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[German Version] Together with Montanus, the three women belong to the principal prophetic personalities of what later came to be known as the Montanism of Asia Minor. The variant name form “Prisca” is also attested for Priscilla in the writings of Tertullian. Seven of their prophetic logia have been preserved (nos. 5–11, Heine). Quintilla may well have belonged to a second generation of prophetesses, as her name is not explicitly mentioned in the earliest sources (cf. however Eus. Hist. eccl. V 18.6). How the exact hierarchical and institutional relationship of the origin…

[German Version] (Oct 25, 1800, St.-Fluor, Département Cantal – Oct 24, 1875, Paris), son of a merchant, began his theological studies in 1817 at the theological college in Orléans, where he soon became prefect of studies and later a lecturer. In 1824 he was ordained to the priesthood. From 1833 he worked as a journalist in Paris; with the support of patrons, he founded several journals that attracted great attention but had to be discontinued for financial reasons. In 1836 he turned to publishing…

[German Version] (c. 1081, Argenteuil – 1151, St.-Denis), was born to a wealthy family; c. 1091 he became an oblate in the royal Frankish abbey of St.-Denis before the gates of Paris. In 1101 he took his solemn vows; in 1107 he defended the exempt status of the abbey before Pope Paschal II. After serving in various political and ecclesiastical offices, he was elected abbot in 1122. He reformed his own abbey and also served as regent of France from 1137 to 1140 and from 1147 to 1149. His partial reconstruction of the abbey church (1140–1144) is famous; he discussed it in his De consecratione and De o…

[German Version] (422–432). As the successor of Boniface I, Celestine attempted to consolidate the Roman primacy, but he encountered the resistance of the West African bishops. Moreover, he opposed Pelagianism (Pelagius) and from 430 Nestorius; the majority of his correspondence relates to this conflict. ¶ Eventually, he sent Germanus of Auxerre in 429 and “the Celtic bishop” Palladius in 431 to England and Ireland for the anti-Pelagian mission. Christoph Markschies Bibliography CPL 1650–1654 PL 50, 417–558 ACO I/1/7, 125–137; I/2/5, 5–101 On Celestine: E. Caspar, Geschichte des…

[German Version] I. The Term – II. Periods of the Early Church – III. The History of the Church and of Christianity in Antiquity – IV. Review I. The Term The term “early church” is one of the most common English expressions used to designate the church during the times of the emperors in Greco-Roman antiquity, i.e. the Christian church from its beginnings until the end of antiquity or Late Antiquity. The end of this …

[German Version] I. Terminology and Sources – II. History – III. Theology I. Terminology and Sources Since the late 4th century, the adherents of a prophetic movement in early Christianity dating from the 2nd century have been referred to polemically as “Montanists,” and the movement itself was called “Montanism” (e.g Cyril of Jerusalem, Catecheses XVI 8.6 or [Pseudo-?]Didymus, De trinitate III 18.23 and 41 [PG 39, 881 B, 924 C, also 984 B]). This terminology, which refers to a prophet Montanus, has been accepted by modern scholarship, although the m…

[German Version] (333/334, Trier – 397) was an important bishop and is regarded as one of the four teachers of the Western Church since the end of the 7th century. Ambrose was from a prominent family of Roman (city?) Christians; educated in Rome, he was the governor of Aemilia Liguria with a seat in Milan between 372 and 374. In 374, as the compromise candidat…

[German Version] The modern term “neo-Niceanism” (Ger. Neunicaenismus), with its variants, is said to go back to F. Loofs. It denotes a specific Trinitarian position of the later 4th century (Arius) that was made normative in 381 at the Second Imperial Council of Constantinople (Constantinople, Council of: IV, 1) and in other confessional documents ( Symbolum Quicumque ). It belongs to the traditional corpus of teaching that shapes the identity of most Christian churches and faith communities. It is true that in the last 100 years the content of the expression “neo-Nicea…

[German Version] The use of water instead of wine in the Lord's Supper is attested esp. in the so-called NT Apocrypha ( Acts Pet. II 2; Acts Paul 7; Acts Thom. 120–21/152/158[?]), but it seems also to have been customary occasionally when wine was unavailable in the mainstream church ( Martyrdom of Pionius 3.1); Irenaeus ascribed a corresponding practice to Jewish Christians ( Haer. V 1.3); Clement of Alexandria to Encratites ( Paedagogus II 32.3–4; Stromata I 96.1); Epiphanius to Marcion ( Haer. 42.3.3); Theodoret to students of Tatian called ῾Υδροπαραστάται/ Hydroparastátai (Thdt. Hae…

