The Anarthrous Pre-Verbal Predicate Noun in The Martyrdom of Polycarp

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There are cases in the Greek New Testament, similar to John 1:1c, where we have predicate nouns preceding the verb that are translated with the indefinite article "a." John 8:48 (thou art a Samaritan); John 4:19 "thou art a prophet"; Acts 28:4 "this man must be a murder," etc. We also have such cases outside the New Testament, such as in Xenophon's Anabasis 1:4:6, EMPORION D' HN TO XWRION ("the place was a market") that was famously brought to light in Dana & Mantey's A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament.

Another example is in the Martyrdom of Polycarp at Chapters 10 and 12. Take a look at the Greek:

This is how CRISTIANOS EIMI is translated in Hoole's English translation:

Moving on to 12 we have:

CRISTIANON EINAI is translated thusly:

As we can see, it only makes sense to include an indefinite article in such circumstances, and the Greek provides many examples where this is necessary.