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NOTE

ON

IGNATIUS' EPISTLE TO THE MAGNESIANS.

NOTE C. ON § viii. p. 68.

Λόγος ἀΐδιος, οὐκ ἀπὸ σιγῆς προέλθων.

THIS passage has given rise to much discussion: some contending that it has reference to the Sige, or "Silence," of VALENTINUS; others that it relates to the erroneous opinions of other heretics, anterior to VALENTINUS: and others, again, that the words refer to no specific heresy, but simply guard against an error which might arise in consequence of JESUS CHRIST being styled the Word of GOD.

The sense of the passage seems to be this.--'JESUS CHRIST is the Eternal Word, proceeding from the Father. But this procession must not be confounded with any act of the human faculties. The word, by which the thoughts of man are made known, arises in consequence of a previous mental act; and before man's word goes forth, it is preceded by a state of silence. But, in this respect, the analogy between the procession of the Word from the Father, and the springing forth of the word from the mind of man, entirely fails. The Word of GOD was Eternal, and there was no period preceding the procession of the Word from the Father, corresponding to the silence which exists before the word of man is pronounced.'

IRENEUS, in exposing the fanciful and impious tenets of the different sects of Gnostics, expresses the same sentiment, on more than one occasion. Thus, Adv. Hæres. Lib. ii. cap. 18, he says, "Sed quoniam quidem reprobabilis et impossibilis prima Noos, id est sensus ipsorum, emissio est, manifestè ostendimus. Videamus autem et de reliquis. Ab hoc enim Logon et Zoën fabricatores hujus Pleromatis dicunt emissos, et Logi, id est. Verbi, quidem emissionem ab hominum affectione accipientes, et addivinantes adversus DEUM, quasi aliquid magnum adinvenientes in eo quod dicunt à Nu (No@) esse emissum Logon: quod quidem omnes videlicet sciunt, quoniam in hominibus quidem consequenter dicatur, in eo autem qui sit super omnes DEUS, totus Nus, et totus Logus cùm sit, quemadmodum prædiximus, et nec aliud antiquius, nec posterius, aut aliud alterius habente in se, sed toto æquali et uno perseverante, jam non talis hujus ordinationis sequetur emissio. Quemadmodum qui dicit eum totum visionem, et totum auditum, (in quo enim videt, in ipso et audit; et in quo audit, in ipso et videt) non peccat: sic et qui ait totum illum sensum, et totum verbum, et in quo sensus est, in hoc et verbum esse, et verbum ejus esse hunc Nun (Novv) minus quidem adhuc de Patre omnium sentiet, decentiora autem magis quàm hi, qui lationem prolativi hominum verbi transferunt in DEI eternum Verbum, et prolationis initium donantes, et genesin, quemadmodum et suo verbo."

And in a subsequent part of the same chapter;

"Et usque hoc quidem, quemadmodum prædiximus, omnes hominum affectiones, et notiones mentis, et generationes intentionum et emissiones verborum conjicientes verisimiliter, non verisimiliter mentiti sunt adversus DEUM."

In another place (Lib. ii. cap. 47) he approaches still more nearly the sense of this passage of IGNATIUS;

"Hæc autem cæcitas et stultiloquium inde provenit nobis, quod nihil DEO reservetis; sed et ipsius DEI, et Ennoæ ejus, et Verbi, et Vitæ, et CHRISTI nativitates et prolationes annunciare vultis: et has non aliunde accipientes, sed ex affectione hominum: et non intelligitis quia in homine quidem, qui est compositum animal, capit hujusmodi dicere, sicut prædiximus, (Lib. ii. 16,) sensum hominis, et Enneam hominis: et quia ex sensu Ennea, de Ennea autem Enthymesis, de Enthymesi autem Logos: (quem autem Logon? aliud enim est secundum Græcos Logos, quod est principale quod excogitat, aliud organum per quod emittitur Logos:) et aliquando quidem quiescere et tacere hominem, aliquando autem loqui et operari. DEUS autem cùm sit totus mens, totus ratio, et totus spiritus operans, et totus lux, et semper idem et similiter existens, sicut et utile est nobis sapere de DEO, et sicut ex Scripturis discimus, non jam hujusmodi affectus et divisiones decenter erga eum subsequentur. Velocitati enim sensûs hominum, proper spiritale ejus, non sufficit lingua deservire, quippe carnalis existens: unde et intus suffugatur verbum nostrum, et profertur non de semel, sicut conceptum est à sensu; sed per partes, secundum quod lingua subministrare prævalet."

