The best edition of the text, and the one used for the translation in this volume, is that of Karl Bihlmeyer, Die apostolischen Väter, Neubearbeitung der Funkschen Ausgabe, I Teil (Sammlung ausgewählter kirchen- und dogmengeschichtlicher Quellenschriften, II Reihe, I Heft, I Teil), Tübingen, 1924. This is a third revision of text published by F. X. Funk, Patres apostolici, 2 vols., Tübingen, 1901. Absolutely indispensable, however, is the monumental edition of J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, Part 2: "S. Ignatius, S. Polycarp," Revised Texts with Introductions, Notes, Dissertations, and Translations, 3 vols., 2d ed., London, 1889. An editio minor of Lightfoot was edited by J. R. Harmer, The Apostolic Fathers, Revised Texts with Short Introductions and English Translations, London, 1912. Other texts which should be consulted are: Th. Zahn, Ignatii et Polycarpi epistulae martyria fragmenta (Patrum apostolicorum opera, ed. O. de Gebhardt, A. Harnack, and Th. Zahn, Vol. II), Leipzig, 1876; Adolfus Hilgenfeld, Ignatii Antiocheni et Polycarpi Smyrnaei epistulae et martyria edidit et adnotationibus instruxit, C. A. Schwetschke and Sons, Berlin, 1902; Kirsopp Lake, The Apostolic Fathers, With an English Translation (Loeb Classical Library), London, 1912, Vol. I, pp.280-301; Auguste Lelong, Les Pères apostoliques, III, Ignace d'Antioche et Polycarpe de Smyrne Épîtres, Martyre de Polycarpe, pp.108-128. Texte grec, traduction française, introduction et index (Textes et documents pour l'étude historique du Christianisme, 12, ed. H. Hemmer and P. Lejay), 2d ed., Paris, 1927; G. Bosio, I Padri apostolici (Corona Patrum Salesiana, Series Graeca, 14), Società editrice internazionale, Turin, 1943, Vol. II, pp.163-201.

Translations and Commentaries

In addition to the translations included in the above texts by Lightfoot, Lake, Lelong, and Bosio, the following should be consulted: English: Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and F. Crombie, The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers (Ante-Nicene Christian Library, I), Edinburgh, reprinted in the American edition, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. A. Cleveland Coxe, Vol. I, Buffalo, 1886. The Supplement Volume of this latter edition (1887) contains a "Bibliographical Synopsis," by E. C. Richardson, which gives copious bibliography of the older editions and works on Polycarp's Letter, pp.7-10. Blomfield Jackson, St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna (Early Church Classics), S.P.C.K., London, 1898, is based on Lightfoot's translation and commentary. Recent translations, all of them based on Bihlmeyer's text, are: The Apostolic Fathers, translated by Francis X. Glimm, Joseph M.-F. Morique, and Gerald G. Walsh, pp.131-143 (The Fathers of the Church), Cima Publishing Company, New York, 1947; James A. Kleist, The Didache, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Epistles and the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp, the Fragments of Papias, the Epistle to Diognetus, Newly Translated and Annotated (Ancient Christian Writers, No.6), pp.69-82, Newman Press, Westminster, Maryland, 1948; Edgar J. Goodspeed, The Apostolic Fathers: An American Translation, pp.237-244, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1950.

German translations: Franz Zeller, Die apostolischen Väter, aus dem griechischen übersetzt (Bibliothek der Kirchenväter, 35), Kempten and Munich, 1918; Walter Bauer, Die apostolischen Väter (Ergänzungsband, Handbuch zum Neuen Testament, ed. Hans Lietzmann), pp.282-298, Tübingen, 1923; and G. Krüger in Edgar Hennecke, Neutestamentliche Apokryphen, 2d ed., pp.518-540, Tübingen, 1924.

Reference Books and Dictionary Articles

An index verborum of the Greek text is included in Edgar J. Goodspeed, Index Patristicus, sive clavis patrum apostolicorum operum, Leipzig, 1907, based on the editions of Gebhardt, Harnack and Zahn, Funk, and Lightfoot. The New Testament citations in Polycarp's Letter are studied in The New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers, By a Committee of the Oxford Society of Historical Theology, pp.84-104, Oxford, 1905. Basic introductions will be found in Adolf Harnack, Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur bis Eusebius, I Teil, pp.69-75, II Teil, Vol. I, pp.381-406, Leipzig, 1893 and 1897; Th. Zahn, Forschungen zur Geschichte des neutestamentliche Kanons und der altkirchlichen Literatur, X Teile, Erlangen and Leipzig, 1881-1929, especially Vol. IV (1891), "Zur Biographie des Polykarpus und des Irenäus," pp.249-283, and Vol. VI (1900), "Polykarp von Smyrna," pp.94-109; Otto Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur, Vol. I, 2d ed., pp.160-170, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1913. For the general history of the period, see Rudolf Knopf, Das nachapostolische Zeitalter, Geschichte der christlichen Gemeinden vom Beginn der Flavierdynastie bis zum Ende Hadrians, Tübingen, 1905.

