Editing Ignatius of Antioch (section)

=== Recensions ===
The text of these epistles is known in three different [[recension]]s, or editions: the Short Recension, found in a [[Syriac language|Syriac]] [[manuscript]]; the Middle Recension, found in [[Ancient Greek|Greek]], [[Latin]], [[Armenian language|Armenian]], [[Slavic languages|Slavonic]], [[Coptic language|Coptic]], [[Arabic]], [[Ethiopic]] and Syriac manuscripts; and the Long Recension, found in Greek, Latin and [[Georgian language|Georgian]] manuscripts.<ref name="date of ignatius"/>{{rp|120–121}}<ref name="Quasten1-80-72">{{Cite book |last1=Quasten |first1=Johannes |translator-last1=Beghin |translator-first1=Nello |date=1980 |orig-date=1950 |title=Patrologia - fino al Concilio di Nicea |language=it |volume=1 |location=Turin |publisher=Marietti |pages=72–73 |isbn=9788821167027 |oclc=886651889}}</ref><ref name="lookadoo"/>{{rp|4}}<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Les lettres de saint Ignace d'Antioch en géorgien |journal=Le Muséon |last=Outtier |first=Bernard |issue=1–2 |volume=136 |pages=89–93 |doi=10.2143/MUS.136.1.3291856 |date=2023 |language=fr |issn=1783-158X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=The Slavonic Tradition of Ignatius' Epistula ad Romanos (''CPG'' 1025.4) |journal=Le Muséon |last=Sels |first=Lara |issue=1–2 |volume=136 |pages=95–125 |doi=10.2143/MUS.136.1.3291857 |date=2023 |issn=1783-158X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=New Light on Old Manuscripts: The Sinai Palimpsests and Other Advances in Palimpsest Studies |last=Kessel |first=Grigory |publisher=Austrian Academy of Sciences Press |date=2023 |isbn=978-3-7001-9159-9 |editor-last=Rapp |editor-first=Claudia |page=106 |chapter=A Catacomb of Syriac Texts - Codex Arabicus (Sin. ar. 514) Revisited |series=Veröffentlichungen zur Byzanzforschung |doi=10.1553/978oeaw91575s101 |editor-last2=Rossetto |editor-first2=Giulia |editor-last3=Grusková |editor-first3=Jana |editor-last4=Kessel |editor-first4=Grigory |doi-access=free}}</ref>

For some time, it was believed that the Long Recension was the only extant version of the Ignatian epistles, but around 1628 a Latin translation of the Middle Recension was discovered by [[Archbishop]] [[James Ussher]], who published it in 1646. For around a quarter of a century after this, it was debated which recension represented the original text of the epistles. But ever since [[John Pearson (bishop)|John Pearson]]'s strong defense of the authenticity of the Middle Recension in the late 17th century, there has been a scholarly consensus that the Middle Recension is the original version of the text.<ref name="date of ignatius"/>{{rp|121}} The Long Recension is the product of a fourth-century [[Arianism|Arian]] Christian, who [[Interpolation (manuscripts)|interpolated]] the Middle Recension epistles in order posthumously to enlist Ignatius as an unwitting witness in theological disputes of that age. This individual also forged the six spurious epistles attributed to Ignatius (see {{section link||Pseudo-Ignatius}} below).<ref name="trobisch-2007">{{Cite journal |last=Trobisch |first=David |author-link=David Trobisch |title=Who Published the New Testament? |journal=Free Inquiry |publisher=Council for Secular Humanism |location=Amherst, NY |volume=28 |issue=December 2007/January 2008 |pages=30–33 |url=http://trobisch.com/david/wb/media/articles/20071226%20FreeInquiry%20Who%20Published%20Christian%20Bible%20BW.pdf |access-date=3 July 2019 |archive-date=21 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210421231238/http://trobisch.com/david/wb/media/articles/20071226%20FreeInquiry%20Who%20Published%20Christian%20Bible%20BW.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

Manuscripts representing the Short Recension of the Ignatian epistles were discovered and published by [[William Cureton]] in the mid-19th century. For a brief period, there was a scholarly debate on the question of whether the Short Recension was earlier and more original than the Middle Recension. But by the end of the 19th century, [[Theodor Zahn]] and [[J. B. Lightfoot]] had established a scholarly consensus that the Short Recension is merely a summary of the text of the Middle Recension, and was therefore composed later.<ref name="date of ignatius"/>{{rp|121}}