Nielsen’s Nook

Translation

3 After they failed [1] to persuade him, they began making threats [2] and they brought him down with haste in such a way that when he came down from the carriage, he tore skin [3] off his shin. Without turning around, as though he had suffered [4] nothing, he began going willingly. [5] After he was led into the stadium, there was such a clamor in the stadium such that it was impossible for just one person to be heard. [6]

[1] ἀποτυχόντες (ἀποτυγχάνω) BAGD directs the reader to Job 31:16 LXX as a biblical example of usage.

[2] δεινὰ ῥήματα ἔλεγον The ingressive imperfect ἔλεγον clues us in that the threatening words began at the point of St. Polycarp’s refusal to “do as you advise me” and continued for some time after that (GGBB, 544).

[3] ἀποσῦραι to tear or scrape the skin off something (BAGD, 100). This word is used in 4 Maccabees 9:28 in the context of the torture of the first and second brothers: “These leopard-like beasts tore out his sinews with the iron hands, flayed all his flesh up to his chin, and tore away his scalp.” (NRSV) The infinitive seems to suggest the purpose of bringing St. Polycarp down from the carriage as the police officers did was to rough him up a bit.

[4] πεπονθώς (πάσχω) generally meant to suffer as Acts 3:18 reminds us: ὁ δὲ θεός, ἃ προκατήγγειλεν διὰ στόματος πάντων τῶν προφητῶν παθεῖν τὸν χριστὸν αὐτοῦ, ἐπλήρωσεν οὕτως. But in this way God fulfilled what he announced beforehand through the mouths of all the prophets - His Messiah was to suffer (author’s translation).

[5] This is the second time σπουδῆς is used in this verse; however, it is used in two context, resulting in two different renderings: haste and willingly. Some have translated σπουδῆς as eagerly here. While that is a possibility, it seems to run cross grain to the point the narrator has made that St. Polycarp was anything but eager to die a martyrs death. It is something he would be content with if that was the Lord’s will for him, but it is not something to be sought out as we learned from Quintus in §4. So we have rendered μετὰ σπουδῆς as willingly to capture this nuance.

[6] We have preferred to render ὡς μηδὲ ἀκουσθῆναί τινα δύνασθαι as ‘such that it was impossible for just one person to be heard.’ Lightfoot narrows the scope of the noise to no one’s voice; however, in a way, this seems to quiet the cacophony of the scene. Not only were these stadium enthusiasts clamoring with their voice, they were likely banging and shuffling in their seats and, we imagine, throwing projectiles of one sort or another at St. Polycarp.