There are few Christian figures more prominent in the first half of the second century than Ignatius, bishop of Antioch. He was stated to be the second bishop of Antioch by Origen followed after the Apostle Peter, and third according to the great church historian of the fourth century, Eusebius.² Either way, he was close enough to the apostolic period to know at least some of the Apostles. He was well acquainted with Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, who was, in fact, discipled by the Apostle John. It is even rumored that Ignatius was also known by John and that he was the child who sat on Jesus’s lap recorded in the Gospels.
Nevertheless, Ignatius is mostly known for his martyrdom, or at least the letters produced en route to his execution. He was persecuted under Emperor Trajan’s reign (97-117 AD), leading most scholars to date his letters between 107-117 AD. The faithful bishop was arrested and escorted by ten soldiers (Ign. Rom. 5.1) to Rome to either burn incense to the Imperial cult and deny Christ or to bear witness and be thrown to the lions. However, during his journey from Syria to Rome, they made several stops. It is at these stops where he had given his letters to representatives of individual churches and one personally to Polycarp. He wrote seven letters total, to which we have possession of to this day (Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, Romans, Philadelphians, Smyrnaeaens, and Polycarp).
At the time that Ignatius of Antioch wrote his seven letters, the Apostolic Period had already concluded, leaving the church without the apostles who were taught and commissioned by Christ to build the church. Still, the Gospel continued to spread throughout the Roman Empire inviting more and more pagans to accept the truth of Jesus Christ. There, then, became different circumstances than that of the apostles and this new generation of church leaders had to address them faithfully. The difficulty came from new heretical influences in the church and the eventual departure from Judaism. And since “the apostles, as it were, had defined the center; it fell to later generations to attempt to define the boundaries.”¹ Though Ignatius portrays this sense of unworthiness in his letters (Ign. Eph. 2.2, Ign. Rom. 9.2), he certainly writes with authority and seems to give definitions to those boundaries. In the seven letters that he wrote leading up to his execution, there is much that he addresses; nevertheless, it is important to make the distinctions on when he is writing reflectively (when he writes about his martyrdom, which will be discussed in later posts) and objectively regarding Christian doctrines (theological boundaries will be addressed here).
In a general survey of his letters, one can uncover the locus of Ignatius’s theology, that is, Christology. Out of his Christology, three key theological themes or Christological boundaries keep resurfacing, (1) the humanity of Christ, (2) the divinity of Christ, and (3) the incarnation of Christ. There are certainly more theological categories in Ignatius’s mind, but these three are significant in the development of Christology, especially at such an early stage, and which find its place in the Chalcedonian Creed.
In the following blog posts, these three key Christological themes found in Ignatius’s theology will be discussed at an introductory level.
¹ Michael W. Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), 12.
² F. L. Cross and Elizabeth A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 822.