The Christianity of Ignatius of Antioch 9780231892520

Table of contents :
PREFACE
CONTENTS
ABBREVIATIONS
THE CHRISTIANITY OF IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
FAITH
AGAPE
LIFE
UNITY
GOD
SPIRIT
HERESY
EUCHARIST
IGNATIUS AND PAUL
IGNATIUS AND JOHN
APPENDICES ON THE HERESIES
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDICES

Citation preview

THE CHRISTIANITY

OF

I G N A T I U S OF A N T I O C H BY

CYRIL C H A R L E S R I C H A R D S O N

NEW YORK : N I N E T E E N H U N D R E D T H I R T Y F I V E

COLUMRIA UNIVERSITY

PRESS

COPYRIGHT

I 935

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

PUBLISHED

PRESS

1935

P R I N T E D IN T H E U N I T E D STATES OF AMERICA CAYUGA P R E S S

• ITHACA, N E W YORK

To

X

n'oublierai jamais

PREFACE

T

HE purpose of this study is to examine the Christianity of Ignatius and its relationship to the religious ideas of his

predecessors—especially Paul and John.

In its present form

this work represents a large portion of a thesis written under the supervision of the faculty of Union Theological Seminary, New York, and accepted by them for the degree of Doctor of Theology. The nature and compass of the study have made it necessary to exclude all discussion of church order and monepiscopacy in this writer, and to take for granted the main tenets of Lightfoot's monumental work on the text of Ignatius. Except for certain variant readings and textual corruptions (which are noted in the dissertation), it has been assumed that the Shorter Greek Recension of the seven Epistles of Ignatius represents his genuine work. In discussions of the text the sigla used are those adopted by Lightfoot (Apost. Fath. Pt. 2, Vol. II, pp. 9-10). To these should be added the fifth century Berlin Papyrus (B), which contains Smyr. 3.3-12.1. Finally, I should like to express my indebtedness to those whose invaluable assistance has made this book possible: to Dr. James Moffatt for his kind and keen criticism of my work, to Dr. J. E. Frame for his penetrating questions and untiring personal interest, and to Dr. E. F. Scott for many valuable insights and suggestions. UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY NEW YORK FEBRUARY 1 5 ,

1935

C Y R I L C . RlCHARDSON

CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTORY E S S A Y FAITH

xi 3 10

Conviction (10); Fellowship and Trust (12); Faithfulness ( 1 3 ) ; Love (14); The Result of Faith (16). AGAPE

17

A Relationship between Believers (17); Discussion of Ephesians 14 (18); The Origin of Agape (19); Agape and the Eucharist (20); Description of Agape (21). LIFE

23

Salvation as Deliverance from Death (23); The Conditions of Life (24); Description of Life (26); Perfectionism (29); Moral Connotation of Life (31). UNITY

33

Unity and Obedience (33); Relationship of the Believer to Christ (35); Imitation of the Character of God (38). GOD

40

The Use of the Term in Ignatius (40); The Relationship of the Father and the Son (41); Contemporary Use of the Term (42); What Ignatius Means by " G o d " (45). SPIRIT

46

The Divine Spirit (46); The Spirit of Man (47); Ignatius and the Pauline Antitheses " F l e s h " and " S p i r i t " (49). HERESY

51

Docetism and Judaism (51); The Nature of the Two Heresies (S3)EUCHARIST

Eucharist and Baptism (55) ; Eucharist and Life (56) ; Eucharist and Deification (58).

55

CONTENTS

X

IGNATIUS AND P A U L

60

Agreements (60); Divergences (61); Ignatius and I Corinthians (61); Ignatius and N. T. Ephesians (62); Ignatius and Other Pauline Writings (64); Conclusion (65). IGNATIUS AND JOHN

68

Doctrinal and Other Agreements (68); The Eucharist (72); Discussion of Smyr. 2.1 and John 10.18 (73); Discussion of Phil 7.1 and John 3.8 (74). A P P E N D I C E S ON THE H E R E S I E S

77

Definitions of the Heresies (79); Evidence for Two Separate Heresies (81). NOTES

87

BIBLIOGRAPHY

105

INDICES

109

Biblical References ( 1 1 1 ) ; References to the Epistles of Ignatius (115); Names (119).

ABBREVIATIONS A , G , g, L , 1, S.

Sigla a d o p t e d b y L i g h t f o o t t o represent t h e v a r i o u s t e x t s of t h e E p i s t l e s of I g n a t i u s ( T h e Apostolic

Fathers,

Pt.

2, Vol. I I , p p . 9-10). Clem. Alex.

Clemens Alexandrinus.

Diogn.

