Polycarp Park<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Izmir=Smyrna is a seaside town with a huge bay for ships to find harbor.\u00a0 This is a picture I took as one of the ferries, which Meltem our guide takes to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Polycarp Park\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Izmir=Smyrna is a seaside town with a huge bay for ships to find harbor.\u00a0 This is a picture I took as one of the ferries, which Meltem our guide takes to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=71474\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-28T05:35:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-11T12:01:58+00:00\" 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{"id":71474,"date":"2025-06-28T01:35:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T05:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=71474"},"modified":"2025-06-11T08:01:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T12:01:58","slug":"polycarp-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/06\/28\/polycarp-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Polycarp Park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Through the good efforts of Levent Oral and Tutku tours, there is now a small park and exhibit about Izmir\u2019s most famous martyred native son\u2014 Polycarp.\u00a0 \u00a0Without question Polycarp and Papias, closely associated with Polycarp in Smyrna (=Izmir) are two transitional figures who helped the apostolic tradition survive the passing of the original twelve and other eyewitnesses of Jesus\u2019 and Paul\u2019s ministry. They were both in contact with John the Elder, who is probably the same person as John of Patmos, and was buried near Ephesus in a plot of land now called St. John\u2019s Church.\u00a0 I would argue as well he is the one who preserved and promulgated the fourth Gospel as the testimony of an actual Judean eyewitness of Jesus\u2019 ministry, the Beloved Disciple, who is identified in John 11 and subsequent chapters as Lazarus.\u00a0 Careful study of Polycarp\u2019s one genuine letter shows he cites, alludes to or echoes some 20 of the 27 documents later included in the NT canon (in 367).\u00a0 It is these transitional figures who helped gather our NT documents, edit them, group them\u2013 first with a collection of Paul\u2019s letters (see 2 Pet. 3) which was treated as Scripture just as the OT was, and then a collection of the four earliest Gospels, put together in a codex, which led to the labels according to Mark as opposed to according to John etc.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need the label \u2018according to\u2026\u2019 unless there are multiple Gospels that were meant to be put together.\u00a0 \u00a0Here are some pictures from the new Polycarp Park\u2026.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a> $\"\"$ <\/a> $\"\"$ <\/a> $\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

The missing pictures in the display are because they are expensive mosaics of Polycarp, and this park is wide open to the street near the Acropolis. My suggestion is take a picture of the new mosaics and post them in the blank spaces.<\/p>\n

We saw this in association with the third Global Smyrna meeting in Izmir, which was given in conjunction with the unveiling of the Park, and also the new archaeology museum in izmir. $\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

I gave the opening lecture for this conference on Papias, but that\u2019s a story for another post.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"