The Knowledge of God in the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch
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The Ignatian corpus refers to the knowledge of God proposing the affirmation that knowing God is Jesus Christ (Ignatius, Eph 17,2a). Although this statement is qualified in other passages (Ignatius, Rm 8,2b), it is not immediately clear how Jesus is the knowledge of God. That is to say, it is not clear if knowing of God is equal to listening to Jesus, looking at and following his example, or if knowing Jesus is knowing God because Jesus and God are one, which implies that knowing one is knowing the other.
The thesis of this essay is that, for Ignatius, Jesus Christ is the knowledge of God because he reveals in his life and actions, until his death, the purposes of God. Recent approaches to the epistemological studies of the New Testament suggest that it is necessary to treat the topic of knowledge focusing on the lexemes that express the concept.
This exercise makes it possible to order and categorize the different uses and provides clarity on how the different types of knowledge are understood. Applying the work of Ian W. Scott, it is suggested that Ignacio deals with at least four types of knowledge: knowledge of the mundane (knowledge that is apprehended by observing phenomena in the public sphere); theological knowledge (knowledge about God, which requires God’s intervention in revealing himself ); ethical knowledge (knowledge about how to behave as members of the church); experiential knowledge (knowledge that does not imply a concept of an object, but has to do with knowing something by experiencing it). An application of this taxonomy to Ignatius reveals that, when speaking of knowledge of God or theological knowledge, Ignatius focuses on Jesus and that Jesus is the revealer of God’s purposes in his death and the events of his life.
Ignatius, Theological Knowledge, Ethical Knowledge, Theology, Taxonomy, Jesus Christ, EpistemologyIgnacio, conocimiento teológico, conocimiento ético, teología, taxonomía, Jesucristo, epistemología
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Fuentes primarias
Aristóteles. Analytica posteriora (An Post)
_____. De anima
Ignatius, A los efesios (Ef)
_____. A los filadelfianos (Fila)
_____. A los magnecianos (Magn)
_____. A Polycarpo (Pol)
_____. A los romanos (Rm)
_____. A los esmirneanos (Smyrn)
_____. Alos tralianos (Tral)
Platón, Symposium
Platón, Theaetetus
Plotinus, Las Enéadas (Enn)
Porphyry, Eis ta harmonika Ptolemaiou hypomnēma
Proclus, “Comentario sobre Timaeus de Platón”
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