Volume ii8 Number 3 Pages 105-112

EXPOSITORY Copyright © 2006 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA, and New Delhi)
DOI: 10.1177/0014524606072683
TIMES http://EXT.sagepub.com

The Martyrdom of Polycarp

By DR SARA PARVIS
Lecturer in Patristics, University of Edinburgh

The Martyrdom of Polycarp, if it were indeed authentic and datable to the mid-second century, would give
us an important glimpse of developing attitudes to martyrdom in this period, and also offer corroboration
of Irenaeus' claim to be in touch with apostolic teaching. A brief examination ofthe cases for and against
this dating and the work's genuineness shows that, despite a number of odd features, especially the failure
of Polycarp's trial to follow established Roman legal practice, there is still no compelling reason not to
see it as a unified work, nor to date it any later than ij6.'

KEYWORDS
Polycarp, Apostolic Fathers, martyrdom, second century, Smyrna

T he Martyrdom of Polycarp is probably The account is written in the form of a letter of

the most readable of the works commonly the church of the Smyrnaeans to the church of
grouped under the title 'Apostolic Fathers'.^ Philomelium commending Polycarp's restrained
It has a pace unmatched by i or 2 Clement, an 'witness according to the Gospel', as against those
immediacy which is lacking in, say, Barnabas or who wilfully led others into danger by seeking out
Hermas, and a narrative flow not shared even by the martyrdom. As such, it would shed an interesting
Didache or the Letters of Ignatius. It does, however, light on developing attitudes to martyrdom in the
share with most of these works their problems of mid-second century.
date, unity or otherwise of composition, and even In addition, it squares beautifully with the claim
authenticity, as well as their quality of providing of the late-second-century writer Irenaeus to have
vital and illuminating snapshots of early Christianity verified the teachings of the apostles themselves from
in the making. Polycarp in his own youth. Irenaeus claims {Adv Haer
The Martyrdom is the story of a persecution III.3.4; Eusebius, HE V.24.16) that Polycarp knew
of Christians in Smyrna in Asia Minor, some of John, 'the disciple of the Lord', and was appointed
whom have voluntarily put themselves forward bishop of Smyrna by 'the apostles'. Polycarp claims
for death in the arena, which reaches its height in the text (MPo/9.3) to have served the Lord eighty-
and conclusion in the hunting down and execution six years (it is not clear whether this means from
of the distinguished 86-year-old bishop Polycarp. his birth or from his boyhood). This would put his
birth in the sixties, seventies or eighties, which would
• A longer version of this article can be found in Paul
Foster (ed.). The Apostolic Fathers (London: T&T Clark, make Polycarp's personal knowledge of some of the
forthcoming). longer-lived apostles easy enough. If Irenaeus' claim
' Translations from tbe work given bere are my own, to personal knowledge of an apostolic tradition has
generally following tbe text of J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic any foundation, it comes from Polycarp; the question
Fathers, Part II, S. Ignatius. S. Polycarp (3 vols.; London:
Macmillan & Co., 2nd edn, 1889), 3:363-403. Convenient of the authenticity and dating of the Martyrdom
editions witb facing translation may be found in tbe Loeb therefore bears considerable weight.
Classical Library: Kirsopp Lake (ed. and tr.). The Apostolic
Fathers (LCL; 2 vols.; London: William Heinemann, 1913), I. The Date ofthe Account
2:312-45, and its successor, edited and translated by Bart
D. Ebrman (LCL, Z4; z vols.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard There are essentially three views of the date of the
University Press, 2002), 1:366-401. text of the Martyrdom of Polycarp, and they make
io6 THE EXPOSITORY TIMES

