Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the church that is blessed in the greatness of God the Father in its fullness, foreordained before the ages to be forever unto abiding glory, unchangeably united and chosen in a true passion, by the will of God the Father and of our Lord Jesus Christ our Savior; to the church worthy of all felicitation, which is at Ephesus in Asia: abundant greetings in Jesus Christ and in blameless joy.
Having welcomed in God your much-loved name, which you possess by a righteous nature according to faith and love in Christ Jesus our Savior—being imitators of God's love for mankind, and having rekindled in the blood of Christ the kindred work, you have perfectly accomplished it.
For having heard that I came in bonds from Syria for the sake of Christ, our common hope, trusting through your prayer to be granted to fight with beasts at Rome, that through martyrdom I might be able to be a disciple of him who offered himself for us to God as an offering and sacrifice for a fragrant aroma—
Since then I have received your whole multitude in the name of God in the person of Onesimus, a man of inexpressible love and your bishop—whom I pray you to love according to Christ Jesus, and that all of you be in his likeness. For blessed is God, who granted to you, being such as you are, to possess such a bishop in Christ.
Now concerning our fellow servant Burrhus, who according to God is your deacon and blessed in all things, I pray that he may continue blameless, to the honor of the church and of your most blessed bishop.
And Crocus, worthy of God and of you, whom we received as a model of your love, has refreshed me in all things—and was not ashamed of my chain—even as the Father of Jesus Christ shall also refresh him, together with Onesimus and Burrhus and Euplus and Fronto, through whom I have seen all of you in love.
May I always have joy of you, if indeed I be worthy. It is therefore fitting for you in every way to glorify Jesus Christ, who has glorified you, that being knit together in one subjection, in the same mind and the same judgment, you may all speak the same thing concerning the same matter, so that, being subject to the bishop and the presbytery, you may be wholly sanctified in all things.
I do not give you orders as though I were someone. For even though I am in bonds for the Name, I am not yet perfected in Jesus Christ. For now I have but the beginning of being a disciple, and I speak to you as my fellow servants; for I needed to be reminded by you in faith, admonition, endurance, and long-suffering.
But since love does not allow me to be silent concerning you, on this account I have taken the initiative to exhort you, that you may run together with the mind of God. For Jesus Christ also does all things according to the mind of the Father, as he himself says somewhere: "I always do the things that are pleasing to him."
Ought we not then also to live according to the mind of God in Christ, and to be zealous as Paul was? For "be imitators of me," he says, "as I also am of Christ."
Therefore it is fitting for you also to run together with the mind of the bishop, who shepherds you according to God—which indeed you do, being yourselves made wise by the Spirit. For your worthily-named presbytery, worthy of God, is so attuned to the bishop as strings to a lyre, being bound together in concord and harmonious love, of which Jesus the Christ is leader and guardian.
And do you, man by man, become one chorus, that being harmonious in concord, and having received the unison of God in unity, you may become one in your harmony with God the Father and with his beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord. For he says, "Grant to them, holy Father, that as I and you are one, they also may be one in us." It is therefore useful for you, being joined to God in blameless unity, to be imitators of Christ, of whom you are also members.
For if I in a short time gained such intimacy with your bishop—an intimacy not human but spiritual—how much more do I count you blessed who are mingled with him, as the church is with the Lord Jesus, and the Lord with God and his Father, that all things may be harmonious in unity.
Let no one be deceived: if anyone is not within the altar, he lacks the bread of God. For if the prayer of one and another has such power that Christ stands in their midst, how much more shall the prayer of the bishop and of the whole church, ascending harmoniously to God, prevail to obtain for them all their petitions in Christ.
He therefore who separates himself from such persons, and does not assemble together in the counsel of sacrifices and in the church of the firstborn ones enrolled in heaven, is a wolf in sheep's clothing, displaying a gentle appearance.
Be eager, beloved, to be subject to the bishop and to the presbyters and to the deacons; for he who is subject to these obeys Christ who appointed them, but he who disobeys them disobeys Christ Jesus, and he who disobeys the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him. For he is self-willed and quarrelsome and proud who does not submit to his betters. "God," it says, "resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble"; and, "The proud transgressed exceedingly."
And the Lord also says to the priests: "He who hears you hears me, and he who hears me hears the Father who sent me; he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me."
The more, therefore, you see the bishop keeping silence, the more revere him; for everyone whom the master of the house sends for his own stewardship, him we ought so to receive as we would the one who sent him. Clearly, then, we ought to look upon the bishop as upon the Lord himself, standing as he does beside the Lord. Now an active man, quick in his works, ought to stand before kings, and not to stand before slothful men.
Onesimus himself, moreover, highly praises your good order in God, that you all live according to truth, and that no heresy dwells among you. Nay, you do not even listen to anyone except Jesus Christ alone, the true Shepherd and Teacher; and you are, as Paul wrote to you, one body and one spirit, because you were called in the one hope of the faith—since there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
But some most worthless men are accustomed to carry the Name about with wicked guile, while doing certain other things unworthy of God and thinking things contrary to the teaching of Christ, to the destruction of themselves and of those who are persuaded by them; whom you must shun as wild beasts. For the righteous man who turns aside is saved forever, but the destruction of the ungodly is sudden and a thing of derision; for they are dumb dogs, unable to bark, raging, biting in secret, who must be guarded against, for they are incurably diseased.
But our physician is the only true God, the unbegotten and unapproachable, the Lord of all, and Father and Begetter of the only-begotten. We have as our physician also our Lord God Jesus the Christ, the only-begotten Son and Word before the ages, but afterwards also man, of Mary the Virgin. For "the Word became flesh"; the bodiless one in a body, the impassible one in a passible body, the immortal one in a mortal body, life in corruption, that he might free from death and corruption, and heal our souls, and cure them when diseased in ungodliness and evil desires.
Let no one therefore deceive you, even as you are not deceived; for you are wholly God's. For when no desire dwells in you that is able to defile you and bring torment upon you, then truly you live according to God and are Christ's. Renowned are you and the most pure church of the Ephesians, far-famed and much-celebrated throughout the ages.
The carnal cannot do the things of the Spirit, nor the spiritual the things of the flesh; just as faith cannot do the things of unbelief, nor unbelief the things of faith. But you, being full of the Holy Spirit, do nothing carnal, but all things spiritual. You are being perfected in Christ Jesus, who is the Savior of all men, especially of the faithful.
Now I have learned that certain persons passed through from you, holding an evil teaching of a strange and wicked spirit; but you gave them no passage to sow their tares among you, for you stopped your ears so as not to receive the error proclaimed by them, being convinced that the spirit which deceives the people speaks not the things of Christ but its own; for it is a liar.
But the Holy Spirit speaks not its own things but the things of Christ, and not from itself but from the Lord, even as the Lord also proclaimed to us the things from the Father. For “The word which you hear,” He says, “is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”
And concerning the Holy Spirit He says: “He shall not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears from Me.” And concerning Himself He says to the Father: “I have glorified You on the earth; the work which You gave Me I have finished; I have manifested Your name to men.” And concerning the Holy Spirit: “He shall glorify Me, for He shall take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” Therefore each glorifies the One from whom He has also received what He shall do; and He proclaims Him and declares His words.
But the spirit of error proclaims itself, speaks its own things, for it is self-pleasing; it glorifies itself, for it is full of pride; it is a liar, deceitful, fawning, flattering, treacherous, a babbler, full of empty talk, discordant, intemperate in speech, niggardly, cowardly. From its working Jesus the Christ shall deliver us, who has founded us upon the Rock as chosen stones, well fitted together for a building of God the Father, raised to the heights through Christ who was crucified for us, using as a cord the Holy Spirit, and drawn up by faith and lifted by love from earth to heaven, journeying together with the blameless.
