apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

404 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
bound up in one volume so as to be convenient for reference, when
Ignatius lived. We have no right even to assume that just the same
— epistles neither more nor fewer— were accessible to him which are
accessible to us. And this being so, he was much more likely to have
indulged in such a statement than a writer situated like ourselves.
I would ask any reader, who desires to apprehend the full force of
these arguments, to read a book or two of Irenaeus continuously, and
mark the contrast in the manner of dealing with the Evangelical narratives
and the Apostolic letters. He will probably allow that an interval of
two generations or more is not too long a period to account for the
difference of treatment. If, reading the two documents side by side, he
is not himself impressed with the wide gulf which separates them, his
opinion is not likely to be affected by any arguments of others.
Directly connected with this subject is the reference in the Ignatian
Epistles to New Testament personages. No little difficulty has
been occasioned by the fact that the writer, addressing the Ephesians
(§ 12), adverts to their connexion with S. Paul, but is silent
about their connexion with S. John. As I have explained in the notes
(11. p. 64), there was a special reason why S. Paul should be mentioned,
which did not apply to S. John.
It is as one who, like Ignatius
himself, had been received by the Ephesians on his way to Rome and
to martyrdom, that the Apostle of the Gentiles is singled
out for
mention. The difficulty however— such as it is
— affects not the genuineness
of the Ignatian Epistles but the credibility of the tradition of
S. John's sojourn at Ephesus during his later years. So far as it has any
bearing at all on the Ignatian question, the omission of S. John's name
is rather favourable to the genuineness
of these letters than otherwise.
In the age of Irenaeus {Haer. ii. 22. 5, iii. 3. 4) and Polycrates (Euseb.
H. E. v. 24), when the traditions of S. John's residence at Ephesus
were rife in the Church, the temptation to a forger writing to the
Ephesians to say something about him would be almost irresistible.
Even the later Ignatian writer of the fourth century cannot withstand
this impulse. In the previous chapter (§ 11) Ignatius mentions the
obedience of the Ephesians ' to the Apostles'. This Ignatian interpolator
must needs give their names, Paul, John, and Timothy.
But the reticence of the writer with regard to Ignatius himself would
be still more remarkable if these letters had been a forgery. A forger
generally betrays himself by his too great eagerness to claim the highest
authority for his utterances. Ignatius
was well known as an 'Apostolic'
father. He was the friend of S. John's disciple Polycarp. The writer
of these epistles has occasion to mention S. Peter and S. Paul by name