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The Enigma of Ignatius of Antioch
ALLEN BRENT
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History / Volume null / Issue 03 / July 2006, pp 429 - 456
DOI: 10.1017/S0022046906007354, Published online: 21 June 2006
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0022046906007354
How to cite this article:
ALLEN BRENT (2006). The Enigma of Ignatius of Antioch. The Journal of
Ecclesiastical History, null, pp 429-456 doi:10.1017/S0022046906007354
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The Enigma of Ignatius of Antioch
by ALLEN BRENT
If we arm against recent criticism the authenticity of the Middle Recension of the Ignatian letters, we are
nevertheless left with the enigma of Ignatius relations with Polycarp. This paper explains that enigma in
terms of two distinct cultural worlds of early second-century Christianity that come together in the meeting
of these two church leaders. Ignatius was the rst great missionary bishop who reinterpreted church order,
the eucharist and martyrdom against the backcloth of the Second Sophistic in Asia Minor, with its pagan
processions, cult and embassies that celebrated the social order of the Greek city state in relation to imperial
power. Much of Ignatius iconography was alien to Polycarp, though the latter was nally to canonise both
him and his writings by focusing on his impressively enacted refutation of Docetism through his portrayal of
his forthcoming martyrdom.
A
rchbishop James Ussher and Nicolaus Vedelius rediscovered the
Middle Recension of the Ignatian letters as a corpus in actual
manuscripts. Thus they conrmed what was previously a purely
literary hypothesis. Videlius discovery of a Greek manuscript (Codex
Mediceus, Florent. Lauren. Plut. LVII.7), in particular, in addition to
Usshers locating Grossetestes Latin translation (Codex Caiensis 395),
conrmed the six letters of Ignatius of Antioch in the form in which they
CA=Les Constitutions apostoliques, iii, ed. M. Metzger (SC cccxx), Paris 19857; CIL=Corpus
inscriptionum latinarum, ed. T. Mommsen, G. Henzen, J.-B. De Rossi and others, Berlin
18621996; ICLV=Inscriptiones latinae christianae veteres, ed. E. Diehl, Berlin 1925;
I.Delos=Inscriptions de De los, ed. F. Durrbach, Paris 1929; I.Eph.=Die Inschriften von Ephesos, ii,
ed. C. Borker and others, Bonn 1979, vii/2, ed. R. Meric and others, Bonn 1981;
IG=Inscriptiones graecae, ed. U. Koehler, G. Kolbe, G. Kaibel and others, Berlin 18731994;
IGRR=Inscriptiones graecae ad res romanas pertinentes, ed. R. Cagnat and others, Paris 190627;
IGUR=Inscriptiones graecae urbis Romae, iiv, ed. L. Moretti, Rome 1968; ILS=Inscriptiones
latinae selectae, ed. H. Dessau, Berlin 18921916; JAA=American Journal of Archaeology;
SEG=Supplementum epigraphicum graecum, ed. H. W. Pleket, R. S. Stroud, and J. H. M.
Strubbe, Amsterdam 1971; Syll.3=Sylloge inscriptionum graecarum a Guilelmo Dittenbergero condita
et aucta, nunc tertium edita, ed. W. Dittenberger, Leipzig 191524; TAM=Tituli Asiae Minoris,
collecti et editi auspiciis Academiae Litterarum Vindobonensis, ed. E. Kalinka, Vienna 1901;
VCS=Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae ; ZAC=Zeitschrift fur Antikes Christentum
Unless otherwise stated references to the letters of Ignatius and Polycarp are from Ignace
dAntioche ; Polycarp de Smyrne, ed. P. T. Camelot (SC x), Paris 1958.
Jnl of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 57, No. 3, July 2006. f 2006 Cambridge University Press 429
doi:10.1017/S0022046906007354 Printed in the United Kingdom
existed in the Middle Recension.
1
The text of the seventh (Romans) had been
transmitted separately.
2
Since those discoveries (in 1644 and 1646), the debate
on the authenticity of the Middle Recension continued until the work of
Bishop Joseph Lightfoot and Theodor Zahn inaugurated more than half a
century of consensus on the issue.
3
That consensus, challenged initially by
Joseph Rius-Camps and Robert Joly,
4
has recently been further assailed by
Reinhard Hubner and Thomas Lechner, who assert that the letters of
Ignatius are late second-century forgeries attacking a developed form of later
Valentinianism.
5
I have no intention in this paper of resurrecting a modern version of
ancient Vindiciae that defend yet another previous position, in a debate that
has continued since the seventeenth century in an apparently never-ending
cycle. I am well satised with a number of reviewers comments critical of the
arguments of Hubner and Lechner.
6
The letters do not contain a kind of later
Marcionite Docetism that regarded only the resurrection body of Jesus as
incorporeal.
7
Their use of negative terms in the description of the godhead
does not betray a lateness reecting the anti-Valentinian creed of Noetus.
8
1
J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, London 1889, ii/1, 7286.
2
Romans was absent from the eleventh-century Medicean manuscript but was found in
Codex Colbertinus n. 460 (Paris, BN gr. 1451) and related manuscripts between chs iv and v of
the Martyrium Ignatii, and not along with the other six. A great deal was made of this is
arguments that Romans was the one uninterpolated letter: J. Rius-Camps, The four authentic
letters of Ignatius the Martyr, Rome 1980, 1623; C. P. Hammond Bammel, Ignatian problems ,
JTS xxxiii (1982), 635.
3
Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, and T. Zahn, Ignatius von Antiochien, Gotha 1873.
4
Rius-Camps, Four authentic letters ; R. Joly, Le Dossier dIgnace dAntioche, Bruxelles 1979.
5
R. Hubner, Thesen zur Echtheit und Datierung der sieben Briefe des Ignatius von
Antiochien, ZAC i (1997), 4270, and Der paradox Eine : Antignostischer Monarchiansimus im zweiten
Jahrhundert : mit einem Beitrag von Markus Vinzent (VCS l, 1999) ; T. Lechner, Ignatius adversus
Valentinianos ? Chronologische und theologiegeschichtliche Studien zu den Briefen des Ignatius von Antiochien
(VCS xlvii,1999).
6
Hammond Bammel, Ignatian problems ; A. Lindemann, Antwort auf die Thesen zur
Echtheit und Datierung der sieben Briefe des Ignatius von Antiochien, ZAC i (1997), 18594;
G. Schollgen, Die Ignatien als pseudepigrahisches Brief-corpus : Anmerkung zu den Thesen
von Reinhard M. Hubner, ZAC ii (1998), 1625; M. J. Edwards, Ignatius and the second
century: an answer to R. Hubner, ZAC ii (1998), 21426; H. J. Vogt, Bemerkungen zur
Echtheit der Ignatiusbriefe, ZAC iii (1999), 5063.
7
In particular see M. Vinzent, Ich bin kein korperloses Geisteswesen, in Hubner, Der
Paradox Eine, 24186, as a commentary on Ignatius, Smyrnaeans iii.13, in Apostolic Fathers, ii/2,1.