For “Blessed,” He says, “are the blameless in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.” And the way that does not lead astray is Jesus the Christ; for He says, “I am the way and the life.” And the way leads to the Father; for He says, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Blessed therefore are you who are God-bearers, Spirit-bearers, temple-bearers, holiness-bearers, adorned in all things in the commandments of Jesus Christ—a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession. For whose sake, rejoicing, I have been counted worthy through this letter to converse with the saints who are at Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus. I rejoice therefore over you, that you do not give heed to vanity, nor love according to the flesh, but according to God.
And pray also unceasingly for the rest of mankind; for there is in them a hope of repentance, that they may attain to God. Does not he who falls rise up again, or he who turns away turn back? Permit them, then, to be made disciples by you. Be therefore ministers of God and the mouth of Christ; for the Lord says, “If you bring forth the precious from the worthless, you shall be as My mouth.”
Against their wrath be you lowly-minded; against their slanders set you your earnest prayers; while they go astray, stand you firm in the faith; conquer their savage temper by gentleness, their irascibility by meekness. For “Blessed are the meek”; and Moses was meek above all men, and David exceedingly meek. Therefore Paul exhorts, saying that a servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle toward all, apt to teach, patient, instructing in meekness those who oppose themselves.
Not being eager to avenge yourselves on those who wrong you (for He says, “If I have requited evil to those who requited me”), let us by our forbearance make them brothers. For say to those who hate you, “You are our brothers,” that the name of the Lord may be glorified. And let us imitate the Lord, who, when reviled, reviled not in return; when crucified, did not resist; when suffering, did not threaten, but prayed for His enemies: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
If anyone, being the more wronged, endures the more, he is blessed; if anyone is defrauded, if anyone is set at nought for the name of the Lord, this man is truly Christ’s. See that no plant of the devil be found among you; for it is bitter and brackish. Be sober, be temperate in Christ Jesus.
These are the last times that remain. Let us be ashamed, let us fear the long-suffering of God, lest we despise the riches of His kindness and forbearance. For let us either fear the wrath to come, or love the grace that is present in this present life—only that we may be found in Christ Jesus unto the true life.
Apart from Him choose not even to draw breath; for He is my hope, He is my boast, He is my unfailing riches, in whom I bear about my bonds from Syria to Rome—spiritual pearls—in which may it be granted me, by your prayer, to be perfected, to become a partaker of the sufferings of Christ and a sharer in His death, and in His resurrection from the dead and in the life that never fails; which may it be granted me to attain, that I may be found in the lot of the Ephesian Christians, who were ever in agreement with the apostles in the power of Jesus Christ—with Paul, John, and Timothy the most faithful.
I know who I am and to whom I write. I am the least, Ignatius, and like those who are under danger and condemnation; but you have obtained mercy and are established in Christ.
You are a thoroughfare of those who are slain for Christ, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Ignatius the least. You are fellow-initiates of Paul, the sanctified, the well-attested, who is a chosen vessel; under whose footsteps may it be granted me to be found, and under those of the rest of the saints, when I attain to Jesus Christ, who always makes mention of us in his prayers.
Be diligent, therefore, to come together more often for the thanksgiving of God and for His glory. For when you frequently gather in the same place, the powers of Satan are cast down, and his fiery darts that lead to sin are turned back ineffectual; for your concord and harmonious faith is his destruction and a torment to his henchmen.
There is nothing better than the peace which is according to Christ, in which all warfare of the spirits of the air and of the earth is brought to nought. For our wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Therefore none of the schemes of the devil shall escape your notice, if, like Paul, you have perfectly toward Christ both faith and love, which are the beginning and the end of life. The beginning of life is faith, and the end is love; and the two, becoming one in unity, make a man of God. And all other things that pertain to true nobility follow in their train.
No one who professes faith ought to sin, nor one who has obtained love to hate his brother. For He who said, “You shall love the Lord your God,” also said, “and your neighbor as yourself.” Those who profess to be Christ’s are known not only by what they say, but also by what they do; for the tree is known by its fruit.
It is better to be silent and to be real, than to talk and not to be. The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. Faith is held in the heart, and confession is made with the mouth—the one unto righteousness, the other unto salvation. It is good to teach, if he who speaks also does. For whoever shall do and teach, this man shall be great in the kingdom.
