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.

For there are some who make a practice of[*](Warning against heretical preachers) carrying about the Name with wicked guile, and do certain other things unworthy of God; these you must shun as wild beasts, for they are ravening dogs, who bite secretly, and you must be upon your guard against them, for they are scarcely to be cured.

There is one Physician, who is both flesh and spirit, born and yet not born, who is God in man, true life in death, both of Mary and of God, first passible and then impassible, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Let none therefore deceive you, and indeed you[*](Praise of the Ephesians) have not been deceived, but belong wholly to God. For since no strife is fixed among you which might

torture you, you do indeed live according to God. I am dedicated[*](Lit. The refuse of: the word was used of criminals and others whose death was regarded as a piacular sacrifice, and so it came to mean a sacrifice of this kind. Ultimately it lost its meaning so far as to become merely a form of epistolary politeness.) and devoted to you Ephesians, and your Church, which is famous to eternity.