Martyrdom of Polycarp 3.2

Anonymous · Martyrdom of Polycarp · ca. 156–160 · Smyrna · Read in context

Summary: Stirred by the martyrs' courage, the crowd demanded Polycarp.

BothGreekEnglish

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:316

ἐκ τούτου οὖν πᾶν τὸ πλῆθος, θαυμάσαν τὴν γενναιότητα τοῦ θεοφιλοῦς καὶ θεοσεβοῦς γένους τῶν Χριστιανῶν, ἐπεβόησεν· Αἶρε τοὺς ἀθέους· ζητείσθω Πολύκαρπος.

English · Claude translation

At this the whole crowd, amazed at the nobility of the God-loving and God-fearing race of the Christians, shouted out, “Away with the atheists! Let Polycarp be searched out!”

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 25:316 · 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 5:1032c (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: Persecution

Notes

Translation notes

“Atheists” (ἀθέους): Christians refused to worship the gods, so their neighbors called them “godless.”
“Race” (γένους): the Christians as a distinct people.

Cite this passage

Mart. Pol. 3.2 (PG 5:1032c; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/mart-pol/3/2/).

Plain text

Mart. Pol. 3.2 (PG 5:1032c; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/mart-pol/3/2/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Report an error in this passage