“... Let us notice the probable Johannine allusions. First, as is fairly widely admitted, Polycarp’s statement of the first confessional problem involves a direct conflation of 1 John 4: 2-3 and 2 John 7, whether this was intentional or not. It is interesting to note that, like Polycarp, Irenaeus uses 2 John 7 and 1 John 4: 2-3 together, citing them formally in Against Heresies 3. 16. 8. Second, in the next clause, confessing the testimony of the cross, may go back to 1 John 5: 6-8, which speak of a testimony of the water and the blood. But this is itself dependent upon the account in John 19: 34-5, which speaks of a testimony in relation to the cross. That this text lies behind Polycarp’s phrase is made more likely by a passage in Irenaeus. Irenaeus specifically points to John 19: 34-5 when dealing with the docetic heresy of Marcion in Against Heresies 4. 33. 2 ...”