Epistles the
_Vossian._

(2) The second is extant only in a Syriac dress, and contains three of
the Epistles alone--to Polycarp, to the Ephesians, and to the Romans--in
a still shorter form. These Syriac Epistles were discovered among the
Nitrian MSS in the British Museum, and published by Cureton in 1845. I
shall therefore call these the _Curetonian_ Epistles.

Cureton's discovery stirred up the Ignatian dispute anew. It was soon
fanned into flames by the controversy between Bunsen and Baur, and is
raging still. The two questions are these: (1) Whether the Vossian or
the Curetonian Epistles are prior in time; in other words, whether the
Vossian Epistles were expanded from the Curetonian by interpolation, or
whether the Curetonian were reduced from the Vossian by excision and
abridgment; and (2) when this question has been disposed of, whether the
prior of these two recensions can be regarded as genuine or not.

The question respecting the Ignatian letters has, from the nature of the
case, never been discussed exclusively on its own merits. The pure light
of criticism has been crossed by the shadows of controversial
prepossession on both sides. From the era of the Reformation onward, the
dispute between Episcopacy and Presbyterianism has darkened the
investigation; in our own age the controversies respecting the Canon of
Scripture and the early history of Christianity have interfered with
equally injurious effects. Besides these two main questions which are
affected by the Ignatian letters, other subjects indirectly involved
have aided the strife and confusion. The antagonism between Papal and
Protestant writers materially affected the discussion in the sixteenth
century, and the antagonism between Arianism and Catholicity in the
eighteenth. But the disturbing influence of these indirect questions,
though not inconsiderable at the time, has not been lasting.

In the present paper I shall not attempt to treat of the Ignatian
question as a whole. It will simply be my business to analyse the
statements and discuss the arguments of the author of _Supernatural
Religion_ relating to this subject. I propose, when I resume these
papers again, to say something of the Apostolic Fathers in reference to
early Christian belief and to the New Testament Canon; and this cannot
be done with any effect until the way has been so far cleared as to
indicate the extent to which we can employ the Ignatian letters as valid
testimony.

Th