The New Testament and Polycarp: Whence and Whither

The recent publication of Stephen Young’s work on Jesus Tradition in the Apostolic Fathers: Their Explicit Appeals to the Words of Jesus in Light of Orality Studies (Mohr Siebeck, 2011), which includes a substantial discussion of Philippians 2.3, offers a convenient point de départ for a review of investigations into Polycarp’s use (or non-use) in his Letter to the Philippians of the documents that later formed the New Testament, in the context of a survey of the various roles attributed to Polycarp vis-à-vis those documents, including user, collector, editor, and/or author. Where, and on what basis, ought we to place him on a spectrum ranging from scant knowledge, on one end, to responsibility for the shape of the NT as we know it today on the other?