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Ignatius of Antioch



Ignatius of Antioch

A Martyr Bishop and the Origin of Episcopacy

Allen Brent

continuum



Published by T8T Clark Interna tional

Continuum imprint

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SE

7NX

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any

form or by any means electronic or mec hanical including p hotoco pying recording or any

information storage or retr ieval system with ou t permission in writ ing from the publishers.

Copyr igh t

©

Allen Brent 2007

Allen Brent has asserted his right under the Copyright Designs and Patents Ac t 1988 to be

identif ied as the Author of this work.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Typeset by Fakenham Photosetting Limited Fakenham Norfolk

EISBN 9780567032003



Caroline Penrose Bammel, FBA

Inpiam memoriam



Contents

Preface ix

Abbreviations xi

1 The Recovery of Ignatius' Genuine Letters 1

2 Igna tius' Personal History and the Church at An tioch 14

3 Th e Choreography of the Martyr Procession 44

4 M artyr Procession and Eucharist: The Christian Mysteries 71

5 Recent Attacks on the Authenticity of the Ignatian Letters 95

6 Ignatius and Polycarp 144

7 In Conclusion 159

Select Bibliography and Fu rthe r Reading 163

Index 169

vu



Preface

Since the immediate aftermath to the Reformation in the West, the

letters of Ignatius of Antioch have proven a subject for continuing

controversy. Eusebius claimed th at Ignatius had been, with Polycarp,

a companion of the apostles, and that his putative date made his

writing immediately consequent to the believed dates of the New

Testament documents. Ignatius thus became a crown witness for

the historic demand that churches should be ruled by bishops who

are the successors both to the apostles and to the ministry entrusted

to them.

But clearly the letters had experienced a long and complex

reception history even before the Reformation which adds to their

mystery. Such was the perceived importance of these documents

that what appears to have been their original edition was consid-

erably expanded, and its Christology significantly modified, in the

course of the fourth and fifth centuries. Furthermore, new letters

forged in Ignatius' name were added to bring the original seven up

to a total of 13. Ne ither the original edition, nor its expansion, n or

its forged additions were to lack patristic citations as the centuries

rolled on.

But what of the original edition that we know today as the

'middle recension' because of a short, abbreviated Syriac version

discovered in the nineteenth century? Since the time of Archbishop

James U ssher and Nicolaus Vedelius in the seventeenth century, and

their arguments w ith Presbyterian and P uritan divines such as Jo hn

Milton, controversy has raged over the authenticity of the middle

recension. Was Eusebius w rong to date the co rresponden ce so early,

and was not Ignatius a fictional character created in order to give

substance to a later church o rder tha t had noth ing to do with the age

IX



x

Ignatius ofAntioch

of the N ew T estam ent and its allegedly pristine purity? At o ne point

before the 1980s it had seemed tha t the 300-year-old con troversy had

been laid to rest in the work of two outstanding, nineteenth-century

scholars, Bishop Josep h Iigh tfoo t from England and T heo dore

Zahn from Germany. The scholarly consensus concurred with their

defence of the authenticity of Ignatius

5

letters, and their solution to

the problems that these had raised.

But in the course of the final quarter of the twentieth century, a

num ber of scholars whose w ork I will discuss were to revive once

again the arguments against the authenticity of Ignatius' letters and

of their Eusebian date.

In my defence of the Iightfoot-Zahn consensus, I have not

sought to p resen t yet another vindication that revives old arguments

in favour of that consensus in reply to old arguments to the

contrary that have arisen from their graves at the hands of m odern

scholars. Rather, I have sought to use primary evidence for Ignatius '

background mainly brought to light in the course of the twentieth

century, and therefore not available to Iightfoot and his prede-

cessors. The discovery and classification of epigraphic material has

led to the creation of a new, non-literary corpus of evidence that is

now larger than ou r surviving classical literary sources.

In my recent book

Ignatius ofAntioch and the Second Sophistic

(STAC

36;

M oh r Siebeck, 2006), and in previously published articles, I have

sought to use extensive epigraphic remains in order to establish the

background to Ignatius in the life and culture of the Hellenistic city-

states of Asia Minor, and to argue that Ignatius' understanding of

church ord er is to be understood in light of that life and culture. In

such a con tex t we can, I believe, satisfactorily resolve long-stand ing

problems about the Ignatian correspondence that have mistakenly

led some scholars into forgery hypotheses of various kinds.

This present volume offers my argument to a more general

audience not necessarily involved in the minutiae of patristic schol-

arship but interested in the wider historical and theological contex t

in which the letters of Ignatius are still relevant. I hope that my

treatment will help to explain the details of the various puzzling

aspects of Ignatius, and my own solution to them, to general

historians and students of theology, including undergraduates and

first-year higher-degree students studying early Christian life and

thought.



Abbreviations

Early Christian and Jewish Writers

Adv. Haer. Irenaeus,

Adversus Haereses

Antiqu. Josephus, Antiquitates

CA Constitutiones Apostolicae

Cor.

Clement of Rom e,

Corinthians

Did. Didache

Didasc. Didascalia Apostolorum

Eph. Ignatius, Letter to the Ephesians

HE Eusebius,

Historia Eccksiastica

Horn, in Luc. Origen, Homilia

in

Lucam

Magn. Ignatius, Letter

to the Magnesians

Man. Hermas,

Mandate

Mart.

Pol. Martyrdom

of Polycarp

Phil. Polycarp, Letter

to the Philippians

Phld.

Ignatius, Letter

to the Philadelphians

Pol. Ignatius, Letter

to Polycarp

Prol. Cant. Origen,

Prologus Canticorum

Ref. Pseudo-Hippolytus, Refutatio Omnium Haeresium

Rom. Ignatius, Letter to the Romans

Sim.

Hermas, Similitude

Smyrn.

Ignatius,

Letter

to the Smyrnaeans

Trail.

Ignatius, Letter to the Trallians

Vir. III.

Jerome,

De Viris Illustribus

Vis. Hermas,

Vision

Classical Works and Epigraphy

Coron. Demosthenes, De

Corona

Dig, Justinian, Di

esta

Dom. Suetonius, Domitian

Eratos. Lysias, Contra Eratosthenem

Fam.

Cicero, Ad Familiares

XI



xii

IGRR

Met.

Or.

Peregr.

Pis.

SEG

VA

Ignatius ofAntioch

Inscriptiones Graecae ad Res Romanas Pertiner

Ovid, Metamorphoses

Oratio

Lucian o f

Samosata, De Morte Peregrinni

Cicero, Oratio in Pisonem

Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum

Philostratus, Vita Apollonii

Other Abbreviations

ANRW

Aug

HThR

JECS

JEH

JRH

JSNT

JThS

RivAC

SecCent

STAC

VCh

VChSup

WUNT

ZAC

Aufstieg

und

Niedergang der romischen Welt

Augustinianum

Harvard Theological Review

Journal

of

Early Christian Studies

Journal

of

Ecclesiastical History

Journal of Religious History

Journal for the Study of the

New

Testament

Journal of Theological Studies

Rivista archeologica Christiana

Second Century

Studien und Texte ^uAntike und Christentum

Vigiliae Christianae

Vigiliae Christianae,

Supplement Series

Wissenschaftliche

Untersuchungen %um

Neuen Testament

Zeitschrift fur Antikes Christentum



The Recovery of Ignatius'

Genuine Letters

On 30 January 1649 the young John Locke, the future political

philosopher, gathered toge ther with his fellow-pupils at W estminster

School at their headmaster's bidding to attend public prayers for the

king.

1

Two hours later he heard the shocking announcem ent about

what had occurred in nearby Whitehall on a scaffold erected in

front of the Banqueting House. Parliament, in a civil war with its

monarch, had just executed King Charles I. Four years previously,

on 10 January 1645, Archbish op Laud, primate of the Church o f

England by law established, had been executed on Tower Hill by the

same parliament. Th e civil law

was

being challenged by a parliament,

which, like Locke in the future, believed that political authority was

a question of a social contract and not divine right. Church law

similarly was not merely being challenged but revoked. Bishops

did not rule over the Church by divine right as successors of the

apostles: presbyters as a collective body were to replace them in a

Presbyterian form of church government.

The political dispute was therefore also a theological dispute:

whether to be a true Church you needed a hierarchical structure of

two archbishops, bishops, priests, and deacons, descended from the

ancient and allegedly 'undivided' church before the Reformation.

And the crown witness in such a debate, appealed to by monar-

chists and defenders of the established church against a Puritan and

1

M. Cranston, John Lock e: A Biography (New York: Arno Press, 1979), p. 20.

1



2 Ignatius ofAntioch

Presbyterian parliament, was the corpus of letters of Ignatius of

Antioch.

Ignatius, as we are informed by Eusebius, whose church h istory is

the earliest to have survived as a whole, wrote his letters in th e reign

of Trajan

(AD

108-17):

After Nerva had reigned for a little more than a year, he was succeeded

by Trajan ... Moreover at the time mentioned, Ignatius was famous as

the second bishop of Antioch after St Peter ... At this time flourished in

Asia Polycarp, companion of the aposdes, who had been appointed to the

bishopric of the church in Smyrna by the eyewitnesses and ministers of

the Lord. Distinguished men at the same time were Papias ... and Ignatius

... The story goes that he was sent from Syria to Rome to be eaten by

wild beasts in testimony to Ch rist He was taken through Asia under m ost

careful guard, and strengthened by his speech and exhortation the diocese

of each city in which he stayed.

Eusebius then mentions specifically seven let ters of Ignatius writ ten

to E phesus mentioning Bishop O nesimus, to Magnesia and Bishop

Dam as, to Tralles and Bishop Polybius, to Rom e, to Philadelphia, to

Smyrna, and to Polycarp its bishop.

2

Ignatius claims that for a church to deserve the name or to be

correctly summoned together, it needs one bishop served by a

council of priests (or presbyters), and attended by a number of

deacons:

So

then

let everyone

respect

the deacons as

they would Jesus

Christ,

and also

the bishop who is to create an image of the

Father;

and let them respect the

presbyters as the council of God and as the band of the aposdes. Without

these orders,

a

church

is

not called together.

3

T he parliamentary Puritans of the seventeenth century might object

that though the term b is h o p ' was used in the N ew Testament, it was

simply a generic term for a num ber of church elders (or 'presbyters')

who together as a council of equals allegedly ruled an originally

'presbyterian' church. Thus there was no 'divine right' of bishops

any m ore than a 'divine right' of kings apart from a social contract

freely entered into with conditions protecting the subject's rights.

2

Eusebius,

HE

111.21-22 and 26.

3

Ignatius,

Trail.

3.1.



The Recovery

of Ignatius*

Genuine Letters 3

But here the defenders of episcopal church government could

appeal to Ignatius, whose works, though not in the New Testament,

were nevertheless close to the apostolic age. Eusebius, as we saw,

numbered Ignatius and Polycarp as immediate associates of the

apostles. Indeed Peter himself, Eusebius claimed, had consecrated

Ignatius' immediate predecessor, Hero, as bishop of Antioch.

Such men had championed orthodoxy against heresy. Therefore it

seemed right to claim Ignatius as the defender of the episcopal form

of the government of the Church of England. In the light of such

a witness, the preamble of its reformed prayer book seemed fully

justified in asserting that:

It is euident unto all men, diligently readinge holye Scripture and auncient

aucthours, that from the Apostles tyme there hathe bene these orders of

Ministers in Christ's Church: Bishoppes, Priestes, and Deacons[.]

The prayer book cont inued that what fol lowed was to be done ' to

the entent that these orders shoulde bee cont inued, and reuerent lye

used, and esteemed, in this Church of England'.

4

It is at this point in our story that we meet with Archbishop

James U ssher, w ho began the m ode rn study of Ignatius in England.

Ussher was devoted to the royalist cause and was to serve as the

chaplain of Charles I for his last days on earth in his imprisonment

by parliament on the Isle of Wight. In seeking to defend intellec-

tually the claims of episcopacy founded on the Ignatian writings, he

was faced with a very great problem . The re existed from the M iddle

Ages a corpus of 13 letters, which I set out as follows:

1.

Ephesians

2. Romans

3. Trallians

4.

Magnesians

5. Philadelphia™

6. Smyrnaeans

7. Polycarp

8. Tarsians

4

The

F irst and Second Prayer Books of King E dward

the

Sixth

(London: Everyman and N ew

York: De nt, 1938), pp. 292,43 8.




9. Philippians

10.

Antiochenes

11.

Hero

12. Mary to Ignatius

13.

Ignatius to Mary

So to Ussher's contemporaries there were available six letters in

addition to tho se listed in Eusebius, printed here in boldface.

Furthermore, in manuscripts containing all or some of these

additional letters, there are expanded versions of those that do

appear in Euseb ius. W hich particular list are we to accept, the seven

of Euseb ius or the late medieval 13? In what form are we to accept

the former, the longer or the shorter form? Ussher was basing his

defence of the Anglican hierarchy on the antiquity of these letters.

Yet how could one be certain in view of these facts that they had

not been changed and distorted over the course of time so that

their originals were irrecoverable? Jo hn M ilton, in his tract attacking

episcopacy directed particularly at Ussher, had sneered:

To what end then should they cite him [Ignatius] as authentic for episcopacy

when they cannot know what is authentic of him? ... Had God ever

intended that we should have sought any part of useful instruction from

Ignatius, doubtless he would not so ill provided for our knowledge as to

send him to our hands in this broken and disjointed plight?

5

Both Ussher and Milton were living at a time when the impact of

the Renaissance was being felt, and techniques of literary criticism

were being developed in historical research. Previously quotations

were taken from all 13 letters, such as St Bernard of Clairvaux's

references to Mary.

6

But following the Reformation, an intellectual

scepticism about the authenticity of the corpus of early literature in

general, as it had com e dow n to us, had set in.

It is hard to underestimate the significance for the recovery of

early Christian history made by the impact of such literary criticism,

5

John Milton,

OfPrelatical

Episcopacy, quoted in J. B. Iightfoot, The

A postolic

Fathers:

A

Revised Text with Introductions,

Notes,

Dissertations,

an d

Tran slations.

Parti:

St.

Clement

of

Rome.

Part II: St.

Ignatius

and St.

Polycarp, 2nd edn (Londo n: MacMfflan, 1890 ), I, p.

231.

5

I i g h t fo o t ,

Apostolic Fathers,

I I I , p p. 2 2 4 - 2 5 .



The Recovery of Ignatius' Genuine Letters

5

comparing work with work, and version with version, in order

to establish the original version and to chart its alterations over

the centuries. If you look today at that great nineteenth-century

Catholic work Migne's Patrologia ̂ you will find the original chrono-

logical arrangement of all the works attributed to all the Church

Fathers, even though the autho r has indicated the spurious character

of some of them. Thus along with the entire corpus of Ignatian

letters we find also printed the forged letters attributed to early

second-century popes such as Evaristus, Alexander and Sixtus.

These so-called 'papal decretals' were ninth-century forgeries

whose first quotations date from

AD

853. The othewise unknown

Isidorus Mercator claims to be the scribe who collected them

together for publication. Such forgeries reflect church order and

authority as it existed then, rather than at the time of their

putatively second-century authors. But imagine now the effect of

the production of such a forged literature on the late medieval

historical consciousness.

Since there was no established historical and literary-critical

methodology for analysing the differences between the hand of

the forger and that of the original author, the impression given was

that th e pas t had always been like the presen t with very little change.

Eusebius, indeed, had long contributed to the development of a

view of the past and present fused into a timeless, ongo ing present.

For Eusebius, in writing the first church history as early as

AD

318,

had simply assumed that the church of the first century had been

organized precisely like the church of his own time. Th us if bishops

ruled the Church in the fourth century, convened ecclesiastical

councils to pu t down heresy, deferred to the bishop o f Rom e as the

central see of the empire, etc., their predecessors had acted in the

same way with the sam e powers.

There was no historical development of such ecclesiastical insti-

tutions to be traced by the critical study of historical sources that

as yet did not exist. It was only when critical literary and historical

methodologies came to be generally used by historians that the

medieval consciousness of a timeless historical present could give

way to a consciousness of historical development. The medieval

historical consciousness was then specifically witnessed in the

reflections of Ussher's predecessors on Ignatius, who quote from

13 letters composed and embellished over a thousand years, and




regard him with Eusebius as a companion of the apostles w ho could

thus bea r sure witness to their su ppo rt for medieval episcopacy and

orthodoxy. For them past and present are fused together into one

timeless present moment and Ignatius can appear to speak with a

voice that is unconditioned by his real place in past history.

It is not without significance that such a medieval consciousness

has been rebo rn in our time in the writings of post-mode rnists w ho

deny th e possibility of any historical objectivity. Thu s we are invited

just to resp ond to the page as we read it and generate what m eanings

they suggest to us unfettered by the restrictions of a critical history.

People w ho boast of teaching texts and no t periods of history suffer

from the illusion of having advanced to som e new position, bu t are

fated simply to lapse into the pre-historical consciousness witnessed

in the late Middle Ages. Such is our fate once we abandon any form

of a historico-critical methodology.

Ussher's work on Ignatius belongs to the Renaissance, which

began the development of such a critical methodology, and the

liberation of late medieval consciousness from its ahistorical dream

world. Only by distinguishing the genuine corpus of letters of

Ignatius from added forgeries, and then the genuine letters from

textual additions and alterations by later scribes, could the real,

historical Ignatius emerge and his original ideas be studied in their

true historical context freed from later distortions. Ussher has had

a very bad press because of his claim, based upon analysis of the

chronology of the patriarchs in the book of Genesis, that the world

was created in 4004

BC.

Indeed, in the light of this he cannot be

regarded as having any general concept of development. But in

respect to Ignatius, he was to assist in such a project because of his

skill at textual criticism, which places his work in that respect on a

footing more contemporary with ourselves.

Ussher was to use the tool of textual criticism to establish the

authenticity of one version of the received corpus of the letters

of Ignatius in his argument with Milton and othe r puritans. Ussher

noted that three medieval English writers quoted a version of

Ignatius quite different from that of their contemporaries: Robert

Grosseteste (1250), John Tyssington (1381), and William Wodeford

(1396). They used only the seven letters known to Eusebius, and

their quotations from those letters were more abbreviated than

those appearing in later church fathers and in medieval and post-



The Recovery of Ignatius* Genuine Letters

7

Reformation writers. Many of their quotations, however, correspond

to those of Euseb ius and the early father Theodore t, w ho used him

extensively. The quotes were in Latin and not Greek.

Ussher therefore came to the conclusion that there must be

a Greek manuscript of Ignatius' letters somewhere in England,

from which Grosseteste had made his Latin translation. Ussher

succeeded in finding the Latin translation, though not the Greek,

in two manuscripts, one in the library of Caius College, Cambridge

(Caiensis 395) given to them in 1444, and another in the library

of the bishop of Norwich (Montacutianus), now lost. Without a

Greek original, Ussher now resorted to correcting the expanded

Greek texts of available manuscripts of what we now know as the

'long recension' by means of these Latin manuscripts: what was

omitted in the Latin he omitted in the Greek, and otherwise textually

amended individual Greek words in the light of the Latin.

Although more text-critical than literary-critical in its approach,

Ussher's accomplishment was a literary critic's dream. Vedelius, his

contemporary, had brought o ut an edition (in 1623) of wha t we no w

know as the middle recension based upon early patristic citations

and Eusebius' list. He claimed the seven genuine letters had been

corrupted, pointing to the influence of the third-century

Apostolic

Constitutions

upon texts that had obviously been expanded. But

Ussher had found a manuscript containing six and only six, in the

non-expanded form of the middle recension. The problem with a

purely hypothetical reconstruction of a lost docum ent is that, in the

absence of the empirical corroboration provided by the discovery

of the actual text, the hypothetical document is always open to

challenge from other literary critics proposing quite different recon-

structions, often on equally plausible grounds.

Consider

as

an example source-critical approaches to the Synoptic

Gospels and attempts to solve the 'Synoptic problem'. Matthew and

Luke are compared with Mark and found to contain most of Mark.

T he conclusion is that they used (some edition of) M ark. The n they

appear to have material in common that is not found in Mark. So

this is attributed to a hypothetical document called 'Q'. Further

hypothetical documents (M and L) are then claimed to account for

the sources for their individual material.

But there are minor agreements between Matthew and Luke

against Mark. So matters can be seen quite differently: Mark



8

Ignatius ofAntioch

abbreviated Matthew and Luke, Luke used and revised Matthew,

etc. We have never found Q in a documentary form close to the

document that is hypothesized. But in the case of the literary

hypothesis regarding the original num ber and form of the letters of

Ignatius, Ussher produced the trump card: he found a manuscript

with six of the seven letters in the form that he and Vedelius had

hypothesized.

Ussher's work appeared in 1644. Two years later, Isaac Voss

published a Greek version of six letters of Ignatius, excluding

his letter to the Romans, which has had an alternative manuscript

tradition. It

was

based upo n a manuscript in the Medicean Library at

Florence. Thus the corpus of seven letters of Ignatius in the form

that Eusebius and his contemporaries and predecessors had known

them had been recovered. Later, further manuscripts - Greek, Latin,

Syriac, and C optic, amongst o thers - were to b e added to the list.

7

Indeed, in 1845 Cureton published an edition of the corpus of

Ignatius' letters that admitted only three genuine ones, Ephesians,

Romans,

and

Polycarp,

in a highly abbreviated form. Cureton's views

met almost universal rejection. However, his edition is known as the

'short recension'. In order to distinguish Ussher's corpus of seven

letters from Cureton's 'short recension' we now call the former the

'middle recension'. We retain the contrasting title lo ng recension' for

the expanded corpus of 13.

Ussher never conclusively refuted attacks upon the authenticity

of the Ignatian corpus of letters, which have continued down to

our own time, as we shall see in Chapter 5. But what he achieved

along with Vedelius was to establish that at most the seven letters

of the middle recension were the original letters: all future attacks

on the authenticity of the letters were to be directed against that

recension. Future critics of authenticity would no longer be able

to appeal to explicit references in the Ignatian corpus to Ebion,

Basilides and Theodo tus, the last of whom in particular only flour-

ished some fifty years after E useb ius ' Trajanic da ting of the Ignatian

corresp ondence. Such references w ere only found in the expansions

and alterations of the long recension, which had been shown to be

7

For a foil list, see B. D. Ehrman (ed), The Apostolic

Fathers,

2 vols, Loeb Classical

library 24 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003), I,

pp.

213-15.



The Recovery of Ignatius' Genuine Letters

9

the work of later editorial interpolation.

8

In future, critics, in order

to establish their case, would have to find in the now-established

middle recension anachronisms, implausible historical claims, and

hiatuses and inconsistencies suggestive of fissures in the text that

would thereby indicate more than one author. In C hapter 5 we shall

examine the various attacks of this kind on the middle recension in

the course of the twentieth century.

The letters of the middle recension are the only serious contenders

to be reliable documentary evidence for Ignatius' history. His

putative

Acts of Martyrdom

must be dated far too late to be reliable,

and seem to be, like the

Panegyric of St John Chrysostom^

based upon

fanciful allusions to the letters themselves.

Let us now summarize what can be known of the history of

Ignatius of Antioch from his letters themselves, and from Polycarp's

Philippians.

Despite Eusebius' claim that Ignatius was one of the men who,

along with Polycarp, had known the apostles, in the letters of

the middle recension he makes no claim to have met them. Peter

and Paul appear as martyred figures from the past, and Ignatius

makes no mention of anyone named Hero as his immediate

episcopal predecessor at Antioch after St Peter, let alone address

a letter to him as did a later forger in his name. It was no doubt

Ignatius' association with Polycarp, recorded in the latter's letter

to the Philippians, that led Irenaeus, and thus Eusebius, to claim

an association with Papias and therefore an apostolic connection.

Polycarp, according to Irenaeus, on grounds that are questionable,

knew Papias, who was both his friend and a liearer' of the apostle

John.

9

But although such information requires us to believe that

the apostle John lived in Asia Minor and at Ephesus 'until the

times of Trajan',

10

Ignatius makes no reference to Jo hn residing

at Ephesus in his letter to the Ephesians: rather, for him their

founding apostle was Paul:

8

Ignatius

(long

recension),

Trail.

11

(Basilides and Theodotus) and

Phld.

6 (for Ebion),

the latter probably not a historical character.

9

Eusebius, HE HL.39.2; IV.14.3-S, quoting Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. IL22.5; ffl.3.4; cf. C.

K. Barrett, The

Gospel

According

to St.

John:

An

Introduction

with

Commentary

and Notes

on the Greek Text (London: SPCK, 1970), pp. 83 -97.

10

Irenaeus, Adv. Haer.

IH.1.1;

cf. Euseb ius, HEIH.233.




You are on the highway for those slain for God; you are fellow initiates

with Paul who has been sanctified ... may I be found in his footsteps who

mentions you in every epistle in Jesus Chris t

11

Ignatius informs us that he has been condem ned to death in Antioch

in Syria, of which church he claims to be the bishop. His sentence

was to be exposed to the wild beasts in the arena at Rom e. He gives

us no direct information regarding the grounds for his condem-

nation: was there a persecution organized by the pagan authorities,

or was the prosecution against him of a more private nature?

After his trial and condemnation, Ignatius was taken under

armed escort across Asia M inor and G reece and then to Rom e. H e

complains about the squadron of 'ten leopards' who mistreated

him.

12

They reached Laodicaea on the Lycus in Asia Minor. Here

the road diverged and went two different ways to Smyrna so that

the soldiers had a choice of roads. They selected the northern

road, so those free persons who had been allowed to accompany

him from Antioch sent messengers to the three churches on the

southern route, in response to whom those churches sent clerical

representatives. Th us he me t Onesim us, bishop of Eph esus, along

with the deacon, Burrhus, and also Crocus, Euplus, and Fronto, all

of whom brought him material support ('refreshment') along with

the greetings of their community.

13

From Magnesia came the youthful bishop Damas, with two

presbyters, Bassus and Apollonius.

14

Polybius, bishop of Tralles,

was to com e also whilst Ignatius was progressing along the no rthern

route.

15

But the names are not limited to the churches for whom

we have surviving letters. Philo, a deacon, came from Cilicia,

presumably duly sent by the church in that area.

16

Rheus Agathus,

w ho is given the title 'an elect man' in one letter, and then 'deacon'

in another, followed Ignatius from his home church of Antioch in

Syria and continues as part of his entourage.

17

11

Ignatius,

Eph.

12 .1 -2 .

12

Ignatius,

Rom.

5 .1 .

13

Ignatius,

Eph. 2.1;

see also Phld. 11.2.

14

Ignatius, Magi. 2.

15

Ignatius, Trail 1.1.

16

Ignatius,

Phld.

11.2; Smyrn. 13.1 .

17

Ignatius, Phld. 11.2;

Smyrn.

10.1 .



The Recovery of

Ignatius*

Genuine Letters 11

Ignatius then reached Smyrna, where he met also Bishop

Polycarp.

18

It was at this point that he wrote his three letters to

Ephesu s, Tralles, and M agnesia, which h e had no t visited bu t whose

representatives had visited him en route. It was from there that

he also wrote his letter to Rome. His guards then led him on to

Alexandria Troas, from where he wrote to the churches that he had

visited, Philadelphia and Smyrna, and to Bishop Polycarp. In these

letters he is anxious that they respond to the news from Antioch

in Syria that the church is now at peace, though the nature of the

crisis that disturbed them is still not spelled out: external perse-

cution or internal discord? It is at this point that he begins to call

for 'divine ambassadors' to be elected, or for 'divine speed-run ners '

to be appointed, modelling their functions on those of the pagan,

Hellenistic city-states of Asia Minor, as we shall see in greater detail

in the next chapter.

19

What had been achieved at Antioch, however, was nevertheless

the object of his martyr procession, as he makes clear in every

surviving letter. He is a man 'setting out for unity'.

20

Teace' is the

absence of Var',

21

and its state is one of 'con cord' that is 'unity'.

22

'Unity' also leads to 'inco rruption', for reasons tha t have their hom e

in Hellenistic philosophy: for Plato matter is unstable and likely to

break up into the division that is its corruption, but the spiritual

forms or essences of things are one and indivisible and thus stable

or eternal.

23

Thus if the believer is to achieve incorruption and

therefore immortality, it must be through union with an ecclesial

order that possesses unity that is without faction.

24

Such an ecclesial

order is one that has a single bishop, a collection of presbyters in a

presbyteral college or presbytery, and a number of deacons acting

in concord.

25

That is his picture now of the 'church of Antioch at

peace' that 'divine am bassadors' and 'speed-runne rs' are to celebrate.

That is the picture to which all true churches should now conform.

18

I g n a t i u s , Pol.

praef.

19

I g n a t i u s ,

Phld.

1 0 . 1 ; Smyrn. 1 1 . 2 ; Pol. 7 . 1 - 2 .

20

I g n a t i u s ,

Phld.

8 . 1 .

21

Ignat ius , ££/ . 13 .2 .

22

I g n a t i u s , Eph. 4 . 1 - 2 ; 1 3 . 1 .

23

I g n a t i u s , Rom.

12.

24

I g n a t i u s , Eph. 4 . 2 .

25

I g n a t i u s , Magn. 6 . 2 .



12

Ignatius ofAntioch

Apparently he intended to write to m ore churches than he did, and

so we have lost the names of those who also joined his entourage

from those churches (other than Philo and Rheus Agathous). But he

was prevented from doing so by his sudden removal by a ship sailing

from Troas to Neapolis. He requests Polycarp to send letters to

these churches instead, expecting letters from them and m essengers

too.

And then Ignatius fades from the scene as his letters come to

an end: the Acts of his martyrdom are late and unreliable. All that

we have in addition, if, as I believe, it is genuine, is the passage

with which Polycarp will commence his one surviving letter to the

Philippians, in which he describes the arrival at Philippi and their

sending on from there of Ignatius' entourage, as well as the steps h e

takes to collect together the corpus of his letters.

26

Thus in outline is the account of Ignatius as he himself gives it,

with Polycarp's help. But there are many features that perplex the

scholar as much as the casual reader. Why was Ignatius condem ned

at Antioch and what was the state and organization of the church

over which he claims to be

the

'bishop'? Was it internal factionalism

within that church that brought him to the attention of the civil

power rather than an external persecution?

W hen Ignatius continually proclaims, in transit and under guard,

the Church's unity on the basis of a hierarchy at whose apex is a

single bishop, how recent was that church order and did Ignatius in

fact design it himself? I n o the r words, is he describing a social organ-

ization that actually exists or on e that he believes ought to exist, and

so cons tructing social reality by claiming that it does exist?

Ignatius addressed Onesimus of Ephesus as 'bishop' in front of

Deac on Burrhus, Damas as 'bisho p' in front of two presbyters from

Magnesia, and Polybius from Tralles as 'bishop' by himself. There

is no one named as 'bishop' for Deacon Philo from Cilicia, nor

anyone so named at Philadelphia that Ignatius visited nor at Rome.

We may ask to what extent die title of a single bishop was already

well known and used, or to what extent these individuals named as

bishop blinked and wondered what it really meant to be called this

as their exclusive title.

We have one example in Polycarp, whom Ignatius will insist on

calling bishop, bu t wh o, when he writes to the Philippians, does so

26

Polycatp,

Phil.

1.1; 9.1 ; 13.



The Recovery of

Ignatius*

Genuine Letters 13

as 'Polycarp and the presbyters who are with him',

27

without using

the title 'bis ho p' of himself. Polycarp's tu rn of phrase here is highly

reminiscent of 'Peter' in the pseudonymous work 1 Peter: The

presbyters who are among you I exhort as your fellow presbyter

(sunpresbuterosf (5.1). The presbyter who writes in the name of the

apostle Peter in this letter reflects a church o rder in which presbyters

preside as a collective group, with one perhaps pre-eminent in

prestige but not by virtue of a distinct rank or order. Did Polycarp

as well as Polybius, Damas, and Onesimus blink when Ignatius

called them 'bishop' as a distinct order, with perhaps the response:

'I am usually called a presbyter though the others d o tend to defer to

me . .. I suppose, if you put it like that, I am the bishop'?

If Ignatius is creating social reality and not simply reflecting it,

what intellectual and rhetorical resources and skills is he drawing

upon in his pagan Hellenistic and Christian background in order

to 'spin' the activities of his entourage as those of 'divine ambas-

sadors' and 'divine speed-runners' on a mission to produce unity?

And what relationship does this background have to a pagan

political movement and its political theology known as the Second

Sophistic?

In that movement, the Greek city-states of Asia Minor were

asserting their unity in common culture and civilization as their

identity over against the Roman imperial power, and yet expressing

their freely established 'concord' within it. There was much intel-

lectual and affective energy to be tapped in that movement and,

as we shall see, Ignatius, as a man bent upon 'Christian' unity, was

going to tap it for his own cause.

These are the perplexities raised by Ignatius, which we now seek

to unravel and to resolve.

27

Polycarp, Phil, praef.



Ignatius' Personal History

and the Church at Antioch

Ignatius tells us nothing of his birth or life prior to his departure

from Antioch in Syria in chains. He complains of the ill-treatment

of the 'squadron of soldiers' that guard him. Such ill-treatment, he

claims, is preparing him for the ordeal of being thrown to the wild

beasts in the arena that awaits him in Rome:

From Syria all the way to Rome I am fighting with wild beasts, on land and

sea, by night and day, chained to ten leopards, a squadron of soldiers

(strati-

otikon

tagma), who become worse even though given some benefaction.

1

But on w hat grounds was Ignatius condem ned, having attracted the

attention and then the hostility of the civil power? He gives us no

direct answer to this question, and to find som e sort of answer to it

we must look for hints from our reconstruction of his background

from fragmentary remains in earlier Christian literature.

1.

Senten ce at An tioch: R om an Law and Christian

Intervention at Rome

Ignatius makes it clear that the reason for his departure from Antioch

is that he has been condemned as a criminal. Associating himself with

the martyrdom of both Peter and Paul, upon whose witness the Rom an

1

Ignatius, Rom. 5.1.

14



Ignatius* P ersonal History and the Church atAntioch 15

community is founded, he addresses the Romans thus: 1 do not give

you orders like Peter and Paul: they were apostles, I am a condemned

criminal. They were free but I am even now a slave.'

2

But Ignatius

gives

us

neither details of his trial no r the nam e of the magistrate before whom

he appeared, nor precisely what the charges against him had been.

Why, furthermore, did

Ignatius,

condemned at Antioch in Syria, have

to

be

transported to

Rome?

St Paul and St Peter,

as

he points out, went to

their martyrdoms in Rome as free travellers. In Paul's

case,

he

was

taken

in chains and under escort, but without being condemned

by

the gover-

nor's court in Jerusalem, because as a Roman citizen he had appealed

to Caesar. But Ignatius, in looking forward to an execution by being

exposed to the wild beasts in the arena rather than by beheading, reveals

that he was not a Rom an citizen. So, as a non-citizen and a provincial,

why was he n ot simply executed in Antioch?

The answer would appear to be that it was normal practice to

transp ort condem ned criminals from the provinces in order to offer

spectator spor t in the C olosseum at Rome. Joly rejects this expla-

nation, claiming that gladiators were n ot replaced on any occasions

with cond em ned criminals before th e reign of M arcus Aurelius

(AD

161-80).

3

Thus he can claim that the alleged 'facts' of Ignatius'

history are rather fictions.

But we have evidence for this practice as early as 57

BC.

Cicero had

taunted Piso, disgraced proconsul of Macedonia, with dispatching

unjustly to his crony, Clodius, 'any num ber of ou r independent allies

and persons liable to tribute destined for the wild beasts'.

4

Ignatius

of Antioch was not an independent ally

(amicus),

but he was a

citizen of a city paying tribute (stipendarius). It is therefore plausible

that Ignatius, as a convicted criminal, should be sent to Rome for

execution by this m eans.

Ignatius pleads with the Roman community not to use their

influence to deprive him of martyrdom:

I fear your charitable love lest it should harm

me.

For it is easier for you to

fulfil this wish of yours. But it will be a source of difficulty for attaining to

God if you insist on sparing me.

5

2

Ignatius,

Rom.

4.3.

3

& Joly,

Le dossier d'Ignace d Antioche^

Universite Iibre de Bruxelles: Faculte de

Philosophic et Lettres, 69 (Brussels: Editions de lTJniversite, 1979), pp.

50-51.

4

Cicero, In Pis. 36(89).

5

Ignatius,

Rom.

1.2.



16 Ignatius of Antioch

As we shall see later, Ignatius regards his martyrdom as the road to

his 'attaining to God'. Furthermore, in his preface to his letter to

Rom e, he describes the Rom an church as 'pre-em inent in charitable

love

(agape)\

along with the many other epithets of honour that he

gives them . The Rom an community was famous in the early centuries

for the material support that it gave other churches. Ignatius clearly

did no t wish them to use that wealth in order to bribe magistrates to

allow him to escape martyrdom: 1 do n ot wish you to please people

but to please God.'

6

At first sight Ignatius' account may arouse suspicion in virtue of

the fact that a condem ned criminal, com ing from a cou rt in An tioch

where sentence has already been passed, could hardly hope for

the Roman community to be so influential as to get the sentence

overthrown. Yet the emperor Justinian, in his later summary of

past jurists on legal decisions in Roman law (the Digest), shows

that it was possible to change the outcom e in the case of som eone

condemned to exposure to the wild beasts in the arena. He quotes

from Modestinus, a jurist from the reign of Alexander Severus

(AD

222-35):

The governor ought not, as a favour to the people, to release persons

condemned to wild-beasts; but if they are of such strength and skill that

they would make a worthy spectacle for the Roman people, he ought to

consult the emperor. Howbeit it is made unlawful by a rescript of the deified

Severus and of A ntoninus for condem ned criminals to be transferred from

one province to another without the permission of the emperor.

7

No jurist pronounces an 'ought not' against something that has

never happened.

Thus popular demand might secure the release of a condemned

criminal. Modestinus believes that this practice is illegal. Clearly

a governor in a weak position might be cowed by the threat of

disorder into m aking such a concession, yet M odestinus implies that

the better and indeed legal course would be to remove the criminal

from the scene in the local arena, with its potential for uproar, to the

6

Ignatius,

Rom.

2.1.

7

Justinian,

Dig.

XLVIII.19.31, quoted in Iigfitfoot, Apostolic

Fathers,

1.2, p.

342,

and W

R. Schoedel, Ignatius

of Antioch: A

Commentary on the

Letters of

Ignatius

of Antioch,

ed. H.

Koester, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985), p. 169 n. 5.



Ignatius' Personal

History and the Church

atAntioch

17

arena in Rom e instead. Yet the governor could no t d o this withou t

the emperor's consent, as a rescript of around AD 230 has made

plain. We glimpse here the process by which Ignatius was brought

to Rome, particularly if, as we shall consider in a moment, Ignatius

was condemned but removed from the scene because he had been

the cen tre of civil disturbance within the city of Antioch

itself.

Ignatius could well have been acquainted with such a practice of a

popu lar petition securing the release under threat of civil disturbance

of som eone condemn ed to being throw n to wild beasts. W ithout a

grasp of the nuances of actual legal practice at Rom e, or indeed of

Modestinus' later objections, he might well have thought that what

the people had no t secured at An tioch, the Church at Rom e, with its

greater influence, could secure. Thus Ignatius' fear that the Roman

community, possessing a community of som e wealth and influence,

might well find some g roun ds for securing his release, even though

a condemned criminal, had som e basis, if only in a rather imprecise

grasp of the actual legal position.

Indeed, Ignatius reacts to his future martyrdom as a visionary

rather than as a calculator of fine legal options. Some 15 or so years

before his traditional date, the author of the Apocalypse of John

in the New Testament records his vision of the heavenly Church,

where around the throne of 'God and of the Lamb' sit four-and-

twenty elders robed in white and singing their hymns of praise in

unison. Ignatius, writing to several of the churches to which John

the Seer also addresses letters, describes to them the highly idealized

picture of how he sees them gathered for the Eucharist with lyres

singing likewise in harm ony. Typically, he says to the Ephes ians ,

In consequence it is fitting for you to run together in harm ony with your

bishop's resolution, even as you so do. For your council of elders, fully

deserving of that name and worthy of God , is so attuned to the bishop as

cords to a lyre. For this reason in your concord and harm onious love Jesus

Christ is sung. Each and every one of you, therefore, join the chorus to the

end that, being in symphonic harmony and taking your pitch from God's

unity, you may hymn with one voice the Father through Jesus Chris t

8

Ignatius clearly is not address ing the actual s i tuat ions of the church es

- tens ions created by perso nali ty clashes betw ee n individuals,

8

Ignatius, Eph. 4.1-2.




practices that could be improved, etc.

—

as they live their ordinary

lives.

His is an idealized vision of how they ought to behave,

which has convinced him that it is how they actually are. Indeed,

for reasons we shall see, Ignatius was writing for the most part to

churches that he had never visited in the flesh.

If that was the case with churches in Asia Minor, it was even m ore

so with the church of Rome. Here he will mention n o on e by nam e,

as he has been able to do in five other letters. In

Philadelphians

too

he mentions no one's name, even though he is sure that there is a

bishop with a presbyteral council and a group of deacons.

9

But he

mentions neither names nor nameless members of a hierarchy in

Romans.

Ignatius' vision of the Rom an community, however, is no t at the

Eucharist but in the arena: 'By praying to God I have succeeded in

seeing your godly faces so that I have received more than I can ask,

for as a prisoner I h op e to greet you.'

10

Thu s he sees them in a vision

produced by prayer anticipating his greeting of them as a prisoner.

But as a prisoner he can only greet them in the arena, not at their

Eucharist. Thus the vision of the Roman community gathering

at his sacrifice in the arena replaces the vision of the Ephesian

church gathering in concord and harm onious chorus a t the Sunday

Eucharist:

Grant me nothing more than to be poured out as a drink offering to God

while an altar is made ready so that you may form a choir and sing to the

Father in Jesus C hrist... Let

me

be food for

the wild

beasts through

whom

it is within my power to attain to God. I am God's wheat and I am being

ground through the teeth of wild beasts in order that I may be found as

pure bread.

11

Ignatius now addresses the Roman com munity as if they were to be

amongst the onlookers in the arena. He wishes them 'to coax the

wild beasts' so that they become his tomb. He will even coax the

wild beasts himself to devour him promptly.

12

Finally he beseeches

them to express their wish to the emperor in his box declaring

9

Ignatius, PM/.

Praef.

and 1.1.

10

Ignatius,

Rom.

1.1.

11

Ignatius,

Rom.

2.2 and

4.1.

12

Ignatius,

Rom.

4.2 and 5.2.



Ignatius* Personal History and the Church atAntioch

19

wh ether those fighting in the arena are to live or die, spurred on by

the shouts o f those in the arena: 'If I suffer you will have show n you

willed it; if I am rejected you will have expressed your hatred.'

13

Ignatius' concern that the Roman community might intervene

to prevent his martyrdom was not confined to or even princi-

pally focused upon concerns about their ability to bribe or to

apply other forms of political pressure, such as is implied by the

law against pardoning tho se condem ned to the arena if enjoying

popular support, etc. His highly strung and, one might even say,

disturbed temperament flits from actual to imagined reality, so that

he actually imagines them am ongst pagans in the arena as a Christian

congregation itself urging favours for a gladiator who enjoys their

popularity.

The later rule regarding martyrdom, expressed by Clement of

Alexandria and Cyprian, was that one should not actively seek

martyrdom, but rather, if challenged, to submit to it rather than

commit the sacrilege of sacrificing to the pagan divinities of the

Rom an state. The disturbed Ignatius, w ho is so eager for m artyrdom

that he is prepared himself to encourage the wild beasts to devour

him and to ex hort others to do the sam e, would hardly have satisfied

such later conditions for a proper attitude towards martyrdom.

Ignatius began his journey to Rome under the escort of his 'ten

leo pards' from Antioch in Syria. H e gives us no details of his trial or

the precise offence for which he was convicted. Was his conviction

the result of external persecution by the Roman state against

Christianity, or was the cause more sinister and to be found in the

internal politics of the Christian community at Antioch?

2. Ign atiu s' Trial: Extern al Persecu tion or Internal

Politics?

Neither Irenaeus nor Origen, nor Eusebius nor any other early

writer, gives us any indication of the reasons for Ignatius' trial

nor the charges against him. It is only around AD 400 that Jerome

informs us that

Ignatius, as third bishop of the church at Antioch after Peter the apostle,

13

Ignatius, Rom. 8.3.



20

Ignatius ofAntioch

was condemned to the wild beasts and sent in chains to Rome in the course

of

a

persecution instigated

by

Trajan.

Jerome will then add that lie suffered in Trajan's eleventh year.

The remains of his body lie outside the gate of Daphne in the

cemetery.'

