The Letters of Ignatius

1.1I welcomed your much-loved name in God, the name you possess through a righteous character according to faith and love in Christ Jesus our Savior. You are imitators of God; you rekindled the work that belongs to your kinship by the blood of God and completed it perfectly.

For when you heard that I had been bound from Syria for the sake of the common name and hope, and that I hoped through your prayer to succeed in fighting wild beasts in Rome, so that by succeeding I might be able to be a disciple, you hastened to see me.

Since, then, I have received your great multitude in the name of God in Onesimus, your bishop, whose love is beyond words, I pray that you love him according to Jesus Christ and that all of you be in likeness to him. Blessed is the one who granted you, being worthy, to have such a bishop.

1.2Now about Burrhus, my fellow slave and your deacon in God's service, blessed in every way: I pray that he may remain with you for your honor and for the honor of the bishop. And Crocus, worthy of God and of you, whom I received as an example of the love that comes from you, refreshed me in every way. May the Father of Jesus Christ refresh him as well, along with Onesimus, Burrhus, Euplus, and Fronto, through whom I saw all of you in love.

May I have joy of you through all time, if only I am worthy. It is fitting, then, to glorify Jesus Christ in every way, for he has glorified you, so that you may be knit together in one submission, submitting to the bishop and the council of elders, and be sanctified in every way.

1.3I am not giving you orders as if I were someone important. Even though I am bound in the Name, I am not yet perfected in Jesus Christ. Right now I am only beginning my training as a disciple, and I speak to you as to my fellow disciples. It was I who needed to be anointed by you with faith, admonition, endurance, and patience.

But since love does not allow me to keep silent about you, I have taken the initiative to urge you to run together with the purpose of God. For Jesus Christ, our inseparable life, is the purpose of the Father, just as the bishops appointed to the farthest bounds of the earth are in the purpose of Jesus Christ.

1.4So you must align yourselves with the mind of the bishop, as you are already doing. Your council of elders, worthy of its name and worthy of God, is fitted together with the bishop as strings are fitted to a lyre. Because of this, in your concord and harmonious love, Jesus Christ is sung.

And let each of you become a choir, so that being in harmony and concord, having received the tuning of God in unity, you may sing with one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father, so that the Father may both hear you and recognize you, through the good you do, as members of his Son. It is useful, then, for you to be in blameless unity, so that you may always share in God.

1.5If I could enjoy such closeness with your bishop in so short a time, a closeness not merely human but spiritual, how much more do I count you blessed, who are as closely united with him as the church is with Jesus Christ, and as Jesus Christ is with the Father, so that all things may be in harmonious unity?

Let no one be deceived: if anyone is not within the altar, he is deprived of the bread of God. For if the prayer of one or two has such power, how much more does the prayer of the bishop and of the whole church?

So the one who does not come to the common assembly is already arrogant and has cut himself off. For it is written: "God opposes the arrogant" (Proverbs 3:34). Let us be eager, then, not to oppose the bishop, so that we may be subject to God.

1.6The more you see a bishop keeping silence, the more you should revere him. For everyone whom the master of the house sends to manage his own household, we must receive as we would receive the one who sent him. Clearly, then, we must regard the bishop as the Lord himself.

Onesimus himself praises your good order in God beyond measure, because you all live according to truth and because no false teaching dwells among you. Nor do you listen to anyone more than to Jesus Christ speaking in truth.

1.7Some people, you see, have made a habit of carrying the name around with evil deceit while doing other things unworthy of God. You must shun them as you would wild beasts, for they are mad dogs that bite when you are not looking. Guard yourselves against them, because they are hard to heal.

There is one physician, both flesh and spirit, begotten and unbegotten, God in a human being, true life in death, both from Mary and from God, first subject to suffering and then beyond suffering: Jesus Christ our Lord.

1.8So let no one deceive you, just as you are not deceived, since you are wholly God's. For when no quarrel is entrenched among you that could torment you, then you are living according to God. I am an offering on your behalf, and I purify myself for you Ephesians, for the church renowned throughout the ages.

Fleshly people cannot do spiritual things, nor can spiritual people do fleshly things, just as faith cannot do the works of unbelief, nor unbelief the works of faith. Yet even what you do according to the flesh is spiritual, for in Jesus Christ you do all things.

1.9I have learned that certain people passed through from there carrying evil teaching, and you did not let them sow it among you. You plugged your ears so as not to receive what they were sowing, since you are stones of the Father's temple, prepared for the building of God the Father. You are being lifted up to the heights by the crane of Jesus Christ, which is the cross, with the Holy Spirit as the rope. Your faith is the crane that lifts you, and love is the road that carries you up to God.

So you are all fellow travelers, bearers of God and bearers of the temple, bearers of Christ, bearers of holy things, adorned in every way with the commandments of Jesus Christ. And I rejoice in these things, since I have been counted worthy through what I write to speak with you and to rejoice with you, because according to the life of humans you love nothing except God alone.

1.10Pray without ceasing for other people as well, because there is hope of repentance in them, so that they may attain God. Allow them, then, to learn from you at least through your works.

Toward their outbursts of anger, be gentle. Toward their boasts, be humble-minded. Toward their blasphemies, offer prayers. Toward their error, stand steadfast in faith. Toward their savagery, be mild, not eager to imitate them in return.

Let us be found to be their brothers by our gentleness, and let us be eager to be imitators of the Lord, asking who may be wronged more, who may be defrauded, who may be rejected, so that no weed of the devil may be found among you, but you may remain in Jesus Christ in all purity and self-control, in flesh and in spirit.

1.11These are the last times. From now on let us be ashamed, and let us fear the patience of God, so that it may not become judgment for us. Either let us fear the wrath that is coming, or let us love the grace that is present—one of the two. Only let us be found in Christ Jesus for the true life.

