Epistles of Ignatius of Antioch

Pluralists often post quotes from Ignatius of Antioch in support of the plural rational persons within the Godhead. Most always these quotes are taken from the long recension of Ignatius' epistles which are proven interpolations of the bishop's actual epistles.

Here I give some needed information for anyone wanting to understand the Bishop of Antioch.

In circa 107 while on route to Rome to be martyred, Ignatius wrote seven epistles, that are considered authentic, to both churches and friends. These are very valuable to Christianity for  they give us a literary window to a transitional period of the Church. During this time the leadership of the Church was transitioning from the Apostles' to the Bishops who were the Apostles successors.

Recensions
The text of these epistles is known in three different recensions, or editions: the Short Recension, found in a Syriac manuscript; the Middle Recension, found in Greek and Latin manuscripts; and the Long Recension, found in Latin manuscripts.

For some time, it was believed that the Long Recension was the only extant version of the Ignatian epistles, but around 1628 a Latin translation of the Middle Recension was discovered by Archbishop James Ussher, who published it in 1646. For around a quarter of a century after this, it was debated which recension represented the original text of the epistles. But ever since John Pearson's strong defense of the authenticity of the Middle Recension in the late 17th century, there has been a scholarly consensus that the Middle Recension is the original version of the text. The Long Recension is the product of a fourth-century Arian Christian, who interpolated the Middle Recension epistles in order to posthumously enlist Ignatius as an unwitting witness in theological disputes of that age. This individual also forged the six spurious epistles attributed to Ignatius.

Manuscripts representing the Short Recension of the Ignatian epistles were discovered and published by William Cureton in the mid-19th century. For a brief period, there was a scholarly debate on the question of whether the Short Recension was earlier and more original than the Middle Recension. But by the end of the 19th century, Theodor Zahn and J. B. Lightfoot had established a scholarly consensus that the Short Recension is merely a summary of the text of the Middle Recension, and was therefore composed later.

☩☩ JLH

Read more from Bishop Hayes on Ignatius of Antioch at the link provide here:

Church Structure: Ignatius of Antioch

https://bishopjerrylhayes.blogspot.com/2015/06/church-structure-bishop-ignatius-of.html

Godhead Theology of Ignatius of Antioch

https://bishopjerrylhayes.blogspot.com/2015/10/godhead-theology-of-bishop-ignatius-of.html

Godhead Theology is a study of Christian Godhead theology. ... Was He God or not? In Godhead Theology Bishop Jerry Hayes follows that debate through the first 300 years of the Church's history. Our book is in five sections: Section One ... demonstrates Modalistic Monarchianism as the original orthodoxy of the Chruch; Section Two introduces the Apostolic Creed ... ; Section Three is an affirmation of Modalistic Monarchianism; Section Four is Modalism's responses to objection from the pluralists Trinitarians, Binitarians, Arians and Semi-Arians. Included are two comprehensive indexes: Subject Index and Scripture Index. 613 pages.

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