Epistola

Epic.

Epictetus,

ad

Diognetum. Dissertationes

ab

Arriano

digestae (ed. H . S c h e n k l ) . Epiph.

Epiph&nius, Adversus

E u s e b . H. E .

Eusebius, Historia

Firm. M a t . Greg. Naz. Griech. Christ. Schrift.

haereses. ecclesiastica.

Firmicus

Maternus,

fanarum

religionum.

De

errore

pro-

Gregorius N a z i a n z e n u s . Die griechischen drei

Schriftsteller

Jahrhunderte

(ed.

der ersten Preussische

Akademie). Hipp. Ref.

Hippolytus,

Refutatio

ominum

haer-

Critical

Commentary.

esium. I. C . C .

International

Iren. A d v . haer.

Irenaeus, Adversus

haereses.

J. B . L .

Journal

of Biblical

Literature.

J. R .

Journal

of

J . T . S.

Journal

of Theological

Lgf. Apost. Fath.

L i g h t f o o t . J. B . , S. Ignatius, carp

Religion.

(The

Apostolic

Studies. Fathers,

S.

PolyPt.

2,

Vols. I - I I , 2d ed.). LXX

S e p t u a g i n t version of the Old T e s t a ment.

Od. Sol.

Odes of

R o u t h , Rel. sac.

R o u t h , J. J., Reliquiae

Solomon. sacrae. Oxford,

1846. Schlier, Rel. U n t . zu Ig,

Schlier,

H.,

Untersuchungen Tert.

Tertullian.

Religionsgeschichtliche zu den

Ignatiusbriefen.

THE CHRISTIANITY OF IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH

'

• • • • TV ötiü) ftovcra ?poirt." -ChrysoBtom-

"The Epistles of Ignatius . . . breathe sentiments the most repugnant to the ordinary feelings of human nature." -Gibbon"Jedoch Ignatius redet wie ein Christ, der weiss, was er in dem Glauben an Christus, d.h. in dem Vertrauen zu ihm, besitzt." -Harnack"Whoever loves life with too careful a love, that man is already dead, morally speaking; since the greatest strength of his life, the power to resign it, is rotting while he hugs it in his arms." -Heinrich von Kleist-

THE CHRISTIANITY OF IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH

INTRODUCTORY

ESSAY

A P A R T from his correspondence, in which he has left us a 1

1 vivid picture of his faith and personality, little is known of

Ignatius of Antioch. Practically nothing has been recorded of his life and martyrdom. 1

He was probably the second bishop of

Antioch, and, according to Eusebius, was condemned to die in Rome—to become '"food for wild beasts on account of his testimony to Christ." The date of his martyrdom is extremely uncertain, but possibly it occurred during the reign of Trajan (A. D. 9 8 - 1 1 7 ) .

It was during the last fatal journey from Syria to Rome that Ignatius wrote his seven famous epistles to the churches of Rome and Asia Minor: from Smyrna he corresponded with the Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, and Romans, while later from Troas he addressed the churches of Philadelphia and Smyrna and sent a personal letter to Polycarp, the bishop of the latter city. In its textual history, as well as in the motive which prompted it, the letter to the Romans stands apart from the others. In it Ignatius beseeches the Christians in Rome to desist from attempts to save him, and implores them not to rob him of his coveted crown of martyrdom. The motives underlying the rest of the correspondence of Ignatius are twofold—to warn against certain heresies, and to impress upon his readers both the authority of the bishop and the necessity of obedience to him and to the presbyters and deacons.

These two motives are closely

related: heresy implies separation from the bishop, who seems to be regarded as the guardian of orthodoxy, and represents the unity of the Church. Although in Ignatius a bishop is frequently

4

INTRODUCTION

associated with the two lower orders of the clergy, he alone can baptize and hold the Agape (Smyr. 8.2), and he is certainly more than a president of a college of presbyters. Indeed, in the Christian community he stands in the place of God.8 It is interesting to note, however, that while Ignatius has so much to say about the office of the bishop and the submission that must be paid to him, he knows nothing of a theory of "Apostolic Succession." All he tells us is that the bishop receives his appointment by the will of Christ (Eph. 3.2), and that, like the presbyters and deacons, he is confirmed and strengthened in his office by the Holy Spirit (Phil, inscr.). It is beyond the purpose of this book to discuss the general question of the rise of episcopacy in relation to the letters of Ignatius. Suffice it to say that the three orders of the clergy, such as Ignatius assumes, with their definite functions and authority, do not represent the universal government of the Church at the beginning of the second century. Certainly it would seem that there was no single bishop of Philippi when Polycarp wrote his epistle, or of Corinth when Clement sent his letter. The Didache (15.1), and perhaps also 1 Clement (42), mention only two orders—bishops and deacons, while Polycarp speaks only of presbyters and deacons (5.3). The epistles of Ignatius have come down to us in three recensions: a long recension with obvious interpolations; a middle recension, which is probably the genuine one; and a short recension, which appears to be a Syriac abridgment of the letters. The whole textual question has been exhaustively discussed by Lightfoot,® and it is beyond our purpose to deal with this problem. This book takes for granted the main tenets of Lightfoot's monumental work on the text of Ignatius. For more than four centuries a stormy literary battle has been waged over the validity of the writings of Ignatius and the development of episcopacy reflected in his correspondence. It is

