Epistles

Ignatius of Antioch

Ignatius of Antioch. The Apostolic Fathers, Volume 1. Lake, Kirsopp, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1912.

Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus,[*](i.e. The God-bearer. In the 3rd century Acts of Ignatius the Emperor asks And who is Theophorus? and Ignatius replied He who has Christ in his heart.) to[*](Greeting) the Church, worthy of all felicitation, which is at Ephesus in Asia,—blessed with greatness by the fulness of God the Father, predestined from eternity for abiding and unchangeable glory, united and chosen through true suffering by the will of the Father and Jesus Christ our God,—abundant greeting in Jesus Christ and in blameless joy.

I became acquainted through God with your[*](The fame of the Ephesians) much beloved name, which you have obtained by your righteous nature, according to faith and love in Christ Jesus our Saviour, You are imitators of God, and, having kindled your brotherly [*](Or natural, congenial, as Lightfoot suggests: the translation given is that of Zahn.) task by the blood of God, you completed it perfectly.