Editing Ignatius of Antioch (section)

== Epistles ==
[[File:Ignatius of Antioch.jpg|thumb|220px|An icon of Ignatius of Antioch from the [[Menologion of Basil II]] ({{circa}} 1000)]]

The following seven epistles preserved under the name of Ignatius are generally considered authentic since they were mentioned by the historian Eusebius in the first half of the fourth century.

'''Seven original epistles:'''
* The [[Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians|Epistle to the Ephesians]];
* The [[Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians|Epistle to the Magnesians]];
* The [[Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians|Epistle to the Trallians]];
* The [[Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans|Epistle to the Romans]];
* The [[Epistle of Ignatius to the Philadelphians|Epistle to the Philadelphians]];
* The [[Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans|Epistle to the Smyrnaeans]];
* The [[Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp|Epistle to Polycarp]], a [[bishop]] of [[Smyrna]].

=== 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}}

=== Authenticity ===
The original{{check|date=February 2025}}<!-- misleading; what is meant is that CML/CC are the primary textual sources. Some of the CML text is spurious/corrupt and nees corroboration from other recensions; the text used in present-day studies is thus a draft composite, with no definite version yet for some passages. --> texts of six of the seven original letters are found in the [[Codex Mediceo Laurentianus]], written in Greek in the 11th century (which also contains the pseudepigraphical letters of the Long Recension, except that to the Philippians),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Koester |first=H. |title=Introduction to the New Testament: History, culture, and religion of the Hellenistic age |publisher=[[De Gruyter|Walter de Gruyter]] |series=Einführung in das Neue Testament |date=1995 |isbn=978-3-11-014693-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qWflda5Erq4C&pg=PA58 |page=58 |access-date=1 September 2017 |archive-date=28 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240628163614/https://books.google.com/books?id=qWflda5Erq4C&pg=PA58 |url-status=live}}</ref> while the letter to the Romans is found in the [[Codex Colbertinus]].<ref name="Catholic Encyclopedia">[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07644a.htm O'Connor, John Bonaventure, "St. Ignatius of Antioch", The Catholic Encyclopedia] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230125140055/https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07644a.htm |date=25 January 2023}} Vol. 7, New York, Robert Appleton Company, 1910, 15 February 2016</ref>

Though the [[Catholic Church]] has always supported the authenticity of the letters,<ref name="Catholic Encyclopedia" /> some [[Reformation|Protestants]] have tended to deny the authenticity of all the epistles because they seem to attest to a [[monarchical episcopate]] in the second century. [[John Calvin]] called the epistles "rubbish published under Ignatius' name".<ref name="date of ignatius"/>{{rp|119}}

In 1886, [[Presbyterian]] minister and church historian [[William Dool Killen]] published a long essay attacking the authenticity of the epistles attributed to Ignatius. He argued that [[Pope Callixtus I|Pope Callixtus&nbsp;I]], bishop of Rome, [[Pseudepigrapha|forged]] the letters around 220&nbsp;AD to garner support for a [[Apostolic succession|monarchical episcopate]], modeling Saint Ignatius after his own life to give precedent for his own authority.<ref name="Killen 1886">{{Citation |last=Killen |first=William Dool |date=1886 |title=The Ignatian epistles entirely spurious - A reply to the Right Rev. Dr. Lightfoot |location=Edinburgh |publisher=[[T&T Clark]] |url=https://depts.drew.edu/jhc/KillenIgnatius.pdf |access-date=15 April 2018 |archive-date=13 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513060425/http://www.depts.drew.edu/jhc/KillenIgnatius.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|137}} Killen contrasted this [[episcopal polity]] with the [[presbyterian polity]] in the writings of Polycarp.<ref name="Killen 1886" />{{rp|127}}

