Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 28:1 (Mar 1985)
Article: The Authority Of Scripture And Apostolic Doctrine In Ignatius Of Antioch
Author: Daniel Hoffman

JETS 28:1 (March 1985) p. 71

The Authority Of Scripture And Apostolic Doctrine
In Ignatius Of Antioch

Daniel Hoffman*

Ignatius is generally recognized to have been bishop of the church at Antioch in Syria in the first part of the second Christian century.1 His life and thought are known almost exclusively from the seven letters he wrote while being taken to be martyred in Rome sometime during the reign of Trajan (A.D. 98-117).2 Stevan Davies has dated the writing of these letters at A.D. 113 from his analysis of the legal status of Ignatius, the time of the persecution of Christians in Asia Minor, and the absence of Trajan from Rome after A.D. 113.3 Whether the date can be fixed so exactly may be questioned, but most scholars are willing to place Ignatius’ martyrdom in the latter part of Trajan’s reign (110–117).4 Therefore the picture of Christianity given in his letter is very close in time to that of the apostles and properly earns him the designation of an “apostolic father.” Unfortunately this picture was blurred throughout much of the history the Church by the interpolation of passages into his seven letters and the addition of six spurious ones in the third or fourth century.5 It was not until the work of Zahn and Lightfoot in the late nineteenth century that the authenticity and proper text of the seven letters was settled, although scholars since the Reformation had expressed doubts about the “long recension.”6

* Daniel Hoffman is a doctoral candidate in the history department at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

JETS 28:1 (March 1985) p. 72

The portrait of Ignatius that emerges from the authentic letters is that of a dynamic, fervent and extraordinary Christian. His language was often figurative and perhaps even mystical as he greatly desired to “get to God” through martyrdom.7 One of his chief themes was unity: He described himself as “a man utterly devoted to unity” (Phld. 8.1); Polycarp was advised by him to “make unity your concern—there is nothing better than that” (Pol. 1.2); Ignatius continually urged the Philadelphians to “do nothing apart from the bishop” and to “value unity; flee schism” (Phld. 7.2).8 As a corollary to this he strongly denounced heresy and heretics: They were to be avoided like “wild beasts”; they were “mad dogs which bite on the sly” (Eph. 7.1); their te...