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Megan Millar L6A

Discuss the writings of Ignatius [35]

The life of Ignatius is generally dated from 35AD-107/108AD. Ignatius was thebishop of Antioch and was being transported to be martyred when he writes aseries of seven letters; six to the churches and one to Polycarp. The reason forhis impending martyrdom is unclear, perhaps divisions in his church had broughthim to the attention of officials or he was being used to fill the quota for theRoman games. Eusebius claimed that Ignatius was martyred during the reign of

Trajan in 107/108AD but we have no definitive confirmation of this.

In his letters he describes himself as Theophorus which means God bearer, thisshows that perhaps he believes he is God's warrior facing death, in his letter tothe Romans he writes I am fighting wild beasts by land and sea, by night andday, bound to ten leopards. His letters also reveal his concern for the welfare of

the church as he addresses issues such as heresy. Ignatius was concerned withheretics; mainly two groups called the Judaizers and the Docetists.

Judaizers were Christians who claimed that a person must first fulfil the Jewishlaws to be a Christians such as the kashrut. In the church in Philadelphia somepeople disagreed with their bishop saying that the Old Testament had authorityover the new. In response Ignatius said that the Old Testament looked forward tothe New Testament and the New Testament fulfilled the Old Testament, it isbetter to hear about Christianity from a circumcised man than about Judaismfrom an uncircumcised man. The Church at Magnesia was also suffering at thehands of the Judaizers and in response Ignatius said that the Old Testament

prophets lived in accordance with the commands of Jesus, for if we are stillliving according to Judaism, we confess that we have not received grace. Healso dealt with those who required Christians to maintain Jewish practices as it isnot possible to maintain some practices but not others, it is outrageous to utterthe name of Jesus Christ and to live in Judaism.

The second heretical group that Ignatius writes about are the Docetists, this labelcomes from the Greek word Dokein which mean to seem, and they believedthat Jesus only seemed to be human. The danger of Docetism was that, firstly

Jesus could not have dies and saved people from sin and , secondly thatcommunion became irrelevant. Ignatius denounced these beliefs, there is onephysician of flesh and spirit...God in man, true life in death. In smyrna therewere two problems; widows and orphans were being neglected and the Docetistswere teaching that the Eucharist was pointless. Ignatius, however, emphasisedthe humanity of Christ with the repetition of the word really, Jesus Christ...whoreally was born...really was crucified....really was raised from the dead.

In order to defeat heresy Ignatius called for unity around the bishop. He is thefirst t use the phrase monarchical episcopacy which was the emphasis on onekey bishop. Until this point church leadership was two tier but it was now threetier with the bishop heading the church. By having one bishop the church would

be united around him and he would guard against heresy, eliminating divisionswithin the church. His letters seek to establish the authority of the bishop, makeevery effort to do everything in divine harmony, the bishop in the place of God.

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Ignatius' call to unity around the bishop is based in his understanding that thebishop represents God on earth. He also encouraged the authority of the bishopby pointing to the example of Jesus, follow all of you, the bishop, as Jesus Christfollowed the father. Finally with regard to unity he suggested that the churchcould not function without the bishop as only the bishop could administer the

sacraments such as the Eucharist, it is not permissible either to baptise or toconduct a love feast without the bishop.

Through his letters it seems that Ignatius wanted to be martyred and he evenwent as far as to discourage the Roman Church from preventing his martyrdom,I willingly die for God, unless you hinder me It is claimed that he had a neuroticobsession with death and his language is very grotesque, may I have the joy of the beasts that are prepared for me. his preoccupation with his impendingmartyrdom is emphasised by the fact that he writes an entire letter to theRomans about his martyrdom. Holmes suggests a number of reasons whyIgnatius was willing to die; to imitate the suffering of Christ and so become abetter disciple, to embolden himself because of underlying fear, because hisrelease may have come with the high price of accusations of apostasy ordivisions and disunity in the church may have led to his arrest and so hismartyrdom would have covered his failings.

Regardless of his motivations, Ignatius' writings became almost a guide tomartyrdom and still help Christians who are being persecuted and martyred inmodern times. The writings of Ignatius reveal his concern for the church and alsohelp us to build a picture of life in the early church.