14

According to the chronography of John Malalas (AD 750), at

that time Trajan was based in the East fighting the war against the

Persians. Initially, when in Antioch, he had instructed the slaughter

of Christians to cease. However, when an earthquake occurred,

he condemned Ignatius, who had personally insulted him, and ten

others before his tribunal to be sent to Rome and exposed to the

wild beasts. Malalas' date for Ignatius' trial would therefore be after

13 Decem ber AD 115, his date for the earthquake. These accounts,

along with five Acts of his martyrdom that survive in several

manuscripts and versions in Latin, Greek, Syriac, Armenian, and

Coptic, are generally regarded as spurious, providing little more

information abo ut Ignatius than that which can be inferred from his

seven letters.

15

According then to the development of material that is certainly

legendary, Ignatius' martyrdom in the reign of Trajan has been

transform ed in to a trial before Trajan himself that may have been in

response to an ea rthquake as a sign of divine anger, if no t Ignatius'

actual abuse of the emperor w hilst the latter was at Antioch . Early

Christians were certainly persecuted before Trajan's time, not for

the 'name' of Christian but because they were believed to possess

destructive, occult power exercised through sinister magical rites

in which they ate babies and committed incest. They disturbed

the peace of the gods in society as well as in nature: a physical

earthquake would quite naturally accompany such an anti-social

'earthquake'.

Was Ignatius the casualty of a persecution brought against the

church in Antioch by the civil power? Or could that persecution

have had other origins? Harrison in particular, followed by others,

claimed that there was no such persecution. Rather, Ignatius was

14

Jerome,

Vtr. III.

16.

15

For a full account of manuscripts and versions of these, see J. B. Iightfoot, The

Apostolic Fathers (London: Macmiflan, 1890), EL2.1, pp. 363-6 7. For a discussion of

the reliability of Malalas, see

ibid.

pp. 435—50.



Ignatius' Rrsonal

History

and

the Church

atAntioch

21

responsible for fomenting strife within the church at Antioch over

his desire for his hierarchy of bishop, presbyters, and deacons. Such

was the disorder that arose within the Christian community, and

spilled over into external, pagan society, that the civil power had to

intervene to restore public order.

16

Ignatius' letters do give us som e clues as to wha t the true situation

was. A t one po int Ignatius informs the Philadelphians, as he does

Polycarp, that he has received the news tha t 'the church o f An tioch

in Syria has found peace'.

17

In his letter to the Smyrnaeans, he adds

that the Antiochene Christians 'have regained their own greatness

and have had their corporate status restored to them'.

18

Does the

word 'peace' here mean peace from external persecution so that their

legal 'corpo rate sta tus' can be restored to them by a governm ent that

has now ceased persecuting?

The answer must be decidedly

negative. We have com e to regard the

reign of Constantine, the first Christian emperor after the persecution of

Diocletian, as 'the peace of the C hurch'. But in the early fathers 'peace '

is always used of the cessation of strife within the Christian community,

not as cessation of a war with those who are without

19

Hegesippus,

for example, a mid-second-century writer whose lost work survives

only in fragments that Eusebius quotes, records that before the reign

of Domitian and the rise of various heresies, the Church was at peace

because it had none of those heresies.

20

Later in the second century,

before V ictor the Roman bishop tried to excommunicate them, commu-

nities of Christians from Asia Minor in Rom e lived at peace with the

Roman community even though they, as Quartodecimans, observed a

different day for the Easter Vigil.

21

Furthermore, 'corporate status'

{somateion)

involved legal title to

hold pro perty in com m on as a community. Christianity only became

16

P . N. Harr i son ,

Poly carp's Two Epistles to the Phitippian s

(Cambridge: Cambridge

University P ress, 1936),

pp.

85-88.

17

Ignatius,

PbUL

10.1 and

Pol.

7.1.

18

Ignatius, Smyrn. 11.2. See Schoedel,

Igiatius,

pp.

250-51.

19

Harrison,

Poljcarp's Two Epistles,

p. 84 n. 1, quotes Mark 9.50; Rom. 12.18; 2 Cor.

13.11; 1

Thess. 5.13. In n. 3 he quotes Clement,

Cor. 15.1;

44.2; 63.4; Hermas, Man.

27(II).3;

Vis. 14(m.6).3; 17(ffl.9).2; 20(ffl.l2).3; Sim. 73(Vni.7).2; Barnabas, Ep.

19.12;

Did. 4.3.

20

H a r r i s o n , Polycarp s Two Epistles\

p . 82 n . 1 ,

q u o t e s E u s e b i u s ( H e g e s i p p u s ) ,

H.E.

H I . 2 0 . 6 .

21

Eusebius, H.E. V.24.14,16.



22

Ignatius ofAntioch

a legal religion from M axentius' Ed ict of Toleration in AD 313, when

'the Christians may exist again and build the houses in which they

used to assemble'.

22

It can be doubted if the Church had previously

any right to hold property legally. Thus the issue at Antioch could

not have been the Church winning back the right to own property

as a corpo ration

{somateioti)

after an external persecution: that would

imply that at that time it had become a legal religion.

If then the reason for the civil action against Ignatius had had

anything to do with the authorities recognizing that he headed an

illegal organization, there is no way that such an illegal cult would

have been allowed the restoration of its common property when it

suited those authorities to end the persecution: such property w ould

have remained confiscated. Rather the situation was one in which

the Roman authorities had taken no cognizance of the legal status

of the group that it

was

addressing. Legal status was not its concern

in the action that it took and was instead overlooked. It was the

community that Ignatius claimed to lead, at war internally, that had

caused instability within Antioch. It was for this reason alone that

the Rom an authorities had taken possession of buildings wh ere they

met, and offered them no legal protection, until the source of the

problem had been removed. And that source had been the bishop

of Antioch himself, who can mention no other person who has

been pu t on trial and condem ned other than he himself.

23

St Matthew's Gospel was in all probability the Gospel of the

church of Antioch in Syria where earlier in the first century the

disciples 'were first called Christians'.

24

Raymond Brown and John-

Paul Meier believed that redaction criticism of Matthew's Gospel

would indicate the condition of the comm unity that transmitted that

Gospel just prior to Ignatius. Let us now consider reflections on the

kind of community that existed in An tioch just prior to Ignatius that

have left their impress on the narrative of St Matthew's Gospel. It

was in the context of such a com munity thus reflected that Ignatius

m ade his claims tha t were considered, on his own adm ission, outra-

geous by some in his own community.

22

Eusebius, H.E. VIII.17.9.

23

T he re is an apparent p rob lem with my interpretat ion in that on e manuscrip t (g) reads

'poor, sick body'

{somation)

fo r

'corporate b ody '

(somateion).

But this

is

improbable ;

see Schoedel,

Ignatius,

p. 250 on

Smym.

11.2.

24

Acts 11.26.



Ignatius' Rrsonal History and

the

Church atAntioch 2 3

3. Com m unity Conflict Reflected in the Matthaean

Tradition

'Redaction criticism' should be distinguished from 'source criticism',

upon which it is nevertheless dependent.

The 'source critic' analyses the Gospel texts in order to discover

the source docu ments from which they have been com piled, and also

looks for more original textual versions if these exist. In th e case of

the Gospels, as we have already mention ed, only one source text for

Matthew is recoverable in its approximately original, independent

form, namely Mark. Matthew's other written sources, Q and M,

remain hypothetical though highly probable literary constructs.

The 'redaction critic' takes such source texts and then asks the

further question as to what kind of community initially treasured

and used such a text and at what historical stage in such a commu-

nity's development it did so. Since there is an oral period between

what the Gospels record and when they are written down, clearly

the background o f a particular comm unity must also shape the oral

tradition that it is handing on and writing down. The study of the

process of such comm unity 'editing' or 'redaction' we call 'redaction

criticism'.

Even in an academia that is heir to the Europ ean Enlightenment,

and to a critical, historical methodology, we need to accept that

the process of recording history is inevitably selective. We saw this

earlier in connection with the selection of the Ignatian letters by

Ussher in the seventeenth century as an object of study. However

admirable and 'objective' Ussher might appear as a textual and

literary critic, the letters were also on his contemporary agenda

because archbishops were being sent to the scaffold at the hands

of a Puritan parliament Even more so, therefore, were these

letters on the agenda in the pre-critical environment of the early

Christian communities (and groups within them) that transmitted

our Gospels with no concept of our mo dern, critical historiography:

the material about the sayings and acts of Jesus was recorded and

shaped in accordance with the immediate contemporary concerns

of the comm unities (or groups within them) that recorded them .

Thus Matthew's church, the church of Antioch in Syria from

which Ignatius was taken in chains to Rome in consequence of its

internal strife, had p roduced a Gosp el that reflected various groups ,



24

Ignatius ofAntioch

selectively remembering acts

and

sayings

of

Jesus,

and

shaping

and

reshaping them

in

accordance with their immediate

and

variant

concerns within

the

community.

We

have

an

'exclusivist' group,

believing that Christ had 'come only

to

the Lost Sheep

of

the house

of Israel'. This group treasured

and

adapted

to

their concerns

the

event where Jesus sent

out

the twelve apostles

and

assured them that

they would

'not

have com pleted

the

cities

of

Israel until

the Son of

Man shall come'.

25

Against such

an

'exclusivist' Jewish group

we

have

a

Hellenistic

one tha t advocates

the

Gentile mission, and whose remem bered

but

no doubt reshaped words

of

Jesus

fit

their 'inclusivist'

aim.

Their

'remembered' sayings

of

Jesus included Christ's injunction after

his

resurrection

to 'Go

make disciples

of all

nations, baptizing them '.

26

They have also handed down

to the

author

of

Matthew's Gospel

the birth story of the Magi w ho visit the Christ child from the East,

and whose gifts repre sent the offering of the Gentiles to a M essiah

wh om Herod, the Jewish king, wished to destroy.

27

From

a

redaction-critical perspective, injunctions against groups

do

not

survive

out of

purely historical interest: they

are in the

text

because

of

their contemporary relevance against present groups

wh om their preservers wish to censure. Th us w e have denunciations

of scribes, Pharisees and elders far more extreme than those of

other Gospels.

28

One particular criticism, not exclusive to M atthew

but also found in other Gospels, is that the scribes 'love . .. the chief

seats

in the

synagogues'.

29

But

we

should note that such 'chief seats'

(protokathedriai)

were

not confined

to

Jewish synagogues

but

also found

in

Christian

churches (ekklesiai)

and

M atthew alone

of the

Gospel writers uses

the word 'church'

(ekkksid) on the

lips

of

Jesus

for the

comm unity

of

his

disciples.

30

This

is

certainly

an

anachronism reflecting

the

writer's

own

time.

In the

middle

of the

second century,

in a

work

coming from Rom e, we have Herm as issuing a rebuke

to

' those w ho

25

Matt. 15 .24; 10 .5 -6 , cf . R. E . Br ow n and J.-P. Meier , Antioch and Rome: New Testament

Cradles of Catholic Christianity ( N e w York: Paulist Press, 1982) , pp. 53 - 54 .

26

Matt. 28.16-20.

27

Ma tth e w

2 .

28

Matthew 23 .

29

Matt. 23.6; cf. Mark 12.3 9 and Luk e 11. 43 and 2 0.4 6.

30

Matt. 16.18; 18.17.



Ignatius' Rrsonal

History

and the

Church

atAntioch

25

lead the Church and occupy its chief seats (pwtokathedritat)

\

31

In

Ignatius' church of Antioch there were also such persons as these,

whom the remembered words of Jesus could be thought also to

address, and could be reshaped by their critics so as specifically to

address.

Matthew's Gospel goes on to develop the criticism of the other

Synoptic Gospels in greater detail. Th ose wh o lo ve the chief seats'

are in process of developing for themselves a hierarchy. They are

those who like to be given titles of distinction such as 'Rabbi'

or Teacher' or 'Father'. But against such an elitist group using

such titles of pre-eminence an egalitarian group within Matthew's

com munity will cite the 'remem bered' words of Jesus that appear to

proh ibit such titles: 'one is your father and he is in heaven' and 'one

is your teacher, Christ'.

32

A member of the hierarchical gro up m ight

however insist that, though some abused their position, there were

nevertheless Christian scribes who deserved their rank of honour

as teachers: there could be someone who was 'a scribe who had

become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven'.

33

Th ere was also a charismatic group w ho m ay have been identical

with, or sympathetic to, the egalitarian group, but who claimed

the authority of the Spirit. These appear to be hovering in the

background of the community both of Matthew and therefore

also of Ignatius. The Se rmon on the M oun t advises the comm unity

against 'false prophets' who have the 'clothing of sheep' but are

'on the inside ravenous wolves'. They will be known by their fruits.

These are prophets claiming miraculous powers as well as ecstatic

utterance but in the last day Christ will deny that they spoke in

his name.

34

'Lawlessness' is what they produce. And lawless' was

indeed the characteristic of a community in crisis that the Roman

authorities saw at An tioch wh en they condemned to the wild beasts

Ignatius, claiming the title of bishop, whom they regarded as the

instigator of the breakdown of internal peace.

Certainly a document emanating around this time from Syria

will give us a similar perspective on the problems for church

31

Hernias,

Vis.

18(IIL10).7.

32

Matt 23.7-10.

33

Matt 13.52.

34

Matt 7.15-16,

21-23.



26

Ignatius ofAntioch

order arising from the activity of wandering and resident prophets

claiming authori ty. The

Didache

(or

Teaching of the Twelve Apostles)

reveals a situation in Syria prior to Ignatius in wh ich th ere

is

a church

order based apparently upon prophets who speak under the inspi-

ration of the Spirit, and 'apostles ' w ho are wandering missionaries,

rather like the M atthaean Twelve 'wh o will no t have com pleted the

cities of Israel until the Son of Man shall come'.

35

But these apostles

are no t the twelve, bu t are unspecified in num ber. Acts itself, in the

N ew Testament, mentions such a ministry of prophe ts and teachers

at Antioch as existing earlier in the first century, with Paul and

Barnabas, though no t mem bers o f the Twelve, called 'apos tle' when

they are sent forth by the Church as missionaries.

36

Let us see, therefore, what situation in the churches in Syria is

reflected in the Didache.

4. T h e Didache: Prop hetic M inistry in Crisis

The

Didache,

as we have seen, is an enduring witness to the

ministry of pro phets , apostles (wandering missionaries) and teachers

witnessed at an earlier period at Antioch in the book of Acts. But

these 'apostles' or 'wandering missionaries' have raised a problem.

Instead of continuing a wandering ministry, som e have tried to com e

permanently to rest and to be fed and supported by the Christian

community. Such arrangements are clearly being abused and there

are impostors around.

So the community is to apply a test: if the apostle tries to stay

m ore than three days and to claim upkeep, he

is

to be declared a false

apostle.

37

Likewise in the case of prophets. Some are genuine and

must be allowed to 'speak in the Spirit'. Some of these at least, like

the apostles with whom they may or may not be identical, appear

to be itinerant.

38

These are to be supported materially. But there

are also false prop hets and it is no t clear how these are to be distin-

guished from true ones. One indication of an impostor is that they

35

Mat t

10.23.

36

Acts

13.1;

cf. Brown and Meier, Antioch a nd

Rome,

pp. 35-36.

37

Did. 12.

38

Itinerancy

is

implied in

Did. 13.1:

'Every true prophe t who w ants to settle down with

you deserves his food /



Ignatius* Rrsonal History and the Church atAntioch

27

pretend to b e inspired by the Spirit when asking for m oney.

39

We are

seeing here tensions between different ministerial authorities in the

Syrian Christian community that were to surface in an acute form in

the events that led to Ignatius' condemnation at Antioch.

Undoubtedly the prophet in the Didache ̂ whether associated

closely or no t with an apostle, is the no rmal minister of the

Eucharist. But true prophets are difficult to identify, and there

appears to have been a distinct lack of them, in contrast with the

false. It is for this reason tha t the Didache gives a prayer to be said at

the Eucharist (which may have simply been an agape

meal)

if there is

no proph et present. If there

is,

they will simply pray, and in w hatever

way they wish, the Eucharistic or thanksgiving prayer in their own

words.

40

The

Didache

reveals a church in considerable disorder, with a

charismatic ministry in which the charismatic flame appears either

to be dying or to be ignored due to uncertainty and confusion abo ut

who is truly exercising it. What is the solution for a community so

disorientated and disorganized? Fear

is

moreover expressed that 'it is

the end time ', when 'the world-deceiver will be m anifest as a son of

God and will perform signs and wonders .. . H e will perform lawless

deeds.'

41

Matthew seems to reflect such fears in its warnings against

charismatic false pro phets , where clearly things have moved on from

mere perplexity abou t ho w to distinguish the true from the false. Bu t

how was the situation to be remedied?

The Didachist, faced with a situation where the prophetic flame

was dying and where one could not be certain who was or who

was not a true prophet, was to produce the following despairing

solution. In the face of the serious crisis in ministerial authority he

exhorts:

Elect [or ordain] for yourselves therefore bishops and deacons worthy of

the Lord, gentle men and not fond of money who are true and approved;

for these are those who are performing the liturgy of the prophets and

teachers. And so do not disregard them; for these are those who have

claimed your honou r along with the p rophets and teachers.

42

39

Did.

1 3 .

40

Did. 10.7,9-10.

41

Did. 16.4.

42

Did.

1 5 . 1 .



28

Ignatius ofAntioch

But this solution clearly had problems of its own. Though the

bishops and deacons were clearly vetted in some way by the

community and were not simply to be accepted because they

behaved charismatically, nevertheless they, like the prophets before

them, were plural in number. When they disagreed, how was the

issue to be settled? Furthermore, they were clearly regarded as a

po or substitute and afforded so little respect that the Didachist has

to justify their position in relation to the prophets and teachers and

to demand that they be given more respect. While their church had

been a small number who regarded themselves as the elect awaiting

the second coming of Christ, the charismatic ministry had not

been a problem: everyone knew who their ministers were and their

personal qualities, and agreement among the ministers themselves

was possible as they were a sufficiently small group .

But with an urban church like Antioch with growing numbers,

groups who called themselves Christian would no longer neces-

sarily know personally every minister in authority nor indeed every

individual member. The self-authenticating or Spirit-authenticating

charismatic ministry was open to the kind of charlatans that the

Didache

describes. But a large congregation (or congregations) with

a growing number of bishops and deacons might also be difficult

to hold together, particularly if, without the prophetic charismatic

flame, they could command little authority. There was need for

a single authority figure, for a bishop rather than a collection of

bishops w ho m ight also be called 'presbyters'. But that figure needed

also to appear with a charisma of his own .

Certainly a plurality of bishops were also called 'presbyters' in

the letter of Clement to the Corinthians written shortly before

Ignatius' traditional date {c. AD 95) by a figure who appears later

on the succession lists as either the first or third bishop of Rome

after St Peter.

43

Here, significantly for Ignatius' time and that of

the community of Matthew, Clement was endeavouring to restore

order at Corinth, where the community had deposed a group of

presbyter-bishops who had not been able to maintain order. So

much for governance by a gro up of equal presbyter-bishops.

The author of Matthew's proposed solution is imagined in

the idealized description that he gives of Peter. To the common

4 3

Clement , Cor. 44.1 , 5.



Ignatius' Personal

History and the Church

atAntioch

29

Synoptic tradition of Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi that

Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Matthew adds the

famous words:

Blessed are you, Simon son of John, because flesh and blood has not

revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. And I say to you, you are

Peter and on this rock I will build my

Church,

and the gates of hell will not

prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and

whatever

you

bind

on

earth

will be

bound

in heaven and

whatever

you

loose

will be loosed in heaven.

44

'Binding' and loosing' do not refer, as they were later to be inter-

preted, as the power of absolution or of excommunication. Rather,

they are rabbinic expressions for adjudicating between correct and

incorrect interpretations of Scripture.

Thus the hoped-for solution to the crisis in authority in the

church of Antioch in Syria is a single figure, who will be able to

determine the correct interpretation of Scripture as it relates to

the governance of Christ's flock that is now, by Matthew's time,

called a 'church' or, in Greek, an

(ekkksia).

This word describes the

constitutionally governed community of a Greek city-state such as

the cities of Asia Minor, some of whom were the addressees of

Ignatius' letters. T he charismatics perfo rming signs and wonders in

Christ's name may pro test that the rule o f a single figure would be

contrary to the leading of the Spirit, and would amount simply to

the author's rabbinic m ode l of 'a scribe who had becom e a disciple

in the kingdom of heaven'.

45

Such a figure would have appeared to

them as devoid of any charismatic warmth.

In reply, the author of Matthew asserts his Petrine model. Peter

was the scribe who could discern the correct interpretation of

Scripture and so declare that Jesus was the Christ of prophecy.

But, like the charismatics, he had also experienced a supernatural

revelation that 'flesh and blood' of themselves could not have

afforded him. Ignatius himself lived in the generation immediately

after that of the eighties of the first century in which the author

of Matthew had first expressed his idealized portrait of Peter as

the kind of church leader that would produce order out of the

44

Matt 16.17-19.

45

Matt 13.52.




charismatic chaos at Antioch. In response both to this author and

to the Didachist, Ignatius was to dem and, n ot a plurality of bishops,

but a single bishop who would fulfil the role of the person whom

Matthew had sought.

5. Ignatius' Solution to the Im passe of M atthew and the

Didache

In his letter to the Trallians Ignatius will declare of Polybius, who m

he describes as their bishop,

When you are subject to the bishop as to Jesus Christ you appear to me

to live not in any human way but according to Jesus Christ ... you must

not engage in any activity apart from the bishop, but be subject also to the

presbytery as to the apostles of Jesus Christ... I am convinced that you

agree about this. For I have received the example of your love and have it

with me in your bishop whose very demeanour is a great lesson and whose

meekness is his power.

46

Polybius, Ignatius will claim, has the 'demeanour' or 'bearing' of

a bishop, who therefore could not be despised in the way that the

Didachist's plurality of bishops had been despised by contrast w ith

the charismatic prophets. His 'meekness' is a contrast to the manic

ravings of those whom Matthew had already identified as 'false

prophets' and was for Ignatius the remedy to the factionalism that

they were causing.

47

The charismatics would no doubt respond with contempt for

such a figure, w ho was, they felt, no substitute for prophets speaking

loudly with tongues

(g/osso/a/ia).

Ignatius in reply says of On esim us,

whom he describes as bishop of Ephesus, that 'the more one

notices that the b ishop is silent, the mo re he should stand in awe of

him'.

48

Of the unnamed bishop of Philadelphia, Ignatius will say:

'I have been amazed by the gentleness of him w ho, by being silent,

can achieve more than those who speak empty babblings.'

49

Indeed

he will argue that the bishop reflects in his silence the mysterious

46

I g n a t i u s , Troll 2 . 1 - 2 ; 3 . 2 .

47

C . T r e v e t t , T r o p h e c y a n d A n t i - E p i s c o p a l A c t iv i t y :

A

T h i r d E r r o r C o m b a t e d

b y

Ign atiu s?',^ //34 (1983),

pp.

165-71.

48

I g n a t i u s , Epb.

6.1.

49

I g n a t i u s , Phld. 1 . 1 .



Ignatius* R rsonal History and the Church atAntioch

31

silence of God, and of Christ as the Word who proceeds from

silence'.

50

The history of George Fox and the Quakers is a more

recent example of how a charismatic movement expressing ecstasy

and uttering

glossolalia

is replaced by a community that emphasizes

silence as the supreme experience of com mu nion with Go d.

Ignatius, then, claims that the one bishop, as representing the

Fatherhood of God from whose silence Christ proceeds, can alone

provide unity to a Church splitting itself into factions as its unity

breaks down. But his proposal was a radical one, and not without

opposition. In two farther early writings we may see examples

of reactions to such a radical suggestion, whether in Antioch or

elsewhere and for similar reasons. In 3 Jo hn we have a presbyter

writing abou t one D iotrephes , 'wh o desires to be pre-eminent' and

who is excluding people from the Church and not receiving those

whom the presbyter has sent.

51

Von Campenhausen sought to identify Diotrephes with Ignatius

of Antioch and his advocacy of a single bishop.

52

But even if

the evidence is not sufficiently conclusive to take us that far, the

unnamed presbyter does exemplify the resistance when collegiate

and presbyteral forms of church government are taken over by a

single authority figure: the figure is accused of being motivated by

personal ambition and by pride.

Ignatius' reply to such a charge reflects his background in the

city-states of Asia Minor and indeed Hellenistic Antioch in Syria,

of which we shall have mo re t o say in subsequent chapters. Suffice

it for now to say that his Hellenistic cultural background was

engaged in its own movement at this time known as the 'Second

Sophistic'. Orators such as Dio Chrysostom and Aelius Aristides

were employing a discourse of autonomy, which proclaimed that

hum an beings could n ot be naturally and happily governed by naked

force. G ove rnm en t within cities, if natural and proper, would be like

a musical chorus that everyone joined willingly and contributed to

the whole because they naturally desired to produce harmony.

The leading political concept was

homonoia

or 'concord'. A city

50

I g n a t i u s ,

Magn.

8 . 2 .

51

3 John 9-10.

52

H . v o n C a m p e n h a u s e n , Ecclesiastical Authority and Spiritual Power in the Church of the

First Three Centuries trans. J .

A .

B a k e r ( L o n d o n : A d a m a n d C h a r le s B l a c k , 1 9 6 9 ) ,

pp.

121-23.



32

Ignatius ofAntioch

was properly governed when each part of the constitution worked

together in concord like organs of a body or strings of a properly

tuned lyre. When autonomous city-states had quarrels with one

another, one state could not rightly subdue the other to its will.

Between states also, just as within different organs of the state inter-

nally, the proper relationship was homonoia. Thus between Greek

city-states homonoia treaties were celebrated following a conflict

resolved not by force but by rational good will concluded willingly

between equals.

If Ignatius is charged with seeking to force through a radical

change in the structure of ecclesial authority, in his defence he

will deny that he is behaving like Diotrephes in 'desiring to be

pre-eminent'. He is often still accused of producing a monarchical

system of authority in which the bishop exercises the supreme

power of a political monarch. But his proposal is far more subtle

than that. He does claim that the bishop is to be 'pre-eminent'

iprokathemenoi)

using a different word for 'pre-eminence' than 3

John. But the presbyterate, as a group that in the liturgy will sit

in a horseshoe around the enthroned bishop, are also to be 'pre-

eminent'

(prokathemenos),

and he appears to include the deacons too.

Furthermore, he never instructs the presbyters, or the deacons, to

be subject to the bishop: he assumes a mu tual co-operation between

them that is

homonoia

or concord and as such rules out any notion

of force. When he demands submission from the laity, it is seldom

to the bishop alone. In considering such passages we need to read

on to find that the presbyterate are included as the threefold order

to whom lay submission is required, as well as respect for the

deacons:

Flee divisions as the beginnings of evils. You must follow the bishop as

Jesus Christ followed the Father, and follow the presbytery as you would the

apostles, respect the deacons as the commandment of God.

53

At one point he does require obedience of the deacons to the

bishop, but not to the bishop alone. O f the deacon Z otio n he says:

'May I enjoy his company, because he is subject to the bishop as

Ignatius, Smyrn. 8.1.



Ignatius' Rrsonal History and the Church atAntioch

33

to the grace of God and to the presbytery as to the law of Jesus

Christ '

54

But the presbytery are never instructed to submit to the bishop

but are included together with the bishop as the object of the

submission of the laity: Therefore as the Lord did nothing without

the Father, either by himself or through the apostles .. . so you m ust

do no thing without th e bishop and presbyters.'

55

No t only m ust they

'do nothing without' them but they need to be positively subject to

both:

For when you are subject to the b ishop as to Jesus Christ, it

is

evident to me

that you are living not in accordance with human standards .. . it is essential

therefore that you continue in your current practice and do nothing

without the bishop but be subject to the presbytery as to the apostles of

Jesus Christf.]

56

The bishop does not effect the uni ty of the church alone, nor does

he celebrate the Eucharis t a lone:

Take care therefore to participate in one Eucharist, for there is one flesh of

our Lord Jesus Christ and one cup which leads to unity in his blood; there

is one altar, just as there is one bishop, together with the presbytery and

the deacons, my fellow-servants, in order that whatever you do you do in

accordance with God.

57

The presbyter-bishops had been elected as a group to provide

order in place of a charismatic ministry that had produced chaos in

Antioch in Syria, as we saw from the Didachist. They may protest

that their collegia

authority

is

being suppressed by an Ignatius deter-

mined to focus the hierarchy on a single bishop, that he is seeking

to create an episcopal monarchy. But Ignatius will now reply that

his view of ecclesial order still preserves their role as council of the

apostles, no less, together with the bishop.

They are part of an ecclesial constitution in which different

organs co-operate freely to provide unity. The principle of unity is

not the monarchical power of the one bisho p to subdue presbyters

54

I g n a t i u s , Magnesians. 2; cf . a l so Trail 1 3 . 2 .

55

Ignatius, Magn. 7.1.

56

Ignatius,

Trail. 2.1,

2.

57

Ignatius,

Phld.

4.




but rather the presbyterate and the deacons, as different organs

of the constitution of the Christian ekkJesia, co-operate with one

another in accordance with the principle of

homonoia:

Thus it is proper for you to run together at the resolution of your bishop

even as you do. For your presbytery, worthy of its name and worthy of

God,

is

so joined to the bishop

as

cords to

a

lyre. Therefore in your concord

{homonoid)

and in the symphony of your love Jesus Christ is sung. You must

join this chorus, every one of you, so that being harmonious in concord

{homonoid)

and taking your note from God you may sing in unity with one

voice through Jesus Christ to the Father [.]

58

Ignatius is thus appealing to pagan, secular political concepts in his

attem pt to persuade his fellow-Christians to follow w here the author

of M atthew had po inted in his ideal portrait of Peter as the ultimate

ecclesial authority. How he warms to the Magnesian presbyterate,

who have 'rendered due respect' to Damas their youthful bishop,

and w ho 'despite his seemingly youthful appearance, have made way

for him as one wh o is wise in God'.

59

Thus Ignatius might rest his case. It was a case that reflected

the Hellenistic as well as the Judaic culture of Antioch in Syria: it

appealed to Jewish C hristian grou ps in term s of the Petrine, Pauline

and Johann ine currents runn ing through the Christian comm unities.

But his appeal was also to a Christianity formed in the broader,

Hellenistic culture of Asia Minor, and expressed in the pagan,

political rhetoric of

hotnonoia.

Bu t what was die case against him?

6. The Case of Ignatius' Opponents

But at this point, even if some were convinced by Ignatius' skilful

rhetorical deployment of the

homonoia

discourse of the Second

Sophistic, other groups within Matthew's community would have

rejected such language derived from the political discourse of

secular paganism. O ne g rou p were the charismatics, wh ose attem pts

to set up an egalitarian, purely charismatic authority had received

considerable qualification at the hands of the autho r of the Didache,

whose remedy had been the appointment of a multiple body

58

Ignatius,

Eph.

4.1-2.

59

Igna t iu s , Magn. 3 . 1 .



Ignatius* PersonalHistory and the Church atAntioch

35

of bishops and deacons. But that multiple body, even though

ordained or appointed, would no doubt have also claimed charis-

matic authority, for which their ordination was an addition and not

simply a replacem ent.

We have in the New Testament a letter reputedly by Paul to

Timothy but reflecting a situation and period of time in the

immediate aftermath of Paul's death. 'Paul' writes to 'Timothy'

what is therefore a pseudonymous letter (one written under a

false name) in which he says: 'Do not neglect the charism that

is within you which was granted you through prophecy with the

imposition of hands of the presbytery. '

60

Thus the body with

charismatic gifts is here an ordained 'presbyterate' and called by

that name through which the Spirit is channelled. The Spirit no

longer simply falls upon the prophets so that their ministry is

self-authenticating.

Many of these presbyters therefore had no doubt themselves

claimed charismatic gifts, even though their right to hold office was

now election or even 'ordination' by a presbyterate of 'elders' or

'presbyters'. Their objection may well have been that Igna tius' new,

single bishop, even with the necessary restraint of a presbyterate

and diaconate as separate parts of an ecclesial constitution bound

together on the principle of homonoia, involved the 'quenching of

the Spirit'. Unfortunately, by insisting themselves on 'election' or

'ordination' in addition to their charismatic gifts, they had already

sold the pass. Such is characteristically the feature of any human

situation in which on e or more com peting systems of authority have

collapsed, and an other is struggling to replace them , with scenes of

conflict between them.

But the pseudonymous writer to Pauline communities in the

Asia M inor of the Ignatian correspondence has to concede, like the

author o f the Syrian Matthew, that, in the ideal unity of the apostolic

age, the Spirit

was

given by an apostle like Paul alone and by his own

authority. His 'Paul' will say to his Timothy' on another occasion:

'I charge you to enflame the charism of God that is within you

through the imposition of my

hands.*

1

The w riter can therefore see

that a single bishop with a monopoly on the power of ordination

60

1 Tim.

4 . 1 4 .

61

2 Tim. 1.6.



36

Ignatius of Antioch

may represent the Spirit of the age of the apostles where, as his

contem porary Luke will say in Acts:

They were continuing eagerly in the apostles' teaching and in fellowship,

the breaking of bread, and prayers ... Daily they continued eagerly of one

accord in the

temple,

breaking bread

at home,

and

receiving

its

nourishment

with rejoicing and simplicity of heart

62

This writer also is at hom e in Asia Minor, and pines for the age of

the apostles in which there were no divisions as in his contemporary

church bu t all was 'of one accord'.

The presbyterate, who, Ignatius will concede, represents the council

of the aposdes, might well respond that there is no ecclesial precedent

for a single bishop any more than there

was

a single apostle, despite the

author of Matthew's claim for an idealized Peter. Furthermore, they

might continue, the Spirit

is

given to the whole community, even though

some of them might insist that it is given through them by virtue of

their ordination 'through prophecy and the imposition of the hands of

the presbyterate'. But the Spirit is not involved in the position of

a

single

bishop at the apex of a hierarchy, even as a figure inspiring concord

rather than imposing his power upon them.

How is Ignatius to reply in his defence? A t the level of practical

arrangem ents, he could po int to the potential instability of presby-

teral governm ent. P erhaps the presbyteral college, like the prop hets

in the Didache

y

could concelebrate together: 'let the prophets hold

the eucharist in whatever way they wish.

563

But if so, what was the

guaran tee tha t, inspired by the Spirit, they would use the sam e words?

In theory they should, but in practice tho se tha t claim inspiration by

the sam e Holy Spirit are know n historically to exhibit differences in

both belief and practice that usually lead to each claiming that the

other prophesies falsely, with subsequent divisions. We have seen

indeed that, according to Brown and Meier's redaction criticism,

the community of Matthew's Gospel contained some members at

An tioch in Syria denying that o thers w ere, despite appearances, true

prophets performing charismatic miracles.

However, even if w e accept the stipulation of the Didachist and

add an act of ordination by which the prophets are to become a

62

A c t s

2 . 4 2 ,

4 6 .

63

Did. 10.7.



Ignatius' Rrsonal

History

and

the Church

atAntioch

37

charismatic presbyterate, there still remains potential for disunity.

Even if the presbyter decides on the words of a liturgical text, there

is still the possibility of one group wanting different words from

another. Moreover, if only one of them celebrates the Eucharist

(and not several in concelebration), who is to decide who is the

celebrant, or even who is to draw up a rota in a given order? In a

church already divided and factionalized, a grea t deal of self-restraint

and forbearance is required in order to make an informal system of

deference and noblesse oblige function in a harm onious way.

Once such a system of informal forbearance in which all

presbyters would take their turn, deferring one to an other as equals,

had begun to break down, how could the vacuum be filled? We do

not know precisely how this was done in Ignatius' situation, given

our lack of factual information. But Hermas, reflecting the Roman

community, as I have said, in the mid-second century, affords us an

example in his situation that may parallel a similar occurrence in that

of Ignatius ' in Syria a generation earlier.

Hermas describes the way in which someone is to be examined

when he enters a gathering and appears inspired by the Spirit

and speaks to the congregation. If the person is an impostor and

controlled by an 'earthly spirit that is empty and powerless and also

foolish', then, apart from requiring payment, he 'exalts himself and

wishes to be given the first seat

(protokathedria)'.

64

We have already

seen how Hermas issued a rebuke to 'those who lead the church

and occupy its chief seats

(protokathedritai)\

65

and h ow Jesus ' words

criticizing the Jewish 'scribes and elders (presbyters)' have been

reshaped with reference to those Christian elders (presbyters) who

desired the 'chief seats'

(prvtokathedriai),

not in the Jewish synagogue

but in Matthew's own church. In Ignatius' Antioch in Syria one can

well see, therefore, how he could generate a similar response to

Hermas' inflated charismatic prophet claiming pre-eminence alone.

But how does Ignatius reply?

64

Hennas, Man 43(30)11-12.

65

Hermas,

Vis.

18(m.lO).7.



38

Ignatius ofAntioch

7. Ignatius' Defence in Reply to his Opponents

Ignatius will, in his defence, deny that he is claiming the charisma

alone, and that he is 'quenching the Spirit'. Firstly, with an allusion

to the Johannine Pentecost, he will insist that the presbyters have

a secure place in his episcopal church in concord with his single

bishop and are 'spirit-filled' and occupy the place of the apostles:

Be anxious therefore to be confirmed in the teachings of the Lord and of

the apostles in order that in everything that you do you may prosper, in

flesh and spirit, in faith and in love, in the Son and in the Father and in the

Spirit, in the beginning and end, along with your most awesome bishop and

your

richly

woven spiritual garland of your presbyterate, and your deacons

by God's appointment

66

The apostles' teaching' that Luke assured his community in Asia

M inor to have been there at the beginning in that distant, golden age

of the Church's unity could be the re with them in the late first century.

Ignatius here assures the church of Magnesia shortly thereafter that

the sam e teaching, unspecified, can be with them 'in the end' as it was

'in the beginning'. He had also been able to give the sam e assurance

to the church of An tioch in Syria before his removal.

Ignatius here refers to the Nvreath' or 'garland' woven from myrtle

leaves and gilded and placed on the head of the victorious athlete

or musician in their respective contests. The presbyterate sits in

horsesho e form ation around the seated bishop, bu t they are a spirit-

filled 'circle' or 'garland'. They represen t, moreover, the apostles in

the Up per Room where, according to Joh n, the risen Christ came on

the evening of the resurrection:

Jesus therefore said again to them: peace be with you. Even as the Father

has sent me, so send I you. And saying this, he breathed into them and said

to them : receive the Holy Spirit If you forgive the sins of any persons, they

shall be forgiven. If you retain them , they will be retained [.]

67

Ignatius will interpret the significance of Jesus' anointing by an

unknown woman shortly before his death

68

in the light of Christ's

66

I g n a t i u s , Magn. 1 3 . 1 .

67

John 20.21-22.

68

Mat t

26.7;

Mark 14.3.



Ignatius' Rrsonal History

and the

Church atAntioch

39

breathing into the apostles in this passage: Tor this reason the L ord

received perfumed ointment on his head in order that he might

breathe incorruption into

the

Church.'

69

Ignatius

may

well reply

to his critics at Antioch that he has preserved the authority of the

spirit-filled apostolic council of the presbyterate in his new ecclesial

constitution. The charismatic apostles of the

Didache

are incorpo-

rated into his new concordic whole

{homonoia).

But was not a single b ishop, whose virtue was his silence and not

his charismatic performance, but a pale shadow of true spiritual

authority, and was not a single bishop in any case itself a denial of

a spiritual ministry? Should

not

bishops

or a

single bishop, despised

by those whom

the

Didachist

had

addressed, achieve 'concord'

{homonoia)

with

(if one

prefers this

to

'submit

to ) a

charismatic

ministry, even

if

that ministry

is

presbyterally ordered rather than

exercised

in a

purely spontaneous form. These

are

questions that

Ignatius needed

to

answer

if he

was assailed

by the

kind

of

accusa-

tions voiced

by

3 John

or

Hermas against such

a

figure.

Ignatius ' answer is that he, though claiming

to be a

single b ishop,

is a charismatic too, and has revealed his ecclesial constitution to

settle the strife and factionalism of the church of Antioch in Syria

unde r inspiration of the prophe tic Spirit. He might well have said at

Antioch what he says to the Philadelphians:

For even if some people have wanted to led me into error according to the

flesh, the Spirit, because it is from God, is not led into error. For it knows

whence it comes and whither it goes, and exposes hidden things [John 3.8

and 1 Cor. 2.10]. I cried out while among you, speaking in a deep voice,

the voice of God: Tay attention to the bishop and the presbytery and the

deacons.' But some were suspicious that I said these things because I knew

in advance that there was a division among you. But the one in whom I am

a prisoner is my witness that my knowledge was not from a human source;

but the Spirit was preaching, saying: T)o nothing apart from the bishop;

keep your flesh as the temple of God; love unity; flee divisions; be imitators

of Jesus Christ as he is of the Father.'

70

Ignatius, appearing

now in

chains

at

Philadelphia, was clearly

in no

position to appear arrogant and boastful in making his claim for

a hierarchy with a single bishop at its apex. In Antioch, no doubt,

69

Ignatius, EphAlA.

70

Ignatius,

Philadelphia™

7.



40

Ignatius ofAntioch

before the intervention of the civil power, Ignatius had appeared

more boastful, if indeed not 'too clever by half, in claiming charis-

matic inspiration for a single bishop w ho w ould finally make an end

to an autonomous and self-authenticating charismatic ministry.

The church of Philadelphia was divided, as the church of

Antioch in Syria had been, so divided in fact that Ignatius could

not name the bishop, presbyters and deacons in this church as

he could in the other churches to whom he wrote. So under-

standing of their situation was he that he was accused by one

faction of having been advised by the opposing faction of what

precisely to say. But he needed no such information: he had

seen it all before in Antioch before his trial and condemnation.

And as would have been the case there, so here his appearance

mysteriously changes, as does his voice, as he 'cried out ...

speaking in a deep voice, the voice of God' his solution to

such divisions in terms of a hierarchy with a single bishop at

its apex. He will claim that such a hierarchy is not the product

of his own, carnal devising, 'not from a human source'. At

iVntioch too his opponents would have accused him of a

carnal power-play against a spiritual ministry but in view of

his speaking in the Spirit, it was they who were quenching the

voice of the Spirit and leading him 'into error according to the

flesh'.

Ignatius cut a strange figure in the eyes of the Antiochene

community, and we must sympathi2e with them. He was not the

sort of bishop with whom people would be comfortable at a

Buckingham Palace garden party. Apt in the course of a heated

exchange to change his appearance and with it his voice, he begins

speaking 'in the Spirit'. He claims hidden revelations in support

of a controversial policy that he demands the Church accept. As

he says to the Trallians, assuming a stance of humility against

accusations of a self-assertive pride in urging the case for a single

bishop,

I am pondering many thoughts in G od, bu t I impose limits on myself so

that I will not be destroyed by my boasting. For now I must fear all the

more and pay no attention to those who are trying to make me to inflate

with pride. For those who speak to me now are flogging me. The majority

act with a concealed envy, and envy escalates their war against

me.

And so I



Ignatius' Personal History

and the

Church atAntioch

41

need humility,

by which the ruler of this age is destroyed. Am I not able to

write to you about heavenly things?... I am able to understand the heavenly

realms and the angelic regions and hierarchies, both visible and invisible.

71

It is the majority at Antioch too, he could claim, that had attacked

him and exposed him to prosecution by the civil power. Th ose who

had 'escalated their war' against him were in effect themselves doing

the Roman magistrate's 'flogging' for him.

At Antioch there were those who, though a minority, had

supported him, and there, whilst free and respected, he had been

in danger of being inflated with pride: he had sought to 'impose

limits' on such adulation. The majority in attacking him were really

motivated by envy, as they were now at Tralles. But here he was

addressing them by letter in chains and now he is surrounded, not

by admirers, bu t by the squadron o f soldiers, the 'ten leop ards ' w ho

are his guards and who speak to him with abuse and flog him. H ow

could they accuse him o f flaun ting him self boastfully now? Yet still

he behaves strangely as one possessed by the Spirit and apt to burst

forth with new revelations.

Thus we have a picture of how Ignatius would have appeared

to his contemporaries in the church of Antioch in Syria. He was,

as he says immediately following his Spirit-inspired outburst at

Philadelphia, deeply committed to achieving unity in a divided

comm unity: 'I was acting on my own accord as a man equipped for

unity. But where there is division and anger, God does not dwell.'

72

But his Antiochene contemporaries wanted nothing of a single

bishop around whom such a unity might be achieved. They were

no t convinced by the image of a single bishop as Onesimus, bishop

of Ephesus, would later prove to be, who by his silence would

inspire awe and o rder the glossolalia of a chao tic, charismatic m inistry

far more effectively that a Spirit-filled collectivity of elders called

a presbyterate.

73

The bishop of Philadelphia too, so difficult for

Ignatius t o recognize by name in their chaotic division, would n ot be

for the Antiochenes a convincing silent substitute for those charis-

matic ministers who, they believed, did not utter 'empty babblings'

71

I g n a t i u s , Trail.

