13
(
).
68
Moreover, according to Ignatius, those who have embraced this false
teaching do not live godly lives, for they have broken with the church, refusing to attend
the Lords Table or to pray together with the church.
69
While Docetism was not part and
parcel of every variant of second-century Gnosticism it can be found in a variety of
Gnostic documents. In The Letter of Peter to Philip, for example, it is asserted that "Jesus
is a stranger to...suffering." In another text, entitled the First Apocalypse of James, a
statement is attributed to Christ in which he affirms, "Never have I suffered in any
way."
70
Now, in the letter to the church at Smyrna Ignatius makes a powerful connection between
his own death and that of Christ. He writes that Christ was "truly pierced by nails in his
human flesh" and "truly suffered." It is thus necessary to confess over against the heretics
that "his Passion was no unreal illusion."
71
Nor was Christs physical resurrection an
illusion. "For my own part," Ignatius declares, "I know and believe that he was in actual
human flesh, even after his resurrection." Ignatius finds proof for this declaration in the
resurrection accounts in Luke 24, where Christ appeared to his disciples, challenged their
unbelief, and urged them to eat and drank with him.
72
But if the Docetists were correct and all of the Lord Jesus incarnate life were "only
illusion," then, Ignatius declares with biting sarcasm, "these chains of mine must be
illusory too!"
73
From the point of view of Docetism, if Christ did not really suffer, it was
meaningless for any of his disciples to take such a pathway. Martrydom was thus not a
distinctive characteristic of the Docetist communities. A number of second-century
68
See Trallians 6.1. He also uses the term "teaching falsehood" (
with regard to this
perspective: Smyrnaeans 6.2. It is interesting that Ignatius is the only second-century Christian author to
use this term. See Brown, The Gospel and Ignatius of Antioch, 174-175.
69
Smyrnaeans 6-7.
70
Both texts cited by Guy G. Stroumsa, "Christs Laughter: Docetic Origins Reconsidered", Journal of
Early Christian Studies, 12 (2004), 272.
71
Smyrnaeans 1.2-2 (trans. Staniforth, Early Christian Writings, 101, altered).
72
Smyrnaeans 3.1-2 (trans. Staniforth, Early Christian Writings, 101). On the Docetists at Smyrna, see
also Sumney, "The Opponents of Ignatius of Antioch", 349-353; Isacson, To Each Their Own Letter, 158-
179.
73
Smyrnaeans 4.2 (trans. Staniforth, Early Christian Writings, 102). See also Trallians 9-10.