The Letters of Ignatius of Antioch

Ignatius wrote to the churches of Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Rome, Philadelphia and Smyrna, and to Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, in the course of a single journey as a prisoner through Asia Minor. The letters are his own words, written on that journey, and they are evidence for what one bishop taught and for how he wished the churches to be ordered. They urge unity around the bishop, warn against those who denied that Christ had really suffered, and ask the Christians of Rome not to prevent his death. The letter to the Smyrnaeans (8) uses the phrase “the Catholic Church”.

Two things need care. The first is the text. The letters circulated in three forms: the seven letters as cited here, a longer form, made in the fourth century, in which they were expanded and other letters were added, and a short Syriac form of three. Since the work of Theodor Zahn and J. B. Lightfoot in the nineteenth century the seven letters in their shorter Greek form have been generally accepted as authentic. The second is the date. Eusebius places the death of Ignatius in the reign of Trajan (AD 98–117), and the letters are usually put around 110 on that basis; some scholars argue for a date some decades later.