The Revelation Letters to the Seven Churches: Philadelphia

Our little church congregation is embarking on a bible study of that book at the end of the Bible that everyone talks about but no one actually reads - The Revelation.  I'll try to publish here in this blog some of my notes as we go along.

Revelation 3: 7 – 13 Philadelphia

Philadelphia, the city of “brotherly-love” was a frontier city 28 miles south-east of Sardis. The main road from Rome to the farthest eastern parts of the empire passed through Philadelphia as the last “civilized” stop along the way. Unfortunately, it was built on the edge of a great plain called the Katakekaumene , which means the “Burnt Land.” It was the edge of a great volcanic area. The earthquake that leveled Sardis in A.D. 17 also destroyed Philadelphia. The frequent earthquakes and tremors sent the people of Philadelphia running out to the plain to escape the falling masonry and crumbling buildings.

Philadelphia, known as the “little Athens,” was a center of Greek culture and was influential in educating the central regions of Asia Minor in Greek philosophy and thought. The city was founded by King Attalus II who had been given the title “Philadelphus” (Brother-lover) because of his loyalty to his brother (Newport, 156).

The message to the Christians at Philadelphia came from The Holy One the True One.

“Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh Sabaoth.
His glory fills the whole earth.
Isaiah 6:3

Throughout the prophets, and especially in Isaiah, God is described as “the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 1:4; 5:19; 10:17, 20; 40:25; 41:14, 16, 20; 43:3,14, 15; 47:4; 49:7)” This Holiness is a separation from all else, a transcendence of everything. He is also the God of Truth (Isa. 65:16). The Christians in Philadelphia receive no word of condemnation from the Holy One, the True One. Instead they are praised by “the Holy One, the True One who has the key of David, the one who opens and no one shall close and who closes and no one opens.” This description is drawn from Isaiah chapter 22 wherein Isaiah prophesies against Shebna who had attained the highest office, next to the King, the master of King Hezekiah’s palace. He was to be run out of his office and replaced by an honest servant:

I shall dress him in your tunic,
I shall put your sash around his waist,
I shall invest him with your authority;
And he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
And to the House of Judah.
I shall place the Key of David’s palace on his shoulder;
When he opens, no one will close,
When he closes, no one will open.
Isaiah 22: 15 – 25

Handing over the key was not just an appointment as a porter and servant in the palace, but an endowment with full authority and complete power. The false Jews at the Synagogue of Satan were to be replaced by true and honest servants, who would be endowed with the authority of Christ. Though the Christians living in Philadelphia had only “a little power,” they had remained true to Jesus and had not denied his name.

Therefore, the false Jews (those who were Jews on the outside by circumcision but not inwardly by faith – Romans 9:6 – 13) would be made to come before the Christian community to kneel down and to recognize that it was the Christians that Jesus, the Messiah had chosen and loved. “Your oppressors’ children will humbly approach you, at your feet all who despised you will fall addressing you as ‘City of Yahweh’, and ‘Zion of the Holy One of Israel.’ (Isaiah 60:14)”

Because they had been faithful during their times of oppression, Jesus promised that they would be kept “safe in the time of trial which was coming for the whole world, to put the people of the world to the test.” Though some teachers maintain that John is speaking about the rapture here, but this is not a rapture verse. The weak Christians in this city would not be rapture” out of their trial, but would be kept safe through it. They would not be seized away, but bought through.

John was not speaking about a time of trial some 2000 years removed from his first century audience- such a message would have been completely irrelevant to them. What value would a letter saying, “Be of good cheer you patient, suffering, faithful servants of first century Asia Minor, I won’t let Soviet missiles, killer bees, or nuclear explosions (or anything else Tim Lahaye, Hal Lindsey, or Jack Van Impe might dream up) get you.” The hours of testing that John wrote about was in their immediate future, “I am coming soon,” Jesus said – words that would have been of immediate relief to that first century audience.

