DR. WESTCOTT’S STATEMENTS.      |           THE TRUTH.
|
1.  Volkmar:  see above.            | Volkmar, Handbuch Einl.  Apocr.
| i. pp. 121 ff., 136 f.
|
| It will be observed on turning to
| the passage “above” (10), to which
| Dr. Westcott refers, that he quotes
| a single sentence containing merely
| a concise statement of facts, and
| that no indication is given to the
| reader that there is anything beyond
| it.  At p. 136 “the same statement
| is repeated briefly.”  Now either
| Dr. Westcott, whilst bringing a most
| serious charge against my work, based
| upon this “one example,” has actually
| not taken the trouble to examine my
| reference to “pp. 121 ff., 136 f.,”
| and p. 50 ff., to which he would
| have found himself there directed,
| or he has acted towards me with a
| want of fairness which I venture to
| say he will be the first to regret,
| when he considers the facts.
|
| Would it be divined from the words
| opposite, and the sentence “above,”
| that Volkmar enters into an elaborate
| argument, extending over a dozen
| closely printed pages, to prove that
| Ignatius was not sent to Rome at all,
| but suffered martyrdom in Antioch
| itself on the 20th December, A.D. 115,
| probably as a sacrifice to the
| superstitious fury of the people
| against the [Greek:  atheoi], excited
| by the earthquake which occurred on
| the thirteenth of that month?  I shall
| not here attempt to give even an
| epitome of the reasoning, as I shall
| presently reproduce some of the
| arguments of Volkmar and others in a
| more condensed and consecutive form.
|
| Ibid. Der Ursprung, p. 52 ff.
|
| Volkmar repeats the affirmations which
| he had fully argued in the above
| work and elsewhere.
|
2.  “Baur, Ursprung d.  Episc.,    | Baur, Urspr. d.  Episc., Tueb. 
Tueb.  Zeitschr._ 1838, ii.  H. 3,  | Zeitschr._ 1838, H. 3, p. 149 f.
p. 149 f.                         |
|
“In this passage Baur discusses   | Baur enters into a long and minute
generally the historical          | examination of the historical
character of the martyrdom, which | character of the martyrdom of
he considers, as a whole, to be   | Ignatius, and of the Ignatian
‘doubtful and incredible.’  To     | Epistles, and pronounces the whole
establish this result he notices  | to be fabulous, and more especially
the relation of Christianity to   | the representation of his sentence
the Empire in the time of Trajan, | and martyr-journey to Rome.  He
which he regards as inconsistent  | shows that, while isolated cases of
with the condemnation of Ignatius;| condemnation to death, under
and the improbable circumstances  | occurred during Trajan’s reign may
of the journey.  The personal      | justify the mere tradition that he
characteristics, the letters, the | suffered martyrdom, there is no
history of Ignatius, are, in his  | instance recorded in which a
opinion, all a mere creation of   | Christian was condemned to be sent
the imagination.  The utmost he    | to Rome to be cast to the beasts;