BH

I have read on some websites that Polycarp was baptized by the Apostle John.

I haven't found this in any church histories or writings left by Polycarp yet. Have any of you stumbled across this information, and if so, where can I get it?

yummyfur

I believe this is based on a reference that is preserved in Eusebius's Church History Book 5 Chapter 20 , in a letter written by Irenaeus against Florinus. The partial extract in Eusebius contains a section where Irenaeus writes about his recollection of Polycarp.

"For when I was a boy, I saw thee in lower Asia with Polycarp, moving in splendor in the royal court, and endeavoring to gain his approbation. I remember the events of that time more clearly than those of recent years. For what boys learn, growing with their mind, becomes joined with it; so that I am able to describe the very place in which the blessed Polycarp sat as he discoursed, and his goings out and his comings in, and the manner of his life, and his physical appearance, and his discourses to the people, and the accounts which he gave of his intercourse with John and with the others who had seen the Lord. And as he remembered their words, and what he heard from them concerning the Lord, and concerning his miracles and his teaching, having received them from eyewitnesses of the 'Word of life,' Polycarp related all things in harmony with the Scriptures."

Gamera

From Neander's Church History. Page 285.

yummyfur

I assume Corsicana wants something considerably before the 19th century, does Neander give reference to his primary source? Also isn't Neander's Church History a mutlivolume work?

Doug Shaver

That seems to be a product of some Christians' wishful thinking.

In none of his extant writings does Polycarp claim even to have met John, let alone been baptized by him. The story that they were acquainted was started by Irenaeus, whose credibility on the point is shaky. In memoirs written when he was getting along in years, Irenaeus recollects conversations he had with Polycarp when he, Irenaeus, was a young man. He claims that Polycarp told him about conversations he had had with the apostle John some years earlier. He does not report that Polycarp claimed to have baptized by John.

If we are to believe what Irenaeus does report, then we must also believe one of two other things: (1) Polycarp never wrote anything about his conversations with John, or (2) he wrote about them but (A) the documents were not preserved and (B1) no other patristic writer made any references to those documents or (B2) none of those references were preserved. All those scenarios look mighty improbable to me.