- Unfortunately, many elements in the story lead us to question its reliability. The author of the text claims that he and his companions were eyewitnesses to Polycarp’s martyrdom and that the letter was written sometime before the first anniversary of Polycarp’s death. If we believe them, then the letter should be dated to within a year of the events themselves, which occurred between 155 and 157. There’s something a little suspicious about this claim. The “letter” begins in the first person: We are writing to you, brothers, an account of those who were martyred, especially the blessed Polycarp, who put an end to the persecution as though he were setting his seal upon it by his martyrdom. For nearly all the preceding events happened in order that the Lord might show us once again a martyrdom which is in accord with the Gospel
- The author is employing the first person strategically, to lend credibility to the miraculous events. The first person authenticates an event that was otherwise imperceptible. In ancient histories, as in modern histories, eyewitness statements were valued more highly than secondhand reports, or hearsay. Only those who were “given to see” the miracle actually saw it. Less special members of the audience merely saw a man burned alive. Rhetorically, it smacks of the emperor’s new clothes: if you didn’t hear, see, or smell the delicious miracle, it is not because the events didn’t transpire, but because you were not part of the elite.
There’s no single piece of evidence that can help us pin down the date of the text’s composition precisely, but if we have to make an educated guess, then we would say that the account was written in the third century, when voluntary martyrdom and relic collection had already emerged as religious practices. What this means is that the earliest martyrdom account, the document that scholars believe began and fed interest in martyrdom, is a pious fraud. It pretends to be written by eyewitnesses, but in fact it was not. Although it may be based on earlier traditions, it is not an eyewitness account of the martyrdom of one of Christianity’s earliest and most beloved bishops. It is a theological narrative written perhaps as late as a hundred years after the events it describes. At this point, we have to ask ourselves, what can we trust about Polycarp himself? Polycarp was almost certainly executed by the Romans, but we really don’t know anything about the circumstances of his arrest, trial, and death. This makes it impossible to know the reason he was executed or the principles he died for. If all we can know is the fact of his execution, then we have to face the possibility that the martyr we admire is the invention of the author. He is a pious, appreciative, and earnest invention, but an invention nonetheless.
https://ehrmanblog.org/can-we-take-the-martyrdom-of-polycarp-at-face-value
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