Be pleasing to him whose soldiers
you are, from whom you also receive your wages; let none of you be found a deserter.
Let your baptism serve as (your) arms; your faith as (your) helmet; your love as
(your) spear; your endurance as (your) panoply; your works are your deposits that
you may have the savings you deserve. Be patient, then, with one another in
gentleness, as God is with you. May I always benefit from you. (Ignatius to
Polycarp 6:2)
The
imagery shifts in the next section from the household to the army. But just as
those who obey the bishop are regarded as servants of God, so the Christian
soldiers are called on to please God (“him whose soldiers you are”). The writer
of 2 Tim 2:4 also speaks of “pleasing” the one who enlists the Christian
soldier. Military metaphors are found across a wide range of religious and
philosophical (especially Stoic) literature of the period and were familiar to
Jews as well as pagans. Ignatius’ method of comparing parts of the armor with
aspects of the Christian faith is reminiscent particularly of Eph 6:11–17 (cf.
1 Thess 5:8); but he introduces a different range of vocabulary and handles the
comparisons so didactically that there is less reason here than in the parallel
to suspect the influence of Gnostic conceptions of a cosmic conflict between
the forces of light and darkness. Three Latinisms occur in the passage:
“deserter” (desertor), “deposits” (deposita), and “savings” (accepta). “When gifts of money were
given the army on special occasions, the individual soldier received only half
of what was due him; the rest was deposited to his credit in the regimental
treasury, and he received it (as ἄκκεπτα) if
and when he was honorably discharged.” Hahn could find no other instance of
these Latinisms in Greek sources. But Preisigke gives an example of δησέρτωρ (“deserter”), and Kiessling several
examples of δηπόσιτον or δηπόσειτον (“deposit”) from the
papyri. The Latinisms may be as concentrated as they are here because of the
conversation of the bishop’s Roman guard. As for his references to the parts of
armor, there seems to be some imprecision: “weapons” (any defensive or offensive
weapon is covered by the term), “helmet,” and “spear” are clear enough; but
“panoply” generally included at least shield, sword, lance, and helmet and
seems unnaturally narrowed here. It may be that the passage moves to a climax.
In that event, the theological entities may follow some more or less logical
order: baptism provides the basic protection and corresponds to the “arms” (ὅπλα) by which the soldier is protected;
faith and love represent the fundamental Christian virtues (see on Eph. 1.1; 14.1) and correspond more
particularly to the two important weapons named; finally, endurance corresponds
to the whole armor (πανοπλία
“panoply”) because it must characterize the exercise of all the previously
mentioned arms if they are not to fail. Endurance is probably treated as the
climax here because Ignatius seeks to confirm the Smyrnaeans in their unity and
their support for his cause (see on Pol.
6.1). These are the “deeds” (ἔργα)
put on deposit for the Smyrnaeans that will have their reward. Note that
support of Ignatius’ plans is shortly to be identified as a “deed” (ἔργον) in which God and the Smyrnaeans
cooperate (Pol. 7.3). In our passage
the emphasis is on the deeds that make the deed on Ignatius’ behalf possible,
namely, those acts in which the Smyrnaeans demonstrate their willingness to
bear with one another (in imitation of God’s gracious dealings with them). In any
event, Ignatius assumes compliance with his recommendations. For the concluding
wish is a formula that he uses to express satisfaction with what he can expect
of his addressees (see on Pol. 1.1).
Ignatius’ remark about the
“gentleness” (πραότης) of
God that the Smyrnaeans are to imitate bears a trace of the theory alluded to
elsewhere that divine punishment is delayed because of God’s goodness (see on Eph. 11.1; Sm. 9.1). The thought, as we have seen, has a Hellenic coloring;
and it is worth noting that Plutarch (De
ser. num. vind. 5, 550f) speaks specifically of God’s πραότης (“gentleness”) in discussing reasons
for the delay of the punishment of evil-doers. (William R. Schoedel,
Ignatius of Antioch: A Commentary on the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch [Hermeneia–a
Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible; Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
1985], 275-76)
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