Ignatius of Antioch

Ignatius, painted 1486

Ignatius of Antioch († 2nd century , martyrdom perhaps in the last years of the reign of Emperor Trajan (110-117); several researchers date his lifetime to the period after 160 due to a different assessment of the authenticity of Ignatius' letters ) was Bishop of Antioch . His exact dates and circumstances are not known. He later went by the nickname Theophoros , "the bearer of God". Seven of his letters are recognized as genuine. He is a witness to early dogmatic commitments in the Church.

Life dates

The essential source about Ignatius is the church history of Eusebius of Caesarea , which was written at the beginning of the 4th century . According to Eusebius ( Church History 3.36.15) Ignatius Euodius of Antioch succeeded him in the office of Bishop of Antioch; Ignatius' successor was Heros . Ignatius was therefore the third patriarch and bishop of Antioch after the apostles Simon Peter and Euodius. After Origen († 254), however, he was the second bishop in Antioch; Peter himself ordained him bishop .

Martyrdom of Ignatius, 16th century representation

Eusebius further reports ( Church History 3.36) that Ignatius was arrested in Antioch during the reign of the Roman Emperor Trajan (98–117) and brought to Rome . There he was torn apart by lions in the Circus Maximus . According to Eusebius' chronicle, Ignatius was bishop of Antioch from the first year of Vespasian in 69/70 to the tenth year of Trajan in 107/8; therefore he should have died at 107/8. The vast majority of theological commentators, however, meanwhile accept the martyrdom of Ignatius in Trajan's last years (110–117). Adolf von Harnack and other historians, on the other hand, rejected the dating of the reign of Trajan as fictional and assumed or assumed the date of death at the earliest in 138, i.e. the end of the reign of Emperor Hadrian (Traianus Hadrianus Augustus), or even later because the early dating is only the result of a later schematic calculation on the basis of later bishops lists, which, however, became generally accepted in the beginning of late antiquity . For other researchers, the writings attributed to Ignatius are highly improbable before 160. They represent a late dating because the letters presuppose theological and institutional developments that are otherwise only documented decades after Trajan. This applies in particular to the " monarchical episcopate " mentioned by Ignatius (Ign. Ant. Smyrn. 8,1f.), But otherwise only attested since the later 2nd century. Overall, Ignatius is seen as a missionary in the church tradition ; He is said to have animated many Romans to the Christian faith through his way and his faith.

For Zwierlein, on the other hand, Ignatius of Antioch could only be a fictional character .

Ignatius letters

→ Main article : Letters of Ignatius

Eusebius further reports that Ignatius met several church leaders on his transport through Asia Minor to Rome and encouraged them in their faith. He also warned against heresy and wrote down these warnings in the seven so-called Ignatian letters. There are six letters to churches in Ephesus , Magnesia , Tralles , Rome , Philadelphia and Smyrna and one letter to Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna . In it he thanked him that the congregations had sent him their greetings through emissaries on his path of suffering, encouraged them to oppose heresies, called for obedience and asked the Romans not to intervene for his liberation. The first four were written in Smyrna , the last three in Troas . There are other letters ascribed to Ignatius, but they are not authentic.

Ignatius is very important because in his letters he emphasizes the special position of the bishop in the Christian community. He is therefore an important source of information for the churches of the Catholic , Ancient Near Eastern , Orthodox and Anglican traditions, which unanimously teach the establishment of the episcopate by Christ himself. Of course, there are still texts from the time after Ignatius that can be interpreted in such a way that the deacons and presbyters had equal rights with the bishop. In his letters Ignatius warns against false doctrines, especially against Judaizing tendencies and against docetism .

It is also significant that Ignatius was the first in Christian literature to assign the adjective “ Catholic ”, that is, “all-encompassing”, to the church. “Where Christ is, there is the Catholic Church” (Letter to the Smyrneans 8.2). In Antioch - at that time, alongside Rome and Alexandria, one of the three great metropolises of the Roman Empire with flourishing Christian communities - the disciples of Jesus were called " Christians " for the first time ( Acts 11:26  EU ).

Legends

Reports about Ignatius other than those of Eusebius are of a much later date and offer no reliable information. Church tradition sees Ignatius as a student of the apostles Peter and John and therefore counts him among the apostolic fathers . The later legend equated Ignatius with the small child who Jesus Christ placed in the midst of the disciples when he asked them to become like the children. In terms of age, this identification would be possible, but this tradition emerged so late (after the 4th century) that it cannot correspond to any historical tradition.

