Ante-Nicene Fathers – Ignatius to the Ephesians and the Magnesians – Be United in Love and Wary of False Teachers

So I’ve been carting these Ante-Nicene Fathers (the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325) volumes around for a few years and I’ve never, until now, read through them.  I’ve consulted them and checked in them for information, but I’ve never really read and studied them.  I’m changing that now.  I’ve decided that I will read all 10 volumes.

The fourth section of volume one (of the ten volume set) contains the Epistles and an account of the Martyrdom of Ignatius – Ignatius of Antioch, that is… let’s not get confused with that later Ignatius of Loyola.  Ignatius of Antioch (who also called himself Theophorus - “God-Bearer” or “Carried by God”) was the third bishop of Antioch and, like Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, may have been a student of the Apostle John.  One tradition about Ignatius says that he was one of the children that Jesus picked up in Mark 9:35-37 (which might explain the nickname) but it is more likely that Ignatius was born around 35 CE – some years after Jesus’ crucifixion.  He was arrested for being a Christian and taken to Rome where he faced death by lions in the coliseum in 108 CE.

En route to Rome, Ignatius wrote a series of letters to various Christian communities and individuals.  He wrote to the churches at Ephesus, Smyrna, Magnesia , Tralles (modern day Aydin), Rome, and Philadelphia – as well as his friend, Polycarp (the bishop of Smyrna).

Later several spurious letters were added to this collection of seven “authentic” letters.  These included letters to the Virgin Mary, the Apostle John, Mary of Casobalae, Hero (a deacon in the church in Antioch), and the churches at Philippi, Antioch among others.

The authentic letters have come down to us in a variety of ways.  There are versions of these letters in both Latin and in Greek.  Additionally, there are shorter and longer versions of these letters in both languages.  It’s not clear whether the shorter versions are the originals and were later elaborated, or the longer texts were later summarized. And then to further complicate the issue, in the 1830’s a Syriac version of three of these letters was discovered in Egypt – but was different than the both the shorter and longer versions of the letters.[i]

The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians

To the Christians in Ephesus, whom he called “followers of the love of God towards man”[ii] and thanked them for sending their bishop, Onesimus (who may have been the runaway slave of Paul’s letter) to meet him in Smyrna as he travelled to his martyrdom in Rome.  He refused to “issue orders” to them “as if I were some great person,” but instead wrote to them as “fellow servants,” encouraging them to “run together” in unity.

This Christian unity is a common theme of Ignatius’ epistles.  The Christian communities were facing persecution and animosity from all sides and they needed to hold together.  They may have been poor; they may have been weak, but if they could maintain the bonds of love and unity, then the Christian church would be strong.  Ignatius encouraged his readers to continue to meet together frequently for prayer and common worship and for communion – which he described as “the medicine of immortality, and the antidote which prevents us from dying.” [iii]   I imagine these words had an urgency for Ignatius, writing, as he was, on his way to his own death.

He also addressed the problem of some “worthless persons” who professed to be Christians but practiced things unworthy of God and held “opinions contrary to the doctrine of Christ.” [iv]  Ignatius didn’t describe with any detail the teaching or practice of these “worthless persons” but instead drew a contrast between them as the “spirit of deceit” and the Holy Spirit.  He described the false teachers as one who “preaches himself, and speaks his own things, for he seeks to pleas himself. He glorifies himself, for he is full of arrogance.  He is lying, fraudulent, soothing, flattering, treacherous, rhapsodical, trifling, inharmonious, verbose, sordid, and timorous.”  [v]

By contrast, the Holy Spirit “does not speak His own things, but those of Christ, and that not from himself, but from the Lord; even as the Lord also announced to us the things that He received from the Father.” [vi]

The Christians of Ephesus – a city known for its interest in magic and the occult - would have found Ignatius’ description of the effects of Jesus’ life and death.  “Hence worldly wisdom became folly; conjuration was seen to be mere trifling, and magic became utterly ridiculous.” [vii]

