1. Introduction
This article is written in
response to a
study
of Ignatius’ letters posted on the web by Christadelphian apologist Dave Burke
twelve years ago. Dave
referred
others to this material in the context of his Trinity debate with Rob Bowman
five years ago (
here too). His summary of his findings was as follows:
The epistles of Ignatius are
shockingly interpolated and need to be approached with care. Nevertheless I
believe that it is possible to winnow the wheat from the chaff and arrive at a
clear view of Ignatius’ beliefs, which were, in my opinion, perfectly sound… I
have conducted a study of every single letter that Ignatius wrote, and I have
concluded that the very few places where he appears to display binitarian or Trinitarian
tendencies can be rejected as later interpolations.
“Perfectly sound,” coming from a
Christadelphian apologist, presumably means “compatible with biblical
unitarianism.”
When pressed by an online interlocutor
(one Xavier) as to whether he had any scholars to back up these claims, Dave
replied, “Yes, I do have scholars to back that up. Read my article.”
I don’t know if Dave’s stance on
Ignatius is the same today as it was in 2003, but as recently as 2014, in
teaching
material delivered to a Christadelphian audience, Dave maintained the same
basic claims: Ignatius’ letters were corrupted, but his theology can be recovered
and it is entirely consistent with New Testament theology (from a Christadelphian
point of view). In this talk, Dave gave his audience no indication that his
claims regarding Ignatius’ theology were in any way controversial.
Another online interlocutor, Helez,
having read Dave’s study of Ignatius’ christology, offered the following
criticism:
In regard of Ignatius' epistle to
the Ephesians, you sometimes regard the shorter Greek version to be the
authentic one, but when it's more to your liking, you disregard that shorter
version in favor of the longer version. Sometimes you reject *both* versions,
based on theological bias. Anyway, Jesus is undeniably referred to as theos
by Ignatius in both versions.
In my view, this criticism was
spot-on. However, it didn’t get any response, and as far as I can tell, Dave’s
study has been sitting in cyberspace for twelve years without anyone ever
having critiqued it. I think some frank criticism is long overdue. The basic
point I want to make is that Dave’s study ignores contemporary scholarship
about the Ignatian letters and misrepresents their Christology.
2. Background on Ignatius’ Letters
First, a bit of background for readers
who may not be familiar with Ignatius’ letters.
There are seven letters that are generally accepted as authentic: to the
Ephesians (IgnEph), Magnesians (IgnMag), Trallians (IgnTral), Romans (IgnRom),
Philadelphians (IgnPhld), Smyrnaeans (IgnSmyrn), and to Polycarp (IgnPoly). These
letters are preserved in three distinct forms or “recensions,” known to
scholars as the short, middle, and long recensions. There is virtually
unanimous agreement today that the short recension and long recension represent
an abridgment and expansion of the middle recension, respectively. Accordingly
the middle recension is regarded as closest to the original text.
These letters appear to have all
been written within a short span of time as Ignatius, who was (or had been)
bishop of Antioch, was en route to martyrdom in Rome. The majority of scholars
date Ignatius’ letters to the latter part of the reign of the Roman Emperor Trajan,
between about 110-117 AD,
though Foster suggests a slightly later date (between 125-150 AD).
A few scholars in the 20
th century challenged the authenticity of some
or all of these seven letters but did not succeed in overturning the consensus.
3. Assessing Dave’s claims
Dave’s methodology is to go
through some christological texts in Ignatius’ letters and line up the short
and long recensions side by side. He treats the middle recension
as the “default” reading but is prepared to consider the long recension as well
to help recover the original text. He doesn’t tell us which translation he is
using, but it appears to be that of Roberts & Donaldson from 1867.
The texts that Dave analyses are
as follows: IgnEph inscription, 1.1, 7.2, 18.2, 19.3, IgnMag 6.1, 8.2,
IgnRom inscription, and IgnPoly 8.3.
His analysis is, to a large
extent, text-critical: he seeks to recover the original text of Ignatius’
letters. However, his method of textual criticism is primarily theological: if
the language in the text is not “biblical”, then it “must therefore be regarded
as spurious.” Hence, Dave prefers the long recension readings over those of the
middle recension, even as “obviously” correct, when the Christological
assertions are more to his liking.
