The Bishop Who Heard It From John

In the year 155 AD, an elderly bishop named Polycarp stood before a Roman proconsul who demanded he renounce Christ. "Eighty-six years I have served Him," Polycarp replied, "and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?"

What gave Polycarp such unshakable confidence? He had sat at the feet of the Apostle John — the very John who had climbed the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus. Polycarp had heard John describe, in his own trembling words, the blinding glory that enveloped Christ on that mountain. He had watched the old apostle's eyes fill with wonder as he recounted the voice from heaven: "This is my beloved Son."

Polycarp was not clinging to a secondhand legend. He was one link in a living chain of testimony that stretched back to the mountaintop itself. And he passed that testimony to his own student, Irenaeus of Lyon, who wrote it down for future generations.

This is precisely what Peter means when he writes, "We did not follow cleverly devised myths." The apostles were not spinning tales around a campfire. They were eyewitnesses of His majesty — and they handed that testimony to people like Polycarp, who staked their very lives on what they had received. The prophetic word, confirmed by the Holy Spirit, traveled through flesh-and-blood witnesses who would sooner burn than deny what they knew to be true.