apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

THE CURETONIAN LETTERS. 287
centuries after the author's date is in itself a presumption— a very
strong presumption, it is thought — in favour of this, as the original form
of the Ignatian Letters.
Even supposing that this allegation were true, what would be
the value of the fact for the purpose for which it is alleged It would
depend pardy on the number of the quotations adduced, partly on the
relation of the two recensions, the one to the other, as storehouses
of apt and serviceable quotations.
But the alleged quotations are only three in number, one in
Iren^us (see above, p. 143) and two in Origen (see p. 144). The
passage cited by Irenseus is the startling image in Rom. 4 ' I am the
wheat of God, and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts, that I
may
be found pure bread.' Of the two quotations in Origen, one is taken
from the same letter Rom. 7 'But my passion is crucified'; the other
from Ephes. 19 'And the virginity of Mary escaped
the notice of the
prince of this world.' Thus the direct quotations are very few indeed,
and they are all obvious and striking. Moreover on the hypothesis
that the Short Recension is an abridgment of the other, we should
naturally expect it to have preserved just those passages which would
strike the reader as especially apt for quotation. The presumption
therefore, even if the statement itself could be accepted as strictly
accurate, is so slender, that it must give way before the slightest positive
evidence on the other side.
force.
But the statement is
open to criticisms, which seriously impair
its
In the first place it
ignores several references to the Ignatian letters,
which, though individually they may be thought indecisive, yet collectively
are entitled to the highest consideration, as evidence in favour
of the Middle Form.
The passage in Lucian will be found quoted above, p. 137 sq. It
will be seen at once that, if there be any allusion to the Ignatian letters
in this pagan satirist, it is not satisfied by the epistles
of the Short
Recension. The statement (p. 141) that Peregrinus 'sent about letters
to nearly all the famous cities' might indeed be met by the expression
in Ro7n. 4 'I write to all the churches,' though
it finds a much more
natural explanation in the existence of a body of letters like the Seven
of the Middle Form, with which Lucian may be supposed to have been
acquainted; but the superadded words relating how he 'nominated
(eX€tpoToVr;o-€) certain of his companions ambassadors (7rpeo-/3eDTas),
whom he called death-messengers (ve/cpayyeXov) and infernal -couriers
{veprepo8p6fj.ovs),' has no parallel in the Syriac letters, whereas on the