1.12Let nothing be fitting for you apart from this, in which I carry around my bonds, my chains, which are spiritual pearls. Through your prayer may I be granted to rise in them, and may I always share in that prayer, so that I may be found in the inheritance of the Ephesian Christians, who always agreed with the apostles in the power of Jesus Christ.

I know who I am and to whom I write. I am condemned; you have been shown mercy. I am under danger; you are established.

You are fellow-travelers with those being killed for God, fellow believers with Paul, who was sanctified, who bore witness, and who is worthy of blessing. May I be found in his footsteps when I attain God. In every letter he remembers you in Christ Jesus.

1.13Make every effort, then, to gather more often for the Eucharist of God and for glory. For when you meet together frequently, the powers of Satan are torn down, and his ruin is dissolved by the unity of your faith.

Nothing is better than peace, in which every war of heavenly and earthly things is brought to nothing.

1.14None of this escapes your notice, if you hold your faith and love in Jesus Christ perfectly. Faith is the beginning of life, and love is the end. The two, when they come together in unity, lead to God, and everything else follows toward goodness.

No one who professes faith sins, and no one who possesses love hates. A tree is visible by its fruit. So those who profess to belong to Christ will be seen by what they do. For the work is not now a matter of profession, but of being found in the power of faith to the end.

1.15It is better to be silent and to be, than to speak and not be. Teaching is good, if the one who speaks also does. There is one teacher, who spoke and it came to be; and the things he has done in silence are worthy of the Father.

The one who truly possesses the word of Jesus is able to hear even his silence, so that he may be perfect, so that through what he speaks he acts, and through what he is silent about he is known.

Nothing escapes the Lord's notice; even our hidden things are near to him. Let us therefore do everything as if he dwells in us, so that we may be his temples and he may be in us as our God. This is indeed the case, and it will appear before our face, because of which we rightly love him.

1.16Do not be deceived, my brothers: those who destroy households will not inherit the kingdom of God.

If those who practice these things according to the flesh have died, how much more will the one who corrupts the faith of God with evil teaching, the faith for which Jesus Christ was crucified? Such a person, having become filthy, will go into the unquenchable fire, and the one who listens to him will do the same.

1.17This is why the Lord received anointing on his head: so that he might breathe incorruption into the church. Do not anoint yourselves with the foul odor of the teaching of the ruler of this age, lest he take you captive from the life set before you.

Why do we not all become wise, since we have received the knowledge of God, which is Jesus Christ? Why do we perish foolishly, failing to recognize the gift that the Lord has truly sent?

1.18My spirit is an expiation of the cross, which is a stumbling block to those who disbelieve, but to us it is salvation and eternal life. Where is the wise person? Where is the debater? Where is the boasting of those called intelligent?

For our God, Jesus the Christ, was carried in the womb by Mary according to the plan of God, from the seed of David on the one hand, but of the Holy Spirit on the other. He was born and baptized so that by his passion he might purify the water.

1.19The virginity of Mary, her giving birth, and the death of the Lord escaped the notice of the ruler of this age. These are three mysteries proclaimed aloud, yet accomplished in the silence of God.

How then was he revealed to the ages?

A star shone in heaven above all the stars, and its light was unspeakable, and its newness caused astonishment. All the rest of the stars, together with the sun and moon, became a chorus for the star, and it surpassed them all in light. And there was confusion: where did this new thing, so unlike them, come from?

From that moment all sorcery was being dissolved and every bond of wickedness was being made to disappear. Ignorance was being torn down, the ancient kingdom of evil was being destroyed, as God was being revealed in human form for the newness of eternal life. What had been fully prepared with God was now beginning. From then on all things were being stirred together, because the destruction of death was being set in motion.

1.20If Jesus Christ considers me worthy through your prayers, and if it is His will, I will explain to you in the second little book that I intend to write to you the plan I have begun to set forth concerning the new man, Jesus Christ, in His faith and in His love, in His passion and resurrection.

I will do this especially if the Lord reveals to me that you all, man by man, come together by name in grace, in one faith and in Jesus Christ, who according to the flesh is from the line of David, the son of man and Son of God, so that you obey the bishop and the council of elders with undistracted mind, breaking one bread, which is the medicine of immortality, the antidote so that we do not die but live in Jesus Christ forever.

1.21I am a ransom for you and for those you sent to Smyrna for the honor of God. From Smyrna I am also writing to you, giving thanks to the Lord and loving Polycarp as I love you. Remember me, as Jesus Christ also remembers you.

Pray for the church in Syria, from where I am being led away to Rome in chains, though I am the least of the faithful there, just as I was counted worthy to be found for the honor of God. Farewell in God the Father and in Jesus Christ, our common hope.

1.praefIgnatius, who is also called God-Bearer, sends abundant greetings in Jesus Christ and in blameless joy to the church at Ephesus in Asia, a church most worthy of blessing. She is blessed in the greatness of God the Father in fullness, predestined before the ages to exist forever for abiding and unchangeable glory, united and chosen in true passion by the will of the Father and of Jesus Christ our God.

2.praefIgnatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the church at Magnesia on the Maeander, blessed in the grace of God the Father in Christ Jesus our Savior. In him I greet this church, and I pray that it may have abundant joy in God the Father and in Jesus Christ.

2.1I have come to know how well ordered your love for God is, and I rejoice greatly. So I have chosen to speak to you in the faith of Jesus Christ.

For I have been deemed worthy of a name most befitting God, and in the chains I carry around I sing to the churches, in which there is unity. I pray for the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ, who is our life through all things, and for faith and love, than which nothing has been preferred, and for what is more authoritative, Jesus and the Father. If we endure in him every assault of the ruler of this age and escape, we will attain God.

2.2So I was counted worthy to see you in the persons of Damas your bishop, who is worthy of God, of your worthy elders Bassus and Apollonius, and of my fellow slave Zotion the deacon. May I have joy of Zotion, for he submits to the bishop as to the grace of God, and to the council of elders as to the law of Jesus Christ.

