Chapter One -- Who Was Ignatius?

{L27} St. Ignatius of Antioch was one of the most important church fathers in the first decades of the church immediately following the apostles. Martyred in Rome some time during the reign of the emperor Trajan (98-117), Ignatius left us seven authentic letters in which he expressed the fundamental ideas of Christianity which still shape the life of the church to this day. These letters reveal a man intent on church unity, animated by a love for Christ, bold in his witness (marturion) for the gospel, and humble in his self-evaluation.

{L28} Ignatius of Antioch is remembered and loved by Christians today across diverse communions. In the ancient church, Ignatius was quoted and honored by Greek-speaking Christians for his deep faith and the power of his intercession. Even among those Christians who probably had little or no contact with his writings, such as in North Africa, his doctrines of church unity and hierarchy, his profound respect for the liturgy and Eucharist, and his pastoral love for the members of the universal church became the common patrimony of the East and the West.

Ignatius in the Judgment of History

{L29} Ignatius is mentioned in many ancient writings. [1] One of the most important comes from Eusebius of Caesarea, the early fourth century church historian, whose Ecclesiastical History relates some simple facts about Ignatius. [2] We learn from this source that Ignatius succeeded Peter as the second bishop of Antioch though Eusebius gives no date for that transition. After Ignatius was martyred in Rome, Hero (heros) succeeded him as the bishop of Antioch. Eusebius recounts the story of Ignatius's journey to Rome by way of Smyrna and Troas as if it were a reliable tradition that had been handed down. From this we learn that Ignatius wrote four of his seven letters at Smyrna (Ephesians, Magnesia, Tralles, and Romans) while from Troas he wrote two others to churches (Philadelphia and Smyrna) and a more personal one to Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna. Apparently, both Ignatius and Polycarp had been disciples of the Apostle John.

{L30} 1 For references to Ignatius in ancient writings see J.B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers: Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson reprint, 1989) vol. 1 pp. 135-232.

{L31} 2 Eusebius Ecclesiastical History bk 3 ch 36 sec 4ff.

{L32} Polycarp himself had mentioned Ignatius in his own Letter to the Philippians. Others prior to Eusebius had spoken of Ignatius as well. Irenaeus mentioned both his martyrdom and his letters in the last half of the second century. [3] As might be expected, we find an enduring tradition of celebration of Ignatius's life in Antioch itself as indicated by a homily of St. John Chrysostom in the late fourth century. [4]

{L33} 3 Irenaeus Against Heresies bk 5 ch 28 sec 4.

{L34} 4 John Chrysostom Homily on Saint Ignatius Patrologia Graeca vol. 50 Col 587-596 (Paris: Migne, 1857-1866).

{L35} During the early modern era in which the Protestant and Catholic Reformations took place (16th and 17th centuries), Ignatius became something of a controversial figure primarily because his letters present clear indications of how early Catholic ideas formed in the church. Some Protestant scholars questioned the dates of the Ignatian letters and in fact argued that they date from a much later period of Christian history. [5] The nineteenth century witnessed extensive investigations into the Ignatian letters when some new discoveries of manuscripts raised more questions of dating and authorship. The general conclusion arrived at by a variety of scholars toward the end of that century was that the so-called middle recension was in all probability written by Ignatius himself just as Eusebius had recounted it. [6] That judgment largely continues down to this day. With these seven epistles we may be reasonably certain that we are dealing with the authentic views of the bishop of Antioch in the late first and early second century.

{L36} 5 See Bart Ehrman's discussion in The Apostolic Fathers (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003) pp. 203-213.

{L37} 6 The Ignatian corpus comes down to us in three recensions, or collections of manuscripts representing different channels of transmission. The middle recension contains the seven letters translated here. The long recension contains other letters and writings ascribed to Ignatius which are almost certainly not his. The short recension is a truncated form of the letters in Syriac that was not known until the mid-nineteenth century.

Ignatius's Self Representation

{L38} To understand Ignatius's letters, however, we must take into account more than the witness of other writers. We can and should look at how the bishop of Antioch portrays himself. Perhaps Ignatius's most revelatory references to himself have to do with his being a disciple. [7] Most striking are his assertions that he is just "beginning to be a disciple" if he can undergo martyrdom in Rome because the true disciple is the one who willingly shares in the passion (pathos) of Jesus Christ. In one sense, Ignatius is already a disciple but to the Romans he insisted that he will only be a true disciple when the beasts have become his tomb and the world no longer sees his body (Rom 4:2). In Romans 5, Ignatius sees himself as becoming a disciple precisely by the injustices he suffers. Full discipleship will only be achieved by reaching Jesus Christ. [8]

{L39} 7 The noun mathetes ("disciple") or the verb matheuo ("be a disciple or learn") occurs 14 times in the Ignatian letters. Those which refer to Ignatius himself are Eph 1:2; 3:1; Trall 5:2; Rom 4:2; 5:1-3; Polyc 7:1.

{L40} 8 Rom 5:3, "Now I am beginning to be a disciple. Nothing visible or invisible will prevent me from reaching Jesus Christ."

{L41} Discipleship defines Ignatius's view of his relationship to Christ. The word "servant" signals best what he thinks of his relationship with the church. Although he is aware of his status as a bishop, he prefers to include himself among the deacons. While he employs two words which can mean "servant" -- doulos and diakonos -- he does not use them interchangeably. Ignatius uses diakonos as a technical term for the office of deacon while he uses doulos to mean "slave." Ignatius uses the latter word in its baser sense in Rom 4:3 where doulos parallels "criminal" (katakritos) and contrasts with being free. When he speaks about the three ministries of bishop, presbyter, and deacon, he almost always calls the last order "his fellow servants" (sundouloi). [9] Particularly revealing is his endearing description of the deacons in the Letter to the Magnesians:

{L42} 9 See Eph 2:1; Mag 2:1; Trall 4:1; Smyrn 12:2.

