apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

24 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
The name was not unknown in these parts. The Stoic, P. Egnatius
Celer, who under Nero won for himself an exceptional place in the
annals of crime (Juv. Sat. iii.
114 sq, Tac. Ann. xvi. 32,
Hist. iv.
10, 40), was a native of Beyrout (Dion Cass. Ixii. 26). At a later
date again, during the joint reign of M. Aurelius and L. Verus, we
have an inscription at Ph^no or Phaena in Palestine, which mentions
one Egnatius Fuscus, a tribune stationed there (Boeckh C. I. G. 4544
$atv7^crioi ac^iepwcrai/ e^ecTTwros x[''^"^PX°^] ^ey[ewj'os] y Ta\XX\iKrj% ,
comp. 4542). Moreover it was sometimes borne by Jews, as appears
from another inscription {ib. 4129), where it is found in connexion
apparently with the name Esau and the symbol of the golden candlestick.
In Christian circles also, during the early centuries, it
appears
more than once. The African martyr Egnatius or Ignatius, commemorated
by Cyprian, has been mentioned already. In a sepulchral
monument also at Rome, which being written in Greek must belong
to an early date, we tind the name, though in the abbreviated form,
'lyraTis (C. /. G. 9694).
Connected herewith is the name Niirono (KliiCll), by which the
martyr is not unfrequently designated in Syriac (Gregor. Barhebr.
Chron. i.
p. 42, ed. Abbeloos et Lamy Assem. Bibl.
;
Orient, in. p.
16 sq). Tentzel {Exerc. Set. i.
p. 46 sq), misled by Pocock's rendering
of the words of Barhebraeus {Hist. Dyn. vii. p.
1 1 9),
'
Ignatius
Nuraniensis,' supposed that the saint was a native of Nora or Nura in
Sardinia; and this explanation has found favour with others (e.g. Grabe
Spicll. II. p. I sq, Fabric. Bibl. Grace, vii. p. 32 sq, ed. Harles). The
true derivation was divined by Pearson {Ign. Epist. Gen. p. i, annot.),
who called attention to a passage of Epiphanius {Haer. xxvi. i), where
vovpa. is
given as the Syriac equivalent to ivvp, and by others (e.g.
Wesseling /////. Anton, p. 84 sq). A passage in Severus the Monophysite
patriarch of Antioch, first published by Cureton (C /. pp. 216,
247) from a Syriac version, removes all doubt as to the meaning of
the word. In his 65th Epithronian Oration, delivered in the Church
of Ignatius, the ancient Temple of Fortune at Antioch, Severus, as
represented by his Syriac translator, states that Ignatius was appropriately
so named by a certain prescience ;
that the Latin ignis is
equivalent to the Syriac nnro or 'flame'; and that he was called
Nurono or '
Inflamed,' because the torch of divine love blazed in him\
1
There is some corruption in the Sy- priately named Ignatius from facts, beriac
text here, as Zahn (/. v. A. p. 555) cause he foreknew things future; for any
has noticed. As it stands, Severus is one who is only moderately acquainted
made to '
say that the saint was appro- with the language of the Romans knows