2.3It is fitting for you too not to take advantage of the bishop's age, but to give him all respect according to the power of God the Father. I have learned that the holy council of elders did not despise his apparent youthful rank, but as wise men in God yielded to him. Yet they yielded not to him, but to the Father of Jesus Christ, who is bishop of all.

So for the honor of the one who willed us, it is fitting to obey with no hypocrisy at all. For such a person does not merely deceive this bishop who is seen, but cheats the One who is unseen. And in such a matter the word is not about flesh, but about God, who knows the hidden things.

2.4So it is fitting not only to be called Christians, but actually to be Christians. In the same way, some people call a man bishop, yet do everything apart from him. Such people do not seem to me to have a good conscience, because they do not assemble faithfully according to the commandment.

2.5So all things are reaching their end, and two destinies lie before us: death and life. Each person is about to depart to their own place.

For it is like two kinds of coin. One belongs to God, and one belongs to the world, and each has its own stamp impressed upon it. The faithless bear the stamp of this world, but believers in love bear the stamp of God the Father through Jesus Christ. And unless we willingly choose to die into his passion, his life is not in us.

2.6Since in the persons I have already named I saw the whole multitude in faith and loved them, I urge you: make it your aim to do everything in the concord of God. Let the bishop preside in the place of God, and the council of elders in the place of the council of the apostles, and let the deacons, who are most sweet to me, be entrusted with the service of Jesus Christ, who before the ages was with the Father and appeared at the end.

All of you, then, having taken on God's own character, respect one another, and let no one look at his neighbor according to the flesh, but always love one another in Jesus Christ. Let there be nothing in you that can divide you, but be united with the bishop and with those who preside, as a type and teaching of incorruption.

2.7The Lord was united with the Father, and so he did nothing without the Father, neither by himself nor through the apostles. In the same way, you must do nothing without the bishop and the council of elders. Do not even try to make anything appear reasonable to you privately. Instead, gather together in one place and have one prayer, one supplication, one mind, one hope in love, in the blameless joy, which is Jesus Christ, than whom nothing is better.

All of you, run together as into one temple of God, as to one altar, to one Jesus Christ, who came forth from one Father and is one and has returned to him.

2.8Do not be led astray by false teachings or by old myths, which are worthless. For if we still live according to Judaism, we are admitting that we have not received grace.

The most divine prophets lived according to Christ Jesus. That is why they were persecuted: they were inspired by his grace so that the disobedient might be fully convinced that there is one God, who revealed himself through Jesus Christ his Son, who is his Word, who came forth from silence, and who in every way pleased the one who sent him.

2.9If those who lived in the old ways came to a new hope, no longer keeping the Sabbath but living according to the Lord's day, on which our life also dawned through him and through his death, a death some deny, through which mystery we received faith, and because of this we endure, so that we may be found disciples of Jesus Christ, our only teacher, then how will we be able to live without him? Even the prophets, who were his disciples in the Spirit, awaited him as their teacher. And because of this, the one whom they righteously awaited came and raised them from the dead.

2.10So let us not be numb to His kindness. For if He should deal with us according to what we do, we no longer exist. Therefore, since we have become His disciples, let us learn to live according to Christianity. For whoever is called by any other name than this is not of God.

Put away, then, the evil leaven, which has grown old and turned sour, and change into new leaven, which is Jesus Christ. Be preserved in Him, so that no one among you may be corrupted, since by your fragrance you will be recognized.

It is absurd to speak of Jesus Christ and to Judaize. For Christianity did not come to faith through Judaism, but Judaism through Christianity, in which every tongue that has believed in God has been gathered together.

2.11Now, my beloved, I am not writing these things because I have learned that any of you are actually in this condition. I write because, as one who is less than you, I want to guard you beforehand, so that you do not fall into the hooks of empty glory. Be fully assured instead in the birth, the passion, and the resurrection that took place in the time of the governorship of Pontius Pilate. These things were truly and certainly accomplished by Jesus Christ, our hope. May none of you ever be turned aside from Him.

2.12May I benefit from you in every way, if indeed I am worthy. For even though I am in chains, I am not equal to one of you who has been set free. I know that you are not puffed up, for you have Jesus Christ within you. And what is more, when I praise you, I know that you are ashamed, as it is written: "The righteous one is his own accuser."

2.13Make every effort, then, to be established in the teachings of the Lord and the apostles, so that you may prosper in everything you do, in flesh and spirit, in faith and love, in the Son and the Father and in the Spirit, in beginning and in end, together with your most worthy bishop and the well-woven spiritual crown of your council of elders and the deacons who serve according to God.

Be subject to the bishop and to one another, as Jesus Christ was subject to the Father and the apostles were subject to Christ and to the Father, so that there may be a unity that is both fleshly and spiritual.

2.14Since I know you are full of God, I have kept my exhortation brief. Remember me in your prayers, so that I may attain God and the church in Syria, from which I am not worthy to be called. For I need your prayer and love, united in God, so that the church in Syria may be deemed worthy to be refreshed with dew through your church.

2.15The Ephesians who are here in Smyrna, from where I am writing to you, greet you. They are present for the glory of God, and together with Polycarp, the bishop of the Smyrnaeans, they have refreshed me in every way, just as you have. The rest of the churches also greet you in the honor of Jesus Christ. Farewell in the harmony of God, possessing an undivided spirit, who is Jesus Christ.

5.praefIgnatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the church of God the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ at Philadelphia in Asia. This church has received mercy and is established in the concord of God. It rejoices without doubting in the passion of our Lord, and through his resurrection it has been fully assured of every mercy. I greet this church in the blood of Jesus Christ, which is eternal and abiding joy, especially if they are of one mind with the bishop and with the council of elders and the deacons who have been appointed alongside him according to the purpose of Jesus Christ. He established these leaders in firmness by his Holy Spirit according to his own will.

