Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp & others · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Ignatius, also called Theophorus, to the holy church at Tralles in Asia — she whom God the Father of Jesus Christ holds dear, chosen and worthy of God, at peace in flesh and spirit through the suffering of Jesus Christ, our hope through his resurrection: I greet her in the fullness, in the apostolic manner, and wish her abundant joy.
I have learned that you hold a blameless and steady mind, patient not out of habit but by nature, as your bishop Polybius made plain to me. Moved by God's will and that of Jesus Christ, he traveled to Smyrna, and there, sharing in my imprisonment for Christ, he rejoiced with me so fully that through him I beheld your whole congregation. Welcoming, then, your godly goodwill conveyed through him, I gave glory when I found you to be, as I had heard, imitators of God.
For when you submit to the bishop as to Jesus Christ, you show yourselves to me as people whose life follows not man, but Jesus Christ himself, who gave his life for us, so that through faith in his death you might escape death. It is necessary, then—as indeed you already do—that you do nothing without the bishop, but submit also to the council of elders, honoring them just as you would the apostles of Christ Jesus in whom rests our hope—abiding in him, we shall be found. And the deacons, being servants of the mysteries of Jesus Christ, must in every way please everyone. For they are not servants of food and drink, but attendants of God's church; they must therefore guard against reproach as against fire.
Likewise let everyone show the deacons respect as they would Jesus Christ, and the bishop as a model of the Father, and the elders as the council of God and the bond of the apostles. Without these there is no church to be called by that name. I am persuaded that this is how things stand among you, for I received the very pattern of your love, and I see it embodied in your bishop, whose bearing alone is a great lesson, and whose gentleness is power—one whom I judge even the godless must respect. Loving you, I hold back, though I am able to write more sharply on this matter. I did not think it right, condemned man that I am, to give you orders as though I were an apostle.
I have great confidence in God, yet I measure myself, lest I be destroyed through boasting. For now I must be more fearful, and pay no attention to those who puff me up. Those who flatter me in fact scourge me. I do love to suffer, but I do not know whether I am worthy. This zeal is invisible to many, but it wages its fiercest war against me. What I need, then, is gentleness, by which the ruler of this age is brought down.
Am I unable to write to you of heavenly things? Yes—but I am afraid I might do harm to you who are still infants, offering you food you cannot yet handle. Forgive me, then, lest, unable to take it in, you be strangled by it. For even I, though I am in bonds and able to understand heavenly things, the positions of the angels, the arrays of the rulers, things visible and invisible—even so I am not for that reason already a disciple. We lack much, that we may not lack God.
I urge you—though it is not my own urging, but that of Christ's love—feed on Christian nourishment alone, and keep away from any foreign plant, which is heresy. Those who practice it mix in Jesus Christ to win credit for themselves, giving, as it were, a deadly poison mixed with honeyed wine, which the unsuspecting drink gladly, taking death in wicked pleasure.
Guard yourselves, then, against such people. That will happen only when pride does not swell you, and you stay bound fast to God, to Jesus Christ, to the bishop, and to what the apostles ordained. Whoever is within the sanctuary is pure; whoever is outside the sanctuary is not pure. That is to say, whoever does anything apart from the bishop, the council of elders, and the deacons, that person is not pure in conscience.
It is not that I have heard of such a thing happening among you—rather, I am acting to protect you ahead of time, out of love for you, seeing already the traps the devil lays. So take up a gentle spirit and restore yourselves: in faith, that is, in the Lord's own flesh, and in love, that is, in the very blood of Christ Jesus. Let no one among you bear a grudge against a neighbor. Do not hand the pagans an excuse, so that the whole body belonging to God should not, on account of a handful of fools, be spoken against. Woe indeed to the man because of whom my name is defamed among any, through foolishness.
Turn a deaf ear, then, whenever someone speaks to you of anything apart from Jesus Christ—descended from David's line, born of Mary, genuinely born, one who really ate and drank, who genuinely suffered persecution under Pontius Pilate, who was genuinely nailed to the cross and died as witnesses in heaven, on earth, and below the earth looked on. And he was genuinely brought back to life from among the dead, his Father having raised him up—even as that same Father will, in the same way, raise us too, we who put our trust in him, in Christ Jesus, apart from whom we possess no genuine life.
But if, as some godless people—unbelievers, that is—claim, he only seemed to suffer, being themselves nothing but seeming, what, then, is the purpose of my imprisonment? Why would I even long to fight the wild beasts? In that case my death accomplishes nothing! In that case I am a liar about the Lord!
Flee, then, the evil offshoots that bear death-bringing fruit—if anyone tastes of it, he dies at once. These plants were never set by the Father's hand; had they been, they would appear as shoots growing from the cross, bearing fruit that cannot decay—the cross through which, in his suffering, he summons you, his own members. A head cannot come into being apart from its members, since God has promised union, and that union is himself.
Writing from Smyrna, I send my greeting, joined by the congregations of God gathered here with me, who have given me rest in every way, body and spirit alike. My chains, worn for the sake of Jesus Christ, plead with you as I seek to reach God. Hold fast to your oneness, and pray together as one body. It is right that each of you, the elders most of all, should refresh the bishop, honoring the Father together with Christ Jesus and the apostles. I hope you will listen to me in love, so that what I have written does not stand as evidence against you. Pray for me too, for I need the love you can give, held as I am in God's mercy, so that I may be judged worthy of the portion set before me, and attain it, and not be found lacking,
The Smyrnaeans and Ephesians send their love and greet you. In your prayers, keep in mind the church in Syria—I am not fit even to be named among them, being the last of all. Farewell in Jesus Christ: obey your bishop as you would the commandment itself, and likewise obey the council of elders. Love each other individually, with a heart undivided. My spirit is set apart on your behalf, both at present and whenever I come to stand before God. I remain in peril even now; yet the Father, faithful through Jesus Christ, will grant my request and yours—may you be found without blame in him.
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