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| Ignatius the bishop.
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Chapter XVI.
Ignatius,2405
third bishop of the church of Antioch
after Peter the apostle, condemned to the wild beasts during the
persecution of Trajan, was sent bound to Rome, and when he had come on
his voyage as far as Smyrna, where Polycarp the pupil of John was
bishop, he wrote one epistle To the Ephesians, another To the
Magnesians, a third To the Trallians, a fourth To the
Romans, and going thence, he wrote To the Philadelphians and
To the Smyrneans and especially To Polycarp, commending
to him the church at Antioch. In this last2406
| 2406 In this last etc. Eusebius from whom
he quotes says Smyrneans. Lightfoot maintains that Jerome had
never seen the Epistles of Ignatius. |
he bore witness to the Gospel which I have recently translated, in
respect of the person of Christ saying, “I indeed saw him in the
flesh after the resurrection and I believe that he is,” and when
he came to Peter and those who were with Peter, he said to them
“Behold! touch me and see me how that I am not an incorporeal
spirit” and straightway they touched him and believed. Moreover
it seems worth while inasmuch as we have made mention of such a man and
of the Epistle which he wrote to the Romans, to give a
few “quotations”2407
| 2407 quotations etc. This is taken bodily
from Eusebius. The translation is M’Giffert’s adapted to
the Latin of Jerome. | : “From
Syria even unto Rome I fight with wild beasts, by land and by sea, by night and by
day, being bound amidst ten leopards, that is to say soldiers who guard
me and who only become worse when they are well treated. Their wrong
doing, however is my schoolmaster, but I am not thereby justified. May
I have joy of the beasts that are prepared for me; and I pray that I
may find them ready; I will even coax them to devour me quickly that
they may not treat me as they have some whom they have refused to touch
through fear. And if they are unwilling, I will compel them to devour
me. Forgive me my children, I know what is expedient for me. Now do I
begin to be a disciple, and desire none of the things visible that I
may attain unto Jesus Christ. Let fire and cross and attacks of wild
beasts, let wrenching of bones, cutting apart of limbs, crushing of the
whole body, tortures2408
of the
devil,—let all these come upon me if only I may attain unto the
joy which is in Christ.”
When he had been condemned to
the wild beasts and with zeal for martyrdom heard the lions roaring, he
said “I am the grain of Christ. I am ground by the teeth of the
wild beasts that I may be found the bread of the world.” He was
put to death the eleventh year of Trajan and the remains of his body
lie in Antioch outside the Daphnitic gate in the cemetery. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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