My problem is that the Gospel of John can clearly be interpreted against a backcloth of
Docetism, and that the plea to Mary Magdalene: Touch me not (John xx.17) in contrast to
that to Thomas (John xx.27) can equally be interpreted as directed against such a form of post-
resurrection Docetism. Is the Fourth Gospel therefore late second-century anti-Marcion? See
also Edwards, Ignatius and the second century, 2245.
8
Hubner, Der Paradox Eine, 807, 1019; cf. Lindemann, Antwort auf die Thesen zur
Echtheit , 18990; Edwards, Ignatius and the second century, 21719; Vogt, Bemerkungen
zur Echtheit , 545.
430 ALLEN BRENT
The star-hymn in Ephesians has no exclusively Valentinian features.
9
Moreover, the alleged reference to aeon speculation rests on a disputed
reading in the manuscript tradition of the phrase the word not proceeding
from silence.
10
The point that I wish to emphasise here is that such criticisms have not
dealt with the resolution of the fundamental enigma surrounding Ignatius of
Antioch that is the starting point of all arguments assailing the authenticity of
the letters. We need to explain why Irenaeus, and, perhaps, Origen refer to
him circumspectly and even hesitantly, and only later in the second century.
11
We need to explain the dierences between the church order implied by the
Ignatian letters and that of Polycarps Philippians if we wish to maintain that
the latter collected together the corpus of the Middle Recension.
12
It is with a
solution to this enigma that this paper will be concerned.
Fundamental to the argument, however, will be that recent criticism has
seriously erred in assuming that the background against which Ignatius is to
be read is basically an esoteric one within the Christian community. Rather,
Ignatius language and project is a missionary one that recasts the
signicance of the Christian ministry and the eucharist in terms comprehen-
sible to the pagan and Hellenistic world of the city states of Asia Minor in the
Second Sophistic. Ignatius world is that of pagan processions, with chorus
and lyre, singing in celebration of om oonoia or concord in the city state.
13
It is
a world in which sophists are elected as ambassadors to conclude treaties
celebrating Hellenic unity, with their attendant festivals of sacrice and
thanksgiving.
14
Part of the celebration of mysteries was also in the imperial
9
Lechner, Ignatius adversus Valentinianos ?, pt II (for criticism see E. Fergusons review in
Church History lxxi (2002), 16970 See also Edwards, Ignatius and the second century, 2224.
10
the eternal word (l oocoz a
phe`se a` Rome, Opera minora, v. 74769 (=Comptes rendus des se ances : Acade mie des
Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (1981), 51935).
66
Apuleius, Metamorphoses xi.10, ed. J. A. Hanson, Cambridge, MALondon, 1989.
67
CIL vi. 2233. See also E. Strong, Sepulchral relief of a priest of Bellona, Papers of the
British School at Rome ix (1920), 207: L. Lartio Antho Cistophoro aedis Bellonae Pulvinensis
fecit C. Quinctius Runus Fratri et Domino suo pientissimo cui et monumentum fecit interius
agro Apollonis Argentei Quinctius Runus. (C. Quinctius Rufus has made this for L. Lartius
Anthus Cistophoros of the Temple of Bellona for his most pious brother, for whom also
Quinctius Runus made a monument in the neighbourhood of the eld of the silver Apollo) .
68
Ma-Bellone was the divine Mother in Cappadocia and Pontus, assimilated to the Roman
cult of Bellona from the time of Sulla when introduced at Rome. She was associated
nevertheless also with Magna Mater: Strong, Sepulchral relief , 207.
69
Ephesians i.12.
THE ENI GMA OF I GNATI US OF ANTI OCH 441
We have seen how, for Ignatius, the bishop as ppoxahgmeenoz e iz t uupon is
pre-eminent as an image of the Father. Ignatius does not always make the
later distinctions between persons in a triune godhead, and clearly his Father-
God is a suering god.
70
In joining the procession with its enacted drama,
they participate in the saving events of the martyr-bishop, the t uupoz of the
suering and rising God:
You are the highway of those slaughtered for God (p aapad ooz este tv n e iz he oon
anaipoumeenvn), fellow initiates of Paul (Pa uulou summ uustai) the most blessed who has
been sanctied, who has been martyred (tou gciasmeenou, tou memaptupgmeenou,
ajiomaxapiA stou). May I be allowed to be found in his footsteps (ou ceenoit oo moi u p oo
t aa ixng eu pehgnai) when I attain to God (o tan Heou epit uuxv).
71
Ignatius does not, however, speak of himself as tupow oopoz, which is not
otherwise found in any case, however much his role as heow oopoz may carry
that implication. But that he does not use such terms as e ix oonez or
a calmata of what he bears may betray considerable sophistication in the
way in which he is manipulating the pagan imagery of his discourse, both
verbal and iconographic, in his reconceptualisation of early Christian
ecclesial order.
We must rst note that the verb wopei n, from which the ending of -wopoz
is derived, embraces the English concept of to wear as well as to carry.
Though tupow oopoz as the bearer of a portable image of a deity occurs
neither in pagan literature nor epigraphy, such t uupoi are carried indirectly
by a stewangw oopoz (stewangwopei n) in a context that will now be
considered.
L. Lartius Anthus, xistow oopoz of Ma-Bellona, whose inscribed stele has
already been referred to,
72
wears a crown, possibly originally golden, of a
laurel leaf design, which was adorned with three medallions depicting
helmeted divinities. The central medallion was probably of Bellona, with
Mars on the right and Minerva on the left.
73
Here are t uupoi set in a
steewanoz worn by a priest who heads a procession. We have many examples
of such steewanoi bearing three or sometimes multiple t uupoi whether of
members of the imperial family, the Capitoline Triad or gods of the city
state.
74
70
The author of the Long Recension corrects Ignatius Patripassianism at this point with:
anafvpup ggsantez en a imati Xpistou .
71
Ephesians xii.2.
72
See n. 67 above and related text.
73
Strong, Sepulchral relief , 2089, and plate xxvi. See also Cumont, La Grande
Inscription, 51, plate ii/2. See also Robert, Nouvelles Remarques sur l edit dE
dit dE
zira,
Opera minora, ii. 9678 (=Bulletin de correspondance helle nique [1930], 263).
74
J. Inan-E. Alfoldi Rosenhaum, Roman and early Byzantine portrait sculpture in Asia Minor,
London 1966, 128, catalogue no. 151, plate nos lxxxiii/4, lxxxvii/12 (Izmir Museum, inv. no.
648, negs. E.R. xvi, 37, 38, 39) ; 137, catalogue no. 169, Ephesus, Alexander Severus, plate
no. xcviii/4 (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Inv. No. I, 922. Neg. O
sterreichisches
442 ALLEN BRENT
Though a xistow oopoz was not necessarily, any more than a gallus, a fully
ordained priest, Strong notes that in a dierent epigraph one Nonius
Elphideforus is dened as coronatus cistifer and that in the list of cistiferi
(xistow oopoi) of Virtus-Bellona some are called sac. (=sacerdos) as well,
presumably indicated by the steewanoz.
