From the Lost Teaching of Polycarp: Identifying Irenaeus' Apostolic Presbyter and the Author of Ad Diognetum : Identifying Irenaeus' Apostolic Presbyter & the Author of Ad Diognetum

Our information on Polycarp of Smyrna, an important figure in the early history of Christianity, is quite limited. By observing many useful comparisons with contemporary sophists, Charles Hill's study takes seriously the context of Polycarp's ministry in Asia Minor during what Philostratus called the Second Sophistic. The author adds two significant sources of teaching to his dossier. He demonstrates that the anonymous "apostolic presbyter," cited intermittently by Irenaeus, is in fact Polycarp. He then examines each individual fragment and explores the notable implications. The author presents various considerations which also seem to link Polycarp to the writing known as the Ad Diognetum. He also re-examines the debated question of the Ad Diognetum's unity, proposes that the work is not a treatise but the transcript of an oral address, and presents a new case for identifying the addressee, Diognetus, with a documented Smyrnaean family of the second century.