Is the Martyrdom of Polycarp an Authentic Account?
In my previous posts I have talked about the Martyrdom of Polcarp, our first full account of a Christian martyrdom (outside the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts 8). But is it an authentic account? It claims to be written by an eyewitness. Was it? I did not begin to investigate that question seriously and deeply until after I had published by Loeb Apostolic Fathers translation of the text in 2003. Some years later I started my research on my book Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics (published in 2013 by Oxford University Press). This was a lengthy analysis of all the early Christian writings involved with polemical engagement (that is, Christian arguments with and verbal attacks on pagans, Jews, and especially other/"heretical" Christians) that could be argued were actually forgeries -- not written by the persons claimed to be their authors (starting with the New Testament and going through the first four centuries). During my research I became convinced that a number of the texts were not written by their alleged [...]