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.

I then did my best as a man who was set on[*](Exhortation to unity) unity. But where there is division and anger God does not dwell. The Lord then forgives all who repent, if their repentance lead to the unity of God and the council of the bishop. I have faith in the grace of Jesus Christ, and he shall loose every bond from you.

But I beseech you to do nothing in factiousness, but after the teaching of Christ. For I heard some men saying, if I find it not in the charters in the Gospel I do not believe,[*](The Greek, without punctuation, is as ambiguous as the English: If I find it not in the charters,—in the Gospel I do not believe, or If I find it not in the charters, in the Gospel, I do not believe. Probably the former should be preferred on the ground that the charters probably means the Old Testament.) and when I said to them that it is in the Scripture, they answered me, that is exactly the question. But to me the charters are Jesus Christ, the inviolable charter is his cross, and death, and resurrection, and the faith which is through him;—in these I desire to be justified by your prayers.