Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp & others · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Ignatius — Theophorus also — to that congregation which has found mercy through the majesty of the Father above all and of Jesus Christ, his one and only Son: the assembly loved and given light by the purpose of him who willed everything that exists, in accordance with the love Jesus Christ our God bears; the same assembly presiding in the district belonging to the Romans, deserving of God, deserving of dignity, deserving to be called blessed, deserving of praise, deserving to have its petitions granted, deserving of purity, and holding first rank in love, named after Christ, named after the Father — this congregation I greet in the name of Jesus Christ, Son of the Father: to those joined in body and in spirit by every commandment he gives, filled without distinction with God's favor, and strained free of every alien tinge — abundant and blameless gladness to you in Jesus Christ our God.
Having prayed to God, I have been granted the sight of your faces so deserving of God — more, in fact, than I had asked to receive. Bound as I am in Christ Jesus, I hope to embrace you, provided it be his will that I be judged worthy to reach the finish. The start, at least, has been arranged well, if only I attain the favor to take up my portion unhindered. I fear your love, that it might do me harm. For you it is a simple matter to do as you wish; but for me it is hard to attain God, unless you refrain from sparing me.
For I do not want you to please men, but to please God, as indeed you already do please him. For neither will I ever have such an opportunity to obtain God, nor will you, if you remain silent, be inscribed to a nobler work. For if you remain silent concerning me, I become a word of God; but if you set your love upon my flesh, I shall be a mere voice again. Grant me nothing more than to be poured out as an offering to God, while the altar is still ready, so that in love, becoming a choir, you may sing to the Father in Christ Jesus, because God has deemed the bishop of Syria worthy to be found at the setting of the sun, having summoned him from the rising. Setting out from the world toward God is a good thing, so that I may rise into him.
You have never envied anyone; you have taught others. What I want is that even those things you enjoin as teachers may stand firm. Only pray on my behalf for power, inwardly and outwardly, so that I might not merely talk of it but truly desire it — so that the name Christian might not merely be spoken over me but proven true in me. For once it is proven true, the name follows naturally, and I will keep faith at the point when I am no longer visible to the world. Whatever is on display is not yet good; our God, Jesus Christ, becomes most plainly seen precisely now that he is within the Father. Christianity is not a work of persuasion but of greatness, when it is hated by the world.
I am writing to every church, instructing them all that I willingly give my life for God — so long as you yourselves put nothing in my way. I beg of you, do not show me an untimely, misplaced affection. Let the wild beasts be my food; through them I am able to reach God. Wheat of God is what I am, and those animals' teeth are milling me down, so that Christ may find in me a loaf of unmixed bread. Better still, coax the creatures on, so they become my grave and leave no trace of my body afterward, that once I have gone to my rest I may burden no one. Only then will I be a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ, once the world can no longer catch sight of even my corpse. Plead with Christ for me, so that by means of these very tools I might turn out to be an offering. I am not giving you orders the way Peter and Paul did — they were apostles, whereas I am a man under sentence; they were free men, while I am, up to this hour, a slave. Yet should I suffer, I will come out of it Christ's freedman, and rise again in him a free man. Already, bound as I am, I am learning to want nothing.
From Syria to Rome I fight with beasts, by land and sea, night and day, bound to ten leopards — that is, a company of soldiers — who become worse the more kindly they are treated. But by their wrongs I am becoming all the more a disciple; yet not by this am I justified. May those animals prepared on my account bring me delight, and I hope they will be quick to meet me. I will even coax them to devour me swiftly, not as has happened to some whom they were too timid to touch. And if they should be unwilling of themselves, I will force the issue. Bear with me: I know what is good for me. Now I am beginning to be a disciple. Let nothing, whether seen or unseen, make me envious of anything, so that I may attain Jesus Christ. Let fire and cross, packs of wild beasts, cutting apart, mangling, dislocation of bones, severing of limbs, grinding of the whole body, savage torments of the devil descend on me — only let Jesus Christ be mine.
Nothing visible holds any profit for me, nor do the kingdoms of this present age. Dying on behalf of Christ Jesus suits me better than ruling every corner of the earth. It is he I look for, the one who perished for our sake; it is he I long for, the one raised up again for us. The hour of my birth draws near. Bear with me, brothers: put nothing in the way of my living, and wish nothing that would keep me from dying. Do not hand over to the world someone who longs to belong to God, and do not lead me astray with matter. Let me take hold of the pure light; once I have arrived there I will at last be a true human being. Allow me to imitate the suffering of my God. Anyone who carries him within should grasp what I am asking, and should feel as I feel, aware of what holds me fast.
The ruler of this age wants to seize me and to corrupt my resolve toward God. Let none of you who are present help him; rather, stand with me — meaning, stand with God. Do not speak of Jesus Christ while desiring the world. Let no envy dwell among you. Even if I myself, when present, should beg you, do not obey me; rather, obey these things that I write to you now. For I write to you while still alive, yet longing to die. My own desire has been nailed to the cross, and no flame of longing for material things burns in me any longer; but there is living water speaking within me, saying to me from within: Come to the Father. I take no pleasure in the food of decay, nor in this life's pleasures. What I want is God's bread, which is Jesus Christ's flesh, sprung from the seed of David; and for drink I want his blood, love that cannot perish.
I no longer wish to live according to men. And this will be so, if you yourselves wish it. Wish it, so that you yourselves may also be wished for. I ask you through these few written words: believe me. Jesus Christ will make this clear to you, that I speak the truth — the mouth that does not lie, in which the Father truly spoke. Ask on my behalf, that I may obtain my end. I have set nothing down for you in a fleshly manner, but rather as the mind of God directs. If I suffer, you will have willed it well for me; if I am rejected, you will have hated me.
Keep in your prayers the congregation in Syria, which in my absence now has God himself as shepherd. May Jesus Christ alone oversee it as bishop, together with your love for it. But I am ashamed to be numbered among its people, for I am unworthy, the very last among them, one brought forth too soon and out of season; yet mercy has been shown to me, that I might count for something, if I attain God. My spirit greets you, together with the affection of those congregations that welcomed me for the sake of Jesus Christ — and not merely as someone passing through. For even assemblies lying off my physical route escorted me on from town to town.
I set these words down for you from Smyrna, sent by the Ephesians, so deserving of blessing. Along with me, and with many others besides, is Crocus, a name I hold dear. As for those who traveled ahead of me from Syria toward Rome to God's glory, I trust word of them has already reached you; let them know I am close by. Every one of them deserves both God and you, and it is only right that you grant them complete rest in every respect. I have set these words down for you on the ninth day before the Kalends of September. Farewell, until the end, in the patient endurance of Jesus Christ.
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