Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp & others · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Whoever looks honestly at each of these things one by one will recognize the greatness of the gifts God has given. From him come priests and Levites, all who serve at the altar of God; from him, according to the flesh, comes the Lord Jesus; from him come kings and rulers and leaders in the line of Judah, while his other tribes stand in no small honor either, since God promised, 'Your offspring will be like the stars of heaven.' All of them, then, were honored and made great not through themselves, or their own deeds, or the righteous acts they had performed, but through his will. So too with us: God called us in Christ Jesus by his own will, and it is not by ourselves that we are justified — not by any wisdom, understanding, or piety of our own, nor by deeds we have accomplished in a pure heart — but by faith, through which the Almighty has declared righteous everyone since the world began. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
What then shall we do, brothers? Shall we slacken in doing good and turn away from love? Never may our Master permit that to happen among us — instead, let us press on eagerly and earnestly to accomplish every good work. For the Maker and Master of the universe himself takes delight in his own works. Through his immeasurable, all-surpassing might he set the heavens firmly in their places, and through a wisdom beyond any grasping he arranged their order; he separated the land from the waters surrounding it, and fixed it upon the secure foundation of his own will; by his own command he summoned into existence the living creatures that roam upon it; and having made ready beforehand the sea and its creatures, he shut them in by his power. Beyond all this, the noblest and grandest of his conceptions, man, he molded with his own sacred, spotless hands, stamping him with the mark of his own likeness. For thus God speaks: 'Let us make humankind according to our image and resembling our likeness'; and so God made humankind, forming them male and female. Once all this stood finished, he spoke a blessing of praise over them: 'Be fruitful and increase in number.' Let us note, then, that every righteous person has been arrayed in good deeds, and that the Lord, arraying himself likewise in good deeds, took joy in it. Holding then this pattern before us, let us hasten without delay toward his will, striving with all our strength at the work of righteousness.
The diligent worker takes the bread he has earned with confidence, while the idle, careless worker dares not meet his employer's gaze. We, then, must be zealous to do good, since all things come from him. For he tells us in advance: 'See, the Lord is coming, bringing his reward with him, to repay each one according to what he has done.' He is urging us, then, us who trust in him with our whole heart, to be neither idle nor careless in any good deed. Let our pride and our assurance rest in him; let us yield to his purpose; let us reflect on that vast host of his angels, and how they wait upon his will and serve it. For scripture says: 'Thousands upon thousands stood attending him, and myriads upon myriads served him, calling out: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord of Sabaoth — his glory fills the whole of creation.' So let us too, assembled together with a single purpose and one mind, call out to him fervently with what is virtually one voice, so that we may be granted a share in his magnificent and glorious promises. For he says: 'What no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived, is what the Lord has made ready for those who wait for him.'
How blessed and astonishing, beloved, are God's gifts: unending life, glory clothed in justice, truth laid bare, confidence rooted in faith, purity governing the self — and every one of these lies open to our minds. What, then, is being made ready for those who wait for him? Only the Architect and Father of the ages, the one who alone is wholly holy, knows their extent and their splendor. Let us, then, exert ourselves to be counted among those who wait for him, so that we may receive a share of the gifts he has promised. Yet how, beloved, will this come about? If our minds stay anchored faithfully in God; if we search out whatever pleases him and wins his favor; if we perform what agrees with his flawless purpose; and if we walk the road of truth, throwing off every trace of wrongdoing, wickedness, covetousness, strife, malice, fraud, gossip, slander, enmity toward God, pride, arrogance, conceit, and inhospitality. Whoever practices such things earns God's hatred for it — and not only those who commit them, but those who nod along with them too. For scripture says: 'God said to the sinner: Why do you recount my ordinances and take up my covenant with your lips? You despised discipline and threw my words behind you. When you saw a thief, you ran alongside him, and you cast in your lot with adulterers. Your mouth overflowed with evil, and your tongue braided deceit together. Sitting there you slandered your own brother, and laid a trap for your own mother's son. You did these things, and I stayed silent — you imagined, lawless one, that I would resemble you. I will convict you and hold you up before your own eyes. So take note, you who have forgotten God, or he may tear you apart like a lion, with no one to rescue you. A sacrifice of thanksgiving will honor me, and there lies the path along which I will reveal to him God's deliverance.'