The time of trial which was coming for the whole world, to put the people of the land to the test was the same time of trial and tribulation that Jesus spoke of in his Olivet discourse (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21:5 – 36). “The people of the land,” is an expression used 12 times by John – once for each tribe of Israel – to refer to the False Jews, Apostate Israel (3:10; 6:10; 8:13; 11:10; 11:10; 13:8, 12, 14:6, 17:2, 8). In addition, it is used in the LXX version of the Old Testament throughout the prophets to describe the rebellious idolatrous Israel about to be destroyed for her sins, and driven from the land. (Jeremiah 1:14; 10:18; Ezekiel 7:7; 36:17; Hosea 4:1, 3; Joel 1:2, 14; Zephaniah 1:8)

The whole world being put through this tumultuous time of trial and tribulation was the oikoumene, the “inhabited world,” or the “Roman world.” This is not the entire globe – and does not point to a “universal period of tribulation, (Lahaye, Revelation, pg. 57)” still in the future, despite the claims of many prophecy experts.

The faithful and victorious followers of Philadelphia are promised that they will be made into pillars within the heavenly Temple of God. John tells us later that he, “could not see any temple in the city since the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb themselves were the temple. (Revelation 21:22)” The temple where God was formerly said to reside was in Jerusalem, but according to the revelation John received that physical temple was about to be removed (Revelation 11: 1-2) and the spiritual sanctuary (which is God and the Lamb themselves) would be opened (Revelation 11: 19). Faithful overcomers would be made into a pillar in this spiritual temple and they would never depart from it, they would be forever in God’s presence.

They would be marked with three names: 1) “the name of my God,” 2) “the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem,” and 3) “my new name. (Revelation 19:12, 16) Much anxious speculation is made about Revelation’s “mark of the beast,” but Revelation’s true emphasis on the mark that God’s people receive, not the mark of the beast. (Ezekiel 9:1 – 7; Revelation 14:1) “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city; his servants will worship him, they will see him face to face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. (Revelation 22:4).

I shall give them in my house and within my walls
A monument and a name better than sons and daughters;
I shall give them an everlasting name
That will never be effaced
Isaiah 56:5

Not many years after the Revelation, Ignatius also addressed a letter to the church at Philadelphia, warning them against the coming of “judaizers” saying that unless they speak of Jesus Christ they are “monuments and sepulchres of the dead, upon which are written only the names of men. (Ignatius, 6:1)

St. Ignatius, Epistle to the Philadelphians,

Newport, John P., The Lion and the Lamb Broadman Press, Nashville TN, 1986.

LaHaye, Tim, Revelation Illustrated and Made Plain, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids MI, 1980.

The Revelation Letters to the Seven Churches: Ephesus

Our little church congregation is embarking on a bible study of that book at the end of the Bible that everyone talks about but no one actually reads - The Revelation.  I'll try to publish here in this blog some of my notes as we go along.

Revelation 2: 1 – 7 Ephesus

The letters to the seven churches of Asia all follow the same pattern:

1.            Each is addressed to “the angel of XXX”

2.            From – a graphic description of Jesus drawn from John’s vision of the Son of Man.

3.            I see your… or I know of your… The Greek used here emphases the clarity with which Jesus sees

everything that happens. (Robertson, 297)

4.            but, I have this against you…

5.            A Challenge:

6.            A Threat:

7.            A Reward:

Ephesus, which means “Desired One,” was, in the first century, an important city with a long history. It was located at the mouth of the river Cayster and was the first stop along the trade routes through Asia Minor. Acts chapters 19 – 20 tell us that the city of Ephesus was well known throughout the world as “the Guardian of the Temple of Artemis (or Diana – the goddess of fertility and “nature in the wild”),” and that the residents were heavily involved in magic. In addition to this, Ephesus had a temple devoted specifically to the worship of the Roman Emperors. It was a cultural center boasting such attractions as art, science, and gladiators. The main street, Arcadian Way, ran from the harbor to the theater (which could seat 24,500 people) and on the way one could stop at the gymnasium, the public baths, the public library, and the brothel. It was also the city of John the Baptizers followers (Acts 19: 1 -7) and, according to Irenaeus, the Apostle John’s home. (Irenaeus, 3.3.4)

Ephesus was also a center of Jewish occultism: there the Apostle Paul during his three year stay, met the seven sons of Sceva. They were itinerant Jewish exorcists who used spells and incantations to try to drive out demons. There were many others in Ephesus who also practiced magic and had large collections of occult books.

