scholar Bruce Metzger, ‘such strong faith and overwhelming love of Christ as to make them one of the finest literary expressions of Christianity during the second century’.2 Accepting what is called the middle recension of these seven letters as genuine,3 it is evident there are three concerns which were uppermost in Ignatius’ mind as he wrote these letters.4 First of all, he longed to see unity at every level in the life of the local churches to which he was writing. In his own words, he was a man