" The opinion which he expresses finally is merely:
"it appears to me _probable_, that they are _for the main part_
the genuine epistles of Ignatius."
_Beausobre_ says: "Je ne veux, ni defendre, ni combattre l'authenticite
des _Lettres de St. Ignace_. Si elles ne sont pas veritables, elles
ne laissent pas d'etre fort anciennes; et l'opinion, qui me paroit
la plus raisonnable, est que les plus pures ont ete interpolees."
_Schroeckh_ says that along with the favourable considerations for
the shorter (Vossian) Epistles, "many doubts arise which make them
suspicious." He proceeds to point out many grave difficulties, and
anachronisms which cast doubt both on individual epistles and upon
the whole, and he remarks that a very common way of evading these
and other difficulties is to affirm that all the passages which
cannot be reconciled with the mode of thought of Ignatius are
interpolations of a later time. He concludes with the pertinent
observation: "However probable this is, it nevertheless remains as
difficult to prove which are the interpolated passages." In fact it
would be difficult to point out any writer who more thoroughly
doubts, without definitely rejecting, all the Epistles.
_Griesbach_ and _Kestner_ both express "doubts more or less definite,"
but to make sufficient extracts to illustrate this would occupy
too much space.
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