apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

3i6 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
Here the words in brackets are omitted in the Curetonian letter.
The thoughts which they contain do not indeed lie on the surface ;
and
this very obscurity would be a sufficient motive for their expulsion.
the words are full of meaning, when examined ;
and their ejection
produces a dislocation by which the logical connexion is altogether
shattered. The words ' It is better to be silent etc' are no logical
introduction to the last clause '
that through the things which he speaks
etc' On the other hand this clause is introduced fitly by the sentence
which commends the appropriation alike of the utterances and the
silence of Jesus, as combining to make the perfect man.
Again in §§ 8, 9, the sentence in the Curetonian letter runs ' For ye
do all things in Jesus Christ, having been prepared unto the building of
God the Father, being hoisted up to the heights by the engine of Jesus
Christ which is the cross, using as a rope the '
Holy Spirit etc. Here is
an elaborate metaphor introduced, and yet the key-word to it is wanting.
The ' preparation for the building ' might perhaps stand without explanation,
because by frequent use the metaphor of building
But
or 'edification
' had become so common as almost to cease to be a metaphor.
But the ' '
hoisting up supposes some previous explanation. This
explanation appears in the Vossian letter, which inserts several sentences
after the first clause, and in which the words, ' as being stones of the
Father's temple,' occur immediately before the clauses 'having been
prepared etc,' so that all runs smoothly.
Another example is in § 10. In the Vossian letter the passage is
read thus ;
'
Towards their fierceness be ye not zealous to imitate them by requital
Let US be found their brothers by our gentleness, but let us
{avTifiLni^a-aadai).
be zealous to be imitators of the Lord, (vying with each other) who shall
suffer greater wrong, who shall be robbed, who shall be set at nought.'
In the
Curetonian Recension the passage 'Let us be found. ..of the
Lord ' runs ' But let us be imitators of the Lord in our gentleness
and (by vying with each other) who etc' Here indeed there is no
dislocation in the sequence of thought as is the case elsewhere, but
the subtle expressiveness of the Vossian letter is entirely lost. In
the latter the connexion of thought
is as follows: 'Do not show
yourselves like them by copying them and thus requiting wrong
for wrong. If you desire to claim kindred with them, claim it in
another way; prove your brotherhood by treating them as brothers.
you would have somewhat to copy, take God as your pattern. Imitate
His gentleness and forbearance.'
The other passages which offer themselves for comparison in this
If