In continuing the previous post titled Ignatian Christology: Introduction, we will discuss the first of Ignatius’s three Christological boundaries that encompassed his apologetical mind: the humanity of Christ. This is not to minimize the divinity of Christ’s nature (which will be discussed in the next post) but to accurately assess his full personhood that is crucial to the Gospel message.
It is significant to see such high Christology in Ignatius of Antioch’s writings given that he is so early on in the course of this developing doctrine for the Christian faith [1]. He had devoted his life to Christ and had made serious his position as bishop. This is probably where he concluded that Jesus Christ is the only teacher, to which one should hope to be found as his disciple (Ign. Mag. 9.1). To Ignatius, this Jesus is the “archives,” that is, the fulfillment of Hebrew Scriptures (Ign. Phld. 8.2), since the “prophets preached in anticipation of him, but the gospel is the imperishable finished work” (Ign. Phld. 9.2). However, due to certain emerging groups that were distorting the Christ that Ignatius called his teacher, he had properly developed his Christology. Robert Grant observes that the two emerging groups were most likely Docetists who denied the “carnal reality of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus” and Judaizers who based their teachings primarily in the Old Testament [2]. The former caused Ignatius to conclude that not only was there eyewitnesses and credal/scriptural links to the historical physical Jesus but that Christ himself must be human in order to render any salvific efficacies or generate sympathetic relationships between the divine and his creation.
Ignatius was adamant about presenting the human Jesus in contrast to the Docetist’s spiritual perversion, not just to correct false doctrine but by not doing so there becomes a serious consequence of de-regenerating the causation of the true salvific message. In his letter to the Trallians, he carries this carnal idea of Jesus in a “quasi-credal form” [3]. He presents Jesus as the one, “…who was of the family of David, who was the son of Mary, who really was born, who both ate and drank; who really was persecuted under Pontius Pilate, who was crucified and died…who, moreover, really was raised from the dead when his Father raised him up” (Ign. Trall. 9.1-2; see also Ign. Magn. 11.1) [4]. Again, you can see the proclamation of the Old Testament prophets here, the Messiah who comes from the line of David, but the true emphasis is on the humanity of Christ. He was “really born” or truly born human from the womb of Mary, and truly died as a human, and most importantly truly resurrected from the dead because without that no one gets “true life” (Ign. Trall. 9.2).
One can see the indignation in Ignatius’s heart against the Docetists (if it is them exactly) when he calls them “atheists” and mocks them for saying Christ “suffered in appearance only (while they exist in appearance only!)” (Ign. Trall. 10.1; see also Ign. Smyrn.2.1). How can Christ save them if he never came as they are to pull them out of death? And if Jesus only appeared to be human than Ignatius rightly questioned his current situation and his impending martyrdom (Ign. Trall. 10.1) [5]. It was the hope of Christ’s fleshly resurrection that kept Ignatius strong. His passion seeps out when he writes, “I know and believe that he was flesh even after the resurrection” (Ign. Smyrn.3.1). He goes on to say that those who deny that Christ was “clothed in the flesh,” deny him completely and are themselves “clothed in a corpse” (Ign. Smyrn. 5.2). Paul Foster observed Ignatius’s distrust in Docetism, “For Ignatius, those who hold such beliefs are blasphemers and have no hope of partaking in the resurrection, since by denying the physical suffering of Christ they deny the efficacy of the redemptive act” [6]. But our offense is to God, and mere man cannot redeem man for God, salvation must come from God himself, who has come in the likeness of man, to which Ignatius holds his high Christology.
And it is after the regeneration of the believer that Christ’s humanity instills comfort and hope for the downcast and struggling Christian (Heb. 4:15). Jesus bore the full weight of human perfection by not giving in to sin even when obedience causes the highest of anxieties and turmoil (Lk. 22:44; Phil. 2:8). Moreover, Christ had walked among us (Jn. 1:14) and suffered painfully because of the evils of this world, as we so often fall prey to. So, it is because of Christ’s humanity that Ignatius finds these things vital to Christian redemption and Christian devotion even in the most horrendous circumstances (Ign. Trall. 10; see also Ign. Smyrn. 4.2).
Though the humanity of Christ is essential for salvation according to Ignatius, it cannot stand alone in the requirements for a sufficient redeemer. It is in the next post that we discuss Ignatius’s understanding of the divinity of Christ and the necessity for such a nature to consummate God’s plan of redemption.
[1] Holmes places the letters sometime during Trajan’s reign (AD 98-117) and is the “modern consensus” according to William R. Schoedel. Schoedel notes that this view has been under attack recently causing some to favor a later forgery, but these arguments are unconvincing (William R. Schoedel, Ignatius of Antioch: A Commentary on the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch, Hermeneia [Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985], 5-7).
[2] Robert M. Grant, The Apostolic Fathers: A New Translation and Commentary, Ignatius of Antioch, vol. 4 (Camden, NJ: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1966), 22.
[3] Schoedel, 152.
[4] All translations will be from Michael Holmes The Apostolic Fathers 3rd edition.
[5] Ignatius could be recalling from memory the words of Paul, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins…we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:17-19, ESV).
[6] Paul Foster, “The Epistles of Ignatius of Antioch,” in The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers, edited by Paul Foster (New York, NY: T&T Clark, 2007), 90.