The Ignatian Epistles Entirely Spurious | Page 7

the common tradition." [16:2] It is to be found in the Chronicon Paschale, and in the Antiochene and the Roman "Acts," as well as elsewhere. [16:3] This same date is assigned by the advocates of the Ignatian Epistles for the writing of Polycarp's letter. "Only a few months at the outside," says Dr. Lightfoot, "probably only a few weeks, after these Ignatian Epistles purport to have been written, the Bishop of Smyrna himself addresses a letter to the Philippians." [17:1] In due course it will be shown that Polycarp was at this time only about four-and-twenty years of age; and any intelligent reader who pursues his Epistle can judge for himself whether it can be reasonably accepted as the production of so very youthful an author. It appears that it was dictated in answer to a communication from the Church at Philippi, in which he was requested to interpose his influence with a view to the settlement of some grave scandals which disturbed that ancient Christian community. Is it likely that a minister of so little experience would have been invited to undertake such a service? The communication is rather such an outpouring of friendly counsel as befitted an aged patriarch. In a fatherly style he here addresses himself to wives and widows, to young men and maidens, to parents and children, to deacons and presbyters. [17:2]
There are other indications in this letter that it cannot have been written at the date ascribed to it by the advocates of the Ignatian Epistles. It contains an admonition to "pray for kings (or the kings), authorities, and princes." [18:1] We are not at liberty to assume that these three names are precisely synonymous. By kings, or the kings, we may apparently understand the imperial rulers; by authorities, consuls, proconsuls, praetors, and other magistrates; and by princes, those petty sovereigns and others of royal rank to be found here and there throughout the Roman dominions. [18:2] Dr. Lightfoot, indeed, argues that the translation adopted by some--"the kings"--is inadmissible, as, according to his ideas, "we have very good ground for believing that the definite article had no place in the original." [18:3] He has, however, assigned no adequate reason why the article may not be prefixed. His contention, that the expression "pray for kings" has not "anything more than a general reference," [18:4] cannot be well maintained. In a case such as this, we must be, to a great extent, guided in our interpretation by the context; and if so, we may fairly admit the article, for immediately afterwards Polycarp exhorts the Philippians to pray for their persecutors and their enemies,--an admonition which obviously has something more than "a general reference." Such an advice would be inappropriate when persecution was asleep, and when no enemy was giving disturbance. But, at the date when Ignatius is alleged to have been martyred, Polycarp could not have exhorted the Philippians to pray for "the kings," as there was then only one sovereign ruling over the empire.
That this letter of Polycarp to the Philippians was written at a time when persecution was rife, is apparent from its tenor throughout. If we except the case of Ignatius of Antioch--many of the tales relating to which Dr. Lightfoot himself rejects as fabulous [19:1]--we have no evidence that in A.D. 107 the Christians were treated with severity. The Roman world was then under the mild government of Trajan, and the troubles which afflicted the disciples in Bithynia, under Pliny, had not yet commenced. The emperor, so far as we have trustworthy information, had hitherto in no way interfered with the infant Church. But in A.D. 161 two sovereigns were in power, and a reign of terror was inaugurated. We can therefore well understand why Polycarp, after exhorting his correspondents to pray for "the kings," immediately follows up this advice by urging them to pray for their persecutors and their enemies. If by "kings" we here understand emperors, as distinguished from "princes" or inferior potentates, it must be obvious that Polycarp here refers to the two reigning sovereigns. It so happened that, when two kings began to reign, persecution at once commenced; and the language of the Epistle exactly befits such a crisis.
The whole strain of this letter points, not to the reign of Trajan, but to that of Marcus Aurelius. Polycarp exhorts the Philippians "to practise all endurance" (§ 9) in the service of Christ. "If," says he, "we should suffer for His name's sake, let us glorify Him" (§ 8). He speaks of men "encircled in saintly bonds;" (§ 1) and praises the Philippians for the courage which they had manifested in sympathizing with these confessors. He reminds them how, "with their own eyes," they had seen their sufferings (§ 9). All these statements suggest times of tribulation. A careful