brother to Pius, Bishop of Rome, who died A.D. 142.  (See “Norton’s Genuineness of the Gospels,” vol. i., pp. 341, 342.) “The Epistle to the Philippians, which is ascribed to Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, who, in the middle of the second century, suffered martyrdom in a venerable and advanced age, is looked upon by some as genuine; by others as spurious; and it is no easy matter to determine this question” ("Eccles.  Hist,” p. 32).  “Upon no internal ground can any part of this Epistle be pronounced genuine; there are potent reasons for considering it spurious, and there is no evidence of any value whatever supporting its authenticity” ("Sup.  Rel.,” p. 283).

The editors of the “Apostolic Fathers” dispute this assertion, and say:  “It is abundantly established by external testimony, and is also supported by the internal evidence” (p. 67).  But they add:  “The epistle before us is not perfect in any of the Greek MSS. which contain it.  But the chapters wanting in Greek are contained in an ancient Latin version.  While there is no ground for supposing, as some have done, that the whole epistle is spurious, there seems considerable force in the arguments by which many others have sought to prove chap. xiii. to be an interpolation.  The date of the epistle cannot be satisfactorily determined.  It depends on the conclusion we reach as to some points, very difficult and obscure, connected with that account of the martyrdom of Polycarp which has come down to us.  We shall not, however, be far wrong if we fix it about the middle of the second century” (Ibid, pp. 67, 68).  Poor Paley! this weak evidence to the martyrdom of his eye-witnesses comes 150 years after Christ; and even then all that Polycarp may have said, if the epistle chance to be authentic, is that “they suffered,” without any word of their martyrdom!

The authenticity of the letters of Ignatius has long been a matter of dispute.  Mosheim, who accepts the seven epistles, says that, “Though I am willing to adopt this opinion as preferable to any other, yet I cannot help looking upon the authenticity of the epistle to Polycarp as extremely dubious, on account of the difference of style; and, indeed, the whole question relating to the epistles of St. Ignatius in general seems to me to labour under much obscurity, and to be embarrassed with many difficulties” ("Eccles.  Hist.,” p. 22).

“There are in all fifteen epistles which bear the name of Ignatius.  These are the following:  One to the Virgin Mary, two to the Apostle John, one to Mary of Cassobelae, one to the Tarsians, one to the Antiochians, one to Hero (a deacon of Antioch), one to the Philippians, one to the Ephesians, one to the Magnesians, one to the Trallians, one to the Romans, one to the Philadelphians, one to the Smyrnians, and one to Polycarp.  The first three exist only in Latin; all the rest are extant also in Greek.  It is now the universal opinions of critics that the first eight of these professedly Ignatian letters are