The letters of Ignatius of Antioch contain disparate references to silence. Silence is variously associated with God, bishops, and the notion of authenticity, while at other times silence interacts with speech or provides the backdrop against which God’s salvific activity is worked out. Prior studies have synthesized the role silence plays in Ignatius’s thought by reading silence univocally across the letters. This article critiques such synthetic readings of silence for failing to account adequately for the individuated nature of how Ignatius’s letters were sent and, thus, how they were encountered by their first readers. The article then interprets silence as it is used in one Ignatian letter, namely, Philadelphians. Silence in Philadelphians must be understood in light of Ignatius’s expansive understanding of unity, which is emphasized throughout the letter, as well as the conflict that Ignatius experienced while there. In this light, the silence of the Philadelphian bishop is not primarily an attempt to whitewash a character flaw. Rather, it is a reason to laud the bishop and his interaction with schismatic teachers. Whereas Ignatius confronted those same teachers verbally and must now write to account for his actions in the letter, the Philadelphian bishop acts wisely and in keeping with the advice of other Greco-Roman ethicists by not speaking garrulously and simply refusing to engage with false teachers.
Jonathon Lookadoo (Tue,) studied this question.