Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 70:2 (Fall 2008)
Article: HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL STUDIES Polycarp, Ephesians, And “Scripture”
Author: Paul A. Hartog

WTJ 70:2 (Fall 2008) p. 255

HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL STUDIES
Polycarp, Ephesians, And “Scripture”

Paul Hartog

Paul Hartog is an Associate Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Studies at Faith Baptist Theological Seminary in Ankeny, Iowa.

I. Introduction

In his 1983 WBC study of 2 Peter, NT scholar Richard J. Bauckham discussed the use of γραφαί (“scriptures”)in 2 Pet 3:15–16.1 Bauckham noted that the term was attached to Paul’s letters as “inspired, authoritative writings,” with the probable implication that they were “suitable for reading in Christian worship.”2 Bauckham then emphasized that one is not immediately warranted to jump from the term “scriptures” to a notion of a fixed, limited canon in that historical moment.”Apostolic writings must have ranked as authoritative writings, suitable for reading in Christian worship, long before there was any fixed NT canon.”3

Bauckham went on to list “possible early instances of NT texts being called γραφαί,” including 1 Tim 5:18 (a possible quotation of a Gospel saying as “scripture”), 2 Clem. 2.4 (a Gospel saying cited as “another scripture”), Barn. 4.14 (a citation of Matt 22:14 introduced with “as it is written”), and Pol. Phil. 12.1 (a citation of Ps 4:5 and Eph 4:26 as “these scriptures”). According to Bauckham, “There is nothing at all surprising in this development. Apostolic writings were regarded as inspired and authoritative from the beginning.... Once they were being read along with the OT in Christian worship, it was quite natural that the term γραφή (‘scripture’) should come to be used for them.”4

WTJ 70:2 (Fall 2008) p. 256

A majority of scholars in the field of early Christian studies, however, challenge Bauckham’s final example, that Polycarp’s Philippians refers to a text from Ephesians as “scripture.” The present article will re-examine this issue and argue that scholarship should, in fact, be open to this distinct possibility. Along the way, we will elongate Bauckham’s list of other possible early designations of NT documents as “scripture.”

In chapter 12 of his Epistle to the P...