Doubts about the letters' authenticity continued throughout the 20th century and beyond. In the 1970s and 1980s, the scholars [[Robert Joly]],<ref>Robert Joly, ''Le dossier d'Ignace d'Antioche'', Éditions de l'université de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, 1979.</ref> Reinhard Hübner,<ref>Reinhard M. Hübner, « Thesen zur Echtheit und Datierung der sieben Briefe des Ignatius von Antiochien », ''Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum'', vol. 1, n° 1 (1997), p. 44–72.</ref> [[Markus Vinzent]],<ref>Markus Vinzent, "Ich bin kein körperloses Geistwesen", in Reinhard M. Hübner and Markus Vinzent, ''Der Paradox Eine: Antignostischer Monarchianismus im zweiten Jahrhundert'', Vigilae Christianae Supplements, 50, Leiden, Brill, 1999, p. 241–256.</ref> and Thomas Lechner<ref>Thomas Lechner, ''Ignatius adversus Valentinianos? Chronologische und theologiegeschichtliche Studien zu den Briefen des Ignatius von Antiochien'', vol. 47 of the ''Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae'', Brill, 1999 [https://books.google.com/books?id=BaLqb3ALOfkC&q=lechner%20%22ignatius%20adversus%20valentinianos%22 Presentation online] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231002222621/https://books.google.com/books?id=BaLqb3ALOfkC&q=lechner%20%22ignatius%20adversus%20valentinianos%22 |date=2 October 2023}}.</ref> argued forcefully that the epistles of the Middle Recension were forgeries from the reign of [[Marcus Aurelius]] (161–180). Joseph Ruis-Camps published a study arguing that the Middle Recension letters were pseudepigraphically composed based on an original, smaller, authentic corpus of four letters ([[Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans|Romans]], [[Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians|Magnesians]], [[Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians|Trallians]], and [[Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians|Ephesians]]). In 2009, Otto Zwierlein support the thesis of a forgery written around 170&nbsp;AD.<ref>Otto Zwierlein, ''Petrus in Rom'', Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur und Geschichte, vol. 96, Berlin, [[De Gruyter|Walter de Gruyter]], 2009 (2 éd. 2010), p. 183–237.</ref>

These publications stirred up heated scholarly controversy,<ref name="date of ignatius"/>{{rp|122}} but by 2017, most patristic scholars accepted the authenticity of the seven original epistles.<ref name="date of ignatius"/>{{rp|121ff}}<ref>{{Cite book |author=Paul Gilliam III |title=Ignatius of Antioch and the Arian Controversy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K6clDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA5 |date=2017 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-34288-0 |page=5 |access-date=24 May 2020 |archive-date=28 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240628163110/https://books.google.com/books?id=K6clDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA5#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=Jordan Cooper |title=The Righteousness of One - An Evaluation of Early Patristic Soteriology in Light of the New Perspective on Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DZ9JAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA78 |date=2013 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-62189-771-2 |page=78 |access-date=24 May 2020 |archive-date=28 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240628163130/https://books.google.com/books?id=DZ9JAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA78#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=Stephen E. Young |title=Jesus Tradition in the Apostolic Fathers - Their Explicit Appeals to the Words of Jesus in Light of Orality Studies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bY_z7T41h84C&pg=PA158 |date=2011 |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |isbn=978-3-16-151010-6 |page=158 |access-date=24 May 2020 |archive-date=28 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240628163611/https://books.google.com/books?id=bY_z7T41h84C&pg=PA158#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref> However, starting with a collection of studies published in 2018, the view that all the letters are a pseudepigraphy most likely composed by a Roman pro-monepiscopate faction in 160–180 is again proposed by "a significant number of Ignatian researchers"; as of 2020, most of them were from Germany, with UK/US authors generally accepting the 7 Middle Recension letters as genuine. In notable contrast to previous research, 21st-century Ignatian studies &ndash; regardless of their conclusions &ndash; usually treat the questions of dating and authenticity as independent of each other and requiring separate proofs or refutations. A very early (pre-110) or extremely late (post-180) date is widely (but not universally) dismissed nowadays; as of 2020 most authors either propose the letters to be authentic and date from the mid-late 110s, or date them to almost 150 (with either view as regards authenticity), or consider them pseudepigraphic &ndash; and possibly a deliberate novel-like hagiographic fiction, closely tied in some way to Lucian's ''Peregrinus Proteus'', and unrelated except in name to the Ignatius mentioned by Polycarp &ndash; dating from post-160.<ref>Lookadoo, Jonathon (2020). The Date and Authenticity of the Ignatian Letters: An Outline of Recent Discussions. ''Currents in Biblical Research'' '''19'''(1): 88-114. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476993X20914798</ref>