{L43} So, since I have seen the entire congregation in the aforementioned persons, I exhort you to be diligent to practice everything in harmony with God, as the bishop leads in the place of God and the presbyters in the place of the council of the apostles and of the deacons -- those sweetest to me [10] -- who have been entrusted with the service of Jesus Christ who was with the Father before all ages and has appeared at the end [of the world] (Mag 6:1).

{L44} 10 Camelot and Ehrman translate glukutaton as "dear to me," but glukus has a basic meaning of "sweet."

{L45} Here Ignatius clearly aligns himself with the deacons because their office, though under the leadership of bishop and presbyter, embodies the ideal of Christ by being servants of the people of God. Why would Ignatius so rarely refer to his office of bishop and so frequently class himself with the deacons of the church? Like many after him, Ignatius appeals to the faithful of the church, not on the basis of his rightful authority -- that is assumed -- but on the basis of his love for being the lowliest of its members. Like St. Gregory the Great centuries later, Ignatius thinks of himself as a servant of the servants of God. His greatest authority lies in his humility. His greatest act of service lies in his martyrdom.

Ignatius's Fight Against Heresy and Schism: Docetism

{L46} Ignatius was also a valiant warrior in the fight against heresy and schism. Heresy is a sin against truth; schism is a sin against love. Knowing that either of these contagions could destroy the church, Ignatius urged the Christians of Asia Minor to give in to neither. To understand the vigor of Ignatius's battle, we must know something of the intellectual culture in which he lived. Scholars have written extensively about this background and offered differing interpretations of the Christianity of the early second century.

{L47} Docetism was one of the leading heresies that Ignatius, John the Apostle, and other writers had to face. Before Ignatius, we hear echoes of Docetism in the First Letter of John:

{L48} Beloved, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see if they are of God because many false prophets have gone into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of the antichrist which you have heard is coming and is even now in the world (1 Jn 4:1-3).

{L49} John's use of the term "antichrist" must not be read with modern Christian eyes which see the Antichrist as one who is against Christ. The word anti can, of course, means "against" in ancient Greek, but it can also mean "instead of." The latter is perhaps the more fundamental meaning because all heresy attempts to substitute a false doctrine for a true one. To substitute a Jesus who was not fully human was the essence of Docetism. [11]

{L50} 11 This belief was also the essence of a full-blown Gnosticism later in the second century which Irenaeus attempted to fight in Against Heresies.

{L51} If John wrote his short epistle in the 90s of the first century, say during Domitian's reign, the presence of Docetism behind his letter gives strong evidence that Ignatius's concerns were realistic. We see clear evidence of Ignatius's fight in the Letter to the Trallians:

{L52} Now if some who are without God, that is unbelievers, claim he only seemed to have suffered -- they are ones for whom the language of appearance is appropriate -- then why am I a prisoner and why do I desire to fight with beasts? If it were true, there is no point to my death. I would be bearing false witness against the Lord (Trall 10:1).

{L53} Ignatius's choice of "only seemed to have suffered" is not a passing comment. It is probably a quotation from his docetic opponents. Like those in the community to which John wrote who denied that Jesus had come in the flesh, those Ignatius writes about deny the physical suffering of Jesus. Ignatius's insistence on the concrete, earthly, physical reality of the life of Jesus Christ explains why he speaks of Christ's birth, baptism, death, and resurrection in real historical terms (see e.g. Eph 7:2; 18:2; Mag 11:1; Philad 9:2).

{L54} Ignatius's fight against Docetism becomes all the clearer in the Letter to the Smyrneans. Almost half of the letter (chaps. 1-7) in some way refers to the heresy of Docetism. The Docetists deny the full humanity of Jesus as descended from the line of David (1:1); they deny his suffering (2:1); they deny the physical resurrection (3:1); their beliefs deny the authority of the Old Testament (5:2); they do not believe in the blood of Christ (6:1); their heterodox teachings deny God's grace and love for the poor (6:2); and they abstain (apecho) from the Eucharist and prayer with the church because they deny the human presence of Christ in the sacrament (7:1).

{L55} Why does Ignatius stress the real humanity of Christ as John does in 1 Jn 1:1-4? Because everything in the Christian faith depends on the Incarnation. The Docetists were consistent. Since they denied a real Incarnation and the subsequent sufferings of Christ, they also denied the human presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Ignatius accurately perceived that the denial of the real human life, death, and resurrection of Christ lies at the root of all sacramental disorder. If God did not become a true man, then salvation is lost, as Athanasius would argue later in the fourth century. And if God did not become man, then he could not communicate his divinity through an assumed humanity in the Eucharist. The denial of such a sacramental world view naturally leads to the rejection of proper obedience to the clergy of the church. As the Eucharist is the ongoing Incarnation of Christ in the world, so the hierarchy of the church established by Christ is the ongoing pastoral care of Christ in the world. This explains two things. One is Ignatius's insistence on obedience to the bishop's authority; the second is that the unity of Christians, or the lack of it, is bound up with obedience to rightful church authority and sacramental truth. The denial of a real Incarnation lies at the heart of the ecumenical problem today as much as it did in Ignatius's day.

{L56} In these seven short letters, comprising some 8,000 words, the bishop of Antioch has left the church a venerable heritage of integrated theology. He speaks with authority and humility, with power and with meekness. Above all, his life, ministry, and service to the church were crowned by a martyr's death. Like the apostles before him, St. Ignatius continues to provide an indispensable foundation for all Christendom.

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