apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

366 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
Crocus at the time when these words were penned. Of Burrhus, whom
he styles his fellow-servant and a deacon, he expresses the hope that he
may remain Uvypfxai Trapa/xeTvat avToV) to the honour of the Ephesians
and their bishop. This expression
is so incidental and allusive that we
hardly see the force of it. But turning to two epistles written from
Troas {F/ulad. ii, Stnyrn. 12), we learn that Burrhus had continued in
his company and journeyed with him from Smyrna
to Troas. He is
the amanuensis of the letters to the Philadelphians and Smyrnaeans ;
and from the notices in these we find that he had been commissioned
to accompany the saint to Troas, not only by the Ephesians to whom
he belonged, but also by the Smyrnaeans among whom he had stayed.
Thus the desire of Ignatius had been fulfilled. There is no indication
that any other Ephesian was in his company
at Troas. Indeed his
silence suggests the contrary.
But the mention of Burrhus points to another coincidence of a
different kind. In the apocryphal Acts of S. John which bear the
name of Leucius, the Apostle is represented as ordaining one Byrrhus
or Burrhus deacon, and this same person takes a prominent part
in the
last scene of the Apostle's life
(Zahn Ada Joannis pp. 226, 244 sq ;
see below, 11. p. 34). There is no indication whatever that either the
writer of these Acts had seen the Ignatian Epistles or the writer of the
Ignatian Epistles these Acts (see Zahn /. c. p. clii sq) ;
so that these
Acts must be regarded as independent traditional testimony (of whatever
value) to the existence of a person bearing this name and holding the
ofiice of deacon in the Church of Ephesus at this time.
The Magnesian delegacy consisted of four persons, whose names
are given. Of these the bishop Damas bears a name not uncommon in
these parts, while the names of the presbyters, Bassus and Apollonius,
occur more than once in inscriptions and coins, as borne by Magnesians
(see II. pp. no, in). The deacon Zotion calls for no special remark.
Among the persons whom Ignatius met at Smyrna, and whom he
salutes in letters subsequently written thither, is one Alee {Smyrn. 13,
Polyc. 8). In both passages he speaks of her as ' that name beloved by
me (to TToOrjTov fjiOL ovo/xa).'
The name Alee, though rare, is especially
connected with Smyrna in an inscription, as I have pointed out (11,
p. 325). But this is not the main coincidence. In the account of the
martyrdom of Polycarp which took place at Smyrna some forty or
fifty years after the assumed date of these Ignatian letters, Nicetes
the father of the magistrate Herodes is mentioned quite incidentally as
'the brother of Alee' {Mart. Polyc. 17 rov tov 'HpwSou -jraTepa, dSeXcfiov
Se "AXki^s). Both Herodes and Nicetes are hostile to the Christians.