Worship as a saint

Ignatius together with other patriarchs and the gentleman brother James, depicted on an icon in Kiev

Ignatius is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox churches and the Catholic Church , he is counted among the canon saints . The commemorative days are October 17th in the Catholic, Anglican, Syrian and Evangelical Churches; in the Armenian Church it is December 17th , in the Orthodox Church December 20th and in the Coptic Church January 3rd .

All the Patriarchs of Antioch - especially the Syrian Orthodox - wear in honor of St. Ignatius of Antioch the name Ignatius, Greek Ignatios , French Ignace .

See also : Patriarchate of Antioch

literature

Editions and translations

• The seven Ignatius letters , in: The Apostolic Fathers , introduced, ed., Trans. u. ext. by Joseph A. Fischer (writings of early Christianity; 1). 10th, through Ed., Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1993, 109–225.

• The Apostolic Fathers . Greek-German parallel edition, based on the edition by Franz Xaver Funk , Karl Bihlmeyer and Molly Whittaker. With translations by Martin Dibelius and Dietrich-Alex Koch new trans. and ed. by Andreas Lindemann and Henning Paulsen. Tübingen: Mohr, 1992.

Secondary literature

• Bauer, Walter: The letters of Ignatius of Antioch and the Polykarpbrief (Handbook for the New Testament Erg.-Vol: The Apostolic Fathers 2), Tübingen: Mohr, 1920
• Brent, Allen: Ignatius of Antioch: a martyr bishop and the origin of episcopacy , London et al: Continuum, 2007, ISBN 978-0-567-03200-3
• Norbert Colmar:  Ignatius of Antioch. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , Sp. 1251-1255.
• Hübner, Reinhard M .: Theses on the authenticity and dating of the seven letters of Ignatius , in: ZAC 1 (1997) 44–72.
• Lechner, Thomas: Ignatius adversus Valentinianos? Chronological and theological history studies on the letters of Ignatius of Antioch (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 47), Leiden, Boston, Cologne: Brill, 1999.
• Löhr, Hermut: The letters of Ignatius of Antioch , in: Wilhelm Pratscher (Ed.), The Apostolic Fathers. An introduction , Göttingen: UTB / Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2009, 104–129. ISBN 978-38252-3272-6
• Paulsen, Henning: The letters of Ignatius of Antioch and the letter of Polycarp of Smyrna (Handbook for the New Testament 18; The Apostolic Fathers 2), 2., revised. Edition d. Interpretation by Walter Bauer, Tübingen: Mohr, 1985.
• Paulsen, Henning: Studies on the theology of Ignatius of Antioch , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1978, ISBN 3-525-55134-7
• Prostmeier, Ferdinand R .: Ignatius von Antiochien , in: Siegmar Döpp (Hrsg.): Lexicon of ancient Christian literature , 3rd completely revised. u. exp. Aufl. Freiburg: Herder, 2002, pp. 34346-348.
• Schmithals, Walter: Zu Ignatius von Antiochien , in: ZAC 13 (2009) 181-203.
• Schoedel, William R. and Köster, Helmut (eds.): Ignatius of Antioch : a commentary on the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, Philadelphia: Fortress Pr., 1985, ISBN 0-8006-6016-1
• Schoedel, William R .: Ignatius von Antiochien , in: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 16, 40-45

Web links

Commons : Ignatius of Antioch  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Ignatius of Antioch in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Ignatius of Antioch  in the German Digital Library
• Ignatius letters online (BKV translation)
• Complete works in the Patrologia Graeca

Individual evidence

1. ↑ SCHOTT Register
2. ↑ H. Paulsen, WR Schoedel, RM Grant, Ph. Vielhauer, H. Koester, U. Schnelle, Chr. Trevett, K. Niederwimmer a. v. a.
3. ↑ Adolf Harnack, The time of Ignatius and the chronology of the Antiochene bishops to Tyrannus according to Julius Africanus and the later historians, Leipzig 1878.
4. ↑ RM Hübner, Th. Lechner, R. Joly u. a.
5. ↑ Otto Zwierlein : The original versions of Martyria Polycarpi et Pionii and the Corpus Polycarpianum. Volume 2: Text History and Reconstruction. Polycarp, Ignatius and the editor Ps.-Pionius . De Gruyter, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-037100-0 , heading, p. 347 ( limited preview in Google book search [accessed on March 19, 2017]).

predecessor	Office	successor
Euodius	Bishop of Antioch approx. 68–100	Heros I.