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.

Translation

2 Herod, the police chief, and Nicetes, his father, came out to meet [1] him. After they had transferred him to the carriage, [2] they were trying to convince [3] him, taking their seats beside him and saying, “What evil is it to say, ‘Caesar is Lord,’ and to offer a sacrifice to him and so forth [4] and escape death? [5] Initially, [6] he did not answer them; but, when they persisted, he said, “I am not about to do what you advise me.” [7]

[1] ὑπήντα also likely connotes the idea of two opposing sides meeting as in a battlefield. Such use of this word is seen in Matthew 8:28 where two demoniacs come out to meet Jesus (ὑπήντησαν αὐτῷ δύο δαιμονιζόμενοι) upon landing in Gadarenes.

[2] καροῦχα i.e., a paddy wagon of some sort.

[3] The anti-Christian efforts to turn St. Polycarp from devotion to Christ. ἔπειθον (πείθω) is a common word but also one that is found in the NT where St. Paul is attempting to convince his hearers about Jesus (πείθων τε αὐτοὺς περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ - c.f., Acts 28:33).

[4] For τὰ τούτοις ἀκόλουθα and ἕτερα τούτοις ἀκόλουθα in §9.2 see BAGD, 31.

[5] διασώζεσθαι (διασῴζω) lit. to bring safely through (BAGD, 189). Here as in 1 Clement 12:5 ff the passive form is used to connote the sparing of one’s own life. 1 Clement 12:6 is in the context of relating the correspondence between the armies of Israel about to lay siege to Jericho and Rahab who had helped the Israeli spies. It is there that we find, … συνάξεις πάντας τοὺς σοὺς ὑπὸ τὸ τέγος σου, καὶ διασωθήσονται· ὅσοι γὰρ ἐὰν εὑρεθῶσιν ἔξω τῆς οἰκίας, ἀπολοῦνται…You will gather all your family under your roof, and you will escape death; for as many as might be found outside the house, they will perish. (author’s translation).

[6] τὰ μὲν πρῶτα is a phrase used often in Greek literature composing the written world into which the Martyrdom of Polycarp was inscribed. Job 8:7 LXX reads ἔσται οὖν τὰ μὲν πρῶτά σου ὀλίγα … Therefore your beginning will be small … (author’s translation). Here, the Greek πρῶτά is rendered for the Hebrew רֵאשִׁית (beginning or chief) used in Genesis 1:1.

[7] Compare Eusebius’ account (οὐ μέλλω πράττειν ὃ συμβουλεύετέ μοι, Historia Εcclesiastica, Book Δ, §ΑΠΟ ΤΟΥ ΤΡΙΤΟΥ ΤΩΝ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΑΣ ΑΙΡΕΣΕΙΣ ΕΙΡΗΝΑΙΟΥ) with Lightfoot’s text (Οὐ μέλλω ποιεῖν ὃ συμβουλεύετέ μοι). πράσσω/πράττω in Eusebius seems to emphasize the idea that in St. Polycarp’s mind, he would have been committing sin or transgressing some sort of bounds he should not. Indeed, to follow the counsel of those accompanying St. Polycarp at this point in the text is to deny flatly the one St. Polycarp loved most, Jesus.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Translation

And in Jesus Christ, his son, the only begotten one, [1] our Lord, who was conceived [2] of the Holy Spirit, born [3] of the Virgin Mary, suffered [4] under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, was put to death, [5] and was buried, [6] after he descended into the lower regions of the earth… [7]

[1] ὸν μονογενῆ comes as the second in a double apposition, which in rendering our translation in this more wooden fashion we attempt to show. The word has to do with the singularly unique place that Jesus occupies as the God-Man.

[2] συλληφθέντα a mysterious word. None of the literature I have access to discusses this.

[3] γεννηθέντα a word rendered born and speaking of Jesus’ incarnate existence into time and space and purposefully different than μονογενῆ which is used to speak of the Son’s eternal relationship to the Father. γεννηθέντα is used in the LXX and NT to speak of biological birth: Job 14:1; Matthew 11:11; Luke 7:28. 1 Clement 30:5 employing an adjectival form of the word reads εὐλογημένος γεννητὸς γυναικὸς ὀλιγόβιος, blessed is woman’s short-lived offspring.

[4] παθόντα (πάσχω) baldly refers to ones experience or treatment; however, even in classical literature it is not often used to refer to positive experiences. The LXX always uses the word to refer to the enduring of suffering and/or death. (BAGD, πάσχω)

[5] θανόντα (θανατόω) especially the death sentence and its execution. There is also a figurative dimension which entails spiritual or eternal death (BAGD).

[6] ταφέντα (ταφή) 1 Clement 16:10 καὶ δώσω τοὐς πονηροὐς ἀντἱ τῆς ταφῆς αὐτοῦ καὶ τοὺς πλουσίους ἀντὶ τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ· And I will give the wicked for his burial and the rich for his death.

[7] Compare the Latin descendit ad inferna with κατελθόντα εἰς τὰ κατώτατα. The Greek seems to be a clear reference to Ephesians 4:9-10. In both the Ephesians passage and the Greek of the Creed, the lower regions (τὰ κατώτατα) is a realm that is not given the identification of Hell as Christians would think of it today or perhaps thought of it by the time the Latin text was received, rendering τὰ κατώτατα as inferna. The underworld in Greek thought was not necessarily the place of eternal punishment after death but simply the place the dead went indiscriminately. Philip Schaff comments, “This clause was unknown in the older creeds, though believed in the Church, and was transferred into the Roman symbol after the fifth century, probably from that of Aquilcia, A.D. 390, where it first appears among Latin creeds…” (Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, p 45, fn 43). I commend the entire note to your reading.