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Ignatius and the Archives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

William R. Schoedel
William R. Schoedel
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801
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Extract

The well known passage about the “archives” and the “gospel” in Ignatius’ Letter to the Philadelphians (8.2) is one of the most intriguing glimpses given us of debate in the church early in the second century. Wide agreement about the meaning of the passage seems to have been reached, and the current view may be summarized more or less as follows: Ignatius recalls a conversation that picks up just after he had made a theological point during his visit to Philadelphia (he gives us no direct information on the subject of the discussion). His opponents had replied (according to most commentators) that if they did not find it in the “archives” (that is, the Old Testament), they did not believe it to be in the “gospel.” Ignatius had retorted that Scripture in fact supported him: “It is written” (γέγραπται). But his opponents had answered that his certainty was not well grounded: “That is just the question.” The passage concludes with a statement that may represent not so much what Ignatius said then as what he now regards as an appropriate way of ending such debates. The “archives” (he says) are Jesus Christ; or (as he rephrases it) the “inviolable archives” are Christ's cross, death, resurrection, and the faith that comes through him. If this is what the passage means, it represents a remarkable reliance on the “gospel” and the events of salvation as opposed to the formal authority of the (Old Testament) Scriptures.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 71 , Issue 1-2 , April 1978 , pp. 97 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1978

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References

1 παρακαλῶ δἑ ὐμἀς μηδἑν κατ' ἐριθείαν πρἀσσειν, ἀλλἁ κατἁ χριστoμαθίαν. ἐπεἀ ἥκoνσἀ τινων λεγóντων ὅτι ἐἁν μὴ τoῖς ἀρχαίoις (ἀρχείoις, GL) εὕρω ἐν τῶ εὐαγγελίῳ oὺ πιστεύω καἀ λέγoντóς μoυ αὺτoῖς ðτι γέγραπται, ἀπεκρίθησἀν μoι ὅτι πρóκειται. ἑμoἀ δἑ ἀρχειἀ ἐστιν 'Iησoῦς Xριστóς, τἁ, τἁ ἀθικτα ἀρχεια ò σταυρòς αὐτoῦ καἀ ó θἀνατoς καἀ ἠ ἀνἀστασις αὐτoυ καἀ ἠ πίστις ἠ δι' αὐτoὑ, ἐν oίς θἐλω ἐν τη πρoσευχἠ ὐμῶν δικαιωθἠναι. With most scholars I accept the authenticity of the middle recension of Ignatius' letters. The recent attack on the scholarly consensus by Reinoud Weijenborg (Les lettres d'Ignace d'Antioche [Leiden: Brill, 1969]) does not succeed (cf. A. Wenger, “A propos des lettres d'Ignace d'Antioche,” Revue des etudes Byzantines 29 [1971] 213–16).

2 Cf. J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, part 2: S. Ignatius, S. Polycarp (2d ed.; London: Macmillan, 1889) 2Google Scholar. 270–73; Krüger, G., in Hennecke, Edgar, Handbuch zu den Neutestamentliche-Apokryphen (Tübingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 1904) 198–99Google Scholar; Walter Bauer, Die Briefe des Ignatius von Antiochia (HNT Ergänzungsband 2; Tübingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 1920) 260–61; Th. Camelot, O.P., Ignace d'Antioche, Lettres (SC; Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1951) 148–49; Helmut Koester, Synoptische Überlieferung bei den apostolischen Vätern (TU 65; Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1957) 6–10; Robert M. Grant, Ignatius of Antioch (The Apostolic Fathers vol. 4; Camden, N.J.: Nelson, 1966) 106.

3 Jul. Petermann, H., S. Ignatii Patris Apostolici Epistolae (Leipzig: Vogelius, 1849) 208Google Scholar. This reading—ἀρχαίoις … ἀρχεῑα … ἀρχεῑα—assumes that Ignatius substituted “archives” for “ancients” in his concluding statement. But it is unclear what he would have accomplished by that other than weaken his argument. We must assume, then, that the same word was used throughout. The reading ἀρχαίoις … ἀραῑα … ἀρχαῑα, which has naturally also been suggested (cf. PG 5. 703, n.34), could only be defended if a parallel to the peculiar designation of Scripture or the prophetic oracles as ἁρχαῑα (“old things”) could be found (again the first occurrence of the term could be taken as a masculine [“ancients”], which would mak e good sense; but the second and especially the third [τἁ ἃθικτα ἀρχεῑα] are fixed as neuters and determine the gender of the first). We shall see later that ἀρχαῑα for ἀρχεῑα was a common textual corruption.

