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Two Notes on Ignatius and Justin Martyr
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2011
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Ignatius, Magnes. 1: Γνοùς ὑμῶν τò πολυєύταĸτον τῆς ĸατὰ θεòν ἀγπης ἀγαλλιώμενος προειλόμην ἐν πίστει ᾽Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ προσλαλῆσαι ὑμῖν. So Ignatius begins his letter to the Magnesian Christians:
When I learned [from the deputation of your church] with what admirable discipline your godly love [i.e. your love as Christians determined by the standards of God, κατὰ θεóν as in Paul's Rom. 8, 27 and 2 Cor. 7, 9. 10] is ordered, I resolved in my joy to send you a letter [προσλαλεῖν as in Ign., Ephes. 3] upon faith in Jesus Christ.
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- Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1930
References
1 Even the idiomatic French version by Lelong, in Hemmer et Lejay's Textes et Documents (1910, vol. III, p. 29) fails to bring out the full force of ἐν, though it avoids the conventional rendering: ‘Ai-je résolu de vous adresser quelques paroles inspirées par la foi en Jésus-Christ.’
2 Another instance occurs in Philad. inscript., “fully convinced of his resurrection” (ἐν τῆ ἀναστάσєι αὐτοῦ πєπληροϕορηµένη)
3 Ignatius almost invariably uses πєρί of persons. It is only in his letter to Polycarp (ch. 2, πєρί ής) that it denotes the object of conviction, except for a passage like Smyrn. 6 (πєρὶ ἀγάπης οὐ μέλєι αὐτοîς), and even there ἀγάπη is explained by a series of personal nouns.
4 Even in Ephes. 20 (ἐν τῆ αὐτοῦ πίστει) it is faith in Christ, not the faith of Christ (subjective), that Ignatius describes.
5 Like ‘Delafosse’ recently in his Lettres d'Ignace d'Antioche (p. 104): “Je me suis décidé dans la foi de Jésus-Christ à m'entretenir avec vous.”
6 Dial. 59, 60, where the discussion is in its proper place. In the Apology it is an aside, suggested by the mention of Moses at the bush; Justin is really discussing baptism as part of the Christian ritual of worship, and he resumes this in ch. 64, after his digression on the part played by the Logos Christ at the bush.
7 Elsewhere, as in Dial. 58 and 60, ‘angel’ is used with reference to the relation of service (ὐπηρετοῦντα τῷ τῶν ὄλων πατρί).
8 Whether Justin had also in mind some Johannine passage does not concern us here; neither does the form of his citation of Matthew.
9 Justin, Apologies (1904), in Hemmer et Lejay's Textes et Documents.
10 The Catholic Encyclopaedia, X, 450.
11 In Dial. 60 he argues against the Jew that “no one with the least sense will dare to say that the Maker and Father of the universe left the entire region above heaven and made his appearance on a tiny spot of earth.” This is not brought forward in the passage of the Apology. But there is not any indication that Justin is controverting simultaneously a christological error.
12 Justin: Dialogue avec Tryphon, II, p. 258.
13 See Engelhardt, Das Christenthum Justins des Märtyrers (1878), p. 281.
14 Dogmengeschichte (4th edition), I, 217: “Man braucht nicht nothwendig an solche Controversen innerhalb der Gemeinden zu denken; es können jüdische Vorstellungen gemeint sein, und das ist nach Apol. i. 63 das wahrscheinlichere.”