Ignatius of Antioch (d. circa 107/110)

By Rev. Thomas G. Weinandy, O.F.M.

Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, was arrested and taken to Rome to suffer martyrdom in the Coliseum, and is presently buried in San Clemente Church near by.  He is a very lively, energetic and determined man – cut from the cloth of Paul.  In the course of his travels he met with and wrote to other Christian communities.  In his seven letters he was primarily concerned with three issues: 1. the unity of church as lived in communion with the Bishop and fostered in the Eucharist, 2. the danger of heresy and, 3. the glory of martyrdom. 

For Ignatius the unity of the church was of the supreme importance because this unity consisted of Christ (the head) and his body.  This unity was first of all founded upon a unity of faith – all believed in the one true Gospel (thus his concern for heresy which destroys the unity of faith).  It was the Bishop, as the earthly presence of Christ and successor to the Apostles, who is the foundation of this present unity for he is the authentic teacher and defender of the Gospel, and the pastoral who oversees the proper care and harmony of all the faithful.  The fullest expression and fostering of this unity, ‘ a symphony of minds in concert’, is found in the Eucharist for there the local faithful, in union with the bishop, gather to hear the Gospel and to come into communion with Christ by receiving his risen body and blood, which is  ‘the medicine of immortality’.

The greatest heresy that faced Ignatius was Docetism.  Docetism (coming from the Greek word 'dokesis' meaning 'to seem') held that the Son/Word of God only 'seemed' or 'appeared' to take on human flesh, but actually did not.  Thus all that pertained to Jesus' humanity – birth, eating, suffering, dying, etc. – was only apparent and not real.  The Docetists argued that, if the Son/Word was truly God, he could not truly assume human flesh for to do so would jeopardize and destroy his divine nature.  God could not actually suffer and die.  Ignatius clearly proclaimed the truth of the Incarnation.

First, Ignatius argued that Jesus, being the true Word of the Father, was the full Revealer of the Father.  He speaks from the Father's 'silence' and the Word as the Father's 'mouthpiece'.  As such Jesus is truly God.  Ignatius, on 14 occasions calls Jesus God, and on 8 of these actually refers to him as ho theos (the God).  This is very surprising at such an early date, since the New Testament seems very hesitant to call Jesus simply 'God'. 

Second, what is also surprising, Ignatius is one of the first, if not the first, to use what is called 'the Communication of Idioms', that is, the predicating of divine and human attributes of one and the same person.  He can speak of 'divine blood' or 'the passion of my God'.  This is a very strange use of language.  God does not have blood.  God cannot suffer.  However, if God becomes man, then God does have blood, and he can suffer, not as God but as man.  This is why Ignatius used such language.  It allowed him to express boldly and even scandalously, contrary to the Docetists, the truth of the Incarnation.  To the Ephesians Ignatius could write about Jesus in a marvellous poetic fashion. 
Very Flesh, yet Spirit too;
Uncreated, and yet born;
God-and-Man in One agreed,
Very-Life-in-Death indeed,
Fruit of God and Mary's seed
At once impassible and torn
By pain and suffering here below:
Jesus Christ, whom as our Lord we know.

Through out his letters then Ignatius stressed the reality of Jesus' humanity and the authenticity of his human experiences.  His main argument for upholding the truth of the Incarnation is soteriological.  If the Son of God only pretended to be a man, if his 'human' life were a mere charade and thus his birth, baptism, suffering and death were simply pantomime, then our salvation is a mere pretence and counterfeit.  It has no reality either. 

This leads to Ignatius’ third concern, the glory of martyrdom.  Ignatius pointedly told the Trallians that, when he arrives in Rome, he will be eaten by real lions with real teeth.  He will shed real blood.  He will actually suffer and truly die.  If Jesus only pretended to shed blood and only feigned suffering and death, then he (Ignatius) is the most to be pitied.  He is but a fool.  Moreover, it is in becoming a martyr that one fully proclaims the Gospel by imitating Jesus himself.  Equally, martyrdom fulfils what takes place in baptism in that one dies and rises with Christ and so fully become an authentic Christian.  Lastly, martyrdom is the living out of the Eucharist, for there, in receiving the body and blood of Christ, we are conformed into his likeness and thus in laying down one’s life for Christ one is fully conformed into the true likeness of Christ. 
(For Ignatius’ seven letters see Early Christian Writings, trans. by M. Staniforth (London: Penguin Books, 1968).

Father Thomas G. Weinandy is a member of the Capuchin order and holds a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from St. Fidelis College in Herman, Penn., a master’s in systematic theology from Washington Theological Union, and a doctorate in historical theology from King’s College, University of London. Father Weinandy is a member of the Catholic Theological Society of America, the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, the Catholic Theological Society of Great Britain, the North American Patristics Society and the Association Internationale D’Études Patristiques. He is the author of Does God Suffer; Jesus the Christ; Cyril of Alexandria: A Critical Appreciation; The Father’s Spirit of Sonship: Reconceiving the Trinity; and Be Reconciled to God: A Family Guide to Confession. Father Weinandy also has published scholarly articles in such journals as The Thomist, New Blackfriars, Communio, A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, and the International Journal of Systematic Theology.