What does Ignatius of Antioch say about Final Judgment?
When Conditionalists argue that the early Church believed in their doctrine of Conditional Immortality, Ignatius of Antioch is often a Church Father brought up. Ignatius stresses over and over again that life is found in Christ alone and death will come to those who don’t repent. It almost seems like it’s a slam dunk case for Conditional Immortality.
Reading over the seven letters of Ignatius for this study, I came to this conclusion: there is a lot of content to back up the Conditionalist perspective, but there is also one particular passage that could be tricky for the Conditionalist view and more in line with a traditional view of Eternal Conscious Torment. First, let’s go over different quotes from Ignatius on salvation and judgment. After this, we’ll address the tricky passage.
Before going into the text, I want to stress how careful we must be when citing Ignatius’ writings into our contemporary theological discussions. In reading apologetic and theological works, I’ve seen both Protestants and Catholics reference Ignatius out of context to drive their arguments. As previously discussed, Ignatius is far more complex than he seems on the surface, and I believe so much of what he says is all linked together as a polemic against the Docetist heresy (and other conflicts occurring during his time). So let us keep this in mind going in.
Quotes on Salvation bringing Life and Condemnation bringing Death
Ignatius to the Ephesians 11.1: The last times have come upon us. Let us therefore be of a reverent spirit, and fear the long-suffering of God, that it tend not to our condemnation. For let us either stand in awe of the wrath to come, or show regard for the grace which is at present displayed—one of two things. Only [in one way or another] let us be found in Christ Jesus unto true life.
Ignatius to the Ephesians 16: Do not err, my brethren. Those that corrupt families shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If, then, those who do this as respects the flesh have suffered death, how much more shall this be the case with any one who corrupts by wicked doctrine the faith of God, for which Jesus Christ was crucified! Such a one becoming defiled [in this way], shall go away into everlasting fire, and so shall every one that hearkens unto him.
Ignatius to the Ephesians 17.1b-18.1a: Be not anointed with the bad odor of the doctrine of the prince of this world; let him not lead you away captive from the life which is set before you… Why do we foolishly perish, not recognizing the gift which the Lord has of a truth sent to us? Let my spirit be counted as nothing for the sake of the cross, which is a stumbling block to those that do not believe, but to us salvation and life eternal.
Ignatius to the Ephesians 19.3: Hence every kind of magic was destroyed, and every bond of wickedness disappeared; ignorance was removed, and the old kingdom abolished, God Himself being manifested in human form for the renewal of eternal life. And now that took a beginning which had been prepared by God. Henceforth all things were in a state of tumult, because He meditated the abolition of death.
Ignatius to the Ephesians 20.2: Especially [will I do this] if the Lord make known to me that you come together man by man in common through grace, individually, in one faith, and in Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David according to the flesh, being both the Son of man and the Son of God, so that you obey the bishop and the presbytery with an undivided mind, breaking one and the same bread, which is the medicine for immortality, and the antidote to prevent us from dying, but [which causes] that we should live forever in Jesus Christ.
Ignatius to the Magnesians 5: Seeing, then, all things have an end, these two things are simultaneously set before us—death and life; and every one shall go unto his own place. For as there are two kinds of coins, the one of God, the other of the world, and each of these has its special character stamped upon it, [so it is here]. The unbelieving are of this world; but the believing have, in love, the character of God the Father by Jesus Christ, by whom, if we are not in readiness to die into His passion, His life is not in us.
We see in his letter to the Magnesians the Two Ways theology. We’ve previously discussed this view which is present in the Scriptures and was popular in ancient Judaism and the Apostolic Fathers. At the end of the day, God gives us two paths we can choose to take: life or death. Life is found in Christ, and death is found in all things apart from Him.
Ignatius to the Trallians 2.1: For, since you are subject to the bishop as to Jesus Christ, you appear to me to live not after the manner of men, but according to Jesus Christ, who died for us, in order, by believing in His death, you may escape from death.
Referring to heretics, Ignatius says in his letter the Trallians in 6.2: For those [that are given to this] mix up Jesus Christ with their own poison, speaking things which are unworthy of credit, like those who administer a deadly drug in sweet wine, which he who is ignorant of does greedily take, with a fatal pleasure leading to his own death.
