The Early Church Throws Us a Curve Ball

Having taken St. Ignatius of Antioch as my patron saint, my mind immediately goes to him when looking for answers about what the early Church was like. St. Ignatius Theophoros was a bishop in the city of Antioch, likely consecrated a bishop by St. Paul, and most definitely a disciple of St. John the Apostle and Gospel-writer. So, here we have a direct disciple of one of the Twelve, who speaks very emphatically about the office of bishop and some of the bishop's responsibilities. In St. Ignatius’s Epistle to the Smyrneans, he says:
See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Christ Jesus does the Father, and the presbytery as ye would the apostles. Do ye also reverence the deacons, as those that carry out [through their office] the appointment of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as where Christ is, there does all the heavenly host stand by, waiting upon Him as the Chief Captain of the Lord’s might, and the Governor of every intelligent nature. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize, or to offer, or to present sacrifice, or to celebrate a love-feast. But that which seems good to him, is also well-pleasing to God, that everything ye do may be secure and valid.
I will not get into the oddity of most modern translations of the New Testament mistranslating ‘bishop’ as “overseer”. Even if the meaning of that Greek word should really be “overseer”, it is still clear that St. Paul is speaking of a specific office of the Church, and St. Ignatius, who likely was made a bishop by St. Paul himself and followed in the same tradition, is using the same Greek word with a much more elaborate understanding than we can explain away.

The original challenge we faced was St. Paul’s message to “stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught.” When we look at that one paragraph from St. Ignatius’s letters, those bolded words above bring up lots of questions for many of us.

At the very least, we can compare that one paragraph from St. Ignatius to many of the Protestant denominations of today and see that things have changed. Our desire, and it is a good one, is to stick to the Scriptures alone. Here is the problem: the Scriptures do not contain all of that tradition St. Paul tells us to hold to. The continuation of that same verse in II Thessalonians says, "which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle".

Here in St. Ignatius’s writings are portions of that tradition, given him by the Apostles, portions which are obviously of vital importance, judging by the way he reiterates himself, that are not contained in the Scriptures. He was both “holding the traditions he had been taught” (which most of us, too, have done, in the sense of staying in the same faith taught by our immediate fathers), but also “standing fast” in the same tradition of which St. Paul speaks. So, it is a two-pronged command from St. Paul: hold to the traditions we have been taught and make sure those are the same tradition as that of the Apostles.

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