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The Laity — Bishop's pawn? Ignatius of Antioch on the Obedient Christian
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 January 2009
Extract
In c.lO6 AD Ignatius, the bishop of Antioch, was being led through the province of Asia to Rome and to martyrdom. As he went, he wrote letters to a number of the Asian Christian churches on the Aegean coastline. His aim was to ensure the cohesion of these local communities by encouraging their maintenance of purity in practice and in idea. To this end his letters stressed a strongly constituted, centralised ecclesiastical authority, whose sphere of activity was delimited by a clear boundary between the church and the world.
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- Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1991
References
1 Trevett, C., ‘Prophecy and anti-episcopal activity: a third error combatted by Ignatius?’ J.E.H. 34 (1983) p. 2Google Scholar. Compare C. Trevett, ‘Ignatius “To the Romans” and 1 Clement LIV–LVT”, V.C. 43 (1989) p. 37ff.
2 Trevett, ‘Prophecy …’, p. 1.
3 ibid. 2.
4 ibid. 2–3.
5 Magnesians viii–x; Philadelphians v–vi; viii–ix.
6 Compare Trevett, ‘Prophecy …’, p. 2. On office and order in the Matthean community see Koester, H., ‘ΓΝΩΜΑΙ ΔΙΦΟΡΟΙ; the origin and nature of diversification in the history of early Christianity’, H.T.R. 58 (1965) p. 279–318Google Scholar; Trilling, W., ‘Amtund Amtsverständnis bei Matthäus’, Mélanges Béda Rigaux, Gembloux, 1970Google Scholar; Frankemölle, H., ‘Amtskritik im Matthäus-Evangelium?’ Biblica 54 (1973) p. 247–262Google Scholar; Kingsbury, J. D., ‘The figure of Peter in Matthew's Gospel as a theological problem’, J.B.L. 98 (1979) p. 67–83.Google Scholar
7 Romans ix.
8 Trevett, ‘Ignatius “To the Romans”…’ p. 32f.
9 For a review of this debate see ibid. 37–43.
10 Compare Rom. iii.
11 Compare Polycarp ii; Smrpmaeans xi.
12 Ephesians xiii; Philad. viii; Trallians vii–viii.
13 Ephes. xiii. Compare Smym, xi; Poly, ii.
14 Ephes. iii; Magn. iii–iv; xiii; Trail vii; Rom. iii.
15 Compare Trevett, ‘Prophecy…’, p. 14f. The case for a single error has been argued by, inter altos, Molland, E., ‘The heretics combatted by Ignatius of Antioch’, J.E.H. 5 (1954), p. 1–6Google Scholar; Barnard, L. W., Studiesm in the Apostotic Fathcrs and their Background, Oxford, 1966Google Scholar. The case for two groups of errorists has been put by, inter alios, Grant, R. M., The Apostolic Fathers, Pts. I & IV, New York, 1964, 1966Google Scholar; J. J. Gunther, ‘Syrian Christian Dualism’, V.C. 25 (1971) p. 81–93; P.J. Donahue, ‘Jewish Christianity in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch’, V.C 32 (1978) p. 81–93.
16 Ephes.vii.
17 ibid, v; Mam. iv; Smym, viii; Philad. iv; vii.
18 Compare Trail iv–v; Smym. vi.
19 Ephes. ix. Compare Smyrn. inscript.
20 See Ephes. iv; ix; Magn. iii; xi; Trall. i–iii; Smyrn, iv.
21 Ephes. xi; xvi; Magn. v. Compare 1 Peter iii, 6; II Peter iii.9; II Clement xii 1; Barnabas iv.
22 Smym. vi.
23 Matthew x, 32–33. Compare Smym. v.
24 Trall xi. Compare Matt. xvi. 27f; Philad, iii. Compare Matt xxv, 31f; Smym, vi; Ephes. v.
25 Epha. i.
27 Poly, iii. Compare 1 Thessalonians v. 1; Poly. ii. Compare Matt xxv, 13.
28 Ephes. xi; Smym. ix.
29 Compare Ephes. xii; xix.
30 Philad. ix.
31 Ephes. xvii.
32 ibid, xvii; Smyrn. i. Compare Rom. vi.
33 Magn. viii-ix; Philad. v; ix.
34 Magn. viii.
35 ibid. xv. Ignatius makes no great distinction between Christ and the Spirit in the lives of Christians.
36 Compare Rom. viii.
37 Magn. vii; Tra11. vii; Ephes. v; Rom. iv.
38 Compare Magn. vi; Trall ii–iii; Philad. v; Smyrn. viii.
39 Philad. iii; vi. Compare Smyrn. vi.
40 Smnyrn. vii–viii.
41 Matt. x. 14f, 40f; xviii, 5.
42 Didache xi, 1–4; xii. 1.
43 Compare Ephes. vi.
44 Compare ibid, iii; Magn. iii–iv; xiii; Trall vii; Rom. iii.
45 Compare Ephes. viii.
46 ibid. iv.
47 Smyrn. viii–ix. Compare Ephes. ii; xx; Magn. xiii.
48 Compare Magn. vii.
49 ibid, vi; Trall, iii; xiii. Compare also Ephes. vi, where the image changes, but the point is the same.
50 Magn. viii.
51 cap. vi–vii.
