The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians - St. Polycarp - Book #519 of the Bucket List Book Adventure

 The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians - St. Polycarp - Book #519 of the Bucket List Book Adventure

By: a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures

A Rite of Fancy Bucket List Book Adventure

Book number 519 of the Bucket List Book Adventure is complete! Let me tell you all about The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians.

St. Polycarp was the Bishop of Smyrna, in modern-day İzmir, Turkey, and lived roughly from the late first century to the middle of the second. According to early Christian tradition, St. John the Apostle taught him, and he knew others connected directly to the apostolic generation.

He was closely associated with St. Ignatius of Antioch, and St. Irenaeus later remembered hearing Polycarp teach when he was a boy. Through men such as these, Polycarp represents an important bridge between the apostles themselves and the generations of Christians who followed them.

The Epistle to the Philippians was not simply a theological treatise. At least part of its purpose was practical: Polycarp was sending the Christians at Philippi a collection of the letters of St. Ignatius that they had requested. Although Polycarp apparently wrote several letters during his lifetime, this is the only one that has survived essentially intact through the centuries.

Within the letter, St. Polycarp addresses the controversy surrounding Valens, a former presbyter in the Philippian congregation, and his wife. They had apparently become involved in some form of financial impropriety. Polycarp strongly condemns greed and the love of money, but his response is remarkably pastoral. He asks the Philippians not to treat the couple as enemies, but as straying members who should be called back through repentance.

Another focus of the letter is what we would now describe as the relationship between faith and works—an ongoing point of disagreement between Catholics and Protestants. I came away from this epistle with the impression that the early Christians understood faith almost as an active verb.

When one has faith, one gives alms, practices self-control, obeys the commandments, cares for others, and attempts to live according to Christ's teachings. These actions are not presented as something separate from faith, but as the way faith is expressed. This makes faith seem less like an emotional or passive state and more like something a person actually does.

Polycarp also makes an interesting reference to the "testimony of the Cross." He connects it with the insistence that Jesus Christ truly came in the flesh. This mattered in an early Christian world where some teachers argued that Christ's physical body or suffering had only appeared to be real.

For Polycarp, however, Christianity rests upon events that actually happened: Christ really became human, really suffered, really died upon the Cross, and really rose again. The Cross was therefore not merely a symbol or an inspiring spiritual idea. It was testimony to the reality of the Incarnation, suffering, death, and Resurrection.

That struck me as another example of early Christianity's concrete nature. Faith was not supposed to remain safely inside a person's thoughts. Christ's suffering was real, and the Christian response was expected to be equally real in one's actions.

St. Polycarp relies heavily upon Matthew, Luke, Acts, and the letters of Paul, Peter, and John to make his points. His writing provides further evidence that early Christian communities were already very familiar with apostolic writings and used them as authoritative foundations for later teaching.

That may have been what interested me most about this short work.

The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians offers a fascinating glimpse into the beliefs, problems, and everyday practices of Christians living only a few generations after Christ. Once again, I was struck by the continuity between these earliest Christian writings and the New Testament.

The people are different. The problems are already becoming the problems of an established Church. But the foundation Polycarp continually returns to is the same: Christ, the apostles, the Scriptures they left behind, and the expectation that faith should change the way a person lives.

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About the Author

a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller traveling through life

She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.

You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.

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