However (to make an
understatement), revising a text to conform to other texts, or to one’s own
interpretation of those texts, is not an accepted method of textual criticism.
Ironically, Dave’s methodology is closer to that of the interpolator(s) of the
long recension than that of modern textual critics!
A further major problem with
Dave’s textual criticism of these texts is that, despite his claim to Xavier
that he has scholars to back up his claims,
Dave does not appeal to any
critical texts of the Ignatian letters. This is important, because the critical
texts rule against him in
every single case where he sees an
interpolation in the middle recension. These include the two critical texts of Holmes
and Ehrman,
as
well as Lake’s older text (which is in the public domain).
For instance, in IgnEph
inscription, Lake,
Holmes
and Ehrman
read “Jesus Christ our God”, and in IgnEph 1.1, all three scholars read “blood
of God.” Dave would emend the former to “Jesus Christ our Saviour” and the
latter to “blood of Christ”, following the long recension. Similarly in IgnEph
18.2: the critical texts have “our God, Jesus Christ” following the middle
recension,
while Dave instead follows the long recension, which refers to “the Son of God,
who was begotten before time began.” Dave quotes from the 19
th
century theologian Cardinal Newman in support of his claim that this language
sounds Arian. This is irrelevant, however, since the critical texts do not
contain these words. Moreover, even if this
were the correct reading, it
would be difficult to argue that this language is Arian since very similar language is used of Christ in the Chalcedonian
definition!
Furthermore, even if this language
were Arian, it would provide little
support to Dave’s claim that Ignatius was a proto-Christadelphian, since
Christadelphian Christology is not Arian.
Coming back to IgnEph 7.2, Dave
claims that the words “who is possessed both of flesh and spirit; both made and
not made; God existing in flesh; true life in death; both of Mary and of God;
first passible and then impassible” from the middle recension are “absent from
the Greek copy, being found only in the Latin.” It is not clear where he got
this information since he doesn’t cite a source, but the critical texts show
that this section
does occur in both the Greek and Latin text of the
middle recension.
It is only the phrase that immediately follows, “Jesus Christ our Lord,” which
is absent from the Greek. However, this phrase is unimportant since the text
still clearly refers to Christ. In this text, then, the incarnation language is
present in both middle and long recensions, though expanded in the long. Dave
needs to explain in what sense Christ could be described as “both born and
unborn”
by someone whose Christology was unitarian.
Commenting on this text, Schoedel
notes that “orthodox Christology and theology later confined the adjective
‘begotten’ to the Son and the adjective ‘unbegotten’ to the Father.”
Hence, it is very
unlikely that this text represents a later Trinitarian
interpolation, since it doesn’t coincide with later Trinitarian terminology.
Pertaining to IgnEph 19.3, Dave
accepts the middle recension (“God became manifest in a human way”),
which he regards as a “blunt Unitarian statement” parallel to the theology of
Christadelphian founder John Thomas. It’s not our place here to compare
Ignatius’ Christology with that of John Thomas, but suffice it to say that it
cannot be assumed that the language of ‘manifestation’ is being used in the
same way by both writers. Indeed, the next text we look at will strongly
suggest otherwise.
Next Dave turns to IgnMag 6.2,
which reads in the middle recension, “Jesus Christ, who was with the Father
before the ages and has been manifest at the end.” Dave pauses to observe that
pre-existence language is present in both recensions (more expansively in the
long), and then gives his judgment: because this language is ‘unbiblical’, he
dismisses both recensions as interpolated. Again, his conclusions run counter
to the critical texts.
He next comes to IgnMag 8.2,
where he says he is “perfectly happy” with both recensions. It seems both pass
the crucial text-critical criterion of being theologically pleasing to Dave! The
middle recension (retained in critical texts) refers to “one God, who
manifested himself through Jesus Christ his Son, who is his Word that came
forth from silence.”
Interpreting the Logos Christology found here is beyond the present scope so we
will leave the matter.
Next up is IgnRom
inscription,
in which both recensions refer to “Jesus Christ our God,” which is retained in
the critical texts.
