The Main Themes in the Seven Letters of Ignatius
On his way to martyrdom, Ignatius of Antioch (2nd century) wrote seven letters to different churches sharing words of encouragement and instruction. While each letter has its unique passages, we can see a lot of the same themes presented in Ignatius’ writings. For this blog, we’re going to introduce the epistles of Ignatius by looking at three themes shown in all seven letters. By recognizing these themes, they can help us better understand how Ignatius was trying to guide the Church before facing death.
1. Church Unity
If you’ve been following our studies so far on the Apostolic Fathers, you’ll notice how often church unity is brought up in the discussion. Not only is Ignatius no exception, but he might emphasize it more than any other Apostolic Father:
“It is therefore befitting that you should in every way glorify Jesus Christ, who has glorified you, that be a unanimous obedience and that, being subject to the bishop and the presbytery, you may in all respects be sanctified.”
Further examples of church unity can be found in:
· Ignatius to the Ephesians: Chapters 3-4
· Ignatius to the Magnesians: Chapters 6-7, 13
· Ignatius to the Trallians: Chapters 2-3
· Ignatius to the Philadelphians: Chapters 3-5, Chapter 7-8
· Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans: Chapter 8
· Ignatius to Polycarp: Chapter 6
Prophetic Word on Unity
Ignatius is so adamant on the necessity of church unity, that we find a very striking passage in his epistle to the Philadelphians. In chapter 7, Ignatius shares a personal prophetic word given to him by Jesus Christ:
“For, when I was among you, I cried, I spoke with a loud voice (Holmes adds ‘God’s voice’ in his translation; Holmes, 2006): Give heed to the bishop, and to the presbytery and deacons. Now, some suspected me of having spoken thus, as knowing beforehand the division caused by some among you. But He is my witness, for whose sake I am in bonds, that I got no intelligence from any man. But the Spirit proclaimed these words: Do nothing without the bishop; keep your bodies as the temples of God; love unity; avoid divisions; be the followers of Jesus Christ, even as He is of His Father.”
Submission to the Bishop
You may have noticed from the quotes referenced so far that Ignatius mentions obeying the bishop. For Ignatius, the congregation submitting to their local bishop is inseparable from church unity. Pretty much every time Ignatius instructs a church to be united in Christ, he includes submission to the bishop being a part of it.
Ignatius presents a threefold structure of hierarchy in the church: Bishop, to Presbyters, to Deacons. Ignatius presents this structure multiple times in the seven letters. Allen Brent theorizes that Ignatius draws from Jesus’ breathing the Holy Spirit into the Apostles in John 20:21-23, and sees the Church “reenacting” the “Johannine Pentecost” when they partake in the Eucharist. (Brent, 2005, Pg. 333)
One example is found in his letter to the Magnesians:
“…I exhort you to study to do all things with a divine harmony, while your bishop presides in the place of God, and your presbyters in the place of the assembly of the apostles, along with your deacons, who are most dear to me, and are entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before the beginning of time, and in the end was revealed.”
Ignatius takes this submission to church authority one step further by claiming multiple times to obey their bishop as if the Lord Jesus is personally instructing them:
“Let us be careful, then, not to set ourselves in opposition to the bishop, in order that we may be subject to God... It is manifest, therefore, that we should look upon the bishop even as we would upon the Lord Himself.”
Now, as you can imagine, these various quotes from Ignatius have alarmed many Protestants over the years. Some Protestants have concluded that the Church was already showing signs of elevating human leaders too high, showing just how quickly the Church fell away from biblical teaching. But this is frankly an unfair conclusion, and I think there are several reasons why these instructions from Ignatius aren’t as questionable or “Medieval Catholic” as they may seem to the modern Protestant.
First, it’s crucial we realize the global Church at this point was still relatively small and had no political power. To view what Ignatius is saying in the same light as say the later Roman Catholic Church is inaccurate. While there is debate over this, the Church didn’t seem to have as much of a systemic hierarchy at this point as it would later, and there is pretty good evidence from later 2nd century Church Fathers that they had no interest in aligning with governments/politics. I know some of my Catholic/Orthodox brothers and sisters may be offended by this, but I honestly have a hard time believing Ignatius would approve of the hierarchy structure of the Church that took shape post-Constantine.
Second, the Apostles had all passed on, but apostolic succession was still intact. With the Pillars of the Church having all died at this point, the bishops were essentially the primary leaders to make sure the true Gospel of Jesus Christ was accurately kept, practiced, and passed down. Everyday people did not have massive, individualistic access to the New Testament.
Don’t get me wrong, churches encouraged Believers to learn and study the Scriptures. But the average Christian in this time learned the Scriptures primarily by hearing the Scripture read to them and learning from credible teachers how to understand the passage. It simply wasn’t like today where every Christian can just have their own full Bible at home or on hand. Ignatius was certainly not suggesting he and the other bishops were infallible or perfect. But it’s important to recognize the culture and status of the Church during that time was so drastically limited in comparison to today’s easy, wide spread accessibility to the complete Bible and basic understandings of the Christian faith.
Third, the apostolic succession to the bishops was crucial because heresies in the Church were continuing to spread. Gospel forgeries, slandering of the Apostles, and twisting of Jesus’ teachings were common. To have leaders in the local churches to rebuke these false gospels and teach the true faith was crucial, and Ignatius clearly recognized that.
