The Apostolic Fathers

To the Magnesians

II To the M agnesians DGNATIUS THEOPHORUS to the Church in Magnesia near the Maeander that is blessed with the grace of God the Father through Jesus Christ our Savior. I salute you and wish you every joy in God the Father and in Jesus Christ. ( 1) I have heard of the perfect order of your love toward God; and so it is with great joy and in the faith of Jesus Christ that I have decided to address you. Honored as I have been with a name so dear to God,l I sing, in the chains I bear about with me, the praise of the Churches. And I pray that the Churches may have unity in the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ, who is our everlasting life-a union in faith and charity that is to be preferred to aU else and, especially, union with Jesus and the Father, through whom we shall reach God if only we bear with and escape from the wanton attacks of the prince of this world. (2) It was possible2 for me to see you in the persons of your devout bishop Damas and the worthy priests, Bassus and Apollonius, and my fellow worker, the deacon Zotion. May I continue to have joy in him, since he is obedient to the bishop, as to the grace of God, and to the priests, as to the law of Jesus Christ. (3) It ill becomes you to treat your bishop too familiarly because of his youth. You should show him all reverence out of respect for the authority of God the Father. This, I understand , the holy priests do. They take no advantage of his I He may mean the name Theophorus, which is Creek for 'Cod bearer' or 'Cod-horne,' according to the accent. 2 In the Creek text St. Ignatius begins with 'Since it was possible ... and leaves the sentence unfinished, 96 TO THE MAGNESIANS 97 youthful appearance, but they yield to him as to one who is wise in God-not, of course, merely to him, but to the Father of Jesus Christ, who is the bishop over all. To the honor of Him who loves you, you must obey without any insincerity; for in this case one does not so much deceive a bishop who can be seen as try to outwit one who is invisible-in which case one must reckon not with a man, but with God who knows our hidden thoughts. (4) It is not enough to be Christians in name; it behooves us to be such in fact. So, too, there are those who invoke the name of the bishop while their actions are without any regard for him. Such men, it seems to me, are lacking in good conscience, for they do not assemble regularly as enjoined. (5) Seeing that all things have an end, two things are proposed to our choice-life and death; and each of us is to go to his appropriate place. As there are two currencies, the one of God, and the other of the world, each stamped in its own way, so the unbelieving have the stamp of the world; those who, in charity, believe have the stamp of God the Father through Jesus Christ. And, unless it is our choice to die, through Him, unto His passion, His life is not in us. (6) In the persons I have mentioned I have seen in faith, and have loved, your whole community; and so I exhort you to be careful to do all things in the harmony of God, the bishop having the primacy after the model of God and the priests after the model of the council of the Apostles, and the deacons (who are so dear to me) having entrusted to them the ministry of Jesus Christ-who from eternity was with the Father and at last appeared to us. Let all reverence one another in conformity with God's will. Let no man regard his neighbor with the eyes of the flesh, but in Jesus Christ love one another at all times. Let there be nothing among 98 SAINT IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH you to divide you; but be at one with the bishop and with those who are over you, thus affording a model and lesson of immortal life. (7) Just as the Lord, being one with the Father, did nothing, either in His own person or through the Apostles, without the Father, so you...