While Dave had earlier argued (under IgnEph
inscription) that referring
to Jesus as “our God” would be uncharacteristic and therefore “spurious,” he
now finds that ‘our God’ has a biblical precedent (Titus 2:13). That is, as
long as we ignore the critical texts and follow the long recension reading,
“our God and Saviour.” He hedges his bets with a further parenthetical comment:
“The words ‘Our God and Saviour’ could be translated ‘God and our Saviour’,
thereby precluding any Trinitarian argument from this Epistle.” In fact, they
could not,
but this is irrelevant since “Jesus Christ, our God” is the preferred reading
according to the critical texts.
Finally, Dave turns to IgnPoly
8.3, which similarly refers to “our God, Jesus Christ,” a reading supported by
both recensions and retained in the critical texts.
Predictably, Dave ignores the evidence and "discards" this reading as "fraudulent" because "this term has no Biblical precedent." Dave then summarizes his
findings:
From a total of seven authentic
letters, we have seen a mere nine clauses which might give Unitarians cause for
concern. Moreover: (1) None of these clauses are distinctly Trinitarian. (2)
All of these clauses are perfectly compatible with Arianism. (3) The vast
majority of them are easily disposed of by (4) an appeal to the alternate
Recension. (5) an appeal to the Biblical standard (6) an appeal to mainstream
commentators and standard authorities.
It is certainly debatable whether
all of these clauses are compatible with Arian Christology (see Schoedel’s
comments below on IgnRom 6.3). However, they are certainly compatible with
Chalcedonian Christology, and more to the point, they are certainly incompatible
with unitarian Christology and therefore not “perfectly sound” from a
Christadelphian perspective. Dave himself repeatedly described as ‘unbiblical’
phrases which are retained in the critical texts.
As to whether Dave has backed up
his claims with scholarship, as he assured Xavier, we can note that he did not
appeal to any critical text when making text-critical judgments concerning the
letters of Ignatius. The sources to which he did refer (none of which support
his text-critical judgments) are Schaff (1859), Roberts & Donaldson (1867),
Newman (1870), the Catholic Encyclopedia (1917), Srawley (1927), and Broughton
& Southgate (1995). Dave has cited only one source from within the past 75
years, which is none other than an anti-Trinitarian polemical work written and
published by Christadelphians!
4. Some texts not mentioned in Dave’s study
However, the problems don’t stop
here. Had Dave shown due diligence in consulting “mainstream commentators and
standard authorities,” he would have been aware of other texts in the Ignatian
letters that are incompatible with a unitarian Christology. We now turn to
these.
IgnEph 15.1-2a
It is better to be silent and to
exist than to speak and not exist. It is good to teach, if the one who speaks
also acts. For there was one teacher who spoke and it happened. And the things
he has done while remaining silent are worthy of the Father. The one who truly
possesses the word of Jesus is able to hear his silence as well.
The ‘one teacher’ is clearly
Christ, as the following clauses show (cf. “Jesus Christ, our only teacher” in
IgnMag 9.1). The words “who spoke and it happened” (
εἶπεν καὶ ἐγένετο) appear
to be an allusion to OT texts about God’s creative acts, especially Ps. 33:9
(“For He spoke, and it was done”, NASB). That this text is the possible source
here is noted by Ehrman,
and Schoedel notes that IgnEph 15.1 is “usually regarded as a reflection” of
this text.
Schoedel himself thinks it more likely “that Ignatius reflects the basic
elements repeated in the first chapter of Genesis where God ‘spoke’ (
εἶπεν)
the various words of creation ‘and it was so’ (
καὶ ἐγένετο).” In either case, this text represents an
affirmation of Christ’s personal participation in creation, within the
parameters of a Logos Christology. Schoedel comments,
since Ignatius elsewhere refers
to Christ as God’s ‘mouth’ (IgnRom 8.2), it is understandable that Christ
himself could be regarded as speaking these creative words… If this is correct,
Ignatius views Christ as active in creation.
IgnRom 6.3
Allow me to be an imitator of the
suffering of my God. If anyone has him within himself, let him both understand
what I want and sympathize with me, realizing the things that constrain me.
Ignatius is referring to his own
martyrdom here (cf. IgnRom 5.3), and longs to “attain to Jesus Christ.” In this
context it is obvious that “the suffering of my God” refers to the passion of
Christ. Not only is there no evidence of interpolation here, but such language
is unlikely to have been used by a later interpolator:
That ‘God’ suffered (see Rom.
