apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

difficulty is overcome, by setting
THE CURETONIAN LETTERS. 32 1
aside the Vossian letters in favour of
the Curetonian. Nay, there is an actual loss ;
for the Vossian letters
show that the Docetism against which the writer aims his shafts is
Judaic
in its character, and therefore exhibits a very early type of this error.
Again the eucharistic teaching of the Ignatian epistles has been a
;
stumblingblock to some ;
but the strongest eucharistic passage {Rom.
7) appears in the Curetonian letters, as well as in the Vossian.
Again ;
the angelology of Ignatius has been held unworthy of a
primitive father of the Church ;
but the most emphatic angelological
passage {Trail. 5) has a place in the Curetonian letters also, though
transferred in these from the Trallian to the Roman Epistle.
(ii)
Nor again
is the position altered when we turn to ecclesiastical
questions. The advocacy of the episcopal office, which is associated
with the name of Ignatius, appears very definitely in the Curetonian
letters. The writer warns those who resolve to remain in virgin purity
to reveal their resolution to no one but the bishop ;
and he enjoins
those who purpose marrying to obtain the consent of the bishop to
{Polyc.
their union, '
that their marriage may be after God and not after concupiscence.'
to the bishop, that God also
'
Give heed,' he continues,
'
may give heed to you : my life for the life {dvTLij/vxov iyw) of those who
are obedient to the bishop, to the presbyters, to the deacons :
may it
be mine to have my portion with them in the '
presence of God
5, 6).
He addresses Polycarp as bishop of the Church of the Smyrnaeans
and charges him to 'vindicate his office' {Polyc. i).
His people
must do nothing without his approval, as he himself must do nothing
without the approval of God {Polyc. 4). In like manner he designates
Onesimus bishop of the Ephesians, and he charges them to love and to
imitate him {Ephes. i).
So also, speaking of himself, he regards
it as a
signal manifestation of God's purpose, for which the Romans are bidden
to offer praise and thanksgiving, that He has deigned
to summon to
the far west 'the .bishop from Syria' {Rom. 2). Thus, though the language
may lose something in strength and the directions may lack the
same precision, the authority of the episcopal office stands out not less
clearly in these Curetonian letters, than in the Vossian, as the keystone
of the ecclesiastical system.
By accepting the Curetonian Recension as the original form of the
Ignatian letters, we do indeed dispose of certain other difficulties which
critics have raised relating to ecclesiastical organization and nomenclature
(e.g. Smyrn. 8 -q KaOoXiK-q iKKkrjcria^ lb. 13 Tos TrapOh'ov; ras Xeyoy.eva^
XW"^), but it will be shown hereafter that these difficulties have
arisen from a misunderstanding of the expressions used. On the other
IGN. I. 21