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The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians (commonly abbreviated Pol. Phil.) [1] is an epistle attributed to Polycarp, an early bishop of Smyrna, and addressed to the early Christian church in Philippi. [2] It is widely believed to be a composite of material written at two different times (see § Unity), in the first half of the second century.
Polycarp was martyred, the next bishop of Smyrna was Papirius. Papirius was later succeeded by Camerius, [4] Smyrna was also the place of martyrdom of Saint Pionius, during the reign of Decius. [5] Already from the early Christian years Smyrna was an autocephalous archbishopric as part of the wider Metropolis of Ephesus.
The letter is also the earliest recorded evidence of the use of the term "Catholic Church.” Saint Ignatius, who wrote some 900 years before the Great Schism , uses the term "Catholic" to mean the "Universal Church" (as the term “Catholic” comes from the Greek katholikos, meaning “universal”).
[9] He is of the opinion that the letters have a prophetic purpose disclosing the seven phases of the spiritual history of the Church. Other writers, such as Clarence Larkin, [10] Henry Hampton Halley, [11] Merrill Unger, [12] and William M. Branham [13] also have put forward the view that the seven churches preview the history of the global ...
Similarly here the Church universal is contrasted with the particular Church of Smyrna. Ignatius means by the Catholic Church 'the aggregate of all the Christian congregations' (Swete, Apostles Creed, p. 76). So too the letter of the Church of Smyrna is addressed to all the congregations of the Holy Catholic Church in every place.
Polycarp (/ ˈ p ɒ l i k ɑːr p /; Greek: Πολύκαρπος, Polýkarpos; Latin: Polycarpus; AD 69 – 155) was a Christian bishop of Smyrna. [2] According to the Martyrdom of Polycarp, he died a martyr, bound and burned at the stake, then stabbed when the fire failed to consume his body. [3]
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In the letters to the early Christian churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia in Revelation 2:9 and 3:9, Jesus makes reference to a synagogue of Satan (Greek: συναγωγή τοῦ Σατανᾶ, synagoge tou satana), in each case referring to a group persecuting the church "who say they are Jews and are not".