Ignatius

Ignatius's teachings from 98-117 AD

several paragraphs here are quotes from 

http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_author/1/Dr._Marcellino_D_Ambrosio.html

‘The writings of St. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch and one of the most inspiring of the Early Church Fathers, provide a revealing glimpse into the heart of an early Christian martyr as well as into the life and teaching of the Church just after the close of the New Testament era.

Sometime late in the reign of the Emperor Trajan (98-117AD), a persecution broke out in Syria. Ignatius, leader of the Christians in the region’s capital city, was apprehended and condemned to die for his faith in the Roman amphitheater…………………………..

Ignatius was the second bishop of Antioch, the place where the followers of Jesus were called Christians for the first time (Acts 11:26; Eusebius Eccl. Hist. 3.22.36 and Origen, Hom. 6 In Luc). The impor­tance of Antioch as a center of apostolic Christianity cannot be overestimated. It was the first center of outreach to the Gentiles (Acts 11:20) and the base from which Paul and Barna­bas were sent out on their missionary journeys (Acts 13:2-3; 15: 35-41; 18:22-23).Peter, too, spent some time there prior to relocating in Rome (Gal 2:11). Ignatius is therefore an important testi­mony to the way in which the teaching of these apostles was remem­bered by this eminent Church. Yet his letters reflect not only the apostolic tradition as preserved by Antioch; many of the churches to which he wrote, such as that of Ephesus, were also founded by those of the apos­tolic generation. So the letters witness to a common apostolic patrimony as understood and lived probably only a decade or two after the writing of John’s Gospel.

Ignatius speaks to a number of issues that have been disputed among Christians for cen­turies. Regarding the identity of Jesus Christ, Ignatius could not be more forthright in asserting his divinity. In the course of his seven letters he explicitly calls Jesus “God” (theos) a total of sixteen times (e.g., Eph inscr, 15:3, 18:2; Ro inscr , 3:3, Smyr 10:1).There is no ques­tion of him meaning this in a loose or merely honorific sense; Ignatius affirms that Christ is the invisible, Time­less (achronos) one, incapable by nature of suffering, who becomes visible and capable of suffering through his human birth in time (Poly. 3:2). To call Christ “time­less” means that he cannot be the first and greatest created spirit, as Arius claimed in the fourth century and as the Jehovah’s Witnesses still maintain today. Rather, two hundred years before Constantine and the Council of Nicaea, Ignatius teaches that Christ is eternal, above time and all creation, God in the full sense of the term.

Ignatius is equally clear regarding Jesus’ true humanity. In his day there existed heretics called “Docetists” who believed Jesus’ body to have been a phantasm and his death therefore only an appearance. Against them Ignatius vigorously affirms the material reality of Jesus’ human flesh and the truth of his suffering and death (e.g., Symr. 1; Tral 9).

In the course of his defense of Christ’s humanity, Ignatius dem­onstrates the early church’s realistic under­standing of the Eucharist, which he calls “the medicine of immortality” (Eph 20:2). In his mind, a denial of the eucharistic presence flows from a denial of the incarnation.The Docetists, he says, “hold aloof from the Eucharist and from services of prayer, because they refuse to admit that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins and which, in his goodness, the Father raised. Conse­quent­ly those who wrangle and dispute God’s gift face death.” (Smyr 7:1). For Ignatius and those to whom he writes, the Eucharist is clearly the center of the Church’s life (Eph 13:1) and can be validly celebrated only by the bishop or by one he authorizes (Symr. 8:2). And, in contradiction to such Judaizing movements as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists­, Ignatius says (Mag 9:1) that a distinctive mark of Chris­tianity is to cease keeping the Sabbath (Saturday) and instead to observe the Lord’s Day (Sun­day).

http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/51/Ignatius_of_Antioch_and_the_Faith_of_the_Early_Christian_Martyrs.html                           

Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, Chapter 6, 110 A.D.:

Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God … They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes.

St. Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, 8:1, 110 A.D.:

Let that Eucharist be held valid which is offered by the bishop or by the one to whom the bishop has committed this charge. Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be; as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.

St. Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Philadephians, 4:1, 110 A.D.:

Be ye careful therefore to observe one eucharist (for there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ and one cup unto union in His blood; there is one altar, as there is one bishop, together with the presbytery and the deacons my fellow-servants), that whatsoever ye do, ye may do it after God.    quotes found

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/a/eucharist-q.html

Also this one from Eph 20:2b This results in you obeying your bishop and your presbytery with undistracted mind as you break bread which is the medicine of immortality, the antidote against death and life forever through Jesus Christ.” from my book on the early church fathers by Howell page 89,90