a surprising amount of difference as to the sort of his consulship of Rome is: he was consul ordinarius,
information the text can be considered to give us one of the two who give their name to the year, in
about the early church.^ The first is to date it to 155 142. The proconsulship of one of the rich Roman
or 156.155 was the date championed by the Victorian provinces of Africa (i.e. Tunisa and Algeria) or
scholar J. B. Lightfoot in his influential commentary Asia (Western Asia Minor) usually followed about
on the Martyrdom.'' This gives us a Polycarp who fourteen or so years after the consulship. Add to
died as Justin Martyr was writing his Apologies, this the assumption that the Great Sabbath must be
and who would have been born in the late sixties, either a Saturday (as February 23rd was in 155) or a
and hence could easily have known one or more of Sunday (as it was in 156), and Lightfoot's case seems
the apostles, and certainly would have known some plausible enough.'^ The difficulty is, however, that
of the generation of Asia Minor Christians that Eusebius of Caesarea's Ecclesiastical History claims
was converted by Paul (perhaps including his own that the martyrdom took place in the reign of the
parents). He would thus be a crucial link between emperor Marcus Aurelius (between 161 and 180).''
the church of early New Testament times and the A further detail which has entered into arguments
church of the later second century. about dating is the story of Quintus, the Phrygian
The second date which is often championed is mentioned in chapter 4 who had volunteered for
166 or 167, which would still make a link to the martyrdom but then in the face of the wild beasts
apostles feasible enough, though it would mean that succumbed to the request to sacrifice. The designation
Polycarp had less direct knowledge of the early New 'Phrygian' is often taken to be here as it is elsewhere
Testament world itself, having been born well after in the late second century a term for the group who
the crunch events of the siege and fall of Jerusalem would later be called Montanists, an enthusiastic
and the destruction of the Temple in 68-72. The revivalist movement with a reputation for voluntary
third view is that most at least of the Martyrdom martyrdom. The date of the outbreak of Montanism
is later than the second century, and hence a pious is itself in dispute, however, so the assumption that
forgery which gives us little real information about Quintus is a Montanist has been variously used to
the second-century church. This view was already assign Polycarp to the reign of Marcus Aurelius or
argued in the nineteenth century, but was more to assign the outbreak of Montanism to the reign
recently (and influentially) re-argued by Hans von of Antoninus Pius (138-61). However, there is also
Campenhausen.' no real reason why Quintus should not simply be a
The key facts are as follows: Polycarp's martyrdom native of Phrygia (at this point a region within the
is said in chapter 21 to have taken place under the province of Asia) of the sort who would be attracted
proconsulship of a certain Statius Quadratus, at the by Montanism in later years.
beginning of the month of Xanthikus, on the second Eusebius, meanwhile, is frequently unreliable
day, seven days before the Kalends of March, on a in his datings, especially those of the second
great Sabbath, at the eighth hour, in the time of the century, so many have felt that his unanchored
High Priest Philip of Tralles. The date of Statius evidence is no match for the text's own self-dating
Quadratus' proconsulship of Asia is not known, but to the proconsulship of a known historical figure.

' For a summary of scholarly discussion, see B. Dehand- ' Timothy Barnes (T. D. Barnes, 'A Note on Polycarp',
schutter, 'The Martyrium Polycarpi: a Century of Research', Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 18 (1967), pp. 433-37,
in Wolfgang Haase and Hildegard Temporini (eds.), Aufstieg and 'Pre-Decian Acta Martyrum', Journal of Theological
und Niedergang der romischen Welt II.27.1 (Berlin: Walter Studies n.s. 19 (1968), pp. 509-31 (510-14)) tightened up
de Gruyter, 1993), pp. 485-522 the argument for 156 by pointing out that the martyrdom
•* Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, II, 1:646-77. must have taken place towards the end of Statius Quadratus'
> Hans von Campenhausen, Bearbeitungen und Inter- term (governorships ran from May-May), and that a gap
polationen des Polykarpmartyriums (Sitzungsberichte der as short as twelve years between consulship and a senior
Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch- proconsulship is unknown at this period).
Historische Klasse, 1957, 3; Heidelberg: Winter, 1957), ' Eusebius, HE IV.14.10 - 15.i. In Eusebius' earlier
reprinted in von Campenhausen, Aus der Friihzeit des Chronicon, the martyrdom is assigned to 167, though the
Cbristentums, Studien zur Kirchengeschichte des ersten abandonment of the exact date in the History shows that it
und zweiten jahrhunderts (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul had been merely a guess forced by the need to enter the event
Siebeck), 1963), pp. 253-301 (cited here from the latter). under a specific year.
 THE EXPOSITORY TIMES 107

