Ignatius of Antioch

## Who Was Ignatius of Antioch?

Ignatius of Antioch was the bishop of Antioch in Syria in the late first and early second centuries. Antioch is the city where believers were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). Around AD 107 to 110, during the reign of Trajan, Roman authorities arrested Ignatius and sent him to Rome to die in the arena.

On the journey he wrote seven letters. Those letters are some of the most direct and personal writing to survive from the early church.

## Major Works: Letters of Ignatius

Ignatius wrote four letters from Smyrna: to the Ephesians, the Magnesians, the Trallians, and the Romans. He wrote three more from Troas: to the Philadelphians, the Smyrnaeans, and Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna.

He wrote fast and under pressure. He describes his guards as ten “leopards” who grew worse when treated kindly. That urgency gives the letters their force. Most scholars accept these seven letters, the so-called middle recension, as genuine. Longer versions and extra letters were added in later centuries.

## Christ-Centered Faith

Ignatius opposed teachers who said Jesus only seemed to have a body. Scholars call that view docetism. Ignatius answered with plain facts: Jesus was truly born, truly ate and drank, truly suffered under Pontius Pilate, truly died, and truly rose. He repeats “truly” again and again in his letter to the Trallians.

He calls Jesus “our God” several times. His letters show that Christians were confessing the full deity and full humanity of Christ long before the councils of the fourth century.

## Role of the Bishop

Ignatius is the first writer to describe a single bishop leading each local church, with elders and deacons serving under him. He tells the churches to do nothing apart from the bishop.

His concern was unity and protection from false teaching. A church gathered around one bishop, one table, and one faith was harder for false teachers to split.

## Unity of the Church

In his letter to the Smyrnaeans, chapter 8, Ignatius uses the phrase “the catholic church” for the first time in surviving Christian writing. The word catholic means universal or whole. He writes that wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church.

He also calls the Eucharist “the medicine of immortality” in his letter to the Ephesians. For Ignatius, sharing one Eucharist was a sign of sharing one faith.

## Faithful Suffering

His letter to the Romans is a plea not to rescue him. He asks the Roman Christians not to use their influence to stop his execution. He writes, “I am the wheat of God, and am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ.”

Ignatius saw martyrdom as the way to become a true disciple. Tradition holds that he died in the Colosseum around AD 108.

## How to Read Ignatius Today

Start with Romans. It runs 10 short chapters and takes about 15 minutes.

Then read Smyrnaeans and Trallians to see his defense of Christ’s real body.

Use Michael Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers, or the free Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 1.

Read all seven letters in about 90 minutes. Note each time he says “truly.”

## About the Author

CK Quarterman is a USAF veteran, independent author, and publisher at CKQbooks. He writes the Malaterrestrials nonfiction series, which examines evil earthbound non-human intelligences through Scripture and history, along with the Watchers’ Universe and Sons of the Flood fiction series. Find his books at ckqbooks.com.

Truth · History · Scripture