4 .

72

I g n a t i u s , Phld. 8 . 1 .

73

Ignatius,

Epb.

6.1.



42

Ignatius ofAntioch

but the true voice of the Spirit given collectively and not to one

individual.

74

The majority

was

no t impressed with Ignatius' claim to b e a single

bisho p on the basis of charismatic outpourings of the Spirit that die

ministers of one large gro up of them could well match, and another,

with a Spirit-filled presbyterate, was trying to control. They saw a

prideful contender with his own adulatory group of supporters,

whilst he in turn denounced them for harbouring envy against him.

They were even more unimpressed by his attempt to soften his

proposals by appealing to secular, pagan political discourse, with its

'spin' in terms of

homonoia.

They accused him, as he did them, of

'escalating the war' between them over his proposals, and so strife

increased within the large and growing Christian community. The

sound of argum ent, if no t of m ore violent expressions of community

outrage, spilled over in to pagan, civil society. T he Roman magistrate

intervened and, following a trial, Ignatius was quickly dispatched as

a prisoner under armed escort to Rome to be thrown to the wild

beasts in the arena. Ignatius had lo s t. .. or had he?

We shall see in our next chapter that the collective mood of

the Christian community seems, from hints Ignatius gives, to have

experienced change. They had wan ted an end to the intensifying of

the conflict between different groups caused by Ignatius' claim to

be a single bishop who, in concord {homonoia)

with the presbytery

and deacons, could alone end the factionalism. But they had wished

him simply to stand down from his claim, not to be arrested and

condemned to exposure to the wild beasts. Furthermore, despite

his removal, the old problems of internal crisis about the nature

of church order between charismatics and elected bishops (as a

plurality) or presbyters had not been removed.

W hether, therefore, it

was

because collective guilt had set in about

Ignatius' arrest and fate, or whether from weariness with internal

strife, the mood of the church at Antioch underwent a process of

rapid change. It would seem th at Ignatius' 'no-alternative' argum ent

regarding the need for a single, Tet rin e' bishop had finally prevailed.

Ignatius, as we shall see, was kept informed of the developing

situation by exchanges of letters and other contacts allowed, appar-

ently conventionally, to condemned criminals in transit. In those

74

Ignatius, Phld. 1.1.



Ignatius'

Rrsonal History and the Church atAntioch 43

letters we shall observe, in our next chapter, how Ignatius was to

continue to influence the situation at An tioch and in the churches of

Asia M inor who had contacted him by sending visitors and material

support. Those letters bear witness to a developing theology both

of church order and of martyrdom, expressed both in writing and

reflection, and in the choreographed form of a martyr procession.

Tha t theology, we shall argue, was nourished in the soil of the

pagan political theology of the Greek city-states of Asia Minor,

which at this time were also engaged in the process of defining

themselves and the unity of their culture against the Roman

imperial power. As noted earlier, the movement is known as the

Second Sophistic, and Igna tian Christianity, in its quest for a general

theological concept of Christian unity, was to feed on the force of

the persuasive logic and general aspirations of that movem ent.



The Choreography of the

Martyr Procession

In his letters written to five churches in Asia Minor, a sixth to

Polycarp, whom Ignatius calls 'bishop' of Smyrna, and a seventh

to Rome we can continue to trace as it were the outlines in the

sand of what then took place. Though the majority of Antiochene

Christians, or at least significantly large conflicting groups amongst

them, had rejected Ignatius' solution to their divisions, they had no

positive solution of their own: inspiration by the same Spirit (or by

evil spirits that some had confused with the Holy Spirit) continued

to produce divergent beliefs and practices. N o one had th e au thority

to determine wh o was and who was not the genuine bearer of the

Holy Spirit.

The crisis, moreover, had now claimed a high-profile victim,

Ignatius, who as the one bishop of one community had claimed

pre-eminence as an image of God the Father over the presbyterate

and diaconate of them all. The hardliners might have stuck to their

original hostility (or jealousy) and felt that they were best rid of the

arrogant single bishop. But the soft centre were highly disturbed

about the outcome of Ignatius' trial, and considerably sobered by

the prospect of his bearing of the Christian name as a martyr to

Rome.

Ignatius will no w insist tha t, as his sufferings are inflicted by the

pagan civil power, he is not suffering as the leader of one faction,

like that of a 'Diotrephes claiming the pre-eminence'. Rather, he

44



The Choreography of the M artyr Procession

45

is suffering for the common Christian name that all the warring

factions claim. When the Ephesian representatives come to meet

him, he claims that it was because they recognized that he was not

a renegade leader of a spurious faction but 'one who is a prisoner

from Syria on account of the shared name and hop e'.

1

He has been

'deemed worthy of the divinely awe-inspiring name in the bonds

that he parades'.

2

Ignatius thus was constantly reminding his hearers

that he was suffering for the common Christian name and that the

bearing of that name transcends all previous strife regarding his

claim to be the one bishop of Antioch.

Thus his condemnation by the civil power had transformed him

from a faction leader to a martyr bearing the baptismal name o f the

whole community. Many of his Christian enemies could now no

longer hate him. The resultant general feeling of guilt now p roduced

a remarkable shift of consciousness, in consequence of which the

church of Antioch was to enjoy the peace that Ignatius had sought

for it eventually under a single bishop.

Ignatius, under guard and en route to Rome, was to play the

martyr card to a T, and with considerable eloquence. Moreover,

he was able to choreograph his journey to Rome as a spectacular

procession. He reminds the Ephesians who come out to meet him

that they had come because they had heard that he liad come from

Syria in bonds for the name shared' by all Christians.

3

But he will

claim that the death to which he is going is a sacrifice to God on

their behalf in which they have made him a scapegoat.

1.

The Social Psychology of Ignatius as Scapegoat

It sometimes happens that a disaster afflicting one member of a

divided community becomes a kind of social-psychological remedy

for the alienation and divisions of the rest. As a kind of social-

psychological therapy, the majority will project its demonizing

stereotype upo n an individual or group of individuals whose removal

relieves the group of its tensions. Having treated the scapegoat in

1

Ignatius, Eph. 1.2.

2

Ignatius, Magn. 1.2. See further the emphasis on the 'shared ' or 'com mon' in Eph 21.2;

Phld.

5.2; 11.2;,%™. 12.2.

3

Ignatius,

Eph.

1.2; see also 3.1.



46

Ignatius ofAntioch

this way, the scapegoaters experience feelings of guilt that lead to an

ambiguity of feeling about the person scapegoated.

4

But sometimes the creation of an individual as a scapegoat can

be therapeutic for that community's general tensions as a minority

group experiencing alienation from wider society. An injustice

inflicted by the general community towards one member of a

subgroup experiencing internal tension can make that member a

scapegoat who heals that tension. One famous example of this is

undoubtedly the events surround ing the arrest in Australia of Ii n dy

Chamberlain and her initial conviction and later her pardon. Her

story was dramatized in the famous Meryl Streep movie

Cry in the

Dark,

I in dy C hamberlain was at that time the wife of a Seventh-day

Adventist pastor when, she claimed, during an overnight stay at an

isolated beauty spot, Ayers Rock, her child, Azariah, was eaten by

wild Australian dogs (dingoes). But initially she was not believed

and was imprisoned for murder, with her husband convicted also

as an accomplice. In response to what was ultimately declared a

miscarriage of justice, the Seventh-day Adventist community gave

unanimous support for their pastor's wife and family and asserted

her innocence, believing that their whole community was the real

target of this attack.

It was observed at that time that the Adventist community itself

had been torn by various internal frictions and divisions. One of

those divisions was between 'fundamentalist' and 'liberal' elements.

The latter ('predictably', New Testament scholars might say) had

been developing a more allegorical, spiritually realized version of

Adventist eschatology: Christ's coming on the seventh day was

to be understood as an event of mystery rather than one that

could, as it were, be caught on camera. Such divisions within the

Adventist community were now dissolved in the united response

to the injustice done by the civil power to their pastor and his wife.

The Chamberlains as victims had become the scapegoats by whose

sacrifice a divided com munity was made whole.

Ignatius can be seen in the context of contemporary social-

psychological studies and theories of scapegoating. The wider

community, as represented by the provincial governor, has stere-

4

For a social-psychological discussion of this phenomenon, see T. Douglas, Scapegoats:

Transferring Blame (Lon don: Routledge, 1995).



The Choreography of the Martyr Procession 47

otyped him as a troublemaker and has demonized him as one

whose actions have affected the 'peace of the gods ' in nature and

in society.

5

His

own, Christian subgroup, torn

by

internal strife,

at

first actually wish, some more clearly and less ambiguously than

others , that someone would make away with him as the source of all

their troubles. But when the pagan authorities actually remove him

and condemn him to the wild beasts, a change comes about in the

divided subgroup, w ho h ad originally seen him as the sou rce of their

tension. T he m ajority had n ot wished things 'to go tha t far'. And so,

paradoxically, he becomes their scapegoat: his removal and condem-

nation becomes

a

sacrifice tha t relieves their interna l tensions.

Thus as Ignatius departed in chains, the m ood within his faction-

alized Christian community at Antioch changed. Ignatius caught

that change of mood, as the hostility of his fellow-Christians

towards him gave way to more ambiguous feelings that he could

now endeavour to shape with the assistance of those who were

to visit him on behalf of the churches of Asia Minor to whom he

wrote. Ignatius

of

course was

not

aware

of

work

in

contemporary

social-psychological theory and the effects of scapegoating on

grou ps, which w e have only just begun to study scientifically. But at

an intuitive level he was aware of a mysterious change that he was to

foster and facilitate bo th in spoken and written rhetoric, and in his

dramatic representation of his choreographed procession.

The Ephesians' clerical representative came to meet him and

looked with concern at him in chains at the centre of his procession

that some were

to

join

and

accompany him

on his

way. We

do not

know if they were predisposed to see matters in this way, bu t if they

were not, Ignatius now seeks to shape their reactions, with the aura

of the martyr surroun ding him. In joining and helping to form his

procession , he can say of them that

As

imitators of G od , having been

enflamed by the blood of G od, you have brough t to completion the

task that we share as kinsm en.' W hat was this 'task'? Clearly, it was

his creation and choreographing

of

a martyr procession:

For you hastened to come and see me when you heard that I, bound from

Syria for the name that we share and its hope, and that my hope was to

5

A. Brent, The

Imperial Cult and

the Development

of

Church Order, VChrSup 45 (Leiden:

E. J. Brill, 1999 , pp. 110-12.




succeed in fighting the wild beasts in the area with the accompaniment of

your prayer [.]

6

They pray as members of the procession that he is clearly choreo-

graphing as a sacrifice, not that it should not take place but that it

should: they are participators in som e sense in that sacrifice; they are

'enflamed by the blood of God'.

What is the character of that sacrifice for Ignatius? Ignatius

will call his sacrifice a 'scapegoat sacrifice'. As he explains to the

Ephesians gathering around him for the procession to the altar of

sacrifice at Rome:

I am your scapegoat sacrifice (peripsemd)

and I consecrate myself as such

for the church of you the Ephesians, a church renowned throughout the

ages .. . my spirit is a scapegoat sacrifice bound to the cross [.]

Ignatius emphasizes to the churches he addresses the sacrificial

character of his martyr procession.

Ignatius uses, in addition to the word for scapegoat sacrifice

(peripsema),

the general word for expiation in Hellenistic Jewish

literature, namely

antipsuchon^

which means literally something or

someone given in place of the soul or life of another.

8

He uses this

word again specifically of those who join the sacrificial procession:

'I am your expiatory sacrifice and of those who m you sent for G od's

honour to Smyrna.'

9

'Expiation', then , was particularly appropriate for those w ho w ere

in the actual procession to the altar of sacrifice. He uses this word

several other times in writing to Smyrna, and to Polycarp, where he

confines his expiation to those who subm it to the threefold order of

bishop, presbyters and deacons.

10

Finally, Ignatius does not shrink

from using a characteristically pagan word for sacrifice, thusia, which

refers quite literally to a slain animal. At the end of the sacrificial

procession there is 'an altar being prep ared ' in the arena at Rom e.

11

With regard to the teeth of the wild beasts in the arena crunching

6

I g n a t i u s , ^ . 1.1-2.

7

I g n a t i u s , ^ . 8.1.

8

See

4 Mace.

6.9,17.

9

I g n a t i u s , ^ . 21.1.

10

Ignatius, Pol. 6.1; c£ P ol 2.3 and Smyrn. 10.2.

11

Ignatius,

Rom.

2.2.



The Choreography

of the Martyr Procession

49

his flesh, Ignatius instructs the Roman Christians: Intercede with

Christ on my behalf that through these instruments I might be

found a sacrifice

(thusia)

to God.'

12

Ignatius provides us with an example of the scapegoat (peripsemd)

reducing tension and division within the community that has

scapegoated h im. A t an intuitive level, he was himself conscious

of the effect that his condemnation was having on his community

at Antioch. And he would no doubt have reminded them of this

in his communications with them, now lost, as he reminded those

particular churches of Asia Minor in his surviving letters. Indeed,

'remind' is a quite inadequate expression for the way in which,

in word and in act, he proceeded to orchestrate his procession,

imposing his own particular interpretation of its meaning and

significance.

2.

Ign atiu s' Rhetorical Con struction of his Martyr

procession

As he was taken away under armed guard it may be asked how he

came by that knowledge and how he was able to orchestrate his

martyr procession in this way. H e was clearly allowed v isitors to join

him and accom pany him: they provided h im after all with resources

for his journey, 'refreshing' him . They thus alleviated the subsistence

allowance that the guards would otherwise have had to pay out of

their own resources, and in any case they were customarily given

gratuities by visitors. As a result of som e visitors com ing and going ,

though some stayed, Ignatius was able to send and receive letters

via couriers.

We have seen how, wh en Ignatius' guards took the nor thern route

across Asia M inor to Sm yrna and Bishop Polycarp, the three churches

that Ignatius thereby failed to visit responded to his messengers by

sending Bishops Onesimus (Ephesus), Damas (Magnesia), and

Polybius (Tralles) along with some presbyters and deacons and

the material support ('refreshment') that they brought. But their

clerical representatives were not the only members that joined his

entourage. H e was clearly in contac t with the church at An tioch, and

a deacon, Rheus Agathous, was a m em ber of his party from there,

12

Ignatius, Rom. 4.2.



50

Ignatius ofAntioch

as well as Philo from Cilicia. The fact th at letters to Ep hesus, Tralles

and Magnesia have survived in Polycarp's collection of the corpus

does n ot mean tha t these were the only letters that Ignatius wrote to

churches whilst in transit and under guard, nor were they the only

churches to send representatives to the martyr in chains.

When Ignatius asks for the election of a deacon as ambassador

to congratulate the church of Antioch on its 'peace', he points out

that they will no t be do ing this alone: 'It

is

not impossible for you to

do this for the nam e of God ; even as the churches nearest have sent

bishops, and others presbyters and deacons.'

13

Ignatius' message,

spoken, written and enacted, is being spread over a large area.

Before leaving Troas by ship for Neopolis he says to Polycarp:

Since I have not been able to write to all the churches by reason of my

sudden sailing ... you shall write to the churches in front of us, as one

possessing the mind of God, to the intent that they should do this same

thing - let those w ho are able send messengers, and the rest letters by the

hand of those sent by you[.]

14

Bu t ho w did this activity of letters conveyed to and fro by m essengers

making proclamations appear to those who saw it with eyes other

than those of Ignatius?

Lucian of Samosata, a pagan satirist of many characters and the ir

antics in the Asia Minor of this time, wrote a sketch shortly after

AD 165 about a character called Peregrinus who, chameleon-like,

changed his opinions but who for a while was a Christian leader.

Lucian, as he describes Peregrinus, endows him with many of the

characteristics of Ignatius as typical of an imprisoned Christian

martyr.

He re we should mention how h e describes the devotion of prison

visitors, and testifies to their free access to prisoners, once palm s had

been greased by bribes, and to their unstinting support for them:

Well, when he was imprisoned, the Christians, regarding the incident as a

calamity, left nothing undone in their effort to rescue him. Th en, as this was

impossible, every other form of divine service was paid to him, not haphaz-

ardly but with earnestness; and from daybreak aged widows and orphaned

children could be seen waiting near the prison whilst their officials even

13

Ignatius,

Phld.

10.2.

14

Ignatius, Pol. 8.1.



The Choreography of the Martyr Procession

51

slept inside with him once they had corrupted the guards with bribes. Then

various kinds of meals were brought in and their sacred liturgies were

sp ok en ... Indeed people came from the cities in Asia sent by the Christians

at their common expense with the purposes of aiding and expressing

their joint support and soothing the fellow. They show incredible speed

whenever such public action is taken; for in n o time they lavish their all.

15

For Lucian , therefore , those who ga thered wi th the condemned

prisoner were a modey crew of widows and orphans, with some

'officials' of the com munity in very close attendance, offering bribes

and gifts and ho lding the prisone r in awe. Ignatius was to pu t a quite

different 'spin' on the procession that accompanied him.

Ignatius, as we have seen, characterized his martyr procession

as a sacrificial procession in which he was the scapegoat victim on

his way to sacrifice on a pagan altar at Rome: that was his role in

the procession. But how did he understand the roles of those who

joined the procession from various churches, carrying his letters and

return messages from them?

As a condemned prisoner, he was being conveyed along the

official imperial highway reserved for military and other public

officials on imperial business, but in this case, he was a prisoner

under escort. The highway was called the

cursus

publicus (in Greek,

dromos demosios). Along it travelled a number of ancillary officials

such as the couriers of official letters, either from the emperor or

from the self-governing local city-states of Asia Minor, who would

need to communicate their decrees to the imperial authorities.

Couriers of such correspondence were called 'speed-runners' or

'runners within a day'

(hemerodromoi)}

6

Also along the

cursus publicus

came ambassadors from the various

city-states of Asia Minor. Those ambassadors might sometimes go

to Rome to seek the honour for their city of founding a temple

to the imperial cult, in which dead and deified past emperors and

their families were worshipped. They would carry copies of the

decree of the citizen body, the

ekklesia,

petitioning for the emperor's

approval to found such a cult. And along the same cursus publicus

they would re turn , and a further decree would be passed expressing

15

Lucian,

Peregr.

12 -13 .

16

See Pausanius VI .16.5; Ii vy 31.24.




their 'rejoicing toge ther' at the em peror's decision if favourable.

17

Ambassadors too would negotiate treaties between two city-states,

such as the famous

homonoia

treaties.

Some twenty years after the traditional date of Igna tius' martyrdom ,

we have a series of coins, with some associated documentation,

com mem orating a treaty ending a dispute between rival cities which

could have been over disputed territory, or indeed over the city's

precise official status in the order of precedence or esteem. An

example of the latter was the dispute between Ephesus, Smyrna

and Pergamon in the reign of Antoninus Pius (AD 138-61). Their

dispute was over which of them was allowed to use the title 'First

and twice

neokoros

of Asia' and thus over who could claim to have

been first allowed to be

Neokoros

(temple keeper) of the imperial

cult.

18

Homonoia, as we have already seen, was a watchword for Ignatius

too, and referred to a concord freely arrived at, unrestrained by

force and between equal, autonomous persons or cities.

19

Such

disputes were resolved through ambassadors, who would finally

bear the jointly minted coins showing the tutelary deities of both

cities celebrating peace or

homonoia

between the two cities. The

treaty would be sealed by a

sunthusia

or 'joint sacrifice'. Ignatius'

martyr process ion joined by ecclesial ambassadors with its scapegoat

sacrifice has thus become a

sunthusia

or joint sacrifice creating

homonoia

between divided Christian communities.

20

Ignatius will use the notion of official courier or 'speed-runner'

to characterize those who come from and go back to the churches

with letters and other communication. He will also regard them as

ambassadors.

We have no letter written by Ignatius to his church of Antioch

in Syria but he informs us that he has had communication from

them through the Christian counterpart to both 'speed-runner' and

'ambassador'. They have brought the official communication, the

resolution passed by the church of Antioch, an

ekkksia

('church

5

)

17

Brent,

The Imperial Cult,

pp. 246-48.

18

Brent, The Imperial

Cult,

pp. 246-47, 257-58.

19

See above, Chap. 2, sect 5.

20

For a fuller account, supported by the relevant epigraphical evidence, see A. Brent,

Ignatius ofAntioch and the Second Sop histic, STAC 36 (Tubingen: Moh r Siebeck, 2006 ),

pp. 230-40.



The Choreography

of th e Martyr Procession 53

like that which would be passed by its namesake, the citizen body

or ekklesia of a city-state, who would elect an ambassador to

proclaim their

homonoia

(concord) resolution to another city. To the

Smyrnaeans he says:

it

is

befitting,

in

order

to

honour

God,

that your church elect

a

divine

ambassador

(theopresbeutes),

in order that, travelling as far as Syria, he will

express your common rejoicing with them that they have found peace.

21

Similarly, and at the same t ime, he w ri tes to the Phi ladelphians:

since ... it has been proclaimed to me that the church in Antioch in Syria

is

at

peace,

it is

fitting

for

you,

as a

church

{ekklesia)

of God, to

elect

a

deacon to conduct God 's embassy there in order to rejoice with them when

assembled, and to glorify the name. Blessed is he in Christ Jesus, who shall

be deemed worthy of such a ministry; and you shall be glorified. But if you

wish it , it is no t impossible in God's name, even as the nearest churches sent

bishops, and the others presbyters and deacons.

22

I n

his

let ter

to

Polycarp, Ignat ius int roduces

the

image

of

' speed-

runner ' wi th

the

t i t le ' speed-runner

of God'

{theodromos).

As he

says:

It is befitting, Polycarp, most blessed of God, to convene a council

provoking awe at its divinity, and

to

elect someone whom you (all) consider

beloved and resolute, who will be able to be named 'God's speed-runner'

(fheodromos).

Commission him that he should go to Syria, and glorify your

unshaken love.

23

Thus Ignat ius has been successful in achieving, as a scapegoat

sacrifice,

the

peace

at

An t ioch t ha t

he had

failed

to

achieve whilst

still free. His claim for a single bishop at the apex of a hierarchy had

been the reason for the inner conflict in that church that had led to

his removal for execution at Rome at the mouths of the wild beasts

in the arena.

Since they had opposed the ecclesial order that he had advocated

and had been the cause of his troubles, they had now to accept the

collective guilt for making him a scapegoat Thus Ignatius by his

21

I g n a t i u s , Smyrn. 1 1 . 2 .

22

I g n a t i u s , PMd. 1 0 . 1 - 2 .

23

Ignatius, Pol.

7.2.



54

Ignatius ofAntioch

martyrdom had sapped their will to con tinue in a state of faction.

And they were being joined through the effects of that scapegoat

sacrifice by the divided churches of Asia M inor tha t were joining his

procession and accepting his church constitution. Ignatius is assimi-

lating his concept of a 'scapegoat sacrifice' (peripsemd) drawn from

Old Testament typology to the pagan and Hellenistic concept of a

joint sacrifice or sunthusia. His martyr procession, in sending forth

and receiving ecclesial ambassadors, is like a procession that culmi-

nates in a sunthusia that concludes a homonoia treaty between rival

city-states. Churches like Smyrna now had a bishop in Polycarp who,

to Ignatius, was m ore than a presbyter w ith fellow-presbyters. An d

Ignatius could hold up such unshaken unity (or 'unshaken love

9

) to

reassure any at Antioch who doubted that they had acted rightly in

conforming to his new order.

Ignatius, the letter-writer to many more churches than those

to whom the letters survive, as well as Ignatius the martyr-bishop

proclaiming his martyr sacrifice in a way that to some might seem

morbid, is again reflected in Lucian's satire of Peregrinus Proteus.

Peregrinus comm its suicide by throw ing himself on his own funeral

pyre at the Olym pic G am es a t Athens, albeit as a cynic philosopher

and no longer as a Christian leader. As a prelude, however, to such

self-martyrdom,

he dispatched letters to all the glorious cities that were Last Wills and

Testaments in their exhortations and the laws they gave - he appointed

a number of ambassadors for this purpose from his companions, giving

them names of 'messengers of his death'

(nekmngeloi)

and 'speed-runners

to the underworld ' (nerterodromoi).

2A

Lucian has heard of Ignatius' choreographing of his martyr

procession, and his use of the specially invented term

theodromos

instead of simply the usual hemerodromos. Lucian replaces this with

his own invented word: they were not 'God's speed-runners',

whatever tha t might mean, bu t rather, in view of his obsession with

choreographing his own death,

nerterodromoi

or 'speed-runners to the

underworld'. Likewise his specially invented theopresbeutai or 'divine

ambassadors' (instead of simply the normal presbeutai) is replaced

by a term of Lucian's own satirical making. Ignatius' oddly worded

2 4

Lucian, Peregr. 4 1 .




55

theopresbeutai are no t 'am bassadors' (presbeutai) in any sense but only

messengers

—

nekrangeloi or 'messengers of death'.

Ignatius imagined his letter-writing with official couriers to be

a process creating a church unity quite similar to that of creating

imperial unity in which, in concord or homonoia ̂ those same pagan

city-states were sharing. The officials of an Ignatian {ekklesid) thus

cannot fail to have their imperial counterparts in 'ambassadors'

and 'speed-runners' moving on official business along the imperial

highway, the cursuspublicus, reserved, as noted earlier, for the use of

the army and public officials generally. Ignatius' companions were

allowed to use the cursuspublicus in his case as they were accompa-

nying an official party with a prisoner in chains. They were a ragbag

of widows, orphans and odd community leaders loaded with bribes.

But Ig natius ' 'spin' treats his party as a glorious imperial procession

whereby the bishop from the East confronts the empire in the West

on his way to his sacrifice in the arena in Rome:

Grant me nothing more than to be poured out as a drink offering to G od,

while the altar is prepared, so that in love, constituting a choir, you may

sing to the Father in Jesus Christ that God has deemed the bishop of Syria

worthy to be found at the setting of the sun, having dispatched him from

the sun's rising.

25

Hence the sacrificial procession accom panying the scapegoat sacrifice

that achieves

homonoia

has become not simply the instrument of

peace at Antioch and concord with a num ber of Christian comm u-

nities in Asia Minor — it has been transform ed into an image of

Christian unity with which to confront the imperial power and to

reverse pagan Roman political values:

Th e furthest ends of the world profit me nothing nor do the kingdoms of

this age: it is better for me to die for Jesus Christ's sake than to reign over

earth's furthest ends.

26

Thus he ca l l s on the churches of As ia Minor wi th whom he has

been in contact to join his entourage.

25

Ig n a t iu s , Rom. 2 .2 . S e e a l s o A . B re n t , Ig n a t iu s

o f

An t io c h a n d th e Imp e r i a l C u l t ' ,

VChr 4 9 (1 9 9 8 ) , p p . 1 1 1 - 3 8 , a n d B re n t , The Imperial Cult, c h a p .

6 , fo r

fuller

d i s c u s s io n .

26

Ig n a t iu s , Rom. 6 . 1 .



56

Ignatius ofAntioch

Ignatius is calling on Christian grou ps tha t may well have reflected

the disunity at Antioch within their individual churches to unite

together in a common endeavour against an external foe. The

creation of such a common enemy is of course a normal strategy

of leaders wishing to unite disunited and factionalized commu-

nities. In 1095 Pope Urban II, with a Western Europe divided over

the powers of Church and state over the appointment of bishops

and clergy, proclaimed the First Crusade to support persecuted

Christians in the Holy Land. A common enemy had been found,

the Moslem infidel, a crusade against which was to unite a divided

Europe around papal authority.

Ignatius was adopting a similar strategy, but the form his strategy

took was the image of the scapegoat martyr that would unite the

divided community in collective guilt for what had transpired, and

make them accept his particular definition of ecclesial unity. The

image confronting the imperial power as an image of unity must

remain the image of a scapegoat sacrifice that was effecting that

unity at Antioch and in the subsequent procession to Rome. But it

was a sacrifice that also had its counterpart in the political rhetoric

of Asia Minor and the Greek East in the Second Sophistic: his

procession was like a pagan

sunthusia

or joint sacrifice celebrating the

end of rivalry in a

homonoia

treaty. But in his, Christian, case th e fine

print of the treaty was the acceptance of his hierarchy focused on a

single bish op at its apex.

T he function of the ecclesial ambassadors, elected for the purp ose

of proclaiming that the church of Antioch had found its peace in

the threefold order, was also to prepare the way for his sacrificial

procession to Rome, to which they contributed in other, material

ways:

Concerning those who went before me from Syria to Rome to the glory of

God, I believe that you have information, with whom you should commu-

nicate that I am near, for they all are worthy of God and of you, whom it

is fitting for you to relieve in every way.

27

They were 'going before' as ambassadors, as we now see, of a

procession on a highway to victorious martyrdom in the arena.

Ignatius,

Rom.

10.2.




57

We saw that one function of ambassadors in making peace or

in securing a homonoia treaty was both to proclaim the peace and to

celebrate a joint sacrifice

(sunthusia)

between the two or more cities

whose rivalry was now at an end. The martyr procession of the

scapegoat had begun as the means to securing peace in the church

of Antioch. But in so far as other churches were now joining it,

they were likewise participating, through their clerical ambassadors

or speed-runners, in that sacrifice and joining the unity that it was

securing. Because those who came were to be viewed as ambas-

sadors, they came not as individuals but as representatives of their

com munities tha t were joining in their action to secure unity. In their

clerical representative, the 'churches, though not physically on the

way'

28

in front of him , nevertheless could still be said to accom pany

him in their representatives that 'went before me' and, in effect, 'led

m e o n the way from city to city'. As ambassadors, they proclaimed

to the churches in the cities ahead the merits and significance of the

scapegoat sacrifice in whose procession they were now advancing.

Divisions did not exist in the church of Antioch alone but were

replicated, perhaps to a lesser extent, from Syria throughout Asia

M inor. W hen Ignatius assumes the possession of a fully developed

threefold hierarchy he is engaging in the kind of political rhetoric

which claims that what is believed should be is what in fact is.

Division and heresy now become one in Ignatius' mind:

Make use only of Christian food; keep away from any strange plant that is

heresy. These are those w ho also mingle Jesus Christ with themselves in a

show of integrity, like people giving a deadly drug mixed with honeyed wine

which the unsuspecting gladly take with evil pleasure and therewith death.

Be on your guard against such people. You will be able to do this if you are

not puffed up and if you are not separated from Jesus Christ and from the

bishop and the ordinances of the apostles. He who is within the altar is pure

- that is, the person who does anything apart from the bishop, presbytery

and deacons is not pure in conscience.

29

Ignatius can thus regard l ieresy' as a threat to the unity thus being

achieved, but 'unity' was now being seen solely in terms of a

threefold order with a single bishop at its apex. Of the Ephesian

28

Ignatius,

Rom.

9.3.

29

Ignatius, Trail. 6.1-7.2.



58

Ignatius ofAntioch

bishop he says: 'Onesim us himself praises highly your godly order-

liness

—

that you live according to the tr uth and th at no heresy dwells

amongst you.'

30

Thus good order is now equivalent to Ignatius'

order centred on a single bishop, like Onesimus, and the presence

of heresy is equivalent to the absence of tha t order.

Thus Ignatius, possessed charismatically by the Spirit that is

advocating a new church o rder o f bishop, presbyters, and deacons, is

con struc ting social reality rather than reflecting

it.

H e is surround ed

by the aura of martyrdom, and in receipt of the mass response of

guilt on the part of those whose resistance to him had led to his

imprisonment and condemnation by the pagan, Roman power.

As is common in social groups who have produced scapegoats,

the expenditure of guilt and regret has led to a reduction of social

tension and to social peace.

The vehicle for his reconstruction of social reality is firstly the

rhetoric of the Spirit-filled martyr, communicated in his letters by

means of messengers between the churches, including the church

of Antioch, with access to him on the official imperial highway, the

cursus

publicus.

But secondly he is using theatre to try to persuade

others of his way of viewing his situation

—

the theatre of a

procession of sacrifice in which churches are to be joined together

in unity and concord by their participating representatives. Thus in

his creative imagination

—

creative though perhaps highly disturbed

- he sees in the work of the heretics a threa t to his procession and

its choreography as an effective icon of unity.

Th ose w ho deliver his letters and bring back news along the

cursus

publicus

were, as we have seen, Christian officers who w ere counter-

parts to imperial ambassadors and speed-runners. But their heretical

opponents were like criminals and pirates setting ambushes along

the imperial highway — they were like 'wolves':

For

many plausible wolves

are taking God's speed-runners captive through

evil pleasures, but they will have no place in your unity . .. For all who are

of God and Jesus Christ, these

are

with the bishop; and

all who

repent and

come to the unity of the church, these too will be of God ... if anyone

follows a schismatic, he does not inherit the kingdom of God[.]

31

30

Ignatius,

Eph.

6.2.

31

Ignatius,

Phld.

2.2-3.3.



The Choreography of the Martyr Procession 59

Thus the unity of nascent episcopal order is reinforced by the

procession of the martyr-bishop of Antioch that effects peace

in his home church. Indeed, those who deny that order are like

highwaymen attacking the bishop whose legitimacy is vindicated in

his scapegoat sacrifice.

Ignatius was thus a strange and enigmatic figure, spurned initially

but then accepted in his absence with regret and remorse. He

claimed personal, charismatic gifts, which would make a pagan like

Lucian respond with sceptical derision but amongst believers was

capable of eliciting awe quite apart from the guilt with which such

awe was interlaced in his special case. Moreover the playing and

choreographing of the scapegoat-victim aspect of his martyrdom

for all it was worth seems to us bizarre. Such behaviour, we might

think, could make little further headway with his project beyond

what we might call today 'a few headlines' about a highly idiosyn-

cratic individual.

In order to commend his views in a form they found convincing, he

needed to relate his proposals to his contemporaries within a contem-

porary pagan discourse tha t they found persuasive. And in this respect

Ignatius proved

a

master of missionary persuasion in his contemporary

pagan environmen t Such, after

all, is

the general method of spin-doctors

in creating any movem ent for political change.

Let us consider a m odern example from our twenty-first-century

political discourse. The rhetorical arguments for social change

proceed on the basis of concepts of equality and fairness that

would in the main reject the denigration, at least wholesale, of

the unemployed and those receiving welfare benefits and their

humiliation. Thus if one is to reduce or reallocate welfare benefits

it cannot be done on such denigratory grounds if such a propo sal is

to win general political acceptance. Rather, it m ust be spun in term s

of fairness to the individual who is unemployed or to the welfare

beneficiaries themselves. Thus, in the contemporary discourse of

fairness and equality, benefits are cut off in order to help the

individual *break out of the culture of dependency'.

Counselling is to be provided into programmes of re-education

^helping' the individual to develop their talents in socially useful ways

that are also to their benefit. N or indeed is it possible to speak of 'all

spin' as opposed to 'no substance' in such an argument, unless one

believes that all moral arguments or all statements about the world



60

Ignatius ofAntioch

are completely socially relative. I can be right though my lightness

goes unacknowledged by the majority, I am sure. But my point is

that if I am to be acknowledged to be right by my contem poraries,

it is because I share persuasive patterns o f arguments and moral and

social categories with the majority in terms of which I can secure

acceptance of particular changes I am advocating.

Ignatius therefore needed to do what I shall argue that in fact

he did regarding his martyr procession as a visually choreographed

argument for unity and episcopal church government. He needed

to cast his entourage and the church order it represented in terms

of contemporary political categories, themes, and arguments from

the wider Hellenistic pagan culture of urban Syria and Asia Minor

which form s the historical backcloth to the Ignatian events.

We shall now see how Ignatius engaged with contemporary pagan

culture in a reconstruction of ecclesial order that represented a

process of radical secularization.

3. Igna tius and the Rh etoric of the Seco nd So phistic

The fourth and fifth centuries before Christ witnessed at Athens a

famous experiment in social organization and government whose

nam e, 'dem ocracy', we have inherited, however different m ode rn

democracies may be to the Athenian model. As a basic though

surely inadequate description, the A thenian political philosophy was

that mankind is a naturally social animal, and therefore to be truly

free one needed to participate in a society that was natural. Such a

society, like a natural organism, would be one in which the various

parts and organs worked together in a harmony beneficial to the

whole, and in which one organ was sovereign because it produced

the harm ony beneficial to the whole.

Every person who was truly free would participate in the citizen

body, the ekklesia or 'assembly' that had a legislative function. Th ere

were no representatives such as MPs to pass laws on behalf of

the citizen body: every free citizen was to participate directly in

the democracy. Furthermore, the ekklesia would appoint military

commanders, elect ambassadors, and ratify treaties. There were

other organs of the government in addition to the ekklesia. There

was a deliberative body or council (boule) elected or appointed by

various means depending on the particular city. There were also



The Choreography of the M artyr Procession 61

panels of judges for judicial proceed ings also appointed by a variety

of means depen ding upon the particular city.

Essentially, therefore, the city-state had to be small, with a limited

population, in order to make its version of direct and participatory

democracy

work.

Every free (male) person had to be able to participate

in legislation, and to be able to travel to and gather together in the market

place

{agora)

in the city centre for the ideal to function. Furthermore,

the city was to be an educative community, since the free citizen would

need to learn the art of speaking in order to persuade other, equally

free citizens of a proposed

law:

one group in a 'democracy* could no t

impose its will upon another by force, otherwise it would cease to be

a 'democracy* and become an 'oligarch/ or the rule of the few. But

not only the art of argument and of persuasion, but other skills and

talents were to develop as the result of such freedom. Such talents were

celebrated and enjoyed at literary and dramatic festivals, musical contests

and athletic games. Mankind, who was naturally social, should also be

naturally free bo th to legislate and to flourish physically and artistically,

and in philosophical discussion.

For the requirement of natural freedom for a person who was

naturally social the city-state constituted as an

ekklesia

had to be

auto nom ous: such natural freedom would be destroyed if the social

organization in which it sought expression was under external

coercion from a foreign or alien power. This ideal, however, was

to be shattered in the course of historical events. An alliance of

autonomous city-states, freely entered into, was initially successful

against the Persians in 493 and 481 BC. But final success eluded it

when Athens with her allied city-states were defeated by Sparta and

her allies (404

BC)

in a war that ended the possibility of those states

together resisting imperial powers. Later the Macedonian empire of

Alexander the Great engulfed the city-states, and thus the ideal was

lo s t Finally, the Hellenistic kingdoms that were heirs to Alexander's

empire fell to Rome.

A t the close of the first century and the beginning of the second,

the ideal of the city-state und erw ent a revival in the H ellenistic city-

states of Asia Minor. At first sight this revival may seem curious in

view of the fact that the institutions of the city-states had powers

that were little m ore than those of 'town councils' unde r the Rom an

Empire, and thus were hardly the autonomous legislative bodies

con duc ted by free hum an beings, as the Athenian ideal had originally



62

Ignatius ofAntioch

envisaged them . How could the ideal in its original form become a

reality as opposed to no m ore th an a passing dream?

The ideal was to survive in a different form and with a different

function. It could no longer be a proposal for a different kind of

social and political organization that would be an alternative to

living within a large, imperial structure. But it could now function

as a means of preserving at a social-psychological level a feeling

of cultural identity against the imperial power, an inner, psycho-

logical space as it were within which cultural identity, au tonom y and

freedom could be experienced. 'Big Bro ther', so to speak, could no t

finally dom inate totally the mind and the will by a psychological

conversion experience that changed all hostility to his domination

into a final joyful con sent, as ultimately happened to W inston Smith

and Julia in Orwell's novel 1984.

Simon Price has traced the outline of such a social-psycho-

logical process specifically in terms of the imperial cult.

32

It is

a mistake to think that the demand for emperor worship was a

one-sided instrument developed by the Roman imperial power to

keep a society in subjection: it was not like Orwell's totalitarian

state, in which outward conformity was not enough and the dicta-

torship needed also to dominate totally the mind of the subject.

The demand for emperor worship came initially from the Eastern

city-states themselves in both Asia Minor and the Mediterranean,

where Hellenistic rulers had also been worshipped. The request for

worship to be rendered to Augustus was initially heard w ith consid-

erable reluctance and only gradually took hold on the Principate

from Augu stus' time to that of Dom itian.

Price's thesis is that th e imperial cult, paradoxically, had the effect

of protecting and insulating Hellenistic cultural identity from the

effects of imperial domination: it preserved the citizens' view of

the institutions of their city-states as autonomous. By divinizing

the imperial power as an external force, it placed it in a different

transcendental and ontological category from that of 'normal'

political institutions. Thus the institution of the cult of emperor

worship performed an importan t socio-political function: it enabled

32

S. R. Price,

Rituals and

Power.

The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor

(Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1984); cf. Brent, Ignatius and the

Second

Soph istic, p p .

2 5 9 - 6 3 .



The Choreography

of

the

Martyr Procession

63

an external power that was inconsistent with a free constitution

to remain unintegrated with that constitution. Thus the internal

institutions of the city-state, founded on the assumption that they

were free and autonom ous, could continue to be considered as such

notwithstanding the incursion of an external, imperial force upon

them. Imperial laws could be obeyed and received within a consti-

tutional structure that could not thereby be changed by them: they

were divine, so the constitutional structure remained human.

Th us 'alienation' or the psycho-sociological experience of gro up

powerlessness and antagonism to a dominant power could be

overcome through a psycho-sociological process of this kind. The

Second Sophistic, in reviving the ideal of the city-state in Athen s at

its prime, was engaged in a similar exercise. Sophists were engaged

in travelling from city to city, often as ambassadors, exhorting

citizens to unite together in a common, Hellenic unity expounding

the H ellenic ideal, and pro-actively to pro m ote their comm on civili-

zation, which was quite distinct from that of Rom e.

Ambassadors were elected to emphasize that message, such as

Scopelian of Klazomenae (AD 80-115), high priest of the imperial

cult of Asia, and ambassador to Rome in Domitian's time. He also

acted as ambassador for Smyrna to the emperor Trajan around the

traditional date of Ignatius' death (AD 115). As we have seen, ambas-

sadors were elected in order to conclude homonoia treaties between

cities that had been rivals and whose rivalry had disturbed the

perceived Hellenic order. An orator like Dio Chrysostom (AD 4 0 -

120) delivered his discourse on concord to the city of Borysthenes

(AD 95), in which he compared the natural homonoia of a city to the

divine cosm os: the object o f social life

w as

'to fit together the hum an

and the divine'.

33

As an example of homonoia ̂ Dio cites the cosmic

concord of the constellations of stars and planets. Gods do not

dominate and control one another by force and power. Rather their

orderliness is a rational order, freely entered into, of the 'chorus' or

'choir'.

34

Thus Ignatius in his writing activity and in his designation

of members that have joined his procession as 'divine ambas-

sadors' and 'speed-runners' proclaiming a message of 'peace' and

33

E H o C h r y s o s t o m , Or. 3 6 . 3 1 ; c f . B r e n t , Ignatius and the Second Sophistic, p p . 2 4 9 - 5 2 .

34

Dio Chrysostom, Or. 36.22.



64

Ignatius ofAntioch

'homonoid

within and between church

ekklesiai

is very much paral-

leling contemporary pagan political structures and enterprise in the

Hellenistic Asia Minor o f the Second Sophistic. H e has adapted this

pagan political project to his Christian ends. His ekklesia

y

like Dio 's,

is to gather in

homonoia

like a

choros

or 'choir'. To the Ephesians, as

we have seen, he had spoken of 'running in concord

{homonoidf

with their bishop: 'Each of you join the chorus in order that, with

voices in concord

{homonoia)

.. . you might sing with one voice.'

35

To

the R om ans also he says, as they approach his martyr sacrifice in the

arena, that they are 'becom ing a cho rus in love, you may sing to the

Father in Jesus Christ'.

36

Furthermore, regarding Dio's claim that a city whose citizen

assembly

(ekklesia)

is in concord unites the human and the divine,

we note that Ignatius claims of the Christian ekklesia, when duly

constituted in concord with a bishop , realizes a union of the hu m an

and the divine:

Be

subject

to

the bishop and to each other, as Jesus Christ

to

the Father

and

the apostles to Christ and to the

Father,

in order that there might be a unity

in both flesh and Spirit

37

This idea of a developing unity of Hellenistic culture to be fostered

in this way proved to be a dynamic one as the second century

proceeded towards the third. Dio and Skopelian were to be followed

by Aelius Aristides (AD 117-87) and these in turn were followed

in the course of the third century by biographers of philosophers

and sophists such as Philostratus

(c .

AD 170-213) and Diogenes

Laertius (early third century). These writers were to claim that the

Greek city-states of Asia M inor formed a com m on H ellenic culture,

characterized by its contemporary mystery religions, its common

history, and its autonomous political institutions which constituted

the city-state. That culture was a pure, uncontaminated Greek

culture, as Diogenes Laertius claimed in his

Lives

[o r Successions]

of

35

Ignatius, Epb. 4 .2; 19.2.