Nonetheless, the discrepancy, together with the Von Campenhausen developed these omissions
discrepancy between the text Eusebius transmits and into a theory of a series of redactions of the text
that of the other manuscripts, has led some scholars both before and after Eusebius. He deemed the
to eschew both a date for the Martyrdom based on Gospel parallels to have been added after the time
the career of Quadratus and one based on Eusebius' of Eusebius' exemplar by a 'Gospel redactor', and
information, in favour of the view either that the argued that the information about the chain of
whole work is a pious fiction of, say, the third scribes pointed to a chain of additions, including
century (recently claimed anew by Silvia Ronchey),* material added well before the time of Eusebius.
or that the text is a composite, an original core (as Pre-Eusebian additions, in his eyes, would
witnessed by the sections cited in Eusebius), having include material concerning the cult of martyrs
been added to by various redactors with theological in MPol 17-18 (which von Campenhausen saw
points to score.' as anachronistic), the Quintus story (4), and some
If the text is a unity, including chapter 21, then miraculous material (for example, the voice from
the Statius Quadratus evidence, the evidence of a heaven that tells Polycarp to 'be strong' as he enters
known individual with a career fitting into a known the stadium, in 9.1); post-Eusebian would be the
pattern, must be considered stronger than that of Gospel parallels, the non-Eusebian miraculous
Eusebius, which is both unspecific and unconnected material, and the dating in the proconsulship of
to the document he goes on to quote from. However, Statius Quadratus, with which Eusebius' dating
the arguments for a composite text, which purport disagrees.
to make sense of the contradiction, should be The differences between Eusebius' text and that
examined at greater length. of the manuscript tradition are certainly striking.
Nonetheless, the vast bulk of them can be accounted
z. The Composition of the Text for by the fact that Eusebius is clearly summarizing
Eusebius' version of the text of the Martyrdom the first section (MPol 1-7) rather than giving it
differs from the text transmitted otherwise in word for word, in order to concentrate on the
some interesting ways.'° It abridges the first seven martyrdom itself, which is what really interests him.
chapters, omitting most ofthe work's self-conscious The minor differences in the second half (8.1 - 19.i)
parallels with the Passion narratives; it leaves out are, as Lightfoot pointed out, not greater than those
some miraculous details, particularly the claim that generally found in texts cited by Eusebius. There are
a dove emerged from the dead body of Polycarp; few significant differences in the section in which
and it stops in the middle of chapter 19, after the Eusebius purports to be quoting verbatim (xaxct
phrase 'Such was the lot of the blessed Polycarp, Xe^Lv) rather than summarizing: his omission,
who though he was, together with those from from MPol 15.2, of the comparison of Polycarp's
Philadephia, the twelfth martyr in Smyrna, is alone body to baking bread, in favour of a concentration
especially remembered by all, so that he is spoken of on the alternative comparison with gold and silver
in every place, even by the Gentiles.' The remainder being refined in the furnace; or from 16.i ofthe dove
of the work's short encomium of Polycarp, the which was said to have come out of Polycarp's body
greeting to the letter's recipients, the information after it was stabbed by a professional death-blow
about the date of Polycarp's death in chapter 21, and dealer." These details are, surely, more likely to have
the information in chapter 22 about the copying and been present in Eusebius' exemplar and censored
recopying of the manuscript are all omitted. by him on grounds of implausibility than to have
been the only significant additions to this section
' Silvia Ronchey, Indagine sul Martirio di san Policarpo (nearly half the work) by a putative post-Eusebian
(Nuovi Studi Storici, 6; Rome: Istituto Storico Italiano per
il Medio Evo, 1990). redactor.
' This is von Campenhausen's case. Once Eusebius' omissions are accounted for, the
'° The two versions are printed side by side with the remainder of Von Campenhausen's proposals rest
divergences underlined in Gerd Buschmann, Das Martyrium on his own views of what was and was not possible
des Polykarp (Kommentar zu den Apostolischen Vatern, 6;
Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998), pp. 19-34.
There is a good summary of the manuscript tradition in " On the xo(ict)EHTCUQ (professional dispatcher of beasts),
Dehandschutter, 'Gentury of Research', pp. 486-87. see Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, II, 3:390.
io8 THE EXPOSITORY TIMES

