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The letters of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, written some time in the early second century while he was being taken to Rome and martyrdom, illustrate in a lively and idiosyncratic way themes such as the power of bishops, martyrdom, heresies, Biblical interpretation, the heresy known as ‘docetism’, Judaizers, and the eucharist. His letters to Rome show the existence of influential Christians there in the first or second decade of the second century. The correspondence between Pliny, governor of Bithynia, and the emperor Trajan, at roughly the same time as Ignatius’ letters, shows that Christians were now being persecuted ‘not for what they had done but for what they now were’.

This chapter examines the ‘long recension’ of the corpus of letters attributed to the early second-century Christian bishop Ignatius of Antioch. The ‘long recension’, now generally agreed to be a spurious addition to Ignatius’ genuine letters, alters the text of the genuine letters and adds new letters to new correspondents. Three purposes for the forgery may be imagined: first, for entertainment; second, to show that Ignatius was orthodox at a time when his status was in doubt; third, to invoke Ignatius’ authority in some then-current debate. This chapter argues that there is evidence for all three motives, and examines related questions, such as how this example of Christian pseudepigraphy differs from others, and to what degree it requires that the reader be deceived.

Major Christian writers in the second century saw Jesus largely in terms of God’s self-revelation in the long history of Israel. Central themes included the person of Jesus as God’s “Beloved,” an understanding of his death as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy, the celebration of Jewish liturgical feasts, and a sense that in the Church the ancient vocation of Israel was now being extended to include all nations. Works examined include the Odes of Solomon, a collection of prophetic Syriac hymns; the letters of Ignatius of Antioch; the Ascension of Isaiah; the Paschal homily of Melito of Sardis, developing the understanding of Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection as the final meaning of Israel’s Exodus and its later Passover celebration; and the writings of Justin, the second-century Christian “philosopher,” which identify the story of Jesus, his death and resurrection, as the final embodiment of divine wisdom for Jews and gentiles.

This chapter deals with the early church’s developing view of the Bishop of Rome and how individual authors and the councils understood both the basis and limits of papal authority in light of their dealings with it. Included are the conciliar legislation granting Rome a “primacy of honor,” the institution and ordering of the patriarchal sees, as well as those general and local councils that defined the jurisdiction of bishops, metropolitans, and synods. There is also the witness of those fathers who turned to Rome in order to solve internal and local difficulties, allegedly recognizing the pope’s right to speak authoritatively outside the boundaries of his patriarchate. Then there are the writings and actions of the popes themselves, particularly Popes Leo, Gelasius, and Gregory, which spoke of the petrine ministry in terms of a unique authority granted to it, and it alone, by Christ himself.

Chapter Four demonstrates how Christ’s word from the Cross, ‘It is Finished’, refers back to the opening verses of Genesis, where, unlike every other aspect of creation, which is brought into existence by an imperative, a divine fiat—‘Let it be!’—the particular project of God is given in the subjunctive, ‘Let us make a human being’: a project only completed when Christ lays down his own life in an act of love, unwitting confirmed by Pilate, ‘behold the human being!’. The first part of the chapter shows how this theme is developed by John over the course of the Gospel, most notably in the ‘woman’ who appears in Cana and at the Cross, and in John 16, where she is in travail until a human being is born into the world. This theme is also traced in the Apocalypse, and in writers following on from John: Ignatius of Antioch writing on his way to martyrdom, Melito of Sardis in his Paschal celebration, and Irenaeus of Lyons as a fundamental feature of his account of the whole economy of God leading, in the end, to the true human being. The second part of this chapter explores how this understanding of the human being informs the enigmatic figure of the Son of Man, as he steps dramatically into view at the beginning of the Gospel and appears frequently thereafter, examining John Ashton’s new proposal for interpreting the Son of Man, as a stage in the composition of the Gospel before the idea of Incarnation came to the fore, but argues instead that the Son of Man is the true human being, uniting heaven and earth, ascending the cross to descend as the flesh he offers to the faithful.

This chapter puts forward the idea of a distinctively early Christian understanding of divine power in terms of a logic driven primarily by concerns about apostolic mission and preaching. It maintains that first-century Christian authors, notably Paul and Luke in Acts, offer a reimagining of the nature of divine power in six different ways: the Christological, communicative, pneumatological, kerygmatic, pre-eminence, and weakness aspects to the concept. Further, the essay seeks to trace the way in which these features of the divine dunamis are reinterpreted, and, sometimes, extended quite radically, by three early Christian authors of very different kinds: Ignatius of Antioch, who wrote epistles to some degree after Paul; Hermas, who wrote about visions and parables in a deeply allegorical style; and Justin Martyr, an apologist who used the language and concepts of contemporary Platonism.

This chapter considers the variety of Greek letter collections that the late antique reader would have inherited. These range from letters—real, spurious, or imagined—by orators, philosophers, military officials, and Christian leaders. The chapter also considers how letter collections were formed, how the ancient reader confronted questions of authenticity, and ancient discussions of the art of letter writing.