Brian Bunnell: The Kingdom of God in Ignatius and Paul: A Social-Linguistic Comparison of an Early Christian Stock Phrase

In his letters to the Ephesians and to the Philadelphians Ignatius uses the phrase “kingdom of God” as a rhetorical tool to urge unity (Ign. Eph. 16:1; Ign. Phil. 3:3). The grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of these passages resembles the Pauline usage of the expression in 1 Corinthians 6:9–10, Galatians 5:21, and Ephesians 5:5, but there are a number of features that render Ignatius’s use of this idiom distinct. In this paper I argue that, although he follows the basic structural pattern of these Pauline texts, Ignatius uses the phrase “kingdom of God” in a number of idiosyncratic ways to accomplish his unique rhetorical agenda of relational harmony. Thus, this paper compares the Pauline use of the expression with its use in Ignatius, in order to better appreciate Ignatius’s modification of this Pauline pattern of speech. The effect of this short study contributes to the growing field of research that seeks to account for Ignatius’s use of early Christian scriptural traditions.