in mid-second-century theology. Concern for the donkeys for satirical purposes is well documented;''
gathering-up and burial of martyrs' remains is and it would hardly be sensible to attempt an arrest
attested in the account of the martyrs of Lyon and of someone on his own property without weapons,
Vienne in the 170s; "^ yearly memorials at their in this period. Many of the parallels are in fact less
tombs would merely replicate a common Roman close than one might expect if they were invented:
practice, easily adaptable to the Christian Eucharist; the claim that Polycarp was 'betrayed by those of
neither should surprise us at this period, when both his own household' (6.1) merely because one of his
were common later Christian practice. A love of slaves gave away his whereabouts under torture is
the miraculous among second-century Christians only a parallel with Judas in interpretation, not
is well attested among pagan writers such as Celsus really in fact."*
and Lucian of Samosata, as well as Christians such Then there are the miraculous occurrences. As
as Irenaeus and the anonymous anti-Montanist already noted, Polycarp predicts his own death
writer of Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History. Voluntary (5.2). A voice comes 'from heaven' urging Polycarp
martyrdom, so praised by Tertullian at the end of the 'Be strong and be a man!' (9.1). The fire does not
century, should not surprise us at this period either. consume him, but billows out like a sail, surrounding
None of these theological facets of the Martyrdom him like a wall. His body looks like baking bread,
argues against its integrity or its second-century and smells like sweet perfume (15.2). When his
origins. body is stabbed, there comes out a dove and a great
quantity of blood which extinguishes the Hre (16.i).
3. Authenticity Again, though, none of these things (even the last,
The most obvious reason for scepticism about the if one leaves room for interpretation) is inherently
events described in the Martyrdom has usually implausible. His arrest was not unexpected, fire was
been considered to be the number of its parallels a common means of execution, and it is not unheard
with the Gospels in general, and with the passion of for people to predict their own deaths in times of
of Christ in particular.'^ Polycarp withdraws with war or persecution. The fact that 'no one saw the
some friends, and spends time in prayer (MPol one who had spoken' to Polycarp hardly rules out
5.1). He knows and predicts that he is going to a human origin for the voice. Executions in which
be captured, and how he is going to die (5.Z). The the victim is actually baked or roasted rather than
eirenarch ('peace chief, in charge of city peace- being burned, meanwhile, are well documented.'^
keeping) is called Herod (6.2), and his father is also The strong and swirling wind that would be
involved in Polycarp's arrest (8.2). Those arresting needed to produce the fire's described behaviour
Polycarp go armed with weapons, as against a seems plausible enough in a coastal city on a late
robber. They come for him in the evening, and he afternoon in February in the middle of a U-shaped
could have escaped but does not (7.1). Polycarp is stadium which was open at the west (seaward) end.''*
brought back to Smyrna on a donkey (8.1). He has The fire must have been nearly out already by the
a dialogue with the Roman governor, who also has
one eye on the crowd (9.2 - 12.i). The crowd call
•' See, for example, the well-known graffito of a crucified
for his death (12.2-3). 'The Jews' are involved in man with an ass's head from the Palatine in Rome, reproduced
his death (13.i). His followers try to get his body in Graydon F. Snyder, Ante-Pacem, Archaeological Evidence
(17.1). of Church Eife hefore Constantine (rev, edn; Macon: Mercer
University Press, 2003), p. 60, and discussed on pp. 61-62,
None of these things is actually in itself " Lightfoot makes this point well (Apostolic Fathers, I,
implausible, however. 'Herod' is a reasonable enough 3:610-14),
name for an aristocratic Jew (Smyrna had long had '' Patrick Hamilton died in St Andrews in 1528 in such
a large and distinguished Jewish community), or a manner. It may be considered the mark of a botched
execution, where the fire has not been constructed properly,
even a pagan;"* the association of Christians with quite likely in the present instance because it seems not to
have been planned. One may hope that Polycarp died of
" Eusebius, HE V,i,6i, suffocation relatively quickly.
'' The debate in summarized in Dehandschutter, 'Century '* On the archaeology of the Smyrna stadium, see Louis
of Research', pp. 503-507, Robert, Ee Martyre de I'ionios, pretre de Smyrne (ed. G. W,
"• An example is Polycarp's contemporary Herodes Atticus, Bowersock and C. P. Jones; Washington: Dumbarton Oaks
an Athenian and a Roman consul. Research Library and Collection, 1994), pp. 114-15.
 THE EXPOSITORY TIMES 109

