Martyrdom of Polycarp 10.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:324–326

Ἐπιμένοντος δὲ πάλιν αὐτοῦ καὶ λέγοντος· Ὄμοσον τὴν Καίσαρος τύχην, ἀπεκρίνατο· Εἰ κενοδοξεῖς, ἵνα ὀμόσω τὴν Καίσαρος τύχην, ὡς σὺ λέγεις, προσποιεῖ δὲ ἀγνοεῖν με, τίς εἰμι, μετὰ παρρησίας ἄκουε· Χριστιανός εἰμι. εἰ δὲ θέλεις τὸν τοῦ Χριστιανισμοῦ μαθεῖν λόγον, δὸς ἡμέραν καὶ ἄκουσον.

English · Claude translation

When he persisted again and said, “Swear by the fortune of Caesar,” Polycarp answered, “If you vainly suppose that I will swear by the fortune of Caesar, as you put it, and you pretend not to know who I am, hear it plainly: I am a Christian. And if you want to learn the teaching of Christianity, give me a day and listen.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:324–326 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2, LCL 25 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1913), 312–345 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912-1913), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Also in

PG 5:1036c–1036d (found by text match)

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 25, 1913); made independently of existing English translations.

Topics

Martyrdom

Notes

Translation notes

“Christianity” (Χριστιανισμοῦ): with the letters of Ignatius, among the earliest uses of the word.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (capital lost)): τὴν καίσαρος τύχην → τὴν Καίσαρος τύχην.

Cite this passage

Mart. Pol. 10.1 (PG 5:1036c–1036d; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/mart-pol/10/1/).

Plain text

Mart. Pol. 10.1 (PG 5:1036c–1036d; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/mart-pol/10/1/).