apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

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IGNATIUS THE MARTYR. 29
chene bishops, or (if S. Peter be reckoned) the third'.
Of extant writers
our first authority for this statement is Origen {Horn, vi in Luc. § i, Op.
E. iii.
III. p. 93S a), who however does not give the name of Ignatius' predecessor.
This missing name, Euodius, is
supplied by Eusebius (//.
22 \
Chron. II.
pp. 152, 158, ed. Schoene), who doubtless followed some
older tradition. Whether his authority was Julius Africanus (c. a.d. 220)
or another,
is a question which will be fully discussed in its
proper
place (11. p. 452 sq).
On the other hand S. Chrysostom seems to speak
as though Ignatius were the immediate successor of S. Peter, though his
language is not quite explicit" and Theodoret appears to have thought
;
the same, for he describes him as having 'received the grace of the highpriesthood
at the hand of the great Peter^' In the Apostolical Constitutions
(vii. 46) the matter is differently represented ;
'In Antioch,' says
the prince of the Apostles, 'Euodius (was ordained bishop) by me Peter,
and Ignatius by Paul.' No weight attaches to a statement given on
such authority. It is
obviously a constructive inference built upon three
data: (i)
That Euodius was the first and Ignatius the second of the
Antiochene bishops ; (2) That two Apostles were connected in history or
tradition with the foundation of the Antiochene Church, of whom Peter
was the elder and Paul the younger; (3) That Ignatius, though the
second bishop of Antioch, was nevertheless an ' apostolic '
man, this
term being interpreted narrowly, so as to signify that he was ordained
bishop by some Apostle. In all the accounts hitherto mentioned Ignatius
is connected with the chief Apostle of the Circumcision or with the
Apostle of the Gentiles ;
but in the more widely spread, though later,
tradition he appears as a disciple of S. John. The source of this statement
seems to have been the Chronicon of Eusebius, not however in
its original form, but as it
appears in Jerome's revision and elsewhere,
where the name of Ignatius of Antioch is added to those of Papias of
Hierapolis and Polycarp of Smyrna as scholars of the beloved disciple.
^
He is styled the 'second,' with or elhov irXeKo/jLfvov ovtos S^ €