time Polycarp was stabbed by the xo(i(j)8XTC0Q, or groaning and looking up to heaven - so his reply
it would not have been safe for him to approach. is not an insolent hut an amhiguous one (as his
Even the dove need be no more than a previously third reply, ixETCt JTaQQTioiag dxoue (10.i), 'hear it
unnoticed bird flying up from the direction of the openly', makes clear). The gesture is as much to the
fire." stadium as to the crowd, and may be taken to mean
The most difficult part of the narrative to explain 'Do you really intend to try me hereV
is not in fact any of the miraculous details, but the The governor presses on, saying 'Swear, and I
Roman legal proceedings. It is astonishing to find release you, curse Christ'. Polycarp gives another
Polycarp apparently on trial for his life before one dignified but still slightly covert answer, the
of the leading magistrates of the Empire on a public famous 'For eighty-six years I have served him, and
holiday in the middle of a sports stadium, with no he has done me no injustice (r|8Lxr|aEv); how can
use of the tribunal, no formal accusation, and, I slander my King who has preserved me?' (9.3).
strangest of all, no sentence.^" The mention of injustice is one of a series of such
The narrative itself, it should be noted, telegraphs subtle references to the questionable nature of the
the strangeness of the proceedings. We are invited governor's procedure in this section.
to view Statius Quadratus as acting rather inap- The governor presses Polycarp again to swear by
propriately, with disdain for the traditions of Roman the genius of Caesar, and this time Polycarp changes
justice, Roman piety and Roman ethics. Quadratus tack: he is explicit in his reply, openly criticizing
is shown up as being neither a pious philosopher nor the governor for his actions and making his own
a just ruler — very much the terms which concern position plain. 'If you emptily think (xEvoSo^Eig)
Justin Martyr in writing his Apologies at more or that I should swear by the genius of Caesar, as
less the same time. you say, and are pretending that you do not know
Polycarp is brought forward (9.2). The Proconsul who I am, hear it with boldness: I am a Christian.
proceeds to what purports to be a trial, which must And if you want to learn the rationale [logos] of
be a mark of contempt in the context, given the Christianity, fix a day and hear [the case]' (10.i).
setting. The narrative presents Polycarp throughout Polycarp here essentially accuses the Proconsul of
as responding to the Proconsul's games-playing with using legal formulae in an empty manner, asking
dignity and gentlemanly openness (jtaQQr|aia, Polycarp's name and telling him to swear when he
io.i). is not in a suitable setting for a trial. Polycarp calls
Polycarp's first act, once he has answered to his the governor's bluff by making the clear confession
name, is to look round 'with dignity in his face' at appropriate to a trial and asking him in return to
all the crowd of 'lawless' gentiles in the stadium, follow the normal procedure of naming a day and
and gesture towards them with his hand (9.2). hearing the case properly." But the Proconsul,
The meaning of this gesture is not spelled out - it continuing his contemptuous treatment, tells
is connected in the narrative with the governor's Polycarp instead to persuade the people (demos.,
demand that Polycarp say 'Away with the atheists', but in the shape of the stadium crowd). Polycarp
and is usually taken as a rather insolent indication continues his dignified practice of recalling the
that he means to say 'Away with the atheists' to the governor to his own position: 'You I would have
crowd. But, though he does indeed say the words held worthy of an account, for we have been taught
after this gesture, he says them immediately after to allot honour which is proper and does not harm
us to rulers and authorities appointed by God. But
these I do not hold as fitting for a defence to be
" Lightfoot offers the parallel of the vulture which the made to them' (10.2). Polycarp is very clear what
satirist Lucian of Samostata has rise from the flames as constitutes a proper authority and what does not;
Peregrinus commits suicide at the Olympic Games (Peregrinus
39), as well as the eagle which was released from the funeral
pyre of dead emperors {Apostolic Fathers, I, 3:390-91). " A Roman governor would fix in advance to hear a case
"• C. J. Cadoux raises this point: 'From the point of view of in a given city on the assize circuit during his formal assize
the customary forms of proconsular justice, the proceedings sessions there, sometimes on a given day, sometimes not.
were unusual' (Cecil John Cadoux, Ancient Smyrna, A See the discussion in G. P. Burton, 'Proconsuls, Assizes and
History of the City from the Earliest Times to 324 A.D. the Administration of Justice under the Empire', journal of
(Oxford: Basil Blackwell, r938), p. 359. Roman Studies 65 (1975), pp. 92-106 (ioi).
no THE EXPOSITORY TIMES

