Ignatius's letter to the Ephesians, part three.

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. I dealt with an episode of grief and I also accidentally deleted everything I had written for this post. Not fun.

Now we are at chapter 15 of Ignatius's letter to the Ephesians, which is summed up in the first sentence. "It is better to be silent and be a christian than to talk and not be one." In other words, practice what you preach. Chapter 16 says that anyone who corrupts the faithful with "wicked doctrine" will be bound for everlasting fire. Chapter 17 says the doctrine of "the prince of the world" has a bad odor.

Chapter 18 appears to have been influenced by 1 Corinthians, referring to the cross as a stumbling block to those who don't believe, but eternal life to those who do. It also has another doctrinal type statement. "For our God, Jesus Christ, was, according to the appointment of God, conceived in the womb by Mary, of the seed of David, but by the Holy Ghost. He was born and baptized, that by His passion He might purify the water." Notice that Jesus is called god and so is god. Two gods? Somehow the holy ghost planted the seed of David in Mary. Inconceivable. ;) 

Chapter 19 claims that three mysteries were hidden from the prince of the world. 1. Mary's virginity. 2. Her offspring. 3. Jesus's death. Presuming the prince of the world was Satan. How did they keep those things hidden? Angels supposedly announced his birth in one gospel. In another, Herod killed a bunch of babies to try to kill Jesus. Not only that, Satan supposedly tempted Jesus in person. Plus, jesus supposedly jad a public trial and crucifixion. Ignatius goes on to say these three mysteries were wrought in silence. That seems to mean they happened without anyone knowing about them. 

So, if all this happened in silence, how was Jesus "manifested?" According to Ignatius, by a super bright star that shone brighter than all the others. It sounds like a super nova or maybe a comet or some other celestial explosion? The problem is there is no extrabiblical record of such an event around the time Jesus was supposed to have been conceived. (This one doesn't count because it is not an eye witness.) We definitely would have heard about it by now.  According to Ignatius, that is when god manifested in human form for the "renewal of eternal life." This leads me to think that Ignatius believed that there was a period of time when there was no eternal life expected. This would be a logical inference from reading the Old Testament. 


This manifestation of Jesus is also supposed to have destroyed every kind of magic and the bonds of wickedness, removed ignorance, and abolished the old kingdom. I don't see that that actually happened. It was supposedly a new beginning because god "meditated the abolition of death." He was seriously thinking about it. Ignatius is sounding like a bit of a whackadoodle to me.

More next time.