Monday, July 05, 2010

The Letter of Ignatius to the Ephesians: Bishops and Ecclesiastical Authority

The Letter of Ignatius to the Ephesians: Bishops and Ecclesiastical Authority

4 comments:

John Watt said...

I love your selective use of quotes. I like this one. "You must all follow the bishop as Jesus Christ follows the Father, and the presbytery you would the Apostles. Reverence the deacons as you would the command of God. Let no one do anything of concern to the Church without the bishop. Let that be considered a valid Eurcharist which is celebrated by the bishop, or by one whom he appoints. Wherever the bishop appears, let the people be there; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. Nor is it permitted without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate the agape; but whatever he approve, this too is pleasing to God, so that whatever is done will be secure and valid.

Jennie said...

John, blogger keeps eating my comments here, but I've tried several times to comment that I didn't write that post; I only linked to it.

Paul Pavao said...

I wrote the post you linked to. Thank you.

I have no idea what Mr. Watt's problem is with my quote. I mentioned that there were a lot more quotes than the one I selected. The reason I selected mine is because it was the first one I came to. (Mine's in Ignatius' epistle to the Ephesians 4; his is in Smyrneans 8.)

Using his changes nothing.

Jennie said...

Hi Paul,
Yes, I see that John's quote doesn't contradict anything you said about why Ignatius said the things he did about bishop's, etc.
John Watt is Roman Catholic, so I assume he thinks his quote can stand on it's own (out of context) to prove what he wants to be true.