he is presented as being more on the side of Roman Poiycarp,^"t and it is difficult to work out who
justice than the Proconsul is. actually gives the order for him to be executed. The
The governor seems to have in mind a sadistic Proconsul sends his herald into the middle of the
game of making Poiycarp plead with the crowd. stadium to proclaim 'Poiycarp has confessed that
When Poiycarp refuses to play, he begins to threaten he is a Christian!' (12.i). The crowd then ask Philip
him, first with wild beasts, then with fire. Poiycarp, the Asiarch (who seems to be in charge of at least
in his reply, implicitly accuses the Proconsul of being the mock-hunting section of the games) to set a lion
a bad philosopher and of being impious (and hence on Poiycarp, but he refuses on the grounds that it is
a bad representative of the emperor Antoninus not permissible (e^ov), since he has now completed
Pius and his philosopher sons).^^ He first invokes the hunting (12.2). This is an interesting comment.
a philosophical commonplace with a sting in the On the one hand, it may signify that he has now
tale: 'Change of mind from better to worse is not fulfilled his expensive duty of animal-provision
a possible change for us, but it is good to make a and has no intention of spending any more money
change from harsh proceedings to just ones' (ctjro unnecessarily. On the other, he may be signalling a
Twv xa^tEncbv em xa binaia)' (MPol ii.i).^' He certain disapproval of the casual attitude to legal
then brings out the stock Christian answer to the form shown by the Proconsul, and washing his hands
threat of fire ('You threaten a fire that burns for an of the affair. He may even be seeking to draw a line
hour and then is quickly quenched'), but adds 'you under the quasi-trial (since no actual sentence has
do not know the fire of the coming judgement and been passed) by interpreting the crowd's request, not
eternal punishment which awaits the impious (xolg as a demand to execute Poiycarp as a criminal, but
doePeoi)'. The sentiments are close to those of Justin as one to enlist him as a professional beast-fighter. "-^
Martyr. Poiycarp, having made his point, then cuts Either way, his mention of impermissibility may well
the proceedings off: 'But why are you delaying.' Do be a tacit rebuke to the Proconsul, who has already
what you want to' ( i i . i ) . threatened Poiycarp both with wild beasts and with
execution by fire.
Polycarp's bold speeches to such a prestigious
figure might be dismissed as simple invention What happens next is not very clear (the
- a normal technique for speeches in any ancient narrative claims, with a ring of authenticity, that
narrative, historical or otherwise. The narrative itself it all happened very quickly). The crowd cry out
has Poiycarp speak 'these and many other sayings' that Philip should have Poiycarp burned (12.3): the
(iz.i), and attributes to the Proconsul 'the other narrator uses the phrase eSo^ev aiiTOig (it seemed
things which follow, as they are accustomed to say' good to them), surely an ironic reference to the usual
(9.2). But if we accept that the Proconsul was acting formula for giving a legal decision. The narrative
against normal custom, and was enjoying himself does not tell us how either Philip or the Proconsul
playing with Poiycarp for the crowd's benefit, then responded, but Philip perhaps protested that there
some response such as Polycarp's begins to sound was no wood, because the crowd goes off and
plausible. brings wood from nearby stockpiles in bathhouses
What the narrative is keen above all to stress
is that Poiycarp kept his dignity and the governor
lost his. Polycarp's 'face was filled with grace' and "I The giving of sentence was, in fact, the most carefully
prescribed and closely defined part of cognitio procedure,
did not fall at the things said to him, whereas the and a sentence could be invalidated if it was not given
Proconsul was 'beside himself (12.i). This may properly: see Theodor Mommsen, Le Droit Penal Romain
be an exaggeration, but if Statius Quadratus did (tr. J. Duquesne; Manuel des antiquites romaines, 17-19; 3
hold a trial in such circumstances, he did indeed vols.; Paris: Albert Fontemoing, 1902), 2, pp. 128-30, with
2,p. 3on. 5.
compromise to some degree his standing as the '' The word for 'hunt' is KUVTiyEOLa = Latin venatio. In
representative of justice and good order. the arena, exotic and/or dangerous species would be made
The course of the execution itself is not easy to fight each other, pitted against armed (free or slave)
to reconstruct. No sentence is pronounced on bestiarii ('beast-fighters'), and used to execute unarmed
criminals who had been condemned ad bestias. Criminals
were also sometimes sentenced to serve as bestiarii (see
" For this theme, see Justin, i Ap 1; z Ap 2.16 and 15.5. Justinian's Digest 48.19.11), with at least a nominal chance
^5 Cf. Plato, Republic, 381B-C (II.io). of survival.
 THE EXPOSITORY TIMES

