Epistles

Pseudo Ignatius of Antioch

Epistles

Pseudo Ignatius of Antioch · Epis 1 · perseus-eng1 · More by Pseudo Ignatius of Antioch

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1.pref.sal

Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus,

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to

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the Church, worthy of all felicitation, which is at Ephesus in Asia,—blessed with greatness by the fulness of God the Father, predestined from eternity for abiding and unchangeable glory, united and chosen through true suffering by the will of the Father and Jesus Christ our God,—abundant greeting in Jesus Christ and in blameless joy.

1.1.1

I became acquainted through God with your

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much beloved name, which you have obtained by your righteous nature, according to faith and love in Christ Jesus our Saviour, You are imitators of God, and, having kindled your brotherly

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task by the blood of God, you completed it perfectly.

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For when you heard that I had been sent a prisoner from Syria for the sake of our common name and hope, in the hope of obtaining by your prayers the privilege of fighting with beasts at Rome, that by so doing I might be enabled to be a true disciple, you hastened to see me.

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Seeing then that I received in

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the name of God your whole congregation in the person of Onesimus, a man of inexpressible love and your bishop, I beseech you by Jesus Christ to love him, and all to resemble him. For blessed is he who granted you to be worthy to obtain such a bishop.

1.2.1

Now concerning my fellow servant, Burrhus,

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your deacon by the will of God, who is blessed in all things, I beg that he may stay longer, for your honour and for that of the bishop. And Crocus also, who is worthy of God and of you, whom I received as an example of your love, has relieved me in every way,—may the Father of Jesus Christ refresh him in like manner,—together with Onesimus and Burrhus and Euplus and Fronto, in whose persons I have seen you all in love.

1.2.2

May I ever have joy of you, if I be but worthy. It is, therefore, seemly in every way to glorify Jesus Christ, who has glorified you, that you may be joined together in one subjection, subject to the bishop and to the presbytery, and may in all things be sanctified.

1.3.1

I do not give you commands as if I were some

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one great, for though I am a prisoner for the Name, I am not yet perfect in Jesus Christ; for now I do but begin to be a disciple, and I speak to you as to my fellow learners. For I needed to be prepared

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by you in faith, exhortation, endurance, long-suffering.

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But since love does not suffer me to be silent concerning you, for this reason I have taken upon me to exhort you that you live

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in harmony with the will of God. For Jesus Christ, our inseparable life, is the will of the Father, even as the bishops, who have been appointed throughout the world, are by the will of Jesus Christ.

1.4.1

Therefore it is fitting that you should live in

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harmony with the will of the bishop, as indeed you do. For your justly famous presbytery, worthy of God, is attuned to the bishop as the strings to a harp. Therefore by your concord and harmonious love Jesus Christ is being sung.

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Now do each of you join in this choir, that being harmoniously in concord you may receive the key

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of God in unison, and sing with one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father, that he may both hear you and may recognise, through your good works, that you are

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members of his Son. It is therefore profitable for you to be in blameless unity, in order that you may always commune with God.

1.5.1

For if I in a short time gained such fellowship

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with your bishop as was not human but spiritual, how much more do I count you blessed who are so united with him as the Church is with Jesus Christ, and as Jesus Christ is with the Father, that all things may sound together in unison!

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Let no man be deceived: unless a man be within the sanctuary he lacks the bread of God, for if the prayer of one or two has such might, how much more has that of the bishop and of the whole Church?

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So then he who does not join in the common assembly, is already haughty, and has separated himself.

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For it is written

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God resisteth the proud:

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let us then be careful not to oppose the bishop, that we may be subject to God.

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1.6.1

And the more anyone sees that the bishop is

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silent, the more let him fear him. For every one whom the master of the house sends to do his

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business ought we to receive as him who sent him. Therefore it is clear that we must regard the bishop as the Lord himself.

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Indeed Onesimus himself gives great praise to your good order in God, for you all live according to truth, and no heresy dwells among you; nay, you do not even listen to any unless he speak concerning Jesus Christ in truth.

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For there are some who make a practice of

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carrying about the Name with wicked guile, and do certain other things unworthy of God; these you must shun as wild beasts, for they are ravening dogs, who bite secretly, and you must be upon your guard against them, for they are scarcely to be cured.

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There is one Physician, who is both flesh and spirit, born and yet not born, who is God in man, true life in death, both of Mary and of God, first passible and then impassible, Jesus Christ our Lord.

1.8.1

Let none therefore deceive you, and indeed you

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have not been deceived, but belong wholly to God. For since no strife is fixed among you which might

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torture you, you do indeed live according to God. I am dedicated

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and devoted to you Ephesians, and your Church, which is famous to eternity.

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They who are carnal cannot do spiritual things, neither can they who are spiritual do carnal things, just as faith is incapable of the deeds of infidelity, and infidelity of the deeds of faith. But even what you do according to the flesh is spiritual, for you do all things in Jesus Christ.

1.9.1

I have learnt, however, that some from elsewhere

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have stayed with you, who have evil doctrine; but you did not suffer them to sow it among you, and stopped your ears, so that you might not receive what they sow, seeing that you are as stones of the temple of the Father, made ready for the building of God our Father, carried up to the heights by the engine of Jesus Christ, that is the cross, and using as a rope the Holy Spirit. And your faith is your windlass and love is the road which leads up to God.

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You are then all fellow travellers, and carry with you God, and the Temple, and Christ, and holiness, and are hi all ways adorned by commandments of Jesus Christ. And I share in this joy, for it has been granted to me to speak to you through my writing, and to rejoice with you, that you love nothing, according to human life, but God alone.

