14
authors after Ignatius note the absence of martyrs among such communities.
74
But
Christs suffering was real and this validated the physical suffering of his people. Ignatius
continues:
To what end have I given myself up to perish by fire or sword or savage beasts?
Simply because when I am close to the sword I am close to God, and when I am
surrounded by the lions, I am surrounded by God. But it is only in the name of
Jesus Christ, and for the sake of sharing his sufferings, that I could face all this;
for he, the perfect Man, gives me strength to do so.
75
Ignatius martyrdom was thus a powerful defence of the saving reality of the incarnation
and crucifixion. In suffering a violent death, Ignatius was confessing that his Lord had
also actually suffered a violent demise. So important was that confession, it was worth
dying for. And thus across the centuries, Ignatius not only declares by the words in his
seven letters but also by his dying that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour.
74
See the references in Pagels, "Gnostic and Orthodox Views of Christs Passion" in Layton, ed.,
Rediscovery of Gnosticism, 265-271. There were some Gnostics who appear to have affirmed Christs
bodily sufferings and thus the value of martyrdom: see Pagels, "Gnostic and Orthodox Views of Christs
Passion" in Layton, ed., Rediscovery of Gnosticism, passim; Heikki Räisänen, "Marcion" in Antii Marjanen
and Petri Luomanen, eds., A Companion to Second-Century Christian "Heretics" (Leiden/Boston: E. J.
Brill, 2005), 100-124.
75
Smyrnaeans 4.2 (trans. Staniforth, Early Christian Writings, 102).