Ignatius of Antioch

Attested. The middle-recension letters are accepted by most scholars; their date (Trajan's reign vs. later) is debated.

Ignatius wrote letters to churches while under guard, urging unity around one bishop, presbyters, and deacons. Eusebius places his death under Trajan. The seven-letter 'middle recension' is the form most scholars use. Longer and shorter forms also exist, so the corpus is not a simple stack of autographs.

Bishop of Antioch taken under guard to Rome to die in the arena. On the way he wrote seven letters from Smyrna and Troas that stress the bishop's authority and the reality of Christ's flesh.

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