Letter to the Philippians

Polycarp writes with his presbyters to the Christians of Philippi, who had asked him for advice and for copies of the letters of Ignatius of Antioch. Most of the letter is moral exhortation woven from phrases of the Gospels and the letters of Paul, Peter and John. In chapter 9 he reminds the Philippians of the endurance they saw “before your eyes” in Ignatius and others, and says that these are now with the Lord. In chapter 13 he says that he is sending the letters of Ignatius that he has, and asks the Philippians to pass on anything more certain they have learned about Ignatius and his companions.

The letter is evidence from a man who had met Ignatius and received a letter from him. Eusebius quotes both passages in Greek in the Church History (3.36), and Irenaeus, who had seen Polycarp, mentions the letter (Against Heresies 3.3.4). It carries no date. No Greek manuscript has the whole text, and the closing chapters are known from an early Latin version. Chapter 9 speaks of Ignatius as dead while chapter 13 still asks for news of him, and the editors of the translation note that many have for that reason thought chapter 13 a later addition; others read it as a request for details.