75
Thus we may say that Ignatius is
the coronatus in that he wears in the procession the t uupoz of the suering
God, as well bearing that image of God himself (heow oopoz). Those clerics
who join his procession are the t uupoi in the liturgical assembly of their
exxlgsiA ai where they act the drama of replay. In the martyr-procession they
may indeed play a lesser role as naow oopoi, a ciow oopoi and xpistow oopoi,
describing that which they bear in support of the martyr-bishop, who wears
the t uupoz patp ooz in his own esh.
We can see Ignatius imagery reected in a decree of Oinoanda. On 5 July
AD 125 the city council of Oinoanda in Lycia formalised by decree the
benefaction of C. Iulius Demosthenes, who had founded a music festival and
competition (a cvn mousix ooz) associated with the imperial cult and approved
by a letter of Hadrian to the Termessians (29 August 124).
76
Here we have
heow oopoi, now replaced by sebastow oopoi, whose function it is to carry in
procession images of both the imperial family and of the ancestral god
(Apollo), as well as a portable altar:
(61) ten sebastophoroi should also be chosen by him (ai pei shai u p au tou xaii
sebastow oopouz iA v) (62) who, wearing white robes and crowns of celery (o i [ti]nez
wopou ntez eshgta leux ggn xaii steewa[non se]liA ninon) will carry (bast aasousi) and
lead forward (xaii ppo aajousi) and escort (xaii ppopompe uusousi) the images of the
emperors (t aaz sebastix aaz e ix oonaz) and (63) the image of our ancestral god Apollo
(xaii t ggn [tou ] patp v v ou gmv n heou Ap oollvnoz) and the previously mentioned holy
altar (xaii t oon p[pod]glo~ uumenon i ep oon bvm oon).
77
But the priest who leads the procession is to wear the t uupoi of the imperial
family and ancestral god (Apollo) in a steewanoz, as we learnt at the
beginning:
(51) he has promised (epgnceiA lato) that in addition (52) at his own expense to make
ready (xatasxeu aasai ex tv n idiA vn) and dedicate to the city (xaii an[ahei nai tg p oo]lei)
both a golden crown (xaii steewanon xpusou n) carrying relief portraits (e[xo]nta
extupa pp oosvpa) of the emperor Nerva Trajan Hadrian (Au toxp aatopoz Neepoua
Archaeologisches Institut, no. I. 352), and Romischen und fruhbyzantinische Portratsplastik aus der
Turkei, Mainz 1979, 210, cat. no. 186, plates 138/1, 139, 140/3; 274 (Geyre (Aphrodisias)
Grabungs Inv. No. 64222 (Head) and 64221 (Body) (Neg. : E.A.R. I, 3134; M.A.D. 19645).
See also G. F. Hill, Priester-Diademe, Jahreshefte des osterreichischen archaologischen Institutes in
Wien ii (1899), 245. and Taf.viii, who identies well-preserved busts with members of the
imperial family.
75
Strong, Sepulchral relief , 20911, commenting on ILS ii.5432.
76
SEG xxxviii.1462.A.19.
77
Ibid. C.613.
THE ENI GMA OF I GNATI US OF ANTI OCH 443
Tpaianou Adpia[nou ]) (53) Caesar Augustus (KaiA sapoz Sebastou ) and our
Leader the ancestral god Apollo (xaii tou ppoxahg[ceet]ou g [mv ]n patp v v ou heou
Ap oollvnoz), which the agonothete will wear (o n wop ggsei o acvnoheetgz), and an
altar decorated with silver (xaii bvm oon pepi aapcupon) which has an inscription (54) of
the dedicator (exonta epicpa[w ggn] au tou tou anateheix ootoz).
78
We note furthermore the appropriateness of calling such images t uupoi, since
they are described as extupa pp oosvpa. Pp oosvpon, of course, had a wide
application as meaning face, mask and even person. Here the term is
entering a discourse of pagan theology that bears witness to a conuence of
polytheistic imagery combined into a kind of pantheistic order around the
imagery of the one divinised imperial family. I have argued elsewhere that
Ignatius engages with this too.
79
In view of later, Christological usage, a pun
may be forgiven at this juncture: we are seeing three distinct pp oosvpa united
into one god-headdress.
There is a second point regarding the reason why Ignatius should choose
to use the term t uupoz as the images to be created by the three-fold order of
bishop, presbyters and deacons. He is clearly not a polytheist, and he will
have no literal, plastic imagery in his procession. To have spoken of his clerics
as a calmata or e ix oonez would perhaps have been altogether too crass. t uupoz
is within a rich semantic eld which extends to other possible meanings. This
term can invoke cultic and processional imagery whilst making clear that it is
operating as an analogy.
t uupoz as bridging the phenomenal and spiritual
t uupoz refers to the bridge between the carnal and spiritual order of things,
since it is the mark in phenomenal stone or esh of a transcendental essence.
As such it will enable Ignatius to speak intelligibly to his contemporaries of
himself and of members of his entourage as bearers of divine imagery
(heow oopoi), even though he cannot allow such images to be in a plastic form.
For him it is participation in the eucharistic drama of replay, informed by the
roles of the three-fold order of bishop, presbyters and deacons, that leads to
union (envsiz or en ootgz). We shall now see how the logic of the Judaeo-
Christian language game operates with such notions at the interface with
pagan philosophical theology.
There is a memorial of one Cassandrus for his wife Sentia. This, from its
dedication HK, the Greek equivalent of D[is] M[anibus] =H(eoi z)
K(atgxhoniA oiz) would appear to be pagan: She has allowed those images
(gasee te e ix oonaz) to be mirror impressions [of herself] ( antit uupouz) which she
bore in travail (az v dei sin etixten) in her boy children (em paisiin appenixoi z)
78
Ibid. C.514.
79
Brent, Imperial cult, 16977, 2203, 22671, 31028.
444 ALLEN BRENT
and reached the end of her life (xaii esxe teeloz bi ootoio).
80
antiA tupoz is used in
precisely the same sense as t uupoz has been so far in connection with the
visible expression of succeneiA a. The anti prex here is clearly not an
indication of an opposite but a reinforcement of the sense of t uupoz as exact
replica of a real original. The e ix oonaz here are her children, and they are
images (t uupouz) striking in their replication ( anti) of her. Similarly, in the
New Testament, the Holy places made with hands (xeipopoiA gta a cia)
are images or impressions of what is heavenly and real ( antiA tupa tv n
alghinv n) .
81
t uupoz emerges as the form of ones true self , convincing and real, as
opposed to an e ix vvn which is an image whose correspondence with reality is
neutral, unless duly qualied as an antiA tupoz. t uupoz therefore describes an
image that reects reality, forming a bridge with eternal and spiritual
essences through its impress in human esh, or in otherwise inanimate stone,
wood or metal. A false image that appears to be Heracles is called an e ix vvn
but not a t uupoz.
82
Plato reminds us that one can form mental images of both
true and false belief.
