Epistle to the Tralliens

Letter from Ignatius to the Tralliens

Ignatius, also known as Theophorus, to her who is loved by God the Father of Jesus Christ, to the Holy Church which is at Tralles of Asia, living in peace in flesh and spirit, through the passion of Jesus Christ, hope for us of a resurrection which will lead us to him; I greet her in all fullness, like the Apostles, and wish her every kind of joy.

I, 1. I know that you have blameless and unwavering feelings in patience, not just for use, but by nature, as your Bishop Polybios taught me, who came to Smyrna by the will of God and of Jesus Christ. And so he rejoiced with me who am chained in Jesus Christ, so that I can contemplate in him your whole community. 2. Having therefore received through him “a proof of” your benevolence according to God, I gave glory to God, since I had found you, as I had taught you, imitators of God.

II, 1. For when you submit yourselves to the bishop as to Jesus Christ, I do not see you living according to men, but according to Jesus Christ who died for you, so that, believing in his death, you may escape death. dead. 2. It is therefore necessary, as you do, not to do anything without the bishop, but also to submit yourselves to the presbytery, as to the apostles of Jesus Christ our hope in whom we will be found if we live thus. 3. It is also necessary that the deacons, being the ministers of the mysteries of Jesus Christ, be pleasing to all in every way. For they are not ministers of food and drink, but they are servants of the Church of Jesus Christ. They must therefore avoid, like fire, any subject of reproach.

III, 1. Likewise, may all revere the deacons as Jesus Christ, as also the bishop, who is the image of the Father, and the presbyters as the Senate of God and as the assembly of the Apostles: without them one cannot talk about churches. 2. I am sure you are so disposed towards them. I have received and I possess with me, in the person of your bishop, the example of your charity: his conduct itself is a great teaching and his gentleness a strength; I think the pagans themselves revere him. 3. Out of love for you, I spare you when I could write to you more severely on this subject; I wouldn't have thought, being a condemned man, to give you orders like an Apostle.

IV, 1. I have great thoughts in God, but I limit myself, so as not to get lost in my boast. Because now above all I must fear, and not pay attention to those who would try to inflate me with pride. Because those who speak to me thus flog me. 2. Sure, I want to suffer, but I don't know if I am worthy of it. Because my impatience does not appear to many, but it makes me a war all the more violent. So I need the gentleness that destroys the prince of this world.

V, 1. Can I not write you things from heaven? But I'm afraid of hurting you who are still children. And, forgive me, I'm afraid that unable to receive stronger food, you will strangle yourself. 2. And I myself, although I am in chains, and able to conceive of heavenly things, and the hierarchies of angels, and the armies of principalities, things visible and invisible, yet I am not yet a disciple. We are missing a lot of things, so that we do not miss God.

VI, 1. I therefore exhort you, not I, but the charity of Jesus Christ, to use only Christian food, and to abstain from all foreign plants, which is heresy. 2. These are people who entangle Jesus Christ with their own mistakes by trying to pass themselves off as trustworthy, like those who give deadly poison with wine mixed with honey, and he who does not know takes it with pleasure, but in this nefarious pleasure he absorbs death.

VII, 1. Beware therefore of such people. You will do this by not being puffed up with pride, and by remaining inseparable from Jesus Christ God and the bishop and the precepts of the Apostles. 2. He who is within the sanctuary is pure, but he who is outside the sanctuary is not pure; that is, he who acts outside the sanctuary is not pure; that is to say that whoever acts outside the bishop, the presbyterium and the deacons, that one is not pure of conscience.

VIII, l. It is not that I have learned any such thing from you, but I want to warn you, my beloved, anticipating the pitfalls of the devil. Arm yourselves therefore with gentle patience, and be recreated in faith, which is the flesh of the Lord, and in love, which is the blood of Jesus Christ. 2. That none of you have anything against your neighbor. Do not give the Gentiles a pretext, so that, by the act of a few fools, the community of God will not be blasphemed. For woe to whom by his lightness makes my name blaspheme.

IX, 1. Be deaf therefore when we speak to you of anything other than Jesus Christ, of the race of David, son of Mary, who was truly born, who ate and who drank, who was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate, who was truly crucified, and died, in the sight of heaven, earth and hell, 2. who also truly rose from the dead. It is his Father who raised him up, and it is he also, the Father, who in his likeness will raise us up in Jesus Christ, we who believe in him, apart from whom we do not have true life.

X, 1. Because if, as some atheists say, that is to say infidels, he suffered only in appearance, - they themselves only exist in appearance, - I, why am- I chained? why then wish to fight against the beasts? So is it for nothing that I give myself up to death? So therefore I lie against the Lord!

XI, 1. Flee therefore these bad parasitic plants: they bear fruit which causes death, and if anyone tastes it, he dies immediately. These are not the Father's plantation. 2. If they were, they would appear as twigs of the cross, and their fruit would be incorruptible. Through his cross, Christ in his passion calls you, you who are his members; it is God who promises us this union, that he himself is.

XII, 1. Hail from Smyrna, with the Churches of God who are here with me, who in all things have comforted me in flesh and spirit. 2. My bonds exhort you, which I carry everywhere for the sake of Jesus Christ, asking to reach God: persevere in harmony and in prayer in common. For it is appropriate that each of you, and especially the presbyters, you comfort your bishop in honor of the Father of Jesus Christ and of the Apostles. 3. I want you to listen to me with charity, so that with this letter I will not be a testimony against you. And pray for me, who need your charity in the mercy of God, to be worthy of having part in the inheritance which I am about to obtain, and not to be found unworthy of being accepted.

XIII, 1. The charity of the Smyrnians and Ephesians salutes you. Remember in your prayers the Church of Syria: I am not worthy of being a part of it, being the last of them. 2. Be well in Jesus Christ, subject to the bishop as to the command of the Lord, similarly also to the presbytery, and all individually love one another, with an undivided heart. 3. My spirit sacrifices itself for you, not only now, but also when I come to God. I am still exposed to danger, but he is faithful, the Father, in Jesus Christ, to answer my prayer and yours; may you in him be found blameless.