5.1I have come to know this bishop, and I am certain that he did not receive his ministry for the common good from himself or through human beings, nor out of vainglory, but in the love of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I am astonished at his gentleness: though he is silent, he has more power than those who speak empty words.

For he is attuned to the commandments like strings on a lyre. That is why my soul blesses his disposition toward God, for I have recognized that it is virtuous and perfect: his steadfastness and his freedom from anger, all in the gentleness of the living God.

5.2So then, children of the light of truth, flee from division and from evil teachings. Where the shepherd is, there follow as sheep.

For many wolves, seemingly trustworthy, take captive the runners for God with evil pleasure; but in your unity they will have no place.

5.3Keep away from the evil plants, which Jesus Christ does not cultivate, because they are not the Father's planting. I did not find division among you, but a filtering out of what is false.

For all who belong to God and Jesus Christ are with the bishop. And all who repent and come to the unity of the church will also belong to God, so that they may live according to Jesus Christ.

Do not be deceived, my brothers and sisters: if anyone follows one who makes a division, that person does not inherit the kingdom of God. If anyone follows someone else's teaching, that person does not share in the passion.

5.4Make every effort, then, to share in one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ and one cup that unites us in his blood, one altar, just as there is one bishop together with the council of elders and the deacons, my fellow servants. Do this so that whatever you do, you may act according to God.

5.5My brothers and sisters, I am utterly poured out in love for you, and with overflowing joy I am working to make you secure. Yet it is not I who do this, but Jesus Christ. Because I am still bound in him, I am all the more afraid, since I am still incomplete. But your prayer to God will complete me, so that I may attain the lot in which I was shown mercy. I have taken refuge in the gospel as in the flesh of Jesus, and in the apostles as in the council of elders of the church.

We also love the prophets, because they too announced the gospel beforehand, hoped in him, and waited for him. By believing in him they were saved, being in the unity of Jesus Christ. They are saints worthy of love and worthy of wonder, witnessed to by Jesus Christ and numbered together in the gospel of our common hope.

5.6If anyone interprets Judaism for you, do not listen to him. It is better to hear Christianity from a man who has been circumcised than to hear Judaism from a man who has not. But if neither of them speaks about Jesus Christ, then to me they are tombstones and graves of the dead, on which only the names of human beings are written.

Flee, then, from the evil crafts and the snares of the ruler of this age, so that you may never be oppressed by his purpose and grow weak in love. Instead, all of you come together with an undivided heart.

I thank my God that I have a good conscience among you, and no one can boast, either secretly or openly, that I burdened anyone in small things or in great things. And for all those to whom I spoke, I pray that my words may not become testimony against them.

5.7Even if some people wanted to deceive me in the flesh, the Spirit is not deceived, because the Spirit is from God. For the Spirit knows where it comes from and where it is going, and it exposes hidden things. I cried out while I was among you. I spoke with a loud voice, with God's voice: "Pay attention to the bishop and to the council of elders and to the deacons."

Some of you suspected that I said these things because I knew in advance about the division of certain people. But the one in whom I am bound is my witness that I did not learn it from human flesh. The Spirit was proclaiming, saying these things: "Do nothing without the bishop. Keep your flesh as a temple of God. Love unity. Flee divisions. Become imitators of Jesus Christ, as also he is of his Father."

5.8For my part, I was doing what belonged to me as a person fitted for unity. But where there is division and anger, God does not dwell. The Lord forgives all who repent, if they repent into the unity of God and the council of elders under the bishop. I trust in the grace of Jesus Christ, who will release every bond from you.

I urge you to do nothing out of rivalry, but according to the teaching of Christ. For I heard some people saying, "Unless I find it in the ancient records, I do not believe it in the gospel." And when I said to them, "It is written," they answered me, "That is disputed." But for me, the ancient records are Jesus Christ; the inviolable ancient records are his cross and his death and his resurrection and the faith that is through him. In these I want to be justified through your prayer.

5.9The priests are good, but the high priest is greater. He is the one entrusted with the Holy of Holies, and he alone is entrusted with the hidden things of God. He is the door of the Father, and through him Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the prophets and the apostles and the church all enter. All these things lead into the unity of God.

The gospel has something exceptional: the coming of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, his passion, and his resurrection. The beloved prophets proclaimed these things, pointing to him. But the gospel is the completion of incorruption. Everything together is good, if you believe in love.

5.10I have received word that the church in Antioch of Syria is at peace, because of your prayers and the compassion you have in Christ Jesus. It is fitting for you, as a church of God, to appoint a deacon to go there as God's envoy, so that he may rejoice with them when they have gathered together and glorify the name.

Blessed in Jesus Christ is the one who will be deemed worthy of such a ministry, and you will be glorified. If you want to do this, it is not impossible for you for the sake of God's name, just as the nearest churches sent bishops, and others sent elders and deacons.

5.11Now about Philo, the deacon from Cilicia. He is a man of attested character, and even now he serves me in the word of God together with Rheus Agathopus, a chosen man who has followed me from Syria after renouncing his former life. Both of them bear witness to you, and I thank God on your behalf because you welcomed them as the Lord welcomed you. As for those who dishonored them, may they be redeemed in the grace of Jesus Christ.

The love of the brothers and sisters in Troas greets you. It is from there that I am writing to you through Burrhus, who was sent with me by the Ephesians and Smyrnaeans as a mark of honor. The Lord Jesus Christ will honor them, for in him they hope with flesh, soul, spirit, faith, love, and concord. Farewell in Christ Jesus, our common hope.

