Epistles of Ignatius 2-9

Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the church that has obtained mercy from God, chosen by Christ, sojourning in Syria and first to receive the name of Christ, the church in Antioch: greeting in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord has made my chains light and easy to bear, since I have learned that you are at peace and conduct yourselves in all harmony, both fleshly and spiritual.

I exhort you, therefore—I, the prisoner in the Lord—to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called, guarding yourselves against the heresies of the evil one that have crept in for the deception and destruction of those who are persuaded by him; and to give heed to the teaching of the apostles, and to believe the law and the prophets, casting away every Jewish and Greek error, neither introducing a multitude of gods nor denying the Christ under the pretext of the one God.

For Moses too, the faithful servant of God, when he said, "The Lord your God is one Lord," and proclaimed the one and only God, immediately confessed our Lord also, saying, "The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the Lord."

And again: "And God said, Let us make man according to our image; and God made man, according to the image of God He made him," and following: "In the image of God I made man."

And that a man would come to be, he says: "The Lord will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers, like me."

The prophets too, when they said, as from the person of God, "I am God, the first, and I am after these things, and besides me there is no God," speak concerning the Father of all.

And concerning our Lord Jesus Christ: "A Son," he says, "is given to us, whose origin is from above; and his name is called Angel of great counsel, Wonderful, Counselor, mighty God, Ruler."

And concerning His incarnation: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel." And concerning His passion: "As a sheep He was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb dumb before its shearer," and, "I was as an innocent lamb led to be slain."

The evangelists too, when they said that the one Father alone is the true God, did not pass over the things concerning our Lord, but wrote: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This One was in the beginning with God; all things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being."

And concerning the incarnation: "The Word," he says, "became flesh and tabernacled among us," and, "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham."

And the apostles, when they said that God is one, these same ones also said that there is one Mediator of God and men; and they were not ashamed of the embodiment and the passion. For what does he say? "The man Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for the life of the world."

Everyone, therefore, who proclaims one God in order to abolish the deity of Christ is a son of the devil and an enemy of all righteousness; and whoever confesses Christ not as the Son of Him who made the world, but of some other unknown one, beyond the one whom the law and the prophets proclaimed—this one is an instrument of the devil himself.

And whoever rejects the incarnation and is ashamed of the cross, for which I am bound, this one is antichrist; and whoever says that Christ is a mere man is accursed according to the prophet, since he trusts not in God but in man; therefore he too is fruitless, like the wild tamarisk.

These things I write to you, O youth of Christ, not because I am aware of any such mindset among you, but to forewarn you, as a father his own children.

Beware, therefore, of the malicious workers, the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, whose glory is in their shame. Beware of the mute dogs, the crawling serpents, the scaly little dragons, the asps, the basilisks, the scorpions; for these are crafty jackals, men-mimicking apes.

You have become disciples of Paul and Peter; do not lose the deposit entrusted to you. Remember Euodius, your most blessed shepherd, who was first entrusted by the apostles with your governance. Let us not put the father to shame; let us become genuine children and not bastards.

You know how I conducted myself among you. The things I said to you when present, these I also write while absent: "If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus, let him be accursed." Become imitators of me. May I become a ransom for you, when I attain Jesus. Remember my chains.

You presbyters, shepherd the flock that is among you, until God reveals the one who is to rule over you; for I am already being poured out as a libation, that I may gain Christ.

Let the deacons know of what dignity they are, and let them strive to be blameless, that they may be imitators of Christ. Let the people be subject to the presbyters and the deacons. Let the virgins know to whom they have consecrated themselves.

Let husbands cherish their spouses, remembering that at creation one woman was given to one man, not many to one. Let wives honor their husbands as their own flesh, and let them not dare to call them even by name; but let them be sober-minded, regarding only their own spouses as their husbands, to whom they were united according to the will of God.

You parents, instruct your children with a holy upbringing. You children, honor your parents, that it may be well with you.

You masters, do not treat your slaves with arrogance, imitating the long-suffering Job, who said: "If I have despised the cause of my manservant or my maidservant when they contended with me—for what shall I do if the Lord should make an examination of me?" and you know the rest.

You slaves, do not provoke your masters to anger in anything, lest you become to yourselves the cause of irreparable evils.

Let no one eat in idleness, lest he become a wanderer and a fornicator. Drunkenness, anger, envy, reviling, clamor, blasphemy—let these not even be named among you. Let the widows not live in self-indulgence, lest they grow wanton against the word.

Be subject to Caesar in matters where the subjection is without danger. Do not provoke the rulers to exasperation, lest you give occasion to those who seek against you.

Concerning sorcery, or pederasty, or murder, it is superfluous to write, since these things are forbidden to be practiced even among the nations. These things I urge not as an apostle, but as your fellow-servant I remind you.

I greet the holy presbytery. I greet the sacred deacons and the name dear to me, whom may I behold in my stead in the Holy Spirit, when I attain Christ; for whom may I become a ransom.

I greet the subdeacons, the readers, the singers, the doorkeepers, those who labor, the exorcists, the confessors. I greet the guardians of the holy gates, the deaconesses in Christ.

I greet the Christ-bearing virgins, of whom may I have joy in the Lord Jesus. I greet the most reverend widows. I greet the people of the Lord, from the least to the greatest, and all my sisters in the Lord.

I greet Cassianus and his spouse and his most beloved children. Polycarp, the worthy bishop, greets you, who also cares about you, and to whom I have entrusted you in the Lord; and the whole church of the Smyrnaeans remembers you in their prayers in the Lord.

Onesimus, the shepherd of the Ephesians, greets you. Damas, the bishop of Magnesia, greets you. Polybius of Tralles greets you. Philo and Agathopus, the deacons, my fellow-companions, greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

These things I write to you from Philippi. May He who alone is unbegotten, through the One begotten before the ages, keep you in good health, in spirit and in flesh; and may I behold you in the kingdom of Christ.

I greet the one who is to rule over you in my stead, of whom may I also have joy in Christ. Fare well in God and in Christ, being enlightened by the Holy Spirit.