On “From the Lost Teaching of Polycarp” by Charles E. Hill ***

Like other works about Polycarp, this one suffers from the same lack of information we have about the man. Hill is, in fact, attempting to rectify that in this work, by claiming a couple of other texts for him. That said, even if we accept those texts as written by Polycarp, there just isn't as much as one might wish to have about this important ancient figure. But then, that is true of pretty much all ancient people.

The two works that Hill attempts to link to Polycarp are various comments that Irenaeus makes about Marcionism and Valentinianism and the work Ad Diognetum. Hill himself admits that the former is easier to do than the latter, and the end result fits squarely with that expectation. I came away convinced of the former and skeptical of the latter.

Irenaeus, in his writing, refers to a presbyter as the source of much of his information about and many of his argument against Marcionism. Who was the presbyter? By linking up said passages with a couple of other passages where Irenaeus refers to Polycarp by name and to a letter to Florinus that Irenaeus also wrote, Hill is able to make a strong argument that this unnamed source was Polycarp. In so doing, Hill also establishes that Ireneaus's memories of Polycarp probably extend to his teens or maybe even early twenties, not just his childhood. As such Ireneaus is a good source for information about the sort of things Polycarp believed and said. Given that the only writing we have of Polycarp is a letter the Philippi that is very much a basic doctrine, the idea that he preached heavily against Marcion fleshes out his teaching just a little.

The arguments that he was also the source for Ad Diognetum seem much weaker, based on some ideas that correspond to what we do know about Polycarp and the like. I felt like I learned more about the work, in this regard, then about Polycarp. Hill makes a good case that the work is a transcript of a speech rather than a letter or a formal piece of writing. It does, however, have an apologetic purpose, in trying to teach Diogenetus about Christianity. As such, if it is by Polycarp, we then have a letter, anti-heresy teachings (as recorded in Ireneaus), and an apology, which would be a well-rounded sample.