Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the holy community which is at Tralles in Asia, beloved of God, elect and worthy of God, having peace in the flesh and in the Spirit through steadfast endurance in God's way, whose hope is the resurrection unto God. Which community I also greet in the Divine fulness after the apostolic fashion, and I bid her abundant greeting.

I

1 I have learned that you possess a mind free from blame and unhesitating in endurance, not from habit, but by nature, as Polybius your overseer showed me, when he visited me in Smyrna by the will of God, and so greatly rejoiced with me, prisoner in God's cause as I was, that I saw your whole congregation in his person. 2. I received therefore your godly benevolence through him, and gave God glory that I found you, as I had learnt, imitators of God.

II

1 For when you are in subjection to the overseer it is clear to me that you are living not after men, but after God's guidance, which Jesus, God's messenger, taught, who endured trials for our sake, that by believing in God and following his message you may escape the punishment of the Hereafter. 2. Therefore it is necessary (as is your practice) that you should do nothing without the overseer, but be also in subjection to the elders, as to the Apostles of Jesus, our hope, for if we live in obedience to God we shall be found acceptable. 3. And they also who are deacons, servants of the teachings of Jesus, must be in every way pleasing to all men. For they are not the ministers of food and drink, but servants of the community of God; they must therefore guard against blame as against fire.

III

1 Likewise let all respect the deacons, even as they respect the overseer, and the elders as the council of God and the company of the Apostles. Without these the name of "community" is not given. 2. I am confident that you accept this. For I have received the example of your love, and I have it with me in the person of your overseer, whose very demeanour is a great lesson, and whose meekness is a miracle, and I believe that even the godless pay respect to him. 3. I am sparing you in my love, though I might write more sharply on his behalf: I did not think myself competent, as a convict, to give you orders like an Apostle.

IV

1 I have many thoughts in God, but I take the measure of myself that I perish not through boasting, for at present it is far better for me to be timid, and not to give heed to them who puff me up. For they who speak thus are a scourge to me. 2. For I desire to suffer, but I know not if I am worthy, for the jealousy of the devil is to many not obvious, but against me it fights the more. I have need therefore of meekness, by which the prince of this world is brought to nothing.

V

1 Am I not able to write to you heavenly things? Yes, but I am afraid that I should do you harm, seeing you are babes. Pardon me, for I refrain lest you be choked by what you cannot receive. 2. For I myself, though I am in bonds and can understand heavenly things, and the places of the angels and the gatherings of the hosts, and "things seen and unseen," not for this am I a disciple even now, for much is lacking to us, that we may not lack God.

VI

1 I beseech you therefore (yet not I but the love of God) live only on the nourishment of true faith, and refrain from strange food, which is heresy. 2. For these men mingle the name of Jesus with themselves in specious honesty, mixing as it were a deadly poison with honeyed wine, which the ignorant takes gladly in his baneful pleasure, and it is his death.

VII

1 Beware therefore of such men; and this will be possible for you, if you are not puffed up, and are inseparable from God, and from the overseer and the ordinances of the Apostles. 2. He who is within the sanctuary is pure, but he who is without the sanctuary is not pure; that is to say whoever does anything apart from the overseer and the elders and the deacons is not pure in his conscience.

VIII

1 It is not that I know that there is anything of this kind among you, but I warn you because you are dear to me, and I foresee the snares of the devil. Therefore adopt meekness and be renewed in faith, which is the support of life, and in love, which is its life-blood. 2. Let none of you have a grudge against his neighbour. Give no occasion to the unbelievers, in order that the congregation of God may not be blasphemed for a few foolish persons. For "Woe unto him through whom My name is vainly blasphemed among any."

IX

1 Be deaf therefore when anyone speaks to you apart from the truth concerning Jesus, who was of the family of David, and of Mary, who was truly born, and both ate and drank, and was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate; they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but God raised him up to Himself. 2. And in like manner God shall raise up us who believe in Him, without whom we have no true life.

X

1 But if, as some affirm who are without God, that is, are unbelievers, the trials of the messengers were only a semblance (but it is they who are merely a semblance), why am I a prisoner, and why do I even long to fight with the beasts? In that case I am dying in vain. Then indeed am I lying concerning God.

XI

1 Flee from these wicked offshoots, which bear deadly fruit, which if a man eat he presently dies. For these are not the planting of God. 2. For if they were, their branches would appear sound and their fruit would be incorruptible, by which God calls you to Himself.

XII

1 I greet you from Smyrna together with the communities of God that are present with me, men who in all things have given me rest in the flesh and in the spirit. 2. My bonds exhort you, which I carry about for the sake of God, praying that I may attain to God; continue in your present harmony and in prayer with one another. For it is right that each of you, and especially the elders, should refresh the overseer, to the honour of God and of His messengers the Apostles. 3. I entreat you to listen to me in love, that I become not by my writing a witness against you. And pray for me also, for I have need of your love in the mercy of God, that I may be granted the lot which I am set to obtain, that I be not found reprobate.

XIII

1 The love of the Smyrnaeans and Ephesians greet you: remember in your prayers the community in Syria, in which I am not worthy to be reckoned, being the least of its members. 2. Farewell in God. Submit yourselves to the overseer as to the commandment of God, and likewise to the elders. Let each of you individually love one another with an undivided heart. 3. My spirit is consecrated to you not only now, but also when I attain to God. For I am still in peril, but God is faithful to fulfil both your and my prayer, in which may you be found blameless.