The Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans

St. Ignatius of Antioch

Summary

The Epistle to the Smyrnaeans was written c. 107–110 AD by St. Ignatius from Troas, in thanks to the church that had so warmly received him. It is the fullest early refutation of Docetism—the heresy that Christ’s body and suffering were mere appearance—and it contains the first recorded use of the phrase “the Catholic Church.”

Historical Context

The Smyrnaeans, under their bishop Polycarp, had hosted Ignatius and cared for him on his journey. Writing back from Troas, he warns them against “certain unbelievers” who denied that Christ truly took flesh and truly suffered. Against them he sets the eyewitness reality of the risen Lord, whom the apostles “touched” after the Resurrection.

Theological Significance

  • The First “Catholic Church”: Ignatius writes, “Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.” This is the earliest surviving use of the term—katholikē, “according to the whole”—describing the Church’s fullness present wherever it is gathered rightly around its bishop.

  • The Eucharist as True Flesh: The letter draws the sharpest link between doctrine and worship: the Docetists “abstain from the Eucharist … because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Orthodox sacramental realism stands on this—to deny the real Body in the manger denies it in the chalice.

  • The Reality of the Resurrection: Ignatius stresses that Christ was “in the flesh even after the resurrection,” eating and drinking with His disciples, “for I know that He was possessed of a body not only in His being born and crucified, but I also know that He was so after His resurrection.”

  • Order Around the Bishop: As always, communion with the bishop guards the truth: “Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop.” Right doctrine and right order are, for Ignatius, inseparable.

  1. 0. Greeting
  2. 1. Thanks to God for your faith
  3. 2. Christ's true passion
  4. 3. Christ was possessed of a body after His resurrection
  5. 4. Beware of these heretics
  6. 5. Their dangerous errors
  7. 6. Unbelievers in the blood of Christ shall be condemned
  8. 7. Let us stand aloof from such heretics
  9. 8. Let nothing be done without the bishop
  10. 9. Honour the bishop
  11. 10. Acknowledgment of their kindness
  12. 11. Request to them to send a messenger to Antioch
  13. 12. Salutations
  14. 13. Conclusion

Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the Church of God the Father, and of the beloved Jesus Christ, which has through mercy obtained every kind of gift, which is filled with faith and love, and is deficient in no gift, most worthy of God, and adorned with holiness: the Church which is at Smyrna, in Asia, wishes abundance of happiness, through the immaculate Spirit and word of God.