now accept the seven Epistles (the middle recension,[1] as Lightfoot calls it) of the Ignatian correspondence, as absolutely genuine.
Ramsay well and briefly sums up the purport of the allusions to the conditions under which the Christian sect had been and still was living during the long period of Ignatius' own personal experience, which included the whole duration of the sovereignty of the Flavian family, i.e. during the reign of the Emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. These allusions all occur in the martyr's four letters written in the course of his journey to Rome, during his halt at Smyrna, i.e. in the Epistles to the Churches of Ephesus, Tralles, Magnesia and Rome.
He says, "These abound in delicate phrases, the most explicit of which may be quoted—The life of a Christian is a life of suffering; the climax of his life, and the crowning honour of which he gradually hopes to make himself worthy, is martyrdom; but Ignatius is far from confident that he is worthy of it (Tralles, 4). Suffering and persecution are the education of the Christian, and through them he becomes a true disciple (Eph. iii. Magn. viii. 9). The teacher, then, is the person or Church which has gone through most suffering, and thus shown true discipleship, and Ignatius distinguished Ephesus and Rome as his teachers. Ignatius is still in danger, not having as yet completely proved his steadfastness, whereas Ephesus has been proved and is firmly fixed, the implication being that it has been specially distinguished by the number of its martyrs; and, moreover, Ephesus has been the highway of martyrs, the chief city of the province where many, even from other parts, appeared before the proconsul for trial, and was, at the same time, the port whence they were sent to Rome. We read in the Letter to Ephesus the somewhat curious expression, 'Ye are a high road of them which are on their way to die unto God' (Eph. xii.)."
- ↑ So called from the position it holds between the longer recension of the "ten Letters," three of which are put aside as later compilations, and the shorter recension of three Letters which Canon Cureton found in the Syrian MS. and published, believing that these "three" were the only genuine Epistles of the martyr-bishop.