Our Lord and God, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, first did and then taught, as Luke testifies, whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches.
Nothing is hidden from the Lord, but even our secret things are near to Him. Let us therefore do all things as though He dwelt in us, that we may be His temples and He may be God in us. Let Christ speak in us, as He did also in Paul. Let the Holy Spirit teach us to utter the things of Christ in a manner like His own.
But if those who corrupt human households are condemned to death, how much more shall those who attempt to adulterate the teaching of Christ pay the penalty—that teaching for which the Lord Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God, endured the cross and death; whose teaching he who sets at nought shall, having grown gross and dull, depart into Gehenna.
Likewise also every man who has received from God the power of discernment shall be punished, if he follows an inexperienced shepherd and accepts a false opinion as if it were true. What fellowship has light with darkness, or Christ with Belial, or what part has a believer with an unbeliever, or the temple of God with idols? And I too say: what fellowship has truth with falsehood, or righteousness with unrighteousness, or true glory with false glory?
For this reason the Lord received ointment upon His head, that the Church might breathe forth incorruption. For He says, “Your name is as ointment poured forth; therefore the maidens have loved You and drawn You; after the fragrance of Your ointments we will run.” Let not the holy Church of God be anointed with the foul odor of the teaching of this age; let her not be taken captive by his craftiness, as was the first woman.
Why, being rational beings, do we not become wise? Why, having received from Christ the innate faculty of judging concerning God, do we fall into ignorance, and through carelessness, being ignorant of the gift which we have received, do we perish foolishly?
The cross of Christ is to the unbelieving a stumbling-block, but to the believing salvation and life eternal. Where is the wise? Where is the disputer? Where is the boasting of those who are called mighty?
For the Son of God, who was begotten before the ages and established all things by the will of the Father, was carried in the womb by Mary according to the dispensation, of the seed of David indeed, but by the Holy Spirit. For “Behold,” He says, “the virgin shall conceive in her womb and shall bring forth a son, and He shall be called Emmanuel.” He was born; He was baptized by John, that He might ratify the ordinance entrusted to the prophet.
And the virginity of Mary, and her child-bearing, were hidden from the ruler of this age, and likewise also the death of the Lord—three mysteries of a cry, which were wrought in stillness, but were made manifest to us.
A star shone forth in heaven above all the stars before it, and its light was unspeakable, and its newness caused astonishment to those who beheld it. And all the rest of the stars, together with the sun and moon, became a chorus to the star, but it surpassed them all in its brightness; and there was perplexity as to whence came this new thing that appeared.
From thence worldly wisdom was made foolish, sorcery became idle babble and magic a laughing-stock; every ordinance of wickedness was being abolished, the gloom of ignorance was being scattered, and tyrannical rule was being cast down, as God appeared in the manner of a man and a man wrought in the manner of God—yet neither was the former a mere semblance nor the latter a bare humanity, but the one was truth and the other dispensation. And that which had been perfected with God was now receiving its beginning; from thence all things were being set in motion, because the dissolution of death was being prepared.
Stand firm, brothers, established in the faith of Jesus Christ and in His love, in His passion and resurrection. Let all of you, in grace, be gathered together in common from His name, in one faith of God the Father and of Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son, who is also the firstborn of all creation, but according to the flesh of the lineage of David, being guided by the Paraclete.
Obeying the bishop and the presbytery with an undivided mind, breaking one bread, which is the medicine of immortality, an antidote that we should not die but live in God through Jesus Christ—a means of cleansing that wards off evil.
May I be a ransom for your souls, and for those whom you sent to Smyrna for the honor of God, from where I also write to you, giving thanks to the Lord, loving Polycarp as I also love you. Remember me, as Jesus Christ also remembers you, who is blessed forever.
Pray for the church of the Antiochenes which is in Syria, from where, bound, I am being led away to Rome, being the last of the faithful there—even as I was counted worthy, for the honor of God, to bear these very chains. Fare well in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, our common hope, in the Holy Spirit. Fare well. Amen. Grace be with you.