apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

30 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
The origin and spread of this form of the tradition is discussed below
(ii. p. 477 sq).
All these different attempts
excrescences on the earliest tradition, which is content to speak
as an 'apostoHc' man.
to name his teacher are
of him
Still less can be learnt from the dates assigned by tradition to his
episcopate. These are discussed in their proper place (ii. p. 448 sq).
It is sufficient to say here, that his accession is
represented as taking
place about a.d. 69, while the commonest date assigned to his martyrdom
is about A.D. 107. But neither the one nor the other has any claim
to respect, as authentic history. Of his accession we know nothing at
all. His martyrdom may with a high degree of probability be placed
no, before or after.
The traditions therefore relating to his date and apostolic teaching
within a few years of a.d,
may be safely dismissed from the consideration of the question before
us. They are neither authoritative enough, nor consistent enough, to
have any value for our purpose.
Having thus cleared the way, we have
only to ask whether there is any chronological inconsistency
in the
supposition that Ignatius was a disciple of some Apostle, though not
converted till he had reached mature age. And the answer must be in
the negative. If we place his martyrdom about a.d. iio, and suppose
(as there is fair reason for supposing) that he was an old or elderly man
at the time, he may have been born about a. d, 40. If his apostolic
master were S. Peter or S. Paul, his companionship with either may have
fallen as late as a.d. 65, so that he would have been twenty-five years of
age at the time. If his teacher were S. John (and there is no improbability
in this supposition, though the tradition, as a tradition, is valueless),
the epoch of his conversion might be advanced to a.d. 90 or later,
which would make him some fifty years of age. Nor is his apostolic
discipleship contradicted by his own statement in EpJies. 11, as Zahn
seems disposed to think. Even though crvvrjaav were the correct reading
in this passage, he would not, when he commends the Ephesians as
'
always associating with the Apostles,' tacitly contrast
himself as iinier
associating with them. If any tacit contrast were implied, which is
more than doubtful, it would rather be with his own brief or infrequent
companionship with them. But the reading a-w^vecrav 'consented unto'
seems slightly more probable than crvvrjaav 'associated with.'
Of his administration, as a bishop, only one tradition has been
preserved ;
and this refers to a matter of ritual. The historian Socrates
(U. E. vi. 8) relates that Ignatius ' saw a vision of angels, praising the
Holy Trinity in antiphonal hymns, and left the fashion of his vision as
a custom to the Church in Antioch (toi' rpo-nov row 6pdfiaTo