Other ancient texts · Early Christian writings
Ignatius to Polycarp
This is a short letter from Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, written on his way to execution in Rome to Polycarp, the young bishop of Smyrna, telling him how to lead a church: stand firm "like an anvil being struck," care for widows and slaves, and keep the church united around its bishop. It is the only one of Ignatius' seven letters written to one person, and people read it as one of the earliest Christian writings outside the New Testament about how a pastor should do his work.
- about AD 110
- Greek
- Protestant Catholic Orthodox Ethiopian
Should it be in the Bible?
The case for
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It was written within a generation of the apostles, to a man tied by tradition to the apostle John.
The evidence
Irenaeus (c. 180, Against Heresies 3.3.4), who knew Polycarp as a boy, says Polycarp had been taught by apostles and made bishop of Smyrna by them. The letter is dated by most scholars to the early second century, close in time to the latest New Testament writings.
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It is well attested from the start, so readers can be fairly sure it is genuine and early.
The evidence
Polycarp himself, in his Letter to the Philippians 13, says he is collecting Ignatius' letters and sending them on. Eusebius (Church History 3.36) lists this letter among Ignatius' seven, and J. B. Lightfoot's and Theodor Zahn's 19th-century studies convinced most scholars that the seven-letter 'middle recension' is authentic.
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Its teaching fits closely with the New Testament and with what the church later confessed.
The evidence
It echoes Matthew and Paul's letters, for example 'wise as serpents, innocent as doves' (2.2) and the armour of God (6.2). Its description of Christ as 'timeless, invisible, who became visible for our sake… impassible, who became passible for our sake' (3.2) matches what later creeds taught about Christ.
The case against
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No church has ever treated it as scripture, and Ignatius did not claim apostolic authority.
The evidence
It does not appear in the Muratorian fragment, Athanasius' list of 367, the councils of Hippo and Carthage, Trent, or the Ethiopian canon. Elsewhere Ignatius writes, 'I do not command you as Peter and Paul did; they were apostles, I am a convict' (Romans 4.3).
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The text comes down in tangled forms, and a minority of scholars doubt it is authentic.
The evidence
There are three versions of the collection: a padded-out 4th-century 'long recension' with forged extra letters, a shortened Syriac version, and the seven-letter middle version, which survives in Greek in essentially one 11th-century manuscript. Scholars such as Robert Joly, Reinhard Hübner and Thomas Lechner have argued that even the middle version is a later forgery, and the date is disputed.
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Some of its advice reflects one bishop's views and his own times, and should be read with care.
The evidence
Its strong insistence that everything go through the bishop (5.2–6.1) may describe what Ignatius wanted more than how churches were generally run in his day. It also tells slaves not to want to be freed at the church's expense (4.3), which shows the social assumptions of that era.
Both sides are written as strongly as the honest evidence allows, so you can decide for yourself. Researched by claude-opus-5-5.
When, where and by whom
Tradition holds that Ignatius wrote it from Troas, while under Roman guard and about to sail for Neapolis (8.1), during the reign of Trajan, around AD 107–110. Most scholars accept it as genuine and date it somewhere between about 105 and 140, though a minority (e.g. R. Hübner, T. Lechner) argue the seven-letter collection was forged around 160–175.
Jesus, the New Testament and this book
- 'Be wise as serpents in all things and always innocent as the dove' (2.2) quotes Jesus' words in Matthew 10:16. (strong link)
- Telling husbands to love their wives 'as the Lord loves the church' (5.1) echoes Ephesians 5:25–29. (strong link)
- The picture of the Christian as a soldier, with baptism as a shield, faith as a helmet and love as a spear (6.2), echoes Ephesians 6:11–17, and 'please him whose soldiers you are' echoes 2 Timothy 2:3–4. (likely link)
- 'Bear the sicknesses of all' and 'bear with all in love' (1.2–3) echo Matthew 8:17 (quoting Isaiah 53:4), Galatians 6:2 and Ephesians 4:2. (likely link)
- Advice that people who stay unmarried should do so humbly, 'to the honour of the flesh of the Lord' (5.2), parallels Paul's discussion in 1 Corinthians 7. (possible link)
- Calling Christ 'invisible, who became visible for our sake' (3.2) recalls Colossians 1:15 and 1 Timothy 3:16. (possible link)
- Polycarp's Letter to the Philippians (13) refers to Ignatius' letters, and the Martyrdom of Polycarp tells how the man this letter was written to died, so the letter belongs to a well-documented early Christian circle. (strong link)
How it came down to us
The Greek middle recension of this letter survives mainly in one 11th-century manuscript in Florence (Codex Mediceus Laurentianus 57.7), backed up by a medieval Latin translation that James Ussher identified in 1644, the year before Isaac Vossius printed the Greek in 1646. There are also an abridged Syriac version published by William Cureton in 1845 (from Nitrian manuscripts now in the British Library), Armenian, Coptic and Arabic translations, and many Greek and Latin copies of the expanded 4th-century long recension, which Greek and Latin churches kept copying through the Middle Ages.
- Greek text of the middle recension (Codex Mediceus Laurentianus 57.7) as edited by J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers Part II (1885/1889)
- Syriac short recension (Cureton, 1845) and Armenian, Latin, Coptic and Arabic versions
- Polycarp, Letter to the Philippians 13
- Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.3.4 and 5.28.4
- Eusebius, Church History 3.36
- Canon lists: Muratorian fragment, Athanasius' Festal Letter 39 (367), councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397)
- Modern editions and studies: Michael Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers; William Schoedel, Ignatius of Antioch (Hermeneia); Paul Foster and Timothy Barnes on dating; Hübner and Lechner on authenticity