7.praefIgnatius, who is also called God-Bearer, sends very many greetings to Polycarp, bishop of the church of Smyrna, or rather to one who is watched over by God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

7.1I welcome your purpose in God, fixed as on an immovable rock, and I glorify Him exceedingly, because I have been deemed worthy of your blameless face. May I have benefit from it in God.

I urge you, by the grace with which you have been clothed, to press on in your course and to urge everyone, so that they may be saved. Defend your place with all care, both fleshly and spiritual. Care for unity, than which nothing is better. Bear everyone, as the Lord also bears you. Endure everyone in love, just as you are already doing.

Devote yourself to unceasing prayers. Ask for understanding greater than what you have. Keep watch, possessing a sleepless spirit. Speak to each person according to the manner of God. Bear the illnesses of everyone as a perfect athlete. Where there is more labor, there is much gain.

7.2If you love good disciples, that earns you no credit. Rather, bring the more troublesome into subjection with gentleness. Not every wound is healed by the same remedy. Stop inflammations with soothing compresses.

Be wise as the serpent and pure as the dove (Matthew 10:16). For this reason you are both fleshly and spiritual, so that you may deal gently with the things that appear before your face; but ask that the invisible things may be revealed to you, so that you may lack nothing and abound in every gift.

The time demands you, as pilots deal with winds and as a storm-tossed man needs a harbor, to attain God. Be sober, as God's athlete. The prize is incorruption and eternal life, about which you also are persuaded. In every respect I am your ransom, and my bonds too, which you loved.

7.3Do not let those who seem trustworthy but teach falsely terrify you. Stand firm as an anvil being struck. It is the mark of a great athlete to be beaten and to win. Above all, for God's sake we must endure everything, so that he also may endure us.

Become more eager than you already are. Discern the seasons. I await the one who is beyond time, the timeless one, the invisible one, who for our sake became visible, the one beyond suffering, who for our sake became subject to suffering, who endured in every way for us.

7.4Do not neglect the widows. After the Lord, you yourself must be their caretaker. Let nothing happen without your judgment, and do nothing yourself without God. Indeed, you do not do so. Be steadfast.

Let the church meetings take place more frequently. Seek out everyone by name.

Do not despise slaves, whether men or women. But they too must not become conceited. Instead, let them serve all the more for the glory of God, so that they may obtain a better freedom from God. They must not long to be freed at the church's expense, lest they be found slaves of desire.

7.5Flee from evil arts, and rather speak about these things. Speak kindly to my sisters, telling them to love the Lord and to be content with their husbands in flesh and spirit. Likewise command my brothers in the name of Jesus Christ to love their wives as the Lord loves the church.

If anyone is able to remain in continence for the honor of the Lord's flesh, let him remain without boasting. If he boasts, he has perished; and if he is esteemed more highly than the bishop, he has been corrupted. It is fitting for men and women who marry to make their union with the bishop's judgment, so that the marriage may be according to the Lord and not according to desire. Let all things be done for the honor of God.

7.6Pay close attention to the bishop, so that God may pay close attention to you. I offer my very life for those who submit to the bishop, the council of elders, and the deacons. May I be counted worthy to have a share with them in God. Labor together, struggle together, run together, suffer together, rest together, and rise together as God's stewards, counselors, and servants.

Please the one in whose army you serve, the one from whom you also receive your wages. Let none of you be found a deserter. Let your baptism remain as your armor, your faith as a helmet, your love as a spear, your endurance as full battle gear. Your works are your deposits, so that you may receive back what is due to you. Be patient with one another, then, in gentleness, as God is with you. May I have joy in you always.

7.7Since the church in Antioch of Syria is at peace, as I have been told, because of your prayer, I too have become more cheerful, free from care in God, if only through suffering I may attain God, so that I may be found in the resurrection as your disciple.

It is fitting, Polycarp, most blessed by God, to convene a gathering most befitting God and to ordain someone whom you hold very dear and who is untiring, one who can be called a courier for God. Deem this man worthy to go to Syria and glorify your untiring love for the glory of God.

A Christian has no authority over himself, but is devoted to God. This is God's work and yours, when you complete it. For I trust in grace, that you are ready for good-doing belonging to God. Knowing your intensity for the truth, I have encouraged you with few words.

7.8I could not write to all the churches, because I had to sail suddenly from Troas to Neapolis, as God's will commands. So you should write to the churches ahead, since you have acquired God's purpose, so that they too may do the same: those who are able can send men on foot, and others can send letters through the men you send. In this way you may be glorified by an eternal work, as one who is worthy.

I greet everyone by name, and Epitrope with her whole household and her children. I greet Attalus, my beloved. I greet the one who is to be deemed worthy to go to Syria. Grace will be with him always, and with Polycarp who sends him.

I pray that you may be strong always in our God Jesus Christ, in whom may you remain in the unity of God and under the bishop. I greet Alce, the name dear to me. Be strong in the Lord.

4.praefIgnatius, who is also called God-Bearer, to the church that has found mercy in the majesty of the Most High Father and of Jesus Christ, his only Son: to the church beloved and enlightened by the will of the One who willed all things that are, in keeping with the love of Jesus Christ our God; to the church that presides in the land of the Romans, worthy of God, worthy of honor, worthy of blessing, worthy of praise, worthy of success, worthy of purity, presiding over love, bearing the name of Christ and the name of the Father. Her I greet in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father.

To all who are one in flesh and spirit with every commandment of his, who are filled with the grace of God without wavering and freed from every foreign taint: heartiest greetings, blameless, in Jesus Christ our God.

4.1I prayed to God, and I have succeeded in seeing your faces, which are worthy of God. I was asking for even more than this. For I am bound in Christ Jesus, and I hope to greet you, if it is God's will that I be deemed worthy to reach the end.

The beginning is well ordered, if indeed I obtain the grace to receive back my lot without hindrance. For I fear your love, lest it wrong me. For it is easy for you to do what you want, but it is difficult for me to attain God, if you do not spare me.

