Ignatius of Antioch

Life

His year of birth and family background are unknown. He called himself "Theophoros" (God-bearer). The fourth-century church historian Eusebius records that he was the second bishop of the church in Antioch. According to one tradition, he was a disciple of the apostle John, but this has not been confirmed.

During the reign of Emperor Trajan (98–117), he was arrested and taken under military escort to Rome. There, according to tradition, he was thrown to wild beasts and died a martyr. His martyrdom is commonly dated to around 110.

Ministry and Work

On the way to Rome, he stopped at Smyrna and Troas, where he wrote seven letters. They were addressed to the churches in Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Rome, Philadelphia, and Smyrna, and to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. These letters are an important source for the faith and organization of the early church.

• Church order: He emphasized a threefold ministry in which each church had a single bishop, with a council of presbyters and deacons under him. He repeatedly urged unity centered on the bishop.
• The universal church: His letter to the church in Smyrna is known as the earliest document to use the expression "catholic church" (universal church).
• Refutation of heresy: Against Docetism, which held that Christ only appeared to be human, he stressed that Jesus was truly born in the flesh, suffered, and rose again.
• Eucharist and martyrdom: He called the Eucharist "the medicine of immortality." He asked the church in Rome not to prevent his martyrdom, regarding martyrdom as a way of imitating Christ.

Influence on the Korean Church

In the Korean church, he is introduced mainly through church history and patristics courses at seminaries and through studies of the early church. In discussions of church polity, denominations interpret him differently.

• The Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Church of Korea cite his letters as evidence that a bishop-centered order was established early.
• Methodism, which retains an episcopal system, also refers to his teaching on church order as historical background.
• Presbyterianism holds that in the New Testament the terms "bishop" and "elder" designate the same office (Titus 1:5–9). It therefore regards the monarchical episcopate he described as a development that followed the apostolic age.

Assessment

He is respected across denominational lines as a model of faith unto martyrdom and as a witness to early Christology and ecclesiology. The Catholic Church observes his feast on October 17, and the Orthodox Church on December 20.

The authenticity of his letters has been debated. The letters transmitted under his name include a longer recension containing added material, as well as spurious letters. Since the work of nineteenth-century scholars, the view that the seven letters listed above are authentic has been widely accepted. Some scholars, however, have suggested that these letters, too, may have been written in the late second century. Some critics also contend that his emphasis on episcopal authority marked the starting point of a tendency to understand the church in hierarchical terms.