It has been conceived that IGNATIUS, in this passage, had a particular reference to the heresy of VALENTINUS, whose notions of the procession of the Logos from Sige are well known. This appears highly improbable; although VICTORINUS and RUPERTUS say that Valentinus taught his heresy during the life of the Apostle St. John. The latest period fixed for the death of IGNATIUS is A. D. 116: and, according to TERTULLIAN de Præscriptione Hæreticorum, cap. 30, Valentinus was living when Eleutherius was Bishop of Rome, which was at least as late as A. D. 185, or seventy years after the death of Ignatius. Unless, therefore, Valentinus lived to be nearly a hundred years old, he could scarcely have begun to disseminate his doctrines before the death of Ignatius. There is, however, no occasion to make the supposition that Ignatius alludes to the peculiar tenets of Valentinus. IRENEUS, (Lib. i. 5.) TERTULLIAN, (de Præscriptione Hæret. cap. 33, 46, 47, Adversus Valentinianos, cap. 3, 4,) and other authorities, show that Valentinus, in many of his absurd notions, merely adopted opinions which had been propagated by the Gnostics, Nicolaitans, Simonians, and other heretics. EUSEBIUS (de Ecclesiasticâ Theologia, Lib. ii. cap. 9,) expressly alludes to Simon Magus, as holding the impious opinion, that there was a time when "GOD and silence alone were.” (ἃ δὲ Μάρκελλος ἐτόλμα υποτίθεσθαι, πάλαι μὲν λέγων εἶναι τὸν Θεὸν, καί τινα Ησυχίαν ἅμα τῷ θεῷ ὑπογράφων ἑαυτῷ κατ' αὐτὸν ἐκεῖνον τῶν ἀθέων αἱρεσιωτῶν ἀρχηγὸν, ὃς τὰ ἄθέα δογματίζων ἀπεφαίνετο λέγων, ἦν Θεος καὶ Σιγή. And that this passage refers to Simon Magus is plain from EUSEB. Hist. Eccles. ii. 13, where he speaks of him in the very same terms: πασῆς μὲν οὖν ἀρχηγὸν αἱρέσεως πρῶτον γένεσθαι τὸν Σίμωνα παρειλήφαμεν.

Bp. PEARSON, in his Vindica Ignatiana, contends that, although it cannot be positively proved that Ignatius was entirely unacquainted with the tenets of Valentinus himself, yet the words in question have no reference to that heretic, but are aimed at the opinions of the Ebionites, received from the older Gnostics.

Bp. BULL, in his Defensio Fidei Nicænæ, Sect. iii. cap. 1, examines this passage at length, and arrives at a conclusion somewhat different from that of Bp. PEARSON. He is of opinion, that the heresy opposed by Ignatius is that of the Judaizing Gnostics, of whom Cerinthus was the chief. This conclusion is founded upon a most careful investigation of the whole passage. It is plain, he thinks, from the context, that the heretics whom IGNATIUS opposes are one and the same, throughout the whole of this portion of his Epistle: that, since these heretics maintained that the law of Moses was still binding upon Christians, a tenet never ascribed to Valentinus, they were certainly not Valentinians; and although this error was maintained by the Ebionites, yet that there are other points which evidently refer to some other heretics than they. Thus, the Ebionites had no philosophical notions respecting the procession of the Word from the Father, which Ignatius appears to refute, when he says that "the Word proceeds not from silence." Again, his exhortation, in Sect. 7, that they should come "as unto one JESUS CHRIST, who proceedeth from one Father, and exists in One and is returned to One," is a manifest allusion to the Cerinthian Gnostics, who held that JESUS and CHRIST were two persons; that CHRIST descended and entered into JESUS at his baptism, and before his passion returned into the pleroma: and that the Father of JESUS was the Demiurge, who made the world, but the Father of CHRIST was a higher power. The words in Sect. 8, "For this cause they were persecuted, being inspired by his grace fully to convince the unbelievers that there is One GOD, who hath manifested himself by JESUS CHRIST his Son," refer also to the errors of the Gnostics, who maintained that the world was created either by angels or by a being different and inferior to the supreme GOD, who revealed himself to mankind by CHRIST, his Son. IREN. Adv. Hæres. iii. 11. Bp. BULL is therefore of opinion that Ignatius in the words, "not proceeding from silence," intended to oppose some erroneous notions of the same heretics concerning the procession of the Son from the Father; as in Sect. 9, he clearly refers to another error of the Judaizing heretics, who denied the true passion of CHRIST. In Sect. 11, he warns the Magnesians "not to fall into the snares of vain-glory," another apparent allusion to the Gnostics, whose very name was assumed to intimate their superiority in knowledge to other Christians.

