apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

4i8 EPISTLES OF 8. IGNATIUS.
But this termination, if it was Latin, was certainly Asiatic likewise, as
appears from such words as 'Acriavos, BuKxpiavo's, SapStavos, TpaXAtavos,
'Apeiavo, MevavSpLavo, ^a^eXXtavo'. The next occurrence of the word
in a Christian document is on the occasion of S. Paul's appearance
before Festus (a.d. 6o). It is not however put in the mouth of a
believer, but occurs in the scornful jeer of Agrippa,
'With but little
persuasion thou wouldest fain make me a Christian' (Acts xxvi. 28) ^
The third and last example occurs a few years later. In the First Epistle
of S. Peter, presumably about a.d. 66 or 67, the Apostle writes 'Let
not any of you suffer as a murderer or a thief..., but if (he suffers) as a
Christian, let him not be ashamed but glorify God' (iv. 15). Here
again the term is not the Apostle's own, but represents the charge
brought against the believers by their heathen accusers. In the New
Testament there is no indication that the name was yet adopted by the
disciples of Christ as their own. Thus Christian documents again
confirm the statement of Tacitus that as early as the Neronian persecution
this name prevailed, and the same origin also is indirectly suggested
by these notices, which he directly states— not 'qui sese appellabant
Christianos', but 'quos vulgus appellabat Christianos'. It was
a gibe of the common people against 'the brethren'.
Some apology
is due for occupying so much space in controverting an
opinion which future generations will probably be surprised that any
one should have maintained. But the fact that it has found a champion
in an able and learned critic like Lipsius must be my excuse. One is
tempted sometimes to despair of the intellectual temper of an age in
which such a phenomenon is possible. But extravagances like this are
the price paid for the lessons which the critical
activity of our time has
taught us.
The Epistles of Ignatius show an advance upon the language of the
New Testament in two respects. First ; The designation, which arose
as a scoff of the heathen, has been adopted as an honourable title by
the believer. The forty or fifty years which have elapsed since the
^
See Lipsius I.e. p. 13 sq, who has
satisfactorily disposed of this question.
-
Lipsius, I.e. p. 4, objects to the
account in Acts xxvi. 1%, ' The narrator
assumes that the expression XP"''"'"''^^
was common not only among the heathen
but among the Jews'. I do not know why
it should not have been used commonly
by the Jews at this time, more especially
in a city with a mixed population like
Csesarea. But two points may be noticed ;
(i) Agrippa, though a Jew, spent some
time in Rome in his earlier years, had
mixed largely with the heathen, was at
this moment speaking before a heathen
audience, and would be likely to use
heathen modes of speech ; (2) S. Paul
himself in his reply does not adopt the
term Christian, but seems studiously to
avoid using
it.