Herbert Tom Andrews

“ The “sayings” themselves are as follows:—
1. “Jesus saith, Let not him who seeks ... cease until he finds and when he finds he shall be astonished; astonished he shall reach the kingdom and having reached the kingdom he shall rest.”
2. “Jesus saith (ye ask? who are those) that draw us (to the kingdom if) the kingdom is in Heaven? ... the fowls of the air and all beasts that are under the earth or upon the earth and the fishes of the sea (these are they which draw) you and the kingdom of Heaven is within you and whosoever shall know himself shall find it. ”

“ No one connected with the history of the early Christian Church is more famous than Ignatius, and yet among the leading churchmen of the time there is scarcely one about whose career we know so little. ”

“ It is true that Harnack has adduced arguments which cannot be discussed here to prove that Irenaeus was not born till about 140; [24] but against this we may quote the decision of Lipsius, who puts the date of his birth at 130, [25] while Lightfoot argues for 120. [26] The fact that Irenaeus never quotes Polycarp does not count for much. Polycarp wrote very little. He does not seem to have been a man of great mental capacity. “His influence was that of saintliness rather than that of intellect.” (b) A discussion of Harnack's second line of argument is impossible here. ”

“ Romans and Philippians, which seems to imply that this form of government was not universal. It is only when we read modern ecclesiastical ideas into Ignatius that the objection has much weight. To sum up, as Uhlhorn says: “The collective mass of internal evidence against the genuineness of the letters . . . is insufficient to counterbalance the testimony of the Epistle of Polycarp in their favour. He who would prove the Epistles of Ignatius to be spurious must begin by proving the Epistle of Polycarp to be spurious, and such an undertaking is not likely to succeed.” ”

“ And a certain Pharisee, a chief priest, whose name was Levi, met them and said to the Saviour, Who gave thee leave to walk in this place of purification, and to see these holy vessels when thou hast not washed nor yet have thy disciples bathed their feet? But defiled thou hast walked in this temple, which is a pure place, wherein no other man walks except he has washed himself and changed his garments neither does he venture to see these holy vessels. And the Saviour straightway stood still with his disciples and answered him, Art thou then, being here in the temple, clean? ”

“ But if the Epistles tell us little of the life of Ignatius, they give us an excellent picture of the man himself, and are a mirror in which we see reflected certain ideals of the life and thought of the day. ”

“ Polycarp’s Martyrdom.—Not many months apparently after Polycarp’s return from Rome a persecution broke out in Asia. A great festival was in progress at Smyrna. The proconsul Statius Quadratus was present on the occasion, and the asiarch Philip of Tralles was presiding over the games. Eleven Christians had been brought, mostly from Philadelphia, to be put to death. The appetite of the populace was inflamed by the spectacle of their martyrdom. A cry was raised “Away with the atheists. Let search be made for Polycarp.” Polycarp took refuge in a country farm. ”

“ Ignatius, as Schaff says, “is the incarnation of three closely connected ideas: the glory of martyrdom, the omnipotence of episcopacy, and the hatred of heresy and schism.”
1. Zeal for martyrdom in later days became a disease in the Church, but in the case of Ignatius it is the mark of a hero. The heroic note runs through all the Epistles; thus he says:
“I bid all men know that of my own free will I die for God, unless ye should hinder me . . . Let me be given to the wild beasts, for through them I can attain unto God. ”

“ Irenaeus has confused John the apostle and John the presbyter. Polycarp was the disciple of the latter, not the former. In this second argument Harnack has the support of a considerable number of modern scholars who deny the Ephesian residence of John the apostle. But, as Gwatkin [22] has pointed out, Harnack's arguments are by no means decisive. (a) When Irenaeus describes himself as a boy (παῖς) , he need not have meant a very young lad, under thirteen, as Harnack makes out. Lightfoot has cited many instances which prove that the word could be used of a man of thirty. ”

“ Thou hast washed in these running waters wherein dogs and swine have been cast night and day and hast cleansed and wiped the outside skin which also the harlots and flute-girls anoint and wash and wipe and beautify for the lust of men ”

