Course:Carey HIST501/Project 2/Polycarp
Research on the life of an early Church Father from the list provided below and put together a 500-word mini biography of the historical figure assigned by the instructor (the list will be posted on the course website). For each mini biography, please include the following:
Year of birth and death
c. A.D. 69/70— c. 155–160
Short biographical sketch of the church father
- Bishop of Smyrna, Polycarp (c. A.D. 69/70— c. 155–160) was an important Christian leader in Asia Minor in the first half of the second century, the author of a letter to the church in Philippi and the subject of the earliest extant Christian martyrdom.1 Polycarp is believed to have been born around the year 69 or 70 AD. Not many details of his early life are known.. Many followers of Christ, possibly including Polycarp’s family, left Judea to settle in the cities of Asia. In particular, the last surviving apostle, John, “had made his home in Ephesus, and his name and influence had become a magnet for all that was most vital in Christendom.
The young Polycarp himself was one of John’s disciples, and in later life was fond of recalling his precious memories of the saint. Polycarp served as bishop of Smyrna for some six decades, from the closing years of the first century to the mid-second century.2 The early-third-century theologian Tertullian writes in chapter 32 of his Prescription against Heretics that, according to “original records,” it was the apostle John himself who ordained Polycarp to that office. As a link to the apostolic age, Polycarp vigorously sought to prevent heretic developments.
Major contributions of the church father such as:
- Polycarp is understood to be an important figure in the history of Christianity as he was one of the few people who had spent time gaining knowledge from an apostle. He passed that knowledge on to his disciples and through them, he helped lay the first foundations for the concept of early Christian church. He was the leader of the Asia Minor Churches and worked tirelessly towards offering care to the people who had been detained in prisons, as well as those whose fathers or husbands were killed. He ensured to collect money, which was used to feed and clothe the poor.
Due to his learning and strong faith, he was made an elder of the church of Smyrna and eventually became the congregation’s minister and pastor. He was responsible for combating and converting several heretical sects such as Gnostic groups who flourished during the second century. He was always keen on passing his learnings, which he had gathered from his long years spent with the apostles, and there are many accounts of him preaching the ‘Word of God’ to his disciples and followers. In 135 AD, Polycarp wrote a letter to the Christian Church of Philippi encouraging him to keep doing good work and preserving their faith; the letter is one of his surviving works.
According to the writings of Irenaeus, Polycarp traveled to Rome to resolve a disagreement between the Roman and the Asia Minor Churches over the date of celebration of the resurrection of Christ, otherwise known as the Quartodeciman Controversy. While Polycarp, and whole of Asia Minor considered it on the 14th day of the 1st month, regardless of what day it fell on, the Roman church observed it on the first Sunday after the 14th. Even though he could not change the mind of Anicetus, the then bishop of Rome on the matter, he chose not to force his beliefs to avoid a strain in relationship.
Both short and long-term impact of the selected church father
Polycarp of Smyrna holds a very special and perhaps even unique position in the history of the Christian Church. He was personally taught by the apostle John and therefore is important to the continuity of beliefs from the time of Christ through the apostolic age to our current day and beyond. During those years, Polycarp took the precious knowledge handed down to him from Jesus Christ through the apostle John and passed it on to his own disciples. He embodied those teachings and stood firm in his beliefs, even though it meant death.
The evidence of this the Letter of Polycarp to the Philippians. Only a single document by Polycarp survives. Written in response to a letter from the church in Philippi ( cf. Pol. Phil. 3.1, 13.1), it seeks to define and reinforce community boundaries (Maier) while responding to their request for a discussion of “ righteousness ” (Pol. Phil. 3.1) and dealing with the problem of Valens, an avaricious presbyter (Pol. Phil. 11.1-4).6
Polycarp truly lived according to the following words from his only extant work, his epistle to the Philippians: “Stand fast, therefore, in these things, and follow the example of the Lord, being firm and unchangeable in the faith, loving the brotherhood, and being attached to one another, joined together in the truth, exhibiting the meekness of the Lord in your intercourse with one another, and despising no one.”3
The importance of Polycarp's epistle is that it explicitly ties the apostle Paul to several pieces of writing in what would eventually become the New Testament. Polycarp uses expressions such as "as Paul teaches" to quote several passages which are today found in different books of the New Testament and the Apocrypha, including Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, 1 Peter, and 1 Clement. Polycarp spent over six-decades serving as the bishop of Smyrna and concentrated only on his spiritual teachings.
References
1Martin, Ralph P., and Peter H. Davids. Dictionary of the Later New Testament & Its Developments : A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship. IVP Academic, 1997, Pp 1338.
2https://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/witness/polycarp
3https://www.vision.org/biography-polycarp-apostolic-legacy-457
4Martin, R. P., & Davids, P. H. (1997). Dictionary of the Later New Testament & Its Developments : A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship. IVP Academic.
5https://www.thoughtco.com/biography-of-polycarp-4157484