Ignatius to the Trallians 9.2: He (Jesus) was also truly raised from the dead, His Father quickening Him, even as after the same manner His Father will so raise up us who believe in Him by Christ Jesus, apart from whom we do not possess the true life.
Flesh and Spirit
A theme commonly noted in the letters of Ignatius is how often he brings up flesh and spirit. It is rooted in Ignatius’ central theme of unity in Christ, and highlights how in Jesus we find redemption, fellowship, and eternal life that is both physical and spiritual. Part of this speaks against the Docetists, who insist on a hyper-spiritual gospel and deny the physical suffering and death of Jesus. It also speaks against the Gnostic idea that in the afterlife we won’t have actual bodies, but just be free spirits.
This is relevant for our discussion because it gives implications for how Ignatius sees the condemned. Christ is the one who brings total redemption to the spirit and body. If you don’t have Christ, your spirit and body are doomed.
“Ignatius is not so much concerned with anthropology in an abstract sense as he is with man-without-Christ and man-in-Christ, with man’s choice between ‘death and life’ and his ultimate destiny (magn. 5:1). When Ignatius uses the term ‘flesh’ by itself, it usually refers to man left to his own resources and deceived by the wiles of the devil into living a merely carnal life, whereas ‘flesh and spirit’ together reflects a graced spiritualization and unification of the whole human person and of all the dimensions of human life.”
In addition to critiquing the Docetists, whose focus would be on the spirit, we see Ignatius also critiques worldliness, which would focus on the flesh. In Christ, both abound and flourish. How this plays into his understanding of final judgment doesn’t necessarily swing one way, but it does give us more context for Ignatius. And this leads us into the tricky passage, which even outside of our discussion has puzzled readers over the years.
Bodiless and Demonic
In his letter to the Smyrnaeans, Ignatius addresses early in the second chapter the Docetist conflict. He acknowledges their faulty beliefs, and brings a strong condemnation against them. After this, in the next chapter, he shares a tradition on the resurrection of Christ that bears similarity to Luke 24:39. The puzzling piece of this that has brought debate in scholarship is the resurrection tradition Ignatius cites, as it doesn’t seem to be Luke. We will have to briefly discuss this, but the sake of our present topic, our focus is on his specific condemnation against the Docetists that lead into the mysterious gospel tradition cited.
“For he (Jesus) suffered all this for us so that we might be saved; and he truly suffered just as he truly raised himself—not, as some unbelievers say, that he appeared to suffer—they are the apparent ones, and just as they think, so it will happen to them when they are incorporeal and demonic.
For I know and am confident that even after the resurrection he was in the flesh. And when he came to those with Peter he said to them, ‘Take, handle me, and see that I am not an incorporeal demon’. And they immediately touched him and believed, being mingled with his flesh and spirit.”
There have been different ways “incorporeal and demonic” in chapters 2 and 3 have been translated over the years. Some have translated it “disembodied demon” (Holmes, 2006, Pg. 122), “bodiless and ghost-like” (Brannan, 2017, Pg. 110), “phantoms without substance” (Staniforth, 1968, Pg. 96), and “divested of their bodies, and be mere evil spirits” (Coxe; Donaldson; Roberts, 1885).
The warning Ignatius gives to the Docetists that they will become bodiless and demonic is powerful. From a polemic point of view, he is turning the tables against the heretics. The Docetists claim Jesus didn’t have a real human body, so Ignatius warns that they will in fact lose their bodies in eternal punishment.
The tricky part for those who hold a view of Conditional Immortality is understanding what Ignatius means that they will also become demonic (or ghost-like). From a Traditionalist view, this could make sense. One way to interpret it is the condemned will have their bodies destroyed, and their eternal souls will face torment in hell.
In his excellent translation on the Apostolic Fathers, Rick Brannan adds a footnote to Ignatius’ warning to the Docetists:
“Ignatius here, in his argument against docetism, puts the outcome of the docetists back on themselves. As the docetists believe in separation of body and spirit, Ignatius assents and agrees with them that in their eternal torment, apart from the glory of Christ, they will be bodiless and ghost-like (also could be translated as ‘demonic’).”