He then shows, by the testimony of EPIPHANIUS, PHILASTRIUS, and AUGUSTINE, that the observance of the peculiar rites of Judaism, from prudential motives, was at that period one of the professed tenets of the Cerinthians, although Cerinthus himself did not submit to the rite of circumcision, as he taught others to do. It is thought that St. John alludes to the Cerinthians, when he speaks to the Philadelphians, respecting them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie. Rev. iii. 9; see also Rev. ii. 9. And it is remarkable that Ignatius, writing to the same Philadelphians, Sect. 6, says, "If any one preach the Jewish religion to you, hear him not. For it is better to learn the Christian faith from one who is circumcised, than the Jewish from one who is uncircumcised."

Bp. BULL then proves, by the testimony of IRENEUS, Adv. Hæres. iii. 11, that the Nicolaitans, Cerinthians, and other early heretics held tenets of the same absurd kind as those afterward professed by the Valentinians, respecting various orders of ons, between the supreme GOD and the Creator of the world; and shows that it is highly probable that the very procession of the Word from Sige, or "Silence," was one of their notions. GREGORY NAZIANZEN, indeed, Orat. 23, enumerates the Cerinthians among those Gnostics who reckoned Bythus and Sige in the number of their Æons.

Upon the whole we may be justified in concluding:

1. That if the words “ οὐκ ἀπὸ Σιγής προέλθων” be an allusion to the opinions of Valentinus, such an allusion cannot be shown to be chronologically impossible; nor would it prove that the Epistle in which it occurs is either interpolated or fictitious.

2. That there is the highest probability that the words refer to the erroneous notions, either of the Cerinthian heretics, or of other Gnostics before Valentinus.

3. That this is a pain testimony of a writer of the Apostolic age to the absolute eternity of JESUS CHRIST, the Word of GOD.

INDEX.

A.

Abraham, example of, 6.
Acts of the Apostles, reference to, by
Clement, xxii.

Adam, one of the prophets, 156 n.
Adrian, successors of, 125 n-his
paramour, 154-rescript of, 191 s.

Αγαπαν, 92 η.
Agapac, 92 n.
Αγένητος, and
αγέννητος, 58 n, 149 n.
Alce, 95, 99, 117.
Altar, need of being within, 58, 75-
one, 68, 84.
Altar of GOD, 49.
Αναγωγους, 60 η.

Anencletus, Bishop of Rome, xv.
Angels, examples of obedience, 20-
orders of the, 74-liable to con-
demnation, 91-good and evil, 129 s
-worship of, 131 n.

Anniversaries of martyrs, 118.
Antiquity, no sufficient warrant of
truth, 126 of the Christian belief,
148.

Antoninus the philosopher, the em-
peror, 125, 127.

Pius, epistle of, 192 s.
Αποδιυλισμον, 84 π.
Apollonius, 66.

Apostles, peculiar situation of, ix.
Apostolic fathers, value of their writ-
ings, ix ss.

government of the churches,

xxii, 27, 75, 84.

succession, 25.

Apostolical constitutions, 172 n, 179 n.
Aquarii, 188 n.

Ascension of CHRIST, prophecies of,
169, 174.

Asiarch, 114 n, 120.
Athanasius, quoted, 58 n.
Atheists, 75, 109 n, 112, 129, 170, 192.
Athenagoras quoted, 109 n-apology
of, 125 n-quoted, 145 n.
Atonement, 31, 51.
Attalus, 99.

Augustin quoted, 117 n.

B.

Bacchus, a counterfeit of the Messiah,

177.

Baptism, mode of administering, 183
s-called illumination, 184.
Barchochebas, 156.

Barnabas, Epistle of, xiv n, quoted,
165 n.
Bassus, 66.

Bellerophon, a counterfeit of the
Messiah, 178.
Bestiarii, 116 n.
Birth, new, 183 s.
Birth-days of martyrs, 118.
Bishops, appointment of, 26, 57, 83-
ordination of, 27.

Bishop and presbytery, to be submit-
ted to, 57, 58, 64, 68, 72, 75, 85, 92,
98-union with, necessary, 58-
reverence and obedience to, 66 s,
70, 72, 76, 84, 98-source of au-
thority to administer sacraments,
92 s-nothing to be done without
him, 92.

Blood of CHRIST, 5, 8, 14, 31, 48, 81,
83, 84-of GOD, 56-charity so
called, 75.

Bread of GOD, 58, 81-one to be
broken, 64-of, xi, 79.
Britain, introduction of the Gospel
into, 40 s.

Burrhus, 56, 87, 94.

Burton, Dr., value of his writings,
xi-quoted, xxxiii n, 59 n.

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