[German Version] According to Eusebius ( Hist. eccl. IV 28, cf. also 21) Musanus wrote a lost, “very elegant” book against people who had gone over to the so-called Encratites. Both the author's date and his place remain unclear. Suggestions, among others, are (because of the statement of Eusebius) the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161–180), or on the basis of Eusebius, Chronicorum liber ad annum, 2220 the time of Septimius Severus (193–211), and the regions of Egypt or Asia Minor. Christoph Markschies Bibliography A. v. Harnack, Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur bis E…

[German Version] The Early Church's heresiologies employ this term (derived from Gk ἐγκράτεια/ enkráteia, “self-control,” “abstinence”) to describe a group of ascestics (Asceticism) and date their origins to the 2nd century. Irenaeus traces them back to Saturninus of Antioch and Marcion ( Haer. I 28.1); he, like Eusebius of Caesarea, names as founder the Syrian Tatian (Eus. Hist. eccl. IV 29.6). Typical ascetic positions are attributed to them, for example the renunciation of marriage and the consumption of …

[German Version] was one of the three founders of a 2nd-century prophetic movement in Asia Minor (Maximilla, Priscilla and Quintilla), which since the 4th century has been called Montanism after him. As his Phrygian name indicates, he apparently came from Asia Minor. Later heresiology (Heresy: II, 2) in authors of the 4th century transmits further but probably unhistorical details of his life. Thus he is said to have been originally a priest of Apollo ( Disputatio [in Heine, 123]) or Cybele (Jer. Ep. 41,4), and to have hanged himself. Epiphanius of Salamis records four prophe…

[German Version] (Mar 3, 1875, Düsseldorf – Jun 25, 1942, Locarno). After passing his Abitur in Wittenberg, Lietzmann went to Jena in 1893 to study classical philology and theology, but it was his studies at Bonn from 1894 to 1898 that enduringly influenced him. There his real academic mentor was H. Usener, a renowned scholar in classical philology and religious studies, from whom he acquired a love of philological detail, a particular concern for large-scale religio-historical relationships, and a great inte…

[German Version] of Bēth Ukkāme (Paul the Black, Paulos Melanos; c. 500 Alexandria – 584 Constantinople). In 564 Jacob Baradaeus consecrated Archimandrite Paul, who had grown up in Alexandria, as the anti-Chalcedonian (Jacobite) patriarch of Antioch (Monophysites), a position he held until 577. His tenure was beset by serious church-political conflicts. A temporary flirtation of the patriarch with the creed of Chalcedon affirming the two natures of Christ (c. 571) was followed by an abrupt dissoci…

[German Version] The term Nestorianism can be used in two senses. First, it can designate the theology (and sometimes also the ecclesiastical organization) of today’s Holy Apostolic and Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, whose members are called Nestorians (or East Syrians or Chaldeans; Apostolic Church of the East) because in 484/486, in conscious departure from the Roman imperial church, they adopted the Christology of Nestorianism, which had been condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431 (Nes…

[German Version] Among the early Gnostic (Gnosis: III, 2) followers of Simon Magus, Irenaeus of Lyon mentions Saturninus of Antioch ( Haer. I 24.1f.), who probably lived in the early 2nd century. Irenaeus claims he taught that the world and humankind were created by seven individual angels and that humans were created in the image of “the supreme power,” which also gave them the “spark of life.” The angels in turn, according to Saturninus, were creatures of the supreme unknown father; the “God of the Jews” was one o…

[German Version] Leontius of Jerusalem and other neo-Chalcedonians (Neo-Chalcedonism) use the Greek adjective ἐνυπόστατος/ enhypóstatos from Late Antiquity to describe their view that the dogma of the human and divine natures of Christ as articulated by the Council of Chalcedon (Christology) is not referring to independent hypostases or persons, and that instead each of the two natures exists “enhypostatically” in relation to the one person of Christ and to the one hypostasis of the Trinity in three hypostases (Leontius, Adversus Nestorianos II 13 [PG 86, 1561 …

