hey are genuine; and
elsewhere I had acquiesced in the earlier opinion of Lipsius, who
ascribed them to an interpolator writing about A.D. 140 [85:2]. Now
however I am obliged to confess that I have grave and increasing doubts
whether, after all, they are not the genuine utterances of Ignatius
himself. The following reasons weigh heavily in this scale. (1)
Petermann's investigations, which have been already mentioned,
respecting the Armenian version and its relation to a pre-existing
Syriac version, throw a new light on the Curetonian letters. When it is
known that there existed a complete version of the Vossian letters in
this language, the theory that the Curetonian letters are excerpts
becomes at least highly plausible, since the two sets of Syriac letters
were certainly not independent the one of the other. (2) Notwithstanding
Cureton's assertions, which our author has endorsed, the abruptness of
the Curetonian letters is very perplexing in some parts. Subsequent
writers, even while maintaining their genuineness, have recognised this
difficulty, and endeavoured to explain it. It is far from easy, for
instance, to conceive that the Ephesian letter could have ended as it is
made to end in this recension. (3) Though the Vossian letters introduce
many historical circumstances respecting the journey of Ignatius, the
condition of the Church of Antioch, and the persons visiting or visited
by him, no contradictions have yet been made out; but, on the contrary,
the several notices fit in one with another in a way which at all events
shows more care and ingenuity than might be expected in a falsifier. (4)
All the supposed anachronisms to which objection has been taken in these
Epistles fail on closer investigation. More especially stress has been
laid on the fact that this writer describes Christ as God's 'eternal
Logos, not having proceeded from Silence;' [86:1] and objectors, have
urged that this expression is intended as a refutation of the
Valentinian doctrine. Pearson thought it sufficient to reply that the
Valentinians did not represent the Logos as an emanation from Silence,
but from an intermediate AEon; and when the treatise of Hippolytus was
discovered, an answer seemed to be furnished by the fact that Silence
held a conspicuous place in the tenets of the earlier sect of Simonians,
and the Ignatian expression was explained as a reference to their
teaching. But fresh materials for the correction of the Ignatian text,