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Ignatius of Antioch. A.D. 107.
Epistola ad Trallianos, cap. 9.
The following passage is no creed nor part of a creed, but it shows what facts of the gospel history were most prominent in the mind of the famous bishop and martyr Ignatius, of Antioch, and the Church of his age, in opposition to the Gnostic heretics, who resolved the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ into an unreal and delusive show or phantom ( δόκησις, hence Docetæ}. A similar passage of greater length occurs in the commencement of his letter to the Christians at Smyrna.
The text is from the shorter Greek recension of the seven Epistles, with the chief interpolations of the longer Greek recension added in brackets. The latter mentions also Christ's lonely descent into Hades ( καθῆλθεν εἰς ᾅδην μόνος ). In the short Syriac Ignatius there is no Epistle to the Trallians. On the Ignatian controversy and literature, see my Church History, Vol. I. § 119, pp. 463 sqq.
| Κωφώθητε οὖν, ὅταν ὑμῖν χωρὶς Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ λαλῇ τις | Be deaf, therefore, when any would speak to you apart from (at variance with) Jesus Christ |
| [τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ] | [the Son of God], |
| τοῦ ἐκ γένους [γενομένου] Δαβὶδ | who was descended from the family of David, |
| τοῦ ἐκ Μαρίας, | born of Mary, |
| ὃς ἀληθῶς ἐγεννήθη | who truly was born |
| [ καὶ ἐκ θεοῦ καὶ ἐκ παρθένου … | [both of God and of the Virgin … |
| ἀληθῶς ἀνέλαβε σῶμα· ὁ Λόγος | truly took a body; for the Word |
| γὰρ σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐπολιτεύσατο ἄνευ ἁμαρτίας …], | became flesh and dwelt among us without sin …], |
| ἔφαγέν τε καὶ ἔπιεν [ἀληθῶς], | ate and drank [truly], |
| ἀληθῶς ἐδιώχθη ἐπὶ Ποντίου Πιλάτου, | truly suffered persecution under Pontius Pilate, |
| ἀληθῶς [δὲ, καὶ οὐ δοκήσει] ἐσταυρώθη καὶ ἀπέθανεν … | was truly [and not in appearance] crucified and died … |
| ὃς καὶ ἀληθῶς ἠγέρθη ἀπὸ νεκρῶν [καὶ ἀνέστη διὰ τριῶν ἡμερῶν], | who was also truly raised from the dead [and rose after three days], |
| ἐγείροντος αὐτὸν τοῦ Πατρὸς αὐτοῦ … | his Father raising him up … |
| [καὶ τεσσαράκοντα ἡμέρας συνδιατρίψας τοῖς Ἀποστόλοις, | [and after having spent forty days with the Apostles, |
| ἀνελήφθη πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα· | was received up to the Father, |
| καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐκ δεξιῶν αὐτοῦ, | and sits on his right hand, |
| περιμένων ἕως ἄν τεθῶσιν οἱ ἐχθροὶ αὐτοῦ ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ]. | waiting till his enemies are put under his feet]. |
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