36

Ignatius,

Rom.

2.2, cf. n. 25 above and related t ex t

37

I g n a t i u s , Magn. 1 3 . 2 .



The

Choreography of

th e

Martyr Procession

65

the Philosophers, which excluded Lucretius and Seneca because they

wrote in Latin.

38

It

is

im por tant to stress that the character of this historical process

was no t one of asserting Hellenic political indep endence in a revolu-

tionary way. Rather it was the development of a separate cultural

identity to which Rome as the imperial power was not adverse; it

remained part of the imperial structure without feeling alienated

from it. In this respect, the function of the movem ent know n as the

Second Sophistic was no t unlike the function of the imperial cult in

enabling Greek city-states to incorporate subjection to empire into

its system by divinizing and m aking transcend ent external pow er so

as to preserve their internal constitutional structures.

If the Second Sophistic had been a movement of political

resistance, it could not have contained within itself the paradox

of a homonoia treaty between Ephesus, Smyrna and Pergamon

attempting to settle a dispute over which one of them had greatest

pre-eminence in their possession of a temple of the imperial cult.

Clearly their assertion that as free cities they were not coerced or

constrained by force was not belied for them by emperor worship

as an expression of imperial domination. Furthermore, Domitian

and Hadrian were both to enter into the discourse of

homonoia

and

autonomy rather than domination and

pax.

From Domitian's reign

we have series of coins with

homonoia

inscriptions, suggesting that

homonoia

could be pa rt of and no t oppo sed to the imperial ideal. And

Hadrian too , as well as his successors including Marcus A urelius, was

to enter political dialogue with Hellenism using such a discourse.

The rhetoric of the Second Sophistic did not exist purely in the

written and spoken words of its orators, but found embodiment in

institutions both political and religious that further reinforced and

reflected its ideal of cultural unity. The mystery cults themselves, so

pro minent in the life of the cities as Aelius Aristides shows, were to

play their role in cementing unity between the city-states.

39

Autonomous and independent individual city-states could be united

into a federation called a

koinon.

The Greek word

koinos

means literally

lield in comm on' or 'shared' and thus

koinon

meant a comm on council

38

A. Brent, 'Diogenes Laertius and the Apostolic Succession', JEH 44 (1993), pp.

367-89.

39

A e l i u s A r i s t i d e s , Or. 2 2 . 8 - 1 0 ; c f . B r e n t , Ignatius and the Second Sophistic, p p . 2 3 1 - 3 3 .




in which all had an equal share of power in fulfilment of the ideal of

homonoia. The koinon of Asia was centred on Ephesus, where there

was

a

temple of the imperial cu lt It

was

in the council chamber of the

koinon

that Aristides

was

to deliver his speech 'O n H omonoia', on 3 January

AD

167.

Ignatius too finds such

a

principle of political unity of relevance to

his quest to produce a common Christian identity.

Ignatius frequently uses the adjective

koinos

in order to express the

unity that he claims to exist but that in reality he is trying to create

between Christian groups w ithin Asia Minor. In seeking to constitute

such groups as Christian ekklesiai,

he appeals to pagan concepts of

community when he uses this adjective. He refers frequently to

the 'common' or 'shared name' or 'shared hope', particularly in

connection with his martyr-sacrifice, with which he thus unites

them.

40

Bu t m ore significantly for the political con text of this term ,

he speaks of the bishop, following a preface in which homonoia

figures, as 'having acquired his ministry as a ministry connec ted w ith

our Common Association' (koinon).

41

It is important for individual

Christian com munities, once duly constituted as

ekk/esiai,

to have the

ministry of the bisho p if they are to beco me part of a wider unity.

A

koinon

of a collection of Greek city-states cannot be under-

stood in post-Enlightenment terms, as a secular institution. The

koinon

of Ephesus was a religious institution as well as an organ

promoting Hellenic unity: political unity therefore had an insepa-

rably religious base. That base was in the mystery religions, whose

processions formed a considerable part of the festal life of those

cities, and which were becoming associated, as we shall observe in

the next chapter, with the imperial cult: there were also specifically

imperial mysteries.

42

Such cults, moreover, were themselves forming

associations that were international. When Hadrian was initiated

into the Dionysiac cult, a 'synod' or 'cult' association in Ancyra in

Asia Minor issued the following decree:

Decree of the sacred athletic cult association

(sunodos)

of Hadrian,

from

hose

40

Ignatius, Eph. 1.2; 21.2; Phld. 5.2; 11.2.

41

Ignatius, Phld. 1.1.

42

The main inscription is found in IGRR

I V . 3 5 3 ;

for commentaries

o n

this see H . W.

Pleket, 'An Aspect

o f

the Imperial Cult: Imperial Mysteries', HThR 58 (1965), pp .

331-47, Brent, 'Ignatius

o f

Antioch and the Imperial Cult* and Ignatius and the Second

Sophistic, pp. 156—57.



The

Choreography

of the

Martyr Procession 6 7

who

from

he whole world

(pikoumene)

are in Dionysus' company

and

that of

the

emperor,

Trajan, Hadrian,

Caesar,

Augustus, the new Dionysus [.]

43

Clearly the cult of Dionysus was making a claim that it was interna-

tional — that it extended througho ut 'the w hole world'

{pikoumeni).

Furthermore, Hadrian was to create a Panhellenic Council for

all Greeks. We have an important witness to this event in a decree

sent from Thyateira to Athens (after AD 132) thanking Hadrian for

obtaining the consen t of the Senate to found this Council as one of

the

(13) benefactions ... from the greatest emperor because privately and

publicly he has been the benefactor of the whole of Greece (14) the king

who was the assembler from amongst the Greeks of that council [the

Panhellenion] to fulfil an ambition shared by all (15) to honour the most

resplendent city of the Athenians, that is, the Benefactoress (16) who gives

the fruit of the mysteries to all equallyf.]

44

Here we see gathered , by the authority of the em peror H adrian, and

with the consent of the Senate, the Panhellenion or council, drawn

from representatives of the Greek city-states centred on the worship

of Zeu s Panhellenios, at the temple of Zeus Olympius at A thens.

In completing this task at A thens, Hadrian assumed the office of

the eponymous

archon

of the Olympic games themselves, in which

capacity, with sacerdotal functions, he celebrated the Dionysiac

rites in connection with the founding of the Panhellenic Council

for which a temple was built. The basis of Hellenic unity was a

metaphysical one: the unity was unity in celebrating Athens, 'who

gives the fruit of the mysteries to all equally'.

45

Thus the aims of

Hellenic unity on the basis of a com m on , Hellenic identity

was

to be

achieved through a com m on cult in which com m on mysteries were

celebrated. Cults 'from the whole world' would becom e a 'com m on

association'.

43

SEG VI. 58. 1-6 ; VI. 59 .1- 5; see also Brent, Ignatius and the Second Sophistic, p p . 1 4 1 -

42.

44

SEGXINT1.163.1 -17. See also C P.Jones, A Decree of Thyatira in Lydia',

Chiron

29 (1999), pp. 1-21, with which cf. A. J. S. Spawforth, The Panhellenion Again',

Chiron

29 (1999), pp . 339-52.

45

Cassius Dio (Xiphilinus) LXBL16.1-2. See also Pausanias 1.18.9: 'Hadrian erected

for the Athenians, in addition to other buildings, a temple of Hera and of Zeus

Panhellenios.'



68

Ignatius ofAntioch

Ignatius, as we have argued, is, through the project of his

martyr procession, seeking to associate the process of a developing

Hellenic unity and identity with Christian unity and identity. His

'divine ambassadors' and 'divine speed-runners' are promoting

Christian unity by prom oting a com m on, Christian cult clearly struc -

tured in term s o f his hierarchy with a single bishop at its apex. Th us

he is con struc ting his mode l of ecclesial unity from that used by his

pagan contemporaries of the ideal of Hellenic unity in the Second

Sophistic.

The 'cult association' or

sunodos

of Dionysus, from which the word

for a meeting of an ecclesiastical council, namely 'synod', was to be

derived, was from 'the whole world or oikoumene\ Th e Panhellenion,

celebrated with rites in ho no ur of Zeus , had the em peror H adrian as

its convener, as 'the one who convenes' {ho sunagon). This term was

in fact a technical term used originally of archons a t A then s wh o had

the right to summon the citizen body

(ekk/esia),

46

but extended to

apply to the person w ho had th e right to sum mon a cult-association

sunodosf

1

Ignatius does not use this particular term for the bishop,

but he will insist that he, in the Christian ekk/esia, is the person

who, in conjunction with the presbyters and deacons, sum mons the

church together. Having described the threefold order of bishop,

presbyters and deacons he claims: Without these a church

(ekk/esid)

is not summoned.'

48

As Ignatius says to the Smyrnaeans:

All of your should follow Jesus Christ as Jesus Christ follows the Father;

and follow the presbytery as you would the apostles. Respect the deacons as

the commandment of Jesus Christ. Let no one do any of those things that

are connected with the

ekk/esia

apart from the bishop. Let that eucharist

be considered valid that occurs under the bishop or die one to whom he

entrusts it... It is not permitted to baptize or to hold a love feast without

the bishop. Whatever he approves is acceptable to God so that everything

should be secure and valid.

49

46

L y s i a s , Eratos. 1 2 4 . 4 3 .

47

S e e B r e n t , Ignatius and the Second Sophistic, p p . 1 9 1 - 9 3 f o r o t h e r e x a m p l e s a n d f u r t h e r

j u s t i f i c a t i o n

o f

t h i s c l a i m .

48

Ignatius, Magi. 10.3, where I translate ekkksia ouk kakitai as 'an ekk/esia is not

summ oned' in place of the

usual,

rather clumsy 'a church

is

not named

as

such'. Such

a translation reads too m uch English idiomatic sense into the G reek.

49

I g n a t i u s , Smyrn. 8 . 1 - 2 .



The Choreography

of

the

Martyr Procession

69

But this applies to each individual church or ekklesia: as yet there

is no

koinon

composed of churches throughout 'the whole world'

(oikoumene).

Yet as we have seen, in parallel with his dynamically developing,

secular, pagan political context, he himself is developing the ideal:

the churches that he addresses share a com mon {koinos) nam e and if

they have an episcopally cen tred ministry, then they have a 'ministry

connection to our common association (koinori)\ even though such

a Christian koinon did not yet exist in concrete form.

Ignatius nevertheless envisages his individual churches united in a

'common name' and also a 'common ministry', with both

homonoia

uniting them internally and also externally between churches w ho share

that name and ministry

as

'extending throughout the world'. This English

phrase is expressed by one word in Greek,

katho/ikos,

from which our

word 'catholic' is derived. As he also said to the Smyrnaeans:

Wherever the bishop may appear, there let the congregation be, even

as wherever Jesus Christ may be there is the Catholic Church

{katholike

ekklesia).

50

As we shall see later, if the letters of the middle recension are

genuine, Ignatius is using here for the first time the expression

'catholic church'. Our argument has been that this expression has

been developed by an Ignatius who breathes the air of the pagan

political culture of his own time, which has an impetus to create

a collective and international identity for Hellenistic city-states

endevouring to define their cultural ideal over against the imperial

power. Ignatius' imperative for Christian unity mirrors the political

imperatives of his pagan contemporaries.

We have already mentioned more than once the role of pagan

religion in asserting and celebrating the universal definition of

Hellenic identity. The Panhellenion involved a temple to Zeus

Panhellenios and the celebration of rites in his honour, over which

the emperor Hadrian presided. But we have also noted Hadrian's

similar association with mystery cults such as those of Dionysus,

and of an international association of participants in those rites.

These to o expressed th e life of the city-state, since their magnificent

processions would be witnessed as a great cultural event by all

50

Ignatius, Smyrn. 8 .1-2.




citizens immediately prior to their entrance in to the sh rine where the

secret rites of the initiation were perform ed.

Ignatius travelled in chains to Rome across Asia M inor proclaim ing

his solution to the factional conflict at Antioch. Those factions, as

his letter to the Philadelphians has show n us, had their coun terparts

in the cities to whom he addressed his letters. Unity required a

common cult that was international, that was 'catholic' — that was

spread 'throughout the whole

{katholikosf

world. But how specifi-

cally could his Christian cult, organized on the model of those

mystery cults that contributed to a common, Hellenistic cultural

identity, now be understood and interpreted in a way that made it

too a means of celebrating and reinforcing Christian unity?

It is to that question that we now turn.



Martyr Procession and

Eucharist: The Christian

Mysteries

Ignatius describes the deacons as 'deacons of the mysteries of Jesus

Christ'. Furthermore, he speaks of the Christian Eucharist as a

'mystery rite' — contrasting it with the rites of 'those w ho celebrate

the Sabb ath' - as necessarily taking place on Sunday, 'the Lord's day'.

Thus he says to the Magnesians:

If those who conduct their affairs concerned with old practices come to a

new hope, no longer Sabbatizing but living according to the Lord's day in

which our life rose through him and through his death, which some deny,

then it is through a mystery rite we came to believef.]

1

It was through a mystery rite — necessarily on a Sunday, when the

day can act as one of the prop s of the mystery play - in which the

believer dies and rises in mystical identification with the dying and

rising Lord. Sunday is an allegory of the resurrection of the Lord,

w ho rises as the sun, and so that day gives expression to the mystery

that transforms the believer. Furthermore, parts of the Christian

mysteries no t disclosed to the outsider are recounted thus:

1

Ignatius, Magn.

9.1.

For those w ho 'sabbatize' as followers o f a Jewish mystery rite in

which the Sabbath

is

allegorized as a divine being, see A. Brent, Ignatius ofAntioch and

the Second

Sophistic,

STAC 36 (Tubingen: Mohf Siebeck, 2006), pp. 202-06.

71




The virginity of Mary and her giving birth escaped the notice of the ruler

of this

age; so did the death of the Lord - three mysteries of

crying which

were accomplished in the silence of God.

2

Ignatius, moreover, considers those who join his procession from

Ephesus as 'initiates' in a mystery cult: *You are on the passing of

the ways for those slaughtered to attain God, fellow-initiates with

Paul who has been sanctified, who has been martyred/

3

As in a

mystery cult, by imitating in the drama the actions of the god or

goddess, one experiences union with him or her. Ignatius believes

that his martyr procession also has the character of a mystery play

in which he is re-enacting Christ's suffering and thereby achieving

union with G od. As he says to the Romans:

That is the one I seek who died on our behalf; that is the one I desire who

rose again for

us.

But pains of birth have come upon

m e.

Gran t this to me,

brothers: hinder me no t from coming to life, do no t wish that I die; do no t

allow me to die, do not grant me as a favour to the world when I wish to

be of Go d, nor deceive me with matter. Permit me to grasp the pure light;

when I arrive there I will be truly human. Allow me to be an imitator of

the suffering of my God.

4

Here we have all the ingredients of one involved in a drama of

a mystery cult, where by imitating Christ's suffering he becomes

absorbed into the divine nature through death and resurrection,

which is rebirth. Ecstasy

is

also involved in the process, the grasping

of the 'pure light'.

But we should note that Ignatius believes that an

ekklesia

is

already a mystery cult with a mystery drama, as in the case of the

Ephesians just mentioned. The Ephesians, when they come to his

procession, are already 'imitators of God',

5

as are the Trallians

and Philadelphians.

6

Individual churches are already mystery cults

themselves, and he uses the word

sunodoi

of them, which, as we

have already seen, has such a meaning: 'You are all cult associa-

2

I g n a t i u s , ^ . 19.1.

3

Ignatius, Eph. 12.2.

4

Ignatius, Rom. 6.3.

5

Ignatius, Eph. 1.1 and 10.3.

6

Ignatius,

Troll.

1.2 and

Phld.

6.3.



Martyr

Procession

and Eucharist: The

Christian Mysteries

73

tions (sunodoi)\ he says to those who join his entourage.

7

Individual

ekklesiai are sunodoi as they join his entourage which expresses their

coming together in an international association spread through the

who le world as the 'catholic church'.

Since, then, Ignatius' language in choreographing his martyr

procession is clearly in the context of the mystery cults, let us now

explore in greater detail some examples of those cults and their

ceremonial in order to com pare these with Ignatius' concep t of the

threefold order. We need to keep in view the role that the structure

of those cults plays in both pagan and Christian concepts of social

and political unity as well as of personal immortality.

1.

Pagan Cult Leaders and Cult Ceremonial

Lucian, as we have said, wrote the story of Peregrinus Proteus as

a satire of a charlatan. Peregrinus died as a cynic philosopher by

throwing himself on his own funeral pyre at A thens at the Olym pic

games in

AD

165 but was for a time a Christian leader, who was

imprisoned . As I have mentioned already, Lucian appears to bestow

distinct Ignatian features on this figure, and therefore appears to

have had some experience of the activity of Ignatius to which his

letters bear witness.

8

Thus it is relevant to our theme to record how Lucian regarded

the position and character of Ignatius of Antioch. Peregrinus,

having been described as associating with 'priests and scribes' of

the Christians in Palestine and learning their wisdom, then became

a Christian leader. He was 'Prophet,

thiasarches

(cult leader), and

synagogeus

(summoner of their assembly) all at the same time'.

9

Lucian is not using

sunagogeus

in connection with a Jewish

synagogue but rather with the official of both ekklesia

and cult that

7

Ignatius, Eph. 9.2. For reasons why the normal translation of sunodoi as 'travelling

companions' or 'fellow-pilgrims' is unsatisfactory, see Brent, Ignatius and the Second

Sophistic, pp. 140-41. See also above, Chap. 3 n. 47 and related text

8

See above, Chap. 3 n. 24 and related t ex t

9

Lucian, Peregr.,

11. Synagogeus \s

often mistranslated as leader of their synagogue' but

there is no indication that Lucian knows of such an institution regarding Peregrinus

and the Christians. Their original leaders in Palestine were for him 'priests and

scribes'.



74

Ignatius ofAntioch

we have already com e across, namely, the figure w ho, like Ign atius'

bishop, has the authority to sum m on the citizen or cult assembly.

In using the tide

thiasarches

or cult leader Lucian is undoubtedly

employing a pagan word used also in connection w ith the D ionysiac

mysteries. It consists of two words that have been com bined, namely

thiasos

y

which is the word for those assembled as a mystery cult for

a mystery procession, and

arches,

which simply means 'the one who

leads'. Thus Peregrinus as a Christian leader is described, not as

a bishop, but as one who leads a cultic procession, selecting the

actors for its mystery play and physically 'standing out' at the head

of their procession. He is very much like the figure of Aeschines,

as Demosthenes, the classical Greek orator, had portrayed and

satirized his rival at Athens in the fourth century BC:

during the day, leading your fine cult processions

{thiasoi)

through the

streets, garlanded with fennel and white poplar, and squeezing forth fat-

cheeked snakes, and waving them above your head, and shouting and

dancing the Hyes

Attes

Attes Hyesl, addressed by old women as procession

leader

(exarchos)

and guide, ivy-bearer and fan-bearer and the

like[.]

10

Aeschines is described by technical terms such as exarchos or

procession leader and a bearer of sacred objects.

An other D em osthenes, wh om w e learn about from an inscription

and not a literary text, has left us with a further example of what

Lucian meant by describing Ignatius as a procession leader or

thiasarches. O n 5 July AD 125 the city council of Oinoanda in Lycia

recorded in a decree the benefaction of C. Iulius Dem osthene s, wh o

had founded a music festival and competition associated with the

imperial cult. The insc ription with the decree also records the letter

of approval by the emperor Hadrian.

11

Demosthenes, in providing for a procession, was to provide first

a golden crown or garland wreath embossed with small images

that were portraits of the dead and deified emperor Trajan, and

of Apollo, the ancestral god and

Prokathegetes

or leader' of the

city. The crown was to be worn by the agonothete, another name

for the procession leader. Apollo, the ancestral leader of the city,

10

Demosthenes,

Or.

18,

Cor.

313 (260).

11

i£'6 'XXXVIII.1462. For the full text and discussion, see Brent, Ignatius and

the Second

Sophistic,

pp. 157-59 ,230-31.



Martyr

Procession

and Eucharist: The

Christian Mysteries

75

is also leader of the cult in which he is worshipped, but the god

cannot literally lead his city or procession by his physical presence.

However, the image of the god in the crown can, as it were, make

the god sacramentally present in the p riest w ho wears it, leading the

procession on the god's

behalf.

12

The

agonothete

at the beginning of the year was to m ake a ceremonial

entrance, and was to perform pious rituals for the emperor and for

the gods of the city-state on the emperor's birthday. The other

magistrates were to join him in the procession. He was to take the

front seat at the meetings of the council and the assembly

(e/kkfesia),

physically pre-eminent in his headdress and purple robes. In the

procession, portable images of the dead and deified imperial family

are carried by appointed persons called sebastophoroi or 'bearers of

images of the August?. The sebastophoroi 2&so carry images of Apo llo

and of a silver altar. In other inscriptions we meet the special and

technical term for those who bear an image of a god, theophoros, as

opposed to sebastophoros

here.

Ignatius calls himself T he op ho ro s' at

the beg inning of all of his letters, the significance of which we shall

consider in more detail later.

We note that this procession willed to his city by Demosthenes

is in no sense a private benefaction enjoyed by a group of private

persons. His musical contest involves a religious procession with

acts of religious ceremony and worship that involve the total social

and political life of the community: the magistrates join with the

agonothete, who sits pre-eminently in their circle. Furthermore, we

note how imperial images are being associated with those of the

traditional deities that represent the life of their city: as we have

said already, the Second Sophistic was engaged in accep ting imperial

power as transcendental and divine so as to preserve its distinct

cultural identity. The emperor's divinity was associated with those

of the traditional gods but did not replace them nor obscure their

role.

Furtherm ore, other

villages

forming

a

confederation with the city-

state would be included in th e festival, in that they would contribu te

to it so that they became

sunthutai

or 'joint sacrificers' in a rite that

became a

sunthusia

or 'joint sacrifice'. The procession therefore

affirmed the unity of the villages in a confederation centred on the

12

Brent, Ignatius and the Second Sop histic ̂ chap. 3, sect A.



76

Ignatius ofAntioch

city-state (Oinoanda), as it affirmed through the introduction of the

imperial images the unity of the city-state within th e imperial whole,

both in miniature on the golden crown of the

agonothete

and in the

portab le images of the image-bearers

{sebastophorot)

of the Augusti.

We find mention of priests who are bearers of portable images

of gods and of sacred objects in Apuleius' description of the

procession celebrating the Isis mysteries:

The foremost high priests of the cult... carried before them the distinctive

attributes of the most powerful gods . Th e first held out a brightly shining

lamp ... the second ... carried with both hands an altar ... the third holding

aloft a palm branch made of fine gold leaves and a wand like Mercury's. The

fourth showed a symbol of justice [.]

13

Here we find in the Isis mysteries high priests bearing an altar

as

well

as other holy objects associated with the gods, who were thus the

counterpart of the sebastophorot in Demosthenes' procession, who

bore a portable silver altar in addition to those of the gods of the

city and of the imperial cult. They were 'bearers of holy things'.

Demosthenes' procession leader {agonothete) also bore or wore

in his garland-crown 'embossed faces' (prosopa ektupd), which were

divine images of Apollo and of Trajan. Sometimes such images are

called tupoi We have another reference to crowns or garland w reaths

with tupoi insetted and worn by the leader of a procession , this time

in a Latin literary document rather than a Greek epigraph.

Suetonius records for us the celebration of the Capitoline games

over which Domitian presided (AD 82) and who was therefore its

procession leader. This celebration informs us of im por tan t features

of the imperial cult through its iconography: it was here, Suetonius

maintains, that Domitian was hailed by the crowd as lord and god

{dominus et deus)\ He then describes the crowns worn by the college

of priests, the Flaviales, and their headgear, as well as that of

Domi t i an a s agonothete:

Domitian ... presided at the contest in half-boots clothed in a Grecian

toga of purple, sporting on his head a golden crown with an image of

Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, assisted by a priest of Jupiter and the college

13

Apuleius, if*/. 11.10.



Martyr Procession and Eucharist: The Christian Mysteries 11

of the Flaviales similarly dressed, except that his image was also on their

crowns.

14

Domitian wore a crown like those of the other priests, with 'an

image {tuposf of the three divinities of the Capitoline triad, Jupiter,

Juno , and Minerva.

Th us those divinities could be said to be present in the procession,

represented by the priests w ho bore their images and who therefore

made those divinities to be present. But they also wore the image

of Domitian, whose divinity too they represented. Accordingly

Do m itian himself had no image of himself in his crown: he needed

non e to make himself present. And this is no isolated feature of the

imperial ceremonial: in the case of Dem etriu s' too images of deified

emperors were subdy introduced and integrated with the cult of

traditional deities, producing a political theology of imperial unity.

Thus we see how images or

tupoi

can be either carried or worn

as an icon of divinity being made present in the office of a pagan

priest in a procession. We find

tupos

also being used in Josephus

when he describes the Old Testament scene where Rachel conceals

the

teraphim

or "images {tupoi)

9

of the gods she had brought with

her when she left her father to marry Jacob.

15

Pagan writers too

call portable images

tupoi

when they are used for such individual

purposes as found ing a cult or as a charm to ward off evil spirits.

16

Finally we should mention the way in which divine images that

are called

tupoi

appear o n coins and m ay be particularly related to the

office of ambassador w here a treaty between two cities is concluded

with a

sunthusia

or "joint sacrifice'. Caracalla's letter to Ephesus (AD

200-05) states to that city that 'your ancestral goddess Artemis

heads your em bassy'. What he m ean t by those words clearly was that

the image of Artemis, goddess of Ephesus, headed her embassy

because the ambassadors leading her procession bore her image.

At Alexandria also, the pagans, in the course of a dispute with

their Jewish neighbours, carried the bust of Serapis into the tribunal

when their case was heard before Trajan. The Acts of the pagan

martyrs describes such ambassadors as follows: 'each were carrying

in the procession their own gods'. It is a problem to know what

14

Suetonius,

Dom.

4.4.

15

Gen. 31.19;

c£

Josephus,

Antiquit

1.310-11

(19.8) and 322 (19.10).

16

Philostratus, VA V.20; cf. Brent, Ignatius and the Second

Sophistic,

pp. 207-08.



78

Ignatius ofAntioch

exactly the Jews for their part were carrying in parallel to the pagan

image of Serapis.

Am bassadors would clearly also have been active in the negotia-

tions for treaties such as a homonoia treaty end ing rivalry between two

or three city-states. It has been suggested that the form in which the

gods of the city were carried in such

a

procession would have been as

images or tupoi on coins bo rne in procession. We have a whole series

of such coins from various city-states from the first to the fourth

century celebrating a homonoia treaty betw een city-states in which the

tutelary deity of each of the cities personifies the city itself as they

are shown greeting one another in a gesture of reconciliation. For

example, we have coins bearing the names of Side and Alexandria

in which Athena , goddess of Side, is represented offering her right

hand to Isis of Alexandria over a small round altar with a flame.

17

T he altar arguably represents the joint sacrifice o r sunthusia. Th e coin

is inscribed w ith the w ord Hom onoia. T he goddesses in question are

clearly corporate representations of the cities themselves, whose

'whole multitude', as it were, in the persons of their divinities, are

being collectively reconciled.

To use later Christian terminology, there is a kind of sacramental

character to the use and manipulation of divine images both in the

coinage and in the functions of the processional garland-crowns. A

sacrament is a symbol that 'symbolizes what it effects, and effects

wh at it symbolizes'. T he bearing of coins with the respective deities

of the two cities by ambassadors over an altar celebrating their

sunthusia

represents symbolically, on the o ne hand, the

homonoia

treaty

reconciling th e tw o cities. But in their joining in the procession, and

experiencing and responding to its divine imagery, they are in fact

further uniting together in mind and heart. The same can be said

wh en the bearers of divine images, the

sebastophoroi

and the theophoroi,

carry images of the ancestral gods and of the deified imperial family

in whose combination the unity of the 'autonomous' city-states

within the imperial who le is both being sym bolized, bu t

is

also being

further cemented and effected.

Let us now see where this section has taken

us.

We began with o ur

claim th at Ignatius was, on his ow n adm ission, a man obsessed with

his quest for church unity. His experience in his factionalized native

17

Brent, Ignatius

and

the

Second

Sop histic, pp. 257-58.



Martyr Procession and Eucharist: The Christian Mysteries

79

Antioch had convinced him of his mission to introduce a church

order founded upon a single bishop

as

the source of unity or concord

{homonoid)

between other authoritative bodies within the developing

ecclesial constitution, namely the presbyterate and diaconate and

also the laity of the com munity itself, which constituted with these

the Christian ekklesia. Such divisions would have their counterparts

too, but perhaps no t the sam e ferocity, in the Christian communities

of Asia M inor. His procession was intended on the basis of appeal

to his scapegoat-sacrifice to achieve similar concord {homonoid) both

within and between the Christian comm unities that he either visited

or who visited him as a prisoner in transit. His construction of his

martyr procession and the rhetoric with which he proclaimed it,

his demand for clerical ambassadors to spread his construction of

their social reality along the imperial highway, derived its force from

parallels with the contemporary movement for pagan, Hellenic

unity, the Second Sophistic.

But we have seen that the quest for pagan, Hellenic unity did

no t simply employ the devices of ambassadors elected to negotiate

homonoia

treaties, and to exhort those whom they addressed to strive

for an internal unity within their city based upon the metaphysic

of cosmic order alone. Cults such as those of Demosthenes used

processions and imagery in order to express and realize further in

the collective life of those cities a consciousness of Hellenic unity.

Those pieces of ceremonial instruments such as portable images

of deities or of their holy attributes, homonoia

coins inscribed with

divine images and b orn e in procession, garland-crowns inscribed or

interleaved with tupoi or representations of ancestral and imperial

gods,

all expressed the negotiation between the autonomous city-

state of the Hellenic ideal and the deman ds of the imperial who le.

We shall now see ho w Ignatius parallels these specific features of

the pagan Hellenistic cults in his view of the liturgical expression

of order in and between communities, and of the Eucharist as it is

celebrated in each Christian community and the martyr procession

that, in their clerical representatives, they join.

2. Ign atiu s' Clergy as Typoi in the Christian M ystery-cult

We have seen that Lucian and his contemporaries, whose direct

personal experiences gave his satire its point, regarded Ignatius'



80

Ignatius ofAntioch

entourage as a cult procession. It had

nerterodromoi

or 'speed-runners

to the underworld', paralleling Ignatius'

theodromoi

or 'divine speed-

runners'. It also had

nekrangeloi

or 'messengers of death', a satire

of Ignatius' theopresbeutai or 'divine ambassadors'. But Lucian also

regarded Ignatius, like Peregrinus Proteus, as 'procession leader

{thiasarchesf or 'cult leader', who as sunagogeus had the authority to

gather together the sunodos or assembly of the cult.

That Ignatius himself would accept, with certain qualifications,

such a comparison with pagan cults he could no t have made clearer.

Ignatius begins every one of the seven letters with his name, and

then adds 'who is also the Theophoros'. This title has been consist-

ently interpreted as a proper name, perhaps adopted by Ignatius at

his Christian baptism, though unique to him as 'it is not otherwise

attested as a proper name'.

18

But as I have already mentioned, theophoros

is

not a proper name.

It is a technical term for someone with a sacerdotal role in a pagan

procession: such a person bears a portab le image or wears one in his

garland crown

as

agonothete

or

thiasarches.

Such

a

role might be assumed

in an existing cult with an existing liturgy or m ystery play with roles

to be perform ed. It might, however, be assumed, as we have seen, by

someone who wished to create a new cult, since for this reason too

people acquired portable images or tupoi. We saw that Philostratus

makes m ention of such a practice, and Lucian affords an example in

his satire of another charlatan, Alexander, who introduced into Asia

M inor the cult of the serpen t Glykon for which he fashioned such an

image. Is not Ignatius reconstituting Christian com munity by analogy

with such a pagan cult in order to establish their unity?

Ignatius bears or wears in his flesh and in procession the image

of his suffering Father-god . As such, like the am bassadors or priests

w ho carried or wore divine images at the head of their processions,

the suffering G od himself can be said to head the procession in the

bishop, who is an image or

tupos

of the Father, as we shall shortly

see.

As he says to the Ephesians:

being imitators of God, having been inflamed by the blood of God,

you completed the task that was natural to you and brought it to perfect

18

W. R. SchoedeL,

Ignatius ofAntioch: A Comm entary on the Letters of Ignatius ofAntioch,

ed. H. Koester, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985), pp. 35 -37 .




81

completion. For having heard that I was being brought in chains from Syria

on behalf of our common name

and

hope,

you

hastened to

see me

because

by your prayer I had hoped to achieve through your prayer the

fight

with

beasts at Rome: the object, the achievement of my goal of becoming a

disciple.

19

In this passage, we are reminded of an epigraph in which, in

Hadrian's time and in connection with his worldwide Dionysiac

cult association, one Aelius Pompeianus is commended because:

'he summoned the players already on their journey with anxious

speed, and he provided for every par t of the mystery play'.

20

Union

with the divine was by joining in the mystery drama and imitating

the story of the god. So too the Ephesians were 'imitators of G od ',

hastening to join Ignatius and to form his procession like Aelius'

actors w ho were to perform the Dionysiac drama. Hadrian's sunodos

was worldwide, as we saw, and Ignatius here will point out the

significance of his cultic procession as concerned w ith the 'com m on

name and hope'.

We saw too that the

theophoros

could bear an image of the attributes

of a god as well as an image of the god himself. In the cult of M a

Bellone at Rom e, as in the cult of Attis, the priest carried a basket

or

cistus

containing the mutilated genital organs of Attis and is

described as a cistophoros. T he priest is nam ed, with his title imm edi-

ately following, like

theophoros

for Ignatius, as 'L. Lartius Anthus

Cis topho ros'. M embers of the Attis cult in procession were famous

for their wild, orgiastic dances , and for self-mutilation in imitation of

Attis. Lartius is depicted o n the relief with a laurel crow n decorated

with three medallions, with images or tupoi of divinities. In his left

hand are two double axes, and in his right a laurel twig with which

to sprinkle the blood p rodu ced by self-mutilation w ith the axes. H e

wears a crow n, possibly originally gold en, of laurel leaf design.

Such is the bloody spectacle of a high priest leading the Attis

cult and imitating the sufferings of his god in self-mutilation.

21

In

parallel, Ignatius claims that the Ephesians, hastening to join the

procession of his cult, are similarly stirred to ecstasy by what they

19

I g n a t i u s , ^ . 1.1-2.

20

SBC VI.59.&-28 ( = IGRR

III.209);

cf. Brent, Ignatius

and

th e Second Sophistic, pp.

142-43.

21

Brent, Ignatius

and the

Second Sophistic,

p .

161 and PI. 15.



82

Ignatius ofAntioch

see: they are 'inflamed by the blood of G od ' of the bishop on the

way to m artyrdom in the arena and projecting a tupos or image of the

suffering G od w ho m he is imitating and calling on the m to imitate.

That they should imitate an image that itself reflects or imitates a

divine image should not strike us as strange. We saw the logic of

this in the way that the images in the crowns of the Flaviales were

manipulated in the rite at Domitian's presidency of the Capitoline

gam es: they wore D omitian's image as well as those of the Capitoline

triad, whilst he wore their images by themselves. The Flaviales were

imitating the divine emperor, just as the emperor, as agonothete, was

imitating the C apitoline triad, in the images tha t bo th w ore.

Later in his letter to E phesus, Ignatius continues his modelling of

his procession on pagan cults and those who bear images in them.

We have already noted that

sunodos

describes a cult association, like

the worldwide cult association of followers of Dionysus in honour

of Hadrian:

You are all, therefore, also fellow cult members

(sunodoi),

God-bearers

{theophoroi), and temple-bearers (naopboroi), Christ-bearers (christophorot),

bearers of holy things

(bagiopboroi),

in everyway adorned with

the

command-

ments of Jesus Christ

22

Thus w e find that Ignatius regards each local congrega tion as a sunodos

or cult association in its own right, joined with others throughout

the world as 'the catholic church' because of its possession of a

common ritual and ecclesial order. Not only are they

theophoroi

like

Ignatius but also

naopboroi

or 'temple-bearers' like the

theophoroi

who

bore the portable silver temple in Demosthenes' inscription. We

may cite, in addition, the priest of Cybele from Lanuvium in the

mid-second century AD, who wore around his neck a necklace with

a naiskos or small temple inscribed upon it with images or tupoi like

the roun d medallions of Zeus and Attis worn o n his crown.

23

Once

again we have a naophoros who also bears or wears divine images in

his crown and is therefore also a

theophoros.

We shall see later that Ignatius views churches joining his

procession in virtue of their clerical representatives wh o accompany

him on his way. However, it is significant here that Ignatius does

22

I g n a t i u s , Eph. 9 . 2 .

23

B r e n t , Ignatius and the Second Sophistic p p . 1 6 0 - 6 1 a n d P i s 1 3 - 1 4 .




83

not simply see them becoming cult associations when they join his

company: he speaks as if each individual church is already such an

association.

We may therefore ask ho w th e liturgy in each church, as well as in

Ignatius' martyr procession, is also described in a way that parallels

a mystery association. Ignatius sees his martyr procession as an

extension of the liturgy. His martyrdom he sees in terms of his

union with the suffering God by the spectacle of whose blood the

Ephesians had been 'inflamed'. He asks the Romans to allow him

'to be an imitator of the suffering of my God'.

24

But if the martyr

procession is the path by which he 'attains' to God, the Eucharist

is the means by which the believer finds unity with the suffering

God:

Be anxious to celebrate therefore one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of

our Lord Jesus Christ and one cup for being united with his blood, one

altar as one bishop in conjunction with the presbyterate and deacons, my

fellow-servants. This is with the goal that whatever you do you may do

according to God.

25

Once again Ignatius is trading on his Hellenistic background in

his quest for ecclesial unity. Whatever is one and united, according

to Plato and his followers, is more real than what is divisible

and numerically plural. God is ultimately real and, because he is,

therefore, he m ust be one and cannot be broken into parts: he m ust

be indissoluble and therefore eternal. For us to be eternal we must

therefore achieve union with him. If he is a suffering God, then

we must achieve union with his sufferings. Union with him takes

place by imitation, in which we mystically are absorbed by what we

imitate. Ignatius' experience of the Christian mystery play at the

Eucharist is ultimately reflected in the mystery play tha t is his martyr

procession. As he says of his martyrdom :

I do not take pleasure in nourishment that brings corruption nor in the

pleasures of this life. I wish for the bread of God, which is the flesh

of Jesus Christ of the seed of David, and I wish for drink that is his

24

I g n a t i u s , Rom. 6 . 3 .

25

I g n a t i u s , Phld.

4 .



84 Ignatius

ofAntioch

blood, which is love that perishes not... pray for me that I may attain to

God[.]

26

A t his martyrdom they are to gather, no t for their norm al E ucharist,

bu t to his martyr-sacrifice in the arena, described in term s of a pagan

festival with a procession like that of Dem osthenes at O inoanda:

Grant me nothing more than to be poured out as a drink-offering to G od

while the altar is prepared, so that in love, constituting a choir, you may

sing to the Father in Jesus Christ that God has deemed the bishop of Syria

worthy to be found at the setting of the sun, having dispatched him from

the sun's rising.

27

likewise the Eucharist is described like a pagan festival in which

the procession gathers around it thiasarcbes, a gathering that Ignatius

characteristically describes as "running together'

28

when summoned

by a 'resolution' of the ekklesia:

It is fitting for you to run together in response to the resolution of your

bishop, just as you so

do.

For your presbytery, definitely named as such and

worthy of God, is so attuned to the bishop as chords to a

lyre.

Therefore

in your concord

(homonoid)

and in the symphony of your love Jesus Christ

is sung. And so each of you form together a chorus. In consequence, in a

harmony of concord

(homonoid),

taking up God 's note, you may sing in one

voice through Jesus Christ to the Father, in order that he may both hear

from you and know your favourable condition, being mem bers of his Son.

So being in blameless unity is to your benefit; it fulfils your object of ever

participating in God.

Here we have many of the ingredients of a mystery process ion

running together to enact a mystery play. The cul t associat ion or

thiasos thus gathers because of a 'resolution' duly issued by the

magistrate, who as sunagoges summons the cult together, as Lucian

described Peregrinus. The chorus sings in concord or

homonoia

as

an expression of acting out in unity the drama in which, through

imitation, they achieve participation in G od . It

is

he re th at they fulfil

the Pauline vision of becoming 'one body with many members'

26

Ignatius,

Rom.

7.3.

27

Ignatius, Rom. 2.2.

28

As,

eg., in D iodorus Siculus XVI.92.5, where the procession deifying Philip amongst

the twelve gods is described as 'runn ing together'.




85

through their united performance in the choral drama. Ignatius will

write to the Ephes ians a second letter if they have so arranged their

cult of the Christian eucharistic mystery:

I will especially do so if the Lord should reveal to me that you all as one

person have come together collectively but with individual names, in one

faith and in Jesus Christ, of the race of David according to the flesh, Son

of Man and Son of God. You will then be giving obedience to the bishop

and the presbytery undistracted in mind, breaking one bread which is the

medicine of immortality, an antidote for not dying but living for ever in

Jesus C hrist

29

As actors in the drama that is the Christian mystery, bishop,

presbyters and deacons, who are 'deacons o f the mysteries of Jesus

Christ',

30

have the impo rtant role:

And so, just as the Lord did nothing apart from the Father - being united to

him - neither on his own nor through the apostles, so too you do no thing

without the bishop and the presbyters. Do not try anything appearing

reasonable to you in private, but as a gathered church with one prayer, one

supplication, one mind, one hope in love, in blameless joy that is Jesus

Christ, whom nothing surpasses. All run together, as to one temple-shrine

of God, as to one altar to one Jesus Christ, who processed from the one

Father, and who was with the one and returned back to him.

31

These w ords are clearly to be understood in a liturgical context: they

are concerned with what is done in the context of 'one prayer, one

supplication'. W hat

is

'reasonable to you in private' is not t o be d one

in public in the course of the Eucharist: the prophets no longer

have the liturgical status that we saw they possessed in the Didache.

But we begin to see from this passage that the re is a mystery dram a

represented in the liturgy: about representing the procession of

Jesus Christ from the Father and his return in the context of what

we have seen to be Ign atius' image of a processional

choros.

Th e bishop sits here at the centre of a horsesh oe formation with

the presbyters sitting on each side of him, just as would continue

to be the case in the com ing early centuries. Th us the bishop repre-

sents, in the drama, the Father G od and the presbyters represen t th e

29

Ignatius,

Eph. 28.2.

30

Ignatius, Troll. 2.3.

31

Ignatius, Magnes.

1.



86

Ignatius ofAntioch

apostles. Ignatius w ill refer

to

their seated, broken circle around

the

bishop

as

'Spirit-filled':

Be eager to be confirmed in the teachings of the Lord and of the apostles

that you may prosper in whatever you do in flesh and in spirit, in the

beginning and in the end ... together with your worthily esteemed bishop,

and the worthily woven, spiritually garlanded presbyterate and of the

deacons according to God. Be subject to the bishop and to each other as

Jesus Christ was to the Father and the apostles were to Christ and to the

Father in order that your union may be both fleshly and spiritual.

32

What does

the

horseshoe formation

or

'worthily woven spiritually

garlanded presbyterate' represent

in

Ignatius' Christian mystery

drama?

It

represents

the

apostles and Jesus Christ in

the

scene

in the

Upper Room

on the

day

of the

resurrection according

to

St Joh n.

We find

a

shadow

of

that scene

in

Ignatius' statement that

Tor

this cause

the

Lord received anointing

on his

head that

he

might

breathe incorruption upon

the

Church.'

33

We

have here references

to

two

scenes

in two

Gospels, Matthew and Joh n.

In the

former,

an

unnamed woman anoints Jesus

on the

head

(it is on the

feet

in the

othe r G ospels), and Jesus proclaims

to his

disciples tha t

it

is

for his

burial.

34

But

Ignatius interprets this passage

in the

light

of

John's

post-resurrection narrative where,

at the

Johannine Pentecost

on

the evening

of the

resurrection, Jesus comes

and

^breathes in to '

the

disciples

and

says 'Receive

the

Holy Spirit', entrusting them with

the power

to

forgive sins

and

thus m aking the Church

the

extension

of

the

Incarnation.

35

Thus

in

Ignatius' words,

the

Lord 'breathe[s]

incorruption upon

the

Church'.

It

is

here, then , that we find

the

origins

of the

symbolism

of the

'worthily woven, spiritually garlanded presbyterate'

in

their seated

horseshoe around the bishop: they re-enact the scene in the Upper

Room

at

the Johannine P entec ost

It

is they who

are the

representa-

tives of

the

apostles, because they

are the

image

of the

apostolic

band

who

received

the

inbreathing. Bishops

are not as yet, as in

Ignatius' successors Hegesippus

and

Irenaeus,

the

successors

of the

apostles through a chain of succession running thro ugh history. The

32

I g n a t i u s , Magn. 1 3 . 1 - 2 .

