There
is one Physician,
both fleshly and spiritual
born (γεννητος) and yet eternal
in flesh, God
in death, true life,
both from Mary and from God,
first passible and then impassible
Jesus Christ our Lord
The
first contrast probably comes from Romans 1:3-4, as does the fifth, from Mary
)i.e. descended from David), yet from God (cf. Smyrn. 1). The second
contrast would be the cause of much confusion several centuries later. In the
way in which the terms were later employed, “begotten” (γεννητος) was used as the
particular characteristic of the Son distinguishing him from the Father, who
alone is “unbegotten” (αγεννητος), and so one could no longer use this latter
term to refer to the eternity of Christ. Accordingly Theodoret changed the text
to “and from the unbegotten” (και εξ αγεννητου),
so destroying the balance of Ignatius’ words. Ignatius is not, however, using
these terms in their later technical trinitarian sense, but to specify that
Christ belongs both to the temporal world, as having been born, and to the
divine, eternal realm. Likewise, the third contrast, “in the flesh, God” (εν σαρκι γενομενος θεος),
should not be taken in a fourth-century, Apollinarian, perspective, where the
divine Word inhabits flesh, taking the place of the soul. Rather, Ignatius is
simply reaffirming the point that in the one physician, Jesus Christ, God has
indeed become flesh. Finally, although Jesus Christ was passible (παθητος), subject to all the things which belong to
created being, such a change and death, nevertheless through his death
he has manifested true life and impassibility. This passage is as close as
Ignatius gets to a “two-nature” Christology. It is clear that Ignatius affirms
all the key points which will later be made: one Lord Jesus Christ, who is both
divine and human, with all the properties pertaining to both, and does so in a
manner which remains true to the Gospel itself. Ignatius does not mitigate
either the divine or the human, by separating different elements in the
composition of Jesus Christ: for Ignatius, the one who suffered is impassible,
demonstrating life in death. (John Behr, Formation of Christian Theology,
2 vols. [Crestwood, N.Y.: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001], 1:90-91)