[German Version] I. Life – II. Works – III. Theology (c. 185/186 Alexandria – c. 253/254) I. Life In reconstructing the life of Origen, we must rely on information given by his grandson and pupil Eusebius of Caesarea ( Hist. eccl. VI 1–39). The relevant portions of the Apology for Origen of Pamphilus of Caesarea (CPG 1, 1715) were not translated into Latin by Tyrannius Rufinus and have been lost with the Greek original, but certain statements by Jerome, Rufinus, and Photius of Constantinople (Bibl. Codex 118) may derive from that source. The detailed section in Epiphanius of Salamis ( Haer. 64…

[German Version] (also called the Church Order of Hippolytus). E. Schwartz (1910) and Richard Hugh Connolly (1916) discovered that a few Late Antique church orders could be treated stemmatically as editions or translations of a (lost) literary archetype. Both scholars theorized that it had the title (᾿Αποστολικὴ παράδοσις/ apostolikḗ parádosis, “Apostolic Tradition”) and had been written by Hippolytus. Today only a minority of scholars accept this double hypothesis. What has been confirmed is the hypothesis of a single archetype, probably in Greek, of these chur…

[German Version] The earliest evidence for the veneration of a Christopher goes back to the year 452, when the honorific title Χριστόφορος/ Christóphoros (“Christ-bearer”) first came into use as a proper name ( ASS Nov. II/2, 396 no. 39). The Acts of Saint Christopher (BHG 309) date from the early 6th century. They apparently equate Christopher with Christianus, a dog-headed soldier saint from the Acts of Bartholomew, who was called Reprebos before his baptism and who came from the land of the cannibals. Early Byzantine iconography accordingly portrayed…

[German Version] Norms for the life and theology of Christian communities in the first century were primarily set by the two-Testament Bible, which had become a collection of authoritative texts, but also by church orders in the true sense, by the developing confession (of faith), initially set down in free formulations, and by theology, condensed into dogmas since the imperial councils of the 4th century (Nicea, Constantinople: IV). Naturally, after the demise o…

[German version] (ἀγάπη; agápē) In the NT (Jud 12) agápē is also used for the ‘love feast’ if it is an occasion of brotherly love (Tert. Apol. 39,16: agápē is equal to dilectio). Tertullian described a communal meal of the congregation comparable to ancient sacral meals. Since  Ignatius ( c. AD 110) admonished the community in Smyrna not to hold the agape without the bishop, he was probably referring to a joint celebration of the Eucharist with the ordinary meal as documented by Paul for Corinth (1 Cor 11,20-34) and which was in part custom until the 5th …

[German version] This modern name describes a group of theologians who worked as exegetes. A true bond as a school can only be demonstrated for theologians who temporarily resided in Antiochia between c. 350 and c. 430, e.g.,  Diodorus of Tarsus, his students  Theodorus of Mopsuestia,  Iohannes Chrysostomos and their (?) student  Theodoretus of Cyrrhus. The characteristics of this school are apparent in its exegetical work, such as the methodological prologues of a commentary on the Psalms attributed to Diodorus (CPG 2,3818): int…

[German version] The Parisian Cod. Lat. 8084 of Prudentius transmits in fol. 156r-158v 122 v. an anonymous defamatory poem (CPL 1431), directed against a praefectus ( urbis or praetorio orientis), presumably Virius Nicomachus  Flavianus [2] the Elder, but alternatively perhaps  Vettius Agorius Praetextatus. The text is not only a Christian reaction to the pagan Roman renaissance under  Symmachus, but also a testimony of the Christian reception of Virgil. The Carmen contra paganos belongs to the genre of apologetic poetry, and makes interesting references to the pag…

[German version] F., an African, held office in 342-368/370 as bishop of  Aquileia. According to Jerome he wrote a gospel commentary Titulis ordinatis brevi sermone rusticoque (Jer. Vir. ill. 97,1) under Constantius [2] II (337-361). Perhaps three smaller fragments have been preserved (CPL 104); Jerome used the work for his own Matthew commentary (Praef.: PL 26,200 and Ep. 10,3). F. received  Athanasius in Aquileia in 345 but then pressured  Liberius of Rome to be lenient towards the Homoean movement ( Arianism) under e…

[German version] Between 556 and 561 a private collection was made in Rome of 243 letters from the pope and the emperor, emperor's edicts and rescripts, official reports, synodal decrees and creeds (inventory with evidence [1. 274-281]). The name of the collection derives from a MS earlier kept in the Umbrian monastery Santa Croce di Fonte Avellana; it is today kept in Rome (Vat. Lat. 4916). The inventory goes back to a (lost) document, which constituted a semi-official product of the Church polit…