4.2I do not want you to please human beings, but to please God, just as you already do. For I will never again have such an opportunity to attain God, nor will you, if you keep silent, be able to have a greater work credited to you. For if you keep silent about me, I will be a word of God; but if you love my flesh, I will be a voice again.

Grant me nothing more than to be poured out as a drink offering to God, while the altar is still ready, so that in love you may become a chorus and sing to the Father in Christ Jesus, because God has deemed the bishop of Syria worthy to be found in the west, having summoned him from the east. It is good to sink from the world toward God, so that I may rise into him.

4.3You have never envied anyone; you taught others. And I want the commands you give as disciples to be firm as well.

Only ask for power for me, both within and without, so that I may not only speak but also wish, so that I may not only be called a Christian but also be found one. For if I am found one, I can also be called one, and then I can be faithful, when I am no longer visible to the world.

Nothing visible is good. For our God Jesus Christ is seen all the more now that he is in the Father. Christianity is not a work of persuasion but of greatness, and it is shown when it is hated by the world.

4.4I am writing to all the churches and declaring to everyone that I die willingly for God, unless you prevent me. I beg you: do not show me a kindness that comes at the wrong time. Let me be food for the beasts, for through them I can attain God. I am God's wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of the beasts, so that I may be found pure bread of Christ.

Coax the beasts instead, so that they may become my tomb and leave nothing of my body behind, so that when I have fallen asleep I may burden no one. Then I will truly be a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world no longer sees even my body. Pray to Christ for me, so that through these instruments I may be found a sacrifice.

I do not give you orders as Peter and Paul did. They were apostles; I am a condemned man. They were free; I am still a slave. But if I suffer, I will become a freedman of Jesus Christ and will rise in him free. Now, bound as I am, I am learning to desire nothing.

4.5From Syria all the way to Rome I am fighting wild beasts, through land and sea, night and day, bound to ten leopards, by which I mean a squad of soldiers. The better they are treated, the worse they become. Yet through their wrongdoings I am being made a disciple all the more, though I am not justified by this.

May I have joy of the beasts prepared for me, and I pray that they will be found prompt for me. I will even flatter them to devour me quickly, not as with some, whom they timidly refused to touch. And if they themselves are unwilling and refuse, I will force them.

Forgive me: I know what is good for me. Now I am beginning to be a disciple. May nothing of things visible and invisible envy me, so that I may attain Jesus Christ. Fire and cross and packs of beasts, cuttings, tearings, scatterings of bones, mangling of limbs, grinding of the whole body, evil punishments of the devil, let them come upon me, only so that I may attain Jesus Christ.

4.6The ends of the world and the kingdoms of this age will profit me nothing. It is better for me to die into Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth. I seek the one who died for us; I want the one who rose for us. The pangs of my birth are upon me.

Forgive me, brothers and sisters: do not hinder me from living, do not wish me to die. Do not hand over to the world the one who wants to belong to God, and do not deceive him with worldly things. Let me receive pure light; when I arrive there, I will be a human being.

Allow me to be an imitator of the passion of my God. If anyone has him within himself, let him understand what I want, and let him suffer with me, knowing what constrains me.

4.7The ruler of this age wants to seize me and corrupt my purpose toward God. So let none of you who are present help him. Instead, take my side, which is God's side. Do not speak the name of Jesus Christ while you long for the world.

Let no envy dwell among you. And even if I, when I am present, urge you otherwise, do not be persuaded by me. Be persuaded instead by what I am writing to you. For I write to you while I am alive, longing to die. My earthly love has been crucified, and there is no fire in me that longs for material things. But living water is speaking within me, and from inside me it says: "Come to the Father."

I take no pleasure in the food of corruption or in the pleasures of this life. I want the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who is from the seed of David, and I want his blood as drink, which is incorruptible love.

4.8I no longer want to live by human standards. And this will happen if you wish it. Wish it, so that you too may be wished for.

Through these few lines I ask you: believe me. And Jesus Christ will reveal these things to you, showing that I speak truly. He is the mouth that does not lie, through which the Father has truly spoken.

Ask on my behalf, so that I may attain it. I have written to you not according to the flesh, but according to the mind of God. If I suffer, it will be because you wished it. If I am rejected, it will be because you hated me.

4.9Remember in your prayers the church in Syria, which now has God as its shepherd in my place. Jesus Christ alone will be its bishop, and your love will watch over it.

As for me, I am ashamed to be counted among them, for I am not worthy. I am the last of them and an untimely birth, as Paul said of himself. But I have been shown mercy to be someone, if I attain to God.

My spirit greets you, and so does the love of the churches that welcomed me in the name of Jesus Christ, not as one merely passing through. Even the churches that were not on my route according to the flesh escorted me ahead from city to city.

4.10I am writing this to you from Smyrna, through the Ephesians who are worthy of blessing. Crocus is with me as well, along with many others, and his name is dear to me.

As for those who went ahead of me from Syria to Rome for the glory of God, I trust you have come to know them. Let them know that I am near. They are all worthy of God and of you, and it is fitting for you to refresh them in every way.

I wrote this to you on the ninth day before the Kalends of September. Farewell to the end, in the endurance of Jesus Christ.

6.praefIgnatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the church of God the Father and of the beloved Jesus Christ, which is in Smyrna in Asia. This church has been shown mercy in every gift, has been filled with faith and love, is lacking in no gift, is most befitting God and bearer of holiness. I rejoice greatly in a blameless spirit and in the word of God.

6.1I glorify Jesus Christ, the God who has made you so wise. For I have understood that you are fitted together in an unshakable faith, as if nailed to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ in both flesh and spirit, and grounded in love by the blood of Christ. You are fully assured about our Lord, who is truly of the family of David according to the flesh, Son of God by the will and power of God, truly born of a virgin, baptized by John so that all righteousness might be fulfilled by him.

