Abstract

The authenticity of the Middle Recension is defended against attempts since Robert Joly’s to revive the forgery thesis of Dallaeus (AD 1666), which fails to historically locate a later situation into which the letters can be convincingly located. Ignatius’ unique ecclesiology of church order does not fit into any later situations, but reflects the organization of the πόλις of Hellenistic Asia Minor in the Second Sophistic. The methodology is based on the particular use of epigraphy pioneered by Louis Robert and exploits the non-literary corpus of artefacts that has grown exponentially since Joseph Barber Lightfoot and the 19th century.