Chapter 1
Letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Magnesians
Salutation
Ignatius, also called God-bearer, to the Church blessed in the grace of God the Father in Christ Jesus the Saviour, which is in Magnesia on the Maeander—in him I greet you and pray for you in God the Father and in Christ Jesus our Lord; in him may you have fullest joy.
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1 1.Having learned of your very orderly love according to God, I rejoiced and resolved in faith in Jesus Christ to speak to you. For having been counted worthy of a divine and desirable name, in these chains I carry about I sing of the churches, in which I pray for union of flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ, who is the Saviour of all people, especially of believers, by whose blood you were redeemed, through whom you came to know God, or rather were known by him;
2 in him, by enduring all the abuse of this age, you will escape. For he is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. 2.
3 Since, then, I have been counted worthy to see you through Damas your God-worthy bishop and the presbyters worthy of God, Bassus and Apollonius, and my fellow servant the deacon Zotion—may I benefit from him, because he is subject to the bishop and to the presbytery—by the grace of God in the law of Jesus Christ.
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1 And it’s only fitting that you too should not take advantage of your bishop’s youth, but render him every respect according to the will of God the Father — just as I have learned that the holy presbyters also do, not regarding his apparent youthfulness, but rather his godly wisdom.
2 For it is written: It is not the long-lived who are wise, nor do the aged understand understanding, but it is the Spirit that is in mortals.
3 Daniel, though he was only twelve years old, became possessed by the divine Spirit and refuted the elders who bore their grey hair in vain—those slanderers and lustful men who desired another’s beauty.
4 Samuel, though he was but a small child, rebuked the ninety-year-old Eli for honouring his own servants above God.
5 In the same way, Jeremiah too hears from God.
6 Do not say, ‘I am too young.’
7 Solomon and Josiah—the one, reigning at twelve years old, rendered that fearful and difficult judgement concerning the women over the children; the other, beginning to rule at eight years old, threw down the altars and shrines and burned the groves (for they were dedicated to demons, not to God), and slaughtered the false priests as corrupters and deceivers of human beings, not worshippers of divinity. So then, youth is not to be despised when it is dedicated to God, but rather what is wicked in disposition, even if it is old in evil days. Timothy the Christ-bearer was young; but listen to what his teacher writes to him:
8 Let no one despise your youth, but be a type of the believers in word, in conduct. So it is fitting for you also to obey your bishop and in no way to contradict him; for it is a fearful thing to contradict such a one, since whoever does so is not leading astray this visible one, but is trying to deceive the invisible One who cannot be deceived by anyone. Such a matter has to do not with a human being, but with God. For God says to Samuel:
9 They have not rejected you, but Me. And Moses says:
10 For the grumbling is not against us, but against the Lord God. No one who has risen up against his superiors has remained unpunished; for Dathan and Abiram did not speak against the law, but against Moses; and they went down alive into Hades.
11 And Korah and the two hundred and fifty who conspired with him against Aaron were consumed by fire.
12 Absalom, having become a parricide, hung suspended in a tree and was struck with darts because of his evil heart.
13 Abeddad likewise had his head cut off for a similar reason.
14 Uzziah was struck with leprosy for daring to usurp the priests and the priesthood.
15 Saul was dishonored for not waiting for the high priest Samuel. So you too must respect your superiors.
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1 It is fitting not only to be called Christians, but to be Christians; for it is not the name that makes one blessed, but the reality. If some call a bishop a bishop but do everything without him, such people will hear even from him—the one who is the true and first bishop and by nature alone the high priest—
2 Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I say? For such people seem to me not to have a good conscience, but to be hypocrites and pretenders.
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1 Since, then, all things have an end, and there lies before us life from obedience and death from disobedience, and each of us is about to go to the place of what he has chosen, let us flee from death and choose life. For I say there are two stamps found among human beings, one of true coin and the other of counterfeit.
2 The godly human being is a coin stamped by God; the ungodly is a falsely-named coin, debased, spurious, counterfeit, produced not by God but by the devil. I’m not saying there are two natures of human beings, but that the one human being sometimes belongs to God and sometimes to the devil. If someone is godly, he is a human being of God; but if someone is ungodly, he is a human being of the devil, becoming so not from his nature but from his own choice.
3 Unbelievers bear the image of the ruler of evil; believers bear the image of the ruler, God the Father and Jesus Christ. Through him, unless we willingly embrace dying for the truth into his passion, his life is not in us.
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1 Since, then, in the persons I mentioned above I have seen the whole congregation in faith and loved them, I urge you: be eager to do everything in harmony with God, with the bishop presiding in the place of God and the presbyters in the place of the council of the apostles, and the deacons—who are most dear to me—entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ, who before the ages was begotten by the Father and was the Word, God, the only-begotten Son, and at the consummation of the ages remains the same; for of his kingdom there will be no end, says the prophet Daniel. So let us all love one another in harmony, and let no one regard his neighbor according to the flesh, but in Christ Jesus.
2 Let there be nothing among you that can divide you, but be united with the bishop, submitting to God through him in Christ.
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1 So just as the Lord does nothing without the Father (for He says, I can do nothing of Myself), so you too must do nothing without the bishop—neither presbyter, nor deacon, nor layman. Let nothing seem right to you apart from his judgment, for such a thing is lawless and hostile to God.
2 All together come together in prayer; let there be one common supplication, one mind, one hope in love, in blameless faith directed toward Christ Jesus, than whom nothing is better. All of you, as one, run together to the temple of God, as to one altar, as to one Jesus Christ, the high priest of the unbegotten God.
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1 Do not be led astray by heterodoxy, nor be entangled in myths and endless genealogies and Jewish arrogance. The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
2 For if we still live according to the Jewish law and the circumcision of the flesh, we deny that we have received grace.
3 For the most divine prophets lived according to Jesus Christ; for this reason they were also persecuted, inspired by grace to convince the disobedient that there is one God, the Almighty, who revealed himself through Jesus Christ his Son, who is his word—not spoken, but essential.[1]
4 For it is not the sound of articulate speech, but the essence of divine activity, begotten and pleasing in all things to him who brought it forth.
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1 If, then, those who were brought up in the ancient writings came to newness of hope, awaiting Christ, as the Lord teaches, saying:
2 If you believed Moses, you would believe me.
3 For he wrote about me. And Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. For before Abraham was, I am. How then can we live without him, when even the prophets, being servants in the Spirit, foresaw him and waited for him as their teacher and expected him as Lord and Saviour, saying:
4 He will come and save us? So let us no longer keep the Sabbath in the Jewish way, delighting in idleness.
5 For the one who does not work, let him not eat. And again:
6 For by the sweat of your face you will eat your bread, say the Scriptures.
7 But let each of you keep the Sabbath spiritually, rejoicing in the study of the law, not in bodily rest; marvelling at God’s creation, not eating stale food and drinking lukewarm drinks and walking measured steps and delighting in dancing and clapping that have no sense.
8 And after keeping the Sabbath, let every lover of Christ celebrate the Lord’s Day, the day of resurrection, the queen, the chief of all days, which the prophet awaited when he said:
9 For the end, concerning the eighth; on which our life also dawned, and the victory over death came to be in Christ,
10 whom the children of destruction deny, the enemies of the cross, whose god is their belly, who set their minds on earthly things, who are lovers of pleasure and not God-loving, who have a form of godliness but have denied its power, who are peddlers of Christ, hawking the word and selling Jesus, who are corrupters of women and desirers of what belongs to others, who are greedy for money—from whom may you be delivered by the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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1 So let’s not be insensible to his kindness. If he imitates us in what we do, we are no more; For if you should mark iniquities, O Lord, Lord, who will stand? So let’s become worthy of the name we have received.
2 For whoever is called by another name more than this one does not belong to God, nor has he received the prophecy that speaks about us, that he will be called by a new name, which the Lord will name him, and he will be a holy people.
3 This was first fulfilled in Syria, for in Antioch the disciples were called Christians, when Paul and Peter were laying the foundation of the Church. So put away the evil leaven, the old and rotten leaven, and be transformed into new leaven of grace.
4 Abide in Christ, so that the stranger may not lord it over you. It’s absurd to speak Jesus Christ on the tongue and yet hold in the mind Judaism, which has ceased. For Christianity did not believe in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianity, into which every nation that believed and every tongue that confessed was gathered to God.
5 And those who were stony in heart became children of God’s friend Abraham, and in his seed all those appointed to eternal life in Christ were blessed.
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1 Now, my beloved, I don’t say these things because I’ve learned that any of you are in this condition, but as one who is less than you I want to guard you, so that you don’t fall into the hooks of vainglory, but rather be fully assured in Christ—who was begotten from the Father before all ages, and later born of Mary the Virgin without union with a man, and who lived a holy life and healed every disease and sickness among the people and performed signs and wonders for the benefit of humanity, and proclaimed to those who had run aground into polytheism the one and only true God, his own Father, and who endured the passion and was crucified by the Christ-killing Jews under Pontius Pilate the governor and Herod the king, and endured the cross and died and rose and ascended into heaven to the one who sent him and sat down at his right hand and is coming at the end of the ages with the Father’s glory to judge the living and the dead and to render to each according to his works. Blessed is the one who knows these things with full assurance and believes.
2 So just as you are God-loving and Christ-loving in full assurance of our hope, may none of us turn aside from it.
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1 May I have joy in you in every way, if indeed I am worthy. For even though I am in chains, I am not equal to one of you who are free. I know that you are not puffed up, for you have Jesus in yourselves. And especially when I praise you, I know that you feel ashamed, as it is written:
2 The righteous man is his own accuser; and, You speak first of your sins, that you may be justified; and, When you have done all that is commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; for what is exalted among men is an abomination before God; for God says, Be merciful to me, a sinner. Therefore those great men Abraham and Job called themselves dust and ashes before God. And David:
3 Who am I before you, Lord, that you have glorified me to this extent? And Moses, the meekest of all men, says to God:
4 I am weak-voiced and slow of tongue. So you too, be humble-minded, that you may be exalted; for the one who humbles himself will be exalted, and the one who exalts himself will be humbled.
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1 So make every effort to be firmly grounded in the teachings of the Lord and the apostles, so that whatever you do may prosper, in flesh and spirit, in faith and love, together with your most worthy bishop and with that fittingly woven spiritual crown which is your presbytery, and with the deacons who serve according to God. Submit to the bishop and to one another, as Christ submits to the Father, so that there may be unity among you according to God.
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1 Since I know that you are filled with every good thing, I’ve urged you only briefly, in the love of Jesus Christ.
2 Remember me in your prayers, so that I may attain to God, and remember also the church in Syria, of which I am not worthy to be called bishop.
3 For I need your prayer and love, united in God, so that the Church in Syria may be deemed worthy to be shepherded through your good order in Christ.
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1 The Ephesians greet you from Smyrna, from which place I also write to you, being present for the glory of God just as you are, you who have refreshed me in every way together with Polycarp.
2 And the other Churches also greet you in the honor of Jesus Christ.
3 Be strong in harmony, possessing an undivided Spirit in Christ Jesus through the will of God.