Greeting to Magnesia and Ignatius' Prayer for Unity
1 Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the one who has been blessed through the grace of God the Father in Christ Jesus our Savior. In Him I greet the church in Magnesia on the Maeander, and I wish it abundant greetings in God the Father and in Jesus Christ. When I learned how very well ordered your love is in the ways of God, I was glad, and I decided to speak to you in the faith of Jesus Christ. 2 For since I have been counted worthy to bear a most godly name, in these chains that I carry around I sing the praises of the churches; and I pray that there may be in them a union of the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ, our never-failing life, a union of faith and love, to which nothing is preferred, and, more important than all, a union with Jesus and with the Father. In Him, if we patiently endure all the abuse of the prince of this world and escape it, we will attain to God.
The Bishop, Presbyters, and Deacon Who Visited Ignatius
1 Since, then, I was permitted to see you in the person of Damas, your godly bishop, and your worthy presbyters Bassus and Apollonius, and my fellow servant the deacon Zotion, whom I would gladly enjoy, because he is subject to the bishop as to the grace of God and to the presbytery as to the law of Jesus Christ—
Respecting a Young Bishop
1 Indeed, it is right for you also not to take advantage of your bishop's youth, but to give him all respect according to the power of God the Father, just as I have learned that the holy presbyters also have not taken advantage of his outwardly youthful appearance, but defer to him as one who is wise in God; yet not to him, but to the Father of Jesus Christ, the Bishop of all. 2 So, for the honor of Him who desired you, it is right that you obey without hypocrisy. For a person does not so much deceive this bishop who is seen as cheat the other who is invisible; and in such a case he must deal not with flesh but with God, who knows the hidden things.
Being Christians in Fact and Not Only in Name
1 So it is right not only to be called Christians, but also to be Christians; just as some people have the bishop's name on their lips but do everything without him. Such people do not seem to me to have a good conscience, since they do not meet together in the proper way, according to the commandment.
Believers and Unbelievers Bear Different Stamps
1 So, since all things have an end, and these two, life and death, are set before us together, and each person will go to his own place; 2 for just as there are two coinages, one of God and the other of the world, and each has its own stamp impressed on it, the unbelievers bear the stamp of this world, and the faithful in love bear the stamp of God the Father through Jesus Christ; and unless we freely choose through Him to die into His passion, His life is not in us—
Unity with the Bishop and Presbyters
1 Since, then, in the persons mentioned above I have seen your whole community in faith and have embraced them, I urge you: be eager to do everything in godly harmony, with the bishop presiding in the likeness of God and the presbyters in the likeness of the council of the Apostles, and with the deacons, who are most dear to me, entrusted with the service of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before the ages and appeared at the end of time. 2 So all of you, take on the character of God and respect one another; and let no one regard his neighbor by human standards, but always love one another in Jesus Christ. Let there be nothing among you that could divide you, but be united with the bishop and with those who preside over you, as an example and a lesson of incorruption.
One Prayer, One Temple, One Altar
1 So, just as the Lord did nothing without the Father, [being united with Him], either by Himself or through the Apostles, so you must do nothing without the bishop and the presbyters. Do not try to think anything right for yourselves on your own; but let there be one common prayer, one petition, one mind, one hope, in love and in blameless joy, which is Jesus Christ, and nothing is better than Him. 2 Come together quickly, all of you, as to one temple, which is God; as to one altar, which is the one Jesus Christ, who came forth from the one Father, is with the One, and has returned to the One.
Ignatius on Judaism and the Prophets
1 Do not be led astray by strange teachings or by outdated myths, which are useless. For if we are still living according to Judaism even now, we admit that we have not received grace; 2 for the most godly prophets lived according to Christ Jesus. This is also why they were persecuted, being inspired by His grace so that the disobedient might be fully convinced that there is one God, who revealed Himself through Jesus Christ His Son, who is His Word that came forth from silence, who in all things pleased the One who sent Him.
The Sabbath and the Lord's Day
1 If, then, those who had lived by ancient practices came to a new hope, no longer keeping the Sabbath but shaping their lives by the Lord's Day, on which our life also rose through Him and through His death, which some deny, a mystery through which we came to believe, and for this reason we endure patiently, so that we may be found disciples of Jesus Christ, our only teacher— 2 if this is so, how can we live apart from Him? For even the prophets, who were His disciples, were waiting for Him as their teacher through the Spirit. And for this reason He whom they rightly awaited raised them from the dead when He came.
The Old Leaven and the New
1 So let us not be insensitive to His kindness. For if He were to imitate us in the way we act, we would be lost. Therefore, since we have become His disciples, let us learn to live as is fitting for Christianity. For whoever is called by any name other than this does not belong to God. 2 So put away the bad leaven, which has grown stale and sour, and turn to the new leaven, which is Jesus Christ. Be salted in Him, so that none of you becomes rotten, since your smell will expose you. 3 It is absurd to talk of Jesus Christ and to practice Judaism. For Christianity did not believe in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianity, in which every tongue believed and was gathered together to God.
Ignatius on the Birth, Passion, and Resurrection of Jesus
1 I say these things, my beloved, not because I have learned that any of you think this way; but as one who is less than any of you, I want you to be on guard in advance, so that you do not fall into the traps of empty teaching, but are fully convinced of the birth and the passion and the resurrection, which took place in the time when Pontius Pilate was governor; for these things were truly and certainly done by Jesus Christ our hope, and may none of you ever be turned away from this hope.