52 Poly. viii. Compare Ephes. iii–iv where Onesimus of Ephesus is classed amongst those bishops who are in the Mind of Christ' and therefore deserve obedience; Magn. ii–iii where the youthful Damas, prudent in God, presents to his congregation ‘the Father ofjesus Christ… who is bishop of all men’; Ignatius himself is to be believed as he writes ‘after the Mind of God’ [Rom. viii. See also Trall ii–iii; Poly. vi].
53 Trail iii. Compare ibid. i.
54 Poly. i–ii.
55 Magn. xii.
56 Smyrn. vi. Compare Poly. iv, where Polycarp is invited to care for widows and bondsmen. See Hermas Mandatesviii 10; Similitudes IX xxvii 2; Bamabasxx 2; II Clement xvi 4 for parallels.
57 Trall iii–iv.
58 Compare Poly. ii.
60 See Frend, W. H. C., The Rise of Christianity, London, 1984, p. 141Google Scholar; Wiles, M. F., ‘Ignatius and the Church’, Studia Patristica 18 (1986) p. 752.Google Scholar
61 MacArthur, A. A., ‘The office of Bishop in the Ignatian Epistles and in the Didaskalia Apostolorum compared’ Studia Patristica 4 (1961) p. 304.Google Scholar
62 Fox, R. Lane, Pagans and Christians, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1986, pp. 502–503, 510–11.Google Scholar
63 Ephes. vi, Compare Didache xi. 5f; xii, 1–5.
64 Compare Trevett, ‘Prophecy …’, p. 5–7.
65 a Ephes. vi. Compare Matt, ix, 40; xxi, 33.
66 Magn. iii.
67 Ephes. ix; xv; Magn. vii. Compare 1 Cor. iii, 16; vi, 19.
68 Compare Ephes. xvii; Smym. i.
69 Philad. ix; Smyrn. iv.
70 Ephes. v; Trall ii. ὑπ^τάσσειν is also used of the proper relationship of the laity to the bishop and presbyter [Ephes. ii; Magn. ii; Trail xiii] and to the threefold ministry [Poly. vi]. That said of the meaning of the verb ὑπ^τάσσειν in regard to the laity's relationship to the bishop can be said, mutatis mutandis, in regard to the laity's relationship to the threefold ministry generally.
71 Compare Philad. vi; if one, and, by abstraction, bishops included, speaks not of Jesus Christ, that person is to be reckoned ‘to be [the] tombstones and graves of the dead’ [Compare Matt, xxiii, 27], and to be fled.
72 Poly. iv. My italics.
73 Ephes. vi. Compare Magn. iii.
74 Smym. ix.
75 Compare Magn. vii; Trall, vii.
76 Compare Trall iii; vii.
77 Compare Williams, R. D., The Wound of Knowledge. Christian Spirituality firm the New Testament to St John of the Cross, London, 1979, p. 20Google Scholar: ‘we encounter the conviction [in Ignatius] that, although Christian life is lived in sharp contradistinction to the life of the “world” and appeals to a highly specific human experience of encounter with God, it is not founded upon a wholly private or ecstatic experience. To live truly or properly is … a transformation of the entirety of human experience’.
78 Trall vii. Compare Magn. xiii.
79 Ephes. iii–vi; Magn. iii; vi; Trall iii; xii; Smyrn. viii.
80 Trall xi.
81 Smyrn. i. Compare Philad. i.
82 Magn. vi.
83 ibid. xii.
84 Wiles op. cit. 754.
85 Philad. ix. Compare ibid. vii; Trall ii.
86 Poly. v.
87 cap. viii.
88 Magn. ix.
89 Ephes. i; x; Magn. ix; Poly. iii.
90 For the debate as to whether the Ignatian view of the passion was imitative or participative see Bommes, K., Wazen Goties: Untersuchungen zur Theologie des Martyriums bei Ignatius von Antiochien, Cologne, 1976, passimGoogle Scholar; Frend, W. H. C., Martyrdom and Persecution in the Earfy Church, Oxford, 1965, p. 197fGoogle Scholar; Bower, R. A., ‘The meaning of ΕΙΙΙ ΤΓΧΛΝΩ in the Epistles of St Ignatius of Antioch’, V.C. 28 (1974) p. 1–14Google Scholar; Winslow, D. F., ‘The idea of redemption in the Epistles of St Ignatius of Antioch’, G.O.T.R. 11 (1965) p. 119–131.Google Scholar
91 See Magn. i; Ephes. iv; Rom. xi.
92 Rom. iv.
93 ibid. iv.
94 ibid. vii. Compare Ephes. viii; Origen, Exhortation to Martyrdom xxx; 1; Commentary on John 6.54 — on martyrs as scapegoats. For Maccabean parallels see R. Lane Fox, op. at. 437–38, 495–98; W. H. C Frend, The Rise of Christianity p. 124, 140–45.
95 Smyrn. iv.
96 Rom. viii.
97 Ephes. viii; Trall xiii; Poly. vi.
98 Rom. vii.
99 Philad. vii.
100 Ephes. iii.
101 Smyrn. vi.
102 Ephes. x; Rom. v.
103 Poly, iv. Compare Smyrn. vi.
104 Compare Ephes. x.
105 Magn. xii; Poly. iv–v.
106 W. Telfer, The Office of a Bishop, London, 1962, p. 69.
107 Frend, The Rise of Christianity, p. 140.
108 Lane Fox, op. cit. 499–501.
109 Compare Young, F. M., ‘A reconsideration of Alexandrian Christology’, J.E.H. 22 (1971) p. 113–114.Google Scholar
110 cap. iv. Compare Philad. v.
111 Philad. viii.