Greek · Letter to the Magnesians
A letter to the church at Magnesia on the Maeander, warning against Judaizing practice and urging unity with the bishop.
Dating
Dated with Ignatius' journey and martyrdom under Trajan (Eusebius' Chronicle implies c. 107/108). Most scholars accept c. 105-115 for the seven letters of the middle recension; a minority date them to the 120s-140s or regard them as pseudonymous. Written at Smyrna, per the letter itself.Books it uses
7.1 'the Lord did nothing without the Father' (John 5:19, 30; 8:28). Johannine idiom, perhaps shared tradition. Foster doubts literary use of John.
10.2 'lay aside the evil, the old, the sour leaven' (1 Cor 5:7–8).
Quotations
Lay aside, therefore, the evil, the old, the sour leaven, and be ye changed into the new leaven, which is Jesus Christ.
Ign. Magn. 10.2Allusion
ANF vol. 1 (1885), ed. Roberts & Donaldson, American ed. A. C. Coxe (shorter Greek recension) · Source (opens in a new tab)
Leaven imagery from 1 Cor 5:7–8.
1 Corinthians 5:7–8 BSB
7Get rid of the old leaven, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old bread, leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth.