The Christology of Ignatius of Antioch

By Jonathon Lookadoo

The letters of Ignatius of Antioch portray Jesus in terms that are both remarkably exalted and shockingly vulnerable. Jesus is identified as God and is the sole physician and teacher who truly reveals the Father. At the same time, Jesus was born of Mary, suffered, and died. Ignatius asserts both claims about Jesus with minimal attempts to reconcile how they can simultaneously be embodied in one person.
This book explores the ways in which Ignatius outlines his understanding of Jesus and the effects that these views were to have on both his immediate audience as well as some of his later readers. Ignatius utilizes stories throughout his letters, describes Jesus with designations that are at once traditional and reinvigorated with fresh meaning, and employs a dizzying array of metaphors to depict how Jesus acts. In turn, Ignatius and his audience are to respond in ways befitting their status in Christ because Jesus forms a lens through which to look at the world anew. Such a dynamic Christology was not to cease development in the second century but continued to inspire readers in creative ways through late antiquity and beyond.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Release date: Aug 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9781666770704

Jonathon Lookadoo

Jonathon Lookadoo is Assistant Professor at the Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary in Seoul, South Korea. His books include The Shepherd of Hermas (2021) and The High Priest and the Temple (2018).

Book preview

The Christology of Ignatius of Antioch

Jonathon Lookadoo

The Christology of Ignatius of Antioch

Studies in Early Christology

Copyright © 2023 Jonathon Lookadoo. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Cascade Books

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

Eugene, OR 97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-6667-7068-1

hardcover isbn: 978-1-6667-7069-8

ebook isbn: 978-1-6667-7070-4

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Names: Lookadoo, Jonathon [author].

Title: The Christology of Ignatius of Antioch / Jonathon Lookadoo.

Description: Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2023 | Series: Studies in Early Christology | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: isbn 978-1-6667-7068-1 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-6667-7069-8 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-6667-7070-4 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Ignatius, Saint, Bishop of Antioch, –approximately 110. | Jesus Christ—History of doctrines—Early church, approximately 30–600. | Theology—History—Early church, ca. 30–600. | Church history—Primitive and early church, ca 30–600.

Classification: BR1720.I4 L66 2023 (print) | BR1720.I4 (ebook)

Table of Contents

Title Page

Preface

List of Abbreviations

Chapter 1: Who Was Ignatius?

Chapter 2: Stories about Jesus

Chapter 3: Exalted Prose and Story Fragments

Chapter 4: Designations for Jesus

Chapter 5: Images for Jesus

Chapter 6: Christ, the Community, and Outsiders

Chapter 7: The Reception of Christology in the Ignatian Corpus

Bibliography

Studies in Early Christology

series editors: Michael Bird, David Capes, and Scott Harrower

The purpose of the Studies in Early Christology (SEC) series is to foster public research in a range of disputed questions relating to early Christology with a view to clarifying the issues, furthering the debate, and—most of all—offering compelling accounts of the emergence of early Christology/Jesus devotion by Christian groups in the Greco-Roman world. The ambition of the series is to attract leading researchers in the fields of Second Temple Judaism, Hellenistic Religion, New Testament, Christian Origins, and patristic studies, with a view to exploring how various Christologies and patterns of devotion to Jesus emerged and why they took on the shape that they did. The series will include monographs by emerging scholars, contributions from senior researchers, and conference proceedings on salient topics related to early Christology. The editors of the series invite submissions for consideration that contribute to discussions on early Christology, demonstrate a sophisticated knowledge of primary sources, interact thoroughly with secondary literature, and use appropriate methodologies.

To Chantelle, Chloe, and Harper

Preface

The letters of Ignatius of Antioch have been central intellectual dialogue partners for a decade. I consider it a privilege to interact both with the letters written by Ignatius and the various additions, translations, and recensions that make up his corpus. It may be that the Antiochian ecclesial leader will continue to be a figure with whom I continue to meet periodically for the foreseeable future. There may be better writers in Roman antiquity, but Ignatius must rank among the most fascinating simply because he remains so enigmatic. One thing that becomes visible at a glance, however, is the centrality of Jesus Christ to almost everything that Ignatius writes. This book attempts to shed light on some of the ways that he expresses his beliefs about Jesus and to trace their implications for his life, the actions of his audience, and the writings of later Ignatian editors and pseudepigraphers.

This book would never have been written without the invitation of Michael Bird, David Capes, and Scott Harrower to contribute such a volume to Studies in Early Christology. I have benefited from the writings and generous collegiality of each. Scott’s warm encouragement during a difficult period of writing was especially instrumental in the completion of this work. I am also grateful for the generosity that I have been shown by the editors and the publisher in the form of an extended deadline.

Speaking of publishers, it has again been a pleasure to work with the folks at Wipf and Stock and to have this book published by Cascade Books. Writing this book is the first occasion that I have had to work with Michael Thomson, whose extensive knowledge has been a treasure in conversation as well as in correspondence about this book. It was not, however, my first chance to work with Robin Parry, whose keen editorial eye has clarified numerous ambiguous sentences and saved me from publicizing the worst of my poorly executed attempts at humor. It is a pleasure to have the chance to work with you again. The team at Wipf and Stock has, as always, been quick, professional, and kind at each step of the publication process.

The Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary continues to be an academic community whose hospitality I will never be able to repay. The Library and Research Support offices have offered consistent and often unseen support, but the work would never have been possible without these institutional foundations. Most importantly, I am grateful to the students and alumni who gave up time during their busy summer schedules to read, question, debate, and thereby improve several chapters in this book. Yeeun Jung, Hohyun Kim, Jimin Kim, and Soo Han Youn (Andrew), many thanks for your careful consideration and collegial encouragement.

I have also received assistance from colleagues who are scattered across the globe but who are united by their interest in the eccentricities that arise from close readings of Ignatius’s letters. In particular, Dan Batovici, Jan Bremmer, Emanuele Castelli, David Eastman, Douglas Estes, John-Christian Eurell, Paul Gilliam, Timo Glaser, Scott Harrower, Paul Hartog, Ulrich Huttner, James Kelhoffer, Taras Khomych, Dan McNamara, Shaily Patel, Alistair Stewart, and Paul Trebilco came to my aid by sending PDFs, drafts, and page proofs of book chapters and articles, by thinking about an Ignatian issue through conversation or correspondence, or both. I am grateful to have received the collective wisdom of all who have contributed to this project.

Finally, this book was conceived, written, and finalized during or in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic with all of its attendant challenges. The pandemic has revealed much about how human beings are interconnected worldwide, but it has also shed light on isolation and inequality many times over. In the midst of the ups and downs that come with any writing project but especially one taken up with a lengthy series of crises in the immediate background, my family has been a source of constancy and stability. My wife, Jieun, has listened to me prattle on yet again about a Syrian bishop who has occupied significant space in my mind since the day we met. I have been especially grateful for her signature blend of support and humor in our conversations. My parents, Fred and Charlene, and my brother, Joel, have regularly asked about both this project and my wellbeing during our weekly chats. Finally, my sister-in-law, Chantelle, and my nieces, Chloe and Harper, never fail to provide laughter, to highlight the delightfulness of life, and to ask new questions that always seem to come from an unexpected angle. This book is dedicated to them in anticipation of more conversations and still greater joy.

Jonathon Lookadoo

Seoul

Christmas Day 2022

List of Abbreviations

1. Ignatian Corpus

Ant. Antiochenes

Ant. Act. Mart. Ign. Antiochene Acts of the Martyrdom of Ignatius

concl. conclusion

ep. 1 Ignatius to John 1

ep. 2 Ignatius to John 2

ep. 3 Ignatius to Mary

ep. 4 Mary to Ignatius

Eph. Ephesians

Hero Hero

Ign. Mar. Ignatius to Mary of Cassobola

inscr. inscription (the greeting of an Ignatian letter)

LR Long Recension

Magn. Magnesians

Mar. Ign. Mary of Cassobola to Ignatius

MR Middle Recension

Phil. Philippians

Phld. Philadelphians

Pol. Polycarp

Rom. Romans

Rom. Act. Mart. Ign. Roman Acts of the Martyrdom of Ignatius

Smyrn. Smyrnaeans

SR Short Recension

Tars. Tarsians

Trall. Trallians

2. Ancient

1 Apol. Justin, 1 Apology

2 Bar. 2 Baruch

4QcommGen A 4Q252

4QFlor 4Q174

4QpIsaa 4Q161

4QTestimonia 4Q175

Acts John Acts of John

Acts Paul Acts of Paul

Acts Pet. Acts of Peter

Adv. Jud. Tertullian, Adversus Judaeos

A. J. Josephus, Antiquitates judaicae

Autol. Theophilus, Ad Autolycum

Barn. Epistle of Barnabas

B. J. Josephus, Bellum judaicum

C. Ap. Josephus, Contra Apionem

Comm. Cant. Origen, Commentarius in Canticum

Comm. Isa. Jerome, Commentarium in Isaiam

Dial. Justin, Dialogue

Did. Didache

Diogn. Epistle to Diognetus

Diss. Epictetus, Dissertationes

Ecl. Clement of Alexandria, Eclogae propheticae

Ep. Pliny the Younger, Epistulae

Ep. Apos. Epistula apostolorum

Exc. Clement of Alexandria, Excerpta ex Theodoto

frag. Fragment

Garr. Plutarch, De garrulitate

Geogr. Strabo, Geographica

Gos. Pet. Gospel of Peter

Haer. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses

Herm. Mand. Shepherd of Hermas, Mandates

Herm. Sim. Shepherd of Hermas, Similitudes

Herm. Vis. Shepherd of Hermas, Visions

Hist. eccl. Eusebius, Historia ecclesiastica

Hom. Luc. Origen, Homiliae in Lucam

Ker. Petr. Kerygma Petri

Marc. Eusebius, Contra Marcellum

Marc. Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem

Mart. Pol. Martyrdom of Polycarp

Med. Celsus, De medicina

Odes Odes of Solomon

Oed. tyr. Sophocles, Oedipus tyrannus

Or. Oration(es)

Paed. Clement of Alexandria, Paedagogus

Pol. Phil. Polycarp, Philippians

Praescr. Tertullian, De praescriptione haereticorum

Prax. Tertullian, Adversus Praxean

Princ. Origen, De principiis

prol. prologue

Protr. Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus

Ps(s). Sol. Psalm(s) of Solomon

Ref. Hippolytus(?), Refutatio omnium haeresium

Sib. Or. Sibylline Oracles

Spec. Philo, De specialibus legibus

Strom. Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis

T. Jud. Testament of Judah

T. Levi Testament of Levi

T. Naph. Testament of Naphtali

Treat. Res. Treatise on the Resurrection (NHC I 4)

