Polycarp

Polycarp
A.D. 69?–155

Polycarp was a disciple of the Apostle John, the friend of Ignatius and the teacher of Irenæus.  Very little is known of his life beyond that.  The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians has been preserved and is generally consid­ered legitimately authored by him.  The Epistle makes no clear statement concerning Polycarp’s belief con­cerning the nature of God or the Divinity of Jesus Christ.  Polycarp was burned at the stake at the age of eighty-six because he would not deny his King and Saviour when ordered to swear by Cæsar.  It is said that he stated, “Eighty and six years have I served him, and he never did me wrong:  how then can I revile my King and my Saviour?”[1]  He willingly went to the stake, re­fusing to be fas­tened with nails by saying, “Let me remain as I am; for he that has enabled me to brave the fire will so strengthen me that, with­out your fastening me with nails, I shall unmoved endure its fierce­ness.”[2]

Summary of Post-apostolic Fathers.

Very little information has been offered concern­ing the post-apos­tolic fathers beyond what Mr. Schaff has said concerning them being “good men rather that great men, and excelled more in zeal and devotion to Christ than in lit­erary attainments.”  No definite conclusion can be made concerning the influ­ence of philosophy in their lives or what doctri­nal position they held concerning the nature of God. 

I wish I could conclude that that the very ab­sence of a definite Trinitarian position on the part of the post-apos­tolic fathers indicates that  Trinitarian doctrine did not exist in their lifetimes.  I also wish I could conclude that the absence of documentation of their refined philosophi­cal education, indicates they were not influenced by philoso­phy.  These conclusions on my part would be as unjusti­fied (in light of the facts) as a Trinitarian drawing conclusions that the post-apos­tolic fathers were grounded in Trinitarian dogma.

Ante-Nicene Fathers.

The following is a quotation from an authority who titled this subject matter:  “The Apologists.”

Faced with divergencies within the Christian world and, above all, with the attacks of the pagans, the Apologists carry on a strong defense of Christian­ity.  The two most important Apologists are Justin, who suffered martyr­dom and was canonized, and Tertul­lian.  Later and less impor­tant Apolo­gists are St. Cyprian, Arnobius and Lactantius, who lived in the third to fourth centuries.  Justin wrote in Greek;  Ter­tullian wrote in the Latin of Carthage, in Ro­manized north Africa, as did St. Augustine later.  There is a profound difference between Justin and Tertul­lian in their attitude to­ward Greek culture and, especially, philos­ophy.  

Justin came out of that [Grecian] culture; he knew it and studied it before his conver­sion to Christianity.  He uses this background in his exposition of the truth of Christian­ity, making constant reference to Hellenic ideas; he tries to show that these ideas are in agreement with Christian revela­tion.  Therefore there is evident in Justin’s writings an ac­ceptance of the pa­gans’ rational methods of thought which con­trasts with Tertullian’s hostility to those methods.

Tertullian….was a passionate enemy of Gnosti­cism and the entire pagan culture, including the very concept of rational knowledge.  In his attacks on the Gnostics, who re­sorted to philosophic methods, he at­tacks philosophy it­self.  There is a whole group of famous sayings of Tertul­lian that affirm the certainty of revelation on the very basis of its incomprehensi­bility, its rational impossibility….But this opinion , strictly examined, is inadmiss­able in Chris­tian think­ing….All things considered, despite Tertul­lian’s vehement opposition to Hellenic specula­tion, he is greatly indebted to it, and his writ­ings are permeated by the influ­ence of the Greek philosophers. [3]

[1] McClintock and Strong, Volume VIII, p. 362.

[2] Ibid., Volume VIII, p. 362.

[3] Marias, p. 110.