6.3) was acceptable language before criticism required some refinement of the
conviction that God (or God’s Son) had become man and died on the cross.
Schoedel regards this text
(together with IgnEph 1.1) as particularly significant for understanding the
sense in which Ignatius regarded Christ as God:
It has sometimes been thought
that since Ignatius regularly refers to Christ as ‘our’ or ‘my’ God (Eph. 15.3;
18.2; Rom. Inscr; 3.3; 6.3; Pol. 8.3) or adds some qualifying phrase (Eph. 7.2;
19.3; Sm. 1.1), and since other more direct references to Christ as God are
textually suspect (Tr. 7.1; Sm. 10.1), he did not view Christ as God in an
absolute sense. But such an interpretation seems forced, especially since
Ignatius also speaks simply of ‘the blood of God’ (Eph. 1.1), and ‘the passion
of God’ (Rom. 6.3). ‘Our (my) God’ may be compared with ‘our Lord,’ common
especially in Paul’s letters, as an expression of deep attachment to Christ;
similarly, ‘my Lord and my God’ (John 20:28; cf. 8:54)
IgnSmyrn 2.1
For he suffered all these things
for our sake, that we might be saved; and he truly suffered, just as he also
truly raised himself – not as some unbelievers say, that he suffered only in
appearance.
Here we have a clear reference to
Christ having raised himself from the dead. This is obviously
incompatible with a unitarian Christology. Schoedel comments:
Only here does Ignatius speak of
Christ raising himself. For this there are Johannine parallels (John 2:19;
10:18). Elsewhere Ignatius reflects the more common view of the NT that God
raised Jesus from the dead. [IgnTral 9.2; IgnSmyrn 7.1]
IgnPoly 3.2
Be more eager than you are. Take
note of the seasons. Await the one who is beyond the season, the one who is
timeless, the one who is invisible, who became visible for us, the one who
cannot be handled, the one who is beyond suffering, who suffered for us,
enduring in every way on our account.
Here we have yet another striking
Christological statement which Dave has overlooked. This text implies not only
incarnation, but also personal pre-existence. The invisible one became visible
in order to save us. Elsewhere in Ignatius’ letters, ‘invisibility’ is a characteristic
used to distinguish the spirit world (including God) from the physical world.
Schoedel comments:
The christological attributes of
Pol. 3.2 find their closest parallel in Eph. 7.2, but there are also important
differences between the two texts. First, we have seen that the last element in
our passage (‘one who endured…’) stands apart and determines the purpose for
the passage as a whole. Second, Pol. 3.2 is dominated to a greater extent by
negative attributes of God (or Christ) and is thus closer to its philosophical
sources. This probably explains the fact that whereas in Eph. 7.2 mention of
Christ’s earthly condition precedes that of his heavenly status, the reverse is
true in Pol. 3.2: the preponderance of negative attributes is correlated with
the fact that Ignatius here chose to speak first of Christ’s place in the
sphere of the divine. The second and fourth of these attributes (‘invisible’
and ‘impassible’) are followed by antitheses (‘visible for our sakes’ and
‘passible for our sakes’) appropriate in an anti-docetic context
(‘passible’/’impassible’ occurs in Eph. 7.2). The first and third attributes
(‘non-temporal’ and ‘intangible’) lack antitheses only because they are
linguistically impossible (‘temporable’) or theologically odd (‘tangible’).
Having looked at texts mentioned
by Dave and those not mentioned by Dave, we now look at scholars’ views on
Ignatius’ Christology. We have already seen Schoedel’s comments on several
individual texts. This comment sums up his view well:
When Ignatius refers to Christ as
‘both fleshly and spiritual’ (Eph. 7.2; cf. Sm. 3.3), he has in mind the union
of the divine and human in the God-Man and thus anticipates the classical
two-nature christology.