Beloved, here is the path along which we came to our salvation, Jesus Christ — the high priest who presents our offerings, the champion and helper of our frailty. By his agency we fix our eyes on the heavens' loftiest heights; by his agency, as though gazing into a mirror, we glimpse his spotless, supreme countenance; by his agency the eyes of our heart have been unsealed; by his agency our dull and clouded minds shoot up again toward the light; by his agency our Master chose that we should taste undying understanding — he, the very brightness of God's majesty, surpasses the angels by as much as the title he has received outranks theirs. For scripture states: 'He makes winds his messengers, and flame of fire his ministers.' Yet of his Son the Master declared: 'You are my son; this day I have become your father. Ask it of me, and I will grant the nations as your inheritance, the farthest reaches of the earth as your holding.' And again he tells him: 'Take your seat at my right side, until I lay your foes beneath your feet as a stool.' Who, then, are these foes? The worthless, those who oppose themselves to his purpose.
Brothers, let us then serve as soldiers, waging this campaign in full earnest under his flawless orders. Consider those enlisted under our own generals — with what discipline, what readiness, what obedience they perform their assignments. Not every man is a prefect, a commander over a thousand, a centurion, or an officer of fifty, and so forth; rather each one, in the rank assigned him, executes the orders given by the king and his officers. Great cannot stand apart from small, nor small apart from great; a certain mixture runs through everything, and that mixture is what makes it work. Take our own body as an example: the head amounts to nothing without the feet, nor the feet without the head; even its tiniest parts are indispensable and serve a purpose for the body as a whole. Instead, every part breathes as one and submits together under a single order, so that the entire body stays whole and sound.
So let our entire body remain whole in Christ Jesus, each one yielding to his neighbor in keeping with the gift bestowed on him. Let the powerful look after the powerless, and let the powerless honor the powerful. Let the wealthy furnish what the needy lack, and let the needy thank God for sending someone through whom their lack is met. Let anyone who is wise show it through his conduct rather than his speech. Let the modest person refrain from vouching for himself, leaving that testimony to someone else instead. Let anyone chaste in body avoid boasting of it, recognizing that his self-mastery was granted him by another. Let us reflect, then, brothers, on the stuff we were formed from, on what sort of beings we were and who we were on entering this life, and out of what grave and gloom our maker and framer led us into his creation, readying his kindnesses for us even before our birth. Since it is from him that we possess all this, we owe him gratitude for everything; his is the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Senseless people, the witless, the ignorant and untutored jeer and scoff at us, eager to puff themselves up in their own reckoning. Yet what can a dying creature accomplish? What power belongs to one sprung from dust? For scripture has it: 'No shape appeared before my eyes — only a whisper of air and a voice came to me: What then? Can any mortal stand pure before the Lord? Can a man be faultless for what he has done, when God places no trust even in his own attendants and finds fault even among his angels? Not even the sky is pure in his sight. How much less, then, those who make their home in houses of clay, since we ourselves are shaped from that same clay. He crushed them as one crushes a moth, and by evening they were gone, vanished since dawn; unable to save themselves, they came to ruin. A breath from him, and they expired, for wisdom had no place in them. Cry out, then, and see whether anyone answers, or whether you catch sight of any holy angel; rage is what destroys the senseless, and envy is the death of one gone astray. I have watched fools take root, only to have their household swallowed up in an instant. May their offspring be kept far from safety; may they be crushed underfoot at the gates of their inferiors, with no rescuer in sight. For what has been laid up for such men, the righteous will feast on, while they themselves will find no escape from ruin.'
Given, then, that these matters lie open before us, and that we have peered into the depths of divine knowledge, we are bound to carry out everything in proper sequence — whatever the Master has directed us to perform at its appointed season. He directed that the offerings and rites be carried out, not haphazardly or without plan, but at set seasons and hours. Where these things should take place, and through whom, is a matter he alone has settled, by the decision of his own utterly supreme will, so that everything carried out reverently and to his pleasure might find acceptance with him. Those, then, who bring their offerings at the set seasons win favor and blessing, for by adhering to the Master's rules they stray from nothing. To the high priest, then, his particular duties have been given; a specific place is set aside for the priests; specific tasks rest upon the Levites; and the ordinary member is held to the rules laid down for ordinary members.
Brothers, let each one of us offer God thanks in the station assigned to him, holding to a clear conscience, staying within the bounds set for his particular duty, and conducting himself with due reverence. It is not everywhere, brothers, that the perpetual sacrifices are offered, nor the votive offerings, nor those for sin and error — only in Jerusalem, and even in Jerusalem not at just any spot, but in front of the temple, at the altar, once the offering has been inspected for flaw by the high priest and the ministers named earlier. Anyone, then, who acts contrary to what fits his purpose incurs the penalty of death. You see, brothers, that the more knowledge we have been entrusted with, the greater the risk we face.