In this hot-bed of religious quackery the Ephesian church toiled and persevered. In his message to the church of Ephesus, Paul warned them that “fierce wolves” would come into the church to destroy the gospel of truth. But of all of Paul’s epistles, his letter to Ephesus was the only one that contained no word of doctrinal correction. The Ephesian Christians had maintained in the name of Christ, something that must have been difficult to do in the swirling confusion of religious ideas of Ephesus.

The Greek word for “Church” is ekklesia which literally means “those who are called-out.” The Ephesians had been called out of the pagan idolatry and sorcery of their neighbors. They had tried those who claimed to be apostles but were false. A few years later, Ignatius would praise the Christians of Ephesus for stopping their ears to false doctrine (Ignatius, 9.1)

But for all their good work and perseverance in truth, the Ephesians had one complaint against them: they had left their first love. Apparently in their zeal for proper doctrine, they had calloused their hearts against others. They were no longer motivated by love for their fellow man. They had fallen into a sort of spiritual apathy. In their desire to be separate from (“called-out” from) the wickedness of their neighbors, they had forgotten how to love their neighbors. The challenge to the Christians of Ephesus was to remember the heights from which they had fallen, to repent for their lack of love and to do the deeds they had done at first. Love is more than just a sentimental feeling – love is an action. Love demands action.

If they will not repent, Christ warns them, he will come to them in judgment – to remove their lampstand from its place. The church is to be the light of the world, but if the church refuses to shine that light into the darkness of the world, Jesus will come to take it away.

Still, Christ commends them for their steadfastness. “You hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” The second century bishop St. Irenaeus says that the Nicolaitans are “the followers of that Nicolas who was one of the seven first ordained to the deaconate by the apostles (Acts 6:5). They lead lives of unrestrained indulgence…teaching that it is a matter of indifference to practice adultery, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.” (Irenaeus, 1.26.3)

It’s sometimes questioned whether or not Irenaeus was correct in identifying the cult as followers of Nicolas, but it is evident that the Nicolaitans and the followers of “Baalam” in Pergamum (2:14) are participants in the same group. (2:14 – 15) (but perhaps Balaam doesn't deserve such a bad reputation, after all...) 

Nicolaitan and Balaam both mean the same thing in Greek and Hebrew respectively: “Overcomer of the people” or “Conqueror of the people” They apparently were overcoming the people with an exceedingly liberal approach to the faith. They flouted the ethical constraints of Christianity, allowing adultery and idolatry as acceptable practices. (Numbers 22 – 24; 31; 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 11)

The Ephesians are commended for “hating” the Nicolaitans just as Christ hated them. This seems harsh, and “unchristian,” but the word “hate” doesn’t involve personal animosity. “What is meant here is akin to the wrath of God Who hates sin and sinners insofar as they are attached to sin but does desire their repentance and longs to forgive them. In the same way, people may speak about hating sin but not the sinner." (Ford, 387) Perhaps the Christians in Ephesus had fallen from their first love by moving from hating the sin to hating the sinner as well.

The Christians there are encouraged to Overcome (nikao) those who would overcome them (the Nicolaitans.) “And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith” ‘It’s not a matter of victory or failure – Christ has already won the victory. It’s a matter of victory or treason (Chilton, 99).”

It is curious to note that these words to the church at Ephesus were described as coming from “him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands” – that is Jesus, (2:1). But in verse 7 those who have ears to hear are admonished to hear what “the Spirit” has to say to the churches.  Is this to be understood as a equating of Jesus with the Holy Spirit?  Maybe not.  In the non-canonical apocalyptic work, The Ascension of Isaiah, Isaiah was taken up to the seventh heaven where he saw the glorified Christ and another “Glorious One” who looked very much like Christ.  When Isaiah asked who this second figure was told, "Worship Him, for He is the angel of the Holy Spirit, who speaketh in thee and the rest of the righteous.” (Ascension, 9:36).  “Apparently, as in Revelation, the spirit of inspiration and prophecy is different from but intimately connected with Christ.  By indirection John may be claiming the Spirit as his source of inspiration, since the promises he offers are made in the name of Christ and the Spirit (Rist, 382).”

