Acknowledgements
John Lennon wrote the song “Beautiful Boy,” which contains the lyric “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” My plan to write a commentary on the Martyrdom of Polycarp began in late 2009. Then “life” happened in a number of ways: two transatlantic moves, family health crises, three years of geriatric caregiving, and a move halfway across the United States. It is with a deep sense of satisfaction that this protracted project has finally come to fruition. As is always the case, thanks are owed to a number of persons.
I am especially grateful to Johan Leemans and Peeters Publishers for permission to use the Greek text of the Martyrdom of Polycarp established by Boudewijn Dehandschutter. Anyone who has worked on the Martyrdom of Polycarp knows that Dehandschutter is a towering figure in the scholarship on this writing, seemingly devoting his career to the document. My bibliography includes fifteen items by Dehandschutter, variously published in Dutch, English, French, and German. Dehandschutter’s Greek text is the most up-to-date and authoritative, taking into account all of the relevant ancient witnesses. It appears in a collection of essays in Polycarpiana: Studies on Martyrdom and Persecution in Early Christianity (edited by J. Leemans; Leuven: Leuven University Press; Dudley, MA: Peeters, 2007), pages 3–22. Since Professor Dehandschutter passed away in 2011, legal permission devolved to the editor of that volume, Johan Leemans, who graciously granted permission for the use of the Greek text.
The final years of work on this project were carried out at a small institution with modest library holdings. I am deeply grateful to the librarians at Southern Nazarene University, especially those in the area of Interlibrary Loans, whose sleuthing skills were repeatedly called upon to help me find obscure, often foreign language resources. They carried out countless searches for me with a nearly perfect success rate. I also supplemented local resources with a number of email queries to scholars around the world. Unsolicited emails from unknown persons can be a burden to busy academic people, but several scholars responded graciously and offered their expertise in niche areas. I thank Jennifer Tobin for help sorting out Herods in antiquity; Evert Hendrik van Emde Boas for help on fine details of Greek grammar; Frances Young for her expertise on the charge of atheism in early Christianity; and Michael Holmes for bibliographical suggestions and input on numerous issues.
Finally, Stanley Porter, the editor of the TENT series, deserves special thanks for his long-suffering patience through a sixteen year process that should have taken far less time. When my research was revived after a several-year period of torpor and inactivity, Stan welcomed the renaissance and provided encouragement and immensely helpful feedback. I also thank the anonymous outside reader at Brill for his/her careful reading of the manuscript and suggestions. Finally, numerous persons at Brill have contributed assistance in legal, contractual, and editorial matters. Especially worthy of mention are Nitzan Shalev and Stella van der Neut. To all these persons, my deepest thanks. I hope that the finished product constitutes a scholarly contribution worthy of their support.