Dr. Lightfoot. (4). "It is not strictly true that the seven Epistles are
mixed up with the confessedly spurious Epistles. In the Greek and Latin
MSS., as also in the Armenian version, the spurious Epistles come after
the others; and this circumstance, combined with the facts already
mentioned, plainly shows that they were a later addition, borrowed from
the Long Recension to complete the body of Ignatian letters."(1)
Dr. Tregelles. "It is a mistake to speak of seven Ignatian Epistles in
Greek having been transmitted to us, for no such seven exist, except
through their having been selected by editors from the Medicean MS.
which contains so much that is confessedly spurious;--a fact which some
who imagine a diplomatic transmission of seven have overlooked."(2)
I will further quote the words of Cureton, for as Dr. Lightfoot advances
nothing but assertions, it is well to meet him with the testimony of
others rather than the mere reiteration of my own statement Cureton
says:
"Again, there is another circumstance which will naturally lead us
to look with some suspicion upon the recension of the Epistles of St.
Ignatius, as exhibited in the Medicean MS., and in the ancient Latin
version corresponding with it, which is, that the Epistles presumed to
be the genuine production of that holy Martyr are mixed up with others,
which are almost universally allowed to be spurious. Both in the Greek
and Latin MSS. all these are placed upon the same footing, and no
distinction is drawn between them; and the only ground which has
hitherto been a Note to "Home's Int. to the Holy Scriptures," 12th ed.,
1869, iv. p. 332, note 1. The italics are in the original.
1 "Contemporary Beview," February, 1875, p. 347. Dr.
Lightfoot makes the following important admission in a note:
"The Roman Epistle indeed has been separated from its
companions, and is embedded in the Martyrology which stands
at the end of this collection in the Latin Version, where
doubtless it stood also in the Greek, before the MS. of this
latter was mutilated. Otherwise the Vossian Epistles come
together, and are followed by the confessedly spurious
Epistles in the Greek and Latin MSS. In the Armenian all the
Vossian Epistles are together, and the confessedly spurious
Epistles follow. See Zahn, Ignatius von Antiochien, p. 111."
{l}
assumed for their separation has been the specification of some of them
by Eusebius and his omission of any mention of the others."'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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