apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

2 74 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
Hardly less decisive than these tokens of date are the indications of
country. In a moment of forgetfulness our Ignatian writer betrays his
secret. In Philipp. 8, referring to the return of Joseph and Mary with
the child Jesus from Egypt, he speaks of it as a ' return thence to these
parts ' {IkCiQ^v km. rd rySe cTravoSos). This would naturally apply to
Palestine, but might be extended to Syria. The interest which the
writer elsewhere shows in Antioch and cities ecclesiastically dependent
on it,
such as Laodicea, Tarsus, and Anazarbus, points to the latter
country rather than to the former.
But though compiled in the latter half of the fourth century, this
recension did not find currency till a much later period. The earliest
quotations in the Greek fathers, as we have seen, date two centuries
later. Nor did it ever displace the Middle Recension in the Greek
Church. The two are quoted side by side in the same age and sometimes
even by the same writer (e.g.
Theodore of Studium, p. 222 sq).
The Vossian Letters still continued to be transcribed, as the existing
Medicean MS shows. In the Latin Church the Long Recension played
a more important part. It was translated into Latin at least as early as
the first half of the ninth century, and for some centuries it was without
a rival in Western Christendom. Only in the thirteenth century was the
Middle Form translated by Grosseteste or his fellow-labourers and
;
even
then its circulation was confined to England, perhaps to the Franciscan
order to which Grosseteste bequeathed his books (see above, p. 76 sq).
Yet, though for several centuries the Long Recension held exclusive
possession of the field in the West, and though even afterwards its displacement
was only local, we may suspect that its diffusion was never more
than partial.
It is at least a remarkable fact that nearly all the known
Mss, though numerous, are of Burgundian origin (see above, p. 127).
In the Syrian Church the interpolated letters of this recension seem
to have remained unknown to the last. The Additional Epistles, as we
have seen, were appended to the seven letters of the Middle Form, and
the whole collection was translated into Syriac. Hence the Additional
Letters only of the Long Recension are quoted by Syriac writers. The
same is the case with Armenian and Arabic speaking Christians. The
Armenian Version, which was translated from the Syriac, speaks for
itself. Arabic Christianity, which would likewise derive its
knowledge
from the Syriac, is
represented by Severus of Ashmunin, and he quotes
side by side a passage from the Epistle to the Smyrnseans
in the
Middle Form and another from the Epistle to the Antiochenes (see
above, p. 228). The case of the Egyptian speaking Christians again