Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the church that has obtained mercy in the majesty of the Most High God the Father and of Jesus Christ His only-begotten Son—the church sanctified and enlightened by the will of God who made all things that are, according to the faith and love of Jesus Christ our God and Savior; which also presides in the place of the region of the Romans, worthy of God, worthy of honor, worthy of all felicity, worthy of praise, worthy of attainment, worthy in its purity, and presiding over love, bearing the name of Christ, bearing the name of the Father, bearing the Spirit; which I also greet in the name of God Almighty and of Jesus Christ His Son: to those who are united in flesh and spirit to His every commandment, filled without distinction with every grace of God, and purified from every alien stain, abundant greeting blamelessly in God and the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Since by prayer to God I have attained to see your faces, worthy of God, even as I asked to receive yet more; for being bound in Christ Jesus I hope to greet you, if indeed it be His will that I be counted worthy to reach the end.
For the beginning has been well dispensed, if indeed I may obtain the grace to receive my lot to the end without hindrance. For I fear your love, lest it do me wrong; for it is easy for you to do what you wish, but it is hard for me to attain to God, unless you spare me under pretext of fleshly affection.
For I do not wish you to please men, but to please God, even as you do please Him. For neither shall I ever have such an opportunity to attain to God, nor can you, if you keep silent, be credited with a better work. For if you keep silent concerning me, I shall become God’s; but if you love my flesh, I shall again be one running my course in vain.
Grant me nothing more than to be poured out as a libation to God, while the altar is still ready, so that, becoming a chorus in love, you may sing to the Father in Christ Jesus, because God has counted the bishop of Syria worthy to be found at the setting of the sun, having summoned him from its rising. It is good to set from the world unto God, that I may rise unto Him.
Only ask for me power both within and without, that I may not merely speak but also will, 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 so, and then be faithful, when I no longer appear to the world.
Nothing visible is eternal; for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal. Christianity is not a work of persuasion, but of greatness, when it is hated by the world. When it is hated by the world, it is loved by God. For He says, “If you were of this world, the world would love its own; but now you are not of the world, but I have chosen you; abide in Me.”
I write to all the churches, and I charge all men, that I am willingly dying for God, if only you do not hinder me. I beseech you, do not become to me an unseasonable kindness. Let me be food for the wild beasts, through which it is possible to attain to God. I am God’s wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found pure bread of God.
Rather entice the wild beasts, that they may become my tomb and leave nothing of my body, that when I have fallen asleep I may not be a burden to anyone. Then shall I truly be a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world shall not even see my body. Entreat the Lord for me, that through these instruments I may be found a sacrifice to God.
I do not command you as Peter and Paul did; they were apostles of Jesus Christ, but I am the least; they were free as servants of God, but I am until now a slave. Yet if I suffer, I shall become a freedman of Jesus Christ, and I shall rise free in Him. Now, bound in Him, I am learning to desire nothing worldly or vain.
From Syria all the way to Rome I fight with wild beasts, by land and sea, by night and day, bound to ten leopards, that is, a company of soldiers, who become worse even when treated kindly. But by their misdeeds I am the more made a disciple; yet I am not thereby justified.
May I have joy of the wild beasts that are prepared for me; and I pray that they may be found prompt with me; which also I will entice to devour me quickly, not as with some, whom out of cowardice they did not touch. And if they will not of their own accord, I will force them.
Bear with me; I know what is profitable for me. Now I am beginning to be a disciple. May nothing of things seen or unseen envy me, that I may attain to Jesus Christ. Fire and cross, and packs of wild beasts, cuttings and tearings asunder, scatterings of bones, mangling of limbs, grindings of the whole body, and the malice of the devil—let them come upon me, only that I may attain to Jesus Christ.
Neither the ends of the world shall profit me, nor the kingdoms of this age. It is better for me to die for Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth. For what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but lose his own soul? I long for the Lord, the Son of the true God and Father, Jesus the Christ. Him I seek, who died for us and rose again.
Bear with me, brothers; do not hinder me from reaching life, for Jesus is the life of the faithful; do not wish me to die, for death is life apart from Christ. Do not, since God wills me to be His, give me away to the world. Let me receive pure light; when I have arrived there I shall be a man of God.
Permit me to be an imitator of the passion of Christ my God. If anyone has Him within himself, let him understand what I desire, and let him sympathize with me, knowing the things that constrain me.
The ruler of this age desires to seize me and to corrupt my mind that is set toward my God. Let none, therefore, of you who are present help him; rather become mine, that is, God’s. Do not speak of Jesus Christ while preferring the world.
Let no envy dwell among you. Even if I myself, when present, should entreat you, do not be persuaded; rather believe these things which I write to you. For I write to you while living, longing to die for Christ. My love has been crucified, and there is in me no fire that loves material things; but living water, springing up within me, says to me from within, “Come to the Father.”
I take no delight in the food of corruption, nor in the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who in the latter time became of the seed of David and Abraham; and I desire as drink His blood, which is incorruptible love and life everlasting.
I no longer wish to live according to men. And this shall come to pass, if you will it. I have been crucified together with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, since Christ lives in me.
By a few letters I ask of you: do not refuse me. Believe me, that I love the Jesus who was delivered up for me. What shall I render to the Lord for all that He has rendered to me? But may God Himself, the Father, and the Lord Jesus the Christ, make these things manifest to you, that I speak the truth.
And you, pray together with me, that I may attain the goal in the Holy Spirit. I have not written to you according to the flesh, but according to the mind of God. If I suffer, you have loved me; if I am rejected, you have hated me.
Remember in your prayer the church in Syria, which has the Lord as shepherd in my stead—the Lord who said, “I am the good shepherd”; and He alone shall oversee her, together with your love toward Him.
But I am even ashamed to be reckoned among them, for I am not worthy, being the least of them and one untimely born. Yet I have obtained mercy to be someone, if I attain to God.
My spirit greets you, and so does the love of the churches that received me in the name of Jesus Christ, not as one merely passing through; for even those churches that did not lie on my route brought me forward from city to city.
I write these things to you from Smyrna by the hand of the most blessed Ephesians. And there is with me, together with many others, also Crocus, that beloved name.
Concerning those who went before me from Syria to Rome for the glory of God, I trust that you have already learned of them; to them also you shall make known that I am near. For they are all worthy of God and of you, whom it is fitting for you to refresh in every way.