Vir. ill. Jerome, De viris illustribus

Wis. Wisdom of Solomon

3. Modern

ABG Arbeiten zur Bibel und ihrer Geschichte

Aev Aevum: Rassegna de scienze, storiche, linguistiche, e filologiche

AJEC Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity

ArBib The Aramaic Bible

AReG Archiv für Religionsgeschichte

ASE Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi

Aug Augustinianum

AYBRL Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library

BDAG Danker, Frederick W., Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

BECNT Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

BETL Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium

BFCT Beiträge zur Förderung christlicher Theologie

BiAC The Bible in Ancient Christianity

BibInt Biblical Interpretation Series

BICS Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies

BJS Brown Judaic Studies

BKT Berliner Klassikertexte

BMSSEC Baylor-Mohr Siebeck Studies in Early Christianity

BRLA Brill Reference Library of Judaism

BSIH Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History

BZAW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft

BZNW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft

CCSA Corpus christianorum: Series apocryphorum

CCSL Corpus christianorum: Series latina

CFHB.SB Corpus fontium historiae byzantinae—Series Berolinensis

CH Church History

CNS Cristianesimo nella storia

ConBNT Coniectanea Biblica: New Testament Series

CRPGRW Culture, Religion, and Politics in the Greco-Roman World

CurBR Currents in Biblical Research

DCLS Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Studies

DSR Duke Studies in Religion

EC Early Christianity

EJL Early Judaism and Its Literature

ETL Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses

EvT Evangelische Theologie

ExpTim Expository Times

FC Fathers of the Church

FKDG Forschungen zur Kirchen- und Dogmengeschichte

FRLANT Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments

FTS Freiburger theologische Studien

GCS Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte

GSECP Gorgias Studies in Early Christianity and Patristics

HNT Handbuch zum Neuen Testament

HTR Harvard Theological Review

ICC International Critical Commentary

ITC International Theological Commentary

ITQ Irish Theological Quarterly

JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

JBTS Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies

JCTCRS Jewish and Christian Texts in Contexts and Related Studies

JEBS Journal of European Baptist Studies

JECH Journal of Early Christian History

JECS Journal of Early Christian Studies

JEH Journal of Ecclesiastical History

JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

JSJSup Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism

JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament

JSPL Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters

JTS Journal of Theological Studies

KD Kerygma und Dogma

KEK Kritisch-exegetischer Kommentar über das Neue Testament

LCA Letteratura cristiana antica

LCL Loeb Classical Library

LNTS The Library of New Testament Studies

Mil Millennium

Mil-S Millennium-Studien

MTZ Münchener theologische Zeitschrift

MVS Meninghedsfakultetets Videnskabelige Serie

Neot Neotestamentica

NHS Nag Hammadi Studies

NovT Novum Testamentum

NovTSup Supplements to Novum Testamentum

NRTh La nouvelle revue théologique

NTAbh Neutestamentliche Abhandlungen

NTOA Novum Tesamentum et Orbis Antiquus

NTS New Testament Studies

NTTSD New Testament Tools, Studies, and Documents

NV Nova et Vetera

OAF Oxford Apostolic Fathers

OCT Oxford Classical Texts

OECS Oxford Early Christian Studies

OECT Oxford Early Christian Texts

Origenes Origenes: Werke mit deutscher Übersetzung

OThM Oxford Theological Monographs

PPS Popular Patristics Series

PrTMS Princeton Theological Monograph Series

PTS Patristische Texte und Studien

PVTG Pseudepigrapha Veteris Testamenti Graece

REAug Revue des études augustiniennes

RevScRel Revue des sciences religieuses

RHPR Revue d’histoire et de philosophie religieuses

RivAC Rivista di archeologia cristiana

SAPERE Scripta Antiquitatis Posterioris ad Ethicam REligionemque pertinentia

SBAW Sitzungsberichte der bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften

