January 6 - You Knew Who (Whom)?

January 6 – You Knew Who (Whom)?

Sometimes we think that the New Testament existed in a vacuum. We don’t really put it all together that the disciples interacted with others and there might be a record of that information. This is one of the reason that studying early church history is so fascinating.

For example, Ignatius. I suspect you don’t know too much about him, but he was born between 30-35 AD and in his later life became Bishop of Antioch. (Remember, Antioch is where they were first called Christian, where Peter was Bishop before moving to Rome and where the mess occurred that brought the disciples to Jerusalem for the first big meeting of the church to decide what to do with the Gentiles.)

Under Emperor Trajan, Pliny the Younger was a governor in what we know as northern Turkey. The two men corresponded about what to do with Christians because Pliny wanted to be just in his punishment of them. They finally honed it down to whether there were any crimes that the Christians were committing or if simply being a Christian was a crime. Trajan didn’t actually have a law that dealt with that, so in essence, the state would not waste their time, energy and monies seeking to find Christians, but if there was an accusation against one, then they should be punished. Worshiping anyone other than the Roman Emperor was grounds for great punishment.

In other words, don’t ask, don’t tell.

In about 107 AD, Ignatius was an old man and condemned to death for being a Christian. They took him to Rome for the execution because there was a festival being planned to celebrate some military victory. His death would be fun to watch.

On his way, though, he had the opportunity to write seven letters. These exist to this day and have given us a lot of information about early Christianity.

While he traveled through Asia Minor, many Christians met with him and there was even one that traveled with him and took down his dictation for his letters. Obviously, these Christians were safe from prosecution, so the don’t ask – don’t tell policy was at work.

Ignatius heard that Christians in Rome were planning to free him, but he didn’t want that to happen. He was a humble man and in his letter to them he let them know that his purpose was to be an imitator of the passion of his God – Jesus Christ. As he faced the ultimate sacrifice, he believed that he began to be a disciple. He asked for their prayers for his strength, not his freedom.

We don’t know who accused him or what the accusations are. We don’t know when he died or how it happened. But, this man wanted to be a witness to his faith in Jesus Christ and we do know that he accomplished that.

It is in his letters and those of his contemporaries that we find hints and allusions to the things that were happening in the early church as well as what might have happened to Peter and Paul in Rome during Nero’s reign 50 years earlier. He knew the disciples, he worked with people that knew them intimately. He went to his death affirming the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ. He was a witness.

Gonzalez, J. L. (1984). The History of Christianity. Volume 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.