and workshops (13.i). Someone must have given the entertainment; where the community can remember
nod for the pyre to be built and Polycarp to be placed some members with loving pride and brush aside
on it, whether Philip or the Proconsul or Herod the even the names of others; where Christians and
eirenarch, though the authority by which it was Jews regard one another with bitter hatred; where
done was of course ultimately the Proconsul's, the having property and slaves is all part of Polycarp's
only official present with the right to execute. The holy persona.
narrative speaks only of 'they' and 'the men of the But we can also be impressed by much in the story
fire' who were going to nail him but desisted at his which is equally persuasive: by Polycarp's care for
request (13.3), who gave him time to pray (14), and little and great, by his dignity in the face of a system
who finally lit the fire (15.i). carefully designed to strip dignity entirely away, by
At length 'the lawless ones', seeing that the fire the community's enormous respect for him, by the
was not going to consume his body, 'commanded' narrator's concern for the terrible sufferings of the
{exskevaav) a confector to go up to him and stick other martyrs, and distress that they should have
a dagger into him (16.i) (exactly whose authority been exposed out of some people's bravado, by the
is behind this is once again unclear). After this determination of the community to carry on, as well
action, administrative practice more or less returns as by the narrator's obvious love of and knowledge
to normal. It is the Pronconsul who has the right to of the Cospels.
release the body for burial or not; Herod's father The Martyrdom is in some ways a strange text,
Niketas persuades him not to it hand over (17.2), strangely distanced from its subject and strangely
so 'the centurion' (under the Proconsul's command, manicured. It shares its strangeness with many of
and mentioned for the first time) takes the body and the other writings described by the term Apostolic
burns it on a pyre, after which the Christians are Fathers. But like them, it also reminds us that early
able to collect the bones (18.2). Christians were in some ways very like ourselves,
So the text itself does address, up to a point, the trying to make sense in the face of sometimes
strangeness of the legal proceedings it describes. bewilderingly violent events of all that we are
They are subtly presented, both by Polycarp and called to be.
by the narrator, as out of step with normal Roman
legal practice, but within a system which, from a Bibliography
Christian point of view, is fairly arbitrary anyway. Barnes, T. D., 'A Note on Polycarp', Journal of
Paradoxically, their strangeness probably makes Theological Studies n.s. 18 (1967), pp. 433-37.
them more likely to be historically accurate. 'Pre-Decian Acta Martyrum', journal
Conclusion of Theological Studies n.s. 19 (1968), pp.
509-31.
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over by scholars. To a considerable extent, this tration of Justice under the Empire', Journal of
reflects the interest of the piece, and the preciousness Roman Studies 65 (1975), pp. 92-106.
of the glimpse it offers us of the mid-second-century Buschmann, Gerd, Das Martyrium des Polykarp
Asian church. We find in it a frail old man, faithful (Kommentar zu den Apostolischen Vatern, 6;
unto death, accepting a cruel and humiliating public Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998).
execution rather than deny 'my King who has saved Cadoux, Cecil John, Ancient Smyrna, A History
me'. Too edifying for some, perhaps, and too good of the City from the Earliest Times to ^2.4 A.D.
to be true for others. But ultimately, the Martyrdom (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1938).
of Polycarp is most interesting if it is true, if it is the Campenhausen, Hans von, Bearbeitungen und
authentic record of how someone in the church of Interpolationen des Polykarptnartyriums
Smyrna made sense of Polycarp's death. For if we (Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie
look behind the text, if we read between the lines, der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische
we can see a community which is all too human: Klasse, 1957, 3; Heidelberg: Winter, 1957),
where some step forward in bravado and catapult reprinted in von Campenhausen, Aus der Friihzeit
others into the centre of a horrific and deadly public
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and Hildegard Temporini (eds.), Aufstieg und and Collection, 1994).
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Walter de Gruyter, 1993), pp. 485-522. Policarpo (Nuovi Studi Storici, 6; Rome: Istituto
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J. Duquesne; Manuel des antiquites romaines. edn; Macon: Mercer University Press, 2003).