He was truly nailed in the flesh for us under Pontius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch. We are the fruit of his divinely blessed passion, so that he might raise a sign for the ages through the resurrection for his holy and faithful ones, whether among Jews or among Gentiles, in one body of his church.

6.2He suffered all these things for our sake, so that we might be saved. And he truly suffered, just as he truly raised himself. It is not as some faithless people say, that he suffered only in mere appearance. They themselves are unreal, and as they think, so it will happen to them, since they are bodiless and demonic.

6.3For I know and believe that he was in the flesh even after the resurrection.

And when he came to those around Peter, he said to them: "Take hold of me, touch me and see that I am not a bodiless demon." And immediately they touched him and believed, being joined to his flesh and his spirit. For this reason they also despised death, and they proved to be beyond death.

After the resurrection he ate and drank with them as one who is fleshly, even though he was spiritually united to the Father.

6.4I urge these things on you, beloved, knowing that you too hold the same conviction. But I am guarding you in advance against the beasts in human form. You must not only refuse to welcome them; if possible, do not even meet them. Only pray for them, in case they might somehow repent, though that is difficult. Yet Jesus Christ, our true life, has power over this.

For if these things were done by our Lord in mere appearance, then I too am bound in mere appearance. And why have I handed myself over to death, to fire, to the sword, to beasts? No: to be near the sword is to be near God; to be among beasts is to be among God. Only in the name of Jesus Christ do I endure everything, so that I may suffer with him, since the perfect man empowers me.

6.5Some people deny him because they do not know him. Or rather, they have been denied by him, because they are advocates of death rather than of the truth. The prophecies did not persuade them, nor did the law of Moses, nor even to this day the gospel, nor our own individual sufferings.

For they think the same way about us as well. What good does it do me if someone praises me but blasphemes my Lord by refusing to confess that he bore flesh? The one who says this has completely denied him and is a bearer of death.

I did not think it right to write down their names, since they are faithless. But may I never even remember them until they repent concerning the passion, which is our resurrection.

6.6Let no one be deceived. Even the heavenly things, the glory of the angels, and the rulers both visible and invisible: if they do not believe in the blood of Christ, judgment awaits them as well. Let the one who can receive this receive it. Let no one be puffed up by position, for the whole matter is faith and love, and nothing is preferred above these.

But take careful note of those who hold different opinions about the grace of Jesus Christ that has come to us, and see how contrary they are to the mind of God. They have no care for love, none for the widow, none for the orphan, none for the afflicted, none for the one who is bound or the one who is free, none for the one who hungers or thirsts.

6.7They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, the flesh that suffered for our sins and that the Father raised up in his goodness. So those who speak against the gift of God die in their disputing. It would have been better for them to love, so that they might also rise.

It is fitting to abstain from such people and not to speak about them either privately or publicly, but to attend to the prophets and especially to the gospel, in which the passion has been made clear to us and the resurrection has been brought to completion. Flee divisions as the beginning of evils.

6.8All of you follow the bishop, as Jesus Christ followed the Father, and follow the council of elders as you would the apostles. Respect the deacons as God's command. Let no one do anything that pertains to the church without the bishop. Let that Eucharist be considered valid which is under the bishop or under someone he has entrusted.

Wherever the bishop appears, there let the congregation be, just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the whole church. It is not permitted to baptize or to hold a love-feast without the bishop. But whatever he approves, this is also pleasing to God, so that everything you do may be secure and valid.

6.9It is good for us now to come to our senses, while we still have time to repent and turn to God. It is good to know God and the bishop. Whoever honors the bishop has been honored by God. Whoever does anything in secret from the bishop serves the devil.

So let everything abound among you in grace, for you are worthy of it. You have refreshed me in every way, and Jesus Christ will refresh you. You loved me both when I was absent and when I was present. God is your reward: through him, enduring all things, you will obtain him.

6.10You did well to receive Philo and Rheus Agathopus as deacons of God. They followed me for the sake of the word of God, and they give thanks to the Lord for you, because you refreshed them in every way. Nothing will be lost to you at all.

My spirit is a ransom for you, and my bonds as well, which you did not despise or feel ashamed of. Nor will the perfect hope, Jesus Christ, be ashamed of you.

6.11Your prayer reached the church in Antioch of Syria. From there I greet you all, bound as I am in chains most worthy of God. I am not worthy to come from that place, for I am the least of them. Yet by God's will I was counted worthy, not because of my own conscience but by the grace of God. I pray that this grace may be given to me in full, so that through your prayer I may attain God.

So that your work may be complete both on earth and in heaven, it is fitting for the honor of God that your church appoint a godly ambassador. He should go to Syria and rejoice with the church there, because they are at peace, have received back their own greatness, and their own body has been restored to them.

It seemed to me, then, a thing worthy of God to send one of your own with a letter, so that he might join in glorifying the calm that has come to them from God, and because they have already reached harbor through your prayer. Since you are perfect, think perfect things. For God is ready to grant you well-being.

6.12The love of the brothers in Troas greets you. I am writing to you from there through Burrhus, whom you sent with me together with the Ephesians, your brothers. He refreshed me in every way. I wish everyone would imitate him, for he is an example of God's service. Grace will repay him in every way.

I greet the bishop who is worthy of God, the council of elders that befits God, my fellow servants the deacons, and everyone both individually and together, in the name of Jesus Christ and in his flesh and blood, in his passion and resurrection, both in flesh and in spirit, in the unity of God and of you. Grace, mercy, peace, and endurance be yours through all things.

6.13I greet the households of my brothers and sisters, together with their wives and children, and the virgins who are called widows. Be strong for me in the power of the Father. Philo, who is with me, greets you.

I greet the household of Tavia, and I pray that she may be established in faith and love, both fleshly and spiritual. I greet Alce, the name I long for, and Daphnus the incomparable, and Eutecnus, and everyone by name. Be strong in the grace of God.

