Ignatius, also called Theophorus, to the church blessed in the grace of God the Father in Christ Jesus the Saviour, in whom I greet the church which is at Magnesia on the Maeander, and I pray in God the Father and in Christ Jesus our Lord; in whom may you have abundant joy.
For having been counted worthy of a divine and longed-for name, in the bonds which I carry about I sing of the churches, in which I pray for a union of the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ, who is the Saviour of all men, but especially of believers, by whose blood you were redeemed, through whom you came to know God— or rather, were known by him.
Since, then, I was counted worthy to see you through Damas your most godly bishop, and the God-worthy presbyters Bassus and Apollonius, and my fellow-liver the deacon Zotion, of whom may I have joy, because he is subject to the bishop and the presbytery by the grace of God in the law of Jesus Christ—
And it is fitting for you also not to despise the bishop's age, but according to the mind of God the Father to render him all reverence; just as I have learned that the holy presbyters too do not look to his apparent youth, but to his prudence in God; since it is not the long-lived who are wise, nor do the aged understand discernment, but it is a spirit that is in mortals.
For Daniel the wise, at twelve years old, became possessed by the divine Spirit and convicted the elders who vainly bore their grey hairs, showing them to be slanderers and lusters after another's beauty.
And Samuel, while a small child, convicted the ninety-year-old Eli of having honoured his own children above God. Likewise also Jeremiah hears from God: 'Do not say, I am too young.'
And Solomon and Josiah: the one, having become king at twelve, rendered that fearful and hard-to-interpret judgment concerning the women on account of the children; the other, having begun to reign at eight, threw down the altars and the precincts and burned the groves (for they were dedicated to demons, not to God), and slaughtered the false priests as corrupters and deceivers of men, not worshippers of the Deity.
Timothy the Christ-bearer was young; but hear what his teacher writes to him: 'Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct.'
It is fitting, then, for you also to obey your bishop and to contradict him in nothing; for it is a fearful thing to contradict such a one. For one does not deceive this visible bishop, but defrauds the Invisible One, who cannot be defrauded by anyone.
Such a matter has its reference not to man but to God. For God says to Samuel: 'They have not defrauded you, but me.' And Moses says: 'For your murmuring is not against us, but against the Lord God.'
No one who exalted himself against his betters remained unpunished. For Dathan and Abiram did not speak against the law, but against Moses; and they went down alive into Hades. And Korah and the two hundred and fifty who conspired with him against Aaron were consumed by fire.
Absalom, having become a slayer of his father, was left hanging upon a tree and was pierced through with darts in his evil-counseling heart. Abeddadan likewise had his head taken off for a similar cause. Uzziah was struck with leprosy when he presumptuously meddled with the priests and the priesthood. Saul was dishonored because he would not wait for Samuel the high priest. You too, therefore, ought to reverence those who are set over you.
And it is fitting not merely to be called Christians, but also to be such; for it is not the being called, but the actually being, that makes one blessed.
If certain men acknowledge the bishop in word, yet do all things apart from him, to such He Himself will say—He who is the true and first bishop, and alone by nature high priest: 'Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?' For such men seem to me not to be of good conscience, but rather to be dissemblers and pretenders.
Since, then, all things have an end, and there are set before us life that comes through keeping the commandment and death that comes through disobedience, and since each man is about to go to the place of that which he has chosen, let us flee death and choose life.
For I say that two kinds of stamp are to be found among men: the one of genuine coinage, the other of counterfeit. The God-fearing man is a coin stamped by God; the impious man is a coin falsely named, debased, spurious, counterfeit, wrought not by God but by the devil.
I do not speak of two natures of men, but that one and the same man becomes now of God, now of the devil. If a man is godly, he is a man of God; but if a man is impious, he is a man of the devil—becoming so not from his nature, but from his own will.
The unbelievers bear the image of the prince of wickedness; the believers bear the image of the Prince, God the Father, and of Jesus Christ. Through Him, unless we are willing of our own accord to die for the sake of the truth, into His passion, His life is not in us.
Since, then, in the persons aforementioned I have beheld and loved in faith the whole multitude, I exhort you: be eager to do all things in the concord of God, with the bishop presiding in the place of God, and the presbyters in the place of the council of the apostles, and the deacons—most dear to me—who have been entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ, who before the ages was begotten of the Father and was God the Word, the only-begotten Son, and remains the same unto the consummation of the ages; for of His kingdom there shall be no end, says the prophet Daniel.
Let us all therefore in concord love one another, and let no one regard his neighbor according to the flesh, but in Christ Jesus. Let there be nothing among you that has power to divide you, but be united to the bishop, being subject to God through him in Christ.
Therefore, just as the Lord does nothing apart from the Father ('for I can,' He says, 'of Myself do nothing'), so also do you nothing apart from the bishop—neither presbyter, nor deacon, nor layman. Let nothing appear commendable to you that is contrary to his judgment; for such a thing is lawless and an enemy of God.
All of you, come together with one accord in prayer. Let there be one common supplication, one mind, one hope in love, in the faultless faith which is toward Christ Jesus, than whom nothing is better. Run together all of you as to one temple of God, as to one altar, as to one Jesus Christ, the high priest of the unbegotten God.
Be not led astray by strange doctrines, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies and Jewish vanities. The old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. For if we still live according to the Jewish law and the circumcision of the flesh, we deny that we have received grace.