83
But t uupoz also refers to a complete image of ones true self, like a
phenomenal particular that mirrors its Platonic Form rather than conceals or
obfuscates it. The relationship between a deceptive e ix vvn and t uupoz as a true
image is also evident in Nonnos, who described Narcissus as one:
who long ago (oz p aapoz) in the dumb form of a beautiful deceiver (gpepopgoz
e uuxopooz edei xvwv ) seeing the water changed into the complete image of his
own self (e iz t uupon au toteeleston id vvn mopwo uumenon u dvp), died (x aathane), as he
gazed upon the shadowy phantom of his shape (paptaiA nvn sxioeideea w aasmata
mopwgz).
84
We see here therefore that a t uupoz is a complete image (au toteelestoz),
formed (mopwo uumenon) from a pattern in water of a real, primary image
(ei doz) : it parallels the distinction made in a more technical sense between a
real, enduring, eternal Platonic Form (ei doz) and the particular piece of
phenomenal matter on which it is impressed.
80
IGUR, 1327.
81
Hebrews ix.24.
82
Lucian, Dialogi mortuorum xi (16).402.1, ed. M. D. MacCleod, Cambridge, MALondon
1961, in which the shade bearing Heracless name asserts For he is not dead (ou c aap exei noz
teehngxen), but I am his image ( all ec vv g e ix vvn au tou) . The explanation is that this false
image has been sent to the nether-world of the dead in order to fool Pluto: xi (16).403.2.
83
Images can be either true or false as in Plato, Philebus 39c: ai meen tv n alghv n dojv n xaii
l oocvn alghei z, ai dee tv n yeudv n yeudei z. Previously Plato has spoken of how, as we read
the words of a book, a workman in our souls (dgmioupc oon gmv n en tai z yuxai z) who is an
artist who, following the words of the writer (fvcp aawon, o z met aa t oon cpammatist ggn tv n
lecomeenvn), paints images in our soul (e ix oonaz en tg yuxg to uutvn cp aawei) .
84
Nonnos, Dionysiaca xlviii.5847, ed. W. H. D. Rouse, H. J. Rose and L. R. Lind,
Cambridge, MALondon 19623.
THE ENI GMA OF I GNATI US OF ANTI OCH 445
Wood, clay, stone, marble or paper do not of themselves communicate the
meaning of words or abstract images whether human or divine. They require
an idea ( ideeai, ei doz) or an image (e ix vvn) or a form (mopw gg) to be represented.
These images or forms, shaped into a plastic medium furnishing clear and
distinct representations of them, are called in Greek t uupoi. Thus a denitive
statement in written form of a considered intention is called a t uupoz because
it is the expression of words, in stone or on paper, of a clear and distinct set of
meanings and images, just as a tattoo in human or animal esh. t uupoz forms,
as it were, a mediating bridge between the mental and spiritual and the
material and physical, but partaking of the nature of both.
Thus Philo, when describing the creation of Adam, can speak of t uupoz as
such a mediating bridge between the spiritual and physical in general, with-
out application to a plastic medium. Adam as the archetypal human being is
described, as a result of God breathing into him his logos-Spirit, as the bearer
of the transcendental forms. Like a trained architect, God is described by
analogy as: Having received in his own soul, as it were in wax the images of
each object (v spep en xgpv tg eautou yuxg to uuz ex aastvn dej aamenoz t uupouz),
he bears the image of the noumenal city ( acalmatowopei nogt ggn p oolin).
85
Here, clearly, a calma ( acalmatowopei ) is associated with t uupoz metaphori-
cally as a psychological description of how the individual mind or soul can
grasp the transcendental forms existing in the mind or reasoning of God
(hei oz l oocoz).
86
The nogt gg p ooliz is imaged accurately because its a calma
bears the t uupoi that are accurate shapes of that transcendental world. Not
every mental image corresponds as this one does to its apxet uupon
papadeiA cma:
since images do not always correspond to their archetypal model (epeii d ou s uumpasa
e ix vvn emwep ggz apxet uupv papadeiA cmati), and many are unlike it (pollaii dee e isiin
an oomoioi), he brought out his meaning (ppoepesgm ggnato) by adding (epeip vvn) after
the likeness to the words after the image (tv xat e ix oona t oo xah omoiA vsin) , thus
showing that an accurate cast bearing a true impression (e iz emwasin axpibou z
exmaceiA ou tpan oon t uupon exontoz).
87
Clearly, for Philo, a t uupoz is not simply an e ix vvn but an e ix vvn xah omoiA vsin.
It is to be emphasised that Philo in speaking of Adam, like Ignatius of his
clerical representations, is here speaking of a t uupoz not imprinted in stone
but in human esh that accurately corresponds with the spiritual entity of
that of which it is an image.
This is clearly the case when Philo describes the beauty of Adam. Of his
descendants (to uuz dee apoc oonouz) it could be said that :
participating as they did in his original form (tgz exeiA nou meteexontaz ideeaz) [they]
must preserve still the marks though faint ones ( anacxai on e i xaii amudpo uuz all ou n
85
Philo, De opicio mundi iv (18), ed. F. H. Colson and G. H. Whitaker, Cambridge,
MALondon 1962.
86
Ibid. v (20).
87
Ibid. xxiii (71).
446 ALLEN BRENT
eti s v v fein to uuz t uupouz) of their kinship with their rst father (tgz pp ooz t oon
ppop aatopa succeneiA az).
88
t uupoz is the clear mark in human esh of participation in a Platonic Form
( meteexontaz ideeaz). It marks the resemblance of physical kinship (succeneiA a),
just as it did in the case of Cassandrus in speaking of his deceased wife,
Sentia.
89
Similarly, scriptural images are: not mythical ctions (ou m uuhou
pl aasmata) but modes of making ideas visible ( all aa deiA cmata t uupvn),
drawing us to allegorical interpretation (ep allgcopiA an papaxalou nta)
through rendering what lies beneath their surface (xat aa t aaz di u ponoiv n
apod ooseiz) .
90
Thus the distinction between marks or t uupoi in human esh
that participate in the spiritual forms is now applied to the distinction
between descriptions of events that are symbolic representations (deiA cmata
t uupvn) of the spiritual that is behind them.
For Plotinus too a t uupoz is a mental impression that encapsulates a real
and transcendent Form. It is what makes it possible for the individual soul,
after its purication, to grasp reality behind an appearance already familiar.
On the souls conversion (epistpow gg), it sees the transcendental world
because of a vision (heea) and impression (xaii t uupoz) of what is seen implanted
(tou owheentoz) and working in it (xaii enepcv n), like the relation between
sight and its seen object ( vz g oyiz pepii t oo op vvmenon) . The t uupoz itself,
therefore, is infallible and does not deceive. It is the unpuried intellect that is
deceived in that it cannot recognise the Form in its phenomenal mould:
[The soul] had not transcendental objects (ei xen dee ou x au t aa), but their
moulds ( all aa t uupouz) ; it is necessary therefore (dei ou n) [for the soul] to
combine the mould with the real objects of which they are the moulds (t oon
t uupon toi z alghinoi z, v n xaii oi t uupoi).
91
Clearly t uupoz here links the two
worlds of Plato and his heirs, whether Jewish or pagan, as indicating the
infallible image or mould in a sensible particular of the transcendental Form
that it contains.
In this respect it contrasts with deceptive images that Plotinus calls not
t uupoi but eidvla.