1.10.1

Now for other men

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pray unceasingly,

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for

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there is in them a hope of repentance, that they may find God. Suffer them therefore to become your disciples, at least through your deeds.

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Be yourselves gentle in answer to their wrath; be humble minded in answer to their proud speaking; offer prayer for their blasphemy; be stedfast in the faith for their error; be gentle for their cruelty, and do not seek to retaliate.

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Let us be proved their brothers by our gentleness and let us be imitators of the Lord, and seek who may suffer the more wrong, be the more destitute, the more despised; that no plant of the devil be found in you but that you may remain in all purity and sobriety in Jesus Christ, both in the flesh and in the Spirit.

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These are the last times. Therefore let us be

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modest, let us fear the long-suffering of God, that it

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may not become our judgment. For let us either fear the wrath to come, or love the grace which is present,—one of the two,—only let us be found in Christ Jesus unto true life.

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Without him let nothing seem comely to you, for in him I carry about my chains, the spiritual pearls in which may it be granted me to rise again through your prayers, which I beg that I may ever share, that I be found in the lot of the Christians of Ephesus, who also were ever of one mind with the Apostles in the power of Jesus Christ.

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I know who I am and to whom I write. I am

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condemned, you have obtained mercy; I am in danger, you are established in safety;

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you are the passage for those who are being slain for the sake of God, fellow-initiates with Paul, who was sanctified, who gained a good report, who was right blessed, in whose footsteps may I be found when I shall attain to God, who in every Epistle makes mention of you in Christ Jesus.

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Seek, then, to come together more frequently

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to give thanks

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and glory to God. For when you gather together frequently the powers of Satan are destroyed, and his mischief is brought to nothing, by the concord of your faith.

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There is nothing better than peace, by which every war in heaven and on earth is abolished.

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None of these things are unknown to you if

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you possess perfect faith towards Jesus Christ, and love, which are the beginning and end of life; for the beginning is faith and the end is love, and when the two are joined together in unity it is God, and all other noble things follow after them.

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No man who professes faith sins, nor does he hate who has obtained love. The tree is known by its fruits: so they who profess to be of Christ shall be seen by their deeds. For the deed is not in present profession, but is shown by the power of faith, if a man continue to the end.

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It is better to be silent and be real, than to

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talk and to be unreal. Teaching is good, if the teacher does what he says. There is then one teacher who

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spoke and it came to pass,

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and what he has done even in silence is worthy of the Father.

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He who has the word of Jesus for a true possession can also hear his silence, that he may be perfect, that he may act through his speech, and be understood through his silence.

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Nothing is hid from the Lord, but even our secret things are near him. Let us therefore do all things as though he were dwelling in us, that we may be his temples, and that he may be our God in us. This indeed is so, and will appear clearly before our face by the love which we justly have to him.

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Do not err, my brethren; they who corrupt

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families shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

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If then those who do this according to the flesh suffer death, how much more if a man corrupt by false teaching the faith of God for the sake of which Jesus Christ was crucified? Such a one shall go in his foulness to the unquenchable fire, as also shall he who listens to him.

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For this end did the Lord receive ointment on his head that he might breathe immortality on the Church. Be not anointed with the evil odour of the doctrine of the Prince of this world, lest he lead you away captive from the life which is set before you.

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But why are we not all prudent seeing that we have received knowledge of God, that is, Jesus Christ? Why are we perishing in our folly, ignoring the gift which the Lord has truly sent?

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My spirit is devoted

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to the cross, which is an

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offence to unbelievers, but to us salvation and eternal life.

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Where is the wise? Where is the disputer?

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Where is the boasting of those who are called prudent?

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For our God, Jesus the Christ,

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was conceived by Mary by the dispensation of God,

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as well of the seed of David

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as of the Holy Spirit: he was born, and was baptized, that by himself submitting

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he might purify the water.

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And the virginity of Mary, and her giving birth

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were hidden from the Prince of this world, as was also the death of che Lord. Three mysteries of a cry which were wrought in the stillness of God.

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How then was he manifested to the world? A star shone in heaven beyond all the stars, and its light was unspeakable, and its newness caused astonishment, and all the other stars, with the sun and moon, gathered in chorus

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round this star, and it far exceeded them all in its light; and there was perplexity, whence came this new thing, so unlike them.

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By this all magic was dissolved and every bond of wickedness vanished away, ignorance was removed, and the old kingdom was destroyed, for God was manifest as man for the newness of eternal life, and that which had been prepared by God received its beginning. Hence all things were disturbed, because the abolition of death was being planned.

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If Jesus Christ permit me through your prayers.

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and it be his will, in the second book,

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which I propose to write to you, I will show you concerning the dispensation of the new man Jesus Christ, which I have begun to discuss, dealing with his faith and his love, his suffering and his resurrection;

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especially if the Lord reveal

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to me that you all severally join in the common meeting in grace from his name,

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in one faith and in Jesus Christ,

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who was of the family of David according to the flesh,

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the Son of Man and the Son of God, so that you obey the bishop and the presbytery with an undisturbed mind, breaking one bread, which is the medicine of immortality, the antidote that we should not die, but live for ever in Jesus Christ.

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May my soul be given for yours, and for them

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whom you sent in the honour of God to Smyrna, whence I also write to you, thanking the Lord and loving Polycarp as I do also you. Remember me as Jesus Christ also remembers you.

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Pray for the Church in Syria, whence I am led a prisoner to Rome, being the least of the faithful who are there, even as I was thought worthy to show the honour of God. Farewell in God our Father and in Jesus Christ, our common hope.

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