The issue of Jesus’ divinity would be settled at the council of Nicaea some time later, but already Ignatius seems to understand Jesus of Nazareth to be one and the same (though separate from) as God Almighty.  “Our Physician is the only true God, the unbegotten and unapproachable, the Lord of all, the Father and Begetter of the only-begotten Son.  We have also as a Physician the Lord our God, Jesus the Christ, the only-begotten Son and Word, before time began, but who afterwards became also man, of Mary the Virgin.” [viii]

And this is one of several mentions of the “virgin Mary” in Ignatius’s epistles.  If, as tradition states, Ignatius was a student of John – whom Jesus entrusted to care for his mother after his death, then Ignatius may have known the mother of God.  But that may be a house of cards built on tradition and speculation.

The Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 

Ignatius’ epistle to the Magnesians is short (even in the “longer” version.)  He doesn’t seem to know the congregation except through his meeting with their bishop Damas, and some of the other church leaders who’ve come to visit him.[ix] 

He writes, first, to encourage them to honor their bishop, even if he is a young man.  He builds his advice from a selection of stories from the Hebrew Bible (Samuel, Jeremiah, Solomon, and Josiah), from the Christian New Testament (Timothy) and from the Apocryphal stories of Daniel. [x]

He also encourages them “not only to be called Christians, but to be so in reality. For it is not the being called so, but the being really so, that renders a man blessed.” [xi] And, as in his advice to the church in Ephesus, he encourages them to love in unity[xii] and to be wary of the teachers of false doctrines,[xiii]

The false doctrines of this epistle seem to be of a “Judaizing” type – and it is here that Ignatius has some pretty severe things to say about the Jews.  Ignatius argues that Judaism has passed away with the “old things” and has been replaced by the “new thing” – that is Christianity. 

“It is absurd to speak of Jesus Christ with the tongue, and to cherish in the mind a Judaism which has now come to an end.” [xiv] This could be described as “Replacement Theology” (or if you like big college type words: Supersessionism) which is the idea that God’s new covenant with Christians has replaced the old Mosaic covenant with the Jewish people.

If (and that’s a big if) Ignatius were indeed a student of John, he may have picked up this very sectarian approach from his teacher…but he seems to go further with it – going so far as to refer to the Jewish people as “Christ-killing Jews” [xv], a term that has been used throughout the centuries by Christian anti-Semites.

While I was vaguely aware of this kind of attitude among the early church fathers, reading it like this was a bit of a shock.  It’s surprising how quickly Christianity rejected its Jewish heritage – though still clinging to the Jewish scriptures and a Jewish Messiah. 

But the recrimination seems to have gone both ways (at least to some degree.) The euphemistic Birkat haMinim (“Blessing” on Heretics) recited in Jewish synagogues seems to be specifically addressed against Christians or Jews who have converted to Christianity. 

For apostates who have rejected Your Torah let there be no hope, and may the Nazarenes and heretics perish in an instant. Let all the enemies of Your people, the House of Israel, be speedily cut down; and may You swiftly uproot, shatter, destroy, subdue, and humiliate the kingdom of arrogance, speedily in our days! Blessed are You, O Lord, who shatters His enemies and humbles the arrogant.[xvi]

So much for “unity” I guess. 

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[i] Since I’m not competent to judge which might be the original, I’ll simply quote from the longer version and leave the decision to the experts.

[ii] The Epistles of Ignatius to the Ephesians (longer version) Chap. I

[iii] Chap. XX

[iv] Chap. VII

[v] Chap. IX

[vi] Chap. IX

[vii] Chap. XIX

[viii] Chap. VII

[ix] The Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians Chap. II

[x] Chap. III

[xi] Chap. IV

[xii] Chap. VI

[xiii] Chap. VIII

[xiv] Chap. X

[xv] Chap. XI

[xvi] Though, as with much in the study of ancient texts, these conclusions are not universally agreed upon…