σπουδάζετε οὖν βεβαιωθῆναι ἐν τοῖς δόγμασιν τοῦ κυρίου καὶ τῶν ἀποστόλων, ἵνα πάντα ὅσα ποιεῖτε κατευοδωθῆτε σαρκὶ καὶ πνεύματι, πίστει καὶ ἀγάπῃ, ἐν υἱῷ καὶ πατρὶ καὶ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι, ἐν ἀρχῇ καὶ ἐν τέλει.
Be zealous, then, to be established in the teachings of the Lord and the apostles, so that in everything you do you may prosper — in flesh and spirit, in faith and love, in Son and Father and Holy Spirit, in beginning and in end.
REF Be eager, then, to be confirmed in the doctrines of the Lord and the apostles, that you may prosper in all things that you do, in flesh and spirit, in faith and love, in Son and Father and Holy Spirit, in beginning and end. (Schaff, ANF I, p. 63, paraphrased)
Notes & Key Terms 2 terms
Key Terms
Same noun used in classical philosophical doxographies for the established teachings of Stoics, Epicureans, etc. Ignatius's application to 'the doctrines of the Lord and the apostles' positions Christianity as a school of established teaching with apostolic transmission — anticipating the regula fidei tradition (Tertullian, De praescr. 13) and the later Christian conciliar-dogma vocabulary.
The Son-leading order is distinctive of Ignatius. The order is doxological-economic (reflecting how the church experientially encounters the divine economy — Son first through incarnation, then Father through Son, with Spirit as agent of incorporation), not ontological-hierarchical. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan dogmatic resolution will canonize the Father-Son-Spirit ordering for confessional purposes while preserving the doxological-economic Son-leading pattern in liturgical practice (e.g., the Gloria Patri's variable order across Eastern and Western rites).
Translator Notes
- Lightfoot II.2, pp. 134-136 (Ign. Magn. 13:1); Schaff, ANF I, p. 63. The chapter's closing exhortation gathers the letter's pastoral and doctrinal threads into a single sentence. βεβαιωθῆναι ἐν τοῖς δόγμασιν τοῦ κυρίου καὶ τῶν ἀποστόλων ('be established in the doctrines of the Lord and the apostles') is the early-Christian articulation of what later theology will call the regula fidei — the rule of faith handed down from Christ through the apostles and articulated by the church's teaching authority.
- The triadic-doxological order 'in Son and Father and Holy Spirit' (ἐν υἱῷ καὶ πατρὶ καὶ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι) is unusual — the canonical-NT triadic formulas typically lead with the Father (Matt 28:19) or with the Spirit/Lord (1 Cor 12:4-6, 2 Cor 13:14). Ignatius's Son-leading order reflects his theological focus on the Son as the locus of divine self-disclosure (cf. Ign. Magn. 8:2 — the Father 'manifested himself through Jesus Christ his Son'). The order is doxological-economic, not ontological-hierarchical.
- Schoedel 1985 reads the triadic pattern here as 'pre-credal' — Ignatius is operating with the conceptual furniture that will later be codified at Nicaea and Constantinople but is using it in a more pastoral-doxological register than dogmatic-confessional. The three persons are named together as the comprehensive scope of Christian flourishing; the relations among them are not yet the focus.
- Cross-reference Matt 28:19 (the trinitarian baptismal formula); 1 Cor 12:4-6, 2 Cor 13:14, 1 Pet 1:2 (other NT triadic constructions); and (for Step 6b-and-later authoring) Ign. Smyrn. 8:2 + Didache 7:1-3 for the parallel liturgical-baptismal trinitarian patterns. The future Pillar III doctrinal-index entry on the Trinity will gather all these pre-Nicene constructions together as evidence for the developed trinitarian theology Nicaea will eventually canonize.