33

I g n a t i u s ,

Eph.

1 7 . 1 .

34

Matt

26.6-13.

35

John 20.22-23.



Martyr Procession and Eucharist. The Christian Mysteries

87

bishop, rather, is the image mainly of the Father, though sometimes

Ignatius thinks of the bishop as the suffering G od and therefore the

image of the Son - Ignatius is no t always consisten t in his imagery

nor does he make the clear distinctions of later Trinitarianism

between the divine persons. The bishop and the presbyters seem

to parallel Christ and the apostles in the passage we quoted from

Ephesians. Thus by their unity with bishop and presbyters they are

united with Christ and the apostles, and also with the inbreathing

of incorruption upon the Church so that their 'union may be both

fleshly and spiritual'.

We may see Ignatius alluding to a further scene from the G ospe ls,

amo ngst which we mus t include the apocryphal

Gospel of

Peter. As we

argued, following Brown and Meier, the figure of Peter was signif-

icant for Ignatius' (and Matthew's) divided Antiochene community.

We noted the figure of Peter as the bridge-builder, whose authority

to 'bind and loose' contained the hope of a single authority figure

to bring an end to the internal strife of that divided community.

Ignatius will refer to this same figure, citing a non-canonical Go spel,

as the key to the mystical unity of the Church and the beginnings o f

the Christian mystery cult that ends divisions and achieves mystical

and cultic unity of its common, corporate life through union with

G od . Ignatius claims of the risen Christ:

For I know and believe that he existed in the flesh even after the resur-

rection. And when he came to those around Peter he said to them: 'Take

and handle me and see that I am no bodiless daemon.' And immediately

as they touched him and believed, they became intermixed with his flesh

and spirit ... after the resurrection he ate together with them and drank

together as a being with fleshly existence even though spiritually united

with the Father.

36

It is important to grasp here that Ignatius is not appealing to a link

with the apostles enduring through a historical sequence in time

with bishops as successors to the apostles in historical sequence.

Rather, in order to achieve union with God we must gather where

flesh and spirit

still interm ingle, where th e Spirit-filled council of the

apostles still gathers around a Peter existing concretely in the flesh

in an ongoing mystery drama in which we can participate and in so

36

Ignatius,

Smyrnaens

3 .



88

Ignatius ofAntioch

doing achieve the comm ingling of our flesh in a union w ith what is

spiritual.

This union, begun in the upper room with the inbreathing and

continuing with the appearance to Peter, continues also at the

Eucharist, as we have seen, where they receive the "medicine of

immortality, an antidote for not dying' that requires the threefold

order present for its validity. We now see the reason why. We need

the continuing presence of the apostles w ho are inbreathed with the

Spirit, and these are made present by the presbyterate as icons. We

need the bishop as Peter, around whom the apostles gathered. We

need the Father-bishop, for as Christ said according to St John, 'it

is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven to eat', and the

Father mus t be imaged in the role of the seated bishop who conse-

crates the bread and the

wine.

But we also need icons of the ministry

of the 'one Jesus Christ, w ho processed from the one Father, and

who was with the one and returned back to him'. These icons we

have in the deacons, who in the liturgy take the bread and wine from

the people and bring them to the bishop to consecrate them , thereby

issuing the Father-bishop's instruction. Thus they are those who

'processed from the one Father-'bishop 'and who was with the one

and returned back to him'.

37

Thu s they are 'deacons of the mysteries

of Jesus Christ'.

I

have

used the term 'icon', which

is

no t used

by

Ignatius. But we shall

now see that he does use ano ther word with the

same

sense, namely

tupos.

As

we have

said,

it is a word that has its historical and cultural location in

the pagan mystery cults and in the actors wh o bear images, as

theaphoroi

(Ignatius' term). A

tupos, as

we

saw,

referred to a portable image. Ignatius

now makes it clear that the actions of the three orders are like those of

the bearers of images in mystery cults:

Likewise let all revere the deacons as Jesus Christ, even as they do the bishop

who is there to create an image

{tupos)

of the Father and the presbyters as

God's council and as a band of apostles: without these a church cannot be

summoned.

38

We have also seen a paradox in the pagan use of images borne in

process ion . The

agonothete

w h o led the proces s ion, by bearing the

37

Ignatius, Magi.

7.2.

38

I g n a t i u s , Trail 3 . 1 .



Martyr Procession and

Eucharist:

The Christian Mysteries

89

god, enabled the god to be quite physically present at the head of

his procession. Here we see that, by enacting the roles of Father,

Son and Spirit-jfiUed apostolic council and thus creating spiritual

images of them, bishop, deacons, and presbyters are making them

present in the mystery. But the am bassadors who led the procession

to Hadrian from Alexandria, or who bore images of deities in the

form of homonoia coins, were also representing their communities

in that the gods and goddesses were mystical representatives of the

corporate personality of the members of the city itself.

Ignatius expresses this paradox too in his description of the three

orders, particularly the bishop. Having in the previous quotation

indicated to the Trallians the three images bo rne by the three orders ,

Ignatius continues:

Concerning these persons I am convinced that this is so. For I received a

model

(exemplariori)

of your love and still have it with me in your bishop,

whose very demeanour is a great lesson and whose gentleness is his power;

I think that even the godless respect him.

39

Thus having identified the bishop as bearer of the image of their

Father-God in the chorus for which he has summoned them, he

now claims that he has seen a model of their corporate life in

Polybius their bishop. Similarly, to the Magnesians he says:

Since therefore in the aforementioned faces I have by faith seen your whole

community and I loved them, I exhort you, be eager to do all things in

God's concord

{homonoia)

w ith the bishop presiding as an image of God

and the presbyters as an image of the council of the apostles and of the

deacons most sweet to me entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ...

Let there be nothing amongst you that can divide you, but be in union with

the bishop and with those who are pre-eminent with him in forming an

image

(tupos)

of incorruption and its teaching.

40

We are

reminded here of the

agonothete

of Demosthenes' procession, and

the 'embossed faces'

(prosopa ektupa)

that he bore or wore in

his

garland-

crown. Here too

w e

found the plural Greek word

prosopa

used of divine

images of Apollo and of Trajan, who were divine representatives of the

corporate life of the city and its unity within the imperial whole. The

39

I g n a t i u s , Trail. 3 . 2 .

40

I g n a t i u s , Magn. 6 . 1 .



90

Ignatius ofAntioch

word can also mean 'person' and indeed was destined to become the

term used of the 'three persons', no t in one goddess headdress as in the

case of the Capitoline triad, bu t of

the

godhead of the Christian Trinity.

The word, however, can also be used of actors' masks, such as those of

Pom peianus ' Dionysiac mystery play.

In this scene from

Magnesium,

Ignatius clearly has in mind such a

background.DamasofMagnesiaandhisprebjrtersBassusandApollonius,

accompanied by the deacon Zotion, arrive like the Alexandrian ambas-

sadors,

bearing images of divine beings who represent

the

corporate life

of their communities. They bear them, no t in the form of images of

wood, stone or metal, but spiritually in their flesh as they perform , like

actors wearing masks, the eucharistic dram a that expresses die corporate

life of their Christian communities in process of redemption. In the

Eucharist, they are achieving union with God because only where there

is a bishop with presbyters and deacons playing those roles can the

redemptive play take place. They are 'pre-eminent' as they stand ou t in

their roles, as an 'image' (tupos) of incorruptibility, whilst teaching what

those who join with them in

the

drama are becoming. It

is

here they relive

again the Father-bishop sending the diaconal son w ho returns from the

people to the Father-bishop again, with the Spirit-filled council of the

apostles guaranteeing the

timeless continuation of resurrection m orning

and the Upper Room, and its inbreathing and commingling of flesh and

Spirit

In consequence of their bearing, as ambassadors, the images

of Father, Son, and Spirit, not in the Eucharist but in Ignatius'

procession, they can now be corporate images of their community.

Thus Ignatius will say to the Trallians: 'I greet you from Smyrna,

along with the churches of G od w ho are present with me and have

refreshed me in every way, in flesh and in spirit.'

41

We note that it

is 'churches' in the plural and not simply the church of Smyrna

that is 'present with me'. Those churches are not present with him

because their members in total are physically present, as they are at

Smyrna. Ignatius clearly means that they are mystically present in

their clerical representatives who have joined his procession.

We find Ignatius claiming to see the co rpora te personality of the

whole gathered Church in the bishop, who visits him again in the

person of Polybius of Tralles:

41

Ignatius,

Trail.

12.1.




91

I recognize

the

blameless intention

and one

that

in its

tolerance respects

no particular person that

you

have,

not

because

you

have learned

it by

habit, but because it is yours by nature. This was what Polybius your bishop

revealed to me when he arrived in Smyrna at God's behest and that of Jesus

Christ Thus, so was our experience of joy together with me in my chains in

Christ Jesus that I saw your entire gathered congregation in him. Receiving

in welcome your kindness through him I expressed praise because I found

you, as I recognized, imitators of God.

42

Note that th is

is not

s imply what

he saw in an act of

kindness .

Ignatius claims to have been overwhelmed by joy that he shared with

Polybius and, thus overwhelmed, he had a vision in which he saw

their 'whole gathered Church' mystically in him.

In the gathered Church he can see him because thus gathered it

is conducting, the mystery play that produces union with the divine,

the divine life of Father and Son in union together. As he says

regarding Polybius, bishop of Ephesus:

For if in so short a time I enjoyed such an intimacy

(sunetheia)

with your

bishop —

not

that

it was

human intimacy

but

spiritual —

by how

much

more do I

g^ve

you my blessing that you are so mingled together even as

the Church is to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is to the Father to the end

that all things may be symphonic in their unity ... For if the prayer of one

or two has such strength, how much more that

of the

bishop

and of the

whole church? He w ho therefore does no t gather as a church is already too

proud and condemns

himself.

For it is written: 'God opposes the proud'.

Let

us be

eager therefore

not to

oppose

the

bishop

in

order that we may

be subject to God.

43

T h e G r e e k w o r d for ' in t imacy ' in this quotat ion

(sunetheia)

also

means ' sexual in tercourse ' , which presumably

is why

Ignat ius

is

at pains to emphas i ze its spiri tual nature: 'not tha t it was h u m a n

int imacy but spiri tual ' . Thus can ther e only in a spiri tual sense be a

'mingl ing together ' , jus t as the C h u r c h is to Jesus Chr i s t and Jesus

Chr i s t is to the Father .

The pseudonymous wr i t e r

of the N ew

Tes ta me nt l e t te r

to the

Ephes ians tha t bears Paul ' s name probably wrote as a m e m b e r of

the Ephes ian church . H e speaks of the relat ion be twe en Chris t and

t he Church as a 'great mystery ' , and also u ses the analogy of sexual

42

I g n a t i u s , Trail. 1.

43

I g n a t i u s , Ephesians 5 .



92

Ignatius ofAntioch

union to explain the joining of Christ to the Church. He cites the

book of Genesis, where it

says:

To r this reason a man shall forsake

father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall

becom e o ne flesh'.

44

The Ignatian experience is a similar experience

in which, through the threefold order, mystical union takes place

comparable to the joining of man and woman. It is however in

the bishop's person that the corporate personality of the whole

community in union with him can be seen by Ignatius.

So it is that Ignatius can claim that their churches were mysti-

cally present in the clerical visitors. To the Rom ans h e reflects from

Smyrna on his martyr procession so far and says:

My spirit greets you, as does the love of the churches that welcomed me

in the name of Jesus Christ, and not just as one passing through. For also

those who did not lie on my actual route led the way before me city by

city.

45

Thus the clerical ambassadors have become the churches that they

represent through the images that they bear, just as ambassadors

bearing images and leading the procession were considered the

divine leaders themselves because they held or wore those images.

We have seen, therefore, that for Ignatius the drama of the

Eucharist was not so much to convince outsiders in some evange-

listic way with its enacted sto ry of redem ption, no r to teach believers,

so much as to transform them as participants in that drama. But we

have also seen that the bearing of portable images, according to

Philostratus, was no t simply to enable a wandering prophe t such as

Lucian's Alexander to found a cult, or indeed, like Ignatius, to recon-

stitute an existing one with a new o rder and self-understanding: tupoi

were also carried or worn with an apotropaeic function, that is, to

ward off evil spirits.

46

Ignatius is also aware of this function. If he is

asked why one should m ore frequently gather together as an

ekkksia,

having achieved union with the divine, he will reply that it

is

because

by so doing the clerical

tupoi

or icons, performing their assigned

roles in the mystery drama, will shake the cosmic powers. As he says

to the Ephesians:

44

Eph . 5 .30-32; cf. Gen. 2.24 and Ignatius, Pol. 5.1.

45

Ignatius,

Rom.

10.2.

46

See above, n. 16 and associated text



Martyr Procession and Eucharist: The Christian Mysteries 93

You are fellow-initiates of Paul, who was sanctified . .. Be anxious therefore

to assemble frequently for the Eucharist of God and his glory, for when

you more frequently meet as a church the powers of Satan are destroyed

and his destruction is dissolved in the concord

{homonoid)

of your faith.

Nothing

is

better than peace, by which

all

war between earthly and heavenly

beings is abolished.

47

Thus the mystery drama that is the Eucharist is conducted with

the bishop as

agonothete

wearing the divine image and accompanied

by presbyters

and

deacons. These ministers

are

also compared

to

bearers

of

processional images and objects, w ho perform

an

apotro-

paeic function:

the

clergy, wearing them spiritually

in

their flesh,

or

representing them

in

their liturgical acts, wave

the tupoi as it

were

in

the

face

of the

cosmic powers

in

order

to

overthrow them:

'the

powers

of

Satan are destroyed and his destruction is dissolved in

the

concord

{homonoid) of

your faith".

Hence the eucharistic drama, in accomplishing union with the

divine, performs the apotropaeic function of banishing death and

decay

It is

here that

we

reach

the

heart

of the

Christian mysteries

according to Ignatius of Antioch. He declares those m ysteries to the

Ephesians in the following w ords:

The virginity of Mary and her giving birth escaped the notice of the

ruler of this age; so did the death of the Lord - three mysteries of crying

that were accomplished in the silence of God. How, therefore, were they

revealed to the ages? A star shone in heaven above all the stars, and its

light was indescribable and its newness created a strange feeling, and the

rest of the stars together with sun and moon formed a chorus around the

star and its light excelled above all things. And there was disquiet as to

the source of this newness so unlike them. In consequence, all magic was

dissolved, and every bond of wickedness was wiped away, ignorance was

removed and the old kingdom destroyed, with God appearing humanly

for the renewal of eternal life. And that which had been prepared by God

received its beginning. From that time on all things were disturbed because

the destruction of death had been planned.

48

The clerical icons, wearing in their flesh the tupoi of Father, Son

and Spirit

as

bishop, deacons,

and

presbyters,

and

performing

the mystery drama that is the Christian Eucharist, perform an

47

Ignatius, £^ .12.2,13 .

48

Ignatius, Eph.

19.1-3.



94

Ignatius ofAntioch

apotropaeic act: they realize the eschatological hope through their

apotropaeic imaging of divine beings who destroy 'the old kingdom '

and dissolve 'all magic' in 'renewal of eternal life'.

49

Thus Ignatius had the vision of an

ekklesia

reconstituted as a

mystery cult that achieved both union with the divine and conco rd or

homonoia

between different congregations and within congregations

bearing the co m m on , Christian name. In this way the Eucharist as a

mystery play would overcome the divisions of the church at Antioch

in Syria, and wherever such divisions were reflected in church life

elsewhere in Asia Minor. Furthermore, the theatre of the martyr

procession had its own persuasive eloquence in achieving the reali-

zation of Ignatius' vision in the life and tho ugh t of the churches o f

Asia M inor to w hom he addressed in his letters.

But how did they respond initially to his radical secularization

of church order in terms of the pagan societies of his Hellenistic

contemporaries? How and why did they come to terms with

Ignatius' radical proposal?

Polycarp will be th e key figure in our answer to this question, b oth

in what we shall read in his letter to the Philippians, and in Ignatius'

letter to him personally. But before w e develop ou r answer, we m ust

first deal with recent attacks that have been made upon the authen-

ticity of the middle recension, and of Polycarp's role in the original

collecting of Ignatius' literary corpus. As we shall see, Polycarp's

Philippians and its integrity is central to the discussion regarding the

authenticity of the middle recension.

49

See A. Brent, Ignatius and Polycarp: Th e Transformation o f N e w Testament

Traditions in the Context of Mystery Cults', in A. F. Gregory and C. M. Tuckett

(eds),

Trajectories through the

New

Testament

an d

the

Apostolic

Fathers (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 2005 ), pp. 325 -4 9.



Recent Attacks on the

Authenticity of the Ignatian

Letters

Iightfoot and Zahn, who worked independently of each other,

produced a consensus on the Ignatian letters at the end of the

nineteenth century that was to endure until the second half of

the twentieth century. Both these writers agreed more or less on

common grounds that there were seven genuine letters of Ignatius

the martyr bishop, w ho had lived and died in the reign of Trajan, as

Eusebius had testified. It was generally believed tha t their solution to

the Ignatian problem had successfully ended the continuing con tro-

versy over the authenticity of the middle recension whose text

Ussher and Vossius had succeeded in restoring. In this chapter we

must examine some more recent attacks on the authenticity of the

middle recension that have attempted to undo the Iightfoot—Zahn

consensus.

Let us look at five of these attacks from the last twenty years or

so.

In brief, these writers are as follows:

1.

Reinoud Weijenborg (1969) argues that the middle recension is

in fact a shortened form of the long recension. Since the long

recension mentions the date of Christmas, it m ust be dated after

the Chronographer of AD 354, otherwise know n as the I ibe rian

list. Thus both the longer recension and the middle recension

95




from which it is derived must be forgeries attributed to Ignatius

as a martyr of Trajan's time.

1

2.

Joseph Rius-Camps (1977) accepts, against Weijenborg, the

position of the overwhelming majority since Ussher and Vossius

that the middle recension preceded the long recension, with the

latter presupposing the former, which it altered and to which it

made additions. But six of the letters of the middle recension

(excluding

Romans),

along with Polycarp's Philippians, were

produced by a later forger from four original letters of a martyr

named Ignatius. The forger's purpose is seen in his additions of

all of the passages advocating the threefold hierarchy of bishop,

presbyters and deacons.

2

3. Robert Joly (1979) rejects Rius-Cam ps' theory that the seven letters

contain a genuine core. He argues that all seven are forgeries, bu t that

the forger interpolated passages regarding Ignatius' letters and visit

into Polycarp's

Philippians.

This

is also Rius-Camps' position regarding

the forgery made from the original four, which had contained no

reference to Polycarp, who had never met Ignatius. The forger's

purpose was nevertheless to justify

a

hierarchy centred on the bishop

that only emerged late in the second century.

3

4.

Th om as Lechner (1999) follows the general approach of Hiibner

and Vinzent (see next paragraph), but focuses specifically on

Ignatian theology as a response to late Valentinianism and

aeon speculation. Since late Valentinianism develops after the

martyrdom of Polycarp

(AD

155), and since Ignatius' views on

bishops presuppose the succession lists of Hegesippus and

Irenaeus formulated after

AD

165, the letters, purp orting to com e

from an earlier martyr, are forgeries. Once again, Polycarp's

Philippianshas

been interpolated by the forger in order to p rovide

a fictitious corroboration of his deceit

4

5.

Reinhard Hiibner and Markus Vinzent (1999), following Joly,

argue that the letters are forgeries and that the forger has inter-

1

R. Weijenborg,

Les

lettres d'Ignace dAntioche: Etude

de

critique litteraire

et

de theologie

(Leiden: E .J . Brill, 1969).

2

J. Rius-Camps, The Four Authentic Letters of Ignatius the Martyr, Orientalia Christiana

Analecta 213 (Rome: Pontificium Institutum Orientalium S tudiorum, 1980).

3

R. Joly, Le dossier d'Ignace

dAntioche,

University Libre de Bruxelles, Faculte de

Philosophic et Lettres 69 (Brussels: Editions de PUniversite, 1979).

4

T. Lechner, Ignatius adversus Vdkntinianos? Chronologische und theologjegeschichtliche Studien

u den Briefen des Ignatius von Antiochien, VChSup 47 (Leiden, 1999).



Recent Attacks on the Authenticity of the Ignatian Letters

97

polated Polycarp's Philippians. In add ition to the claimed lateness

of the development of an episcopal hierarchy, they lay stress on

Ignatius' theology in opposition to late second-century heresies.

Ignatius reflects the theology of Melito of Sardis and of Noe tus

of Smyrna in rejecting distinct persons in the Godhead against

Valentinus' followers, who argued that there were 33 persons,

whom they called 'aeo ns ' or 'em anations '. Vinzent further argues

that Ignatius' description of Christ's resurrection is directed

against a particular late form of Marcion's heresy which held tha t

the body of Christ after the resurrection merely appeared as a

disembodied spirit and was no t really a body of flesh and blood

(docetism), even though it had been so before.

5

Criticism of each of these views has been extensive in the literature

and I cannot deal with each point exhaustively here.

6

I will simply

give some more detail and some fairly basic critical commentary.

1.

Weijenborg and the Priority of the Long Recension

If the long recension (of which the middle recension is claimed to

be an abbreviation) is dated after

AD

360, as Weijenborg believes,

how are we to explain earlier citations in Irenaeus, Origen, and

Eusebius?

Eusebius, whose citations he claims in certain instances resem ble a

primitive form of the long recension, presents him with the greatest

difficulty. H e does not ask whether those instances could be from an

earlier version of the middle recension th at later experienced scribal

corruption no t shared by manuscripts of the long recension. In that

case, the author of the long recension would simply have incorpo-

rated, and the manuscript tradition preserved, a better version of

5

R. Hiibner, Thesen zur Echtheit und Datierung der sieben Briefe des Ignatius

von Antiochien',

ZAC

1

(1997), pp. 42-70, and

Der Paradox Eine: Antignostischer

Monarchiansimus

im vpeiten

Jahrhundert.

Mit

einem Beitrag von

Markus Vincent,

VChSup

50 (Leiden: 1999).

6

G P. Hammond Bammel, Ignatian Problems', JTbS 33 (1982), pp. 62-97; M. J.

Edwards, "Ignatius and the Second Century: An Answer to R. Hiibner', ZAC 2

(1998),

pp. 214—26; E. Ferguson, review of Lechner, Church

History

Ignatius adversus

Valendiniauos?

71

(2002), pp. 16 9-70; A. Iinde mann , 'Antwort auf die "Thesen zur

Echtheit und Datierung der sieben Briefe des Ignatius von Antiochien"', ZAC 1

(1997), pp. 1 85-94 .



98

Ignatius ofAntioch

what was originally in the middle recension. But his argument can

only be su pported by claiming that Eusebius'

Ecclesiastical History

is

a forgery produced after

AD

360. Eusebius, after all, quotes all of

Ignatius,

Romans

5 from the middle recension.

7

There are many allusions to Ignatius' works in second-century

writers such as Melito of Sardis (AD 160), Theophilus of Antioch

(AD 180), Clem ent of Alexandria (AD 190) and o thers.

8

But a

determined critic can always dismiss these as coincidental, as

Weijenborg does, or indeed as the building-blocks of the later

literary forgery. Irenaeus (AD 175—90), tho ugh not mention ing

Ignatius by name, refers to 'one of our martyrs' and quotes, 1 am

Christ's wheat and I strive through the teeth of the wild beasts

to be found pure bread'.

9

It would appear somewhat fanciful to

suggest that Irenaeus did not have the name of Ignatius in mind

or a text of his letter to the Romans, and that the forger simply

incorporated the sole quotation from an unknown martyr into his

fourth-century forgery.

Bu t Ignatius' actual nam e

is

given in Origen

(AD

253) in co nnec tion

with quotes both from Romans and from Ephesians. In his Homily on

the

Song

of

Songs

O rige n says:

Finally I mention that one of the saints,

Ignatius by name,

has said concerning

Christ, *My love has been crucified', and I do not judge that it would be

fitting to blame him for this.

10

Furthermore, in his

Homily on Luke,

Origen claims:

I have found it written beautifully in one of the letters of a certain martyr

—

I am referring to

Ignatius,

second bishop ofA.ntioch after St Peter, wh o in a perse-

cution fought at Rome with wild beasts: 'the virginity of Mary escaped

notice of the ruler of this age' - escaped notice on account of Joseph,

escaped notice due to their marriage because she was thought to have a

husband.

11

7

Eusebius, HE IIL36.7-9 ; cf. Weijenborg,

Lettres

d'Ignace, pp. 395-96.

8

For a full list and texts,

see

J. B.

Iightfbot, The Apostolic

Fathers

(London: M acmillan,

1890), I I I , pp. 141-45.

9

Ignatius,

Rom.

4.5.

10

Origen, Pro/.

Cant.

2.36, quoting Ignatius, Rom. 7.2.

11

Origen, Horn, in Luc. 6.4, quoting Ignatius, Eph. 19.1.




99

Weijenborg admits the existence of a primitive version of

Ign atiu s' sayings, bu t claims tha t such a version is neith er th e lon g

recension nor its alleged abbreviation as the middle recension.

It is interesting that he does not appeal to the notion that refer-

ences to Ignatius' name and other details that I have put in

italics in these quotes are later additions under the influence of

(Pseudo-)Eusebius in the Latin translations of Origen in which

these works alone survive apart from equally post-Eusebian

Greek fragments. We shall deal with this point more fully when

we consider the view of Lechner, which is supp orted by such an

argument (sect. 5 below).

For the moment I would make one last point. We have

argued that Lucian of Samosata is a witness to Ignatius in his

description of Peregrinus Proteus. Weijenborg's thesis requires

this relationship to be turned around: the fourth-century forger

has used Peregrinus in order to construct his fictitious work of

a martyr from the past. Indeed, Weijenborg proposes Evagrius

of Antioch or his circle of friends as responsible for the original

forgery.

12

It was from Lucian's description of Peregrinus that the

idea of a corpus of letters written by a martyr named Ignatius

originally came: hitherto his name was apparently simply

associated with a number of sayings such as those few to which

Origen bears witness.

However firmly other critics might be in their belief that the

Ignatian letters are forgeries, they were not to follow Weijenborg

down this route either generally or in connection with Lucian: all

were convinced that Lucian had derived his account from reading

the letters and that Lucian's date was therefore a clear indicator

of the latest date for their composition or the terminus ante quern. I

believe that this literary dependence , inspired originally by Iig htfoo t,

has led critics along a false trail. Lucian's satire is hardly based up on

figures in literature, but upon actual charlatans of flesh and blood

and the actual experience of him and his readers of meeting such

figures. Even his sarcastic descriptions of divine figures from Greek

tragedies do not seem to follow closely any literary text of those

dramas but are based upon remembered words of the actors in

12

Weijenborg, Lettres

d'Ignace,

p p . 39&-401.



100

Ignatius ofAntioch

their specific performances.

13

Lucian was not addressing a circle of

readers discussing literature with books in their hands.

Thus when Lucian describes Peregrinus—Ignatius as a procession

leader

(thiasarches),

who is the offical who gathers together the

sunodos

of the cult

(sunagoges),

he is describing not Ignatius' letters

directly, but the visible results of those letters. Lucian understands

in Ignatian terms the reaction of Christian communities to those

letters that had so transformed their common life. He saw the

divine ambassadors and speed-runners bearing Ignatius' letters,

which were framing the new fundamental laws of association in

those communities. In his satire, hearing the message from the

divine ambassadors of Ignatius as

theophoros

of the spiritual image

of his suffering god, Lucian parodied them as speed-runners to the

underworld

(nerterodromoi)

and messengers of death

{nekrangeki).

These comments do not follow the text closely enough to count as

good evidence that Lucian actually read Ignatiu s' letters; rather, they

are a reaction to the situation that those texts produced. They are

an appropriate interpretation of how the events produced by those

letters seemed to cynical onlookers rather than simply readers of

their text.

Lucian cannot therefore, as Weijenborg thinks, have been the

inspiration to Evagrius, nor his circle to a fourth-century forgery of

the middle recension: the relation between Ignatius and Lucian is

no t at all a literary one .

But let us pursue, for a moment, the further arguments for the

Ignatian letters as forgeries.

2. Rius-Camps: Th e Middle Recension as Forged

Hierarchical Expansion

For Rius-Camps the one genuine letter of Ignatius the martyr that

com es dow n to us substantially from his pen is Romans.

Since

Romans

has a separate tradition in the surviving manuscripts from the othe r

six letters, he assum es that Romans escaped th e forger's work because

it was probably not available in the original collection at Smyrna.

Shortly after the death of Polycarp, the forger took the three

13

A. Brent ,

Ignatius of Antioch and the Second

Sophistic ̂ STAC 36 (Tubingen: Mohr

Siebeck, 2006), pp. 183-207 .



Recent Attacks

on

the Authenticity of

the Ignatian

Letters 101

genuine letters of Ignatius the martyr available to him, Ephesians,

Magnesians, and

Trallians.

From the first two he drew material with

which, along with suitable additions of his own, he constructed

the wholly forged letters to Philadelphia, Smyrna, and Polycarp. He

then placed his interpolations in the original versions of Ephesians

and Magnesians, as well as in

Trallians,

whose original material he did

not otherwise use.

The passages that are the work of the forger are those that

advocate a church order centred on a single bishop, with a presby-

teral council and deacons. H e is therefore responsible for im posing

a hierarchical structure upon an originally more egalitarian church

order. Polycarp never met Ignatius and all references to him doing

so in the former's letter to th e Philippians are the work of the forger.

The one genuine reference to Ignatius is that of a martyr from the

past:

I beseech, therefore, all of you to be obedient to the word of righteousness

and to endure with all endurance, which you also have seen before your

eyes not only in the blessed Ignatius and Zosimus and Rufus, but also in

the remainder of those of your company and in Paul and the remaining

apostles. Be persuaded that all these did not run in vain, but in faith and in

righteousness, and that they are in the place that they deserve with the Lord

with whom they suffered.

14

But this quotation can only with difficulty be so interpreted. Rius-

Camps insists that 'which you have also seen before your eyes'

does not bear the obvious sense that they had witnessed Ignatius'

'endurance'. He insists that

The [first] sentence ... distinguishes three classes of witnesses: (a) Ignatius,

Zosimus, and Rufus; (b) martyrs of their own, Philippian community; (c)

Paul and the other Apostles. N ot an ocular vision (the third group excludes

it),

but a few examples well known to all.

Thus he can conclude that (a) 'are considered

outstanding martyrs of

other communities o f sub-apostolic times

\

15

But this conclusion does not follow. The words can equally be

read in the sense that they see now what their predecessors saw

14

Polycarp,

Phil.

9.1-2 ; cf. Rius-Camps,

The

Four Authentic Letters, pp. 87-88.

15

Rius-Camps, The Four Authentic Letters ̂p . 88 (emphasis in original).




in the past. Furthermore, Rius-Camps is anxious to claim that this

passage shows Ignatius as already martyred so that he can claim

that this passage is at variance with a statement occurring later

in Polycarp's letter implying that Ignatius was still alive, in which

Polycarp claims that Ignatius had written a letter conjointly with

the Philippians, referred to in the present tense, and was therefore

still alive.

16

Rius-Camps also resurrects the ancient claim that the

surviving Latin version has accurately translated a Greek phrase

that is tenseless as 'Ignatius and those w ho are with him ' rather than

simply Ignatius and his companions', thus making no claim about

whether they are alive or dead.

Polycarp is in fact ambiguous in both passages about whether

Ignatius has been martyred. He speaks not of Ignatius' confession

and 'martyrdom ' bu t of his 'endurance', which can be applied to him

whethe r alive or dead. It is important, m oreover, to grasp the effect

created by Ignatius' choreographed procession where, as we have

seen, as a 'bearer of a sacred object' (hagiophoros) in the Christian

mystery procession, he rattles his chains and claims that he wears

already in his flesh the image or tupos of the suffering Father God by

wh ose blood the Ephesians had been 'inflamed'.

17

H e

is

'bou nd w ith

bonds befitting divinity'.

18

Ignatius considers that, in his struggle

with his guards, whom he compares with 'ten leopards', he has

already begun his battle with wild beasts in the arena: 'I am fighting

with wild beasts all the way from Syria to Rom e by land and by sea,

being bou nd to ten leopards, that is to

say a

detachm ent of soldiers.'

19

Already therefore he is expressing his future martyrdom as in the

process of realization. Certainly Polycarp, somewhat diffidently, as

I shall later argue, in a passage that Rius-Camps would attribute to

the interpolator, catches the mood of Ignatius' procession coming

throu gh Sm yrna wh en he hails his entourage as 'imitations of true

love'. Th e

mimesis

of the Christian mystery projects the image of the

suffering G od realized in one wh o is already seen as a martyr.

Thus we see that there

is

no real inconsistency, against the Hellenistic

background that we have drawn, between these passages such as an

16

Polycarp,

Phld.

13.1.

17

Ignatius,

Eph.

1.1; 9.2; see above, Chap. 4 n. 22 and associated text

18

Ignatius, Smyrn. 11.1; see also Brent, Ignatius and the Second

Sophistic,

pp. 137-39,

180-83.

19

Ignatius,

Rom.

5.1.



Recent Attacks on the Authenticity of the Ignatian Letters 103

interpolationist theory demands. But even if my resolution of the alleged

discrepancy between various parts of Polycarp

is

PhUippians (suggesting a

living and a past Ignatius) were not thought satisfactory, this would

not necessarily license an interpolation thesis. P. N. Harrison famously

sought to establish that the present work represents two originally

genuine letters of Polycarp, one written earlier when he was alive, and

one after the consummation of his martyrdom.

20

Thus Rius-Camps' picture of Ignatius as a martyr of the sub-

apostolic age whom Polycarp had never met in person appears highly

questionable. He needs to be able to locate Ignatius as writing his four,

genuine letters between AD 80 and 100. He proceeds to do so on the

questionable grounds that Irenaeus had handed on a true tradition that

die Ephesian church had been founded by Paul but that the apostle John

stayed in Ephesus up until the time of Trajan.

21

O n the assumption that

the apostle John only came to Ephesus late in life, Rius-Camps then

insists that Ignatius the martyr wrote his four letters before whenever

that might have been, since Ignatius only mentions Paul and n ot John

in

Bphesians.

But this is highly questionable, particularly in the light of

serious doub t regarding Irenaeus' statements on the apostle Jo hn and his

relations with Polycarp.

22

Rius-Camps believes that the four genuine letters of Ignatius

he has thus reconstructed reveal the ecclesiastical organization in

the sub-apostolic age. Here there was no hierarchy of a single local

bishop with presbyters and deacons fully controlling local congre-

gations. Rather the apostles and their associates such as Ignatius,

initially, and later Polycarp, were bish ops with the role of broad

superintendence of numbers of congregations scattered widely

throughout large provinces. According to Irenaeus, using Rius-

Cam ps' own translation:

Polycarp ... was established by some of the apostles as supervisor [or

bishop] for (the province of Asia) from the community in Smyrna and

whom we saw in our early youth.

23

20

P. N.

Harrison, Polycarp's Two Epistles

to the

PhUippians (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1936).

21

Irenaeus,

Adv.Haer.

IH. 3-4 ; Eusebius,

HEVL1.2?).

22

Rius-Camps, The Four Authentic Letters, pp. 144—45.

23

Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. HI.3.4

( =

Eusebius,

H.E.

IV.14.3-4); cf. Rius-Camps, The Four

Authentic Letters,

pp. 82-83.



104 Ignatius

ofAntioch

Rius-Camps can thus compare Polycarp as superintendent of Asia,

based as a presbyter in Smyrna, with Ignatius' daim in Romans - the

only letter he will allow to be uncontam inated by a forger's expansions

—

to be the superintendent or bishop of the province of Syria though

based in Antioch.

24

The congregations of those wide-ranging provinces

possessed their own spiritual gifts, which they exercised within that

general superintendence, unrestricted by local hierarchy. But can we

seriously

believe

that at the end of the first century, there were populous

Christian comm unities organized on such a wide scale? Did it no t make

sense to call the bishops of Smyrna and Antioch also bishops of the

provinces of Asia and of Syria because there were few Christian congre-

gations other than these, and even fewer who would accept any form of

episcopal government?

Clearly, however, the fundamental basis of Rius-Camps' argument

here rests on Irenaeus' account of Polycarp and the apostle John,

which is highly questionable, and, once questioned, challenges the

entire foundation of an early ecclesial order of episcopal superin-

tendence before the establishment of hierarchy. I must say that it

would seem to me that his conclusion reflects far more the ecclesial

concerns following the Second Vatican Council on the apostolate of

the laity and such matters, rather than a convincing reconstruction

of late first-century history.

Rius-Camps' efforts to locate the authorship of the seven letters

as expanded forgeries in the third century of the original four are

even more problematic. On what I believe to be the questionable

basis of the residency of the apostle Jo hn in Ep hesus, which is one

of the main suppor ts of his cons truction of a primitive, non-clerical

form of episcopacy, he can now argue that Irenaeus too shared

that concept of the bishop's office. Thus the writing of the forged

expansions and additions that created seven letters from the original

four must have taken place after Irenaeus.

Rius-Camps now focuses his attention on the arguably Syrian

Didascalia Apostolorum^

datable a round AD 250, as providing the

historical backcloth to the forgery of the seven letters of the middle

recension. His argument is that the forger of the middle recension

was dependent u pon this docum ent, who se imagery he adopted. Let

us see, therefore, what precisely that imagery was.

24

Ignatius,

Rom.

2.2; cf. Rius-Camps,

The Four Authentic Letters,

p. 84.



Recent Attacks

on

the Authen ticity o f

th e

Ignatian Letters

105

We have seen how Ignatius refers to the three orders of bishop,

presbyters and deacons as presiding to create images or

tupoL

O ne

of these key passages, namely

Magn.

6.1, according to one set of

manuscripts, reads 'pre-eminent or presiding in the place

of'.

25

It

should however be emphasized that the expression 'as an image o f

or 'in order to create an image o f is secure in othe r passages.

26

Rius-Camps claims, in the light of such a reading, that the

Didascalia is referring to the place where the bishop sits in church

as well as where he projects the imagery of God the Father. The

typology is well formed and general, and has been broken up and

used in a fragmented form by the alleged forger of the middle

recension. In the light of my earlier chapters, however, nothing

could be further from the truth.

When the Didascalia uses the term tupos it is meant in the sense

of an Old Testament type whose fulfilment, as antitype, is to be

found in the New Testament and in the life of the Church of the

New Covenant: 'You bishops are therefore today to your people

priests, and Levites who minister in the H oly Tent, which is the holy

Catholic Church.'

27

Clearly the author of the

Didascalia

in the third

century requires us to read the Old Testament passages that deal

with the Tabernacle or Tent in the wilderness that was the portable

shrine carried around before Solomon's Tem ple. T he O ld Testam ent

deals in great detail with this Tent and with how the cult should

be conducted within in it by high priest, priests, and Levites as its

authorized ministers.

28

As with the epistle to the Hebrews in the

New Testament, the writer of the

Didascalia

invites us to interpret

what we read about the Tent of Witness and its cult as a mystical

foreshadowing of the events of the New Covenant that were yet to

come.

Th us he will claim that the Ten t of W itness is 'a general type of

the Churc h' when he says that the deacons are to eat at the Church's

expense: 'as did the Levites who ministered in the Tent of W itness

that is a general type of the church'.

25

R i u s - C a m p s ,

The

Four Authentic Letters, p p . 2 2 5 - 2 6 ;

s e e

a l s o B r e n t , Ignatius

and

the Second Sophistic, p p . 2 5 - 2 7 ,

p . 3 8 , f o r a

d i s c u s s i o n

a n d

i d e n t i f i c a t i o n

o f t h e

m a n u s c r i p t s .

26

I g n a t i u s ,

Trail.

3 . 1 ; Magn. 6 . 2 .

27

C.A. I I . 2 5 . 7 ( 3 9 - 4 1 ) = Didasc. ( C o n n o l ly ) , p . 8 0 . 1 9 - 2 1 .

28

As recorded in Exodus 19, Exodus 25 -40, and Num bers 18.



106

Ignatius ofAntioch

If the Levites and their ministry are the type of the future deacons

of the New Covenant, then the high priest is a type of the bishop:

T o r these are your high-priests, the presbyters are the priests, and the

deacons, widows and orphans of the present are the Levites of old.'

29

Th e basic understanding of tupos in th e Didascalia is therefore as an

Old Testament type: the high priest described in connection with

the Tent of W itness has its antitype in the bishop, the presbyters are

antitypes of the priests, and the deacons antitypes of the Levites.

Indeed, it is his familiarity with this sense of 'type' as part of a

kind of allegorical method of exegesis that enables the author of

the

Didascalia

to give scriptural justification to a further order of

ministers, namely the deaconesses: 'Let the deaconess be honoured

by you as a type of the H oly Spirit.'

30

The Old Testament speaks of

the 'cloud' in which God leads the Israelites particularly in relation

to the Tent of Meeting, since when the cloud stops, the Tent is to

be set up, and when the cloud moves on, the Tent is taken up and

the Israelites follow. Th e cloud by day becom es fire by

night.

31

When

the Tent was first set up with its contents and cultus established,

The Cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord

filled the tabernacle.'

32

The cloud is identified generally with the

Holy Spirit in application of New Testament exegesis of the Old

Testament, but here the cloud as the Spirit has its antitype in the

structure of the Church's ministry: the cloud or Spirit has become

specifically the type of the deaconess. Thus the deaconess too is

justified as an antitype of an Old Testament type.

The same exegesis of type/antitype in application to the Tent

of Witness will also yield a justification and explanation for the

order of widows and indeed of orphans in the Church: 'And let the

widows and orphans be reckoned by you as a type of the altar of

incense.'

33

Thus in the Tent of Witness, a 'type of the Church in

every detail', the altar of incense becomes a mystical foreshadowing

of the widows and orphans for whose maintenance there is to be a

sacrificial giving tha t

is

equivalent to the incense offering of the O ld

Covenant.

29

CA

H . 2 6 . 3 ( 2 0 - 2 1 )

= Didasc.

( C o n n o l l y ) , p . 8 7 . 1 4 .

30

CA H.26.4.6 (40-41) = Didasc. (Connolly), p. 89.2-3.

31

Exod. 40.34-38; Num. 9.1S-17.

32

Exod 40.34.

33

CA E.26.8 (53-54) =

Didasc.

(Connolly), p. 89.4-5.




107

But the author of the

Didascalia

also introduces an Ignatian

typology into this pattern of typological exegesis with which he is

otherwise happy (as is also the

Apostolic

Constitutions,

which incor-

porates his work). Despite Rius-Camps' attempt to make these

consistent, I remain unconvinced that the Ignatian typology is intro-

duced with any understand ing of its original force, with the autho rs

both of the

Didascalia

and

Apostolic Constitutions

remaining happy

with it only if it can be understo od in the con text of an exegesis of

type and antitype.

The bishop suddenly ceases to be an antitype of the high priest

as its original type but becomes, as in Ignatius, someone who is an

image of the Father God: 'He, acquiring God's place, let him be

honoured by you since as bishop he presides over you as a type of

God.'

34

Here clearly the author is wrestling with Ignatius' quite alien

concept, which he is taking over but does not kn ow ho w to interpret

with confidence. The bishop is to be paid ('honoured'), like the

othe r clergy and widows and o rphan s, bu t

why?

Because he is a high

priest, but also because he has acquired 'God's place'. In this sense

he can 'preside over you as a

tupos

of God'. Bishops are addressed

thus:

'You then are to your people priests and prophets, and

princes and leaders and kings, and mediators between God and his

faithful.'

35

Thus bishops in God's place become 'princes and leaders

and kings'.

But we have seen how inadequate an understanding this reveals

of the Ignatian iconography, with which the author of the

Didascalia

clearly does no t know h ow to deal. H e does n ot understand Ignatius'

background in the mystery cults of the Asia Minor of the early

second century, nor the sense in which tupos

9

as we have seen,

referred to a divine image carried in procession by a cult leader

who sat or stood out pre-eminently as he or she led the procession.

Ignatius moreover did not have a view of bishops as kings or

monarchs, as reflected in the

Didascalia

here. The Church was not

constituted by the creation o f a single monarchical bishop. Rathe r it

was constituted by the three orders in conce rt, w ho by their acts and

words created images of divine persons in the eucharistic dram a of

34

Didasc.

(Connolly), p. 8 7.19-89.1.

35

C^4. H.25.7 (44) =

Didasc.

(Connolly), p. 80.22-23.




re-enactment displaying the Father-bishop, deacon-Son, and Spirit-

filled apostolic council tha t was the presbyterate.