3.praefIgnatius, who is also called God-Bearer, to the holy church in Tralles of Asia, beloved by God the Father of Jesus Christ, chosen and worthy of God, at peace in flesh and spirit through the passion of Jesus Christ, who is our hope in the resurrection to him. I greet her in the fullness, in apostolic character, and I pray that she may rejoice greatly.

3.1I have come to know that you have a blameless and undivided mind in endurance, not by practice but by nature, as Polybius your bishop made clear to me. He came to Smyrna by the will of God and Jesus Christ, and he rejoiced with me, bound as I am in Christ Jesus, so much that I saw your whole multitude in him.

So I received through him your godly goodwill, and I gave glory, finding you, as I have learned, to be imitators of God.

3.2When you submit to the bishop as you would to Jesus Christ, it is clear to me that you are not living in a merely human way. You are living according to Jesus Christ, who died for us so that by believing in his death you might escape death itself.

So it is necessary, as you are already doing, that you do nothing without the bishop. Submit also to the council of elders as you would to the apostles of Jesus Christ our hope, in whom we will be found if we live in him.

The deacons, since they serve the mysteries of Jesus Christ, must please everyone in every way. They are not deacons of food and drink, but servants of the church of God. They must therefore guard themselves against accusations as they would guard against fire.

3.3In the same way, let everyone respect the deacons as they would Jesus Christ, just as they should also respect the bishop, who is a pattern of the Father, and the council of elders as the council of God and as a bond of the apostles. Without these, a church is not called a church.

I am persuaded that you already hold this view. For I received the pattern of your love and I have it with me in your bishop, whose very disposition is a great discipleship and whose gentleness is power. I consider that even the godless respect him.

Because I love you, I am sparing you, though I could write more sharply about this matter. I did not think that, being condemned, I should give you orders as if I were an apostle.

3.4I have many thoughts in God, but I take my own measure, so that I do not perish through boasting. For now I must be more afraid, and not pay attention to those who puff me up. For those who speak to me whip me.

I do love the suffering, but I do not know whether I am worthy. For zeal is not visible to many, but it wars against me all the more. So I need gentleness, in which the ruler of this age is destroyed.

3.5Can I not write to you about heavenly things? I am afraid to, because you are still infants. I fear I would set before you something harmful. Forgive me: perhaps you could not take it in, and you would choke on it.

For even I, though I am in chains and can understand heavenly things, the ranks of the angels and the assemblies of the rulers, visible and invisible, am not yet a disciple for that reason. For we still lack much if we are not to fall short of God.

3.6So I urge you, not I myself but the love of Jesus Christ: take only Christian food, and keep away from any foreign plant, which is false teaching.

These people weave Jesus Christ into themselves while claiming to be worthy of trust, like those who give a deadly poison mixed with honeyed wine. The one who does not know takes it gladly, with evil pleasure, and so receives death.

3.7So guard yourselves against such people. You will be able to do this if you are not puffed up and if you remain inseparable from God Jesus Christ, from the bishop, and from the ordinances of the apostles.

The one who is inside the altar is clean, but the one who is outside the altar is not clean. That is, anyone who does anything apart from the bishop, the council of elders, and the deacons is not clean in conscience.

3.8It is not that I have found anything like this among you. But I am guarding you in advance, because you are dear to me, foreseeing the ambushes of the devil. So take up gentleness and regain yourselves in faith, which is the flesh of the Lord, and in love, which is the blood of Jesus Christ.

Let none of you hold anything against a neighbor. Do not give the nations occasion to blaspheme, so that the multitude in God may not be blasphemed because of a few foolish people. For woe to the one through whom God's name is blasphemed among some on account of vanity.

3.9So make yourselves deaf whenever anyone speaks to you apart from Jesus Christ. He was of the family of David and of Mary. He truly was born, and he ate and drank. He truly was persecuted under Pontius Pilate, truly was crucified and died, while the heavenly, earthly, and subterranean beings were watching.

He also truly was raised from the dead. His Father raised him. According to this pattern, his Father will also raise us who believe in him, in Christ Jesus. Apart from him we do not have true life.

3.10But if, as some godless people—that is, faithless people—say, he suffered in mere appearance, then they themselves are mere appearance. Why am I bound? Why do I pray for martyrdom by beasts? Then I am dying in vain. Am I then lying about the Lord?

3.11So flee from these evil offshoots that produce death-bringing fruit. If anyone tastes it, he dies on the spot. These people are not a planting of the Father. If they were, they would show themselves as branches of the cross, and their fruit would be imperishable. Through the cross, in his passion, he calls you, who are his members. A head cannot come to be without members, since God promises unity, and that unity is himself.

3.12I greet you from Smyrna, together with the churches of God that are here with me. They have refreshed me in every way, both in flesh and in spirit.

My chains, which I carry around for the sake of Jesus Christ, exhort you, asking that you may attain God: remain in your concord and in prayer with one another. For it is fitting for each one of you, and especially the council of elders, to refresh the bishop for the honor of the Father, Jesus Christ, and the apostles.

I pray that you will listen to me in love, so that I may not be a witness among you by having written.

3.13Pray for me too. I need the love that comes from you, through the mercy of God, so that I may be counted worthy of the lot that surrounds me and that I hope to obtain, and so that I may not be found unapproved.

The love of the Smyrnaeans and Ephesians greets you. Remember in your prayers the church in Syria. I am not worthy to be called from there, since I am the least of them.

Be strong in Jesus Christ. Submit to the bishop as to the commandment, and likewise to the council of elders. And love one another, each one of you, with an undivided heart.

My spirit purifies you, not only now but also when I attain God. For I am still under danger, but the Father is faithful in Jesus Christ to fulfill my request and yours. In him may you be found blameless.