apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

THE GENUINENESS. 421
S' v;ro7rT€u(7avTcs /xc k.t.X., or ih. 8 koX Xeyovros /xov aurois OTt FeypaTr-
Tttt K.T.X., or /^.
9 KoKoi KoX ot lepcts k.t.X., or Sniyrn. 5 ov tivcs
ayvoovvTts k.t.A.
Again the style is anacoluthic. This also indicates a hastily written
letter rather than a deliberate literary forgery. Of these Ignatian
letters generally we may say that they consist either of short epigrammatic
sentences, or (where greater continuity is attempted) of unfinished
paragraphs, the apodosis being forgotten in the string of subordinate
clauses attached to the protasis, or the grammar being broken in some
other way. In the opening of the Epistle to the Romans for instance
the protasis (§
i 'Ettci €u^a/Mcvos 0€(3 iiriivxov iSetv k.t.X.)
is followed
by seven successive sentences, each hanging on to the preceding and
each linked by yap, till the grammar is altogether dislocated and the
original idea of the sentence lost (see 11. p. 194). In like manner
in the Magnesian letter the protasis, which begins with § 2 'Ettci
ovv, is lengthened out through four chapters, various topics being
meanwhile introduced and the apodosis altogether forgotten, until the
protasis is resumed again in the same word at the beginning of § 6
'ETret ovv (see
II.
pp. no, 118). So too the Ephesian letter begins
with a participial clause (§
i 'ATroSela/ixevos k.t.X,), the finite verb
being forgotten in a string of subordinate clauses, so that the sentence
is never completed (see 11. pp. 28, 29, 31). Such imperfect sentences
as these are exactly analogous to the phenomena in S. Paul, especially
in the Epistle to the Ephesians which likewise was written amidst
the restraints of a captivity. In like manner also in the opening
of the Epistle to the Philadelphians the greeting runs on continuously
without any break into the main body of the letter by means of
a relative (ctlV
tw €Vto-K07ra)...ov iiridKo-Kov eyvtov k.t.X.)^
a wholly ungainly and intractable sentence.
so as to produce
Before leaving the subject
it is worth while also to direct attention
to the archaic character of many of the expressions. Such for
instance is 'the Work', to epyov {Ephes. 14, Rotn. 3), as a synonyme
for the Gospel (see 11. pp. 68, 205); 'the Name', to ovoij^a, Ephes. 3, 7,
Philad. 10, referring to Christ (see
11.
p. 37); 'the Will', to diX-qixa or
OiX-qfLa alone {Ephes. 20, Rom. i, Smyrn. i, 11, Polyc. 8), meaning
God's purpose (see 11.
p. 85); fx.aOyynj'i 'a learner', 'a disciple' {Ephes.
I, Trail. 5, Eom. 5), signifying a follower of Christ (see 11. p. 31); and
similar modes of expression. Though some or all of these uses are not
without parallels in subsequent times, yet the frequency
of such expressions
in these epistles can hardly be regarded othenvise than as
pointing to the primitive ages of the Gospel.