The term “Christian” (Χριστιανος) appears 5 times in the authentic Ignatian epistles:
Apart from Him, let nothing
attract you, for whom I bear about these bonds, these spiritual jewels, by
which may I arise through your prayers, of which I entreat I may always be a
partaker, that I may be found in the lot of the Christians (Χριστιανος) of
Ephesus, who have always been of the same mind and with the apostles through
the power of Jesus Christ. (To the Ephesians 11:2)
It is fitting, then, not only to
be called Christians (Χριστιανος), but to be so in reality: as some indeed
given one of the title of bishop, but do all things without him. Now such
persons seem to me to be not possessed of a good conscience, seeing they are
not steadfastly gathered together according to the commandment. (To the
Magnesians 4:1)
Therefore, yet not I, but the
love of Jesus Christ, entreat you that ye use Christian (Χριστιανος)
nourishment only, and abstain from herbage of a different kind; I mean heresy.
(To the Trallians 6:1)
Only request in my behalf both
inward and outward strength, that I may not only speak but truly will; and that
I may not merely be called a Christian (Χριστιανος), but really be found to be
one. For if I be truly found a Christian, may also be called one, and be then
deemed faithful, when I shall no longer appear to the world. (To the Romans
3:2)
A Christian (Χριστιανος) has not
power over himself, but must always be ready for the service of God. Now, this
work is both God's and yours, when ye shall have completed it to His glory. For
I trust that, through grace, ye are prepared for every good work pertaining to
God. Knowing, therefore, your energetic love of the truth, I have exhorted you
by this brief Epistle. (Ignatius to Polycarp, 7:3)
Commenting on Ignatius’ use of this term, Thomas A. Robinson
wrote:
Use
of the Term “Christian”
Antioch is associated with the
coining of the term by which the Christian movement would come to identify
itself. “It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians,” writes
the author of Acts (11:26). The comment comes at the end of a passage
recounting a critical change in the Christian mission. Until that time,
according to Acts, the disciples had spoken to no one except the Jews. Now they
had turned to the Greeks.
Within a few years of the writing
of this story, the terms “Christian” and “Christianity” were rolling easily off
the lips of Ignatius. He uses the terms seventeen times, usually in contrast to
Judaism. The use of such terms reflects a monumental shift in the perceptions
of the religious realities and relationships between Jews and Christians in
Antioch at the beginning of the second century. For Ignatius, the Christian movement
stands separate from Judaism and at parity with it as a distinct religion.
The coming of the term “Christian”
and the development of the concept of “Christianity” suggests that from early
on the primary Christian identity in Antioch could not be easily accommodated
within Judaism. The term “Christian,” particularly if it is a Roman or Greek
invention, likely indicates that some informed outsiders views the Christian
movement not as a sect within Judaism but as something quite distinct. The
early sharp tensions within the Christian community of Antioch lend further support
to the view that innovations by the Christians of Antioch were judged to have
challenged the core self-understanding of the Christian community was viewed,
at least in the way Ignatius used the word, as neither a sect within Judaism
nor even as a child of Judaism. Although we see the struggle only as it is
worked out within the Christian movement, it is difficult to imagine this development
occurring without provoking some responses from within the Jewish community in
Antioch. (Thomas A. Robinson, Ignatius of Antioch and the Parting of the
Ways: Early Jewish-Christian Relations [Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Publishers, 2009], 88)
