“For if a man cannot govern himself in such matters, how shall he enjoin them on others?…”
For if a man cannot govern himself in such matters, how shall he enjoin them on others? If a man does not keep himself from covetousness, he shall be defiled by idolatry, and shall be judged as one of the heathen.
Polycarp · The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians · ANF I, The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians, Chapter XI
Polycarp on Valens, a presbyter of Philippi who had disgraced himself: the argument is not that he sinned but that a man who cannot govern himself cannot enjoin anything on anyone, which is why the chapter ends by asking that he be called back rather than counted an enemy.
How this is known
These words were matched, word for word, against this project’s own copy of the volume cited.
In the letter, in the chapter the locator names. This chapter survives only in the ancient Latin version — the Greek manuscripts break off before it — and the volume prints it as part of the letter.
Read in Roberts & Donaldson, ANF vol. 1 (1885) · Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, revised by A. Cleveland Coxe
Also by
- Polycarp every saying recorded of this person, and their page