To the one who overcomes Christ promises the privilege of eating from the Tree of Life in the Paradise of His God. There were two special trees in the Garden of Eden: The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life. The fruit of the Tree of Life would have given immortality to Adam and Eve had God allowed them to remain in the Garden. (Genesis 2:9) But to those who overcome, the flaming sword of the cherubim would be removed and the saints allowed to enjoy the fruit and its benefits.

In one sense, the cross of Christ is the Tree of life. The Cross has long been used in Christian art as a symbol of Tree of Life, and there is the suggestion that Christ was actually crucified on a living tree (Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24). The reward that is promised to the overcomer is the privilege of enjoying the presence of Christ and the eternal life that he gives.

Chilton, David, The Days of Vengeance: an Exposition of the Book of Revelation Dominion Press, Ft. Worth TX, 1987.

Ford, J. Massyngberde, Revelation: Anchor Bible Vol. 38, Doubleday, Garden City NY, 1975.

Ignatius, Epistle to the Ephesians

Irenaeus Against Heresies
|

Rist, Martin, “Revelation: Exegesis” in Volume XII of The Interpreter’s Bible, Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN. 1957.

Robertson, A. T., Word Pictures in the New Testament vol. 6 Broadman Press, Nashville TN, 1933.

Another Exquisite Corpse - Ignatius Gives Advice

Part of the fun of an Exquisite Corpse is to find connections and themes carried through in a completely unconnected and random process.

None of the four participants in the creation of this picture was able to see what had gone before them and yet... the image seems to have a certain unity.

My contribution to the picture is at the bottom this time.  What I've been reading of Ignatius influenced my work.

The title of this corpse is:

Aeronautical Hi-Jinks - Future is Fragile - In Peculiar Taste - Ignatius Gives Advice

Ante-Nicene Fathers – The Martyrdom of Ignatius - Ignatius vs. Bertrand Russell

(via Unreasonable Faith) 

I’ve been thinking about this quote from the philosopher Bertrand Russell for a couple of days now, contrasting it in my mind with the apparent eagerness of Ignatius of Antioch to become a martyr for his faith.  I’m not sure which of these two attitudes I would more closely align myself.

On the one hand, I greatly respect Russell’s honesty and humility.  What if I’m wrong?    There’s no delusion of grandeur in that attitude, no arrogance. But on the other hand is Ignatius’ certainty – a certainty which has inspired him to live and to die in the manner of his lord.  He is not ashamed. He is not afraid. 

“All the ends of the world, and all the kingdoms of this earth, shall profit me nothing.  It is better for me to die for the sake of Jesus Christ, than to reign over all the ends of the earth.  ‘For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?’  I long after the Lord, the Son of the true God and Father, even Jesus Christ.   Him I seek, who died for us and rose again.  Pardon me, brethren; do not hinder me in attaining to life; for Jesus is the life of believers.  … Suffer me to obtain pure light: when I have gone thither I shall indeed be a man of God.  Permit me to be an imitator of the passion of Christ my God.”[i]

The Martyrdom of Ignatius claims to have been written by eyewitness to his death in the Roman coliseum – though some have challenged this claim.   One argument in this challenge is that no Christian writer before the 7^th century quotes from or makes reference to the text. 

The Roman Emperor Trajan (98 – 117 CE) had recently won a series of victories over the Scyhthians and the Dacians and “…thinking that the religious body of the Christians were yet wanting to complete the subjugation of all things to himself, and [thereupon] threatening them with persecution unless they should agree to worship demons, as did all other nations, thus compelled all who were living godly lives either to sacrifice [to idols] or to die.” [ii]

Ignatius, unwilling to sacrifice to demons and altogether willing to sacrifice himself as a martyr was taken by ship and overland to Rome where he was brought to the coliseum and devoured by wild beasts before a crowd of spectators.  His bones – “only the harder portions of his holy remains were left,” [iii]  were gathered up and taken back to Antioch.

I admire Ignatius – but his eagerness (not just a willingness) to die is surprising, and maybe a little discomforting. Even Jesus, whom Ignatius wanted to imitate, was reluctant to face his own death.  I also admire Russell’s self-critical “I might be wrong…” approach because I know that I have an incomplete understanding of many things.  I can relate to his uneasiness with committing himself absolutely (in death) to a potential error.

There’s probably a balance somewhere between these two – neither a zealous eagerness to die as a martyr, nor a doubting uncertainty, unwilling to commit to a belief.   

