected, "[t]o you I have thought it right to offer an account [of my faith]; for we are taught to give all due honour (which entails no injury upon ourselves) to the powers and authorities which are ordained of God. But as for these, I do not deem them worthy of receiving any account from me."

Realizing he was not making progress, the proconsul tried to switch tactics,

"I have wild beasts at hand; to these will I cast you, unless you repent." But [Polycarp] answered, "Call them then, for we are not accustomed to repent of what is good in order to adopt that which is evil; and it is well for me to be changed from what is evil to what is righteous."

But again the proconsul said to him, "I will cause you to be consumed by fire, seeing you despise the wild beasts, if you will not repent." But Polycarp said, "You threaten me with fire which burns for an hour, and after a little is extinguished, but are ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly. But why do you tarry? Bring forth what you will."

. . .

Polycarp died at the stake that day. He was a disciple of the Apostle John and according to Jerome, it was the Apostle John himself that ordained Polycarp as bishop of Smyrna.

Polycarp is a gift to Christianity. Multiple sources from the 2nd through 4th centuries collaborate the above. We have in our possession a historically accurate account of the Apostles passing the torch to the church. John 20:29 records Jesus telling Thomas, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Polycarp gives a glimpse into the first generation of those that believe, yet have not seen. We not only have a detailed account of his death but we have his epistle to the church at Philippi. Of course, what makes this incredibly unique is that we also have the epistle that the Apostle Paul gave to the church at Philippi.

We, the church after twenty centuries of believing and yet not seeing, have the luxury, the gift, of reading and comparing what the Apostle under divine inspiration said to the Philippians as well as the generation that directly proceeded him. What type of torch was passed? Did the church consider the Apostles' writings scripture? Were their writings on par with the Old Testament? Did the early church's theology differ from that of the Apostles, and perhaps just as important, does the early church's theology differ from ours?

As we walk through our first martyr's short epistle it will be overwhelmingly obvious that the earliest church placed incredible authority on the Apostles' writings. Their writings were not just revered, they were directly referred to as Scripture. Likewise, it will be overwhelmingly obvious that there is no development of theology. Salvation was, is and will always be possible solely because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it is a free gift by grace through faith so that no one can boast.

As we dive into the epistle, I wish to note that Polycarp could not complete a sentence without referencing or directly quoting from the Apostle's writings. Listen to his epistle's opening.

Polycarp, and the presbyters with him, to the Church of God sojourning at Philippi: Mercy to you, and peace from God Almighty, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, be multiplied.

I have greatly rejoiced with you in our Lord Jesus Christ, because you have followed the example of true love [as displayed by God], and have accompanied, as became you, those who were bound in chains, the fitting ornaments of saints, and which are indeed the diadems of the true elect of God and our Lord; and because the strong root of your faith, spoken of in days long gone by, endures even until now, and brings forth fruit to our Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sins suffered even unto death, [but] "whom God raised from the dead, having loosed the bands of the grave." "In whom, though now you see Him not, you believe, and believing, rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory;" into which joy many desire to enter, knowing that "by grace you are saved, not of works," but by the will of God through Jesus Christ.²

If that sounds like a biblical opening there are two good reason for it. First, Polycarp employs the common Greek first century letter structure. Two thousand years ago a letter opened with the author's name, a praise, a greeting and a prayer followed by an explanation for why the letter was written. All of Paul's letters, except for Galatians, use the structure, as well as 1 & 2 Peter, 1, 2, & 3 John and Jude. The second reason Polycarp's opening sounds like a New Testament letter is due to the fact that the initial paragraph references Philippians 1:5 and directly quotes from Ephesians 2:8-9 and 1 Peter 1:8. But that is merely Polycarp's opening, He goes on to reference or quote from the following books: Isaiah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, Jude and Tobit.

Notice, only once does he allude to the Old Testament, that of Isaiah 52. Then twice he quotes from the Tobit, a book that is included in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canons but is excluded from the Jewish Masoretic Text and Protestant canons. Both quotes of Tobit employ God's people to give alms to the poor. Yet, the New Testament is clearly foundational for him. Polycarp quotes or references 17 of the 27 books and he does so 57 times out of his 60 total references or quotations. When he spoke scripture came out, typically New Testament Scripture. He was clearly a man that had devoted his life to consuming the writings of the Apostles and spreading their word with each breath. The above testimonial of his martyrdom is plenty enough to show the conviction this man had in the words of the Apostles and the power of their testimony. There is no doubt, Polycarp believed that the Word truly became flesh and dwelt among us, then died for us then returned to his throne in glory. The threat of earthly fire meant nothing to this man.

His entire letter is well worth your read and at a mere four pages long it won't take up much of your time. It is broken into 14 chapters each with a heading. Chapter 1 is his "Praise to the Philippians," which we already read. Chapter 2 is titled "An exhortation to virtue." It will be the last complete chapter that I quote in this article, but as we read from it and various other chapters, I ask that you be mindful of his theology and countless quotation and references he makes to Scripture.