Ignatius Praises the Magnesians' Humility
1 May I have joy in you in every way, if I am worthy. For even though I am in chains, I am not comparable to any one of you who are free. I know that you are not arrogant, for you have Jesus Christ in yourselves. And when I praise you, I know that you only feel more ashamed; as it is written, The righteous man is his own accuser.
Obeying the Bishop and One Another
1 So be eager to be firmly established in the decrees of the Lord and of the Apostles, so that you may prosper in everything you do, in flesh and spirit, in faith and love, in the Son and Father and in the Spirit, in the beginning and in the end, together with your most worthy bishop, with the finely woven spiritual crown of your presbytery, and with the deacons who live according to God. 2 Obey the bishop and one another, as Jesus Christ obeyed the Father [according to the flesh], and as the Apostles obeyed Christ and the Father, so that there may be union both of flesh and of spirit.
A Request for Prayer for the Community in Syria
1 Knowing that you are full of God, I have urged you briefly. 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 a member. For I need your united prayer and love in God, so that the church in Syria may be granted refreshment by the dew of your fervent prayer.
Greetings from Smyrna and Farewell
1 The Ephesians greet you from Smyrna, from where I am also writing to you. They are here for the glory of God, as you are, and they have comforted me in every way, together with Polycarp, bishop of the Smyrnaeans. And all the other churches greet you in honor of Jesus Christ. Farewell in godly harmony, and possess an unwavering spirit, which is Jesus Christ.
An Introduction to Ignatius' Epistle to the Magnesians
4 min read
Ignatius, the leader of the Christian community in Antioch in Syria, wrote this Greek letter in the first part of the second century CE, while ten Roman soldiers were taking him to Rome to be killed by wild beasts.1 He wrote it from Smyrna after a visit from Damas, the bishop of Magnesia on the Maeander, two presbyters, or elders, and a deacon, whose names are common in Asia Minor, and three of them also appear on coins and inscriptions from Magnesia.2 In Epistle to the Magnesians 3:1, Ignatius tells the Magnesians not to take advantage of their bishop's youth, and a young man holding the office suggests that the bishop was coming to be distinguished from the presbyters, for whom age still counted.3 In the center of the letter, Epistle to the Magnesians 8:1–10:3, Ignatius urges the Magnesians not to live by the customs of Judaism. Ignatius may have heard of relatively mild interest in Jewish practice in Magnesia and treated it as a greater threat than it was, hinting at a link with those who denied that Jesus really died.4
Ignatius very likely echoes the Gospel of John and the letters of Paul, although it remains uncertain how he knew them. In Epistle to the Magnesians 7:1–2, Ignatius says that Jesus did nothing without the Father and that he came from the Father, is with him, and returned to him, language similar to John 5:19, John 8:42, and John 16:28.5 In Epistle to the Magnesians 8:1, he calls the teaching he opposes useless myths, in language close to 1 Timothy 1:4 and Titus 1:14, and he contrasts grace with Judaism where Paul contrasts grace with the law in Romans 6:14.6 When he calls Jesus the Word that came forth from silence in Epistle to the Magnesians 8:2, the closest parallel is Wisdom of Solomon 18:14–15, where God's word leaps down from heaven in the middle of a night of silence.7 The image of old and new leaven in Epistle to the Magnesians 10:2 is similar to 1 Corinthians 5:7–8, and his instruction that the Magnesians be salted in Jesus is similar to Jesus calling his followers the salt of the earth in Matthew 5:13.8 In Epistle to the Magnesians 10:3, the phrase "every tongue" recalls Philippians 2:11 and Isaiah 45:23, and it is closer still to Isaiah 66:18, where God gathers all nations and tongues.9
Ignatius follows the conventions of Greek letters of his time and writes as though the letter substitutes for meeting in person, and when he says in Epistle to the Magnesians 1:2 that he sings the praises of the Christian communities, he uses language that orators such as Aelius Aristides used to praise cities.10 In Epistle to the Magnesians 9:1, Ignatius contrasts those who kept the Sabbath with those who live by the Lord's Day, or Sunday. The passage is one of the earliest references to Christian observance of that day, alongside 1 Corinthians 16:2, Acts 20:7, Didache 14:1, Barnabas 15:9, and possibly Revelation 1:10. The Greek phrase is kata kyriakēn, "by the Lord's Day," and one Greek manuscript adds zōēn, "life," so that it refers to the life of Jesus instead of a day, a reading that is more likely a later attempt to smooth the harder expression.11 Ignatius probably implies that the prophets did not keep the Sabbath either, and he could have appealed to Isaiah 1:13, which Barnabas 15:8 quotes to make a similar point.1213 The word "Christianity" first appears in Christian literature in Epistle to the Magnesians 10:1 and 10:3, and it was very likely modeled on the word "Judaism."1415
Some later Christians very likely found the phrase "the Word that came forth from silence" difficult. Some copies of the letter add a negative, so that the eternal Word did not come forth from silence, most likely a correction by later theologians troubled by language that sounded like that of Gnostic teachers, who described a word coming forth from a silent first principle.16 In the fourth century, Marcellus of Ancyra used similar language, saying that the Word of God came forth after silence and quiet at the beginning of creation.17 Justin Martyr, who wrote a few decades after Ignatius, describes Sunday as the day of the resurrection, the day Ignatius calls the Lord's Day.18
Notes