Polycarp it is only found twice (one passage being a quotation). On the
other hand, the usual expression in Polycarp is 'Our Lord Jesus Christ,'
which apparently occurs only twice in the Ignatian Epistles, and in both
instances with various readings. Again the combination 'God and Christ,'
occurring three times in Polycarp, does not appear once in the Ignatian
letters [108:2].

3. The divergence of the two writers as regards Scriptural quotations is
still more remarkable. Though the seven Ignatian letters are together at
least five times as long as the Epistle of Polycarp, the quotations from
the Apostolic Epistles in the latter are many times more numerous, as
well as more precise, than in the former. Whole passages in Polycarp are
made up of such quotations strung together, while in Ignatius they are
very rare, being for the most part epigrammatic adaptations and isolated
coincidences of language or thought. Nor indeed is their range
coextensive. Thus the Epistle of Polycarp, as I pointed out in a former
article [109:1], is pervaded with the language of St Peter's First
Epistle, but in the Ignatian letters there is no trace of its use
[109:2].

4. But this divergence only forms part of a still broader and more
decisive contrast. The profuseness of quotation in Polycarp's Epistle
arises from a want of originality. The writer reproduces the thoughts
and words of others, because his mind is essentially receptive and not
creative. He is altogether wanting in independence of thought. On the
other hand, the Ignatian letters are remarkable for their individuality.
Of all early Christian writings they are pre-eminent in this respect.
They are full of idiomatic expressions, quaint images, unexpected turns
of thought and language. They exhibit their characteristic ideas, which
obviously have a high value for the writer, for he recurs to them again
and again, but which the reader often finds it extremely difficult to
grasp, owing to their singularity. I venture to think that any one who
will carefully consider these contrasts--more especially the last, as
extending over the whole field--must be struck with the impossibility of
the theory which makes this letter part of the assumed Ignatian
forgeries. This hypothesis requires us to believe that a very uncritical
age produced a literary fiction, which, for subtlety and naturalness of
execution, leaves the most skilful forgeries of the nineteenth century
far behind.

And the hyp