Ignatius, Ephes., 19.2-3: The
star-hymn
In what Lechner falsely
represents as a Valentinian star hymn, the three mysteries (τρία μυστήρια) of
Christ's birth and death, and Mary's virginity, previously unknown because they
were "wrought in the stillness of God (äruva έν ήσυχία θεού
έπράχθη)," are now made known:
How, therefore, were they made
known (πως ούν έφανερώθη) to the ages (τοϊς αίώσιν)? A star shone in heaven
(άστήρ έν ούρανω έλαμψεν) above all the stars (ύπέρ πάντας τούς άστέρας) ...
and the rest of the stars together with sun and moon (τά δέ λοιπά πάντα άστρα
άμα ήλιω καί σελήνη) formed a chorus around the star (χορός έγένετο τω άστέρι),
and its light excelled above all things (αύτος δέ ήν ύπερβάλλων τό φώς αύτου
ύπέρ πάντα) ... In consequence all magic was dissolved (όθεν έλύετο πάσα μαγε
ία), and every bond of wickedness was wiped away (καί πάς δεσμός ήφανίζετο
κακίας); ignorance was removed (άγνοια καθηρεϊτο), and the old kingdom
destroyed (παλαιά βασιλεία διεφθείρετο), with God appearing hu- manly (θεού
άνθρωπίνως φανερουμένου) for the renewal of eternal life (είς καιν- ότητα
άϊδίου ζωής) ... From that time on all things were disturbed (ένθεν τά πάντα
συνεκινεϊτο), because the destruction of death had been planned (διά τό
μελετάσθαι θανάτου κατάλυσιν).
Part of the case for Lechner's
forgery hypothesis is that this passage is a kind of late second-century
orthodox response to the Valentinian star hymn. Yet as we have seen from
Aristides, the stars as gods forming a chorus is a familiar pagan theme, and applied
to the political, pagan theology of ouóvota. There is no need to posit a
Valentinian source for Ignatius' description because he uses the concept of
πλάνη. This word we saw was used also by Dio of the contrast between the
heavenly ouóvora reflected in the ideal city, and those cities "not
wandering in mindless error (ού πλανωμένων άλλως άνόητον πλάνην)." In Ephes.
10.2 Ignatius clearly refers, not to any group of false teachers within the
church, but to the general behaviour of a Christian community in the pagan
world. πλανη is one of the
civic features of a discordant society, along with όργαι, βλασφημία, τό άγριον
etc.
Of course for Ignatius, as for
the Seer of the Apocalypse, earth and heaven were not destined to remain
eternally separate, with the former reflecting the latter in its more
beneficial arrangements. Both have an eschatology of the present age in process
of being replaced by the age to come. When the star of the tradition of
Ignatius' Matthaean, Syrian church shone at Bethlehem, then πάσα μαγεία, and
πάς δεσμός κακίας that was for the writer to Diognetus part of the πλάνη of the
pagan past was dissolved along with άγνοια. For Ignatius, as an early Christian
writer, these too were part of the diagnosis of the sick societies of the
city-states, and not simply the milder negation of ομονοια by the writers of the Second
Sophistic, however much for Ignatius the lack of ομονοια was an integral part of the problem
of social and natural disorder too. They were features of the παλαιά βασιλεία
on its way to destruction in consequence of the incarnation, the θανάτου
κατάλυσιν pursuant upon θεός άνθρωπίνως φανερουμένος. Thus Dio Chrysostom, who
writes slightly before Ignatius' traditional dating, clearly produces a pagan
parallel to Ignatian theology in this passage. (Allen Brent, Ignatius of
Antioch and the Second Sophistic: A Study of an Early Christian Transformation
of Pagan Culture [Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 36; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006], 240-42)