I am still new in my research on Conditional Immortality, but so far, I have yet to find any Conditionalist address this passage and elaborate on it. In my opinion, one who holds to Eternal Conscious Torment would have a much easier time making sense of the condemnation Ignatius states. In order to make sense of why Ignatius would say this, we have to address the out of canon gospel tradition he cites.
Where did this Tradition come from?
The gospel tradition of Jesus resurrecting and telling his disciples that He is not a bodiless demon is not exclusively found in Ignatius. We find in the early centuries of the Church occasional references to this tradition from Church Fathers such as Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome. What makes this confusing is that Origen and Jerome seem to give a different source, and Eusebius isn’t sure where the tradition even came from! Therefore, until we discover more early Church manuscripts, it is up for debate. But for this blog, what we need to take away from this is that it was, in fact, an early gospel tradition of the resurrection known to Christians.
What does this have to do with Ignatius and the Docetists?
As someone who has a lean toward Conditional Immortality, my interpretation to Ignatius’ claim that the Docetists will become disembodied and demonic is this: Ignatius knew and used the “disembodied demon” tradition in order to better contrast the bodily resurrection of Jesus to the bodily and spiritual doom of the heretics. In other words, Ignatius is not necessarily giving a description of what he believes hell will be, but is trying to address the heart of the Docetist heresy using the “disembodied demon” tradition to drive home his point.
In his commentary on the letters of Ignatius, William R. Schoedel elaborates on this specific tradition of the resurrection. With his comments in mind, I would argue it actually hits Docetism harder than if Ignatius were to use the cannon tradition found in Luke:
“This surprising variation… is more likely to have been prompted by the expression “bodiless demon” in the tradition presently cited (3.2) rather than to have been created by Ignatius for this context… Ignatius’ reference to their becoming bodiless and demonic must also have functioned to make the point not only that they would lack bodily substance (which would not have concerned them) but also that what they thought of as rarefied spiritual state would in fact be ‘demonic’ in character.”
Schoedel brings up a good point. Since the Docetists only care about their spirits, a bodily condemnation would not have gotten Ignatius’ point across. Whether the spiritual suffering itself is eternal or not, the Docetists need to be warned that the spiritual afterlife they hope for is a lie and the true spiritual afterlife they’re heading for is tormenting.
Schoedel also questions if Luke’s version of a “spirit without flesh and bones” would get the point across to the Docetists as effectively as “disembodied and demonic”. (Schoedel, 1985, Pg. 226) We of course don’t know for sure if Ignatius even knew Luke’s version, but it’s still worth pointing out. This also ties back into Ignatius’ theme of flesh and spirit being found in Christ alone.
Conclusion
The life-or-death mentality found in Ignatius’ letters is strong, which would lean more toward a view of Conditional Immortality. But the “disembodied and demonic” passage can still throw a curveball to the Conditionalist arguement. While I do think the passage itself is used less for descriptive purposes of hell and more pragmatic purposes of rebuking heresy, it is still one that Conditionalists should reexamine and address critically.
Bibliography
Grant, R.M. (1966). The Apostolic Fathers: A New Translation and Commentary. Volume 4: Ignatius of Antioch. Eugene, OR. Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Vall, G. (2013). Learning Christ: Ignatius of Antioch & the Mystery of Redemption. Washington, D.C. The Catholic University of America Press.
Holmes, M. (2006). The Apostolic Fathers in English (3rd Ed.). Grand Rapids, MI. Baker Academic.
Brannan, R. (2017). The Apostolic Fathers: A New Translation. Bellingham, WA. Lexham Press.
Staniforth, M. (1968). Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers. London. Penguin Random House UK.
Coxe; Donaldson; Roberts. (1885). The Ante-Nicene Fathers. New York, NY. Christian Literature Publishing Company.
Schoedel, W.R. (1985). Ignatius of Antioch: A Commentary on the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch. Philadelphia, PA. Fortress Press.