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382 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
and on the testimony of the water and the blood (comp. Joh. xix. 34,
35), indicates rather the Ignatian type of Docetism ;
for Cerinthus did
not deny the reality of the body or the passion
of Jesus, but only the
participation of the Christ in this fleshly passion. When Polycarp (1. c.)
quotes the words of i Joh. iv. 2, 3, 'Whosoever confesseth not that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is antichrist,' he doubtless applies it to
the type of Docetism which appears in the Ignatian letters, but this is
not decisive as to its original reference, since he would naturally apply
the words to the form with which he himself was familiar. On the
whole it is
perhaps sHghtly more probable that Cerinthian Docetism is
attacked in S. John's Epistles and if ; so, the evidence only holds so
far as to show the strength of Docetic speculation generally at a very
early age.
From the foregoing discussion it will have appeared that the strongly
marked type of Docetism assailed in these letters, so far from beifig a
difficulty, is rather an indication of an early date\ since the tendency of
Docetism was to mitigation, as time went on.
The
(ii) negative side of the subject remains to be considered.
The author's direct statements have been examined ;
and it is time now
to cross-question his silence. He is obviously a polemical writer. He
takes a keen interest in the theological and ecclesiastical questions of
his day. Such a man has no power of deliberate, sustained self-repression.
Of him it may be said, as he himself says of others {Ephes. 15),
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'He is revealed by his silence.' If he betrays no
interest in the controversies which agitated the Church in the middle
and latter half of the second century,
it may be inferred that he felt no
interest in them.
Now one main controversy which troubled the Church from the
middle of the second century onward, so as from time to time to
threaten its disruption, was the proper day and mode of celebrating
the Paschal festival. The main arenas of this struggle were the
Churches of Asia and the Church of Rome— the very churches
with which Ignatius is
represented as in close communication. The
principal personage who figures in the first stage of this dispute is
none other than Polycarp, the chief friend and correspondent of Ignatius.
How irresistible must have been the impulse of our author to
declare himself on this burning question. Was the festival to be kept
always on the 14th Nisan or always on the same day of the week
Was the precedent of S. John and S. Philip to be followed with the
^
This point is justly insisted upon by Zahn /. v. A. p. 399.