INTRODUCTION

5

not a little surprising that the mass of literature about Ignatius has been concerned almost exclusively with the question of the genuineness of these epistles in relation to the growth of the church order. No single book in English has been devoted to the problem of the religion of Ignatius; Germany has produced about three, and France, two. For the rest we are forced to be content with textual notes, chapters in histories of dogma, and encyclopaedia articles. Yet among the Apostolic Fathers Ignatius is the only character with which we are really acquainted: his epistles breathe a life and vitality unknown to the exegesis of Barnabas or the exhortations of Clement. Only one scholar has been thrilled by Ignatius's personal religion, although his letters give ample evidence of the pulsing religious life of the early second century. As far as our meagre literary heritage goes, he was the first Christian after Paul to reveal himself intimately and utterly to his readers, having given us one of the most vivid pictures that we possess of the popular religion of the early Church. Compared with Paul, Ignatius is no theologian; he lacks his keen intellectual genius, and indeed his profound religious insight. For all that, he is a man of no small literary merits, 4 and with a throbbing personal faith. If he understood the mysteries of religion less clearly than Paul, he felt them as genuinely: if he defended them less acutely, he lived them no less truly. More practical, perhaps, than speculative, more an administrator than a thinker, Ignatius is above all a religious man. He is a true representative of that age to which Cyprian looked back as a time "when the mind flourished with greater virtues, when the faith of believers burned with a warmth of faith as yet new." Not inaptly Chrysostom said of him—among many rhetorical

but

less appropriate encomiums—Tjfpia Eph. 18.1. 17. Phil. 9.2; Smyr. 7.1; Eph. 1 . 1 ; and M a g . inscr. T h e close connection, however, between life and salvation is noted b y Moffatt, Grace in the New Testament, p. 220.

NOTES

91

18. An external dualism is, of course, not lacking in Paul. See Col. 2 . 1 5 ; I Cor. 1 5 . 2 5 ; I Thes. 2.18; etc. 19. For the death vrip iipwv, see Smyr. 1.2; Rom. 6.1; and Sia •fipas, Tral. 2 . 1 ; Smyr.2; Pol. 3.2; and Rom. 6.1. (of the resurrection). B u t these references probably relate to life more than to sin. 20. Phil. 3.2; 8.1; Smyr. 4.1; 5.3; 9.1; and Eph. 10.1. The stress on free will in Mag. 5.2 should also be noted, since this paves the way for the doctrine. Perhaps in Paul the man under the control of the flesh had not even the power to repent. 21. The question, which to Paul and Luther was so vital, i.e., whether we are saved by works or by faith, does not appear to have been present to the mind of Ignatius. Hence I feel justified in assuming that love was as much a condition of life as faith in this writer. The inseparability of the two concepts, together with the fact, which has caused no little confusion, that salvation (i.e., life) is not to Ignatius a static quality, but a long process, culminating in «ririryximj' dtov, lend support to this position. Like John (and indeed Paul, for that matter) Ignatius is more influenced by religious intuition than logic Life is a present possession as well as a future hope, conditioned on faith but brought to perfection by love. Moreover, this perfection is no magical outcome of faith. It requires the constant striving and endeavor of the believer, if he, to use John's phrase, is to "remain" (pivtiv iv) in the Christian life. There are abundant chances of backsliding. It is not mere rhetoric that prompts Ignatius to write " i n yap inrd KIVSWOV tip, 1." (Tral. 13.3). In this sense agape seems to be a condition of life. 22. In John the death of Christ is conceived as the transition to His glorification, and as the means whereby the prince of this world is cast out ( 1 2 . 3 1 ) . Above all it is the supreme revelation of the divine love (I John 3.16) and perhaps is considered asexpiatory (John 1.29). 23. Ignatius nowhere explains how our life could arise out of the death of Christ. The doctrine has its roots not in theory, but in experience. A possible reference to vicarious expiation is in Smyr. 7.1, a doctrine rarely, if ever, found in Paul. Cf. Rom. 3.25; Gal. 1.4; I Cor. 1 5 . 3 ; and Rom. 4.25. It may further be

92

NOTES noted that Paul never designates Christ the ircus Oto0 of Is. 53 nor directly connects forgiveness with the death of Christ. (See Frame in J . B . L . X L I X , 1930, 9). Is. 53.12 may, however, underlie R o m . 4.25, and cf. I John 1.7. Once Ignatius conceives of the death of Christ as a mysterious defeat of the prince of this age (Eph. 19), but he has none of the elaborate and ingenious theory of Gregory of Nyssa (cf. Col. 2.15).