92
t uupoi are made from the objects that come from the
intellect (tv n ex tou nou i oontvn) .
93
The true order of the world resulted when
matter (g ulg) was inscribed (pepiecp aaweto) with the image of the universe
(t uupv x oosmou) .
94
The mind of the creator contains each real object (ei doz)
that is eternal :
[The Maker] will not think of what is not yet existence (ou t aa en tv m ggpv onti
ou toz no ggsei) in order that he might make it ( ina au t oo poig ). Those Forms must exist
before the universe (pp oo to uu x oosmou a pa dei ei nai exei na), not as images (ou t uupouz)
from things that are [utterly] dierent ( aw eteepvn), but as archetypes ( all aa xaii
88
Ibid. li (145).
89
See n. 80 above and corresponding text.
90
De opicio lxvi (157).
91
Plotinus, Enneads i.2.4.1825, ed. A. H. Armstrong, Cambridge, MALondon 196688.
92
Ibid.ii.9.12.510.
93
Ibid. v.3.2.10.
94
Ibid. ii.9.12.23.
THE ENI GMA OF I GNATI US OF ANTI OCH 447
apxeetupa) and primary substances (xaii ppv ta) and the essence of Intellect (xaii nou
ou siA an).
95
We thus see that there cannot be t uupoi of what is dierent from what they
represent but must be moulds in the shape of rst principles ( apxeetupa) .
Once again t uupoz emerges as the bridge between the material substance of
the phenomenal world, and the world of eternal and spiritual realities.
For Ignatius t uupoz clearly has this bridging function performed by the
clerical icons that express their corresponding divine and saving realities. It is
through these t uupoi that the liturgical assembly nd envsiz with the divine,
and a en ootgz of esh and spirit. Those in union with the three-fold order
become the spiritual and eternal that they image as t uupoi. Ignatius frequently
claims that the three-fold order is the bridge uniting the eshly and spiritual
realms :
Be subject to the bishop (u pot aacete tv episx oopv ) and to each other (xaii all ggloiz) as
Jesus Christ was to the Father ( vz Igsou z Xpist ooz tv patpii), and the Apostles were
to Christ (xaii oi ap oostoloi tv Xpistv ) and to the Father (xaii tv patpii), in order that
there may be a union of the eshy and spiritual realm ( ina envsiz g sapxix gg te xaii
pneumatix gg).
96
Accordingly, he assures the Ephesians, it is benecial for you therefore to be
in blameless unity ( xp ggsimon ou n e stin u ma z en am vvmv en ootgti ei nai), in order
that you may evermore participate in God ( ina xaii heou p aantote meteexgte) .
97
It is by joining in the eucharist as mystery, by encountering the human t uupoi
of the Christian God, that the laity become infused with the divine (enheion)
and escape corruption. Union with bishop and presbyters was with the t uupoi
awhapsiA az.
98
Whilst not literally carrying plastic images in procession, the naow oopoi,
xpistow oopoi, a ciow oopoi and heow oopoi in Ignatius procession can by a clear
and quite systematically worked out analogy be said to bear images of divine
persons or events. At their head in the eucharist is the bishop, or, in the case
of the martyr procession Bishop Ignatius, as of the suering Father-God. And
when I say can in such a context, I do not mean can as a move permitted
by the logic of our discourse in the twenty-rst century but can in terms of
the discourse of the second century, recoverable both from literary and
epigraphical remains.
However much t uupoz may function at an abstract level of Hellenistic
philosophical theology, it does not break with a web of meaning in which it
interconnects with pagan cultic artefacts, ritual and acts. The agonothete who
lead Demosthenes ac vvn mousix ooz wore the t uupoi of his imperial and
95
Ibid. v.9.5.204.
96
Magnesians xiii.2. See also Trallians xi.2; Philadelphians iv; vii.2.
97
Ephesians iv.2. See also Philadelphians ii.2; iii.2; viii.1; ix.1; Polycarp viii.2.
98
Magnesians vi.12. See also n. 59 above and adjoining text.
448 ALLEN BRENT
ancestral gods in his steewanoz, as we have seen.
99
Ignatius as leader of his
procession had no literal steewanoz, any more that did a bishop at the
eucharist. Yet the presence of such a steewanoz in some sense was important
for Ignatius in terms of the analogous imagery with which he sought to
reconceptualise early Christian ecclesial order. It was the presbyterate as
t uupoz s uunedpiou tv n apost oolvn that constituted the steewanoz in the
celebration of the Christian mysteries. The disciples that Ignatius calls
the s uundesmoz apost oolvn become in its liturgical circle the spiritual,
crown of the presbyterate ( ajiopl ooxou pneumatix ooz steewanoz tou
ppesbutepiA ou) .
100
But if this is the case with t uupoz, what is the meaning of ppoxahgmeenoz e iz
t uupon in Ignatius discourse?
ppoxahgmeenoz and pre-eminence
The word ppoxahgmeenoz is invariably translated as presiding, even though
the verb when used in this sense is normally followed by a genitive indicating
that over which the action of the verb is exercised. The qualication e iz
t uupon was so little understood that both the Didascalia and Constitutiones
apostolicae, and the author of the Long Recension, alter the phrase in various
ways.
101
The latter reads e iz t oopon in Magnesians vi.1, which has led to some
textual corruption in the case of the Middle Recension, and removes the
phrase altogether in vi.2.
102
In Trallians iii.1 the bishop is simply described as
tou patp ooz tv n o lvn t uupoz. Clearly the phrase was problematic for later
writers.
It was dicult to see how an image could preside, or how someone
presiding could do so in order to create an image. I wish now to invoke what I
regard as a more natural sense of be pre-eminent since the word basically
means to sit forward, and thus to stand out from the context in which its
subject is found. A cleric can be said to be pre-eminent in creating an
image. By so construing, we can, I believe, locate the context of Ignatius
meaning in the world of processional images that we have argued t uupoz to
form part.
One fundamental problem for our interpretation of Ignatius within the
connes of our twenty-rst century western discourse is that he claims on the
99
SEG xxxviii.C.53. See also n. 77 above and adjoining text.
100
Magnesians xiii.1. See also n. 36 above and adjoining text.
101
See CA ii.25.5 (278)=The Didascalia apostolorum in Syriac, i, ed. A. Voobus, (Corpus
Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, 401), Louvain 1979, viii (pp. 91.2692.1) ; CA ii.25.7
(3941)=Didascalia ix (p. 100.321).
102
For en vvhgte tv episx oopv xaii toi z ppoxahgmeenoiz e iz t uupon xaii didax ggn awhapsiA az
LRec reads : en vvhgte tv episx oopv u potass oomenoi tv hev di au tou en Xpistv . For textual
corruption of t uupoz for t oopoz in Magnesians vi.1 see n. 32 above.
THE ENI GMA OF I GNATI US OF ANTI OCH 449
one hand that bishop, presbyters and deacons are images or t uupoi of Father,
Spirit-lled apostolic council, and Son, and yet on the other they are
representatives of the divine, corporate life of their communities. Ignatius
frequently laid claim to being able, as a result of a mystical interchange with
the bishops who visited him in prison on his way to martyrdom, to see the
corporate personality in their individual persons of the Churches which they
represent. In Onesimus their bishop, he informs the Ephesians, I received
your whole corporateness (epeii ou n t ggn poluplghiA an u mv n apeiA lgwa) .
