The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians (commonly abbreviated Pol. Phil.) is an epistle attributed to Polycarp, an early bishop of Smyrna, and addressed to the early Christian church in Philippi. It is widely believed to be a composite of material written at two different times (see ), in the first half of the second century. The epistle is described by Irenaeus as follows: There is also a forceful epistle written by Polycarp to the Philippians, from which those who wish to do so, and are anxious about their salvation, can learn the character of his faith, and the preaching of the truth. The epistle is one of a number believed to have been written by Polycarp, but is the only extant document. Manuscript tradition The epistle was composed in Greek, but the Greek text has not been preserved in its entirety. Eight Greek manuscripts are known, but in each the text is defective and incomplete. The oldest Greek witness is Vaticanus Graecus 859 from the 11th–13th centuries, but most are from the 15th–16th centuries. There is a complete Latin translation of the epistle. It survives in 13 or 14 manuscripts, the earliest perhaps from the 9th century. The quality of the Latin text is disputed, but it is based on a Greek text older than the existing Greek stemma. A few excerpts of the epistle are preserved in Syriac. These include parts of chapters 5, 7 and 12. There is an Armenian translation based on Vaticanus Graecus 859. Authorship and unity Scholars generally agree that Pol. Phil. is an authentic epistle of Polycarp. One potential objection to the authenticity of the epistle, however, is the apparent chronological inconsistency between Chapters 9 and 13. In Chapter 9, Polycarp shows that he is fully aware that his friend Ignatius has suffered martyrdom, perhaps some time ago: But in Chapter 13, Polycarp references a letter sent to him by Ignatius quite recently (see the Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp), and seems to be unaware of Ignatius' ultimate fate: Various efforts have been made to explain this seeming discrepancy. The most widely accepted proposal was put forward by Pearcy Neale Harrison in 1936: writing in the Journal of Biblical Literature, Harrison argued that the Epistle is actually a merger of two authentic letters of Polycarp. The first letter, written just before Ignatius' death, would consist of Chapter 13 and possibly also Chapter 14.