HumanitiesReligionReligious StudiesMedieval TheologyTextual CriticismTheologyBiblical ExegesisChristian TheologyDoctrinal Construction
Abstract Of the problems raised by Ignatius' letters, the most intransigent have been three.1 Were all the Asian churches to whom he wrote under pressure to "Judaize", or only Magnesia and Philadelphia? Were all these churches threatened by a "docetic" teaching, or only some, perhaps different from those with Judaizers?2 What precisely did the "docetism" consist of? I offer some reflections on the first two of these questions, and a new form (so far as I know) of a solution to the third: "docetism" is a modern misunderstanding for a form of Ebionism.3