Elicity as his it could have raised, as it appears to ave done, only the merest ripple on the surface. (2) Ignatius was bishop of Antioch in Syria. A number of letters have come down to us under his name, of which only seven are genuine. The writer was at the time on his way from Antioch to Rome under sentence of death. The date 110- 117, the closing years of Trajan's reign, may be assigned to them.
Il.-sll
Father.' 't'lioe wonl^ in.-vilal,lv ivrall ,ln V"- "i.-l. also 42= 'tlieFatlii-r m-i-Im-iIi sii.-li 1.. \M,r>]ii|i liini 'i. Not only the ideas, iml llici oin, iilmn-of ii|,-as, M-cni to point to the slmv ol I In- «oiiiaii of Samaria a,s to a passage in the Uosiicl which is alloi.lin-j liini comfort in his trial. Again, in Vlnhnl. \\\. |. In- saySj 'The Spirit is not deceived, lii-in- from Coil : for it knoweth whence it <»metb ami «liiilii r ii goeth, and searcheth out the hiildcii iliimj> (it. Jn 3» 8", 1 Jn 2"). There are sonn- -iril,iii;j ilillir- ences in the thought of the parallel la-aui--: Imt it is diflicult to re.slst the conclusion lli.-it the words of T-naliu:, air due to the inlluence ut tliese Johannim- |ia--a-jr ■ lloatini; in his mind' {Xciv Test, ill . I / " . ■■/ . / . I / A . , ... ( i.vford Society of Historical Tbeolouv. Kill.-.. |i, sj, wli,-re see other parallelisms), r.otli in i-x, Ill-nil, ami ,11 ilorhim- tlicro is an lui-
EvniKjilc, p. 7). Von der Goltz holds that the afhnity of thouglit is so deep that it cannot be explained by the influence of a book, and that the %xriter of the letters must have been imbued with the tra- dition and thought of a school (quoted by Sanday, Ci-H. of Fourth Gospel, p. 243). Sanday himself ' doubts whether there is any other instance of resemblance between a Biblica"l and patristic book that is really so close' {Hi.).
Two ariiiuncnts, taken from the writings of luiialius, arc n-licil upon by opponents of the Apos- tolic aiillioi>lii]i. (,/| It is urged that he nowhere i|Uoti-s Ihi- Co-pcI as of Apostolic nnthnrity. al-
ing on this objection, that, although it is quite evident that Ignatius knew 1 Cor. 'almost by heart,' he has ' no quotations (in the strictest sense, with mention of the source) from that Epistle ' {NT in Apost. Fathers, p. 67). This is only another instance of the precariousness of the argument from silence, considered apart from the idiosyn- crasies of a writer, (i) Again, it is also objected that in writing to the Ephesian community in which St. .loliii i> >aiil to have laboured, Ignatius mentions St. I'aul as a hero of the faith, whom he sets before liinisclf .and them for imitation, but makes no mention of St. John {Ej)hes. .xii.). To this argument it must be admitted that no very satisfactory answer has yet been given. Ignatius is, indeed, predisposed to mention St. Paul's name, through his evident desire to compare bis own experience and the Apostle's in calling together the elders of Ephesus. Again, the writings of St. Paul, which have more clearly in view the various heresies of the time, would perhaps suit his purpose better.
It cannot be regarded as certain that Ignatius used the (Tospel. His evidence is on the border- line between evidence for the existence of the Go^|lel anil ]iroof of the influence of a milieu of .loliannine teaeliing and thought. It is probable that Ign.iliiiv liail iTi-i-ess to some iloi-iiment contain- ing Jolianiiiiie learjiinu (i-f. . .ij. Ills leference to the narrati\e of Mm- Homan of Saniaiia) ; on the other hand, tlial miulil i-a-ily lia\e lieeii a story told orally by tin- A|iii,lle in the course of his preach- ing and leailiin-, anil embedded in the hearts and mindsof llioM- who heard him.
(3) Polycarp was liisbop of Smyrna. His writ- ing has come down to us in the form of an Epistle to the Philippians. The date of his martyrdom was Ion" uncertain, but the investigations of Light- foot and Harnack have led to the almost certain conclusion that he died in 155 at the age of 86.
Ai, ii-;_iarils the Gospel, we have two sources from wliirli we may derive evidence as to his opinions, viz. the /:jii.s//n and some icminisrences of Irenpeus.
(«) In the Epistle, l'ol\rai|i makes no reference toany document, except lliai lii-ieleis to St. Paul's Ep.' to the Philippians imiiiei I ia Illy after mentioning his name, and in another i«ssage again quotes the K]iislle w it liout remark. There is also a sentence wliirli, I hough not verbally accurate, bears every liaieof having been taken from the First Epistle of St. John: •Kvervone who shall not 1 oiife... (hat JesusChrist is ci.me in tin- Ih-h i- Ant hhi i-l ' (cf. 1 Jn4--'). He ha- al>ii a ]ias>am- ihal leialls at once words of t'liii>t in the ( lo^pel ami the thought of the Epistle : ' He that raised Him from the dead will raise us also, if we do His will and walk in His commandments, and love the things which He loved ' (cf . Jn V 14'=, 1 Jn 2'- " 5'- =). We also find in Polycarp, v. 2, ' As He hath jiromised to raise us from the dead.' This promise is found only in Jn 6''^. These parallelisms at least show that he was familiar with a circle of Johannine