Reference must also be made to a few of the more characteristic points in the theology of Ignatius. As far as Christology is concerned, besides the insistence on the reality of the humanity of Christ already mentioned, there are two other points which call for notice. (1) Ignatius is the earliest writer outside the New Testament to describe Christ under the categories of current philosophy; cf. the famous passage in _Eph._ 7, "There is one only physician, of flesh and of spirit ([Greek: sarkikos kai pneumatikos]), generate and ingenerate ([Greek: gennêtos kai agennêtos]), God in man, true life in death, son of Mary and son of God, first passible and then impassible" ([Greek: prôton pathêtos kai apathês]). (2) Ignatius is also the first writer outside the New Testament to mention the Virgin Birth, upon which he lays the utmost stress. "Hidden from the prince of this world were the virginity of Mary and her child-bearing and likewise also the death of the Lord, three mysteries to be cried aloud, the which were wrought in the silence of God" (_Eph._ 19). Here, it will be observed, we have the nucleus of the later doctrine of the deception of Satan. In regard to the Eucharist also later ideas occur in Ignatius. It is termed a [Greek: mystêrion] (_Trall._ 2), and the influence of the Greek mysteries is seen in such language as that used in _Eph._ 20, where Ignatius describes the Eucharistic bread as "the medicine of immortality and the antidote against death." When Ignatius says too that "the heretics abstain from Eucharist because they do not allow that the Eucharist is the flesh of Christ," the words seem to imply that materialistic ideas were beginning to find an entrance into the church (_Smyr._ 6). Other points that call for special notice are: (1) Ignatius's rather extravagant angelology. In one place for instance he speaks of himself as being able to comprehend heavenly things and "the arrays of angels and the musterings of principalities" (_Trall._ 5). (2) His view of the Old Testament. In one important passage Ignatius emphatically states his belief in the supremacy of Christ even over "the archives" of the faith, i.e. the Old Testament: "As for me, my archives--my inviolable archives--are Jesus Christ, His cross, His death, His resurrection and faith through Him" (_Philadel._ 8). AUTHORITIES.--T. Zahn, _Ignatius von Antiochien_ (Gotha, 1873); J. B. Lightfoot, _Apostolic Fathers_, part ii. (London, 2nd ed., 1889); F. X. Funk, _Die Echtheit der ignat. Briefe_ (Tübingen, 1892); A. Harnack, _Chronologie der altchristlichen Litteratur_ (Leipzig, 1897). There is a good bibliography in G. Krüger, _Early Christian Literature_ (Eng. trans., 1897, pp. 28-29). See also APOSTOLIC FATHERS. (H. T. A.) FOOTNOTES: [1] In his short treatise "Of Prelatical Episcopacy," works iii. p. 72 (Pickering, 1851). [2] _Theologisch. Tijdschrift_ (1892), 625-633. [3] _Ib._ (1886) 114-136; _Die Ignatianischen Briefe_ (1892).