Polycarp the Bishop of Smyrna
Polycarp (AD 69-155) was the bishop/pastor of the church in Smyrna (modern day Izmir, Turkey). According to Eusebius of Caesarea (who wrote the first history of the Christian church around AD 300) he was a disciple of the Apostle John. Polycarp was well know to have called Marcion, a leader in Gnosticism, ‘the firstborn of Satan’ because of his gnostic theology. Polycarp was martyred (burned at the stake which did not consume him so he was stabbed with a sword) for his faith in Jesus before a crowd of onlookers in a stadium.
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Disciple of the Apostle John
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Wrote against Marcion a well known leader of Gnosticism
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Martyred for his refusal to deny Jesus
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I wish he would have written more so we could better understand the gnostics. I love that we have writings from disciples of the apostles.
It is great that we have so much about the Gnostics from Irenaeus. He gave us most of the info we had concerning Gnosticism up to 1947ish.