RESPONDING TO EXILE
Gordon Mursell, Praying in Exile (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 2005. £9.95. pp. 86. ISBN
0-232-52228-6).
DOI: 10.1177/0014524606072688

T his short volume is not meant to be read at speed. Rather, Mursell has written a sensitive and pastoral
response to exile that is meant to be savoured, reflected upon, and acted upon. His counsel to those
in exile draws from biblical sources, song, poetry, and the memories of those who have experienced
various types of exile.
Mursell defines exile as 'any experience in which you are not at home and not in control of what is
happening to you' (2). Exile is part of the common human experience - from the initial separation at birth,
to full-fledged migration. The tension between where we are and where we wish to be is the hallmark of
exile. Mursell notes that exile produces nomads, and illustrates his discussion with the stories of Hagar,
Moses, Ruth and Jesus. The modern-day nomad is encouraged to emulate such 'successful' nomads by
developing inner stability in times of rootlessness. One way this is accomplished is by memory and story,
which create identity in the midst of chaos.
The theological, psychological, and political implications of exile are explored in a section entitled The
Prayer of Lament in Exile, in which Mursell observes that the way out of the depths of despair engendered
by exile is the articulation of the experience in prayer. This is followed by a discussion of Sabbath-keeping
as a means of creating order in the midst of chaos.
The present writer read Praying in Exile while working in a city far from home and found it a most
appropriate volume. Thus, whether one is in the midst of exile or tending to those who find themselves in
exile, this volume will provide succinct counsel and encouragement.
ELIZABETH HAYES
Oxford, UK