. . .
Ignatius of Antioch tended to use flowery, metaphorical language, illustrating
his messages with analogies and similes even when they served no obvious purpose
except to adorn his letters with figures of speech. While in transit to Rome,
he says he is “bound to ten leopards” and then quickly adds, “I mean a band of
soldiers” (To the Romans 5). He warns against “herbage of a different
kind,” and then quickly adds, “I mean heresy” (To the Trallians 6). Closer
to our point, in his letters he employed the figures of flesh, blood, bread,
wheat and leaven for various meanings that were very obviously not to be
understood literally:
·
“Wherefore, clothing yourselves with meekness, but ye renewed in faith,
that is the flesh of the Lord, and in love, that is the blood of Christ.” (To
the Trallians, 8).
·
“I am the wheat of God, and let me be ground by the teeth of wild
beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ.” (To the Romans, 4)
·
“Lay aside, therefore, the evil, the old, the sour leaven, and be
changed into the new leaven, which is Jesus Christ.” (To the Magnesians, 10)
We will not
begrudge Ignatius his predilection for metaphors and analogies and for whom
there was no figure that could not be stretched to suit his purpose. But Madrid
must surely recognize that the figurative language of such a man cannot
possibly serve as proof of belief in the literal presence of Christ in the
Supper. If faith “is the flesh of the Lord”; and the bread of God “is the flesh
of Jesus Christ”; and love “is the blood of Christ”; and Ignatius himself is “the
wheat of God” ground into “the pure bread of Christ”; and the Magnesians are “changed
into the new leaven, which is Jesus Christ”; in what meaningful way can
Ignatius confirm that wine literally becomes the blood of Christ at the
consecration? Would Madrid also conclude from this that the bread is transubstantiated
into “faith,” Jesus’ blood into “love,” Ignatius into “bread,” the Magnesians into
Jesus, the Roman guards into leopards and herbs into heresy? (Timothy F.
Kauffman, “The True Church?,” in A Gospel Contrary! A Study of Roman
Catholic Abuse of History and Scripture to Propagate Error [2023], 104-5)