Similarly too the author of the

Didascalia

will treat the Ignatian

iconography of the presbyters as the apostolic council. As such he

follows once again the Didascaliast: 'Let the presbyters as a tupos

of the apostles be the object of your hope.'

36

We find also the

presbyters described as the 'crown of the Church', which reminds

us of Ignatius' 'spiritually woven crown of your presbyterate':

37

For the presbyters . .. let a double portion be allotted to them for the favour

of the apostles of

Christ,

whose place they guard

as

fellow-counsellors of

the bishop, and the crown of the Church.

38

The 'crown' may refer to the circle of seats for the presbyters set

around the bishop's th rone, but clearly here the re is no reference to

the images of divine beings projecting from the garland-crown of a

pagan priest leading a mystery cult, as in Ignatius. T he presbyters are

no t called here an image o r

tupos

of the council of the apostles that

evokes the apostles, spirit-filled at the inbreathing of the Johannine

Pentecost: the

Didascalia

has no conception of Ignatius' original

meaning. The significance of the circle, like a crow n for this writer,

is that the presbyters form a ring or phalanx around the bishop, who

sits in Christ's place, just as the apostles guarded Christ in a circle

around him.

Thus Rius-Camps requires that the alleged interpolator who

produced the forged seven letters out of the genuine four had a

consistently worked out typology of the Church that he derived

from the Didascalia. It is that description of church order in terms

of the threefold hierarchy that the interpolator requires in order

to convert the four genuine letters into the forged seven with their

hierarchical additions and claims. But we have seen that there is no

consistently worked out model in the

Didascalia

upon which the

forger of the seven letters could draw. There are two conflicting

typologies in the

Didascalia^

one of which the author understands,

as does his successor, who in turn incorporated that third-century

work into the fourth-century Apostolic Constitutions. The typology

36

Didasc. ( C o n n o l l y ) , p . 8 9 . 3 - 4 .

37

I g n a t i u s , Magn. 1 3 . 1 .

38

C.A.

H.28.4 (10-13) =

Didasc.

(Connolly),

p.

91.3-9.



Recent Attacks

on

the Authenticity of

the

Ignatian Letters

109

that he understood was an exegetical method of deducing antitype

from Old Testament type.

But the Ignatian typology of church order that he took over he

found almost unintelligible. That typology, as we have shown, was

derived from the world of the pagan mystery religions, with its

bearing of images in procession in which the priest who led the

procession became a proxy for the god. The creation of divine

images in a Christian sense was lost on both the author of the

Didascalia and the author of the Apostolic Constitutions. Both show an

almost ongo ing prog ram m e of finding circumlocutions for Ignatius'

tupos

wherever it cannot be identified in the context of an exegetical

type/antitype.

39

Th us Rius-C am ps' hypothesis that the middle recension of seven

letters was created ou t of the four genuine ones un der the influence

of the

Didascalia

fails.

Ro bert Joly, whilst believing the middle recension to be a forgery,

nevertheless rejected Rius-Camps' argument as to why this should

be

so .

40

To his work we now turn.

3. Robert Joly: T he Entire M iddle Rece nsion as a

Pseudepigraphic Forgery

Joly argues that we cannot view the seven letters as anything other

than a complete literary forgery based upon an invented story of

Ignatius ' journey as a martyr to Rome. Joly m ust of course believe

that the forger of the middle recension has doctored Polycarp's

letter to the Philippians with the addition of references to Ignatius

as his contemporary letter-writer, on grounds that we have already

rejected in the case of Rius-Camps, w ho argues similarly.

41

Joly begins by attempting to show that the journey to

martyrdom is a scene of creative fiction.

42

He accepts that the

39

Fo r

a

mo re detailed discus sion, see A. Brent , T h e Relations bet wee n Ignati us

o f

Antioch and the

Didascalia Apostolorum\ SecCent

8

(1991), pp. 129-56,

a s

well

a s

Brent, Ignatius and the Second Sophistic, pp. 30-3 8.

40

Joly,

Le

dossier, pp . 121-27 comme nts

o n

Rius -Cam ps' bo ok in its original, Spanis h

version (1977).

I

have used the later English translation (1980).

41

Joly,

Le

dossier,

p p .

1 8 - 3 3 ; cf.

s e c t

2

above. See also H a m mo n d Bamm el, Tgnatian

Problems', pp.

69-71.

42

Joly,

Le

dossier,

pp. 39 -40.



110

Ignatius ofAntioch

journey via the northern route through Philadelphia would have

been normal, but rejects this as evidence for authenticity: the

forger would have described in fiction what would have been

normal had it been fact. Furthermore, Joly hesitates to claim

that the description of Ignatius' freedom in transit is a strong

argument against authenticity: Paul, equally under arrest, was

able to w rite letters and have visitors. Joly will, how ever, suggest

some doubts in the case of a prisoner already condemned to the

wild beasts, w ho , given that m eth od of execu tion, was clearly no t

a Roman citizen, for whom beheading would be the prescribed

form of capital punishment. I have already shown the reasons

why a prisoner, whe ther Ignatius or Lucian's Peregrinus Pro teus,

would have been allowed the kind of freedom that is described:

bribery for allowing visitors to come and go, and provision of

food, allowing m ore resou rces for the guard s' person al use, were

regular features of imprisonment in antiquity.

43

A further point in Joly's case is his assertion that condemned

prisoners were not substituted for gladiators in the arena before

the time of Marcus Aurelius.

44

This is most certainly false, since

Cicero in the first century

BC

mentions the sending of prisoners to

Rome for the games.

45

Joly might well reply that, even so, Ignatius

is only a single prisoner, and not a group of prisoners destined to

fill up the shortage of trained gladiators. Th us we are invited to

believe that the governor of Syria sent to Rome a single prisoner

whose punishment was to be thrown to the wild beasts. Ignatius

was clearly not a Roman citizen like Paul. If he had been, Ignatius

would not have been sent already condemned but put on trial and

then beheaded if found guilty.

The problem here is that though Ignatius, in his choreography

of the martyr procession, focuses upon himself as the only person

in who m his readers should be interested, it does n ot follow that h e

was the sole person unde r escort. If he were, there is the opinion o f

Davies that carries som e conviction, namely that if the govern or of

Syria had been absent, then his legate would not have been able to

43


44

J o l y , Le dossier, p p . 5 0 - 5 1 .

45

Cicero, Pis. 36.89, cf. Fam. VIII.4.5; cf. Hamm ond Bammel, Tgnatian Problems',

pp . 7&-79; Schoedel,

Ignatius,

p. 169.



Recent Attacks

on

the Authen ticity of the Ignatian Letters

111

condemn Ignatius to death.

46

If Ignatius' departure from Antioch

took place in the circumstances I have described,

47

then indeed the

authorities would have needed to act quickly to ge t the prison er away

from Antioch as soon as possible if they could not immediately

execute him. I would go further. Even if the governor had been

present and conducted the trial, in the factional strife within the

church of Antioch that had spilled over into the wider community,

it may no t have been politic to execute Ignatius at An tioch w ith wild

scenes of civil com motion surrounding the act. Better he be sent to

Rom e to die in the arena there.

Indeed, Ignatius' claims in Romans fit well with legislation on the

exposure of condem ned criminals to the wild beasts in the arena. In

the Code of Justinian we read:

The governor ought not as a favour to the people to release persons

condemned to the wild beasts; but if they are of such strength and skill

that they would make a worthy spectacle to the Roman people, he ought to

consult the emperor^]

48

This provision reflects Ignatius' position regarding the Roman

church. Ignatius

{contra

Davies, who thought the governor might

be present) is condem ned to be executed at Antioch. Th e g overno r

is under pressure from one disaffected and potentially violent

party to release him and the situation becomes dangerous. Thus

the governor sends Ignatius to Rome instead, having 'consulted

the emperor' on the matter of Ignatius' fitness for exposure in

the arena to do battle with the wild beasts. But still the informal

petitioning continues at Rome amongst the condemned prisoner's

confraternity there.

But Ignatius now pleads tha t they stop, that they do n ot use their

influence in order to get him released. As he says in his letter:

as a prisoner in Jesus Christ I hope to greet you, if indeed it be the will

of the one who made me worthy to achieve this end. For the beginning

is auspicious if I can obtain the grace for grasping my destiny without

obstacles.

46

S . L .

Davies, The Predicament

o f

Ignatius

o f

Ant ioch ' ,

VCh

30 (1976), pp. 175—

80.

47

See above, Chap. 2.

48

Justinian,

Dig.

XLYIH.19.31 .



112

Ignatius ofAntioch

As he continues , he makes it clear that it is a misguided love on their

par t to secure his release, which may deprive him of martyrdom :

For I am afraid of your love that it may do me harm . For it is easy for you

to do what you want, bu t it is difficult for me to attain to God unless you

spare me.

49

In the light of Justinian's Code, it is clear that it would have been

'easy' for them to secure his release under a customary procedure of

petitioning for the release of som eone in this category. Clearly it was

a practice so usual that it needed such a prohibition.

Therefore, contrary to Joly's contention, the general features of

the Ignatian events are quite consistent with what we either know

or can infer to be the case with condem ned criminals from the first

century

BC

onwards. Thus for his main case Joly must rely upon

othe r features of the story presented to us in the letters.

Joly first focuses on Ignatius' claim to be bishop of Antioch.

Ignatius never writes a letter to that church in the way that he has

written to six others. Furthermore, he names no individuals of his

hom e church as he does of others, which surely he would have done

if this account were genuine. He uses the name of Antioch only

three times: his preferred nam e is Syria, used som e 14 times. Indeed,

he orders m essengers to be sent to Antioch bu t sends no letter.

Joly

finds all this suspicious.

50

Joly believes that the forger worked sometime in the years

immediately before

AD

170, when Lucian wrote

Peregrinus Proteus,

which, according to his account, reflects the forgers ' letters. Thus the

reason that the forger does not produce a letter to the Antiochenes

is that he knows h e would be imm ediately unmasked: the church of

Antioch would be well aware that they had never received any such

letter from him. Such a concern equally applies to his selection of

places to which to send forged letters. The genuine Ignatius would

not have neglected to write to Tarsus and other major cities. Such

of course is an argument from silence: Ignatius may have written to

othe r cities and he claims tha t it was his intention to d o so. As he says

to the Rom ans: 1 am writing to all the churches and I am instructing

49

Ignatius,

Rom.

1.1.

50

Joly,

L e

dossier,

pp .



Recent Attacks

on

the Authen ticity of

the

Ignatian Letters

113

them all that I am willingly dying for God unless you hinder me'

51

- a general letter-writing activity to which Lucian of Sam osata also

bore w itness, as we have seen, when he said Tie dispatched letters to

all the glorious cities tha t were his Last Will and Testam ent'.

52

Our collection of letters, confined to a narrow area of western

Asia Minor, may be the result of the particular cirmcumstances

of their collection: the last chance to gather some of the letters

together before his final departure from Troas to Rome as a last

expression of what he had taught. As Caroline Ham m ond Bamm el

wrote:

Ignatius himself .. . conceived the idea of using his stay in Smyrna for

the composition of a kind of last testament for the Western Asia Minor

comm unities, bringing to bear the authority given him by his forthcoming

martyrdom in order to boost the parties friendly to himself in those

churches and to supply their bishops with ammunition in their attempts to

maintain unity. Such a theory would explain also why the first four letters,

written from Smyrna, make a more finished and formal impression than the

more personal letters from Troas, the last of which (that to Polycarp) may

also have been completed in som e haste. It is not necessary to assume that,

because no other letters survive, Ignatius wrote no other letters, but it may

be that these were informal notes intended to be supplemented verbally by

their carriers, or that they were not intended for this particular collection,

or that they revealed distressing details about the divisions at Antioch which

made them unsuitable for preservation.

53

Joly, however, persists in asserting that the forger is a Smyrnaean

who selects those localities unlikely to have the means to check for

themselves what has happened. At Smyrna there are records of

an Onesimus at Ephesus along with Burrhus and others named, a

Damasus at Magnesia with Bassus and others, a Polybius at Tralles,

and of course Polycarp, a presbyter at Smyrna w ho w rote th e epistle

to the Philippians that the forger could interpolate with Ignatian'

passages. The forger now used these very names in order to give

verisimilitude to his forgery in churches that rem em bered person s in

the past that bore them . They did no t of course possess the orders

of bishop, presbyters and deacons that he attributes to them. He

51

Ignatius,

Rom.

4 .1 .

52

Lucian,

Peregr.;

see above, ch. 3, sect 2.

53

Ham mo nd Bammel, Tgnatian Problems',

pp.

77-78.



114

Ignatius ofAntioch

names office-holders neither in

Romans

nor in Philadelphians. This is

presumably because he knew of no past names in those churches,

and to mention any that none of his contemporaries there would

recognize would lead again to his unmasking.

But this is not the only explanation of the absence of letters

that we should otherwise expect or of named officials where it

seems that we need them. I believe a far better explanation follows

from my account of the Ignatian events. Ignatius was proposing a

reconceptualization of church order in the light of the imagery and

drama of the mystery cults, as I have shown.

54

His entourage and

its choreography was part of a programme of persuasion that did

not so much reflect existing ecclesial structure and organization but

stated wh at it oug ht to be and needed to be if there was to be peace

and concord (homonoid).

W e may well won der whether the E phesians

saw their joy with which they greeted Ignatius the martyr precisely

in terms of a mystery cult imitating the suffering G od by means of

(spiritual) images worn in the flesh of divine persons and events.

No doubt it gave them food for thought to ask whether that joyful

enthusiasm was like followers of Attis 'being inflamed by the blood

of God'.

The suggestion of who was the bishop may similarly have been

that of Ignatius rather than tha t of Onesim us, Polybius or Polycarp

announcing positively on their arrival at his procession: 1 am the

bishop of Ephesus, Trailes or Smyrna.' Deacons such as Burrhus

and Zotion, or presbyters such as Bassus and Apollonius, would

no doubt have introduced themselves with these precise titles: they

existed previously in Asia Minor, as we have seen from the evidence

of the Pastoral Epistles. But there was no one presbyter-bishop

amongst them with a liturgical function quite distinct from the

others. It was for Ignatius to create that distinction by suggesting

that they were the image-bearers of these different offices in the

Christian mystery dram a.

Thus when Ignatius writes

Romans,

he has no representatives to

whom he can suggest that they are or should be bearers of these

offices with their image-bearing functions. In the case of Philadelphians

of course matters were quite different: Ignatius had actually visited

that city and had co ntact with its Christian com munity as a prisoner

54

Above , Chap . 4 .




115

under escort. He did not suggest the names of the three ecclesial

offices to any representative because, as he made clear, the church

of Philadelphia was a church at odds with itself internally: it had

divisions of which he was accused of having prior knowledge of

and a prior agenda for.

55

In such a divided situation, he had no

suggestions to make: the perso n able to perform the function of the

bishop , and those able to act like presbyters and deacons, were yet to

emerge.

If such was the case in Philadelphia, ho w much more so with the

church of Antioch. In claiming the title of bishop he was claiming

a title acknowledged only by one section of the community, and

one that initially had been too weak to prevent his arrest by the

civil power following internal strife over Ignatius' position amongst

them. The consequences of writing with a claim to be a single

bishop were horrendous, not least by threatening to aggravate the

internal situation but also to upset the civil power tha t had removed

him as the source of such aggravation.

Fur therm ore, Ignatius' title as

the

(single) bishop was still co ntro-

versial, even as the tide of opinion changed in his favour as his

choreographed martyr procession moved ever onwards to Rome

with divine ambassadors and speed-runners announcing in glorious

technicolour its progress backwards and forwards along his route.

Far better therefore not to be too specific about the title and those

over wh om it was claimed. Groups of supp orters m ay have existed

m ore widely in Syria than in A ntioch itself, or the dissenting grou p

in Antioch may have been able to bear with greater equanimity and

for the sake of peace the decision about wh o held office, when that

decision was for them an internal one and no t dictated from outside.

It is not without significance in this context that Ignatius is not so

indelicate as to mention precisely the reason that 'the church of

Antioch in Syria is at peace', namely the acceptance of his model

of church order securing concord on the basis of the model of the

processional drama of a pagan mystery cult. Thus the features of

the scene set by the letters for Ignatius' journey and martyrdom that

excite Joly's suspicion regarding their genuineness can be fully and

satisfactorily explained in terms of the account I have given in the

preceding chapters.

55

Ignatius,

Philadelphia™

7; cf. ab ove, Cha p. 2, n. 69 and a ssociated te xt



116

Ignatius ofAntioch

Joly's argument therefore has to rest upon internal features of

the letters themselves and our supposed inability to date them at

the Eusebian date in the reign of Trajan. We shall shortly discuss

that dating in the light of Lechner's argument for authenticity, so

we may leave aside that particular subject now, along with the claim

that Ignatius' episcopacy is monarchical and that die monarchical

episcopate did not exist before well into the second half of the

second century. In our previous discussion we have already shown

that episcopacy for Ignatius is no t monarchical, and that he does no t

reflect the later view of Irenaeus and Hegesippus that bishops are

successors of the apostles.

56

So we may conclude with Joly's original

contribution in term s of the parallels between Ignatius' letters and

4

Maccabees.

On lexical grounds originally exposed by Perler, Joly argues that

the Ignatian letters are dependent upon

4

Maccabees, and reflect

the theology of martyrdom found there.

37

Perler dated

4 Maccabees

before AD 70, and therefore had no difficulty with the traditional,

Trajanic date for Ignatius ' letters. Joly would prefer the dating given

by Dupont-Sommer, who wishes to date

4 Maccabees

as late as the

end of the reign of Trajan and the beginning of that of Hadrian,

and therefore around

AD

117-18.

58

Joly believes that such a date

would strengthen his thesis that the Ignatian letters are forgeries, yet

there is nothing in those letters themselves that indicate a Trajanic

date: a genuine Ignatius could have been martyred in Hadrian's

reign, around AD 138, since Polycarp's martyrdom took place

arguably later, in

AD

163.

59

H owever, Joly believes tha t, whe ther later

or earlier, he can now play a trum p card.

Joly claims that the parallels are so close that either Ig na tius m ust

have known

4 Maccabees

practically by heart or that he was carrying

a copy with him.' He continues:

56

B r e n t , Ignatius ofAntiocb and the Second Sophistic p p . 2 3 - 3 0 .

57

Joly, Le dossier, chap. 7; cf. O. Perler, T>as vierte Makkabaeerbuch: Ignatius von

Antiochien und die altesten M artyrerberichte', RivACIS (1949),

pp .

47-72.

58

A. Dupont-Somm er, Le quatrieme iivre

des

Macchabbees, Bibliotheque de FEcole des

Hautes Etudes 274 (Paris: H. Champion, 1939),

p. 67;

Joly, Le dossier,

p.

97.

59

This is Joly's date, but for a discussion of the traditional date,

AD

155, see W.

Schoedel, Tolycarp's Witness to Ignatius of Antioch', VCh

41

(1987), pp . 1-10; W.

Schoedel, Tolycarp of Smyrna and Ignatius of An tioch', ANRWU 21.1 (1992), pp .

279-83;

Iightfoot, The

Apostolic Fathers,

H .I, pp. 562-63, 572-73.



Recent Attacks

on

the Authenticity of

the

Ignatian

Letters 117

All

this,

one certainly

feels,

is too grotesque. One has overall the very strong

impression that the letters themselves resist the script which they want to

make us believe in . . . the reader must no longer doubt: the letters consist of

literary compositions in every accepted sense of the term, it is a literature

of the chamber.

60

Such an activity is m ore suited to

a Smyrnaean author who composed at his leisure and dispassionately these

words of a fiery imagination than by a prisoner from Antioch for whom

his 'leopards' had allowed a stopover at Smyrna on the road to martyrdom

and who would have forcibly had to dictate those letters to his brethren at

chance opportunities when allowed.

61

But we may ask how close the parallels alleged by Joly really were.

Though we have not space to go into them all, certainly Perler

himself was not convinced that they were so close as to be expli-

cable only by a forger working in a library.

Let us take one such example. In Romans Ignatius continues his

reflections on his forthcoming martyrdom that he has asked the

Roman Christians to do nothing to impede. Thus he cries:

May

nothing

visible

or

invisible

show

any

envy

toward

me

that I

may

attain

to

Jesus Christ Let fire

62

and cross and packs of wild beasts, cuttings and

being torn apart, mangling of limbs,

53

the grinding of the whole body, the

evil torments of the devil come upon me, only that I may attain to Jesus

Christ

64

Each of the terms that I have footnoted occurs also in

4

Maccabees,

as I indicate, and is part of its discourse of martyrdom. But why

should a passage com posed from such term s be considered a forger's

cons truction com posed at his leisure in a Smyrnaean library?

If Perler's earlier date for

4

Maccabees is accepted, then it is clear

how it was pa rt of the warp and woof of Ignatius ' reflections on his

martyrdom. The cult of the martyrs was established at Antioch at

60

J o l y ,

Le

dossier^ p p . 9 4 - 9 5 ( m y t r a n s l a t i o n ) .

61

J o l y , L e

dossier^

p . 9 6 ( m y t r a n s l a t i o n ) .

62

4

Mace. 9 . 1 7 .

63

4

Mace.

9.17;10.S-7.

64

Ignatius,

Rom.

5.3.



118

Ignatius ofAntioch

an early date.

65

Even if we accept Dupont-Sommer's Trajanic date,

this would not rule out Ignatius' familiarity with such Maccabaean

concepts of martyrdom already in the tradition that the author of

4

Maccabees used. T he genuine Ignatius could in fact have imbibed the

text as pa rt of his spiritual formation if he were martyred around

AD

138,

som e ten years later.

As well as being an academic I am an Anglican priest and a goo d

parallel example of what I mean may be found in what could be

inferred of my possible usage of the Anglican prayer book if I

were in an Ignatian situation. Take, for example, the collect for

purity in Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer, generally used by

Anglicans, whether in its sixteenth- and seventeenth-century form

or in m ode rn liturgies into which it has developed.

66

Since Anglicans

regularly participate in such a liturgy, were I in a despera te Ignatian

situation, I might find myself exhorting my com panions:

We are in a hopeless situation. Yet we approach what is to come with hearts

cleansed by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit

God is with us despite our

fears,

since to him all hearts are

open,

all desires known, and from him no secrets are hid.

It would be quite false to conclude that, because these italicized

phrases follow Cranmer's text so closely, I must therefore have had

to hand a copy of the Book of Co m m on Prayer and been in a study

rather than held captive in a ship or wherever.

It is also worth noting that the collect for purity was originally

composed in the ninth century, probably by Alcuin of York,

Charlemagne's cou rt chaplain. Should the text that I have com posed

have been found instead in a historical doc um en t that we wished to

date,

it would be equally wrong to conclude that the text must be

dated after Cranmer and the Edwardian Book of Common Prayer

(1549). The same is true with Ignatius ' allusions that are in no sense

direct extensive quotations: they may have come o ut of the com m on

quarry from which both Ignatius and

4 Maccabees

mined the m aterial

out of which they constructed their respective works.

Joly has therefore failed to cons truct a historical contex t later in

65

See Ham ond B ammel, 'Ignatian Problems', p. 72 and references in her n. 1.

66

'Almighty Go d, to w hom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from w hom no

secrets are hid: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy

Spirit, that

we

may perfectly love thee and worthily magnify thy glorious name.'



Recent Attacks on the Authenticity o f the Ignatian Letters

119

the second century within which th e forger's w ork would have been

executed and his intentions in so doing be made clear. Let us now

see wh ether Lechner and Hxibner have fared better.

4. T ho m as Lechner: Ignatian Pseudepigraph a against Later

Valentinianism

Lechner begins by attacking the reliability of Eusebius' dating

of Ignatius in the time of Trajan along the lines that Joly had

pursued. H e can then claim tha t the letters of the middle recension

are without a clear historical location. If so, he is entitled to seek

one on the only grounds he believes to be left. He claims, like his

predecessors, that Polycarp's

Philippians

has been interpolated by

the forger for reasons we have already partly given, but which we

will discuss in full in Chapter 6. Thus Lechner locates the compo-

sition of the forged middle recension at a time subsequent to the

production of the episcopal succession lists by Hegesippus and

Irenaeus, namely around

AD

165—75, after the death of Polycarp

and before Lucian's production of Peregrinus Proteus, which L echner

accordingly wishes to date controversially after AD 180.

67

Th us he is

in a position to claim that Ig natius' letters are a reply to Valentinus

and his followers at a late stage of the Valentinian heresy that he

identifies as the western school.

68

Let us th en look in detail at all three of these points, namely that:

(1) the Eusebian chronology is unreliable, (2) the middle recension

postdates the prod uction of a succession list by Hegesippus, and (3)

the letters reflect a late form of Valentinianism.

4.1. Eusebius' chronography and the traditional dating

At first sight Lechner would appear to be open to challenge from

the evidence of Origen cited earlier in this chapter. Although

Irenaeus quoted Ignatius anonymously as 'one of our martyrs',

Origen (AD 185—253) refers to 'Ignatius, second bishop of Antioch

67

L e c h n e f , Igiatius adversus V a/entinianos

p p . 6 6 - 6 7 and n.

8 .

68

Lechnef,

Ignatius adversus Va/entinianos, pp. 213—16;

cf.

Brent, Ignatius

and the

Second

Sophistic, pp. 104ff.



120

Ignatius ofAntioch

after St Peter'.

69

In th e late second cen tury it was believed (on good

grounds) that Peter died in the persecution of Nero in AD 65, and,

if this is the case , then we can allow a lengthy episcopal reign for his

successor, Evodius, of som e thirty years to bring him to the time of

Trajan. Thu s O rigen can be enlisted in sup port of the Trajanic date.

How then can Lechner claim that Ignatius' Trajanic date rests solely

upon Eusebius and his alleged mistake?

It will be clear that I d o not believe tha t Origen's reference, if it is

indeed his, is very accurate. Fro m what we know and are able to infer

from the circumstances of Ignatius' departure from Antioch, as we

have clearly seen, it is very difficult to believe the later account of

an orderly succession of bishops at Antioch from St Peter. But this

will still leave open the issue of whether Ignatius' departure from

Antioch for R ome was real or fictitious, despite what later may have

been assumed about the undisputed character of the office that he

held at that time.

The problem with Origen's commentary on Luke, in which this

reference occurs, is that it is the Latin text of Rufinus' translation.

The reference to Ignatius by name as bishop of Antioch has

therefore been argued to have been added by his translator a century

later using information found in Eusebius ' Chronicon or chronicle of

world history. However, a fragment of Origen's lost Greek text has

com e to light which also refers to Ignatius' succession as the bishop

but one after St Peter.

70

Origen seems therefore to have possessed

chronological information in the early third century whose likely

source is the lost

Chronicon

of Julius Africanus. In fact this was one

line of argument that convinced the great Germ an patristic scholar,

Adolph von Harnack, to abandon his earlier scepticism and believe

that the m iddle recension was genuine and of a Trajanic date.

71

But whether the source of the date of Ignatius' martyr journey

to Rome was in the early third century o r Euseb ius in the m iddle of

the fourth, there remains a problem with such chronologies. The

method of constructing such chronologies would hardly inspire

the confidence of a modern historian. The procedure of Origen's

69

See above, nn.

1 0

an d

11

and assoc iated te xt

70

The Greek fragment

i s

cod ex mon .g rae c 2 08 , the implicat ions

o f

wh ic h c a u se so m e

e mb a r r a ssme n t t o Le c h n e r - Ignatius adversus Valentinianos, p p . 7 1 - 7 3 ; cf. H a m m o n d

Ba mme l , Ig n a t ia n P r o b le ms' , p p . 6 5 -6 6 .

71

See Lechner, Ignatius adversus VaJentinianos

y

p. 78 and n. 14.



Recent Attacks

on

the Authenticity of

the Ignatian

Letters 121

friend, Julius Africanus {c . AD 240), would have been like that of

Euseb ius later, w hom he inspired. First of all you obtain lists of the

years of the reigns of Assyrian, Persian, Macedonian, and Lydian

kings, Rom an consuls, and then dates of Olym piads, etc., to w hich

you add lists of Jewish kings. Next you produce succession lists of

bishops of Rome and of the other major sees.

You then place the originally separated lists in columns side by

side and endeavour to establish some kind of chronological equiva-

lence between them and their different systems of dating. Having

done this, you are able to fill in the space that you left between the

columns to locate a brief mention of a critical historical event, or

the names of other famous persons. This space is known techni-

cally as the

spatium historicum.

Th us you conclude that you have dated

those events and persons.

However defective this methodology, we know that one such

production occurred before Eusebius and around AD 217, when an

anonymous writer in Greek composed a chronography that was to

experience the editorial and co rrecting hand o f his successor, whose

name we know as Hippolytus of Rome.

72

We have a chronological

table for calculating the date of Easter on the left-hand side of the

so-called statue of Hippolytus at Rome, which begins with the first

year of Alexander Severus

(AD

222). On the right-hand side we find

a list of the dates of festivals of the Passover back to the day on

which the world was created. O the r brief notes of historical events

are added against dates, along with correc tions 'according to DanieF

in which a second hand gives an alternative chronology. There is

a list of works engraved on the statue that represents part of the

library of the Hippolytan school.

We

have

a

surviving

Chronicon

of this time attributed to H ippolytus

tha t arguably included a succession list of bishops a long with regnal

years of Jewish kings, Roman consuls, and Persian kings. Thus

in virtue of the parallels drawn between bishops of the past and

Roman consuls an originally undated Roman succession list has

been given dates. But the dates can not b e very accurate. Something

of this list appears to have survived in the later chronographer of

72

For a discussion of this hornets' nest of problems, see A. Brent, Hippolytus an d

the Roman Church

in the Third

Century: Communities

in

Tension before the Emergence

of a

Monarch-Bishop,

VCh Sup

31

(Leiden:

E. J.

Brill, 1995), pp. 270-99.



122

Ignatius ofAntioch

the year AD 354, where miraculously, before Pontian (d. 235) every

bishop manages to die when a consul goes out of office and their

successor consecrated when

a

new consulship begins Clearly parallel

lists have been associated with each other and artificial equivalences

established.

Thus we can envisage a similar process with Antioch: its original

chronological lists were worked over by earlier chronographers

(such as Julius Africanus) and then inco rporated into Euseb ius'

Chronicon.

A list of bishops is cons tructed o ut of records of remem -

bered figures of the past and juxtaposed with lists of em perors and

their consular years. Th us Ignatius, w ho claims th e title of bisho p

in his letters, is placed in the line that suggests the reign of Trajan,

and it

is this reign that com es to be regarded as the one in which th e

martyrdom prom ised by the letters of Ignatius took place.

Thus we may distrust the Trajanic date given by Origen and

subsequently Eusebius for Ignatius' martyrdom. But just because

the date is unreliable, it does not necessarily follow that the letters

which look forward to that martyrdom are fictions. For the forgery

hypothesis to work, we must show that the letters were subsequent

to the martyrdom of Polycarp, whether in

AD

155 or in 163, and

thus that all mention of those letters in Polycarp's Philippians must

be interpolations. Eusebius, therefore, is free to be out by some 40

years and still reco rd a genuine Ignatius in the first edition of his list

in the spatium historicum and later the episcopal list for An tioch.

Let us now examine Lechner's case for a date subsequent to

Hegesippus' (and Irenaeus*) articulation of a theory of bishops as

successors to the apostles.

4.2. Ignatius has no doctrine of bishops as successors to the

apostles

According to the classical theory of church order,

a

bishop 's authority

was dependent u po n being able to show that he held the mos t recent

place in a succession list in which his predecessors went back one

by one to the first bishop who was appointed by an apostle. This

theory seems to have first seen the light of day in the second half of

the second century. Irenaeus, bisho p of Lyons in Gau l, in his work

Against All Heresies,

claimed that Gnostic heretics such as Marcion,

Valentinus, and Basilides were not authoritative Christian teachers



Recent Attacks

on

the Authenticity of

the

Ignatian Letters

123

because their claims were recent and they had no line of descent

back to the apostles. The notion of 'succession' is expressed by the

Greek word

diadoche,

whose home is in the language of the schools

of Greek philosophy. The chief philosoph er w ho had presided over

the school of Aristotle o r Plato or the Stoics and their followers was

succeeded after his death by a man who inherited the schoolroom

and its material accompaniments such as books or statues

(herms)

of

the founding philosopher. As head o f the school, he was recogni2ed

as the official exponent of the school's teaching.

73

Irenaeus was to claim tha t the bishops who had succeeded to the

headship of the various churches were the true descendants of the

apostles, bu t the heretics went back in their

diadoche

to Simon M agus

and his heirs, the op pon ents of the original apostles. Simon M agus

had tried to 'buy the Holy Spirit with money' when he sought to

acquire by bribery the power that the apostles had to heal.

74

The

anonymous writer in the Hippolytan school, Pseudo-Hippolytus,

was to draw the parallel with

diadoche

or succession in a pagan philo-

sophical school even more tightly: each heretic was a successor of

one o f the philosophical schools, all of which went back ultimately

to the worship of the Serpent.

75

Thus Irenaeus, writing around

AD

175, will say:

Th e teaching of the apostles handed dow n is present to be viewed in every

church by

all

wh o w ish to see what is true; and w e are able to enumerate the

bishops who were instituted by the apostles and their successors up until

our ow n time. The se h ave neither taught nor recognized any such teaching

as is raved about by those heretics .. . But since it wou ld b e tedious in such

a book as this to enumerate the successions possessed by all the churches,

we will confound them all by pointing to the greatest and most ancient

church and know n t o all, founded at Rom e and constituted as a church by

the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul. That church holds to the

teaching handed do wn by the apostles and the faith proclaimed by them , a

faith that reaches down to us through the successions of their bishops ...

Having laid the foundations o f that church and built it, the blessed apostles

placed the ministry of the bishop's office in the hands of Linus ... and

Anacletus succeeded him and after the latter, Clement, in third place from

the apostles, found that the bishop's office fell to him, who also had seen

73

A.

Brent,

'Diogenes Laertius

and the

Apostolic

Succession',

JEH 44

(1993),

pp.

367-89.

74

Acts 8.18-20.

75

P s e u d o H i p p o l y t u s, Ref. V . 6 . 3 .



124

Ignatius ofAntioch

the blessed apostles and had consorted

with

them, and the proclamation of

the apostles was

still ringing

in his ears and the teaching

they

handed down

before his eyes[.]

76

Irenaeus thus continues the list down with Evaristus, Alexander,

Sixtus, Telesephorus, Hyginus, Pius, An icetus, Soter, and finally his

contemporary Eleutherus, and then concludes: There has come

down to us the tradition from the apostles and the truth of their

preaching in this same order and in this same teaching.'

The apostolic succession was not Irenaeus' original idea but its

origin was contemporary with him. It was in Eleutherus' time that

the true originator of the episcopal succession lists arrived in Rome,

namely Hegesippus. Eusebius records further of Hegesippus that

Hegesippus has left us with a complete record of his own opinion in

five treatises that have come down to us. In them he explains how when

travelling as far as Rome he associated with many bishops and that he had

received from them all the same doctrine.

Eusebius now records H egesippus' actual words:

On my arrival in Rome, I composed a succession list

{diadoche)

until the time

of Anicetus, whose deacon was Eleutherus. In each succession (diadoche)

and in each

city

it is a

case

of what the law and the prophets and the Lord

proclaim.

77

It is clear that neither Irenaeus nor Hegesippus were disinterested

historians simply seeking to reconstruct the genealogy of church

order and ministry from antiquarian curiosity. They were seeking

to construct a case against what they regarded as deviant forms

of Christianity. In order to make that case they were adopting a

narrative of authority based upon the authority structure of pagan

philosophical schools.

There is therefore no guarantee of historical reliability for the

account of the origins of church order that thus emerges, in which

Christ ordains the apostles, and they and they only can ordain single

bishops as their successors, and for which a named succession list

can be constructed. T he names o n Irenaeus' undated succession list

76

I r e n a e u s , ^ < . Haer.

I I L 3 . 1 - 2 .

77

Eusebius, H.E.

IV.22.1-3.



Recent Attacks on the Authenticity of

the

Ignatian Letters

125

for Rome have for the most part no further biographical details:

they remain just names. Furthermore, we cannot be certain of the

precise nature of the office held by the person named as 'bishop'

in accordance with the succession doctrine initiated by Hegesippus

and Irenaeus. W here we do have concrete information, as in the case

of Clement in the third place after St Peter according to Irenaeus,

the notion of the office of a single bishop in succession to a prede-

cessor seems lacking.

In his genuine letter to the Corinthians (c. AD

95), Clement does

no t write in his own name bu t in the name of 'the church of G od

whose pilgrim residence is at Rome to the church of God residing

similarly at Corinth'. There is no 'Clement bishop, servant of the

servants of God' claiming apostolic authority for his office as

successor to St Peter. He is writing, as has been pointed out, not

as a single monarch-bishop but as the secretary of the Roman

presbyterate.

78

His letter is anonym ous and we only learn of the

connection of his nam e with this letter from Irenaeus, w ho adds the

information when his name comes up on the succession list:

In the time of this Clement, when no small rebellion had broken out

amongst the brotherhood at Corinth, the church at Rome sent a writing

of greatest significance to the Corinthians, bringing them to a state of

peacef.f

9

In another document, from Rome around AD 150, we find a quite

different description of his role. In

Hermas

or

The

Shepherd,

the

visionary is instructed by the elderly lady to write his vision down.

H e is instructed thus:

You will write two small books and you will send one to Clement and one to

Grapte. Clement therefore will send his to the cities outside, for that is his

commission. But Grapte will admonish the widows and orphans. And you

will read yours in this city in the company of the presbyters who preside

over the church.

80

Here , then , in the Rome of the mid-second cen tury we have no t a

78

P .

Lampe , From Paul

to

Valentinur. Christians

in

Rome

for the

First Two Centuries

(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003), and Brent, Hippotytus, pp. 409-41 2, 430-3 2.

79

Irenaeus, Adv.

Haer.

IH.3.3.

80

Hernias, Vis. 8(IL4).3.




monarch-bishop but 'the presbyters who preside over the church',

though individually each may have presided over a single house-

church in a fractionalized Roman community.

But in addition we have the figure of Clement, who has an

entrusted ministry or 'commission' to write to external churches.

This seems clearly to describe the Clement of Corinthians, w ho

wrote anonymously in the name of the church of Rome: he is a

kind of 'foreign secretary' to the Roman community. His letter to

the Corinthians in fact supports the presbyteral model of church

government at Rome, even though he is sometimes credited with

affirming the doctrine of episcopal succession in an Irenaean and

Hegesippan sense. A group of presbyters, whom he sometimes

calls 'bishops', have been deposed at Corinth and Clement's letter

opposes the right of the laity to depose them if they have exercised

their office blamelessly. His grounds are:

Christ came from God and the apostles from Christ. Both things happened

therefore in a way well ordered according to Go d .. . And as they preached

in country and in city, they appointed their firstfruits, having examined

them by the Spirit, bishops and deacons of those who were to become

future believers .. . So too our apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ

that there would be strife over the name of the bishop's ministry. For this

reason, having received perfect foreknowledge, they placed in office the

aforesaid people and afterwards added a codicil that, if they should fall

asleep, other tried and tested men should be the successors to their ministry.

We consider therefore that those then placed in office by those apostles or

afterwards by other, reputable men with the consent of the whole church

and who have exercised their ministry blamelessly over the flock of Christ

... have not been expelled from their ministry jusdy.

81

Here Clement clearly believes that there is a succession from

the apostles. But that succession is not one single individual as a

monarch-bishop following the other in a chain, but a group of

presbyters (which he also calls 'bishops'): he does not refer to any

particular one of them . Indeed, Ignatius in his letter to the Romans

— which for Rius-Camps, as we saw, was the one uninterpolated,

genuine letter — does not name a single bishop in Rome, which

would be strange if he were writing after Hegesippus and the

produ ction of the succession lists.

81

Clement,

Cor.

42.1-4 and

44.1-3.



Recent Attacks on the Authenticity of the

Ignatian

Letters 127

Hegesippus and Irenaeus, in setting up their 'school' model of

episcopal succession, single out Ignatius as the third bishop after St

Peter. And so did whoever constructed the Antiochene succession

list that m ade Ignatius episcopal successor bu t one to Peter: he was

not a monarchical bishop. Nevertheless he could still have existed

and written the letters ... or could he?

Lechner simply assumes that because the Ignatius of the letters

advocates the threefold order of bisho p, priests, and deacons, those

letters are therefore creations from the period of the succession

lists and reflect Irenaeus and Hegesippus' view of diadoche. But in

the light of my earlier discussion, we can now ask whether this

assumption stands up to critical scrutiny.

82

Ignatius does not consider the bishop to be the successor of the

apostles. As we have seen, the bishop's function is to preside at the

Eucha rist as an image or icon

(tupos)

of G od th e Father, w ho in the

ambiguity of Trinitarian persons is the suffering God. We are never

told how the bishop is appointed. Indeed, if the alleged pseudon-

ymous writer had before him a Hegesippan or Irenaean succession

list

as

his m odel, we should have expected him to have made far m ore

of this. Pseudo-Ignatius would have surely mentioned his conse-

cration by Evo dius, consecrated in turn by St Peter at Antioch.

It would seem that any ritual of appointm ent or chain of succession

is a matter of indifference to the au thor of the middle recension. All

that concerns him is that the person who is seated prominently at

the celebration of the Eucharist and w ho creates an image in words

or acts of the words and acts of God that carries conviction in the

com munity of faith

is ipsofacto

the bishop.

83

His office

is

like a role in

a pagan m ystery dram a in which the leading or presiding priest, the

kathegemon,

is an image-bearer and otherw ise a

dramatis persona

in the

redemptive dram a that is re-enacted: according to b oth Ignatius and

the relevant pagan epigraphy he is a theophorvs.

84

As we have also seen, Ignatius is concerned with how the

apostles are represented bu t it

is

the presbyters, no t the bishop, w ho

represent the apostles. If Pseudo-Igna tius had been writing und er the

82

S e e a b o v e , C h a p . 4 , a n d B r e n t , Ignatius and the Second Sophistic p p . 2 1 — 2 3 .

83

I g n a t i u s , Magn. 6 . 1 , 2 ; Trail. 3 . 1 ; c f. a b o v e , C h a p . 1 n . 3 , a n d C h a p . 4 n n . 3 7 a n d 3 8

a n d a s s o c i a t e d t e x t

84




128

Ignatius ofAntioch

influence of the later concep t of diadoche ̂he would not, I think, have

attributed the succession to the presbyterate in place of the b ishop

as the final authority on the teaching of their ecclesial equivalent of

a Hellenistic philosophical school. Bu t even if he had by some quirk

associated the presbyters with the apostolic succession in that sense,

he would have spoken directly of their teaching function. As we

have seen, however, the presbyters are not the representatives of the

apostles in that sense. They are the 'council of the apostles' because

they form an image, in the liturgy of their circle seated around the

bishop, of the spirit-filled apostles of the Upper Room that was

the scene of the Johann ine Pentecost.

85

According to a much later

tradition that developed out of the succession model of Irenaeus

and Hegesippus, the presbyter, in addition to the bishop, was at

the Eucharist, "in the person of Christ

{in persona Christi)\

But for

Ignatius it was the deacons w ho in their role in the eucharistic drama

created an image of Christ, coming forth from the Father-bishop

to the people with the consecrated bread and wine and returning to

him when their work of serving the congregation was at an end.

86

Furthermore, Ignatius' view of church order cannot be found

to have developed later in anything like the form in which we find

it in the middle recension. Anonymous references to Ignatius in

Irenaeus and pe rhaps in O rigen have been seen by Joly as well as by

Lechner to be due to circumspection born of the embarrassment

of knowing that they were references to a recent forgery.

87

But

that circumspection need have nothing to do with forgery; it can

be explained by the fact that Irenaeus found incomprehensible the

writer's view of the threefold order in the radically secularized (and

to him pagan) fo rm in which he found it. Certainly, as we have seen,

the authors of both the

Didascalia

and the

Apostolic Constitutions

found the Ignatian typology of order incomprehensible: both failed

to understand tupos in any other sense than a category of biblical

exegesis, so that the Church's ministry must be an antitype of O ld

Testament types in an exegetical sense.

Thus Lechner's quest for a convincing later historical context in

which to fit his account of the forgery of the middle recension falls

85

See above, Chap. 2, footnotes

61

and 62.

86

Ignatius, Magn. 7.2, and above, Chap. 4 n. 37 and associated text

87

Joly ,

Le

dossier p . 1 0 9 ; L e c h n e r , Ignatius contra Vdlentinianos p p . 6 8 - 6 9 .



Recent Attacks on the Authenticity of

the

Ignatian

Letters 129

at the starting gate. Nevertheless, he has an additional thesis, and

although that thesis can hardly succeed in the light of this initial

failure, it will perhaps be relevant nevertheless to consider it.

