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I have a question..
Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2020 4:55 pm
by SsjTheo
Hi so, I've been wanting to start reading the church father's writings, and I started in Ignatius of Antioch. I noticed that on this website there are like three different translations of like Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans and there was a 'shorter and longer version', so my question is, which version is the correct one the shorter or the longer, and which translation is the best. If anyone can also give the better version for other church father writings that'd be cool, or even a site that had some kind of greek interlinear for the church father's writings, thanks.
Re: I have a question..
Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2020 5:12 pm
by Secret Alias
I say the Syriac is closest to the original. Most people say the shortest Greek edition is. No one says the longest Greek is.
Re: I have a question..
Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2020 5:07 am
by andrewcriddle
SsjTheo wrote: ↑Sat Apr 25, 2020 2:12 pm
Hi so, I've been wanting to start reading the church father's writings, and I started in Ignatius of Antioch. I noticed that on this website there are like three different translations of like Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans and there was a 'shorter and longer version', so my question is, which version is the correct one the shorter or the longer, and which translation is the best. If anyone can also give the better version for other church father writings that'd be cool, or even a site that had some kind of greek interlinear for the church father's writings, thanks.
The long version of the letters of Ignatius is almost certainly an expansion produced c 350 CE. The shorter Greek version is older than the longer Greek version and is probably what Ignatius actually wrote.
(There is a very short version of Ignatius to the Romans Ephesians and to Polycarp found only in Syriac but this is probably an abridgement.)
Andrew Criddle
Re: I have a question..
Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2020 7:26 am
by Secret Alias
An interesting fact. When Irenaeus cites from the Ignatian letters he doesn't name the author. There is a long history of regarding the letters as forgeries -
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Ig ... frontcover. The letters ARE forgeries. The purpose is clearly an extension of the orthodox forgeries of the Pauline epistles (where a similar expansion from shorter originals exist) namely to justify the establishment of an ecclesiastical hierarchy centered around a bishop.