This study examines the letters of this bishop-martyr as products of both Antiochene and Roman Asian influences. After an overview of scholarship on Ignatius, there is an examination of the Christian situations in Antioch and Asia. The writer concludes that relations were troubled between Ignatius and other Christians in Antioch and that the circumstances of his martyrdom included Ignatius having given himself up to the authorities. The emerging catholic tradition, which Ignatius represented, was among a variety of Christianities, whose identities are considered in chapter five. The Ignatian letters preserve interesting parallels with Matthean, Johannine and Pauline thought, as well as with the language and ideas of IV Maccabees and of later Gnosticism. Attention is also given to the possible influence on Ignatius and his opponents of the Didathe, the letter of Clement to the Corinthians and of the Apocalypse.

This book is an account of the cirumstances and the cultural context in which Ignatius constructed what became the historic church order of Christendom. Allen Brent defends the authenticity of the Ignatian letters by showing how the circumstances of Ignatius' condemnation at Antioch and departure for Rome, fits well with what we can reconstruct of the internal situation in the Church of Antioch in Syria at the end of the first century.

The capital city of the province of Asia in the first century CE, Ephesus played a key role in the development of early Christianity. In this book Paul Trebilco examines the early Christians from Paul to Ignatius, seen in the context of our knowledge of the city as a whole. Drawing on Paul's letters and the Acts of the Apostles, Trebilco looks at the foundations of the church, both before and during the Pauline mission. He shows that in the period from around 80 to 100 CE there were a number of different communities in Ephesus that regarded themselves as Christians -- the Pauline and Johannine groups, Nicolaitans, and others -- testifying to the diversity of that time and place. Including further discussions on the Ephesus addresses of the apostle John and Ignatius, this scholarly study of the early Ephesian Christians and their community is without peer.

In Ignatius of Antioch and the Arian Controversy, Paul R. Gilliam III contends that the legacy of the second-century martyr Ignatius of Antioch was one battleground upon which Nicene and Non-Nicene personalities fought for their understanding of the relationship of the Son to the Father. It is well-know that Ignatius’ views continued to live on into the fourth century via the long recension of his letters. Gilliam, however, shows that there was much more to Ignatius’ fourth-century presence than the Ignatian long recension.

The Cambridge Companion to the Apostolic Fathers offers an informative introduction to the extant body of Christian texts that existed beside and after the New Testament known to us as the apostolic fathers. Featuring cutting-edge research by leading scholars, it explores how the early Church expanded and evolved over the course of the first and second centuries as evidenced by its textual history. The volume includes thematic essays on imperial context, the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, the growth and diversification of the early church, influences and intertextuality, and female leaders in the early church. The Companion contains ground-breaking essays on the individual texts with specific attention given to debates of authorship, authenticity, dating, and theological texture. The Companion will serve as an essential resource for instructors and students of the first two centuries of Christianity.

While the church today looks quite different than it did two thousand years ago, Christians share the same faith with the church fathers. Although separated by time and culture, we have much to learn from their lives and teaching. This book is an organized and convenient introduction to how to read the church fathers from AD 100 to 500. Michael Haykin surveys the lives and teachings of seven of the Fathers, looking at their role in such issues as baptism, martyrdom, and the relationship between church and state. Ignatius, Cyprian, Basil of Caesarea, and Ambrose and others were foundational in the growth and purity of early Christianity, and their impact continues to shape the church today. Evangelical readers interested in the historical roots of Christianity will find this to be a helpful introductory volume.

Brings a new approach to the interpretation of the sources used to study the Early Christian era - reading history backwards. This book will interest teachers and students of New Testament studies from around the world of any denomination, and readers of early Christianity and Patristics.