Our own apostles received the gospel from the Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ himself was dispatched by God. So Christ comes from God, and the apostles from Christ; each step, then, unfolded in due order under God's design. Once they had their charge, and were made wholly sure through our Lord's rising from the dead, assured also by God's own word, they set out — filled with the Holy Spirit's certainty — announcing that God's kingdom was soon to arrive. As they preached across every land and city, they installed their earliest converts as overseers and helpers for those about to come to faith, having proved them by the Spirit first. Nor was this any innovation, since overseers and helpers had been foretold long ages before. For scripture somewhere states: 'I will establish their overseers in righteousness and their helpers in faithfulness.'
Is it any wonder, then, that men entrusted by God with a task of this sort, acting in Christ, established the officers already named? Even blessed Moses himself — 'faithful in the whole of his house' — set down in the holy writings every command given him, and the prophets who came after followed his lead, jointly attesting to the ordinances he had laid down. For once envy flared up regarding the priesthood, and the tribes fell to quarreling over which of them would wear that glorious title, he ordered the twelve tribal chieftains to bring him staffs, each marked with a tribe's name; he took these, tied them together, stamped them with the chieftains' signet rings, and stored them inside the tabernacle of witness, on God's own table. Then, having shut the tent, he sealed both the door-latches and the staffs alike, and told them: 'Brothers, whichever tribe's staff sprouts, that is the one God has singled out for the priesthood, to minister before him.' At daybreak he assembled the whole of Israel, six hundred thousand men strong, showed the chieftains the unbroken seals, opened the tabernacle of witness, and drew out the staffs — and Aaron's staff was found to have not merely sprouted, but to be bearing fruit besides. What do you suppose, beloved? Did Moses fail to foresee this outcome? He knew full well — yet he handled it this way precisely so that no disorder would arise in Israel, and so that the name of the one true God would receive glory. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Our own apostles likewise understood, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that conflict was coming over the title of bishop. Because of this foreknowledge, granted to them in full, they installed those already named, and further provided that, should these die, other tested men would take up their service afterward. Men, then, who were installed either by the apostles themselves or, later on, by other men of standing — with the whole assembly's approval — and who have ministered to Christ's flock without fault, in humility, calmly, free of self-seeking ambition, earning the good report of all over a long span — we hold it wrong to strip such men of their office. It would be no minor offense on our part to depose from the episcopate those who have brought its offerings blamelessly and in holiness. Happy are the elders who have gone on before us, whose departure bore fruit and reached completion, since they need not dread being displaced from the post given them. Yet we find that you have displaced certain men, despite their upright conduct, from a ministry entrusted to them with honor.
Compete with zeal, brothers, for whatever leads toward salvation. You have gazed deep into the holy writings — writings that are truthful, given through the Holy Spirit — and you know well that nothing dishonest or twisted stands written in them. Nowhere will you find righteous men expelled by holy ones. The righteous suffered persecution, yes, but at lawless hands; they were locked away, but by the profane; stoned, but by lawbreakers; put to death, but by men gripped by a vile and unjust envy. Through it all they bore their trials with dignity. For what are we to say, brothers? Was it God-fearing men who threw Daniel into the lions' den? Was it worshippers of the Most High's magnificent and glorious cult who shut Ananias, Azarias, and Misael inside the blazing furnace? Never. So who, then, were the ones responsible? Detestable men, steeped in every kind of vice, whipped themselves into such a rage that they tormented men serving God with a holy and blameless intent — never realizing that the Most High stands as defender and shield for all who worship his wholly virtuous name with a clean conscience. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. As for those who held firm in trust, they received glory and honor as their inheritance; they were lifted up and recorded by God among his everlasting memorials forever and ever. Amen.
We too, then, brothers, must hold fast to such models. For it stands written: 'Hold fast to the holy ones, since those who hold fast to them will themselves be made holy.' And elsewhere it says again: 'With the innocent man you will show yourself innocent, with the elect you will show yourself elect, and with the crooked you will turn crooked.' Let us, then, hold fast to the innocent and the just, since these are the ones God has chosen. Why, then, do quarrels and flares of temper and divisions and factions and strife exist among you? Have we not a single God, a single Christ, a single Spirit of grace poured into us, and a single calling in Christ? Why do we rip apart and shred Christ's own limbs, rise in rebellion against our own body, and sink into such delusion that we forget we belong to one another as members? Recall what the Lord Jesus said. For he declared: 'Woe to that man — better for him never to have been born than that he should trip up one of my chosen; better for him to have a millstone tied round him and be plunged into the depths of the sea than to lead one of my chosen astray.' Your division has led many astray, has plunged many into despair, many into uncertainty, and every one of us into sorrow — and your revolt is still going on.
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