---

[i] The Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans Chap. VI

[ii] The Martyrdom of Ignatius Chap. II

[iii] Chap. VI

Ante-Nicene Fathers – Ignatius to the Philadelphians, Smyrnæans, and Polycarp – Three Themes

After reading four of Ignatius’ epistles, I’m beginning to see a series of connected themes in his letters.  His concern for 1) the honor and obedience due to the church bishops, 2) preserving the unity of the Christian faith and community and 3) his warnings about heresies and heterodoxies are present in each of his letters.  These concerns are connected and related to each other.  Ignatius encourages his readers to honor their bishops because they are God’s representatives.  If the people will listen to him and obey his instructions then they will be able to keep and preserve the unity of the common faith, and they’ll be aware of the threat from a variety of false teachers.

The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philadelphians

The ‘authentic’ epistles of Ignatius[i] have come to us in two languages – Latin and Greek – and they have come to us in two versions of differing lengths – a shorter and a longer version.  The difference between the shorter and longer version is especially noticeable in the epistle to the Philadelphians, though it’s still not clear whether the shorter version is a summery of the longer or if the longer is an expansion of the shorter.  And this difference in length is especially noticeable in chapter VI.  In this chapter Ignatius provides his readers with a list of heresies and how to identify them.  In the longer version this list includes six different groups, the shorter only one.

The shorter versions list[ii] of heretics to avoid mentions only the Jew, described here as “a liar even as also is his father the devil.”[iii]  Again, the tradition that connects Ignatius to the Apostle John may be confirmed in the use of this phrase.

The longer version list of heresies, in addition to the Jew, also includes the disciples of Simon Magus, Ebionites, Gnostics (maybe), Docetists, and the so-called “Nicolaitians.” 

If anyone confesses that Christ Jesus is the Lord but deniest the God of the law and the prophets saying that the Father of Christ is not the maker of heaven and earth, he has not continued in the truth any more than his father the devil, and is a disciple of Simon Magus, not of the Holy Spirit. 

 These disciples of Simon Magus – were probably not actual students of the Samaritan sorcerer described in Acts 8: 9 – 24.  The enigmatic Simon Magus (Simon the Magician) became a sort of figurehead for all kinds of esoteric and occult philosophies and was eventually regarded by Christians as “source of all heresies.”

If anyone says there is one God and also confesses Christ Jesus, but thinks the Lord to be a mere man, and not the only-begotten God, and Wisdom and the Word of God, and deems Him to consist merely of a soul and body, such a one is a serpent, that preaches deceit and error for the destruction of man.  And such a man is poor in understanding, even as by name he is an Ebionite.” 

 The Ebionites (from the Hebrew word for “poor”) were Jewish Christians that insisted upon the following of Jewish laws and rites. It’s difficult to know for certain what they believed and practiced, but it seems that they rejected much of what would later be affirmed at the council of Nicea – particularly Jesus’ pre-existence, divinity, virgin-birth, and physical resurrection. 

If anyone confesses the truths mentioned but calls lawful wedlock and the procreation of children destruction and pollution, or deem certain kinds of food abominable, such a one has the apostate dragon within him.

I’m not sure who Ignatius is referring to here.  If I had to guess, it sounds something like a Gnostic dualism in which things of a spiritual nature are all good and pure and things of a physical nature (eating, marriage, procreation, etc…) are to be avoided.

If anyone confesses the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost and praises the creation but calls the incarnation merely an appearance, and is ashamed of the passion, such an one has denied the faith, not less than the Jews who killed Christ.

Ignatius really had strong feelings about the Jews and the Docetists; he refers to these two groups in several of his letters.[iv]

If anyone confesses these things and that God the Word did dwell in a human body, being within it as the Word, even as the soul also in the body, because it was God that inhabited it and not a human soul, but affirms that unlawful unions are a good thing and places the highest happiness in pleasure, as does the man who is falsely called a Nicolaitan, this person can neither be a lover of God nor a lover of Christ, but is a corrupter of his own flesh, and therefore void of the Holy Spirit and a stranger to Christ.

Again, it’s unclear who the Nicolaitans (first mentioned in Revelation 2:6 and 15) were or what they taught – and it’s further unclear who Ignatius’ “so-called Nicolaitans” were – but it seems that they encouraged a less rigid interpretation of sexual mores than Ignatius was comfortable with.

