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Chapter VIII. I Salute Him Who Is Reckoned Worthy to Go to Antioch in My Stead, as I Commanded Thee · Chapter VI. The Pains of the Birth Stand Over against Me

Chapter IX

Page 240 of 830

My spirit saluteth you, and the love of the Churches which received me as the name of Jesus Christ; for those also who were near to [my] way in the flesh, preceded me in every city.

1173 [Now therefore, being about to arrive shortly in Rome, I know many things in God; but I keep myself within measure, that I may not perish through boasting: for now it is needful for me to fear the more, and not pay regard to those who puff me up. For they who say such things to me scourge me; for I desire to suffer, but I do not know if I am worthy. For zeal is not visible to many, but with me it has war. I have need, therefore, of meekness, by which the prince of this world is destroyed. I am able to write to you of heavenly things, but I fear lest I should do you an injury. Know me from myself. For I am cautious lest ye should not be able to receive [such knowledge], and should be perplexed. For even I, not because I am in bonds, and am able to know heavenly things, and the places of angels, and the stations of the powers that are seen and that are not seen, am on this account a disciple; for I am far short of the perfection which is worthy of God.] Be ye perfectly strong1174 in the patience of Jesus Christ our God.

Here end the three Epistles of Ignatius, bishop and martyr.1175

Notes

  1. 1172

    Chap. viii. of the Greek is entirely omitted in the Syriac.

  2. 1173

    The following passage is not found in this Epistle in the Greek recensions, but forms, in substance, chaps. iv. and v. of the Epistle to the Trallians. Diverse views are held by critics as to its proper place, according to the degree of authority they ascribe to the Syriac version. Cureton maintains that this passage has been transferred by the forger of the Epistle to the Trallians, "to give a fiar colour to the fabrication by introducing a part of the genuine writing of Ignatius; while Hefele asserts that it is bound by the "closest connection" to the preceding chapter in the Epistle to the Trallians.

  3. 1174

    Or, as in the Greek, "Fare ye well, to the end."

  4. 1175

    [N.B.—The aphoristic genius of Ignatius seems to be felt by his Syrian abbreviator, who reduces whole chapters to mere maxims.]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and A. Cleveland Coxe (1885–96). Public domain. Text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.