CROSS The Meaning of 'Baptisms * in Hebrews 6.2 173
period of persecution (c. 110 CE) in which the elder Polycarp was in fact
martyred. William Lane suggests it had a technical usage in the early sec-
ond century linking it with martyrdom and that this could help in the inter-pretation of 5.13.^42 J.A. Kleist sees Polycarp as showing 'that the great and
paramount lesson in holiness which a Christian has received is to hold
himself in readiness for martyrdom'.^43 Lane believes that:
Polycarp's use of the motifs of endurance to the end and of imitation in a
context referring to known martyrs as those who had obeyed 'the word of
righteousness' is suggestive for the interpretation of Hebrews (cf. Heb.
6:11-12; 10:36; 13:7). If this is the proper linguistic context for interpreting
v 13, it suggests that what was involved in the regression of the community
was a failure of moral character rather than in keen theological insight. The
expression aiTEipos Aoyou SiKCuoauvris acknowledges a basic moral
weakness aggravated by the fear of violent death (cf. 2:14-15). If the com-
munity had begun to avoid contact with outsiders because they were unpre-
pared for martyrdom, a social setting is established for the rebuke of v 12,
for the reference to the sharpening of one's faculties in the arena of moral
decision in v 14, and for the prospect of crucifying the Son of God again
and exposing him to public shame in 6:6.^44The use of the same phrase in Heb. 5.13 suggests that the threat of renewed
suffering, perhaps even martyrdom, had brought about the crisis of faith
which occasioned the writing of the letter. The writer's appeal in 10.32-34
to their past faithful endurance during suffering and persecution is to
encourage them to remain faithful in the present renewed persecution. The
reality of the threat of such persecution is supported by the list of martyrs
in 11.35-38, to which must be added the reference to Jesus' enduring thesakes, that we might live in him, he endured all things. Let us then be imitators of his
endurance, and if we suffer for his name's sake let us glorify him. For this is the exam-
ple which he gave us in himself, and this is what we have believed. Now I beseech you
all to obey the word of righteousness, and to endure with all the endurance which you
also saw before your eyes, not only in the blessed Ignatius, and Zosimus, and Rufus,
but also in others among yourselves, and in Paul himself, and in the other Apostles', in
K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (2 vols.; LCL, 25; Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univer-
sity Press, 1913), I, pp. 293, 295, italics added.- Lane, Hebrews, pp. 137-3 8, on the possible interpretations of diiTEipos Xoyou
- J.A. Kleist, The Didache, The Epistle of Barnabas, The Epistles and Martyr-
dom of St. Polycarp, The Fragments of Papias, The Epistle to Diognetus (ACW, 6;
London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1957 [1948]), p. 193 n. 65, italics original. Kleist
also makes the connection between Polycarp, Phil 9.1 and Heb. 5.13. - Lane, Hebrews, p. 138.