103
It is by such charismatic means that Ignatius identies the bishop and
accordingly accepts the validity of the ecclesial community that he has
not seen.
Ignatius claims that their conversation of mind (toia uutgn sun ggheian) was
a supernatural exchange, in which he saw them in spiritual union with the
three-fold typology. He thus was able to see their whole community (t ggn
poluplghiA an) mystically in the bishops person.
104
poluplghiA a contained the
word plghoz, which is Ignatius usual theological term for the gathered
exxlgsiA a.
105
Likewise, in Polybius of Tralles, Ignatius could see their
corporate unwavering and blameless mind (a mvmon di aanoian xaii
adi aaxpiton) .
106
Here he could rejoice because I saw your whole gathered
church in him (v ste me t oo pa n plghoz u mv n en au tv hevp shai) .
107
In his
description of the Magnesian clergy we nd the three-fold typology witnessed
in relationship to the corporate personality of the community: I was deemed
worthy to see you (gji vvhgn idei n u ma z) through Damas your godly esteemed
bishop (di aa Dama tou ajioheeou u mv n episx oopou) , as well as through the
presbyters and deacons.
108
I will now argue that the logic of ppoxahgmeenoz is that of gods and
goddesses, or rather their images, that stand out pre-eminently over their
cities, or at the head of their processions. Since such deities represent the
corporate personality of the city of which they are the icons, they represent
that corporate personality of the city. Furthermore, such deities are
pre-eminent in the appearance of their priests, since the latter wear their
images on their steewanoi and act for them in their cult in handling and
bearing the holy objects used in their rite. In this way pagan priests, like
Ignatian clerics, could project divine images to their people, but at the
same time represent the corporate life since such divine images were also
icons of that corporate life. The acvnoheetgz who led Demostheness
procession wore a steewanon xpusou n with one of its extupa pp oosvpa
103
Ephesians i.3.
104
Ibid. v.1: in a short time I had such fellowship with your bishop (ec vv en mixpv xp oonv
toia uutgn sun ggheian esxon pp ooz epiA sxopon u mv n) as was not human but spiritual (ou x
anhpvpiA ngn ou san, all aa pneumatix ggn) .
105
Magnesians vi.1.
106
Trallians i.1.
107
Ibid. i.2.
108
Magnesians ii.1.
450 ALLEN BRENT
that of the god Apollo described as Ppoxahgceetgz or leader of the
procession.
109
Let us see how the logic of that discourse works in greater detail.
Deities are described using a variety of terms such as (ppo)xahgcem vvn,
ppogcgt ggz, ppogcem vvn, and heoiA ppop oolevz, ppoxahgmeenoi and ppoestv tez
etc.
110
Though the meaning of the one term shades into that of the other as
the discourse develops dynamically in a social and historical context, it would
appear that the terms closest in meaning to each other are the last two on this
list. Those who preside (ppoestv tez) over cities, or their institutions, such
as exxlgsiA a, dgmoz, boul gg or cepousiA a, occupying the seats (ppoedpiA ai)
which give them their particular rank, would also be visually pre-eminent,
like the a pxontez ppoxaheefomenoi or Ignatius epiA sxopoi or ppesb uutepoi
ppoxahgmeenoi. I would argue that such a visual sense predominates when
ppoxahifeeshai is used in place of ppoistanai. The following examples may
be cited:
1. From Pergamon AD 129 there is a reference to Demeter and Kore (tg te
[D gg]mgtpi xaii tg K oop[g ), the goddesses who are predominant over the city
(tai z p]poxahgmeenaiz [he]ai z tgz p oolevz gm[v n) .
111
2. A bronze statue of Herakles from Seleukeia on the Tigris, with a
dedication, carried by the Parthian king Vologaeses IV from Mesene
(Charakene) to Seleukeia (AD 150-1). There is a Greek inscription on the
right thigh and a Parthian (in Aramaic) on the left. The former reads :
This bronze image of the god Herakles (e ix oona ta uutgn xalxgn H
paxleeouz heou )
which was removed by him from Mesena (t ggn metanexhei san u p au tou ap oo tgz
Mes ggngz), he dedicated ( aneehgxen) in this temple of the god Apollo (en i epv tv de
heou Ap oollvnoz) who sits out over the bronze gate (tou xalxgz p uulgz
ppoxahgmeenou) .
112
109
SEG xxxviii.1462.C.523. See n. 76 above and adjoining text.
110
Robert argued that ppoest vvz, xahgcem vvn and ppoxahgmeenoz are synonymous terms: J.
Robert and L Robert, La Carie : histoire et ge ographie historique, avec le recueil des inscriptions antiques,
II: Le plateau de Tabai et ses envirions, Paris 1954, 226. See also, and particularly, L. Robert,
Fouilles dAmyzon en Carie, I: Exploration, histoire, monnaies et inscriptions, Paris 1983, 172: Les
inscriptions precisant sa primaute emploient les termes suivants : e iz t oon ppoe[s]t~ vvta t~ gg[z]
p[ oole]oz gm~ vvn he oon Di oonuson, ou bien to~ uu ppoxahgcem[ oonoz t~ ggz p oolev]z heo~ uu Dion uusou,
or t~ v v [xah]gcem ooni he~ v v Dion uusv. See also J. Nolle, Zur Geschichte der Stadt Etenna in
Pisidien, in E. Schwertheim (Hrsg), Forschungen in Pisidien, Bonn 1992, 813.
111
Syll.3, 694, l. 504, and A. Wilhelm, Griechische Grabgedichte aus Kleinasien,
Sitzungsberichte. Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (1932), 803 (=Kleine Schriften, pt ii, ed. W.
Peek and others, Opuscula: Sammelausgaben seltener und bisher nicht selbstandig erschienener
wissenschaicher Abhandlungen, VII/2: Akademieschriften zur griechischen Inschriftenkunde, Leipzig 1971,
347). See also Brent, Imperial cult, 22348.
112
SEG xxxvii.1403.20, lines 1623. See also A. Invernizzi, Heracle`s a Seleucie du Tigre,
Revue arche ologique i (1989), 65113.
THE ENI GMA OF I GNATI US OF ANTI OCH 451
3. A decree from Side (c. AD 220), honouring Aurelius Mandrianus
Longinus (AD 143) because he acted as a priest together with his wife
Aurelia Killaramontiane Ies (suniepas aamenon tg cunaixii au tou E ig AupgliA a
Killapamvtiang ), for the goddess Athena who is pre-eminent (tg
ppoxahefomeeng hev Ahgna ), for a ve-yearly cycle (pentaetgpiA di) .
113
4. Dedication of P. Aelius Menekrates for Demeter and the god Men in
which he declares that he has
consecrated a silver basket (xahiep vvsanta x aalahon pepi aapcupon) which he has left
behind for the mystery rites (t oon leiA ponta toi z mustgpiA oiz) and for Men who heads
the village (xaii tv ppoxahgmeenv tgz x vvmgz Mgni), a silver symbol which will process
before his mystery rites (sgm ggan pepi aapcupon t ggn ppopompe uusasan tv n mustgpiA vn
au tou ).
