Epistles

You did well to receive as deacons of God,[*](Thanks to the Smyrnaeans) Philo and Rheus Agathopous, who followed me in the cause of God; and they also give thanks to the Lord for your sake that you refreshed them in every way. Assuredly shall nothing be lost for you.

May my spirit be for your life, and my bonds, which you treated neither with haughtiness nor shame. And he who is perfect hope, Jesus Christ, shall not be ashamed of you.

Your prayer reached the Church which is in[*](The Church in Syria) Antioch in Syria, and I greet all men as one who comes thence in bonds which are most seemly in God’s sight, though I am not worthy to be from thence, for I am the least of them; but by the will of God I have been thought worthy, not that I am conscious of deserts,[*](Or, possibly, by my own complicity.) but by the grace of God, and