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Lectio Studies

The Martyrdom of Polycarp

Chapter 6

2 sections

The Church of Smyrna

Transcribed from a dated scan; artifacts may remain. Edition notes

And when the searching for him persisted he went to another farm ; and those who were searching for him came up at once, and when they did not find him, they arrested young slaves, and one of them confessed under torture.

For it was indeed impossible for him to remain hid, since those who betrayed him were of his own house, and the police captain who had been allotted the very name, being called Herod, hastened to bring him to the arena that he might fulfil his appointed lot by becoming a partaker of Christ, while they who betrayed him should undergo the same punishment as Judas.

Trans. Kirsopp Lake, The Apostolic Fathers, Volume II (Loeb Classical Library), 1913 (this printing 1917). Public domain.

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