[German version] The Abgar legend is a pseudepigraphic correspondence between  Jesus of Nazareth and king Abgar V. Ukkāmā (= the Black; Tac. Ann. 12,12,2) of Edessa, who ruled the kingdom of Osroene from 4 BC to AD 50. The oldest version in  Eusebius, who allegedly found the letters in the Edessene archives and translated them from Syriac (H.E. 1,13,6-21). A. supposedly heard of Jesus' healing and invited him to Edessa to be healed by him. In his answer Jesus praised the king as blessed but would …

[German version] (δοκηταί; dokētaí). With this generic term or τῶν ... δοκιτῶν αἵρεσις ( tôn ... dokitôn haíresis, Theod. Epist. 82,1) ancient Christian theologians from the middle of the 5th cent., as also recent academic research, designated various points of view that (in the minds of their critics at any rate) call into question or even repudiate the real humanity of  Jesus Christ and postulate a ‘pseudo-body’. Opponents of  Ignatius of Antioch maintained for example that Christ had only appeared to suffer (…

[German version] Inscription (IG XIV 2525 = SEG 29, 825 = [1]) on a marble panel discovered in 1839 at Augustodunum/ Autun. It consists of three elegiac distychs (V. 1-6) and five hexameters (V. 7-11). Alongside the Abercius inscription, it is one of the most significant examples of ancient Christian epigraphy; in its current form, it constitutes a funerary inscription commissioned by one Pectorius for his mother. The first six verses form the acrostic ΙΧΘΥΣΕ, so it must be assumed that this section of text is incompletely preserved ([1] ventures a completion: ἰχθύς/ ichthýs, ἐλπίς/ elpís…

[German version] Born c. AD 340; after his conversion to the Christian faith, between 360 and 363 he ended his military service (according to Paul. Nol. epist. 18,7, at any rate, with detailed description of the circumstances) and c. 380/386 became bishop of Ratomagus (modern Rouen). Letters to him from Paulinus [5] of Nola (Epist. 18 and 37) and from the Roman bishop Innocentius I ([1. vol. 1, 286]: a liber regularum) from this period survive. The focus of his work was the battle against Homoean theology in the Imperial church (Trinity III; Arianism), the advanc…

[German version] I. General remarks, concept and origins The term sermon refers to a type of speech (Greek ὁμιλία/ homilía, Latin sermo) given, beginning in the 2nd cent. AD, as part of an ancient Christian religious service (Cult, Cultus IV) following readings from the Holy Scriptures (Bible). The sermon dealt either with topics of the readings or with the current feast or festal period of the liturgical year, but also and increasingly with saints (B). Methods of interpretation that had been generally introduced (e…

[German version] The Letters of the Apostles are ancient Christian ‘epistles’ attributed to an ἀπόστολος ( apóstolos): a) those that were included in the NT  canon in the first four cents. and b) those that belong to the  apocryphal literature: thus, 1. the pseudo-Pauline Laodicene Epistle, which is found in many Latin Bible MSS; 2. the correspondence between Paul and the Corinthians; 3. the correspondence between  Seneca and Paul; 4. the Epistle of pseudo-Titus ‘On the State of Chastity’; 5. the Epistula Petri, also from the correspondence preserved in the  Nag Hammadi G…

[German version] [1] C. Gallus Heptateuch poet see  Heptateuch poet Markschies, Christoph (Berlin) [2] C. Thascius Caecili(an)us From AD 248/9 bishop of Carthago [German version] A. Biography Caecilius Cyprianus qui et Thascius (his transmitted name, combining his original Punic cognomen Thascius C. with a newly adopted Christian cognomen after his godfather Caecilianus, according to Pontius, vita 4 -- or rather Caecilius, according to Jer. Vir. ill. 67 [1. 110, n. 1]) was the son of wealthy parents. Prior to his conversion t…

[German version] (Φιλοστόργιος; Philostórgios). The Church historian P. was born around AD 368 in Borissus/Cappadocia and remained a layman throughout his life. From 388 on he lived in Constantinople and expanded through travel the good education he had received. Of significance for his theological views was an encounter with his countryman Eunomius, whose neo-Arianism influenced his theology (Arianism B.3.; he rejected the concept of 'Anomoean' [3. 65,11-14 et passim]). Fragments of his history of the Arian controversy are found notably in the Passio of Artemius [2] [1. 169…