SBEC Studies in the Bible and Early Christianity

SBLSBS Society of Biblical Literature Sources for Biblical Study

SBLStBL Society of Biblical Literature Studies in Biblical Literature

SBS Stuttgarter Bibelstudien

SC Sources chrétiennes

SCH Studies in Church History

SHR Studies in the History of Religion

SIJD Schriften des Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum

SJLA Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity

SLAG Schriften der Luther-Agricola-Gesellschaft

SLit Studia Liturgica

SNTSMS Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series

SNTW Studies of the New Testament and Its World

SR Studies in Religion

STAC Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum

SUC Schriften des Urchristentums

SUNT Studien zur Umwelt des Neuen Testaments

SymS Symposium Series

TC TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism

TENTS Texts and Editions for New Testament Study

ThBT Theologische Bibliothek Töppelmann

TSAJ Texte und Studien zum antiken Judentum

TSEC Texts and Studies in Early Christianity

TU Texte und Untersuchungen

TUGAL Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur

UALG Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur und Geschichte

VC Vigiliae Christianae

VCSup Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae

VIEG Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte, Mainz

WGRW Writings from the Greco-Roman World

WGRWSup Writings from the Greco-Roman World Supplement Series

WUNT Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament

ZAC Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum

ZKG Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte

ZKT Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie

ZNW Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche

ZTK Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche

1

Who Was Ignatius?

Much about Ignatius of Antioch has been disputed in scholarship since at least the time of the Protestant Reformation. Are his letters genuine? If so, how many letters did he write? When should the letters be dated? Under what circumstances were they written, and how do they relate to the writings now contained in the New Testament? If Ignatius did not write the letters, was he a historical person, or was he conjured by a pseudepigrapher to be a namesake for a later author’s purposes? What designs might a pseudepigrapher have for ascribing the letters to someone else? These riddles are all the more difficult to solve when considering the work of someone whose primary extant legacy must be formulated based on a modest-sized collection of letters purported to have been written soon before his death. This chapter will address a few of the more recent debates in Ignatian studies and will set out some markers on controversial issues surrounding the Ignatian corpus. These markers are noted so that readers can be aware of presuppositions about Ignatius that may influence the remainder of the book.

However, one thing that would be difficult to argue is that Ignatius of Antioch—whoever he was, whenever he wrote, and in however many letters that should be attributed to him—had much to say about Jesus Christ. His statements comprise some of the highest and lowest statements about Jesus that were written during the second century. Jesus is our God (e.g., Eph. 18.2; Rom. inscr; 3.3).

¹

He is the physician who heals the destructive words of false teachers (Eph. 7.2). He is the mouth through whom God speaks and the perfect hope of believers (Rom. 8.2; Smyrn. 10.2). On the other hand, Ignatius alludes to Jesus’s suffering and death by referring to God’s blood (Eph. 1.1). Jesus deigned to eat and drink in the flesh (Trall. 9.1; Smyrn. 3.3), while he enables believers to be brought into God’s temple through his cross (Eph. 9.1). Perhaps the heights and depths of Ignatius’s Christology are clearest in the opposing pairs of traits in Eph. 7.2 and Pol. 3.2. Jesus is both flesh and spirit, from Mary and from God, visible and invisible, and incapable of suffering though he suffered for our sake.

This book will seek to outline some important lines of thought in Ignatius’s letters regarding his understanding of Jesus. It stands on the shoulders of and will be in dialogue with others who have examined the Ignatian corpus with regard to the historical, cultural, and theological world in which the letters were authored.

²

Ignatius’s letters have also been elucidated by those who have examined the development of Christology in early Christianity.

³

While the study that follows is deeply indebted to other scholarship and some attempt to acknowledge these debts will be made in the footnotes, I nevertheless hope to make a few fresh contributions to the portrayal of Jesus in Ignatius’s letters. In order to do this, my attention will be focused on narrative forms found within the epistles. While Ignatius’s descriptions of Jesus are largely coherent across the letters, Ignatius tailors what he says to different audiences in each of the letters and uses storied features with some regularity. The book will thus highlight how Ignatius’s Christology functions rhetorically within his letters. I will also devote special attention to the designations used for Jesus within and in addition to his storied allusions to the Savior. A vital means of communication for Ignatius is the use of arresting imagery, so this study will likewise give attention to the metaphors found in the letters. Since Ignatius’s christological outlook can never be sharply separated from the community that is addressed, the book will also underline points of contact between Jesus and the believers to whom Ignatius writes. Finally, because there is a complicated history of textual transmission in the Ignatian corpus, this book will demonstrate the continued potency, influence, and flexibility of Ignatius’s Christology in later recensions and translations of the letters.

