Martyrdom of Polycarp 7.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:320

Ἔχοντες οὖν τὸ παιδάριον, τῇ παρασκευῇ περὶ δείπνου ὥραν ἐξῆλθον διωγμῖται καὶ ἱππεῖς μετὰ τῶν συνήθων αὐτοῖς ὅπλων ὡς ἐπὶ λῃστὴν τρέχοντες. καὶ ὀψὲ τῆς ὥρας συνεπελθόντες ἐκεῖνον μὲν εὗρον ἐν ὑπερῴῳ κατακείμενον· κἀκεῖθεν δὲ ἠδύνατο εἰς ἕτερον χωρίον ἀπελθεῖν, ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἠβουλήθη εἰπών· Τὸ θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ γενέσθω.

English · Claude translation

So, taking the young slave with them, on the day of Preparation, at about the dinner hour, police and horsemen went out with their usual weapons, as though running out against a bandit. And coming upon him late in the evening, they found him lying down in an upstairs room. Even from there he could have gone away to another place, but he would not, saying, “The will of God be done.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:320 · 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 5:1033b–1033c (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.

Scripture

Matt 26:55 · allusion, high confidence
Acts 21:14 · allusion, high confidence
Matt 6:10 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Martyrdom

Notes

Translation notes

“The day of Preparation” (παρασκευή): Friday, the day before the Sabbath. The details here (Friday, “as against a bandit,” the upstairs room) echo the Gospel Passion narratives.

Cite this passage

Mart. Pol. 7.1 (PG 5:1033b–1033c; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/mart-pol/7/1/).

Plain text

Mart. Pol. 7.1 (PG 5:1033b–1033c; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/mart-pol/7/1/).