Chapter 8

Letters to the Churches and Greetings

¹ Since I haven’t been able to write to all the churches, because I’m sailing suddenly from Troas to Neapolis, as the will commands, you write to the churches that lie ahead, as one who has the mind of God, so that they too may do the same — those who can sending men on foot, and the others sending letters by those you dispatch, that you may be glorified by an eternal work, since you are worthy of it. I greet everyone by name, and the wife of Epitropus together with her whole household and her children.[1]

² I greet my beloved Attalus.

³ I greet the one who is to be counted worthy of going to Syria.

⁴ Grace will be with him always, and with Polycarp who sends him.

⁵ I pray that you may always be strong in our God Jesus Christ, in whom may you remain in the unity and episcopal oversight of God.

⁶ I greet Alce, a name dear to me.

⁷ Farewell in the Lord. en:Epistle to Polycarp