Yet this chapter must first turn to some critical matters related to the study of Ignatius. It will start by introducing Ignatius before taking up the matters of date and authorship in his letters. The value and effects of reading his letters as individual compositions will be highlighted next along with an orientation to the polemical statements in the Ignatian epistles. Finally, it will be helpful to outline how the book will unfold before concluding this chapter.

Ignatius, the Ignatian Corpus, and the Ignatian Question

The primary sources by which students of early Christianity are able to study Ignatius of Antioch allow us to glimpse only a small portion of his life. Ignatius comes to us chiefly as a figure known from the letters that are found in his name. Polycarp, Irenaeus, and Origen, writing prior to the fourth century, also mention Ignatius.

⁴

These citations and the narrative of Eusebius are significant when accounting for Ignatius’s date and the early reception of his works, but they say little other than that Ignatius suffered and was connected with Syria. Writing in the early fourth century, Eusebius provides a concise account of Ignatius’s last days along with a few quotations of his letters.

⁵

Yet the historical value of Eusebius’s testimony has been disputed. Thus, while Eusebius’s narrative and other references are important when considering the date of Ignatius’s corpus, the letters provide the most important sources for describing the man.

Ignatius’s letters depict a man who is being transported across Asia as a prisoner on his way from Antioch to an expected destination in Rome.

⁶

Ignatius was a leader of the Christian community in Antioch.

⁷

He is remembered as and likely also called himself the bishop of Antioch, although the way in which members of the Jesus-movement organized themselves in Antioch and elsewhere in the Roman Empire during the second century is difficult to discern precisely.

⁸

While it is unclear whether Ignatius departed Syria by sea or by land, he journeyed overland through central Asia Minor. He reports that he stayed in Philadelphia and Smyrna before journeying north to Troas and crossing the Aegean to Neapolis. Ignatius’s reports about his journey stop at this point. It is likely that his journey ended with his death at Rome, but this conclusion is dependent upon the testimonies of Eusebius and other later reports about Ignatius’s martyrdom. Precisely why Ignatius was arrested is unclear. A traditional answer finds the reason for Ignatius’s arrest in a persecution that originated from political authorities outside of the community of believers. However, recent scholarship has suggested that divisions within the community may have spilled over beyond Antiochian Christians so that authorities were provoked to action against Ignatius in order to restore peace in the city.

⁹

Whatever the reason for his arrest and execution, the letters that were written in Smyrna and Troas enable readers to glimpse only a small portion of Ignatius’s life, probably near the end of his life. Nothing reliable is known about Ignatius outside of this brief time.

Although this reconstruction of Ignatius’s journey comes from a reading of the earliest recension of his letters, it is important to acknowledge at this point the complex textual transmission surrounding his corpus. One can begin by noting the so-called middle recension. The middle recension contains seven letters and is widely agreed to be the earliest forms of the letters that are extant today.

¹⁰

The middle recension is extant in Greek, Latin, Armenian, Coptic, Arabic, Ethiopic, and Syriac.

¹¹

Yet there are textual difficulties even when looking solely at the middle recension. For example, Ignatius’s Romans may be read as part of the Martyrdom Acts about Ignatius. Accordingly, there are more manuscripts of Ignatius’s Romans in Greek, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, and Arabic than there are of other letters in the middle recension.

¹²

In addition to the middle recension, there are also a short and a long recension. The short recension is comprised of three abbreviated letters and is extant only in Syriac.

¹³

The long recension contains thirteen letters—the same seven letters as are in the middle recension, though in a longer form, along with six additional letters.

¹⁴

Four medieval letters can be found in some Latin manuscripts of the long recension in which Ignatius corresponds with the apostle John and the Virgin Mary.

¹⁵

Debates about which recension was earliest raged in the seventeenth century and were reignited with the discovery of the short recension in the nineteenth century. After the work of Lightfoot and Zahn, however, the middle recension was presumed to be the earliest extant form of the letters throughout the twentieth century.