[German version] According to J. B. Cotelier, who coined it, the term includes the writings of three presumed students of Paul: 1.   the Epistle of Barnabas (Gal 2,1; 1 Cor 9,6); 2. two Epistles attributed to  Clement of Rome (Phil 4,3); 3. the ‘Shepherd of Hermas’ (Rom 16,4); and the works of two presumed students of John; 4. seven letters by bishop  Ignatius of Antioch; 5. a letter and other writings by Polycarp of Smyrna. Today it is customary to include: 6. fragments by bishop  Papias of Hiera…

[German version] I. Life Theologist, died before AD 450 V. of Lerinum (Lérins) died before AD 450, perhaps c. 435. According to Gennadius ( De viris illustribus 65) and Eucherius [3] ( De laude heremi 42; Instructiones I, praef. p. 66,5 Wotke) he was born in northern France and led a secular life, until he took up residence before 427 as a priest-monk on the smaller of the two islands of Lerinum/Lérins off the coast at Cannes (Saint-Honorat), which was used primarily by noble refugees from Gaul as a 'monastery of asylum' [5]. V. describes the seclusion of the place with traditional topoi as an e…

[German version] The well-off Levite B., who came from Cyprus, belonged temporarily to the closest circle of co-workers of  Paulus and, before that, to the prominent heads of the Antiochene community. After a missionary period together in Cyprus and Galatia with Paulus, it came to a severe conflict between both, as B. together with others in Antioch ( c. AD 48), revoked the table community between Jewish Christians and pagan-Christians (Gal 2,11-16). Whether he then went to Egypt, like some individual traditions seem to believe (e.g. Ps.-Clem. Hom. 1, …

[German version] came from a wealthy family from Melitene/Armenia Minor (Greg. Nyss. in Meletium, p. 444 Spira; Philostorgius, Hist. eccl. 5,5 = GCS 69,11 Bidez/Winkelmann), was privileged with a thorough education and then apparently lived as an ascetic. He was elected to be the successor of the deposed Homoiousian Eustathius [6], bishop of Sebaste, and advocated a theology in the tradition of Eusebius [7] of Caesaria from AD 357 as well as supporting the ecclesiastical politics of his successor …

[German version] Christian bishop and author; initially married (wedding song: Sid. Apoll. Carm. 11), under the influence of Faustus [3] Reiensis he decided in 477 to lead an ascetic life and ultimately became a bishop in 485. He died shortly after 507. An epitaph on him and his successor, his grandson R. II, can be found in Venantius Fortunatus (Carm. 4,5). Two books with 18 or 64 (65) letters, as well as 14 letters to R., survive. They are primarily testimonials and 'everyday correspondence' of …

[German version] The work ‘The shepherd of H.’ (Greek only Ποιμήν; Poimḗn, Latin Liber pastoris nuntii paenitentiae or Liber Hermae prophetae) is a Christian prophetic script with the stylistic character of an  apocalypse but not wholly corresponding to this genre. The work places H. among the  Apostolic Fathers. The title ‘Shepherd’ (Ποιμήν) for the entire work appeared in the Canon Muratori, a substantial index of canons (more likely dated end of the 2nd cent. than the 4th cent.: l. 74), but it refers only to the second part of the work (visio 5 to sim…

[German version] (Παχώμιος; Pachṓ mios). P. was born in AD 292, probably in Latopolis/Esna, and died of the plague in AD 346. He is regarded as the founder of cenobitic monasticism in Egypt and the author of the first regulations for monks. The Pachomian monastic community, which he founded, is called koinóbion (in the sense of koinōnía, 'community') throughout the Vita prima [2. 24]. P. was born into a pagan Egyptian family and converted to Christianity around the age of twenty when he enrolled in the army. He was baptised after he had returned to the tow…

[German version] Before his conversion to the Christian faith H. took lessons from the Platonic philosopher  Ammonius [9] Saccas (Euseb. Hist. eccl. 6,19,13) with his brother Plutarchus, who later died a martyr's death. After five years of instruction he met  Origenes there as a fellow student and then visited his class in Alexandria (Euseb. Hist. eccl. 6,3,2). At a certain point Origen made H. responsible for the beginning students (Euseb. Hist. eccl. 6,15). H. himself was a celebrated teacher (Euseb. Hist. eccl. 6,31,2) and apparently belonged to the presbyters who…