These heresies / heterodoxies all look a lot like Christianity; they each have facets of the whole truth (as Ignatius understands it) but the differences, the variations they introduce into the faith are significant enough to Ignatius for him to describe their followers as “monuments and sepulchers of the dead upon which are written only the names of dead men.” [v]

Ignatius encourages his readers in Philadelphia to “…be ye all joined together with an undivided heart and a willing mind, ‘being of one accord and one judgment,’ being always of the same opinion about the same things…”[vi]

But is this even possible?  The history of Christianity (and, perhaps we could add, the history of any religion) would seem to indicate: No.

  

The Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnæans

Ignatius affirms that the Christians in Smyrna are doing very well.  “For I have observed that ye are perfected in an unmovable faith as if ye were nailed to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ both in the flesh and in the spirit…” [vii]   But even so, his three themes pervade this brief epistle. 

The heresy addressed in his letter to Smyrna is, once again, Docetism – the idea that Jesus only ‘appeared’ as a human. His suffering and death were not real but only an illusion, they only seemed to be real.

But Ignatius refuses to call out by name those who are teaching this heresy, “inasmuch as they are unbelievers; and far be it from me to make any mention of them until they repent.” [viii] This was not his thinking when he wrote to the Trallians (LINK). 

Though he won’t call them by name, he does refer to them as “beasts in the shape of men”[ix] and “offspring of that spirit who is the author of all evil,” [x] and he encourages his readers to flee from people like this, people that would cause schisms within the church.

The Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp

This letter differs from the others in that it is written to an individual rather than a church – and to an individual that Ignatius seems to know personally.  The letter is warm and friendly and filled with advice for his friend and fellow bishop.  And even in this more personal communication, Ignatius’ three themes are present.

“Seek by meekness to subdue the more troublesome [disciples].” [xi]

“Let not those who seem worthy of credit, but teach strange doctrine, fill thee with apprehension.  Stand firm as does an anvil which is beaten.  It is the part of a noble athlete to be bruised and yet to conquer.” [xii]

“Labor together with one another, strive in company together, run together, suffer together, sleep together, and awake together as the stewards and associates  and servants of God…Let your baptism endure as your arms, your faith as your helmet, your love as your spear, your patience as a complete panoply.” [xiii]

---

[i] As opposed to the spurious ones that were added later, perhaps in the 6^th century CE

[ii] Can one entry be called a ‘list’?

[iii] The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philadelphians Chap. VI

[iv]  Ignatius frequently mentions the Jews and the Docetists – but not these other heresies.  This might suggest that the longer version of this letter is later expansion of Ignatius original – shorter – letter.

[v] Chap. VI

[vi] Chap. VI

[vii] The Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnæans Chap. I

[viii]  Chap. V

[ix] Chap IV

[x] Chap VII

[xi] The Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp Chap. II

[xii] Chap. III

[xiii] Chap. VI

Ignatius Sails to Rome

This is a song for the martyred Ignatius.




"I write to all the Churches, and impress on them all, that I shall willingly die for God, unless ye hinder me.  I beseech of you not to show an unreasonable goodwill towards me.  Suffer me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be granted me to attain to God.  I am the wheat of God, and am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the true bread of God. "

-The Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans Chapter IV

If  you like the music,you may download it here.

Ante-Nicene Fathers – Ignatius to the Trallians and the Romans - Heretics and Martyrs

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 Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians

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

Ignatius’ letter to the Christians in Tralles begins with a exhortation that they should honor and obey their bishop, the presbyters and the deacons.    This is a common theme in Ignatius’ letters.  Of the seven ‘authentic’ letters from Ignatius’ pen, six include this admonishment.  

In Ignatius’ mind there could be no church without proper leadership. “Apart from these [bishops, presbyters and deacons] there is no elect Church, no congregation of holy ones, no assembly of the saints.” [i]

Perhaps his insistence on proper honor and obedience to the church leaders grew from his concern over the heresies and heterodoxies that were – even at that early point in Christianity – infiltrating the churches.   He warns the Trallians to be wary of “vain talkers” and “deceivers” who were “bearing about the name of Christ in deceit and corrupting the word of the gospel while they intermix the poison of their deceit with their persuasive talk, as if they mingle aconite with sweet wine, so that he who drink, being deceived in his taste by the very great sweetness of the draught, may incautiously meet with his death.” [ii]

Though he says that he is unaware of any of these teachers in Tralles [iii] he writes to give them warning and so that they may be able to protect themselves from the snares that are being laid for them.  