¹⁶

Despite the monumental nature of Lightfoot and Zahn’s respective contributions, there have been intermittent discussions about the origins of the middle recension and the genuineness of the letters.

¹⁷

The most recent round of debate on the so-called Ignatian question was touched off in the 1990s by Reinhard Hübner and Thomas Lechner, and arguments have continued among Ignatian scholars more or less unabated.

¹⁸

As a result of these deliberations, the current range of dates offered for the Ignatian letters ranges from roughly 105–80 CE. If it is possible to doubt the date during Trajan’s reign that Eusebius ascribes to Ignatius’s death, the earliest marker that can be established for the letters comes from Irenaeus’s testimony at the end of the second century (Haer. 5.28.4). Allowing that the letters must have been written a few years prior to Irenaeus’s writing so that he could read them, one comes to the latest possible date of 180 CE. The earliest possible date is more challenging to establish with certainty. However, it has been difficult for most scholars to imagine Ignatius’s letters within a first-century environment, and later stories about Ignatius’s death during the time of Trajan suggest that the earliest possible date must be some time in the early second century.

Four pieces of evidence play significant roles in current discussions about the date and authenticity of the Ignatian corpus. First, the reliability of Eusebius’s date of Ignatius has been brought into question. Eusebius locates Ignatius’s martyrdom during the reign of Trajan (98–117 CE) in Hist. eccl. 3.22; 3.36.1–15, while he dates the death more precisely to 107 CE in his Chronicon.

¹⁹

The reliability of Eusebius’s testimony has been doubted by those who date Ignatius’s letters in the second half of the second century.

²⁰

It may be better, though, to consider the witness of premodern historians as a whole. Writing in the sixth century, John Malalas places Ignatius’s death in Antioch during the time of Trajan as a response to the Antiochian earthquake of 113 CE (Chronicle 11.276).

²¹

Since Malalas offers an alternative date, his account of Ignatius’s death runs independent of Eusebius. While the accounts of Malalas and Eusebius are not easily reconciled, they share a Trajanic date for Ignatius’s death and thus for his letters. Likewise, the accounts of Ignatius in the Acts of Martyrdom agree in dating Ignatius’s death to the time of Trajan.

²²

While premodern accounts differ in their reconstructions of the details surrounding Ignatius’s death, Trajan remains a constant. Despite questions surrounding Eusebius’s reliability in dating Ignatius’s death, it thus remains plausible to date the letters early in the second century and even to the time of Trajan.

A second matter that plays a critical role in dating Ignatius’s letters concerns Polycarp’s testimony about Ignatius in his letter to the church at Philippi. While encouraging the Philippians to obey and endure, Polycarp reminds his audience that they saw Ignatius and others who suffered with their own eyes (Pol. Phil. 9.1). Ignatius’s exemplary qualities are discussed with reference to the past. Polycarp later asks for more information about Ignatius and those who are with him (Pol. Phil. 13.2). The latter portion of the letter, however, is available only in Latin translation, and the translator employs a present tense verb.

²³

If Pol. Phil. 9.1 and 13.2 are read as part of a unified letter, the discrepancy suggests that Polycarp may have been confused. Some have regarded Pol. Phil. 13.2 as a forgery composed by the same pseudepigrapher who authored the middle recension of Ignatius’s letters.

²⁴

On the other hand, the Latin translator elsewhere adds a copulative verb where the Greek text contains only a participle (Pol. Phil. inscr.; 3.2, 3; 9.1). If the translator has added a verb in Pol. Phil. 13.2, it may be possible to reconstruct the Greek phrase as something like οἱ μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ or οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ, that is, those with him.

²⁵

Whatever other difficulties may arise regarding Polycarp’s letter, the text would not then be confused with regard to time. Since the translator elsewhere adds a copulative verb to participial constructions, this supposal seems plausible.

