ABSTRACT
The Martyrdom of Polycarp does not speak of the divinization of Polycarp;1 on the contrary, it is a strong advocate against any form of individualized reward. Right in the opening, the key sentence explains the aim of this work, written in the form of a letter, which was not solely to highlight Polycarp, but to speak of martyrs in the plural whose ‘nobility and endurance’ the reader should admire (MartPol 2.2a). As we now know, only in the times of the forger Pseudo-Pionius, around the year 400, this aim was sharpened towards Christ and referred to the gospel, when it was added that ‘the Lord may show us from the beginning the martyrdom according to the gospel’ (MartPol 1.1b, not in Euseb.).2 At that time the focus of the martyrdom had shifted. It was no longer the lived experience of an actual martyrdom3 (the original martyrdom apparently was a historical reminiscence), but the forger lays emphasis on the Lord as a literary model for his disciples, and the disciples as models for readers of literature.4 Zwierlein speaks of an ‘increasing stylization’ of the Martyrdom.5 It is this ‘dual’, imagined ‘imitation’6 which seems to be stressed at the very opening of the later version of the Martyrdom, a reminiscence of Pauline writings and theology as much as that of the Gospel:7
For he [Polycarp] waited to be delivered up, even as the Lord had done, that we also might become imitators of him, while we look not merely at what concerns ourselves but have regard also to our neighbours. For it is the part of a true and well-founded love, not only to wish one’s self to be saved, but also all the brothers.
