The Short Recension of Three Letters of Ignatius

[Peter Kirby]

For those interested in these topics, there is this reprint of, "The Ignatian Epistles Entirely Spurious":

https://depts.drew.edu/jhc/KillenIgnatius.pdf

This is in reply to J. B. Lightfoot, who wrote on the topics of "spurious and interpolated epistles" (pp. 233-279), "the Curetonian letters" (pp. 280-327), and the "question" of "genuineness" (pp. 328-430).

https://archive.org/details/apostolicfa ... 3/mode/2up

"The Curetonian letters" is the the same as the Short Recension of Three Letters of Ignatius.

I look forward to the publication of Jack Bull's thesis.

[MrMacSon]

For those interested in these topics, there is this reprint of, "The Ignatian Epistles Entirely Spurious":

https://depts.drew.edu/jhc/KillenIgnatius.pdf

This is in reply to J. B. Lightfoot ...

• Cheers Peter. That's interesting.
  
  I note a letter from William Cureton in the Appendices which includes (1) and ends (2):
  
  
  
  (1) ... I attach no very great importance to the Epistles of Ignatius. I shall not draw from them any dogma. I only look upon them as evidence of the time to certain facts, which indeed were amply established even without such evidence ...
  
  (2) You go too far to say that Bentley rejected the Ignatian Epistles — he only rejected them in the form in which they were put forth by Ussher and Vossius, and not in the form of the Syriac. So did Porson, as Bishop Kaye informed me — but he never denied that Ignatius had written letters — indeed, the very forgeries were a proof of true patterns which were falsified.
  
  A great many of the ablest scholars in Europe, who had refused to accept the Greek letters, are convinced of the genuineness of the Syriac. But time will open. Believe me,
  
  yours faithfully,
  WILLIAM CURETON.
  
  
  
  

---

fwiw,
The history of the publications of epistles attributed to Ignatius is intriguing (this will be incomplete), eg.,

• The first known publication (in 'the west') was in 1495 by an unknown individual:
  three epistles in Latin attributed to Ignatius: two addressed to the apostle John! (IgnJn 1 & 2) and one to Mary the mother of Jesus (IgnMarV). A fourth letter attached to these three, in the name of Mary, was to the disciple whom her son loved (MarVJn)

• In 1498, eleven in Latin were published

• in 1536, all the above in one collection which, in addition, also included a letter of Ignatius to Mary of Cassobolita (IgnMarC)

• In 1557, Valentinus Paceus published the first Greek edition of Ignatian epistles: of twelve of them.

In 1608, Martialis Maestraeus studied them all and accepted nine known in Greek as genuine based on the fact they were quoted by early writers; these included IgnRom, IgnEph, IgnPol, IgnSm, IgnTral, IgnMag, and IgnPhilip: seven known to Eusebius and IgnAnt and IgnPhilad

• In 1647, James Ussher, the Archbishop of Armagh, no less, uncovered two Latin translations of the Ignatian epistles which differed from all witnesses up to this point: Both these Latin MSS contained what would become known as the ‘shorter recension.’ Even so, Ussher considered they contained interpolations, as Maestraeus and a Nicolaus Vedelius had also concluded wrt the Greek versions

Other MSS and fragments were also published in the years leading up to Cureton’s findings, many evidently from the same families as the major Greek and Latin witnesses mentioned above. The epistles had also been found in a plethora of languages, including Syriac, Armenian, Coptic and Arabic.

In 1672,* bishop John Pearson published, arguing that the seven Greek epistles in the 'shorter form' contained the least spurious material.

• this work was republished in 1837, 44, and 52 (ie. before and after Cureton published)

Over the next 180 years or so, other less significant works on the Ignatian epistles were published, but little challenged Pearson’s consensus. Until Cureton's finding of the three short, Syriac Ignatian epistles to Polycarp, to the Ephesians and to the Romans.


So, Cureton was behind the-eight-ball, as one may say (and to be wedged by Lightfoot).

---

from
'A textual analysis and comparison of the various textual witnesses of Ignatius' letters to Polycarp, the Ephesians and the Romans'

(c) 2024 by Jack Bull, all rights reserved.

[a draft version of a thesis to be] submitted in part completion of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Kings College, London

Publication forthcoming.

[MrMacSon]

nb. https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/ ... intro.html
= 'Introduction to Ignatius of Antioch,' transcribed from Kirsopp Lake's The Apostolic Fathers (1912), v. I, pp.166-9.

[Peter Kirby]

Jack Bull seems to have had an interview with Jacob Berman here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyoYEX4 ... toryValley

[Peter Kirby]

It looks like Jack Bull also makes videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpf4BZP ... Patristica

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK_a9s0 ... Patristica

[MrMacSon]

This one (3-4 mths ago) with Jack B, Mark Bilby, Jason BeDuhn and Markus Vinzent is interesting (though might not touch on Ignatius)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWfQEGQeaXU