Heartiest greetings of pure joy in Jesus Christ from Ignatius,
the “God-inspired” (Θεοφόρος) to the church at Ephesus in Asia. (Ignatius, To
the Ephesians 1:1, in Early Christian Fathers [trans. Cyril R. Richardson;
New York: Collier Books, 1970], 87)
“Theophorus” literally “God-bearer.” It is probably not a
proper name but an epithet, indicating his prophetic gifts. He is “full of God”
(cf. Mag., ch. 14). Perhaps the church at Antioch dubbed him thus. (Ibid., 87
n. 1)
I realize you are full of God. Hence I have counseled you
but briefly. . . . (Ignatius, To the Magnesians, 14:1, in Early Christian Fathers
[trans. Cyril R. Richardson; New York: Collier Books, 1970], 97)
What Ignatius claims to know, however, is somewhat
unusual: "that you are full of God" (ότι θεου γεμετε) Being full of
the deity is attributed to a variety of individuals in the Hellenistic world: a
person under the influence of Dionysus (Plutarch Sept. sap. conv. 4,
150b: θεου μεστος"); the giver of oracles (Pollux Onom. 1.15: πλρης
θεου "full of God"); a self-reliant Stoic who refuses to
consult an oracle (Lucan Phars. 9.564: deo plenus "full of God");
any whose rhetoric seems inspired (A. Seneca Suas. 3.5- 7); the soul of the
mystic (Plotinus Enn. 6.9.9: ψυχη πληρωθεισα θεου "a soul filled
with God"; cf. Iamblichus De Myst. 3.9). But again Ignatius has in
view the Magnesians' sense of solidarity
(as he does in Mag. 12 where he says that they "have Jesus Christ
in themselves"). Under the circumstances an exploitation of the mystical
possibilities of the terminology is hardly possible. The thought serves p:rimarily
to motivate Ignatius' writing and to indicate why his exhortations are scarcely
necessary (cf. Mag. 11). (William R. Schoedel, Ignatius of Antioch
[Hermeneia—A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible; Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1985], 131-32)
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