Foster, meanwhile, after citing
IgnEph 7.2 and IgnRom 6.3, writes:
Further examples could be given
where Ignatius
freely identifies Jesus as God, in a manner that assumes this
is a natural and uncontested designation, at least among the recipients of his
letters…in a number of the credal statements he utilises carefully balanced
pairings that support the divine/human duality of Christ. Perhaps one of the
most striking examples of this occurs in I.Eph. 7.2, where Ignatius describes
Jesus as the ‘one physician’ who is ‘both fleshly and spiritual, begotton and
unbegotten, God come in the flesh’. While both sides of Jesus’ nature are
confessed, no attempt is made to explain how these twin aspects are held
together in union… There is much distance to travel between the primitive
Christological statements articulated by Ignatius and the more detailed and
reflective creeds and discussions of the fourth and fifth centuries, which were
formulated as responses to the Christological controversies of their own times.
Notwithstanding this caveat,
Ignatius can be seen as one who, at least in
embryonic form, resonates with key features of those later ‘orthodox’
statements. He relentlessly declares the humanity and divinity of Christ,
and his views of divinity incarnated in human form reveal that he does not hold
to adoptionistic interpretations of Christ being clothed with divinity at
either his baptism or resurrection.
Again, Adamson argues that
Ignatius’ letters represent the earliest attempt to harmonize Jesus’
pre-existence with his virgin birth (both of which, in his view, are present
individually in the NT). He calls this “the doctrine of Incarnation through
parthenogenesis.”
Finally, Talbert argues that one
finds four Christological models, which are distinct but not necessarily in
conflict, in the first hundred years of Christianity. The third model, which he
calls the epiphany model, is “that of a pre-existent being who descends into
this world, fulfils the descent’s aim, and then ascends back into the heavens.”
This is one of the models which Talbert regards as present in the Ignatian
epistles:
The appearing/incarnation of the
pre-existent one is assumed (Eph. 7:2 – God became incarnate; 19:3 – God
appeared in human form; Mag. 6:1 – Jesus Christ who from eternity was with the
Father finally appeared).
Talbert regards this as fully
integrated with two other of his models: that of an immortalized human or
demi-god and that of a deity which descends and indwells a person. “In
Ignatius, the three models are so integrated that one can only see synthesis
dominating.”
There seems to be wide agreement
amongst scholars that Ignatius’ Christology includes the notions of
pre-existence and incarnation and is thus proto-orthodox.
I am not aware of any scholars who regard Ignatius’ Christology as unitarian in
character. Moreover, the scholars who claim Ignatius’ Christology was high
cannot be accused of naively ignoring the possibility of Trinitarian
interpolation of the letters. Schoedel, for instance, doubts the authenticity
of the words “according to the flesh” in IgnMag 13.2, which is absent from the
Armenian and Arabic versions. The first phrase, he says,
looks suspiciously like an
addition made by an interpolator bent on eliminating any suggestion of
subordinationism in the text. Such fears were groundless, as we have seen (see
on Eph. 3.2), but in the age of trinitarian disputes there would have been
great sensitivity on these points.
5. Conclusion
To sum up, we first found that
Dave’s text-critical judgments on a number of Ignatian Christological texts
were without any basis besides his own theological biases. In the judgment of
expert textual critics, these passages belong in the text, together with their high
Christological affirmations. We then looked at four further Christological
texts not mentioned by Dave, all of which are highly problematic for a unitarian
reading of Ignatius. Finally, we cited several modern scholars who concur with
our finding that Ignatius’ Christology included pre-existence and incarnation
and was thus proto-orthodox.
Now what are the implications of
the Christology of the Ignatian letters? If the scholarly consensus concerning
their authenticity and date is correct, then we have a major Christian leader
from Antioch (who may have sat under apostolic teaching) writing to churches
across Asia, Greece, and Italy within a couple decades of the last apostle’s
death. He is able to assume without any detailed argumentation that references
to Christ as God, or to Christ’s pre-existence or incarnation, are acceptable
to these churches. Moreover, the preservation of the letters implies that their
Christology was deemed acceptable. In this respect we have also the testimony
of Polycarp’s Letter to the Philippians 13.2 that readers of Ignatius’
letters would “be able to profit greatly from them.”
All of this would suggest one of
two things: either “high Christology” was already popular in apostolic times,
or it was unknown to the apostles but arose very soon after their time and
spread with extreme rapidity across a wide geographic area. The former
hypothesis is simpler and thus intrinsically more likely, even apart from
evidence of high Christology that one finds in several strands of New Testament
tradition.