It’s difficult to say what particular heresy Ignatius was addressing – or if he was referring to any specific deviation from “orthodoxy.”  His description of these “Christ betrayers” [iv] sounds like the Docetists who believed that Jesus’ humanity wasn’t genuine, that he only appeared (from the Greek dokeo –“to seem”) to be human.

“For they alienate Christ from the Father, and the law from Christ.  They also calumniate His being born of the Virgin; they are ashamed of His cross; they deny His passion; and they do not believe His resurrection.  They introduce God as a Being unknown; they suppose Christ to be unbegotten; and as to the Spirit, they do not admit that He exists.  Some of them say that the Son is a mere man, and that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are but the same person, and that the creation is the work of God, not by Christ, but by some other strange power.” [v]

As a tonic to this idea that Jesus’ body, suffering and death were only illusions, Ignatius insists upon the reality of Jesus’ life and recalls many of the physical and historical details of Christ’s life in words that sound similar to the Apostle’s Creed.

“He truly assumed a body… and lived on earth without sin… He did in reality both eat and drink.  He was crucified and died under Pontius Pilate.  He really, and not merely in appearance, was crucified, and died…” [vi]

And for Ignatius, who was on his way to die in Rome, this was vital.  If Jesus had only suffered and died in appearance; if was only an illusion, then Ignatius’ faith and his life (and his impending death) were all in vain and he was “guilty of falsehood against the cross of the Lord.”

“I do not place my hopes in one who died for me in appearance but in reality.” [vii]

Ignatius also has some harsh terms for those he considers heretics – and he calls some of them out by name.  He writes of “those wicked offshoots” of the devil, “Simon ... Menander, and Basilides, and all his wicked mob of followers,” as well as the “impure Nicolaitans” (presumably that same group referred to in Revelation 2, but it’s hard to be sure) and of the “children of the evil one, Theodutus and Cleobulus, who produce death-dealing fruit…”  They are “an accursed brood” and “enemies of the cross” and “those who killed the Lord of glory.” [viii] 

Do these phrases connect Ignatius with the sectarian Apostle John and his animosity towards “the Jews,” describing them as “children of [their] father, the devil” [ix] It seems plausible…

The Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans

Ignatius’ most famous words are found in this particular epistle. 

“I am the wheat of God, and am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the true bread of God.” [x]

We don’t, in contemporary American Christianity, think about martyrdom very often.  It’s something that happened a long time ago, or in far away places or maybe we think of it with some disdain as something connected with suicide bombers and other religious fanatics and terrorists.

But Ignatius was determined to be a martyr for God.  In fact, he was so determined to ‘go out in a blaze of glory,’ as it were, that he begged the Christians in Rome NOT to pray for his release.  “For if ye are silent concerning me, I shall become God’s; but if ye show your love to my flesh, I shall again have to run my race. Pray, then, do not seek to confer any greater favor upon me than that I be sacrificed to God, while the altar is still prepared.” [xi]

Granted, at the time that Ignatius was writing these letters, he already stood condemned to death and was on his way to Rome where he would face the lions in the coliseum, his eagerness to die is both slightly unsettling and somewhat admirable.  I don’t know if I’m horrified by or envious of Ignatius and his martyrdom.

A few years ago I wrote a short little poem:

If Only

If only I could, like the ancient martyrs
(by flame, and spear, and club)
make my life a declaration to God
with one bold step into the lion’s mouth
or by one swift stroke of the sword
instead of the tedious thousands
of slow painful deaths
as I gradually die to myself.

(2008)

---

[i] The Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians Chap. III

[ii] Chap. VI

[iii] Chap. VIII

[iv] Chap. VI

[v] Chap. VI

[vi] Chap. IX

[vii] Chap. X

[viii] Chap. XI

[ix] John 8:44

[x] The Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans Chap. IV

[xi] Chap. II

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. 

---

[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…