Lechner's subsidiary thesis is that his Pseudo-Ignatius has

fashioned his theology in his letters as a specific response to

Valentinianism, even late Valentinianism.

88

We now examine this

final point.

4.3. Pre-Valentinian aeon theory cannot be found in Ignatius

According to Irenaeus, Valentinians believed in a divine world of

aeons or 'em ana tions' that they called the plerom a or 'fullness'. T he

interrelations of these aeons formed part of a cosmic myth of the

Fall and subsequent redemption. However, although Valentinus

came to Rom e in the late 130s, fragments of what he in fact taugh t

rather than what Irenaeus said he taught give us no examples of

aeon speculation as part of a myth of the fall of an aeon named

Sophia, who was cast out of the pleroma, and the subsequent

creation o f the world by a lesser deity. Since the discovery of the

Nag Ham madi L ibrary (in 1945), mostly written in Coptic, we have

some of the original Gnostic texts, which are in many respects

strikingly different from Irenaeus' account. For example, the Gospel

of Truth

is

a Valentinian docum ent and held by som e to be the work

of Valentinus himself, whose previously lost work had borne that

name.

89

The conclusion has been too readily drawn (and Lechner draws

it) that because Irenaeus knows of a Valentinianism with an aeon

theory and Valentinus' fragments and other Valentinian works lack

such a theory, therefore Irenaeus' description is both exaggerated

and relates to Valentinians that were his contemporaries around

AD 180. The key text here is the work known as the

Apocryphon of

fohn,

which contains a fully blown aeon account and is attributed

to the Sethian school of Gnostics.

90

If in the course of time

88

L e c h n e r , Ignatius contra Valentiniano s, C h a p .

7 .

89

I. Dunderberg, The School of Valentinus', in A. Marjanen and

P.

Luom anen (eds),

A Companion to

Second

Century Christian 'Heretics', VC hSu p 76 (Leiden: E. J. Brill ,

2005), pp. 64-99.

90

M . A . Williams, T h e Sethians', i n Marjanen an d Lu om an en (eds),

Companion^

pp .

32-63.



130

Ignatius ofAntioch

Valentinians incorporated such a Sethian account, then the Sethian

Apocryphon

is clearly also late. If therefore Ignatius mentions aeons

in a Valentinian or Sethian sense (or both), then he is clearly a

Pseudo-Ignatius writing after the death of not only Trajan but also

of Polycarp

(AD

155 or 168). In tha t case the references to aeons and

oth er features of a Valentinian system would have implications bo th

for the authenticity of the middle recension and for the integrity of

Polycarp's

Philippians.

But it is by no means certain that the Sethian tradition to which

the Apocryphon bears w itness is in fact later than Valentinus. Alastair

Logan, in an influential study, has endeavoured to show that the

core of the myth in the Apocryphon goes back to a group originally

called the 'Gnostics' which he dates to the 120s.

91

If we dated

Ignatius' martyrdom in the reign of Hadrian in AD 138 rather than

Trajan, making some adjustment to the hit-and-miss equivalences

of the columns of the chronographers, Ignatius could well have

commented on an embryonic form of Logan's Gnostic cosmology.

O ther scholars have argued that the core of the Sethian myth existed

in som e form as early as the first century.

92

If it existed at tha t time,

the genuine Ignatius could have referred to that myth even if the

Trajan date is the correct one. Ignatius does not m ention Valentinus

and Valentinians by name and it is simply Lechner's inference that

they mus t be intended.

But I am not convinced that Ignatius uses the Greek word

aion,

which can also mean an 'age' of time, in any technical sense found

in a well-developed Gnostic system. The majority of instances are

found in the expression 'ruler of this aion

9

.

Clearly we have here

a reference to Satan, with the 'ruler of this age' referring to the

present time rather than the age of God that is to come. Typically

Ignatius says: 'Flee the evil designs and snares of the ruler of this

age (aion)

99 3

Similarly Ignatius refers to the Idngdo m s of this age

(awn)

9

, where presumably the reference cannot be to kingdoms

91

A. H. B. Logan,

Gnostic Truth and Christian Heresy: A Study in

the

History of Gnosticism

(Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1996), Chap. 2; cf. Brent, Ignatius and the Second Soph istic,

pp. 96—120. See also A. H . B. Lo ga n,

The Gnostics: Identifying an Early Christian Cult

(London and New York: T&T Clark, 2006).

92

Williams, The Sethians', pp. 51-52 and n. 34.

93

Ignatius,

Phld.

6.2; cf. also Eph.

17.1; 19.1; Magi.

1.2; Trail 1.2;

Rom.

7.1.



Recent Attacks

on

the Authen ticity o f

the

Ignatian Letters

131

possessed by one of the personal emanations from the Invisible

Spirit or M onad represented in the Apocryphon of John.

There are only two possible exceptions, both in

Ephesians,

and it

is these that Lechner attemp ts to exp loit

94

In one of these passages

Ignatius says: 'I am your scapegoat sacrifice (peripsemd) and I sanctify

myself for you, church of the Ephesians, renowned throughout the

ages (aiones)?

95

Lechner wishes to interpret this as the Ephesians

being renowned in the presence of the emanations or aeons of an

allegedly late Valentinian my th. Similarly in the passage regarding the

disclosure of the 'three mysteries', Ignatius claims:

The virginity of Mary and her procreation eluded the ruler of this age

(aion),

likewise the death of the Lord - three mysteries of crying which

were done in the stillness of God. How then was he revealed to the aiones

(or: ages)?

96

Schoedel is prepared to translate

aeons

here as emanations and not as

ages of time, as an early and embryonic form of Gnosticism.

97

Bu t at

first sight this appears a strange and forced reading. If 'ruler of this

age' translates aion in the sense of 'presen t age' then the expression

aiones which follows surely is better translated 'future ages'.

It is true that Ignatius refers t o malign heavenly powers of which

he claims esoteric knowledge. Not the single ruler of the present

age but rather a number of heavenly powers were the wondering

spectators of the sufferings of Christ on the cross:

Be deaf therefore when someone speaks to you apart from Jesus Christ,

wh o was from the progeny of David and from Mary, who was truly born ,

both ate and drank, was truly tracked down in the time of Pontius Pilate,

was truly crucified and died, whilst those in heaven and on earth and in the

underworld looked on , who was also truly raised from the dead[.]

98

And in the so-called 'star hymn' in Ephesians, Ignatius describes

the heavenly powers as being shaken and disturbed when the star

94

S c h o e d e l , Ignatius, p . 6 3 n .

2 .

95

I g n a t i u s , ^ . 8.1.

96

I g n a t i u s , ^ . 1 9 .1 - 2 .

97

S c h o e d e l , Ignatius, p . 8 7 .

98

I g n a t i u s , Trail. 9 . 1 - 2 .



132

Ignatius ofAntioch

shines, which superficially may seem like a Gnostic myth in which,

as Irenaeus describes, the aeons are disturbed:

How then was he manifested to the ages (or: aeons)? A star shone in heaven

above all the other stars .. . From then all magic and every spell for evil was

wiped away; ignorance

was

destroyed . .. In consequence all things were put

in commotion because the dissolution of death was being taken care of."

But even if this were the case, as I have said, this need no t reflect a

time after AD 165 since according to Logan the core of the Sethian

myth involving aeon speculation went back at least to the 120s.

Granted, Ignatius writes to the E phesians, which was a C hristian

community that at this time possessed the pseudonymous letter of

Paul to the Ephesians found in the N ew Testam ent am ongst Paul's

genuine letters. Granted, Schoedel lists in his index no less than

19 references or allusions to Pseudo-Paul's Ephesians.

100

Granted,

he argues that Ignatius' preface to his letter is modelled on that

of 'Paul'.

10 1

And in Pseudo-Paul's letter too we find references to

aeons that could only be translated perversely as 'emanations o f the

cosmic pow ers' rather than 'ages of time'. But just as in Ignatius, as

we have seen, the term does refer to aeons unambiguously in the

temporal sense of the term.

Pseudo-Paul refers to 'this present age (awn)

9

in contrast with 'the

age (aion) that is to com e'.

102

li k e Ignatius, w ho speaks of the archon

or 'ruler of this age', he also refers to the Ephesians as walking in

past time 'according to the

aion

of this world, according to the ruler

(archon)

of the authority of the air'.

103

Here

aeon

appears to be the

name of a malignant heavenly person, like

archon,

which is charac-

teristically used in the literature of this period as a cosmic ruler.

Christ has delivered the believer from the presen t age or indeed

aeon

or cosmic ruler, just as in Ignatius the star's shining shakes the old

order into obsolescence. The church in Pseudo-Paul is the

agenda

(oikonomid)

of the mystery

(musterion)

y

hidden from the aeons in

God, who created all things in order that it might be made known now to

99

Ignatius, Eph.

19.2-3.

See also above, Chap. 4, n. 48 and associated text.

100

S c h o e d e l , Ignatius, p . 2 9 1 .

101

S c h o e d e l , Ignatius, p p . 3 7 - 3 9 .

102

Eph. 1.21.

103

Eph. 2.2.



Recent Attacks

on

the

Authenticity

of

the Ignatian Letters 133

the

principalities and

powers

in

the heavenly places

through

the

Church the

rich ly patterned wisdom of God according to the design of the aeons that

he accomplished in Christ Jesus our

Lord[.]

104

In this work of the eighties or nineties AD, it would be perfectly

possible to read

aion

or

aiones

as referring to cosmic beings, in the

same way in which Lechner proposes to read this term in Ignatius,

with the result that such a use of the term does not imply a mid- to

late second-century date.

But in Pseudo-Paul, as in Ignatius, it mus t be acknowledged that

the term is quite fluid and elastic. Th is fluidity is a consequence of

aeon referring both to an age in time and also to the personal spirit

who rules this age. Certainly Pseudo-Paul believes that the 'plan,

pattern, or agenda {pikonomidf is revealed 'for the arranging (or

management) of the fulfilment of the past times (aiones)\ where

clearly the reference is not to pe rsonal cosmic rulers.

10 5

Th e Church

is a mystery no t previously revealed and tha t comes between Christ's

first and second coming. And this is also Ignatius' sense, though

developed in accordance with his concept of church order.

The overthrow of the cosmic ruler of this age is proclaimed

in Ignatius' 'star hymn'.

10 6

The three 'mysteries to be cried aloud'

after the age-old silence of God was already anticipated in the New

Testament Ephesians. Pseudo-Paul had spoken of 'the wisdom

of God made known now

to the principalities and powers in the

heavenly places through the Church'.

However, the church order of Pseudo-Paul's Ephesians appears

to resemble that of the

Didache

before Ignatius, with its 'apostles,

prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers' and no presiding

bishop, presbyters or deacons such as Ignatius will propose.

107

Through the Church' therefore meant to Pseudo-Paul 'through a

collective charismatic ministry'. But for Ignatius it is the Church

constituted as a threefold order that confronts and overthrows the

cosmic powers:

104

Eph.

3.9-11.

105

Eph. 1.10.

106

See also

above, Chap. 4 nn.

48

and

49,

and this chapter,

nn . 95

and

96

and associated

text

107

See above, Chap. 2, sect. 4.




Be eager therefore to assemble more frequently o celebrate God's Eucharist

and glory. For when you frequently gather as the Church, the powers of

Satan are destroyed and his destructive force is dissolved in the concord

(homonoid)

of your faith.

108

As we have seen, bishop , presbyters, and deacons w ere for Ignatius,

by analogy with their pagan counterparts in mystery cults, bearers

in their flesh of images of the Father God, the spirit-filled apostolic

council, and the servan t Son.

109

Wh en the com munity gathers 'as the

Church' for the Eucharist, those who perform the roles of divine

representatives in the saving drama thus wave their spiritual images

(or

tupoi)

at the cosmic powers that they thereby overthrow. As such

the images that they wear or bear spiritually in their flesh have an

apotropaeic function: they have the power to ward off dem onic

powers.

11 0

Th us Ignatius is grafting a pagan view of the apotropaeic

functions of

tupoi

on to traditional Christian eschatological expec-

tation abou t the final end. Ignatius can therefore claim that his new

church order fulfils the program me of Pseudo-Paul in the final two

decades of the first century in a way that is unconnected w ith later

Valentinianism. At this earlier date the divine plan was a previously

hidden mystery now revealed 'through the Church'.

We thus see that Lechner's case is unsustainable.

Let us now look finally at Hub ner and Vinzent's attack on authen-

ticity and w hat they may be able to add to L echner's

case, which they

otherwise support.

5. Hu bner and Vinzent: Ignatius' M onarchianism and

Marcion's Docetism

Hubner believes that the middle recension must be redated to the

late second century because its theology reflects a monarchianism

derived from Noetus of Smyrna in opposition to the Valentinians.

Monarchianism was the view that there are no distinctions of

persons to be made within the Trinity; monarchians accused their

oppon ents, w ho believed in such distinctions, of being 'ditheists' or

108

I g n a t i u s , ^ . 13.1.

109

S e e a b o v e , C h a p . 4 , passim.

110

F o r f u r t h e r e x a m p l e s s e e P h i l o s t r a t u s , VA V . 2 0 a n d B r e n t , Ignatius and the Second

Sophistic^ p p . 2 0 7 - 2 4 .




135

believers in two gods.

111

Their em bryonically Trinitarian oppon ents

accused them in turn of believing that the Father suffered on

Calvary, though Noetus

(AD

165) affirmed rather that the Father

suffered on Calvary

in

the Son rather than

as

the Son.

Superficially, Ignatius could be read as supporting such a view

when he speaks of the Ephesians being 'inflamed by the blood

of God' or entreats the Romans to 'Allow me to be an imitator

of the sufferings of my God'.

112

These were undoubtedly seen as

monarchian by the author of the long recension, who duly altered

them and gave them a properly Trinitarian form. But, I have argued,

their original contex t was never monarchian. The bishop w ho wears

the image (tupos) of the Father wears also the image of the suffering

God when he himself imitates Christ's suffering. Furthermore, the

picture of the Ephesians thus inflamed was derived from pagan

mystery cults such as Attis and the self-mutilation of their priests

rather than from any inner church dispute regarding the nature of

the Trinity

M uch rests for Hiibner on the use of paradox by monarchians in

response to Valentinianism. Key texts in this respect are several of

Ignatius ' statements, which are set ou t in mo dern editions as thoug h

they were creedal formulas:

There is one Physician,

Both of the flesh and of the Spirit,

Begot ten

(gennetos)

and unbegot ten

(agennetos),

Becoming flesh as God,

In death true life,

Both of Mary and of God ,

First capable of suffering

ipathetos)

then incapable of suffering (apathes),

Jesus Christ our Lord.

113

Hiibner will now seek to show that such paradoxes were characteristic

of a monarchianism that began with Noetus of Smyrna, who influenced

Melito of Sardis in the mid-second century, but of which Pseudo-

111

See Ps.-Hippolytus, Ref. DC 12.16-19 and Brent,

Htppolytus,

p p. 210-11.

112

I g n a t i u s , ^ . 1.1 and

Rom.

6.3.

113

Ignatius, Eph. 7.2.



136

Ignatius ofAntioch

Ignatius' statements are developments.

114

His method consists entirely

of literary analysis, by means of which he claims to show which text

was prior and which posterior. As M elito

of

Sardis's text is a meditation

rather than

a

creed, Hiibner looks to Noetus of Smyrna

as

the originator

of paradoxical epithets to describe the m ystery of the one God in two

modes. Melito and Noetus speak of God

as

Father and Son

as

a paradox

in such terms as invisible and visible, incomprehensible and compre-

hensible, impassible (not able to suffer) and passible (able to suffer).

115

The paradoxical antitheses were used to deny the Gnostic claim that

there was an earthly Jesus and a heavenly and spiritual redeemer, both of

whom were separate from

the

one Father:

the

redeemer

was

a

unity.

116

Hubner's student Lechner, whose attack on the authenticity of the

Ignatian correspondence I dealt with in the previous section, drew on

and developed Hubner's work.

I do not find Hubner's version any more convincing than his

pupil's.

117

Lechner, as we saw, rested his questionable case on

being able to locate the Ignatian letters in the later context of an

advanced Valentinianism. Hubner's addition

to

that case,

as

we have

presented it, is to locate the paradoxical creedal statements of the

middle recension in a late monarchianism that objected to a plurality

of divine persons and argued against that plurality by means of a

defence resting upon paradox. But such was not the only available

historical context for those statements. The pagan rhetoric of the

Second Sophistic also engaged in antithetical argument.

11 8

Arguably,

therefore, Melito

of

Sardis produced

his

Christological concepts

from a general exegetical method

of

contrasting antitype with

Old Testament type, which

is

plausible

to

regard

as

indicative

of a

general, Asian theological culture rather than

a

specific dependence

on Noetus.

Furthermore, in the Pseudo-Pauline, Pastoral Epistles in the New

Testament we find similar creedal antitheses, such as:

114

For the

Creeds

of

Noetus,

see

Ps.-Hippolytus,

Ref.

BL10.10-12

and

X.27.2,

and

Hiibner, D er Paradox

Eine,

p p.

48ff. For the

comparison with M elito

of

Sardis,

see

Hiibner, Paradox

Eine, pp. 16ff.,

20f£

115

Hiibner, Der Paradox Eine, pp. 78-87, where he also cites Irenaeus, Adv. Haer.

H I 6.6.

116

Hiibner, Der Paradox

Eine,

pp . 124-25.

117

For

further details

see my

review

of


Eine,

inJEH

5

(2002),

pp.

114-17.

118

See Schoedel,

Ignatius,

p p.

8-9,

39, 61 .




137

Great is the mystery of godly worship:

He who was manifested in flesh,

Was justified in spirit,

Seen by angels,

Preached among the pagans,

Believed on in the world,

Received up in glory,

119

or:

Faithful is the saying:

For if we suffer with him.

We shall also

]ive

with him,

If we endure patiently with him,

Th en we shall also reign with him,

If we deny him,

He will deny us.

120

We cannot - in view of the extensive use of the Pastoral Epist les

in parts of Polycarp's

Philippians

whose authenticity has not been

challenged - possibly date these letters after Polycarp's martyrdom

(AD

156).

121

Hiibner also claims that the specific terms of the Ignatian

antitheses, reflecting a negative theology that claims the unknown

God can only be apprehended through negative concepts (the

via

negativd)^ also indicates the lateness of the middle recension. As

Ignatius writes to Polycarp:

Observe the times,

Look for him who is above time,

The timeless one

(achronos),

unseen

(aoratos),

who for our sake was seen {oratos),

the intangible (apselaphetos),

the one who could not suffer (apathes),

who for our sake was made capable of suffering

(pathetos)[]

12 2

119

1

Tim.

.3.16.

120

2 Tim. 2.11-12.

121

Polycarp,

Phil.

4.1

(1

Tim. 6.7,10); 5.2

(1

Tim. 3.8-13); 5.2

(2 Tim.

2.12); 9.2

(2

Tim.

4.10); 11.2

(1

Tim. 3.5).

122

Ignatius, Pol. 3.2.



138

Ignatius ofAntioch

But such terms as achronos^ aoratos^ apselaphetos, and apathes, like Ign atius'

previous use of agennetos (unbegotten) in contrast to gennetos (begotten),

can be found, to

a

large

extent, in earlier literature.

We

have for example

Philo, a Jewish writer who explains Jewish thought in the Old Testam ent

in terms of Greek philosophy, and who lived at the beginning of the first

century after Christ, with whom he was almost contemporary.

Philo

uses

such negative terms, derived from pagan philosophy, to describe G od's

being.

123

And I

have

argued in my previous chapters that Ignatius should

be read against popular pagan religious culture.

Here once again we find the use of such negative terms in

attempting to come to term s with the mystery of G od in the Pastoral

Epistles (though admittedly not to Ignatius' precise extent) some

twenty to thirty years (AD 80-90) before his traditional, Trajanic date.

Pseudo-Paul here speaks of 'the incorruptible

(aphthartos),

unseen

(aoratos), only God'.

124

We also read of: 'the Lord of Lords who

alone has deathlessness

(athanasia),

dwelling in light unapproachable

(aprositos),

whom no human being sees or can see',

12 5

which reveals

a familiarity with the thought-forms of a negative theology.

Markus Vinzent has made one final addition to Hiibner's argument, in

an additional chapter to the latter's book.

126

O ne strand in his argument

is that Ignatius is dependent on the Preaching of Peter, which in turn is

dependentonLuke's Gospel, specifically regardinghis attack on docetism.

Docetism is an early heresy which asserted that Christ only suffered in

appearance, and is attacked frequently n the middle recension:

But if as some who are atheists - that

is

unbelievers -

say

that he suffered

in appearance

only,

whereas it is they who are mere

appearance,

why am I in

bonds?

Why do I pray even to fight with wild beasts? I die then in vain.

127

His point is that his claim to be an image or tupos of the suffering

God would be a lie. He would be representing physical sufferings

that could never have taken place in reality but only in appearance.

123

S e e P. Bor gen , K . Fulgse th a n d R . Skars ten, The Philo Index (Leiden, Bo st on a n d

Cologne: E. J. Brill and W B. Eerdm ans, 2000), p. 37:

aoratos;

p. 38:

apathes;

p. 62:

achronos.

Though Philo does not use agennetos as 'unbegotten' he will use the nearly

identical form

agenetos,

meaning 'uncreated': see p. 3.

124

1 T i m . 1 . 17 ; f o r aphthartos cf. a l so Philo Index, p . 6 0 .

125

1 Tim. 6.16.

126


Eine,

pp. 241-86.

127

Ignatius, Trail. 10.1.




139

Vinzent takes his stand o n the following passage from Smyrnaeans:

I know

and

believe

that even after

his

resurrection he existed in

flesh.

And when

he came to those around Peter, he said to them: Take me and feel me and see that

I am not a bodiless spirit (daimonion asomaton). And immediately they touched

him and they

believed,

commingling with his flesh and spirit

128

But the problem with Vinzent's thesis is that docetism is the oldest

Christian heresy and that it is not possible to distinguish early and

later forms of it in the way that his argumen t requires.

In the scene in Mark's Gospel where Jesus walks upon the

water, we find features capable of a docetic interpretation. Jesus

walks upon the water and this suggests that he is a phantom being

(phantasmd)) and not a being of flesh and blood. Jesus has to assure

diem that it is he.

12 9

Given that the words of Jesus in the Gospels

are selected and shaped for a contemporary purpose at the time of

writing within first-century Christian communities, it is proper to

infer that docetic claims were being made in those communities:

the words and acts of Jesus are remembered, selected and shaped

according to such anti-docetic concerns.

According to Matthew, the Gospel of Ignatius' own church,

Antioch in Syria, an important addition must be made. The act of

walking on the water must be shown to be possible for any human

being of flesh and blood so long as they have faith. Peter initially

steps from the b oat and walks with Jesus o n th e water bu t his faith

fails and he begins to sink.

130

Thus any evidential use of the event t o

show tha t Christ's body was of an ethereal, heavenly substance fails.

Th e Epistles of St Jo hn , emanating from Asia M inor in

the late first century, show a flourishing docetism, with their

repeated condemnation of anyone who 'denies that Christ has

come in the flesh' .

131

Polycarp, in passages where there is no

question of interpolation, quotes such texts against the docetists

of his time.

132

The risen Christ, according to Luke, eats in the

128

I g n a t i u s , Smyrn. 3 . 2 .

129

M a r k 6 . 4 8 - 5 1 .

130

Matt 14.28-33.

131

1

John

2.22;

4.2-3; 2 John 7.

132

P o l y c a r p , Phil. 7 . 1 .



140 Ignatius

ofAntioch

presence of the disciples in a scene that appears to be framed

as an anti-docetic polemic:

While they were

speaking,

Jesus himself stood in their midst and said to

them: Teace be with you/ And hearts aflutter and becoming frightened,

they thought that

they had

seen

a

spirit And he said to them: Why

are

you

so distressed and why have perplexities risen in your hearts? See my hands

and my feet that I am myself. Feel me and see that a spirit does not have

flesh and bones even

as

you see that I have.'

133

Clearly here also the purpose of the selection of this narrative by a

Gospel writer is to refute a very clear claim.

Do cetism was a heresy tha t flourished before the traditional date

of the middle recension. Vinzent must therefore show that Ignatius

is using the

P reaching of

Peter, which in turn has used this text of Luke,

and that the dating of the former means that the existence of the

middle recension before the death of Polycarp cannot be maintained.

This, in

itself,

can be questioned, tho ugh I have no t space to do this

here. It is quite feasible that an Ignatius at the traditional date could

be quoting

a

free-standing tradition later incorporated into either the

Preaching of Peter

or the

Gospel of Peter,

Suffice i t to

say

tha t Vinzent's thesis rests upo n an additional claim,

namely that Ignatius' quotation of these words specifically reflect a

special kind of Do cetism , namely the claim that C hrist possessed a

phantom body only after the resurrection. Moreover, he must show

that this specific form of docetism did not exist before or even at

the same time as the traditional date for the m iddle recension. Th us,

according to Vinzent, such a post-resu rrection docetism was charac-

teristic of Marcion's teaching, and so the m iddle recension mu st be

a post-Marcionite forgery.

134

When Ignatius records the risen Jesus

saying, not simply Luke's 'a spirit does not have flesh and bones

even as you see that I have', bu t 'I am no t a bodiless spirit {daimonion

asomatori)\

he is rejecting the Marcionite view that the risen body of

Jesus was incorporeal as distinct from his earthly body before the

crucifixion.

But the desire to refute such a post-resurrection docetism can

equally be found in certain passages in St John's Gospel. It is

133

Lk. 24.36-39.

134

See Hub ner, Der Paradox

Eine,

pp. 260-70.



Recent Attacks on the Authen ticity of the

Ignatian

Letters 141

furthermore quite impossible

to

date this Gospel

to the

middle

or

late second century. Certainly some have seen docetic elements

in

the Fourth Gospe l despite

its

insistence that

'the

Word (Logos)

was

made flesh'.

13 5

On a

docetic view, Jesus' weeping

at the

grave

of

Lazarus could

not be

because

he was of

human flesh

and

blood:

there could

be no

tears from

a

phan tom being with

no

participation

in a truly hum an existence. Rather, his tears are those of the distress

of a divine being com ing into close proximity with evil or imperfect

matter. Jesus therefore wept at the grave of Lazarus not because he

loved him, a misunderstanding born of human incomprehension,

but because the Logos in flesh wept for human misunderstanding

of his true nature and origin.

136

It is in the Fourth Gospel that the walking on the water, so

susceptible to docetic misinterpretation and needing to be corrected

by the othe r G ospels, appears at its m ost docetic:

Having rowed therefore about twenty-five or thirty stadia they saw Jesus

walking on the lake and coming near the ship and they were filled with fear.

But he said them, 'It is I pit. I am], do not fear.' They wanted therefore to

take him into the ship and immediately the ship was at the land to which

they were going.

13

'

Note here that

the

figure walking

on the

water offers

no

evidence

that he is a man

of

flesh

and

blood.

He

even fails to ge t into

the

boat

because suddenly they

are at

their landing place.

Does this testify

to an

earlier, docetic stratum

of the

text

of the

Fourth Gospe l, worked over

by the

author

so as to

remove som e

of

its force? Was fear specifically

of

som ething that could

be

described

as a pha ntom

(phantasmd)

originally present in his text? F urtherm ore ,

according

to the

Fourth G ospel

the

risen Jesus appears

to

Thomas

in

the

following scene:

And he [Thomas] said to them: TJnless I see in his hands the impress of

the nails and I force my ringers into the place of the nails and I force my

hand into his side, I will not believe/ And after eight days ... Jesus came

135

S e e U . S c h n e l l e , Antidocetic Ghristology and the Gospel of John: An Investigation of he Place

of he Fourth Gospel in thejohannine

School, t rans . L. M. Ma loney (Minneapolis: Fortre ss

Press,

1992).

136

John 11.

137

John 6.19-21.



142

Ignatius ofAntioch

through closed doors and stood in the midst and said: Teace be with you/

Then he said to Thom as: 'Bring your finger here and look at my hands and

bring your hand and force it into my side and do no t becom e an unbeliever

but a believer.'

138

Remember our principle of redaction criticism: that a text is to be

explained against the background of the original community by

whom it is recorded and the significance of the text in the light of

problem s within that com munity that explain its selection. The very

physical description of Christ's risen body is clearly directed against a

view that the resurrection body was an appearance

otphantasma

that

lacked flesh and blood. Schnelle has studied this docetic background

to the Four th Gospe l generally and says of this passage:

In the Thomas pericope, John the evangelist combines two current

theological problems of his community: while fending off a docetic denial

of the identity of the crucified Jesus with the risen Christ, he must also

answer questions about the resurrection faith of those who were forced to

rely on the testimony of eyewitnesses. An antidocetic tendency

is

expressed

in Thom as' desire to touch Jesus' wounds in order to confirm the bodiliness

of the Risen One and his identity with the earthly Jesus.

139

Thus we can find in the Fourth Gospel a response to a specifically

post-resurrection docetism. It

is

therefore not the case that the issue

of Jesus' post-resurrection body only arises in the second half of

the second century: the Fo urth Gosp el cann ot be th at late in view

of its earlier citations.

14 0

Hiibner's thesis can only succeed if we can date the Pastorals after

AD

160, let alone the

Acts,

with which they share a similar milieu, and the

Johannine writings also. The presence of a post-resurrection docetism

is

rooted in the Johannine tradition,

as we

have

seen.

It is therefore false to

assume that there could be n o em bryonic Marcionism o r Valentinianism,

prior to Marcion and Valentinus, for an early second-century Ignatius to

attack Furthermore, both Philo and the Pastorals attest to the use of

negative terms to express divine attributes.

138

John 20.25-27.

139

S c h n e l l e , Antidocetic Christo/ogy p . 1 4 3 .

140

See C E. Hill, Ignatius, "the G ospel" and the Gospels', in

A. F.

Gregory and

C.

M.

Tuckett (eds), Trajectories through the

New

Testament

and the Apostolic

Fathers (Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 267-86 .



Recent Attacks

on

the Authen ticity of

the Ignatian

Letters 143

I have frequently pointed out that Ignatius does not have a

con cep t of monarchical episcopacy, no r did later writers understand

his theology of church order. Priests and deacons are no t ordered to

obey their bishop, bu t it is the threefold order, like the later Trinity,

who mutually regard and co-operate with one another in a Godlike

harmony, and to which the laity are to submit. Unlike the view of

Irenaeus or even of Clement of Rome, a bishop is not a successor

of the apostles, but a tupos of God the Father, as is the deacon of

Jesus Christ and th e presbyteral circle at the Eucharist of the Spirit-

filled apostle. These concepts are related to those in inscriptions

of pagan religious terms, some of them specifically to the imperial

cult.

Had the Ignatian letters emanated from the last quarter of the

second century, they would have looked far more like the longer

recension

—

minus, admittedly, the Trinitarian emendations. We

should also have expected quotations, like those of Justin Martyr,

from the canonical Gospels, the Epistles, and the O ld T estament.

For these and many other reasons we have argued that recent

attacks on the authenticity of the middle recension fail.

But as we have frequently indicated, there remains a fundamental

problem regarding Ignatius and the church order witnessed by

Polycarp's Phi/ippians, and to this problem we now finally turn.



Ignatius and Polycarp

Both Lightfoot and Zahn rested their defence of the authenticity

of the middle recension on features of the text of Polycarp's

Philippians

that they believed to be free of interpolations. Each of

the writers w hom we saw in the previous chapter raising objections

to th e authenticity of the middle recension base their case on their

rejection of the witness of Polycarp's

Philippians

in its present form

to the collection of the Ignatian corpus. Each believe that passages

which testify to the martyr procession com ing through Philippi, and

instructions to collect the letters of Ignatius the martyr-bishop w ho

led that procession, are forged additions. Let us now examine the

credibility of Polycarp's present text as witness to the process by

which the letters of the middle recension were gathered together

into Ignatius' corpus.

1. Polycarp's Collection of the Corpus of Ignatius' Letters

W hy did Ignatius write only to five churches in Asia Minor, and to

Rome as the sixth? As the forger who added to the long recension

such pseudonym ous w orks as the letters to the Christians of Tarsus,

Philippi, and Antioch knew well, there were significant Christian

centres to which Ignatius did not write. Surely if the letters were

genuine, so critics before Lightfoot had stated, we should have far

more than the mere six, as well as others to bishops other than

Polycarp.

The answer to this reasonable question is found in Polycarp's

letter to the Philippians. Ignatius does mention other letters that he

144



Ignatius and Poly carp

145

plans to write. H e has in mind a second on e to the Ephesians, as he

writes to them in his first:

If Jesus Christ counts me worth through your prayer and it may be his will,

I will inform you in the second small volume that I have started writing

about the divine plan for the new man Jesus Christ, in his faithfulness and

love, in his suffering and resurrection.

1

His condition for so doing is that God will assure him in a vision that

'you are gathering severally but in com mon in grace from the name .. .

in order for you to

give

obedience to the bishop and presbyterate'.

2

The

divine plan of which he will speak is related to the Christian mysteries

that he has begun to expound to them , particularly the 'three mysteries

of crying'.

3

He thus needs them to assemble as a mystery cult with

their three orders bearing spiritually in their flesh the divine tupoi for his

further exposition to have poin t H e needs God

so

to reveal it because he

writes on the point of departure from Smyrna to Troas and then on to

Rome, with the result that merely human contact with him as

a

prisoner

in

chains will

from now on becom e increasingly difficult.

Such letter-writing as publicizing the theatre of his martyrdom was

essential to Ignatius' purpose as a man 'set on unity'.

4

His purpose

required as many such letters as possible, but clearly his room for

manoeuvre was severely limited. Thus he writes to Polycarp from

Troas:

Because

I

have

found it impossible to

write to all the churches

on account of

my

sudden departure by ship

from

Troas to Neapolis, as God's will has so ordered,

you write to the churches that lie before

me,

as you are in possession of God's

mind, so that they themselves can do the same thing. Those that can should send

messengers on foot, but others, letters by the hands of those sent by you, to the

end that all of you can win renown for an eternal deed.

5

Ignatius is looking back towards An tioch in Syria, to which diaconal

ambassadors have been sent, as we have seen.

6

H e wants Polycarp to

address letters to othe r churches nearer to Antioch than Philadelphia,

1

Ignatius, Eph. 20.1.

2

Ignatius,

Eph.

20.2.

3

Ignatius, Eph. 19.1; see also above, Chap. 5, nn. 96 and 99 and associated te xt

4

Ignatius,

Phld.

8.1.

5

Ignatius, Pol. 8.1.

6

See above, Chap. 3, sec t 2.




to which alone he has managed to write. The letters that Polycarp

sent in response to this instruction have not survived, with the

exception of

Philippians,

which, as we shall see, may indicate their

general tone . But Polycarp, if his on e surviving letter is unin terpo -

lated, was clearly intent o n m aking sure that he had copies of those

letters that Ignatius had written:

Both you and Ignatius wrote to me that if anyone departs for Syria, he

should carry with him your letter. This I will do if I get an opportune

moment — either I or an ambassador tha t I am going to send on your behalf

as well. We will send you, in accordance with your request, Ignatius' letters

that he sent to us and the other letters that we have left with us. These are

attached to this letter ... And inform us of what you have learned more

definitely about Ignatius and about his travelling companions.

Thus the col lect ion of Ignat ius ' le t ters that have survived was due

to the act ion that Polycarp claims he took here.

Polycarp claimed to have in his possession

Smyrnaeans

and his

own personal letter written to him from Troas. Since

Philadelphia™

was also written from Troas and would have been carried by the

messenger who delivered the first two letters through Smyrna, it is

clearly explicable how a copy of this letter also came into Polycarp's

possess ion .

Ephesians, Trallians,

an d

Magnesians

we re wri t ten from

Smyrna, so that it is also clear how Polycarp would have been in

possession of these letters, either because he requested copies from

Ignatius or because the prospective martyr-bishop left his papers

with him , w hom he regarded as his episcopal colleague.

Ignatius wrote Romans

from Smyrna too, so that Ignatius may

have given Polycarp a copy of this letter as well to include in the

corpu s. How ever, he may no t have don e so : the textual transmission

of Romans is distinct from the other six letters. Ignatius may have

thought that his words to the Romans were not relevant to the

situation in Asia Minor, and the doctrinal errors that he mentions

and contests there, so that he did not choose to give Polycarp a

copy.

Thus there emerges a plausible picture of the collection of the

six letters o f Ignatius as well as

Romans^

the seventh. Its plausibility

is enhanced by the observations that it is an account whose recon-

7

Polycarp, PM. 13.1-2.



Ignatius

and Poly carp

147

struction has involved a good deal of detective work in which,

although there are many loose ends, a pa ttern nevertheless emerges

that illuminates the situation. A forger of the original letters, like the

later forger of the long recension, would have produced an actual

letter to the Antiochenes that corresponded to the on e that Polycarp

mentions but is now lost. He would also have provided us with the

second letter to the Ephesians which Ignatius intended to write but,

if he did in fact write it, is now lost. As I igh tfo ot said:

The

personal

relations also in these epistles yield results not less striking than

the geographical notices. It

is

very rarely that

a

forger in these ancient times

has undertaken a fiction of such magnitude and variety without falling into

the most violent of anachronisms and contradictions. Not only is there

nothing of this kind in our Ignatian letters, bu t all the incidental and allusive

notices agree in a striking

way;

and, so far as we are able to apply this test

to them, they are in entire harmony with the external conditions of time

and place.

8

Regarding also Ignatius' knowledge of the situation as it existed in

Antioch in Syria, critics of authenticity have focused to o exclusively

on Ignatius' claim to know ecclesiastical situations from mystical

visions. As we have show n, such mystical visions tend to be focused

upon an idealized picture of the community gathered for the

Eucharist and not on any empirical facts about those communities'

everyday

life.

The apparent exception would be Ignatius' knowledge

of the divisions at Philadelphia, though this knowledge could well

have been based on an inference from the divisions at Antioch

having been repeated in other churches.

Th us Igna tius' visionary claims cannot be read as a literary device

to make plausible what would seem so obviously incongruous

with his situation under the restrictions of armed escort, namely

knowledge of churches which his imprisonment prevented him

from contacting. We have seen furthermore that the source of such

knowledge, though not made immediately clear by Ignatius, can be

inferred from references that he makes to the role of the deacon

Philo from Cilicia and Rheius Agathopus from Syria. If this were

a literary forgery requiring the invention of such figures so as to

3

J.

B.

Iightfoot, The Apostolic

Fathers (London:

Macmillan,

1890),

I I I ,

p .

351

(emphasis

in original).




make plausible a fictitious scenario, then their role would need to

have been made absolutely explicit and not hidden in the text and

requiring such inference. As ligh tfoo t says, criticizing the suggestion

of a 'miraculous revelation' to explain Ignatiu s' knowledge of those

church situations:

Th e true explanation is found in the letters themselves. From these we learn

that two deacons . .. had followed in his

wake.

They evidently took the same

route as h im .. . Thus we find that they were entertained first at Philadelphia

(Philad. 11) and then at Smyrna

(Smyrn,

10,13). As he had already left Smyrna

when they arrived there, they followed him to Troas, where they caught him

up. But the inference is built on scattered notices pieced together. The facts

relating to their journey are gathered from different epistles; and they are

not placed in any connection with the tidings respecting the restoration of

peace at Antioch.

9

Yet if Philo and Rheius Agatho pus w ere fictional figures introduced

into a literary forgery in order t o create a plausible backcloth for the

work, then such a direct connection between them as informants

and the news in question would have been essential.

If a forger, in other words, had been at work in the production

of the middle recension, then what he has produced would have

been done with th e ingenuity of a Conan Doyle specializing in false

leads and loose ends in his weaving of the narrative of his detective

stories. Given that the challenge to the integrity of Polycarp's letter

on the basis that one part of the text treats him as a dead and past

martyr, bu t ano ther as still living, can b e satisfactorily dealt with, o ur

account so far may be found plausible. And either those passages

do not give the precise temporal indication that the critics claim it

does, or indeed, with H arrison w e might conclude tha t there are two

letters of Polycarp joined into one.

10

But there remains one significant problem with Polycarp's work,

which inspired the forgery thesis for the middle recension as well as

leading to the search for the interpolator's seams in

Philippians

itself:

the church order to which Polycarp witnesses is not that of the

middle recension. It is to this problem that we now turn.

9

l i^i tfoot, The Apostolic

Fathers,

pp. 354-55.

10

Poiycarp,

Phil.

9.1 and

13.1;

see also above, Chap. 5, nn. 14 and 16 and related t ex t




149

2. The Church Order of Polycarp's Philippians and the

Middle Recension

Polycarp does not write as a bishop, like Ignatius, with his own

exclusive authority, but as 'Polycarp and his fellow presbyters'.

11

H e never uses the word 'bisho p' {episcopos) of himself or of anyone

else,

including Ignatius. Polycarp does use the word 'subjection'

as Ignatius does of the laity 'subject' to bishop, presbyters, and

deacons, but only in his case of 'being subject to the presbyters and

deacons'.

12

In other respects we appear to be living in the world of

the Pastoral Epistles (which he quotes), where there are bishops bu t

no t single bishops, as we saw was the case with C lement of Rom e:

in the Pastorals we are given a list of qualifications for 'a bishop'

but meaning generically 'anyone who is a bishop' rather than 'the

sole bishop'.

13

In Paul's letter to the Philippians there appears also

a plurality of 'bishops and deacon s' and no t simply one alone, just

as in Clement of Rome, as we have seen, 'bishop' is used inter-

changeably with 'presbyter' and refers to a plurality of ministers.

Th ere also appears an orde r of widows, as in the Pastorals.

14

In view of Polycarp's 'presbyters and dea con s' to whom submission

is required, we should note that in the Pastorals, though

presbuteros

(like its female equivalent

presbutera)

is often used simply to describe

an older man (or wo man), we do m eet with presbyters or older m en

who preside:

Let those presbyters who preside

(proestotes)

well be counted worthy of a

double honour, chiefly those who toil in word and in teaching.

15

Those elders or presbyters, moreover, were to be ordained to their

teaching office by the imposition of hands: Titus' is instructed

by 'Paul' to 'ordain elders (presbyters) in every city'.

16

It should,

however, be noted that 'preside' (proestotes) is used in the sense of

a teacher presiding over a philosophical school (proestos) and not

in Ignatius' sense, using a different word, of 'sitting forward

11

Polycarp,

Phil, praef.

12

Polycarp,

Phil.

5.3.

13

1

Tim. 3.2; T it 1.2. For Clement, see above, Chap. 5, n. 81 and related tex t

14

Polycarp, PbiL

4.3;

cf.

1

Tim. 5.3-16.

15

1

Tim. 5.17.

16

Tit 1.5.




prominently' (prokathemenos) or 'being pre-eminent as' a tupos or

image of a divine person or event. It is clear that for th e Pastorals

the leaders are leaders because they teach the true doctrines of the

faith, whereas in Ignatius they are pre-em inent as icons of persons

and events in the liturgical dram a of the C hristian mysteries.

If Polycarp's Philippians reflects the world of the Pastorals and

knows nothing of Ignatius' typology of church order, does it not

therefore probably follow that he knew nothing of Ignatian letters

containing that typology of church order? Those letters are therefore

later, and all references to them and their collection in Polycarp's

letter are interpolations of the forger of the middle recension.

Undoubtedly Polycarp and Ignatius represent the meeting of two

quite different earlier Christian worlds.

But such a conclusion would only follow if the letters of the

middle recension presupposed an established church order into

which all around him would already have fitted. Thus Ignatius (or

the pseudonymo us writer using his name) would have been familiar

with a world of the single bishop with a plurality of presbyters

and deacons, and those whom he addressed through his forged,

epistolary medium would have known of such offices. Since this is

the world of Irenaeus in the final quarter of the second cen tury and

not Polycarp and the Pastorals and the end of the first, the martyr

of Trajan's time becomes a figure of historical fiction.

Traditionally,

as we saw in our first chapter, this is the way in which

the debate has gone. For the supporters of episcopally governed

churches such as Ussher in the seventeenth century, the genuineness

of the middle recension was vital to show that the threefold order

of bishops, priests, and deacons existed early in church history, and

indeed w ent back to Jesus

himself,

w ho appointed the apostles w ho

appointed bishops w ith the specific ministry of ordaining presbyters

and deacons as well as their own successors. Ignatius was placed

in the 'apostolic age' where Eusebius had placed him, and simply

assumed to be one of the companions of the apostles.