114
5. A funerary inscription from Galatia:
You see Istele ( Ist gglgn esopa z), engraven (xataf vvcpawon), but note (n oogson) : she
occupies the tomb (g t uumbon xateexei) of beautiful Tateia (TateiA az xalgz i epeiA gz) the
priestess of Artemis (Apteemidoz), of the queens village (x[ vvm]gz basilgi
doz) which
she heads (g ppox aahgtai) : whom for the sake of his grief (gn istopcgz enexen) her
husband ( an ggp e ooz) here commemorated her (enh aad eteisen).
115
Ppoxahgmeenoz, in its various forms, is a term extremely dicult to translate
in these examples. Clearly (2) will only admit of a visual and spatial meaning:
the bronze statue of Heracles physically protrudes out over the gate of the
city. But in the case of (1) and (3) Athene as well as Kore and Demeter have
images that likewise visually are ppoxahgmeenai from their temples, prominent
in their city centres. Such epigraphic descriptions are no mere abstract
construals. Though they may sit out over their cities from their standing
temples, (4) shows how a he ooz ppoxahgmeenoz might be portable: Men,
revealed sitting over the village (xaii tv ppoxahgmeenv tgz x vvmgz Mgni) in the
form of a silver image (sgm ggan pepi aapcupon) , is carried in the procession of
the mystery rites (ppopompe uusasan tv n mustgpiA vn) . The rm focus that
unites (1) and (3) with (2) is that the goddesses in question have physical
images, whether on temples or carried in procession, that make their
headship of their cities visually overwhelming: they head their city or their
procession because they are visually pre-eminent .
In consequence, as we can see in (5), the description of Artemis and her
priestess Tatia, the divinity and the representative priest become fused into
one. The priestess presides or heads the cult by bearing the image of the deity
113
J. Nolle, Side im Altertum: Geschichte und Zeugnisse, i, Bonn 1993, 195, 3.2.1, lines 68.
114
I.Eph. vii.1.3252.59.
115
Wilhelm, Griechische Grabgedichte, 8034 (=Kleine Schriften, 3468=TAM
ii.174E.1213) prefers x vvmgz to xo uupgz which I here follow. See also J. G. C. Anderson,
Explorations in Galatia Cis Halym, part II, Journal of Hellenic Studies xix (1901), 306, no. 246.
452 ALLEN BRENT
whose priestess she is (g ppox aahgtai). We nd in Caracallas letter to Ephesus
(AD 2005) : a dee p]poeppeesbeuen g p aatpioz u mv n he ooz Aptemiz = your
ancestral goddess Artemis heads the embassy.
116
In this passage we see, as in
Ignatius, pagan priests presiding as an image of the goddess that they
represent in a visual form so that both she and they can be said to be pre-
eminent in, or at the head of her procession just as bishop, presbyters
and deacons are e iz t uupon of divine persons or spirit-lled Apostles. But
we can also see that ambassadors, who bear a deity who is p aatpioz and
thus embodies the divinised, corporate personality of the city, in so doing
represent the whole multitude (poluplghiA a) of their community, as did
Onesimus, bishop of Ephesus.
117
Ignatius characterises travelling clerics as
heoppesb uutai, duly elected for their representative role.
118
Thus Ignatius has taken a pagan theology of corporate personality and
removed the idolatrous features, but has retained nevertheless the essential
form of that theology. For him the oce of bishop reects the corporate
personality of the community marked by the saving acts in which the Father-
bishop sends the diaconal Son, with the co-operation of the Spirit through
the apostolic council. Like pagan priests wearing the t uupoz of his god in his
steewanoz, and acting as ppoxahgc ggtgz of a mystery procession, the three-fold
order of the Christian community wear those t uupoi, surrounded by those
who as members of the cult assembly (s uunodoz) bear sacred objects relevant
to their roles in the mystery drama (heow oopoi, xpistow oopoi, naow oopoi,
a ciowopoi). At the head of the martyr-procession, in which he is antiA yuxon,
as an extension of the eucharist, he is pre-eminent as cult leader
(ppoxahgmeenoz).
Polycarp, Lucian and Ignatius reception
The Ignatian letters do not represent a pseudepigraphic reply to a later form
of Valentianism, as Hubner and Lechners thesis required. Rather, Ignatius
is a Christian missionary prophet of the Second Sophistic proposing a highly
articulate and radical secularisation of ecclesial order in terms of the pagan
theology of the mystery cults of his contemporaries. Clearly his proposal
would have seemed strange to Polycarp, and indeed Irenaeus and perhaps
even to Origen and his successors, as would other contemporary expressions
of Christianity.
Polycarp had little comprehension of the semi-pagan typology of order
that he heard in Ignatius words and witnessed in his acts. The only second-
century writer who discerned the logic of Ignatius conceptualisation of
116
Robert, Le Serpent Glycon, 7645.
117
Ephesians i.3.
118
Philadelphians x.12; Smyrnaeans xi.1.
THE ENI GMA OF I GNATI US OF ANTI OCH 453
ecclesial order was in fact Lucian of Samosata, whose satire on the kind of
gure that the former presented is to be found in his Peregrinus Proteus.
Lucians role as a commentator on Ignatius has been much discussed.
Opponents of the authenticity of the Middle Recension have claimed that
rather than Lucian having read Ignatius and fashioned his story of Peregrinus
upon him, as Lightfoot claimed, the forger had as his model Lucians own
account.
119
Both arguments presuppose that the relationship between
Ignatius letters and Lucian must be a literary one. But the parallels,
though close, are hardly those of literary dependence whether in one
direction or another.
Indeed Lucians references to Ignatius bear the marks of oral reports of
processions of diaconal ambassadors, the election and sending of whom
Ignatius mentions in three letters.
120
Lucian in turn reects the general eect
of such arrangements on the pagan population, and popular responses,
when they were witnessed rst-hand. Lucian speaks of his subject as writing
letters legislating for Christian communities.
121
He then chose certain
ambassadors for this purpose from amongst his comrades (xaiA tinaz epii to uutv
ppesbeut aaz tv n etaiA pvn exeipot oongse), giving them their titles as messengers
from the dead and underworld couriers (nexpacceelouz xaii neptepodp oomouz
pposacope uusaz) . The heoppesb uutai and heodp oomoi of Smyrnaeans xi.2 and
Polycarp vii.2 have become for Lucian ppesbeutaiA who are nexpacceeloi xaii
neptepodp oomoi. That these elected ambassadors should be characterised in
terms of death and the underworld shows that Lucians contemporaries
were on message regarding the martyrological character of Ignatius
procession.
Lucian describes his Christian leader, after Ignatius, as prophet and cult
leader (ppow ggtgz xaii hias aapxgz) , who had introduced a new mystery (xain gg
telet gg) .
122
Furthermore, he is a hias aapxgz whose role is associated with a
divine image. Theagnes, shortly before his self-immolation, had described
him in such words as: But now ( all aa nu n) this holy image will depart from
men to the gods (ej anhp vvpvn e iz heo uuz t oo a calma tou to o ix ggsetai).
