apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

402 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
without further evidence. Nor again have we a right to say that the
severance between the agape and the eucharist took place at Antioch
or in Smyrna
at the same time as in the Churches of Pontus and
Bithynia. But there can be httle doubt that the union of the two did
not generally
survive the persecution of Trajan, and when Justin wrote,
some thirty years later, the severance seems to have been complete
everywhere.
(iv) Literary Obligations.
An important criterion of date in the case of an unknown author
may in many cases be found in his quotations or plagiarisms', and
generally in his literary obligations, whether acknowledged or not, to
those who have gone before him. In the present instance however the
direct evidence under this head is exceptionally meagre. The author of
these epistles
— whether Ignatius or another— is
a man of an essentially
independent mind. We should not therefore look for many quotations
or adaptations ; and, as a matter of fact, his obligations are confined
to the Scriptures, with the exception of some slight
coincidences with
the Epistle of S. Clement, on which no stress can be laid^ But the
Scriptural references afford evidence of the highest value, though for the
most part negative.
A primary test of age in any early Christian writing is the relation
which the notices of the words and deeds of Christ and His Apostles
bear to the Canonical writings. Tried by this test the Ignatian Epistles
proclaim their early date. There is no sign whatever in them of a
Canon or authoritative collection of books of the New Testament.
The expression It is written ' (yeypaTTTai) is employed to introduce
'
quotations from the Old Testament alone {EpJies. 5, Magn. 12). In one
passage it is evidently used by Ignatius, in controversy with his Judaizing
opponents, of the Old Testament as distinguished from the New {Fhilad.
'
8).
In this same passage the archives ' {ap-^iia) are opposed to * the
Gospel' (to er'ayyeXtov), as the Old Testament to the New (see the
notes, II. p. 270 sq). Such language is highly archaic. Nor does it
stand alone. There are frequent references to the facts of Christ's life,
the miraculous incarnation, the baptism, the crucifixion, the resurrection,
etc. There are even Gospel sayings embedded in these letters, though
not directly cited, e. g. Polyc.
2 ' Be thou prudent as the serpent in all
1
The Ignatian writer of the fourth Rom. 27 (see 11. p. 70). On the other
century betrays his date very clearly by hand there seems to be a tacit reference
his plagiarisms; see above, p. 260 sq. to Clement's Epistle in Horn. 3 (see
e.g. Ephcs. 15 compared with Clem. above p. 371 sq, and 11. p. 203).