[German version] The writer of this treatise, written in the form of a letter, (CPG I 1050), who belongs to the so-called  Apostolic Fathers, does not give his name. The MSS as well as Christian theologians of the 2nd/3rd cents. like  Clemens and  Origenes (who regarded the letter as καθολικὴ ἐπιστολή: c. Cels. 1,63) state that the author is  Barnabas, the travelling companion of St. Paul. The first part (chs. 2-16) interprets holy Scripture (= the OT) in terms of God, Christ and the new people of…

Spanish ascetic and Christian theologian of Late Antiquity; term used for the ascetic movement he founded. [German version] I. Life of Priscillianus and history of Priscillianism A great deal of P.' biography remains unknown and has been distorted by a hostile tradition. P. was probably born prior to AD 350; he is believed to have been from a wealthy Spanish family. His training in rhetoric indicates an education befitting his class. In connection with his decision to lead an ascetic life, he chose to be baptized as an a…

[German version] After AD 343, bishop of Barcinona (modern Barcelona), died before 393; of his life practically nothing is known. Three letters from him to the Novatian Sympronianus survive, in which he opposes Novatianism (Novatianus) (CPL 561), also a pamphlet Paraenesis sive Exhortatorius Libellus ad Paenitentiam ( Exhortation to Penitence, CPL 562) and a Sermo de Baptismo ( Sermon on Baptism, CPL 563). A Cerv(ul)us ('Stag') against the pagan celebration of the new year, mentioned by Hieronymus  (Vir. ill. 106), is lost. The author was well educated and t…

[German version] (Ἀθηναγόρας; Athēnagóras) From Athens (2nd cent. AD). From this author surely comes an apologia bearing the inscription πρεσβεία ( presbeía) to the Emperors  Marcus Aurelius and  Commodus (CPG I 1070; [1]); whether the work mentioned at the end of this text, about the resurrection (§ 37), is identical to the one handed down in Paris. graec. 451 (CPG I 1071), is controversial. In addition to critical voices, which attribute this identification as well as the statement ‘Philosopher from Athens’ in the…

[German version] (Προαιρέσιος/ Pro(h)airésios). Christian Sophist (cf. Second Sophistic), born c. AD 276 in Caesarea (Cappadocia) to an Armenian family; studied in Antioch [1] and Athens (Eunap. VS 10,3,3-9), where he was subsequently a celebrated teacher for many years, reflecting the continuity of the education provided there. His provenience from Asia Minor apparently attracted students particularly from that part of the Roman Empire. Constans [1] honoured him numerous times; as a Christian, he did not…

[German version] A. Language Christian Palestinian is a dialect of  Aramaic, more precisely of Western Aramaic, to which belong Nabataean, Palmyrenian, Judaeo-Aramaic, Samaritan and the still extant New Western Aramaic (Maalūla linguistic enclave near Damascus, Syria). As it uses one of the older Syriac- (i.e. Estrangelō, in reality στρογγύλη; stroggýlē) related scripts, in the non-German language area it tends to be called Syro-Palestinian, although it lies closer to the Judaeo-Palestinian Aramaic of some targumim than to classical Syriac. It was evidently used in…

[German version] (Παπίας; Papías). Bishop or congregational leader in his home town of Hierapolis [1]. In around AD 125/130, he wrote an 'Exegesis of the oracles of the Lord in five books' (Λογίων κυριακῶν ἐξηγήσεως συγγράμματα πέντε), of which only fragments remain. The information contained in the foreword on the authors of the NT (Eus. HE 3,39,15f.) is significant but controversial. However, P. preferred the oral Jesus tradition; according to Eirenaeus [2] (different in Eusebius [7]), he was a student of Iohannes [1] and a ‘ companion’ (ἑταῖρος) of Polycarpus (Iren. Adversus h…

(Πολύκαρπος/ Polýkarpos). [German version] I. Life P. was one of the most important figures among the second generation of Christian teachers, who still had contact with the members of the first, 'apostolic' generation (Eirenaeus [2] according to Eus. HE 5,20,6). He is described as bishop of Smyrna in the correspondence of Ignatius [1] (Ignatius, Epistula ad Magnesios 15), while another letter is addressed to bishop P. himself ( Epistula ad Polycarpum). He was evidently regarded not only as a representative of the congregations of Asia Minor, but also as a guardia…