Polycarp: The Heretic Fighter

Polycarp: The Heretic Fighter

By Kelly McDonald, Jr.

While the second century was flooded with false teachers and heretical ideas, God reserved a remnant of the faithful. He always does. There was a specific person God reserved to lead the stand against it all. His name was Polycarp.

Polycarp was appointed by the first Apostles as the Bishop of Smyrna and was a disciple of the Apostle John. In the 150s AD, he was likely the last living person who was taught by the first disciples of Christ. This made him a living legend in some ways.

Much of what we know about Polycarp comes from Irenaeus (a second-century Christian who knew Polycarp personally), an epistle he wrote called The Letter to the Philippians, and other primary sources from a similar time period.

The historian Eusebius recorded about 330 AD that: “Pothinus having died with the other martyrs in Gaul at ninety years of age, Irenæus succeeded him in the episcopate of the church at Lyons. We have learned that, in his youth, he was a hearer of Polycarp” (idem, Church History, 5.5.8).

Irenaeus said the following about Polycarp: “But Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the Church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth…for he [Polycarp] tarried [on earth] a very long time….having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.3.4).



As the false doctrines were spreading rampantly throughout the Christian community, Polycarp wondered why he was kept alive to hear such things. Looking back upon the tumultuous times of the second century, we know the truth. He was being kept alive to confront these false teachings and teachers.

Between 110 and 140 AD, he wrote a letter to the Philippians. We will review this letter deeper in a future article. In it, he affirmed keeping the commandments of God and quotes many New Testament letters almost word for word. He quoted from as many as 18 letters that we consider canon for the New Testament. Here is one example:

“But He who raised Him up from the dead will raise up us also, if we do His will, and walk in His commandments, and love what He loved, keeping ourselves from all unrighteousness…” (Letter to the Philippians, Chapter 2).

To give you an idea about the gravity of his testimony, consider the following: His letter to the Philippians was lauded by contemporaries who said it would bring assurance to the truth about salvation (Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 3.3.4). The letter was so highly regarded that even as late as 400 AD it was routinely read in Christian assemblies in Asia (Jerome, On Illustrious Men, 17).

Tertullian, who lived in the late second and early third centuries, wrote much against heresy. One of the ways he combated false teachers was to appeal to the list of bishops in every city that went back to the first Apostles. This is usually termed ‘Apostolic Succession’. It was very important in the second century. The heretics could not trace any of their teachers to the time of Jesus. Here is an excerpt from Tertullian’s work Prescription Against Heretics.


As Tertullian recounted the records of the churches, the Church of Smyrna and Polycarp were listed FIRST to prove apostolic succession. He pointed out that there were written records in his day that confirmed Polycarp as the successor to the Apostle John. That was his chief point concerning Apostolic succession.

These details, among others we could use, clearly prove Polycarp’s weightiness as a witness for Apostolic teaching.

In about the year 154, Polycarp went to Rome to confront the Bishop Anicetus about when to keep Passover (which we will address in a future article). Remember from our three part series in March 2020 that Anicetus was the Bishop under whom many heresies increased. As Irenaeus wrote:

For Valentinus came to Rome in the time of Hyginus, flourished under Pius, and remained until Anicetus. Cerdon, too, Marcion’s predecessor, himself arrived in the time of Hyginus… Marcion, then, succeeding him, flourished under Anicetus, who held the tenth place of the episcopate” (Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, 3.4.3).

Valentinus was best known for his mixture of Gnosticism and Christianity, which included trying to mix common sayings of the day with the New Testament. This formed a own mutilated text. Marcion also tried to mutilate the New Testament by taking out verses that did not suite his doctrine. He especially wanted to separate keeping God’s commandments from the message of Christ’s resurrection. Their greatest outreach occurred in Rome; apparently the Roman Bishops could not stop them (or did not try to).

If there was a human being alive who could combat the errors of these men, it was Polycarp. He either had many of the documents which would compose the New Testament or he knew them by heart (his quotes in the Letter to the Philippians are an exceptional example of this). He was a disciple of John and knew the pure Christian faith.

“…To these things all the Asiatic Churches testify, as do also those men who have succeeded Polycarp down to the present time– a man who was of much greater weight, and a more stedfast witness of truth, than Valentinus, and Marcion, and the rest of the heretics. He it was who, coming to Rome in the time of Anicetus caused many to turn away from the aforesaid heretics to the Church of God, proclaiming that he had received this one and sole truth from the apostles — that, namely, which is handed down by the Church…And Polycarp himself replied to Marcion, who met him on one occasion, and said, “Dost thou know me?” [Polycarp replied] “I do know thee, the first-born of Satan”…(Irenaeus. Adversus Haereses. 3.3.4, emphasis mine throughout).

Irenaeus agreed that Polycarp conversed with many who had seen Christ and his teachings were true. The Asiatic Churches (meaning those in the East) were still practicing what was originally passed down to the Apostles; he was their leader. The Western Churches, led by Rome, were being swayed by false teachings.

Polycarp was the only one equipped for the task of fighting these various difficulties. As the heretics sought to cut out portions of the New Testament or add to it, he refuted them. Of all the Apostles who could have discipled Polycarp, John was the only one who stayed with Christ through His suffering, death, and resurrection.

When the Bishops of Rome were going astray and being swayed by all sorts of doctrines, Polycarp came to sort out the mess. He confronted Marcion and all the heretics. He even called Marcion a son of the devil! In a time of turmoil, he turned many back to the true faith. His weight as a witness was stronger and more steadfast than the fleeting, weak doctrines he opposed.

Polycarp was indeed a second-century heretic fighter. In our next article on Sabbath history, we will look at another issue he sought to settle in his trip to Rome: the Quartodecmian controversy.

Kelly McDonald, Jr.

BSA President – www.biblesabbath.org

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