“ Jesus saith ... do not ... of truth ... blessed is he ...”
The fragment of a lost Gospel which was discovered in 1903 contained originally about fifty lines, but many of them have perished and others are undecipherable. The translation, as far as it can be made out, is as follows:—
1-7. “ (Take no thought) from morning until even nor from evening until morning either for your food what ye shall eat or for your raiment what ye shall put on. 7-13. Ye are far better than the lilies which grow but spin not. Having one garment what do ye (lack) ?... 13–15. Who could add to your stature? ”

“ A third view supposes that they are extracts from the Gospel of Thomas—an apocryphal Gospel dealing with the boyhood of Jesus. Beyond the allusion to Thomas in the introductory paragraph to the 1903 series, there seems to be no tangible evidence in support of this view. The second theory, which maintains that the papyri represent an independent collection of “sayings,” seems to be the opinion which has found greatest favour. ”

“ The Church at Philippi wrote to Polycarp asking him to forward their letters to Antioch. Polycarp replied, promising to carry out their request and enclosing a number of the letters of Ignatius which he had in his possession.
2. Polycarp's Attack on Heresy.—All through his life Polycarp appears to have been an uncompromising opponent of heresy. We find him in his epistle (ch. vii.) uttering a strong protest against certain false teachers (probably the followers of Cerinthus) .
“For every one who shall not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is Antichrist ”

“ Funk, on the other hand, regards the writer as an Apollinarian. Lightfoot opposes both views and suggests that it is better “to conceive of him as writing with a conciliatory aim.”
IV. The Objections to the Curetonian Recension.—The objections to the Syriac recension, though not so decisive, are strong enough to carry conviction with them. (1) We have the express statement of Eusebius that Ignatius wrote seven Epistles. (2) There are statements in Polycarp’s Epistle which cannot be explained from the three Syriac Epistles. ”

“ Father; (and?) ye shall know that ye are in (the city of God?) and ye are (the city?) .”
3. “Jesus saith, A man shall not hesitate ... to ask concerning his place (in the kingdom. Ye shall know) that many that are first shall be last and the last first and (they shall have eternal life?) .”
4. “Jesus saith, Everything that is not before thy face and that which is hidden from thee shall be revealed to thee. For there is nothing hidden which shall not be made manifest nor buried which shall not be raised.”
5. “His disciples question him and say, How shall we fast and how shall we (pray?) ... ”

“ There are also (1) a Latin version made by Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln, about 1250, and published by Ussher in 1644—two years before the Vossian edition appeared; (2) an Armenian version which was derived from a Syriac not earlier than the 5th century and published at Constantinople in 1783; (3) some fragments of a Syriac version published in Cureton’s edition of Ignatius; (4) fragments of a Coptic version first published in Lightfoot’s work (ii. 859-882) . (b) The long recension contains the seven Epistles mentioned above in an expanded form and several additional letters besides. ”

“ In the third stage—inaugurated in 1845 by Cureton’s work—the controversy has ranged round the relative claims of the Vossian and the Curetonian recensions. Scholars have been divided into three camps, viz. (1) those who followed Cureton in maintaining that the three Syriac Epistles alone were the genuine work of Ignatius. Among them may be mentioned the names of Bunsen, A. Ritschl, R. A. Lipsius, E. de Pressensé, H. Ewald, Milman, Bohringer. (2) Those who accepted the genuineness of the Vossian recension and regarded the Curetonian as an abbreviation of it, e.g. ”

“ Euseb. v. 20. ↑ Nachapostolisches Zeitalter, ii. 154. ↑ Apostolgeschichte, p. 52. ↑ Apostolische Väter, p. 272. ↑ Entstehung der altkatholischen Kirche, p. 584. ↑ Ueber das Verhältniss, &c., p. 14. ↑ Zeitschr. f. wissensch. Theol. (1874) , p. 200 seq. ↑ Aus dem Urchristenthum (1878) , p. 90. ↑ Zeitschr. f. hist. Theol. (1870) , p. 203 seq. ↑ Zeitschr. f. wissensch. Theol. (1877) . ↑ Zeitschr. f. hist. Theol. (1875) . ”

“ Die Ignatianischen Briefe (1892) . ↑ Ib. (1893) 275-316. ↑ But there are still a few scholars, e.g. van Manen and Völter, who prefer a date about 150 or later; van Loon goes as late as 175. See article “Old-Christian Literature,” Ency. Bib. iii. col. ”