Taras Khomych: New Developments in the Research on the Martyrdom of Polycarp:In Memory of Professor Boudewijn Dehandschutter

This workshop will highlight some new trends in the contemporary research on the Martyrdom of Polycarp, one of the earliest and most prominent of Christian martyria. Composed in Greek in the mid-second or the early third century, this text recounts the martyrdom of Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna and a prominent early Christian leader. Apart from a very detailed and vivid presentation of Polycarp’s execution, the Martyrdom provides important data on several critical subjects, such as the origins of Christian martyrology and the theology of martyrdom and liturgy. For these reasons this text is universally recognised as an invaluable source of information on primitive Christianity.

     The present session will consist of three contributions, dealing with major issues in contemporary studia polycarpiana. The first presentation (“Intertextual Impossibilities and the Dating of the Martyrdom of Polycarp”) will address the much-debated question of the Martyrdom’s date of composition. The second contribution (“Polycarp as ‘Prophetic’ and ‘Apostolic’ in his Philippians and in the Martyrdom”) will critically engage with the figure of the bishop of Smyrna, comparing the image of Polycarp from the Martyrdom with that of Polycarp’s Letter to the Philippians. Another point of (a renewed) scholarly attention is the text of the Martyrdom of Polycarp. The third, final, presentation (“An Early Slavonic Translation of the Martyrdom of Polycarp: Assessing the Textual Evidence”) will deal with this question, underscoring the importance of the unpublished Old Church Slavonic translation of the Martyrdom. Addressing these critical issues in Polycarpian studies, the organisers of this workshop aim to present the most recent achievements in the field, but also initiate further discussion.

     Professor Dehandschutter, a great scholarly authority on the Martyrdom of Polycarp, was planning to offer a presentation on “Polycarp and John: What about the ‘Harris Fragments’?” at this workshop. His sudden death, however, prevented this from happening. This workshop is dedicated to him in memoriam. It will be introduced with a short talk by Johan Leemans, his successor at K.U.Leuven and a good friend, who will reflect on the life and work of Boudewijn Dehandschutter, including the contribution he was preparing for this conference.