so many long epistles, entering minutely into dogmatic teaching, and expressing the most deliberate and advanced views regarding ecclesiastical government? Indeed it may be asked why Ignatius should have considered it necessary in such a journey, even if the possibility be for a moment conceded, to address such epistles to communities and individuals to whom, by the showing of the letters themselves, he had just had opportunities of addressing his counsels in person.(1) The epistles themselves bear none of the marks of composition under such circumstances, and it is impossible to suppose that soldiers such as the quotation above describes would allow a prisoner, condemned to wild beasts for professing Christianity, deliberately to write long epistles at every stage of his journey, promulgating the very doctrines for which he was condemned. And not only this, but on his way to martyrdom, he has, according to the epistles,(2) perfect freedom to see his friends. He receives the bishops, deacons, and members of various Christian communities, who come with greetings to him, and devoted followers accompany him on his journey. All this without hindrance from the "ten leopards," of whose cruelty he complains, and without persecution or harm to those who so openly declare themselves his friends and fellow believers. The whole story is absolutely incredible.(3) This conclusion, irresistible in itself, is, however, confirmed by facte arrived at from a totally different point of view.
It has been demonstrated that, most probably, Ignatius was not sent to Rome at all, but suffered martyrdom in Antioch itself(l) on the 20th December, a.d. 115,(2) when he was condemned to be cast to wild beasts in the amphitheatre, in consequence of the fanatical excitement produced by the earthquake which took place on the 13th of that month.(3) There are no less than three martyrologies of Ignatius,(4) giving an account of the martyr's journey from Antioch to Rome, but they are all recognised to be mere idle legends, of whose existence we do not hear till a very late period.(5) In fact the whole of the Ignatian literature is a mass of falsification and fraud.
We might well spare our readers the trouble of examining further the contents of the epistles of pseudo-Ignatius, for it is manifest that they cannot afford testimony
of any value on the subject of our inquiry. We shall, however, briefly point out all the passages contained in the seven Greek Epistles which have any bearing upon our synoptic Gospels, in order that their exact position may be more fully appreciated. Teschendorf(1) refers to a passage in the Epistle to the Romans, c. vi., as a verbal quotation of Matthew xvi. 26, but he neither gives the context nor states the facts of the case. The passage reads as follows: "The pleasures of the world shall profit me nothing, nor the kingdoms of this time; it is better for me to die for Jesus Christ, than to reign over the ends of the earth. For what is a man profited if he gain the whole world, but lose his soul."(2) Now this quotation not only is not found in the Syriac version of the Epistle, but it is also omitted from the ancient Latin version, and is absent from the passage in the work of Timotheus of Alexandria against the Council of Chalcedon, and from other authorities. It is evidently a later addition, and is recognized as such by most critics.(3) It was probably a gloss, which subsequently was inserted in the text. Of these facts, however, Tischendorf does not say a word.(4)
The next passage to which he refers is in the Epistle to the Smyrnæans, c. i., where the writer says of Jesus: "He was baptized by John in order that all righteousness
might be fulfilled by Him,"(1)—which Teschendorf considers a reminiscence of Matthew iii. 15, "For thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness."(2) The phrase, besides being no quotation, has again all the appearance of being an addition; and when in Ch. iii. of the same Epistle we find a palpable quotation from an apocryphal Gospel, which Jerome states to be the "Gospel according to the Hebrews," to which we shall presently refer, a Gospel which we know to have contained the baptism of Jesus by John, it is not possible, even if the Epistle were genuine, which it is not, to base any such conclusion upon these words. There is not only the alternative of tradition, but the use of the same apocryphal Gospel, elsewhere quoted in the Epistle, as the source of the reminiscence. Tischendorf does not point out any more supposed references to our synoptic Gospels, but we proceed to notice all the other passages which have been indicated by others. In the Epistle to Polycarp, c. ii., the following sentence occurs: "Be thou wise as a serpent in everything, and harmless as the dove." This is, of course, compared with Matth. x. 16, "Be ye, therefore, wise as serpents and innocent as doves." The Greek of both reads as follows: [——]—]