4 Zahn, Theodor, Ignatius von Antiochien (Gotha: Perthes, 1873) 373–79Google Scholar. Cf. Auguste Lelong, Les Peres Apostoliques, vol. 3: Ignace d'Antioche (Textes et documents; ed. H. Hemmer et P. Lejay; Paris: Picard, 1910) 76–77.

5 Reinach, Solomon, “Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, and the APXEIA,” in Anatolian Studies Presented to Sir William Mitchell Ramsay (ed. Buckler, W.H. and Calder, W.M.; Manchester: Manchester University, 1923) 339–40Google Scholar; Petersen, Erik, EIΣθEOΣ (FRLANT 24; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1926) 216–21Google Scholar.

6 Johannes Klevinghaus, Die theologische Stellung der apostolischen Väter zur alttestamentlichen Offenbarung (BFCTh/44/1; Gutersloh: Bertelsmann, 1948)98–102.

7 Any doubt that here Josephus considers the Phoenician writings as “public records” like those of the Egyptians and Babylonians is ruled out by the explicit remarks to that effect in 1.8–9.

8 For this and other aspects of Josephus' treatment of priests and prophets and their role with reference to Scripture see Blenkinsopp, Joseph, “Prophecy and Priesthood in Josephus,” JJS 25 (1974) 239–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Josephus speaks of the Ancient Near Eastern records as written by the wisest men of those societies (1.9). That is analogous t o the connection he draws between th e Jewish records and the prophets. He apparently assumes that in the Orient (unlike Greece) creating archives and writing history were virtually identical acts. Perhaps he was thinking of the “register roll” that was “the daily record of royal actions and activities into which every royal decree was entered, a practice followed at the Persian court as well as the courts of Egypt, Babylon, and Assyria and the princely courts of Israel and Judah” (Posner, Ernst, Archives in the Ancient World [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1972] 126CrossRefGoogle Scholar). Even so, to consider a book like the Bible as a typical Oriental archive is obviously wrongheaded.

10 Congr. 175; Fug. 137; Somn. 1.33, 48; 2.265,301.

11 F. H. Colson, Philo (LCL; London: Heinemann, 1935) 6. 606. Praem. I also associates the historical part of Scripture with rewards and punishments.

12 See on Plutarch Moralia 218C, in Wyttenbach, Daniel, Animadversiones in Plutarchi Opera Moralia (Leipzig: Teubner, 1821) 2Google Scholar. 422.

13 Cf. Suidas, s.v. ἀρχεῖα where it says, ἠ ἀρχαῖα ὠς Ξενoφῶν ‘Iστoριῶν η'.

14 Cf. Lightfoot, S. Ignatius, S. Polycarp, 2. 265, 302–3; Bauer, Ignatius, 258–59, 268.

15 Ignatius von Antiochien, 368–71. For a similar approach see now Barrett, C. K., “Jews and Judaizers in the Epistles of Ignatius,” Jews, Greeks, and Christians: Essays in Honor of W. D. Davies, ed. Hamerton-Kelly, R. and Scroggs, R. (SJLA 22; Leiden: Brill, 1976) 220–44Google Scholar. Barrett, however, thinks in terms of an unorthodox Jewish group with close ties to Christianity.

16 Klevinghaus, Theologische Stellung, 88–96.

17 Cf. Magn. 10.3: “It is ridiculous to speak of Jesus Christ and to Judaize; for Christianity did not believe in Judaism but Judaism in Christianity….”

18 For other uses of the term in such a context see Justin, Apol. 1.52.3; Dial. 14.8; 40.4; 118.2; T. Levi 8.15;T. Jud. 22.1.

19 Ignatius von Antiochien, 371–73.