Nielsen’s Nook

Nielsen’s Nook
Nielsen’s Nook
Contemplative, reflective, and irenic we pray.
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Translation and Commentary on The Martyrdom of Polycarp §13.2

Will Nielsen
January 8th, 2008
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Translation

2 When the funeral pyre [1] was made ready, Polycarp removed his own clothes and loosed his girdle. [2] He was attempting to untie his own sandals; however, previously he usually did not do this himself because each of the faithful [3] always took pains who should more quickly touch his skin. For he had been adorned with every good thing on account of his Christian life [4] and before old age [5] was upon him.

[1] πυρκαϊὰ pagan funerals incorporated the cremation of the deceased’s body upon a pyre. Hence, the root πυρ (fire) begins the word.

[2] ζώνη, the girdle, was a means of shortening the undergarment (TDNT, vol 5, 302).

[3] i.e., Christians.

[4] πολιτείας Lake notes in his translation that πολιτείας (citizenship) “is used in a special sense of Christian life” (Apostolic Fathers in English, vol 2, p 329). The third entry for πολιτείας in BAGD is glossed as a “way of life” or “conduct” (p 686). See also 1 Clement 2:8.

[5] Eusebius’ text has πολιᾶς (old age, “gray hairs” in Lightfoot’s translation). Some texts follow a Latin tradition in which πολιᾶς is replaced with μαρτυρίας (martyr) as in Lake’s Greek text (c.f., Apostolic Father’s in Greek, vol 2, p 328). Our commitment in this project is to translate from Lightfoot’s text and we do so here with out making judgment between the two variants.

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