Encyclopedia articles include: H. T. Andrews, in The Encyclopædia Britannica, 14th ed. rev., Vol.18, pp.180-182; George Salmon, in A Dictionary of Christian Biography, ed. William Smith and Henry Wace, Vol. IV (1887), pp.423-431; N. Bonwetsch, in The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. IX (1911), pp118-120; P. Batiffol, in Dictionary of the Apostolic Church, ed. James Hastings, Vol. II (1918), 242-247; and G. Fritz, in Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. A. Vacant, E. Mangenot, and É. Amann, XII (1935), pp.2515-2520.

Books, Monographs, and Articles

The fundamental study is that of P. N. Harrison, Polycarp's Two Epistles to the Philippians, Cambridge University Press, 1936. Harrison gives an exhaustive survey of the history of the criticism of Polycarp's Letter, with complete bibliography, and also furnishes an annotated text and translations. The following reviews of Harrison's book are worth consulting: K. Lake, The Journal of Biblical Literature, 56 (1937), pp.72-75; C. J. Cadoux, The Journal of Theological Studies, 38 (1937), pp.267-270; Claude Jenkins, Theology, 35 (1937), pp.367-370; Stephen Liberty, Church Quarterly Review, 247 (1937), pp.141-147; É. Amann, Revue des sciences religieuses, 17 (1937), pp.344-348; H.-C. Puech, Revue de l'histoire des religions, 119 (1939), pp.96-102; A. C. Headlam, "The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians," Church Quarterly Review, 281 (1945); pp.1-25.

Brief summary introductions may be found in Otto Pfleiderer, Primitive Christianity, Its Writings and Teachings in Their Historical Connections, translated by W. Montgomery, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1906-1911, Vol. III (1910), pp.365-372; Alfred Loisy, "La Didaché et les lettres des Pères apostoliques," Revue d'histoire et de littérature religieuses, N. S.7 (1921), pp.433-480; Burnett Hillman Streeter, The Primitive Church, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1929, pp.92-100, 279-285; C. P. S. Clarke, St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp (Little Books on Religion, No.70), S.P.C.K., London, 1930; Cecil John Cadoux, Ancient Smyrna, A History of the City from the Earliest Times to 324 A.D. , Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1938, pp.303-367; Robert M. Grant, "Polycarp of Smyrna," Anglican Theological Review, 28 (1946), pp.137-148. Polycarp's place in the development of monepiscopacy is studied by Massey H. Shepherd, Jr., "Smyrna in the Ignatian Letters: A Study in Church Order," The Journal of Religion, 20 (1940), pp.141-159.

Quotations in Eusebius

The best text of Eusebius is that of Eduard Schwartz, Eusebius Werke, II: Die Kirchengeschichte, I Teil, Die Bücher bis V (Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte), Leipzig, 1903. One should also consult the voluminous notes in the English translation of Hugh Jackson Lawlor and John Ernest Leonard Oulton, Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, The Ecclesiastical History and the Martyrs of Palestine, Translated with Introduction and Notes, 2 vols., S.P.C.K., London, 1928 (see the index under "Polycarp").

The Vita Polycarpi. Convenient editions of the life ascribed to Pionius may be found in Lightfoot's edition, Vol. II, 2, pp.1005-1047, 1068-1086; and in Franciscus Diekamp, Patres apostolici, Editionem Funkianam novis curis in lucem emisit, Vol. II, Tübingen, 1913. Discussions of its historical worth: P. Corssen, "Die Vita Polycarpi," Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 5 (1904), pp.266-302; A. Hilgenfeld, "Eine dreiste Fälschung in alter Zeit und deren neueste Verteidigung," Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie, 48 (N.F. XIII; 1905), pp.444-458; Hippolyte Delehaye, Les Passions des martyrs et les genres littéraires, Brussels, 1921, pp.11-59 ("L'Hagiographie de Smyrne"); Streeter, op. cit., pp.271-278; and Cadoux, op. cit., pp.306-310. See also the bibliography on the Martyrdom of Polycarp in this volume.