My defence of the integrity of the middle recension nevertheless

rejects any such reading of the historical background. The letters

of Ignatius of Antioch cannot be placed in the second half of the

second century precisely because, if they were, their view of the

legitimacy of single bishops would depend on a doctrine of the

apostolic succession that they simply do n ot have. Later use of the



Ignatius and Poly carp 151

middle recension, such as in the DidascaliaApostolorum, was to distort

its view on the threefold orde r by imposing upo n it the later, succes-

sionist view. Polycarp's presbyters and deacons, like Paul's 'bishops

and deacons' in his New Testament Philippians, had been one of

the models of church order in Ignatius' church in Antioch, along

with more charismatic groups which were the cause of division

and strife in the community that Ignatius had tried to unite with a

radical proposal of a single bishop as the focus of a ministry with

presbyters and deacons.

1

I argued that Ignatius' model of church order was based upo n the

pagan mysteries of the Greek city-states of Asia Minor during the

Second Sophistic. Here the leader of the mystery procession and

foremost actor in the mystery play was a cult leader or procession

leader w ho bore the image

(tupos)

of the gods of the mystery in his

garland-crown, or as medallions on his chest or as portable images in

his hands. Th us the priest became the god w hose image he bore and

it was the god who was leading the procession.

18

Other priests of

various ranks also bore similarly images of other gods. As a result,

the unity of the city-state was symbolized in what was done, and

the unity or concord (homonoid)

thus symbolized was effected. The

citizens 'joined the ch orus or ch oir' singing in harmony, even though

only some of them were finally initiated into th e full mysteries: thus

the rites of an elite came to involve a who le comm unity and express

the unity of their common life.

Polycarp may preface h is letter 'Polycarp with his fellow-presbyters'

rather than calling himself 'bishop', but in none of the prefaces to

Ignatius ' seven letters does he lay claim to th e title of 'bish op ' either.

As we have seen , the title to which he lays claim is theophoros and n ot

episkopos, so that he uses the title of a god-bearer o r one w ho carries

or wears images in the procession that he leads. In so doing he is

not describing an established church order in an existing historical

situation. He is not describing an existing social reality, but in the

rhetoric of the martyr procession, in word and in act, he is creating

a new social reality.

The existing social reality of the churches to whom Ignatius

wrote was, I would conjecture, very similar to the one that we have

17

See above, Chap. 2, sects 3 -4.

18





exposed in Polycarp's Philippians: it was the world of the Pastoral

Epistles. Polycarp clearly understood his office, like the 'Peter' of

the pseudonym ous New Testament epistle, as one in which he could

say: 'I exhort the presbyters as one who is your fellow-presbyter

(sunpresbuteros)?

19

H e may be de facto leader 'in word and in teaching'

but he wears no image that distinguishes him from his fellow-

presbyters. Ignatius, in his letter to Polycarp, begins:

Ignatius, who is also a tbeophoros, to Polycarp bishop of the church of the

Smyrnaeans, but that rather is overseen by God the Father and the Lord

Jesus Christ...

Polycarp's reaction, o n m y view, would have been:

He calls me "bishop', and I suppose I am because presbyters are also

bishops, though I am not the only bishop ... or am I? Other presbyters

defer to me generally although there is nothing that I do that they cannot

... Perhaps then I am,

as

Ignatius

says,

the bishop.

Th e othe r churches to who m Ignatius wro te probably had a church

order similar to that of Polycarp, and sent to Ignatius' entourage

people whom they called 'presbyters' and 'deacons'. But Ignatius'

rhetoric, on their arrival, was to recast for them the way in which

they viewed themselves.

A possible modern parallel, I feel, would not be amiss here. The

church of the twenty-first century is divided on a number of issues

of moral discipline and order, associated to a great extent with the

ordination of women and the issue of gay rights. In order to settle

for some the conflicts in all their confusions, n ot unlike the situation

in Antioch in Syria in Ignatius' time, some parishes have sought

alternative bishops w ho have attempted to extend their jurisdiction,

and even form breakaway churches. Thus there is a great lack of

clarity about who the 't rue' bisho p might be in any given situation.

In the middle of all this I som etimes have a dream. Supposing a

bishop of a breakaway church also achieved a reputation for academic

brilliance combined with a record of being persecuted in the church

from which he broke away. The dean of a Cambridge college invites

him to preach at evensong, as someone with something to say on a

19

1

Pet 5.1.




153

particular subject, even though all other claims to sacred office are

considered som ewhat tenuous. H e is welcomed by a grou p of dons

at the station; he is conveyed by car to the college chapel. He eats

at High Table and engages in the usual earnest conversation after-

wards. T he long-suffering dean finally gets him to bed and puts him

on his train the nex t day, thinking, as the train leaves, som ething like

'interesting but controversial and not really

us\

A letter then arrives not addressing the dean directly, but the

Fellowship of the college. It begins:

My dearest Master and Fellows, I rejoice at the quality of your faith in

welcoming me, how you acknowledged my authority as your true bishop, as

you received my words which you made part of your common life ...

The Master and Fellows, and particularly the dean, quickly reassure

one anothe r that they were doing nothing of the kind: the old chap

was merely an interesting preacher for evensong, likely to have

drawn in the undergraduates through the sheer notoriety of what

he stood for, etc.

I believe that, in this example, we see the real situation that

Ignatius describes or rather reconstructs in a way that makes his

case. Having described them as 'inflamed in the blood of G od ',

he says to the Ephesians that they 'hastened to see' him who was

to 'fight with the wild beasts at Rome'.

20

Initially they are startled

by the comparison of Ignatius' martyr procession, which they are

hastening to join, with an Attis rite, where in the mutilation of

the priest and in the

vires

of Attis that he bears they can see the

'blood of God'. A martyr on his way to Rome they understand,

but not a martyr-sacrifice bearing such a comparison with an Attis

rite. They soon learn more of the nature of the martyr and his

company when in joining them they become themselves bearers of

portable images, 'Christ-bearers', 'temple-bearers', 'God-bearers',

*bearers of holy things' as sunadoi or 'cult associations'.

21

But as

matters progress and Ignatius continues his rhetoric, his recasting

of church order in terms of the pagan mysteries seeps gradually

into the minds of his hearers.

20

Ignatius,

Epb.

1.1-2; see also above, Chap.

4

n. 19 and associated te xt

21

See above, Chap. 4, sect

1.



154

Ignatius ofAntioch

As in Polycarp's case, the church at Eph esu s sends presbyters and

deacons. But the martyr-bishop as theophoros, bearing in his flesh the

image of his suffering Father God, looks towards one particular

presbyter to whom the others defer

de facto.

Ignatius espies on e

presbyter and says:

Onesimus abides in a love that cannot be related and is your bishop in the

flesh, and I pray by Jesus Christ that you love him .. . For blessed is he who

has granted him to you who are worthy to obtain such a bishop [J

22

Onesimus, like Polycarp, would no doubt be somewhat startled but

concede, as might his companion presbyters, his

de

facto leadership,

reflecting perhaps that presbyters were sometimes also called

bishops

(episkopoi),

as they were in Clement of Rom e and, also there

as counterpa rt t o th e deacons, in the DidacheP Ignatius w ill also lay

claim to th e experience of a mystical interchange betw een himself

and the bishop and his presbyters. As a result of that interchange,

he sees their whole gathered church in their clerical representatives,

as we described earlier.

24

Thus he will claim that Onesimus is not

one who is above or beyond the community, but who wears their

corporate image. As h e further says:

T.

received your w hole gathered

com munity in Onesim us, in a fellowship of love beyond description,

and in your bishop in the flesh.'

25

Likewise to o Polybius of Tralles is no t an example

to

his comm unity

but a mystical representative

of

his community:

I have become aware of your blameless and unqualified purpose that you

have in endurance not by education but by nature, even as your bishop

Polybius revealed to me who arrived in Smyrna by the will of Go d and Jesus

Christ, and so shared with me in rejoicing in my chains in Christ Jesus that

I saw your whole multitude in him in faith and love.

26

As we saw, thei r pagan cul ture wel l unders tood how image-bearers

of the gods made them visual ly present in thei r pr ies ts , but a lso

expressed the corpora te personal i ty of the communi ty : on the

22

I g n a t i u s , Eph. 2 . 3 .

23


24

See above, Chap. 4 n. 17 and associated te xt

25

I g n a t i u s , ^ . 1 .3 .

26

I g n a t i u s , Trail. 1 . 1 .




155

coinage, Athena is Side and Isis is Alexandria.

27

All of these aspects

of the situation in which Ignatius makes his claim account for the

success of his rhetoric in forming m inds to accept the principle of

the single bishop as the effective sign of unity.

Such rhetorical claims may engage affectively the com munities and

their leaderships to whom they are addressed. Thus the assent given

to such claims is expressed in a somewhat bewildered acceptance,

encouraged by what they are moved to feel by the cultural imagery

that is invoked. Nevertheless, as yet representatives of those com mu-

nities may only partly possess the ability to spell out specifically in

words the substance of those claims and to make them p art of the

logic of the discourse of justification of their social arrangements.

And this is precisely what we meet with in Polycarp's Philippians.

Polycarp may find novel Igna tius' title for h im as the bishop', and

may be able to repeat little of the rhetoric of his being 'pre-em inent

in forming an image (tupos) of the Father', let alone his fellow-

presbyters imaging the apostolic council filled with the Spirit at the

Johannine Pentecost or the deacons imaging Christ as servant. But

he did grasp that the laity were to be 'subject to the presbyters and

deacons', not because they were obeying, as in the Pastorals, those

who were 'presiding in word and in teaching', but because they

were those who were 'as God and as Christ'.

28

No one of whom I

am aware has as yet suggested that this passage was inserted by an

alleged forger of the middle recension

In the light too of an Ignatian rhetoric whose implications were

still in process of being realized we can understand the following

statement:

I shared with you in great rejoicing in our Lord Jesus Christ, when you

welcomed those who

were

imitations of true

love

and you forwarded them

on in thek procession, as was your concern. They were held fast by the

chains that befitted their holiness — chains that are the crowns of those

truly chosen by God.

These words do not reflect accurately the concepts of the author

of the middle recension, Ignatius of Antioch bishop and martyr,

wh ether unde r Trajan or unde r H adrian. They represent the response

27

See above, Chap. 4 n. 17 and related text

28

Cf. 1 Tim. 5.17 and Polycarp, Phil. 5.3.



156

Ignatius ofAntioch

of another writer, w ho sought to understand Ignatius' novel view of

church order within bounds that he just about found acceptable.

His words describe Ignatius' martyr procession witnessed by the

Philippians, a church for which we have no surviving letter from

Ignatius. The Greek word used for 'forwarded them' (propempein)

is used specifically in the context of pagan processions.

29

Ignatius,

as we have seen, called the Ephes ians w ho joined his procession as

representatives of their entire community image-bearers of various

kinds, of God (theophoroi), of Christ

(Christophoroi),

of portable

shrines

{naophorot)^

and of sacred objects

{hagiophoroi).

They were

'ado rned' like those wearing vestments in a mystery procession w ith

the spiritual adornment of the 'commandments of Christ' .

30

They

are 'fellow-initiates of the blessed Paul' in the mystery - whether

of the Eucharist or of martyrdom in the Roman arena - of the

sufferings of Christ. They are 'imitators of God, being inflamed by

the blood of G od ' as they spiritually bear their divine images.

31

Their

procession is a kind of mystery play in which th e leading actor is to

find union w ith G od by imitating his death and suffering: Ignatius is

thus to become 'an imitator of the sufferings of my God'.

32

In Ignatius' meeting with Polycarp we are experiencing the

meeting of two different worlds in early Christianity. Polycarp

cannot follow him in equating the martyr procession with a pagan

mystery drama, with specified individuals bearing specific images

of divine persons or things. He will not use the technical term

of a person imitating a divine being and achieving union by such

imitation

(mustes ̂ summustes).

Ignatius' martyr procession simply has

'imitations o f true love ' in which divinity is depersonalized and what

is imitated becomes an abstraction.

Ignatius describes himself as 'bound in bonds that evoke

tremendous awe for the divine

{theoprepestatot)

\

33

As such, he was

like a

hagiophoros

in a pagan procession , a bearer of a divine object

invoking awe for the divine. Polycarp does not like this association.

29

S e e a l s o A . B r e n t ,

Ignatius ofAntioch and the Second Sophistic

S T A C 3 6 ( T u b i n g e n : M o h r

S i e b e c k , 2 0 0 6 ) , p p . 1 8 0 - 8 3 .

30

I g n a t i u s , Eph. 9 . 2 ; c f. a b o v e , C h a p .

4

n .

7

a n d a s s o c ia t e d t e x t

31

I g n a t i u s , Eph. 1.1 , s ee a l so 10 .3 ; Trail. 1.2; Phld. 7 . 2 . S e e a l s o a b o v e , n . 2 0 .

32

I g n a t i u s , Rom. 6 . 3 ; s e e a l s o a b o v e , C h a p .

4

n .

8

a n d a s s o c i a t e d t e x t

33

I g n a t i u s , Srnyrn. 1 1 . 9 ; Magn. 1 .2 . F o r t h e u s e

o f

theoprepes i n t h i s p r e c i s e s e n s e , s e e

Brent, Ignatius

an d

the

Second

Sophistic, pp. 127 -31.



Ignatius and Poly carp 157

T he chains of those in Ignatius' martyr procession "befit the sanctity'

(hagioprepes)

of those who wear them and act as their crowns, but

they are not part of any discourse of meaning that presupposes an

iconography assisting imitation of and assimilation with a divine

person or thing.

Polycarp therefore found Ignatius' rhetoric strange, and what he

did understand of it he needed to recast into a form that he found

more palatable and less pagan. But we must ask why he accepted it

at all.

Polycarp was wrestling with the same heresy as is represented by

the letters of the m iddle recension, namely docetism , or the view, as

we have seen, that Christ had no real body of flesh and blood and

thus could only suffer in appearance. As he says:

For anyone who does no t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh,

he is an antichrist; and whoever does no t confess the witness of the cross

is of the devil.

34

The iconography of Ignatius' martyr procession was an impressive,

enacted refutation of docetism. Ignatius proclaims of Christ that:

he was truly from the family of David according to the flesh, Son of God

according to the will and power of God, being truly born of a virgin ...

truly being nailed in the flesh for us at the time of Pontius Pilate and the

tetrarch Herod. From the fruit of that most divinely blessed Passion, his

intention is to raise up a standard to the ages

(atones)

through his resur-

rection for his holy and faithful ones[.]

35

Accordingly, as a ^bearer of holy objects '

(hagiophoros)

he waves his

chains as his martyr process ion proceeds and cr ies :

Be deaf therefore whenever someone speaks apart from Jesus Christ of

the race of David, he who was from Mary, who was truly born, and ate and

drank, truly he suffered persecution at the time of Pontius Pilate, was truly

crucified and died, whilst the heavenly and earthly and chthonian beings

looked on . He was truly raised from the dead

by his

Father who raised him

.. . B ut if as certain say who are atheists, that is to say unbelievers, that he

has suffered only in appearance, they themselves being the appearance, why

34

Polycarp, PM. 7.1.

35

I g n a t i u s , Smyrn.

1.1—2.



158

Ignatius ofAntioch

am I in bonds, why do I pray to fight against wild beasts: I am dying for

nothing. I am therefore lying against the Lord.

36

Clearly and visibly, in the enacted choreography of the martyr

procession, Ignatius had linked Christ's sufferings with his own

martyr sufferings, and claimed that the latter would be a lie if the

former w ere in appearance only. It was a dazzling piece of enacted

rhetoric that refuted docetism. For such a gift against his op ponen ts,

Polycarp was prepared to su rrender all misgivings and to accept the

strange character that had landed under military escort at Smyrna

and send him on his way. Beginning to get 'on message' with

Ignatius, he interprets in Ignatian processional terms, with reserva-

tions,

what the Philippians had done.

Our account of Ignatius has been against the background of the

pagan religious life of the city-states of Asia M inor with their sacred

processions. It is here th at we have located th e cultural backcloth o f

the Christian communities to whom he wrote his letters, and how

he refashioned that backcloth in order to create a model of church

unity. It is an account that, I believe, has resolved the Ignatian

problem m ore satisfactorily than renewed attem pts to revive defunct

forgery hypotheses.

36

Ignatius,

Tralliaus

9 -1 0 .



In Conclusion

We began in our first chapter with the rise of critical Ignatian

studies in the contex t of seventeenth-cen tury Eng land, and Ussher's

disputes with the Puritans. The very real issue at stake was what

form of government a church should have in order to be truly the

Church. It was an issue too of the political constitution in societies

that, at least before Locke, had no notion of the separation of

Church and state, and no account of legitimate government that

could be separated from religious claims, even if those claims

were understood in utilitarian terms regarding the civil peace, as in

Marsilius of Padua. The divine right of kings went hand in hand

with the divine right of bishops to rule the Church.

In such a context the authenticity of the middle recension,

written by Ignatius at the end of the apostolic age, was an issue

about the authenticity of church government by bishops, and also

the authenticity of the civil government that they consecrated.

Thus continental Protestants and English Puritans, in attacking

the authenticity of the Ignatian letters, were also defending the

Presbyterian order of their churches, and the civil governm ent that

they equally claimed as 'true' churches to authenticate.

It will be clear tha t my argum ent for the authenticity of the

middle recension makes no contribution to either side of that

historic debate.

The picture of Ignatius that my account has drawn

is

of someone

comparable to a missionary bishop entering into the thought-life of

a culture so as to transform it radically, much to the perplexity of

traditional adherents t o the faith from which h e is coming. Ignatius

159




was prepared to reconceptualize church order in terms of pagan

religious cults with their image-bearers and in terms of their leading

priests, w ho image the deity and in som e sense becom e the deity in

the religious drama that is performed. Ambassadors between cities

during die Second Sophistic, in the revival of the

ideals

of the fourth-

century BC city-state, negotiated homonoia treaties that acknowledge

the unity of autonomous cities within a Hellenic ideal. Ignatius was

someone who assimilated the functions of those ambassadors with

clerical representatives, w ho as divine ambassadors and divine 'speed-

run ne rs' urged unity by the acceptance of hierarchy focused around

a single bishop on a gro up o f churches in Asia Minor.

1

Tho se ambassadors w ere well assisted in their task by the martyr-

bishop who choreographed his procession to martyrdom around a

scapegoat image. Th us those churches were united in

hom onoia,

both

externally between themselves and internally amongst divergent

groups within the community. Thus Ignatius' reconceptualizing

of ecclesial order by a process of radical secularization did not

simply commend Christianity to a pagan audience but refash-

ioned the internal structures of those early Christian communities

themselves.

T he present writer is an Anglican priest, and therefore part of the

historic order of Christen dom w hose later developm ent, in Irenaeus

and the Didascalia, represents the Ignatian project in a highly

distorted form.

2

My exposure of the pagan roots of the Ignatian

project would hardly commend itself to everyone as any kind of

defence of the validity of episcopal order. No doubt the Puritans

might have rejoiced at such an account as the exposure of the pagan

roots of the historic order of Christendom that they opposed, and

therefore its final refutation.

Bu t Clem ent of Alexandria and Origen have taught us that Greek

philosophy was the schoolmaster that brought the Greeks to Christ,

and subsequently Middle and Neo-Platonism was to inform the

development of historic Christian theology. So too image-bearing

in pagan mysteries and the celebration of homonoia have left their

marks on the shape of historic church order and ritual. Theology

and ecclesial order do not negate the philosophy and order of the

1


2

See above, Chap. 5, sec t 2 and nn. 28-39 .



In conclusion

161

society in which they arise and by which they are socially and h istori-

cally conditioned. Rather, they engage with contemporary society,

no t to be changed by it bu t to transform it. In this Ignatius must b e

credited w ith som e success.

Government by a group of presbyters or charismatic prophets

had failed to produ ce the only kind of unity or conco rd know n b oth

to the ancient and medieval worlds prior to the rise of industrial

societies. That unity was based upon a fairly monolithic conformity

to fundamental values spelled out in specific detail and adopted by

a community within a given, geographically defined area. In brief,

there was no concept in the ancient world of the modern notion

of a pluralistic society in which different groups can nevertheless

achieve a minimal consensus sufficient for unity within a c om m on

identity.

But in Ignatius we can glimpse ano ther m odel of episcopal

government that is not wedded to a defined geographical domain.

Furth erm ore, it is certainly not dep enden t o n the establishment of

a historical chain of apostolic succession in term s of who is entitled

to occupy such a dom ain

—

that, as we have seen, was a feature added

to the model by Irenaeus and Cyprian. We have seen that the bisho p

with the presbyters and deacons are for Ignatius the collective icon

of a redeemed comm unity: they represented in the liturgical drama

the events of salvation at work in the community; they are icons

of a com munity in process of redem ption. Ignatius saw in mystical

vision the 'whole community, in faith and love ', in the clerical rep re-

sentatives of those churches who sent their divine ambassadors to

his martyr procession.

In the twentieth and twenty-first cen turies we have created under

the missionary imperative new, cultural forms of episcopacy not

tied to territories. We have cultural bishops for indigenous peoples

in North America, in the Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander

communities of Australia, and in New Zealand. Here the bishop,

with presbyters and deacons, wear the images of their cultures in

process of redemption and over whom they preside as guarantors

of their distinctive liturgies and forms of spirituality.

Such a new form of culturally based ministry is furthermore

struggling to be born in the present crisis in the Anglican

Communion over issues of sexuality. In this crisis, a territorially

based episcopate is failing to secure the unity of the church



162

Ignatius ofAntioch

that

it is the

purpose

of

episcopal consecration

and

collegiality

to obtain. There

are

emerging

on the

same territory different

forms

of

Anglicanism and the claim

of

a bishop

to

the oversight

of every person within

a

geographical boundary

is

increasingly

met with opposition that is breaking the communion apart.

Any constructive way out of this dilemma will be in terms of

recognizing the bishop of a group with a theologically distinct

culture as having the right to superintend the expression of the

faith of that culture. Pluralism in society will be mirrored by

pluralism in the Church in terms of which a minimum unity

of purpose and common values will need to be painstakingly

worked out.

3

Bishops will be defined in terms of the corporate

personality of their culturally defined communities and not

from a geographical area over which they claim jurisdiction.

Ignatius may still have some insights that lead us painfully towards

such a goal.

3

For a comprehensive argument for this case, see A. Brent,

Cultural Episcopacy

and

Ecumenism: Representative

M inistry

in

Church

History from

the

Age of

Ignatius

ofAntioch

to

the Reformation,

with Special

Reference

to

Contemporary Ecumenism ̂ Studies

in

C hristian

Mission 6 (Leiden: E.

J.

Brill, 1992).



Select Bibliography and

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VCb

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Gospel According

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Cultural Episcopacy and Ecumenism: Representative Ministry in

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164

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Ignatius of Antioch,

ed. H. Koester, H erm eneia (Philadelphia:

Fortress Press, 1985).

'Polycarp of Smyrna and Ignatius of Antioch', in ANRW

1121A

(1992), pp. 27 2-3 58 .

Tolycarp's Witness to Ignatius of Antioch', VCh 41 (1987),

pp. 1-10.

Spawforth, J. S., The Panhellion Again',

Chiron

29 (1999), p p.

339-52.

Swartley, W M., The Imitatio Christi in the Ignatian Letters',

VCh

27 (1973), pp . 81 -10 3.

Trevett, C , 'Anomaly and Consistency: Joseph R ius-Camps on

Ignatius and Mathew',

VCh

38 (1984), pp .

165-71.

'Apocalypse, Ignatius, M ontan ism: Seeking the Seeds',

VCh

43

(1989), pp . 31 3-3 8.



Select Bibliography and Further Reading

167

- "The Other Letters to the Churches of Asia: Apocalypse and

Ignatius of A n ti o c h ' , /W 7 3 7 (1989), pp. 117-35.

- 'Prophecy and Anti-Episcopal Activity: A Third Error

Com bated by Ignatius?', JEH 34 (1983), pp . 165-71.

-A

Study

of Ignatius

ofAntioch in Syria

and Asia,

Studies in the B ible

and Early Christianity 2 (Lampeter: Edwin Mellen, 1992).

von, Campenhausen, H., Ecclesiastical Authority and Spiritual Power in

the Church of the First Three

Centuries, trans. J. A. Baker (London:

Adam and Charles Black, 1969).

Weijenborg, R.,

Les letters

d'Ignace dAntioche:

Etude de critique litteraire et

de theologie

(Leiden: E .

J.

Brill, 1969).

Williams, M. A., The Sethians', in A. Marjanen and P. Luomenen

(eds),

Com panion,

pp. 32—63.

Zahn, T., Ignatius von Antiochien (G otha: Perthes , 1873).



Index

Biblical

Genesis

24.24

31.19

Exodus

19

25-40

40.34

40.34-38

Numbers

9.15-17

18

4

Maccabees

6.9

6.17

9.17

10.5-7

Matthew

2

7.15-16

7.21-23

10.5-6

10.23

13.52

15.24

16.17-19

18.17

Citations

92

77

105

105

106

106

106

105

48

48

117

117

24

25

25

24

26

25,29

24

29

24

16.18

23

23.6

23.7-10

26.6-13

26.7

28.16-20

Mark

6.48-51

9.50

12.39

14.3

14.28-33

Luke

11.43

20.46

24.36-39

John

3.8

6.19-21

11

20.21-22

20.22-23

20.25-27

Acts

2.42

2.46

8.18-20

24

24

24

25

86

38

24

139

21

24

38

139

24

24

140

39

141

141

38

86

142

36

36

123

169



170

11.26

13.1

Romans

12.18

1 Corinthians

2.10

2 Corinthians

13.11

1 Thessalonians

5.13

Ephesians

1.10

3.9-11

5.30-32

1 Timothy

1.17

3.2

3.5

3.8-13

3.16

4.14

5.3-16

5.17

6.7

6.10

6.17

2 Timothy

1.6

2.11-12

2.12

4.10

Ignatius ofAntioch

22

26

21

39

21

21

133

133

92

138

149

137

137

137

35

149

149,155

137

137

138

35

137

137

137

Titus

1.2

1 Peter

5.1

l j o h n

2.22

4.2-3

2 John

7

3

John

9-10

149

13,152

139

139

139

31

Early C hristian an d Jewish

Writers

Barnabas

Epistula

12.12

Clement of Rome

Corinthians

15.1

42.1-4

44.1 and 5

44.1-3

44.2

63.4

Consitutiones Apostolicae

II.25.7 (39-41)

II.25.7 (44)

II.26.3 (20-21)

II.26.4.6 (40-41)

II.26.8 (53-54)

21

21

126

28

126

21

21

105

107

106

106

106



Index

171

Didache

4.3

10.7

10.9-10

12

13

13.1

15.1

16.4

21

27,36

27

26

27

26

27

27

Didascalia Apostolorum Connolly)

p. 80.19-21

p. 80.22-23

p. 87.14

p. 87.19-89.1

p. 89.2-3

p. 89.3-4

p.

89.4-5

p. 91.3-9

Eusebius

Historia Ecclesiastica

III.20.6

111.21-22

111.23

111.26

III.23.3

III.36.7-9

III.39.2

IV.14.3-4

IV.14.3-8

IV.22.1-3

V.24.14

V.24.16

VIII.17.9

Hermas

Mandate

27 II).3

105

107

106

107

106

108

106

108

21

2

103

2

9

98

9

103

9

124

21

21

22

21

43 XI).11-12

Similitude

73 VIII.7).2

Vision

8 11.4).3

14 111.6).3

17 111.9).2

18 III.10).7

20 111.12)3

Ignatius

37

21

125

21

21

25,37

21

Letter to the Ephesians

1.1

1.1-2

1.2

1.3

2.1

2.2

2.3

3.1

4.1-2

4.2

5

6.1

6.2

7.2

8.1

9.2

10.1-3

10.3

12.1-2

12.2

13

13.1

13.2

17.1

19.1

19.1-2

19.2

72,102,135,156

48, 81,153

45,66

154

10

132

154

45

11,17, 34

11,64

91

30,41

58

135

48,131

73,

82,102,156

93

72,156

10

72,93

93

11,134

11

39,

86,130

72,98,130,145

131

64



172

19.2-3

20.1

20.2

21.1

21.2

Ignatius

o/Antioch

132

145

85,145

48

45,66

Letter to the Magnesians

1.2

2

3.1

6.1

6.1-2

6.2

7.1

7.2

8.2

9.1

10.3

13.1

13.1-2

13.2

45,130,156

10,33

34

89,105

127

11,105

85

32

88,128

31

71

68

38,108

86

64

Letter to the Philadelphians

Praef.

1.1

2.2-3.3

4

5.2

6.2

6.3

7

7.1

7.2

8.1

10.1

10.1-2

10.2

11.2

18

18,

30,

41,

66

58

33,83

45,66

130

72

39,115

157

156

11,41,145

11,

21

53

50

10, 45 , 66

Letter to Polycarp

Praef.

2.3

3.2

5.1

6.1

7.1

7.1-2

7.2

8.1

Letter to the Romans

1.1

1.2

2.2 18 ,48 , 64,

4.1

4.2

4.3

4.5

5

5.1 10,

5.2

5.3

6.1

11

48

137

92

48

21

11

53

50,145

18,112

15

84,104

18,113

18,49

15

98

98

14,102

18

117

55

6.3 72,

83,135,156

7.1

7.2

7.3

8.3

9.3

10.2

Letter to the Smyrnaeans

1.1-2

3

3.2

8.1

8.1-2

10.1

130

11,98

84

19

57

56,92

157

87

139

32

68,69

10



Index

173

10.2

11.1

11.2

11.9

12.2

13.1

Letter to

the

Trallians

1

1.1

1.2

2.1-2

2.3

3.1

3.2

4

6.1-7.2

9.1-2

9-10

10.1

12.1

Irenaeus

Adversus Haereses

II.22.5

III.1.1

HI.3.1-2

III.3.3

III.3-4

III.3.4

III.16.6

III.23.3

Jerome

De Viris Illustribus

16

48

102

11, 21,

22, 53

156

45

10

91

10,154

72,130, 156

30,33

85

2, 88,105

30,89

40

57

131

158

138

90

9

9

124

125

103

9,103

136

9

20

Josephus

Antiquitates

1.310-11

(19.8)

1.322 (19.10)

Origen

Homilia

in

Lucam

6.4

Prologus Canticorum

2.36

Polycarp

Philippians

Praef. 13,

1.1

4.1

4.3

5.2

5.3 149,

7.1

9.1 12,

9.1-2

9.2

11.2

13

13.1 102,

13.1-2

Pseudo Hippolytus

Refutatio Omnium Haeresium

V.6.3

IX.10.10-12

IX.12.16-19

X.27.2

Pseudo Ignatius (Long

Recension)

Letter to the Philadelphians

6 ,9

77

77

98

98

149

12

137

149

137

155

139

148

101

137

137

12

148

146

123

136

134

136



174

Letter to the Trallians

1 1 , 9

Classical Works

Epigraphy

Aelius Aristides

Orationes

10.10-10

Apuleius

Metamorphoses

10.10

Cassius D io

LXIX.16.1-2

Cicero

Ad Familiares

VIII.4.5

Oratio in Pisonem

36(89)

Demosthenes

De

Corona

313(260)

D io

Chrysostom

Orationes

36.22

36.31

Diodorus Siculus

XVI.92.5

Justinian

Digesta

XLVIII.19.31

Ignatius

and

65

76

67

110

15,110

74

63

63

84

16.

I l l

ofAntioch

Livy

31.24 51

Lucian

De

Morte Peregrinni

11

1 2 - 1 3

41

Lysias

Contra Eratosthenem

124.43

Pausanius

1.18.9

VI.16.5

Philostratus

Vita Apollonii

73

51

54

68

67

51

V.20 77,134

Suetonius

Domitian

4.4

77

IGRR Inscriptiones Graecae ad

res romanas pertinentes

III.209

IV.353

SEG

Supplementum

Epigraphicum Graecum

VI.58.1-6

VI.59.1-5

VI.59.8-28

XXXVIII.1462

XLVII.163.13-17

81

66

67

67

81

74

67



Index 175

Greek Words exarchos

(tfyxpypS)

74

achronos (axp ov os ) 137,138 , , . _

op

^

n

agenetos (ayevvTiTOS)

138

g^ ne to s (yewnx os) 135,138

agennetos (cc'yewTiTOs) 135, . . ,

.

~~

hagiophofos

agonothetes (dycovo08Tns)

u

C ? *

1 0

* * * * )

8 2

>

1 0 2

>

1 5 6

74,75,76,80,82,88,

h a

f

t

° P

r e

P

e s

9

3 (ayioirpeims) 157

aion(a.'cov) 130-133

h e

™

e r o d f

°

m

° s

antipsuchon (a"vT.^

X

ov)

48

u

(fW^povos)

51,54

aoratos (ddp ax os ) 137,138

h o

T ^ ^ o ) 32

p es

« , 135,137,

^^^^g

aphthartos

f

(o ^ a p r o s ) 138

8 4

'

89

>

aprositos (dlTpoatTOs) 138 , .

, , katheeemon

apselaphetos

, \

psaphetos , \

(d^Xd^TOS) 137,138 , f ^

Y 8

r f l \

's , J

archon (Jpxcov) ,

6 7

k a t h o l x k o s ( K a 9 o X ,

K

o s )

6 9 ,

a t h a n a s i a ( a ' S a v a a f a )

1 3 8

t

,

1M t 1 1

.

katnolike ekklesia

boule (PouAri)

60

(xaBoXiKn'8KKAno.a)

69

v r lJ

Koinon (Koivov) 66 ,69

u /w ^ \ , , oc k o i n o s (KOIVOS) 6 9

choros (Xopos) 6 4 , 85

v J

christophoros . , /

x

. . _

(Xp tO TO ^p os) 8 2 ,1 5 6 t m e s i s (M.MT1O.S] 02

^

K

Y - K j > m u ste non (MUOTTlpiov) 132

, . . m ustes (Ml/aTTis) 156

daimonion asomaton

v y

(Soupoviov aacoMaxov) 139 .

t

, /

J-

j u / x , , v X ^ « \

1 o l 1 O / )

na iskos (vaiOKOs) 82

diad oche (OiaooYTl) 1 2 3 ,1 2 4 ,

f

v

, v /

x

v A Iy

' ' naophoros (vacxj)opos) 82,

^ J 156

dromos demosios

5 ,

W X O ,

54,55,80,

ekklesia (eKKAnoia) 29,34,51, / . ^ ?

52,5 3,6 0,6 1,6 4,6 6 68 75 neokoros (VSCOKopos) 52

79 82 84 94

n e r t e f o d r o i

n

o s

,

episkopos

( e m W i ) M9, J si , ( ^ P ^ P ^ M O S ) 54,100

oikonomia (oiKOVO(Jia) 132




oikou mene (oiKou|jevTi) 67, 68 (a uv ay co ys us ) 73, 80, 84,

100

panhellenios sunetheia (auvr[0eia) 91

(TTCCveAAr|Vios) 67 sunod os (a uvoSos) 66 , 68, 72 ,

pathetos (TraBTiTds) 135,137 , 80, 82 ,1 00 ,1 53

138 sun thusia (OuV0uai'a)

52,

54, 56,

perispsem a (irepi'vpTma) 48, 49, 57, 75, 77, 78

54,131 sunthutes (OUVSUTTJS) 75

phantasma (c|>avTaa|ja) 139,

141,142 theod rom os (0eo5p d|jos) 53,

presbuteros 80

(TTpea(3uTepos) 149 theophoro s (0eo<j>opos) 75 ,

presbeutes 78, 82, 88,1 00,1 27,1 51,1 52,

(0eoTTpea(3euTTis) 54,5 5 15 4,15 6

proestos (iTpoeaTCOs) 149 theoprepestatos

proka thegetes (0eoTrpeTreaT(XTOs) 156

(TTpOKa0Tiyr|TTls) 74 theopresbeutes

pro kathemenos (0eoTTpea(3euxr|s) 53 , 54, 55,

(TTpOKa0TiMevos

>

) 32,15 0 80

propempein thiasarches (0i ao ap xr|s ) 73, 74,

(TTpoTTSMTreiv) 156 8 0 ,84 ,100

prosopa ektupa thiasos (QicxGOS) 74,82

(TTpcxjcoTra

e KxuiTa)

76 ,89 thusia (0uaia) 48 ,49

pro so pon (TTpoacoTTov) 89 tu pos (TUTTOS) 76,77,

protokathedria 79, 82, 88, 89, 90, 92, 93 ,10 2,

(TrpcoTOKCX0e5pia) 37 105,1 06,1 07,1 08,1 09,1 27,

protokathredrites

^

134,142,145,150,151,155

TTpcoTOKa0e5pmr|s) 37

, , Subjects

sebastophoros

75,

76, 78 Alcu in of York 118

somation (OCO|jaTlOV) 22 Alexander St, (pope) 5,12 4

somateion (oeoMaxefov) 21 , Am bassadors

11,

53, 54, 55,

22 56, 63, 78, 79, 80 ,100 ,145 ,

summustes

(p\)\A\A\)GTT)s)

156 see also divine: ambassadors:

sunagon (OUVaycov) 68 speed run ne rs and

theodromos

sunagogeus and theopresbeutes



Index

177

ambassadors 11, 13, 54, 55,

Apocalypse 17 100,160

An toninus Pius, em peror 52 speed runn ers

11,13,

51,

Apollonius, M agnesian 54, 55, 57,1 00,1 60

presbyter 10, 114 Docetism 13 8-4 2

Domitian, emperor 21, 62, 63,

Basilides 8, 9,12 2 65, 76, 77, 82

Bassus, M agnesian presby ter 10,

114 Eb ion 8

Bernard of Clairvaux, St 4 Eucharist 18, 37, 71, 79, 83, 85,

Burrhus, Ephesian deacon 10, 88, 90, 93 ,127 ,13 4

12,113,114 Euplus 10

Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea,

Carcalla, em peror 77 2,3 ,5,6 — 9,

Chamberlain, Lindy 46 97 ,98 ,150

Charles I (king) 1,3 Evaristsus, St (pope) 5,1 24

Clement of Rom e (bishop) 125,

126 ,143,14 9,154 Fox, G. 31

Clement of Alexandria 19,98 , Fron to 10

160

Clodius 15 Go spel of Peter 87

Concord 13 ,31 ,32 , 115, Grosseteste, R. 6

see also

homonoia

a n d

homonoia

Constantine 21 Ha drian, emperor 65 ,66 ,

Cranm er 118 69, 74, 89,1 16,1 30

Crocus 10 Hegesippus 2 1, 8 6 ,9 6 , 119,

Cureton 7 ,8 122,124 ,125,126,127

Cursuspublicus 5 1 ,5 5 ,5 8 Heresy 57

Cyprian, St (bishop of H ero , bishop of An tioch 2

Carthage) 19,161 Hipp olytus of Rome 121

Homonoia 31, 32, 34,

D am as, bishop of Magnesia 2, 35, 39, 42, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57,

10,12 ,13 ,

49, 90 63 , 64, 65, 78, 79, 84, 89, 93 ,

Dem osthenes 74, 75, 82, 94, 151,160, see also concord

84, 89 an d homonoia

Diotrephes 31,44

Dioc letian (emperor) 21 Im mortality 11,73

Diogenes Laertius 64 see also athanasia

Divine Incorruption 11,3 9,86,8 9,




90,138 see also Johannine Peter, St 2 , 3 , 9,1 3,1 5,2 9,1 20 ,

Pentecost and

aphthartos

125

Initiation 72 ,7 9, 8 2 ,8 3 ,8 8 ,9 3 , Philo (deacon) 10,12,1 48

151 Plato 11 ,83 ,12 3

Isidorus Mercator 5 Polybius (bishop of Tralles) 2,

10 ,12 ,13 , 3 0,49, 90,

Jerome 20 91,113,114 ,154

Joh an nin e Pentecost 38, 86, Polycarp, St (bishop of Smyrna),

128,143 2, 3, 8, 9,1 0,1 3,4 9,

Julius Africanus 120,12 1,122 53, 94 ,9 6, 10 0, 10 1,

102,103,113,

Laud, W. (archbishop) 1 114,11 6,130 ,

Locke,

J.

1,159 143, and Chapter 6

passim

Pon tian, bishop of Rom e 122

M ala lasJ . 20 Procession 43,4 5,47,

Marcion 97,122,138 48,

51,

52, 55 -7,6 0, 63,

M arcus Aurelius (emperor) 15, 66, 68 , 70, 72, 74 -8 6 , 89, 93,

65 100,102,107,109,110,114,

M artyrdom 19 115 ,144,15 1,153 ,156-8

Mary, St 4

M elito of Sardis (bishop) 98 , Quakers 31

135,136 Quartodecim ans 21

Migne,J.-P. 5

Milton, J. 4 ,6 Redaction criticism 23 ,2 4,

36

Neo koros 52 Reformation,

1,7,162

No etus of Smyrna 134,13 5,136 Rheus Agathus, deacon of

A ntioch 10, 49,14 8

On esim us, bishop of Ephesus Rufus 101

2 ,1 0 ,1 2 ,1 3 , 30 ,49 , 58,

113,154 Second Sophistic 13 ,3 1, 34 ,4 3,

56 ,6 0 ,62 ,63 ,6 5 ,75 , 79,

Papias 2, 9 136,15 1,160

Paul, St 9,1 5, 34, 35, 91,10 3, Scapegoat 45, 47 ,48 ,4 9,

51,

5 4,

110,132,133,138 57,131

Peace 21,5 0,11 5 Simon Magus 123

Peregrinus Proteus 50, 73, 74, Skopelian of Klazom enae 63

84,9 9,11 0,11 2,11 3 Sixtus I, St (pope) 5



Index

179

Theodoret 8 119,121,123,125 ,127,134,

Theodotus 8 135,156 ,162,163,164

Theo philus of An tioch (bishop) Brown, R.E . and

Meier,

J.-P.

98 22 , 24, 25, 36 ,16 4

Trajan 2, 20, 63, 89, 95, 96 ,103 ,

116,118,120,122,130 Corwin, V. 164

Tyssington,J. 6 Cranston, M . 1,164

Unity 11 ,13 ,17 ,31 ,33 ,35 , Davies, S.L. 110,111,164

38, 39,41,

43, Douglas, T. 46 ,164

55, 56, 57, 83 ,

91,

92, 93,1 13, Du nderb erg, I. 129,164

136,145 ,151,155,15 8 Dupont-Som mer, A. 116,164

Urban II (pope) 56

U ssh erJ. 3- 8 , 23 ,9 5, 96 , Edwards, M.J. 164

150,159 Eh rm an , B.D. 8,164

Valentinus 96, 97, 12 2,12 9,13 0, Ferguson, E . 97,164

132 ,134 ,135 Frend, W .C.H. 164

Vedelius, N . 7, 8

Victor, St (pope) 21 Gregory, A . 164

Voss,

I. 8,9 5, 96

Ha mm ond Bamm el, C.P. 97,

Wodeford, W. 6 109,11 0,113,11 8,120,164

Ha rland , P. 164

Zeus Panhellenios 67,6 8,69 Harrison, N.P. 20 ,21 ,10 3,

Zosimus 101 164

Zo tion, M agnesian deacon 32, Hill, C.E . 142,164

114 Holm es, M J . 165

Hubner, R . 96 ,9 7 ,13 4-8 ,140 ,

™ J » ^ 142,165

Modern Authors

Barnard, L.W. 163 Joly, R. 15 ,96 ,10 9-1 9,1 28 ,16 5

Barrett, C.K. 9,163 Jon es, C.P. 67,165

Borgen, P., Fulgseth, K ., and

Skarsten ,R. 138,163 Koester, H . 80,165

Brent, A. 47,

52, 55, 62, 63, 65 -6 8, 71, 73, Lam pe, P. 125,165

74,

75, 77, 78, 81, 82, 94, Lechner, T. 96,1 19 ,120 ,12 2,

100,102,105,109,116,118, 127-31,133,134,165



180

Ignatius ofAntioch

Lightfoot,J.B. 4, 1 6 ,2 0 ,9 5, Schnelle,U. 141,142,166

98,116,144,14 7,148,165 Schoedel, W.R. 16 ,2 0,2 2, 80,

Lindem ann, A. 97,165 110,11 6,131,13 2,136,16 6

Logan, A.H .B. 130,13 2,165 Sp aw forth J.S. 67,166

Swartley,W.M. 166

Maier, H .O . 165

M unier, C. 165,166 Trevett, C. 30,1 66

N orris, F.W. 166 von Cam penhausen, H . 31,166,

167

Per ler,O . 116,117,166 V inze nt,M . 96,1 34,1 38

Pleket,H.W . 66,1 66 Weijenborg, R. 9 5, 96 ,9 7,

Price, S.R. 62 98 ,99 ,10 0,1 67

W illiams, M.A. 129,13 0,167

Brent, Allen.-Ignatius of Antioch_ A Martyr Bishop and the Origin of Episcopacy-Bloomsbury Academic...

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Transcript of Brent, Allen.-Ignatius of Antioch_ A Martyr Bishop and the Origin of Episcopacy-Bloomsbury Academic...