²⁶

The search for a date for Ignatius’s letters must thus be sought on other grounds.

The third matter that has played an important role in recent studies of Ignatius’s date is the relationships that can be found between the letters and other texts from the Second Sophistic. Second Sophistic rhetoric was a widely practiced phenomenon among Hellenistic authors in the Roman Empire from the late-first through the early-third centuries.

²⁷

Ignatius’s letters may be profitably compared to other texts that stem from the loosely defined rhetorical movement. Allen Brent and John-Paul Lotz have dated the letters to the early second century, and their reasons are at least partially drawn from similarities between Ignatius and Second Sophist phenomena.

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Yet is unclear that Ignatius’s letters can be dated so precisely on the basis of these similarities due to the long-standing influence of the Second Sophistic.

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The breadth and wide-ranging influence of the Second Sophistic movement on Hellenistic writers during the second century suggest that Ignatius’s letters may be profitably studied alongside this movement, but the utility of such comparisons for the question of date is difficult to establish.

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Fourth, others have tried to locate the Ignatian letters in the second century by comparing Ignatius’s statements with those of other second-century Christian texts. However, comparing the letters to other second-century theological statements is replete with difficulties. The primary challenges are related to discerning whether any text directly influenced Ignatius or vice versa and to determining a workable methodology by which to establish this direction of influence. Although Ignatius’s letters may resemble this or that text from the second century, it remains difficult to confirm instances of citation with any degree of certainty. Two examples may suffice. Hübner and Lechner have argued that Ignatius’s christological teachings are most similar to late second-century authors such as Noetus and Theodotus.

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On the other hand, Ignatius’s parallels to statements in the Pauline corpus may allow for an earlier dating.

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Although it is likely that Ignatius was influenced by what he encountered and continued to influence others through his letters, it is difficult to establish the date of his letters based on comparisons between various texts.

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Other evidence should be sought to determine the date of the letters.

In addition, a recent development in the discussion of the date and authenticity of the letters comes from Markus Vinzent, who has renewed and enhanced the arguments of William Cureton for the priority of the short recension.

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Vinzent offers a retrospective view of history that traces the study of Ignatius from contemporary debates to the nineteenth-century roots of the twentieth-century consensus before working further back into studies of the Ignatian corpus.

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In addition to the well-attested ancient scribal tendency to expand rather than abbreviate, Vinzent’s attention to Ignatius’s vocabulary and use of personal names leads him to conclude that the short recension more closely appropriates the earliest Ignatian letters than the middle recension. Jan Bremmer builds upon Vinzent’s work in an exhaustive and thoroughly researched study of the names that appear in the short and middle recensions.

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The arguments in favor of the priority of the short recension are in the process of being freshly weighed in light of the fracturing twentieth-century consensus, but they open the possibility of yet another avenue of research for readers of Ignatius’s letters to explore.

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Where does this ambiguous mélange of evidence leave someone attempting to date Ignatius’s letters? The short answer is that it is difficult to argue definitively, and one must continue to probe the evidence to consider new possibilities and arguments. Both the recent challenge to the authenticity of the Ignatian epistles from Hübner and Lechner as well as the discussion that has followed in the intervening years remain valuable and warranted.

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The value comes from sifting which evidence is most significant for the questions of date and authenticity, while the warrant for such a study can be found in the lack of clarity that one finds when peering at the evidence utilized to date Ignatius’s letters.

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Thus far, I continue to favor the middle recension as the earliest form of the letters to which twenty-first-century readers can return. Although little in the remainder of this book will depend entirely on the precise date of the middle recension, I regard it as most likely that the letters are authentic. If the Ignatian letters are not genuine, it is difficult to imagine why a pseudepigrapher would select an otherwise little-known figure to be the mouthpiece for his viewpoints. While it may perhaps be best to leave the question of the precise date open, particularly when one notices