"
Our editors of the "Fathers" very frankly remark: "As to the personal
history of Ignatius, almost nothing is known" ("Apostolic Fathers," p.
143). Why, acknowledging this, they call him "celebrated," it is hard to
say. Truly, the ways of Christian commentators are dark!
Paley's quotation is taken from the epistle to the Smyrnaeans (not one
of the Syriac, be it noted), and is from the shorter Greek recension. It
occurs in chap. iii., and only says that Peter, and those who were with
him, saw Jesus after the resurrection, and believed: "for this cause
also they despised death, and were found its conquerors." Men who
believed in a resurrection might naturally despise death; but it is hard
to see how this quotation--even were it authentic--shows that the
apostles suffered for their belief. What strikes one as most
remarkable--if Paley's contention of the sufferings of the witnesses be
true, and these writings authentic--is that so very little mention is
made of the apostles, of their labours, toils, and sufferings, and that
these epistles are simply a kind of patchwork, chiefly of Old Testament
materials, mixed up with exhortations about Christ.
The circular epistle of the Church of Smyrna is a curious document.
Paley quotes a terrible account of the tortures inflicted, and one would
imagine on reading it that many must have been put to death.
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