There is, however, a second
reason which strikes at the almost general tendency to describe Ignatius'
concept of episcopacy as "monarchical." Ignatius does not use the
term προκαθημενος of
the authority of the bishop alone, but of all three Orders in the threefold
typology. To the Magnesians he speaks of προκαυημεωου του
επικοπου εις τυπον θεου και των πρεσβυτερων εις τυπον συνεδριου των αποστολων, and appears at first sight to leave
the deacons out of this pre-eminence or presidency by merely describing them as
των διακονων των εμοι γλυκυτατων πεπιστευμενων διακονιαν ‘Ιησου Χριστου. But that this is a stylistic variation
in his usual description of the co-equal, triple typology is shown by the fact
that further on in this passage the Magnesians are exhorted to "be united
with the bishop and those who are pre-eminent as type and teaching of of incorruption
(ενώθητε τφ έπισκόπω καί τοϊς προκαθημένοις είς τύπον καί διδαχήν άφθαρσίας). ” (Mag. 6,2)
In Trallians, moreover,
although the bishop is described formally as όντα είς τύπον πατρός, equality of
status is preserved by mentioning the deacons before the bishop, and connecting
them with his typology by means of ως
και as part of the indispensable threefold Order
to the bearing of the name of "church" or to the summoning of the
eucharistic assembly: ομοίως πάντες εντρεπέσθωσαν
τούς διακόνους ώς καί τόν έπίσκοπον όντα είς τύπον πατρός, τούς δέ
πρεσβυτέρους ώς συνέδριον θεού καί σύνδεσμον άποστόλων. χωρίς τούτων
έκκλησία ού καλεΐται. If, finally, we look at the one place
where προκαθημένος is unqualified by είς τύπον, we find further corroboration
of our thesis. Without such a qualification, the term is applied by Ignatius to
the community represented and not those who typify or represent. This is why I
believe that Ignatius can refer to the Roman community in its entirety, without
reference to presbyters and deacons which it certainly had at this time, as 1 Clement
makes clear, if not in fact a presiding presbyter-episcopus, as προκαθημένη της άγάπης and προκαθήται έν τόπω
χωρίου ' Ρωμαίων. (Rom. insc) There is here no reference to the nascent
jurisdiction of the Papacy, as has often been claimed, but rather that the
whole community "sits forward," "stands out," or "is
pre-eminent (προκαθημένη)."
Thus the community can
display its character as a communion fellowship (αγαπη), in itself or through
type-representation of its Orders. Thus it is arguable that Harnack's original
understanding of the latter term in Rom. insc. in terms of pre-eminence rather
than presidency should be adopted on grounds of its general consistency with
the use of the term throughout the Ignatian corpus. As a result, when the
church of Antioch is deprived of its bishop, another church, in this case Rome,
can display to it the quality of its fellowship directly and not through its
clerical ikons. The communion-fellowship of the church as a whole, along with
Jesus Christ, can be the church of Antioch's bishop (Ιησού Χριστός επισκοπήσει καί ή ύμων άγάπη).
(Rom. 9,1). (Allen Brent, Cultural Episcopacy and Ecumenism: Representative
Ministry in Church History from the Ages of Ignatius of Antioch to the Reformation
[Studies in Christian Mission; Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992], 82-84)
Although προκαθημένος could, therefore, be translated
in these preceding passages as "preside," the propriety of so doing
we have seen to be questionable. This word may be comprehensibly applied to a
single episcopal person in such a sense, but it has a plural subject in
Ignatius, in terms of the people of the three Orders to which its action
applies. "Sitting forward," which is the alternative to its derived
sense of "pre-eminent," ought therefore arguably to be used in
translation in these passages. Certainly when the phrase προκαθημένοι or such
like is modified by the addition of εις
τυπον the
sense "pre-eminent as a type of" would appear more natural than
"presiding as a type of." The charge of "monarchical"
episcope, moreover, is belied once one continues the quotations on which it is
based to find all three τυποι included in the action of the verb which clearly
bears the sense of "pre-eminent" rather than "rule."
Finally, though one church could not be said to "rule" another except
through official delegates, a church such as Rome can be said to be "pre-
eminent" in a locality or outstanding for the communion-fellow- ship or αγαπη
that it displays.
Thus Ignatius' insights help us to illuminate one
strand in our argument, namely that episcope can be representative as opposed
to being jurisdictional. But our other strand is cultural, namely that the
representative bishop takes on the representation of the common, community
experience of union with God through Christ in the particular cultural form of
that community. We shall now see the extent to which this strand of our
argument is also present in Ignatius' view of church Order. (Ibid., 84-85)
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