To put it simply, Ignatius’ instructions to submitting to the bishop was not some political power move to keep lay Christians down, nor was it a theological statement to elevate certain Christians over others. Rather, it was a plea to stay united in true doctrine and keep away from outside heresies. This leads us to the second theme in the letters of Ignatius.
2. Combating Heresies in the Church
Ignatius not only wishes for the churches to be united, but to be united in God’s truth. One of the heresies he combats a couple times in his letters seem to be some form of Judaizing, similar to Paul’s opponents in Galatians. This was talked about previously on the blog.
The main heresy Ignatius appears to be combating in his letters is Docetism. There are many theological concerns about the doctrine of Docetism, but perhaps the biggest or at least most notable problem is that it teaches Jesus wasn’t human, but only appeared to be. So not only did Docetists teach that the Word did not become flesh, but that He didn’t actually die on the cross. We see in John’s epistles this heresy was already being spread.
“Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves so that you don’t lose what we worked for, but that you may receive a full reward.”
“Now, He suffered all these things for our sakes, that we might be saved. And He suffered truly, even as also He truly raised up Himself, not, as certain unbelievers maintain, that He only seemed to suffer, as they themselves only seem to be [Christians]. And as they believe, so shall it happen to them, when they shall be divested of their bodies, and be mere evil spirits.”
Ignatius then pleads with the church to stay away from these heretics (similar to 2nd John 1:10), but still tells them to pray for the heretics to repent. He then insists that if Jesus had only died in appearance, then there’s no reason for him to be arrested and sent to Rome for execution in the first place.
Because of his concern regarding Docetism, Ignatius’ letters also have plenty of references to both the deity of Jesus Christ and His humanity, which we’ll dive into in the next blog. Ignatius knew he couldn’t single-handily stop the Docetist heresy, but it’s clear he wanted to do what he could to protect the churches from being influenced by it.
3. Martyrdom
A final theme seen throughout all seven letters is the impending death Ignatius faces, and his attitude towards martyrdom. This is probably what is most famous about Ignatius: not so much that he died for the Gospel, but his attitude about dying for the Gospel.
“Only request in my behalf both inward and outward strength, that I may not only speak, but [truly] will; and that I may not merely be called a Christian, but really be found to be one. For if I be truly found [a Christian], I may also be called one, and be then deemed faithful, when I shall no longer appear to the world.”
For Ignatius, being killed in the name of Jesus is the truest testament of his faith. He emphasizes in chapter 4 of his letter to the Romans how his choice to die as a Christian makes him a “true” disciple of Christ. He even goes as far to say that through his suffering and coming death he is now only beginning to be a disciple! (Ignatius to the Romans 5.3)
Keep in mind, we just went over how important the role of the bishop was to Ignatius, and Ignatius himself was a bishop. But he also recognized he didn’t have the authority of the Apostles (Ignatius to the Romans 4.3), and he also recognized despite his position as bishop just how little of a taste of Christ he had experienced to that point. For Ignatius, to suffer as Christ suffered was a step towards maturing his faith.
“All the pleasures of the world, and all the kingdoms of this earth, shall profit me nothing. It is better for me to die on behalf of Jesus Christ, than to reign over all the ends of the earth. Him I seek, who died for us: Him I desire, who rose again for our sake. This I gain which is laid up on me.”
Conclusion
If there’s one word I could use to describe Ignatius in all seven letters, it would be passionate. Ignatius was passionate for the Bride of Christ to be united. Ignatius was passionate to abide in Christ and not in any false gospel. And Ignatius was passionate to give up the world and all its pleasures to see Jesus, even if it meant facing a horrible death.
UPDATE (2/21/21)- Gavin Ortlund (who wrote a fantastic book on the need for Evangelicals to back to the roots of Church History), uploaded a video giving his take on the “bishop passages” in Ignatius’s letters. Michael F. Bird then gave a response to Ortlund’s video. Here’s the link, both the video and Bird’s response are worth checking out!
SECOND UPDATE (4/18/22)- Despite posting this blog over a year ago, I was looking back on it and felt compelled to fix some of my wording. In the passage discussing the Protestant controversy over Ignatius and bishops, I had originally used the word, “monarchy” multiple times. Realizing this was not an accurate description, I changed it to “hierarchy”. I apologize for the misrepresentation.
THIRD (and hopefully final) UPDATE (12/6/22)- I’ve noticed this particular blog has gained more attention over the last few months, which is awesome! I’m glad to see people be interested in learning about Ignatius and I’m grateful some have used my blog as a resource to learn about him, so thank you so much! I do want to be honest though, and say that I once again made a couple revisions to the part that discusses the submission to the bishop. I wasn’t happy with how I originally worded the controversy between Protestants and Catholics over Ignatius’ teaching on the bishop’s authority. I don’t feel I gave a fair portrayal of Catholic doctrine and interpretation of Ignatius, and for that I apologize. I hope my rewording is a more fair and charitable description.
Bibliography
Schaff, P. (2016). The Complete Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Collection of Early Church Fathers. Toronto, Canada.
Holmes, M. (2006). The Apostolic Fathers in English (3rd ed.). Grand Rapids, MI. Baker Academic.
Brent, A. (2005). Ignatius and Polycarp: The Transformation of New Testament Traditions in the Context of Mystery Cults. In A. Gregory and C. Tuckett, Trajectories Through the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers. Great Clarendon Street, Oxford. Oxford University Press.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.