For the most divine prophets lived according to Jesus Christ; on this account also they were persecuted, being inspired by His grace, to the full assurance of the disobedient, that there is one God, the Almighty, who has manifested Himself through Jesus Christ His Son, who is His Word—not uttered, but essential; for He is not the sound of an articulate voice, but the begotten essence of a divine power, in all things well-pleasing to Him who brought Him into being.
If, then, those who lived in the old writings came to newness of hope, looking for Christ, as the Lord teaches when He says: 'If you had believed Moses, you would have believed Me; for he wrote concerning Me'; and 'Abraham your father rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad; for before Abraham came to be, I am'—
how shall we be able to live apart from Him, of whom even the prophets, being His servants in the Spirit, foresaw Him and awaited Him as a teacher, and expected Him as Lord and Savior, saying: 'He Himself will come and will save us'?
Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, delighting in idleness; for 'he who does not work, let him not eat,' and again, 'in the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread,' say the oracles. But let each of you keep the Sabbath spiritually, rejoicing in the meditation upon the laws, not in the relaxation of the body, marveling at the workmanship of God, not eating stale food and drinking lukewarm drinks and walking measured paces and delighting in dancing and applause that have no understanding.
And after keeping the Sabbath, let every lover of Christ keep festival on the Lord's Day, the day of resurrection, the queen and chief of all the days, which the prophet awaited when he said: 'To the end, concerning the eighth day'—on which also our life arose, and the victory over death was won in Christ.
Him the children of perdition deny—the enemies of the cross, whose God is their belly, who mind earthly things, who are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but having denied its power; the Christ-mongers, who make merchandise of the word and sell Jesus, the corrupters of women and coveters of what belongs to others, the money-grabbing whirlwinds. From these may you be delivered by the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us not, then, be insensible of His kindness. For if He should deal with us according to what we do, we should be no more; for 'if You should mark iniquities, Lord, Lord, who shall stand?'
Let us therefore become worthy of the name which we have received. For whoever is called by another name beyond this, he is not of God, neither has he received the prophecy that speaks concerning us, that 'he shall be called by a new name, which the Lord shall name him, and he shall be a holy people.' This was first fulfilled in Syria; for in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians, when Paul and Peter were laying the foundation of the church.
Put away therefore the evil leaven, that which is grown old and sour, and change yourselves into the new leaven of grace. Abide in Christ, lest the stranger gain mastery over you.
It is absurd to speak of Jesus Christ with the tongue, while holding in the mind a Judaism that has been done away. For Christianity did not believe into Judaism, but Judaism into Christianity, into which every nation that believed and every tongue that confessed was gathered together unto God; and those who were stony in heart became children of God, the friend of Abraham; and in his seed were blessed all who are appointed unto eternal life in Christ.
These things, my beloved, I write not because I have learned that any of you are so disposed, but, as one less than you, I wish to put you on your guard, that you may not fall into the hooks of vainglory, but may be fully assured in Christ—
in Him who before all ages was begotten of the Father, and afterward was born of Mary the virgin without intercourse with man, and who lived a holy life and healed every disease and every infirmity among the people, and wrought signs and wonders for the benefit of men, and proclaimed to those who had drifted into polytheism the one and only true God, His own Father;
and who endured the passion at the hands of the Christ-slaying Jews under Pontius Pilate the governor and Herod the king, and submitted to the cross, and died, and rose again, and ascended into the heavens to Him who sent Him, and sat down at His right hand, and shall come at the consummation of the ages with His Father's glory, to judge the living and the dead and to render to each according to his works.
He who has come to know these things in full assurance and has believed is blessed; just as you also are lovers of God and lovers of Christ in the full assurance of our hope, from which may it never be the lot of any of us to turn aside.
May I have joy of you in all things, if indeed I am worthy. For though I am bound, I am not to be compared with one of you who are free. I know that you are not puffed up; for you have Jesus within yourselves.
And the more, when I praise you, I know that you are abashed, as it is written: 'The righteous man is his own accuser,' and 'Declare your sins first, that you may be justified,' and 'When you have done all the things commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants'; for that which is exalted among men is an abomination before God; 'for God,' He says, 'be merciful to me a sinner.'
For this reason those great men, Abraham and Job, called themselves equal to earth and ashes before God. And David said: 'Who am I before You, Lord, that You have glorified me thus far?' And Moses, the meekest of all men, says to God: 'I am of a weak voice and slow of tongue.' Be humble-minded therefore, you also, that you may be exalted; for he who humbles himself shall be exalted, and he who exalts himself shall be humbled.
Be eager, therefore, to be established in the teachings of the Lord and the apostles, that in all things, whatsoever you do, you may prosper both in flesh and in spirit, in faith and in love, together with your most worthy bishop, and with the worthily-woven, spiritual crown of your presbytery, and with the deacons who are after God.
Remember me in your prayers, that I may attain to God, and remember the church in Syria, of which I am not worthy to be called bishop. For I have need of your united prayer in God and your love, that the church in Syria may be counted worthy, through your good order, to be shepherded in Christ.
The Ephesians from Smyrna greet you, from where also I write to you, being present for the glory of God, just as you also are, who in all things have refreshed me, together with Polycarp. And the rest of the churches also greet you in the honor of Jesus Christ.