"An exhortation to virtue"

Wherefore, girding up your loins, serve the Lord in fear and truth, as those who have forsaken the vain, empty talk and error of the multitude, and believed in Him who raised up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, and gave Him glory, and a throne at His right hand. To Him all things in heaven and on earth are subject. Him every spirit serves. He comes as the Judge of the living and the dead. His blood will God require of those who do not believe in Him. But He who raised Him up from the dead will raise us up also, if we do His will, and walk in His commandments, and love what He loved, keeping ourselves from all unrighteousness, covetousness, love of money, evil speaking, false witness; not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, or blow for blow, or cursing for cursing, but being mindful of what the Lord said in His teaching: Judge not, that you be not judged; forgive, and it shall be forgiven unto you; be merciful, that you may obtain mercy; with what measure you measure, it shall be measured to you again; and once more, Blessed are the poor, and those that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God.³

As I said above, when Polycarp spoke scripture came out. In this chapter Polycarp quotes or references from Matthew twice, Luke twice, Acts once, Ephesians once, Philippians once and 1 Peter four times. In his next chapter aptly titled, "Expressions of personal unworthiness," he explains his unworthiness. No surprise there, but what may be surprising is that he is explaining his unworthiness in comparison to the Apostle Paul and the need for the Philippians to "carefully study" the letter Paul wrote to them. Three times in his epistle, Polycarp writing to the Philippians, uses Paul's letter to the Philippians to support his position.

As the letter unfolds, Polycarp continually reiterates a summary of the Gosepl, conduct befitting a child of God and proper church order. To see a glimpse of this we will take each in order.

Regarding the Gospel he writes:

For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is antichrist; and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross, is of the devil; and whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts, and says that there is neither a resurrection nor a judgment, he is the first-born of Satan.⁴

Continuing, "Let us then continually persevere in our hope, and the earnest of our righteousness, which is Jesus Christ, who bore our sins in His own body on the tree, who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth, but endured all things for us, that we might live in Him."⁵

Of conduct befitting a child of God, he commands the church to "[be] subject to the presbyters and deacons, as unto God and Christ."⁶ He calls us the church to:

[Pray] continually for all, being far from all slandering, evil-speaking, false-witnessing, love of money, and every kind of evil; knowing that they are the altar of God, that He clearly perceives all things, and that nothing is hid from Him, neither reasonings, nor reflections, nor any one of the secret things of the heart.⁷

Of proper church order commands:

Knowing, then, that God is not mocked, we ought to walk worthy of His commandment and glory. In like manner should the deacons be blameless before the face of His righteousness, as being the servants of God and Christ, and not of men. They must not be slanderers, double-tongued, or lovers of money, but temperate in all things, compassionate, industrious, walking according to the truth of the Lord, who was the servant of all.⁸

And let the presbyters be compassionate and merciful to all, bringing back those that wander, visiting all the sick, and not neglecting the widow, the orphan, or the poor, but always providing for that which is becoming in the sight of God and man; abstaining from all wrath, respect of persons, and unjust judgment; keeping far off from all covetousness, not quickly crediting [an evil report] against any one, not severe in judgment, as knowing that we are all under a debt of sin.⁹

As I said, we have a gift in Polycarp. He so clearly articulates the Gospel and affirms the words of the Apostles concerning how to live the Christian life that suggesting a late development of Christian doctrine is laughable. Likewise it is laughable to argue that the New Testament was developed as a response to Marcionism or a need to support dogma instituted by the Church under Constantine. Polycarp makes it abundantly clear that the first generation of the church knew that the Apostles were writing Scripture.

In chapter 9 he urges the Philippians to heed the words of the church fathers, stating,

I exhort you all, therefore, to yield obedience to the word of righteousness, and to exercise all patience, such as you have seen [set] before your eyes, not only in the case of the blessed Ignatius, and Zosimus, and Rufus, but also in others among yourselves, and in Paul himself, and the rest of the apostles.¹⁰

Notice how he separates the church fathers into their own category and the Apostles into their own category.

Earlier in his letter, Polycarp sets the Apostles on par with the prophets writing,

If then we entreat the Lord to forgive us, we ought also ourselves to forgive; for we are before the eyes of our Lord and God, and we must all appear at the judgment-seat of Christ, and must every one give an account of himself. Let us then serve Him in fear, and with all reverence, even as He Himself has commanded us, and as the apostles who preached the Gospel unto us, and the prophets who proclaimed beforehand the coming of the Lord.¹¹

The earliest church knew the Prophets received the Word of the Lord promising the Anointed One and that the Apostles had the privilege of recording the account of the Anointed One, the Word in flesh, the Gospel.

However convincing these two examples may be Polycarp makes it explicit in chapter 12 calling the writings of the Apostles "Sacred Scripture."

"For I trust that you are well versed in the Sacred Scriptures, and that nothing is hid from you; but to me this privilege is not yet granted. It is declared then in these Scriptures, 'Be angry, and sin not, and, Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.'"¹² Polycarp opens his chapter "Exhortation to various graces" by quoting from Ephesians 4:26 after writing, "it is declared then in these Scriptures." Undeniable proof that the first generation to believe, yet have not seen, were delivered the exact Gospel that we have, and they received it as Scripture from the Lord's Apostles.

His life, his death, his writings ... what a gift?! It seems fitting to end with his words. Here is the latter half of chapter 12's "Exhortation to various graces." Polycarp gave this to the Philippians 1,900 years ago. May Polycarp give it to us today!

May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ Himself, who is the Son of God, and our everlasting High Priest, build you up in faith and truth, and in all meekness, gentleness, patience, long-suffering, forbearance, and purity; and may He bestow on you a lot and portion among His saints, and on us with you, and on all that are under heaven, who shall believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in His Father, who raised Him from the dead. Pray for all the saints. Pray also for kings, and potentates, and princes, and for those that persecute and hate you, and for the enemies of the cross, that your fruit may be manifest to all, and that you may be perfect in Him.¹³

FOOTNOTES