123
Lucians sarcastic comment, in view of his earlier life, was: the (divine)
image was not yet completely fashioned for us (xaii ou deepv enteleez a calma
gmi n dedgmio uupcgto) .
124
We have here, I submit, a commentary on Ignatius
theology of t uupoz cruelly distorted, as witnessed in spoken word and gesture
in his martyr-procession and not simply derived from his written page.
Furthermore Lucian is presenting a parody parasitic by its nature on an
119
Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, ii/2, 356; cf. Joly, Le Dossier, 1034; Lechner Ignatius adversus
Valentinianos ?, ch. iii ; J. Bompaire, Lucien e crivain: imitation et creation, Paris 1958, 61719.
120
Philadelphians 10; Smyrnaeans xi.12; Polycarp vii.28.1.
121
Lucian, De morte peregrini xli, ed. A. M. Harmon, Cambridge, MA.London 1961.
122
Ibid xi.
123
Ibid. vi.
124
Ibid. x.
454 ALLEN BRENT
experience of Ignatian themes: pseudo-Ignatius could not simply have
derived his bare words from Lucians description.
125
Yet Polycarp, given the integrity of Philippians, greeted Ignatius procession
warmly and treated it according to the terms in which the latter regarded it.
Polycarp records the arrival of Ignatius procession, and, in the use of
characteristic Ignatian vocabulary, indicates what a clearly more than visible
impression it made upon him.
126
As he says:
I greatly rejoice with you in our Lord Jesus Christ (sunex aapgn u mi n mec aalvz en tv
xupiA v gmv n Igsou Xpist~ v v ), since you made welcome the imitations of true love,
(dejameenoiz t aa mim ggmata tgz alghou z ac aapgz), and conducted forward (xaii
ppopeemyasin), as opportunity fell to you ( vz epeebalen u mi n), those bound with
bonds that bet their sanctity (to uuz eneilgmeenouz toi z a cioppepeesin desmoi z) which
are the diadems of those truly chosen by God and our Lord (atina estin diad ggmata
tv n alghv z u p oo heou xaii tou xupiA ou gmv n exlelecmeenvn).
127
Thus Polycarp armed that the Philippians had treated him and his
entourage as a ppopomp gg (ppopeemyasin).
128
In using such language he was
interpreting Ignatius procession in terms of a pagan procession like that of
Demosthenes. In the latter case sebastow oopoi were elected who would escort
forward (ppopompe uusousi) the divine images (e ix oonaz). But Polycarp works
with some didence since he found what must have seemed to be Ignatius
semi-pagan representation of church order so alien to his own assumptions.
Notwithstanding his failure to understand and embrace Ignatius typology of
order, why did he therefore nd Ignatius suciently acceptable and so wish
to assemble his corpus ?
I would suggest that this was for one reason and one reason alone: the
anti-Docetic message of the choreographed procession that came through
Smyrna. It was a dazzling piece of enacted, sophistic rhetoric and
encapsulated a message that Polycarp found most serviceable to his needs.
The message of the martyr-bishop in his procession to Rome, despite all its
semi-pagan cultic imagery, was of
Jesus Christ who was really born (o z alghv z ecenn gghg), who both ate and drank
(ewacen te xaii epien), who really was persecuted under Pontius Pilate ( alghv z
edi vvxhg epii PontiA ou Pil aatou), who really was crucied and died ( alghv z
estaup vvhg xaii apeehanen), who really was raised from the dead (o z xaii gceephg ap oo
125
See also n. 15 above.
126
The presence of such Ignatian imagery plays a vital role in all interpolation theories so
necessary to removing the pivotal place of this letter as evidence to the authenticity of the
Middle Recension: see Lechner, Ignatius adversus Valentinianos ?, 618.
127
Polycarp, Philippians i.1.
128
ppopeempein was used in this sense in Philadelphians x.2: the nearest Churches sent
bishops, and others presbyters and deacons ( vz xaii ai eccista exxlgsiA ai epemyan
episx oopouz, ai dee ppesbuteepouz xaii diax oonouz) . For the use of this term in the
Demosthenes inscription discussed above see nn. 76, 99, 109.
THE ENI GMA OF I GNATI US OF ANTI OCH 455
nexpv n) ; But if, as some atheists (e i dee v spep tineez a heoi ontez), that is unbelievers
(touteestin a pistoi), say he suered in appearance only (leecousi t oo doxei n
peponheenai au t oon), why am I in chains, (ec vv tiA deedemai), and why do I pray
that I can ght with wild beasts (tii dee euxomai hgpiomaxgsai) ?
129
Polycarp clearly recognised the pagan connotations of Ignatius self-
description of a bishop as the heow oopoz. When, in his procession, he as
a ciow oopoz visibly shook his a cioppepei z desmoiA , this was an enacted, cultic
miA mgsiz that Polycarp was just about prepared to describe abstractly: the
bonds were t aa mim ggmata tgz alghou z ac aapgz rather than the icon of a
personal deity. The symbolism of the cultic procession was for Polycarp a
breathtaking refutation of Docetism: Ignatius eloquent testimony of
martyrdom in the esh justied Christs true birth and suerings. All its
other features could be ignored in the light of so visually compelling a re-
enactment of Christs real suerings.
In the light of this discussion, the reception of Ignatius can be compared
with that of the Fourth Gospel, both emerging from the Hellenistic shadows
of the early second century.
130
The theology of that Gospel was poorly
understood and, until Irenaeus time, treated circumspectly if not positively
rejected.
131
Nevertheless that theology was destined to provide the
philosophical model, again distorted out of all recognition, for theologically
dening the nature and character of the incarnation. Ignatius, too,
conceptualised a theology of ecclesial order that only became that of later
Christendom by a gross distortion of its original framework. The Johannine
community perhaps fares even worse than Polycarp, since he never cites the
Fourth Gospel, however much he may rely on the anti-Docetic texts drawn
from the Johannine epistles, as he relies on the visual theatre of Ignatius to
the same end.
132
It was by reason of the martyr-procession, the nal and spectacular
refutation of Docetism, and for this reason alone, that Polycarp was
convinced of the basic soundness of the strange and enigmatic gure that
came through. The strangeness that constitutes the enigma of Ignatius was
the product of his proximity to the culture of the Second Sophistic.
129
Trallians ix.12, 10.
130
For an incisive analysis of such a positioning of Ignatius see Hammond Bammel,
Ignatian problems , 8997.
131
C. E. Hill, The Johannine corpus in the early Church, Oxford 2004, has recently challenged
signicantly the regnant hypothesis that this corpus was only accepted with diculty by the
late second century. He argues convincingly that a developed orthodoxy that rejected
heresies by the late second century did not include the Johannine corpus in what they
condemned. It does not follow, however, that that corpus did not arise in a widely dierent
community than other streams in early Christianity, between which there was no clear
comprehension at an earlier stage.
132
1 John iv.23 and 2 John 7, quoted in Polycarp, Philippians vii.1.
456 ALLEN BRENT