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| Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus.
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Polycrates,3767
| 3767 Westcott,
Canon, p. 432, note 1; Lightfoot, Ap. Fathers, pp. 379,
etc., 494. | Bishop of Ephesus.
[a.d.
130–196.] This author3768
| 3768 See
Lardner, Credib., vol. ii. cap. 23, p. 259. | comes
in as an appendix to the stories of Polycarp and Irenæus and good
Anicetus, and his writings also bear upon the contrast presented by the
less creditable history of Victor. If, as I suppose, the
appearance of our Lord to St. John on “the Lord’s
day” was on the Paschal Sunday, it may at first seem surprising
that this Apostle can be claimed by Polycrates in behalf of the Eastern
custom to keep Easter, with the Jews, on the fourteenth day of the
moon. But to the Jews the Apostles became “as Jews”
in all things tolerable, so long as the Temple stood, and while the
bishops of Jerusalem were labouring to identify the Paschal Lamb with
their Passover. The long survival of St. John among Jewish
Christians led them to prolong this usage, no doubt, as sanctioned by
his example. He foreknew it would quietly pass away. The
wise and truly Christian spirit of Irenæus prepared the way for
the ultimate unanimity of the Church in a matter which lies at the base
of “the Christian Sabbath,” and of our own observance of
the first day of the week as a weekly Easter. Those who in our
own times have revived the observance of the Jewish Sabbath, show us
how much may be said on their side,3769
and
elucidate the tenacity of the Easterns in resisting the abolition of
the Mosaic ordinance as to the Paschal, although they agreed to keep it
“not with the old leaven.”
Our author belonged to a family in which he was
the eighth Christian bishop; and he presided over the church of
Ephesus, in which the traditions of St. John were yet fresh in
men’s minds at the date of his birth. He had doubtless
known Polycarp, and Irenæus also. He seems to have presided
over a synod of Asiatic bishops (a.d. 196)
which came together to consider this matter of the Paschal feast.
It is surely noteworthy that nobody doubted that it was kept by a
Christian and Apostolic ordinance. So St. Paul argues from its
Christian observance, in his rebuke of the Corinthians.3770
| 3770 1 Cor. v. 7, 8, and margin of Revised Version; also
Acts xii. 4 and 12. | They were keeping it
“unleavened” ceremonially, and he urges a spiritual
unleavening as more important. The Christian hallowing of
Pentecost connects with the Paschal argument.3771
| 3771 Acts ii. 1, xx. 16; 1 Cor. xvi.
8. | The Christian Sabbath hinges on
these points.
From His Epistle to Victor and the
Roman Church Concerning the Day of Keeping the Passover.3772
| 3772 In
Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., v. 24. |
As for us, then, we
scrupulously observe the exact day,3773
| 3773 ᾽Αῤῥαδιούργητον
ἄγομεν τὴν
ἡμέραν. |
neither adding nor taking away. For in Asia great
luminaries3774
have gone to
their rest, who shall rise again in the day of the coming of the Lord,
when He cometh with glory from heaven and shall raise again all the
saints. I speak of Philip, one of the twelve
apostles,3775
| 3775 [See vol. vii.
p. 500, n. 6. Great confusions adhere to this name.] | who is laid
to rest at Hierapolis; and his two daughters, who arrived at old age
unmarried;3776
| 3776 Δύο
θυγατέρες
αὐτοῦ
γεγηρακυῖαι
παρθένοι. | his other
daughter also, who passed her life3777
under
the influence of the Holy Spirit, and reposes at Ephesus; John,
moreover, who reclined on the Lord’s bosom, and who became a
priest wearing the mitre,3778
and a
witness and a teacher—he rests at Ephesus. Then there is
Polycarp, both bishop and martyr at Smyrna; and Thraseas from Eumenia,
both bishop and martyr, who rests at Smyrna. Why
should I speak of Sagaris, bishop and martyr, who rests at Laodicea? of
the blessed Papirius, moreover? and of Melito the eunuch,3779
who performed all his actions under
the influence of the Holy Spirit, and lies at Sardis, awaiting the
visitation3780
from heaven,
when he shall rise again from the dead? These all kept the
passover on the fourteenth. day of the month, in accordance with
the Gospel, without ever deviating from it, but keeping to the rule of
faith.
Moreover I also, Polycrates, who am the least of
you all, in accordance with the tradition of my relatives, some of whom
I have succeeded—seven of my relatives were bishops, and I am the
eighth, and my relatives always observed the day when the people put
away3781
| 3781 ̓́῞Ηρνυε. Some read ἠρτυε. | the leaven—I myself, brethren,
I say, who am sixty-five years old in the Lord, and have fallen in with
the brethren in all parts of the world, and have read through all Holy
Scripture, am not frightened at the things which are said to terrify
us. For those who are greater than I have said, “We ought
to obey God rather than men.”3782
…
I might also have made mention of the bishops
associated with me, whom it was your own desire to have called together
by me, and I called them together: whose names, if I were to
write them down, would amount to a great number. These
bishops, on coming to see me, unworthy as I am,3783
signified their united approval of
the letter, knowing that I wore these grey hairs not in vain,
but have always regulated my conduct in obedience to the Lord
Jesus.
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