24. See E p h . 1 7 . 1 ; M a g . 1.3; Tral. 4.3; Rom. 7.1; Phil. 6.2; and compare I Cor. 2.8; and John 12.31; 14.30; 16.11. Ignatius uses 6 KOCIXO5 in the Johannine evil sense in Rom. 3.3; 7.1; and M a g . 5.2. 25. Lietzmann, H., Geschichte der alien Kirche, pp. 257ff. 26. Col. 2.15; and M a t t . 2.iff. For a wealth of patristic and other parallels to the various ideas in E p h . 19 see Lgf. op ext., II, 76ff. and some further passages in Schlier's discussion, op. cil., p. 5-80. T o these may be added the tradition of the star in the Jewish legend after the birth of A b r a h a m (Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, I, 207) and in the apocalyptic discourse of Christ, Epistola apostolorum, 34. For the music metaphor (xopis) with the stars see Philo, D e Vit. Mos. 31 (Cohn, I V , 256.9). See also N o c k ' s review of Schlier's book for an excellent discussion ( J . T . S . , X X X I 1930, 3ioff.). The possibility of Ignatius displaying some originality, nevertheless, must not be forgotten, however great the mass of parallel literature may be. 27. irapovaia, which Paul always uses of the future advent of Christ, occurs in Ignatius only once (Phil. 9.2) and refers to the past life of Christ on earth. 28. For the eternal fire see Eph. 16.2; the judgment of angels, Smyr. 6.1. V o n der Goltz sees (op. ciL, p. 39ff.) eschatological references in E p h . 15.3; R o m . 10.3; and M a g . 5.1. It may be noted that {nronovq (Rom. 10.3) never has this eschatological meaning elsewhere in Ignatius, and it is extremely doubtful if this sense is to be found in I I Thes. 3.5 (See I . C . C . ad loc.). T h e other two references have no clear eschatological reference. T h e fiaaiktia rou deov has only a traditional significance for Ignatius, and he never hints that it is a kingdom on earth. I t occurs only twice (Eph. 16 and Phil. 3). It is probably little

NOTES

93

more than a synonym for life. The eschatology of Ignatius, incidentally, is never related to his external dualism. 29. In connection with aubvtos, Phil, inscr. should be noted, where the joy of being in Christ is described as eternal and enduring. It is not the length but the quality of the joy that is stressed. It is timeless, above this world of flux and change. For this compare the reference in Justin, Dial. 139.5 on being with Christ. 30. So Acta Pilati ( E v . Nic. 2) where Christ brings Adam and the Saints into Paradise from hell. For the tradition of the expurgated text of Jeremiah see Justin Dial. 72. Cf. I Pet. 3.19. 3 1 . For the meaning of these phrases see p. 36. 32. With such qualifications we must read Ignatius Eph. 8 and 14; Paul's Gal. 5.16ff.; Rom. 6, and John's first Epistle (3.9, etc.). 33. See I John 5.16. 34. Eph. 3.2; Mag. 1.2; Smyr. 4 . 1 ; and E p h . 7.2. For T6 fRJV used as a noun cf. Plato, Phaedo 107 C and Diognetus E p . 10.7; 12.6. 35. De Carne Christi 5. 36. As a significant virtue see Hermetica 1.27, and I Thes. 5.6,8. 37. The only three places where union with the divine is even presupposed are Eph. 5.1; Tral. 1 1 . 1 ; and Tral. 7.1. In all these cases the idea of obedience and unity within the Christian Church predominates, and only in Tral. 1 1 . 2 is ivuirts used. 38. The genitives v/xwv and dtov, with words expressing unity, are subjective. The frequent use of the word ivoriji and (ivwcris) absolutely seems to show that Ignatius is thinking of that oneness of mind or unity characteristic of Christians and of God, rather than oneness of mind (or unity) with God. Furthermore, Ignatius never speaks specifically of Christians being united with God or Christ. If they are united to anyone it is to their bishop (Mag. 6.2, and cf. Phil, inscr.). tvu