Epistles of Ignatius

Notes on The Epistles of Ignatius to
Ephesians
Magnesians
Trallians
Romans
Philadelphians
Smyrnaeans


Ephesians: Positions himself repeatedly as a martyr-to-be, and focuses largely on unity--the importance of unity to believers and the church, and how Christians should be submitting themselves to the Bishop in the name of maintaining unity and obedience. Avoid false teachers (which they've done well so far) and false doctrines, pray, be humble, fear God, meet frequently, love each other, and remember the glory of the cross and God's calling on your lives.


Magnesians: Again, positions himself as a martyr-to-be and focuses largely on unity, with more emphasis on obedience and not dissenting than Ephesians. Refers both to the unity of the church and the unity of Christ as both flesh and spirit, with emphasis on honoring their (young) bishop and not acting outside the bishop's purview or against his wishes. Emphasizes that Christianity is not Judiasm, and that the church should leave behind Judaism and be only Christian.

 Trallians: Obedience is a more important theme in this one than unity, though there's still a good deal about the importance of unity. The bishop and deacons should be obeyed; the importance of humility is stressed (using himself as an example); heretics and "snares of the devil" should be avoided. The particular heresy of the Doectae is emphasized as something to be avoided, and unity and love are the ending notes of the letter.

Romans: Really focuses on the martyr-to-be status, probably because if he's headed to Rome to be martyred and writing to Romans, they're the ones who are most likely to see him. "Don't free me!" and "Let the wild animals eat me" are interesting themes that do seem to say both "do!" and "don't!" at the same time, but I'm also unsure how much of my reading of that is colored by the lecture before reading. He asks that his martyrdom would actually attain, and that if/when people pray for him, it be for that, because the glory and kingdom of God are shown and he'll attain heaven through being killed for Christ(ianity?). 

Philadelphians: Be unified in who you obey (the bishop), what you believe, and what you do (only one Eucharist). God (and also Ignatius) wants you to be unified and obedient, and it's also important that you not be Jewish, not go back to Judaism, and remember that Christianity is better than Judaism.

Smyrnaeans: Speaks bluntly against various heresies about Christ, both the idea that Christ was somehow not bodily crucified and that Christ did not have a body after the resurrection. This is also the most condemnatory of the letters we read, explicit in its claims that those who do not believe, who are not partaking in the Eucharist and prayer, and confessing the proper version of Christ, will all be damned.

Things I Like: It's always interesting to read more, and to see how authorship is impacted by form. Those things really come out in these letters.

Things I Don't Like: It's really disconcerting to me to see the beginnings of supercessionist theology in action, outside the canonized NT in addition to the various aspects of the NT that are already familiar to me.

Questions I Still Have: I need to think more about the idea that hierarchy is necessary for unity, and what the value of unity actually is. I'm not convinced that it's as important, at least now, as it was, and I'm not convinced that if we continue to insist on hierarchy we're actually doing good.
Also, given the "you're going to hell" vibe of the last letter, I'm curious about the evolution of the idea of hell/eternal punishment, particularly since it doesn't work that way in Judaism or even Paul's epistles.