apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

420 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
manner in the Epistle to the Romans (§ lo) he mentions incidentally
certain persons as having preceded him from Syria to Rome, but
he tells us nothing
about them. Of this same character also is the
reference in Ephcs. 9 to 'certain persons' as 'having passed through
from yonder place' (TrapoScuo-avTa's twos iKeWev), where the place is
not named and the whole incident is
wrapped in obscurity. Again
the expression in Polyc. 8 'the churches in front' (rats tfnrpoa-Oev
cKKXr^o-tais)
is not without its value from this point of view. Here
the due orientation is observed, and the relative positions of the
writer and his correspondents with reference to Antioch are not
forgotten. But it is
very unlikely language to have been invented
by a forger. It stands in direct contrast, for instance, to the blunder
of the Ignatian forger of the fourth century {Philipp. 8), who, forgetting
that Ignatius is supposed at the time to be writing from Italy,
represents the return of Joseph and Mary with the child Jesus from
Egypt to Nazareth (Matt. ii. 19 — 23) as a 'return to the parts hereabouts^
(cTTi
TCI TTjSe £7raj'oSos : see above, p. 274, and below, in.
P- 195)-
And here perhaps it may not be out of place to speak
of the
conditional promise which Ignatius holds out to the Ephesians (§ 20),
that he will send them a 'second tract' {Iv tw Z^vTip