Resolving the questions of dating and authenticity is made difficult by the comparative lack of reception of the Ignatian letters in [[Proto-orthodox_Christianity|proto-orthodox]] writings. The [[Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians]] seems to imply that the Ignatian letters were collated into a collection before 150&nbsp;AD already, but the pertinent passages [[Epistle_of_Polycarp_to_the_Philippians#Authorship_and_unity|are considered suspect]] by most authors today. [[Irenaeus]], who was said to be familiar with Ignatius' close acquaintance Polycarp, in his ''[[Against Heresies]]'' V,28:4 ([[Lugdunum]], c.180 AD) seems to quote a passage from the [[Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans]] almost verbatim, but actually claims the phrase in question to have been "said" by "someone of our[ people]" (''quidam de nostris dixit''), contrasting with his usual tendency to reference his authorities by name. [[Origen]] gives an abbreviated quotation from [[Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians]] in his 6th homily on Luke ([[Caesarea (Mazaca)|Caesarea]] c.&nbsp;240&nbsp;AD), attributing it to Ignatius but speaking of "the letter" in the singular form, and at about the same time in his ''Commentary on the Song of Songs'' (prologue, chapter 2) gives a brief quote from Ignatius' Roman epistle as something which Ignatius "said" and Origen "remembered". Eusebius is the first author to provide unequivocal testimony to multiple Ignatian letters, proving they were known in southern [[Syria Palaestina]] by about 300 AD. But even as late as around 400&nbsp;AD, [[John Chrysostom]] &ndash; an Antiochene who knew of Ignatius supposed relics located there &ndash; in his [[homily]] on Ignatius neither gives any corroborating details of his venerated compatriot's life, nor references the letters; compare, for example, his first homily on [[Priscilla and Aquila]] which quotes the primary sources verbatim. Neither do pre-Eusebius authors <!-- several; details in 19th century soures mentioned above --> in the [[Proto-orthodox_Christianity#Proto-orthodoxy_versus_other_Christianities|doctrinal disputes]] which started in the mid-late 2nd and became highly divisive in the 3rd to 5th centuries AD refer to or quote the Ignatian letters, even when doing so would have given a decisive authority to the argument. In summary, during the initial ~150 years during which a compilation of all Ignatian letters was supposedly available, only one letter (Ephesians) is attested to exist in written form, while two passages from another (Romans) are independently cited as having been "said" &ndash; once by Ignatius, and once by an unspecified "someone". This widespread absence of Ignatian references in authors that could be expected to quote or at least paraphrase Ignatius' letters, and attribute them by name, is in striking contrast to their use of Polycarp or [[Clement of Rome]], and to the subsequent popularity of the Ignatian letters. It was already noted by the 19th-century authors mentioned above.<!-- please add pertinent citations -->

=== Style and structure ===
Ignatius's letters bear signs of being written in great haste, such as [[run-on sentences]] and an unsystematic succession of thought. Ignatius modelled them after the biblical epistles of Paul, Peter, and John, quoting or paraphrasing these apostles' works freely. For example, in his letter to the Ephesians he quoted 1 Corinthians 1:18:
{{blockquote|Let my spirit be counted as nothing for the sake of the cross, which is a stumbling-block to those that do not believe, but to us salvation and life eternal.|''Letter to the Ephesians'' 18, Roberts and Donaldson translation<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.christianhistoryproject.org/to-the-decian-persecution/ignatius-of-antioch |title=''A Pinch on Incense'', (Ted Byfield, ed.), p. 50 |access-date=13 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121226135352/http://www.christianhistoryproject.org/to-the-decian-persecution/ignatius-of-antioch/ |archive-date=26 December 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>}}